After 1917, try WINGS

Film director William A. Wellman. Nicknamed "Wild Bill" Wellman, he seemed like the kind of guy you wanted to hang out with and have a few beers on a Saturday night. He was a handsome and likeable sport who apparently lived a life full of adventure and love.

He put adventures and love into his films. When I was a kid and discovered classic films on local TV, one of the first dramatic films that made a deep impression in my mind and gave me chills with its final image of "crime does not pay," was 1931's THE PUBLIC ENEMY. It starred James Cagney as a killer gangster. The actor shot to fame with his performance in Wellman's film. The director was one of Hollywood's best.

Wellman's films could be tough, tender, far-fetched and funny. Some of his other films are the original A STAR IS BORN (1937), the screwball comedy NOTHING SACRED (1937), ROXIE HART (1942 and with a story redone years later in the movie musical CHICAGO starring Renee Zellweger as Roxie Hart), THE OX-BOW INCIDENT (1943), BATTLEGROUND (1949) and the far-fetched sky drama THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY (1954). THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY is colorful, star-studded and action-packed. It's one of the top influences on the 1980 comedy, AIRPLANE! An engine dies during a commercial airline flight from Hawaii to San Francisco. One young pilot (Robert Stack) has a fear of responsibility. The senior pilot (John Wayne) is considered too old to be in the cockpit and he has a permanent limp. During the sky-high crisis, we see flashbacks in the lives of the passengers. The passengers range from a happy vacationer to a bickering married couple to a former beauty queen-turned-floozie. At one point, in order to make the flight lighter and conserve fuel, a crewmember opens a door in flight and the passengers line up to help throw their luggage out of the plane thus making the plane weigh less. See what I mean about far-fetched? THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY was a box office blockbuster. It brought William A. Wellman an Oscar nomination for Best Director. Wellman directed a silent film about American buddies who become fighter pilots in World War I. The 1927 adventure, WINGS, won the first Oscar ever given for Best Picture. I thought about 1927's WINGS when I watched 1917, an Oscar nominee this year for Best Picture that also had a story set in World War I. Technically marvelous and well-acted, 1917 still felt hollow to me. Director Sam Mendes gave us great tracking shots in 1917 but there wasn't much of a soul to his story -- especially in comparison to Wellman's World War I story.

Wellman combined style and substance.  And his work still feels fresh. In his silent film from the 1920s, we see male nudity -- the bare butts of men in showers. We see male soldier friends embrace. We see a man-to-man kiss. We see two openly affectionate lesbians at a table in a Paris nightclub. Wellman's WINGS was bold, thrilling and influential. Look at this clip of a tracking shot in a Paris nightclub where one American G.I. is relaxing. Notice the lesbian couple at the third table.

For proof of William Wellman's influence, look at the clip from 2017's STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI paired with the tracking shot from 1927's WINGS.

In Wellman's classic, Charles "Buddy" Rogers and Richard Arlen starred as the two American friends who become fighter pilots. Arlen played the seriously wounded comrade. Here's the now-famous scene of physical male affection, the likes of which would disappear when the Hollywood production codes and censorship took hold in the 1930s.

Now here's a trailer for the 1927 Oscar winner that also starred Clara Bow and, in a short role, featured a screen newcomer named Gary Cooper.

 

If you saw 1917, give WINGS a try. I think you'll dig it.

MOONLIGHT in Black History Month

Now that another Black History Month is coming to a close, I want to highlight some Hollywood history that was made just a few years ago. This week, three years ago at the Academy Awards, it was announced that LA LA LAND MOONLIGHT was the true Oscar winner for Best Picture of 2016.

You remember the moment that caused a nationwide gasp amongst film fans who watch the annual awards telecast. Barry Jenkins, a black filmmaker and writer, had directed a passionate, lyrical independent feature about growing up black and gay. Jenkins directed Mahershala Ali to an Oscar win for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as the imperfect, tough streetwise man who becomes gentle, compassionate father figure.

Barry Jenkins and his friend/writing partner Tarell Alvin McCraney won Oscars for their screenplay. To me, there was something richly symbolic for Black History Month in the ultimate surprise announcement that MOONLIGHT was the Best Picture Oscar winner instead of the, if you will, privileged Hollywood favorite, LA LA LAND.

LA LA LAND, a modern-day original movie musical, made young director/writer Damien Chazelle the new "It" show biz sensation. The reviews from mostly Caucasian critics were like love letters.  Being that I'm a hardcore lover of movie musicals, a love that began when when I saw a Fred Astaire RKO musical on local TV when I was in elementary school, I was eager to see this LA LA LAND. Chazelle was getting mentions and interview time on network morning show.  Cable's TCM (Turner Classic Movies) even had Damien Chazelle as a guest programmer one night with host Ben Mankiewicz. Chazelle introduced four classic films that he selected. He, of course, also chatted about his romantic musical, LA LA LAND. This was during a period in which African American guests hosts had become scarce on TCM. Not like the heyday of the late Robert Osborne's always racially inclusive reign as the sole host on the cable channel. Chazelle is white. At that time, there was no black representation in the line-up of hosts. Today, there is.

While LA LA LAND and director Damien Chazelle were basking in the love from critics, network TV programs and social media, I noticed another filmmaker getting attention and great praise from black folks on Twitter. Black Twitter was tweeting about a new indie film from Barry Jenkins who, like the LA LA LAND director, was also in his 30s and a filmmaker. I read from Black Twitter that a film called MOONLIGHT touched beautifully on the black gay male experience. But LA LA LAND was getting all the attention at that time.  MOONLIGHT, like many of us black people, had to work twice as hard to get half as much notice. Black History Month was born to champion history that was often overlooked and ignored by mainstream America. Some factions even tried to erase our history. Barry Jenkins was making history with MOONLIGHT and its history was, at first, being overlooked.

Then the buzz for Barry's film began to build. Jenkins, like Chazelle, is a fan of classic films. Especially classic foreign films. Jenkins' MOONLIGHT never got a mention on TCM like LA LA LAND starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone did.

Then came the Big Backstage Mistake on Oscar night. A Hollywood cheer went up went up when Faye Dunaway with Warren Beatty announced LA LA LAND as the Best Picture Oscar winner. As the LA LA LAND posse rushed onstage to make a victorious speech, it was discovered that something had gone hugely wrong. Dunaway and Beatty made a mistake -- but it was not their fault. The male representative from PricewaterhouseCoopers LLC had not been focused on doing his one job. His job was to safeguard the case containing envelopes with winners' names and give envelopes to the correct people to open onstage. Instead of paying attention to his one critical job, he was busy live-tweeting his backstage encounters with the stars. He handed a star the wrong envelope. This proved that live-tweeting is in the same lane as texting while driving. When you're live-tweeting a show or texting while driving, you are not giving your full attention to what's in progress before you.

Black History won out over privileged White Male Irresponsibility. Yep, that MOONLIGHT Oscar victory felt very symbolic to me.  Barry Jenkins co-wrote and directed MOONLIGHT, the Oscar winner for Best Picture of 2016. He's a fine person to recognize during Black History Month.

A Criterion Collection Question

As a longtime classic film enthusiast, you could find me in a state of pure rapture if I was in my humble studio apartment back in Manhattan watching a Criterion Collection DVD. I didn't just watch the classic film. I'd watch the film and then play it again. The second viewing would be with the commentary audio up -- if there was a commentary. When I reviewed the 2012 Oscar winning film, ARGO, a Criterion Collection commentary had increased my classic film knowledge. I made a point that ARGO, like the 1936 screwball comedy MY MAN GODFREY, had a theme of responsibility to others running through it. I was in San Francisco recently, visiting my best friend, and he clicked onto his Criterion account to browse for a film we might watch. As he scrolled, I noticed a familiar face. Mia Mask has being a film professor at Vassar in her credits. This African American woman knows her stuff. I'm a witness because she and I auditioned together for a project back in 2012. She auditioned to be my partner on a film review/interview show being pitched to some prestigious TV outlets. This would've been a breakthrough program -- film reviews done on a weekly TV show by two black film critics. Something you never saw on TV in the 20th Century, it would've been novel for the new 21st Century too. Unfortunately, the show did not get picked up after 5 years of being pitched. I was thrilled to see Mia Mask on Criterion. She gave commentary on the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers classic 1936 musical, SWING TIME.

She talked specifically about Astaire's homage to his dance idol, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson in the film's "Bojangles of Harlem" number.  The number was done, technically, in blackface but not the severe blackface seen in Al Jolson numbers. There was no coarse wig, no exaggerated white lips and Astaire's make-up was not coal black. Mia, in another commentary, discussed the significance of Sidney Poitier.

Here's the question I have. I don't subscribe to Criterion and I have not heard many of the recent commentaries. Perhaps you've heard more than I have. Does Criterion have black guests giving commentaries on films by Charles Chaplin, Ernst Lubitsch, William Wyler, George Cukor, Billy Wilder, Welles, Lean, Fellini and De Sica? Or do black contributors just get invited to talk about black images, black stars and black filmmakers?

I'd like to see us African American classic film enthusiasts entered into a wider discussion. A dear buddy of mine, Ed Sikov, has written several books about films. He wrote a terrific book about Billy Wilder (above pic). Ed also did commentary on a DVD of Wilder's SUNSET BLVD. Ed and I grabbed a bite one night and I remarked about the auto madness the drives action in the movie. You have three characters brought together and each one driven to a moment of irresponsibility because of a car. Broke screenwriter Joe Gillis speeds off in his car to dodge bill collectors who want to repossess it. He hides his car in Norma's garage. Max tells us the stunningly co-dependent reason why he's Norma Desmond's chauffeur. Faded film star Norma Desmond goes  crazy when the realizes that the Hollywood studio where she once reigned wanted to see her, not for a film role, but to borrow her antique car for a Bing Crosby movie being shot.

 Would I be invited to make that observation in a commentary?

The 1939 western, DESTRY RIDES AGAIN, makes it to Criterion this spring. Starring James Stewart, it has similarities to his other 1939 classic, Frank Capra's MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON. Deputy Tom Destry and Senator Jefferson Smith are young men, new at their jobs and determined to do the right thing as a public servant. Both have to confront a corrupt politician. Both had good fathers who were shot in the back and killed.  Are black contributors invited to make a commentary observation such as that?

TOOTSIE is in the Criterion Collection. I attended the 1982 critics screening of that Sydney Pollack classic in New York City and, early in my TV career, got some of my first national exposure when my interviews of cast members aired. Here's some TOOTSIE trivia:  Suzanne Somers was eager to play the part Jessica Lange did. Somers felt the role would distance her from her TV sitcom image on THREE'S COMPANY. In the first 10 minutes of the movie, Dustin Hoffman as Michael Dorsey plays piano at his surprise birthday party. The tune he plays is a song he co-wrote with Bette Midler called "Shoot the Breeze." Hoffman and Midler performed it on her 1977 NBC music variety special. Hoffman told me he wanted it to be the love song for TOOTSIE. Director Pollack nixed the idea and went with "It Might Be You" sung by Stephen Bishop. In the party scene on the terrace where Michael Dorsey flirts with soap star Julie Nichols and she throws her drink in his face -- well, Jessica Lange did that in real life, she told me. She did it to … Bob Fosse.

It seems as though white contributors talking about films on TV or in commentaries are considered to discuss, say, Elia Kazan's A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN, Terrence Malick's TREE OF LIFE and Gordon Parks' THE LEARNING TREE. We black folks are only tapped to talk about THE LEARNING TREE, written and directed by a black filmmaker.  Time to change that, don't you think?

By the way, I scrolled down the Criterion website today -- and I was extremely honored. A bit of my work is on it. I'm in the 2010 Stephen Soderbergh documentary about the late Spalding Gray titled AND EVERYTHING IS GOING FINE. When I got a call from Soderbergh's office asking for permission to use a clip from my VH1 talk show interview of Spalding Gray, I thought I was being pranked by one of my friends. I'm proud to say it was no prank.

Check out the collection yourself. Here's the website:  Criterion.com.

More THEY'VE GOTTA HAVE US

About five posts down from this one is my "See THEY'VE GOTTA HAVE US" review. It's a documentary series from Great Britain that focuses on Black actors and filmmakers, here and in the U.K., as they tell us about how they've persevered tell their stories and to get work not weighed down by stereotypical images. The first hour was very interesting and revealing. I just finished the second hour. That one is even more so. In honest and insightful interviews, we see Laurence Fishburne, Cuba Gooding Jr., the late John Singleton, Robert Townsend, director Kasi Lemmons and Debbie Allen and Oscar winner Whoopi Goldberg. Whoopi opens up about making THE COLOR PURPLE with director Steven Spielberg.

The second hour opens with talents telling how the work of Spike Lee has had a great impact on their lives and the way American viewed Black people. I've written before that, after decades of watching classic film presentations and network classic film channels, it irritated me that we never saw Black people hired as regular hosts. It was as if we didn't know anything about classic Hollywood and foreign films. Spike Lee is a fan of classic MGM musicals such as SINGIN' IN THE RAIN and AN AMERICAN IN PARIS. The first hour of THEY'VE GOTTA HAVE US showed how they influenced one of his films. The second episode of THEY'VE GOTTA HAVE US opens with the opening credits of DO THE RIGHT THING. Rosie Perez does that fierce dance to Public Enemy's "Fight the Power." Spike's inspiration for that opening came from Ann-Margret solo onscreen singing the open to BYE BYE BIRDIE. He said so in a radio interview.

Because of Hollywood notions from white executives of the kind of roles Black actors should play, we learn that the Cuba Gooding Jr didn't work for about six years after starring in the excellent and substantial BOYZ N THE HOOD. Laurence Fishburne had a major role in the critically acclaimed APOCALYPSE NOW and then couldn't get any auditions. Fishburne, who then booked a comedy role as Cowboy Curtis on the weekend TV kiddie show, PEE WEE'S PLAYHOUSE, tells his touching account of meeting a talented teen named John Singleton.

Director Kasi Lemmons and Debbie Allen give us deeper insights on the hard work of trying to get stories made about Black people and to tell them through the Black gaze -- not a Caucasian Hollywood exec gaze. Director Taylor Hackford -- who is white -- tells a story about pitching the Ray Charles biopic he directed. RAY brought Jamie Foxx the Oscar for Best Actor of 2004. You've got to hear Taylor Hackford's story.

Keep in mind that Norman Jewison, whose IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT won the Oscar for Best Picture of 1967, wanted to direct a film version of the Pulitzer Prize winning play, A SOLDIER'S PLAY. He was stunned at the Hollywood studio resistance that greeted him. Executives told him "Black stories don't sell." He worked for way less than his usual fee so he could raise money to make it. Make it, he did. Retitled A SOLDIER'S STORY for the big screen, it got an Oscar nomination for Best Picture of 1984. Jewison 's credits include FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR starring Steve McQueen, THE CINCINNATI KID, JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR and MOONSTRUCK.

Robert Townsend was in A SOLDIER'S STORY. He talks about that and making the brilliant satire, HOLLYWOOD SHUFFLE. His account of the real-life drama he and Eddie Murphy had dealing Caucasian Hollywood execs and lawyers over the X-rated language in Murphy's comedy concert, RAW, filmed and directed by Townsend, is like a Murphy comedy monologue in itself.

You know that I had a talk show on VH1 in the late 80s. Some of my guests were Norman Mailer, Dominick Dunne, Anne Rice, Shirley MacLaine, Sally Field, Debbie Reynolds, Carrie Fisher, Meryl Streep, Joan Baez, Carlos Santana, Raul Julia, Phil Collins, Alan Rickman, John Cleese, Ben Kingsley, Michael Caine, Paul McCartney, Whoopi Goldberg and Spike Lee. After my three great years on VH1 concluded, I signed with my first agent. I wanted another national talk show opportunity and I wanted to audition for good supporting roles in comedies -- like what my VH1 co-worker, Rosie O'Donnell, did in A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN and SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE. My white agent submitted me to audition for the role of Thug #1 in WEEKEND AT BERNIE'S II. In the script pages I got, the sequel called for two black thugs to perform voodoo with a boombox, some dice and a bucket of fried chicken on a corpse in the men's room of Times Square porno movie theater. At the audition were the white screenwriter, the white director and the white producer. The character in the red jacket is the one I was submitted to play. Here's a clip from the 1993 movie:

Stereotypical Casting. The struggle is real, folks. The struggle is real. I cordially left that agent within a year. I highly recommend episode 2 of THEY'VE GOTTA HAVE US now available on Netfflix.

Ralph Fiennes Is Very Funny

It was a cold, overcast day in Manhattan. That, I recall. My buddy, Mike Sargent, and I were meeting to see a film being screened for movie critics. The screening was in a posh, private screening room in midtown near Carnegie Hall. A new Wes Anderson movie was being screening, so Mike and I figured we'd be the only black folks in the room. We were. And we were glad to have been there because we both were charmed by and loved THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL. This film has a snap and a screwball comedy verve reminiscent of a Preston Sturges or Ernest Lubitsch. Mike hosted a weekend half-hour film review/interview show on cable. To me, Mike's show was a trailblazer. I personally contacted TV columnists I knew in New York City to pay attention and perhaps write a short mention of it in their columns. Or a not so short mention. Mike Sargent is a big, tall, black, huggable straight guy who's been a film critic guest on PBS shows. He loves film arts. His modest apartment is like a DVD rental store. He and I reviewed THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL on his show. Two African American men -- one big straight dude and a shorter gay guy -- both expressed their hope that Ralph Fiennes would get a Best Actor Oscar nomination for his surprisingly hilarious performance in Wes Anderson's 2014 film. He didn't. But he should have.

If you've been used to seeing Ralph Fiennes do exceptional work in deep-dish dramas such as SCHINDLER'S LIST, THE END OF THE AFFAIR, THE CONSTANT GARDNER and THE ENGLISH PATIENT plus play Voldemort in the HARRY POTTER adventures, his performance is THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL is a revelation and an unexpected treat -- like get money back that you loaned to a relative. The movie takes us to Europe in the 1930s and a place where people were not made to feel like oddballs for displaying good manners. Fiennes plays the sexually fluid and sublimely sophisticated concierge of the Grand Budapest Hotel. It's a deluxe ski resort. About his bedroom tastes, he happens to prefer older women. Not older like Mrs. Robinson in THE GRADUATE. More like Old Rose in TITANIC. He's also sort of a mentor to and extremely devoted to a new lobby employee. This new lobby boy is a gentle immigrant. The concierge will protect him from advancing fascist forces while he himself deals with being wrongfully suspected of murder.

 We should all have a friend like Gustave H., concierge of the Grand Budapest Hotel.

It's whimsical and melancholy. It leaves you wishing that such people as Gustave and such places as the Grand Budapest Hotel could be allowed to exist in the world without accusations and bigotry.

The cast includes Tilda Swinton, Jude Law, Jeff Goldblum, Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, Harvey Keitel, Edward Norton, F. Murray Abraham and Saoirse Ronan. A fabulous standout is new actor Tony Revolori as Zero, the lobby boy. Revolori is a Chicano actor from Southern California.

Fiennes was also a comedy highlight in 2016's HAIL, CAESAR from the Coen Brothers. In that 1950s set Hollywood-on-Hollywood satire, he played the tweedy director assigned to turn a sow's ear actor into a silk purse. A top Hollywood studio has put its popular cowboy star in a drawing room drama with characters sounding like they're at a Noel Coward dinner party. Hobie Doyle is not a tuxedo-wearing star. He's your basic beans and biscuits guy. The director has quite a studio-assigned chore on his hands starting with trying to teach Hobie how to speak elegantly. Here's clip from HAIL, CAESAR featuring Ralph Fiennes and Alden Ehrenreich.

If you need a few laughs this weekend, consider some Ralph Fiennes action.

About my friend, Mike Sargent, and his half-hour film review/interview show. When his show was available on DirecTV, I kept trying to get him some publicity because there'd not been another show like his. Here was a big, brawny, heterosexual black male film critic hosting his own film review/interview show. On every edition, he had two guest critics. One always had to be female. Often both were female. This was refreshing because the field of film critics seen on TV has been predominantly male. His show practiced gender diversity. Not only that, he regularly spotlighted women directors and LGBTQ filmmakers. Tell me -- how many times have you seen a show like that on weekly television? And the TV journalists ignored it.

It was a darn good show -- while it lasted. I'm proud to have been on it.

Feb. 12th TV Tip for Classic Laughs

If you're into classic films from Hollywood's golden age and if you get the TCM (Turner Classic Movies) cable channel, let me tell you about the line-up for Wednesday, Feb. 12th. And pardon my vanity while I do. Airing at 8pm ET/5pm PT is the Ernst Lubitsch comedy, TO BE OR NOT TO BE. Long before recent Oscar winner JOJO RABBIT spoofed Nazis, Lubitsch did it here.

This 1942 comedy had a big impact on Mel Brooks. He borrowed a line for his comedy, THE PRODUCERS ("Heil myself"). In the 80s, Mel even starred in a remake. The original starred Jack Benny and Carole Lombard.

Following that at 10pm ET/7pm PT is another comedy classic -- MY MAN GODFREY (1936). This is a Depression Era comedy. I studied and read about MY MAN GODFREY in my film classes when I was in college. It's a screwball comedy with a statement about responsibility -- in this case, a responsibility the rich have to help the poor.

                                                                                  

MY MAN GODFREY starred Carole Lombard and William Powell. Have you ever seen the 1950s remake that starred June Allyson and David Niven? No? Good.

The two films  following MY MAN GODFREY are ONE WAY PASSAGE (1932) and ALWAYS IN MY HEART (1942). Both are romantic stories starring Kay Francis.

Here comes the vanity.

I wrote the scripts for the TCM host to read that night for those four films. Will all the words that I wrote actually come out of his mouth? I can't say. I was nowhere near the set when he taped his intros. I hope to hear most of what I wrote because, frankly, I think I wrote some darn good stuff. I'll just have to keep my fingers crossed. From my stuff, folks could learn a new thing or two about the Mel Brooks remake when the original TO BE OR NOT BE concludes. The writing assignment was a great opportunity to put my film knowledge to use.

Whatever happens -- I already got paid. And the check cleared. Watch if you can and enjoy the movies.

She's a WILD ROSE

If you're like me, you have no plans this coming Valentine's Day weekend. That means, you might be up for an entertaining movie to watch at home. I've got a recommendation for you. This movie is about a kick-ass dame in Scotland. It shows us two things we may not have known:  1. There are country music fans in Scotland and 2. There are black people in Scotland. The name of this lively movie is WILD ROSE and Jessie Buckley gives out with an energetic, charismatic performance as the young Scottish woman who did a year behind bars and now wants to hit some Glasgow bars where she can get onstage and wail some country tunes. Her dream is to get to Nashville. Yes, her name is Rose -- Rose-Lynn Harlan. Jessie Buckley is terrific in this role.

She wants sing in Nashville. She definitely has talent. But how is she going to get to Nashville from Scotland? Technically, she's an ex-felon -- an ex-felon with two little kids. Her mother has been caring for the kids. Rose gets a job as a housekeeper for a well-to-do couple with two sweet kids. The mom takes an interest in Rose, especially after she happens to hear her sing. She wants to help Rose make her dream come true. However, Rose has kept mum on her jail time. She's also kept mum about being a mom.

Rose's mom feels that she needs to let her Nashville dream go, be responsible to her own kids and settle down. The closer Rose gets to having a big break, and she gets excitingly close, things get complicated. As for her country music, Rose always says that country music is just "three chords and the truth." Her mother asks what it is she wants to say in her music. The wonderful Julie Walters plays Rose's mother. There's good country music and good acting in this movie.  Here's a trailer. WILD ROSE runs about 1 hour and 40 minutes.

Jessie Buckley isn't known here in the States. She's an Irish actress. Man, is she good in this movie. WILD ROSE is a 2018 film. If Hollywood producers were preparing a Janis Joplin biopic, I would not be surprised if a casting director urged them to audition Jessie Buckley for the part. She's a graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. I'm sure she could nail the American accent.

All in all, this is some lively entertainment topped off with a terrific leading lady performance. I recommend WILD ROSE starring Jessie Buckley and Julie Walters. It's available on YouTube and Amazon Prime.