Birthday Apocalypse!

Here at Film Gab we are a little obsessed with Classic Hollywood birthdays, and today, July 26th is such a goldmine of cake and ice cream, we couldn't stand to leave any star out. So put on your party hats and get ready to gab!

Blake Edwards- This wise-cracking director started off with comedies like Operation Petticoat (1959), but moved on to direct more complex films like Breakfast At Tiffany's (1961) and Days of Wine and Roses (1962). He's most remembered for the goofball Pink Panther series (he directed 6 of them, 7 if you count A Shot in the Dark (1964)) but Victor Victoria (1982) will always hold a special place in Werth's little drag heart. 

Stanley Kubrick- One of the greatest filmmakers of all-time (without winning a single directing Oscar) this native New Yorker turned ex-pat took the art of film iconography to new heights in films like 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), A Clockwork Orange (1971), and The Shining (1980). We here at Film Gab also think you should check out some of his less quotable works like The Killing (1956), Paths of Glory (1957), and Barry Lyndon (1975).

Kevin Spacey- Whether on the big screen or in the middle of the night in a London park, Kevin Spacey is the consummate actor. Starting with his breakthrough role in Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) Spacey has crafted complex male characters who are damaged goods, fighting to get ahead in this ratrace we call life. He got gold statues for his roles in The Usual Suspects (1995) and American Beauty (1999), but he's also worth checking out in Swimming With Sharks (1994), Se7en (1995), L.A. Confidential (1997), and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997). While it didn't fly with audiences, his Lex Luthor in Superman Returns (2006) has the necessary camp and toupee chops.

Helen Mirren- While she happily displays her sex-bomb figure in the tabloids, Helen Mirren began her career doing serious theater, first in Britain's National Youth Theatre and then in the Royal Shakespeare Company. She has continued her theater work on both Broadway and the West End, while also appearing in films from kicky, teenage junk like Teaching Mrs. Tingle (1999) to the Oscar-winning The Queen (2006). Other film roles include Gosford Park (2001), The Madness of King George (1994), Hitchcock (2012), and senior citizen spy series RED (2010) and RED II (in theaters now).

Sandra Bullock- Perhaps one of Hollywood's busiest actresses, Bullock shot to stardom in Speed (1994) playing a woman trapped on a bus rigged to explode by terrorists. Building on that success and on her girl-next-door persona, Bullock has played a wide variety of roles, from romantic comedies—While You Were Sleeping (1995), Miss Congeniality (2000) and Two Weeks Notice (2002)—to indies—Crash (2004) and Infamous (2006)—to her Oscar-winning role in The Blind Side (2009). Never one to allow glamour to get in the way of a good role, Bullock has managed to keep her relatable charm while becoming one of the most powerful women in Hollywood.

That should be enough Hollywood birthday cake for one post, but we'll be back next week for more cinema celebration here at Film Gab.

Gab-wooding

Werth: My fellow Gab-mericans— 

Wise: Um, hi there, Werth.  Sounds like you're getting pretty ramped up for the Presidential campaign.  

Werth: I do love convention season, full of rousing speeches, pageantry, balloons—

Wise: —and running mates disguised as a fitness regime?

Werth: Of course, the biggest star to emerge has already been a star for decades. Only this time he brought along a friend.  

Wise: I'm assuming you're talking about Clint Eastwood and his chair.  

Werth: I sure am. And even if not everyone loves that he is one of Hollywood's most vocal Republicans, no one can deny that he is one of Hollywood's top talents.  Starting off his career snarling in 1960s spaghetti westerns, then snarling as America's favorite dirty cop in the '70s, he eventually went on to become one of the most lauded directors of the past two decades. 

His first time occupying the director's chair came in 1971 with the thriller Play Misty for Me. Doing double-duty as both director and star, Eastwood plays Dave Garver, a late-night, Carmel, CA DJ who likes to play jazz and woo women. One groupie in particular is Evelyn, a neurotic chippie who calls the show frequently purring, "Play 'Misty' for me," into the phone. When she shows up at Dave's favorite bar wearing a leather mini and kiki shag hair-do, it's a little jarring realizing that Evelyn is being played by none other than a young, pre-Arrested Development Jessica Walter.

Wise: Please don't tell me he spins Lucille Bluth's platter.

Werth: He does... a couple times. But when he tries to end it so he can return to his ex-girlfriend, Tobie (Donna Mills), Evelyn isn't having any of it. Soon she is following him on his beach dates, staging hysterical screaming fits in front of potential employers and attempting suicide in his bathroom.

Wise: Is there a rabbit boiling in a pot at some point?

Werth: The parallels with Adrian Lyne's Fatal Attraction (1987) are unmistakable, but Misty is missing the sexiness, the tense pacing, and the terrifying character development of Fatal Attraction. 

Eastwood's acting feels more empty than conflicted or scared, and his use of long shots and voice over instead of actual conversation puts a distance between us and the characters, even if said characters are rolling around in a forest like a soft-core '70's Coke ad.

Wise: I'm suddenly very thirsty.

Werth: One scene does point towards Eastwood's bright directorial future. Dave visits the actual Monterey Jazz Festival and the footage is electric, perfectly capturing the excitement of the crowd in a documentary style. It shows that even as a novice Eastwood was learning to effectively capture mood and style for a film audience. 
 
Wise: Another of the few misfires in Eastwood's oeuvre is Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997).  Based on John Berendt's non-fiction novel of the same name, the film stars John Cusack as John Kelso (a fictionalized stand-in for Berendt), a writer for Town and Country who travels to Savannah, GA, to write a story on the annual Christmas party thrown by the flamboyant Jim Williams (Kevin Spacey), only to be dragged into the mystery surrounding the murder of Williams' hot-headed boyfriend Billy Hanson (Jude Law).  

Werth:  Kevin Spacey only wishes his boyfriend was Jude Law...

Wise: The book had been on the best seller list for almost four years by the time the film came out, making Eastwood's task of meeting audience expectations nearly impossible.  Still, some of the choices he and screenwriter John Lee Hancock made seem absolutely wrong-headed, particularly the transformation of Berendt's careful examination of the vagaries of Savannah society into simply a parade of eccentrics.  

Cusack's task wasn't any easier: Berendt's authorial voice remains resolutely in the background of the book, giving full reign to his characters, while Cusack attempts to bring this observer into the foreground with little success.  

The introduction of a love interest to the character (Eastwood's own daughter Alison Eastwood playing an invented florist who belts Tin Pan Alley hits in her free time) only muddies the character even more.  

Werth: Eastwood's nepotism knows no bounds when it comes to singing. He also squeezed his warbling daughter Morgan into the otherwise wonderful documentary, Johnny Mercer: The Dream's on Me in 2009.

Wise: Despite these problems, the film still offers many pleasures, particularly Kevin Spacey's performance.  He masterfully deploys a bourbon-inflected drawl that both seduces and chills the audience, making his Jim Williams just as compelling and just as mysterious as the actual case that Berendt wrote about.  Jude Law also does excellent (although limited) work as the tempestuous lover, making Billy a sexy time bomb waiting to explode.  

Perhaps the stand-out performance of the film is by the Lady Chablis playing herself as a kind of Girl Friday to Cusack.  She brings humor and pathos to the film, and frankly makes a much more compelling partner to Cusack than Alison Eastwood's drab Mandy. 

Werth: When your name is a wine product, you tend to attract attention.

Wise: Also of note is the really wonderful soundtrack of Johnny Mercer hits performed by such luminaries as Tony Bennett, k.d. lang, Diana Krall and the director himself.  Mercer came from Savannah and his ancestral home was the site of the murder; using his songs to score the film gives it a texture and authenticity it would otherwise have lacked.  

Werth: The same thing Eastwood achieved for the RNC with his chair scolding.

Wise: I'm happy as long as we both vote for more Film Gab next week.  

Hooray for Hollygab!

Werth: It's time, Wise!

Wise: It's time, Werth!

Werth: For the annual celebration of Hollywood—the Oscars!

Wise: And this year's celebration of Hollywood is actually a celebration of Hollywood. With nominated movies like Hugo, My Week with Marilyn and The Artist plumbing movie history to tell their stories and move the audience—

Werth: And Oscar-nominated classic Hollywood-folk like Christopher Plummer, Max von Sydow, Woody Allen, Terrence Malick and Meryl Streep (yes, she's been around long enough to fall into the Classic category) on the bill, this year's Oscars promises to be a hat-tipping frenzy to good ol' Tinseltown.

Wise: No town does self-adulation like Hollywood does, but if there's anything La La Land likes better than a salute to its own grandeur, it's a sordid examination of its seamy underbelly.  And no film better captures the glory and the gutter of the film capital than L.A. Confidential (1997).  Based on James Ellroy's 1990 novel, the film depicts the intersection of silver screen dreams gone bust, organized crime and police corruption.  


Werth: Wasn't Peter Lawford's house at that intersection?

Wise: While on a liquor run for the precinct Christmas party, tough guy LAPD Detective Bud White (Russell Crowe) encounters glamorous Lynn Bracken (Kim Basinger) who bears a striking resemblance to Hollywood noir moll Veronica Lake, and later discovers that she's part of a ring of high class hookers dolled up to look like stars.  Meanwhile, smarmy Detective Jack Vincennes (Kevin Spacey), who acts as technical adviser to the square cop drama Badge of Honor (obviously a burlesque of Dragnet), gets a tip from gossip rag publisher Sid Hudgens (Danny DeVito) and busts a starlet and her beau for pot possession amid a blaze of flashbulbs. 

Back at the precinct, by-the-books sergeant Ed Exley (Guy Pearce) rats on his fellow cops against the advice of his Captain (James Cromwell) in a bid to advance his career.  


Werth: So many juicy plot threads—so many fine character actors.  

Wise: The three men eventually discover they're all following the same trail of corruption and reluctantly join forces.  Together they uncover a web of dirty dealings and backroom alliances that threatens both the Hollywood mythos and the good standing of the LAPD.  

Werth: It's enough dirt to fill even the tawdriest celeb-news rag.

Wise: Hollywood obviously loved this lurid self portrait because L.A. Confidential garnered nine Oscar noms—Basinger took the prize for Best Supporting Actress while director Curtis Hanson and his collaborator Brian Helgeland won Best Adapted Screenplay.  That adulation, I think, comes from Hanson's carefully calibrated balance of trash and tinsel, where even the worst offenders look great in close-up. 

Werth: When I think of tinsel-y trash in Hollywood only one movie comes to mind. When it was released in 1967, Valley of the Dolls was one of the most anticipated films of the year. Based on the hugely popular Jacqueline Susann book, Dolls tells the story of three young actresses who climb the ladder of fame and fortune only to find booze, pills, egos and the occasional unfaithful gay husband.

Wise: At least they look fabulous throughout the histrionics. 

Werth: With stunts like holding the premiere on a cruise ship, Twentieth Century Fox expected a massive hit. Bomb enthusiasts would have you believe that Dolls sank faster than the Costa Concordia, but when you look at the box office receipts for 1967, it ranked right behind The Dirty Dozen at 6th with $20 million, which was plenty of scratch in that era.

Wise: Enough to buy dolls and a wig for Susan Hayward.

Werth: But critics savaged its sleazy soap opera storyline and hammy performances. So Dolls has become one of those camp classics that is more famous for its over-the-top scenes of mod hair-spray adverts, booze-filled pools and wig flushing. But with all that—or more accurately, because of it—the performances are a real treat to watch with or without your red dolls.

Patty Duke as starry-eyed performer Neely O'Hara gets to go from ambitious, hard-working singer to drug-addicted bitch and back again with real verve.

Susan Hayward as old school Broadway belter Helen Lawson almost makes you forget that Judy Garland was originally supposed to play the role.

Wise: Unfortunately, poor Judy was living Valley of the Dolls at the time, plus, at least according to Duke, she was tortured by the director Mark Robson. 

Werth: Lee Grant gives teeth to protective manager Miriam Polar and knowing poor Sharon Tate's sad real-life ending gives her portrayal of tragic, well-busted Jennifer North an un-planned layer of sorrow. The music by Andre and recently passed Dore Previn earned John Williams his first arranging Oscar nomination. I'll be watching on Sunday to see if he wins his sixth Oscar for War Horse or The Adventures of Tintin. Wise, are you coming over to watch the show in your tux?

Wise: If you're going to wear your strapless gown.

Werth: I need to find a matching stole.

Wise: Filmgabbers, make sure you wear the appropriate attire when you join us next week as we do our 2nd Annual Oscar Losers Film Gab! 

Werth: Top hats and low gowns please!