Women in the Director's Chair

One of my Twitter buddies wrote that cable's Turner Classic Movies (TCM) should do a month-long salute to Women Directors.  I think that's a great idea.  March would've been perfect for that as it's Women's History Month.  Film buffs know about Dorothy Arzner, groundbreaking director of the 1930s & '40s.  She directed Katharine Hepburn, Rosalind Russell, Joan Crawford, Claudette Colbert, Ginger Rogers and Lucille Ball.

Arzner was the first woman to direct an actor to an Oscar nomination.  Ruth Chatterton was a Best Actress Award Award nominee for her performance as a single working immigrant mother in 1930's Sarah and Son co-starring Fredric March.  Then came actress-turned-director Ida Lupino.  She really took a hammer to the Hollywood glass ceiling.  Starting in the 1930s and '40s,  Lupino slammed across solid performances in films such as High Sierra, The Hard Way, Devoted, The Man I Love, They Drive By Night, Deep Valley, On Dangerous Ground, Lust for Gold and The Big Knife.

In the 1950s, Lupino continued to act while acting directing low-budget, highly entertaining tough films like The Bigamist, The Hitch-Hiker and Hard, Fast and Beautiful.  In the 1950s and '60s, she worked steadily directing a lot of episodic television. Her talents behind the camera helped Have Gun-Will Travel, The Twilight Zone, The Untouchables, Dr. Kildare, The Fugitive, Gilligan's Island, Bewitched and Honey West.   If you heard that an episode of a popular TV show had been directed by a woman back then, that woman was actress/director Ida Lupino.  By the way, she continued to act in feature films and television up to 1978.  The Oscars should've made mention of this trail blazer the night Kathryn Bigelow won the Best Director Oscar for The Hurt Locker.

If I had the money and the Hollwood power, I'd start a Women in Film scholarship award in honor of Ida Lupino.  She kicked some major doors open with those pumps of hers.  The Motion Picture Academy should have a Women in Film award named in honor of Ida Lupino.  She definitely paved the way for others like Penny Marshall and Barbra Streisand.  In this post, I'll recommend work you may not have heard about from other female directors.  Lina Wertmüller gave us Seven Beauties.  For 1976, that foreign film earned the Italian moviemaker the honor of being the first woman to receive an Oscar nomination in the Best Director category.

Just like the male half of the critically acclaimed comedy team of Nichols & May, Elaine May became a film director and, like Mike Nichols, directed actors to Oscar nominations.

Elaine May directed Neil Simon's 1972 comedy The Heartbreak Kid.  Eddie Albert and Jeannie Berlin were Oscar nominated in the Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress category.  May also directed and starred in one of my favorite 1970s comedies, A New Leaf.  Walter Matthau stars as the New Yorker who has exhausted all his inheritance money by living way beyond his means.  He meets and schemes to wed a klutzy heiress who loves botany, knock her off and continue to live well.  On her money.  A New Leaf is ripe for a remake.  I see Melissa McCarthy and Johnny Depp doing the Elaine May and Walter Matthau roles.  Not only was she the lead actress and director, Ms. May also wrote the screenplay.  She is hilarious as the socially awkward Henrietta.

Here are some other women directors and their films to check out:  Kimberly Peirce directed Hilary Swank to her first Oscar win in Boys Don't Cry.  Peirce also directed a modern war film, Stop-Loss, about an obscure clause in military contracts that sent GIs back into Middle East war service when they thought their tour of duty was over.  Peirce really gets the human side of the soldiers out.  She got good performances out of Ryan Phillippe, Tim Olyphant and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.  When I saw this film, I was working with a guy whose brother had just experienced the Stop-Loss clause.  One of the richest performances I've seen in the last ten years is the one Mira Nair drew out of Irrfan Khan in The Namesake.  He's the immigrant from India who raises a family in the Queens section of New York.  His very American son has no idea the hardships dad endured for their typical surburban life.  This movie would make a great gift on Father's Day.  It's that heartwarming.  Irrfan Khan is wonderful as the loving father.  He's such a versatile actor.  In 2002, Karen Moncrieff gave us the coming of age story, Blue Car.  A teen girl tries to get through her young life weighed down by family responsibility because of her irresponsible parents.  Her poetry, as her English teacher discovers, is her talent and her emotional release.  This indie film deserved lots more attention than it got.  If you liked Sling Blade, I think you'll like Blue Car.  Karen Moncrieff wrote and directed this movie.  She's a former Miss America contestant.  For a feel-good movie, try The Jane Austen Book Club directed by Robin Swicord.  Quirky and likable characters, romance, good performances from Maria Bello, Emily Blunt, Jimmy Smits and -- especially -- the very under-utilized Kathy Baker.  I loved Annette Bening's work as overly-dominant lesbian mom who, deep down, is tenderly afraid of losing her wife and kids when the handsome, sexy biological dad enters the picture.  Lisa Cholodenko (in the middle of the photo) directed that beauty of a film, The Kids Are All Right.  

Cholodenko's film garnered Oscar nominations for Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor and Best Picture.  Debra Granik gave us the country crime thriller, Winter's Bone, starring Jennifer Lawrence (currently in The Hunger Games).  Granik's movie is like farm noir.  It's that kind of crime drama.  It too garnered Oscar nominations for Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor and Best Picture.  Jane Campion directed Holly Hunter to a Best Actress Oscar win in The Piano.  Patty Jenkins directed Charlize Theron to a Best Actress Oscar victory in Monster, based on the life of serial killer Aileen Wuornos.  Actor Don Cheadle was terrific as ex-con Ralph "Petey" Greene, an outrageous radio host and comedian who became a civil rights activist in the 1960s.  This very satisfying bio pic, Talk to Me, was directed by Kasi Lemmons.  To see Bette Midler deliver one of the best film performances of her career, rent the 2007 film Then She Found Me directed by Helen Hunt.  Yes, the Best Actress Oscar winner for As Good As It Gets and the star of the hit sitcom, Mad About You. Hunt plays a woman who was adopted. She's having a mid-life crisis.  Her husband walks out.  Her biological mother walks in.  Colin Firth and Matthew Broderick co-star.  Midler shines as the talk show host with a secret.  Halle Berry gave her best performance following her historic Monster's Ball Oscar win in the drama, Things We Lost in the Fire.  Co-starring David Duchovny, this widely-overlooked 2007 release was

directed by Susanne Bier.  It's a story of loss, forgiveness and redemption.  Berry plays a widowed mother in the suburbs.  Her husband was a very good man.  With hesitation, she lets her late husband's best friend into the family's life.  The best friend has been in recovery.  Ironically, a huge and devastating wildfire broke out in Southern California the weekend this film opened.  A state of emergency was declared in seven counties.  That severely crippled box office attendance and the film's publicity.  Besides Berry in fine form, folks missed a brilliant and touching performance from Benicio Del Toro as the best friend.  Del Toro was Oscar nomination worthy in Things We Lost in the Fire.  Before that, Bier directed After the Wedding.  That film was an Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Film.  It's about the obsession to help others, the need for money to do so, and family secrets that arise when a Danish millionaire's daughter gets married.  After the Wedding really earned its Oscar nomination.  It's excellent.  There you have it.  Some movies that got to the big screen thanks to women in the director's chair.  Ida Lupino would be so proud.

Nudity! Violence! Popcorn!

I have a weekend DVD rental tip for those of you who are really into filmmaking and learning more about what frustrates those in the filmmaking business -- directors and actors.  It's also a very entertaining, revealing and surprising documentary that tells you about the very mysterious and very powerful film ratings board.  The MPAA, the Motion Picture Association of America, seems to be like the Great and Powerful Wizard of Oz in the 1939 Hollywood classic.  It's a ruling body that no one has really seen.  This weekend, The Hunger Games seems poised to hit a bullseye at the box office.  I've not seen it nor have I read the book.  I have heard it's a futuristic action thriller set in a bleak society that has a death match game going on as sport.  It stars Jennifer Lawrence as the girl who, as Lawrence said on National Public Radio, "stands up for what's right."  Joe Neumaier, film critic for the New York Daily News, calls her performance "remarkable."  Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan said that Lawrence shows "extraordinary intensity" adding that "This is her film.  She's wonderful in it." On KPCC 89.3 Radio's Filmweek show today during AirTalk, Los Angeles film critic Tim Cogshell said that Lawrence's performance is the only thing he liked about The Hunger Games.

In the movie, the games are televised kill-or-be killed survival matches that include bows and arrows.  The warriors forced into this death match are mostly teens between the ages of 12 and 16.  So, you've got a futuristic storyline with kids killing kids.  It's rated PG-13.  There's a new documentary called Bully which I hear is excellent.  It covers the pandemic of physical violence and verbal abuse among children.  Millions of school children are bullied each year. Some poor young souls have taken their own lives because they couldn't stand any more abuse.  Bully wants to help stop this madness.

I read comments from a parent, not a film critic, that Bully is a powerful and important documentary for kids to see.  The problem is, the MPAA.  The Motion Picture Association of America wanted to rate this documentary R because of language.  So, if you're under 17, you could not buy a ticket see this documentary about the horrible things that being bullied can do and how this crisis in our schools needs to be stopped.  But you can buy a ticket, get some popcorn, take a seat and see futuristic kids under 17 kill each other in The Hunger Games.  The producer of Bully, Harvey Weinstein, has challenged the board over the documentary's rating.

Said Weinstein, "You can kill kids...You can torture them and still get a PG-13, but f they say a couple of bad words, you blame them."  As a film lover, as someone who's been a film critic, as someone who was bullied when he was a kid, I totally understand Harvey Weinstein's frustration and irritation.  For years, I could never understand why a topless happy and safe woman who kisses her loving husband and then breastfeeds her baby is rated R.  But a topless woman screaming for her life as a man with a hatchet chases her through the woods is PG-13.  This kind of thing is covered in the documentary This Film Is Not Yet Rated.  Kirby Dick directed this with such wit that it became one of my favorite releases of 2006.  He interviews actors, directors, critics, producers -- all of whom have been frustrated by how the MPAA is often a major pothole on the road to film art.  Especially for independent filmmakers.  Kirby Dick is determined to see who the members of the ratings board are.  The lesbian private eye that he hires to try to bring these shadowy censors into the light was one of that year's most memorable big screen women, someone who should've been the basis for a Hollywood movie character.  Totally professional in her print shirts, she was just too cool.

Kirby makes his exposé so quirky and his investigative team is so unusual that you wish some mainstream Hollywood films had this kind of smartness and originality.  It's quite good.  You'll be stunned at the information.  Also, you'll discover what kind of corporate mentality is behind the ratings.  

  This Film Is Not Yet Rated has sexual content and graphic language.  Unlike most dates I've had in the last twelve years.  Enjoy your weekend.

Keep This In Mind

Obi-Wan Kenobi wore a hoodie.

"May the Force be with you."

Diversity & Trayvon Martin

This I know for sure.  If a Republican politician or a conservative Christian actor stated that he or she personally didn't approve of gay marriage, that statement would get plenty of online criticism from gay celebrities and gay members of the press.  It would be posted and shared on Facebook and Twitter.  If a handsome news anchor came out of the closet and recorded an "It Gets Better" video, he'd be praised online and would probably get an invite to the next GLAAD Awards dinner event.  When Shirley MacLaine was added to the cast of TV's Downton Abbey, that news circulated like gay wildfire on Facebook and Twitter.  Monday, I joined the outrage over the senseless killing of unarmed 17 year-old Trayvon Martin.  You know the case.  The national outrage has now made international headlines.  Ever since Monday, I've been very disappointed to wonder when the gay media is joining the national anger over this American tragedy.  It seems like some upscale gay white liberal celebs and press members and, frankly, acquaintances of mine would only be motivated to get involved if this entertainment news story broke: "Cast of Downton Abbey outraged over Trayvon Martin killing.  Joins local march."

No, Trayvon was not reported to be a gay teen.  But that does not matter.  Millions of straight Americans were disgusted by and spoke out against the murder gay-hate of Matthew Shepard.  I mentioned to a straight Anglo buddy that I was very frustrated to see that, on Twitter especially, gay celebs and media types were not mentioning the Trayvon Martin news.  I said, "He was bullied."  My buddy bluntly responded, "He was hunted."  Three words of chilling accuracy like an icy arrow to the heart.  If you've read the reports, heard the news and listened to some of the 911 recordings, that seems so horribly true.  George Zimmerman hunted young, black, unarmed Trayvon Martin and shot him to death because he felt that the teen looked suspicious.  The adult man had a gun.  The dead teen had candy and a bottle of iced tea.  But gay celebs, columnists and bloggers are still pretty much quiet on the story.  Is that because there's no black in the rainbow flag?  You remember when actor Michael Richards, formerly of Seinfeld, lost his temper onstage at a comedy club and starting shouting the N-word.  Video of him repeatedly spewing out that racial slur to a shocked audience went viral.  Soon afterwards, a very Caucasian New York City blogger/journalist wrote something to the effect that he didn't understand what all the fuss was about because he's lost his temper and called someone "Idiot!" who's cut him off in traffic.  I wrote to Ken in the 212 that calling a person the N-word is not at all in the same category as calling someone a "jerk" or a "numbskull."  I added that anyone who'd call a person a n***er would surely also call a gay man a f***ot.  The most frustrating thing was having to explain this to a man who gets press credentials.  He wrote back that he meant what he wrote to be ironic.  I wasn't the only reader who felt it came off more clueless than ironic.  Weeks later, Grey's Anatomy actor Isaiah Washington got in trouble for reportedly calling an openly gay fellow cast member a f***ot.  Ken blogged a demand that ABC fire Washington.  He was not being ironic.  He wrote him, "Now do you get it?"  When it comes to race, I've been around a few upscale gay white liberal men who don't really seem to get how bad racism is unless they see it onstage surrounded by showtunes.  Like in Hairspray or South Pacific.  They get it when Lt. Cable sings "Carefully Taught" but they don't get why the N-word is no joking matter.  And why Trayvon Martin's death is an American tragedy.

On Twitter, gay celebs like Sandra Bernhard praised actress Ellen Barkin for her bravery bringing attention to how she was "jostled" by NYC cops during an Occupy Wall Street protest.  JOSTLED.  Abner Louima must've read those tweets of praise and said, "Seriously?"  Nothing against Sandy B. but I think you get my point.  I have been called the N-word.  I have been well-dressed, unarmed and carrying several forms of ID in broad daylight and stopped by three cop cars in Seattle.  I was walking back to my room at The Four Seasons Hotel after breakfast.  Why was I stopped and searched by armed cops?  Because a "black man with a newspaper" had robbed a bank ten minutes earlier.  I had an itemized receipt and had chatted with folks in the coffee shop during my breakfast when this robbery had occurred.  It didn't matter. I was a black man carrying a newspaper.  Three cop cars urgently pulled up to me on the street.  I had my passport with me and my employee ID from WNYW/Fox 5 TV where I worked on-air for a news program.  I had my return airline ticket.  Plus, I was staying in the Four Seasons Hotel.  I was still searched. This story made the New York Daily News.  I was in my hotel room later on the phone with a Daily News reporter friend when two other Seattle cops came to my room to check my carry-on luggage for stolen loot.  I didn't hang up the hotel phone.  I put the receiver down to let him hear.  My reporter friend wrote up the story.  That was nothing nearly as horrible as what happened to young Martin but that is what it's like to be a black man in America.  I want a different, better America for two great loves of my life -- my two young nephews.

If upscale gay white liberals do not really understand how offensive the N-word is, if they don't grasp how racism in the Land of the Free shreds the fabric of one's soul, they should seriously talk about that subject with their black and other minority friends.  Maybe they should start looking at the parties and other social functions they regularly have and attend.  Look at their circle of friends.  How many black folks are usually in the mix?  If those gay celebs, reporters and bloggers who shout down the intolerance of marriage equality think that Martin's murder has nothing to do with them, they should think again.  They should think about the gay white couples adopting children of color.  Look at their young faces and see the face of the late Trayvon Martin as they grow up.  And if you're going to ignore racism, then don't tell gay youth that "It Gets Better."  Because not all gay youth is white and upscale.  Diversity covers a lot more than the colors seen in the rainbow flag.  It covers more than the rainbow flag itself.  If I was still living in New York City, I would've marched in Wednesday night's Union Square rally for Trayvon Martin.  May he rest in heavenly peace.

Black Folks in Bedford Falls

The literature of film.  One of the elements I love about that is the details that can be present or missing in a shot or scene.  Those details can be subtle.  They can be props or people, but they will tell you something about characters, places and the director's ultimate vision.  I love what Frank Capra visually tells us about racial tolerance in his Christmastime classic, It's A Wonderful Life.

I don't have to tell you the plot.  I didn't even have to tell you the title.  I could've written "Capra's classic with Zuzu's petals" and you would've known immediately what movie and who starred in it.  I am so proud that my babyboomer generation of classic film lovers grew up to hold this movie in such a fond embrace that it was rescued from public domain airings.  Millions of us grew us seeing grainy, terribly edited prints of this film on local TV during summer vacations from school.  Capra's It's A Wonderful Life was treated like a motherless child.  Maybe it wasn't a hit when originally released but we saw something very special in the story of George and Mary Bailey.  It's a wonderful thing that It's A Wonderful Life has been restored and remastered.  Capra touches on something we all wonder when we get older and have known heartbreak and disappointment -- have we made a difference in our little world?  Are we significant?  Have our sacrifices for family, friends and community been noticed?  There's a little George Bailey in all of us.

I've been a film buff ever since I was a kid.  One of the reasons why I was driven to be movie critic on local and network television is because black people were excluded from that job when I was growing up.  Did other viewers notice there were no black movie critics on the network morning news shows like my family and I did?  We were not seen reviewing movies or hosting movies.  We were not seen interviewing classic film stars like Johnny Carson, Merv Griffin, Dick Cavett and Dinah Shore did on their shows.  Did anyone notice that like my family and I did?  You watch the evening news on the three senior networks during the week.  In the early 1980s, Max Robinson was the first African American anchor of the evening news.  He co-anchored ABC's World News Tonight with Peter Jennings.  Robinson died in 1988.  No black journalist since Robinson has anchored the network evening news on any of the three senior networks.  Did anyone notice we were missing from that field?  Mark, a weekend host on WABC news talk radio in New York City, wrote on Facebook a couple of Christmas seasons ago that he'd rather live in Pottersville instead of Bedford Falls because Pottersville was "more fun."  Did Mark ever notice that no black people are seen in Pottersville?  There's cheap liquor and babes to match.  But no black people.

We do see black people in Bedford Falls.  First, we see Annie (actress Lillian Randolph) who works in the warm, comfortable Bailey home.  Like Nora and Ito in Auntie Mame, she's a domestic staffer who's become a friend of the family.  Look at how Harry Bailey, George's brother, lovingly teases her.  Notice how she's free to speak her mind in the household.  Compare that to the maids in 2011's The Help.

Then comes my favorite brief moment of racial diversity from Capra.  George goes with his brother to the Bedford Falls High School graduation dance.  This is where he will see the grown and absolutely lovely Mary Hatch, played to perfection by Donna Reed.  Twenty minutes into the film, at the dance, Mary's brother wants George to say something to Mary.  George hasn't seen her in years.  Capra shows her to us in a valentine of a close-up.  It's love at first sight for George and the audience.

Mary is being chatted up by one of the class dorks when she sees George.  Look behind Mary as a very pleased George Bailey gazes at her pretty face and remarks "Well, well, well."  There's a black couple behind Mary as the dork continues with "Now to get back to my story, see" and George whisks the future Mary Bailey away to dance to "Buffalo Gal."  In that romantic frame, we see that Bedford Falls is integrated.  The world of George and Mary as a married couple will be integrated.

Later, George has fallen very much in love with Mary but he's conflicted.  He doesn't want to be pinned down in Bedford Falls the way he felt his father was.  George is a young man who wants to spread his wings and see the world.  Before going to Mary's home, he takes a walk on the main street in Bedford Falls.  We see that it's a safe environment with wholesome entertainment and friendly people.

He's spotted by Violet, the innocent town flirt who's frustrating a couple of Bedford Falls wolves on the make.  She's had a crush on "Georgie Porgie" ever since they were youngsters.

As Violet pitches a flirt at George, he playfully leads her on with the suggestion that they be adventurous and "climb Mount Bedford."  Violet is not the woodsy type.  When George suggests they could "take off our shoes and walk through the grass," she's totally outdone.

Locals gather to listen and laugh as George teases Violet.  Notice that, right as she tells him off, there's black couple out on the town strolling behind George and joining in the laughter.  Just like the scene at the high school dance, those black people are not in the picture for no reason.  They are part of Capra's vision.  He's giving you non-verbal information.  He does that with set decoration too.  George's late father, Peter Bailey, cared about the people of Bedford Falls.  When he confronts Mr. Potter, "the richest and meanest man in the county," he stresses that "times are hard, people are out of work."  Potter barks back, "...then foreclose!"  I bet this 1946 movie didn't feel so old when many Americans watched it last December. Not with the Recession of 2011.  Peter Bailey works to help people get their own homes.  He's the one who tells us that Potter is "sick in his mind.  Sick in his soul."  When Mr. Bailey talks to George at the family table before George heads off to the graduation dance, notice what's behind him on the wall.  Framed butterflies on display.  A wall decoration but, in a way, it's like Peter Bailey.  His wings were pinned down by trying to be of service to Bedford Falls, George feels.  This begins a wings motif that will be carried on by Clarence the Angel, the heavenly helper, determined to earn his celestial wings by saving the suicidal George when George is a middle-aged family man in deep debt.  Notice that George has hung his late father's framed butterflies in his house.  Like father, like son.

Capra frames James Stewart's George Bailey with images of George's inspirational, loving father and images of American independence.

Look at how he frames Lionel Barrymore as Potter.  Stern, intimidating, nothing decorative on the walls.  A dark bust of the power-hungry emperor, Napolean Bonaparte.  That tells you something about Potter.

Take another look at how Capra fills a shot with George.  A framed portrait of President Abraham Lincoln at George's shoulder level.  Photos of loved ones underneath that -- Mary, his brother, and Uncle Billy.

Curtains, pillows, the look of a cozy workspace.  This is all Frank Capra's literature of film.  Bedford Falls is a welcoming place.  It honors one of its own, a war hero.

Pottersville is not a welcoming place.  It's negative.  No dogs allowed.  No loitering.  No trespassing.

And no black people.  In Pottersville, there's no Annie working in the Bailey home.  There's no black couple at a Pottersville High School graduation dance.  There's no black couple strolling on the main street in Pottersville.  When George Bailey and Clarence the Angel go to Nick's, the dive bar, there is one black person.  A Fats Waller-type piano man is banging out music there when George and Clarence enter.  They'll get physically get thrown out of the dive joint.  But Nick's is not in Pottersville.  It's in Potters Field, known as the slum section of town.  Minorities are seen in the slum section.

As far as Pottersville being "more fun" than Bedford Falls...in the days of the Hollywood Production Code, those establishments were dark symbols of what might have been had George Bailey never existed.  The surplus of bars, the burlesque joints, the dance halls with the hostesses, the boxing matches and the pawn shops are symbols of corruption and moral decay.  Those places are breeding grounds for vice --

drunkenness, lust, greed, theft, dishonest cops, physical violence, prostitution...and racism.  This is not a safe environment with wholesome entertainment and friendly folks.  Remember how quickly Bert the cop pulls out his gun and opens fire in Pottersville?

Pottersville is a seedy, mean, racist little town on the East Coast.  Capra tells you all this by what you see...and by what you don't see.  You must be sharp enough to notice.  During the famous happy ending in George & Mary Bailey's house,  look at the diversity in their living room.  Bedford Falls friends and neighbors, black and white, gather to help George out of his economic and spiritual crisis.

When George and the grown up Mary see each other for the first time and dance early in the film, there's racial diversity in their frame.  That diversity is repeated at the joyful end in their living room.  The good will that George Bailey put out in the world for years was noticed.  Friends prayed for his welfare and those prayers were heard.  Clarence the Angel will lead George Bailey to a spiritual rebirth.  Clarence will finally get his wings.

A heavenly vision of how dark Christmas Past, Christmas Present and Christmas Future could have been had George never existed turned a light back on in his troubled soul.

George gets wings too.  He's lifted out of his suicidal depression and financial crisis.  He no longer feels pinned down by Bedford Falls -- like the butterflies behind him in his late dad's wall decorations.

One more thing: If black residents in Bedford Falls are doing so well that they can pitch in to help a white dude out of a financial jam, then Bedford Falls is the place for me!  Tell Mark at WABC news talk radio that he can have Pottersville.  I'll take Bedford Falls.  I grew up watching It's A Wonderful Life.  All of last year, I was out of work, broke and seeking employment.  Thankfully, relatives took me in because I lost my apartment due to the recession.  So, in December when we all watched this holiday classic on NBC, I felt that I'd grown into It's A Wonderful Life.  It connected to a deeper part of my heart and soul.  You can discover more about a good book the second time you read it.  You can discover more about classic films when you see them again as you experience life.  Frank Capra, with his director's vision and his literature of film, was the Charles Dickens of Old Hollywood. Capra had great assistance from his screenplay co-writers -- Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett.

Remember Diana Sands

This exceptional African-American actress is someone who should be remembered.  You need to see her work.

The first film Hal Ashby directed finally made it to DVD a couple of years ago.  In 1970, Beau Bridges played The Landlord.  The social satire is set in Brooklyn.  Bridges, early in his film career with his young surfer dude-like handsomeness, plays the Long Island trust-fund baby who has a depressed Brooklyn building in his sights for gentrification.  That means the working class black people living in it will be evicted so he can fix it up and raise the rent.  Ashby followed this socio-economic comedy with Harold and Maude, The Last Detail starring Jack Nicholson, Shampoo with Warren Beatty, Bound for Glory, Coming Home and he got a brilliant performance out of Peter Sellers in the political satire, Being There.  I highly recommend renting The Landlord.  You must experience the performance by the late Diana Sands.  She's absolutely luminous as Francine, the married hairdresser who is trying to make ends meet in the landlord's building.

Sands was an outstanding and greatly respected stage actress.  She originated the role of Beneatha Younger in Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun and repeated her role in the 1961 film version along with Sidney Poitier, Ruby Dee and, as the family matriarch, Claudia McNeil.  

Onstage, Sands did Shakespeare.  She did Shaw.  She did lots of TV ranging from guest appearances on prime time dramatic shows to playing a character on the groundbreaking sitcom, Julia, starring Diahann Carroll.  For her television work, she earned an Emmy nomination.

For her theatrical performances, actress Diana Sands was a 2-time Tony Award nominee.

In Hal Ashby's The Landlord, Diana Sands portrays the kind of wonderfully complicated woman Barbara Stanwyck excelled at playing.  Francine is an ambitious woman.  She's often the smartest one in the room, pulling a fast one over on the guy or the guys.  But she also works hard to not get tripped up on her own game and reveal the vulnerability she's determined to hide.  She's playing two emotional registers at the same time while telling herself that her ultimate goal is a big step up to financial relief.  Think of Stanwyck in The Lady Eve, Ball of Fire, Meet John Doe and Double Indemnity.  Watching Francine perform a reverse emotional gentrification on the new landlord is a beautiful thing.  She bounces wealthy Elgar down to her level as she manipulates the underlying racial tensions.  A revival movie theater should put this on a double bill with Capra's It's A Wonderful Life.  Elgar Enders is quite the opposite of George Bailey who, like his father, is committed to help working class folks of all colors own their own home.

Lee Grant got a well-deserved Best Supporting Actress Academy Award nomination for playing Elgar's scared-of-the-ghetto mother who visits his building and winds up gettin' stoned and gettin' funky with the building's toughest tenant,  Marge (Pearl Bailey in perhaps the best screen role of her career).

But the richer performance is the one delivered by Diana Sands.  It's tough.  It's tender.  It's funny.  It's a revelation.  Sands had talent.  She had big screen charisma.  She should have also been in that Best Supporting Actress Oscar category.  To me, her work tops that of the actress who took home the gold for 1970.  Helen Hayes won the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for playing a "cute old lady" con artist who flies free in Airport.  Hayes was a Broadway legend.  That was her second Oscar win. She was Best Actress of 1931.  Diana Sands was never nominated for an Oscar.  I believe that, had she lived, she would've been.  She played African American women.  A Raisin in the Sun and The Landlord are examples.  At the same time, Sands refused to be stereotyped.  She sought roles not typically given to black actresses in a time when the entertainment industry was still timid about color.  Patricia Neal won the 1963 Best Actress Oscar for her solid work as the wise-to-life housekeeper in Hud, starring Paul Newman.  In the book, Alma the housekeeper was a black woman.

If top Hollywood studios had not still been nervous about inter-racial casting and physical contact, Diana Sands would have been perfect to star opposite Newman in that Martin Ritt classic.  You'll know what I mean after you've seen The Landlord.  1963 was still a good year for breaking racial barriers.  Sidney Poitier won the Best Actor Academy Award for that year's big hit indie feel-good movie, Lilies of the Field.  Did you ever see Barbra Streisand as Doris, the motor-mouth wannabe actress/part-time hooker in the comedy, The Owl and the Pussycat?  That movie was based on a Broadway hit.

Barbra Streisand and George Segal did the roles onscreen that were originated on Broadway by Diana Sands and Alan Alda.  No, Doris was not originally written as a black woman.  Sands was hired for her acting skills and what she brought to the role.  Her race was unimportant.

That was a major achievement and a supreme example of a personal point Diana Sands wanted to prove about not limiting actors because of their race.  The point is still relevant today in light of the recent controversy about Hollywood still offering African American women, such as Oscar nominees Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer, roles as maids.  African American actors overall have had difficulty getting script offers and good roles, some after having earned Oscar nominations.  Actors like Cicely Tyson, Lou Gossett Jr., Angela Bassett, Alfre Woodard, Diana Ross and Diahann Carroll.  Diana Sands was scheduled to star opposite James Earl Jones as a single working welfare mother in Harlem who unexpectedly falls in love with a city employee.  Sands was diagnosed with cancer. Her friend, Diahann Carroll, replaced her in the urban comedy, Claudine.  The film brought Carroll an Oscar nomination for Best Actress of 1974.

Claudine, a 20th Century Fox release, got a Writers Guild of America nomination for Best Comedy Written Directly for the Screen.  The cancer claimed Diana Sands' life in 1973.  She was only 39.  That gifted actress left a great light behind in her work.  As I wrote earlier, she's absolutely luminous in Hal Ashby's The Landlord.  She died too soon.  I interviewed Beau Bridges on my old VH1 talk show.  If I get the opportunity to interview him again, I will most certainly ask him about working with Diana Sands and director Hal Ashby on this fierce and funny film.

The Landlord is now available on DVD.