A Guy Named Joe (1943) and Always (1989)

In the late 70's and 80's, Steven Spielberg ruled the roost with a series of hit films including JAWS (1975), CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND (1977), RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981), and E.T. (1982). Every time Spielberg had a new film, Time Magazine would do a story on Spielberg besides reviewing his latest movie. Often, Spielberg would mention he wanted to remake his favorite film when he was growing up, a WWII fantasy called A GUY NAMED JOE (1943) starring Spencer Tracy and directed by Victor Fleming. Spielberg would get his chance in 1989 with his version called ALWAYS.

But be careful what you wish for Steven Spielberg. Remakes are a tricky business. SCARFACE is a fine example of a successful remake taking the Chicago gangster boss in 1932 and transplanting him as a cocaine kingpin in Miami in 1983. Other remakes should never be attempted as the source is too perfect to try to attempt again such as Gus Van Sant's shot by shot remake of Alfred Hitchcock's PSYCHO (1998) or Jonathan Demme's updating of the John Frankenheimer classic political thriller THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE (2004).

Kudos to Spielberg for transferring the story from WWII pilots in A GUY NAMED JOE to fire fighting tanker pilots in modern day Montana for ALWAYS instead of using the same scenario. The original lovers Spencer Tracy and Irene Dunne are now Richard Dreyfus and Holly Hunter in the new version. But in trying to remake his beloved movie from his past, Spielberg learns that a movie that you loved from your childhood doesn't always translate to the same great movie when you become an adult. A GUY NAMED JOE was made as World War II was still going strong. War is a powerful dramatic component, more compelling than a forest fire. JOE has some big time creative talent involved starting with actor Spencer Tracy as the devil may care pilot and director Victor Fleming who knows something about fantasy having directed THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939) and DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (1941).

A GUY NAMED JOE was written by the great screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, adapted by Frederick Hazlett Brennan based on a story by Chandler Sprague and David Boehm. Pete Sandidge (Spencer Tracy) is a hotshot American bomber pilot over in England during WWII flying B-25's with his buddy Al Yackey (Ward Bond). Pete is a skilled but lucky flier. After one of his bombing missions, he barely makes it back, crash landing the plane while it's on fire and no landing gear.  Pete's got a date that night with the love of his life Dorinda Durston (Irene Dunne). Dorinda's a pilot too, jettisoning planes to different bases. Pete's group commander "Nails" Kilpatrick (James Gleason) reprimands Pete for flying too low on the bombing mission. Dorinda criticizes Pete's daredevil flying as well. Nails has Pete and Al transferred to foggy Scotland to fly less risky reconnaissance missions.

Dorinda catches a ride to Scotland to visit Pete and Al. Dorinda confides to Pete that Nails wants Pete to teach pilots to fly back in the States. Dorinda notices Pete's plane in the fog and has a premonition that Pete's number is up. Pete's against the idea but realizes he'll lose Dorinda if he doesn't go along. So he agrees to the plan. But Pete and Al have one last reconnaissance mission. They're sent to check out a Nazi convoy in the Atlantic. A squadron of German Messerschmitts ambush them. With no time to call in help, Pete dive bombs the German carrier, blowing the ship apart but his plane is hit and Pete crashes into the ocean where he dies.

But Pete isn't dead. His body might be but his spirit goes to heaven. He's greeted by another WWII pilot Dick Rumney (Barry Nelson) who takes him to meet the General (Lionel Barrymore). The General explains to Pete that his mission now that he's dead is to be sent back to earth to become a guardian angel to a living pilot. Pete and Dick travel to Luke Field near Phoenix, Arizona, basic training for new pilots. Pete is assigned to wealthy but quiet greenhorn Ted Randall (Van Johnson). Ted's not a very good pilot to begin with but Pete helps Ted to relax as he flies. Later, Pete encourages Ted to ask a pretty girl Ellen Bright (Esther Williams) to dance when he and his college football friend and fellow pilot James J. Rourke (Dom De Fore) hit the town one night.

Ted and the other recruits get called up to active duty. They're sent to the Pacific, the island of New Guinea to be exact. Pete's former buddy Al, now a colonel, is in charge of the new pilots. Al is reunited with Dorinda who happens to be ferrying a plane in from Australia. Al takes her to the Officers Club where she meets Ted. Ted begins to fall in love with Dorinda. Pete becomes jealous and tricks Ted into flying recklessly. Pete is called back to heaven by the General who reminds Pete his role is to give back to the future, keep those pilots alive by helping them, not tricking them. Ted accepts a suicide mission to bomb a munitions dump on a key Japanese island. Fearful that Ted will die just like Pete, Dorinda steals Ted's P-38 and flies the deadly mission herself. With Pete in the cockpit, he guides Dorinda to a successful bombing run and brings her back safely to her new love Ted. Pete gives his permission for Dorinda to love again before he leaves Ted, Dorinda and Al behind, his mission complete.

One can see why Spielberg was attracted to A GUY NAMED JOE as it has a little of everything in it. It's a war film with some excellent aerial battles and an intense bombing scene by the Japanese on the U.S. base.  It's got a nice love triangle between the deceased Pete vying with the living Ted for Dorinda's love. It's got another of the ultimate movie buddies (besides George Kennedy) in Ward Bond as Pete's best friend in the world Al Yackey. The chemistry between Tracy and Dunne is as good as any of the multiple films Tracy did with frequent costar Katherine Hepburn.

There's one scene early in A GUY NAMED JOE that may have caught young Spielberg's fancy. Pete is leaving the airfield having just landed his shot up plane. A bunch of English kids stop and quiz him about which plane is better and what's it like to fly alone. Pete tells them he hears music when he flies and he feels he's half way to heaven. The way Pete talks to the children like they're adults and not kids may have rubbed off on Spielberg. Many of the child actors who worked with Spielberg like Henry Thomas in E.T. or Christian Bale in EMPIRE OF THE SUN (1987) give breathtakingly adult performances.

Director Victor Fleming made the greatest fantasy film of all time in THE WIZARD OF OZ (and I should mention he directed a little film called GONE WITH THE WIND also) but his work on A GUY NAMED JOE is much more grounded than the colorful OZ. There are no halos or wings or any kind of angelic special effects as Pete returns to earth. Pete is still wearing his bomber jacket and slacks. Tracy is always in the scene with the other actors. The living just can't see him. Heaven is shown as an infinite white soundstage with mist swirling around Pete's feet (Warren Beatty would use the same style in 1978's HEAVEN CAN WAIT a remake of the 1944 HERE COMES MR. JORDAN). There are no pearly gates just a small office that the General inhabits.

Spencer Tracy and Van Johnson would work again as pilots the following year in THIRTY SECONDS OVER TOKYO (1944) about Doolittle's Raid on Japan in WWII (also written by A GUY NAMED JOE screenwriter Dalton Trumbo). Irene Dunne as Dorinda isn't your classic beauty but she's perfect as one of the boys, an equal to her flying boy friends. Ward Bond who most film aficionados will know from numerous John Wayne films like FORT APACHE (1948) and THE QUIET MAN (1952) is perfect as Spencer Tracy's pal and later Van Johnson's superior. And look for the beautiful Esther Williams, who made numerous "Aqua Musicals" for MGM and was a teenage National Swimming champion, in a minor role as Ellen Bright, a young lady that Van Johnson's Ted meets in a club one night.

Steven Spielberg would make his version of his favorite childhood film A GUY NAMED JOE in 1989 calling it ALWAYS. Spielberg would keep much from the original version while updating the setting from World War II to modern day fire fighting in Montana. He keeps the three lead characters names Pete, Al, and Dorinda.  Screenwriter Jerry Belson combines Ted Randall and his big football friend Rourke from the original into one character Ted Baker played by Brad Johnson. This Ted has chiseled good looks but he's clumsier and more blue collar than Van Johnson's Ted.  The war against Japan is replaced by a war against forest fires. Tanker pilots Pete and Al drop thousands of gallons of water instead of bombs. The God like figure the General (played by Lionel Barrymore) changes gender and becomes the divine Hap (played by Audrey Hepburn). Spielberg deviates from the original ending slightly giving Pete and Dorinda a momentarily reunion. I didn't care much for the change but it distinguishes ALWAYS from the original.

In Spielberg's reimagining, Pete Sandich (Richard Dreyfus) and Al Yackey (John Goodman) are hotshot pilots who fly air tankers over forest fires in Montana, dropping thousands of gallons of water and retardant to slow the flames. Pete's girlfriend Dorinda Durston (Holly Hunter) helms the control tower. ALWAYS opens with Pete pushing his plane and luck to the limit, barely making it back to the airport after a drop with no fuel left. It's Dorinda's birthday (actually Pete has the day and month wrong but Dorinda lets it slide). Pete's gift to the tomboyish Dorinda is a beautiful white dress that she puts on to the delight of the smoke jumpers. Dorinda wants to fly tankers but Pete's against the idea. Al wants Pete to follow him to Flat Rock, Colorado to teach new pilots how to fly tankers. Dorinda tells Pete she can't love him when he takes so many risks. She's had a premonition that Pete will die.

On Pete's day off, Al comes to him needing an extra pilot to battle a new inferno that has sprang up. Pete agrees over Dorinda's protests but promises he'll look into Al's training job. As Pete and Al fly low over the blazing forest, Al's plane catches fire. Pete positions his tanker over Al's and dump water onto Al's plane, extinguishing the fire. But Pete's plane catches fire too. It explores in mid-air, killing Pete. Pete finds himself in a smoldering forest. He comes across a round green patch of heaven where his celestial guide Hap (Audrey Hepburn in her last film role) awaits. Haps asks Pete to return to earth to provide inspiration and guidance to someone who's still alive.

Pete becomes the guardian angel to Ted Baker (Brad Johnson). Ted's a pilot for a Wing and a Prayer air delivery service but he wants to become a tanker pilot. Ted's initial test flight goes badly. Pete, the prankster, has Ted drop retardant on Al who's watching from a nearby hill. Al asks Ted to leave. Ted flies out of Flat Rock dejected but bad weather forces him to land prematurely. Pete convinces Ted to return to Flat Rock and follow his dream. While on business in San Diego, Al reunites with Dorinda. Neither are over the loss of Pete. Al convinces Dorinda to come to Flat Rock and work with the new pilots.

Al takes Ted back as a training pilot. Ted becomes a better pilot with Pete's coaching. Pete sees Dorinda for the first time since he died. Ted and Dorinda meet and a romantic spark begins. Dorinda has Ted over for dinner. As Pete watches Dorinda with Ted, he realizes what he's lost. He's jealous of Ted. Pete returns to Hap who reminds Pete he needs to settle with the ones he loved and give back to the living. A group of smoke jumpers become trapped by a raging fire. Ted prepares to go fly and assist them. Dorinda doesn't want to lose another love. She takes Ted's tanker instead. With Pete guiding her in the cockpit, Dorinda drops a trail of water, leading the smoke jumpers to safety at a nearby river. But Dorinda's plane has to ditch in a lake. Who will save her?

I wasn't overly impressed when I first saw ALWAYS in a theater. I didn't have the context of A GUY NAMED JOE to reference ALWAYS from. I thought some of the humor was forced and why fire tanker pilots as the protagonists? Now that I can compare the two films, ALWAYS is a little better than I originally thought but not one of Spielberg's strongest films. Spielberg does maintain the essence of the original. Pete's death as his plane explodes in mid-air is powerful and well-staged. It's no surprise that the flying sequences as the tankers fly low and through flames are intense. Spielberg at his best although ALWAYS is one of his least special effects laden pictures.

My favorite scene in ALWAYS is total Spielbergian. Ted and Dorinda (with Pete tagging along) come across a school bus stopped in the middle of nowhere. The bus driver lies seemingly dead on the road having suffered a heart attack. The bus driver appears next to Pete (both dead) as Ted applies CPR to the bus driver's body. Pete tells Ted to give up. But Ted revives the bus driver who comes back from the dead. Pete is all alone again, the bus driver returned to the living. It's a magical scene, one of the few in ALWAYS that doesn't seem forced.

Forced is a good word. Dreyfus and Goodman as Pete and Al are much more practical jokers in ALWAYS then Tracy and Bond in A GUY NAMED JOE. Dreyfus and Goodman are almost too alike in their goofiness. Yes, Tracy and Bond tease each other but they're more reserved, more reverent about their friendship. Dreyfus can't play straight man to Goodman and visa versa. It's an odd pairing. Dreyfus (a Spielberg favorite having worked with the director in both JAWS and CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND) would fare better when teamed with Emilio Estevez in STAKEOUT (1987).

The biggest change Spielberg makes is reuniting Pete and Dorinda briefly in the ALWAYS finale, after Dorinda crash lands in a mountain lake. In A GUY NAMED JOE, Pete and Dorinda never see each other again after he dies. Dorinda feels his presence in the cockpit as she bombs the munitions dump but he never materializes to say goodbye. It's implied that they make a final connection. Modern audiences aren't sophisticated or patient enough for that type of otherworldly love story. They want the characters to have a visual resolution. So Spielberg has Pete rescue the drowning Dorinda from the lake in ALWAYS. Dorinda may think it's a dream but she does believe Pete reaches for her and pulls her from the depths of the lake. A final, delayed good-bye. Spielberg would use this improbable reconciliation scene again in his 2001 Sci-Fi film A.I. - ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE when young Haley Joe Osment reconnects with his dead mother in a very distant future.

Spencer Tracy and Richard Dreyfus aren't your typical leading men. They don't have the matinee looks but they have personality. Dreyfus has played romantic leads before like in THE GOODBYE GIRL (1977) but I'm not sure he's the right casting for ALWAYS.  He's a great actor but not a star. Dreyfus does have good chemistry with Holly Hunter who's perfect as his Hawksian like girlfriend Dorinda Durston. Holly Hunter made my heart swoon in films like RAISING ARIZONA (1987) and BROADCAST NEWS (1987) with her southern accent and firecracker personality. Hunter makes ALWAYS enjoyable whereas Spencer Tracy is the best part of A GUY NAMED JOE.

John Goodman is fine as Pete's best friend Al (although he's hammy at times) but the surprise for me watching ALWAYS again is Brad Johnson as Dorinda's new love Ted Baker. I though Johnson was stiff and uninteresting when I originally saw ALWAYS but I found Johnson to be funny and engaging. Spielberg is considered a great visual technician but give him credit for getting a great comic performance out of the newcomer Johnson. Other faces to look for in ALWAYS include Marg Helgenberger (TV's CSI) as the mechanic Rachel, Keith David (PLATOON) as another training pilot Powerhouse, and Dale Dye (usually a military technical advisor for films like PLATOON or SAVING PRIVATE RYAN) as Don, the leader of the smoke jumpers.

Spielberg's ALWAYS won't rank up there as one of the director's finest films but CrazyFilmGuy wouldn't have sought out A GUY NAMED JOE to watch if it wasn't for Spielberg's love and appreciation for the whimsical and moving fantasy. A GUY NAMED JOE although part war film preaches the virtues of life, how good life is. Respect life, don't take life for granted, and don't take unnecessary risks as they could have unintended consequences for your loved ones. So go hug a loved one now. You never know when their time might be up.

Dracula's Daughter (1936)

Dracula has always been one of my favorite horror characters since I was a child. Blame it on his fangs or his widow's peak hairline or the Dracula poster that would greet me as I stepped into the Old Town Spaghetti Factory rest room in my youth. I even made a Dracula model with my Dad. I dressed as Dracula for many Halloweens, a homemade cape courtesy of my Mom. Dracula just left a lasting impression on me. As embodied by Bela Lugosi, Dracula was urbane and sophisticated and very European but never forget, he is a vampire.

Universal Pictures was the horror hit factory in the 1930's. When FRANKENSTEIN (1931) starring  Boris Karloff was a big hit, the studio followed up with an even better sequel by FRANKENSTEIN director James Whale called THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1935). So when Tod Browning's DRACULA (also 1931) was released and made Bela Lugosi a bona fide horror star, fans expected a similar follow up sequel with Lugosi and the Dracula character. But Universal would balk at Lugosi's salary demand to play the count again. A copyright dispute with Dracula author Bram Stoker's estate would also delay the sequel. When Universal finally did come up with a sequel to DRACULA, neither Lugosi nor the character of Dracula (save for a quick insert of a Dracula mannequin in a coffin) were in it. Instead, Universal introduced us to DRACULA'S DAUGHTER (1936) starring Gloria Holden as Countess Marya Zaleska aka Dracula's offspring.

Since no DNA test was ever done, we'll never be able to prove if Zaleska is really Dracula's daughter but give Universal credit. Elsa Lanchester as the bride in THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEN (if only for a few minutes) proved that there was room for women in the horror genre. Behold, the sequel to DRACULA becomes DRACULA'S DAUGHTER and Countess Zaleska the first female horror lead. Film nerds (and male film critics) have a particular fondness for female vampires and CrazyFilmGuy is no different. Female vampires can be sexy and sensual but let's not forget that DRACULA'S DAUGHTER was made in 1936. It doesn't ooze sensuality but it has its moments and paved the way for more modern sexy lady vampires in films like THE HUNGER (1983), BORDELLO OF BLOOD (1996), and VAN HELSING (2004).

Directed by the prolific but unheralded Lambert Hillyer with a screenplay by Garrett Fort based on a story idea by John Balderston (both were involved with the original DRACULA screenplay), DRACULA'S DAUGHTER picks up right where the 1931 DRACULA left off. Professor Von Helsing (Edward Van Sloan) stands over Dracula's coffin where he's just hammered a stake through his heart. Dracula's accomplice Renfield lies dead nearby. Two police constables Hawkins (Halliwell Hobbs) and Albert (Billy Bevan) come across the crime scene at Carfax Abbey and arrest Von Helsing, taking him to Scotland Yard on charges of murder. Von Helsing tries to explain to Scotland Yard's Sir Basil Humphrey (Gilbert Emery) that Dracula was a vampire. Humphrey is skeptical. Von Helsing asks for a former pupil of his, psychiatrist Jeffrey Garth (Otto Kruger), to defend him in court.

Albert watches over Dracula's body at Wickby Jail. With a wonderful dramatic entrance, a mysterious lady cloaked in black, only her piercing eyes uncovered, shows up to claim  Dracula's body. She's Countess Marya Zaleska, Dracula's daughter. Zaleska hypnotizes Albert with a large ring on her finger and steals the body. Zaleska and her servant Sandor (Irving Pichel) cremate Dracula in some nearby woods. Zaleska's ecstatic as she believes with Dracula dead, his spell on her is broken. Sandor reminds her she's still a vampire and she still needs to drink human blood.

Garth's assistant, the spunky Janet Blake (Marguerite Churchill) brings Garth back to London from Scotland to defend Von Helsing. While attending a party thrown by London socialite Lady Esme Hammond (future gossip columnist Hedda Hopper), Garth meets Countess Zaleska, posing as a painter. Zaleska becomes smitten with Garth and feels his work on "mental release" in which a person releases their mind from an obsession may help cure her of her vampirism. Later, Sandor brings another victim to Zaleska, a young woman named Lili (Nan Gray) under the pretense that Zaleska will paint her portrait. But Zaleska pulls out the hypnotic ring and drinks Lili's blood instead.

Garth meets with Von Helsing and tells him about the mysterious deaths he's come across recently. Von Helsing believes another vampire is walking the streets of London. The Countess and Sandor kidnap Janet and race back to Transylvania with her. Garth charters a plane, pursuing them to Castle Dracula. Zaleska wishes to trade Janet's life for Garth's. Zaleska's in love with Garth and sees him as hope to rid her of her vampire curse or join her as one of the undead. The jealous Sandor tries to kill Garth with a wooden arrow. Von Helsing and Humphrey arrive at Castle Dracula to join Garth for a final showdown with Zaleska and Sandor.

DRACULA'S DAUGHTER won't make horror fans forget Bela Lugosi or the original DRACULA but it does have some things going for it. DRACULA'S DAUGHTER has a lighter tone than its predecessor. The bumbling police constables Hawkins and Albert are clearly meant for comic relief. And the rapid fire banter between Garth and Janet is reminiscent of couples in a screwball comedy. Director Hillyer keeps the pace moving faster than Tod Browning's silent movie style for DRACULA. Hillyer stages atmospheric horror scenes in the woods when Zaleska and Sandor cremate Dracula's body and later, back in Dracula's castle for the finale. Sandor is a nice addition as Zaleska's servant. He's devoted to her and reminds Zaleska of her promise to turn him into a vampire when the time is right. Sandor's archery skills prove lethal in the finale, a nice twist.

Horror enthusiasts like to point out the underlying eroticism and lesbian overtones in DRACULA'S DAUGHTER. Having watched the film as an adult, I can safely say that any sexuality to be found in the film is muted at best. The act of a vampire biting the neck of its victims is very erotic but DRACULA'S DAUGHTER avoids it like a wooden stake. The filmmakers never let Zaleska bite either a man or woman onscreen instead inventing a hypnotic ring for Zaleska to snare her victims before she snacks on them offscreen. Zaleska does wear a few low cut gowns (for 1936) but nothing overtly sexual. The one sexual scene is Zaleska's encounter with the runaway Lili. Zaleska asks Lili to remove her clothes so she can paint her. Lily starts to undress before she changes her mind. It's a tame sequence but intriguing nonetheless. Countess Zaleska will be the starting point for future, sexier female vampires that will emerge in the Hammer horror films of the 50's and 60's to today's TV female vampires in shows like THE VAMPIRE DIARIES.

As played by Gloria Holden, Zaleska could be the great grandmother to the more modern TV personality Elvira who also wore long black gowns and had black hair but with more cleavage for modern audiences. Holden as Zaleska is tall, statuesque, raven haired, with a husky voice, pale white skin and big round eyes. Unlike Dracula who reveled in having lived for 500 years, Zaleska is tormented by her 100 year old curse, wishing to be normal and free of her thirst for human blood. She's a tragic, sympathetic character for a good part of the film. This would be Holden's only horror film. Her other notable film role would be as Madame Zola in 1937's THE LIFE OF EMILE ZOLA.

The relationship between Zaleska and her servant/bodyguard  Sandor played by Irving Pichel is one of the most interesting elements of DRACULA'S DAUGHTER.  Sandor is like DRACULA'S Renfield although less crazy. Sandor worships his mistress, seeking victims for her like Lili. Is he a former jilted lover or a poor, aimless soul who pledged his allegiance to the countess's dark side? Whenever Zaleska talks about breaking her curse or finding a cure, Sandor brings her back to reality, reminding her only death will end her misery or human blood to keep her living. Sandor doesn't want her to die. Sandor reminds Zaleska she has promised to turn him into the undead. He holds her to that promise until he feels she's betrayed him in the end. Actor Pichel resembles modern actor Benicio Del Toro. Besides acting, Pichel was also a director. Pichel co-directed THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME (1932) and directed DESTINATION MOON (1950).

For reasons never explained, Edward Van Sloan who played famed vampire hunter Professor Van Helsing in DRACULA returns in DRACULA'S DAUGHTER but his last name is now Von Helsing. The film never offers a reason for the slight variation. It may have been a brief casualty from the dispute with Dracula author Bram Stoker's estate. Von Helsing plays second fiddle in DRACULA'S DAUGHTER to psychiatrist Jeffrey Garth played by Otto Kruger. But Von Helsing is still the authority for convincing the unbelievers that vampires exist. Actor Van Sloan would chase another famous horror character in THE MUMMY (1932) starring Boris Karloff.

Otto Kruger brings humor and vigor as the lead in DRACULA'S DAUGHTER. Kruger's Jeffrey Garth is charismatic whether wooing vampires or verbally dueling with his feisty assistant/love interest Janet Blake (Marguerite Churchill). Churchill is an attractive sidekick who would appear in one other horror film THE WALKING DEAD (also 1936) with Boris Karloff and Henry Hull (WEREWOLF OF LONDON). The Kruger and Churchill duo bring much more energy than David Manners and Helen Chandler did in DRACULA.

Although Bela Lugosi does not appear as Dracula in DRACULA'S DAUGHTER, director Lambert Hillyer would direct Lugosi and Boris Karloff in Lambert's only other horror film credit THE INVISIBLE RAY (1936). Hillyer was never a well known director but he would have a long career that began with directing silent films including many Westerns in the 1920's with actor William S. Hart and would close his film directing career out moving to television in the 1950's.

When Universal chose not to rehire Bela Lugosi to don the cape for the sequel to DRACULA, horror fans (including yours truly) were denied a chance to see the man who immortalized the character play the Count one more time. Lugosi would don the cape a few more times in other films like MARK OF THE VAMPIRE (1935) and THE RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE (1943) but as different vampires. But the absence of Lugosi provided an opportunity to introduce the first lead female vampire character in cinema with the Countess Zaleska as DRACULA'S DAUGHTER. Before Zaleska, we had only seen Dracula's brides and only briefly. Universal would try the offspring angle again in SON OF DRACULA (1943) with Lon Chaney Jr. as Count Alucard (Dracula spelled backwards). But Zaleska would not make moviegoers forget Lugosi and Dracula and DRACULA'S DAUGHTER would be her one and only appearance. So stay up late one evening, lock the doors and window, set out the garlic and wolfsbane, and treat yourself to DRACULA'S DAUGHTER, the first lady of the night, the queen of the undead.

Cool Hand Luke (1967)

For CrazyFilmGuy's 100th Blog, I thought I would go back and visit the first grown up movie that I recall watching in my half a century of viewing films. I was staying with my grandparents in Fresno, California, sometime in the late 1960's but I did not see this film in a movie theater.  It was at a pizza parlor, Straw Hat Pizza if my memory serves me correctly on a 16mm print. The movie was COOL HAND LUKE (1967) starring Paul Newman as rule breaker Lucas "Cool Hand Luke" Jackson. I can't recall if the pizza was any good but I remember I liked parts of the movie and especially Paul Newman's anti-authoritarian hero.

For a young, impressionable kid, COOL HAND LUKE has a couple of memorable scenes that forever burned into my memory. The first scene is when a sexy young woman (Joy Harmon) washes her car while the chain gang convicts watch her as they cut down weeds on the nearby road. I won't try to recreate the scene in words but imagine a bunch of hard up prisoners (not to mention one geeky kid i.e. me) watching this voluptuous young lady splashing water and soap suds all over herself. You get the picture. The other scene is when Luke boasts he can eat fifty peeled eggs in an hour.  It's a humorous scene but it almost makes you want to throw up as egg after egg disappears down Luke's mouth. I thought Paul Newman's stomach might explode.

COOL HAND LUKE is an audacious first film by director Stuart Rosenberg who had labored in television previously. With a screenplay by Donn Pearce and Frank R. Pierson based on Donn Pearce's novel, the hot, humid, sweaty world of a road prison's chain gang explodes from the screen thanks to famed cinematographer Conrad Hall's (BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID; TEQUILA SUNRISE) beautiful camerawork. Some critics felt the photography was too gorgeous for a prison film, but Rosenberg said he wanted to have a beautiful look offset the brutal conditions the prisoners inhabited. Lalo Schifrin's eclectic music with a nice guitar motif for Luke is fantastic too.

The film opens with drunk, aimless WWII war hero Lucas Jackson (Paul Newman) cutting the heads off of parking meters (his revenge for parking tickets perhaps?). Luke is arrested and shipped off to a Division of Corrections Road Prison 36 somewhere in the South. Luke along with some other new prisoners including Tramp (Harry Dean Stanton) and Alibi (THE WALTON'S Ralph Waite) are met by the Captain aka warden (Strother Martin) who tells the men to "learn the rules." But Luke is a rule breaker. This isn't going to go well.

Luke is introduced to the other prisoners led by the alpha male Dragline (George Kennedy) who rules the roost and hands out nicknames to the prisoners like Koko, Rabbitt, Loudmouth Steve, and Cool Hand Luke. Luke learns that the prisoners have their own rules just like the correction system has its rules. Director Rosenberg shows us the brutally hot and dusty hard work the bull gang perform each day, cutting weeds along the country roads outside the prison, under the watchful eye of Boss Godfrey (Morgan Woodard), known by the prisoners as "the man with no eyes" because he always wears mirrored sunglasses.

Luke doesn't follow the convict's rules right away to the ire of Dragline so he and Dragline have a sanctioned fight in front of the other prisoners on the weekend. Luke is pummeled by Dragline but keeps getting up. Luke starts to figure things out, endearing himself to his fellow inmates while wearing on the guards. When the Captain makes the prisoners tar a road one day, Luke takes it as a challenge and with the rest of the road crew finish the job two hours ahead of schedule, giving the men more time to rest. Later, Luke accepts a challenge that he can eat fifty eggs in one hour. Luke pulls it off...barely. It was "something to do" is Luke's logic when asked.

When Luke's mother Arletta (Jo Van Fleet) dies (a few months after visiting Luke in prison), the Captain puts Luke in the "box" to keep him from trying to go to the funeral. It doesn't work. The first chance Luke has on the road, he escapes. He's quickly caught. Luke escapes again, this time for a longer period but he's caught again. Boss Paul (Luke Askew) and Boss Shorty (Robert Donner) force Luke to dig and fill and dig a ditch over and over again until Luke breaks down physically and mentally. Luke loses the respect of the other convicts. But Luke's crazy like a fox. He tricks Boss Godfrey and Boss Paul again, stealing the keys to the prison dump truck as he pretends to be their stooge. This time Dragline jumps on board to escape with him. Luke and Dragline try to split up but wind up together in an abandoned church as the Captain, his Boss guards, and the police surround them for a final confrontation.

When I saw COOL HAND LUKE as a kid, all the religious symbolism went right over my head. Luke is a Jesus figure in the film and the other convicts are his apostles. When Luke takes too many punches from Dragline, it's like he's taken the punishment for each prisoner's sins. He won't give in to "the Man." After consuming fifty eggs, Luke lies out on a table in the crucifixion pose with arms stretched out as if he was on a cross. As Luke does these "miracles" like escaping from the chain gang multiple times or the egg eating contest or leading the road crew to pave a road in record time, he becomes a "messiah" or "savior" to the other convicts. He begins to change their routine world. But it comes with a price.

The inmates start to feed off his energy. When Luke does finally come crashing back down to earth, caught a second time and seemingly broken by the Captain and his guards, Luke loses the respect of his disciples. They take his food and look down at him. The Captain is like Pontius Pilate. Luke is a troublemaker, stirring up the masses (inmates). The Captain will have to deal with this problem. The guards are Roman centurions, dishing out punishment to the Christ-like Luke. At one point, Luke collapses into the ditch he's dug over and over again. Tramp watches from the bunkhouse, singing "Ain't no grave going to hold my body down." Luke rises from the grave, resurrected to trick the Captain and Boss guards by escaping a third time. But it doesn't last long. Luke is wounded by a bullet by Boss Godfrey. In one last religious image, Dragline helps Luke up, carrying Luke almost like Jesus carrying the cross to the top of the Mount.

I don't think I'd appreciate COOL HAND LUKE as much if it had been made in today's world of filmmaking say by Scorsese or Tarantino. Yes, there are a few scenes of brutality in LUKE but the filmmakers present a romanticized view of life in a road prison. For the most part, the prisoners get along with each other, if not good naturedly ribbing each other. They're making the best out of a bad situation. There's hardly any four letter swear words (it is 1967 after all). Only one or two inmates have tattoos.  The one thing missing are black convicts but since LUKE takes place after WWII, there may have been segregated work prisons at that time which might explain the lack of integration. Watch COOL HAND LUKE and imagine it remade in 2016. There would be four letter words flying around and probably a rape scene with one of the inmates and much more blood and brutality. It would lose its charm.  It wouldn't be the same kind of film.

COOL HAND LUKE is Newman and director Rosenberg's first of four collaborations together. They would work together on POCKET MONEY (1972) and THE DROWNING POOL (1975). It's hard to pick a favorite Paul Newman performance. There's "Fast" Eddie Felson from THE HUSTLER (1961), Lew Harper in HARPER (1965), or Butch Cassidy in BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID (1969) to name a few of Newman's best roles but "Cool Hand" Lucas Jackson may be his finest work. Luke is cocky and another Newman anti-hero but he's not perfect. He's an underdog that never quite beats the system. Rosenberg would never top the critical success of COOL HAND LUKE although he would direct notable films like THE AMITYVILLE HORROR (1979) and another film set in prison this time with Robert Redford called BRUBAKER (1980).

The great George Kennedy would solidify his place as one of the best actors to cast as a friend or buddy of a superstar after his performance as Dragline opposite Newman's Luke in COOL HAND LUKE. Kennedy would win the 1967 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor as Dragline. Dragline is a grizzly bear of a man with the heart of a teddy bear. Besides co-starring with Newman, Kennedy would co-star as Charlton Heston's buddy in EARTHQUAKE (1974) and AIRPORT '75 (1975); Clint Eastwood's pal in THE EIGER SANCTION (1975); and later as Leslie Nielsen's detective partner in THE NAKED GUN series. And I can't forget mentioning the great Strother Martin as the Captain. Martin also worked with Newman on several films like SLAP SHOT (1977). Martin provides us with the signature line of the film, telling Newman's aimless Luke, "What we've got here is ... failure to communicate. Some men you just can't reach."

One of the joys of watching an ensemble film like COOL HAND LUKE is recognizing all the supporting actors who play prisoners and guards who would go on to have interesting and varied careers after LUKE. Wayne Rogers as Gambler would become famous as Trapper John on TV's MASH (1972 to 1975). Ralph Waite as the naïve Alibi would also parlay this role into another television show as the patriarch of the Walton family John Walton, Sr on TV's THE WALTONS (1971 to 1981). J.D. Cannon as the counterfeiter Society Red would play Dennis Weaver's police chief in TV's MCCLOUD (1970 to 1977).

Other actors in COOL HAND LUKE went on to prolific film careers. Dennis Hopper as the child-like Babalugats bummed around in small parts like TRUE GRIT (1969) before making it big in films like APOCALYPSE NOW (1979) and BLUE VELVET (1986). Dog faced Harry Dean Stanton (Dean Stanton in LUKE) as Tramp has acted in countless films since COOL HAND LUKE including ALIEN (1979) and PARIS, TEXAS (1984). Other familiar character actors to spot include Clifton James (LIVE AND LET DIE) as Carr, Joe Don Baker (WALKING TALL) as Fixer, Lou Antonio (countless TV movies and shows including an episode of TV's STAR TREK) as Koko, and Anthony Zerbe (PAPILLON) as Dog Boy.

Having just blogged recently about Newman's contemporary Steve McQueen in THE SAND PEBBLES (1966), it's amazing how similar their careers were in many aspects. They both got into films in the late 1950's although Newman was a star sooner than McQueen. They did westerns, prison films, films about talented, cocky flawed men (billiards for Newman in THE HUSTLER; poker for McQueen in THE CINCINNATI KID). They were going to star together in BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID but McQueen dropped out and Robert Redford got the part of the Sundance Kid instead. Both Newman and McQueen liked to race automobiles and made a film about race car driving (Newman in WINNING; McQueen in LE MANS). Finally, they would star together in Irwin Allen's skyscraper disaster picture THE TOWERING INFERNO (1974). Alas, McQueen would die at the age of 50 while Newman lived to be 83. But both were bona fide stars, the first choice of studios to play the edgy, cocky, anti-authority roles that defined their careers.

I wonder if Straw Hat Pizza showed COOL HAND LUKE since it was filmed around Stockton, California which isn't that far from Fresno where my grandparents lived. Whatever the rationale, I feel fortunate that the first grown up film I remember was such a profound, well-made film. COOL HAND LUKE mixed drama with humor which was unusual for a story about chain gang prisoners. COOL HAND LUKE fit in perfectly with the times of the 1960's as people felt alienated and were fed up with "the Man." COOL HAND LUKE is one cool film.

What I Like About A Film

What is it that makes us like a film? Everyone has a favorite genre or actor or location or visual style or director that attracts them to watch that movie.  Or watch it over and over again. Here's what I like:

I like James Bond.  It doesn't matter who plays him, I like him.  Who doesn't like a film with fast cars, beautiful women, and exotic locations. Pretenders will come and go but no one does Bond like Bond. James Bond.

I like werewolf films just a little bit more than vampire films. More films have been made about vampires than werewolves but there's just something about a man or woman transforming into a beast and than back that's just a little bit sexier for me. Most vampire films suck. Not all but most. Werewolf films seem to work for the most part. If they made more mummy films, I'd be happy with that, too. Mummies are underrated.

Starting from the golden age to present, I like actresses Valerie Hobson, Olivia DeHavilland, Ingrid Bergman, Donna Reed, Grace Kelly, Gloria Grahame, Raquel Welch, Dyan Cannon, Rachel Ward, Diane Lane, Helen Bonham-Carter, Kate Winslet, Jessica Alba, and Keira Knightley. Some are great actresses; some supporting actresses; some mediocre actresses. There's just something about them that I find irresistible.

Foreign actresses mesmerize me too. Maybe it's because they speak a language I can't understand (but with subtitles, I can!). Catherine Deneuve and Claudia Cardinale come to mind.

I think I like actors more from the past than the present because I don't know so much about their personal lives. I just know them as actors. From the past I like Errol Flynn, Humphrey Bogart, Bela Lugosi, Cary Grant, Orson Welles, Jimmy Stewart. I'm sure they weren't perfect (I know Flynn wasn't) but my memories of them are from their fantastic performances on screen and not the bad things or personal demons they may have done off-screen.

For actors of the modern era, it's not so easy to pick favorites. I guess I would lean toward Dustin Hoffman, Paul Newman, Peter O'Toole, Tom Hanks, and Harrison Ford.  I wanted to be Mel Gibson up until about the LETHAL WEAPON films and now sadly, he's gone off the deep end with his off-screen antics. My latest man crush is Tom Hardy.

I like films that take place in frigid, snowy, blizzard like conditions where the characters are isolated from civilization. THE THING (1982), NEVER CRY WOLF (1983), 30 DAYS OF NIGHT (2007), INSOMNIA (1997 and 2002) even the not very good WHITEOUT (2009) are all set in Alaska or the Arctic. I like films where the protagonists have to deal not only with creatures from another planet or a killer but with the elements as well.

On the flip side, I like films set in an apocalyptic wasteland or desert too. THE ROAD WARRIOR (1981), THE BOOK OF ELI (2010)), and MAD MAX: FURY ROAD (2015) reveal a hellish future full of lone heroes and hellish villains.

If a film is shot in Italy or Ireland, I'll probably watch it. For Ireland, THE QUIET MAN (1952) , THE PLAYBOYS (1992), or WAKING NED DEVINE (1998). For Italy, ROMAN HOLIDAY (1953), UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN (2003), or THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY (1999) make me crazy for Italy. I don't know if it's the accents, the scenery, a combination of both but if the film's location is in Ireland or Italy, I'll probably watch it. Australia is beginning to catch my attention now too.

I like character actors from old films. Ward Bond, Lionel Atwill, George Sanders, John Carradine, Claude Rains, Alan Hale, and Thomas Mitchell to name but a few. They may not get all the glory as the leading man or woman but they make the stars and the story better because they're in it.

I like films made on Hollywood back lots in the 30's and 40's.  The studios could transform a Los Angeles soundstage or back lot into anywhere in the world: Casablanca, Macao, South America, Civil War Atlanta, the Emerald City in Oz, or a European town square near Frankenstein's castle. Eventually, films began to go on location but I love the imagination that production designers and set dressers used to redecorate the major studios back lots.

Film is a director's medium and I love the film auteur: Alfred Hitchcock, David Lean, Stanley Kubrick, John Ford, Sam Peckinpah, Francis Coppola, John Carpenter, David Lynch, Steven Spielberg, John Woo, Quentin Tarantino. When you see one of their films, you know exactly who the director is. The second tier would be Brian DePalma, Martin Scorsese, Christopher Nolan, George Miller, and Walter Hill.

To put it succinctly, I like films.

High Plains Drifter (1973)

Clint Eastwood became an international superstar after appearing in Italian director Sergio Leone's 'The Man With No Name' trilogy in the 1960's. Leone had a very stylistic visual style that has influenced countless Westerns since including Sam Raimi's THE QUICK AND THE DEAD (1995) and Quentin Tarantino's THE HATEFUL EIGHT (2015). In turn, Eastwood has become a successful director in his own right, citing Leone as one of his mentors. But Eastwood would not adopt or emulate Leone's visual style during his career except for one film. HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER (1973), one of Eastwood's early directorial efforts, is probably the closest film you'll find by Eastwood with a visual and production design style that clearly pays homage to the man who kick started Clint's big screen career -- Sergio Leone. And HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER is not just a revenge Western but a ghost story too.

The screenplay for HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER is by Ernest Tidyman who is more well known for writing gritty urban detective films like 1971's SHAFT (based on his novel) and William Friedkin's THE FRENCH CONNECTION (also 1971). But Tidyman is well schooled in the Western genre and Leone's image of the Western. HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER'S story hearkens back to Leone/Eastwood's first collaboration A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS(1964) which is based on Kurosawa's YOJIMBO (1961) which ultimately ripped off the idea from Dashiell Hammett's novel Red Harvest. The protagonist (detective, samurai, gunslinger) pits two sides against one another while pretending to ally with both of them. In A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS, Eastwood plays two rival gangs against each other. DRIFTER twists that plot as Eastwood's the Stranger appears to be a town's savior from some incoming outlaws but the Stranger has ulterior motives toward the town too.

HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER begins like the opening of a Leone film from the first image of the Stranger (Clint Eastwood) appearing like a mirage from the high desert's shimmering heat to composer Dee Barton's eerie score evoking Leone's favorite composer Ennio Morricone. There's no dialogue, just sound as the Stranger rides into the town of Lago. Horse hooves trotting down Main Street, the Stranger's spurs jangling against the boardwalk. The crack of a bullwhip brings the first reaction from the Stranger as a wagon pulls away (more about the bullwhip later). Lago's citizens eye the Stranger wearily. It seems the Stranger just wants a beer. But he's harassed by three menacing gunmen at the bar so he heads over to the barber (William O'Connell) for a shave and bath. The gunmen follow him and try to intimidate him again. The Stranger shoots all three of them dead. For good measure, he beds the town tramp Callie Travers (Mariana Hill) in a nearby barn after she slaps him. Pure Leone in the first 10 minutes.

Lago is hiding a terrible secret. 12 months earlier, Lago hired three outlaws Stacey Bridges (Geoffrey Lewis), Cole Carlin (Anthony James) and his brother Dan Carlin (Dan Vadis) to murder the town's marshal Jim Duncan (Buddy Van Horn). Duncan had discovered something that could destroy Lago's livelihood. The three men bullwhipped Duncan to death before he could tell the government his discovery. Then, the town had the three killers arrested and thrown into the Territorial Penitentiary. But Stacey and his men are about to be paroled. When they get out, they're headed back to Lago for payment for services rendered and revenge.

The Stranger has just killed the three new guns that Lago hired to deal with Stacey and the Carlin Brothers. Sheriff Sam Shaw (Walter Barnes) asks the Stranger if he'll be their new gunslinger. The Stranger agrees to help them but for a price. He wants an open tab for anything he needs. He trains the locals into their own militia, teaching them how to shoot. But town leaders like Morgan Allen (Jack Ging) and Lewis Belding (Ted Hartley), the hotel owner, are tiring of the Stranger's demands.

The Stranger begins to turn the town against one another, staying one step ahead of attempts on his life as Stacey and his gang draw closer. The Stranger has every one paint the town bright red to greet the murderers. He crosses out Lago and paints HELL on the town's sign. The Stranger has a secret of his own, a connection to the dead marshal. The Stranger will exact his own brand of revenge on Lago before he deals with Stacey and the Carlin Brothers.

In only his second directorial effort (and first Western he directed), HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER is a confident effort by Eastwood. He sticks with what got him to this point, creating an American Spaghetti Western that oozes Leone's style and tone. The landscape is stark (Eastwood uses Mono Lake in the California Sierras instead of Leone's Spain). The town of Lago is the archetype Western town with a saloon, hotel, barber shop, graveyard, and mining office, laid out simply like the opening town in Leone's THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY (1966). The Stranger's one ally Mordecai (Billy Curtis) is a midget. Leone often used dwarfs and amputees as minor characters in his Westerns. Missing from HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER are the unique, grotesque faces that Leone lovingly did extreme close ups on. Only actor John Quade as Jake Ross with his bulldog-like mug comes close to resembling a Leone character.

The twist in HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER is that it's a ghost story too. When the Stranger appears out of thin air in the opening shot, we think it's just Eastwood showing off as a new director. But there's meaning to that first image. Eastwood's Stranger may be the ghost of Marshal Jim Duncan, perhaps even Duncan reincarnated. When I first saw the whipping scene, I thought it was Eastwood rolling in the dust, streaks of blood across his face. Director of Photography Bruce Surtees photographs the horrific flashback at night with little light. But Marshal Jim Duncan is played by Eastwood's Stunt Coordinator and Stunt Double Buddy Van Horn, who bears a passing resemblance to Eastwood.

Duncan mutters under his dying breath, "Damn you to hell," as Stacey and his men bullwhip him to death, the whole town watching, accessories to his lynching (except for little Mordecai who recoils in horror underneath the boardwalk). Duncan's body is thrown into an unmarked grave. "The dead don't rest without a marker of some kind," says Sarah Belding (Verna Bloom), one of the few good people in Lago. So the deceased Marshal Duncan, in the guise of the Stranger, exacts his own brand of revenge on Lago. He does damn the town to hell, painting it red and changing it's name from Lago to Hell. When the Stranger's revenge is complete, he rides out of town, passing Mordecai chiseling a name on a gravestone in the cemetery. Marshal Jim Duncan's name. "I never did know your name," Mordecai tells the Stranger. "Yes you do," the Stranger replies, riding off into the high plains before vanishing just as he materialized at the start. A mirage? An apparition? A supernatural gunslinger? You be the judge.

Eastwood as the Stranger is his usual sardonic self in HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER, maybe more annoyed and sarcastic than usual since he's a supernatural soul unable to rest until he extracts his vengeance. Geoffrey Lewis plays the lead heavy Stacey Bridges. Lewis made a career playing eccentric characters and bad guys who aren't as smart as they think they are. Eastwood must've liked Lewis as they starred together in seven films including THUNDERBOLT AND LIGHTFOOT (1974), EVERY WHICH WAY BUT LOOSE (1978), and BRONCO BILLY (1980). In an inspired piece of casting, Billy Curtis plays Mordecai, the town midget and conscience of Lago. Mordecai is one of the few citizens of Lago that the Stranger can trust. Who would have thought we'd see Curtis who first appeared in the all midget Western THE TERROR OF TINY TOWN (1938) alongside the king of Westerns at the time Clint Eastwood. Curtis also had a small role in THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939).

The women of HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER are typical of the female characters in a Leone film - either whores or respectable women. Mariana Hill plays the town harlot Callie Travers. She's basically raped by the Stranger early in the film but somehow Eastwood pulls the scene off like it was just a roll in the hay. Hill would also appear in THE GODFATHER: PART II (1974). Claire Bloom as Sarah Belding is the only sympathetic female character in DRIFTER. She's repulsed by the Stranger at first but comes to respect him (and sleep with him out of spite to her husband Lewis, the hotel manager). Bloom would later co-star in ANIMAL HOUSE (1979) as Dean Wormer's wife.

HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER is peppered with character actors I remember from television and movies in the 70's. John Hillerman as the Bootmaker would appear in CHINATOWN (1974) and TV's MAGNUM P.I. (1980 to 1988). Mitchell Ryan as Dave Drake, manager of the Lago Mining Company, worked with Eastwood in MAGNUM FORCE (1973) and appeared in numerous 70's television shows like BARETTA, BARNABY JONES, and THE ROCKFORD FILES. Richard Bull as undertaker Asa Goodwin would become a household face on TV's LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE (1974 to 1983).

Eastwood would go down a similar supernatural road in PALE RIDER (1985) this time playing the mysterious Preacher who rides in from the mountains to protect Idaho prospectors against a ruthless mining company. Instead of a ghost, Eastwood's Preacher is Death, the rider on a pale horse according to Revelation 6:8. I  didn't like PALE RIDER (which Eastwood also directed) when I first saw it in a theater during college but a recent viewing showed more promise to the film than I remember. But HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER is a much more intriguing Western that pays homage to Eastwood's mentor Sergio Leone and provides a supernatural element not often found in a Western.

The Sand Pebbles (1966)

Even when I was a kid watching THE GREAT ESCAPE (1963) and didn't know what cool was, I knew Steve McQueen was cool. Wearing a bomber jacket, throwing a baseball against the wall in his cell, or stealing a motorcycle and having Germans chase him through the Bavarian countryside, McQueen leaps from the screen as Hilts the Cooler King in THE GREAT ESCAPE, exuding coolness from every pore of his celluloid face. I wanted to see as many Steve McQueen movies as I could after watching THE GREAT ESCAPE but in reality, I hadn't seen that many until recently. BULLITT (1968) and THE GETAWAY (1972) are two of my other favorite McQueen films. In middle school, I recall they showed one of McQueen's first features, the horror film THE BLOB (1958) on a 16mm projector after school.  But whenever I talk about Steve McQueen with friends, someone always brings up THE SAND PEBBLES as their favorite McQueen film.

Naturally, having bragged what a huge Steve McQueen fan I am, I have to admit I had never seen THE SAND PEBBLES (1966) until now. In films like THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN (1960) or THE GREAT ESCAPE, McQueen had been a part of an ensemble cast but in THE SAND PEBBLES, he is the star. Most would agree that THE SAND PEBBLES is one of McQueen's best performances. Directed by Robert Wise (WEST SIDE STORY, THE SOUND OF MUSIC), THE SAND PEBBLES is an epic film, Wise's attempt to make a David Lean type story like LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (1962) or DR. ZHIVAGO (1965). Like Lean's epic films, THE SAND PEBBLES is set during a period of war in a foreign country, this time civil war in 1926 China.

Based on the novel by Richard McKenna and adapted to the screen by Robert Anderson, THE SAND PEBBLES is the nickname the sailors call their gunboat the U.S.S. San Pablo. The San Pablo is patrolling the tributaries of the Yangtze River looking out for U.S. interests as Chinese warlords and revolutionaries battle for the independence of China. Navy Senior Engineer Jake Holman (Steve McQueen) arrives in Shanghai to join the San Pablo. Jake catches a boat going up river where he meets an American missionary Jameson (Larry Gates) and a young, naïve American school teacher Shirley Eckert (Candice Bergen) who don't care for America's military presence in China.

Jake hooks up with his new gunship and crewmates including Frenchy Burgoyne (Richard Attenborough) who will become his best friend. Jake reports to Captain Collins (Richard Crenna) and Ensign Bordelles (Charles Robinson). Collins mentions to Bordelles that Jake has had seven transfers in nine years with the Navy. Chinese coolies perform most of the work on the gunboat instead of the crew, drawing Jake's ire. When Jake tries to fix a ball bearing in the engine room, the bilge coolie Chien (Tommy Lee) jumps in to help. Chien's injured and later dies. Jake trains a new bilge coolie Po-Han (Mako) and they become friends.

On liberty, the crew hang out a Mama Chunk's (Beulah Quo) bar. Frenchy falls in love with a young hostess Maily (Marayat Andriane) but the sadistic Stawski (Simon Oakland) wants her too. Jake bets Stawski that Po-Han could beat him in a fight. If Po wins, Jake and Frenchy will use the money they win gambling on the fight to buy Maily her freedom from her pimp Victor Shu (James Hong). Po wins the fight but the men are called back to the ship as Chinese tensions toward foreigners increases. The San Pablo  run into Jameson and Shirley about to head up river to their mission China Light but they remain steadfast that they're not in danger. Chinese revolutionaries grab Po-Han and torture him in front of the crew. Against orders, Jake grabs a rifle and kills Po-Han to put him out of his misery. This act solidifies the rift between Jake and most of the crew including Captain Collins.

The San Pablo remains on the water as every port greets them with demonstrators with GO HOME signs. All shore leave is cancelled. Collins asks Jake to transfer after the Po-Han incident. Frenchy sneaks off the boat to visit Maily in town during a cold spell. Jake goes to bring Frenchy back but finds he's dead from pneumonia and Maily pregnant with Frenchy's child. The Chinese try to arrest Jake but he escapes. However, the Chinese frame Jake for Maily's murder (she was killed by the warlords). The Chinese army wants Jake but Collins won't give Jake up, despite the crew's near mutiny to hand Jake over. An incident at Nat King with many American deaths gives Collins a cause to take the San Pablo up river to bring back Jameson and Shirley from China Light. The gunboat breaks through a Chinese blockade of junk boats but not before lives are lost between the Navy crew and Chinese revolutionaries in hand to hand combat. Jake, Collins, and two other crew members go on land to try to rescue Jameson and Shirley in the tense finale.

The gunboat's nickname THE SAND PEBBLES is a good metaphor for the film's story. The San Pablo is like a sand pebble, caught in the turbulent maelstrom of political and historical change as revolutionaries and warlords try to wrestle China free from outside influences like the United States.  The gunship is tossed and buffeted symbolically as it tries to protect U.S. interests while avoiding international incidents. The tide of change isn't only on land but on the gunboat. The status quo of Chinese coolies performing most of the manual duties on board is turned upside down when Jake arrives. The tension on the ship between Jake and the San Pablo crew equates to the unrest between the U.S. and China.

The character of Jake Holman played by Steve McQueen in THE SAND PEBBLES represents the biblical character Jonah.  According to sailors' superstition, a "Jonah" was a person or crew member on board a ship who brought bad luck or was a jinx. After Jake joins the San Pablo, two coolies will die indirectly because of him. Captain Collins points this out to Jake after Po-Han's death. The crew senses Jake's a 'Jonah' as well for the run of bad luck since he transferred to their ship. There's another connection to the Jonah story with Jake. In the Book of Jonah, Jonah is thrown overboard after he's blamed for a terrible storm while at sea. Jonah is swallowed by a whale and the sea calms down. In THE SAND PEBBLES finale, Jake leaves the ship to help rescue Jameson and Shirley. He stays back to hold off the Chinese army while Crosley (Gavin McLeod) and Bronson (Joe Turkel) take Shirley back to the ship. Like Jonah, Jake's sacrifice ultimately saves the ship and crew.

Steve McQueen played cool like nobody's business but like Paul Newman, he was also drawn to anti-authority characters like Jake Holman in THE SAND PEBBLES. Jake's good at his job as a senior engineer for the San Pablo's engine room but he would prefer to give the orders rather than take them. Jake isn't part of the status quo. He'd rather give himself a shave but gives in to the crew's caste system that makes the coolies perform those menial jobs. He tries to be one of the guys but he doesn't conform for long.  He clashes with Stanski and eventually Captain Collins. Jake's rebellious, following his own code. There's a reason he's transferred seven times in nine years in the Navy.

Steve McQueen's only Academy Award nomination for Best Actor would be for his performance as Jake Holman in THE SAND PEBBLES and it's very deserved. McQueen digs deep to reveal new layers and emotions as Jake that McQueen fans and critics had never seen. I've been watching several McQueen movies this month including BULLITT, THE GETAWAY, and PAPILLION (1973). He's great in all of them but in THE SAND PEBBLES, Jake is a tragic character that we had not seen McQueen portray before. It's almost too dark but director Wise tosses in enough scenes with Candice Bergen as semi-love interest Shirley for Jake to balance the dramatic tone of most of the film.

Richard Crenna's Captain Collins is another complex character in THE SAND PEBBLES. Frustrated with his inability to act decisively in the name of diplomacy and fearful that his protection of Jake could lead to mutiny, Collins is inwardly weak until he realizes he could become a patriotic martyr by rescuing the missionaries. Crenna would have a long career in movies and television with credits including BODY HEAT (1981) and RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD (1982).

I would not say this is one of Richard Attenborough's best roles as Frenchy Burgoyne, Jake's best friend. I didn't feel Frenchy was developed enough as a character. Attenborough and McQueen also appeared in THE GREAT ESCAPE together. THE SAND PEBBLES was Candice Bergen's second film. As the innocent school teacher Shirley Eckert, Bergen has some nice scenes with McQueen to balance out the drama. Bergen, the daughter of famed ventriloquist Edgar Bergen, would have a nice run of films in the 60's and 70's before moving to television and starring in her own TV show MURPHY BROWN (1988-98). Attenborough would direct Bergen in his 1982 film GANDHI.

THE SAND PEBBLES would be Marayat Andriane who plays Maily only feature film under that name. She would change it to Emmanuelle Arsan and become the inspiration for the soft core R-rated EMMANUELLE films that played in questionable theaters and late night cable channels in the 70's and 80's. Simon Oakland, a favorite of director Robert Wise, supplies the villainy as Stanski, Jake's nemesis on the gunboat. Oakland also appeared in Wise's WEST SIDE STORY. He would end up playing Steve McQueen's police supervisor in BULLITT. And look for Gavin McLeod as Crosley, another San Pablo crew member.  Surprisingly, McLeod also co-starred in the WWII adventure film KELLY'S HEROES (1970) which is a far cry from his more lovable roles in TV's THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW and THE LOVE BOAT in the 70s and 80s.

Director Robert Wise was no stranger to big films, filling the screen wonderfully with dancing street gangs in WEST SIDE STORY (1958) and the singing Von Trapp family in the Alps in THE SOUND OF MUSIC (1965). THE SAND PEBBLES was his first attempt at the epic genre. Wise was dipping into David Lean territory with this historical drama. Although there aren't any iconic widescreen shots that etch forever in our brains like LAWRENCE OF ARABIA'S desert sunrise or THE BRIDGE OVER THE RIVER KWAI'S jungle bridge collapsing, Wise and Director of Photography Joseph McDonald photography plenty of broad vistas of the San Pablo chugging up and down the Yangtze River (with Taiwan and Hong Kong filling in for China). The shots of THE SAND PEBBLE'S gunboat reminded me of another gunboat on a river in a different Asian conflict, the Vietnam War, in 1979's APOCALYPSE NOW. Wise excelled in other genres besides musicals and the epic such as science fiction (1951's THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL), horror (1963's THE HAUNTING), and even the disaster film (1975's THE HINDENBURG). But THE SAND PEBBLES would be Wise's last big hit.

It's hard to believe that Steve McQueen was only 50 years old when he passed away. Fifty used to seem old to me but since I just turned 51 a few months ago, I now have the knowledge that 50 is just the half way point with plenty of life ahead. But McQueen's passing at the relatively early age of 50 is so sad and a loss for movie fans. THE SAND PEBBLES is McQueen's most dramatic and complex role and he deserved his Academy Award Nomination for Best Actor in 1967 (losing out to Paul Scofield for A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS).  THE SAND PEBBLES is another example of the fine work that Steve McQueen did in his relatively brief career in the movie business.  Thankfully, his legacy and coolness lives on through his films.

The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934 and 1956)

"The first version is the work of a talented amateur and the second was made by a professional." So said director Alfred Hitchcock in 1962 when interviewed by French New Wave filmmaker Francois Truffaut in his book Hitchcock about THE MAN WHO MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (1934) and its remake 22 years later in 1956. Only Hitchcock would have the audacity to remake one of his own films. Certainly the latter version is slicker and more Hollywood with James Stewart and Doris Day in the lead roles. You would think with Hitchcock having two decades to sharpen his considerable cinematic skills that the 1956 version would be better. Yet, the original 1934 THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH is in my humble opinion and many others (including HELLBOY director Guillermo del Toro) the better of the two films. The original is Hitchcock starting to find his stride as a young filmmaker, taking chances, and finding his visual and thematic style.

The original THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH succeeds because it has a better villain (Peter Lorre in his first English speaking film), better chemistry between the husband and wife (although Leslie Banks and Edna Best are not as famous as Stewart and Day), and more sympathy for the kidnapped child. This isn't to say that the 1956 THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH doesn't have its moments. Hitchcock was at the top of his game in the 1950's. The newer version has some excellent sequences not to mention a more prolonged Royal Albert Hall assassination attempt set piece.

So why would Hitchcock choose to remake THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH instead of one of his other early films? SABOTAGE (1936) to me is a much more flawed film that could have been updated nicely to the 1950's. THE 39 STEPS (1935) and THE LADY VANISHES (1938) are too perfect so don't mess with them. SABOTEUR (1942) could have been redone with a better leading man than Robert Cummings but Hitchcock perfected that story with a similar cross-country chase, famous landmarks, and the ultimate leading man in Cary Grant in NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959).

Two reasons that come to mind are the original MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH was made in  England and American audiences may not have had a chance to see it (although Truffaut in his book Hitchcock says that it was a hit in America). A more reasonable explanation is that Hitchcock wanted to retry the famous assassination attempt sequence at the Royal Albert Hall a second time, perhaps not happy with his first attempt (it turns out Hitchcock owed Paramount one more movie as well and picked TMWKTM to be that film). The newer MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH has a lengthier version of the Albert Hall scene with no dialogue this time, just visuals and stirring music to build the suspense. It is technically better and a bravura piece of filmmaking but I find the 1934 version with some cutting back to the spies listening to the concert on the radio just as suspenseful.

The original 1934 THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH was written by Charles Bennett and D.B. Wyndham Lewis. The title only comes from a book by G.K Chesterton. The tale begins in St. Moritz, Switzerland where a British family, the Lawrence's, are on holiday. The Lawrence family become embroiled in international intrigue when a Frenchman they befriend named Louis Bernard (Pierre Fresnay) is fatally shot while dancing with Jill Lawrence (Edna Best) at dinner. Louis turns out to be a secret agent. Before Louis dies, he hands Jill a key and whispers to her that a foreign dignitary is to be assassinated in London and to look for a message in his shaving brush to take to the British Consulate. Bob Lawrence (Leslie Banks) retrieves the message before the assassin Ramon (Frank Vosper) can find it. The police detain Bob and question him. Ramon and the leader of the spy ring, the cheerfully creepy Abbott (Peter Lorre) kidnap the Lawrence's daughter Betty (Nova Pilbeam) to keep Bob and Jill silent about the assassination plot.

The Lawrence's return to London. Gibson (George Curzon) with the Foreign Office informs them that Louis was an agent with Special Services who had uncovered a plot to kill Roper, a foreign politician visiting London. With continued phone threats to kill their daughter Betty, the Lawrence's remain steadfast to reveal nothing to the authorities. But that doesn't stop Bob along with family friend "Uncle" Clive (Hugh Wakefield) from tracking down some leads from Louis's secret message starting with a visit to George Barbor (Henry Oscar), a dentist mentioned in the note. Barbor's office is a safe house for the spy ring. Bob catches sight of Abbott and Ramon while fending off the suspicious dentist and his gas mask. Bob and Clive follow the two men to the Tabernacle of the Sun, a sun worshipping chapel whose sun symbol is drawn on Louis's note.

Bob and Clive try to assimilate unnoticed in the chapel, but all the other sun worshippers are women. Agnes (Cicely Oates), Abbott's personal nurse, notices them. Once the women exit, Abbott and Ramon attempt to block the men from leaving. Bob notices a Royal Albert Hall ticket in Ramon's pocket and tells Clive to warn the police. Clive manages to escape but Bob is knocked unconscious. When Clive returns with the police, Abbott calmly explains Clive was the troublemaker and the police take Clive away. Bob is briefly united with Betty before they're separated again. Abbott plays for Ramon a record with the music cue to show Ramon when he must shoot the foreign ambassador at the Royal Albert Hall.

Clive tells Jill to go to Albert Hall per her husband's instructions. Jill sees Ramon in the lobby. Ramon hands her Betty's skier pin, warning her to keep quiet. As the orchestra plays, Abbott and his den of spies listen on the radio. Ramon prepares to shoot the ambassador from a private box on the second level. But Jill screams right before the cymbals clash, and Ramon misses his mark. Ramon races back to the kidnappers hideout followed by Jill and the police. The kidnappers have guns but the police force a local gunsmith to loan them rifles. A climactic gunfight erupts (maybe the only one in a Hitchcock film) between the spies and the police as Bob helps Betty flee to the rooftop to escape Ramon who has been ordered by Abbott to kill young Betty.

The original THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH is Hitchcock's break through hit, establishing him as the master of suspense. Hitchcock begins to establish his themes, design his visual vocabulary, and create set pieces that would shape and define his cinematic career. Hitchcock preferred to show rather than tell the audience by using symbols or motifs. Giant teeth to establish the sinister dentist office. A chiming watch to identify the spy ringleader Abbott. The skier pin to represent kidnapped Betty. He even uses cymbals as a symbol, winking to the audience as we nervously await the crashing of cymbals at the concert, signifying someone might be murdered.

Hitchcock gives us four good set pieces in MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH, the beginning of many more to follow in his career. Obviously, the assassination attempt at the Royal Albert Hall is the penultimate, Hitchcock mixing visuals and music for suspenseful, cinematic effect in a famous location no less. The dentist sequence plays on everyone's fear of dentists which in this film proves to be true. The shootout between the villains and the cops is something rare for Hitchcock (taken from a real-life gun battle called the Sidney Street siege in London in 1911 between Russian anarchists and the London police supervised by Winston Churchill) but it provides a great payoff when mother Jill seizes her chance to repay an earlier St. Moritz target practice challenge she lost to the assassin Ramon and save her daughter from him. But overlooked is the fight scene in the church with Bob Lawrence throwing chairs at his assailants, fighting to rescue his daughter.

Hitchcock's 1956 remake of THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH is a longer version of the original film with some plot changes, alterations, and enhancements.  Written by one of Hitchcock's favorite screenwriters John Michael Hayes (who would pen four Hitchcock films including 1954's REAR WINDOW and 1955's TO CATCH A THIEF), Hitchcock switches the opening location from Switzerland to Morocco and the family from English to American. All of Hitchcock's collaborators during his golden period of filmmaking in the 1950s are on the picture: composer Bernard Herrmann, Director of Photography Robert Burks, screenwriter Hayes, Editor George Tomasini, Art Directors Henry Bumstead and Hal Peirera, and Costumes by Edith Head.

Dr. Benjamin McKenna (James Stewart), his wife Josephine aka Jo (Doris Day), and their young son Hank (Christopher Olsen) are on vacation in the North Africa country of Morocco. While on a bus to Marrakech, they meet a friendly Frenchman Louis Bernard (Daniel Gelin) who joins them for drinks later that night. The next day at the Marrakech market, police chase a robed man. He's stabbed by an assailant. He stumbles into Ben's arms. It's Louis, disguised as an Arab, his face painted dark. Louis whispers to Ben a foreign statesman will be assassinated in London before dying. Ben jots down Louis's cryptic message. While Ben and Jo are questioned by the police and discover Louis was an intelligence agent, another English couple, Edward Drayton (Bernard Miles) and his wife Lucy Drayton (Brenda de Banzie) offer to watch Hank. But the Drayton's are part of the assassination plot and kidnap Hank to keep the McKenna's quiet about the assassination plot.

Back in London, the McKenna's meet with Inspector Buchanan (Ralph Truman) who wants to help them but the McKenna's stay mum, not wanting to jeopardize Hank's life. Back at their hotel, theater friends of Jo's (including Carolyn Jones who would later play Morticia in TV's THE ADDAMS FAMILY) stop by unexpectedly. Ben goes to check out Ambrose Chappel, a name Louis mentioned in his dying breath. Ben thinks it's a person. After looking him up in the phone book and calling him, Ben goes to visit Ambrose Chappel (George Howe) at his taxidermy shop. Everyone acts suspicious in the shop but it's a red herring that Hitchcock throws us. Jo figures out that Ambrose Chappel is a place not a person. She tells her theater friends to have Ben meet her at a church called Ambrose Chapel when he returns.

The conspirators are hiding out at the chapel. Drayton plays Storm Cloud Cantata on a record for the assassin Rien (Reggie Nalder), pointing out the musical cue where Rien will shoot the Foreign Prime Minister (Alexis Bobrinskoy). Drayton, dressed as a vicar, prepares for a service downstairs. Mrs. Drayton spots the McKenna's hiding amongst the parishioners. Jo sneaks out to call Inspector Buchanan. Ben scuffles with Drayton's men before he's knocked out. The Drayton's flee with Hank, hiding out in the embassy of the man they wish to kill.  Jo can't reach Buchanan who's attending the concert at the Royal Albert Hall. The chapel is locked when Jo and the police return. Ben's unconscious on the altar floor. Jo takes a taxi to the Royal Albert Hall to find Buchanan. She runs into Rien (who Jo recognizes from an encounter earlier at their Morocco hotel room). Rien warns her to do nothing if she wants to see Hank alive again.

Hitchcock recreates his original famous Royal Albert Hall assassination attempt (with a nice cameo by composer Bernard Herrmann as the symphony conductor) but shoots it entirely with music and no dialogue. Ben manages to escape from the chapel and joins Jo at Albert Hall. They spot Rien hiding behind curtains on the second balcony. Jo screams just as Rien shoots, wounding the Prime Minister. Ben tussles with Rien who falls to his death from the balcony (John Wilkes Booth style). Buchanan learns the Drayton's have been spotted at the embassy. Ben and Jo ask to see the Prime Minister (who thanked them earlier in the evening for saving his life). While Jo sings Que Sera Sera, Ben sneaks off and rescues Hank from the Draytons.

I enjoyed the newer version of THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH more upon a second viewing after watching the original first. The newer version has more layers to it. Hitchcock clearly wants this film to be American and not English. Ben is a doctor from Indianapolis. Jo is a former theater star who put her career on hold when she had Hank. Hitchcock and screenwriter Hayes add more psychological depth to the McKenna's marriage which appears strained at times. Jo giving up her music career. Ben not willing to move his practice to New York. Ben has a bit of a temper. Jo was taking too many pills until recently. Hank's kidnapping will help to strengthen their marriage.

The opening Morocco vacation scene is longer as Hitchcock establishes Louis's role more clearly (Jo doesn't trust Louis in this version) and hides the Drayton's fiendish intent until the right moment. Hitchcock throws out the dentist scene from the original and dazzles with the taxidermy set piece, building suspense in broad daylight. Notice how Hitchcock and cinematographer Robert Burks frame fierce looking stuffed animals like tigers and lions at odd angles, as if the creatures might come alive and leap at them. The before mentioned Royal Albert Hall set piece is lengthier and better than the original, the music acting as another character, representing Jo's psychological state of mind, turbulent, emotional. She's frantic to find her son but now involved with an international murder plot too.

The finale for the 1956 THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH seems drawn out and far-fetched, the result of Hitchcock already stretching out the story to perhaps its limits. He throws out the original shootout between good and bad guys, going for political intrigue as the Drayton's hide in the very embassy that the wounded Prime Minister represents. It appears the Ambassador (Mogens Wieth) ordered the assassination, but it doesn't matter. We don't really care. At least the original had elements of the 30's political climate, echoes of another World War igniting much like the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand by a Sarajevo assassin started World War I. And Doris Day's singing Que Sera Sera smacks of the studio trying to stuff a hit single into a dramatic film.

I like the 1934 THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH better for several reasons. Peter Lorre as the charming spy leader Abbott nearly steals the original film.  Lorre was an international star after Fritz Lang's M (1932). This is his first English speaking film and what an introduction playing the charismatic heavy in an Alfred Hitchcock film (with a scar and streak of white in his hair for good measure). Lorre would also make THE SECRET AGENT (1936) with Hitchcock. Hitchcock introduced villains in his films as charming, well dressed, and lethally polite although Lorre's gang is fond of padded doors, the better to muffle screams one presumes. The Drayton's in the newer version are more restrained, less flashy. Mrs. Drayton does have an icy stare and Mr. Drayton shows his ferocity at the end but they don't command the screen like Lorre. Hitchcock does know how to pick villainous faces in both films. The assassin Rien in the 1956 film resembles a vulture.

I also prefer the English Lawrence couple in the original to the American couple the McKenna's in the latter version. The Lawrence's are a bit like Nick and Nora Charles from THE THIN MAN (1934), a 1930's couple, having fun on vacation, teasing each other, even flirting with other people. Leslie Banks is self-deprecating as Bob Lawrence while Jimmy Stewart's Ben McKenna is probably Stewart's least interesting performance in a Hitchcock film. Hitchcock has some fun early in the original when Lawrence ties a string of yarn to Louis as he dances with his wife Jill, tangling up everyone on the dance floor. But both couples are deadly serious about rescuing their stolen children. The McKenna's show much more outward emotion to the kidnapping than their reserved English counterparts. Both versions are fun to watch as married couples involved in international intrigue try to unravel the mystery. The 1934 THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH introduces two more themes that reappear over and over in Hitchcock films. One is the fear or lack of trust in the police. In this film, the couple cannot go to the police for fear of endangering their child. The other theme is the accidental hero or in this case accidental heroes. Neither couple is extraordinary but circumstances beyond their control will force them to behave heroically.

The last element that makes the original THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH a better film is we are invested more in the kidnapping of Betty than we are Hank. Both kids are precocious, but Betty is older and more mature. Her love for her parents and theirs for her is more genuine. When Betty is kidnapped, taken away on a horse drawn sleigh by Ramon, Hitchcock opens with a close up of her eyes before pulling back. The terror on her face is palpable. Young English actress Nova Pilbeam is marvelous in the original as Betty. Hank played by American Christopher Olsen in the remake is younger, a typical 1950's child actor, blonde and too cute. We never really identify with Hank. Even his kidnapping happens off screen. We don't care about Hank like we do Betty.

But in no way is the original perfect, making it understandable that Hitchcock would want to remake THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH. In the first version, Hitchcock introduces the characters fast and furious and it takes us a little time to figure out who's who. Characters appear and then disappear like "Uncle" Clive. An example of Hitchcock as a talented amateur is the scene where Abbott plays the music for Ramon, pointing out when to shoot the ambassador during the performance, right in front of our hero Bob Lawrence. It's too obvious. Hitchcock will tighten up the characters introductions and plot points with his 1956 version.

Hitchcock's use of Rear Projection process shots detracts from THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH remake. Rear Projection is where a previously filmed background is projected behind actors to make them appear to be driving on the French Rivera or skiing down a mountain when they're really on a soundstage. Filmmakers used it to save money and better control the sound and location. Hitchcock did film in Morocco but his back and forth use of Rear Projection in the Morocco (and some London) scenes is jarring and ruins the believability that the McKenna's are in Marrakech. Rear Projection was used extensively from the 30's through even the 70's (new technology like green screen today has replaced Rear Projection). Rear Projection always looks more realistic in black and white than color. In the 1934 film, Hitchcock uses Rear Projection sparingly during the opening St. Moritz ski sequence and it's fairly believable. But in the 1956 version (shot in color), it just looks fake. Hitchcock used Rear Projection to better effect in TO CATCH A THIEF (1955) and VERTIGO (1958) but horribly in MARNIE (1964) and in the newer THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH.

One of the things I never put much thought into when watching THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH is the title. Who is the man who knew too much? Do you know? It's clearly Louis Bernard, the secret agent doomed when recognized by Abbott in the original and Rien in the remake. Louis knows the players, the plot, and the location of their nefarious plan. But when he's murdered, he transfers his knowledge to our protagonists.  Suddenly, Bob Lawrence and Ben McKenna become the man who knew too much. They have the clues but it takes them the rest of the film to piece it together (with their wives participation and ability to scream at the right moment). I think the title is intriguing and one of Hitchcock's most interesting.

Both versions of THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH play a significant role in director Alfred Hitchcock's career. After a couple of flops early on, Hitchcock started making films for British Gaumont Studio. The 1934 THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH would kick start his career again and attract the attention of American studios looking for new talent. TMWKTM began a successful run of English thrillers for Hitchcock. Following TMWKTM, Hitchcock would make the 39 STEPS, THE SECRET AGENT, SABOTAGE, and THE LADY VANISHES. Hitchcock's English period is often overlooked by his later American movies but it was one of his most productive stages of his early career as he made a name for himself. Hitchcock would make his first film in the United States in 1940 with REBECCA.

The 1956 THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH was made at the peak of Hitchcock's career -- the 1950's. It follows after REAR WINDOW and TO CATCH A THIEF but before VERTIGO and NORTH BY NORTHWEST. It's my least favorite of all those films but TMWKTM did provide Hitchcock with his first attempt at a big studio, Technicolor suspense thriller about an innocent man mixed up in international intrigue that he would make again with greater success in 1959 with NORTH BY NORTHWEST. Both films have great leading men, famous landmarks, and the innocent protagonist involved with spies. Hitchcock had made this kind of film before with THE 39 STEPS, FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT, and SABOTEUR but they were in black and white. The newer THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH was his first color foray into that familiar suspense world.

So judge for yourself which THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH you want to see. Is it the black and white original with a star turn by villain Peter Lorre. Or is it the Technicolor remake with big Hollywood stars James Stewart and Doris Day. My suggestion is watch the original 1934 version first and the 1956 remake after that. Then, go out to the dinner and discuss the pros and cons of both versions as only Alfred Hitchcock would dare to remake one of his own successful films a second time.