December 16, 2001 The General (1927) Starring Buster Keaton; Directed by Mr. Keaton and Clyde Bruckman. Silent. In this Civil War-era comedy, Keaton plays a straight-faced Southern railroad engineer (named, aptly enough, "Johnnie Gray") whose two loves in life are the beautiful Annabelle Lee (Marion Mack) and his engine, "The General". Although Johnnie is rejected for military service by the Confederacy, he nevertheless gives hot pursuit when a party of Union spies kidnaps Annabelle and steals The General. The result, in this beautifully symmetric narrative, is two parallel chase scenes, both of which feature many obstacles that Johnnie must use all of his intelligence to combat. What makes this film really work is Keaton. With his mild-mannered exterior and physically slight build, it is easy to underestimate him, and the other characters in the film often do. But while Johnnie's triumphs are the result of intelligence, courage, and often dumb luck, it is obvious that there is another factor at work in Keaton's performance - his amazing physical agility. In an age where special effects were what we would call primitive and "stunt double" was an unknown phrase, Keaton performs numerous amazing physical feats without seeming to break a sweat. And, of course, his Great Stone Face never changes expression, which only adds to the hilarity. Note: The one thing that may hinder enjoyment of the film is that it asks us to root for a Confederate victory over the Union, which for me was rather ideologically troubling. Still, there is no mention of slavery whatsoever in the film, so I was able to enjoy the film while watching it and suspend my judgement until afterwards. December 17, 2001 One, Two, Three (1961) Directed by Billy Wilder; Written by Mr. Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond from a play by Ferenc Molnar. Starring James Cagney, Horst Buchholz, Arlene Francis, Red Buttons, Leon Askin, and Lilo Pulver. Coming after the enormous success of The Apartment (1960), Billy Wilder's follow-up has been unjustly ignored. In this farcical satire of Cold War politics, Cagney plays a Coca-Cola executive stationed in West Berlin. When he discovers that his boss's daughter (Pamela Tiffin) has been impregnated by a young Communist (Buchholz), he realizes that he must convert the young radical into a proper bourgeois gentleman - fast! Along the way, he combats three fearsome enemies: Communists, Nazis, and the Pepsi Corporation. What makes this film work is that Wilder and his co-writers take satirical jabs at _both_ communism and capitalism. Capitalism makes people shallow and materialistic ("I've been a capitalist for fifteen minutes, and already I owe 15,000 marks!" "That's what makes capitalism work - everybody owes everybody!"), while communism foster totalitarian regimes that torture dissidents by forcing them to listen to "Itsy-Bitsy Teeny-Weeny Yellow Polka-Dot Bikini" over and over again. The film ultimately comes down on the side of capitalism, but definitely acknowledges its flaws. The other major factor is timing. Aside from "His Girl Friday", I don't remember seeing any film this fast-paced. Cagney's delivery is especially rapid-fire, and it will probably take multiple viewings to get all the jokes. Andre Previn's score makes frequent use of Khachaturian's "Sabre Dance"; oh, and incidentally, Lilo Pulver (portraying Cagney's secretary/mistress) does an incredibly sexy dance to that piece of music. December 18, 2001 Duel (1971) Directed by Steven Spielberg; Written by Richard Matheson, based on his own short story; Starring Dennis Weaver. This being Spielberg's birthday and all, I thought it wise to shine a light back onto that period of his career when he was less interested in canonization and more interested in making good movies. That's not to overlook the contribution of writer Richard Matheson. Matheson, a rather overlooked figure, helped Rod Serling create "The Twilight Zone" and wrote the novels that inspired such movies as _The Incredible Shrinking Man_, _The Omega Man_, _The Legend of Hell House_, _What Dreams May Come_, and _Stir of Echoes_. He also wrote several screenplays, both adaptations of his own work and that of others. _Duel_, based on a story by Matheson first published in "Playboy", was first produced as a made-for-TV movie in this country; after its success Spielberg shot some extra footage to pad out the running time and it was released theatrically in Europe. The story is very simple: a henpecked husband and business commuter (played by, ironically, former Olympic decathlete Dennis Weaver) suddenly finds himself the target of a massive tractor-trailer driven by a menacing figure (noted stunt driver Carey Loftin) whose face we never see. Although the story could be read as an allegory in many ways, Spielberg keeps them all subtextual, using his entire directorial bag of tricks to wring the maximum tension out of this tale. December 19, 2001 Angel Heart (1987) Written and Directed by Alan Parker; Starring Mickey Rourke, Lisa Bonet, Charlotte Rampling, and Robert De Niro. Alan Parker has stated that he wants to work in every genre at some point in his career, and he often mixes genres within a single film (c.f. _Bugsy Malone_ (1976), a cross between a gangster film and a musical, where all the lead roles are played by kids). _Angel Heart_ is no exception; it starts off as a typical _Chinatown_-style neo-noir, in which a seedy private detective, Harry Angel (Mickey Rourke, back when his career was actually going somewhere), is hired by a mysterious client with the odd name of Louis Cyphre (De Niro, doing a delicious cameo) to track down a 1940's crooner named Johnny Dangerously. As he follows Dangerously's trail, Angel seems to leave dead bodies in his wake, and to make things even worse the police suspect Angel of having committed the murders. Eventually, a tip sends Angel to New Orleans, where he encounters a frightened jazz musician (Brownie McGhee, an actual bluesman), a frigid heiress (Charlotte Rampling - typecasting, anyone?) who may or may not be a witch, and Johnny's half-black daughter (Lisa Bonet, doing her best to shed her wholesome image from "The Cosby Show"). At this point, the film takes off into another dimension entirely, with a horrifying twist ending which works exactly the way twist endings should. But Parker and his crew do an excellent job of building a sense of dread into every scene; striking and scary images abound, giving the whole thing the feeling of a nightmare. _Angel Heart_ isn't the type of horror film that wants to make you jump out of your seat every few minutes; instead, it burrows into your subconscious with a well-told story you can't forget. December 20, 2001 Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971) Starring Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter, Bradford Dillman, Natalie Trundy, William Windom, Sal Mineo, John Randolph, and Ricardo Montalban; Written by Paul Dehn; Directed by Don Taylor; Music by Jerry Goldsmith. They say that most sequels aren't as good as the original, and that is definitely true here, but only because the original PotA is a masterpiece. This one, while not up to that level, is still quite good, and it is actually closer to the plot of Pierre Boulle's novel (with humans and apes inverted) than the first movie was. The cast is enormously fun to watch, especially McDowall and Hunter, and Dillman is quite likable as well. The story may be standard-issue, but it's done with _feeling_, and the ending is quite ingenious. Cameos by Montalban, Mineo, et al., help things along. The ending, which represents a bit of a change in tone, is quite moving and a bit reminiscent of the Old Testament. Excellent score by Jerry Goldsmith. December 21, 2001 Scorpio (1973) Starring Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon, John Colicos, Gayle Hunnicutt, J.D. Cannon, Vladek Sheybal, and Paul Scofield; Directed by Michael Winner. Why do we sympathize with a character in a movie? Because, we like to tell ourselves, they're the "good guy". And their enemies, therefore, are "bad guys". But in the spy thriller _Scorpio_, who is good and who is bad is mixed up beyond all recognition. CIA agent Cross (Lancaster) wants to retire, while his old bosses want him dead, and they blackmail his protege, Scorpio (Delon), into filling the contract. Cross heads to Vienna to evade capture, where he meets up with his counterpart on the Soviet side, Zharkov (Scofield), who is the only person willing to offer him shelter. From this point, it's a constant game of cat-and-mouse with the audience's sympathies constantly shifting. It is easy to pick holes in this film after you're done watching it. The busy editing and camerawork give the impression that there is always something big going on, but there really isn't, at least not until the last quarter of the film. There are several times that characters are able to get away with ploys that would never work in real life. Nearly all the characters aside from our heroes are incompetent idiots. Inasmuch as the movie has a message, it is a very cynical one, which is fine, but it is not driven home as well as it could have been. Yet what makes the film worth watching are the performances. Lancaster and Delon have movie-star charisma yet are still gritty and believeable, and Scofield is brilliant as always. The location photography in Europe is also quite impressive, and the plot is surprisingly fresh. December 22, 2001 The Wedding Singer (1998) Starring Adam Sandler, Drew Barrymore, Christine Taylor, Allen Covert, and Billy Idol; Cameos by Kevin Nealon, Robert Smigel, Steve Buscemi, and Jon Lovitz; Directed by Frank Coraci. When I went to a movie theater the other day, I was startled to see a poster for an upcoming movie called "Mr. Deeds", starring Adam Sandler. "Oh no," I thought as my heart sank. I did a bit of checking, and sure enough, Sandler /is/ starring in a remake of Frank Capra's 1936 classic _Mr. Deeds Goes to Town_. With this depressing thought in mind, I decided to go back to the one good movie Sandler has managed to make: _The Wedding Singer_. This slice of 80's nostalgia (boy, I never thought I'd be using that phrase seriously) has a plot that will be familiar to anyone who's ever seen a romantic comedy: boy and girl meet each other right when she's about to marry someone else, they are kept apart through various misunderstandings, but they end up in each other's arms when the credits roll. But the wonder is that it manages to balance this sentimental side with a truly edgy sense of humor, quite different from Sandler's usual sophomoric antics. Sandler manages to create a real character here, and he is actually a somewhat mature, non-annoying adult. Moreover, Frank Coraci's direction manages to hit almost all the right notes in every scene, making the transformations the characters undergo really count. The performances are uniformly good, especially Buscemi's hilarious cameo, and the music is enjoyable as well. I thought that the high quality of this movie meant that Sandler had turned over a new leaf, so I was disappointed to see that his subsequent efforts (The Waterboy, Big Daddy, Little Nicky) were an enormous step backwards. Hopefully, _Mr. Deeds_ will manage to once again reverse this trend, but I'm not holding my breath. December 23, 2001 The Wild Child (1969) Directed by Francois Truffaut; Screenplay by Truffaut and Jean Gruault; Starring Truffaut and Jean-Pierre Cargol. In French. While watching this minor classic about a boy raised in the wild and the doctor who must introduce him to civilization, I was struck by the use of a certain Vivaldi concerto. I immediately recognized this concerto from the movie _Kramer vs. Kramer_ (1979). Upon a bit of further investigation, I discovered that as different as the movies were (TWC is French, black-and-white, and a period piece, while KVK is Hollywood, color, and set in the present day), they did share some common features. Both were shot by Nestor Almendros, and both deal with a paternal figure who must raise a boy on his own. But it wasn't until this past summer that I realized that when KVK writer-director Robert Benton was trying to get his first major screenplay, _Bonnie and Clyde_, produced, the first director he approached was - you guessed it - Truffaut. I'm not quite sure of the significance of all the connections I discovered, but I'm sure there must be some. And if you're wondering why I told the above story instead of giving a detailed review, it's because I don't have all that much to say about this film. It's moving but not sentimental, and I liked it. Oh, and Truffaut is a genius. December 24, 2001 A Shot in the Dark (1964) Starring Peter Sellers, Elke Sommer, George Sanders, Herbert Lom, Tracy Reed, Graham Stark, Andre Maranne, Burt Kwouk, and "Turk Thrust"; Directed by Blake Edwards; Screenplay by Edwards and William Peter Blatty; Music by Henry Mancini. _The Pink Panther_ (1964) may have been released three months earlier, but the series we know and love started in earnest with this film, which was the first to feature Inspector Dreyfus (Lom), his assistant Francois (Maranne), Clouseau's valet Kato (Kwouk), and series regular Stark. George Sanders plays one of his memorably villainous characters, and British filmmaker Bryan Forbes, using the stage name "Turk Thrust", has a cameo as a nudist camp attendant. Sellers is, of course, brilliant as his trademark character, Inspector Clouseau, and he is backed up by a script that contains both wit and slapstick. Like all Pink Panther films, the fun score is by Henry Mancini (this time around featuring the song "Shadows of Paris"). This is usually considered the funniest of the Pink Panther films. Co-scripter William Peter Blatty would later win an Oscar for another light farce: _The Exorcist_ (1973). December 25, 2001 The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) Starring Michael Caine, Kermit the Frog, The Great Gonzo, Rizzo the Rat, and Miss Piggy; Directed by Brian Henson; Songs by Paul Williams; From the novel by Charles Dickens. The large majority of movies I see have very little emotional impact on me at all. Of the ones that do touch me emotionally, very few ever move me to tears. That is why The Muppet Christmas Carol remains in my memory. It still holds the record for the movie that made me cry the most. And I wasn't all that young when I saw it, either - it was my sophomore year at IMSA. The story stays surprisingly close to Dickens' brilliant original, with Michael Caine excellent as Scrooge. The Muppets pop in with a little (but not too much, thankfully) comic relief, and Kermit gives a touching performance as Bob Crachit. Paul Williams' songs are mostly forgettable (at least, I don't remember any of them), but they aren't especially painful either. Change the "1" in the URL to a "2" to go to the next page.