Sleeper (1973)

Like the proverbial question, "What came first?  The chicken or the egg?," the same question could be said about parodies of film genres. Was it Mel Brooks or Woody Allen who started the trend? Both men began their careers as Jewish comedians in the 1950s and 1960s performing in clubs and television before moving into writing and directing their own films. Off the top of my head, I guessed it was Mel Brooks lampooning the western in BLAZING SADDLES (1974) who started it all. I would be wrong. Upon further review, Woody Allen eight years earlier took a Japanese spy film from 1965 and re-dubbed it hilariously in English renaming it WHAT'S UP, TIGER LILY? (1966), spoofing the James Bond craze at the time.

Brooks's parodies are very clear cut.  Besides the western, Brooks affectionately made fun of horror films in YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN (1975), sending up Hitchcock films in HIGH ANXIETY (1977), and poking fun at the STAR WARS franchise in SPACEBALLS (1987). Allen had fun with the crime drama genre (and possibly the first mockumentary) in TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN (1969). Besides film genres, Allen took a shot at history and literature. In BANANAS (1971), Allen had some fun with Third World revolutions.  He got intellectually funny in LOVE AND DEATH (1975) poking fun at Russian literary greats like Tolstoy and Dostoevsky.  My introduction to Woody Allen was one of his best and funniest early films called SLEEPER (1973), spoofing the sci-fi genre and described as a dystopian sci-fi slapstick comedy. 

As with BLAZING SADDLES, I heard about SLEEPER from word of mouth from my parents and the older brothers who lived in the cul-de-sac below me who both had seen SLEEPER at the movie theater. Both were conduits to comedy films I wanted to see but wasn't old enough yet. They told me the funny bits of the film until I could finally view the film for myself. I finally saw SLEEPER on television a few years later. It was worth the wait. Woody Allen's stand up jokes throughout SLEEPER mostly went over my head but Allen's physical antics and sight gags made me laugh out loud.  SLEEPER also introduced audiences to Allen's future leading lady and comic co-partner for some of his best comedies. Diane Keaton. 

SLEEPER was directed by Woody Allen with an original screenplay by Woody Allen and Marshall Brickman. Miles Monroe (Woody Allen), part owner of the Happy Carrot health food store in Greenwich Village and part time clarinet player with the Ragtime Rascals had gone in for a routine ulcer check-up in 1973. There were complications and Miles wakes up two hundred years later in 2173 cryogenically frozen. A group of doctors led by Dr. Agon (John McLiam) and Dr. Tryon (Don Keefer) unearth Miles time capsule in the forest and whisk him away to a place called the Farm. With the help of Dr. Melik (Mary Gregory), Miles is illegally revived. The doctors warn Miles he's in danger as he's not registered in the government's database. The United States is ruled by an omnipresent dictator known as the Leader and his police state. Miles is considered an outlaw, an alien. The doctors urge Miles to go to the Western District, make contact with the anti-government Underground movement, and infiltrate the government's mysterious "Aries Project" since he's not registered with them. The Security Federation aka police show up at the compound. Miles tries to escape into the woods with a flight pack but he fails. He backtracks to the Farm and hides out in a delivery truck full of domestic robots. Miles disguises himself as one of the metallic servants.

The vehicle drops Miles off at the home of aspiring but talentless poet Luna Schlosser (Diane Keaton). Luna's throwing a party for her artist friends and needs a domestic robot. Miles attempts to hang the guest's coats, serve drinks, and make instant pudding all with hilariously bad results. The guests pass a round silver object called the orb to each other. Miles grabs on to it and it makes him amorous. Miles overhears Luna's friend Herald Cohen (Brian Avery) mention the Aries Project. After the party, Luna takes Miles back to Domesticon for a more pleasing head. When Miles witnesses repair men rip off other robot's heads, Miles flees the factory, kidnapping Luna and driving away in her car. Miles ties Luna up in the woods and searches for food for them. Miles stumbles across an organic garden growing gigantic fruit and vegetables. He returns with a monstrous stalk of celery and humongous banana to share with Luna.

Searching for the rebels and information about the "Aries Project", Miles and Luna stumble across a gay couple's house. From their bathroom, Luna calls the authorities. When the police arrive, they try to arrest Luna. Miles puts on the owners hydrovac suit and inflates it. Luna climbs on top of Miles, releases the air valve in the suit, and they propel across a nearby lake to safety. Miles and Luna enter a cave and discover a 200 year old Volkswagen Bug. Miles turns the dusty key and the car starts. Miles and Luna begin to warm up to each other and begin to fall in love. They return to the Farm where Miles was thawed out. The police show up again. Miles hides in a spherical device now used for sex in the future called the Orgasmatron. He's apprehended by the police. Luna sneaks into the woods where she fends for herself before she's found by the leader of the Underground, the handsome Erno Windt (John Beck). 

The authorities prepare to integrate Miles into its dystopic society by scrubbing his brain which includes making Miles think he's Miss America and later Blanche DuBois from A Streetcar Named Desire. Now working with the Underground, Luna sneaks into the complex where Miles lives and grabs him, trying to snap the brainwashed Miles back to his old neurotic self. When Miles does shake off the brain wash, he notices Luna and Erno are now in a relationship. Luna convinces Miles to set aside his jealousy and complete the mission. Miles and Luna sneak into the "Aries Project" where they discover that the Leader was maimed by an explosion eight months earlier. Only the Leader's nose survived.  Miles and Luna disguise themselves as doctors and become mistaken for the surgeons who are to perform the cloning procedure to bring back the Leader. Miles and Luna grab the nose and race out of the facility. Will they destroy the Leader's nose before the secret police catch them? And will Luna ditch Erno for Miles? 

For Woody Allen fans accustomed to his urban New York comedies like ANNIE HALL (1977) and MANHATTAN (1979), SLEEPER is full of surprises and a different kind of Woody Allen film. Foremost, it's a genuine slapstick comedy (a sci-fi slapstick comedy no less) in the vein of  Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, the Marx Brothers, and Mack Sennett films. Allen proves to be up to the task. From his body's awkwardness in reacclimating after having been cryogenically frozen for two hundred years to impersonating a housekeeper robot and reeking havoc at Luna's party to fighting and fleeing the secret police multiple times, Allen channels the silent film greats with his physical comedy. Look for references to the Marx Brothers DUCK SOUP (1933) and Charlie Chaplin's MODERN TIMES (1936). SLEEPER has a host of sight gags that are not common in later Allen films. Accompanying the comic set pieces is the jazz music of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band including Allen on clarinet, making the bits more frenetic, loose, and funny. 

The other surprise to SLEEPER in the canon of Woody Allen films are the film's locations. It's not the streets of Manhattan or Brooklyn that SLEEPER takes place in. SLEEPER was shot in Colorado and California, a rare venture by Allen to the western United States. The futuristic architecture that Allen needed for the film was more available in the wide open American west like Denver, CO. Later in his career, Allen would venture out of New York with a series of films set in Europe including MATCH POINT (2006) and SCOOP (2007) in England; VICKI CRISTINA BARCELONA (2008) in Spain; MIDNIGHT IN PARIS (2011) in France; and TO ROME WITH LOVE (2012) in Italy. 

Allen touches on his favorite topics in SLEEPER including God and sex that will pop up in his New York films.  One theme that seemed to preoccupy Allen early in his career were revolutions. In SLEEPER, Miles reluctantly joins the rebels fighting the repressive government alongside Luna and rebel leader Erno Windt. After Miles and Luna damage the Leader's nose (they throw it in front of a road steamroller where it is flattened), they debate if Erno will turn the country around. Miles cynically (and possibly strategically) tells her that Erno will become as corrupt as the Leader was as that's how all revolutions end up (in Miles opinion). In BANANAS, Allen plays a nebbish New Yorker who travels to a Latin American country to impress his girlfriend and winds up joining a group of revolutionaries and becoming their leader. Allen would move on from films about revolutions as he would find inspiration in his comic and romantic counterpart for the next few years: Diane Keaton. 

With SLEEPER, Allen would find his muse and comic partner for some of his best films in the 70s with Diane Keaton (they would also have a romantic relationship during that period). Prior to SLEEPER, Janet Margolin in TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN and Louise Lasser in BANANAS played Allen's romantic leads. No one saw that the Diane Keaton who burst onto the screen as Michael Corleone's (Al Pacino) somber and suffering wife Kay in Francis Coppola's THE GODFATHER (1972) would be the perfect foil and love interest to the neurotic characters played by Woody Allen. 

In SLEEPER, Keaton is funny and goofy (her trademark) and yes, sexy as the uncreative poet turned revolutionary Luna Schlosser. Luna transitions from spoiled party girl to anti-government rebel, falling in love with both the alien Miles and the good looking rebel leader Erno. Allen and Keaton were cast together the year before in Herbert Ross's PLAY IT AGAIN SAM (1972) based on Allen's play.  Allen may have seen her comic potential in that film. After SLEEPER, the hits kept coming for Allen and Keaton with LOVE AND DEATH, ANNIE HALL, and MANHATTAN. In the 80s, Mia Farrow took over for Keaton as Allen's on-screen and off-screen love appearing in THE PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO (1985), HANNAH AND HER SISTERS (1986), and RADIO DAYS (1987). Allen and Keaton would reunite one more time for Allen's MANHATTAN MURDER MYSTERY (1993). 

The only other familiar face in SLEEPER is John Beck who plays the Underground leader Erno Windt. It's a fun role for Beck who mostly played strong, macho characters in films like Sam Peckinpah's PAT GARRETT AND BILLY THE KID (1973) and Norman Jewison's ROLLERBALL (1975). In SLEEPER, matinee idol Beck plays his character Erno straight, giving the laughs to Allen and Keaton. In a cameo, psychologist and one time LSD and psychedelic drug advocate Timothy Leary portrays the Leader who we only see in glimpses including a promotional video, sitting by the ocean with a dog, waving to the camera. The rest of the unknown cast in SLEEPER is up to the task interacting with Allen's pratfalls and gags that include Allen swallowing a rubber glove, erratically driving an electric wheelchair, and slipping on a giant banana peel. 

SLEEPER includes some early collaborators that would work with Allen as he became an acclaimed writer/director/auteur.  Jack Rollins and Charles H. Joffe were Allen's Executive Producers (aka managers) for his films from the very beginning with TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN all the way until Rollins death in 2015.  Editor Ralph Rosenblum began with Allen on BANANAS and continued to edit Allen's films up to INTERIORS (1978) winning an Academy Award for Best Editing for ANNIE HALL. One production member who went on to directing films himself was costume designer Joel Schumacher. Schumacher's costumes in SLEEPER are futuristic yet aesthetically clean, just like the film. Schumacher filmography includes THE LOST BOYS (1987) and BATMAN & ROBIN (1997) with George Clooney as the Caped Crusader. 

Mel Brooks starred in and directed SILENT MOVIE (1976), his ode to silent films. That makes sense as Brooks' film parodies were obviously aimed at different film genres. In SLEEPER, I was not expecting Woody Allen's sci-fi comedy to also be a love letter to the silent film greats like Chaplin, Keaton, and Lloyd. Like Allen's choice of snappy jazz music instead of moody synthesizer sounds to be the score for his futuristic film, the melding of two different genres (science fiction with slapstick comedy) in SLEEPER is genius. SLEEPER is Woody Allen beginning to find his feet as a filmmaker, becoming bolder and braver in the type of films he was going to make. For some, SLEEPER is the very funny, early phase of Woody Allen before he became a little more serious in his future films. 

  

In the Heat of the Night (1967)

We take it for granted that today's generation of black movie stars like Denzel Washington,  Eddie Murphy, Samuel L. Jackson, Viola Davis, Angela Bassett, and Michael B. Jordan are taking the torch from the greats of the past.  That would be misleading. There is one man that blazed the trail for today's black stars. Sadly, his debut was not that far in the past. That actor would be Sidney Poitier. Due to our country's great racial inequality and prejudice during a good part of the 20th century, black actors and actresses were a rare sight in films of the Golden Age (1930s to early 1950s). When they did appear, they were bit roles as waiters or servants or maids. There was even the awful use of blackface (white actors wearing black makeup to portray a negro) in silent films and some early talkies. Thanks to some socially conscious directors like Richard Brooks, Stanley Kramer, and Norman Jewison, Sidney Poitier emerged on the big screen as Hollywood's first black movie star. 

A native of the Bahamas before moving to Florida at the age of 15, Poitier's acting breakthrough came in Richard Brooks BLACKBOARD JUNGLE (1955) as a rebellious student at an inner city high school. He would follow that debut with THE DEFIANT ONES (1957) directed by Stanley Kramer and co-starring Tony Curtis. They would play escaped convicts: one white, one black who are chained to each other as they seek freedom. Before you knew it, Poitier would win the Academy Award for Best Actor in Ralph Nelson's LILIES IN THE FIELD (1963) as a handyman who helps a group of nuns build a chapel in the desert. 1967 would be a watershed year for Poitier as he would appear not only in Stanley Kramer's GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER? opposite Spencer Tracy (in his last role) and Katherine Hepburn but as a big city police detective stuck in a small Mississippi town with a murder in Norman Jewison's IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT. By today's standards, the two films are fairly tame. At the time, both films dealt with racial barriers that were simmering to the top in the tumultuous 1960s. 

With a screenplay by Stirling Silliphant (THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE) based on the novel by John Ball and directed by Norman Jewison (ROLLERBALL), IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT begins on a humid night in the small southern town of Sparta, Mississippi. It's two in the morning. Officer Sam Wood (Warren Oates) departs the local diner run by Ralph Henshaw (Anthony James) and cruises around the sleepy town on patrol. He stops to voyeuristically watch the local teenage tease Delores Purdy (Quentin Dean) stand naked in her kitchen on the hot evening before moving on. Wood comes across a dead body in the middle of Main Street. Wood reports the death to his superior Sheriff Bill Gillespie (Rod Steiger). The dead man is Philip Colbert, an outside developer in Sparta to help build a new factory just outside the town that would provide jobs for the locals. Gillespie sends Wood to scour the town for any vagrants or strangers that might be out at this hour. Wood finds a well-dressed black man named Virgil Tibbs (Sidney Poitier) sitting alone at the train station. Without questioning him, Wood brings Virgil directly to the police station.

Gillespie and Wood immediately suspect Virgil just by the color of his skin. Virgil tells them he's a police detective from Philadelphia, PA on his way back to the East Coast after visiting his elderly mother. Gillespie calls Virgil's superior who confirms his occupation and offers Virgil's skills to the Sheriff with the murder investigation. Virgil is a homicide expert. Virgil doesn't want to help the racist Gillespie. Gillespie admits he's not an expert on murder. The next morning, Gillespie's men with dogs chase another suspect Harvey Oberst (Scott Wilson) through the woods and onto a bridge toward Arkansas where he's apprehended. Harvey has Colbert's wallet on him. Harvey is brought back to the station where Mrs. Colbert (Lee Grant) is waiting. Virgil tells Mrs. Colbert her husband is dead. Gillespie is positive Harvey is the killer. Virgil thinks he's innocent. Virgil won't reveal his evidence so Gillespie locks Virgil up along with Harvey. Virgil questions Harvey who says he has an alibi. Virgil believes Colbert was killed elsewhere and his body dropped off in town. Mrs. Colbert demands Virgil work the case or she will pull her husband's engineers off the factory project. 

Tibbs is back at the train station when Gillespie shows up to talk him into staying. Tibbs reluctantly agrees to help on the case. Tibbs inspects Colbert's car. He finds blood and a piece of a plant inside. Tibbs and Gillespie visit the one man who may have been Colbert's enemy. Eric Endicott (Larry Gates) is a cotton grower and the richest man in town who opposed Colbert's factory.  Endicott grows orchids as a hobby. Tibbs and Endicott do not hit it off (they end up slapping each other). Mayor Schubert (William Schallert) puts pressure on Gillespie to run the black detective Tibbs out of town. Endicott sends a car full of young, white men after Tibbs, chasing him to an abandoned warehouse.  Gillespie shows up in the nick of time to rescue Tibbs from a lynching. Tibbs tells Gillespie he just needs two more days to solve the murder. Tibbs asks Officer Wood to retrace his path that night. Wood alters his route, avoiding Delores Purdy's house. Tibbs knows what Wood is doing. Gillespie asks the town banker Henderson (Kermit Murdock) to show him Wood's recent bank transactions. Wood made a recent deposit of $632. Gillespie arrests Wood on suspicion of the murder of Colbert. 

Tibbs still believes Endicott murdered Colbert. Gillespie's now convinced it's his own man Wood. Tibbs tells Gillespie that Wood couldn't have been in two places at one time. The whole situation changes when Lloyd Purdy (James Patterson) brings in his sister Dolores to the station. Dolores claims she's pregnant with Officer Wood's baby. Tibbs walks back to the jail cells and asks Harvey if a guy got a girl pregnant, who would he or she turn to for an abortion? Harvey tells him Packy Harrison (Matt Clark) is the man he wants to talk to. Tibbs travels out to where the new factory is to be built. Gillespie shows up. Tibbs believes Colbert was murdered here. Tibbs had found a piece of pine wood in Colbert's scalp. The lot is full of pine wood stakes. Tibbs and Gillespie go back to Gillespie's house. Packy shows up and tells Tibbs to see a woman named Mama Caleba (Beah Richards). Tibbs goes to Mama's store and asks her who's paying for Dolores's abortion. Dolores shows up at Mama's. When Tibbs steps outside, he's met by the lynch mob again as well as Dolores's angry brother Lloyd. The real father of Dolores's baby and the person who murdered Colbert will also reveal himself. 

Besides figuring out the mystery (and not being misled by its delightful red herrings), the fun with IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT is watching Poitier's black Detective Virgil Tibbs and Steiger's white southern Sheriff Jim Gillespie square off against each other. The two men begin as adversaries, divided by race and class. The big city detective versus the small town hick sheriff. The educated Tibbs wants nothing to do with this racist town except to get out of it. Gillespie is a proud man who arrives at the realization that he's in over his head with this high profile murder in his quiet town. Tibbs and Gillespie butt heads over leads and suspects before acknowledging they need each other to solve the case. They go from fighting each other to fighting the elite of Sparta like the wealthy cotton plantation owner Eric Endicott or the mayor. In the end, they overcome their differences and prejudices. Gillespie rescues Tibbs from a possible lynching when Tibbs gets trapped by a mob of young white adults. Tibbs helps Gillespie solve the case.

IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT would be just another crime mystery if it wasn't for the race element. Sidney Poitier as Virgil Tibbs is cinema's first black crime solver. Poitier paved the way for future African-American sleuths like Richard Roundtree as private eye John Shaft in Gordon Parks SHAFT (1971) or Denzel Washington as WWII hero turned gumshoe Easy Rawlins in Carl Franklin's THE DEVIL IN THE BLUE DRESS (1995) based on the Walter Mosley novel. We've seen detectives before.  Only this time, the detective is black and educated. What IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT taught audiences in 1967 (during the turbulent Civil Rights movement) was the color of someone's skin did not mean they were different. We're all the same. Mrs. Colbert wants Tibbs to solve her husband's murder because he's the best one for the job. Not because he's black. Tibbs proves Harvey's innocence in the murder, befriending the white small time criminal. It's possible Harvey doesn't like negros. Tibbs cleared Harvey because it was the right thing to do. And if the murderer is white or black, Tibbs will make sure he's arresting the right person regardless of race or skin color. 

Rod Steiger's performance as the gum chewing, biased Sheriff Bill Gillespie is worthy of a Best Actor Academy Award nomination but was it worthy of winning the Best Actor Award? Steiger's competition in 1967 was Warren Beatty in Arthur Penn's BONNIE AND CLYDE; Paul Newman in Stuart Rosenberg's COOL HAND LUKE; Dustin Hoffman in Mike Nichols THE GRADUATE; and posthumously, Spencer Tracy in GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER? Beatty and Hoffman were probably too young to win yet. Tracy would have been a sentimental vote. For CRAZYFILMGUY, Paul Newman's performance is far and away the best. Regardless, Steiger came out on top that night.

Steiger's Gillespie is three dimensional in IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT.  He makes Gillespie human not a stereotypical lawman from below the Mason-Dixon line like we expect. The interaction between the white Gillespie and the black Tibbs is dynamic. Gillespie throws Tibbs in jail, tries to run him out of town not once but twice only to realize Tibbs is the best man to solve the murder case regardless of the color of his skin. When Gillespie invites Tibbs to his house, it's a major decision for the sheriff. We realize that beyond all his bluster that Gillespie is a lonely man. He probably doesn't have many friends. His job as the sheriff of Sparta is his life. Steiger's win as Best Actor for IN THE HEAT OF THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT showcases what a chameleon of an actor Steiger was. Steiger played a Jewish New Yorker in Sidney Lumet's THE PAWNBROKER (1964), a Russian businessman in David Lean's DR. ZHIVAGO (1965), and a Mexican outlaw in Sergio Leone's A FISTFUL OF DYNAMITE (1971) also known as DUCK, YOU SUCKER! My favorite Steiger role is in Elia Kazan's ON THE WATERFRONT (1954) as Marlon Brando's older brother Charley Malloy.

Sidney Poitier as Virgil Tibbs is intense in IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT as a man who just wants to get out of this town that has mistreated him since the moment he sat in their train depot waiting for the next train. Tibbs sense of duty as a police officer gets the better of him. Tibbs relishes the opportunity to solve the murder as a black man in this mostly white town. The success of IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT would lead to a sequel with Poitier reprising his role as Tibbs in Gordon Douglas's THEY CALL ME MISTER TIBBS! (1970) playing off IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT'S most famous line spoken by Poitier. Poitier would take a break from acting (partially) and turn to directing films far from the dramas he appeared in with films like the western BUCK AND THE PREACHER (1972) co-starring Harry Belafonte, the urban crime comedy UPTOWN SATURDAY NIGHT (1974) with Belafonte and Bill Cosby, and the buddy comedy STIR CRAZY (1980) with the unlikely duo of Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor. Poitier would appear in Phil Alden Robinson's ensemble comedy thriller SNEAKERS (1992) with Robert Redford, Dan Aykroyd, and Ben Kingsley. 

Warren Oates made a living early in his career playing humorously dim-witted characters like Officer Wood in IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT or Lyle Gorch in Sam Peckinpah's THE WILD BUNCH (1969). I first came across Oates as a white collar insurance investigator trying to catch jewel thief Ryan O'Neal in Bud Yorkin's THE THIEF WHO CAME TO DINNER (1973) co-starring Jacqueline Bisset. It was the movie on my flight to and back from Portland, OR to Maui. I watched it both times. Oates's Wood is never menacing or violent toward Virgil Tibbs. He's a racist version of Barney Fife. We're never quite sure what's going on in Wood's  head. Is he capable of murder or impregnating the teenager  Dolores? A newer audience would discover Oates when he appeared in Ivan Reitman's comedy STRIPES (1981) as Sgt. Hulka.

Actress Lee Grant is under used in a small but pivotal role as Mrs. Colburn, the wife of the murdered developer. Her importance in her brief scenes in IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT is recognizing that the only person who's going to solve her husband's murder is not the redneck cops of Sparta but a black detective. Grant would have bigger roles in films like Hal Ashby's SHAMPOO (1975) with Warren Beatty, Stuart Rosenberg's VOYAGE OF THE DAMNED (1976), and Don Taylor's DAMIEN: OMEN II (1978) co-starring William Holden. IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT is peppered with many supporting actors I would get to know watching television in the 70s including William Schallert (INNERSPACE), Matt Clark (THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES), and Anthony James (HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER). IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT would be Scott Wilson's debut film.  Wilson who plays Harvey Oberst in the film would so impress Poitier that he recommended Wilson to director Richard Brooks for his next film IN COLD BLOOD (also 1967). 

Another contributor to IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT'S success and winning the Academy Award for Best Picture are the artisans who worked on the film. Cinematographer Haskell Wexler (ONE FLEW OVER THE CUKOO'S NEST) was one of the first cameramen to tone down the lighting on actors with dark skin, producing less glare, providing a more realistic, less harsh look. IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT film editor Hal Ashby would graduate to becoming an acclaimed director. Ashby films include HAROLD AND MAUDE (1971), SHAMPOO, COMING  HOME (1978) with Jon Voight and Jane Fonda (with Wexler as cinematographer), and BEING THERE (1979) with Peter Sellers and Shirley MacLaine. Director Norman Jewison's commitment to more diversity in film included legendary music producer Quincy Jones (THE COLOR PURPLE) as composer of IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT and musician Ray Charles singing the film's theme song In the Heat of the Night.  Both Jones and Charles were black.

Director Jewison had a diverse career delving into different genres like the caper film in THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR (1968) with Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway, the musical with FIDDLER ON THE ROOF (1970) and JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR (1973); science-fiction in ROLLERBALL (1975) with James Caan, and the romantic comedy in MOONSTRUCK (1987) starring Cher and Nicholas Cage.  Jewison would return to racial themes amidst a World War II military drama in A SOLDIER'S STORY (1984) with a primarily black cast including Howard E. Rollins, Jr., Adolph Caesar, Robert Townsend, and a young Denzel Washington. The strength of the two protagonists in Jewison's IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT would lead to a hit television of the same name starring Carroll O'Connor (TVs ALL IN THE FAMILY) as Sheriff Gillespie and Howard E. Rollins, Jr (RAGTIME) as Detective Virgil Tibbs. The TV series ran on NBC for an incredible 7 years from 1988-1995. 

Although a seminal film as the United States came to terms with its race issues in the 1967, IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT'S good will did not happen overnight.  In fact, the film was made in Sparta, Illinois rather than Mississippi for the safety of Sidney Poitier.  Some of the America public was not ready for a black movie star. When the crew did film a small portion in Tennessee, Poitier received death threats from anonymous sources. IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT is a subtle film. At its core, it's a intriguing murder mystery. Underneath its surface, it's a microcosm of America's struggle with equality and race relations.  Social issues have always been important to the Academy Awards and IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT came out at the right place and right time as America churned toward the watershed year of 1968. 

It Happened One Night (1934)

"Immigrants get it done!!" I just saw the musical Hamilton last night and that line resonated with me (and drew cheers from the audience).  The word 'immigrants' has been unfairly dragged through the mud by a certain political party lately. Immigrants are a huge part of the fabric of the United States.  Immigrants helped to build America and make our country unique and diverse.  And if it wasn't for one particular immigrant, we may not have met characters like George Bailey from IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946), "Long John" Willoughby in MEET JOHN DOE (1944), or Jefferson Smith in MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON (1939). The immigrant responsible for these classic films was director Frank Capra, born in Sicily in 1897 and who immigrated to New York and eventually southern California with his family in 1903. 

Capra began his film career as a comedy writer for Mack Sennett silent films and moved to directing films in the late 1920s including LADIES OF LEISURE (1930) with a then unknown Barbara Stanwyck.  Capra's first big hit was IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (1934), the prototype for the romantic comedy that has been used over and over again to this day. The fact that IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT would be as successful as it was is a testament to Capra's immigrant grit and optimism. Neither stars Clark Gable nor Claudette Colbert wanted to be in the comedy.  IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT was under the banner of Columbia Picture, at the time considered a poverty row studio headed by Harry Cohn. To the amazement of everyone involved, IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT would go on to win the 5 major Academy Awards in 1934: Best Picture, Best Actor (Gable), Best Actress (Colbert), Best Adapted Screenplay (Robert Riskin), and Best Director (Frank Capra).  Only Milos Foreman's ONE FLEW OVER THE CUKOO'S NEST (1975) and Jonathan Demme's THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (1991) have repeated this incredible feat. 

With an adapted screenplay by Robert Riskin (MR. DEEDS COMES TO TOWN) based on a short story called Night Bus by Samuel Hopkins Adams and directed by Frank Capra, IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT begins with a splash (literally). Banished to her tycoon father Alexander Andrews (Walter Connolly) yacht in Florida after secretly marrying the fortune seeking weasel King Westley (Jameson Thomas) without her father's blessing, spoiled daughter and heiress Ellie Andrews (Claudette Colbert) jumps ship, swimming to land and avoiding her father's men. Ellie turns up at the bus station and buys (with the help of a nice little old lady) a one-way ticket from Miami to New York. At the back of the bus, Ellie sits next to newspaper reporter Peter Warne (Clark Gable) who has just been fired by his editor Joe Gordon (Charles C. Wilson). At their first rest stop, Ellie's suitcase is stolen. Peter chases after the thief (Ernie Adams) who eludes him. Ellie doesn't want to report the theft.  Peter begins to wonder who this nicely dressed woman is and what has she done.

At the next stop, Ellie naively asks Bus Driver #1 (a young Ward Bond) to wait for her while she runs an errand. Upon her return, she discovers the bus has left but Peter is waiting for her. Peter knows her real identity. Ellie's story is all over the front pages of every newspaper including the one Peter holds. Peter has a scoop in his hands. He sends a telegram (charges reversed) to his editor Joe that he has a hot story. Ellie and Peter catch another bus to New York. Ellie finds herself next to the annoying Oscar Shapeley (Roscoe Karns) who hits on the attractive traveler. Peter steps in and pretends to be Ellie's husband. Oscar backs off. A bridge is washed out along the bus route. Peter secures a room for Ellie and himself at a motel. It has two beds. Peter puts up a blanket between them, calling it the "Walls of Jericho" (a wonderful sexual innuendo that pays off at the end). Peter offers Ellie a deal. He wants the inside story on King Westley or he threatens to turn Ellie in to her father.

So begins the original opposites attract tale of a coddled socialite and a hard nosed reporter that we love in romantic comedies like IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT. Peter loans Ellie his pajamas for the night. He begins to undress in front of Ellie before she realizes what he's doing and retreats to her side of the room. When she wakes up the next morning, Peter has had her dress pressed and made breakfast for her. Ellie begins to let down her guard for the irascible Peter. Two detectives show up, snooping around for Ellie. Peter and Ellie pretend to bicker like a married couple inside their room, driving the detectives away. Back on the bus, Oscar sees the headline about Ellie and her father's reward to find her. Oscar tries to squeeze Peter into sharing the reward with him. Peter scares Oscar away with a fake kidnapping plot. A party blossoms on the bus with music and dancing causing the bus to crash into a swamp. After sleeping in a farmer's barn for the night, Peter and Ellie hit the road and try hitchhiking. Peter has no luck with his thumb. Ellie gives it a try and (famously) flashes her bare leg. The next car driven by a jolly man named Danker (Alan Hale) immediately screeches to a halt.

Danker drives them closer to New York. When they make a stop, Danker tries to drive away with their luggage. Peter chases Danker down and takes his car after a fight. Mr. Andrews flies to New York and makes a deal with King. He won't interfere with his daughter's marriage. He just wants a proper real wedding. Ellie's not in a hurry to get to New York. She and Peter stay at another motel outside Philadelphia. Ellie breaks down and professes her love to Peter.  While she sleeps, Peter races to New York and borrows some money from Joe so he can marry Ellie. The motel owners burst into Ellie's room and kick her out, believing Peter has left without paying. Ellie thinks Peter has ditched her. She calls her father who arrives with King in a police escort to take her home. Peter returns and sees the motorcade pass him with Ellie. He turns around but can't catch them. Mr. Andrews and Ellie have a frank conversation. Ellie admits she's in love with another man named Peter. Mr. Andrews has a letter from Peter about the reward. Ellie's heartbroken. She thinks Peter just wanted the reward. When Peter meets with Mr. Andrews before the wedding, he just wants reimbursement for the gas and motels. He doesn't want the reward. Peter confesses to Mr. Andrews he loves her daughter. Will Mr. Andrews share this admission to Ellie before she's at the altar with King? Will Peter and Ellie knock  down the "Walls of Jericho?" 

The birth of the classic romantic comedy may have begun with IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT. Today's movie fans will recognize two protagonists (one male; one female) who have nothing in common that meet by chance and initially, can't stand each other. Ellie is the spoiled rich girl who's never been out in the real world. Peter's the blue collar, hard drinking reporter with integrity. Unlike screwball comedies like  Howard Hawks BRINGING UP BABY (1933), IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT focuses on plot instead of rapid fire dialogue (although Riskin's dialogue is priceless). IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT does deal with class (elite vs blue collar) that audiences loved. It turns into a road movie as Ellie and Peter move from bus to hitchhiking to automobile as they begin to fall in love with each other. What makes IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT a cut above other romantic comedies later in the 30s is it was made Pre-Code. It's sexy and daring and provocative. The strict Hayes Code had not put the clamps on cinematic sexual foreplay yet. 

Claudette Colbert showing her bare leg and thigh to catch a passing car's attention and hitch a ride became IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT'S most iconic image and famous few frames of film. By today's standards, it's tame. But in 1934, Colbert using her sexuality to acquire transportation after Gable's thumb failed is a powerful tool that censors would soon put a stop to. Another risque scene involves Lombard and Gable sharing a motel room (albeit separate beds). Gable undresses in front of Colbert, showing her his preference of which items of clothing come off first. Colbert retreats to her side of the room in horror which leads to Gable's idea of hanging a blanket between their beds. "Prying eyes annoy me. Behold the Walls of Jericho. Maybe not as thick as the ones Joshua blew down with his trumpet but a lot safer." "The Walls of Jericho" is a biblical reference to a battle where the Israelites encircled the town of Jericho for six days before the walls fell down on the seventh day. Gable will have to encircle Colbert's heart until her desires cave in. 

In IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT, "the Walls of Jericho" represent a sexual innuendo that director Capra gets away with Pre-Code. Ellie and Peter can't have intercourse until either her marriage is annulled and/or Ellie and Peter get married.  Peter's hanging of the blanket aka "the Walls of Jericho" prevent them for the time from jumping into each other's pants. The "Walls of Jericho" will payoff in the film's final reel. Ellie leaves King at the altar after learning Peter does love her, jumping into a waiting car her father has left for her. Mr. Andrews reads a telegram from Peter after he and Ellie are married. They're honeymooning in a motel somewhere in Michigan. "The Walls of Jericho are toppling," Peter tells Mr. Andrews in the telegram. We never see them but the motel lights are on. The husband and wife owners giggle like school kids at what's going on in that room. The motel owner tells his wife the honeymooners requested a toy trumpet. The lights turn off and we hear the bugle briefly blare. The final shot is the blanket falling to the floor. It's a clever metaphor signifying our lovers have knocked down the barrier between them and can finally have sex. 

As I watched IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT, I realized that the film is the blueprint for two of my favorite romantic comedies that I had seen way before I ever watched Capra's gem. Both William Wyler's ROMAN HOLIDAY (1953) and Robert Zemeckis's ROMANCING THE STONE (1984) owe their romantic couples and situations to IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT. ROMAN HOLIDAY gives us another reporter, this time down on his luck international correspondent Gregory Peck who accidentally stumbles across the exclusive of a lifetime when he comes across AWOL princess Audrey Hepburn who has snook away from her royal handlers while visiting Rome. Peck and Hepburn will briefly fall in love but realize that a commoner and a royal can never live happily ever after. ROMANCING THE STONE introduces two completely opposite characters: a meek romance novelist (Kathleen Turner) and an extroverted fortune hunter (Michael Douglas) looking for her kidnapped sister. They have nothing in common and don't get along which can only mean they will fall in love with each other. Sounds like Colbert's Ellie Andrews and Gable's Peter Warne in IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT doesn't it?

For someone who didn't want to be in IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT, Clark Gable owns the movie, making struggling newspaper reporter Peter Warne one of his most engaging characters. Gable as Warne goes from defiantly drunk and despondent after he's fired by his editor to a chivalrous knight protecting the story of a lifetime when a stroke of luck has him sitting next to runaway heiress Ellie Andrews on a Greyhound bus. At first, Peter sees Ellie as his meal ticket back to legitimacy as a reporter. Peter will evolve as he falls for the spunky daughter of a millionaire who's never really been out in the real world with regular people. A leading man for his entire career, the 1930s were Gable's golden decade with IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT his first hit.  Gable would follow up with bigger films like William Wellman's CALL OF THE WILD (1935), Frank Lloyd's MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY (1935), and W.S. Van Dyke's SAN FRANCISCO (1936). Gable's rise from leading man to movie star would culminate in his most famous role as rogue Rhett Butler and his tumultuous relationship with southern belle Scarlett O'Hara (Vivian Leigh) during and after the Civil War in Victor Fleming's GONE WITH THE WIND (1939). 

Like Gable, Claudette Colbert also did not want to be in IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT and was so sure it was a bomb, she didn't even attend the Academy Awards where she won for Best Actress (apparently when she heard she had won, she rushed to the ceremony). What I find interesting about Colbert's Ellie Andrews is she doesn't really act spoiled. Ellie's just naive. She's lived a sheltered life, under the thumb of father Alexander who's bought her everything she wanted. In later romantic comedies with wealthy female protagonists, they're often more annoying and snootier to begin with before softening up to their blue collar love interest (like Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell in OVERBOARD). Colbert seduces with her big round eyes and nonchalant sexuality.  IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT was Colbert's first big hit. Other Colbert films to check out include Cecil B. DeMille's CLEOPATRA (1934), Ernst Lubitsch's BLUEBEARD'S EIGHTH WIFE (1938), and Preston Sturges THE PALM BEACH STORY (1942), a classic screwball comedy co-starring Joel McCrea. 

After watching the first third of IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT, you would think wealthy Alexander Andrews played by Walter Connolly was the villain of the film. He keeps his daughter Ellie captive on his yacht for defying him, secretly marrying scoundrel King Westley against his wishes. He has detectives scouring the East Coast searching for her when she escapes from her water bound prison. By the end of the film, Mr. Andrews is playing matchmaker, passing on separately to both Ellie and Peter that each one is completely in love with the other. Andrews saves the day before our lovers make a terrible mistake.  The portly Walter Connolly had a relatively short career (he passed away in 1940) but stood out playing wealthy characters like Andrews. Connolly's filmography includes screwball comedies like Howard Hawks TWENTIETH CENTURY (1934) with John Barrymore and Carole Lombard and William Wellman's NOTHING SACRED (1937) with Lombard and Fredric March. 

Two of the most recognizable supporting character actors of the Golden Age have small but memorable roles in IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT.  John Ford favorite Ward Bond plays the no nonsense Bus Driver #1 who strands Ellie at a bus stop when he won't wait for her to run an errand. Bond would work with Capra again 12 years later in IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE in a memorable role as George Bailey's buddy Bert the Cop.  Alan Hale has an unusual role in his long character actor career as the singing driver Danker who picks up hitchhikers Ellie and Peter on the road and later tries to drive off with their suitcases.  Hale usually played good guys, often in numerous Michael Curtiz films including THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD (1938), THE SEA HAWK (1940), and VIRGINIA CITY (1940). And a special shout out to Bess Flowers who plays Joe the Editor's long suffering but strong assistant Agnes. Agnes belongs in a screwball comedy with her deadpan face as Joe berates her for accepting Peter's collect calls and reverse telegram charges, never showing any emotion. She knows Joe will never fire her even though he threatens to. According to IMDB, Flowers was known as "Queen of the Hollywood Extras" appearing in over 800 films (usually as an extra) including 25 Best Picture Nominees.

Maybe because I haven't seen many of their movies, I get Claudette Colbert and Carole Lombard mixed up.  Both were fine comedic actresses, at the top of their game in the 1930s and 40s. Both were beautiful women but they don't look very much alike. Lombard was a blonde; Colbert had dark curly hair. It's their first names caused the confusion. Claudette and Carole. Ironically, Clark Gable was married to Carole Lombard from 1939 until 1942 when Lombard tragically died in a plane crash in Nevada. 

Sadly, Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable only made one other film together Jack Conway's BOOM TOWN (1940) co-starring Spencer Tracy and Hedy LaMarr. Their chemistry is what makes IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT a hit. By contrast, Colbert would make seven films with Fred MacMurray; Gable would make six films with Jean Harlow. IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT is Frank Capra's love letter to the romantic comedy with one of the most irresistible screen couples in film history in Colbert and Gable, planting the seed for future filmmakers to bring together two different characters with nothing in common who will take a journey and fall in love in the process. 

Blue Velvet (1986)

BLUE VELVET was my introduction to the surreal mind of director David Lynch (ERASERHEAD) who passed away a month ago in late January 2025. From the moment the titles appeared over a lush blue curtain rippling ever so slightly and Bobby Vinton crooned "she wore bluuuuuue velvet" during the opening montage, I fell down the Lynch rabbit hole and never looked back. Something in the neo noir BLUE VELVET resonated with me when I first saw it with some college friends at a film class. It was 1986.  Ronald Reagan was President. I remember Reagan touting the red, white, and blue spirit of America.  Apple pie and hot dogs. Wholesomeness. Community. Every day heroes. It seemed so perfect. But when I watched my local news or read the newspaper, I noticed a darker undercurrent. A youth soccer coach arrested for sexual misconduct with a player. A PTA treasurer embezzling school funds. A district attorney murdered after a clandestine meeting with an escort. 

What BLUE VELVET revealed was that past the white picket fences and shiny red fire engines we see at the start of the film was the hidden side to the Reagan Era at the time (or suburban America in general), symbolized by the camera in BLUE VELVET sinking below the perfectly manicured green lawn to reveal hundreds of teeming black beetles scurrying below the surface. There was a dark side to the American dream lurking in the underbelly of society. BLUE VELVET was the Hardy Boys meet the Marquis de Sade. My college friends and I had a tense (but brief) argument about what we had just seen. They thought it was trash. I was hypnotized by Lynch's confident style, dancing back and forth between bright goodness and dark, sadistic violence. Our friendship was frayed for a day or two until girls and Friday night parties and ESPN'S SPORT CENTER brought us back together. 

Written and directed by David Lynch, BLUE VELVET begins with Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle McLachlan) returning to his bucolic hometown of Lumberton (actually Wilmington, North Carolina) from college after his father Mr. Beaumont (Jack Harvey) suffers a medical emergency. While walking back from the hospital through an empty field, Jeffrey comes across a severed human ear. Jeffrey takes the ear to Detective John Williams (George Dickerson) with the Lumberton Police who promises to look into it. Jeffrey grows bored hanging around home with his mother Mrs. Beaumont (Priscilla Pointer) and Aunt Barbara (Frances Bay). He goes for a night walk, ending up at Detective Williams house. Jeffrey's curious about the investigation. Detective Williams can't discuss the case with him.  As Jeffrey leaves the house, Sandy Williams (Laura Dern), the Detective and Mrs. Williams (Hope Lange) high school daughter, materializes out of the darkness. Sandy has overheard her father talking about the severed ear and its possible connection with a nightclub singer named Dorothy Vallens (Isabella Rossellini). Sandy shows Jeffrey the Deep River Apartments where Dorothy lives.

The next day, Jeffrey picks up Sandy from high school and takes her to Arlene's Diner. Jeffrey tells her his plan to impersonate a pest control worker (his father's hardware store has the cannisters) so he can access her apartment and learn more about Dorothy. Jeffrey knocks on her door. Dorothy lets him in. As Jeffrey sprays around her apartment, the Yellow Man (Fred Pickler in a mustard suit) pays Dorothy a visit. With Dorothy distracted, Jeffrey quickly grabs a spare key from underneath her counter. Jeffrey and Sandy go to the Slow Club that night to watch Dorothy perform. After the show, Jeffrey returns to Dorothy's apartment to snoop around. Dorothy returns home unexpectedly. Jeffrey hides in her closet where Dorothy discovers him. Dorothy holds a knife on Jeffrey, forcing him to strip. There's a knock at her door. Jeffrey returns to hide in the closet. The sadistic, nitrous oxide sniffing drug dealer Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper) enters. Jeffrey watches as Frank sexually abuses and rapes Dorothy before departing. Jeffrey comforts Dorothy.  Before Jeffrey departs, he finds a photograph of Dorothy's husband and son under her couch.

Jeffrey recounts most of what happened in Dorothy's apartment to Sandy. "Why is there so much trouble in this world?" Jeffrey muses.  Jeffrey visits Dorothy again and begins to follow Frank. He sees Frank and the Yellow Man enter a building where a drug deal turns deadly. Jeffrey is falling in love with Sandy while carrying on a relationship with Dorothy. Jeffrey visits Dorothy again. They make love only Dorothy wants it rough much to Jeffrey's chagrin. As Jeffrey leaves Dorothy's apartment, he runs into Frank and his posse including Raymond (Brad Dourif), Paul (Jack Nance), and Hunter (J. Michael Hunter). Frank and his crew take Jeffrey and Dorothy on a joy ride. They visit a brothel to see Ben (Dean Stockwell), a pill popping, Roy Orbison crooning, drug dealing acquaintance of Frank. Frank is keeping Dorothy's husband and child against their will at Ben's. Dorothy is allowed to see her son briefly offscreen. 

Frank and his boys drive Jeffrey and Dorothy out into the country. Frank begins to abuse Dorothy again. Jeffrey punches Frank. Frank and his gang beat up Jeffrey and leave him semi-conscious in a lumberyard. Jeffrey makes it back home and turns in all his findings to Detective Williams about Frank, the Yellow Man (who turns out to be Det. Williams partner Tom Gordon), and Dorothy. Jeffrey's done with his snooping around. Jeffrey picks up Sandy for a date.  They go to a high school party and dance and make out. On their way home, a car chases them. Jeffrey thinks it's Frank but it's Sandy's former boyfriend Mike (Ken Stovitz). They pull over at Jeffrey's house where Dorothy emerges from the shadows naked and beaten. Jeffrey and Sandy take Dorothy to Sandy's house where they call an ambulance. They can't reach Detective Williams who's involved with a raid on a drug house. Jeffrey returns to Dorothy's apartment where he finds both the Yellow Man and Dorothy's husband (missing an ear) dead. Jeffrey begins to leave when Frank (in his disguise) pulls up and sees him. Jeffrey and Frank will have a final showdown in Dorothy's apartment. 

BLUE VELVET is Jeffrey Beaumont's awakening to the light and the dark that lurks in the world and in his heart. Director Lynch peels back the underside of the sleepy logging town of Lumberton, exposing its seedier side. Jeffrey is our guide to this underworld, uncovering secrets and miscreants he never knew existed. Jeffrey has only known the decent side of his hometown. He becomes enamored by the sleazier side when he sets eyes on the raven haired lounge singer Dorothy Vallens. Forced to watch (by his own carelessness) from the closet the abhorrent sexual behavior that Frank Booth forces Dorothy to perform, Jeffrey's repulsed and excited by it. Later, when Jeffrey makes love to Dorothy, she urges him to hit her, transforming Jeffrey (briefly) into Frank Booth Jr. But Jeffrey knows he's gone too far. He has a brief breakdown back at home that helps him to expunge the corruptness that had overtaken his soul. 

The two women Jeffrey encounters in BLUE VELVET are two sides of the light vs dark that Jeffrey's battling within. Sandy Williams (Laura Dern) represents what's wholesome and decent in Lumberton. She's blonde and dresses in white and pink, her purity symbolized in these colors. Sandy tells Jeffrey about a dream she had where the world was dark because there weren't any robins. "I guess it means there is trouble 'til the robins come," she says. Dorothy Vallens (Isabelle Rossellini) is not a bad woman just a broken one. She's from the other side of the tracks (or the other side of Lincoln Street which Jeffrey's aunt warns him to stay clear of). Dorothy's a brunette (even after she takes her stage wig off) and dresses in deep blues and purples. Dorothy represents the flip side of Sandy's angelic persona even though Dorothy's behavior is the result of Frank's physical and sexual abuse. Frank has kidnapped her husband and young son as collateral in his quest to become the drug kingpin of Lumberton. Dorothy will do anything for Frank to keep her family alive. Jeffrey falls in love with Sandy yet cheats on her with Dorothy. Good vs evil. Black against white. It's the age old conflict that lurks in suburbia just as much as big cities. Lynch sums it up simply at the end when a robin lands on the Beaumont's window sill with a beetle in its beak. The robin represents good; the beetle evil. Good has triumphed. 

My favorite films always have shots, montages, or set pieces that burn into my brain and never leave. In David Lynch films, these are affectionately known as "Lynchian." BLUE VELVET has many Lynchian moments, some obscure, others more vivid. Most are visual, some aural, thanks to Lynch collaborators cinematographer Frederick Elmes and sound designer Alan Splet. BLUE VELVET'S opening montage of bright Kodachrome Norman Rockwell shots (a red fire truck and a white picket fence with yellow flowers) that dissolves into a mass of black beetles scurrying just below the green grass sets the tone. You can almost feel BLUE VELVET'S texture while watching. Dorothy's bruised pink walls in her apartment. The black as Hades hallway outside her apartment. The thick blue curtains rippling in the opening credits. The severed ear tips us off that sound (as always in a Lynch film) will be important. The ominous humming of an air conditioning unit next to Dorothy's outside stairwell. The rippling flame that extinguishes at the end of a Jeffrey nightmare. Frank's oxygen mask pumping nitrous oxide into his nose and lungs, foreshadowing heinous acts to come.

BLUE VELVET'S set pieces would set the standard for future strange sequences in David Lynch films like WILD AT HEART (1990) and MULHOLLAND DRIVE (2001) and hit television show TWIN PEAKS (1990-91). After the weird discovery of the severed ear, Lynch lulls us into a false sense we're watching a typical mystery until BLUE VELVET'S first set piece where we're forced (along with Jeffrey hiding in the closet) to watch the psychotic Frank Booth abuse and rape Dorothy. To make it stranger, Frank needs an oxygen mask to get him aroused. This bizarre scene begins with Dorothy catching Jeffrey spying on her undressing and turns the tables on Jeffrey forcing him to strip at knifepoint , teasing him before a knock on the door from Frank turns the whole scene upside down again. This was the sequence that divided my college buddies and I (briefly). Who would pay to watch this kind of sexual violence? Lynch had turned my classmates and I into voyeurs just like Jeffrey, appalled by Frank's actions but watching nonetheless.

BLUE VELVET'S second absurdist set piece begins with Frank and his gang taking Jeffrey and Dorothy to meet Ben. I always thought Ben's place was a safe house where Frank had Dorothy's husband and child stashed. It turns out it's a brothel but a brothel teleported from the 1960s. Ben's like a pimp queen, fluttering his eyes, wearing white makeup and a garish jacket with a white ruffled tuxedo shirt. The room is dark except for lava lamps. The prostitutes have beehive hairdos and cat-eye glasses. They're short or tall and not very attractive. Frank plays a cassette of Roy Orbison singing In Dreams while Ben lip syncs to the song holding a work light for a microphone. The bizarre sequences continues to an abandoned lumber yard. Frank and his crew beat up Jeffrey but not before Frank puts on red lipstick and kisses Jeffrey. Ben lip syncs to In Dreams again while a short hooker gyrates awkwardly to the music on the car's hood. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to David Lynch's world. 

Lynch's earlier mainstream films like THE ELEPHANT MAN (1980) and DUNE (1984) were harbingers of Lynch's unique and weird vision that bubble to the surface in BLUE VELVET. In THE ELEPHANT MAN, the night porter Jim (Michael Elphick) at the hospital who sells tickets to his questionable friends to gawk and party with the Elephant Man (John Hurt) reminded me of Jeffrey surrounded by Frank, Ben, and Ben's strange middle-aged prostitutes and Frank's cretinous cronies. And Baron Vladimir Harkonnen's (Kenneth McMillan) sexual predation of a male slave in DUNE finds a more real, dangerous reimagining in Dorothy's apartment when Frank pays a visit to abuse and rape Dorothy.  Both the Baron and Frank even have breathing apparatuses that aren't exactly for their health.

David Lynch would find his alter ego in Kyle McLachlan who plays amateur sleuth Jeffrey Beaumont in BLUE VELVET. Both were from small towns (Lynch was born in Missoula, Montana; McLachlan in Yakima, Washington). Lynch cast the unknown McLachlan in the pivotal role of Paul Atreides in his version of DUNE. The film (at the time) was not well received but McLachlan's solid in his first starring role. In BLUE VELVET, McLachlan finds his footing as the boyish, naive prodigal son who returns to his hometown to uncover menace he never knew existed. McLachlan even resembles Lynch in BLUE VELVET with his button up shirts to the neck and well coiffed 80s hair. Lynch would cast McLachlan as his surrogate in the widely popular (but brief) TV show TWIN PEAKS as young FBI Agent Dale Cooper. BLUE VELVET was the blueprint for TWIN PEAKS with its moody setting in the Pacific Northwest logging town of Twin Peaks as Cooper called in to investigate the murder of a high school prom queen and uncovers more sinister and quirky things about the town. 

I will speak about Lynch's love of older, classic actors (sometimes forgotten) that he would cast in his films shortly yet Lynch (and his casting director) were great at finding new talent. BLUE VELVET is a great example. Laura Dern (daughter of actors Bruce Dern and Diane Ladd) had made an impression a year earlier in Joyce Chopra's SMOOTH TALK (1985) starring Treat Williams based on a Joyce Carol Oates short story. BLUE VELVET and later Lynch's WILD AT HEART would catapult Dern into the mainstream. Dern's Sandy Williams is the angel on Jeffrey's shoulder that mostly keeps him from succumbing to the blackness he encounters. She's virginal yet not quite. Lynch would let her play a sexier, wilder, looser version of Sandy in WILD AT HEART with Nicholas Cage and Willem Dafoe.

Isabella Rossellini was best known as the daughter of actress Ingrid Bergman and Italian director Roberto Rossellini (OPEN CITY). Rossellini was modeling and a spokesmodel for Lancome when she turned to acting. After appearing in Taylor Hackford's WHITE NIGHTS (1985), Lynch cast her as the tortured lounge singer Dorothy Vallens in BLUE VELVET.  It's a brave performance from Rossellini who appears naked and abused through much of the film while maintaining her sole goal to keep her kidnapped son alive. For all of BLUE VELVET'S blackest sequences, Lynch provides the happiest moment at the film's end when we see Dorothy sitting at the park, watching her son play. 

For two other key supporting players, BLUE VELVET resurrected their careers. Dennis Hopper (son of PERRY MASON actor William Hopper) stood out early in his career in supporting roles in Stuart Rosenberg's COOL HAND LUKE (1967) and Henry Hathaway's TRUE GRIT (1969). Hopper stepped behind the camera to direct and star in the cult classic, counter culture EASY RIDER (1969) with Peter Fonda and Jack Nicholson. But after playing a drugged out photojournalist in Francis Coppola's APOCALYPSE NOW (1979), Hopper disappeared from the cinema scene. He would resurface as the terrifying criminal Frank Booth in BLUE VELVET, searing himself into critics, casting directors, and movie fans permanently with his over the top performance. Hopper's Frank is scary and menacing yet he likes a good Pabst Blue Ribbon beer over a Heineken any day of the week. After BLUE VELVET, Hopper would go on an incredible run of fine, wide-ranging performances in films like Tim Hunter's THE RIVER'S EDGE (1986), David Anspaugh's HOOSIERS (1986), Tony Scott's TRUE ROMANCE (1993), and Jan de Bont's SPEED (1994). 

Dean Stockwell who plays the eye fluttering, make up wearing pimp to Frank named Ben in BLUE VELVET started began his career as a child actor in films like Elia Kazan's GENTLEMAN'S AGREEMENT (1947) and KIM (1950) starring Errol Flynn and based on the Rudyard Kipling novel. Stockwell took a break from Hollywood in the 1960s to join the hippy movement (along with Dennis Hopper). Like Hopper, Stockwell rebounded in the 1980s. Stockwell's Ben in BLUE VELVET is the prototype for future bizarre Lynchian characters, strange and mesmerizing. Ben's living in another decade, the 50s or 60s with his ruffled tuxedo shirt and lip synching to Roy Orbison's In Dreams. Besides BLUE VELVET, Stockwell would have fine turns in Wim Wenders PARIS, TEXAS (1984) and Jonathan Demme's MARRIED TO THE MOB (1988) where he received a Best Supporting Actor nomination as a Mafia don. Stockwell, who did guest shots in television in the 70s returned to the medium in the 90s, gaining new fans on the popular sci-fi TV show QUANTUM LEAP (1989-1993) co-starring Scott Bakula. 

For a person who started out in art school, you would think Lynch might not have a sense of classic Hollywood. Yet, many of Lynch's movies and television shows have veteran actors and actresses forgotten or not seen in a while or the occasional obscure cameo or two. In Lynch's first mainstream film THE ELEPHANT MAN , he cast legends John Gielglud (JULIUS CAESAR), Anne Bancroft (THE MIRACLE WORKER), and Wendy Hiller (SEPARATE TABLES). With DUNE, Lynch cast Jose Ferrer (CYRANO DE BERGERAC), Francesca Annis (CLEOPATRA), and Freddie Jones (FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED). I've mentioned Hopper and Stockwell comebacks in BLUE VELVET. WILD AT HEART gave us Diane Ladd (CHINATOWN).  Veteran western actor Richard Farnsworth (TOM HORN) was the lead in Lynch's THE STRAIGHT STORY (1999). Lynch pulled from obscurity two WEST SIDE STORY stars Russ Tamblyn and Richard Beamer for his TV series TWIN PEAKS and added Piper Laurie (THE HUSTLER). John Ford stock player Hank Worden (THE SEARCHERS) even had a cameo at age 90 in TWIN PEAKS.  David Bowie had a blink and you would miss it cameo in TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME  (1992) and long forgotten Robert Blake (TVs BARETTA) showed up in Lynch's LOST HIGHWAY (1997) before he was charged with murdering his wife. Lynch liked to act too. One of his final appearances was playing famed director John Ford in Steven Spielberg's autobiographical THE FABELMANS (2022).

A few final BLUE VELVET tidbits.  Actor Jack Nance first appeared in Lynch's debut film ERASERHEAD (1977) kicking off Lynch's film career. Lynch would reward Nance by casting him in DUNE, BLUE VELVET, as supporting character Pete Martell in the TV show TWIN PEAKS, and lastly LOST HIGHWAY. Sadly, Nance passed away from a head injury after an altercation with some homeless youths in 1996 in South Pasadena, CA. Lynch and composer Angelo Badalamenti first teamed up in BLUE VELVET (Badalamenti has a cameo as Dorothy's pianist at the lounge). The two worked together for the rest of Lynch's films.  Badalamenti's music was the perfect counterweight to Lynch, sometimes dreamy, sometimes jazzy, and often sinister like Pink Room from TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME. Lastly, dejected after the critical and financial failure of DUNE, Lynch still had a deal to make another film for producer Dino de Laurentis. De Laurentis had a studio in Wilmington, North Carolina. Lynch had his BLUE VELVET script and de Laurentis and producer Richard Roth gave Lynch six million dollars and final cut. BLUE VELVET was critically acclaimed but not necessarily a financial success at first. Over time, BLUE VELVET became recognized as a classic and resurrect David Lynch's career. 

As strange and sometimes violent Lynch's movies were like BLUE VELVET, David Lynch was a sentimentalist at heart. Lynch took us on surreal journeys that most of the time culminated with a happy ending. With Lynch's passing, I don't see any filmmaker at this time that will pick up his mantle which is extremely sad. Lynch's legacy lives on thru his films and television shows. I hope at colleges around the United States, young students (like me and my classmates in 1986) will have a chance to view David Lynch's works and open their eyes to a hidden world they never knew existed. "It's a strange world, isn't it?" Jeffrey Beaumont says.  Yes it is Jeffrey.  Yes it is. 

The Ladykillers (1955)

Rarely in their careers did the Coen Brothers (Joel and Ethan) have a misfire. From their first film the low budget, neo noir BLOOD SIMPLE (1984) to their Academy Award winning NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN (2007) based on the Cormac McCarthy novel, the Coen Brothers films were unique, mesmerizing, and well crafted. The Coens weren't afraid to remake a classic film either. They set their eyes on Henry Hathaway's western TRUE GRIT (1969) starring John Wayne in his Oscar winning performance as Sheriff Rooster Cogburn. The Coen's TRUE GRIT (2010) with Jeff Bridges as the eye patch wearing Cogburn and co-starring Matt Damon and Hailee Stanfield added some scenes from the novel by Charles Portis that weren't in the original film but stayed fairly faithful to the original movie. The Coen's TRUE GRIT was praised as a modern classic of a previous classic, a far cry from the brothers first attempt at their remake of the British crime caper comedy THE LADYKILLERS (2004), based on Alexander Mackendrick's original THE LADYKILLERS (1955). 

Mackendrick's THE LADYKILLERS was one of the last and best British comedies that emerged from Ealing Studio that also included Charles Crichton's THE LAVENDER HILL MOB (1951). Many of the best Ealing Studio comedies starred Alec Guinness who appears in THE LADYKILLERS.  I have not seen the Coen Brothers version of THE LADYKILLERS (which stars Tom Hanks in the the Guinness role) and will probably watch it during my review of the original THE LADYKILLERS. Mackendrick's THE LADYKILLERS reputation proceeds itself.  Besides Guinness, THE LADYKILLERS also boasts two of my favorite British comedy actors Peter Sellers and Herbert Lom. Both were just starting out in films in the 1950s but would later reunite for the PINK PANTHER films for director Blake Edwards in the 60s and 70s.

I would surmise that the Coen Brothers were probably fans of the original THE LADYKILLERS and its underappreciated director with the strange last name Mackendrick. Alexander Mackendrick was born in the United States but moved to his native Scotland shortly after. Most of Mackendrick's success was at Ealing Studios where he made five films including THE MAN IN THE WHITE SUIT (1951) with Alec Guinness and his best known Ealing film THE LADYKILLERS. The Coens may have been drawn to remaking THE LADYKILLERS as Mackendrick's comedies had a darker edge to them than the typical British comedies of the era which tended to be more lighthearted. The Coens were no strangers to their own black comedies like THE BIG LEBOWSKI (1998) and BURN AFTER READING (2008). The success of THE LADYKILLERS would capture the attention of Hollywood who would bring Mackendrick back to the United States for his next film SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS (1957) starring Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis.  Mackendrick would discover that success would be a double-edged sword. 

With an original screenplay by William Rose (IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD) and directed by Alexander Mackendrick, THE LADYKILLERS begins by introducing us to Mrs. Louisa Wilberforce (Katie Johnson), a sweet, slightly dotty widow. Mrs. Wilberforce visits the local police to tell the Superintendent (Jack Warner) her neighbor was mistaken about alien beings she thought landed in her garden. The police officers politely dismiss her. Mrs. Wilberforce who lives in a crooked house at the end of a cul-de-sac on top of a train tunnel next to Kings Cross Railroad station has two rooms for rent. She's followed home by a tall, thin menacing figure who turns out to be Professor Marcus (Alec Guinness).  Marcus is looking for two rooms to rent so he and his fellow musicians string quartet can rehearse. 

Only Marcus and his friends aren't really musicians. They're criminals planning an armored wagon robbery delivering $60,000 pounds to the Kings Cross railroad station.  Marcus's oddball crew includes the jittery and disgraced Major Claude Courtney (Cecil Parker), the menacing Louis Harvey (Herbert Lom), the empty headed muscle One-Round (Danny Green), and the overconfident Cockney Harry Robinson (Peter Sellers). As Marcus and the gang plot their robbery, Mrs. Wilberforce unintentionally becomes a nuisance, disturbing their planning with offers of tea or to needing help to catch her mischievous parrot General Gordon.  But Professor Marcus has a use for Mrs. Wilberforce. She will unwittingly help them bring the stolen money back to her house so the men can divide the loot.

Creating a perfect diversion, the armored wagon robbery goes off without a hitch. The money is transferred from smaller cases into a large trunk. Driving a fake taxi, Robinson drops the trunk off at the train station where it's placed in the parcels section. Mrs. Wilberforce arrives by taxi at the train station and picks up the trunk for Professor Marcus. She departs the train station to the gang's relief only to return moments later.  Mrs. Wilberforce forgot her umbrella. The gang follows Mrs. Wilberforce's taxi as it works its way to her home. Mrs. Wilberforce sees the Barrow Boy (Frankie Howerd) abusing a horse for eating apples off his cart. Mrs. Wilberforce forces the Taxi Driver (Kenneth Connor) to stop and comes to the horse's rescue to the horror of Marcus and his conspirators. Mrs. Wilberforce, the Barrow Boy, the Taxi Driver, and the large trunk end up at the police station. After the scuffle is cleared up, two police officers bring Mrs. Wilberforce and the large trunk to her home. Marcus and his thieves show up for their final rehearsal. The money is divided up and each criminal places his share in their musical instrument case. The men bid adieu to Mrs. Wilberforce. Marcus and his men have pulled off the perfect crime until One-Round catches his cello case in Mrs. Wilberforce's door. One-Round tugs at the case, ripping it open, his share of the loot spilling out onto the sidewalk in full view of Mrs. Wilberforce.

Marcus and the gang return to the house to try to explain why One-Round's cello case contains loads of cash and no cello.  But before they can explain, four gray-haired ladies show up for Mrs. Wilberforce's tea party. One of Mrs. Wilberforce's friends Lettice (Edie Martin) has the latest newspaper with headlines about the armored wagon robbery which catches Mrs. Wilberforce's attention. She insists the men stay for tea with her friends.  After the tea party ends, Marcus admits to her they did steal the money but that there's no sense in returning it. Insurance has already covered the loss for all parties. Marcus tells her she'll be arrested with them if she goes to the police. With all the excitement, Mrs. Wilberforce falls asleep. Marcus and the gang decide they must kill Mrs. Wilberforce. But who will do it? Louis cuts up matchsticks. The Major draws the shortest lot.  He invites Mrs. Wilberforce upstairs to strangle her but chickens out and tries to flee with his share of the money out the second floor window. THE LADYKILLERS concludes with Marcus, Claude, One-Round, Louis, and Harry turning on each other in dark fashion leaving Mrs. Wilberforce to confess to the police she has the stolen money. But will the authorities believe her and where are the criminals who stole it?

What makes THE LADYKILLERS a comedy classic is the combination of smart plotting and writing, excellent directing, and perfect casting. Mackendrick and Rose set up the ending of the film in the first scene when the local police politely dismiss Mrs. Wilberforce's explanation of her neighbor believing aliens were in her garden. We don't realize it yet (and Marcus and his gang will never know it) but the authorities will never believe anything that Mrs. Wilberforce will tell them going forward including that she has the stolen sixty thousand pounds in her home. The introduction of each criminal is done simply with each character walking up and framed in the doorway as Marcus introduces them to us and Mrs. Wilberforce. Each criminal is distinct. Marcus with his protruding front teeth (resembling actor Alistair Sim but more on that later). The hulking One-Round. Major Claude and his thick moustache. Harry with his pompadour hair.  And the fedora wearing Louis. Even Mrs. Wilberforce stands out with her rosy cheeks, expressive blue eyes, and pink dresses. 

Color plays a big part in THE LADYKILLERS. In fact, THE LADYKILLERS is the only comedy in the Ealing Studios canon made in color. It might be a black comedy but the film is full of deep, saturated colors. The two rooms that Professor Marcus rents from Mrs. Wilberforce are a garish green and bright red. The green room symbolizes the thieves greed and vice as they plot their robbery of the armored wagon. The red room foreshadows the deaths that will occur as the gang contemplates murdering Mrs. Wilberforce before turning on one another. Mrs. Wilberforce's pink outfit represents purity amongst all these shady criminals dressed in mostly black and gray suits.

Production design plays an important role in THE LADYKILLERS. Mrs. Wilberforce's house is the perfect (if unsound) structure for Professor Wilburn and his cohorts. The pictures don't hang straight. The staircase to the second floor leans one way. The house is crooked like the men who have moved in temporarily. Film historians point out that Mrs. Wilberforce's home represents the end of the British Empire with its Victorian decor. Pictures of 19th century debutantes, bucolic forests, and Mrs. Wilberforce's deceased sea captain husband adorn the first floor and along the staircase. Her home is the last bastion of the once great, powerful British Empire. 

Even with the great Alec Guinness and the first major film role for Peter Sellers, sweet little old Katie Johnson shines in THE LADYKILLERS.  Johnson's Mrs. Wilberforce is literally a force of nature in the film, blissfully unaware of her superpowers besides honesty. As Professor Marcus laments, "It was a great plan, except for the Human Element. So many plans fail to take into account the Human Element. Mrs. Wilberforce will always be with us. A whole army couldn't take her out." Like many great robbery films from John Huston's THE ASPHALT JUNGLE (1951) to Michael Mann's HEAT (1995), the Human Element ruined those robberies as well. But those films didn't have a sweet, innocent old lady blow up their intricate scheme. We are warned at the very start of THE LADYKILLERS that Mrs. Wilberforce will be a thorn in the criminals side when she causes a baby in a pram to cry for no reason. THE LADYKILLERS would be Katie Johnson's crowning achievement.  The 76 year old actress would win a BAFTA (British Academy Award) for her performance as Mrs. Wilberforce, appear in one more film HOW TO MURDER A RICH UNCLE (1957), and pass away that same year at the age of 78, two years after THE LADYKILLERS release.

When Alec Guinness was offered the role of the ringleader Professor Marcus for THE LADYKILLERS, he told director Mackendrick that fellow English actor Alistair Sim (STAGE FRIGHT, A CHRISTMAS CAROL) was born to play the role. Mackendrick informed Guinness that Sim had been offered the part but was unavailable.  The chameleon Guinness (perhaps as a homage) would transform himself into resembling Sim complete with buck teeth and wispy, blondish hair.  It is another of Guinness's finest comedic performances. Professor Marcus is the brains behind the robbery plot. He and his co-conspirators pull of his master plan only to watch it unravel at the hands of the kindly, unassuming Mrs. Wilberforce. Looking over Guinness's filmography, he was the top comedic actor in the 1950s until Ealing Studios quit making comedies at the end of the decade. Guinness would easily slide into drama, becoming David Lean's good luck charm from THE BRIDGE OVER RIVER KWAI (1957) to DR. ZHIVAGO (1965). Mostly working in British television in the 1970s, George Lucas would introduce Alec Guinness to a new generation of fans as Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi in STAR WARS (1977). 

Although Herbert Lom and Peter Sellers would become famous for their roles as the suffering turned psychotic Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus and bumbling Inspector Jacques Cousteau respectively in THE PINK PANTHER films, Lom and Sellers were just starting out in film when they appeared in THE LADYKILLERS. Lom started out playing exotic supporting characters in films like Henry Hathaway's THE BLACK ROSE (1950). Lom was performing as the King of Siam in the London stage production of The King and I and his head was mostly shaven during the filming of THE LADYKILLERS. Lom wears a fedora for most of the film to hide that fact. Lom's Louis is the most cold-hearted, ruthless member of the five. Yet, even Louis and all his menace can't overcome the indomitably kind Mrs. Wilberforce.

For Sellers, THE LADYKILLERS was his first meaningful film having worked primarily on the BBC Radio Show The Goon Show. Sellers shows glimpses of his future expertise in comic pratfalls and mishaps in THE LADYKILLERS especially when he volunteers to catch Mrs. Wilberforce's parrot. His skill at accents make him perfect as the Cockney speaking hood Harry Robinson. Alec Guinness was Sellers idol and working with Guinness on THE LADYKILLERS would rub off on Sellers. Guinness had played eight roles in Robert Hamer's KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS (1949). Sellers would soon play multiple roles himself in both Jack Arnold's THE MOUSE THAT ROARED (1957) and more famously in Stanley Kubrick's DR. STRANGELOVE (1964). 

When I first heard Cecil Parker speak in THE LADYKILLERS, I knew exactly where I had heard Parker before. Parker played the philandering, isolationist loving Mr. Todhunter in Alfred Hitchcock's train thriller THE LADY VANISHES (1938).  He was an unlikable character who got his just desserts at the film's end, waving a white handkerchief  and still getting shot and I couldn't forget him. In THE LADYKILLERS, dressed in a yellow suit and with his white moustache, Parker's Major Claude looks like the prototype for Colonel Mustard from the Clue board game. The Major is some kind of disgraced military officer, fallen on hard times. If it wasn't for Mrs. Wilberforce, the nervous Major would probably have been the Human Element to ruin the perfect crime. Instead, he's the first one to turn on the group and the Major pays the price.

The filmmakers don't give Danny Green's towering, lumbering character One-Round any back story in THE LADYKILLERS but his name tells it all. He must have been a boxer who either knocked his opponent out in the first round or he took a dive versus his heavyweight opponent in the first round per a gambler or mobster's orders. As imposing as Green's One-Round is, he's a kitten around Mrs. Wilberforce. Other credits for Green include Nathan Juran's THE 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD (1958) and William Castle's remake of  THE OLD DARK HOUSE (1963).

CRAZYFILMGUY made a last second effort and viewed the Coen Brothers remake of THE LADYKILLERS. Although many English movies and television shows have successfully been reworked into American movies and television shows, the Coen Brothers version is not one of those successes. Yes, the Coens made some interesting choices, moving the location of THE LADYKILLERS from London to Mississippi; changing the pleasant English Mrs. Wilberforce into the bible thumping widow Marva Munson (Irma P. Hall); and the heist from an armored wagon holdup near King's Cross to plucking $1.6 million from a riverboat casino. What the Coen Brothers remake proves is that THE LADYKILLERS belongs in England.  It's an English comedy with unique English characters that just doesn't Americanize. The Coens dumb up most of the criminals (easier for American audiences to recognize), throw in heaps of profanity, and make their THE LADYKILLERS the opposite of Mackendrick's sophisticated gem. 

For director Alexander Mackendrick, THE LADYKILLERS would be his calling card to Hollywood where Burt Lancaster would hire him to direct the savage SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS (1957) written by playwright Clifford Odets and Ernest Lehman based on Lehman's novel. Today, SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS is considered a masterpiece.  For audiences in the 1950s, the film's blistering take on a gossip columnist who rules New York and the soulless press agent who tries to appease him was too much for audiences. SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS would be a critical and box office failure at the time. Mackendrick would only make a couple more films before he was offered the job as Dean of the Film Department of the California Institute of the Arts where he was beloved by film students from 1969 until his death in 1993.

When you watch a heist film, you often find yourself rooting for the criminals to get away with the crime. In THE LADYKILLERS, I was rooting for Professor Marcus and his odd accomplices. They had pulled off the perfect crime, they weren't going to hurt Mrs. Wilberforce, and they were just waiting for One-Round to say goodbye.  But heist films almost never end happily. THE LADYKILLERS even tosses a red herring when Mrs. Wilberforce slumps in her sitting chair as if she's expired only to awaken from a quick nap. The criminals have multiple opportunities to just flee and take their chances that the police won't believe her story (which turns out to be true).  But poor judgement will cloud their thinking and they decide to kill Mrs. Wilberforce to silence her with unexpected consequences for them all. 

Like some American comedies, some English comedies from the past are lowbrow, reaching to the wider public with stale, familiar stories and going for cheap laughs.  The British Ealing Studios raised the comedy bar with its series of original stories using a troupe of excellent English actors to delight audiences. THE LADYKILLERS was Ealing's crowning achievement in the 1950s, starring its best comedic actor Alec Guinness (surrounded with a hilarious group of supporting players) and its best director Alexander Mackendrick, all shot in glorious, deep color. Even one of America's best pair of directors couldn't improve on THE LADYKILLERS.  Make yourself a cup of tea, settle into your soft recliner and prepare yourself for 91 minutes of dark, comedic glee.