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.
I am a sincere Kim Cattrall fan. I have been ever since I sat in a movie theater and saw her in the 1981 comedy, PORKY'S, and the fun 1986 action/adventure, BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA. I just happened to check out Netflix this weekend and discovered she's starring in a new Netflix series called GLAMOROUS. I watched the first episode and, I must say, my love for Kim Cattrall continues. She's a knock-out in it.
Today, Cattrall is known for having played sexy Samantha on HBO's SEX AND THE CITY series. There's been a reboot of that series, with three members of the quartet as they are today. Reportedly, Cattrall wasn't interested in doing the reboot.
When I lived in the Chelsea section of New York City, then Manhattan's gay epicenter, SEX AND THE CITY was hugely popular. I almost had my gay card revoked when I mentioned that I got bored with the series. Why? Well..Carrie wrote a column. I knew several women who were print journalists in the City and we'd grab a bite or otherwise partake in some entertainment. There was always a time when one of them would call and say, "I need to reschedule. I'm on deadline." Or they had to do a last-minute revision. Carrie never seemed to have a deadline. She never seemed to do any real research. She never seemed to do a rewrite. She plopped down on her bed in a cute little designer outfit and write something about the ups and downs of her Manhattan white girl love life. Next -- the four women did not seen to have any relatives. We never saw their parents or siblings, if they had any. Last, but not least, I'd watch the show and kept saying to myself, "Do the producers realize there are smart, sophisticated, stylish Black and Latino women in New York City -- with upscale jobs?" SEX AND THE CITY was quite Caucasian. Years later, when I read news that there would be a reboot, I knew that the reboot -- just like the WILL & GRACE reboot -- would be peppered with people of color in speaking roles. Unlike the original productions.
As for Cattrall, she went on to star in a series for HBO Canada called SENSITIVE SKIN that ran from 2014 to 2016. It should've run longer. It was terrific and displayed Cattrall doing some of her best acting in years in a more mature show. She played a former model, a wife and mother in her AARP years, who is dealing with middle age, her loving but complicated marriage and her grown son. One of her closest friends is Black. The former model has a sister with whom she bickers. The sister was wonderfully played by Joanna Gleason. When I watched this series and Cattrall's sensational work in a more dimensional role, I felt that she was not interested in a SEX AND THE CITY reboot because she had outgrown that character, as was evident in her SENSITIVE SKIN shows. Why HBO U.S.A. didn't air the show, I have no idea. I watched every single episode.
Now Kim Cattrall is starring as former supermodel Madelyn Addison on GLAMOROUS. The former supermodel now has a handsome but vapid grown gay son and her own big city cosmetics business. She's an idol of a 22-year old, gay social media "influencer" who posts cosmetics tips videos. He says "I need freedom...I need to feel like anything is possible." He wants to be "a star" and "a diva" -- however, he doesn't really want to do the work. He wants microwave fame. He just wants to be on a red carpet as soon as possible and then attend a fabulous party.
His single, working Latina mother reminds him that he's 22, still living with her and has a part-time cosmetics counter job at the mall. He needs to get a real job. She can hook him up with a clerical job at a law firm. His name is Marco. Marco and Madolyn meet. She likes his quick mind and hires him as an assistant. This will begin his process of really growing up. And Marco has better ideas for the company than Madolyn's handsome son with the fab abs does.
I'm going back to watch more episodes. The first one was very entertaining and well-acted. Besides..as I wrote earlier...my love affair with Kim Cattrall continues.
We had records by her in our home when I was a kid in Los Angeles. To me, the voice of Astrud Gilberto was the voice of Bossa Nova -- the voice of foreign spots I wanted one day to visit. That lilting voice of hers was the perfect companion to a sweet summer day. Her voice was like a tender embrace.
News came from her son that Gilberto passed away this week at age 83. Today's younger audience may be unfamiliar with her vocal stylings and some older audience members may have forgotten it. So, in her memory, I'm posting a couple of what became her signature tunes. Here's her gender switch rendition of the song titled "The Girl From Ipanema."
I love her rendition of "My Foolish Heart."
And now.... "Corcovado."
Thank you for taking time to treat your ears to the wonderful Astrud Gilberto.
I went back to Twitter and found a few more critics weighing in on this current season of TED LASSO. I still do not understand why they wrote that this season -- probably its last -- was a mess and unfocused. Personally, I felt a definite core of forgiveness running through the season, a core that touched me deeply.
I watched the final episode. I was surprised. I laughed. I cried. I watched it twice. If you get Apple+, if you're able to see it but haven't seen it yet...see it over the weekend.
Ted -- the ultimate fish out of water across the pond. A divorced dad from Kansas, a football coach, now eoaching a team in England. His unflappable, often laughable, optimism was brave and sincere. His sunny outward optimism worked to eclipse the lingering gray clouds in his heart.
I 💗 TED LASSO. Thanks for including us. 🌈 This season with rich with wit, inclusion, tenderness and humanity. What a terrific cast TED LASSO had and what a gift this show was from its lead actor/creator Jason Sudeikis.
I was apartment-sitting for a friend in New York. While I was there at her place, I logged onto Netflix one lazy weekend summer afternoon and watched the 2017 documentary entitled FIVE CAME BACK. Narrated by Meryl Steep, it focuses on classic Hollywood filmmaker history -- but it's about much more than that. It's about how they recognized and realized the red flags invisibly waving in news of their day and how they responded to them,. Similar red flags are waving in society today,
Directors Frank Capra, John Huston, George Stevens, John Ford and William Wyler were men in uniform during World War 2 and documented real life -- and death -- during the war. Discrimination was noted as America fought overseas for freedom and liberty. Our U.S. troops were segregated then.
Keep in mind that this was all occurring in the pre-television era. People got their daily news via newspapers and the radio. As for news footage, they saw newsreels at the movies that preceded the main entertainment features.
Modern-day filmmakers Guillermo del Toro, Francis Ford Cop[pola, Lawrence Kasdan and Steven Spielberg give excellent, insightful commentary. At the beginning of FIVE CAME BACK, one absolutely gripping section comes when we see how director Frank Capra realized the true, massive evil of the growing Nazi Party and Hitler's growing armies in Germany. The evils of this fascism slithered into our American cities before 1940. Democracy was threatened. It's chilling footage. And it's footage that, sadly, is relevant again today.
The wartime footage and documentaries from those five filmmakers heavily influenced the post-war movies that they made.
I was so riveted to and moved by FIVE CAME BACK that summer afternoon in my friend's apartment that I watched it again that same day. FIVE CAME BACK is still available on Netflix.
This fascinating documentary series, perfect for Memorial Day viewing, is based on a book of the same name by Mark Harris. Thank you, Mr, Harris.
The next time you watch 1959's BEN-HUR, directed by William Wyler, think of Jewish Judah Ben-Hur as a Berliner in the 1930s who's witnessing his non-Jewish boyhood friend be seduced by the wicked promises and power of Hitler.
