Hook (1991)

My first encounter with J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan was through Walt Disney but it wasn't the animated PETER PAN film from 1953. It was the fairly benign Peter Pan ride based on the animated film at Disneyland in Anaheim, CA. The ride consists of sitting in a small pirate ship and flying over sequences from the film. It's the beginning of the ride where you feel like you're soaring over London that captured my imagination immediately.  The Peter Pan Ride is one of my favorite rides at Disneyland in large part to that feeling of flying like Peter Pan.

It was inevitable that Peter Pan and Steven Spielberg were going to cross paths at some point in their careers. Both were boys who didn't want to grow up. Peter Pan wanted to hang out and have fun with Tinkerbell and the Lost Boys on the island of Neverland forever. Spielberg had turned his childhood passion of making Super 8mm films into a wunderkind career with hit films like RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981) and E.T. THE EXTRATERRESTIAL (1982) that showed a filmmaker in tune with young audiences. Finally, in 1991, Spielberg and Peter Pan would team up for a new take on the J.M. Barrie's beloved characters from screenwriters James V.  Hart and Malia Scotch Marmo called HOOK based on J.M. Barrie's 1911 novel called Peter and Wendy.

When HOOK was first released, I was outraged. Spielberg had been so great at filming his movies on real locations, capturing incredible images. HOOK was filmed entirely inside studio soundstages. The nerve! How could Spielberg and company deprive us of real locations. But if you think about it, that's the only way that HOOK was ever going to get made. A giant pirate ship, the most famous director in the world at the time, and an all-star cast (with big salaries) including Robin Williams, Dustin Hoffman, and Julia Roberts, the budget of HOOK might have exceeded ten times what it was if they had tried to film in Hawaii or the Caribbean or Tahiti. Spielberg had learned his lesson from JAWS (1975). Filming on water is hell.  

In Steven Spielberg's modern update of the Peter Pan story, co-written by James V. Hart and Malia Scotch Marmo based on a story idea by Hart and Nick Castle, the never grow old Peter Pan is now paunchy, adult Peter Banning (Robin Williams), a successful corporate Merger & Acquisitions lawyer with a wife Moira (Caroline Goodall) and two children, 11 year old Jack (Charlie Korsmo) and 7 year old Maggie (Amber Scott). Whether it's taking business calls at Maggie's school play (she's playing Wendy in her school version of Peter Pan) or missing Jack's baseball game, Peter has become too consumed with work to notice he's missing out on his children's lives. The Banning family fly back to London for a dedication of a hospital wing to be named after Moira's Granny Wendy (Maggie Smith) for her work with orphans. Its been ten years since Peter last saw Wendy and her her maid Liza (Laurel  Cronin) and friend Tootles (Arthur Malet). Peter doesn't remember the adventures he had with them when he was a young Peter Pan. When Peter, Moira, and Wendy return from the dedication, they find the flat covered with scratch marks and Jack and Maggie gone, kidnapped by Peter's nemesis Captain James Hook (Dustin Hoffman) who leaves a note requesting Peter Pan's presence in Neverland. 

Granny Wendy tries to help Peter remember his past, that he's the real Peter Pan. Peter has no memory of his childhood. Peter's glowing fairy friend Tinkerbell (Julia Roberts) arrives to nudge Peter. Peter still has no recollection. Tinkerbell ends up kidnapping Peter and flies him to Neverland and a Pirate Town where Hook has taken Jack and Maggie.  Disguising himself as a pirate, Peter watches as Hook and his loyal boatswain Mr. Smee (Bob Hoskins) show off a trussed up Jack and Maggie to their crew. Seeing his kids in danger, Peter reveals himself to Hook. Hook doesn't believe he's Peter Pan. He's overweight, afraid of heights, and cannot remember how to fly. Hook gives Tinkerbell three days to get Peter back to his old self or he will kill execute him. Peter wakes up back with his old gang the Lost Boys at their hideout.  Only they have a new leader named Rufio (Dante Basco). Tinkerbell asks the Lost Boys to help get Peter in shape and remember who he was.  The Lost Boys are torn. They're not sure if the adult in their midst is Peter or not. 

Back on his pirate ship, Hook wants to die. There's no adventure left in Neverland. His greatest foe Peter Pan is now just a boring lawyer. Smee suggests Hook make Peter's son Jack like him. Hook can become Jack's new father to make Peter become jealous and return to his old self. The Lost Boys eat a pretend dinner until Peter regains his imagination. Suddenly, their plates and bowls are teeming with colorful food. Hook becomes frightened by the sound of Jack's pocket watch. He thinks the crocodile that ate his hand has returned. Smee reminds him the crocodile is dead. Hook takes Jack to a broken clock store. Hook urges Jack to break a clock for every time his father Peter broke promises to him. Jack smashes away, slowly brainwashed by Hook and Smee. Hook stages a baseball game in Jack's honor. Peter and the Lost Boys show up in disguise. Jack hits a home run, the ball blasted into the sky. Hook waits at home plate to congratulate Jack. Peter realizes he must remember how to fly so he can defeat Hook and win his son back. Peter still can't fly until Jack's baseball falls back to earth and hits him on the head.

Peter looks into the water and sees a reflection of his younger self. Peter's shadow leads him to an old tree and the remnants of Wendy's house. Tinkerbell is waiting for him. Peter begins to remember how he became an orphan, how Tinkerbell rescued him, how he first met young Wendy (Gwyneth Paltrow), now Granny Wendy. Peter realizes becoming a father as his happy thought. Peter flies again. The Lost Boys rejoice. Tinkerbell reminds Peter he needs to save his children. Tinkerbell grows to human size and kisses Peter. She tells Peter she loves him. Peter tells Tinkerbell he loves Moira and his kids. Hook prepares to make Jack a real pirate when Jack and the Lost Boys show up for a final fight. Peter rescues Maggie first. Hook stabs Rufio. Peter bests Hook in a duel. He lets Hook live. When Hook tries to kill Peter again, his errant sword pierces the giant stuffed Crocodile that ate his hand. The Crocodile momentarily comes to life and falls on Hook, swallowing the pirate. Peter brings Jack and Maggie back to London where they happily reunite with Moira and Granny Wendy. They are a family again.

After watching HOOK for possibly the third time, my opinions of the film have not changed drastically. I have a little more clarity about some of the plot and production. HOOK has some truly magical moments that you would expect from a Spielberg film but it's an uneven film that takes a while to find its footing. Although the opening, modern scenes in Los Angeles set the tone for the schism in Peter and Jack's relationship, the beginning seems disjointed until the family reaches London (more familiar Peter Pan territory). Peter's first time back at the Lost Boys hideout is too over the top and noisy as if Spielberg was reverting back to his younger anything goes 1941 (1979) days. Only when Captain Hook arrives on the screen does HOOK start to feel like something special.

The meat of the story in HOOK is the tug of war between Hook and Peter Pan for Peter' son Jack's fidelity. Spielberg expertly shows Hook and Smee slowly turning Jack against his father, using all the times Peter promised to catch one of Jack's baseball games only to miss it as the bait. What young Jack doesn't realize is Hook is using him to trigger adult Peter into turning back into young, carefree Peter Pan, the adversary Hook is craving to battle and kill. Hook pretends to care for Jack but it's just a charade. When we see Jack dressed as a mini-Hook, it's terrifying for the audience and Peter. The transformation is almost complete. Jack is about to go over to the dark side. This triangle between Hook, Jack, and Peter is the heart and soul of HOOK and corrects the film from its early bumpy beginning. 

I never thought I would hear myself saying this but what saves HOOK and Spielberg's film is the music by composer John Williams. Williams music is synonymous with some of the best known musical scores in cinematic history: JAWS (1975), STAR WARS (1977), and RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. Williams scores are like another character. You don't forget them.  You hum them in the shower. HOOK's score would probably never even come up on a Top Ten list of John Williams best scores. It doesn't have a hook (no pun intended) like JAWS although I heard a few flourishes in HOOK that will find their full sound in Chris Columbus's HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE (2001). 

After an awkward beginning in HOOK with some awful modern music to coincide with Peter's corporate job, Williams demonstrates why music can be so important to a film as a whole and to a scene in particular. Williams music in HOOK elicits the right emotions that Spielberg visualizes throughout the film, tugging at our heartstrings again and again. Peter realizing he's losing his son Jack to Hook. The Lost Boys rejoicing when Peter rediscovers his imagination and his ability to fly. And Peter reconnecting with his wife and kids. Williams music for HOOK may not be as unforgettable as CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND (1977) or E.T. THE EXTRATERRESTIAL. The music is emotional. 

HOOK is buoyed by strong performances by its two leads -- Dustin Hoffman as Captain Hook and Robin Williams as Peter Banning/Pan. At this point in his career, Spielberg never had two bigger stars in one of his films. The moment Hoffman appears with his black curly locks and red suit, he dominates the screen. Many actors would play Hook flamboyantly. Hoffman plays Hook as charming and funny rogue always with an undercurrent of menace. He doesn't go into histrionics but make no mistake, Hook's still a cutthroat. Winner of two Best Actor Academy Awards in Robert Benton's KRAMER VS KRAMER (1979) and Barry Levinson's RAIN MAN (1988), HOOK should have been another feather (and Oscar) in Hoffman's pirate hat. It was not to be. HOOK is still one of Hoffman's finest and fun performances.

Who else could have played the adult Peter Pan than the human dynamo with more energy than the boyish Peter Pan himself but Robin Williams. Williams was born to play the adult Peter who must find his youthful past self. As you would expect, Spielberg reins in Williams for a good part of HOOK, having him play the adult Peter as boring and rigid corporate pirate. Other Williams films like George Roy Hill's THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP (1982) and Peter Weir's DEAD POETS SOCIETY (1989) managed this tall task of clamping down on Williams manic energy with success, achieving fine performances from Williams. Spielberg maybe holds on a little too long with letting the genie out (yes an ALADDIN pun). When Peter does rediscover his youthful, mischievous self, we all exhale with relief. Williams lets loose, staying in character, resisting ad libs and improvisation. Williams continues to show his growth and maturity as a dramatic actor in HOOK.  

At the time, casting Julia Roberts to play Tinkerbell in HOOK seemed like divine inspiration. A rising movie star after a string of hits including Herbert Ross's STEEL MAGNOLIAS (1989), Garry Marshall's PRETTY WOMAN (1990), and Joel Schumacher's FLATLINERS (1990), Roberts may have caught Spielberg's attention in PRETTY WOMAN where she's outgoing and bubbly. Just the type of personality needed for Tinkerbell. Roberts doesn't deliver. Whether it was a cancelled wedding with FLATLINER co-star Kiefer Sutherland or her inexperience dealing with green screen special effects and not working directly with her co-stars (she does play a miniature fairy that flits around after all), Roberts seems out of her element in HOOK. There's very little whimsy to her fairy. Her best scene is when she grows to human size to tell Peter she loves him. I think an older, more experienced Julia Roberts would play Tinkerbell beautifully now. In 1991, HOOK was too big a moment for her.

Every villain needs a good sidekick. Bob Hoskins as Mr. Smee provides that partnership with Hoffman's Captain Hook in HOOK. Smee is a friendlier, Iago like confidant to the pirate king, part psychiatrist, part administrative assistant. It's Smee that proposes to Hook he step in to replace Peter as Jack's father figure, brainwashing the young, impressionable boy, turning him on his real father Peter. Smee and Hook are like childhood buddies that have stayed friends for years. Hoffman and Hoskins are terrific together. Hoskins began his career playing tough, British blue collar characters in films like John Mackenzie's THE LONG GOOD FRIDAY (1980) and Neil Jordan's MONA LISA (1986). Hoskins would prove he was deft in comedy too, showcasing his ability in Robert Zemeckis's WHO KILLED ROGER RABBIT? (1988) and soon after, in HOOK. 

Spielberg once again knocks it out of the theater with his child actors in HOOK. From Henry Thomas and Drew Barrymore in E.T. THE EXTRATERRESTIAL to Christian Bale in EMPIRE OF THE SUN (1987) to Joseph Mazzello in JURASSIC PARK (1993), Spielberg's direction of child actors has been mind boggling. Add HOOK'S Charlie Korsmo (and to a lesser extant Amber Scott) to that list. Korsmo gives a heartbreaking, emotionally nuanced performance as Peter's son Jack, grappling with longing for his father's love and support versus siding with Peter's sworn enemy Hook who has stepped in to fill the vacuum Peter has left. Other fine films to catch Korsmo in include Paul Brickman's MEN DON'T LEAVE (1990) and Warren Beatty's DICK TRACY (also 1990).

Korsmo and Scott aren't the only child actors in HOOK. The Lost Boys provide Spielberg with his largest young cast of his career (and apparently a handful on the set). Spielberg wisely makes the Lost Boys diverse so that the audience can differentiate between each one. Memorable Lost Boys include Dante Basco as their new leader Rufio, Raushan Hammond as Thud Butt, James Madio as Don't Ask, and Thomas Tulak as Too Small. HOOK is full of fun cameos.  Look for singer/drummer Phil Collins (Genesis) as a police inspector, Glenn Close as the unfortunate buccaneer Gutless, Jimmy Buffett (Margaritaville) and David Crosby (of Crosby, Stills, and Nash) as members of Hook's pirate crew, and a young Gwyneth Paltrow as young Wendy. 

Some final HOOK observations. Spielberg channels his inner Michael Curtiz with the Lost Boys swinging from one ship to another to attack Hook's pirates ala Curtiz's CAPTAIN BLOOD (1935) and THE SEA HAWK (1940). HOOK was made just at the dawn of CGI (Computer Generated Images). Yet, the Tinkerbell effects are underwhelming and may contribute to my overall unhappiness with Julia Roberts performance. Where Spielberg did succeed is with the use of shadows in HOOK which play an important visual. It's Peter's shadow that leads him to uncover his past self and become the impish Peter Pan again. Earlier in the film, Jack's shadows looms over adult Peter as he takes a business call on his phone, hinting at the splintering of their relationship. 

With my initial disappointment with HOOK when it was released in 1991, my favorite live action version of the Peter Pan story was Universal's PETER PAN that came out in 2003. It didn't have big movie stars (Jason Isaacs is the most recognizable star in it) or a famous director (P.J. Hogan directed) but it seemed a more faithful, reliable telling of J.M. Barrie's story. Upon further review of HOOK, Steven Spielberg's film is a worthy addition to the Peter Pan cinematic library. It's not a perfect film but it takes chances with its story and setting and has the luxury of two excellent performances from Dustin  Hoffman and Robin Williams as the titular characters of Captain Hook and Peter Pan as they duel for the soul of Peter's young son Jack and a film saving musical score from the great John Williams. 

Return of the Jedi (1983)

After the cliffhanger ending of the middle installment THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK (1980), STAR WARS fans who were there from the beginning (like me) had no idea what to expect from the third episode of the trilogy. Even the title was kept a secret by creator George Lucas until close to its release. As it would turn out, RETURN OF THE JEDI (1983) would be a split personality of a finale. The first 45 minutes of JEDI were as strange and mysterious as audiences could have expected (including providing us teenage fanboys with the indelible image of a scantily clad Princess Leia in loin cloth and golden brassiere). The second half of JEDI reverted back to a more mainstream story and images STAR WARS fans were accustomed to and revealed a side of Lucas fans weren't expecting: adorable, little furry creatures from the forest moon of Endor called Ewoks that could be turned into all kinds of toy merchandising.

RETURN OF THE JEDI provided fans with plenty of old and new characters to be excited about: the return of the gluttonous gangster Jabba the Hut; more screen time for everyone's favorite Mandalorian bounty hunter Boba Fett; a new monster that Luke Skywalker encounters in Jabba's palace called Rancor; a new creepy majordomo for Jabba the Hut named Bib Fortuna; and the afore mentioned (ahem) sexy Princess Leia barely dressed as Jabba's slave girl. But those same enthusiastic fans were disappointed in Lucas's choice of freedom fighters to assist our heroes in defeating the Galactic Empire on Endor. Ewoks. A mix between dwarves and bears, the Ewoks were too cute and cuddly for die hard STAR WARS fans (I did not have a problem with them). Lucas's affinity for cute characters would raise its ugly head again with the character of Jar Jar Binks in STAR WARS: EPISODE 1 - THE PHANTOM MENACE (1999).

As with THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, Lucas again turned the day to day directorial reins for RETURN OF THE JEDI over to another fairly unknown director as he had previously with Irvin Kershner in THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK: Welsh director Richard Marquand who was just coming off a successful adaption of Ken Follett's World War II thriller novel EYE OF THE NEEDLE (1981) with Donald Sutherland and Kate Nelligan.  Lucas still oversaw the entire production daily to ensure Marquand was achieving his vision. And RETURN OF THE JEDI'S screenplay was written by Lucas along with THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK co-screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan. The third film in this incredible trilogy was still Lucas's baby. 

RETURN OF THE JEDI opens one year later after THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK as Darth Vader (David Prowse; voiced by James Earl Jones) visits a newer, better, partially built second version of the armored space station the Death Star. Vader warns the current Admiral that the Emperor (Ian McDiarmid) will be arriving soon and expects the station to be completed. We jump to Tatooine where R2DS (Kenny Bake) and C3PO (Anthony Daniels) arrive at Jabba the Hut's palace with a message from Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill). Jabba's majordomo Bib Fortuna (Michael Carter) brings the droids to Jabba. Luke's holographic message is to strike a bargain with Jabba for Han Solo's (Harrison Ford) release. Han decorates Jabba's den frozen in carbonite. Disguised as a bounty hunter, Leia (Carrie Fischer) brings in a handcuffed Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew). Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams) also lurks in the palace. At night, Leia and Chewbacca thaw out the temporarily blind Han only to be caught by Jabba and his court of alien creatures. 

A hooded Luke shows up at the palace. He finds Leia chained to Jabba as a slave girl. Han and Chewbacca stuck in a cell. Luke attempts to make a deal with Jabba only to be lured to a trap door where he tumbles to a pit and dispatches of Jabba's pet creature Rancor.  Jabba and his crew take the prisoners on his Sail Barge into the desert where he plans to throw them into the Sarlaac Pit where a tentacled creature with sharp teeth awaits. With the assistance of R2D2, Luke reobtains his green light saber. He along with Han, Leia, and Lando dispatch of Jabba, Boba Fett, and the other scum, blowing up the barge.  Luke and R2D2 head to Dagobah to visit Yoda (Frank Oz). Han, Leia, Chewbacca, and Lando reconnect with the Rebel Alliance.

The Emperor arrives on the new Death Star to meet with Vader. He tells Vader to be patient about finding Skywalker. Luke will come to Vader. Luke connects with Yoda on Dagobah. Yoda confirms that Vader is Luke's father. The 900 year old Yoda passes away peacefully. Luke is visited by the Force Ghost of Obi-Wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness). Obi reveals to Luke that Leia is Luke's twin sister. Obi tells Luke to become a true Jedi, he will have to confront Vader. The Rebel Alliance make Lando a general.  Admiral Ackbar (Tim Rose) sends Han, Leia, and the rest (including Luke who has returned from Dagobah) on a mission to the forest moon Endor to knock out an energy shield that protects the new Death Star. With the shield disabled, the rebels squadron of X-Wing fighters can destroy it. Using a stolen Imperial shuttle and pass code, Luke, Han, and the others pass through the Death Star's checkpoints to Endor. The Emperor and Vader sense Luke is on that shuttle.

On Endor, the group encounter storm troopers. Luke and Leia chase after a pair of fleeing storm troopers on speeder bikes before they can warn the Empire. Leia is knocked off  her speeder bike. She's found by Wicket (Warwick Davis), a furry inhabitant of Endor called Ewoks. When Luke and Han are captured by more storm troopers, they're rescued by a tribe of Ewoks who take them back as prisoners to their wooded encampment where they find Leia. The Ewoks believe the golden droid C3PO is a god. Luke makes C3PO levitate, scaring the Ewoks who accept the visitors as friendly.  Luke reveals to Leia that they are brother and sister. Vader arrives on Endor where Luke surrenders to him. While Vader takes Luke back to the Death Star and turns him over to the Emperor, Lando and his squadron prepare to attack the Death Star. Will Han, Leia, and the Ewoks be able to knock out the energy shield so Lando and the Rebel Alliance can blow up the new Death Star? And will Luke be able to turn his father Darth Vader away from the dark side or will the Emperor destroy Luke and extinguish the Jedi Knights for good?

I remember when Time Magazine had STAR WARS as its cover story in 1977, film critic Richard Corliss stated that Lucas's fantasy film referenced everything from Flash Gordon to Robin Hood to the Wizard of Oz. In RETURN OF THE JEDI, Lucas and Kasdan definitely pay homage to some of those stories. The band of Ewoks can be compared to Robin Hood's Merry Men in Michael Curtiz's 1938 THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD (with Han Solo as Robin Hood and Princess Leia as Maid Marian. The Ewoks assault on the deflector shield and the storm troopers protecting it is reminiscent of Robin's Merry Men attacking the Sheriff of Nottingham and King John's soldiers when they ride through the Sherwood Forest. The Ewoks also remind me of the Seven Dwarves from SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARVES (1937). The Ewoks are short in stature and each one has a slightly different personality similar to the Dwarves. When Wicket comes across Leia on the forest floor, it's like the Dwarves finding Snow White asleep in their cottage.

Luke and Leia hopping on speeder bikes to pursue a pair of fleeing stormtroopers harkens to William Wyler's BEN HUR (1959) and its famous chariot race. When Luke and a stormtrooper are side by side, clashing their speeder bikes against each other, trying to knock the other one off, it's a space version of Charlton Heston and Stephen Boyd dueling it out with their chariots in BEN HUR. And Luke's removal of Darth Vader's helmet to see for the first time his father's human face can be linked to Dorothy pulling the back the curtain in Victor Fleming's THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939) to reveal the all and powerful Oz is just a normal human being. 

I never fully appreciated the father/son storyline between Luke and Darth Vader when I originally watched RETURN OF THE JEDI. Vader was cool but kind of a stock matinee villain in the vein of the bad guy in a western complete with black suit and helmet. There wasn't much depth to Vader's personality in the first two STAR WARS films except for his heavy breathing (and James Earl Jones's fantastic voice). With RETURN OF THE JEDI, we finally see a human side to the machine like Vader as he grapples with the Emperor's wishes to either turn Luke to the Dark Side or destroy the young Jedi. Luke also struggles with trying to connect with a father he never knew and bring him back to the good side of the Force (Lucas will explore Vader's aka Annakin Skywalker's back story in his prequel trilogy beginning with THE PHANTOM MENACE). This father/son subplot is the strongest, most dramatic part of the STAR WARS series. Ultimately, Vader stands up to the Emperor, sacrificing his life to save his son Luke's, tossing the Emperor to his death down a shaft on the Death Star. Luke's taking off Vader's helmet to reveal our first look at his father Annakin's face is one of the most poignant scenes in the series.

Beginning with STAR WARS and then THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, Lucas and his creative team made tremendous strides in each film with its visual effects. RETURN OF THE JEDI boasts the most impressive and visually stunning space landscapes of the trilogy including dozens of X-Wing fighters zipping and darting around the Empire's Star Destroyers during a dog fight, more spaceships in a single shot than we had ever seen before. The matte paintings of Jabba's fortress set against the Tatooine desert or the multiple moons of Endor are breathtaking. My favorite image is the partially built second Death Star, floating malevolently in space, like a decaying haunted house or partial skull. 

For RETURN OF THE JEDI, Lucas brought back a favorite villain, spotlighted another that had become a fan favorite after THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, and introduced some new creatures. The gangster Jabba the Hut was talked about but never seen in the original STAR WARS before technology brought him to visual life in Lucas's STAR WARS SPECIAL EDITION version. A large space slug like Sydney Greenstreet, Jabba is despicable whether decorating his den with a frozen Han Solo or forcing Leia to be chained to him as his personal slave. Leia will get her revenge on Jabba on the Space Barge. A minor, barely seen character in THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, bounty hunter Boba Fett (Jeremy Bulloch)  with his unique suit and jet pack has a little more screen time in RETURN OF THE JEDI as one of Jabba's hired guns. Boba's father Jango Fett will be prominent in the STAR WARS prequel series such as STAR WARS: EPISODE II - THE ATTACK OF THE CLONES (2002). 

My two personal favorites in RETURN OF THE JEDI are two new characters.  Bib Fortuna is Jabba's Iago like majordomo and key advisor.  You can't miss him with his orange eyes and large green tentacle sprouting from his head and around his throat. The Rancor is Jabba's pet predator, hidden in the bowels of his palace awaiting Jabba's next unsuspecting victim to step onto Jabba's trap door. Bones litter the Rancor's lair. The Rancor's screen time is short lived as it comes up against one foe it cannot devour. Luke Skywalker. 

If THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK showcased Han Solo and Leia, RETURN OF THE JEDI is Mark Hamill's chance to shine again as Luke Skywalker, the young farm kid we met back in STAR WARS (1977) who dreamt of flying X-Wing fighters for the Rebels. What a journey it's been.  In RETURN OF THE JEDI, Luke starts off calm and mysterious as he infiltrates Jabba's palace, channeling his mentor Obi-Wan Kenobi. He witnesses the passing of another teacher in Yoda on Dagobah. Luke's determination to connect with the father he never knew in Darth Vader and bring him back to the good side of the force is touching. Vader will save his son from the Emperor and their final farewell with Luke lifting Vader's helmet off to see his father's face for the first time is powerful. Hamill rises to the challenge with a mature performance in the final film of the trilogy.

Some final RETURN OF THE JEDI trivia tidbits. For most of the production, the title of the third film was going to be REVENGE OF THE JEDI.  But weeks before the film was going to be released, Lucas went back to his original title RETURN OF THE JEDI.  I think he made the right choice. Harrison Ford had only signed up for the first two films and had become a major movie star after Steven Spielberg's RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981). His character Han Solo was frozen in carbonite in THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK with the thought he might not want to return for the third film. Ford did sign up for RETURN OF THE JEDI. He's got some of the film's best quips but it's not Ford's strongest appearance in the trilogy as everyone's favorite mercenary Han Solo. Jabba's Palace is Lucas's attempt to top the Cantina scene from STAR WARS with even more strange and bizarre aliens including Bib Fortuna, the Rancor, and palace guards that look like walking warthogs. RETURN OF THE JEDI even throws in a dance sequence at the palace that turns deadly for one of the dancers. The tone of that sequence never quite works for me.

Making just one film is a tricky thing. Making three films like the STAR WARS series that has lasted the test of time and seared itself into Pop Culture seems impossible but George Lucas and his creative team pulled it off. RETURN OF THE JEDI was a satisfying conclusion to Lucas's trilogy that turned out to be the middle section of a nine part story. Lucas would discover that capturing lightning in the bottle not twice but three times was not so easy. Although his prequels (THE PHANTOM MENACE, ATTACK OF THE CLONES, and REVENGE OF THE SITH) tracing the rise and transformation of Luke's father Annakin Skywalker from Jedi protege to the evil Darth Vader had their moments and introduced the STAR WARS universe to a generation of new fans (like my son), it wasn't the original. More recently, the final three films in the series (THE FORCE AWAKENS, THE LAST JEDI, and THE RISE OF SKYWALKER) faced even tougher scrutiny and did not satisfy many die hard fans (like my son or I). The STAR WARS universe is still going strong in the cinema and on streaming television.  But they will never top the original STAR WARS, THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, or RETURN OF THE JEDI experience. 

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.