JLC Watch: A Fish Called Wanda (1988)

Watched:  09/19/2024

Format:  AFS Cinema

Viewing:  Unknown

Director:  Charles Crichton

Simon and I decided to catch this one again at the cinema.  

I've always liked A Fish Called Wanda (1988), and while some items in the film aged poorly, it's still a very, very good comedy with some screwball bits that just kill.  I don't know how objective I am about the film as I saw it so young and, at the time, felt like I was watching something aimed, for once, at adults rather than an all-ages comedy, like I was used to.  I mean, this isn't far removed, chronologically, from the early Police Academy franchise, which is what an R-Rated comedy looked like in the US that I had previously been watching.

Yet, the film is intensely silly.  Everyone is firing on all cylinders, enough so that you can't single out anyone in the film, just your favorite bits or scenes.  The entire sequence in which Wanda sneaks into Archie's house to seduce him is *gold* and should be studied by academics. But it's not aimed at 13 year-olds.  The comedy comes from a different place that knows goofy, witty, sexy and fun without resorting to feeling like "insert funny sad trombone sound here" is appropriate.

Si and I saw the movie in a shockingly full theater for an 8:30 PM Thursday showing of a movie you can stream from your phone right now.  It was a mix of clear die-hards for the movie and people who'd never seen it, I'm guessing, from the gasps and laughing at surprise bits in the film.  And, all ages.  20-something hipsters and Grandmas who likely have seen it 25 times.

Was JLC a big reason why I came out to the theater for the movie?  You know that's the case.  But I had never seen the movie on the big screen, and or with a crowd, and it was a delight to do so.

Here's the Podcast from years ago when Jamie, Si and I talked about the film.

Noir/ Joan Watch: Female on the Beach (1955)

Watched:  09/18/2024

Format:  Criterion

Viewing:  First

Director:  Joseph Pevney

Y'all know I'm all in for Joan Crawford, and I think Jamie's a fan, too.  So, we put this one on from Criterion.  

There have to be papers written about Joan in this era and who her movies were aimed at.  She'd been kicking around since the Silent Era, was a huge star for a spell in the 1930's, then lost her box office mojo and was declared "box office poison", then had a massive come back in the mid-1940's with Mildred Pierce (recommended).  She came back around aged 39 - something to cheer for.  And she really is great in that movie.  And then she enjoyed real work for some time - including into 1955, when this movie came out.

I am sure there was an audience that knew and loved her from their youth and identified with her as they aged.  Further, she kept managing to play the very-much-desired woman here at age 49, when Hollywood still thought once you hit 28, you might as well be a grandma in movies.  But women attend movies, and I suspect - based on the female-forward stories (but still very much of the politics of the 1950's) - that her audience were women, and these thrillers served that loyal fanbase.

Coppola Watch: The Outsiders (1983) - the full novel cut

Watched:  09/16/2024

Format:  Amazon

Viewing:  First

Director:  Francis Ford Coppola

Selection:  Jamie

I've been meaning to see this movie *since* 1983.  But over time, I'd heard mixed things and I came to know what the story was, anyway, via cultural osmosis.  My one memory from when it hit cable in the mid-1980's was being told "you wouldn't like it" - and I genuinely don't know why I was told that at the time, probably aged 9 or 10.

When I was 11, the kid across the street came over while me and some others were sitting around in my front yard and asked us to "rumble".  I now assume they'd just seen this movie and were inspired.  We did not rumble.  We did ask them what movie they pulled "rumble" from.*  I think I now have the answer.

The movie is now mostly famous as the movie that launched careers.  All of the leads went on to become staples and household names for the generation that came up on the movie - it's sort of ground zero for a few brat packers.  Patrick Swayze, Tom Cruise, Emilio Estevez, Ralph Macchio, Matt Dillon, Rob Lowe, Diane Lane - and starring C. Thomas Howell as Ponyboy.  For those of us so-inclined, it also has an appearance by Michelle Meyrink.**  Sophia Coppola shows up for literally 30 seconds.

Lauren Bacall at 100

 

Yesterday marked the 100th birthday of Lauren Bacall (born Betty Joan Perske), one of the greats of 20th Century cinema.  

Bacall came to fame as soon as she hit Hollywood, following a meteoric rise as a magazine model.  She famously wound up in LA somewhat by accident, noticed by the wife of Howard Hawks.  Hawks meant to send an inquiry about her, and his secretary misunderstood and had her sent out to LA.  

She was placed into a major studio picture immediately by Hawks (who was managing her career) and her introduction to Humphrey Bogart made her one half of of one of the most storied romances in cinema history.  

I'll be honest, I've never seen her less than great in anything.  Bacall was a natural beauty, sure, but she was also a natural talent from day one.  To Have and Have Not, her first picture, makes her seem like a seasoned pro, and she was, I believe, 19 at the time of filming (with the apparent world-weary maturity of a 40 year old).

We think she's great here at The Signal Watch, and are so very glad that Mr. Hawks' staff made their error and got Bacall into the movies.  Now get out there and watch Key Largo.

1930's Watch: Dead End (1937)

Watched:  09/15/2024

Format:  Amazon

Viewing:  First

Director:  William Wyler

After seeing Sylvia Sydney - and quite liking her - in Merrily We Go To Hell, we decided to check out one of her many other films.  Amazon lists things like "Oscar Nominations x4" now as you're scrolling, and as Dead End (1937) had 4 Oscar noms, we gave it a spin.

The credits on this thing are bonkers.  Directed by William Wyler, it was a movie based on a play - and the screenplay was by Lillian Hellman.  Then the cast list came up.  Sylvia Sidney, Joel McCrae, Humphrey Bogart, Claire Trevor, Ward Bond.... not a bad line-up.  

The credits done, the movie then moved over a multi-story, gigantic set depicting the titular "dead end" of the film as a New York street runs into the river and where a gigantic high-class apartment building had gone in amongst tenement buildings - gentrification of a rough part of town (and based on a real building, in a real dead end in New York, 53rd Street and the East River.  I believe FDR Drive now runs through the location of the play and film.)

The set has a river, restaurants, etc... all built, the intersection feeling as real and immersive as anything I think I've seen from the era.  While it's not Intolerance, it's a massive set that's as accurate as possible.  

Kurosawa Rewatch: Yojimbo (1961)

Watched: 09/12/2024

Format:  Max

Viewing:  First

Director:  Akira Kurosawa

Well, back in May, I watched this movie for the first time.  

It's been a long time since I've watched the same movie twice in the same year.  Or, at least, I don't do it often anymore.  There's too much out there, I guess.  

Anyway - I really liked this one the first time, and that was true again on a second viewing.  

John Cassaday Merges With The Infinite

For years, I've had a Superman comic on my wall in a frame.  It was a curious moment in comics history - and/ or Superman history.  A much ballyhooed signing of a popular television and movie writer to the title Superman had gone south and the writer had basically walked off the book.  A new writer - a local writer! - came in and took over Superman and... saved the day (thanks, Chris Roberson!).  

Roberson's work was great - that's another post - but Cassaday on this cover, as he'd been covering the title for a minute, was perfect.  It was Superman, lit from below, iconic, symmetrical, lantern jawed and strong without seeming impossible - a perfect design in my book.  And to this day, looking at that cover is one of the images I have in mind when I think of the wonder that Superman can be.

John Cassaday has passed at the age of 52.

Cassaday's work is some of my favorites from my adulthood, full stop.  His character work was astounding, his lines clean, his ability to convey emotion and meaning with a gesture insane.  His interiors were gorgeous, but I assume he just made so much more money doing covers, he just had to give it up.  I don't remember the last time I saw Cassaday doing a full comic book.  

Like many who survived the 1990's comics market, I came to him through Planetary - a joint with Warren Ellis that was one of those comics you just waited months for because it took that long to come out.  I won't go into what Planetary was about, but now I wish I had the collections.  Maybe DC will reprint it all.  It was a gorgeous, insane book spanning a secret world under our own and a brilliant concept.

He drew the Captain America I suspect they looked at *hard* when Marvel Studios was pondering how they'd portray Cap (yes, I know about Hitch's work... I stand by my statement).  Chris Evans seems much more the Cap of this post 9/11 run that changed Cap forever than he seemed Ultimate Cap's pain-in-the-ass American fighting man.

And, of course, his Astonishing X-Men is legendary.  His Lone Ranger work should have been far bigger than it was.

It's always a tragedy when someone passes.  And when someone who's work you like goes.  And worse when they're just 52.  

But we're comics-folk, and in fifty years, some comic nerd is going to be waving images of Colossus in his hand, talking about Astonishing X-Men and the great John Cassaday.  Someone is going to have his Superman as their lock-screen.  Someone is going to learn that Planetary was a comic in 2002 before it was a movie series starting in 2040, and they'll stare in wonder at what the human hand and eye could do.

Your work will be missed, sir.  And if the outpouring of grief online is any indication, you will be missed by the talent you worked with, the pros you knew and the fans, who universally attest to your kindness.  Not a bad legacy.

Signal Watch Presents: Vehicles in the Media The League Once Dug

Vehicles.  In movies, television, comics and more.  

Sure, we can like characters - and do!  But they also need to get from place to place.  Captain James Tiberius Kirk would be a Starfleet Captain without the Enterprise, but it wouldn't be OG Star Trek without a groovy flying saucer, some sleek nacelles and a saucer out front scanning... always scanning.

What even *is* the Batmobile?  Why is the X-Wing so @#$%ing cool?  And are you an Airwolf stan, or are you a Blue Thunder sort of lad/ lass?  Is the Munster Koach practical?  Is Zorro's horse a vehicle or a character?

We'll talk our favorites, and we'll hopefully get into some of yours.   We'll talk a bit about the design, how the ship worked in the media in discussion, how it appealed to us, and more!  

I am sure each post will be different - and likely multi-part as we try to cover things like the Theseus' Ship that is The Enterprise.

Also - we're open to ideas.  What do you want to discuss?  How do you want to discuss it?  Let us know.

30's Watch: Merrily We Go To Hell (1932)

Watched:  09/09/2024

Format:  Library Disc

Viewing:  First

Director:  Dorothy Arzner

One nice thing about wandering a shelf of movies is that you may experience "serendipitous discovery" - the thing where you weren't looking for an item, but suddenly you are pretty sure this is what you really needed.  And what I needed was to find out what a movie from 1932 called Merrily We Go To Hell was all about.  

I recognized the male star's name - Frederic March - March was a major star staring at the end of the silent era and continuing for decades.  And the female lead's name rang a bell - Sylvia Sidney - but I couldn't say from where. 

The film was directed by Dorothy Arzner, perhaps the lone female director working in Hollywood during this period.  It was an *incredibly* strange time in the industry as the film business had employed women writers, directors, editors and more for the first twenty years of the industry, but as the Silent Era wrapped, the key roles in film showed women the door, and it's difficult to know what was lost as a result of this change.

Merrily We Go To Hell is a film about two stock 1930's movie characters - a newspaperman with aspirations of writing plays, and a rich society gal - meeting and falling in love.  At first blush, it seems it will be a comedy about heavy drinking in society circles - and it is about drinking.  But it changes tones, becoming very obviously about the evils of spirits and fancy actresses.  And, perhaps more importantly, it's about the "modern" marriage, where women allow their husbands to cheat and carry on, because they're doing so themselves.*

James Earl Jones Merges With the Infinite

Actor, icon and voice, James Earl Jones has passed.  He was 93.

There will be plenty written about Jones over the next few days.  As there should be.  

James' history is that of the 20th Century.  He made his debut on the stage and found his way to the big screen.  He went from obscurity to becoming the voice of one of the most complicated villains on the Big Screen in popular entertainment, to a Snake Cult wizard, to a King we all think of as Dad, to a spirit guide for Kevin Costner.

I still get choked up at everything the man does in Field of Dreams.  It's a perfect performance in a perfect movie.  He gave the perfect speech about baseball, and for that alone, we should be grateful.

Jones' IMDB page is interesting - he looks like a journeyman actor given his number of credits.  But he was a legend to many of us.  And for all those guest roles, he was still doing stage work.  

Jones was one of the first actors whose names I knew, alongside the rest of the Star Wars cast.  I never saw him where he was anything less than great in part after part, and I've missed him since he retired. 

Here's to someone who's been there since I first knew what a movie was, and gave us some of the greatest characters we had in film in my lifetime.