The Hustler (1961) and The Color of Money (1986)

No one will ever accuse CrazyFilmGuy of imitating a pool hustler. Having played several games of pool over the recent holiday on a friend's new pool table, I was reminded that one has to practice and practice and play consistently to be a good pool player. Yes, I can occasionally hit a good shot or even consecutive shots but then I evolve back to the terrible pool player that I am. One time at a San Fernando Valley Cowboy bar, I became a pool hustler by accident for about an hour. It was a quarter to play the previous winner. He knocked the eight ball into the side pocket during the match. That's a scratch and he lost. I took over the table and won three more matches because each challenger hit the eight ball into the pocket prematurely. Skill had nothing to do with my pool hustling at the Cowboy Saloon. It was all luck that night.

But actor Paul Newman did practice and practice to play pool hustler "Fast" Eddie Felson in THE HUSTLER (1961). It adds to the believability for his character. Director Robert Rossen makes sure to shoot the billiard game in wide shots so we can see that Newman, Jackie Gleason,  and the other actors are really playing pool and playing pretty darned well. My first encounter with "Fast" Eddie Felson was the sequel to THE HUSTLER called THE COLOR OF MONEY (1986) directed by Martin Scorsese with Paul Newman back as the older and maybe wiser Eddie Felson and Tom Cruise as the young hotshot pool phenom who reminds Felson of himself. It had some nice camerawork by Scorsese and a good soundtrack but I probably should have watched THE HUSTLER first to learn Eddie's backstory. Now that I'm older and wiser (but still a terrible pool player), CrazyFilmGuy is going to do just that and watch the definitive story THE HUSTLER (which I've never seen) first and then revisit THE COLOR OF MONEY.

Directed by Robert Rossen (ALL THE KING'S MEN) with a screenplay by Sydney Carroll and Rossen based on the novel by Walter S. Tevis, THE HUSTLER open with "Fast" Eddie Felson (Paul Newman) and his partner Charlie Burns (Myron McCormick) pulling up to a local bar/pool hall outside of Pittsburgh. Eddie and Charlie are pool hustlers. The opening sequence quickly introduces the audience to the pool hustle as Eddie and Charlie hustle the local patrons and even the bartender (a young Vincent Gardenia) out of a couple hundred dollars.

Eddie may be a pool hustler but he's also a very good pool player. His ultimate goal is to beat the legendary Minnesota Fats (Jackie Gleason). Eddie and Charlie arrive at Ames Hall in New York where Fats frequents. Fats hasn't lost in 15 years according to one of the locals Big John (Michael Constantine). Eddie gets his chance when Fats arrives at his usual 8pm. Eddie and Fats play an epic game spanning over 24 hours, drawing a large crowd at times including gambler Bert Gordon (George C. Scott) who bankrolls Fats. Both men are up and down with the money. At one point, Eddie has won $11,400 dollars. But he can't walk away and Fats crushes him. Eddie and Charlie end up at a fleabag hotel and Eddie ditches Charlie, taking a bus to another town, hoping for a fresh start.

Eddie encounters Sarah Packard (Piper Laurie), an young alcoholic woman, at the bus station then again in a nearby bar. Eddie moves in with Sarah and they become lovers. Charlie tracks Eddie down to Sarah's apartment. Charlie wants to get back out and hustle pool with Eddie. For Eddie, their partnership is over. Eddie runs into the gambler Bert at a poker game. Bert offers to put up some money for Eddie to hustle pool again but Bert's cut is too steep and Eddie spurns him. Eddie tries to hustle some local toughs at a bar near the docks. The thugs, led by the Turk (Cliff Pellow) break both of Eddie's thumbs because he's a "pool shark." Did Bert put out the word to hurt Eddie?

Eddie stumbles back into the Sarah's arms.  Sarah nurses him back to health. Eddie becomes human again. Sarah falls in love with him. When Eddie recovers, he hooks back up with Bert and his 75/25 split. Bert has a mark in Louisville that he wants Eddie to play. Eddie brings Sarah with them. Bert and Sarah don't like each other. Bert sees her as a distraction for Eddie. Sarah believes Bert is using Eddie. Eddie plays a southern gentleman named Findley (Murray Hamilton). Findley wants to play billiards not straight pool. In typical Eddie Felson fashion, he falls behind in the money but then rallies to beat Findley. But in beating Findley, he loses Sarah who commits suicide by pills.

Eddie returns to Ames Hall for one final match against Minnesota Fats. Eddie brings the remaining $3000 that he won for Bert but cost him Sarah's life. Eddie's a different person in this game. He beats Fats but he beats him with character. Bert still wants his cut but Eddie reminds him, "I loved her Bert. I traded her in on a pool game." Eddie walks out of the Ames Hall a changed man.

THE HUSTLER examines the human condition. Director Rossen is more interested in a story about losers than winners. Eddie, Charlie, Sarah, even Bert and Minnesota Fats to some degree are losers in life. Bert calls Eddie "a born loser." He tells Eddie that he doesn't have "character" like Minnesota Fats. Rossen uses cripples as a metaphor for these self-destructive souls and their struggles. Sarah has a lame leg, weakened from polio when she was a child. Eddie has both his thumbs broken, making him a cripple, keeping him away from pool briefly. Even the black pool hall attendant Henry (Blue Washington) has a deformity that makes him limp when he walks. Life is hard for the people of THE HUSTLER.

The dynamics between all the characters is fascinating. Early in THE HUSTLER, there is the father/son relationship between Charlie and Eddie. Eddie breaks it off. The relationship between Eddie and Minnesota Fats is like a father/son relationship too. The young Eddie (son) trying to topple the older Fats (father) in straight pool. What son hasn't felt the elation when he finally beats his father at a game of basketball or a sprint. Gambler Bert takes a fatherly interest in Eddie even if it's for purely financial reasons. Eddie asks why Bert suddenly wants to "adopt" him. Bert may think Eddie's a "born loser" but he does recognize Eddie has "talent" meaning he can make Bert some money. Eddie doesn't recognize Bert will use him. But Sarah does.

Eddie and Sarah hustle each other in their relationship. Sarah tries to build Eddie up. She tells him he's a "winner" and that she loves him. Eddie supports Sarah's drinking habit and provides physical comfort for her. But they are using each other to get by. Sarah will make the ultimate sacrifice to save Eddie's soul from Bert. She scrawls with lipstick on a hotel bathroom mirror the words PERVERTED. TWISTED. CRIPPLED. This is her vision of her and Eddie's relationship. Earlier, she had written that she and Eddie had a "contract of depravity." They drink and make love but never show their true feelings or behave like normal human beings.

Bert is the devil and Eddie is willing to sell his soul to Bert to get back into the pool game. Bert tells Eddie that "character overcomes talent." Eddie had Fats on the ropes in their first encounter but Eddie gets overwhelmed by the moment, getting drunk and losing his cool while he was ahead. Fats just puts baby powder on his hands and calmly waits for Eddie to crumble. Sarah will become the angel who saves  Eddie's soul from Bert but at a terrible price. And Minnesota Fats is neither devil nor angel. He's a well-dressed, dapper Buddha, a Zen Master of Pool, unshakable whether he's winning or losing. He's cool and calm. He never raises his voice, never puts his opponent down. He just plays pool and he plays it very well. He is God in the pool hall, almost mythical. When Fats and Eddie play pool it's like two knights jousting with pool sticks and chalk.

THE HUSTLER would solidify Paul Newman as a movie superstar. Newman's portrayal of Eddie Felson would also define the type of characters Newman would play for the next 10 years - the antihero. He's not bad but he's not a good person either. HUD (1963), HARPER (1966), COOL HAND LUKE (1967), and BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID (1969) are all antihero roles that Newman would excel in. Newman was nominated for a Best Actor Academy Award as Eddie Felson and he should have won but he didn't (he lost to Maximilian Schell for JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG). Newman's performance is nothing short of magnificent. But the movie gods would reward Newman for that oversight by awarding Newman the Best Actor Academy Award for THE HUSTLER sequel THE COLOR OF MONEY. But don't be fooled. His 1986 Oscar is an apology for Newman's not winning in 1961 as Felson in THE HUSTLER.

Newman excels because he has three incredible costars to feed off. The scenes between Newman and Jackie Gleason, Newman and George C. Scott, and Newman and Piper Laurie are Oscar worthy, every one of them. There is not a wasted scene in THE HUSTLER. Jackie Gleason as Minnesota Fats is only in two scenes but he dominates those two scenes. Gleason was famous for his comedic character Ralph Cramden in the TV comedy show THE HONEYMOONERS but he demonstrates he could play dramatic parts equally as well. George C. Scott as gambler Bert Gordon reminds me why Scott's early film career was so electric. Watch Scott in THE HUSTLER or DR. STRANGELOVE (1964) and be awe struck by his intensity and delivery. Scott would win the Best Actor Academy Award in 1970 for his role as General George S. Patton in PATTON.  Piper Laurie may not be a household name or star which makes her character Sarah Packard all the more real and tragic. We don't have any preconceived opinions of her. Laurie would gain more fame as Sissy Spacek's fanatically religious mother in Brian DePalma's CARRIE (1976) and later costarred on the cult TV show TWIN PEAKS.

Even the smaller supporting cast in THE HUSTLER is uniformly good. Myron McCormick as Charlie Burns, Eddie's surrogate father and partner in pool hustling and Murray Hamilton as the salaciously pleasant Southern gentleman and billiard player Findley stand out. Other familiar faces to look for in THE HUSTLER include Michael Constantine (TV's ROOM 222) as Big John, another pool hustler/gambler; the real boxer Jake LaMotta (for which Martin Scorsese's 1980 film RAGING BULL is about) as a bartender, and World Champion pool player Willie Mosconi (who trained Newman and did some of the film's trick shots) as a pool hall regular.

Director Robert Rossen may be one of the most talented filmmakers you never heard of. I thought he was a French director (but he's not). Rossen started out as an accomplished screenwriter (THE SEA WOLF). Then, Rossen directed BODY AND SOUL (1947) and ALL THE KING'S MEN (1949) which won the Academy Award for Best Picture. But between 1949 and 1961 when he directed THE HUSTLER, Rossen was dogged by the House Committee for Un-American Activities (HUAC). Rossen ended up naming Communists to save his career and then went to Europe where he made a few mediocre films until he returned to New York to make his masterpiece THE HUSTLER. His next film LILITH (1964) with Warren Beatty would not do well and Rossen died in 1966, much too soon.

But what a masterpiece he left us with THE HUSTLER. Story, acting, photography, set design, and editing (the great Dede Allen) all come together. The film is about winners and losers not pool but Rossen spreads the story out over 5 different pool games, each match serving as a chapter or act for the story. Eddie is a loner and Rossen often frames Eddie by himself in doorways and windows, isolating him. Before I watched THE HUSTLER, I figured Eddie and Fats would play at the finale of the movie, the big match between the two best pool players. But Rossen has Eddie and Fats play early in the movie when Eddie loses and then again in the finale as he climbs from the lowest depths to transform into a wiser Eddie Felson.

Rossen wanted authenticity for THE HUSTLER. Most of the film was shot in New York in real pool halls, bus stations, and diners. THE HUSTLER oozes smoke and booze and sweat. Look at the characters seated around the fringe of the pool table when Eddie and Fats play with their slicked back hair, cigarettes, and dark glasses. They all look like hustlers and gamblers.

Martin Scorsese's sequel to THE HUSTLER called THE COLOR OF MONEY (1986) attempts to stand on its own while showing reverence for the original. The easiest distinction is THE COLOR OF MONEY is shot in color and not black and white like THE HUSTLER. Scorsese makes this clear at the very beginning with gaudy red title credits and deep, thick colors for the pool halls. THE COLOR OF MONEY'S music is more blues oriented with music by Willie Dixon, Eric Clapton, Muddy Waters. THE HUSTLER had a jazzy score. 9 ball is the game in THE COLOR OF MONEY. It was straight pool in THE HUSTLER.

I had seen THE COLOR OF MONEY first back in college but I had not seen THE HUSTLER so I didn't have any context about Eddie's past. Now that I've seen the two films in chronological order, how does THE COLOR OF MONEY stand up to THE HUSTLER? COLOR is a worthy sequel to THE HUSTLER. It's not as dark or as powerful as the first film but it's exciting to watch Paul Newman resume the "Fast" Eddie Felson character as a middle-aged man and show us what Felson has been up to since he walked out of Ames Hall after beating Minnesota Fats. Scorsese and screenwriter Richard Price adroitly focus on the older Felson's relationship with a young hotshot pool player played by the hottest young actor in the 80's Tom Cruise. Eddie has become a combination of Bert Gordon and Minnesota Fats and Cruise's Vincent is now the young Eddie Felson we saw in THE HUSTLER.

The film opens with an older "Fast" Eddie Felson (Paul Newman), white haired and with a moustache sitting at a bar chatting with his bartender/owner girlfriend Janelle (Helen Shaver). Felson is a liquor salesman now. Behind him, a young, naïve hotshot pool player Vincent Lauria (Tom Cruise) is taking Eddie's protégé Julian (John Turturro) to the cleaners while Vincent's girlfriend/manager Carmen (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) keeps an ever watchful eye. Eddie likes what he sees in Vincent, reminding Eddie of himself. Eddie tells Vincent "you are a natural character; you're an incredible flake. But I'll tell you something kiddo. You couldn't find Big Time if you had a road map."  Eddie takes the two of them under his wing. Eddie wants to take Vincent to a 9 ball tournament in Atlantic City. But he wants to take five or six weeks to get there, show Vincent and Carmen how to hustle in smaller pool halls and college bars (the film was also shot in Chicago). He wants Vincent to sometimes lose on purpose so when they get to Atlantic City, they can take everyone to the cleaners.

The trip starts out badly at first. Eddie's a little rusty getting back into the pool hustle. But Vincent's potential lights a fire in Eddie that has been extinct for some time. Vincent and Carmen test Eddie's patience. Eddie has a hard time controlling Vincent. Eddie needs Carmen to work with him not against him. It's tough for Vincent to "lay down" and lose on purpose. Eddie runs one hustle with Vincent in which Eddie and Carmen play boyfriend/girlfriend which makes Vincent jealous. When Vincent goes out after hours and beats a good local player named Moselle (Bruce A. Young) against Eddie's wishes, Eddie cuts his ties with Vincent and Carmen, giving them their stake (money) and wishing them the best in Atlantic City.

Eddie decides to compete again. But he gets schooled by another young hustler Amos (Forrest Whittaker) and begins to doubt his skills. Eddie gets his eyes checked and begins to wear glasses.  He plays again and starts to have some success even beating Moselle. Eddie enters the Atlantic City 9 ball tournament. He runs into Vincent and Carmen. Eddie and Vincent meet in the semi-finals where Eddie beats Vincent. But later, Eddie finds out that Vincent lost on purpose, winning a lot of money on a side wager. The next day, Eddie forfeits his championship match. He waits for Vincent. He wants Vincent's "best game." They rack them up to face each other as the film ends.

The fun of THE COLOR OF MONEY is watching how Eddie Felson has evolved. Eddie is part Bert Gordon, the gambler that almost destroyed Eddie in THE HUSTLER and forced him to retire. Eddie sees potential (and money) in Vincent just like Bert saw an opportunity to make money with Eddie. But Eddie is also part Minnesota Fats. Eddie's the wily veteran who wants to show the young Vincent he's still king of the pool table. Watching Eddie and Vincent square off in the finale is a little deja vu when the younger, cockier Eddie competed against the best in Minnesota Fats in THE HUSTLER.

Paul Newman doesn't miss a beat as he picks up his Eddie Felson character 25 years later. But THE COLOR OF MONEY'S Eddie Felson priorities have changed since THE HUSTLER. He doesn't play pool, instead bankrolling younger players like Julian and Vincent. The game has passed him by. It's 9 ball that they're playing not straight pool. Eddie chides Julian for taking drugs like cocaine and amphetamines. In Eddie's day, it was just alcohol. But as Eddie deals with Vincent and Carmen, he realizes it's like taking care of kids, kids that Eddie never had. When Vincent fails to follow Eddie's advice, Eddie finds that desire to win, to dominate in pool again. He gets his fire to be the best back.

The passing of the mantle from Eddie to Vincent is also the case of Paul Newman passing the baton to a young Tom Cruise. Newman made a career out of playing anti-heroes, cocky guys bucking the system. Cruise's early career was definitely playing cocky characters although I never thought of Cruise as an anti-hero. I have to admit Cruise is better in THE COLOR OF MONEY than I remember. Yes he's cocky but not in his annoying TOP GUN or DAYS OF THUNDER way. His Vincent displays a conscience and a heart. Vincent doesn't know how good he is like young Eddie Felson did. But older Eddie will harden Vincent, teach him the ropes.

The other revelation in THE COLOR OF MONEY is rediscovering one of the better actresses of the 1980's in Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio. I forgot how good she was.  She's not a crippled, damaged soul like Piper Laurie in THE HUSTLER. In fact, Mastrantonio's Carmen is a female version of Bert and Eddie. She sees Vincent's talent but just isn't sure how to utilize it until Eddie teaches her the ropes. She's slightly older than Vincent, more mature, nurturing. Mastrantonio had a good run in the 80's besides MONEY with SCARFACE (1983), THE ABYSS (1989), and ROBIN HOOD: PRINCE OF THIEVES (1991). Forrest Whittaker also stands out as the young pool hustler Amos who catches Eddie off guard, taking Eddie's money and sending Eddie into a deep funk. And look for 80's professional pool players in the film including Steve Mizerak (you might remember him from a few Miller Lite Beer commercials) and Keith McCready who plays the vulgar player Grady Seasons.

Although Rossen moved his camera at times in THE HUSTLER, Scorsese uses his usual bag of cinematic tricks, having the camera swirl around Eddie or Vincent or the pool table or using fast pans as the players break, making the game more visually interesting. THE COLOR OF MONEY even uses some trick photography like an extreme close up as the camera follows a giant pool ball into a pocket. One of Vincent's matches set against Warren Zevon's Werewolves of London is Scorsese at his best, Vincent strutting around the table like a rooster. Long time Scorsese collaborators Michael Ballhaus (Director of Photography) and Thelma Schoonmaker (Editor) make it all look so effortless. Besides this sequel to THE HUSTLER, Scorsese would also remake the 1962 thriller CAPE FEAR in 1991. My only real knock on THE COLOR OF MONEY is the cheesy poster. It just seems a film with Paul Newman and Tom Cruise should have a classier poster than what Touchstone came up with.

In anyone else's hands THE COLOR OF MONEY could have been a disaster and ruined the legacy of THE HUSTLER. But Scorsese, knowing that he can't top the classic THE HUSTLER, chooses to make a more character driven sequel, showing the audience what has happened to Eddie Felson 25 years later. And having Paul Newman return to play the pivotal "Fast" Eddie is key. THE COLOR OF MONEY has talent but it's THE HUSTLER that has the character that still resounds even today. What a great double bill those two films would be.

20 Million Miles to Earth (1957)

I owe my fondness for our solar system and the planets that belong to it to my late grandfather Bill (who I affectionately called Poppa). Bill owned a telescope and he would set it up on the sidewalk in front of his house on a hot summer Fresno, California night and let the neighborhood (and his grandson) gaze up at the heavens.  I saw Saturn and its rings and Mars for the first time through his telescope. I memorized all the names of the planets as a kid and to this day I look to the stars from time to time when I notice a particular bright object in the sky or on the horizon.

Hollywood has also been fascinated with the stars and planets and galaxies that make up our universe for story ideas. Many films have aliens coming from the red planet Mars like WAR OF THE WORLDS (1953) but the filmmakers for 20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH (1957) are the first that I can recall to have a space creature from Venus. The second planet from the sun and the closest planet to Earth (it's actually 25 million miles away according to Google not 20 million miles as the film's title suggests), Venus is that bright star just on the horizon in the west after the sun sets. I stumbled upon 20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH one afternoon as a kid while over at a friend's house. Although I was intrigued by the lizard like Venus creature, I remember being slightly traumatized by a scene where the creature pushes a zoo elephant back on its haunches, crushing two zookeepers behind the elephant. Yes, both were just clay model creatures but it seemed real to me at the time.

20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH and its creature from Venus (known as Ymir by film geeks although never named in the movie) is the work of famed Special Effects wizard Ray Harryhausen.  This would be only Harryhausen's 2nd feature film following IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA (1955). 20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH is directed by Nathan Juran who would collaborate with Producer Charles H. Schneer and Harryhausen on 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD (1958). 20 MILLION MILES screenplay is by Bob Williams and Christopher Knopf from a story by Charlott Knight. Harryhausen idolized KING KONG effects wizard Willis O'Brien and got his first film work on O'Brien's MIGHTY JOE YOUNG (1949). 20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH follows the KING KONG storyline to a degree but with a science fiction angle.

A U.S spaceship, the XY21, returning to Earth from a 13 month mission to Venus crash lands off the coast of Sicily. Two Sicilian fishermen Verrico (George Khoury) and  Mondello (Don Orlando) with a young boy Pepe (Bart Bradley now Bart Braverman) paddle out to the ship and rescue two of the 17 astronauts on board before the spaceship sinks. One of the astronauts Col. Robert Calder (William Hopper) survives but Dr. Sharman (Arthur Space) dies from a space fungus on his face contracted on Venus that killed most of the crew.

A small metal container from the ship washes up on the beach and young Pepe discovers it. He finds a frozen embryo with a creature inside the container. Pepe sells it to a zoologist Dr. Leonardo (Frank Puglia) who's on vacation in the region with his granddaughter Marisa Leonardo (Joan Taylor), a medical student. The U.S. Government tracks the wayward spaceship to Sicily. Major General McIntosh (Thomas B. Henry) and Dr. Judson Uhl (John Zaremba) arrive in Sicily and meet up with Calder who briefs them that the expedition brought back an alien specimen from Venus on the spaceship. Only no one knows where the specimen is.

The embryo hatches and a small lizard like creature with a human like torso, dinosaur like tail, and reptilian scales emerges.  Dr. Leonardo has never seen anything like it. He places the alien creature Ymir in a cage in his trailer and begins to return to Rome to study the creature. Young Pepe reveals to Major McIntosh that he found the container and sold it to Dr. Leonardo. Calder and the Army race to find Dr. Leonardo. Ymir grows at a rapid rate and escapes Leonardo's trailer. Calder almost traps Ymir in a farmer's barn but Ymir escapes. Calder knows the creature likes sulfur (Venus's number one mineral). Ymir heads to the base of Mount Etna and its sulfur pits. Italian Police Commissario Charra (Tito Vuolo) wants the alien killed but Calder devises an electric net to drop on Ymir and immobilize the monster which he and Dr. Uhl successfully complete with the assistance of Army helicopters.

Ymir, sedated by an electrical current, is brought back for observation at the Rome Zoo. McIntosh updates a small pool of reporters on Ymir's origin. As Calder shows three reporters the alien from Venus, an electrical accident awakens Ymir and the monster breaks free of its chains, terrorizing an elephant at the zoo before wrecking havoc through the streets of Rome. Calder and the US Army (who are somehow available instead of the Italian Army) pursue Ymir through the Roman Forum to the Colosseum where Ymir climbs to the top of the ancient arena in its final standoff against tanks and bazookas.

Harryhausen's Venusian lizard creature Ymir from 20,000 MILES TO EARTH has many similarities with another large cinematic creature that wishes it had never met the human race -- King Kong. Both Ymir and Kong are brought to earth/civilization against their will. Because these creatures exhibit fear when first interacting with humans, the audience feels empathy for the lizard alien/ape and their fish out of water situation. Ymir just wants to be back on its sulfuric planet Venus. King longs to be fighting dinosaurs on Skull Island. Ymir breaks out of the Rome Zoo and terrorizes some of  Rome's famous landmarks like the Roman Forum and Colosseum. Kong bursts out of his shackles in New York's renowned Radio City Music Hall and climbs to the tallest perch he can find in New York - the Empire State Building. Both creatures fight to the end against the US Army/fighter planes and fall to their deaths dramatically, surrounded by the curious public who feared the monsters hours before.

It should be no surprise that 20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH borrows plot elements from KING KONG (1933) as KONG was the film that inspired a young Harryhausen to enter the world of film special effects, even apprenticing with Willis O'Brien, a special effect pioneer who created King Kong and gave Harryhausen his first job on another rampaging ape movie MIGHT JOE YOUNG. 20 MILLION MILES pays it forward inspiring future Science Fiction movies. A point of view (POV) shot of the spaceship in 20 MILLION MILES hurtling toward open water is replicated in a similar POV shot from the opening minutes of PLANET OF THE APES (1968) as a spacecraft carrying Charleton Heston breaks through the clouds and toward water where it crash lands. And the embryonic egg that the lizard Ymir hatches from in 20 MILLION MILES took me back to the eggs that John Hurt stumbles across in Ridley Scott's ALIEN (1979). Hurt wishes a small alien lizard like Ymir had emerged instead of the squid-like organism that attaches itself to Hurt's face.

Most of the 1950's Science Fiction monster films were fairly low budget like TARANTULA (1955)or THE BEAST FROM 50,000 FATHOMS (1953). Some were shot overseas in Europe to save on money. You won't find Jimmy Stewart, William Holden, or Ingrid Bergman in these kind of films. 20 MILLION MILES has the good fortune to be partially filmed in Italy. Somehow,  Producer Charles Schnee procured some Army hardware to beef up the production value. Army helicopters, jeeps, two dozen Army extras, and even a tank give 20 MILLION MILES some pizazz. The most amazing coup by the filmmakers are sequences of the soldiers racing around the Roman Forum and the Colosseum chasing the creature. Two years ago, I was in Rome on vacation. Those historical sites looked spectacular but protected with limited access for tourists. Archaeologists are still excavating on the sites. Apparently in 1957, the Italians weren't doing much upkeep to the Forum or Colosseum. The Forum looks overrun with weeds. And it looks like no section of the Colosseum was off limits to the film crew as soldiers race up and down all levels of the ancient arena. How times have changed.

Ultimately, 20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH is a B movie with some unintentionally laughable moments. Early in the film, the high ranking military officer McIntosh actually pays the reward money himself to the young urchin Pepe for discovering the lost container. Where's the General Accounting Office to handle that transaction? Later, McIntosh gives an incredibly detailed speech about the creature to reporters (and the audience), giving way more information than any government official should. I would hate to see McIntosh brief reporters (and Russian spies posing as reporters) on any of the U.S.'s military secrets or classified projects.

William Hopper as Col. Robert Calder is the only real recognizable star in 20 MILLION MILES. Hopper, the son of gossip columnist Hedda Hopper, had already acted in an earlier B monster movie THE DEADLY MANTIS (also 1957 also directed by 20 MILLION'S Nathan Juran) with Craig Stevens. Hopper would gain great popularity as Perry Mason's sidekick Paul Drake in the TV show PERRY MASON. Hopper has a funny gaffe in 20 MILLION MILES. After he's rescued from the sinking spaceship, we find him recuperating in a hospital bed.  When Marisa checks on him and Dr. Sharman, Hopper gets out of bed to reveal he's fully dressed in his military uniform instead of a hospital gown. Somebody get me the wardrobe and continuity department!

But where 20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH distances itself from the other monster films from the 1950's is Special Effects wizard Harryhausen's Venusian creature Ymir.  Whereas TARANTULA or THE GIANT MANTIS superimpose their giant insect onto a landscape, 20 MILLION MILES brought back the stop motion animation that made KING KONG realistic and a big hit. It's obviously a model but the model work is so intricate, Ymir's movements so life like, it takes 20 MILLION MILES to another level.

Despite 20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH'S script limitations and occasional hokey dialogue and acting, this film works because of the talent of Ray Harryhausen and his excellent stop motion animation work with cinema's first ever alien from Venus -- the reptilian Ymir.

The Hitch-Hiker (1953)

"Whatever you do, don't pick up strangers." We all remember our mothers (and fathers) telling us those words before we went on a long trip by ourselves in a car. And I never picked up a stranger until a few years ago. Returning from the beach one night, I spied a young man and woman walking on the shoulder of a dark stretch of road. I had seen a car off to the shoulder about a mile behind them. I figured that was their car.  So I picked them up.  The reason I picked them up is I had six other people in my SUV with me. I wasn't worried about getting murdered and cut up into tiny pieces.  It turns out their car ran out of gas.  I took them back to their nearby town so the young man could get a can of gas and his other car. They were very appreciative and he even gave me $20 which I kept trying to give back to him but to no avail. But my little niece gave me the evil stink eye the rest of the way home.

Hitchhikers get a bad rap.  For the most part, they're young (or old) wanderers with little money or no wheels trying to get from one place to another.  It's the people picking up the hitchhikers that you should be more worried about.  But not all hitchhikers are good. When THE HITCHER with Rutger Hauer came out in 1986 (and subsequently remade in 2007 with Sean Bean), I thought to myself why hasn't someone done a film about a psychopathic hitchhiker before.  It turns out someone had.  Actress Ida Lupino directed the film noir-ish 1953 thriller THE HITCH-HIKER. Lupino is a pioneer as maybe the first and only woman to direct a film noir film.

Director Lupino co-wrote THE HITCH-HIKER with her then husband Collier Young (who also produced), adapted by Robert Joseph, based on the true story of killer Billy Cook who went on a murderous hitchhiking killing spree from 1950-51.  Lupino and her actors are all film noir veterans. Actor Edmond O'Brien was in D.O.A (1950).  Frank Lovejoy appeared in IN A LONELY PLACE (1950) with Humphrey Bogart.  And psychotic hitchhiker William Talman had roles in ARMORED CAR ROBBERY (1950) and THE RACKET (1951). Even Lupino starred in ON DANGEROUS GROUND (1951) and played opposite Bogart in HIGH SIERRA (1941). The only character missing in THE HITCH-HIKER is the femme fatale although this time she's behind the camera i.e. Lupino.

THE HITCH-HIKER begins stylistically. We only see the hitchhiker's thumb and shoes at first as he's picked up first by a young married couple whom he murders and robs and next a traveling salesman who meets a similar fate. It's the unfortunate luck of two buddies Roy Collins (Edmond O'Brien) and Gilbert Bowen (Frank Lovejoy) on a guy's weekend fishing trip to pick up the hitchhiker next. Director Lupino still keeps the hitchhiker in the dark literally in the backseat until he pulls out his gun. The men have picked up Emmett Myers (Frank Talman who played Perry Mason's nemesis District Attorney Hamilton Burger in TV's PERRY MASON), also known as the Kansas Desperado. Myers is a sadistic, psychotic murderer.

Myers has the two men take him over the border into Mexico (which apparently was quite easy in 1953 with just a single checkpoint and one border guard). Myers plan is to reach the coast town of Santa Rosalia where he plans to kill the two men and hop a ferry across the Gulf of California to Guaymas on the Mexican mainland. But during the journey Myers and Collins & Gil will wage a psychological game of cat and mouse against each other. Myers, a loner, seems to have a chip on his shoulder riding with these two friends. He challenges Gil to a shooting contest and forces Gil to play a dangerous game, shooting a can out of Collins's hand. Collins begins to crack as Myers picks on him. One night at an abandoned airfield, Collins tries to flee to get help, Gil chasing after him but Myers chases them down with the car. Myers doesn't speak any Spanish which makes him nervous whenever they stop for gas or groceries.

After the bodies of Myers previous victims are found, a Government Agent (Clark Howat) working with Captain Alvarado (Jose Torvay) with the Mexican police begin tracking Myers. They even plant a phony news broadcast for the paranoid Myers to hear, making him think the police are looking elsewhere as they track him south of the border. The men's car suffers a flat tire but Gil fixes that. Later, Collins puts a hole in the gas tank, crippling the vehicle.

Myers makes Collins and Gil walk the rest of way to Santa Rosalia. When they reach the town, they discover the ferry is out of commission (a fire) and will not be repaired for several months. Myers and the two men search the docks for another boat that can take Myers across the Gulf. But the Mexican authorities are waiting and ambush Myers in a tense final showdown.

The more modern THE HITCHER films portrayed its hitchhiker character John Ryder as a nihilist, totally destructive toward his victims, surroundings, and even himself. There was no backstory to Ryder. He was just pure evil. In THE HITCH-HIKER, killer Emmett Myers has more depth. He's a loner, his parents abandoning him at an early age. He has no friends. He seems jealous of Collins and Gil's friendship. He tries to become a wedge between the two men. He has to prove he's a better shot than Gil. He's frustrated when the two men can speak Spanish to the locals and he can't. "You guys are soft, " he says. "You've always had it good, so you're soft. Well, not me! Nobody ever gave me anything, so I don't owe nobody!" Myers has an axe to grind with anyone who's smarter or better off than he is. But he's still bad, shooting a barking dog one night when it annoys him.

Film noir films usually involve detectives and take place in urban settings like big cities. Although film noir began in the 1940's, it was post World War II that filmmakers began to experiment with the genre. THE HITCH-HIKER isn't your typical noir. It takes place mostly on a Mexican highway and rocky desert and sleepy Mexican towns, often in broad daylight. Film noir often have a triangle of characters but usually it's two men and a woman. THE HITCH-HIKER is all men -- a sociopath and the two best friends he kidnaps.

This triangle is the crux of THE HITCH-HIKER. Gil, a WWII veteran, knows that he and Collins need to stick together if they hope to defeat Myers. But Myers bullies the bigger Collins like the hillbillies picked on chubby Ned Beatty in DELIVERANCE (1972). Collins begins to snap. He tries to flee on his own to find help but Myers chases him down. Myers dislikes Collins so much that he makes Collins switch clothes with him hoping if the Mexican authorities do find them, they'll shoot Collins by mistake.

Frank Talman's performance as the murderous hitchhiker Emmett Myers is the key to THE HITCH-HIKER'S appeal. Talman is able to drum up so some sympathy for Myers that the audience never felt for Rutger Hauer or Sean  Bean in THE HITCHER. Myers knows how to get under people's skin and Talman's performance is a precursor for other cinematic sociopath's like  Robert Mitchum's Max Cady in CAPE FEAR (1961). Myers vows to never be caught alive but when the Mexican authorities apprehend him in the film's finale, there's no shootout or final violence (except for Collins landing a couple of revenge punches on his kidnapper). Myers looks like a caged animal, panic in his eyes when he realizes he'll be behind bars again. I kept waiting for the handcuffed Myers to jump into the water and drown himself but THE HITCH-HIKER'S delicious irony is that Myers does not die in a blaze of bullets. He's going back to prison. I was curious why Myers didn't just kill Collins and Gil and take their car across the border but then we wouldn't have a film now would we? In a way, Gil and Collins are Myers only "friends." Myers keeps them alive because he likes their company, even if it's ordering them around.

RKO Studios produced THE HITCH-HIKER and the studio was well known for turning out excellent film noir B movies such as  OUT OF THE PAST (1947). The HITCH-HIKER is a taut, 70 minute thrill ride. Lupino uses the film's low budget to her advantage. She stages much of the story with the three men riding in the car.  She doesn't have to deal with big sets or lots of extras. Most of the film is set on a desert highway. Interestingly, there's some dialogue in Spanish but no subtitles. Either the filmmakers couldn't afford subtitles or they chose to be authentic and not use them. Lupino and Young pretty much followed the real  killer Billy Cook's story so much that they even gave Talman a deformed eyelid just like Cook had. Lupino directed a few other feature films like THE BIGAMIST (also 1953) but she would continue directing plenty of television shows including episodes of THE UNTOUCHABLES, THE TWILIGHT ZONE, and even GILLIGAN'S ISLAND.

Speaking of old television shows, having grown up watching TV's PERRY MASON as a kid, I got a kick seeing William Talman with long hair. My recollection of Talman as DA Hamilton Burger in PERRY MASON was he had a marine type crewcut. Or maybe his hair was just shorter and slicked back. And I knew Edmond O'Brien from Sam Peckinpah's THE WILD BUNCH (1969) but O'Brien's barely recognizable in that film with a thick beard and weathered face. O'Brien's Collins is a man wracked with some guilt. He's the one who took a detour into the border town of Mexicali to check out the local ladies. He and Gil never would have come across Myers if they had just headed straight for their original destination -- the Chocolate Mountains.

In a strange coincidence of 3 Degrees of PERRY MASON, the CrazyFilmGuy's next review is going to be 1957's 20,000 MILES FROM EARTH, a science fiction film starring William Hopper who happened to play Perry Mason's sidekick Paul Drake on the TV show. In this review of THE HITCH-HIKER, I was pleasantly surprised to find William Talman who played DA Hamilton Burger from PERRY MASON. But I will not be reviewing GODZILLA (1956) in the near future which starred none other than Perry Mason himself -- Raymond Burr. That's just too many PERRY MASON references. But nice to see all the actors from the TV show had done well on the big screen too.

The Bishop's Wife (1947)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Thin Man (1934)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Halloween (1978)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Phantasm (1979)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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