The Barefoot Contessa / Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1954). Humphry Bogart steps away from his usual hard-boiled tough guy movie image in this Mankiewicz written movie to play a thoroughly nice man.
We open on a funeral in a cemetery. The voiceover of film director and screenwriter Harry Dawes (Bogart), tells us that the grave is for Maria Vargas (Ava Gardner) who starred in three movies, became a worldwide sensation, and died young. The first two-thirds of the picture is narrated alternately by Dawes and by Oscar Muldoon (Edmund O’Brien), as flashbacks tell her story. Muldoon is the sweaty, fast-talking PR representative to multi-millionaire and cold as an iceberg Kirk Edwards (Warren Stevens) who is looking for a New Face for his movies. He finds Maria Vargas in Madrid where Dawes talks her into a screen test.
Mankiewicz has written a smart and witty screenplay, almost literary. It is a look at insider Hollywood, but not at all bitter, not an exposé. More of a detached, wry satire that can be quite funny in spots. At the Oscars that year, Edmund O’Brien took home Supporting and Mankiewicz was nominated for writing, but don’t worry about him: he already had writing and directing Oscars, both for “All About Eve.”
The War Lover / Philip Leacock (1962). This is my first time with this intense WWII film in many decades. It is the story of a B-17 bomber crew, mainly the pilot Buzz Rickson (Steve McQueen) and his co-pilot Ed (Bo) Bolland (Robert Wagner). Rickson is a real rebel, flouting orders, putting others in danger, etc. He also bullies the youngest crew member, Junior (Michael Crawford) and a lowly English pub server. He gets away with all this arrogance for being the best pilot in the squadron. His crew goes to bat for him. Buzz is also an outspoken advocate for war. He considers himself an invincible foe to the enemy.
There are three lengthy and intense bombing missions broken up by Bo’s romance with Englishwoman Daphne (Shirley Anne Field). The final conflict between the two pilots comes when Buzz decides to get between Bo and Daphne. There are fine performances by the three leads, especially McQueen. Most of the reviews either contemporary (it was in the early 1960s when I first saw it) and modern are mostly lukewarm, at least in the U.S., but I have always like it, maybe because of McQueen’s dark war hero. In England where it was shot and in the rest of Europe it was a blockbuster hit. McQueen biographer Marshall Terrill writes, “His portrayal of Buzz Rickson is one of the best of his early career, and the film made him an international movie star in every other country but his own.”
Bull Durham / Ron Shelton (1988). This is THE baseball movie for me. Baseball is MY sport. It is the only team sport I can play. It is the only team sport I follow and watch.
“Crash” Davis (Kevin Costner) is a veteran professional ball player who has spent his entire career (except for 21-days) in the minor leagues. “I’m the player to be named later,” he says as he reports to the Durham Bulls. Because Crash is a catcher, the manager wants him to control and advise a new talented pitcher, Ebby "Nuke" Laloosh (Tim Robbins). Laloosh has potential but is arrogant, over confident, and undisciplined.
Crash and Nuke also find themselves in competition for Annie Savoy (Susan Sarandon) who, every season, picks one Bull as a lover over the summer. Crash refuses to take part in the contest for her bed so walks out but finds himself falling for her.
Only one person could have written and directed “Bull Durham” and that is former minor league player Ron Shelton. His script has drama, lots of laughs, and lots of romance but everything is of a piece. It all mixes together perfectly. A wonderful film.
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy / Adam McKay (2004). It must be generational. I didn’t laugh once during this 21st century comedy, considered a classic already, highly ranked on lists of the Best Comedies Ever. I did smile, I admit, a few times but always at Steve Carell’s performance as the 48-I.Q. weatherman.
It is 1972 and Ron Burgundy is the adored news anchor for a San Diego TV station. The management, feeling pressure, hires a woman reporter Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate). She gets sexist treatment from the males but counters all their efforts to drive her away or bed her. She want to be the first woman news anchor.
Sorry Ron Burgundy fans. I’m not knocking you. If you love this movie, more power to you. It is just not my cuppa.
The Holdovers / Alexander Payne (2023). If Ron Burgundy wasn’t enough, my reaction to “The Holdovers” is liable to get me into even more hot water.
When My Lovely Wife and I saw the preview a year or so ago, we both agreed that we already knew how this cliched plot of the curmudgeonly teacher and rebellious student forced to live together would develop and turn out. Are we good, or what? We nailed it. Not much new or creative here. Even the presence of the always welcome Paul Giamatti wasn’t enough to make this movie work for me.
Also stuck at this exclusive boarding school over winter holidays (it is set about the same year as “Anchorman”) is the school’s cook Mary Lamb (Da'Vine Joy Randolph) who has just sat through a memorial service for her son who had been killed in Vietnam. Randolph is the best part of “Holdovers” and richly deserved her Oscar.
BIT OF TRIVIA that ties “The Holdovers” to the world of baseball in “Bull Durham”: Paul Giamatti’s father is Bart Giamatti who, as Commissioner Of Baseball, banned the game’s all-time hits leader, Charlie Hustle himself, Pete Rose from the game – and from the Hall Of Fame - for life in 1989. I don’t hold it against Paul, though.
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Season 1, Episode 4 (February 24, 2016)
