Forbidden Hollywood, Vol. 3

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Forbidden Hollywood, Vol. 3; March 2009
Topic Started: Jan 1 2009, 11:49 AM (853 Views)
Laughing Gravy	Jan 1 2009, 11:49 AM Post #1
Revered in the UK Posts: 11,073 Group: Admin Member #1 Joined: August 31, 2005	A salute to William Wellman; includes Other Men's Women (1931, with Mary Astor) The Purchase Price (1932, with Babs Stanwyck) Midnight Mary (1933, with Loretta Young) Heroes for Sale (1933, with Richard Barthelmess) Wild Boys of the Road (1933, with Frankie Darro) A new documentary on Wellman.



igsjr	Jan 1 2009, 12:15 PM Post #2
Nostalgia blogger Posts: 1,228 Group: Members Member #40 Joined: September 7, 2005	Gotta have it.
	"Life is in color--but black-and-white is more realistic..." -- Samuel Fuller, director So many DVDs...so little time...


Frank Hale	Jan 1 2009, 01:27 PM Post #3
Balcony Gang, Foist Class Posts: 828 Group: Members Member #59 Joined: October 6, 2005	Me, too. The titles alone are priceless, and I’ve only seen Wild Boys. Wellman must have been a lot more complicated than the hard-driving jerk he’s always portrayed as. I’m thinking primarily of “Good-bye, My Lady”, a boy-and-his-dog tale totally uncharacteristic of him and producer John Wayne. Happy New Year, everybody.



panzer the great & terrible	Jan 2 2009, 09:20 AM Post #4
Mouth Breather Posts: 10,356 Group: Members Member #13 Joined: September 3, 2005	Happy New Year to you too, Frank. I'll get the set too, though I don't much admire Wellman. He shoots too much in long shots and so his movies aren't particularly involving. He's got a tough guys don't dance attitude that makes him a good vendor of mawkish material, but when there's honest feeling to convey he's not on the job. That being said, I love Wild Boys of the Road and will be glad to have it in the house.
	We Wear Short Shorts Flying Purple People Eater


shelbyvinje	Mar 20 2009, 04:04 PM Post #5
Balcony Gang, Foist Class Posts: 420 Group: Members Member #470 Joined: June 3, 2008	They are playing all six of these movies including the William Wellman documentary Monday night, March 23. I have most of the "Man Who Made the Movies" documentaries but not that one so it'll be a pleasure to get that on DVD.



Frank Hale	Mar 20 2009, 04:34 PM Post #6
Balcony Gang, Foist Class Posts: 828 Group: Members Member #59 Joined: October 6, 2005	Glenn Erickson gave this set a very positive review, and pointed out how the 1934 Code revision not only suppressed sex but made it impossible to explore many adult-oriented (i.e., thoughtful) themes. Given Mr. Panzer's comments, we'll see how Mr. Wellman does on non-action subjects, but I'm looking forward to the set.



panzer the great & terrible	Mar 20 2009, 10:31 PM Post #7
Mouth Breather Posts: 10,356 Group: Members Member #13 Joined: September 3, 2005	Well, Manny Farber, a Wellman fan, said that Wellman's movies showed "men standing around," and I couldn't put it better.
	We Wear Short Shorts Flying Purple People Eater


Frank Hale	Mar 21 2009, 03:16 AM Post #8
Balcony Gang, Foist Class Posts: 828 Group: Members Member #59 Joined: October 6, 2005	So, does that make Wellman a termite or a white elephant?



Frank Hale	Mar 21 2009, 04:34 AM Post #9
Balcony Gang, Foist Class Posts: 828 Group: Members Member #59 Joined: October 6, 2005	I knew I had that essay someplace, so here is what Manny actually said: “Wellman’s favorite scene is a group of hard-visaged ball bearings standing around – for no damned reason and with no indication of how long or for what reason they have been standing. His worst pictures are made up simply of this moody, wooden standing around. All that saves the films are the little flurries of bullet-like acting that give the men an inner look of credible orneriness and somewhat stupid mulishness.” Well, YOU, sir, may agree with that, but I’m afraid I do not. Although it’s always hard at the end of the day to know exactly what the hell Manny was trying to say anyway. He also calls The Best Years of Our Lives “a horse-drawn truckload of liberal schmaltz” which I’m sure you appreciate. BTW, Library of America is reprinting all of Manny’s film criticism this fall.



panzer the great & terrible	Mar 21 2009, 09:52 PM Post #10
Mouth Breather Posts: 10,356 Group: Members Member #13 Joined: September 3, 2005	That's wonderful news. Farber was the first film critic that meant anything to me. In my teens I was devouring old movies on TV, but couldn't find any of the films I liked in the film books of the time -- they had passed unnoticed in their day. But in the first Farber essay I read, he mentioned five or six of my favorites, so -- even though I didn't always understand what he wrote -- I recognized a kindred spirit. I still feel affection for him, if not always for his prose, which can be pretty opaque to say the least. And yeah, I do share his contempt for Best Years of Our Lives, which, starting with the title itself, is as fluffy and unrealistic a movie as I've ever seen. Film noir tells the late Forties story more truthfully. I remember it as a period of extraordinary violence, with hideously wounded vets walking the streets because the V.A. couldn't handle them all at once. It was a scary time to be a child, and the horror comics caught on because we needed to make sense of it.
	We Wear Short Shorts Flying Purple People Eater


Frank Hale	Mar 22 2009, 06:19 AM Post #11
Balcony Gang, Foist Class Posts: 828 Group: Members Member #59 Joined: October 6, 2005	Another socko review for the DVD set, this time from Dave Kehr. In his view Wellman’s “enduring flaw” is “a simplistic, often inconsistent sense of character”; i.e., sudden character changes are just accepted, never explained. That I think I can agree with.



mort bakaprevski	Mar 22 2009, 07:14 AM Post #12
Soony Roony! Posts: 1,433 Group: Members Member #73 Joined: January 1, 2006	panzer the great & terrible Mar 21 2009, 09:52 PM And yeah, I do share his contempt for Best Years of Our Lives, which, starting with the title itself, is as fluffy and unrealistic a movie as I've ever seen. I always thought the title was meant ironically!
	“You’ve got to take the bitter with the sour.”


Chandu	Mar 22 2009, 12:14 PM Post #13
Knowledge Seeker and rascal at large Posts: 10,276 Group: Members Member #297 Joined: October 19, 2007	panzer the great & terrible Mar 21 2009, 09:52 PM It was a scary time to be a child, and the horror comics caught on because we needed to make sense of it. I don't remember the late forties as being necessarily scary, so it may just depend on the circumstances you were brought up in. Then again, it's odd sometimes what will stick in the memory of a child of six or eight. I know it sure didn't drive ME to horror comics. I never much cared for 'em. My tastes ran more toward Disney, cowboys and super heroes.
	Not plane, nor bird, nor even frog. It's just little ol' me...


Laughing Gravy	Mar 23 2009, 07:32 AM Post #14
Revered in the UK Posts: 11,073 Group: Admin Member #1 Joined: August 31, 2005	mort bakaprevski Mar 22 2009, 07:14 AM panzer the great & terrible Mar 21 2009, 09:52 PM And yeah, I do share his contempt for Best Years of Our Lives, which, starting with the title itself, is as fluffy and unrealistic a movie as I've ever seen. I always thought the title was meant ironically! Of course it is. I suspect this is one of those movies Mr. Panzer says is lousy and when I ask him about it he says, "Well, I haven't seen it in 25 years but I didn't like it" or somesuch thing. Calling it "fluffy and unrealistic" is astounding to me; how false and clueless can you be? After five years of patriotic, pro-American flag-waving in films we get a movie about what happens when the guys come home from the war; they can't find a place to live, marriages are shot, one guy has lost both his arms, soldiers are back at their old jobs behind a soda fountain... Yeah, it's a 1946 movie and not as realistic as something made today. But to say it is "fluffy and unrealistic" is to show a shocking lack of awareness as to what movies were like in the mid-1940s and I know Mr. Panzer isn't unaware so I'm at a loss to explain why he'd say something like that. He is not one to usually view 1946 movies through 2009 eyeglasses. The realism of The Best Years of Our Lives and the film's success critically and at the box office clearly contributed to the more realistic films that were to follow, such as Elia Kazan's films.



The Batman	Mar 23 2009, 09:43 AM Post #15
Charter Member Posts: 5,570 Group: Members Member #17 Joined: September 4, 2005	Count me in as another fan of THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES. Love that flick.


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