Last weekend on CBS SUNDAY MORNING, there was a fine feature to honor Veterans Day. In the feature, two actors were interviewed. First, there was Gary Sinise. He played Lieutenant Dan, the amputee and Vietnam War vet, in 1994's FORREST GUMP starring Tom Hanks and Sally Field. Sinise got a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his performance. The actor never served but many of his relatives did and, for years, he has tirelessly devoted himself to volunteer work on behalf of veterans. The other person interviewed is a veteran. He served in one of our 21st Century conflicts. He'd like to act again. He acted with Sally Field when he was a kid. He played little Forrest Gump, the boy with the Southern accent who was told to "Run, Forrest! Run!" Michael Conner Humphreys served in Iraq. He's now 34. Hanks studied Humphrey's accent to use in his performance as the grown Gump.
This post is about set decoration and art design in the movie.
I'm a longtime fan of Tom Hanks. I have been since his ABC TV days in drag on the sitcom, BOSOM BUDDIES back in the early 80s. I'd read the Winston Groom novel, FORREST GUMP, within a weekend. Politically incorrect? Yes, it is. A bit rude and racy? It's that too. And damn funny. FORREST GUMP, the 1986 novel, is like something Mark Twain would've written if he'd smoked pot instead of cigars. Before the movie opened, there was hot buzz on it. A publicist for a rival film company gave me this tip: "If you get invited to a screening of FORREST GUMP, go. It's really good."
Well, I did want to see it because of Tom Hanks. I especially wanted to see how Hanks would pull off being a big musclehunk idiot savant who was terrific on the football field and once said, "Bein' an idiot is no box o' chocolates." Could Hanks pull off playing a John Cena-type? Had he lifted weights to prepare for the role?
Forrest had a selfish and whiny mother and a girlfriend who did not limit her generous sexual favors to just him. His many misadventures in life ranged from the sports field to outer space to making a sci-fi movie with a cranky Raquel Welch. The characters played by Sally Field and Robin Wright -- and even Mr. Hanks himself -- in the Robert Zemeckis film had been sweetened from the original source material.
For the film version, screenwriter Eric Roth removed the book's apple vinegar tartness and replaced it with four cups of sugar. Forrest Gump on film was not the big beefcake idiot savant of the novel. His famous quote in the novel was changed for the screenplay to "Life is like a box chocolates...."
You know the rest.
Part of this clip was played in the CBS SUNDAY MORNING piece. I noticed something in the scene I'd never noticed before when I watched the movie.
Watch the clip again. Forrest says that now-famous movie line. Doesn't it look like he and the lady on the bench are seated on top of a giant Hershey bar? That whole "box of chocolates" philosophy is reflected in the set decoration. I had never noticed that until last weekend on CBS SUNDAY MORNING.
The CBS SUNDAY MORNING feature, "How two FORREST GUMP actors served their country," can be seen if you look for it here cbsnews.com.
His powerful, heartbreaking performance in FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS is the one that moved me the most. FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS is the 2006 film directed by Clint Eastwood that tells the story of the six men who raised the American flag at the Battle of Iwo Jima. This battle was a turning point in World War 2. The Associated Press photo taken of the event shot to fame in our modern American history. Movie history was made in the casting and performance of actor Adam Beach as one of the flag-raising heroes. It's November 11th, Veterans Day, the perfect day to watch that fine film displaying Adam Beach's excellent work.
Adam Beach grew up on a reservation. He's a Native American. In FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS, he plays Ira Hayes, the real-life Native American G.I. Hayes was a troubled soul who had a hard life after having been thrust into the national spotlight as a hero. His life and hard times were perfect material to inspire a script -- which it did. He was played onscreen twice. Both times by white actors. The most well-known portrayal of veteran Ira Hayes was done by Tony Curtis in the 1961 biopic, THE OUTSIDER. Before that, Hayes was played by Lee Marvin in a 1960 television production. I think you'll be moved by Beach's performance in the Eastwood film.
Here's a trailer for FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS.
I first noticed Adam Beach in the totally entertaining 1998 indie road comedy/drama called SMOKE SIGNALS. A young Indian guy, a book nerd from the reservation, is a natural-born storyteller. But is anyone paying attention to his stories? He's on a road trip with friends, a trip that will teach him more about his history. Beach plays the macho and handsome Victor. When I was a regular on GOOD DAY NEW YORK on WNYW/Channel 5, I had the great privilege to interview Chris Eyre, the director of SMOKE SIGNALS, on our show. Telling him in person on live TV what a fan I am of his movie was a big thrill. The screenplay was by Sherman Alexie, based on his book. Dig it. It's a film about Native Americans, directed and written by Native Americans with Native American actors in the cast. I loved telling our morning show audience about SMOKE SIGNALS.
Adam Beach is a graduate of LAW& ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT. He was a cast member for a couple of years. If he looked familiar, that could be it.
November 11th is Veterans Day -- and Adam Beach's birthday. Happy Birthday to him and heartfelt gratitude to all men and women who served.
Director Martin Scorsese seems destined to be invited to the Oscars again as a nominee thanks to his new saga, THE IRISHMAN. It stars Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci. The reviews have been like critics throwing roses at Scorsese's feet. All the reviews I read added that the film is so good and moves so energetically that you don't feel its 3 1/2 hour running time at all. I want to give you a Martin Scorsese-directed music break right now. Marty, which I've never called him, directed Best Actress Oscar winner Liza Minnelli in two musical projects. There was THE ACT which premiered on Broadway in 1977. THE ACT had a score by John Kander and Fred Ebb and costumes by Halston. Scorsese directed Liza Minnelli to a Best Actress Tony win for her performance as a fading film star making a comeback as a Las Vegas singer.
In her act, she recalls her chaotic romantic and professional life.
Here's Minnelli singing one of my favorite songs from the score -- the smooth "It's the Strangest Thing."
Liza Minnelli won her Oscar for 1972's CABARET directed by Bob Fosse. Her next big movie musical drama was 1977's NEW YORK, NEW YORK directed by Martin Scorsese with new songs by John Kander and Fred Ebb. Liza's leading man was Robert De Niro. As usual, when Scorsese had the film in the editing room to ready it for release, his motto was not "to make a long story short." I saw this movie the day it opened. I love Liza Minnelli. She'd never looked so glamorous before in a film. Her singing was in peak form.
I have seen NEW YORK, NEW YORK several times since first it opened and I still feel that it could've worked very well coming in at 2 hours instead of its 2 hours and 30 minutes.
Also, with its central story of two talented performers in love yet in conflict because the man gets jealous of the woman's success, Scorsese didn't control the reins on the masculine anger. As you can guess, De Niro's character is the one with the anger issues. The U.S.A. is celebrating the end of World War 2. He's a sax player in need of work now. She's a classy vocalist. They work together. They fall in love. They get married. Then it becomes RAGING BULL STRIKES UP THE BAND AND SLAPS HIS WIFE LIKE SHE'S A BASS FIDDLE. Scorsese seemed out to give us the co-dependent, troubled romanticism of Michael Curtiz's MY DREAM IS YOURS starring Doris Day, Powell & Pressburger's THE RED SHOES and Cukor's 1954 remake of A STAR IS BORN with Judy Garland and James Mason -- all films with musical numbers. He could've succeeded. But De Niro's character cheats on his sweet wife, he has an explosive temper and he's physically abusive to her when she's about nine months pregnant. To me, Scorsese needed to pull back on those elements and the excessive ad libbing.
Nevertheless, I totally dig what Scorsese did with Liza's musical numbers. After singer Francine Evans (Minnelli) finally breaks away from her abusive marriage, she finds her own new voice as a woman and as a singer when she records "But The World Goes 'Round."
Francine is a hit on the Billboard charts as a solo vocalist. Soon, Hollywood calls and she transitions into movie star. Near the end of the story, Francine is doing a live engagement. It's the early 1950s and she's a star playing the swanky nightspot where she and her ex-husband first met in 1945. She introduces a song to the packed audience "New York, New York."
Both of those songs from Scorsese's NEW YORK, NEW YORK were eligible for an Oscar nomination. Neither song was nominated. The Oscar winner for Best Song of 1977 was "You Light Up My Life" from the forgettable movie of the same name.
The Secretary of State's racist socialite wife says, "We've got a jigaboo in the White House." It's a political drama and a story about race in America. The production was based on a best-selling novel by Irving Wallace. My dad had a paperback copy of the book at home when I was a kid. In the production, with a screenplay by Rod Serling, an elder statesman of a senator in 1970s Washington, DC speaks with casual and frank racism. He says "...the White House doesn't seem near white enough for me tonight." That is a line from the 1972 made-for-TV production, THE MAN, based on the novel of the same name and starring James Earl Jones as America's first black president. To me, James Earl Jones gave one of his most compelling performances in this 90-minute feature that aired on ABC TV. What a magnificent actor.
After he'd dazzled Broadway audiences with his performance as the boxer in THE GREAT WHITE HOPE, he recreated his role in the 20th Century Fox film adaptation.
For that, Mr. Jones became to the second black man in history to be an Oscar nominee for Best Actor. The first was Sidney Poitier. In 1970's THE GREAT WHITE HOPE, Jones radiated in intense vibe of athletic and racial power. The boxer was his own man. Here's a clip.
The first black actor to be nominated for an Oscar was Hattie McDaniel in the Best Supporting Actress category for 1939's GONE WITH THE WIND. She won. From Hattie to Ethel Waters, Dorothy Dandridge and Rita Moreno to Diahann Carroll, Cicely Tyson, Rosie Perez and Angela Bassett to Halle Berry, Don Cheadle, Forest Whitaker and Jamie Foxx to Taraji P. Henson, Gabourey Sidibe and the late Ruby Dee -- those are all actors/actresses of color with one solo Oscar nomination to their credit. James Earl Jones is also on that list with one Oscar nomination.
James Earl Jones followed THE GREAT WHITE HOPE (1970) with ABC TV's network presentation of THE MAN (1972) and followed that with CLAUDINE (1974), the urban family life story that brought Diahann Carroll her Best Actress Oscar nomination. After CLAUDINE, from 1974 to 1976, most of his on-camera work was in TV performances.
When you see his performance in THE MAN, you may feel as I did -- that James Earl Jones should've been getting the same amount of good big screen opportunities in the 1970s that Gene Hackman and Jack Nicholson did after their first Oscar nominations.
THE MAN should have been a highly promoted big screen Paramount release. But Hollywood has long been cocooned in the notion that black stories don't sell. And THE MAN was a story in which an African American male becomes president, black newsmakers have meetings with him in the White House, there are black journalists in the press room and a member of the new First Family is a university graduate student in philosophy. The upscale, strong modern roles for black actors in THE MAN probably made many heads on white Hollywood movie executives explode like those on the evil Martians hearing Slim Whitman sing in MARS ATTACKS!
The late Janet MacLachlan played a schoolteacher in 1972's SOUNDER, a Depression-era story set down South about a poor black family. That same year, on network TV, she played the graduate school/activist daughter of America's first black president. Like her widower father who was a college professor in New Hampshire, she can hold her own in an intellectual debate.
With the current climate of the USA, aspects of this 1972 TV film will feel achingly relevant today. Remember how people thought the election of President Barack Obama meant that America had become instantly "post-racial"? Watch THE MAN. An accident claims the lives of the President and the Speaker of the House. Douglass Dilman (James Earl Jones) becomes next in line to assume the powers of the Commander-in-Chief. One white cabinet member is jealous. At home, he's verbally castrated by his racist Washington society wife. Then there's the senator who plans to "...strike a blow on behalf of White Supremacy." All the while, unassuming and erudite Douglass Dilman must steady himself under the heavy weight of his newly-placed crown. Jones translates the overwhelming weight of his new position with a tremble of Dilman's hand as he tries to pour himself a drink. It's a compact, effective, brilliant example of the actor's artistry. Dilman's daughter realizes his inner conflict. "I can't be what everyone wants me to be," he says.
James Earl Jones is surrounded by a group of top Hollywood veterans in the cast -- Burgess Meredith, Lew Ayres, Martin Balsam, William Windom and Barbara Rush. Comedian Jack Benny is in the opening scenes as host of the White House Correspondents' Dinner.
I saw THE MAN on TV when I was in high school and I was moved. I watched it recently. Again I say, "James Earl Jones. What a magnificent actor." If you want to see THE MAN, which runs 90 minutes, click onto this link:
It's that time of year again. It's time to target an Oscar-winning song like it's the chubby, awkward kid inside a schoolyard circle for a unsupervised game of dodge ball. The song is "Baby, It's Cold Outside," a funny composition from Frank Loesser, the Tony-winning talent who wrote the songs for two classic Broadway musicals -- GUYS AND DOLLS and HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING. Big screen movie versions were made of those two Broadway hits. In Hollywood, Bette Davis sang his amusing "They're Either Too Young or Too Old" to a Best Song Oscar nomination in THANK YOUR LUCKY STARS (1943) and Betty Hutton sang his gorgeous "I Wish I Didn't Love You So" to a Best Song Oscar nomination in THE PERILS OF PAULINE (1947). Aretha Franklin covered that ballad on one of her albums. Then came a 1949 MGM musical comedy called NEPTUNE'S DAUGHTER. Esther Williams and Ricardo Montalban were the lead stars.
Red Skelton and Betty Garrett co-star to handle most of the comedy.
Frank Loesser wrote the songs the stars sing in that musical. His light-hearted "Baby, It's Cold Outside" was included in the NEPTUNE'S DAUGHTER score and it brought Frank Loesser the Oscar for Best Song of 1949. Before I bring up something new that John Legend and Kelly Clarkson have done to Loesser's novelty tune, let me tell you the plot of the movie and set the scene for the song's introduction.
Then we cut to the loopy, lovestruck sister who's with the man she thinks is a South American polo player.
Notice that in the Betty Garrett and Red Skelton reprise of "Baby, It's Cold Outside" that the female is way more aggressive than the male was in the Ricardo Montalban and Esther Williams section. Today, politically correct millennials have misinterpreted the female's line "Say, what's in this drink?" to imply a spiked drink with the intention of date rape. Have young singers done their homework? Have they seen the original performance of the entire song in NEPTUNE'S DAUGHTER? Has anyone ever pointed out that the most physically aggressive amorous person in the musical quartet is the youngest female? Watch the entire call-and-response comedy number from 1949's NEPTUNE'S DAUGHTER performed by Esther Williams, Ricardo Montalban, Red Skelton and Betty Garrett. Remember that the scene is set on a starry night in Los Angeles.
Recently, there came news that John Legend and Kelly Clarkson wanted to perform the song but decided to write some new lyrics to make it more "woke" and rid it of any sexual controversy. Deana Martin, daughter of the late singer/actor Dean Martin, said that Legend "...should write his own song if he doesn't like this one, but don't change the lyrics. It's a classic, perfect song."
I agree with her. You're John Legend and Kelly Clarkson! Write a new Christmas song. Why tamper with that Oscar-winner from a 1949 G-rated movie musical? Or...pick another retro holiday duet. Do "That Holiday Feeling" performed by Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme.
Through the years, after its Oscar win, that Frank Loesser duet has been recorded as written by Dean Martin with a female chorus, James Taylor with Natalie Cole, Dolly Parton with Rod Taylor and Zooey Deschanel with Leon Redbone for the ELF soundtrack. I saw the few new lyrics for John Legend's "reimagined" version of the song. They are pleasantly bland and do not flow smoothly with the late Frank Loesser's original witty lyrics. People need to stop picking on that old song. Heck. If you want to prove to folks that you're sensitive and aware, rewrite lyrics to "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer" instead.
For grins, here's a jovial updated rendition of "Baby, It's Cold Outside" done by two dudes -- John Schneider and Tom Wopat, the actors formerly known on TV as THE DUKES OF HAZZARD.
Around the time this new ABC series premiered, GOOD MORNING AMERICA had the show's lead actor, Cobie Smulders, in the studio for a live interview. She was absolutely charming and witty. Her winning personality made you want to see the show. The show is STUMPTOWN, based a series of graphic novels. Stumptown is a nickname for Portland, the city in Oregon where Dex Parios lives and fights crime as a private eye. Think of California-based private eyes we've seen in movies -- Sam Spade, Philip Marlowe and J.J. Gittes in CHINATOWN. Dex is like a grunge band that follows a long set of recordings by a celebrated West Coast jazz artist such as Chet Baker or Dave Brubeck. STUMPTOWN is an action-packed well-written and well-directed series blessed with the vibrant performance of Cobie Smulders as the tattered, tough and tender Dex.
This female private eye is one of ABC's new season stand-out characters.
Writer Susanna Lee did the article "Stumptown and TV's Legacy of Hard-Boiled Detectives" for vulture.com. In her October 30th piece, she mentioned other female private eyes -- Netflix's Jessica Jones, Hulu's rebooted Veronica Mars and the CW's Nancy Drew.
Years before actress Cobie Smulders was born, there was a totally cool female private eye on ABC. Her name was HONEY WEST and she was played by the late Anne Francis. If GOOD MORNING AMERICA had responded to any of my employment requests to be a segment producer on the show, or an on-air contributor, I would've included a HONEY WEST mention in the Cobie Smulders interview as a respectful nod to women's history in television. Classic film fans know blonde Anne Francis as the outer space alien beauty in 1956's FORBIDDEN PLANET and as Fanny Brice's Ziegfeld showgirl pal in 1968's FUNNY GIRL. Anne Francis rocked that female private eye TV role.
HONEY WEST should've had a longer run than it did. I recall the show airing on Friday nights. I was in grade school at the time. Come Mondays, HONEY WEST was a hot topic in our playground talk during recess. We kids loved her beauty mole, the convertible she drove, the secret radio device in her lipstick case she used to communicate with her private eye partner, her skill at karate chopping bad guys, and we loved her pet ocelot. Honey West had her own private eye agency. Her partner, Sam, was played by handsome John Ericson. John Ericson and Anne Francis had co-starred in the classic MGM drama, 1955's BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK starring Spencer Tracy and Robert Ryan. Honey West was a California private eye first introduced in an episode of ABC's detective series, BURKE'S LAW. On that popular show, Gene Barry was Amos Burke, a millionaire Los Angeles police detective. HONEY WEST, lasting only from 1965 to 1966, made a strong impression on her fans. Episodes are now on DVD. Here's the show's hipster opening that I loved.
HONEY WEST strutted into the private eye boys club like a combination of Marilyn Monroe and Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer. Unlike the cases of Sam Spade, Philip Marlowe or John Shaft, the female private eye genre has been unwisely untapped by Hollywood. Chicago private eye V.I. Warshawski (the V.I. standing for Victoria Iphigenia) solved murder cases in novels by Sara Paretsky. The 1991 film, V.I. WARSHAWSKI, starred Kathleen Turner in the title role. Hollywood didn't do anything else with the Chicago private investigator.
Back in 1990, when I was on VH1, a buddy of mine was in New York City for a few days and took me out to lunch. He worked for a film company in Hollywood, a company that sought ideas for possible new projects. Over lunch, he told me that his company was hungry for projects that would appeal to baby boomers. He asked if I, perchance, had any ideas for projects.
I pitched a movie version of HONEY WEST starring Michelle Pfeiffer as Honey with a good supporting role for Anne Francis. But does Hollywood ever listen to me? No.
STUMPTOWN airs Wednesday nights on ABC. Honey West would dig it.
If the opening incident in PAPI CHULO had actually happened on a live local TV newscast, an LGBTQ news site on Twitter would have tweeted "Gay Weatherman Breaks Down During Hot Forecast." Young, slim and telegenic Sean has just begun his weather segment on a local independent Los Angeles TV station. It'll be hot the next week or so, the Santa Ana winds will whip things up and there's a continuing drought. Sean is bright-eyed and pleasant but he starts to stammer a bit. The stammer increases. Then something whips up inside of him. He starts to cry on air. Neither the floor director, the control room crew nor the anchor duo are prepared to deal with this little live TV breakdown. Sean's boss orders him to go home early and take a few days off. Handsome Matt Bomer plays Sean.
Sean lives alone in a place with a great view and a nice deck that needs a new coat of paint. We find out that Sean has been suffering through an emotional drought. Carlos is the name of the man that got away. Their relationship ended six months ago. Sean calls Carlos' voicemail to hear his voice and leave a message. In the meantime, Sean tries to paint the deck himself. The results are unsatisfactory. So, he resorts to that Southern California practice of hiring a Mexican laborer for day work. He finds a man in his 50s in front of a hardware store who's available for work. Ernesto, played by Alejandro Patiño, speaks minimal English and has a face that makes him look like a foreign cousin to Abe Vigoda. Ernesto describes himself as "married and fat." However, his wonderful wife finds him sexy.
Once Sean gets Ernesto into his car and onto his deck, he becomes chatty. He knows some Spanish, a few words and phrases here and there. More than anything, though, he needs someone who will listen to him. It's funny and there is sort a THE ODD COUPLE vibe to this pair of men. The awkward, heartbroken young gay man and the straight, middle-aged family man who keeps calling his wife with updates.
The deck job, to be done right, will take more than one day. Sean thought it would take an afternoon. Nevertheless, he has no problem picking up Ernesto for more work and dropping him back at the hardware store to catch his bus home. Sean makes lunch for Ernesto and keeps talking. He takes Ernesto with him an on exercise hike and for a ride in a rowboat. Ernesto wonders what the heck he's gotten himself into but the money is good. As unlikely as it may seem, the older man of a different race and class has a healing effect on Sean. The storm in the TV weatherman's heart seems to be passing. Chatty Sean even brings Ernesto as his guest to a gay party thrown by friends. Yes, Ernesto is like a fish out of water at the party. He makes a quick call to his amused wife. Yet, he notices that Sean truly is a sweet, lonely man with polite friends.
I'd only seen Matt Bomer in "hot-looking guy" roles like in the movies MAGIC MIKE, MAGIC MIKE XXL and a guest appearance on an episode of the rebooted WILL & GRACE. In this, you see that he's more than just a pretty face. There's an insecurity and a slight nervous energy to the way Sean carries himself off-camera. Also, there's that visible little cloud of unhappiness behind his bright eyes. Matt Bomer gives a good performance. Sean is likeable. One thing we notice is his group of friends at the party. The married couple hosting the party is two black gay men. The party crowd is mixed in areas of race and age. Will Sean's loneliness and chattiness drive Ernesto away? Does Sean have a crush on Ernesto?
I first heard about PAPI CHULO while streaming a film review hour on KPCC, an NPR station out of Pasadena, California. Critics reviewed this independent movie on the show in June and had positive things to say about it. Their warmth towards it plus the rent-a-buddy angle had comedy appeal to me. It did make me laugh, especially Ernesto's phone calls to the wife, but -- as the critics said -- the story takes a poignant turn.
Ernesto is married. He's a father. He's afraid of immigration. If Sean had built a wall in his mind to keep Mexicans like Ernesto out of his comfortable Caucasian American life, he would not have started to heal from the end of his relationship with Carlos. To the gay male community, it's continuously projected that youth, a handsome face and a hot sexual playground of a body are the most important items when it comes to romantic attraction. A gay character like Sean is very refreshing. I read a high-tone online review of the movie in which the critic felt it had outdated racial tropes. I disagree. We've seen characters like Ernesto in other films, laborers working for white folks. Did we learn about the laborer's family life? Did we go into their neighborhoods, drop into their homes, meet their family and friends and have food with them? Rarely. In PAPI CHULO we did. Overall, it's a gentle, entertaining film about human connections, one that doesn't put on airs -- like GREEN BOOK. It was written and directed by John Butler. It runs 1 hour 38 minutes.
