1959

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September 25, 2008

Some Like It Hot

Posted by Jordan Richardson under 1959, comedy, entertainment, movies, romance, trailers | Tags: , , , , |
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A sexy, bawdy film heaving with envelope-pushing gags and ludicrous humour, 1959’s classic Some Like It Hot is one of the best comedies of all time. This Billy Wilder film packs outrageous humour, satire, and ingenuity into its tight package, drawing the best Marilyn Monroe performance of all time and engaging its two comic leads with overzealous naughtiness.

Wilder adapted the story for Some Like It Hot with I.A.L. Diamond, using a story from Robert Thoeren and Michael Logan. Logan had written the story, minus the gangster stuff, for a German film called Fanfaren der Liebe, which came out in 1951. Seen by some as a remake of the German movie, Wilder’s film took the storyline, added the gangsters and a bit of dark humour, and one smouldering female lead.

Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis star as two jazz musicians who are down on their luck (aren’t we all?). The Prohibition is in full swing and several speakeasies are located throughout town, allowing Joe (Curtis) and Jerry (Lemmon) to get some part-time employment. After witnessing a shooting from local area gangsters, Joe and Jerry must go on the run. Scampering for an out-of-town gig, the pair agrees to disguise themselves as women so as to get in on an all-girl band heading to Florida.

Now Josephine (Curtis) and Daphne (Lemmon), the two newly-made women head off to Florida with the band, fitting in well. Of course, Josephine and Daphne fit in all too well and it isn’t long before Sugar Kane (Monroe) is putting the pair in all sorts of compromising positions. Eager to get the girl’s affection, Joe disguises himself as a well-heeled millionaire with a Cary Grant voice, hoping to entice Sugar. Adding to the fiddly situation, a bona fide wealthy millionaire falls for Daphne. The tale of mistaken identity, disguises, and saucy hilarity unfolds at an open-handed lick and reaches a fever pitch once the gangsters reach Florida.

Billy Wilder truly challenged Hollywood’s system with Some Like It Hot, pushing the limits and imposing his will. The release came at the end of the repressive 50s, gathering traction during a time when the studios were abating and television was threatening to change the game forever. Of course, the ever-increasing impotence of the Code and censorship made for an attractive prospect and, needless to say, Wilder plunged into the piece. It was a gamble, but the result was one of the funniest comedies ever.

The sexual innuendo was on full blast. The entire character of Sugar Kane is built around sex, with the character’s route of selecting a mate entirely based on superficiality. Monroe’s Kane is a girl looking for love in all the wrong places, hoping to land it rich with some glossy bespectacled gentleman. Her bent to go a bit too far on a first date is no secret, nor is her propensity to wind up with the “wrong end of the lollipop,” so to speak. Monroe is enthralling, alluring, and out-and-out sexy as Kane.

And Christ, who can forget that yacht scene?

Curtis and Lemmon are marvellous as well, each putting in truly amusing performances. The vigour of their “transformation” is not explored in much detail, except to say that the two of them make pretty lousy women. But that’s the point of the piece. Throbbing with countless engorged sexual innuendos and spilling over with merry exuberance is really what the movie is about, after all. And Lemmon and Curtis embodied the unruly will of the film with fluency and method, injecting raw humour at all the right moments and walking the fine line between mimicry and, yes, a “whole different sex” in their transformation.

The music is well worth a mention, of course. Monroe’s ability to steal across a stage or simply just sit there is astonishing, as she breathes through “I Wanna Be Loved By You” in one of the sexiest scenes in film history. With such blatant sexuality on display, the scene plays with the lights like a striptease with clothes on. The unimpeachable “I’m Through With Love” is a winner, too.

Wilder’s Some Like It Hot is a Hollywood classic for a reason.

With Marilyn Monroe poured into sly dress after sly dress and the tandem of Curtis and Lemmon bumbling around her, this comedy is one of the true treasures of film comedy. It is about nothing but sex, sex, sex, and more sex, but it pretends to be everything but. The oddball plot, the basic needs of the characters, the absolute beauty of Monroe, and the classic comedy stylings of Curtis and Lemmon add up to one of the greatest comedies of all time. If you haven’t yet experienced Some Like It Hot, “nobody’s perfect.”

10/10

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February 20, 2008

North by Northwest

Posted by Jordan Richardson under 1959, adventure, drama, entertainment, movies, mystery, romance, thrillers, trailers | Tags: , , , , |
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North by Northwest
The master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock, drew on the most basic elements of fear to create his films. His pacing and his ability to conduct the suspense in his pictures made him legendary and his witty humour only added to the intricacy of his films. With 1959’s North by Northwest, Hitchcock is possibly at his very best. This tale of mistaken identity is a stimulating thriller, packed with the archetypal spies and mystery that make these things all the more convincing. North by Northwest was penned by Ernest Lehman, who had wanted to write the “Hitchcock picture to end all Hitchcock pictures.” With this film, I think he succeeded.

This film was the only one of Hitchcock’s storied career to be released by MGM and the creative differences between the director and the production company began from the start of filming and relented to its conclusion. MGM and Hitchcock disagreed on a number of issues, including the female lead and the editing of the film. MGM had wanted North by Northwest to be trimmed down by about 15 minutes to make it less than two hours in length. Hitchcock had absolute control over the cut through his contract with MGM, however, and refused the request. The studio also wanted Cyd Charisse for the role that Hitchcock placed Eva Marie Saint in.

Cary Grant stars as Roger Thornhill, an advertising executive working on Madison Avenue. One day, Thornhill is mistaken for a government agent and whisked away by two men. He is taken to a house, where he is forced into the staging of a deadly accident. Through a wild and alarming chase sequence in which Thornhill drives drunk down careening roads, he manages to escape and land in the loving hands of the law. Thornhill tries to explain the incident to the police, but they remain sceptical. Thornhill realizes that the only way to prove his story is to locate the man whose identity he has been confused with, so he heads off to find him. The subsequent search takes him from the United Nations, to a blonde bombshell (Saint), to a startling encounter with a crop-duster, and finally to Mount Rushmore for the film’s dramatic finale.

North by Northwest was planned as a change of pace from Vertigo, Hitchcock’s previous dark romantic thriller. The film took shape rather abnormally, as MGM had actually dispatched Hitchcock to do another picture entitled The Wreck of the Mary Deare. That film was never made by Hitchcock because he had thought it to be rather lacklustre. When that film actually was released, incidentally, most people agreed that Hitchcock’s postulation was correct. North by Northwest came out as a result of writer’s block and the outright refusal to make a tedious movie.

Hitchcock has said that North by Northwest is one of his lighter films and lacks the imagery of his other pieces. Despite his insistence that it is intended as a fun thriller, film buffs continue to pine over the material in search of emblematic details. The film is considered a masterpiece for its themes of mistaken identity and moral relativism during the time of the Cold War. The central theme of North by Northwest appears to be that of “performing,” as the characters are consistently playing a role. With Saint’s character, for instance, she continues to coil and circle with the plot and is very difficult to pin down. We join with Thornhill as we ponder the disorientation of the state of affairs and of the characters. Cary Grant actually approached Hitchcock about the script and, confounded, articulated the line “I can’t make heads nor tails of it” inadvertently knowing that the line would be in the film.

North by Northwest is a classic suspense film about the nature of reality. The plot represents one of Hitchcock’s purer plots, but it is the execution that really sets things swirling. Hitchcock conducts some of the most intense sequences on film, such as the famed crop-duster sequence. As the sequence unfolds without music and with lots of wide shots showing the bleak location, the tension rises without the spectators really knowing why. Each passing car becomes an object of foreboding as we wait with Thornhill out on the road and when the plane appears…it’s petrifying.

The cast also includes James Mason, Leo G. Carroll, Martin Landau in a typically eerie turn, and Philip Ober. Hitchcock makes his standard cameo near the beginning of the film, as he misses a bus near the two-minute mark. Sara Berner is used as the uncredited voice of a telephone operator. Berner played the upstairs neighbour in Hitchcock’s Rear Window.

Hitchcock’s North by Northwest is a classic tale of suspense, mystery, and thrills. It is a jaw-dropping film, filled with moments of agonizing apprehension and exasperating action. It is also marvellous fun and the characters are infused with wit and humour. The writing is fantastic and Hitchcock’s proficient direction plays with the screenplay just enough to keep things moving at a solid tempo. Grant is excellent, as always, as Thornhill and his chemistry with Saint is greatly pleasurable. The villains are also a lot of fun, especially Landau’s sinister character. North by Northwest is certainly one of Hitchcock’s finer films and represents a bold chapter in the career of a master director.

10/10

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February 18, 2008

Ben Hur

Posted by Jordan Richardson under 1959, action, adventure, drama, entertainment, historical, movies, trailers | Tags: , , , , , |
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Ben Hur

1959’s Ben Hur is the epitome of the epic movie. It is certainly one of the largest films ever made, with 300 sets spread out over 340 acres. The production cost $15 million, which was a small fortune at the time, and was designed to help pull MGM out of potential bankruptcy. Ben Hur was considered a major gamble, but it was a gamble that paid off as the film grossed $75 million. The production’s technical merits have been widely celebrated, too, especially the use of the filming process (MGM Camera 65). The film was created using one of the widest prints ever made and various special lenses were used to enhance the film’s immense aspect ratio.

Ben Hur is most assuredly a big film. It may well be the ultimate big film. Directed by William Wyler, Ben Hur contains some of the most famous epic sequences in film history. It picked up an astounding eleven Academy Awards, which is a feat only equalled by Lord of the Rings: Return of the King and Titanic. Ben Hur won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Leading Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Director, and a pile of effects and set design awards. The film also won four Golden Globe awards, including Best Motion Picture – Drama and Best Director. Wyler’s film ranked at 72nd on AFI’s Best American Movies list and appears on several other AFI lists. It was also selected for preservation by the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being culturally significant.

Ben Hur is actually the third version of Lew Wallace’s 1880 novel “Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ.” The epic story takes place in the time of Jesus Christ and many moments in the story intersect, but Ben Hur is not a tale about Christ nor does it particularly have much to do with Christianity, although there are some strong parallels. Charlton Heston stars as Judah Ben Hur, a rich Jewish prince living in Jerusalem. Roman rule is imposing its will on the land, however, and one of Judah’s childhood friends happens to be an important member of the Roman garrison. His friend, Messala (Stephen Boyd), believes in the ultimate power of Rome and wants Judah to hand over his land to Roman rule with no questions asked. Judah aims to fight for his land, however, claiming that his people will not bow to the Romans.

This sets off an epic turn of events that eventually leads Judah on to a slave ship. After an adventure on the high seas, Judah winds up rescuing an important Roman official and is whisked away to the pomp and circumstance as Rome, where he is given privilege in Rome and rises through the ranks. The story flows through these events with elegance and Judah never forgets the betrayal of Messala that left his family in exile. With vengeance on his mind, Judah continues his journey and takes part in a brutal and exciting chariot race in Rome. He returns to Jerusalem for vengeance, but ultimately discovers that there is more to life than revenge and that the changing tides of life are unavoidable.

The final runtime of Ben Hur is 212 minutes, but there are versions that contain more footage and push this runtime even further. With such a colossal runtime, the film actually speeds by with its audacious storytelling and its commanding performances. Nothing lags in Ben Hur and the glorious scope of the film is persistent in its appeal. Heston, as much as I hate to admit it, is wonderful as Judah and his emotion is kept well at bay. He is an incredibly appealing lead hero and he performs some of the more demanding scenes with tact and balance. Boyd as Messala is also great in a tricky role of friendship and betrayal. The complexities of the relationship between the two childhood friends are some of the most immersive moments of the film.

The role of Judah was an interesting one to cast, with several other actors considered before Heston was finally chosen. Burt Lancaster claimed he turned down the role of Judah because he was opposed to the violent morality in the story. Rock Hudson was also offered the role, as was Paul Newman, who turned it down because he “didn’t have the legs for a tunic.” Kirk Douglas wanted the role, but was turned down. After his rejection, Douglas pressured studios and directors to one-up Wyler’s epic. This resulted in the 1960 Kubrick-directed Spartacus, starring Kirk Douglas of course.

One can’t talk about Ben Hur without mentioning two spectacular sequences: the galley sequence and the famed chariot race. The galley sequence was filmed in a studio because the boat constructed to house the “slaves” wouldn’t float because it was so heavy. As a result, the studio needed to construct a boat that could be cut in half so that the cameras could fit in. Filming the sequence was quite troublesome for a myriad of reasons, including that the oars for the boat were too long. The galley sequence is purely fictional, as Roman naval fleets did not employ prisoners to serve as galley slaves. It is an incredible sequence, as the commands of the Roman get more and more intense and the following sea battle is equally scintillating.

The other famous sequence in Ben Hur is the incredible chariot race. Many other films owe a lot to the chariot race from Ben Hur, especially Gladiator. Ridley Scott, director of Gladiator, cites Ben Hur as one of his influences. The chariot race is still considered one of the most spectacular sequences ever filmed, even by today’s studio standards. The sequence took over three months to shoot and was created on a set in Rome that was built to be about 18 acres. 8000 extras were used and the set became so famous that tour buses stopped by on a routine basis. The sequence has been the victim of rumours, too. One such rumour is that a stuntman died during the filming, but there is no evidence of this occurrence and Wyler and the film’s stunt director, Yakima Canutt, deny this.

Ben Hur is worth seeing for the grandeur and the scope of it all. It is the epitome of the epic film and lays the framework for many other similar sand-and-sandals type epics. There are other epics, such as my favourite film Lawrence of Arabia and the aforementioned Spartacus, which also served to influence some of modern cinema’s similar films, like Mel Gibson’s Braveheart and Scott’s Gladiator. Yet something about Wyler’s classic still makes it one of the best and most fascinating to experience. It is a film well-worthy of its awards and accolades and stands as a very powerful narrative of betrayal and epic adventure.

10/10

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