Field of Dreams (1989)

Timing is everything.  The baseball fantasy FIELD OF DREAMS was released in 1989.  Set in Iowa, the story of a farmer who turns his corn field into a baseball field that attracts the spirits of baseball icons from 1919 captivated American audiences including myself.  But I was also attracted at how beautiful a stalk of corn looked (they don't call me CRAZYFILMGUY for nothing!). So imagine my delight when one of my oldest and best friends Dan announced he was getting married in 1991 and the wedding was to be in Iowa. When we played golf for his Bachelor's Party, what surrounded the golf course and fairways?  You guessed it. Corn fields. Ray Liotta's Shoeless Joe Jackson asks Kevin Costner's Ray Kinsella if the baseball field surrounded by corn is heaven?  Costner replies, "It's Iowa." But for a kid from Oregon, those endless corn fields were heaven. 

Baseball is known as America's past time. If you ask two different people, one would tell you baseball is a great sport to watch with plenty of strategy, punctuated by strikeouts and home runs.  The other person would tell you baseball is boring. It's too slow.  It doesn't have enough action. As a kid, baseball was the first sport that I fell in love with and played.  I was a pretty decent player for the first few years I played until we switched to metal cleats and I became afraid of getting spiked in the ankles at second base. I switched to basketball as my new favorite sport. When I became a father and had a son, baseball was the first sport he was introduced to.  It was my first opportunity to share something in common with my son (besides STAR WARS movies). It was also a chance for myself and all the other fathers to relive our glory years playing catch and hitting batting practice with our offspring. 

Baseball would not seem like a sport suited for the cinema yet the late 1980s was an amazing decade for the sport. It all started with Barry Levinson's THE NATURAL (1984) starring Robert Redford that was one of the most beautifully photographed films I had ever seen.  John Sayles EIGHT MEN OUT (1988) would explore the story of the infamous 1919 Chicago White Sox and "Shoeless" Joe Jackson who were bribed to lose the World Series . "Shoeless" Joe focuses prominently in the plot of FIELD OF DREAMS. Kevin Costner caught the baseball bug appearing in another baseball film a year earlier than FIELD OF DREAMS in Ron Shelton's comedy BULL DURHAM (also 1988) about a minor league baseball team with Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins. And David S. Ward's MAJOR LEAGUE (1989) about a fictional ragtag group of players playing for the Cleveland Indians including Tom Berenger, Charlie Sheen, and Corbin Bernsen would come out the same year as FIELD OF DREAMS. 

Based on the novel Shoeless Joe by W.P. Kinsella and written and directed by Phil Alden Robinson (SNEAKERS), FIELD OF DREAMS begins with a clever, quick voiceover montage as husband, father, and neophyte farmer Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) tells the audience about his father's love for the infamous 1919 Chicago White Sox and his favorite player "Shoeless" Joe Jackson before scandal ruined Jackson's career, Ray's strained relationship with his father, and a brief history of Ray's life including attending college at University of  California-Berkley during the late 60s, meeting his future wife Annie (Amy Madigan), the birth of their daughter Karin (Gaby Hoffmann), and how they came to buy a farm in Iowa. We cut to Ray walking through his fields of corn at sunset when he hears a voice whisper, "If you build it, he will come." A little startled, Ray asks Annie back at the house if she heard a voice. She didn't. Ray hears the voice at night in his bedroom, repeating the same words. The next day, Ray hears the words again only this time in the distance he sees the image of a baseball field with lights and a lone player in a white uniform. Ray realizes the voice is telling him to build a baseball field in the middle of his corn field. 

Ray tells Amy his crazy vision and asks her if he's lost his mind. Ray doesn't want to lose the spontaneity in life that he felt his father did. Annie encourages Ray to follow his dream. Ray begins to plow up part of his corn field to the chagrin of his neighbors and Annie's brother Mark (Timothy Busfield) who works for the creditors that provided the loan. Ray and Annie build the field and bleachers and put up the lights. The corn stalks beyond the outfield serve as the home run fence. Annie keeps an eye on their finances. They may almost break even with part of their income now a baseball field. Little Karin breaks up their dinner discussion. Karin tells them there's a man standing on the baseball field. Ray walks out to find "Shoeless" Joe Jackson (Ray Liotta) standing before him in his White Sox uniform. Ray and Joe play catch.  Ray pitches to Joe who  nearly hits Ray with a line drive. Joe reminisces about what it was like to play and travel as a Major League ball player and have that taken away from him. Before disappearing back into the corn stalks, Joe asks if he can bring his teammates back next time. 

Mark and his wife and Annie's mother visit the farm to talk sense into Ray and Annie. They can't see the rest of the 1919 Chicago White Sox team playing baseball behind them. The voice returns and tells Ray "Ease his pain." Ray and Annie attend a school board meeting where parents want to ban several books including one by Pulitzer Prize winning author Terence Mann (James Earl Jones) who was the voice of the 60s movement. Annie sticks up for Mann and denounces the censorship. Ray researches what happened to Terence Mann. He learns Mann lives in Boston and loved the Brooklyn Dodgers and had not gone to a baseball game in years. Ray believes it's Terence Mann's pain he needs to ease. Ray drives to Boston and locates Mann's apartment. Mann is not very friendly or happy to have Ray at his door. Ray tells Mann his crazy story and insists he has to take Mann to a baseball game. Mann gives in and they go to watch the Boston Red Sox. Nothing happens at the game until Ray hears the voice tell him "Go the distance." He looks up at the scoreboard which flashes the statistics for a "Moonlight" Graham.  He played half an inning in the Major Leagues but never got to bat. Ray apologizes to Mann for bringing him on a wild goose chase. He drops Mann back at his apartment. As Ray turns his VW Bus around, Mann blocks his way. Mann has heard the voice too. 

They head together to Chisholm, Minnesota to find "Moonlight" Graham. In Chisholm, they discover he's known as Doc Graham (Burt Lancaster) as he became a doctor. He's also been dead since 1972. Ray walks around town that night, a mist transporting him back to 1972. Ray meets Doc Graham on the sidewalk. They return to Graham's office where Graham wishes he had one at bat in the Majors. Ray asks him to return to Iowa with him but  Graham declines. Ray and Mann head back to Iowa. Along the way, they pick up a young hitchhiker trying to make it as a baseball player. His name is Archie Graham (Frank Whaley). Back home, Mann is incredulous at all the old time ball players on the field. Shoeless Joe asks Archie to join the game. Archie has one at bat. Mark makes a final offer to Ray and Annie to sell the farm. They argue and Karin falls off the bleachers. She's not breathing. Young Archie crosses the first base line and transforms into the older Doc aka "Moonlight" Graham. Karin is choking on the hot dog she was eating. Doc clears her airway. Graham can't go back to his younger self. He thanks everyone and disappears into the corn field. Now, even Mark can see the baseball players. Shoeless Joe invites Mann to see what's beyond the outfield. Mann promises to write a book about it. One ball player remains on the field. It's Ray's father John Kinsella (Dwier Brown) as his young self. They talk and play catch as the sun sets and cars from all around the county with their headlights on begin to arrive to see the baseball field in the middle of a corn field. "Build it and they will come."

When I first saw FIELD OF DREAMS in 1989 (two years out of college), the whole father/son theme flew over my head which is crazy as I was fortunate enough to have a father who was around to play catch and shoot baskets with me during my formative years. In 1989, I was more captivated by the fantasy aspect of a disgraced group of baseball players from the early 20th Century returning as ghosts via a corn field portal to play baseball. Director Robinson sets the stage when Ray first hears the voice amongst the corn stalks tell him "If you build it, he will come." There's a sense of mystery to those words much like Charles Foster Kane whispering "Rosebud" on his death bed in Orson Welles CITIZEN KANE (1941). What does "If you build it, he will come" mean? Who will come? What does he need to build?

Robinson plays it close to the vest, keeping the real mystery all the way until the last five minutes of the film. At first, it seems obvious. Ray's father's favorite baseball player was Shoeless Joe Jackson. When Ray and Annie build the baseball field, Shoeless Joe appears one night to their astonishment, later bringing his Chicago White Sox teammates with him to practice. The wish has been granted. Then, Ray hears the voice tell him "Ease his pain." Those words take him on another journey away from his field of dreams, to reclusive 60s author Terence Mann. Ray doesn't find Mann in pain. Mann just wants to be left alone from former hippies who knock on his door, looking for the answer to life from him. Ray thinks taking Mann to a Red Sox baseball game will "ease his pain." Nothing happens until Ray hears one last instruction, "Go the distance" and sees a message on the scoreboard about a little known Major League player named "Moonlight" Graham. Only this time, Mann hears the voice too. 

Ray and Mann go the distance to Minnesota to find former Major League ball player "Moonlight" Graham to help them with their mystery. Graham had only one appearance in the major leagues, played half an inning and never got to bat. Only they learn Graham died in the early 70s. Since this is a fantasy film, Ray walk back into time that night and encounters Doc Graham on the street. The two men chat in his office. Ray offers him the chance to return to Iowa and have that at bat. Doc declines. The mystery seems to have come  to an end. Ray has gone the distance from Iowa to Boston to Chisholm, Minnesota with nothing gained. On the way back to Ray's farm, Ray and Mann pick up a young hitchhiker. His last name is Graham. Archie Graham. When they return to the baseball field, Shoeless Joe and his teammates are expecting Archie.  He gets his one at bat before turning back into older Doc Graham to save Ray's daughter. All the phrases have come full circle. "If you build it, he will come" is for Shoeless Joe and young Archie "Moonlight" Graham. Shoeless Joe's pain is eased by playing baseball again. Moonlight Graham's pain is eased by having one chance to swing the bat at the plate. Only at the end does director Robinson answer the real mystery by revealing the last player on the field, wearing catcher's gear. Ray's father as a young man. The field was built to reunite Ray with his father. 

Ultimately, FIELD OF DREAMS is about second chances. For Shoeless Joe Jackson, it's a second chance to play the game he loved, a game that was taken away from him by fix he never had his heart in. For Terence Mann, it's a second chance to be excited about life after the 60s fervor faded away, a chance to see what's beyond the corn stalks in center field, inspiration to write another novel. For Archibald (Archie) "Moonlight" Graham, it's a second chance to step up to the plate and have a swing or two at a pitch or even get a hit (Graham hits a sacrifice fly). When young Graham turns back into older Doc Graham to save Ray's daughter from choking, Doc is content with his one and only opportunity to face a pitcher and swing a bat. And for Ray Kinsella who thinks he built the baseball field to bring back his father's idol Shoeless Joe Jackson, it becomes a second chance to play catch with his father, the younger John Kinsella he never knew, a young man who loved baseball and tried to pass on the passion to Ray with limited success. The baseball field was built to bring Ray's father back, a second chance for father and son to play catch and reconnect.

Known as the Black Sox Scandal, the story of the 1919 Chicago White Sox , Shoeless Joe Jackson, and his role in the World Series has all the makings of a Shakespeare tragedy. The White Sox were accused of fixing the Series by intentionally losing the 1919 World Series against the Cincinnati Reds in exchange for monetary payments from gamblers. Two years later, a trial would ensue and although the jury would bring back a verdict of not guilty, eight White Sox players including Shoeless Joe would be banned from baseball by new Major League Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis. Shoeless Joe Jackson's involvement has never quite been confirmed as Jackson set a World Series record at the time with 12 base hits, a batting average of .375, and committed no errors. If the fix was on, Jackson didn't get the word or refused to comply. But he was made an example by Commissioner Landis.

Kevin Costner who plays Ray Kinsella would have quite a meteoric rise in the 1980s.  Costner's cinema debut would be almost entirely cut out in Lawrence Kasdan's comedy/drama THE BIG CHILL (1983) as the former college classmate who commits suicide that brings his friends back together. Only shots of Costner's funeral attire and wrist are shown at the start of the film. Kasdan would repay Costner for that sacrifice by giving him a lead role in the his adventure western SILVERADO (1985) opposite Kevin Kline and Danny Glover.  A star was born. Costner would catch fire with back to back  hits in Brian DePalma's THE UNTOUCHABLES (1987) and Roger Donaldson's NO WAY OUT (1987). Going against the grain, Costner would surprise everyone by appearing in two baseball movies one after the other.  BULL DURHAM would come first. In most of his early and subsequent movies, Costner usually played confident, sometimes cocky characters.  But in FIELD OF DREAMS, Costner's Ray Kinsella is an every man, not very confident about farming or razing part of his crop to build a baseball field. Costner's goofy and charming and it's one of my favorite performances by him.

Usually the role of the wife to a film's big star is a thankless role. Amy Madigan blows that concept out of the water in FIELD OF DREAMS. As Annie Kinsella, Madigan is a ball of energy delight. She believes Ray's heard a voice and joins Ray in following his crazy inspiration to build a baseball field even at the risk of losing the farm. Because she believes, she can see Shoeless Joe and the other White Sox players just like Ray.  Madigan's best scene is when she challenges Beulah (Lee Garlington) an angry PTA mother who wants to ban books at a school meeting. Like Costner, the 80s was a good decade for Madigan with interesting roles in Walter Hill's STREETS OF FIRE (1984), John Hughes UNCLE BUCK (1989) starring John Candy, and Robert Benton's PLACES IN THE HEART (also 1984) where Madigan would co-star with her future husband actor Ed Harris (THE TRUMAN SHOW). 

One of the keys to FIELD OF DREAMS success are the triumvirate of actors who play key supporting roles in the film: a Hollywood legend, a consummate Broadway and movie/TV actor, and a rising star. Casting Burt Lancaster as Doc Graham was a stroke of genius.  Lancaster made a career playing morally dubious characters in films like Alexander Mackendrick's SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS (1957) and Richard Brooks ELMER GANTRY (1960). But in FIELD OF DREAMS, Lancaster's Graham is a grandfatherly soul. Watching newcomer Costner act with veteran Lancaster is a dream. James Earl Jones has the most fun arc in FIELD OF DREAM as writer Terence Mann. Mann's journey will take him from angry reclusive writer to giddy baseball fan when he sees Shoeless Joe and the others on the baseball diamond. In the book, Ray kidnaps real author and recluse J.D. Salinger of Catcher in the Rye fame. The character was changed to fictional Mann for the film. Jones became famous to millions of young filmgoers as the voice of Darth Vader in the STAR WARS films. Jones's film breakthrough came as a champion boxer in Martin Ritt's THE GREAT WHITE HOPE (1970).  His illustrious career includes roles in Stanley Kubrick's DR. STRANGELOVE (1964), John Badham's THE BINGO LONG TRAVELING ALL-STARS & MOTOR KINGS (1976), John McTiernan's THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER (1990), and the voice of Mufasa in Disney's animated THE LION KING (1994).

I had a man crush on Ray Liotta the moment I watched his performance as Melanie Griffith's just out of prison, ex-boyfriend Ray Sinclair in Jonathan Demme's SOMETHING WILD (1986).  You couldn't take your eyes off Liotta's smoldering performance. Liotta followed that film up with FIELD OF DREAMS and soon after Martin Scorsese's GOOD FELLAS (1990).  Not a bad start. Liotta would play a lot of psychopaths and crooked cops throughout his career. With FIELD OF DREAMS, Liotta shows us another side as a street wise but playful Shoeless Joe Jackson, thankful for another opportunity to play the game he loved.  It's just a supporting role yet Liotta makes us care for Joe the first moment we meet him (and hear Liotta's infectious New Jersey laugh).  Rounding out the stellar cast are three small but important roles.  Timothy Busfield (TV's THIRTYSOMETHING) as Annie's brother Mark has the toughest role. Busfield's the heavy and Annie's brother.  We don't want Mark to stop them from chasing this wild dream but we understand his angst.  His sister and brother-in-law might lose their house. In the end, Mark becomes a believer too.  Frank Whaley (PULP FICTION) as young Archie "Moonlight" Graham brings a nice Midwest innocence to his role.  And Dwier Brown (THE CUTTING EDGE) has the Rosebud moment.  He's not the sled from Charles Foster Kane's childhood in CITIZEN KANE. He's John Kinsella, the young version of Ray's father. Brown brought tears to thousands of grown men's eyes as he plays catch with his now grown son Costner. He's the reason the baseball field in the middle of a corn field was built. 

It was a joy to revisit FIELD OF DREAMS, a rare gem of a film that touches the heartstrings more than I remembered the first time I saw it. It's hard to believe that a baseball fantasy film like FIELD OF DREAMS ever got made in the first place. The only other previous baseball fantasy film that comes to mind is 1958's DAMN YANKEES based on the Broadway play about a frustrated Washington Senators fan who makes a deal with the devil to help the Senators win. After FIELD OF DREAMS, five years would pass before another filmmaker would attempt a baseball fantasy film. William Dear's ANGELS IN THE OUTFIELD (1994) about celestial angels assigned to help the California Angels win a pennant would be released starring Danny Glover, Tony Danza, and newcomers Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Adrian Brody, and Matthew McConaughey. 

Like most sports films, it's the story outside of the baseball theme in FIELD OF DREAMS that grabs the audience. The scenes of throwing and catching and hitting the baseball are just icing on the cake. FIELD OF DREAMS was blessed with an excellent adapted screenplay by Phil Alden Robinson, experienced producers in Charles and Lawrence Gordon, and a Hall of  Fame cast of Costner, Madigan, Jones, Liotta, and Lancaster. Besides a talented group of Hollywood filmmakers and actors, there's no question that the image of a baseball field surrounded by those stalks of corn that so captivated me in the theater and later my visit to Iowa had a role in the magic and success of FIELD OF DREAMS. 

Starman (1984)

When Steven Spielberg's E.T. THE EXTRATERRESTRIAL burst onto movie screens in the summer of 1982 and became a huge success both critically and at the box office, audiences waited in anticipation to see what other films about aliens (both good and malevolent) visiting planet Earth would follow. Hollywood was never one to shy away from a hit film about a cute little extraterrestrial without capitalizing on its success with similar cute alien films. One of the surprise and underrated movies that spawned from E.T. was STARMAN (1984) directed by the most unlikely director to make a romantic, uplifting film about a visitor from outer space. That director was John Carpenter.

At the time, Carpenter was the horror film king of the late 70s and early 80s with hits like HALLOWEEN (1978), THE FOG (1980), and THE THING (1982) which intentional or unintentional was the polar opposite (no pun intended) of E.T. THE THING was about a frozen space alien that thaws out and terrorizes a U.S. Science Base in Antarctica. Carpenter films were not warm and fuzzy. Perhaps looking for something to make outside his wheelhouse, Carpenter chose STARMAN. What differentiates STARMAN from E.T. is that the alien that crash lands on earth isn't an adorable space creature. The outer space visitor takes on the appearance of a recently widowed woman's dead husband after cloning itself in his image from a strand of the husband's hair kept in a photo album.

Carpenter is a film aficionado and one of his favorite directors was Howard Hawks who besides directing great westerns like RED RIVER (1948) and RIO BRAVO (1959) made several romantic screwball comedies as well including BRINGING UP BABY (1933) and HIS GIRL FRIDAY (1940). In STARMAN, Carpenter has the opportunity to play with some other genres besides horror and science fiction.  STARMAN is part buddy film, part road trip film, and in a strange way, a romantic screwball comedy with Karen Allen (RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK) as the grieving widow and Jeff Bridges (THE FABULOUS BAKER BOYS) as the fish out of water alien who takes on her dead husband's appearance and tries to make sense of this brave new world he has come to visit. 

Directed by John Carpenter from a screenplay by Bruce A. Evans and Raynold Gideon (and uncredited re-writes from Dean Riesner), STARMAN begins with the United States launching Voyager 2 into outer space in 1977 with an invitation to visit Earth.  Among the items on the probe are a gold phonographic record with greetings from 54 nations and musical recordings including the Rolling Stones "Can't Get No Satisfaction." The probe passes by an unknown planet that intercepts it and sends an emissary to take up mankind's invitation. The alien ship enters Earth's atmosphere where it's mistaken first for a meteorite by NORAD before National Security Agency director George Fox (Richard Jaeckel) orders the UFO shot down by two fighter jets. The space ship crash lands in northern Wisconsin in a fireball. Fox orders Mark Shermin (Charles Martin Smith) with SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) to fly to Wisconsin to investigate. A blue light aka the Star Man emerges from the crash and heads toward a cabin on a lake. Inside, Jenny Hayden (Karen Allen) watches home movies of her deceased husband Scott Hayden (Jeff Bridges) before going to bed. The blue light enters the cabin, floats around the living room, and finds a lock of Scott's hair in a photo album. It completes a full symbiotic transformation and clones itself to look like Scott. Using one of seven silver spheres he carries, the Star Man sends an emergency transmission to his home planet to pick him up in three days at a pre-determined location. Jenny is awakened by a noise and investigates. She finds her dead husband naked in her living room. Star Man hears helicopters in the distance. The Army are looking for the space visitor.

Jenny tries to flee in her '77 Mustang but the battery is dead. Star Man touches the ignition and it starts. Star Man explains he's from another planet, a high evolved civilization. He needs  her to take him to Arizona. Jenny reluctantly agrees to take him to his rendezvous point. When Star Man scares her by quoting "Satisfaction," Jenny tries to cause an accident with another a van to be rescued. Star Man scares the other driver Brad Heinmuller (John Walter Davis) away by melting his lug wrench and causing a tree to explode. Back in Wisconsin, Shermin inspects the alien craft. The meteorite turns out be hollow aka a space ship. He finds the gold phonographic record inside. Star Man observes Jenny as she talks and drives. He learns about restrooms, becoming hungry, speeding through a yellow light, the joy of apple pie, and making obscene gestures. Star Man reveals to Jenny if he misses his pickup, he will die. They stop at a truck stop diner. Scott is intrigued by a dead deer tied to the hood of a car by a redneck hunter (Ted White).  Star Man revives the dead deer. Drawing the ire of the hunter and his pals, they beat him up before Jenny fires a pistol she brought along in the air. They race away from the hunters only to be followed by a pair of state troopers (Dirk Blocker, M.C. Gainey) to a Holiday Inn.

While Jenny sleeps, Scott watches FROM HERE TO ETERNITY on TV, taking particular attention to the famous love scene on the beach. Jenny and Scott slip by the state troopers the next morning. The troopers give chase and Star Man naively brandishes the gun at them. Jenny is shot by one of the troopers.  Star Man uses another silver sphere to protect them as he crashes the Mustang into an overturned tanker.  Star Man carries the dying Jenny away from the fiery inferno. They hide in an empty manufactured home pulled by a flatbed. Star Man uses his second to last silver sphere to bring Jenny back to life. When the flatbed stops at a diner, Jenny discovers Star Man has left her behind, catching a ride out west with the diner's cook (George "Buck" Flower). Jenny calls the police to tell them she has not been kidnapped. Her call is transferred to Shermin. Shermin has a road block set up to catch the Star Man. Jenny hitches a ride with a young Hot Rodder (Sean Stanek). They cause a small explosion to distract Shermin and the army at the checkpoint.  A Native American family take Jenny and Star Man to a railroad yard. During the drive, Jenny reveals to Star Man she can't have children.  They jump onto an empty railroad car heading to Arizona.

Star Man and Jenny make love on the train. The Army figures out Star Man is headed for Arizona.  They set up a mobile command center. Shermin reports to it and discovers the center includes an emergency autopsy room. The Army doesn't want to interview the alien visitor. They want to kill and dissect the Star Man. Star Man tells Jenny she's pregnant with his and Scott's baby. He will know everything Star Man knows and grow up to become a teacher. Star Man and Jenny get off the railroad car to discover they're not in Winslow, Arizona. They're in Las Vegas. Jenny realizes she has lost her wallet.  Star Man uses his powers to win $500,000 on a slot machine.  They buy a Cadillac and continue toward Winslow. Director Fox orders the helicopters looking for Star Man and Jenny to be armed. Star Man and Jenny stop for directions to the crater outside Winslow. The police arrive and detain them for Director Fox. Shermin arrives first and tells the trooper they have the wrong people. Shermin has them released. Star Man and Jenny hike down into the crater.  A group of helicopters swarm the crater, firing rockets at the couple to stop them.  A miniature version of the Star Man's planet arrives to pick him up. It begins to snow in the crater. Jenny wants to go with Star Man. He tells her she would die on his planet. He gives her his last silver sphere and tells her to give it to their child.  Scott aka the Star Man rejoins his spaceship.

STARMAN may seem like an adult rip-off of E.T. but there's more to that coincidence than meets the eye (see that story below in Trivia Tidbits). Both films have similarities and differences.  Both the alien E.T. and Jeff Bridges' Star Man have child-like, naive qualities to them. Both visit Earth from their respective planets. E.T. is accidentally left behind by his parents. Star Man has come as an ambassador from his planet, accepting Earth's invitation via the Voyager probe. Both will find human companions that will guide them in this foreign environment they find themselves in. E.T. is discovered by a young boy named Elliott (Henry Thomas). Star Man is accepted reluctantly at first by widow Jenny Hayden. Her trepidation may stem from the fact that Star Man has cloned himself into the image of Jenny's dead husband Scott. Oh, and she had to watch Star Man grow from an infant to a grown, naked copy of her husband in just twenty seconds.

The U.S. Government will be interested in both extraterrestrials. With E.T. it's not clear if the government has nefarious aspirations in capturing E.T. or not.  Spielberg keeps their intentions mysterious until the third act. In STARMAN, there's no question that the NSA and the U.S. Army want to capture and perform an autopsy on the Star Man.  But besides protectors Elliott and Jenny, both films will have one adult who has wanted to meet someone from another galaxy since they were kids and will make sure that the alien visitor will not be caught. In E.T. it's Peter Coyote who plays a government scientist known as Keys (for most of the film we only see his keys jangling from his keyring). In STARMAN, it's Charles Martin Smith as Mark Shermin, consulting for the NSA but his heart is with SETI a non-profit searching to make contact with someone from another world like the Star Man. Shermin will uncover his superiors don't have any intentions of keeping Star Man alive. 

What sets STARMAN apart from E.T. is the adult, romantic relationship that evolves between Jenny and the Star Man culminating in a tasteful sex scene in a traveling rail car. The fact that Jenny gets a second chance to be with a version of her dead husband via the Star Man who has cloned himself into Scott is touching and poignant, after the initial shock wears off. Star Man will find himself moved and touched by the human Jenny. When Jenny confides that she can't have children, Star Man makes it his mission that she will have a baby by impregnating her, giving her a gift that will keep alive both Scott and the Star Man's DNA. E.T. is more about the symbiotic relationship between the alien and the young boy Elliott.

Besides the romantic elements of STARMAN, there are a few not so subtle shots at the behavior of the human species. When Shermin discovers the NSA and Army's plan to dissect and examine the Star Man, Shermin explodes.  "What the hell ever happened to good manners? We invited him here!" He has a point. Earth sent out a probe inviting alien races to visit tEarth. When Star Man arrives in our atmosphere, the first thing we do is fire missiles at his spacecraft. Star Man's encounters with humans does not go well either.  After resurrecting a dead deer strapped to a car, Star Man is beat up by a group of redneck hunters before Jenny comes to his rescue. After watching Jenny handle a handgun, Star Man will later brandish the weapon at the pursuing state troopers resulting in Jenny getting shot. Mankind is not as civilized as we think we are. No wonder the Star Man wants to get back to his home planet. 

One of the credits on STARMAN is actor Michael Douglas who has an Executive Producer credit. Douglas developed the property and was planning on playing Star Man.  He would ultimately choose to make ROMANCING THE STONE (1984) instead directed by Robert Zemeckis. Jeff Bridges would land the role of Star Man. It's a great opportunity for an actor and Bridges makes the most of the part, playing Star Man like a naive, young child as he learns about the human race, his movements almost bird-like as he learns to inhabit a human body. Bridges performance as Star Man will make you think of Dustin Hoffman's Oscar Winning performance as autistic savant Raymond Babbitt in Barry Levinson's RAIN MAN (1988). Just remember Bridges STARMAN came first.  Hoffman would win a Best Actor Academy Award. Bridges was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor in STARMAN, the first time an actor had been nominated for playing a non-human aka alien character. 

Actress Karen Allen is the embodiment of the Howard Hawks female that director Carpenter must have watched in Hawks films like Jean Arthur in ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS (1939) or Lauren Bacall in TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT (1944).  A Hawksian woman is tough, sexy, and can drink like one of the guys.  Allen played that type of woman to a tee in Steven Spielberg's RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981) as Marion Ravenwood.  In STARMAN, Allen's Jenny Hayden is tough but in a different way. She's just lost the love of her life, her housepainter husband Scott Hayden. She's still in mourning nine months later. When the Star Man turns her life upside down (cloning himself to resemble Scott), Jenny has to hold it together. Does she turn the Star Man in to the authorities or help him get back to his planet. Bridges and Allen may not have a lot of snappy banter like in a Hawks screwball comedy (Star Man talks in a monotone voice), but there's plenty of humor between the two as Jenny tries to teach Star Man humankind's customs, jargon, and rules. 

Two of my favorite supporting actors appear in STARMAN.  Charles Martin Smith made his film debut playing the sweet, goofy high school nerd Toad in George Lucas's AMERICAN GRAFFITI (1973). In STARMAN, Smith plays science nerd Mark Shermin. Shermin works for the bureaucratic NSA, but he's really interested in making contact with an alien species. Shermin will get his wish when he encounters Jenny and the Star Man near the large meteorite crater in Winslow, Arizona after pursuing them from Wisconsin. When Shermin realizes Director Fox and the Army's plans for the Star Man are anything but friendly, he will be the catalyst in helping Star Man to get home. Other great Charles Martin Smith movies to catch include Carroll Ballard's NEVER CRY WOLF (1983) in which Smith has the lead role and Brian DePalma's THE UNTOUCHABLES (1987) opposite Kevin Costner and Sean Connery. 

Richard Jaeckel plays Shermin's alien hating superior NSA Director George Fox. I became a big fan of Richard Jaeckel after his Academy Award nominated performance as Paul Newman's logging brother in SOMETIMES A GREAT NOTION (1971) co-starring Henry Fonda and Lee Remick. Early in his career, Jaeckel seemed primed to be the next James Dean. I recently watched Daniel Mann's COME BACK LITTLE SHEBA (1952) with Burt Lancaster where a young Jaeckel plays sandy haired high school jock Turk Fisher. Besides bad guy roles, Jaeckel would also play authority figures in films like Robert Aldrich's THE DIRTY DOZEN (1967) as an MP that joins the mission and Sam Peckinpah's PAT GARRETT AND BILLY THE KID (1973) as a Sheriff. In STARMAN, Jaeckel's Director Fox is fairly two-dimensional but his reaction at the film's finale when he notices the giant spaceship above his tiny military helicopter is priceless. 

Some final STARMAN Trivia Tidbits. Even though STARMAN appears like it was created after the success of E.T., both films were in development at Columbia around the same time by different production companies. Columbia took a pass on E.T. which got picked up by Universal and the rest is history. Columbia would greenlight STARMAN a few years after E.T.'s success. It's odd that Columbia would pass on E.T. since they were the studio that released Steven Spielberg's CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND (1977) about another alien visitation. STARMAN did well enough at the box office and critically that it spawned a brief television series also called STARMAN. The series ran from 1986-87 for 22 episodes and starred Robert Hays (AIRPLANE!) as the Star Man who returns to Earth 15 years later to reunite with his grown son and find Jenny Hayden (Erin Gray). Lastly, I mentioned John Carpenter was a aficionado of old films.  Carpenter was quoted in an interview with LA Weekly that STARMAN "is a love story. It's IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT", a reference to the Frank Capra 1934 comedy starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert as two strangers who go on a road trip together and fall in love.  Sort of like...STARMAN.

E.T. brought me to tears especially at its finale when the little alien returns to his family and leaves his human friends behind. STARMAN had that same effect on me.  When Star Man brings the dead deer back to life and his farewell to Jenny in the crater, tears well up in my eyes every time.  STARMAN also is the rare film where the romantic leads don't walk into the sunset together or live happily ever after. Like William Wyler's ROMAN HOLIDAY (1953), Richard Linklater's BEFORE SUNSET (1995) or Clint Eastwood's THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY (1995), some romantic relationships are fleeting or complicated.  STARMAN is the ultimate heartbreaker.  Jenny cannot go back to the Star Man's planet. He cannot survive on Earth.  STARMAN is John Carpenter's most romantic film.  Yes, it has explosions, some special effects, an armada of helicopters, and car chase scenes. But it has a unique love story that will span beyond our solar system, uniting briefly two people whose future was tragically cut short. STARMAN points out we need to be better as a race. The film offers hope that Jenny and Star Man's future son may be the guide to show us how.

Escape from Alcatraz (1979)

CRAZYFILMGUY has never been a big fan of prison films. World War II POW prison breakout films like John Sturges THE GREAT ESCAPE (1963) I do enjoy. But film fan favorite THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION (1994) directed by Frank Darabont and starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman doesn't do much for me even though it's a great film.  I always find the prison setting too confined. What I am a fan of is one certain prison. Alcatraz Prison located on a rocky island in the middle of the San Francisco Bay, just a stone's throw from the Golden Gate Bridge and the city itself. There's something almost mystical about Alcatraz.  Like the imaginary Camelot or the very real Mont St. Michel in northern France, this now defunct maximum security prison (it closed in 1963) perched on an island in the middle of the Bay should be the perfect real estate location to build a luxury hotel or high end condominiums. Originally a military fort during the Civil War, Alcatraz was converted into a prison in the 1930s and housed some of the worst and most violent criminals in the history of the United States. 

Al "Scarface" Capone. George "Machine Gun" Kelly. Alvin "Creepy" Karpis. "The Birdman of Alcatraz" Robert Stroud.  Meyer "Mickey" Cohen.  Even the recently infamous James "Whitey" Bulger was incarcerated at Alcatraz for a brief time beginning in 1959. Now a tourist attraction and bird sanctuary, I traveled to Alcatraz in 2014 to experience "the Rock." Alcatraz was no luxury hotel. We took a boat out to the prison and a cold drizzle met us.  The currents around the island are treacherous with the waters of the Bay and the Pacific Ocean colliding. Inside, the prison was dark and depressing, the cells small and cramped. The only redeeming part of Alcatraz is its great view of San Francisco. Alcatraz was meant to keep violent and dangerous criminals from escaping yet 34 men attempted to escape the Rock.  According to the book Alcatraz Most Wanted by Cory Kincade, seven were shot and killed, one drowned, two men actually made it to shore and were captured, and five are still missing and presumed dead. Director Don Siegel and actor Clint Eastwood decided to choose Alcatraz's most famous breakout when they collaborated on ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ (1979) detailing the elaborate escape by prisoners Frank Morris and brothers Clarence and John Anglin in 1962. 

Director Siegel and Eastwood first teamed up for the urban cowboy western COOGAN'S BLUFF (1968). Siegel began his career as an editor (he did some of the montages in CASABLANCA) before moving on to direct film noir films like THE BIG STEAL (1949) with Robert Mitchum and Jane Greer or the sci-fi classic INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1956). Siegel and Eastwood would also collaborate on TWO MULES FOR SISTER SARA (1970) co-starring Shirley McClaine, the gothic Civil War film THE BEGUILED (1971), and their biggest hit DIRTY HARRY (1971) which introduced movie fans to the .457 Magnum wielding San Francisco cop "Dirty" Harry Callahan. ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ is a return to the Bay Area for Siegel and Eastwood although it's confined to San Francisco's most famous landmark besides the Golden Gate Bridge with Alcatraz. Eastwood has been quoted that Sergio Leone (A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS) and Don Siegel were his two biggest mentors and influences on his own directing career. 

With a screenplay by Richard Tuggle based on the non-fiction book Escape from Alcatraz by J. Campbell Bruce and directed by Don Siegel, ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ begins on a cold, rainy night on January 18th,1960 as a boat brings prisoner Frank Morris (Clint Eastwood) from the San Francisco wharf out to Alcatraz Island and its maximum-security prison. Morris is strip searched, handcuffed, and led naked to his prison cell.  The next day, Warden Arthur Dollison (Patrick McGoohan) requests for Morris to see him.  Dollison reminds Morris that he's now incarcerated at Alcatraz due to his previous escapes from other prisons.  No one has ever escaped from Alcatraz and lived. Morris stealthily takes Dollison's nail clippers before departing the warden's office. Morris begins to get the lay of the prison. He quickly meets the prison's large predator Wolf (Bruce M. Fischer) who tries to bully Morris. Morris punches Wolf in the gut during a shower encounter. Morris befriends Litmus (Frank Ronzio) and his pet mouse. Litmus is the scrounger of the prison. Morris is assigned to the library where he meets English (Paul Benjamin), leader of the black inmates. Out in the yard, Morris will encounter Chester "Doc" Dalton (Roberts Blossom) who paints to pass away the time. Morris discusses escaping Alcatraz with English. English tells him no one has ever made it to freedom after escaping.

Wolf comes after Morris in the yard with a shiv. Morris manages to hold Wolf off until guards can intervene. Even though Morris didn't instigate the fight, both he and Wolf are sent to solitary confinement. When Morris returns to his cell, he finds he has a new neighbor in the cell next to him - a convict named Charlie Butts (Larry Hankin). Warden Dollison walks the cell blocks. He decides to inspect Doc's cell. He finds an unflattering painting of himself by Doc. Dollison takes away all painting privileges for convicts. In protest, Doc cuts off a couple of his fingers in the welding shop. Doc is carried out on a stretcher, not to be seen again. Morris discovers a small grate in the corner of his cell that leads to a utility corridor behind the cells. In the mess hall, Morris runs into some familiar faces - brothers Clarence (Jack Thibeau) and John Anglin (Fred Ward). Like Morris, they have been transferred to Alcatraz for repeatedly escaping other prisons, most recently in Atlanta. Fed up with Warden Dollison's inhuman treatment of inmates, Morris reveals to the Anglins and Charlie that he may have found a way to escape. 

Escaping Alcatraz Island via tour boat in March 2014.

Morris and the Anglin's chip away at six inches of concrete around the grill in their respective cells, using smuggled items like a spoon to help.  Charlie serves as a lookout for Morris. Morris has a close call when a guard almost catches him away from his bed during lights out.  John Anglin begins making fake heads out of plaster and newspaper, using paint for the flesh tones and hair clippings from the barber shop for the head. Morris makes a big enough hole first.  One night he does a reconnaissance mission, exploring the inner walls, with his dummy in his bed.  He barely makes it back in time.  Another time, John joins Morris as they map out their escape.  The last piece of their escape is securing life jackets and a raft made out of rain jackets. Warden Dollison notices a yellow chrysanthemum on the lunch table occupied by Morris and his friends, Doc's favorite flower to paint. Dollison takes the flower and smashes it.  Litmus lunges for Dollison and suffers a heart attack. 

Dollison orders Morris's cell checked, weary Morris is planning something.  The guard doesn't find Morris's hole in the corner (disguised with a fake front). Dollison wants Morris and Charlie separated. Morris moves up the escape night due to Dollison's recent actions. Bull tries to attack Morris again, but English intercepts his latest attempt. Each prisoner sneaks out of their cell except Charlie who has last minute second thoughts. The inmates climb pipes up to the ceiling then break through a vent in the roof. The guard in the tower hears a noise and turns his spotlight on the roof. He sees no one. The three men slide down drain pipes to the ground then climb over a fence.  They make it to the water. Morris, John, and Clarence blow up their makeshift life vests and raft. They paddle out into the bay, disappearing into the night. The guards discover the dummies in their beds and notify Dollison. The next day, helicopters fly over the bay.  Dollison and the police search nearby Angel Island.  Dollison is sure the men are dead.  He finds a yellow chrysanthemum on the beach, a clue that the inmates may have made it.  ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ ends with titles that tell us "No bodies were ever found." Did Frank Morris and the Anglin brothers make it to shore? Most believe they drowned but there are a few who think they survived and made it to the mainland.

ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ provides Clint Eastwood with an opportunity to play another anti-hero character in real life convict Frank Morris. Morris is a loner. We learn early in the film that he has no family or next of kin.  He's all alone in this world. Early in the film, Morris appears anti-social, even racist. He eats alone in the mess hall.  He doesn't talk much to begin with.  He has a problem with authority which might explain his multiple escape attempts from prison. Morris doesn't respect the warden or the guards or even the rules of the prison inmates.  He won't submit to Wolf's attempt to bully him, punching Bull in the gut when the predator tries to prey on him in the shower. He uses the N word when he tells English, the leader of the black convicts he's not fond of them. To prove he doesn't believe in rules, written or unwritten, Morris even sits in the black convicts section outside in the yard. Morris is not making friends early.

Through the course of ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ, as he gets the lay of the prison and his fellow convicts, Morris will accumulate a family. He befriends Doc whose found an outlet from this hell through painting. He takes a liking to Litmus and his pet mouse. Litmus will become  a scrounger for Morris, acquiring items that Morris needs for his escape attempt. His next cell neighbor Charlie Butts will become his eyes as Morris chips away at the grill in the corner. Morris even warms up to English with English bringing Morris books and magazines that help him with his escape plan. When the Anglin brothers show up at Alcatraz, it's like a family reunion. Morris and the Anglins had been locked up together at other prisons. He knows he can trust the two brothers. Morris is not alone after all.

Eastwood's Frank Morris in ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ is similar to Eastwood's cop Harry Callahan in DIRTY HARRY which is ironic as they are on opposite sides of the law. One a convict.  One a law enforcement officer.  Both like to stick it to the establishment, the Man.  Harry Callahan doesn't get along with his fellow police officers or his police captain.  He doesn't play by the rules when chasing criminals either.  Frank Morris doesn't like authority either. He doesn't like the sadistic Warden Dollison or the prison guards. Morris hasn't played by the rules all his life which is why he's behind bars. He won't sit and live out his sentence on Alcatraz.  Rather than rot in his small cell at the hands of an inhuman warden and system, Morris and the Anglin brothers opt for a slim chance of freedom.  After their numerous escapes and recaptures, even death in the icy waters of the San Francisco Bay is more appealing than incarceration. Their escape attempt is their way of sticking it to the warden who has pledged that no prisoner will escape on his watch. The fact that no bodies are found will gnaw at Warden Dollison.

Warden Dollison (played by Patric McGoohan) represents Death in ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ.  He wears black suits.  He's cold, sadistic, and narcissistic.  His actions lead to the maiming or death of prisoners on the Rock.  Dollison breaks Doc's sanity when he takes away Doc's painting privileges after uncovering an unflattering portrait of himself by Doc. Doc will cut off several of his fingers in a fit of self-mutilation. Dollison's actions toward the benign Doc will push Morris to look for a way to escape. Morris can take Dollison's heavy handed punishment but he's getting older. He can get back at Dollison by escaping. Later, when Dollison sees a yellow flower on the inmates mess hall table (Doc liked to paint flowers), Dollison crushes it in front of Morris and the others. Litmus will lunge for Dollison only to suffer a heart attack.  Death in the form of Dollison cannot be hurt.  But Morris will go after Dollison's ego. His escape with the Anglin brothers, even if not entirely successful, will bring about the closure of Alcatraz in 1963.  The dehumanizing treatment of prisoners by Dollison would ultimately fail. 

Besides Eastwood (who was arguably one of the biggest movie stars at the time in 1979), ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ is full of mostly character actors. Roberts Blossom who plays Doc career blossomed in his 40s and 50s. Blossom had memorable small roles in Steven Spielberg's CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND (1977) and Chris Columbus's HOME ALONE (1990). Paul Benjamin who plays English, leader of the black convicts and the prison's librarian first appeared in John Schlesinger's MIDNIGHT COWBOY (1969). Besides ALCATRAZ, English had roles in Barry Shear's ACROSS 110TH STREET (1972) with Anthony Quinn and Yaphet Kotto and Spike Lee's DO THE RIGHT THING (1990). Surprisingly, Larry Hankin who plays the solemn, conflicted cell neighbor Charlie Butts to Eastwood's Morris was a member of two comedy improv groups and nearly was cast as Jerry Seinfeld's kooky neighbor Kramer in hit TV comedy about nothing SEINFELD.

The biggest name besides Eastwood in ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ is Patrick McGoohan who plays the tyrannical Warden Arthur Dollison. McGoohan first found fame in the late 1960s in the sci-fi TV series THE PRISONER (1967-68) which had a prison like premise. McGoohan would have a resurgence in his career after ALCATRAZ appearing in David Cronenberg's SCANNERS (1980), memorably as King Edward I aka Longshanks in Mel Gibson's BRAVEHEART (1995), and as a judge in Joel Schumacher's A TIME TO KILL (1996) starring Matthew McConaughey and Sandra Bullock. Fred Ward who plays fellow escapee John Anglin would use his small but crucial role to begin a long and successful film career beginning with his performance as tragic astronaut Gus Grissom in Philip Kaufman's THE RIGHT STUFF (1983). The versatile Ward appeared in everything from the fun horror film TREMORS (1990) with Kevin Bacon to a Miami cop chasing killer Alec Baldwin in MIAMI BLUES (1990) to Hollywood fixer Walter Stuckel in Robert Altman's THE PLAYER (1992). Danny Glover (LETHAL WEAPON) has one of his first credits in ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ as an inmate (I must admit I didn't spot him). 

Bringing authenticity to ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ is the fact that almost the entire film was filmed at the now closed prison.  The infamous Cell Block D, the cells themselves, the mess hall, the yard, and the library are all actual Alcatraz locations in the film.  Having toured Alcatraz the National Park in 2014, visitors can almost hear the ghosts of the former inmates, guards, and the families of the previous wardens on the former prison's grounds.  Director Siegel is meticulous in detailing the minute details of the three men's escape plan from the every day items like nail clippers and spoons they used to chisel a hole in the corner of their cells to the lifelike dummies they made and planted in their beds to buy time as they made their escape on the night of June 11th, 1962. 

Despite taking place entirely in a prison and with almost no female characters (Butts' wife is shown in one scene visiting him), ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ would be a critical and commercial success due to Eastwood's performance and star power and veteran director Don Siegel's storytelling ability. The third star of the film is Alcatraz itself. The Rock is had been used as a location in films before from John Frankenheimer's BIRDMAN OF ALCATRAZ (1962) starring Burt Lancaster as real life murderer and bird enthusiast Robert Stroud to John Boorman's revenge thriller POINT BLANK (1967) with Lee Marvin and Angie Dickinson to Michael Bay's THE ROCK (1996) starring Nicholas Cage and Sean Connery. ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ captures the beauty, starkness, and cruelty of Alcatraz prison.  Audiences don't usually root for criminals to escape from prison. Under the circumstances, you will root for Frank Morris and Clarence and John Anglin to make it to freedom. Whether they did or not is still up for debate although the odds seem pretty stacked against the three men. America and Hollywood loves underdogs so the dream that they might have survived will endure...at least on film. 

A Double Life (1947)

In my quest for collecting movies via VHS tapes at the time (probably the 1990s), I came across a series of four films from the late 40s and early 50s that had an introduction before each film by the great director and film aficionado Martin Scorsese (RAGING BULL). I had never heard or seen these films before. The fact that Scorsese would highlight these four films piqued my interest. Scorsese's introduction gave insight and analysis about what made each one unique.  Three of the four films I ended up buying the VHS tape and watching. They were Abraham Polonsky's crime drama FORCE OF EVIL (1948) shot on location in New York City and starring John Garfield; the first film noir western PURSUED (1948) directed by the versatile Raoul Walsh and starring Robert Mitchum and Teresa Wright; and Nicholas Ray's JOHNNY GUITAR (1954) that flips the conventions of the western with Joan Crawford as the dominant main female character and co-starring Sterling Hayden. The only one of the four films I did not purchase and watch was George Cukor's A DOUBLE LIFE (1947). At the time, the plot was unknown to me and I didn't know much about the film's leading man Ronald Colman.  

I should have done some research.  The plot for A DOUBLE LIFE is tantalizing. The story revolves around an actor who can't separate a character he's playing with his personal life. Hollywood is full of method actors who take their movie role to the extreme. Dustin Hoffman, Daniel Day Lewis, Meryl Streep, and Robert DeNiro come to mind as performers who disappear into their character whether it be Hoffman's Ratso Rizzo in John Schlesinger's MIDNIGHT COWBOY (1969), Day Lewis as Abraham Lincoln in Steven Spielberg's LINCOLN (2012), Streep as an Australian mother accused of murdering her child in the Outback in Fred Schepisi's A CRY IN THE DARK (1988) or DeNiro as sociopath Travis Bickle in Martin Scorsese's TAXI DRIVER (1976). The main difference is these actors were able to separate their character from their personal life at the end of the day. In A DOUBLE LIFE, Ronald Coleman's character Anthony John performs as the murderous Moor Othello in Shakespeare's Othello on stage. But his character's homicidal impulses keep creeping up in his personal life. A DOUBLE LIFE'S plot sounds a bit more film noir-ish than I would have guessed. 

It might surprise film lovers that the creative team behind A DOUBLE LIFE are director George Cukor and married screenwriters Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin. Cukor and Gordon/Kanin were far better known for their Spencer Tracy/Katherine Hepburn screwball comedies like ADAM'S RIB (1949) or PAT AND MIKE (1952). Cukor had also helmed the classic comedy THE PHILADELPHIA STORY (1940) and the musical MY FAIR LADY (1964) with Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn. If you look at Cukor's filmography, you will find some darker films amongst his lighter fare including GASLIGHT (1944) with Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer and the second A STAR IS BORN (1954) with Judy Garland and James Mason. Clearly, Cukor was comfortable splitting his time between comedy and dark dramas. 

Directed by George Cukor and with an original screenplay by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin (not to mention some dialogue by an English playwright named William Shakespeare), A DOUBLE LIFE introduces us to stage thespian Anthony "Tony" John (Ronald Colman) as he walks down Broadway, visiting the backstage of the theater where he's currently performing the comedy A Gentleman's Gentleman with his ex-wife Brita Kaurin (Signe Hasso), running into a couple of actresses he may have had dalliances with on the street before stopping at the office of Broadway producer Max Lasker (Philip Loeb). Max wants Tony to join a new production of William Shakespeare's Othello. With Max is Broadway director Victor Donlon (Ray Collins). Tony's initially hesitant to play the demanding part. Brita tries to talk Tony out of taking the role. Tony walks around New York City debating whether to do it or not. He notices an Italian restaurant called Venezia Cafe.  Tony sees it as a good omen.  Tony has some food and befriends a sexy waitress named Pat Kroll (Shelly Winters). Tony visits Pat after work at her apartment.  They talk and share a kiss. Brimming with confidence, Tony sees Brita the next day.  He's going to take the part of Othello. He wants Brita to play Desdemona. 

We follow the theater process from casting to blocking to rehearsal and full-dress rehearsal.  Opening night arrives for the premiere of Othello.  Max, Victor, and Brita's press agent Bill Friend (Edmond O'Brien) are so nervous they go across the street from the theater to have a drink. They expect failure but the play is a huge success, a standing ovation for Tony and Brita and multiple curtain calls. During the after party, Tony has a hard time shedding himself from Othello. He begins to hear sounds and bits of dialogue from the play. He asks Brita to take him home. The plays hits three months on Broadway. Then, 200 shows. Tony becomes agitated by little errors behind the curtain by the stagehands.  At the 300th performance, Tony becomes a little too physical with Brita in her death scene.  He almost strangles her before realizing what he's doing. 

The play reaches two years on Broadway. Brita brings Tony a birthday cake with miniature Othello and Desdemona figures decorating the top. Tony's still in love with Brita. They share a passionate kiss and Tony suggests that they get married again. Brita rejects the idea, sending Tony into a jealous rage.  Tony suspects Brita's in love with her press agent Bill Friend. Tony storms out of her apartment, wandering the streets until it's dark.  He looks for Pat, first at the cafe then at her apartment.  He wakes Pat up. Pat lets him in. Tony asks if Pat has any boyfriends. She's coy with him. Tony becomes possessed by the demons that drive Othello to murder. Like in the play, blowing curtains in Pat's room recreate the murder scene again in Tony's mind.  Reciting lines from the play he's performed hundreds of times, Tony strangles Pat like Othello smothers Desdemona with a kiss. Brita wakes up in the middle of the night, looks downstairs for Tony but he's not on the couch.  In the morning, she finds Tony has returned, now asleep on the same couch.

A maid finds Pat's body. The police arrive. Captain Pete Bonner (Joe Sawyer) gives an update to the press. The pathologist on the scene Dr. Roland Stauffer (Whit Bissell) tells the press it was an unusual crime of passion which catches the attention of reporter Al Cooley (Millard Mitchell). Cooley convinces Stauffer to say it was a "kiss of death" that killed her. Cooley visits Bill and tells him about the murder.  The newspapers label it "the Othello Murder." When Tony sees the headlines, he storms over to Bill's apartment in a rage, telling him to kill the story. Bill can't and Tony nearly strangles Bill. Bill begins to suspect Tony might be the killer. Bill visits Captain Bonner to tell him his theory but Bonner says a suspect has already been caught. When Bill tells Brita about his altercation with Tony, Brita reveals Tony slept over on her couch a few nights ago but he wasn't there all night. Bill begins an elaborate plan to test his theory if Tony's the killer that will lead to the film's finale on stage where acting and real life will blend together in an explosive way. 

A DOUBLE LIFE explores the dark side of acting. What happens when an actor takes on a dramatic, complicated role and plays that character over and over again for six months or a year? Where does acting end and reality return? How hard is it to cast off that character? After watching A DOUBLE LIFE, it made think of actors and actresses who have played complicated roles on the stage for a period of time. Lee J. Cobb, George C. Scott, and Dustin Hoffman all played the suffering traveling salesman Willy Loman in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. The original Broadway version Cobb was in had 742 performances.  Or Jessica Tandy as fading Southern belle Blanche DuBois in Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Name Desire. Or Jason Robards as James Tyrone Jr., the older brother in Eugene O'Neill's gripping play about a Connecticut family in Long Day's Journey Into Night. Did they have trouble dropping their character after each night's performance?

In A DOUBLE LIFE, there's a hint that Tony may have played Othello previously in his career and struggled with separating reality and his intense stage persona.  Hence, his reluctance to take on the role again. When we first encounter Tony, he's appearing in a light Noel Coward like comedy A Gentleman's Gentleman, a character he can shed like a jacket until the next night, a play that doesn't tax him mentally or physically. Like most actors, Tony has an ego.  As he contemplates the challenge of playing Othello, he gets a confidence boost by a flirtatious dalliance with waitress Pat Kroll. Tony takes the leap and decides to play Shakespeare's dark king. Director Cukor uses sound to great effect to show Tony's fragile mental state as he grapples with his alter ego. Sounds like applause, chimes, and trains set Tony off as do fragments of Othello and Desdemona's dialogue when he becomes agitated. He's able to keep his alter ego under wraps most of the time. But like Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll, the Mr. Hyde like Othello emerges when Tony becomes jealous. Tony wants to kill Brita after a spat but he could never hurt Brita. So Tony goes to his Brita surrogate, the waitress Pat. Pat even has blonde hair like the blonde wig Brita wears as Desdemona. Tony thinks he's back on stage as Othello before he murders Desdemona. Tony will get Pat and Desdemona mixed up as Tony's demons totally possess him. 

The final sequence in A DOUBLE LIFE is wicked irony. Bill and the authorities bring cafe owner Stellini (Charles La Torre) to the play to identify Tony in connection with Pat's murder. Tony sees Stellini staring at him from the wings. He knows the noose is tightening around him. Actors always want to have a good death scene so Tony as Othello stabs himself with a real dagger rather than a stage one this time in the play's finale. Just as Tony has blurred fiction and reality in his mind, the movie blurs Othello's denouement with the film's climax. The character Othello does stab himself at the end of the play. Actor Tony John as the Moor kills himself to avoid scandal and prison time.  It's the ultimate death scene for a dramatic actor. As he lies dying from his self-inflicted wound, Tony's talks about another actor he knew who was renowned for his death scenes. He's still concerned about his publicity after his death and asks Bill to make him likable. As the curtain of death falls over Tony, the stage's final curtain call comes down too. The play and reality have melded into one. Blackness creeps over both Tony and the stage as the spotlight goes dark.

Ronald Colman who plays the tortured stage actor Anthony John in A DOUBLE LIFE was one of the finest British actors in Hollywood during the 30s and 40s that most movie fans may know little about (myself included). Colman started out in silent films in the 20s and made the transition easily to talkies with his good looks and silky voice. English actors like Laurence Olivier, Charles Laughton, Robert Donat, and Leslie Howard seemed to get more attention than Colman.  In fact, A DOUBLE LIFE was written with Olivier in mind. Olivier was unavailable when it came time to film. Colman was offered the part. Whomever played the role of would have won an Academy Award for Best Actor.  The character is so well written by Gordon/Kanin and directed by Cukor. Coleman and composer Miklos Rozsa (BEN-HUR) would win Oscars in 1947 for A DOUBLE LIFE. Some Ronald Colman films worth catching include Frank Capra's LOST HORIZON (1937) with Jane Wyatt; John Cromwell's THE PRISONER OF ZENDA (1937) co-starring Madeleine Carroll; and Mervyn LeRoy's RANDOM HARVEST (1942) with Greer Garson.

Ronald Colman wasn't the only actor in A DOUBLE LIFE I knew little about.  Colman's leading lady in the film Swedish born actress Signe Hasso who plays Brita was unknown to me as well. Given the unrealistic expectation to be the next "Greta Garbo", Hasso found work and some good roles with MGM in the 1940 in films such as Fred Zinnemann's THE SEVENTH CROSS (1944) with Spencer  Tracy and Henry Hathaway's THE HOUSE ON 92ND STREET (1945). But her favorite role was as Brita in A DOUBLE LIFE. Like Colman, Hasso gets to play two parts, both the stage actress Brita and Shakespeare's character Desdemona.  As Desdemona is married to Othello, Brita and Tony had been married. Tony wants them try again at marriage. Brita likes the current arrangement as friends and co-workers. Brita comes out of the story a little better than Desdemona. Hasso as Brita is classy and charming. It's easy to see why her ex-husband Tony and her press agent Bill are both in love with her. Hasso did not reach the fame of Garbo and would stop making films in the early 50s, concentrating on theater and television for the rest of her career. 

Although it doesn't seem like it at first glance, A DOUBLE LIFE does fall into the film noir genre especially after the film's surprise murder. Director Cukor sprinkles the supporting cast with some faces familiar to film noir fans.  For Shelly Winters, who plays the sexy, doomed blue collar waitress Pat Kroll, A DOUBLE LIFE would be an important early role in her career.  Pat is a vulnerable, pretty woman that life has not dealt the best hand to. A flirtation with famed Broadway actor Anthony John could change her life. Instead, it will turn tragic for her. Winters was discovered by her DOUBLE LIFE director George Cukor during auditions for GONE WITH THE WIND (1939) when Cukor was briefly involved with the film.  After stumbling around with not very interesting parts after A DOUBLE LIFE, Winters would appear in a fairy tale film noir classic NIGHT OF THE HUNTER (1957) starring Robert Mitchum and directed by actor Charles Laughton that would kickstart her career.  Another great Winters performance is as the sexually liberated widow Charlotte Haze opposite James Mason in Stanley Kubrick's LOLITA (1962). 

Edmond O'Brien as Bill Friend, Brita's press agent who loves his client from afar and becomes the first person to suspect Tony might be a murderer was no stranger to film noir films. O'Brien appeared in Robert Siodmak's THE KILLERS (1946) with Burt Lancaster; played the lead in Rudolph Mate's D.O.A. (1949) about a poisoned man trying to find his killer; and starred in Ida Lupino's gripping THE HITCH-HIKER (1953). My first encounter with O'Brien he was almost unrecognizable as the shaggy quartermaster for THE WILD BUNCH (1969) directed by Sam Peckinpah.  Rounding out the stellar supporting cast of A DOUBLE LIFE are Joe Sawyer (THE KILLING) as police Captain Pete Bonner trying to crack the case, Millard Mitchell (THE NAKED SPUR) as the headline hungry reporter Al Cooley, and Whit Bissell (CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON) as the spineless coroner Dr. Stauffer.

A few final thoughts and tidbits on A DOUBLE LIFE. Shakespeare's tragedy Othello is a key cog in the film. Perhaps the most important character in the play is not Othello but his treacherous adviser Iago. It would have been interesting if the filmmakers had come up with an Iago type character in A DOUBLE LIFE to manipulate Tony into murdering Brita (like Bill Friend who secretly loves her). Instead, Cukor and Gordon/Kanin focus on Tony's mental state and fatigue playing such a complicated role as Othello for a period of time which crosses into his personal life. An actor portraying Iago is seen briefly on stage a couple of times during the film. Believe it or not, Ronald Coleman had never performed Shakespeare before.  He had literally been a movie actor all his life. One can see why Anthony John was originally meant for Laurence Olivier who was renowned for his productions of various Shakespeare plays. Olivier would star and direct in the film version of HAMLET (1948) a year after A DOUBLE LIFE was released.  That might explain why Olivier was unavailable for A DOUBLE LIFE. 

A DOUBLE LIFE is a fascinating look at both the inner workings of a Broadway production and the struggles of a talented actor who begins to blur the lines between his real self and the famous character that he portrays.  Tony Johns jealousies begin to mirror those of Othello's which leads to a lethal conclusion.  A DOUBLE LIFE is a great opportunity to become acquainted with some lesser known but talented actors like Ronald Colman, Signe Hasso, and Edmond O'Brien. It's a breakout introduction for the up-and-coming young actress Shelly Winters and solidifies the talents of its creators, the writing team of Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin and director extraordinaire George Cukor. 

Virginia City (1940)

Unlike today's modern actors and actresses who have their own production companies and production deals with all the major studios, actors and actresses from the Golden Age of Cinema (1930 thru the late 1950s) were under contract to all the major studios. Robert Mitchum was under contract to RKO Pictures. Tyrone Power and Marilyn Monroe were under contract to 20th Century Fox.  Clark Gable and Ava Gardner were under contract to Metro Goldwyn Mayer aka MGM.  In my estimation, the studio that had the best crop of actors under contract was Warner Brothers.  Humprey Bogart, James Cagney, and Erroll Flynn all were with Warner Brothers. 

Those three actors would headline and carry their own movies to great success for Warner Brothers. James Cagney in YANKEE DOODLE DANDY (1942). Erroll Flynn in CAPTAIN BLOOD and THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD (1939). Humphrey Bogart in CASABLANCA (1942) and THE TREASURE OF SIERRA MADRE (1948). Coincidentally, all of those films except one were directed by one of Warner's best directors under contract Michael Curtiz (TREASURE OF SIERRA MADRE was directed by John Huston). Occasionally, the three Warner stars would even appear in a film together (although Cagney and Flynn never did).  Cagney and Bogart in Curtiz's ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES (1938) and Raoul Walsh's THE ROARING TWENTIES (1939).  Or Flynn and Bogart in a western adventure (directed by Curtiz) that I had not seen before with a good supporting cast called VIRGINIA CITY (1940). 

One of the many intriguing aspects of VIRGINIA CITY is that it's the 2nd and last western that Bogart would appear in. Previously, he played bad guy Whip McCord in Lloyd Bacon's THE OKLAHOMA KID (1939) which also starred James Cagney.  Bogart was just on the cusp of coming out under the shadow of Cagney and Flynn to become a major star.  Director Curtiz had just made the beautiful, boisterous Technicolor western DODGE CITY (also 1939) with Flynn, Olivia DeHavilland, and Ann Sheridan. Reports are that VIRGINIA CITY was going to be a sequel to DODGE CITY as Flynn and Olivia DeHavilland discuss heading to Virginia City at the end of DODGE CITY. VIRGINIA CITY has the same director and writer and many of the same actors from DODGE CITY (although DeHavilland dropped out and Miriam Hopkins took over her role). Somewhere along the creative process different characters were developed and a different plot emerged. VIRGINIA CITY is shot in black and white not color. It's loaded with Civil War intrigue, double and triple crosses, and a Confederate plot to steal $5 million in gold from the raucous, pro-Union mining town of Virgina City, Nevada to help the struggling Confederate army purchase weapons and continue fighting the war. 

With an original screenplay by Robert Buckner (and an uncredited Howard Koch) and directed by the versatile Michael Curtiz, VIRGINIA CITY begins in December 1864 as the Civil War rages and the South struggles to keep up the fight. Confederate spy (and later we learn saloon singer) Julie Hayne (Miriam Hopkins) travels from Virginia City, Nevada to Richmond, Virginia to suggest a plan to her former beau Captain Vance Irby (Randolph Scott). Vance is currently commander of Libby Prison (nicknamed "the Devil's Warehouse") holding Union prisoners. Trying to escape from the prison are Union intelligence officers Captain Kerry Bradford (Erroll Flynn), Olaf "Moosehead" Swenson (Alan Hale), and Marblehead (Guinn "Big Boy" Williams). Vance discovers the secret tunnel the men are burrowing to escape (he's actually known about it since the three were incarcerated). He confronts the men, wishes them well in their efforts, and warns them they will never escape. Vance returns to his office where Julia is waiting. She knows the South is losing the war. She proposes Vance and his men come to Virginia City and take $5 million in gold from the mines and bring it back to Richmond to fund the Confederate army. Vance introduces Julia to Confederate President Jefferson Davis (Charles Middleton) and his cabinet who greenlight her plan. 

As Vance and Julia gaze out at the Richmond night skyline, a huge explosion in the distance at the prison ruins their moment. Bradford and his cohorts have used makeshift explosives to escape. After eluding their pursuers, Bradford and friends make it to General George Meade's Union headquarters at Seven Pines to report Confederate spies are headed to Virginia City to steal gold to fund the Rebels. Southern sympathizers own the Comstock mines. Meade orders them to catch the Rebel infiltrators and stop the gold heist. Bradford, Moosehead, and Marblehead catch a stagecoach to Virginia City where the passengers include the beautiful Rebel spy Julia; Mr. Upjohn (Frank McHugh), an insurance salesman, and the mysterious gun salesman John Murrell (Humphrey Bogart with a thin black moustache and Mexican accent that comes and goes). Murrell tries to rob the stagecoach with his band of cutthroats following known as Murrell's Marauders. Bradford with the help of his buddies manages to thwart Murrell who escapes by leaping from the stagecoach into a river below.  Bradford begins to fall in love with Julia during the rest of the journey. When they arrive in Virginia City, Julia gives Bradford the slip with the help of young Cobby Gin (Dickie Jones). 

Bradford checks in with the Union Army garrison just outside of town. Vance is already in town making gold bars with the help of his co-conspirator Gaylord (Russell Simpson). Their plan is to take the gold bars back East via an immigrant wagon train. Bradford and the boys check out the Sazerac Saloon where Bradford finds Julia singing on stage. Moosehead and Marblehead run into Vance.  Everyone has a drink and plays nice. Vance leaves the saloon and Bradford follows him back to a barn where the wagons are ready to leave. A gunfight breaks out as the wagons haul out of town. Bradford orders all town exits to be blocked. Vance hides out at the office of Doc Cameron (Moroni Olsen), one of the mine owners and Southern sympathizers.  Murrell shows up at Cameron's office injured from his earlier stagecoach escape. Vance hires Murrell and his Marauders to cause a diversion so his wagons can leave Virginia City. Julia returns to her room to find Vance waiting for her. He asks Julia to lure Bradford back to her room so Vance can arrest Bradford as a Union spy and take him back to Richmond. The plan works. Vance, Julia, and a captured Bradford head out East after Murrell's diversion works. Moosehead and Marblehead find Bradford missing and ride out to find the gold train. 

Vance pays off Murrell and his Marauders just outside Virginia City. The wagon train approaches a Union Fort.  They almost pass inspection when the officers notice the wagons are weighted down.  A shoot out breaks out. Bradford escapes and young Cobby is wounded. Bradford comes across a deserted outpost where he's reunited with his buddies Moosehead and Marblehead. Bradford telegraphs Major Drewery (Douglass Dumbrille) for reinforcements. Vance splits the wagon train into two groups to make it harder to track them. A dried-up riverbed and the death of young Cobby slows Vance down. Murrell and his Marauders show up again.  Murrell wants more gold.  They attack the wagon train forcing Vance, Julia, and the group to circle the wagons.   Julia helps reload the rifles. Bradford and his men ride in to rescue them. Vance is mortally wounded. He turns over command of the wagons to Bradford before dying. Bradford won't take the gold bullion to the South, but he won't let Murrell and his Marauders have it either.  He takes the wagons into a cave and blows it up, burying the $5 million in gold. Drewery arrives with his regiment. Murrell is killed. Bradford won't reveal the whereabouts of the gold to Drewery. Bradford is court martialed and sentenced to hang.  Julia travels back to Washington D.C. and visits President Abraham Lincoln (Victor Kilian) where she requests a stay of execution for Bradford.  Will her request be granted?

VIRGINIA CITY is not as good as DODGE CITY, but it has some interesting elements to it.  Errol Flynn's Union Captain Bradford and Randolph Scott's Confederate Captain Irby are two sides of the same coin. As Bradford tells Irby at the Sazerac Saloon, "Too bad you and I had to be on opposite sides of the fence in this. I think we might have been friends." The Civil War has made these two similar men enemies.  They both love the same woman. They both strongly believe in their cause. Vance dares Bradford to try and escape Libby Prison which Bradford manages to do.  Later, Bradford dares Vance to leave Virginia City with his caravan of gold. Vance pulls it off with the help of Murrell. Bradford and Vance will team up to defeat their common enemy John Murrell (and to protect their mutual love interest Julia). 

One of the clever twists in VIRGINIA CITY is that it's a woman (and a Confederate spy no less) who devises the plot to steal the gold to keep the South's war machine funded. Saloon singer Julia Hayne (played by Miriam Hopkins) travels from Virginia City, Nevada in the West all the way to Richmond, Virginia to hatch her plan with the assistance of former lover and now Commander of Libby Prison Vance Irby. It's a dangerous mission that Julia pulls off.  Vance agrees to help with the mission. Julia is greeted like a princess by Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his cabinet. Even after Julia begins to fall for Union Officer Kerry Bradford (Errol Flynn), she helps Vance capture Bradford to take back to prison. Her loyalty for most of VIRGINIA CITY is to her beloved South. Julia is a strong female character, not just window dressing to Bradford and Vance.  In the end, she'll have to use her power of persuasion a second time to convince President Abraham Lincoln to save the man she loves. 

Director Curtiz was never, in my opinion, a great visual director.  Curtiz excelled in creating different worlds within a studio soundstage or backlot whether it be the markets and cafes of Casablanca in CASABLANCA or the Caribbean waterfront of Port Royal in CAPTAIN BLOOD (1935).  In VIRGINIA CITY, Curtiz ventures outdoors and into John Ford territory with some dramatic vistas and rock formations courtesy of Flagstaff and Sedona, Arizona.  It opens up the film nicely as the second half of the film is the pursuit of the wagon train filled with Rebel gold. Curtiz also gives his main character Errol Flynn some buddies in Alan Hale and "Big Boy" Williams for comic relief which may have inspired Ford to cast Victor McLagen and Ward Bond (who has a quick appearance in VIRGINIA CITY as a Confederate Border Sentry) as John Wayne's sidekicks in FORT APACHE (1948). Curtiz was a master at big fight scenes.  The attack by Murrell and his Marauders on the wagon train and Bradford and his men riding to the rescue is shot and edited dramatically with lots of quick cutting and close ups of the men on horses almost colliding with one another in battle.  It reminded me of Curtiz's battle scenes in THE SEA HAWK (also made in 1940) only with pirates and swords replacing horses and guns. Until the penultimate shootout between Bradford/Vance against Murrell, the second half of VIRGINIA CITY drags a bit even with the beautiful outdoor scenery. A group of wagons bumping along toward Texas is not the sexiest image to watch for thirty minutes. 

VIRGINIA CITY may have been Warner Brothers counter punch to MGM's big budget Civil War themed epic GONE WITH THE WIND (1939) directed by Victor Fleming that had come out the year before. VIRGINIA CITY has two roguish characters similar to Clark Gable's Rhett Butler with Errol Flynn's Union Captain Kerry Bradford and Randolph Scott's Confederate Captain Vance Irby. Olivia DeHavilland dropped out of VIRGINIA CITY possibly because she was appearing in GONE WITH THE WIND. Miriam Hopkins (who was born in Savannah, Georgia) was one of numerous actresses who auditioned to play Scarlett O'Hara in GONE WITH THE WIND. Hopkins and other would lose out to Vivian Leigh for the coveted role. Hopkins would replace DeHavilland and get her chance to play a southern lady (and Rebel spy) in VIRGINIA CITY. 

The number of films that Warner Brothers would have their contract stars make in one year was incredible. In 1940, Errol Flynn would have three films released including VIRGINIA CITY, Humphrey Bogart would appear in 5 films (he appeared in seven in 1939), and James Cagney three films. Bogart was still working his way up to leading man status.  Although he had good notices and performances in films like Archie Mayo's THE PETRIFIED FOREST (1936) and Raoul Walsh's HIGH SIERRA (1940), Bogart also appeared in lesser Warner films like Vincent Sherman's horror film THE RETURN OF DOCTOR X (1939) or supporting roles in westerns as the bad guy in THE OKLAHOMA KID and VIRGINA CITY. It's a bit of a stretch believing Bogart as Mexican outlaw John Murrell in VIRGINIA CITY. Bogart tries a Mexican accent at times only for it to disappear in other scenes. Bogart's character John Murrell was a real-life outlaw born in Virginia and raised in Tennessee. He was not Hispanic. Other historical figures that appear in VIRGINIA CITY include Confederate President Jefferson Davis, Union General George Meade, and the President of the United States Abraham Lincoln. Bogart would cement his leading man status and stardom in 1941 when he played gumshoe Sam Spade in John Huston's THE MALTESE FACLON based on the novel by Dashiell Hammett. 

VIRGINIA CITY would be one of the first films where leading man Errol Flynn would be sharing screen time with another leading man type in co-star Randolph Scott. Previously, Flynn had been the solo leading star followed by his love interest (Olivia DeHavilland, Bette Davis or Miriam Hopkins) and supporting cast (Alan Hale, Patric Knowles, Guinn "Big Boy" Williams, Basil Rathbone, etc.). After VIRIGINA CITY, Flynn would be teamed with another young up-and-coming leading man by the name of Ronald Reagan in Curtiz's SANTE FE TRAIL (1940) and Raoul Walsh's DESPERATE JOURNEY.  With World War II kicking into high gear, Flynn's western days would give way to a series of World War II themed movies including Lewis Milestone's EDGE OF DARKNESS (1943), Walsh's NORTHERN PURSUIT (1943), and Walsh's OBJECTIVE, BURMA! (1945). Flynn's stardom would begin to fade in the mid-40's and 1950s. Randolph Scott's career would rise in the late 40s and 50s. The good-looking Scott would appear almost exclusively in westerns, making him the second most popular western star after John Wayne. Scott appeared in several well received westerns directed by Budd Boetticher including THE TALL T (1957) and DECISION AT SUNDOWN (also 1957). Scott would cap off a successful career in his final film before retiring, Sam Peckinpah's acclaimed RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY (1962) co-starring Joel McCrea. 

I was smitten with Miriam Hopkins several years ago after watching her in the pre-code horror film DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (1931) with Fredric March as London prostitute Ivy Pearson. With her blonde locks and velvety voice, it's hard to miss her. In VIRGINIA CITY, Hopkins role as saloon dancer and Rebel spy Julia Hayne is a fun turn for her. She's the catalyst for the whole operation to bring the gold back to Richmond from Virginia City. Like a good spy, she's planted in a pro-Union town. She risks her life to return back East to unveil her plan to Vance. The diminuitive Hopkins did not have a prolific career or make multiple film each year like her co-stars. Her other notable movies include Ernst Lubitsch's romantic comedy caper TROUBLE IN PARADISE (1932) with Herbert Marshall; Howard Hawks BARBARY COAST (1935) with Edward G. Robinson and Joel McCrea; and one of her last good big screen performances in William Wyler's THE HEIRESS (1949) starring Olive DeHavilland and Montgomery Clift. 

Errol Flynn had sidekicks in a good number of his films. VIRGINIA CITY provides Flynn with his old friend and co-star Alan Hale (they made 13 films together) as "Moosehead" Swenson.  For the second time, Flynn and Hale are joined by the interestingly named Guinn "Big Boy" Williams who plays Marblehead. Flynn, Hale, and Williams were first a trio in DODGE CITY. A former cowboy and rodeo rider, the sturdy Williams began in silent films like LUCKY STAR (1929) with Janet Gaynor and transitioned easily to talkies. Williams would become another key Warner Brothers player. Flynn, Hale, and Williams would make a third film together with SANTE FE TRAIL. Williams would continue to make westerns for most of his career.  He would reunite with Flynn in William Keighley's ROCKY MOUNTAIN (1950) and appeared with Randolph Scott in Roy Huggins HANGMAN'S KNOT (1952). 

Some final VIRGINIA CITY fun facts. When VIRGINIA CITY was re-released in 1956, Randolph Scott (who was now a bigger star than Errol Flynn) and Humphrey Bogart (who was an international star) got top billing instead of Flynn and Hopkins. Flynn and Hopkins names came beneath the film's title as their star power had dimmed.  VIRGINIA CITY is full of supporting actors who were also in DODGE CITY.  Frank McHugh as insurance salesman Mr. Upjohn, John Litel as a U.S. Marshal, Russell Simpson as Confederate sympathizer Gaylord, and Ward Bond as a Confederate Border guard all appeared in DODGE CITY in different character roles.  Actor Charles Middleton who had played Abraham Lincoln in several films was cast as Confederate President Jefferson Davis in VIRGINIA CITY.  Victor Kilian played Lincoln this time. 

Although not as rousing as its counterpart DODGE CITY, VIRGINIA CITY is another example of the studio system (Warner Brothers) turning out an entertaining adventure story, partly based on historical fact (a wagon train did undertake a journey in 1864 from Virginia City heading east), mostly made up with creative license. It's the only pairing of Errol Flynn with Miriam Hopkins. Humphrey Bogart, and Randolph Scott. Warner Brothers maestro Michael Curtiz was just a few years away from directing his most well-known feature film CASABLANCA which would further cement the leading man status of Humphrey Bogart. VIRGINIA CITY is a crossroads film for all these creative talents and worthy of  two hours of a movie lover's attention.