What Ever Happened To Baby Jane?

What Ever Happened To Baby Jane?
1962 - Warner Brothers
Directed By Robert Aldrich



SYNOPSIS

Baby Jane is the darling of the vaudeville scene during the World War I era. Her sister Blanche becomes a big Hollywood star in the 1930's while Jane's career flounders. Blanche is paralyzed in a car accident, leaving Jane to care for her. By the early 1960's, both women share the same home and psychologically torment each other. Jane (Bette Davis) is crazy and tries to feed her sister dead rats and parakeets and totally isolates her from the outside world. Blanche (Joan Crawford) is driven paranoid by her Jane. Their feud flares after others try to intervene.



MY THOUGHTS

What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? is an unusual thriller that teamed two great rivals for the only time.

The film has as much shock and suspense as any horror film, yet it's no horror film.... it's more of a psychological drama. It also shows the dark side of fame, much like Sunset Boulevard but in an entirely different manner.
There is little action most of the suspense comes from dialogue. The black and white photography is beautiful and creepy at the same time.



The key to Baby Jane's success lies in it's leads.
It was brave on Joan Crawford and Bette Davis' parts to make a film where they appear horrible looking and acting... far from their glamorous roles of the past. They make a great screen pair... despite the fact they loathed each other in real life... and tormented each other on set.

Bette Davis' makeup may appear a little overdone at times (so much so that she practically looks like a silent film actor at some points) but that's the eccentric role she's playing. Her character's fragile and unbalanced mental state causes her personality to turn on a dime. Davis is able to navigate the character without losing believability. This is what netted her an Oscar nomination.

Joan Crawford plays the 'victim' well. She's certainly more understated than Davis and is totally believable as a crippled woman. You can see the anguish and torment in her eyes. She doesn't have to say anything or use any other part of her body to convey this.

It's unclear who the real villain of the story is, both Blanche and Jane are in the end, equally bad. They are very unsettling characters both equally horrible and pathetic.
Their lives are like a train wreck, you can't look away.

Book Review: The Lost One - A Life Of Peter Lorre

The Lost One - A Life Of Peter Lorre
By Stephen D. Youngkin, 2005



Youngkin delivers an extremely detailed biography of the always-great character actor Peter Lorre.

His life is traced from his early days to his theater work with Bertolt Brecht to M. Lorre escaped the Nazis and did two films with Alfred Hitchcock before settling in America, where he quickly found work and got fame as Mr. Moto. He moved to Warner Brothers and got parts in The Maltese Falcon and Casablanca among others... and later found parts in noir films and late in his career... in films like 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea.

Lorre was known for playing menacing characters on the screen.. but was a prankster and a true artist (as well as a drug addict) in real life. This book delves into both his on-screen and off-screen lives equally.

The book is exquisitely detailed. Most of his films are covered in detail... even the most forgettable. Seemingly anyone he worked with who offered an opinion about Lorre in the press or in interviews with the author is featured.

An extensive (150+ pages) appendix is included detailing his stage/film/television credits, a bibliography, notes, list of interviews and an index. Dozens of rare photos are also featured.

This is clearly something that took the author decades to put together and it comes across as a labor of love.

If you're a fan of Peter Lorre or want to know more about the golden age of Hollywood... I recommend this heartily.

Comic Book Confidential

Comic Book Confidential
1988
Directed By Ron Mann



SYNOPSIS

The history of the comic book is tackled by this documentary... from its roots in the 1930's, to the juvenile delinquency scares of the 50's... to the 60's underground scene and beyond.

MY THOUGHTS

Comic Book Confidential is about making a case for the comic book as a true and respected art-form... and it succeeds.

The film does feel incomplete... but how can you fit every little detail from 50+ years (at the time of the film's release) of history into under 90 minutes?

The early days of comics are glossed over somewhat. The creators of Superman and Batman were still alive in the late 1980's and would have been great to see interviewed, but are not.

The segment on EC Comics and their struggles with the censors in the 1950's was covered much better and more in-depth in Tales From The Crypt: From Comic Books To Television.

The film focused much of its energy on the underground scene from the 60's to the 80's. I knew much of the "above-ground" history of comic books, so it was great to see and learn about the underground., which I knew little of apart from some people like Robert Crumb and Harvey Pekar.

'Confidential' has writers/creators from all eras read some of their work aloud, accompanied with some limited animation. This is unique, and it's great to see legends like Will Eisner and Stan Lee reading their work but after the 6th or 7th time it gets old... especially from some underground artists I've never heard of and will likely never read.

The history of comic books would probably be better suited to a Ken Burns-style long form documentary... but Comic Book Confidential gives a brief and entertaining look at several highlights through the years.

Skippy

Skippy
1931 - Paramount
Directed By Norman Taurog



SYNOPSIS

Skippy (Jackie Cooper) is a privledged young boy who would rather play in the nearby shanty town than with the kids in his neighborhood. There, he meets Sooky (Robert Coogan) and his beloved dog, Penny. When the dog catcher gets Penny, the two boys scramble to get the 3 dollars needed to get the dog a license and bail him out.



MY THOUGHTS

Skippy is based off of a now-forgotten comic strip that was popular at the time... and made a successful transition into 3 dimensions.

It's a film that sometimes feels like a feature-length Our Gang/Little Rascals short and sometimes like something a little deeper.

Jackie Cooper made this shortly after his time as a Little Rascal and shortly before his triumph in The Champ. This film netted him a Best Actor Oscar nomination. Compared to other young child actors before and since, Cooper gives a three-dimensional and real performance and is light-years ahead of any other kids. He was better in The Champ, but he's strong and likable here.

Compared to Robert Coogan, Cooper is the greatest actor of all time. Robert, younger brother of Jackie Coogan, is horrible. The kid clearly doesn't know any of his lines and has more 'dramatic pauses' than the most over-the-top William Shatner impression. When he does remember, the dialogue is mumbled or slurred.

The film is pleasant and good-natured until the kids finally get the money and return to the dog catcher only to find out the dog was put down. This is a big downer and most likely sent audiences reaching for their hankies. Skippy was nominated for best picture and screenplay, probably on the strength of that scene.... making it very memorable to audiences.

Norman Taurog won the film's only Oscar, for Best Director. Taurog had a long career... starting with some silent comedy shorts in the 20's and wound up his career making several of Elvis Presley's films. Skippy could have easily become very hammy and maudlin... but Taurog keeps everything in check.

It's some good innocent fun that's probably best for really young kids, before cynicism sets in. They may actually learn something about friendship and loyalty.

The film is not available on DVD.

Underworld U.S.A.

Underworld U.S.A.
1961- Columbia Pictures
Directed by Samuel Fuller



SYNOPSIS

14 year old Tolly Devlin watches his father beaten to death in an alley by 4 men. He recognized one man but refuses to tell the cops. Twenty years later, Tolly (Cliff Robertson) is still vowing revenge. During his latest stint in prison, he watched the one man he knew die in the prison hospital. On his deathbed, the killer reveals the names of the three others. They are now the head syndicate leaders. Tolly worms his way into their mob and waits for the right time to strike.



MY THOUGHTS

Film Noir petered out as a film style in the mid-50's, so Underworld U.S.A. is a little late to the party, but it is fashionably late.

The astoundingly stylish lighting and camera angles add as much to the tension as the tight direction of Samuel Fuller and a strong script (also by Fuller.) The gritty story moves at a fast pace and rarely comes up for air. There is a love story that at times feels tacked on, but winds up intricately tied into the main plot of the film.

Samuel Fuller's work, though always respected, has been rediscovered and examined closer in the last several years thanks to a few DVD box sets of his early work, like the one that features Underworld U.S.A. He almost exclusively made westerns, war films and noir during this era. This is one of his best films.

The 'hero' of the film is superbly played by Cliff Robertson. Like many a noir protagonist, Tolly Devlin is a man we simply cannot root for, yet he's better than the villains. Robertson makes Devlin totally believable. We don't see an actor playing a part. Robertson IS Devlin... and somehow almost makes Devlin sympathetic, but thankfully does not.

Underworld U.S.A. is a taught and exciting film from start to close.

Framed

Framed
1975 - Paramount
Directed By Phil Karlson



SYNOPSIS

Southern gambler and bar owner Ron (Joe Don Baker) is convicted sent to prison for killing a sheriff's deputy, though it was a case of self defense. In prison he meets a hit man named Vince (Gabriel Dell) and the powerful Sal (John Marley,) who helps get him out. Once released, Ron goes about finding out who framed him and why. Then Vince shows up and tells Ron someone hired him to kill him.



MY THOUGHTS

A violent revenge tale delivers an action-packed punch!

Framed far exceeds Joe Don Baker's infamous film Mitchell, released just a month later, in every conceivable way. Baker is much more believable here as the greedy, seedy country boy. His role echos many of the wrongly accused protagonists in many of Alfred Hitchcock's films, though the character lives in much more of a gray area and is not much of a hero. This makes him more of a film noir protagonist.

The film is directed by Phil Karlson, who created several noir classics like Kansas City Confidential along with some Bowery Boys films and even Elvis Presley's Kid Galahad. This was the last film he directed.

Gabriell Dell brings much to what would be a throw-away thug role for anyone else. He became a highly talented and much in demand stage actor after quitting the Dead End Kids/East Side Kids/Bowery Boys series and studying method acting at the Actor's Studio in New York. He made few films after devoting his life to the stage, but he shines in all of them.

Brock Peters is also great as the one cop who is allied with Joe Don Baker's character. Karlson is clearly making a statement against racism. This film was intended for a southern audience, which was still racially charged in the mid 1970's. Peters' black officer is the only rational cop in the whole department.

Framed is a film that definitely fits in perfectly with many of the small, gritty action films of the 1970's.

Live Free Or Die Hard

Live Free Or Die Hard
2007 - 20th Century Fox
Directed By Len Wiseman



SYNOPSIS

An organization launches a major terrorist attack on the U.S. infrastructure via the Internet. They seize control, crippling the nation on the 4th of July holiday. Detective John McClane (Bruce Willis) and a computer hacker (Justin Long) are all that stand in their way. The terrorist group then snags McClane's daughter (Mary Elisabeth Winstead) and threatens to kill her if McClane doesn't give up.



MY THOUGHTS

Live Free Or Die Hard is chock full of fights, chases and non-stop action but is ultimately a flawed film.

The appeal of John McClane in Die Hard was that he was just an ordinary man who happened to be a cop. He relied on just his wits and luck. He eventually triumphed over the much better equipped villains by sheer force of will.

As the series went on, the situations became more outrageous and McClane became less of that ordinary man and more superhero. By this, the fourth film in the series, the laws of physics are violated nearly as often as in Batman & Robin.

This 'ordinary man' takes out a helicopter by crashing a car and having it carom in the air and strike the craft. He gets shot twice and punched more times than Rocky and is slammed through windows and into walls repeatedly... and falls several stories. He never loses consciousness.
He dodges flames, fights off a fighter plane, and escapes from an SUV plunging down an elevator shaft (!?!) All of that would even slow Superman down a little.

Bruce Willis still plays McClane with the same wit and enthusiasm, despite the superpowers.

He's joined by Justin Long. His weenie, dweebie hacker provides a good contrast to McLaine's rough edges. (Oh and yes, Justin Long hacks using a Mac.)

Like the other sequels, the villains in this film don't come anywhere close to the greatness of Alan Rickman in the original. Timothy Olyphant plays the main baddie and whines more than he ever appears menacing.
One major flaw: we aren't clued into why the villains have enacted their plans until about 75 minutes into the film. When the reason is revealed, it seems weak. Somehow, the government would let a mentally unstable man, somehow, get so high up in power, only to let him leave... to then come back and ruin them? Really?

The complete takeover of the U.S.'s computer systems is a frightening possibility in this post 9/11 world. I'm not sure it could be done as easily as depicted in the film but it's still a chilling thought. It's a much more engaging concept than Die Hard: With A Vengeance's cliche gold heist.

Despite its flaws, Live Free Or Die Hard is still a fun and entertaining film if you turn your brain off and enjoy the ride.