Ida Lupino at 103

 

Today marks Ida Lupino's date of birth, 1918.  She's a favorite here at The Signal Watch, and I probably go on about her too much, but that's just how we're gonna be.  I will defend this decision forever.

Noir Re-Watch: The Unsuspected (1947)

Watched:  02/03/2021

Format:  TCM on DVR

Viewing:  4th?

Decade:  1940's

Director:  Michael Curtiz

Michael Curtiz directed innumerable good to great movies, and we find ourselves watching his output a few times per year one way or another, but since finding The Unsuspected (1947) as part of my "let's watch all the Audrey Totter stuff we can find" quest, I'm a little surprised it just isn't more widely discussed.  The cinematography alone is noteworthy, courtesy industry veteran Elwood Bridell.  Add in a Franz Waxman score, and multiple hooks for a story, and it already has plenty to recommend it before you point out Claude Rains stars.

Ida Watch Party Watch: Jennifer (1953)

Watched:  02/01/2021

Format:  Amazon Watch Party

Viewing:  First

Decade:  1950's

Director:  Joel Newton

Co-watched w/ JeniferSF

A thriller which lifts elements from plenty of Gothic mysteries, borrows from noir, and has an ending that's maybe whatever the opposite is of deus ex machina, Jennifer (1953) has some great things going for it, but was not my cup of tea, exactly, but I found myself actually fairly wrapped up in the mystery.

Starring the lovely and talented Ida Lupino, with photography by James Wong Howe (one of the best to ever DP a movie), it still feels oddly like a B- picture, and maybe it was.  The film runs (blessedly) short, relies upon a small cast where Lupino is the biggest star, and we see only a handful of locations.   

Lupino wasn't quite done with movies at this point, and two of my favorite of hers follow this one: Private Hell 36 and the phenomenal The City That Never Sleeps.  She'd just come off two great films with Robert Ryan, Beware, My Lovely and the icy On Dangerous Ground.  By the time she hit her 40's in the late 1950's, she was more or less transitioning to TV where she'd remain for the rest of her career - as, at the same time, she took to directing as much or more than acting.*

PODCAST: "Soul" (2020) - a Pixar Watch featuring Pixar Lighting Lead Ryan Michero! (and NathanC and me)

 

Watched:  01/30/2021

Format:  Disney+

Viewing:  Second

Decade:  2020

Directors:  Pete Docter, Kemp Powers (co-director)

For more ways to listen

Ryan and Nathan are joined by Pixar Lighting Lead, Ryan Michero, to talk about "Soul", now available on Disney+. We take a deep dive into the technical wizardry and challenges of "how does one light a conceptual construct?" to discussing the process and storytelling that makes Pixar the best there is. Join us for a conversation with one of the folks who makes the magic happen!

 

The Signal Watch PodCast · 137: "Soul" (2020) Pixar Watch w/ Ryan Michero, NathanC and Ryan

Music:

Born to Play - John Batiste, Soul OST

The Great Before/ U Seminar - Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, Soul OST

NPR Fresh Air episode

Disney History Playlist

The Signal Watch PodCast · Disney History with NathanC

Television - some stuff I've watched

I'd originally started this post at the end of last year in order to relay what all we'd been watching.  At this point, it's kind of hard to remember through the haze that was 2020 and the endless hours in my spot on the sofa what I put my eyeballs on.  As you may know, I mostly watched movies, and baseball came back in July.  I even gave a go of becoming a fan of Korean baseball, but kinda failed at that.

In general, I don't binge TV shows (and quietly judge people on twitter complaining when shows come out once per week), but this year has been a year unlike others.  And I did plow right through some shows that I might otherwise have ignored.  

For example - I watched all of something called The Great Flower Fight, which I can't say I even liked, but at the start of the pandemic, it was the right show at the right time.  As was Love is Blind.

Frankly - I do not get how TV is funded in this era of a million channels and streaming services.  What constitutes a win versus a cancel.  It's all just a big mystery to me.  There's so much stuff out there, and while the same percentage of it is watchable, with the sheer volume, there's a lot of decent TV in existence at this point.  But, yikes, there's a lot of stuff on, and somebody is watching it.  

None of these shows are recommendations, but the list is what I've watched over the past 12 months or so between baseball and movies.  Some of it's pretty bad - but I somehow stuck it out. 

I'm also not looking for recommendations - and I know you all have them.  Good!  Say them very quietly inside your head and give a knowing smile to yourself.  Ahhh....  there's that familiar glow of a recommendation.

Anyway - here's my best possible stab at a list

• Doom Patrol
• Filthy Rich
• The Righteous Gemstones
• Supergirl
• Star Trek: The Next Generation (select episodes)
• Star Trek:  Picard
• Star Trek: Lower Decks
• Star Trek:  Discovery (Season 3)
• Fargo Season 4
• The Great Flower Fight
• The Vow (the NXIVM  doc)
• The Mandalorian
• Imagineering Doc
• One Day at Disney
• One Day at a Time
• Disney Galleries - Mandalorian
• Into the Unknown: Making Frozen 2
• DuckTales
• On Pointe
• The Expanse
• The Good Place
• Lego Masters
• Brooklyn 99
• Love is Blind
• WandaVision
• What We Do in the Shadows
• Schitt's Creek
• The Amber Ruffin Show
• Reruns of The Nanny
• Reruns of Seinfeld
• a whole lotta KXAN News @ Noon

I'm just listing things here that I watched enough of to say I enjoyed it by finishing the series or season.  Unlike, apparently, a lot of you, I don't generally watch shows for a few seasons to see if they get good.  

So, yeah, I also tried a lot of shows, watched a few episodes and stopped.  For whatever reason, they just didn't settle with me.  Of the best items - probably Fargo Season 4, which was goddamn art, people.  So, there you go.

I want to go back and try a few shows now that I'm numb to COVID times.  It was not the best time to be watching Tales from the Loop, for example.  I avoided catching up with Chernobyl altogether.  I couldn't even muster the willpower for Lovecraft Country, which I may pick up soon.

Friday Watch Party: Return of the Swamp Thing (1989)

Day:  Friday - 01/29/2021

Time:  8:30 Central

Where:  Amazon Prime

Link here 

 

I've only seen this once. Back in high school, I think my sophomore year.

My mom was having some sort of gathering of her friends in our living room, so my dad and I got banished to the upstairs TV room (affectionately known as "Slippy Village"). My dad and I are a real braintrust when it comes to picking movies, and so it came to be that we settled on Return of the Swamp Thing. I recall we had to keep turning it down because of lots and lots and lots of machinegun fire, and we did not wish to upset my mom and her pals.

I also vaguely remember having to also explain to The Admiral, "no, Heather Locklear is a real actor.  No, seriously.".  

Anyway, let's all enjoy a talking salad and his friend.

 

Noir Watch: The Breaking Point

Watched:  01/28/2021

Format:  Noir Alley on DVR

Viewing:  First

Decade:  1950

Director:  Michael Curtiz

Based on a Hemingway novel I haven't read,* To Have and Have Not, The Breaking Point (1950) stars John Garfield, Phyllis Taxter and a smooth as hell Patricia Neal - all under the direction of the great Michael Curtiz.  

I honestly thought I'd seen this one, so I let it sit on my DVR - but I hadn't.  It bares very little resemblance to the film that borrows the novel's name, the famed Bogart and Bacall vehicle, which I recommend.  You could double-bill them and it'd be an interesting ride.  

As I understand it, the movie strays from the novel in several key ways, but as a noir - it fits perfectly when it comes to theme and occasionally dabbles in the look and feel, which is a tough sell when you have a lot of daytime story on boats and piers.  But.  

Garfield plays the captain of a fishing charter who, paired with his pal Wesley (Juano Hernandez), is scraping by in tough times.  They pick up a wealthy client who ditches them and his lady-friend, Patricia Neal, in Mexico without payment.  Forced into a corner, Garfield agrees to take on a group of Chinese immigrants to smuggle into the country - but things go poorly.  From there, things just keep escalating.  Because: noir.

As a noir, it fits like a glove.  Our character is forced into a corner, gets in over his head doing something he doesn't want to do.  Neal isn't a femme fatale, but she's a fascinating distraction and her appeal demonstrates Garfield's duality, when he has Phyllis Thaxter at home, offering love, support and a way out.  

Honestly - it's just a damn good movie, surprisngly progressive with some of its characters, and has maybe one of the gut-punchiest endings I can remember seeing in a movie in off TCM in a long time.  The themes are absolutely universal/ timeless.  Garfield is so *human* in the film, his driving insecurities and stubbornness in the face of reality so relatable (at the expense of the people who love him), it's a remarkable feat of story, script, acting and direction.  

Highly recommended.

*I've only read a smattering of Hemingway, but I don't have time for the "he wasn't that good" chatter the kids are so fond of. Your inability to relate to any fiction where people don't have access to a television that is not YA fantasy is not my problem.

Cloris Leachman Has Merged With the Infinite

Very sad to report that Cloris Leachman has passed at the age of 94.  

The woman was an absolute delight and in too many movies that I liked for me to name all of them.  

Glad she was with us so long, and was on our screens for so long.

Musical Watch: Pal Joey (1957)

Watched:  01/26/2021

Format:  TCM on DVR

Viewing:  First

Decade:  1950's

Director:  George Sidney

So, sometimes you watch a movie and it doesn't work out.  I did take a note that this movie, on paper, seems to have everything going for it, but it isn't well remembered.  Which, you know, can often mean something.  Starring Frank Sinatra, Rita Hayworth and Kim Novak, and from George Sidney who has a list of quality directorial credits as long as your arm, it shoud have been a cinch.  But.

Pal Joey (1957) could be retitled Pal Joey - A Study in The Male Gaze or That's Problematic!  And this is coming from the guy who stands on soapboxes about modern audiences learning from and understanding the societal frameworks of a year in which a film was released.  

But we don't get thirty seconds into the film and our hero is being accused of trying to both get a minor drunk and maybe sleep with her.  Another two minutes in and blatant racism.  And then 90 minutes of misogyny and every possible shot they can get of the female form.

Comedy Watch: Anchorman - The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)

Watched:  01/24/2021

Format:  I lost my DVD somehow.  So, Amazon Streaming

Viewing:  Unknown

Decade:  2000's

Director:  Adam McKay

Maybe the best thing about Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004), other than that Jamie - 17 years later still wanders around the house quoting the movie - is that it's a generous ensemble movie.  Heck, for the first time, I noticed Missy Pyle shows up for two seconds at the end and gets a line.  But, yeah, while the star is of course Will Ferrell, virtually every speaking role has someone who either was or became a person worth noting, and everyone is given something like an opportunity for a laugh and delivers.  

Hence - we all get a 90 minute movie that never really gets dragged down by too much plot.  Everything is an opportunity to be silly.  Even a fight between Veronica Corningstone and Ron Burgundy that gets nasty (and probably some of the name calling would get cut in 2021) becomes absolutely absurd as Christina Applegate hurls a typewriter at Ron and Champ is holding the crowd back with "they're just talking...  they're just talking....".  It's good stuff.

I know it's been a while since I've watched the movie in its entirety - and in the intervening years, the Chicago Cubs won the World Series.  And in Game 7 of that series, 1B Anthony Rizzo was famously caught saying "I'm in a glass case of emotion" to catcher (now manager!) David Ross and Tommy LaStella (who played everywhere, and whom I miss a lot).

  

So, yeah, it's still a lot of fun.  You forget half the people who are in the movie.  Danny Trejo, Kathryn Hahn (who actually rocks 70's hair), Fred Armisen, the great Fred Willard...  the list just goes on and on.

And, while we can all acknowledge the main four male leads, Applegate deserves a mountain of praise for the very specific take she brought to Veronica Conringstone that I find hysterical.  Were we ever to meet, I'd insist she tell me whatever I'm up to "is Grade-A baloney".