I give the talkies six months more. At the most a year. Then they’re done.
Charlie Chaplin, 1931
The things you find on YouTube. Ninety-years ago the movie In Old Arizona was released. The first full length “talkie” filmed outdoors, it featured the O. Henry character The Cisco Kid and was based on the O. Henry short story The Caballero’s Way. The film was a hit, helping to establish that “talkies” were not just a fad, and the now forgotten Warner Baxter would receive the best actor Oscar for his rendition of The Cisco Kid. In the Thirties he would go on to star in a number of films and was at one time the highest paid actor in Hollywood. He died in 1951 at age 62. With the passage of years, most fame is indeed fleeting.
One of the major factors in transforming Ronald Reagan from a New Deal Democrat into a conservative Republican was his confrontation with Herb Sorrell in 1946-47 Hollywood. Head of the Conference of Studio Unions, Sorrell was a veteran union organizer. He was also a secret member of the Communist Party and a frequent contact for Soviet intelligence agents.
Sorrell in 1945 launched a strike to ensure that his union dominated Hollywood labor. Sorrell had no problem using physical intimidation to reach his goals. This was demonstrated at what has been called the Battle of Burbank on October 5, 1945 when 800 members of the Conference of Studio Unions battle with police of the Los Angeles Police Department, using knives, bats, chains and pipes to shut Warner Brothers down. The violence shocked Hollywood and attracted nationwide attention and led to a negotiated settlement of the strike. (more…)
(I posted this at The American Catholic, and I thought the film mavens of Almost Chosen People might enjoy it.)
I was watching the movie Captains Courageous with my bride last night, the 1937 film based on Kipling’s novel of the same name. I was struck by the performance of Spencer Tracy as Manuel Fidello, for which he won an Oscar, the happy go lucky Portuguese fisherman who rescues a spoiled rich kid from the sea, Harvey Cheyne (Freddie Bartholomew), and who helps put his feet on the path to becoming a good man. Not a learned man, he has a deep faith as symbolized by the crucifix he wears around his neck and this bit of dialogue from the movie:
Harvey: Has your father been dead a long time?
Manuel: Six year, next month. Seem a long, long time.
Harvey: How did he die?
Manuel: He drown off Cape Sable in storm. Wave come at night and wash him overboard.
Harvey: Didn’t they find him?
Manuel: No.
Harvey: Oh, l’m sorry.
Manuel: What you sorry about?
Harvey: Well, l mean your father. They didn’t find him.
Manuel: What they need find him for? He all right.
Harvey: Well, but, drowning out in the ocean, all alone at night….
Manuel: Well, what’s trouble about that? That fine way. The Savior, he take my father up to fisherman’s heaven… up with all his old friends. Quick he take him up. Quick. Just like l pull up this 35-pound fish. The Savior, He see my father all tired and wet down there in the water. So he light the harbor buoy and he say: ”Come on up, old Manuel… ”l so happy you come up here to help us fish.” And my father, he say, ”Thank you. ”l very happy to come up, too. And maybe l show you something about fishing up here, huh?” And then they all laugh. And the Savior, He put his arm around my father… and He give him brand-new dory to fish in.
Harvey: You think they really fish in heaven?
Manuel: Why, sure they fish in heaven. What else they do? The Apostles, they all fishermen, l think. You remember that Simon, called Peter? Remember that time when… he don’t catch no fish in the sea of Galilee? And the Savior, He stand on the shore and He say: ”Simon, you throw your net on the right side.” And Simon, he throw his net on the right side… and he catch so many fish, his net, it almost break in two. l think the Savior, He the best fisherman. But my father, he come next. And not fishing like this. Oh, no, no. Fish bite all time. When no more fish, the Savior, He make more fish. He make more fish. He make more bread. He make more wine. And at night He stand watch all by Himself. He say: ”Good night, fishermen. You tired now. Go to your bunks. ”And no snorings, please. Good night, Manuel’s father.” Oh, that very nice place. Oh. Sometimes l think l go there right now. Then l say, ”Now, whoa, Manuel. ‘You gotta be better fisherman first. That Savior, He only give dories to first-class fishermen, like your father.” So l keep on fishing. l no hurry. l know my father keep place for me in his dory.
(I posted this at The American Catholic and thought the film mavens of Almost Chosen People might enjoy it.)
My bride and I saw this film yesterday and vastly enjoyed it. I often appreciate “quirky” and no film makers today are quirkier than the Coen brothers. This film is an homage-spoof of filmmaking in Hollywood circa 1951. The main character is a devout Catholic, a good family man, and, wonders of wonders, he is not depicted either as a hypocrite or a bigot, the de rigueur depictions of faithful Catholics in most films these days. We found the film endlessly hilarious. Some knowledge of the Golden Age of Hollywood is helpful but not essential to the enjoyment of the film. Those of you who have seen the film let me know what you think in the comboxes. I am not going to do a full review, because I think spoilers would really spoil this film. (more…)
My wife and I were watching the movie The Way Ahead (1944), shown as Immortal Battalion in a truncated version in the US, last night, the story of the transformation of a grumbling group of British civilians into soldiers, and I was struck by this speech given by the platoon commander after his unit intentionally messed up on maneuvers:
“When this regiment was formed our country was doing pretty badly. Napoleon’s armies were just across the channel getting ready to invade us, we’d had defeat after defeat, and a great many people thought we were finished. We weren’t… But, not because we were lucky.
When the first battalion of this regiment marched it was against Napoleon… Talavera, eighteen hundred and nine, that was the first battle they made their own, and they marched 42 miles in 24 hours of a Spanish Summer, and every man jack of ’em carried a sixty pound pack. Talavera, look at your cap badges, you’ll see the name on it, and the other battles too… Barrosa, Sabugal… At Sabugal, together with four companies of riflemen, they defeated five times the number of Napoleon’s troops… Salamanca, Orthez, Waterloo, Alma, Sebastopol, Tel el-Kebir, Mons, Ypres, Somme… Those are battle honours!
You’re allowed to wear that badge with those names on it to show that you belong the the regiment that won them, and that when the time comes you’ll do as well as they did. Last year that badge was in France, this year, in Libya. It hasn’t been disgraced yet… Now you’re wearing it.
I know what went wrong today, it so happens that Captain Edwards doesn’t. You needn’t worry, I’m not going to tell him, he’s quite depressed enough as it is to think that it was his company that let the whole battalion down. But, I just want to tell you this… If you ever get near any real fighting… I don’t suppose you’ll ever be good enough, but, if you do… You’ll find that you’re looking to other men not to let you down. If you’re lucky, you’ll have soldiers like Captain Edwards and Sergeant Fletcher to look to. If they’re lucky, they’ll be with another company!”
The actor delivering the speech was the late David Niven. It is a brilliant evocation of history to remind members of a unit that they are part of a chain stretching through time and it is up to them not to dishonor by their actions those who came before in that chain. As we make our way through this Vale of Tears it is something to remember since we all belong to such chains: family, church, nation, fraternal organizations, bands of friends, etc. Our actions do not impact only ourselves. (more…)
(I originally posted this at The American Catholic and I thought that the film mavens of Almost Chosen People would enjoy it.)
A profoundly Catholic movie, Angels With Dirty Faces (1938) is usually not perceived as such. The tale of two slum kids, Jerry Connolly, Pat O’Brien, and Rocky Sullivan, James Cagney, who attempt to steal fountain pens from a train. Sullivan, who can’t run as fast as his friend, is caught after the robbery. Connolly wants to share in the blame for the theft, but Sullivan tells him not to be a sucker and takes all the blame. Sentenced to a brutal reform school he embarks on a life of crime while his friend becomes a priest, assigned to the same slum parish which he and Sullivan attended as boys.
The priest and the gangster renew their friendship with Sullivan quickly becoming the idol of the slum boys that Connolly is trying to keep from a life of crime. Connolly embarks on a crusade against the local gangsters, including Sullivan. Sullivan murders his partner Jim Frazier, Humphrey Bogart, and Mac Keefer, George Bancroft, to save Connelly who they were planning to have killed to stop his anti-crime crusade.
Sullivan, who tells the authorities all he knows about the local criminal operations, is tried for these murders and sentenced to death.
The ending of the film is a powerful look at courage and redemption:
Father Jerry: We haven’t got a lot of time.
I want to ask one last favor.
Rocky: There’s not much left that I can do, kid.
Father Jerry: Yes, there is, Rocky.
Perhaps more than you could do
under any other circumstances.
If you have the courage for it,
and I know you have.
Rocky: Walking in there?
That’s not gonna take much.
Father Jerry: I know that, Rocky.
Rocky: It’s like a barber chair.
They’re gonna ask, “Anything to say?”
I’ll say, “Sure, give me a haircut, a shave
and one of those new electric massages.”
Father Jerry: But you’re not afraid, Rocky?
Rocky: No. They’d like me to be.
But I’m afraid I can’t oblige them, kid.
You know, Jerry, I think to be afraid,
you gotta have a heart.
I don’t think I got one.
I had that cut out of me a long time ago.
Rocky: Suppose I asked you to have the heart, huh?
To be scared.
Rocky: What do you mean?
Father Jerry: Suppose the guards dragged you out of here
screaming for mercy. Suppose you went to the chair yellow.
My dear Wife, Mr. Davies will tell you what’s happening here tonight. He’s a good man and has done everything he can for me. I suppose there are some other good men here, too, only they don’t seem to realize what they’re doing. They’re the ones I feel sorry for. ‘Cause it’ll be over for me in a little while, but they’ll have to go on remembering for the rest of their lives. A man just naturally can’t take the law into his own hands and hang people without hurtin’ everybody in the world, ’cause then he’s just not breaking one law but all laws. Law is a lot more than words you put in a book, or judges or lawyers or sheriffs you hire to carry it out. It’s everything people ever have found out about justice and what’s right and wrong. It’s the very conscience of humanity. There can’t be any such thing as civilization unless people have a conscience, because if people touch God anywhere, where is it except through their conscience? And what is anybody’s conscience except a little piece of the conscience of all men that ever lived? I guess that’s all I’ve got to say except kiss the babies for me and God bless you. Your husband, Donald.
The Ox-Bow Incident (1940)-Walter Van Tilburg Clark
Have you ever heard of some fellows who first came over to this country? You know what they found? They found a howling wilderness, with summers too hot and winters freezing, and they also found some unpleasant little characters who painted their faces. Do you think these pioneers filled out form number X6277 and sent in a report saying the Indians were a little unreasonable? Did they have insurance for their old age, for their crops, for their homes? They did not! They looked at the land, and the forest, and the rivers. They looked at their wives, their kids and their houses, and then they looked up at the sky and they said, “Thanks, God, we’ll take it from here.”(more…)
Appearing in the film were several Marine veterans of the Pacific, including Colonel David Shoup, who earned a Medal of Honor for his heroism at Tarawa, and who would later serve as a Commandant of the Corps, and Lieutenant Colonel Henry Crow who led a Marine battalion at Tarawa. The Marine Corp hymn is sung in the film after the death of Wayne’s character, one of ten films in which a Wayne character died, and as the raising of the flag is recreated.
Taking part in the flag raising were Rene Gagnon, Ira Hayes and John Bradley, the three survivors of the six flag raisers. (The three men who raised the flag and subsequently died in the battle were Franklin Sousely, Harlon Block and Michael Strank.) (First Lieutenant Harold Schrier, who led the flag raising party that raised the first, smaller, flag on Mount Suribachi, and who was awarded a Navy Cross and a Silver Star for his heroism on Iwo Jima, also appeared in the film.) The flag on top of Mount Suribachi could be seen across the island, and was greeted with cheers by the Marines and blaring horns by the ships of the Navy. A mass was said on Mount Suribachi at the time of the flag raising and I have written about that here. (more…)
Something for the weekend. The score from the movie Twelve O’clock High (1949). A film shorn of any Hollywood glamor or heroics it tells the story of the fictional 918th bomb group as it pioneers daylight precision bombing in the early days of the Eighth Air Force in England and suffers harrowing losses as a result. Veterans of the Eighth Air Force applauded the film for its stark realism and its demonstration of the impact of war on the men called upon to fight it. Anyone who has not seen this masterpiece should do so as quickly as possible.