Young Frankenstein
I think I enjoyed Mel Brooks movies more when I was a teen and in my twenties to be honest, but I still find most of them watchable and a few even still retain quite a few laugh out loud moments. He tends to run certain jokes into the ground over the course of a movie, but that's easily forgiven because fresh gags just keep coming and coming.
While I enjoy History of the World, High Anxiety, Spaceballs, Blazing Saddles, and all the rest, I have to say I find Young Frankenstein is my favorite. For those not in the know: Young Frankenstein tells the story of the grandson of the Doctor Frankenstein who created the original monster. Frederick Frankenstein is a well-known doctor who inherits his grandfather's castle and work. The film was shot in black & white and is pure comedy.
The cast is outstanding and I can't imagine anyone other than Gene Wilder playing the title role. Marty Feldman plays Igor (perfect casting and he's a riot throughout) and a very young Teri Garr plays Wilder's assistant. Madeline Kahn, Cloris Leachman, and Peter Boyle round out the primary cast. Gene Hackman has a small, but memorable part as a blind man who has a funny and entertaining interaction with the monster played by Peter Boyle.
I think the movie holds up well considering it was made in the early 1970s. If you're put off by black & white, you should reconsider and give this a chance. Films in black & white have such depth, and for a movie like this, the decision makes complete sense.
If you liked Gene Wilder in Willy Wonka (the 1970s version, not the crazy Tim Burton version, of course), you'll like him in this as well: Sane one moment and completely off his rocker the next.
Woody Allen: A Documentary
All right. Yes. Woody Allen. I love Woody Allen films--not all of them, but there is always something in them that I adore.
I know he's been in the press quite a bit and he's a pretty easy target these days (I don't know, maybe he's always been one).
Forget all you think you know about Woody Allen and watch this documentary--it's in two parts, so you're looking at more than 3 hours. People forget this guy started out as a kid writing jokes for a newspaper and then progressed to writing stage shows before being hired to write alongside Mel Brooks for the comic, Sid Caesar.
He became a reluctant standup comic and became a filmmaker after acting in a film he wrote but didn't direct, What's New Pussycat? , which he felt didn't do justice to his script. After that film, he wanted full control of his scripts and basically became a director.
Anyhow, watch the documentary, you'll see there is much more to the man than what you've seen or heard on the news and the internet.
Oh, you can watch it on Amazon Instant video, and it's also on Netflix.
Moving Picture Monday: Writing Films
Writers have featured in so many films over the years, but I have a few favorites I can watch over and over, and not all of them are critical or commercially successful.
Oh sure, we have Sunset Boulevard, The Lost Weekend, Finding Forrester, Misery, Capote, and Adaptation among others--they are all wonderful films that I've seen more than once.
Spoiler Alert - sort of. These movies have all been out for awhile, even Midnight In Paris.
1. Throw Momma From The Train: a comedy version of Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train starring Danny DeVito, Billy Crystal, and Anne Ramsay. And for you Star Trek fans out there, Captain Janeway makes an appearance as Billy Crystal's ex-wife. This movie tickles me for some reason--but there are some great moments about writing and plotting and procrastination.
2. Midnight In Paris: This is one of my all-time favorite movies. Owen Wilson plays a Hollywood screenwriter who wants to be a novelist and finds inspiration during his midnight walks in Paris. I won't go into the details, but he meets some fascinating people that many writers would love to meet and hobnob with. There is so much more to the movie than I'm writing here--a must see.
3. Funny Farm: no heavy lifting with this movie, but this is back when Chevy Chase was kind of funny, well on the way to being boring. You have to admit Fletch was pretty good (probably his last decent role). Anyway, Funny Farm is about a newspaper sports writer who quits and moves to the country to write a heist novel.
4. Gentlemen Broncos: brought to you by the director of Napolean Dynamite--but nowhere near as funny. It's strange, really strange, but enjoyable for all the writerly bits. Basically, it's about a kid who writes a novel, submits it to a contest and a sort of washed-up writer he idolizes steals his idea.
If you were going to watch just one of these, I'd say Midnight In Paris. Throw Momma From The Train would be a decent second choice. The other two you can skip, but they're fun background type movies for me.
My wife and I watch Midnight In Paris quite a bit and dream of being in Paris in the 1920s.
One more guilty pleasure: Her Alibi --I'm a huge Tom Selleck fan, and while she can't act, looking at Paulina Porizkova for an hour and a half is pretty easy on the eyes.
What are your favorite movies about writing or have a writer as a protagonist?
Happy 30th Anniversary, Big Trouble In Little China!
I wrote this a couple of years ago, but had to repost given the 30th Anniversary of the film's release on July 2nd!
This movie is one of my all-time favorites.
How can you not like a movie starring Kurt Russell directed by John Carpenter? Kurt Russell is also wonderful in The Thing and Escape from New York, but Big Trouble In Little China is a masterpiece--a genre mash-up before that was considered a thing.
What is this movie? It's a comedy, martial arts, fantasy, drama, action movie with some romance. Kurt Russell stars as Jack Burton, a truck driver drawn into the search for a missing Chinese girl. Doesn't sound all that interesting when put like that, but the missing girl is the fiancee of Jack's friend, Wang Chi, and she's in the clutches of an ancient and powerful Chinese sorcerer, Lo Pan. Their adventures take them beneath San Francisco Chinatown and into a world of Chinese myth and superstition with the fate of the universe at stake.
What makes Jack Burton great is that he can take his lumps physically and verbally, and keep coming back for more. He's a mixture of John Wayne and Indiana Jones (in his mind perhaps), but in many situations he's on his butt or out of the action. Kurt Russell is great in this film, and has a great supporting cast to include Kim Cattrall. The exchanges between Russell and Cattrall are reminiscent of the classic movies I adore. I could drop a bunch of quotes here, but there are so many great jokes and one-liners that you really need to experience the movie for yourself.
There are some over the top fight scenes, and even during the most serious of moments there are wisecracks and jokes to lighten it up. When I saw this movie back in the mid-eighties when it was released, I couldn't believe one movie could contain so much and make such a crazy idea work. And even now, 30 years later, I think it holds up well. You even forget Kurt Russell's mullet once the movie gets going--but if anyone can pull off a mullet, it's him. ;)
The Blu-ray version is nicely done and contains all the special features found on the 2 disc DVD version. There are deleted scenes, an extended ending, trailers, a 1986 featurette, and a Kurt Russell and John Carpenter commentary.
So, if you've seen the movie before, you know what I'm talking about. But if you haven't watched it in a long time, or have not seen it at all, check it out. I'm pretty sure if you give it a chance, you won't be disappointed. And do me a favor: don't multitask while watching this, the film deserves your full attention.
Moving Picture Monday: Kiss Me Deadly
I like to discuss film almost as much as I enjoy watching them. I (big shock) particularly enjoy classic movies, but future post won't be limited to old silent pictures and talkies. ;)
This is from Criterion's website:
Kiss Me Deadly
"In this atomic adaptation of Mickey Spillane’s novel, directed by Robert Aldrich, the good manners of the 1950s are blown to smithereens. Ralph Meeker stars as snarling private dick Mike Hammer, whose decision one dark, lonely night to pick up a hitchhiking woman sends him down some terrifying byways. Brazen and bleak, Kiss Me Deadly is a film noir masterwork as well as an essential piece of cold war paranoia, and it features as nervy an ending as has ever been seen in American cinema."
I re-watched Kiss Me Deadly last night. The film was based on the Mickey Spillane novel of the same name, only Spillane's is Kiss Me, Deadly. The comma is an important subtraction as it changes the meaning of the title. While watching an interview with Mickey Spillane, this was something that bothered him quite a bit (as it would any writer who had that comma in there for a reason). I believe that even when he first turned in the book, the comma was taken out by an editor.
And as mentioned in Criterion's description, the movie (unlike the novel) is more about Cold War paranoia and hysteria. The movie can also be classified as science fiction, based on the addition of a mostly unexplained nuclear device that doubles as a type of Pandora's Box.
I highly recommend picking up this Criterion release, which also includes some nice extras, including an alternate ending. Criterion does an outstanding job on the transfers and sound, so I won't even go into that here.
Why do I love this movie? Well, I'm a big fan of classic detective and noir films. This one goes beyond the familiar detective tropes. I particularly enjoy Ralph Meeker's take on Mike Hammer.
Two scenes in particular I'll point out:
Hammer is being followed by a thug. The thug has a switchblade which Hammer hears being flicked open. He spins and disarms the thug and repeatedly pounds the man into a wall. Hammer walks away, but the thug gets up and Hammer tosses him down a long, long flight of stairs. Here is the best part: Hammer watches the man roll down the steps with great interest and has the beginnings of a smile on his face. I love it.
Next: He goes to a doctor's office looking for information. He pays the doctor, but being greedy, the doctor wants more. As the doctor goes to put an item Hammer wants in his desk drawer, Hammer slams the doctor's hand in the drawer, making him squeal. Hammer grins as he inflicts pain on the greedy doctor.
There are more examples of this type of behavior, and despite his sadistic tendencies, I love the way Hammer is portrayed in this film. He's a badass in the novels, but in this film, it's another level.
It's a very bold movie for 1955. I think it holds up well today and is worth your time if you're at all interested in noir or private investigator films. Also, notice how people dress in this movie. Even though he can be quite the thug himself, Hammer knows how to dress himself.