One of the most thrilling moments of my life occurred in Chicago in the 70s. On Saturday mornings, when I had recently graduated from Marquette University in Milwaukee and living in a campus area apartment, I would listen to the Roy Leonard Show on WGN out of Chicago. One morning, Roy had a movie trivia contest. I called in -- and I won! I won two tickets to see Frank Sinatra in concert in Chicago. That was fantastic but it got even better when my date and I arrived at the theater. We were smack dab in the front row, a few feet away from the stage.
Sinatra, radiating charisma, was in terrific voice with a full orchestra behind him. I was in Heaven. My date and I seemed to be the youngest couple in that sold out audience. As Sinatra was taking his bows to a standing ovation after one of his encores, he looked at me in the audience and motioned me over to shake his hand before he walked into the wings. I felt my soul leave my body. The experience was the awesome.
When I was a kid growing up in Los Angeles, a local radio station had.a weeknight program called "Sinatra at Seven." At 7pm, the host would play a half-hour of recordings by Frank Sinatra. I loved that show and was a regular listener -- yes, even though I was in high school. The singer/actor was a revered talent in our household.
I think it's time we were reminded of what a supreme singer he was. Here are four cuts of his from movies he did. "All My Tomorrows" is a song he sang in his 1959 comedy, A HOLE IN THE HEAD.
Frank Sinatra gave one of his strongest film performances in the 1920s era drama, THE JOKER IS WILD. He introduced the song, "All The Way," in that 1957 release and it was a big hit for him. "All The Way" won the Oscar for Best Song.
Cole Porter penned all the tunes heard in the 1956 MGM musical comedy, HIGH SOCIETY. It's a musical version of the 1940's THE PHILADELPHIA STORY with Frank Sinatra taking on the role originally done onscreen by James Stewart and Grace Kelly taking on the role first done by Katharine Hepburn. I love this Cole Porter tune, "Mind If I Make Love To You."
I close it out with Sinatra being ultimately cool as the bad boy nightclub crooner/ladies' man in 1957's PAL JOEY co-starring Rita Hayworth as a wealthy widow. Here he sings "The Lady Is A Tramp."
And there you have it. I hope you liked my picks for some Essential Sinatra.
"It would be a shame to retire when you feel like you still got it." A line from 80 FOR BRADY.
This fluffy comedy stars four heavyweight female talents now in their senior years -- Oscar winners Rita Moreno, Jane Fonda, Sally Field and the remarkable Oscar nominee Lily Tomlin. Inspired by a true story, it's about four friends determined to go to the Super Bowl and to meet Tom Brady. This is the kind of feature that, back in the day, would have been a made-for-network TV movie. It's the kind of inoffensive feature that makes for a good airplane movie. I happened to see it this weekend -- and I enjoyed it! Some of it's predictable. Personally, I could've done with less scenes that included Guy Fieri of Food Network. However, the four female stars still have it. They know how to make this unchallenging material work. And they look great. Jane Fonda seems to be wearing a 1970s Connie Stevens wig collection, but she's still cool.
I really lit up to see Tony winner Billy Porter have a fun scene with the ladies as a Super Bowl show choreographer. Yes, he gets all four to dance. I've been a fan of Billy's for over 20 years-- going back to his stage work and his scene-stealing role in the 2000 movie, THE BROKEN HEARTS CLUB: A ROMANTIC COMEDY. It's a comedy about a group of gay male friends, members of a weekend baseball team, as they try to find love in West Hollywood. One of the things I love about the movie as that the group of friends is race and age inclusive. I met Billy in 2008 at a SAG-AFTRA job networking event in New York City, attended by many of us who were in need of employment. I stunned to see Billy standing next to me at one booth, also taking pamphlets and other information. With his set of skills and talents, I couldn't believe he was unemployed. But he was. He could not have been more gracious and supportive speaking with me. After that, if I saw him on the street, he'd stop and chat with me. Then things turned around for him. Came a Broadway musical version of the British comedy film, KINKY BOOTS. Billy got a top role in it. And he won a Tony. He is a walking lesson in perseverance.
Here's a bit of the movie.
Lily Tomlin has a dramatic scene in a locker room with Tom Brady -- and he's very good in it. I had a most enjoyable pastime watching five people I've had the privilege to meet in my career -- Rita Moreno, Jane Fonda, Sally Field, Lily Tomlin and Billy Porter.
On Monday night, July 10th, Shari Belafonte was a terrific Guest Programmer on TCM. The actress, writer, producer and daughter of the late, great Harry Belafonte has a keen knowledge of classic film. She selected films to air and her first choice was the strong 1959 crime drama, ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW starring her father and Robert Ryan. Her next selection was a comedy starring James Stewart and based on a hit Broadway play. The movie was 1950's HARVEY with James Stewart as the lovable Elwood P. Dowd, a man whose best friend is an imaginary giant rabbit. Elwood is a gentle soul who likes to drink. His great gift is his kindness. His fluttery, critical sister wants him committed to a sanitarium. Josephine Hull played the sister and won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance.
Shari Belafonte did her segments with film noir expert/author Eddie Muller. Eddie said to Shari that Hull's win was noteworthy because the Academy doesn't give Oscars for comedy performances. I tweeted to Eddie's attention that Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert won Oscars for the classic screwball comedy IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT, Judy Holliday won Best Actress for BORN YESTERDAY and Whoopi Goldberg won for GHOST. That was all the space I had a single tweet on Twitter. He tweeted back, "Out of how many nominations? I'll stand by this statement, but thanks for pointing out the rare exceptions."
I replied that there have been Oscar nominations for comedy performances -- Carole Lombard in MY MAN GODFREY, Rosalind Russell and Peggy Cass for AUNTIE MAME, Jack Lemmon for SOME LIKE IT HOT, Dustin Hoffman in TOOTSIE and Melissa McCarthy for BRIDESMAIDS. But it's oddly rare for actors to win for the hard work of screen comedy. Again, all the room I had for one single tweet.
THEN...a tweeter messaged me that Marisa Tomei won her Best Supporting Actress Oscar for MY COUSIN VINNY. Another tweeter reminded me that Sir John Gielgud won his Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his wisecracking but loving butler role in ARTHUR -- a comedy that brought Dudley Moore a Best Actor Oscar nomination for his starring role. Another chimed in with the Best Actress Oscar Cher won for MOONSTRUCK. Olympia Dukakis won for Best Supporting Actress.
Those tweets juiced up my movie memory and I added these Oscar winners for comedy performances: Diane Keaton ... Best Actress for Woody Allen's ANNIE HALL...
Mira Sorvino -- Best Supporting Actress Oscar winner for Woody Allen's MIGHTY APHRODITE...
...and Dianne Wiest got one of her two Best Supporting Actress Oscars for Woody Allen's BULLETS OVER BROADWAY. After years of dramatic work, what did Lee Marvin win a Best Actor Oscar for? The 1965 comedy western, CAT BALLOU.
And there you have it. I'd like to take Eddie Muller out for a drink and tell him about all this. I'd also add the Barbra Streisand Best Actress Oscar victory for FUNNY GIRL -- especially the first half of the film.
I hope Shari Belafonte is invited back to be a special TCM Guest Programmer again. She was wonderful.
Seeing this classic sci-fi horror thriller again brought back some warm childhood memories. 1953's INVADERS FROM MARS was a Saturday afternoon movie I watched numerous times on KTTV/Channel 11 in Los Angeles when I was a child of the 60s. The modestly-budgeted movie came out during America's new atomic age, and that also contained paranoia as an offshoot of Senator Joe McCarthy's blacklisting. Like THE WIZARD OF OZ and TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, INVADERS FROM MARS is a story related from a child's viewpoint.
Young David McLean is a smart, polite, loving little boy in Small Town America. He loves his parents -- his blonde and lovely mother and his brawny, devoted, scientist dad. David also loves science and has a telescope in his bedroom. He's up at 4:30 in the morning, gazing at the skies. His parents wake up and gently tell him to go back to bed. They fall asleep. The minutes later, a storm erupts. We notice that the trees outside are barren and the grass is not green.No flowers are growing. A sign that a crisis is about to happen. David sees a spaceship hovering in the sky and then it lands, disappearing into the sand behind the hill. "There's something out there," David says.
He has to tell his parents, but this taps into a fear many of us had as kids. Not being believed by our parents. But David's kind-hearted dad is different. He knows that David is not a kid who would fabricate tall tales. He goes to investigate.
He returns, but he's not the same. His face is frozen with a cold blank stare coming from his eyes. He's verbally brutish to David and his mother. He strikes David. The boy knows immediately that something changed his father -- something behind the hill. This taps into another childhood fear -- losing our parents in some way,.
David's mother goes behind the hill to look for her husband. She returns cold and changed. Soon other protective figures besides his parents are changed by an alien force -- local cops, members of the military.
David must contact scientists in town and get the story out. He must be believed. There are evil Martians under the sand and in the earth. The Martians leave a mark on the back of the necks of those humans they've changed.
Originally, a 20th Century Fox release, 1953's INVADERS FEOM MARS has received a mighty fine restoration and is now available thanks to Ignite Films.
This film is so modestly-budgeted that it looks as though it might have been made for TV. But it's art direction, the slightly expressionistic look of it, is something I vividly recall from my childhood viewings. Some of the evil Martian slaves to their leader did look like big middle-aged guys in some ill-fitting costumes, but I was still thrilled. And the Martian leader, a head in a large globe, really creeped me out.
Jimmy Hunt had a perfect All-American 1950s look for his role as David. He's excellent in the role. I felt his anxiety and fears and determination. His determination to be believed by policemen who say, "Flying saucers, disappearing scientists. What next?" Jimmy Hunt carries you into and through the horror of the movie. In a bit part, you'll see Barbara Billingsley four years before she won fame as a TV sitcom mom on LEAVE IT TO BEAVER.
When I was a kid, TV sets came in either black and white (picture-wise) or color. We had a black and white set. INVADERS FROM MARS is in color and seeing this restoration was a thrill. I had not seen the movie in quite a few years, but I was amazing at how much I remembered about the visuals of the set design and the way the actors were photographed. INVADERS FROM MARS was directed by William Cameron Menzies. He also designed the production. That explains the creative visuals. Menzies received a special Oscar for his use of color in 1939's GONE WITH THE WIND. His other credits as an art director include Alfred Hitchcock's REBECCA, Capra's IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE
His direction, production design, tone and simplicity give an immediacy and depth to the horror of INVADERS FROM MARS. It truly is one of the top entries in the 1950's sci-fi horror genre. I can't remember much about the big-budgeted 1986 Tobe Hooper remake. But I remember a lot about the original. 1953's INVADERS FROM MARS still sends chills.
This short feature, running about 10-12 minutes, is a TCM Original Production labeled as "a Brief History." There are three commentators in it -- a White gentleman named Eric Lott and two African American scholars -- Professor Jacqueline Stewart, director of the Motion Picture Academy Museum, and noted author Donald Bogle. This short feature aired on the 4th of July right before the airing of YANKEE DOODLE DANDY. I'm sure it was programmed that way because there's blackface number in that musical biopic of old Broadway's George M. Cohan.
The TCM short feature is important but, to me, it feels unbalanced. I wish I could've been a writer on the project. I wanted to see less of one aspect and see more about others. I wanted more information
In the first 90 seconds, we see footage from the 1934 Warner Bros movie, WONDER BAR, starring Al Jolson. We also see Fred Astaire and young Judy Garland.
One weekend afternoon, watching a local independent Southern California TV station, my sister and I were watching WONDER BAR to pass the time. When Al Jolson did the "Goin' To Heaven On a Mule" number, a long production number set in a swanky nightclub, my sister were slack jawed at the abundance of racially offensive images and stereotypes. We were only in middle school, but we looked like audience members watching the "Springtime for Hitler" number in Mel Brooks' THE PRODUCERS. That Al Jolson number doesn't get as much attention as Astaire's "Bojangles of Harlem" number in SWING TIME, a number that -- no pun intended -- pales in comparison to Jolson's "Goin' To Heaven On a Mule."
WONDER BAR was directed by Lloyd Bacon. The musical numbers were designed and directed by Busby Berkeley. Whenever I've seen an hour-long documentary on Berkeley or segments praising his innovative work, they focus rightfully on his kaleidoscopic overhead images. He used all-Caucasian showgirls as glamorous props in musical numbers with geometric designs -- such as "The Shadow Waltz" in GOLD DIGGERS OF 1933. His numbers in 1933's 42nd STREET were groundbreaking and influential as was the thrilling and slightly militaristic "Lullaby of Broadway" number in GOLD DIGGERS OF 1935. Never mentioned is Berkeley's affinity for blackface which we see in 1930s Eddie Cantor musicals for Goldwyn Studios, in Warner Bros.musicals and in MGM musicals starring teen Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland. Berkeley's name does not come up in the TCM feature.
As for the Judy Garland clip, she did blackface numbers when she was a juvenile under contract to MGM. Middle-aged White studio bosses told her what to wear, what to do, where to be and at what time. They even told her what she could and could not eat. She was a kid following orders. When she became an adult and had starring roles in MGM musicals such as PRESENTING LILY MARS, GIRL CRAZY and MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS, she had some clout and never did blackface again. I would've cut Judy some slack.
Fred Astaire''s "Bojangles of Harlem" number in 1936's SWING TIME was meant as a salute to dancer Bill "Bojangles" Robinson. Astaire never did another blackface number. In it, Astaire didn't use the coal-black make-up that Al Jolson always applied, His make-up was a shade lighter. Also, he did not don a nappy, Brillo-like wig. We saw his real hair. However, Stewart and Bogle spend an oddly extensive amount of time criticizing Astaire.
Astaire did not write the song, design the set, design his costume or direct the movie. George Stevens directed the movie. Wearing coal-black make-up, dancer Eleanor Powell also did a musical salute to Bill Robinson in the 1939 MGM musical, HONOLULU. That's not mentioned in the TCM short feature. Like Astaire, Powell never did another blackface number.
There were other Classic Hollywood movie stars who did a blackface number once and then never again. We don't see them in the TCM feature. Some of them are: Betty Hutton (THE PERILS OF PAULINE), William Holden (FATHER IS A BACHELOR), Doris Day (I'LL SEE YOU IN MY DREAMS), Joan Crawford (TORCH SONG) and Janet Leigh (WALKING MY BABY BACK HOME).
Then there's Bing Crosby. Like Astaire, Crosby professed a great admiration for Black musical talent -- especially Louis Armstrong. Crosby finessed Armstrong's feature film debut with him in 1936's PENNIES FROM HEAVEN. Crosby did a blackface number in 1942's HOLIDAY INN. We see a snippet of it in the TCM short feature. He starred in the 1943 historical musical DIXIE. The whole period piece movie is about the beginning and popularity of blackface minstrel shows with Crosby in several blackface performances. The Johnny Mercer song, "Accentuate the Positive" was a hit song during WW2 and sung by Bing Crosby in the 1944 musical comedy, HERE COME THE WAVES. Why don't we ever see a clip of him singing that? Because Bing sang it in blackface...during WW2 when America was at war and the troops were segregated. So why is there such a long verbal spanking of Fred Astaire for his only blackface number in his entire film career?
And now this: The first performer to get an Oscar nomination for playing a Black character was Best Supporting Actress Oscar winner Hattie McDaniel for 1939's GONE WITH THE WIND. The third performer to get an Oscar nomination for playing a Black character was Best Supporting Actress Oscar nominee Ethel Waters for 1949's PINKY.
The second person to receive an Oscar nomination for playing a Black character was Caucasian. The porcelain-white British actress Flora Robson played the housekeeper/narrator in William Wyler's WUTHERING HEIGHTS and she played Queen Elizabeth I in THE SEA HAWK with Errol Flynn.
Somehow, Warner Bros. executives looked at her and said, "Wow! She'd be perfect to play the dark-skinned stern Haitian maid to Ingrid Bergman's character in SARATOGA TRUNK!"
In dark make-up, about the same shade as Fred Astaire's in the "Bojangles of Harlem" number, Flora Robson played the Haitian maid. She had her hair up in a bandana and wore round earrings. Caucasian Flora Robson got an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress thanks to her performance as an unsmiling Black maid. How did this bit of Hollywood casting happen?
If that 1944 movie role was strong enough to get a woman an Oscar nomination, why didn't the studio give the role to a Black actress -- like lovely Theresa Harris who played the maid to Bette Davis's southern belle in JEZEBEL and was the best friend to Barbara Stanwyck's character in BABY FACE?
I would have preferred hearing Stewart and Bogle go into that bit of blackface in Hollywood history instead of the too-long criticism of that one Fred Astaire dance number.
Those are examples of why I feel the TCM short historical feature is not quite balanced. I've been an avid TCM fan and viewer since 1999. The TCM Blackface & Hollywood feature is available on YouTube.
