Superman II (1980)

The dawn of the new age of superhero movies did not begin in the late 80's with Tim Burton's BATMAN or the start of the 21st century with Sam Raimi's SPIDER MAN (2002). It began with Richard Donner's SUPERMAN in 1978. At the time SUPERMAN was released, I was a huge comic book fan. I was more into Marvel superheroes than DC superheroes. Superman and Batman were part of the DC Universe.  As good as SUPERMAN was, the film left me a little disappointed. Much of the film was dedicated to Superman's origin story, how he came to Earth from Krypton, his growing up in Smallville, and eventually moving to Metropolis where he becomes a newspaper reporter when he's not changing into Superman and rescuing people. My love of comics was derived from the clash between superhero and supervillain. In SUPERMAN, the villain is Superman's arch nemesis Lex Luthor played by the great Gene Hackman. But Hackman shows up late in the film and has hair for most of his screen time (in the comics Luthor is as bald as a billiard ball). There wasn't much in the way of fight sequences leaving me wanting more. That would all change in the sequel SUPERMAN II (1980) directed by Richard Lester which would not only have the return of Lex Luthor but three more villains from Superman's home planet. When Superman throws one of the Krypton villains through an entire building floor and out the other side, that's when I knew that comic books and movies had melded into one. 

When SUPERMAN II was released, two of my best friends in high school had just been hired as ushers at the nearby movie theater where SUPERMAN II was showing. I like to think I'm a pretty honest CrazyFilmGuy but I was hoping to take advantage of my friends' access to sneak into SUPERMAN II and not have to pay.  We were never able to pull it off. My friends (and I) were too chicken. Their boss seemed to always be hovering in the lobby.  When I went to see it, there weren't enough other moviegoers at the snack bar to distract the manager. I didn't want to get my friends fired. I would end up paying the admission (probably six bucks) and walk honestly into the large auditorium to watch SUPERMAN II in 70mm. 

Before the SUPERMAN movies came out, Superman had been relegated to television and in black and white no less with THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN (1952-1958) starring George Reeves as Clark Kent aka Superman. Superman would next make his appearance on the animated television series SUPER FRIENDS (1973-1985) that I watched as a kid. With the advent of better special effects that kicked off a year earlier with George Lucas's STAR WARS (1977), Warner Bros and director Richard Donner (LETHAL WEAPON, THE GOONIES) were confident that the time was right for the man in red tights and a large S on his chest to return via the big screen. This time, Superman would not be in black and white or animated.  It was time for a flesh and blood Superman in bright Technicolor. 

I'm going to focus on SUPERMAN II which I just watched for the first time after 43 years. Englishman Richard Lester (A HARD'S DAY NIGHT, THE THREE MUSKETEERS) took over the SUPERMAN reins from Richard Donner (more about that later). If you don't remember the plot to SUPERMAN, SUPERMAN II begins with a recap of SUPERMAN during the opening credits. With a screenplay by Mario Puzo and David & Leslie Newman (with a Creative Consultant credit to Tom Mankiewicz) based on a story by Mario Puzo and directed by Lester, SUPERMAN II begins back on Superman's home planet of Krypton before it was destroyed where three criminals General Zod (Terence Stamp), Ursa (Sarah Douglas), and Non (Jack O'Halloran) are banished into the Phantom Zone (a glass trapezoid) by the Council. The three traitors tumble into space, presumely never to be seen again. On Earth, Clark Kent aka Superman (Christopher Reeve) races to Paris where he stops three terrorists from detonating a hydrogen bomb on the Eiffel Tower and rescues his secret love, fellow reporter Lois Lane (Margot Kidder) who's covering the story. When Superman throws the bomb into space, the shockwave from its explosion shatters the Phantom Zone, releasing General Zod, Ursa, and Non from their prison.  The three criminals gain superpowers equal to Superman from exposure to the Sun. 

The greatest criminal mastermind in the world Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman) and his associate Otis (Ned Beatty) who both appeared in SUPERMAN plot their escape from prison. Clark and Lois are sent to Niagara Falls by Daily Planet editor Perry White (Jackie Cooper) to investigate a honeymoon racket ring. Clark is secretly in love with Lois who just wants to be friends. Lois is in love with Superman. After Superman rescues a child who fell into Niagara Falls, Lois begins to suspect Clark might be Superman. General Zod and his gang show up on the Moon and kill a team of astronauts. They head next for Earth. Luthor makes a daring hot air balloon escape from prison with the help of his curvy assistant Miss Eve Teschmacher (Valerie Perrine), leaving Otis behind. Lois jumps into the river above Niagara Falls to make Clark turn into Superman and rescue her. Clark manages to rescue her without revealing his alter ego. Lex and Miss Teschmacher ride a snow mobile to the snowy Arctic and uncover Superman's Fortress of Solitude, his sanctuary, courtesy of a device Lex has created. Lex grabs a crystal from a Krypton memory bank, triggering the Archives of Krypton. Lex and Eve watch as Superman's mother Lara (Susannah York) talks about the banishment of Zod and the others. Lex is determined to meet these super criminals.

Back at Niagara Falls, Clark trips and puts his hand in the fireplace by accident in front of Lois. He has no burns. Lois realizes Clark is not a mild mannered, awkward reporter. Clark confesses to Lois his true identity. He is Superman. General Zod and his cohorts show up in a small Idaho town and cause havoc, forcing the military to show up. Zod, Ursa, and Non toy with their jeeps and guns. Bored, Zod discovers the ruler of these hapless humans is the President of the United States (E.G. Marshall). Zod wants to meet the President. They fly off to Washington D.C. Superman brings Lois to the Fortress of Solitude. He shows her where he came from. If Superman wants to marry a mortal like Lois, he has to become mortal. Superman steps into the Crystal Chamber and becomes human, losing his superpowers. The three Krypton criminals descend onto the White House, destroying the venerable structure. The President kneels to General Zod to save the planet. The President calls on Superman to defeat Zod. Only Superman is now just non-superhero Clark Kent, who can't even defend himself or Lois against a misogynistic trucker at a local diner. Clark sees the President's dire message on the diner's television.  He heads back the Fortress of Solitude to try and turn himself back into Superman.

Clark finds one remaining piece of green crystal in his cave that will give him his powers back. Lex Luthor shows up at the White House.  Lex promises he can deliver Superman to Zod.  In return Lex asks only that he be given Australia to rule.  Zod, Ursa, and Non fly to Metropolis, showing up at the Daily Planet where Superman arrives in the nick of time. Superman and the Krypton rebels battle on the streets of Metropolis and above, destroying buildings and cars in the melee. Zod realizes that Superman cares for his adopted planet Earth and its people, making Zod want to hurt Superman even more. Superman flees to the Fortress one last time with Zod and company in hot pursuit.  Can Superman defeat General Zod, Ursa, Non, and Lex and save the planet?

After 43 years, my memory of SUPERMAN II was not as good as I thought. The first comic book moment in the film is not Superman tossed through several buildings as I recalled but the man-child Non throwing a redneck through a diner wall and a truck parked outside. Superman would later punch Non through an entire building floor in the film's climactic fight scene. I had forgotten the scenes in Paris or Niagara Falls or that Superman had built the Fortress of Solitude up north. The special effects are good in some sections and not so good in other scenes. Rewatching SUPERMAN II did reenforce why I liked the sequel a little more than SUPERMAN.  There wasn't the obligatory origin story which took up half of SUPERMAN.  The sequel gets right into its story. SUPERMAN II has more villains with Lex Luthor plus General Zod, Ursa, and the behemoth Non (who were briefly introduced in SUPERMAN). As good as Richard Donner's SUPERMAN was with iconic stars like Marlon Brando as Supeman's real father Jor-El and Glenn Ford as his adopted father Pa Kent on Earth in small but important supporting roles and casting newcomers Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder in the key roles of Clark and Lois, new director Richard Lester brought his British outsider sensibility to the sequel, keeping the movie moving along at a good pace with plenty of humor and romance along the way. 

One of the clever plot mechanisms SUPERMAN II uses is the "fish out of water" scenario. From Mark Twain's 1899 novel A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court to Ron Howard's SPLASH (1984) and John Carpenter's STARMAN (also 1984), having a particular character like a Yankee engineer, a mermaid or a space alien in a totally different environment has always been a popular device.  SUPERMAN II takes the three Krypton criminals Zod, Ursa, and Non with their superpowers and puts them in a foreign environment like a small hick town in Idaho. The differences between the arrogant supervillains and the backward thinking locals provide both humor and conflict. Ursa tries her first arm wrestling contest with a local and breaks his arm. Non becomes attached to a police siren. This will carryover as the criminals take over and demolish the White House in their search for the President of the United States.  Later, the three will encounter their first big city and all its dangers and giant toys in Metropolis.

Another strong factor for SUPERMAN II is the progression of the Superman/Lois romance. We already know that Clark is in love with Lois from SUPERMAN but his love is unrequited. Lois loves Superman not the bumbling Clark Kent. SUPERMAN II doesn't waste any time expanding on this plot thread. Lois begins to suspect that Clark might be Superman when the caped superhero shows up at Niagara Falls where Lois and Clark are on an undercover assignment. After Superman rescues a young boy who goes over the massive falls, Lois tries to duplicate the dangerous feat to draw Superman out. Clark accidentally saves her on his own. Instead, the clumsy Clark will reveal his alter ego much more simply when he trips and sticks his arm into an open fire, suffering no burn wounds to Lois's amazement.

The relief when Superman/Clark can finally tell Lois is palpable. We the audience are relieved after a movie and a half of Clark hiding his secret from Lois. Superman proudly shows off the Fortress of Solitude and where he came from to Lois. He's committed to a relationship and tying the knot with Lois even if it means becoming mortal. Superman and Lois become the first superhero comic book characters to have sex in a film (off camera off course. We next see them post-coital). Naturally, just when Superman gives up his powers for the woman he loves, the President of the United States and all mankind need Superman the most with the arrival of the three supervillains from his home planet of Krypton who have the same superpowers that Superman once had. 

The chemistry between Christopher Reeve as Superman and Margot Kidder as Lois Lane makes these comic characters human and endearing in SUPERMAN II.  Reeve and Kidder set the standard for all future comic superheroes and their love interests. If we don't like and believe in them, the movie will fail. For me, Christopher Reeve was the perfect embodiment of Superman with his jet-black hair, six-foot four stature, and square jaw good looks. I wasn't as sold on Margot Kidder as Lois the first time I watched the SUPERMAN movies. She won me over with this recent viewing of SUPERMAN II.  She's got moxie.  When she's with Clark she's the tough talking, no nonsense city news journalist.  When she's around Superman, she becomes a love smitten teenager. Kidder made Lois seem like a comic book heroine pulled from the pages of a Joe Siegel/Jerry Schuster Superman comic book come to life. 

The behind-the-scenes drama of SUPERMAN II (which I was only slightly aware of) is as engrossing as the plot to one of Superman's comic book stories.  Director Richard Donner who directed the first SUPERMAN had actually filmed half of SUPERMAN II when he was either fired or walked off the film after a dispute with Producers Ilya and Alexander Salkind. The Salkind's hired Richard Lester who they had worked with on THE THREE AND FOUR MUSKETEERS films. For Lester to receive a solo directing credit, he had to reshoot half of the film that Donner had already shot besides finish the film. Several actors including Gene Hackman refused to participate in the additional filming, loyal to Donner. It all makes sense now as there are some voice overs and off camera dialogue that are supposed to be Hackman as Lex Luthor that was done by a voice impersonator.  When watching it recently, I thought something didn't sound right. Despite all the behind camera craziness, SUPERMAN II still turned out to be a successful blockbuster and critically acclaimed. Lester would go on to direct SUPERMAN III (1983) with Christopher Reeve back as Superman and Richard Pryor as the villain. However, years later movie fans (and Margot Kidder) would encourage Warner Bros to release Richard Donner's version of SUPERMAN II known as SUPERMAN II: THE RICHARD DONNER CUT in 2006 with different takes of the same scenes as well as new footage that Donner shot and Lester didn't use. 

For the stars Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder, their lives after SUPERMAN II would not have a comic book ending. SUPERMAN II would pave Reeve to appear in some successful, non-SUPERMAN films like Jeannot Szwarc's romantic time traveling tale SOMEWHERE IN TIME (1980), Sidney Lumet's DEATHTRAP (1982) with Michael Caine, and James Ivory's THE BOSTONIANS (1984). An equestrian enthusiast, Reeve would become paralyzed after a horse-riding accident in 1995. Reeve would still work in film and television after the accident but sadly, he would succumb to his injuries in 2004. For Margot Kidder, she too found work beyond Lois Lane in films like Stuart Rosenberg's THE AMITYVILLE HORROR (1979), Michael Pressman's SOME KIND OF HERO (1982) with Richard Pryor, and many more films.  Kidder would work steadily in the 80s and 90s until she began dealing with a bipolar disorder that would derail her career for a few years.  Kidder would commit suicide by overdose in 2018 at the age of 69.

Gene Hackman was one of the biggest movie stars in the 1970s with a Best Actor Academy Award as unorthodox New York cop Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle in William Friedkin's THE FRENCH CONNECTION (1971). It was a coup to land Hackman as Superman's nemesis Lex Luthor in SUPERMAN. In SUPERMAN II, Luthor is reduced to more of a supporting role with the addition of three new supervillains from Krypton. Hackman's Luthor is an example of the evolution of the comic book villain to the big screen. Luthor is more funny than dangerous or threatening. He reminded me of the villains in the old BATMAN television show like Cesar Romero as the Joker or Frank Gorshin as the Riddler. They're full of quips and jokes and funny one liners but not deadly enough to make us fear for the superhero. Luthor has some of the funniest lines in SUPERMAN II but the drama between good and evil is lost. Hackman wouldn't even go with Luthor's trademark baldness except for his opening scenes in SUPERMAN II when he's in prison. The dangerous, psychopathic supervillain would emerge with Tim Burton's BATMAN (1989). And to see how dangerous Lex Luthor could be portrayed, check out Jesse Eisenberg's performance as Lex in Zach Snyder's BATMAN VS SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE (2016). 

An inspired casting choice for the role of General Zod in SUPERMAN II was English actor Terence Stamp. Stamp was one of the up-and-coming British actors in the 60s along with Peter O'Toole and Michael Caine appearing in British films such as John Schlesinger's FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD (1967) with Julie Christie and Ken Loach's POOR COW (1967) before taking a break from acting in the early 70s. With Zod, Stamp portrays the supervillain as a petulant child, demanding everyone bow to him and bored with how easily they seem to have conquered Earth. SUPERMAN II would reenergize his career. Stamp has since appeared in Stephen Frears THE HIT (1984), Oliver Stone's WALL STREET (1987), and THE LIMEY (1999), Steven Soderbergh's excellent crime drama showcasing Stamp along with another 60s icon Peter Fonda. 

Less well known are Stamp's Krypton co-stars Sarah Douglas as Ursa and Jack O'Halloran as Non. Douglas makes Ursa one of the boys, having fun beating up humans and wreaking havoc wherever she goes. Douglas would appear in another comic book turned film in Richard Fleischer's CONAN THE DESTROYER (1984) with Arnold Schwarzenegger. Douglas played Queen Taramis. Douglas would also appear in a 2018 episode of the CW TV series SUPERGIRL. O'Halloran was a former heavyweight boxer who lost to the likes of George Foreman and turned to acting when he retired. At six feet, six inches tall, O'Halloran is perfect as the hulking Non. O'Halloran auditioned for the role of Jaws in the James Bond film THE SPY WHO LOVED ME (1977) but lost out to Richard Kiel (who O'Halloran resembled). Clifton James who appeared in two James Bond films as Sheriff J.W. Pepper including LIVE AND LET DIE (1973) plays another, less agitated sheriff in SUPERMAN II.  And check out early film roles for actor John Ratzenberger (Cliff from the NBC TV series CHEERS) and Richard Griffiths (who played Harry Potter's Uncle Vernon in the HARRY POTTER films) as one of the French terrorists. 

I had forgotten that besides SUPERMAN and SUPERMAN II, there were two more films that followed in the franchise, a sign that the first two SUPERMAN films had done very well financially. But the next two would not be quite as successful. SUPERMAN III (1983) (also directed by Richard Lester) had a new comic villain in Richard Pryor as Gus Gorman and a new love interest in Annette O'Toole as Clark's old high school flame Lana Lang plus a good and evil Superman. The nail in the coffin for the series would be SUPERMAN IV: THE QUEST FOR PEACE (1987) directed by Sidney J. Furie with Superman duking it out with Nuclear Man.   The less said, the better. Appearing in all four SUPERMAN films would be Christopher Reeve (Clark Kent/Superman), Margot Kidder (Lois Lane), Jackie Cooper (The Daily Planet editor-in-chief Perry White), and Marc McClure (Daily Planet photographer Jimmy Olsen). 

My memory may not have been as good as I had hoped but SUPERMAN II still proved to be the entertaining summer blockbuster film that I went to see as a teenager 43 years ago. I was not the biggest Superman fan to begin with.  I preferred superheroes that wore masks or helmets to disguise their identities. Superman had to hide his identity by pretending to be the klutzy Clark Kent, almost afraid of his own shadow. But SUPERMAN and SUPERMAN II paved the way for the future of superhero movies.  Tell the origin story.  Provide a good love interest and supervillain.  With the further advent of special effects and now CGI, filmmakers could bring all the comic book action, gadgets, superpowers, and fantastical locations and universes to life. As I sat in the Westgate Theater back in the summer of 1980, my friends in the lobby making popcorn and taking tickets, little did we realize that SUPERMAN II was just the beginning for the superhero genre. 

 

American Graffiti (1973)

I used to feel guilty about my love for nostalgia, particularly toward my own past. My friends and I would go out for a beer and reminisce about high school reunions, our past sport careers, and summer crushes and adventures from yesteryear. I was always taking photos in high school and college to capture moments in time of my life with family and friends, snapshots for eternity. When Facebook emerged, I found a place to share my treasure trove of nostalgia by posting photographs from elementary school class photos all the way to college parties and beyond. But a few years ago, someone made a comment (not directly at me) about not living in the past but in the present. They had a disdain for looking back to the past. It made me rethink my attitude towards sentimentality and those glory years. 

Luckily, I didn't dwell on it too long. Nostalgia is healthy for the mind and soul. Filmmakers have found inspiration in their early lives, turning their experiences growing up into classic films. Peter Yates BREAKING AWAY (1979) about four young friends caught between high school and college living in Bloomington, Indiana is based on screenwriter Steve Tesich's experiences while attending Indiana University.  Barry Levinson borrowed his growing up in Baltimore to make three semi-autobiographical films including DINER (1982), TIN MEN (1987), and AVALON (1990).  More recently, Steven Spielberg went back to his young life to show how he became a young filmmaker in THE FABELMANS (2022).  But my favorite film that takes an audience back to a seemingly more innocent, fun era in 1962 is George Lucas's AMERICAN GRAFFITI (1973). Lucas's first film THX-1138 (1971), a dystopian science fiction film had bombed. His friend and mentor Francis Coppola suggested he make a more personal film for his sophomore effort and AMERICAN GRAFFITI emerged from that guidance, a movie about teenagers and rock & roll, and the uniquely American mating ritual of cruising in your car to pickup girls. 

The profound effect that AMERICAN GRAFFITI had on me as a nine-year-old is immeasurable. No, I did not get to see the film when it was released in 1973.  But I had neighbors, four brothers recently relocated from Ohio, older than me who lived in the cul-de-sac below my house.  They had seen AMERICAN GRAFFITI and they owned the soundtrack. My first AMERICAN GRAFFITI experience was going to their house and listening to the early rock and roll songs and ballads by artists like the Beach Boys, Bill Haley and the Comets, the Platters, Buddy Holly, and Fats Domino among others.  The music so inspired me that I convinced three of my classmates to perform a lip sync to one of GRAFFITI'S songs "Little Darlin" by the Diamonds at a second grade talent show. In junior high school, we had a 50's dance one year (I think inspired by AMERICAN GRAFFITI and the TV show HAPPY DAYS). All the boys came to the dance in lettermen's jackets and the girls in poodle skirts borrowed from our parents and grandparents. There was a 50's dance competition. A female classmate of mine and I won the Cha-Cha competition (still one of my proudest accomplishments). AMERICAN GRAFFITI reawakened our collective love for nostalgia and the past whether it was classic cars, clothing styles, or music. 

With a screenplay by George Lucas and the husband-and-wife team of Gloria Katz & Willard Huyck (INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM), produced by Francis Coppola, and directed by George Lucas based on his high school years growing up in Modesto, California, AMERICAN GRAFFITI takes place the last summer night in 1962 in a small northern California valley town. Four young men cross paths at Mel's Drive-In aka Burger City, their futures that night fresh and unknown.  Steve Bolander (Ron Howard) and Curt Henderson (Richard Dreyfus) are headed to college on the East coast the next morning. Steve is dating Curt's younger sister Laurie Henderson (Cindy Williams). Terry "the Toad" Fields (Charles Martin Smith) is the nerd of the bunch, terrible at convincing any girls to go out with him or look cool riding a moped. Terry looks up to John Milner (Paul Le Mat), tall and handsome who drives the fastest hot rod in town. The film tracks the adventures of each of them that night before they go their separate ways as the omniscient local DJ (Wolfman Jack) plays music and reads love dedications over the soundtrack.

Steve, Laurie, and Curt go back to their high school where the freshman sock hop is happening (and the band Flash Cadillac and the Continentals perform). On the way, Curt catches sight of a beautiful blonde (Suzanne Somers) in a white Thunderbird who mouths "I love you" to him before driving off. Curt will spend the rest of the night trying to find this mystery "goddess." At the dance, Steve (former class president) suggests to Laurie (current head cheerleader) that they date other people while he's away at college and she finishes her senior year of high school. This doesn't sit well with Laurie. Curt's undecided if he wants to go to college yet.  Curt leaves the dance and catches a ride with former fling Wendy (Deby Celiz) and her friend Bobbie (Lynne Marie Stewart). They cruise around town. Curt gets tangled up with a local gang called the Pharaohs led by Joe (Bo Hopkins) and two other members Carlos (Manuel Padilla, Jr) and Ants (Beau Gentry). He's forced to pull a prank on the local police in town, winning the admiration of the Pharaohs who want to make Curt a member through a blood initiation (Curt politely declines).

Steve asks Terry to watch his car while he goes away to college.  Terry's ecstatic and begins cruising 3rd Street in his new "car" where he picks up Debbie (Candy Clark), a slightly kooky girl who's impressed with his new wheels and that Terry thinks she looks like "Connie Stevens." Debbie will prove to be more than Terry can handle as he tries to buy alcohol for her (witnessing an armed robbery in the process), makes out with her by the canal, and gets violently sick from the alcohol.  John cruises the strip looking for girls and hears from other drivers that a cowboy named Bob Falfa (Harrison Ford) is looking to race him. John feels the pressure as the best racer in town having to fend off rivals. John flirts with a car full of girls and accidentally takes in juvenile 12-year-old Carol (Mackenzie Phillips) who wants to stay out all night.  Carol manages to pierce John's tough guy image as she and John pull some pranks on other teenage girls cars cruising before Falfa finds John and challenges him to a drag race. 

Steve and Laurie drive to the canal to make out but end up having another fight.  Laurie kicks him out of her car and drives off. Steve runs into Terry and Debbie who have lost Steve's car at the canal. They walk back to Burger City.  Curt drives to a small radio station outside of town to find Wolfman Jack and make a dedication and leave a phone booth number for the T-Bird blonde to call. Terry and Debbie stumble across Steve's stolen car. Terry gets beat up by the thieves who stole it but John comes to the rescue after dropping Carol off at her home. Steve talks to Burger City waitress Budda (Jana Bellan) and tells her he and Laurie broke up. Laurie sees Steve and Budda talking, becomes jealous, and jumps into Bob Falfa's '55 Chevy. Steve finds out Laurie's with Falfa and takes his car back from Terry as they all head out to Paradise Road for the climactic drag race between John and Falfa.  During the race, Falfa crashes but he and Laurie walk away from his smashed-up Chevy before it explodes. Terry tells John he's still the king. John admits he was losing the race before the crash. Steve tells Laurie he's not going to college back East and they get back together.  They all go to the airport the next morning to see Curt off to college who has changed his mind after his encounter with Wolfman Jack. AMERICAN GRAFFITI concludes with high school senior photos of Steve, Curt, John, and Terry and what became of them after that final summer night together. It's a poignant conclusion to a nostalgic trip down George Lucas's Memory Lane. 

AMERICAN GRAFFITI is a time capsule of a period of innocence in America, right after the Cold War but before the Vietnam War and John F. Kennedy's assassination. A period after Elvis was king, Buddy Holly died, and before the British Invasion. Director Lucas shows us a slice of Americana, a place where waitresses (or carhops) at a Drive-In deliver your cheeseburger and cherry coke to your car on roller skates. A place where every teenager has a bitchin or boss Chevy or Ford automobile. A place where you could go to a dance and do the "hop", the "swing", or the "cha-cha." A place where rock and roll music permeates the airwaves from car radios throughout the night. A place where good natured pranks like throwing water balloons or letting off a cherry bomb in the boys bathroom or smearing whipped cream on cars or "mooning" a passing car by pressing your butt cheeks against the car window or pulling down someone's pants in front of a girl was as wild as it got in a small town in 1962.

It's not all sock hops, milk shakes, and crew cuts though in AMERICAN GRAFFITI. The film has a dark side as well. When Curt talks to Mr. Wolfe (Terry McGovern), one of his favorite teachers at the freshman dance, they're interrupted by Jane (Kay Lenz but credited as Kay Ann Kemper), a pretty student who needs to talk to Mr. Wolfe privately. We never know what their teacher/student discussion is as Curt walks off.  Is it an inappropriate relationship? Could Jane be pregnant?  The film leaves it a mystery.  During the night, John Milner takes Carol to an automobile graveyard. Perhaps foreshadowing John's future, John tells Carol the tragic demise of each wrecked car and its hot rod driver. One racer was killed by a drunk driver he confides to Carol.  Throughout AMERICAN GRAFFITI, we witness John as a cool customer with fast car driving skills.  But he's also cognizant of safety where other hot shots like Bob Falfa are not. Drag racing is a dangerous business especially for teenagers. John realizes that with high speeds, death could be around the next curve or intersection.

At first glance, there doesn't seem to be much in common between AMERICAN GRAFFITI and Lucas's next slightly larger space fantasy four years later called STAR WARS.  One GRAFFITI character hints at a connection. Wolfman Jack in a way is a mystical, enigmatic character similar to STAR WARS Obi-Wan Kenobi or Yoda or even the wizard from THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939). For most of GRAFFITI, we never see the Wolfman. We only hear him.  Stories abound from teenagers that the Wolfman transmits his radio show thousands of miles away in Mexico. Curt learns from Joe of the Pharoahs that the Wolfman is really just on the outskirts of town, in a non-descript building. Curt visits the Wolfman at the station (only the Wolfman pretends at first to just be a guy working for the famed DJ). Curt's interaction with the Wolfman will alter his life choice. Like Luke Skywalker leaving Tatooine after meeting Obi-Wan, Curt decides to go back East to college afterall.  Of the four main characters in AMERICAN GRAFFITI, only Curt, who met the Wolfman, leaves town to find his future.

Lucas's use of music in AMERICAN GRAFFITI is groundbreaking. The movie's soundtrack is not a composed score but a series of late 50s and early 60s rock and roll songs and ballads. Lucas and his sound editor Walter Murch place each music selection to coincide with the mood or action of the scene. The Platters "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" comes on at the sock hop when Steve and Laurie are forced to dance after having a fight about dating other people.  Steve is blinded by his desire to date other women while at college. When John is tricked by a car full of girls to take 12-year-old minor Carol as a passenger, freeing her older sister from babysitting her for the night, Del Shannon's "Runaway" plays on the radio.  It's a radical idea, using actual rock and roll songs to illicit emotions rather than a traditional score. A big chunk of AMERICAN GRAFFITI'S budget ($80,000) went to purchasing the rights to each song ($2,000 per song).  Lucas would come up with the idea of putting out an AMERICAN GRAFFITI soundtrack with all the songs on it. The album would become a best seller.  After the success of the album, the price to purchase the rights to an artist or groups song or songs for a film would become more expensive. 

The characters and setting for AMERICAN GRAFFITI would also have a lasting effect on future Hollywood films and television shows. The nebbish Terry "the Toad" Fields played by Charles Martin Smith might be the first modern film nerd (Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Jerry Lewis played variants of the nerd back in the day). With his slicked back hair and black rimmed glasses, the Toad is the guy we all went to school with, a lovable, socially awkward teenager (possibly you or me) who couldn't score with the girls but was smart and had useful skills to various cliques.  These dweebish characters would emerge in other films from John Landis's ANIMAL  HOUSE (1978) to Paul Brickman's RISKY BUSINESS (1983) to John Hughes SIXTEEN CANDLES (1984). The nerds would even rise up in Jeff Kanew's REVENGE OF THE NERDS (1984) forming their own college fraternity. 

There's no question that AMERICAN GRAFFITI inspired the popular television show HAPPY DAYS that aired on ABC from 1974 to 1984.  For the first few seasons, HAPPY DAYS even used Bill Haley and the Comets "Rock Around the Clock" as its theme song just as AMERICAN GRAFFITI had Haley's song over its opening titles. And I like to think that the supposed bad boy John Milner in GRAFFITI may have been a prototype for Henry Winckler's Arthur "Fonzie" Fonzarelli in HAPPY DAYS.  Both Milner and the Fonz exuded cool and toughness on the outside but both young men had a heart of gold inside.  But HAPPY DAYS first appeared as a segment on the television show LOVE, AMERICAN STYLE in 1969.  The plot didn't grab the network's attention.  After the success of Lucas's AMERICAN GRAFFITI, HAPPY DAYS creator Garry Marshall decided to try it as a pilot on its own.  Although set in Wisconsin instead of the Merced Valley of Northern California, Marshall caught lightning in the bottle a second time with HAPPY DAYS, even casting Ron Howard from AMERICAN GRAFFITI as All-American good kid Richie Cunningham. 

One of the joys of coming-of-age films are the young, unknown actors who appear in them early in their careers and go on to become major stars in one way or another. AMERICAN GRAFFITI would have several actors that AMERICAN GRAFFITI would catapult to success. Richard Dreyfus had mostly appeared in television shows and an uncredited brief appearance in Mike Nichols THE GRADUATE (1967) when he landed one of the leads in AMERICAN GRAFFITI. Dreyfus's exuberance and infectious laugh as college bound Curt Henderson would land him bigger roles with Lucas's filmmaking friend Steven Spielberg in the blockbusters JAWS (1975) and CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND (1977).  

For Ron Howard, AMERICAN GRAFFITI would be a coming out party for the actor who had been acting (most famously as Opie Taylor in THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW) since he was a young child. As outgoing high school president Steve Bolander, Howard had his first opportunity in GRAFFITI to play a young adult. It's fun to see a not so squeaky-clean Howard as his character Steve is slightly full of himself.  Steve pops off at a former high school teacher at the sock hop and even tries to have sex with his girlfriend Laurie on his last night in town (he's unsuccessful). Howard would go on to greater fame than Opie as teenager Richie Cunningham in the television hit HAPPY DAYS from 1974 to 1984.  Besides continuing to act in films like Don Siegel's THE SHOOTIST (1976) with John Wayne, Howard would make the leap to directing.  His first foray would be the low budget GRAND THEFT AUTO (1977) a car chase film perhaps inspired by AMERICAN GRAFFITI'S car culture and produced by indie producer Roger Corman.  Lucas would later hire Howard to direct WILLOW (1988), a fantasy film starring Val Kilmer. Howard would become a successful film director with hits like BACKDRAFT (1991), APOLLO 13 (1995), and A BEAUTIFUL MIND (2001) starring Russell Crowe where Howard would win the Academy Award for Best Director.

Harrison Ford and Cindy Williams were part of a group of young actors that included Robert Duvall, Frederic Forrest, and John Cazale who worked with the young filmmakers Coppola and Lucas in their early films. Both Ford and Williams would appear in Coppola's THE CONVERSATION (1974) after making AMERICAN GRAFFITI with Lucas. For Harrison Ford, rival drag racer Bob Falfa in GRAFFITI may be the only villain that Ford ever played in his career. Life would forever change for Harrison Ford working with George Lucas as Ford would go on to play space mercenary Han Solo in Lucas's STAR WARS (1977) and subsequent sequels and as professor/archaeologist Henry "Indiana" Jones in Steven Spielberg's RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981), created by Lucas and Philip Kaufman. Although Cindy Williams would not make many more feature films after her role as Laurie Henderson in AMERICAN GRAFFITI, she (like fellow GRAFFITI co-star Ron Howard) would become a huge television star in her own ABC hit series LAVERNE & SHIRLEY (1976-1983) as Shirley Feeney, co-starring with Penny Marshall. In GRAFFITI, Williams has the most normal female role as Laurie, the dutiful girlfriend of Steve but Williams makes it her own, giving Laurie humor and pathos.

The most underrated characters (and actors) in AMERICAN GRAFFITI in my opinion are Terry "the Toad" Fields played by Charles Martin Smith and Debbie played by model turned actress Candy Clark. Smith provides the blueprint for the nerd as Terry "the Toad." He makes "the Toad" human and not a caricature. Terry has no luck with girls. He will have his hands full this night with the more experienced Debbie, making up story after story to impress her, having one crazy adventure after the other. When we first see Debbie walking down the sidewalk (from Terry's point of view), she looks pissed off like she's just broken up with a guy or had to fend off wolves howling at her from their cars. Terry's approach is different, goofy. 

As played by Clark, Debbie seems like she may have been around the block a few times. She likes boss cars and cheap alcohol. She fends off a former beau who tries to rekindle whatever they had while she's with Terry. Debbie and Terry make a lovable couple even if Debbie probably should have hooked up with John Milner.  But not on this night. Terry scores with the blonde and John drives around with a minor. Smith and Clark would both have durable careers after AMERICAN GRAFFITI.  Smith had a good run in the 1980s appearing in Carroll Ballard's NEVER CRY WOLF (1983), John Carpenter's STARMAN (1984), and Brian DePalma's THE UNTOUCHABLES (1987) with Kevin Costner and Sean Connery. Clark would work opposite David Bowie in Nicolas Roeg's THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH (1976) and appear with Robert Mitchum and James Stewart in Michael Winner's remake of THE BIG SLEEP (1978). In GRAFFITI, it's all about odd couples whether it's Terry and Debbie or John and Carol. 

Every time I watch AMERICAN GRAFFITI, the one character I find more and more fascinating with each viewing is drag racer John Milner played by Paul Le Mat. The Milner character reminds me of people I went to high school and/or college with who didn't want to evolve. They were stuck in that one period of life. While Steve and Curt prepare to fly off to college and leave their sleepy town and dull lives, John wants to stay and keep having fun. He wants to cruise for chicks every night and race hot shots who think they can dethrone the king. John's a dinosaur and by the end of the film, he begins to realize it. John may exude a bad boy image on the outside but reveals his soft side when dealing with young Carol or rescuing the Toad from a beating. Le Mat's brooding performance should have led to more leading man roles but they were few and far between. He would appear with Candy Clark in Jonathan Demme's CITIZENS BAND (1977), a CB radio spin echoing GRAFFITI and Demme's acclaimed MELVIN AND HOWARD (1980) with Mary Steenburgen and Jason Robards. A former boxer, Le Mat's career never reached the peak of his feature debut in AMERICAN GRAFFITI. 

Kudos to casting director Fred Roos (who worked with Coppola on THE GODFATHER films and APOCALYPSE NOW) who found future stars like young Mackenzie Phillips (TVs ONE DAY AT A TIME) who plays the precocious Carol who jumps into John Milner's car to Kathleen Quinlan who was just starting college when she landed the small speaking role of Peg, Laurie's friend.  Quinlan would become an established actress appearing in Oliver Stone's THE DOORS (1991) and APOLLO 13 starring Tom Hanks and directed by fellow GRAFFITI star Ron Howard.  Suzanne Somers would turn a almost non-speaking role as the Blonde in the T-Bird into a future starring role as the bubble headed blonde Chrissy on the popular ABC comedy series THREE'S COMPANY. Kay Lenz (appearing as Kay Ann Kemper) who has a bit part as Jane, the girl who needs to talk to the teacher privately at the sock  hop would go to play opposite William Holden in BREEZY (1973) and have a decent career in films and television. Even Bo Hopkins, one of my favorite character actors who usually played psychos or criminals in Sam Peckinpah films like THE WILD BUNCH (1969) and THE GETAWAY (1972) gets to display some comedic skills as Joe, the oldest member of the local gang the Pharoahs.  Joe, like John Milner, doesn't seem like he wants to grow up. 

Some final AMERICAN GRAFFITI trivia tidbits. Check out the license plate of John Milner's yellow hot rod. THX 138. It's Lucas's (or his prop department) nod to Lucas's previous film THX-1138. Another homage is made by Lucas to his producer and friend Francis Coppola. Coppola's first feature, a horror film called DEMENTIA 13 (1963) is showing on the theater marquee behind the police car which loses its axle due to Curt and the Pharoahs prank. I won't even nitpick that DEMENTIA 13 came out a year after 1962 when AMERICAN GRAFFITI takes place.  One of the badasses who begins to beat up Terry before John intervenes was played by Johnny Weismuller Jr, son of the original Tarzan Johnny Weismuller, Sr. With his mentor Coppola producing, the young Lucas had some great technical talent helping him behind the camera including renowned cinematographer Haskell Wexler as his visual consultant (BOUND FOR GLORY, COMING HOME) making the night time scenes glow and famed editor Verna Fields (JAWS) cutting the film with Lucas's then wife Marcia Lucas. 

Although it didn't know it at the time, AMERICAN GRAFFITI would revolutionize storytelling in films and television. Telling and following four different storylines at once was frowned upon by the studio at the time. Today multiple storylines is the norm in television, cable, movies, and streaming from NBC's THE WEST WING to HBOs THE SOPRANOS. The use of late 50s and early 60s rock and roll songs as its main music source in AMERICAN GRAFFITI is a standard for films set in any decade from DIRTY DANCING (1987) to Martin Scorsese's GOOD FELLAS (1990). Ending the film with credits on what became of the four main characters in GRAFFITI after their last summer night had never been seen before.  Both ANIMAL HOUSE and Ivan Reitman's STRIPES (1980) would use the same technique to tell what happened to their characters after the film in a more humorous way.  There would be a sequel to AMERICAN GRAFFITI called MORE AMERICAN GRAFFITI (1979) directed by Bill Norton that would continue following the characters from AMERICAN GRAFFITI that starred originals Ron Howard, Cindy Williams, Paul Le Mat, Candy Clark, Charles Martin Smith, Mackenzie  Phillips, and Bo Hopkins. Because the end credits to AMERICAN GRAFFITI were so powerful and finite for me, I have refrained from watching the sequel.  All of these storytelling methods are now commonplace in the industry thanks to AMERICAN GRAFFITI. 

George Lucas will forever be known as the man who changed Hollywood after the successes of his STAR WARS and INDIANA JONES franchises but his non-flashy film about his teenage days called AMERICAN GRAFFITI is where it really started. Showcasing young talent that would go on to have even bigger careers and unveiling new styles of storytelling, Lucas like his mentor and friend Francis Coppola would pave the way for a new wave of future filmmakers to also alter Hollywood including Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, and Robert Zemeckis to name a few. AMERICAN GRAFFITI would introduce me to original classic rock and roll music and to a new type of dancing that I had never seen before. GRAFFITI would forever change my life and turn me into a fan of my own personal nostalgia. I will always look back and not feel guilty. 

Love in the Afternoon (1957)

I don't think I was aware of Hollywood's predilection of having young actresses as a love interest to older actors until Adrian Lyne's INDECENT PROPOSAL (1993) was released. In that film, Demi Moore and Woody Harrelson do play a couple around the same age whose lives are rocked when billionaire Robert Redford offers them one million dollars if he can sleep with Moore for a night.  Redford was 26 years older than Moore. INDECENT PROPOSAL'S plot would cause some controversy. Redford would start to run into this age disparity beginning with Ivan Reitman's LEGAL EAGLES (1986) in which he and Debra Winger are rival lawyers who have a romantic interest in each other as well. Redford and Winger's age difference was 19 years. 

Hollywood seemed afraid to let Marilyn Monroe have a love interest with anyone near her age. In Henry Hathaway's film noir NIAGRA (1953) Monroe is married to Joseph Cotten, 21 years her senior. Laurence Olivier is 19 years older than Monroe when they starred together in THE PRINCE AND THE SHOWGIRL (1957). At least in Joshua Logan's BUS STOP (1956) Monroe is allowed to have a romantic interest closer to her age in cowboy Don Murray who was three years younger than Monroe. Add Audrey Hepburn to the list of young actresses paired with mature, older actors. Playing a princess gone AWOL in Rome in William Wyler's ROMAN HOLIDAY (1953), Hepburn has a brief fling with reporter Gregory Peck who's 13 years her senior. Stanley Donen's CHARADE (1963) has the epic pairing of Cary Grant with Audrey Hepburn. Their age difference was 25 years.   And in Billy Wilder's SABRINA (1954), chauffeur's daughter Hepburn is pursued by playboy William Holden (11 years difference) but ends up with his older brother Humphrey Bogart (30 years older than Hepburn). 

Speaking of Billy Wilder, he seemed obsessed with the younger woman/older man scenario. Besides SABRINA, there's Wilder's comedy THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH (1955) where beautiful young new neighbor Marilyn Monroe who unwittingly tempts dutiful husband Tom Ewell whose family is away on vacation. Ewell was 17 years older than Monroe. In the 1950s, Monroe and Hepburn were Wilder's young muses to explore love and relationships with older men. Audrey Hepburn's other film with Billy Wilder was LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON (1957) starring Gary Cooper and Maurice Chevalier, filmed in the world's most romantic city of Paris, France. Once again, Hepburn is wooed by the older Cooper (28 years her senior). I liked LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON more than SABRINA which I'll talk more about shortly. 

With a screenplay by Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond (the two co-wrote some of Wilder's best films) based on the novel by Claude Anet and directed by Wilder, LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON introduces us to private eye Claude Chavasse (Maurice Chevalier) who is hired by cuckolded husbands to spy on their cheating wives. Claude has been hired by Englishman Monsieur X (John McGiver) to spy on his wife Madame X (Lisa Bourdin) who is hanging out with notorious American playboy and millionaire businessman Frank Flannagan (Gary Cooper) at his Ritz Carlton suite. Claude returns to his apartment after photographing Flannagan and Madame X together.  Claude lives with his cello playing daughter Ariane Chavasse (Audrey Hepburn). For fun, Ariane has been reading up on her father's case files. When Monsieur X shows up at Claude's for an update, he's devastated by the news of his wife's supposed infidelity.  He takes out a pistol from his luggage and heads over to the Ritz to shoot Flannagan. 

Ariane overhears Monsieur X's plan. She rushes to the Ritz Carlton ahead of Monsieur X, sneaks into Flannagan's suite, and warns Flannagan and Madame X that Monsieur X is on to them.  When Monsieur X bursts into the room, he finds Flannagan not with his wife but with Ariane. Monsieur X leaves, happy Claude was wrong. Flannagan is intrigued by Ariane and invites her back to his suite the next evening, his last night in Paris. Ariane doesn't commit to the invitation. Ariane returns home and reads up on Flannagan's escapades in her father's files. She's not sure she wants to have dinner with him.  She tries to write a letter declining his invite but ends up going to the Ritz to tell Flannagan in person. Flannagan woos her with champagne and his own private musical quartet the Gypsies. She teases him with her knowledge of his past dalliances. He wants to know her name, but Ariane won't reveal her identity. Flannagan departs for his next European liaison, leaving Ariane to return to her mundane life. 

Ariane is melancholy after Flannagan departs. She follows his escapades around the world via newspaper articles for the next year. She begins to date her fellow music student Michel (Van Doude) although she's not really into him. A year passes. Ariane and Michel go to the symphony where she spies Flannagan in attendance with a beautiful socialite. At intermission, Ariane runs into Flannagan who doesn't remember her at first. "I'm the girl in the afternoon," Ariane reminds him. Finally, Flannagan recalls her and invites her to his hotel room the next afternoon. Ariane "borrows" an ermine fur coat from one of her father's clients when she visits Flannagan the next day.  Ariane pretends it's a gift from one of her suitors. She lies to Flannagan that she's seeing numerous rich men (all clients she's read about in her father's files). Claude grows worried when Ariane returns home late and with the borrowed fur coat.  Flannagan takes Ariane (and the Gypsies) on a picnic and rows her around a small lake.  Flannagan starts to become jealous from her make-believe trysts.  Flannagan says he doesn't believe in love but he's falling for Ariane.

Flannagan runs into Monsieur X at a Turkish steam bath. Monsieur X is still giddy that his wife wasn't cheating on him (so he thinks). Flannagan complains that the young lady he's seeing may have multiple suitors. Monsieur X recommends Flannagan contact Claude Chavasse, the best private detective in Paris to uncover who the young woman is. Flannagan goes to Claude's apartment and hires him to learn the identity of his young lady.  Ariane's washing her hair in the bathroom and doesn't see or hear Flannagan. Claude quickly deduces that Flannagan's mystery woman is his daughter Ariane.  Claude arrives at the Ritz Carlton where he debriefs Flannagan that the nameless girl is his daughter Ariane. Claude advises Flannagan to break the relationship off. Flannagan dutifully agrees, telling Ariane he's bored of Paris and leaving for the French Rivera. Ariane accompanies Flannagan to the train station where the two of them will have a dramatic goodbye with Claude closely following them. But the finale may not be what you or I expect.

Although I've only seen SABRINA once, I think I liked LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON more. Yes, SABRINA has an all-star cast with Humphrey Bogart, William Holden, and Audrey Hepburn. But Bogart just looks too old to be a love interest for Hepburn.  He looks like her grandfather. The same could be said for Gary Cooper in LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON but the white tuxedo and slicked back hair (and possibly a good make-up artist) make his pursuing Hepburn a little more palatable. LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON for the most part has a more whimsical nature to it from Wilder's opening humorous montage of various couples kissing around Paris (including two generals kissing each other on both cheeks at some military procession) to the running gag of the four-person ensemble the Gypsies playing music for Flannagan in his hotel room, on a rowboat following Flannagan and Ariane on a lake, and even in a steam bath with Flannagan.

Wilder's plotting is always so good with plenty of character criss crosses. LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON begins with Claude the detective secretly photographing playboy Flannagan. By the end of the film, Flannagan is hiring Claude to find out who his young female companion is. We know already but Claude deduces that Flannagan is seeing his daughter Ariane. Claude has come full circle from spying on Flannagan to working for Flannagan and spying on his own daughter. Monsieur X goes from depressed and homicidal at the thought of his wife cheating on him to happily recommending to Flannagan (the man who was with his wife) Paris's best detective to find out who Flannagan's young mysterious girlfriend is. 

After what I think is the disaster of Bogart and Hepburn becoming romantically involved at the end of SABRINA, I was sure Wilder had it all figured out for the finale of LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON. Cooper and Hepburn's back and forth, whirlwind romance and flipping of jealousy from Hepburn at first with Cooper's extramarital shenanigans to Cooper becoming jealous of Hepburn's string of (made up) lovers seemed destined for a proper bittersweet ending. Claude even begs Flannagan to break up with Ariane and Flannagan agrees.  But the dramatic good-bye at the train station and Claude's reaction to it were not what I was expecting. Maybe filmgoers weren't either as LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON (as enjoyable as it is) would not be a box office hit.  The audience (like critics) felt Cooper was too old to be Hepburn's lover.

Billy Wilder films always have a little bit of gallows humor to them.  In both SABRINA and THE APARTMENT (1960), the lead female characters try to commit suicide before they're rescued by their future love interests. SOME LIKE IT HOT (1959) opens with the two heroes of the film (Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon) accidentally witnessing the St. Valentine's Massacre in Chicago and having to dress up as women to evade gangsters. Even Wilder's excellent WWII drama STALAG 17 (1953) has dark humor woven throughout its tense tale of American flyers in a German POW camp. 

In LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON, the dark humor is the fact that detective Claude Chavasse, the dapper French divorce detective who has the seedy task of catching beautiful women cheating on their jealous husbands discovers that his daughter Ariane is the mysterious young lady involved with womanizer Frank Flannagan.  It's ironically funny in a way but sad as well. Ariane is an innocent, bored cello playing music student who becomes jaded by the real world reading her father's divorce cases and later, becoming involved with one of her father's most prominent targets. 

Audrey Hepburn had come a long way in four years from her breakout role as Princess Ann in ROMAN HOLIDAY. In LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON, Hepburn seems more assured as independent, intrepid young heroine Ariane.  Her quick thinking saves Flannagan from disaster and possible death from a jealous husband only to get caught up in his web of luxury and romantic dancing. After their one-year break, Ariane turns the tables on Flannagan when they meet again by making him become jealous of her supposed exploits. It's a complicated role that Hepburn handles with aplomb and will prepare her for one of her finest performances as the complicated Holly Golightly in Blake Edwards BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S (1961).

Gary Cooper has always been known for playing All-American roles in films like Howard Hawks SERGEANT YORK (1941) or Frank Capra's MEET JOHN DOE (also 1941).  Billy Wilder must have licked his chops casting Cooper as less than wholesome womanizer Frank Flannagan. Cooper plays the middle aged Flannagan as charming and suave.  One could argue that he's providing comfort to women who are married to terrible husbands. But Flannagan's outlook on love is anything but romantic. "He who loves and runs away, lives to love another day," Flannagan tells Ariane. Ironically, Cooper's off-screen self was closer to Flannagan with Cooper having affairs with actresses Ingrid Bergman, Grace Kelly, and Patricia Neal. LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON was the only film Cooper and Wilder made together but Cooper did appear in two films co-written by Wilder including Ernst Lubitsch's BLUEBEARD'S EIGHTH WIFE (1938) and Howard Hawks BALL OF FIRE (1941).

Since LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON is set in France, you would think there might be a French actor in one of the key roles. Born in Paris, fought in World War I, 1930s Hollywood leading man Maurice Chevalier fills that niche as Parisian private investigator Claude Chavasse.  Chevalier book ends LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON appearing mostly in the beginning and end of the film. He makes the film feel more worldly with his thick French accent. Chavasse grounds the film with his fatherly manner whether he's giving advice to his daughter or a cheated upon husband like Monsieur X. Wilder may have been having some fun casting Chevalier as a man following playboy Flannagan in LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON. Chevalier would play woman chasing playboys himself in his early American films like Norman Taurog's A BEDTIME STORY (1933) or Ernst Lubitsch's THE MERRY WIDOW (1935), one of four films Chevalier made with Jeanette MacDonald. A year after LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON, Chevalier would star in Vincent Minnelli's GIGI (1958) and sing "Thank Heaven for Little Girls" which would become his signature song. It might also be the theme song for Hollywood's studio heads and directors who kept pairing young actresses with older actors. 

One last cast member to mention in LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON is the delightful, owl-ish looking John McGiver, appearing in his first talking film role as Monsieur X, the English businessman who hires Chavasse to spy on his cheating wife at the beginning of the film.  McGiver was actually American, born in New York but sounded English. McGiver would work with Audrey Hepburn again in BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S as a Tiffany's jewelry salesman.  Besides appearing in numerous television shows for one episode guess appearances like ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS (1958-59) and GILLIGAN'S ISLAND (1966), McGiver had film roles in film classics like John Frankenheimer's THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE (1962) and John Schlesinger's MIDNIGHT COWBOY (1969). 

Like Alfred Hitchcock, the 1950s was Billy Wilder's golden age of filmmaking.  Wilder made some of his best films during that decade including SUNSET BOULEVARD (1950), STALAG 17, SABRINA, THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH, WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION (1957), and SOME LIKE IT HOT. But Wilder would have some misses too in the 50s. His biopic about aviator Charles Lindbergh THE SPIRIT OF ST. LOUIS (1957) starring James Stewart had an issue similar to LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON.  Stewart was too old to play Charles Lindbergh. Wilder should have cast a younger actor to play Lindbergh. In the end, Wilder and other directors went with an established movie star rather than a younger unknown for their projects to ensure the best box office potential.

I wouldn't consider LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON a failure, just a missed opportunity with its bungled finale.  Hollywood has come a long way (and it took a long time) to finally start casting romantic love interests around the same age (both young love interests and middle-aged love interests). Naturally, there are some films where the age disparity is essential to the plot like Hal Ashby's comedy HAROLD AND MADE (1971) in which young Bud Cort falls in love with older Ruth Gordon. Their age disparity was 52 years. The age disparity in LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON is also part of the plot but the outcome is not realistic. LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON is a time capsule of a bygone era with an engaging plot and plenty of humorous moments and romantic interludes.  It should be viewed and you the moviegoer can decide for yourself if you believe in its ending or not. 

Forbidden Planet (1956)

Science fiction films began to emerge in the 1950s, initially spawned by the Atomic Age and the advent of advances in special effects. Films like Gordon Douglas's THEM! (1954), Jack Arnold's TARANTULA (1955), and Nathan Juran's THE DEADLY MANTIS (1957) had the nuclear bomb or its radioactive residue turning insects like ants and praying mantises into gigantic monsters. There was a tad of science to mostly fiction. Robert Wise's THE DAY THAT THE EARTH STOOD STILL (1951) was the first mainstream science fiction film to bring an alien (in the human guise of Michael Rennie) from outer space to earth. This would be quickly followed by Byron Haskins THE WAR OF THE WORLDS (1953) based on H.G. Wells novel with Martians invading Earth. But the first science fiction film to set its story outside of our galaxy, on a distant, unknown planet somewhere in the future inhabited by a stocky robot and filmed in bright Metrocolor not black and white was Fred M. Wilcox's FORBIDDEN PLANET (1956).

I have to admit that the thought of watching filmmakers in the 1950s try to tackle an outer space film with the limited special effects technology at their disposal at the time never really appealed to me.  But as I prepared to watch FORBIDDEN PLANET and read up about it, it's evident that this seminal film shaped future television show mavericks and filmmakers from Gene Roddenberry (creator of STAR TREK) to George Lucas (he wrote and directed a little film called STAR WARS) and its influence can be seen in films from Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968) to Ridley Scott's ALIEN (1979). 

Loosely based on William Shakespeare's play The Tempest (more about that later), FORBIDDEN PLANET'S screenplay is by Cyril Hume based on a story by Irving Block and Allen Adler.  Directed by Fred M. Wilcox, FORBIDDEN PLANET begins with a crew representing the United Planet Federation in the 23rd century arriving in a classic shaped space saucer C57D on the outskirts of the planet Altair IV after a one-year flight. Their mission is to search for survivors from a previous expedition to Altair IV twenty years earlier. Just before the saucer lands, they receive a transmission from a voice warning them to stay away.  Commander John J. Adams (Leslie Nielsen) disregards the admonition.  The saucer lands on the rocky planet.  A shuttle car comes toward them driven by Robby the Robot (Frank Darro inside; voiced by Marvin Miller). Robby takes Adams along with Lt. "Doc" Ostrow (Warren Stevens) and Lt. Jerry Farman (Jack Kelly) to the compound of Dr. Edward Morbius (Walter Pidgeon) and his daughter Altaira Morbius (Anne Francis). Although she's never seen another man before except her father, Altaira greets the men dressed in a daring mini skirt. 

Dr. Morbius tells Adams that after their expedition landed on Altair IV, an unseen force killed off his crew one by one.  Only Morbius, his wife, and daughter survived (his wife eventually passing away of natural causes). Morbius offers to help their spaceship return to Earth but Adams needs to receive his next orders from Earth. Lt. Farman falls for Altaira and teaches her how to kiss but Altaira's not impressed. Adams catches Farman and Altaira and admonishes both of them.  Back at the spaceship, an invisible entity enters the ship and sabotages some of its equipment. Adams and Doc Ostrow return to visit Morbius the next day. Adams comes across Altaira swimming.  He apologizes to her for his outburst.  They kiss and Altaira is more receptive. Morbius appears and tells Adams and Ostrow about a civilization called the Krell he's been studying that lived on Altair IV 200,000 years before Morbius and his starship landed. Morbius has discovered a Krell device that has enhanced his intellect and an underground power source of shafts and ventilators powered by 9,200 thermonuclear reactors. Adams believes this power source should be brought back to Earth. Morbius is hesitant to share his discovery with humanity. 

The crew members put up an electric perimeter with sensors around the ship to ward of the invisible monster. When the ship's cook (Earl Holliman) asks to go beyond the perimeter to secretly meet with Robby the Robot (who's created 480 bottles of Kansas City bourbon for the cook), the invisible creature sneaks on board again, killing Chief Engineer Quinn (Richard Anderson). Morbius shows up at the ship and warns Adams and the crew they are in mortal danger. Adams sets up a stronger defense with a pair of giant ray guns.  Radar picks up a large blip approaching. The invisible creature strikes the electrified perimeter, revealing its frightening outline. The monster is barely phased by the fence's electric volts. Lt. Farman and two more crew members are killed trying to stop the entity. At the same time, Altaira has a nightmare that awakens Morbius. Strangely, the creature stops attacking.

Adams and Doc return to Morbius's residence to evacuate him and Altaira. Robby the Robot blocks their way until Altaira allows them safe passage. Doc tries the brain booster to unlock the secrets of the Krell.  The apparatus reveals to Doc that the Krell destroyed their own civilization.  Doc's brain is overwhelmed by the apparatus and he dies.  Morbius refuses to leave but Altaira makes up her mind to depart with Adams. The ethereal monster shows up at the compound. Adams figures out that Morbius's enhanced brain from the Krell technology has created an alter ego for Morbius - the invisible monster. The monster tries to burn through the locked doors. Morbius faces off against his Id entity, destroying the monster but dying in the process. Adams takes Ataira and Robby back to the ship.  Back in space, they watch as the planet Altair IV self-destructs, taking 200,000 years of Krell technology with it.

Even with the leaps and bounds the science fiction film genre has made in the last forty plus years, FORBIDDEN PLANET is truly a groundbreaking film if you can get past some of the antiquated wardrobe (miniskirts in space, really?) and lack of scientific knowledge when the film was released in 1956. Cinema's first robot is unveiled with Robby the Robot, created by Dr. Morbius himself. We would become much more familiar with robots i.e., droids in George Lucas's STAR WARS (1977) and Irving Kerschner's THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK (1980) introducing us to C-3PO and R2D2, the great grandchildren of Robby. Robby even seems like a distant cousin to the computer H.A.L. 9000 from 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY minus the murderous streak. The bright green color of Altair IV's horizon and rocky, pinnacle landscape are the first interstellar world moviegoers had ever seen. Although there is plenty of scientific gibberish spoken by the crew members, I did hear words like "hyperspace" and "blasters" spoken that would become the norm in the STAR WARS universe and countless other sci-fi movies. 

You can clearly see the importance FORBIDDEN PLANET had on the creation of the television series STAR TREK (1966-1969) created by Gene Roddenberry. FORBIDDEN'S Commander Adams (Leslie  Nielsen) brings the ship's medical officer Doc Ostrow and Lt. Farman with him to meet the planet's only resident Dr. Morbius. In STAR TREK, Captain Kirk (William Shatner) routinely investigated planets with the Enterprise's physician "Bones" McCoy (DeForest Kelly) and science officer Spock (Leonard Nimoy). FORBIDDEN'S ship C57D has teleporter pods similar (but used differently) to the teleporters that STAR TREK'S crew would use to beam down to a planet's surface. The set and backdrop for the landscape of FORBIDDEN PLANET with its bright colorful horizon would be the standard for many STAR TREK episodes (unless they filmed on location or a studio backlot). 

Commander Adams uses a blaster in FORBIDDEN PLANET.  Captain Kirk had a phaser (basically the same weapon).  The creature created from Morbius's subconscious Id kills several random crew members in FORBIDDEN PLANET.  In STAR TREK, it was a badge of honor for the nameless Enterprise crew member wearing the red shirt to be killed first on a new planet they were investigating. Altaira's (Anne Francis) miniskirt in FORBIDDEN PLANET, as unusual for a planet wardrobe as could be, was the official ship norm for the female crew members in STAR TREK.  And many of the alien women the Enterprise crew would encounter would often be scantily clad (as much as one could in the 1960s). Although Lt. Farman kisses Altaira first, it is Commander Adams who wins over her heart and mind in FORBIDDEN PLANET.  Just like Commander Adams, STAR TREK'S Captain James T. Kirk was always scoring with the ladies of the universe.  Commanding a spaceship has its privileges. 

I touched upon that FORBIDDEN PLANET is described as "loosely" based on William Shakespeare's play The Tempest. That might be an understatement.  For those of you (myself included) who don't know the plot of The Tempest, it's about a magician named Prospero who is shipwrecked on an island with his daughter Miranda and his two servants: a beast named Calibran and a sprightly spirit named Ariel. Sound vaguely familiar? The screenwriters for FORBIDDEN PLANET have Dr. Morbius exiled on the planet Altair IV with his daughter Altaira and a robot he's built that's like a servant/bodyguard to him called Robby.  How Shakespeare didn't receive a credit (at least an Executive Producer credit) for FORBIDDEN PLANET is beyond comprehension. What borrowing from the Bard does prove is that his stories could be transformed into any movie genre from Anthony Mann's THE MAN FROM LARAMIE (1955) King Lear plot for a western to turning Romeo and Juliet's story of two star crossed lovers from warring Italian families into two rival New York gangs for Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins's musical WEST SIDE STORY (1961). Science fiction was no different in handling Shakespeare's universal stories.

The pivotal role of Dr. Morbius played by Walter Pidgeon in FORBIDDEN PLANET is a God-like character that we will see in future science fiction films and TV shows. Morbius led the first colony to  Altair IV. After nearly every one of his crew mysteriously dies (except his daughter), Morbius discovers the power of the Krell technology, the previous inhabitants. Using their devices, he increases his brain power one hundred-fold. He builds the perfect servant in Robby the Robot. He is master of his kingdom until Commander Adams and his crew show up.  Their arrival unleashes the darker side of Morbius. An invisible monster, a manifestation of Morbius's Id or subconscious, is waiting. When Morbius feels threatened, either by Lt. Farman kissing his daughter or Adams wanting to take the Krell technology back to Earth, Morbiu's alter ego comes to life, causing havoc and death to Adams crew and spaceship.

Several STAR TREK episodes had similar beings who landed on unknown or uninhabited planets and became self-proclaimed rulers of the planet (check out the 1967 STAR TREK episode THE SQUIRE OF GOTHOS starring William Campbell as one example).  Another space television show LOST IN SPACE (1965 - 1968) had a Dr. Morbius like antagonist in Dr. Zachary Smith (Jonathan Harris) who had a goatee like Morbius.  LOST IN SPACE also had a robot that talked and looked similar to Robby the Robot from FORBIDDEN PLANET, but LOST IN SPACE'S robot had no name. In the end, as the English poet John Donne wrote, "no man is an island." Morbius's isolation on Altair IV leads him down the wrong path.  Morbius might have used his newfound powers more wisely had more of his colony survived. 

One of the most suspenseful set pieces in FORBIDDEN PLANET is when Commander Adams spaceship picks up Morbius's subconscious Id, the invisible monster, on its radar heading toward them. An electric perimeter has been set up around the ship to catch the being. The crew waits tensely, blasters drawn, as the radar blips draw closer and closer. But there's nothing to see until the monster strikes the electric force field revealing its terrifying silhouette. The monster flings crew members around like rag dolls. To create the Id monster, MGM "borrowed" from Walt Disney Animation (with their approval) one of their best animators Joshua Meador to bring the space monster to life. Meador basically drew the monster with pencil rather than cel animation than added some optical effects to enhance the creature.  If you look closely, the Id monster resembles Dr. Morbius. Ridley Scott's ALIEN and James Cameron's ALIENS (1986) would have similar suspenseful scenes with the unseen alien or aliens approaching as blips on a tracking device, ratcheting up the suspense, not revealing the alien until the terrifying last moment. 

Walter Pidgeon is perfect as the erudite Dr. Morbius with his deep, baritone voice and commanding presence.  The tall, distinguished actor was a leading man in the 1940s in films like Fritz Lang's MAN HUNT (1941), John Ford's HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY (1941), and William Wyler's MRS. MINIVER (1942). Fans of Leslie Nielsen who thought he only performed in comedies thanks to the Zucker Brothers and Jim Abrahams AIRPLANE! (1980) and THE NAKED GUN series will be surprised by Nielsen's non-comic role as Commander John J. Adams in FORBIDDEN PLANET.  There are times though when Nielsen speaks that he's almost channeling Lt. Drebin from THE NAKED GUN to crack a joke with his deadpan delivery. But Nielsen is all seriousness in FORBIDDEN PLANET. 

Anne Francis as Morbius's daughter Altaira was not an actress I was very familiar with. Despite landing some decent roles in films like John Sturges BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK (1955) and Richard Brooks THE BLACKBOARD JUNGLE (also 1955) besides FORBIDDEN PLANET, Francis could never rise above her pretty looks to play more meaningful roles.  But she's a nice addition to FORBIDDEN PLANET as she's the only female role in the film. FORBIDDEN PLANET supporting cast would be filled with character actors that I would become more familiar with on television shows I watched in the 70s.  Earl Holliman who supplies comic relief as the cook in FORBIDDEN PLANET would be Angie Dickinson's police partner on NBC's POLICE WOMAN (1974 -1978). Richard Anderson as Chief Science Officer Quinn in FORBIDDEN PLANET would become better known as the Bionic Man Steve Austin's (Lee Majors) boss Oscar Goldman in the ABC series THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN (1974 -1978).  And James Drury who has a minor role as Crewman Strong (I don't think I even noticed him) would find more success in westerns including Sam Peckinpah's RIDE THE HIGH COUNTY (1962) and on the NBC western series THE VIRGINIAN (1962-1971) where Drury played the title role of the Virginian. 

Some final FORBIDDEN PLANET tidbits. The musical score by Louis and Bebe Barron is credited as electronic tonalities, the first ever electronic soundtrack in a film. Since no musical instruments were used, the musicians' union blocked the Barrons from receiving a credit as composers hence the credit "electronic tonalities" for the Barrons. As mentioned, FORBIDDEN PLANET had a huge influence on the seminal science fiction television show STAR TREK.  Coincidentally, Warren Stevens who plays Doc Ostrow in FORBIDDEN PLANET would be a guest star on a 1968 episode of STAR TREK called BY ANY OTHER NAME. It's ironic that the choice of the shape of C57D that lands on Altair IV is a flying saucer.  The flying saucer usually represents menacing aliens from Ed Wood's PLAN NINE FROM OUTER SPACE (1957) to Tim Burton's MARS ATTACKS! (1996).  In FORBIDDEN PLANET, it's the mode of transportation for the United Planet Federation in the 23rd century.  Cylindrical space rockets that we're all accustomed to now were just a few years from our consciousness as the United States and Russia would race to put a man in space. 

When we think of directors of great science fiction films, names like George Lucas, Stanley Kubrick, or Ridley Scott come to mind. Director Fred M. Wilcox name is not among that list. Wilcox is the man who directed FORBIDDEN PLANET, the film that would ignite future filmmakers to take us to new worlds beyond Earth. Wilcox's only previous hit was LASSIE COME HOME (1943) which wouldn't seem to indicate that he was the man to direct FORBIDDEN PLANET.  Wilcox wouldn't do much more after the pioneering science fiction film but his contributions to FORBIDDEN PLANET and his handling of the material will forever be remembered. 

I was pleasantly surprised by how enjoyable FORBIDDEN PLANET was. A distant planet, a giant robot, an invisible Id monster, and a dying civilization with technology beyond anything Earth could do were all science fiction staples that I was familiar with but never knew their cinematic origins. Taking a page from Shakespeare but expanding on his story was a nice touch as well. FORBIDDEN PLANET'S legacy lives on from television shows STAR TREK and LOST IN SPACE to the STAR WARS film universe, directed by a man who first brought us Lassie.  Throughout the galaxy, only on the planet Earth and a town called Hollywood could this tale come to be told.