Fiction predilection

Silver Screen Snippets: Searching For Bobby Fischer

11/23/2019

This trailer is from the 1993 film Searching For Bobby Fischer. It is based on the true story of child chess prodigy Josh Waitzkin, from the book of the same name written by his father in 1988. It's hard to get your hands on today, but this movie is definitely worth seeking out; it's truly a family film, intelligent and with heart-something which is as scarce as hen's teeth these days.

Searching For Bobby Fischer

Ruminations On Searching For Bobby Fischer

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Silver Screen Snippet: The Best Years Of Our Lives

11/11/2019

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My nephew (holding the cross) speaking at his school's Remembrance Day ceremony:

Today I'll be attending a Remembrance Day service with some of the family, paying tribute to those who fought and died for our country and for the liberty we enjoy. Freedom is never free.
The clip below is from The Best Years Of Our Lives, an excellent and honest film about three men returning home after W.W. II and struggling to reintegrate into civilian life. Made in 1946, just one year after the end of the war, it is a realistic- and sympathetic- portrayal of the difficulties faced by many soldiers returning home and trying to pick up the threads of their previous lives.
One of these men is Al Stephenson (Frederic March), returning from serving as a platoon sergeant to his loving family and job at the local bank, where his desire to help war veterans get back on their feet clashes with the bank's strict loan policies. Fred Derry (Dana Andrews) was an air force captain during the war. Now suffering from flashbacks of bombing runs, he returns to find jobs scarce and is forced to work at his old job in the drugstore/soda shop where his immediate boss is the dweeb who used to work under him and got promoted while everyone else was off fighting in the war. Worse, the wife Derry married in haste right before he shipped out enjoyed being married to an honoured- and distant- war hero, but she doesn't have much time for a husband in a dead end job who is suffering from PTSD... she tells him to "snap out of it."
The third man is Homer Parrish, former high school quarterback who got engaged to the girl next door- Wilma- before joining the navy. When his ship was torpedoed, Homer's hands were severely burned and had to be amputated. On his return, Wilma's feelings for him are unchanged, but Homer doesn't think that she should be saddled with a husband who has such a disability and tries to push her away. Parrish is played by Harold Russell, who actually did lose both of his hands in a training accident during the war.

Mrs. Miniver- A Summary

49th Parallel- A Summary

Contemplating Mrs. Miniver

49th Parallel

Pimpernel Smith

Contemplating 49th Parallel

Stalag 17

Teach Your Children Well

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Silver Screen Snippets: Stalag 17

8/27/2019

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The clip below is from the 1953 movie Stalag 17, which is about a group of American POWs held in that German prison camp during World War II. The film is a strange mixture of drama and comedy which- even more strangely- works. It is a Billy Wilder movie, and was adapted from a stage play by Donald Bevan and Edmund Trzcinski, who based it on their own experiences as prisoners of war in Austria, at the actual Stalag 17B camp.
In the scene below, the Germans have issued copies of Mein Kampf to the prisoners, with the order that they are to be indoctrinated with the teachings of the Fuhrer. The men decide to give an exhibition of just how well they've absorbed Hitler's words:

49th Parallel

On The Waterfront

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Silver Screen Snippets: The Lady Vanishes

8/14/2019

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The movie clip below is from The Lady Vanishes, the 1938 mystery directed by Alfred Hitchcock. An elderly woman mysteriously disappears from a moving train, much to the bewilderment of the young lady who had been sitting and talking with her. Adding to her confusion is the fact that everyone else who is travelling in the same car denies that the old woman was ever there.

The Lady Vanishes- A Summary

My Thoughts On "The Lady Vanishes"

The Movie Is...

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Silver Screen Snippets: Singin' In The Rain

8/6/2019

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The scene below is from the delightful 1952 movie musical Singin' In The Rain, which stars Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, and Donald O'Connor. It is set in the late 1920's when silent movies were transitioning to "talkies" and highlights a true to life problem encountered in the film industry at this time. Many of the silent stars, chosen for their looks and ability to emote silently, didn't have voices suited for the new medium. Also, movie dialogue suited to appearing on title cards would sound ridiculous if actually uttered by the characters. Added to this were the difficulties associated with figuring out how to mic the actors so that their dialogue was consistantly audible. All of these problems occur in the hilarious scene below. Lina Lamont is a big star of romantic movies, but her nasally voice and diction are more suited to a fishwife than the French noblewoman she's supposed to be portraying (in reality, Jean Hagen who played Lina had a lovely voice). Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly), the leading man, assumes that he can get by just uttering the trite sentiments he used to mouth in love scenes, and the awful dialogue cuts in and out whenever one of them moves in the exaggerated gestures they're accustomed to using in silent films.

The resulting film, The Duelling Cavalier, is a complete diaster and it may very well end both Don's and Lina's careers if something isn't done to solve the problem. While this makes for a very funny musical, the truth is that many silent film stars could not make the transition to sound and faded away into obscurity.
Just for fun, here's the disatrous premiere of The Duelling Cavalier:

The Court Jester

Adam's Rib

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Silver Screen Snippets: Shall We Dance

7/14/2019

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The film clip below is from the 1937 Astaire & Rogers movie Shall We Dance. In it, Fred Astaire is Pete Peters, an American who has become famous as the principal dancer in a ballet company in Paris, under the stage name Petrov. Tired of just dancing ballet, Petrov- Peters- wishes to blend classical dance with more modern jazz dancing. While taking a ship back to America, he becomes acquainted with Linda Keene(Ginger Rogers), a well-known tap dancer. They spend time together and, due to a few misunderstandings contrived at by her scheming publicist, the rumour goes around that they are married.
Once in the States, the rumour becomes even more pervasive and unknown to either Keene or Peters, her manager decides to fan the flames even more. They have a life sized mannequin of Linda Keene for publicity purposes and her manager dresses it in a filmy nightgown and sneaks it into Petrov's room one night while he's asleep. He sits it on the side of the bed where Petrov is sleeping soundly and takes some pictures, sneaks it back out, and then sends the photos to the papers, where they appear the next day. Having no clue how these pictures came into existence and unable to deny their marriage without causing a scandal, Peter and Linda decide to really get married, and then they can get a divorce and quell all the rumours... the logic behind this is a bit suspect, but it's a lot of fun.
The music for the film is by George and Ira Gershwin and it contains some great songs: "Slap That Bass", "They All Laughed", and "Let's Call The Whole Thing Off", to name a few. And, of course, the song in the clip below "You Can't Take That Away From Me" which is sung after the two are married and contemplating getting divorced, which neither particularly wants.

Much is said- justifiably- about the partnership of Astaire and Rogers, but I'd like to also make mention of another dynamic duo which appears in this film: two of my favourite character actors from back in the day- Edward Everett Horton and Eric Blore, as Petrov's manager and the hotel manager, respectively. Together or apart, they're always great.

Sunday Night Movie: Shall We Dance

Bachelor Mother

The Court Jester

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Silver Screen Snippets: The Swamp Fox

7/4/2019

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Happy Independence Day to our American neighbours! In honour of the occasion, this- actually small rather than silver screen- snippet is from the 1959-61 Disney series The Swamp Fox, a rather historically dubious account of the adventures of real life Revolutionary War hero Francis Marion, alias the Swamp Fox. In the show, Marion is portrayed by a young Leslie Nielsen.

What is accurate is that Francis Marion harried the British forces with his irregulars, employing a strategy of lightening fast surprise attacks and equally fast retreats. The baddie in the clip below- Col. Tarleton- was an actual historic figure who was charged with capturing/killing Marion. It was Tarleton who actually coined Marion's nick name: after an attempt to capture his nemesis during which he and his troops unsuccessfully chased Marion and his men for over 26 miles through swampland, Tarleton groused, "As for this old fox, the Devil himself could not catch him."

Paul Revere's Ride

1776

Happy Independence Day

Independence Day

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Silver Screen Snippets: Spellbound

6/21/2019

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The scene below is from Spellbound, Alfred Hitchcock's 1945 psychological thriller/murder mystery starring Ingrid Bergman and Gregory Peck. In it, Bergman plays Dr. Constance Petersen, a psychoanalyst at a mental hospital in Vermont. The hospital's director is suffering from nervous exhaustion and is being involuntarily retired; his replacement arrives- Dr. Anthony Edwardes (Peck). Though very attracted to him, Constance begins to notice some oddities about his character, eventually realizing that he is not actually Dr. Edwardes after comparing his signature with that of the real doctor. It turns out that he is a man suffering from amnesia; he can't remember who he is, but he confesses to Constance that he believes that he killed the real Dr. Edwardes. Unable- or unwilling- to believe that the man she has fallen in love with is capable of murder, she takes him, now wanted by the police, to her mentor and friend Dr. Brulov. She hopes that Brulov will be able to help her break through his amnesia and find out what really happened to Dr. Edwardes.

My Name Is Julia Ross

The Unsuspected

The Man Who Knew Too Much

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Silver Screen Snippets: La Belle Et La Bete

5/31/2019

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In 1946, one of the first movies to come out of post-war France was a live action version of the fairy tale Beauty and the Beast- or rather, La Belle et la Bete. Though adapted from a fairy tale, this film is more for adults than for children, with moments which are dark- almost gothic horror- as well as others which are surreal and dream-like. The effects are amazing for the time period, and the film- shot in glorious black and white- is beautiful to look at. It is, of course, entirely in French but it can be viewed with English subtitles. This version a lot closer to the original story than say, the Disney versions, but also is padded with extra characters and back story. Fun fact: the actor who plays Avenant (a Gaston-like character) also plays the Beast.

The scene below really highlights the beauty of the cinematography and also makes it obvious that Josette Day (who plays Beauty) was a ballet dancer before she was an actress:

The Hunchback Of Notre Dame

What Ever Happened To Baby Jane

Cyrano de Bergerac

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Silver Screen Snippets: The Man Who Knew Too Much

5/19/2019

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Doris Day died last week at the age of 97. The first film I ever saw her in was Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much from 1956. In it, she plays Jo McKenna, a Broadway singer who is married to Dr. Ben McKenna (played by Jimmy Stewart). The couple are vacationing in Morocco and inadvertantly become involved in an international assassination conspiracy when a man who had been investigating the plot is stabbed on the street. Dr. Ben tries to treat him, but the man dies after gasping out some information about the assassination to him. The McKennas go to the police station to give a statement about what happened and what the man said but before they can do so, they receive a call telling them that their son Hank has been kidnapped and will be killed if they say anything.

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

The Birds

My Name Is Julia Ross

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Silver Screen Snippets: Searching For Bobby Fischer

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Silver Screen Snippet: The Best Years Of Our Lives

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Silver Screen Snippets: Stalag 17

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Silver Screen Snippets: The Lady Vanishes

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Silver Screen Snippets: Singin' In The Rain

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Silver Screen Snippets: Shall We Dance

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Silver Screen Snippets: The Swamp Fox

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Silver Screen Snippets: Spellbound

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Silver Screen Snippets: La Belle Et La Bete

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