The Bishop's Wife (1947)

Around the holiday time, CRAZYFILMGUY's thoughts begin to turn to snowmen and reindeer and angels. Angels are synonymous with the holidays. We put an angel at the top of most Christmas trees. As a child, my Dad would read to us The Littlest  Angel  during the holidays which was incredibly sad. I always think of the angel Clarence from the holiday classic IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946) who tries to earn his wings by helping Jimmy Stewart's George Bailey through some tough times. But there is another holiday film angel who comes to the rescue of a bishop and his wife's marriage which is not as well known even if the actor who plays the angel is.

Cary Grant stars as the handsome angel Dudley in THE BISHOP'S WIFE (1947) which came out one year after Frank Capra's IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE. Although I don't believe it's considered a Christmas movie, THE BISHOP'S WIFE does take place during the Christmas holiday. Since it's release, it has joined the staple of Christmas and holiday themed films that play every December on cable television. I had noticed it playing last year amongst other more traditional Christmas themed movies. The cast of Cary Grant, Loretta Young, and David Niven was too enticing to pass up.

THE BISHOP'S WIFE is directed by Henry Koster with a screen play by Robert E. Sherwood and Leonardo Bercovici (with uncredited contributions from Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett) based on the novel by Robert Nathan. Adding to the film is the beautiful black and white photography by famed cinematographer Gregg Toland who shot CITIZEN KANE. There's something about black and white Christmas movies that I never get tired of.

The film opens with an aerial shot (perhaps of an angel soaring) over a town while Hark the Herald Angels Sing plays over the soundtrack, a boys choir performing in the town square. Dudley (Cary Grant), an angel, mingles with the holiday shoppers and carolers. He's on a mission although he doesn't quite know what his mission is yet. But when Bishop Henry Brougham (David Niven) prays for assistance in fundraising for a new cathedral, Dudley arrives at his house to help. But Dudley will discover that the strained marriage between Henry and his wife Julia Brougham (Loretta Young) will need just as much care as Henry's cathedral dreams. Henry has become so involved with his fundraising project that he's neglecting Julia and his daughter Debby (Karolyn Grimes). Dudley steps in to help. He takes Julia to her favorite restaurant Michel's. Dudley and Julia visit an old friend from her old parish Professor Wutheridge (Monty Wooley), a history scholar. Dudley works his angel skills so that Debby gets invited into a snowball fight with some other kids. Dudley takes Julia ice skating and encourages her to buy a fancy hat that she's coveted since Dudley first arrived.

Meanwhile, Henry is close to a nervous breakdown, dealing with the wealthy but obstinate Agnes Hamilton (Gladys Cooper). Mrs. Hamilton will only donate a million dollars to the cathedral if a wing of the church can be named after her late husband. Henry becomes increasingly jealous of Dudley who he feels is spending far too much time with his wife and daughter. Henry prays for Dudley to leave, worried that  Dudley has been sent to replace him (even Henry's dog, a St. Bernard, chooses to sit next to Dudley rather than Henry at the dinner table).

Dudley does leave briefly. Henry caves in to Mrs. Hamilton's demands. But Dudley returns to work his angelic charms on Mrs. Hamilton. He convinces Mrs. Hamilton to donate her money to help the less fortunate (playing that angelic instrument the harp to win her over) rather than build a monstrous building to honor her late husband. And Dudley teaches Henry to enjoy life again, to embrace Julia and Debby with all his heart, and return to his humble roots at St. Timothy's that made them all so happy. "I was praying for a cathedral," Henry tells him. "No Henry, " responds Dudley. "You were praying for guidance."

At first glance, THE BISHOP'S WIFE is either a wonderful holiday story about an angel restoring man's faith in humanity or a creepy love story about an angel falling in love and stealing a bishop's wife. Thankfully, the film is more the former than the latter. Dudley does step into Henry's husband role, taking Julia to her favorite restaurant, visiting an old friend, ice skating, all things Henry used to do with Julia before he became involved with his cathedral project. For the most part, Dudley's intentions are to make Henry jealous, to realize he's neglecting his family. But toward the end of the film, Dudley does confess that angels do become attached to the humans they help. Is Dudley falling for Julia? When Dudley's mission is completed, he'll make everyone forget who he was or what he did. His next task will be on the other side of the universe, far away from Henry and Julia and Debby.

Like Clarence the Angel from IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, Dudley's mission is to make the mortals he's been sent to help realize everything they seek is right in front of them. The Professor has failed to write his great historical book. Dudley teaches him how to interpret the manuscripts and ancient Roman coin he couldn't before. Whether it's giving Debby the confidence to throw a snow ball or taxi cab driver Sylvester (James Gleason) the courage to ice skate, Dudley provides the encouragement that every day life and cynics say can't be done.

Hollywood studios are notorious for releasing competing films with similar plots. I don't think it's a coincidence that two films about angels came out within one year of each other. Both THE BISHOP'S WIFE and IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE have some similarities and connections to one another. Both films contain an angel that arrives from heaven or some celestial way station to intervene in a human experience. Dudley is the main character in THE BISHOP'S WIFE. He's good looking, funny, and urbane. Clarence (Henry Travers) from IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE is an older, white-haired, clumsy angel who only appears in the last third of that film. Both films swing back and forth from sentimental and romantic to haunting and sad and back. BISHOP is set during the month of December while WONDERFUL spans several decades of George Bailey's life but culminates at Christmas. Both Dudley and Clarence are sent to aid a human being near the end of their chain. Their incentive to help is to earn their wings.

Both BISHOP'S WIFE and WONDERFUL have wealthy villains who torment the hero. The bishop Henry has to deal with the cold, rigid Mrs. Hamilton if he wants his cathedral built. George Bailey's nemesis was Mr. Potter, the rich and greedy banker. Both films have many colorful supporting characters including a taxi cab driver. BISHOP'S cabbie is Sylvester who drives Dudley and Julia to the ice rink and joins them for an ice skate. WONDERFUL's taxi cab character is Ernie, a family friend of George Bailey. The most amazing connection between the two films is the young actress Karolyn Grimes. Grimes plays the Brougham's only daughter in BISHOP'S WIFE and she's Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed's youngest daughter Zuzu Bailey in IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE. Stewart digs Zuzu's rose petals out of his pockets to confirm he's alive after Clarence returns him to his life.

As sweet and entertaining as THE BISHOP'S WIFE is, the behind the scenes drama is just as captivating. The original director William A. Seiter left the film early on so producer Samuel Goldwyn brought in Henry Koster to direct. At the time, Cary Grant and David Niven's roles were reversed. Grant was the bishop and Niven was the angel. Director Koster didn't like that casting and made Grant the angel and Niven the bishop. It makes perfect sense and Grant's Dudley is a far more sexy, charming angel while Niven is perfect as the frustrated and befuddled bishop. Adding to the off camera drama was that Cary Grant and Loretta Young (who had worked together in the 1934 film BORN TO BE BAD) didn't get along very well during the making of THE BISHOP'S WIFE. Whatever differences they had off screen, their chemistry on screen is genuine.

Cary Grant as the earthbound angel Dudley is an odd, different role for Grant than audiences were accustomed to. Grant's not the romantic lead although his relationship with Julia  borders on romantic at times. Dudley's more of a mediator. That's not to say Dudley doesn't bedazzle the ladies. Both the housekeeper Matilda (Elsa Lanchester) and Henry's secretary Mildred Cassaway (Sara Haden) are infatuated with the charming angel. Grant plays Dudley in a fun but subdued performance, never becoming too excited or too quiet. Bruno Ganz's performance as the angel Damiel in WINGS OF DESIRE (1987) owes a nod to Grant's performance. It's hard to believe Grant started the film as the moody bishop. That would have been a disaster. Fortunately, director Koster had Grant and Niven switch roles. Niven is much better as the distracted and frustrated Henry.

I first saw actress Loretta Young recently playing a significant other in another 1946 film THE STRANGER with Orson Welles. Young played Welles fiancée. As Henry's wife Julia in BISHOP'S WIFE, Young's Julia is almost angelic herself. She's the perfect wife, mother, and friend. Young's expressive face and big eyes convey her delight when she has fun with Dudley and her disappointment when Henry grows more distant and distracted from her. Loretta Young would win the Best Actress Academy Award a year later in 1947 for THE FARMER'S DAUGHTER.  Later, Young would host a TV anthology show THE LORETTA YOUNG SHOW from 1953 to 1961.

Director Henry Koster gets a gold star for keeping THE BISHOP'S WIFE on course after the dismissal of the first director and switching the key roles for the two male leads. Although THE BISHOP'S WIFE is a fantasy film, it's also a spiritual film. But Koster isn't heavy handed with the religious aspects. He sets up the holiday motifs splendidly in the first few minutes with falling snow, Christmas trees and caroling, toy trains and angels in the shop windows, and even a Salvation Army Santa ringing his bell. Koster portrays the angel Dudley as mostly human-like. When we first meet  Dudley, he seems like a good Samaritan, helping a blind man cross a busy street than rescuing a wayward baby carriage rolling toward certain peril. Later, Dudley's magic materializes in subtle ways: filing index cards without his hands, refilling the Professor's sherry glass with just the point of his finger, and walking out of Henry's locked study after Henry had locked the door.

Koster's only blip in THE BISHOP'S WIFE is the ice skating sequence in which clearly professionals are skating for the actors. Koster shoots most of the skating in wide shots but the audience can tell easily it's not Grant or Young skating. A few more close ups with the actors would have sold the illusion a little more. Koster would get to direct a much more spiritual and religious film with 1953's THE ROBE starring Richard Burton and Jean Simmons.

Ironically, IT' A WONDERFUL LIFE was considered a box office flop during its initial release. Yet produce Samuel Goldwyn had no qualms about making another fantasy film about an angel who arrives to help the Brougham family in THE BISHOP'S WIFE a year later. Although today IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE seems like a holiday national treasure, THE BISHOP'S WIFE was much more successful in its initial release due to the star power of its three main stars. Hollywood would return to novelist Robert Nathan's story again in the 1996 remake THE PREACHER'S WIFE starring Denzel Washington as Dudley and Whitney Houston and  Courtney Vance as the struggling married couple.

They don't make holiday themed films like HOLIDAY INN (1942) or THE BELLS OF ST MARY'S (1945)  nowadays so pour yourself a nice glass of egg nog, throw a yuletide log on the fire, and set your DVR for the uplifting tale of an angel keeping a family together in THE BISHOP'S WIFE. It might make you believe there's an angel watching over you.

The Thin Man (1934)

Edgar Allen Poe may have invented the detective in his short story Murders in the Rue Morgue but American crime novelist Dashiell Hammett took it to the next level with his iconic gumshoe Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon and the Pinkerton detective the Continental Op in Red Harvest. Red Harvest would inspire Akira Kurosawa's YOJIMBO (1961) and Sergio Leone's A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS (1964). I became a fan of the crime/mystery genre during college (although I was already an Agatha Christie fan in high school) and Hammett along with Raymond Chandler, Jim Thompson, and Charles Willeford are some of my favorite hardboiled novelists.

But Hammett created one other famous detective duo that I avoided because they weren't as cynical or tough as Spade or the Op. Hammett's other great contribution to the mystery genre was the married detective couple Nick and Nora Charles (and their dog Asta, a wire haired fox terrier) who appear in Hammett's novel The Thin Man. Nick and Nora are socialites, throwing lavish parties and drinking great quantities of alcohol (Hammett had a drinking problem), hobknobbing with the wealthy and not so wealthy and solving murder mysteries. I had avoided The Thin Man novel because it wasn't gritty and jaded like Hammett's other works. But as popular as Spade and the Op were, spawning countless imitators in books, movies, and television, Nick and Nora Charles would also become the blue print for other sleuthing couples, most recently on television in series like MOONLIGHTING and CASTLE.

The film version of THE THIN MAN (1934) directed by W.S. Van Dyke based on Dashiell Hammett's novel is a great mystery punctuated by wonderful performances by William Powell and Myrna Loy as former detective Nick Charles and his socialite, wealthy new wife Nora Charles. Screenwriters Albert Hackett and Francis Goodrich pepper the film with clever and witty banter between the newlyweds during the mystery. When a reporter asks Nora what case Nick is working on, Nora replies, "A case of scotch. Pitch in and help him." I haven't read the novel but I'm sure the dialogue in the book is as good or better than the film's (which is very good).THE THIN MAN may be the first screwball comedy mystery ever made.

Dorothy Wynant (Maureen O'Sullivan) visits her inventor father Clyde Wynant (Edward Ellis) to inform him she and her fiancé Tommy (Henry Wadsworth) are getting married. Wishing to give his daughter a nice wedding gift, Wynant looks for his stock certificates worth $50,000 but discovers his secretary/girlfriend Julia Wolf (Natalie Moorhead) may have sold them without his consent. Wynant plans on reporting her crime but first he has to leave town to work on a new invention.

Dorothy and Tommy run into old family friend Nick Charles (William Powell) and his new wife Nora Charles (Myrna Loy) at a posh gin mill in New York. Wynant has disappeared and Dorothy wants Nick to find her eccentric father. Nick's hesitant, having not been a detective now for four years. Nick's certain the eccentric inventor will turn up. Nora prods Nick to help Dorothy.

Julia Wolf had ties to gangsters but before anyone can talk to her, she's found dead. Wynant, the missing inventor, becomes the chief suspect. Herbert MacCaulay (Porter Hall), Wynant's lawyer tells Nick Wynant has left him messages by phone but three months pass and Wynant is still missing.  A scar faced thug named Arthur Nunheim (Harold Huber) knows who killed the secretary Julia. Nunheim tries to blackmail Julia's killer but Nunheim is ambushed and shot by the murderer.

After Nick is almost shot by Wolfe's nervous hoodlum friend Joe Morelli (Edward Brophy), Nick takes the dog Asta for a walk and visits Wynant's "closed" factory. Asta scratches at a suspicious mark on the floor. Nick calls the police. The floor is dug up and a skeletal body in a large suit is found. The police think it's possibly another victim killed by Wynant. Nick believes it's Wynant himself who's been murdered and buried beneath his own factory floor. Nick remembers Wynant had a piece of shrapnel lodged in his shin from the war. The pathologist confirms it.

Nick has Nora throw a lavish party and invites all the suspects to the dinner party including Wynant's ex-wife Mimi Jorgenson (Minna Gombell), Dorothy's strange brother Gilbertt (William Henry), Wynant's lawyer MacCaulay, Wynant's bookkeeper Tanner (Cyril Thornton), the nervous hood Joe Morelli, and Mimi's new husband, gigolo Chris (Cesar Romero). After dinner and drinks are served Nick reveals the plot of why Wynant was murdered and the killer is revealed for Lieutenant John Guild (Nat Pendleton) to arrest.

THE THIN MAN'S Nick and Nora are unlike any detectives we've encountered. Private dicks like Sam Spade or Philip Marlowe wore trench coats and ate in dingy diners. Nick and Nora live in a penthouse. They dine and drink well. They're well-aligned with the upper crust of New York. For most of the film, Nick is more concerned with martinis and champagne than finding the missing Wynant. Nick doesn't even begin to investigate the case until half way through the film. For Nora, it all seems like a lark, a fun game until Nick heads out to search Wynant's factory.  Only than does she realize the danger in solving a mystery.  Nick is touched and relieved she cares. Nora cracks "I don't care! It's just that I'm used to you, that's all!"

Hammett's stories are always complex and this film adaption is no different. There are a lot of characters introduced early and it takes some time to figure out who's who. THE THIN MAN uses the classic whodunit trick of having all the suspects gathered together (mystery writer Agatha Christie did this too) so Nick can reveal who the murderer is. But like Hammett's other detectives Spade and the Op, Nick lets the suspects reveal themselves as paranoia and guilt get the best of them until the killer gives him or herself up.

One of the misconceptions of THE THIN MAN is that Nick Charles is the title character. Although Nick is svelte, the title is derived from the body that is buried under the floor of Wynant's factory. The body has been placed in oversized clothes to give the appearance of a large man and hide the deceased's true identity. The killer has even thrown lime on the bones to try to destroy them. Nick deduces it's really a thin man's body. Nick's suspicions prove accurate as the body turns out to be Clyde Wynant, the inventor gone missing and presumed murderer of Julia Wolfe and Arthur Nunheim. This discovery upends the story, sending it in a totally different direction. Hammett would only write one Thin Man book but after his death, manuscripts would be found with enough material that another Thin Man book was published posthumously. Many believe that Nick and Nora Charles are fictional versions of Dashiell Hammett and his on-again, off-again girlfriend, playwright Lillian Hellman.

The movie version of THE THIN MAN would be a box office hit and would bring about several more THIN MAN sequels starring Powell and Loy including AFTER THE THIN MAN (1936) co-starring a young Jimmy Stewart , ANOTHER THIN MAN (1939), and SONG OF THE THIN MAN (1947). There would be six THIN MAN movies made with Powell and Loy between 1934 and 1947.  W.S. Van Dyke would direct four of the six.

What makes THE THIN MAN work is the chemistry between stars William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles. Their lively, humorous banter, quick one liners and double entendres remind us that marriage can be fun and breezy. Nick and Nora love each other but playfully antagonize one another. Both Powell and Loy would continue to have successful careers beyond THE THIN MAN series but these films define their legacies.

Powell would mostly play suave, sophisticated men from 1938's MY MAN GODFREY all the way to co-starring with Marilyn Monroe in HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE (1955). I just watched Myrna Loy play the lethal, nymphomaniac daughter of Chinese criminal mastermind Fu Manchu in THE MASK OF FU MANCHU (1932) and she was marvelous. Loy played sexy vamps early in her career. Loy's Nora is sexy but in a smart way. Loy would star in many dramatic roles including the Academy Award winner THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES (1946).

Look for a young Cesar Romero (he played the Joker in the 1960's television series BATMAN) as Chris Jorgensen, Mimi's gigolo husband. And Maureen O'Sullivan as Wynant's daughter Dorothy would also have a lengthy career like Powell and Loy. Toward the end of her career, O'Sullivan would appear in Woody Allen's HANNAH AND HER SISTERS (1986) as the mother of Barbara Hershey, Mia Farrow, and Dianne Wiest. Another great silver screen actor Lloyd Nolan would play O'Sullivan's husband in HANNAH.

The 1930's gave film audiences several great couples in comedies --  Cary Grant and Irene Dunne in THE AWFUL TRUTH (1937), Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert in IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (1934), and Jean Arthur and Jimmy Stewart in YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU (1938) but I challenge that William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles kicked off all those successful tandem movies with THE THIN MAN. Unlike most romantic comedies where the male and female lead start off hating each other before falling in love, Nick and Nora are already married. What's fun in THE THIN MAN is to watch Nora learn more about what her husband Nick use to do when he was a detective and urge him to solve the mystery. Nora's more a cheerleader in the first film but I presume in the other THIN MAN films she may be more involved with the sleuthing. So pick a rainy Sunday afternoon and find THE THIN MAN on one of your cable movie channels and enjoy literary's first married detective couple.

Halloween (1978)

Halloween is my favorite time of the year. I love the Fall season with leaves changing color, pumpkins on the front porch, and kids dressing up for Halloween.  In my youth, I dressed the gamut of horror creatures such as a skeleton, Frankenstein, and Dracula. As an adult, I have reserved October and Halloween as the month to watch old and new horror films.

It's hard to believe that no one had come up with a horror film set on Halloween until HALLOWEEN. When you think John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN (1978), you think of it as the granddaddy of all the slasher films that popped up in the 1980's. FRIDAY THE 13TH, MY BLOODY VALENTINE, PROM NIGHT, and WHEN A STRANGER CALLS were among the slasher films that owe their birth to a tiny low budget ($300,000) movie. But HALLOWEEN really owes its roots back to Alfred Hitchcock's PSYCHO (1960) which first gave us a knife wielding psychopath. And when PSYCHO was a big hit, copy cats sprang from all corners of the film world: PARANOIAC, THE SHUTTERED ROOM, WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE?, and PEEPING TOM. Moviegoers showed with their attendance that they liked to be scared by maniacs with knives and axes and chainsaws.

What appealed to me about HALLOWEEN was the idea of a horror film taking place on All Hallow's Eve. When HALLOWEEN was released in 1978, I wasn't old enough to see it at a cinema. I bought the novelization of the film first (which was more graphic both in sex and violence than the actual film). I finally got to see HALLOWEEN  a year later at my friend John's house (John is the guy who could see R rated films before most of us could see them thanks to his liberal parents). John's family had the first VCR of any of my friends and we watched HALLOWEEN on the now defunct Beta format.

HALLOWEEN is more suspenseful than scary. Director John Carpenter (Carpenter and co-writer Debra Hill wrote the screenplay) is more interested in mood and suspense than showing blood. Carpenter gives us red herrings and false scares at first to get us nervous. The biggest scares in  the film come from the music cues (Carpenter was the composer of its synthesizer score). And Carpenter's biggest coup was that he cast Jaime Lee Curtis in the lead role as the babysitter terrorized by evil incarnate Michael Myers. Curtis's mother was none other than PSYCHO star Janet Leigh (her father was actor Tony Curtis). So HALLOWEEN and PSYCHO had this instant cinematic connection. Mother and daughter would act together in Carpenter's next horror film THE FOG (1980).

HALLOWEEN begins at the scene of the crime, Haddonfield, Illinois 1963 on Halloween night. 6 year old Michael Myers (Will Sandin), dressed as a clown, stabs his sister Judith Myers (Sandy Johnson) for no apparent reason, except that she just had sex with her boyfriend. He waits in front of his house with a bloody knife when his parents return home from a night out. Michael is sent to an Illinois State Mental Facility where 15 years later, Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence), the psychiatrist who has treated and observed Myers, arrives on a rainy night to move Myers to another facility. But Myers escapes from the State Hospital, stealing a car and driving away. Loomis is positive that Myers is headed back to Haddonfield. Halloween is the next day.

Three high school girls will become linked with the return of Michael Myers to the town where he committed his heinous crime. Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis), the straight laced good student; Annie Brackett (Nancy Loomis), the daughter of the town's Sheriff Leigh Brackett (Charles Cyphers); and Lynda van der Klok (PJ Soles), the wild one of the three. Myers return to his empty, dilapidated old house and begins stalking the three girls who live nearby.

Loomis arrives in town and hooks up with Sheriff Brackett. A visit to Judith Myers grave reveals her headstone is missing. Loomis knows Myers has returned. Costumed trick or treaters walk the sidewalks as nightfall approaches. Laurie and Annie both have to babysit on Halloween night. Loomis stakes out Myers old home but he never shows.

Annie is the first to be killed, strangled in the garage. Lynda shows up at the house with her boyfriend Bob Simms (John Michael Graham). They hop into bed since Annie isn't around. Myers will dispatch with Bob with a large butcher knife downstairs then throws a sheet over himself and impersonates Bob before killing Lynda. Myers heads over to finish off Laurie but she proves to be the toughest, most resilient of the three and battles Myers as Loomis finally arrives to help defeat the maniac.

After HALLOWEEN came out, many film critics saw a connection between the act of sex being punished by a violent death like in HALLOWEEN and other slasher films of the time. Carpenter insisted he just needed his characters to be doing something before the killer surprised them. Since the main characters were teenagers in high school, sex seemed the obvious teenage activity to distract them. But there is a theme that resonates in HALLOWEEN and its imitators that the virginal, conservative heroine like Laurie survives the madman's onslaught while Annie (who's going to pick up her boyfriend and bring him back to the house to have sex) or Lynda (who does have sex with her boyfriend in the house) are murdered because they're promiscuous and easy.

I remember watching Siskel and Ebert on television and both critics gave thumbs up to HALLOWEEN. But many critics saw HALLOWEEN and other slasher films as promoting violence against women. Although I abhor violence against women in any form, horror films are usually scarier and more terrifying when it's a woman threatened by an alien creature or psychopath than a man. Carpenter and Hill (who's a woman) make Jamie Lee Curtis the heroine. She's scared but not weak and she uses her brains to fight back against the masked bogeyman. Laurie becomes empowered when she's attacked. But she does follow all the classic wrong things to do in a horror film: walk into a dark house, drop the knife that could help save her, turn her back on the killer when he's wounded.

Although the storylines aren't exactly the same, HALLOWEEN has a lot in common with PSYCHO. We already talked about the fact that HALLOWEEN actress Jamie Lee Curtis is the daughter of PSYCHO star Janet Leigh. You can't get better cinematic karma than that.  The Donald Pleasence psychiatrist character is named Sam Loomis after Janet Leigh's boyfriend in PSYCHO (John Gavin played Sam Loomis in that film). Both films deal with a maniac wielding a knife. HALLOWEEN'S Michael Myers is described as pure evil. He takes on the persona of the boogeyman that frighten little kids like Tommy Doyle at night. Only Myers the boogeyman is after high school girls. They remind him of his first victim, his own sister. Norman Bates in PSYCHO has mother issues that crop up when he meets women, issues that lead him to impersonate his mother and take on her personality at times. PSYCHO'S bad man is more complicated than HALLOWEEN'S Myers.

Carpenter follows Hitchcock's lead and goes for the suspense angle in HALLOWEEN even though both films are considered horror films. But HALLOWEEN never dwells or shows much blood or gore just like PSYCHO only made you think you saw the knife touch Marion Bates in the shower. HALLOWEEN'S sequels and reboots and copy cat slasher films would ratchet up the gore and blood.  Music is the last component that unites HALLOWEEN and PSYCHO. I think Bernard Hermann's score in PSYCHO is one of the most chilling and haunting pieces of music ever. Carpenter's score is more modern with a synthesizer replacing an orchestra but he sets the mood with music and keeps the film tense for its entire 90 minutes.

Film buff Carpenter peppers HALLOWEEN with little cinematic easter eggs. Besides the homages to PSYCHO, he has the young kids watching THE THING FROM ANOTHER PLANET (1951) produced by Howard Hawks, one of Carpenter's favorite filmmakers. Carpenter would remake THE THING in 1982. He also named Haddonfield's sheriff Leigh Brackett. Brackett was one of Hawks' favorite writers who wrote THE BIG SLEEP (1946) and RIO BRAVO (1959). Carpenter tried to get Hammer horror stars Christopher Lee or Peter Cushing to play the psychiatrist Loomis but they turned him down. But he got Donald Pleasence, one of my favorite actors from THE GREAT ESCAPE (1963) and the James Bond film YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE (1967). Pleasence brings class to HALLOWEEN.

One issue filmmakers have when casting actors to play high school students is they look too old to be in high school. HALLOWEEN has that problem. Actresses Curtis, Loomis, and Soles look like college coeds not high school teenagers (although Curtis was actually high school age). But their All-American good looks and camaraderie help make HALLOWEEN all the more scarier when Michael Myers comes stalking them. Jamie Lee Curtis would become the Queen of Horror for a few years appearing in HALLOWEEN II (1981), THE FOG (1980), ROAD GAMES (1981), PROM NIGHT (1980), and TERROR TRAIN (1980) before directors discovered her comedic talents in TRADING PLACES (1983) and A FISH CALLED WANDA (1988).

Nancy Loomis who plays Annie worked with Carpenter in ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 (1976) and later THE FOG.  PJ Soles who plays Lynda would become a horror fan favorite from HALLOWEEN and Brian DePalma's CARRIE (1976). Soles also showed her comedy side in ROCK AND ROLL HIGH SCHOOL (1979) and STRIPES (1981).

Another talent who would emerge from HALLOWEEN'S success is cinematographer Dean Cundey. His lighting in Halloween is superb (check out the light filtering on Laurie as she hides in the closet). Cundey would go onto to work on many big budget films such as JURASSIC PARK (1993). HALLOWEEN was also one of the first films to use the Steadicam which makes tracking shots smoother, like the camera is floating (and it cuts down on the number of set ups for a small production like HALLOWEEN). I love the opening credits with Carpenter's creepy Tubular Bells like music and a flickering Jack O'Lantern growing larger. It sets the film's tone right away. And when Laurie and little Tommy (Brian Andrews) look out the window and see Myers standing in front of the house across the street wearing his cheap mask (a modified  William Shatner as Captain Kirk mask it turns out), that visual is as frightening and scary as any gory horror scene could be.

Carpenter's HALLOWEEN would spawn two sequels in the 80's and then a reboot with three or more films in the 2000 era. The only one I've seen and it's a departure from the series and the most bizarre, disturbing film is 1982's HALLOWEEN III: SEASON OF THE WITCH. It's very David Cronenberg like (but directed by Tommy Lee Wallace who was the production designer on HALLOWEEN).  Check it out if you dare.

As much as I rave about HALLOWEEN, the Michael Myers character has never been one of my favorite modern horror characters. He's not nearly as interesting as Freddy Krueger from A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET series. He's more like Jason Voorhees from the FRIDAY THE 13TH films, the only difference Jason wears the hockey mask while Myers dons the Halloween mask. But the original HALLOWEEN ushered in the modern horror film that has dominated the cinema ever since.  After you're done handing out candy to the Thor's and Hello Kitty's on Halloween night, lock your door and watch HALLOWEEN to top off your evening. But keep the lights on.

Phantasm (1979)

With Halloween less than two weeks away, I want to go back and examine the defining film that bridged my transition from the classic horror films of my youth like DRACULA (1931), FRANKENSTEIN (1931), and THE WOLF MAN (1941) to when I was a teenager and the modern horror films that reanimated the genre in the late 1970's/early 80's like HALLOWEEN (1978), PIRAHNA (1978), and DAWN OF THE DEAD (1978). The film I'm talking about is PHANTASM (1979), a little known but beloved horror film among horror aficionados directed by a young Don Coscarelli.

Coincidentally, PHANTASM was released the same time that I discovered a horror film magazine called Fangoria that covered the new breed of horror films emerging from young talent like John Carpenter, Wes Craven, George A. Romero, Joe Dante, and David Cronenberg. Fangoria had vivid color photos and behind the scenes stories on all the new ghoulish make up and splatter special effects plus nostalgic looks back at the classics of horror.

PHANTASM was one of the first films I recall that Fangoria did a piece about and the story and photos had all the horror iconography I love: cemeteries, mausoleums, hearses, a creepy Tall Man, and a gothic looking funeral home (which the earlier 1976 horror film BURNT OFFERINGS also used). Its craziest invention is a flying metal sphere that races around the mausoleum with blades that attach itself to a victim's skull and then drills into the brain, causing blood to spurt from the victim's forehead. Even my local Portland film critic at the time Ted Mahar gave the low budget PHANTASM some love and a mostly positive review.

I had not seen PHANTASM since I first sat in a mostly empty movie theater back in 1979. I was a little nervous as I prepared to view it again. It was like reuniting with your first love after thirty years. Would it live up to my first infatuation or would time not be kind to it. I've been so out of touch with my beloved PHANTASM that director Coscarelli has made three sequels since the original (everyone all together now -- PHANTASM II (1988), PHANTASM III: LORD OF THE DEAD (1994), and PHANTASM IV: OBLIVION (1998). I have not seen any of the sequels...yet.

But I'm delighted to say PHANTASM lives up to my teenage recollections. It is what it is: an inventive low budget horror film that doesn't take itself too seriously, entertains and scares, and gets a lot of production value out of very little. PHANTASM relates the bizarre occurrences around Morningside Funeral Home and its adjacent cemetery. Jody Pearson (Bill Thornbury) and his best friend, Ice Cream truck vendor and part time musician Reggie (Reggie Bannister) attend the funeral for their friend Tommy (Bill Cone). Tommy was stabbed to death by the ghostly Lady in Lavender (sexy Kathy Lester) one night while having sex with the apparition in the cemetery. Jody and his younger brother Mike (Michael Baldwin) are still recovering from the recent deaths of their parents. Mike follows Jody around, afraid of losing his only surviving kin.

As the mourners depart, Mike, spying from some nearby bushes, notices the sinister funeral home director known as the Tall Man (Angus Scrimm) lift up Tommy's five hundred pound casket all by himself and place it in the back of the hearse. Mike begins to investigate the funeral home. He sneaks into the basement where he encounters bizarre dwarves in hoods and the before mentioned flying metal sphere that almost kills Mike, latching onto the mortuary Caretaker (Ken Jones) instead. Mike barely escapes with his life.

Mike, Jody, and Reg will uncover the Tall Man's shocking secret as they stalk the mausoleum hallways and basement trying to solve the death of their friend Tommy. Their sleuthing will reveal the Tall Man's secret. The Tall Man is harvesting the dead bodies from the funeral home and turning them into dwarf slaves (the corpses crushed into dwarf size by gravity), laboring in another dimension through a gateway behind one of the funeral home's doors. It might not make a ton of sense but writer/director Coscarelli handles his material with the right combination of humor and frights.

At its core, PHANTASM is the classic tale of the Boy Who Cried Wolf meets the haunted house on the hill (substitute funeral home for haunted house). Mike can't get his brother Jody to believe that weird things are going on up at Morningside Funeral Home. Not until Mike brings home one of the Tall Man's severed fingers (still moving in a small box) does Jody finally come around to believe his little brother. But writer/director Coscarelli upends his horror tale with a Sci-Fi subplot with a portal to another dimension and the malevolent flying metal sphere that seems to be protecting the Tall Man's secret purpose in the marble mausoleum. Coscarelli tosses in a bit of nudity, a cool muscle car (a 1971 Plymouth Barracuda), a car chase involving a hearse, explosions, and a great villain to satisfy the male teenage horror fan.

That great villain is Angus Scrimm who plays the Tall Man. Pretty much an unknown stage actor before moving to television and feature films, Scrimm seems born to play the part of the evil funeral home director. He's got the scowl, the comb over, and the standard black suit. Scrimm reminds me of a young Christopher Lee in his Hammer horror films days. The Tall Man appears to be a time traveler, showing up in antique photos from the turn of the century but clearly causing mayhem in the present. The Tall Man also has an alter ego as the beautiful but deadly Lady in Lavender, luring men to the cemetery with promises of sex before dispatching them with a dagger, turning their cadavers into shrunken slave dwarves.

Coscarelli also shows his directorial inexperience with PHANTASM as well. A gnarly demonic insect attacking Mike is amateurish (you can see the fishing line attached to the rubber insect).  The sound effects consist of too much crickets at night and howling wind (even when it's apparent there's no wind blowing). But Coscarelli's inventiveness and willingness to mix horror with the surreal trump a few gaffes by the young writer/director.  Coscarelli's next film THE BEASTMASTER (1982) would not be as universally praised as PHANTASM but Coscarelli has hung around in the horror genre, pumping out PHANTASM sequels and more recently, a new horror cult classic BUBBA HO-TEP (2002) which brought together Elvis Presley and an Egyptian mummy starring Bruce Campbell (EVIL DEAD).

I hadn't realized it but PHANTASM was one of several excellent modestly made horror films released by a company called Avco Embassy in the late 70's/early 80's. John Carpenter's THE FOG (1980) and ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK (1981) as well as Joe Dante's THE HOWLING (1981) were also released by Avco Embassy. With slightly bigger budgets and better stories than the films that Roger Corman's New World Pictures were churning out, Avco Embassy was the king of Horror/Science Fiction for a brief period.

Coscarelli has said in interviews that he came up with the title PHANTASM from seeing the word in some of Edgar Allen Poe's writings. Michael's nightmare dream scenes as well as the scenes with the Lady in Lavender in the cemetery have a Poe like quality to them.  Coscarelli may not be held in quite as high esteem as John Carpenter, George A.  Romero, and David Cronenberg in the horror ranks but Coscarelli has carved himself a nice little niche in the genre with his PHANTASM series. Recent reports out of Hollywood indicate there is a new film in the series coming out in 2015 called PHANTASM: RAVAGER. You can't keep a good horror series down. But this Halloween check out the little horror film that started it all, a little terror gem called PHANTASM.

Thunderball (1965)

The James Bond series was enjoying unprecedented success after its first three films culminating with the best of the series in my opinion GOLDFINGER (1964). The filmmakers would quickly follow-up GOLDFINGER'S triumph with THUNDERBALL (1965) directed by Terence Young who introduced audiences to Agent 007 in DR. NO (1962).

THUNDERBALL is another solid effort by the Bond team but it does begin to reveal a few chinks in the Bond series armor. The villain Largo is not quite as flashy or memorable as Dr. No or Auric Goldfinger. Instead of a new exotic location, the filmmakers return to a familiar locale with the Caribbean, this time the Bahamas (DR NO was shot in Jamaica). The screenplay is intelligent but THUNDERBALL drags a bit in the second half, spending too much time underwater. And we don't really learn anything new about James Bond (Sean Connery again) except that he does take a vacation every now and then which is how he stumbles upon SPECTRE'S latest diabolical scheme.

Probably the biggest drama in THUNDERBALL is that Kevin McClory is the producer instead of the usual team of Albert "Cubby" Broccoli and Harry Saltzman. McClory originally developed the original story for THUNDERBALL with screenwriter Jack Whittingham and Bond novelist Ian Fleming before Broccoli and Saltzman bought the rights to the Bond books. But Fleming tired of the screenwriting process. However, Fleming did end up turning the THUNDERBALL idea into a novel. McClory sued Fleming for stealing his idea and ended up acquiring the film rights to THUNDERBALL. Broccoli and Saltzman didn't want a competing Bond film so they made a deal with McClory. McClory got the Producer credit and Broccoli and Saltzman took Executive Producer credits in THUNDERBALL.

The final screenplay was by Bond veteran Richard Maibaum and John Hopkins based on Jack Whittingham's original screenplay based on an original story by Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham, and Ian Fleming. Because McClory owned the film rights to THUNDERBALL, it would be remade in 1983 as NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN starring (yes) Sean Connery in his last appearance as James Bond. Klaus Marie Brandauer, Kim Basinger, and Barbara Carrera would co-star in the film with the locale changed to the French Rivera.

So the 4th in the series THUNDERBALL begins with one of my favorite Bond pre-credit sequences. Bond (Sean Connery) and Madame LaPorte (Mitsouko) attend the funeral for the nefarious Colonel Jaques Bouvar i.e. SPECTRE #6 (played by Bond stuntman Bob Simmons) who had murdered two of  Bond's colleagues. But Bouvar has faked his own death, disguising himself as a female mourner at his own funeral. Bond notices something amiss with the lady when she opens her own car door.  He surprises the Colonel at his French chateau. Bond dispatches the skirt wearing Bouvar then escapes via a jet pack (shades of Buck Rogers) strategically placed on the outside terrace. The delicious irony of Ladies Man James Bond punching a woman before we realize it's Col. Bouvar is an inventive start to THUNDERBALL.

With SPECTRE #6 dead, we're introduced to SPECTRE #2 Emilio Largo (Adolfo Celi) who arrives at SPECTRE headquarters in Paris (the evil organization's lair is fronted by a philanthropic non profit helping displaced people). Largo announces his plan to the cat loving but unseen Ernst Stavro Blofeld (who we will finally lay eyes on in 1967's YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE) and a cadre of SPECTRE agents. Largo looks like a modern day pirate (he even sports a black eye patch) and his plan would make Blackbeard chuckle. Largo plans to steal two nuclear bombs from a NATO bomber and ransom them for 100 million pounds ($280 millions US dollars) in uncut diamonds. The E in SPECTRE does stand for Extortion.

Bond stumbles upon Largo's plot accidentally while vacationing at an English spa. Largo's right hand man Count Lippe (Guy Doleman) uses plastic surgery to have a SPECTRE agent impersonate NATO pilot Major Francois Derval (Paul Stassino). The real Derval is killed and the imposter Angelo Palazzi (also played by actor Stassino) hijacks the plane and lands it in the waters near the Bahamas where Largo and his underwater team remove and hide the bombs and kill the imposter Derval (never ever trust an organization that has an octopus for its logo).

During a briefing with M (Bernard Lee), Bond notices a photo of Derval with his sister and follows the trail to the Bahamas where he's joined by American CIA Agent Felix Leiter (played by Rik Van Nutter, the third different actor to play Leiter so far in the series) and lovely local agent Paula (Martine Beswick, who appeared previously in FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE). Largo has a large compound at the tip of the island called Palmya and a super yacht called the Disco Volante. Largo conveniently keeps company with the dead NATO pilot's sister Dominique "Domino" Derval (Claudine Auger).

As the clock ticks down toward Largo arming the nuclear bombs if the world doesn't pay up, Bond must deal with dangerous Golden Grotto sharks, underwater thugs armed with spear guns, and the volumptous but lethal SPECTRE assassin Fiona Volpe (Luciana Paluzzi) as he searches the waters around Largo's estate for the missing Vulcan bomber and the nuclear bombs. Using his skills as the World's Greatest Lover, Bond seduces Domino to turn on Largo. Dammit if I didn't believe that SPECTRE would hand over the bombs after they got paid their ransom. Even if the ransom is paid, Largo plans on pointing one of the nuclear bombs at Miami. Bond and Largo fight it out on his runaway super charged yacht as it races toward some exposed rocks.

THUNDERBALL'S Largo is an inferior version of Auric Goldfinger from GOLDFINGER but the two supervillians do share one quality.  They both are sexually inadequate with women. Neither man is especially attractive. The only reason they have beautiful women around them is because of their wealth. Bond flaunts his sexuality brazenly in their faces, sleeping with their mistresses or curvy assassins. Largo makes up for his lack of sex appeal by doing what most men do: owning large toys like his giant yacht and his huge oceanside compound to make up for their lack of sex appeal. Largo even humiliates his own henchman Vargas (Philip Locke) in front of Bond. Domino shudders at the things she's had to do with the sadistic Largo who's not beyond cruelty and violence toward her. Domino must feel some pleasure when she impales Largo with a spear gun.

One thing THUNDERBALL reminds audiences is that working or coming in contact with British agent James Bond is a hazardous undertaking. In THUNDERBALL, Bond's local contact, the pretty Paula ends up kidnapped and tortured, committing suicide by cyanide pill rather than reveal secrets to Largo. SPECTRE assassin Fiona Volpe makes wild, passionate love with Bond but both she and Bond know one of them will have to kill the other soon.

I feel guilty that I consider THUNDERBALL a step down from the first three Bond entries. It was the most expensive 1960's Bond film to make and it also made the most money. It has all the best Bond technicians working on it -- Screenwriter Richard Maibaum, Production Designer Ken Adam, Director of Photography Ted Moore, and Editor Peter Hunt who all turn in their usual spectacular best. Director Terence Young is at the helm once again. Young introduced the sophisticated tone for the Bond films in DR NO and FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE. The script is taut with the usual humor to lighten the dramatic moments. But the underwater sequences (beautifully directed by underwater director Ricou Browning who played the Creature in CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON) are too numerous in the second half of the film. The fight scenes and underwater submersibles are cool but they go on too long.

Once again, the Bond filmmakers continue the tradition of casting the best actor or actress for the role even if that actor or actress's English isn't very good, dubbing their dialogue with a different voice. Ursula Andress (DR NO), Danielle Bianchi (FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE), and Gert Frobe (GOLDFINGER) all had their voices dubbed in post production. THUNDERBALL extends this practice with both Adolfo Celi and Claudine Auger. In an interesting  Special Feature on the THUNDERBALL DVD, they show a scene with Celi and Auger at the Baccarat table with the actor's real voices. Celi's Sicillian and Auger French. Their English sounded fine to me but the Bond filmmakers thought otherwise.

Sean Connery is once again stellar as James Bond, still playing the part with vitality and even a bit of goofiness in a few early scenes. He's not mailing his performance in and I'm not sure he ever did. Director Young once again goes for a beauty queen to play Bond's love interest as Claudine Auger was a former Miss France (Danielle Bianchi in FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE was a former Miss Italy). Just like when I rewatched Bianchi in RUSSIA, I wasn't crazy about Auger the first few times I watched THUNDERBALL but she too grows on me with repeated viewings, especially in her wet suit.

The rest of the cast is uniformly good, if not a bit underwhelming. Adolfo Celi as Largo does seem a notch down from Goldfinger although Largo is more vicious, throwing his own thugs into his personal shark tank when he receives bad news. There's no amazing second nemesis like Red Grant in FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE or Oddjob in GOLDFINGER to antagonize Bond although Luciana Paluzzi has fun in her role as the red-headed SPECTRE villainess Fiona Volpe. Largo's right hand man Vargas looks creepy with his long bald head and fish eyes. Largo tells us Vargas has no vices. "Vargas does not drink, does not smoke, does not make love." Vargas's only hobby is murder but he too will find the wrong end of a spear gun courtesy of Bond.

Some final THUNDERBALL tidbits. THUNDERBALL was the first Bond film shot in widescreen Panavision, ushering in that Bond was big time. THUNDERBALL would be director Terence Young's final Bond film but what a way to go out with the biggest, most lavish Bond film yet. Bond films always have a great opening theme song but the title THUNDERBALL seems like a tough song to write. Originally, the theme song was to be Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang sung by Dionne Warwick (check out the DVD to hear her version on the 2nd commentary track). But at the last minute, the producers felt the theme song should have the title in it and what we hear now is Thunderball sung by Tom Jones. A scene at a restaurant called the Kiss Kiss Club would be the filmmakers way of acknowledging the first song title. Lastly, CASINO ROYALE (2006) returned to the Bahamas where THUNDERBALL was filmed and shot some scenes near some of the original locations.

Ultimately, did too many producers and writers water down THUNDERBALL? The film still maintains the same high standards that the first three Bond films had. THUNDERBALL has a bigger budget, is longer than the previous films with a plot as engaging as ever, and looks fantastic. I think it's biggest drawback is its length and that the second half of the film spends too much time looking for the nuclear bombs. THUNDERBALL still maintains the high standards for the Bond series that would eventually begin to wear thin in the 1980's.

From Here to Eternity (1953)

Pearl Harbor. December 7th, 1941. "A Date which will live in Infamy," said President Franklin D. Roosevelt as he spoke to the U.S. Congress and the Nation after the attack. THE GREAT ESCAPE (1963) might be the first war movie I remember watching but Pearl Harbor is the first battle I remember wanting to learn more about. Never one to turn down an opportunity to make a film about historical events, Hollywood has tackled the attack on Pearl Harbor indirectly in Otto Preminger's IN HARM'S WAY (1965), more directly with an American/Japanese co-production directed by Richard Fleischer TORA, TORA, TORA (1970) and recently, Michael Bay's big flashy PEARL HARBOR (2002).

But after World War II ended, Hollywood took its time addressing the events of Pearl Harbor. It wasn't a golden moment for America. It was a sneak attack and we were caught napping. We did not win. FROM HERE TO ETERNITY (1953) may be the greatest film set around Pearl Harbor that really isn't about the battle. The film has a brief section near the end where the attack is shown. But ETERNITY is more soap opera than war film but with a military setting, dealing with adult situations (infidelity, miscarriage, brutality) presented in a frank, realistic manner for the 1950's. FROM HERE TO ETERNITY would resonate with audiences, earning eight Academy Awards and burning into our memory banks the celluloid image of Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr embracing on a sandy beach while waves cascade over the lovers (symbolizing lovemaking).

FROM HERE TO ETERNITY is based on the novel by James Jones who drew loosely from his experiences with the Hawaiian 27th Infantry in pre-WWII Hawaii. The title FROM HERE TO ETERNITY comes from a stanza in a Rudyard Kipling poem Gentlemen Rankers. Even though the film is set in Hawaii, director Fred Zinnemann and screenwriter Daniel Taradash never hint that the Japanese attack is coming, waiting until the climax of the film to reveal a wall calendar and the date December 6th (the day before). James Jones would author another great book about his experiences at Guadalcanal called The Thin Red Line which would be turned into a film twice -- in 1964 directed by Andrew Marton (co-starring ETERNITY's Jack Warden) and again in 1998 directed by Terrence Malick.

ETERNITY begins at Schofield Barracks in Oahu as Private Robert E. Lee Prewitt (Montgomery Clift) transfers to Company G, the Rifle Company. Prewitt is a bugler but better known around the barracks as a boxer. He catches the eye of Captain Dana "Dynamite" Holmes (Philip Ober) who wants his Company to win the Regimental Boxing Championship and sees Prewitt as his ticket to victory and possibly promotion. But Prewitt refuses to join the team, having blinded a friend in a boxing match a few years earlier. The man who really runs Company G is Sergeant Milton Warden (Burt Lancaster). Warden handles all the requisitions and paperwork. He takes Prewitt under his wing. As Capt. Holmes non-commissioned officers try to break Prewitt, Warden does his best to keep Prewitt alive and out of trouble. Company G's class clown Angelo Maggio (Frank Sinatra) befriends the lone wolf Prewitt.

Warden and Prewitt both become involved with different women of class on the island. Warden begins a dangerous affair with Karen Holmes (Deborah Kerr), the wife of his superior Captain Holmes. Maggio takes Prewitt out one weekend to the New Congress Club where Prewitt meets a beautiful hostess i.e. prostitute Lorene (Donna Reed) who he falls in love with. Maggio picks a fight with the sadistic James "Fatso" Judson (Ernest Borgnine), Sergeant of the Stockade.

FROM HERE TO ETERNITY follows their parallel relationships. Karen wants to divorce her husband. Warden promises to sign up to take the officer training so he can transfer out and take Karen with him. But he doesn't sign the papers, realizing he's not officer material. Lorene (who reveals to Prewitt her real name is Alma) is trying to save up enough money to move back to Oregon to become a proper, high class woman. Alma and Prewitt pretend to be married. But Alma doesn't want to be an Army wife and Prewitt calls the Army his family, proclaiming he's a "thirty year man." Maggio, having his weekend pass pulled one night, leaves his guard duty post and goes AWOL, joining Prewitt and the others in town. Maggio is caught by the military police and thrown into the stockade for six months where the brutal Judson awaits him.

Beaten repeatedly by Judson, Maggio escapes the stockade and finds his friend Prewitt before dying in his arms.  The next night, Prewitt stakes out the New Congress Club and fights Judson in an alley. Judson pulls out a switchblade. During the scuffle, Prewitt stabs Judson, killing him. Prewitt suffers knife wounds as well and hides out at Alma's apartment. Warden and Karen end their affair. Capt. Holmes is reprimanded by his superiors for his hazing of Prewitt. And then, on the morning of December 7th, the Japanese invade Pearl Harbor. Warden and Company G manage to set up some machine guns and shoot at a couple of Japanese Zeros. The lives of everyone will be changed forever by the attack.

The character Prewitt in FROM HERE TO ETERNITY is similar to Private Witt (even in name) in author Jones's THE THIN RED LINE. Both men are loners. Both men go AWOL although at different times (Witt at the beginning of THE THIN RED LINE and Prewitt toward the end of ETERNITY). And both Prewitt and Witt will make a life or death decision to save a fellow soldier or soldiers at his own peril.

Prewitt tells Maggio the military is his family, both parents having died when he was a teenager. Warden becomes a surrogate father to Prewitt, letting him make mistakes from time to time but protecting him from Capt. Holmes and his thug like non-commissioned officers who try to coerce Prewitt into boxing for the Company. Warden takes care of men like Prewitt , Maggio and the entire Company G. Warden becomes involved in Karen's life, trying to rehabilitate her reputation and fragile psyche after putting up with her husband's philandering ways for years. But Warden can't take care of himself. As organized as he is with paperwork and military formalities, he's a mess when it comes to his private life. Like Prewitt, the military is Warden's family, his girlfriend, his life.

Give credit to director Fred Zinnemann for putting together an incredible cast and taking some chances on casting. Frank Sinatra was not famous for his dramatic acting. He was a world renowned singer but had acted in some forgettable musicals. Zinnemann took a chance on Sinatra to play Maggio and was rewarded as Sinatra would win Best Supporting Actor in 1953. Similarly, Donna Reed was best known as playing sweet wholesome girls like Mary Hatch in IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946). But Zinnemann (and studio head Harry Cohn) cast her against type as the prostitute Lorene/Alma and Reed was also rewarded with a Best Supporting Actress Award for ETERNITY. I've always had a crush on Donna Reed since IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE but as I watched her in ETERNITY, I suddenly realized she resembles my other film sweetheart Olivia de Havilland. Look for young Ernest Borgnine, Jack Warden, and Claude Akins in supporting roles as officers.

But FROM HERE TO ETERNITY's success is powered by breakout performances by its three lead actors: Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, and Deborah Kerr. Their careers would soar after ETERNITY. Lancaster had been playing mostly swashbucklers (THE CRIMSON PIRATE) and film noir leads (CRISS CROSS) before landing the role of Sgt. Warden. Lancaster's athletic build fits perfectly with his confident personality as he embarks in an affair with his boss's wife. No actor has looked better in a swim suit than Lancaster as he frolics with Kerr on the beach. Clift would make a career playing moody, anguished characters (RED RIVER, A PLACE IN THE SUN) but Private Prewitt is the role Monty is forever remembered for. Often, I find troubled characters annoying but Prewitt is very likable. He stands by his principles for as long as he can. He lives by his own code. And he makes the ultimate sacrifice for a friend.

Before ETERNITY, Deborah Kerr had played nuns (1947's BLACK NARCISSUS) or proper English women (1952's THE PRISONER OF ZENDA). Kerr's performance as the promiscuous but troubled Karen Holmes is another against type casting that is brilliant. Kerr is striking with her blonde hair and tall stature. She's sexy without having to resort to seductive clothing. Her scenes with Lancaster smolder. As Karen, she's a damaged woman, married to a cheating husband, trying to rebound from a miscarriage. Her only way to get back at her husband is to cheat on him. She just can't find the right man, hooking up with men more attached to the Army than a relationship.

The success for FROM HERE TO ETERNITY belongs to Austrian born director Fred Zinnemann (and screenwriter Daniel Taradash). The pacing for ETERNITY is military precision perfect. Zinnemann introduces us to all the characters early, providing each one with several scenes to reveal their characters strengths and foibles. He then cross cuts back and forth between the parallel relationships building between the two couples with Maggio's subplot as filler. Zinnemann said he has always been drawn to films about outsiders, characters who didn't initially belong. Gary Cooper comes to mind in HIGH NOON (1952) but Clift's Prewitt is the ultimate outsider, a "hard head" who just can't conform. As Kipling's poem proclaims about soldiers who have lost their way, they are "damned from here to eternity."

Zinnemann had made a name for himself a year earlier with HIGH NOON (1952). FROM HERE TO ETERNITY would garner 13 Academy Award nominations. Both Zinnemann (directing) and Taradash (writing) would win Academy Awards for ETERNITY. But Zinnemann would only direct 9 films over the next 29 years including working with Kerr again in THE SUNDOWNERS (1960) and directing another Academy Award winning film THE MAN FOR ALL SEASONS (1966). Zinnemann would direct 18 different actors in Academy Award nominated performances (source: IMDB). He was an actor's director and FROM HERE TO ETERNITY full displays that.

Usually I watch the film I review each month twice. A sign of a good movie for me is I couldn't wait to watch FROM HERE TO ETERNITY again. The characters and story lines are so compelling. Every role is perfectly cast from lead down to the smallest bit character. The film was shot on location on Oahu, bringing realism to the film. Yes, the James Jones novel was toned down for the cinema but Zinnemann and Taradash still convey or imply much of the adult situations that take place.  FROM HERE TO ETERNITY would be remade as a TV Mini-Series in 1979 with William Devane and Natalie Wood reprising the Warden and Karen roles but it holds no candle to the 1953 version. Zinnemann's FROM HERE TO ETERNITY is a timeless classic and definitely deserving of all its Awards and acclaim.

The Snake Pit (1948)

CRAZYFILMGUY is getting old. Later in 2014, I will hit the big 50 years old. Half way to 100. In my youth, summer time meant summer blockbuster films. I recall many a summer paying $5 (later $7, $9, and now what is it - $10?) to sit in an air conditioned movie theater and watch RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK or POLTERGEIST or INDEPENDENCE DAY. So what popcorn spectacular film have I planned to review for July 2014?  None other than THE SNAKE PIT (1948), a most un-blockbuster film starring one of my cinematic crushes Olivia de Havilland about that most popular summer topic -- mental illness. My seventeen year old past self is shaking his head at the thought of his now 49 year old self watching an adult film with no light sabers or bull whips.

I fell in love with Olivia de Havilland the moment she took her head dress off in THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD (1938) and her gorgeous brown hair cascaded down. She had round, full cheek bones and a lovely smile. I think every film I've ever seen Olivia de Havilland in (CAPTAIN BLOOD, GONE WITH THE WIND, DODGE CITY) has been a period film.  THE SNAKE PIT will be my first modern Olivia de Havilland film.

THE SNAKE PIT sounds like the title of a good Val Lewton horror film but it's one of the first films of its kind to deal with the treatment of mental illness, a taboo subject in the late 40's. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, an estimated 26.2 % of Americans 18 years and older suffer from some kind of mental disorder. Directed by Anatole Litvak with a screenplay by Frank Partos and Millen Brand (and uncredited Arthur Laurents) based on the semi-autobiographical novel by Mary Jane Ward (and her real life struggle with mental illness), THE SNAKE PIT paved the way for other films about mental illness including Milos Forman's ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST (1975) and Ron Howard's A BEAUTIFUL MIND (2001). Litvak directed some war documentaries during World War II and THE SNAKE PIT at times has an authentic, realistic documentary feel.

We meet Virginia Stuart Cunningham (Olivia de Havilland) sitting with her friend Grace (Celeste Holm) on a bench as THE SNAKE PIT begins.  Only Virginia does not recognize her friend Grace.  Virginia is a patient at the Juniper Hills State Hospital.  She is under the care of Dr. Mark Kik (Leo Genn). Virginia's husband Robert Cunningham (Mark Stevens) has committed Virginia to the mental hospital when Virginia began exhibiting anxiety, confusion, bewilderment, and memory loss after their recent marriage.

An early flashback shows how Virginia and Robert first met in Chicago where Virginia was trying to get her manuscript published and Robert worked for the publisher. Her book is rejected but they continue to meet for coffee and find they have similar taste in music. But Virginia disappears after breaking off a date.  Robert moves to New York and six months later, he runs into Virginia at the New York Philharmonic. Their courtship resumes and they eventually get married but Virginia's behavior begins to deteriorate and she has a mental breakdown.

Dr. Kik tries electric shock treatment and hydrotherapy on Virginia, hoping to stir both past and present memories.  Virginia responds favorably to the treatment.  Virginia reveals a past boyfriend named Gordon (Leif Erickson) who died in a car accident. Virginia blames herself for Gordon's death. The hospital's review board including Dr. Curtis (Howard Freeman) and Dr. Jonathan Gifford (Frank Conroy) are eager to discharge Virginia due to overcrowding and more female patients arriving every day but Kik wants more time to fully cure Virginia. Virginia's review goes horribly wrong and she has a setback, prompting Virginia to be placed in one of the worst mental wards of the hospital.

Kik won't give up on her. Virginia works her way from Ward 12 back to Ward 1 (the best). When Virginia barters for a doll with another patient, the doll conjures up memories from her childhood and her relationship with her father Mr. Stuart (Damian O'Flynn) who she idolized but blames herself for his death and her mother Mrs. Stuart (GILLIGAN'S ISLAND's Natalie Schafer) who didn't shower Virginia with love. Kik finally pushes Virginia to unlock her father/husband issues and help her to reunite with her husband Robert and return to society as a functioning person.

As provocative as THE SNAKE PIT'S story is, the film at its core resembles a mystery but without a murder. The mystery is what is the cause of Virginia's mental breakdown.  Director Litvak uncovers the mystery slowly, revealing clues bit by bit. Litvak doesn't treat the mental hospital like a horror show although Virginia's review during a storm is a tad theatrical, representing her mental state. But the film doesn't pull any punches either. Virginia thinks the hospital is like a zoo early in the film. Later, she explains to Dr. Kik when befriending another patient that "a sick animal knows how to care for another sick animal."

Except for the bureaucratic review board doctors and Nurse Davis (Helen Craig), a precursor to the strict, disciplinarian Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher) from ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST, most of the doctors and nurses are shown as sympathetic and humane. Dr. Kik and later his friend Dr. Terry (Glenn Langan) are portrayed as caring doctors who want to cure Virginia.

Virginia best explains the film's title when she tells Dr. Kik "I remembered once reading in a book that long ago they used to put insane people into pits full of snakes. I think they figured that something which might drive a normal person insane, might shock an insane person back into sanity." Director Litvak dramatizes Virginia's speech by shooting at a high angle and pulling back (with photographic effects) as if from God's point of view to make the mental hospital look like a pit of wriggling, overcrowded snakes i.e. mentally ill patients. It's a fantastic visual metaphor to accent the snake pit description. I think one of the shocks of THE SNAKE PIT is that this mental hospital is full of female patients. Audiences are familiar with crazy male characters (think Renfield from DRACULA) but never before had American audiences seen an abundance of mentally ill women: young and old, wives, grandmothers, girlfriends, sisters.  Mental illness doesn't discriminate.

Olivia de Havilland gives one of the performances of her career in the juicy role of Virginia Stuart Cunningham in THE SNAKE PIT.  De Havilland puts vanity aside, wearing little make-up and looking haggard in many scenes. She's often tied down to a gurney or wearing a straight-jacket, certainly not the glamorous De Havilland from her Errol Flynn movies. Virginia is the kind of role that in today's film community, Angelina Jolie, Nicole Kidman, Sandra Bullock, or Meryl Streep even would have been fighting to play.  De Havilland would be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1948 but would lose out to Jane Wyman for JOHNNY BELINDA (Wyman played a young deaf, mute girl).

The rest of the cast is uniformly good. Leo Genn's Dr. Kik is a bit stereotypical with his pipe smoking but he plays the role as a sympathetic, innovative psychiatrist and not some Dr. Frankenstein. Kik may have the most soothing doctor's voice in the history of film. One familiar face in a supporting role is Celeste Holm as Virginia's inmate friend Grace. Holm appears briefly in the early part of THE SNAKE PIT. Holm had won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress the year before in 1947's GENTLEMAN'S AGREEMENT. And Natalie Schafer who entertained me as a child as Mrs. Thurston Howell III i.e. Lovey on GILLIGAN'S ISLAND plays a very different role as Virginia's cold, unloving mother. Director Litvak must have liked Schafer as he cast her again in his 1956 film ANASTASIA.

The one supporting character I found most revealing is Gordon, Virginia's boyfriend, played by Leif Erickson (no, not the Viking Leif Erickson). He's not in the film very long but Gordon represents a substitute father that Virginia becomes involved with. Virginia may have turned out fine with Gordon but he's killed in a car accident. Virginia blames herself for his death and begins to reject the love of any man.

Director Anatole Litvak would not have a prolific film career but a steady one. Besides THE SNAKE PIT, Litvak's other well known films include SORRY, WRONG NUMBER (1948) with Barbara Stanwyck and ANASTASIA (1956) starring Ingrid Bergman and Yul Brynner. He would make several war documentaries during WWII. This is the first Litvak film I've seen but his handling of an important social issue like mental health is even handed and powerful. At times, Virginia's plight looks bleak but Litvak shows compassion and empathy for Virginia and all the women who deal with their debilitating illnesses. THE SNAKE PIT never gets maudlin or preachy.

One final contributor to acknowledge is 20th Century Fox Producer Daryl Zanuck, never one to shy away from a provocative subject.  Without Zanuck's belief that THE SNAKE PIT should be made, the reforms and legislation that improved mental hospitals throughout the country after THE SNAKE PIT'S release might not have happened so swiftly.

So don't let the title fool you. THE SNAKE PIT is the farthest thing from a horror film. But it accurately depicts the horrors and struggles of mental illness in a searing and realistic way. It might make you look at the man or woman talking to themselves on a downtown street corner in a different light.