Semiquincentennial Movie Project #15: The Moonshine War

  

 

The Semiquincentennial  Movie Project is an ongoing celebration of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States. During the course of this project your humble blogger is choosing a movie a week to represent each of the 50 states in the Union, as well as a movie scheduled for 4th of July weekend that will represent the nation's capitol, Washington D.C. The order of the weekly entries will coincide with the order of each state's entry into the fold (although, not necessarily coinciding with the date of their entry into said fold).

 

Week #15: Kentucky 

 

The state of Kentucky was established on June 1, 1792

Details about Kentucky:

State bird: Kentucky cardinal

State flower: goldenrod

State tree: tulip poplar

Additional historical trivia:

The state is the only one south of Ohio to have erected a memorial to Union soldiers. It is in the city of Vanceburg.

The city of Richmond, KY was considered as a place to establish the country's capitol, but lost out to the eventual winner, Washington, D.C.

(This one hurts...) The first oilwell in the country was not dug in Texas. It was dug in McCreary County.

"Happy birthday to you!" The familiar song was written by Kentucky natives.

Mother's Day originated through the efforts of a Kentuckian.

Of course you know that most of the country's gold reserve is in Fort Knox. 

Famous people born in Kentucky: Johnny Depp, George Clooney, Billy Ray Cyrus, Muhammed Ali, Edgar Cayce and Civil War presidents Jefferson Davis (Confederacy) and Abraham Lincoln (Union).

 

 

The Moonshine War (1970): 

Memory is such a transient and fleeting thing. When I was a young boy of about 15 I remember catching this movie on TV. In those days, before cable, we only had the three major networks, CBS, ABC and NBC, plus, if the weather was right, one or two independent UHF stations. The UHF stations would play syndicated reruns of older shows and most nights would run an older movie. So, about 1976, the local UHF station played The Moonshine War. As usual my tastes ran counter to whatever the rest of the family wanted to watch. (I may be wrong, but it was probably my sister's turn to pick the shows we had on the family room TV. They probably were watching The Waltons or Little House on the Prairie, neither of which I ever wanted to watch.)

So I migrated to the black and white Tv we kept in another room. And I remember watching this movie. I didn't remember a heck of a lot about it until I watched it again this week. Of course, I remember Alan Alda as a country bumpkin moonshiner butting heads with a corrupt Federal Agent played by Patrick McGoohan and his cohort, a less than reputable dentist turned gangster, played by Richard Widmark. Really, I could only recall the ending clearly (and I won't give it away here, but it was an unexpected and extremely satisfying ending).

The fleeting memory that I had, and remember I was very young at the time, was that it was a pretty decent movie.  The thing is, that was almost 50 years ago. And, truth be told, it didn't take a whole lot to impress me. But with 50 years under my belt, and the experience of having watched quite a number of movies since then, I can't say that the whole second experience with the film was all that satisfying.

For one thing, Alda was just getting started in his film career. This was only his third or fourth starring role, and he was still a couple of years away from his iconic role in the TV series, M*A*S*H*.  I have to say that I was not all that impressed with his performance. Some reviewers echo the same sentiments that I had, that he was entirely miscast. I never really could believe that he was some backwoods hillbilly.

In the supporting cast, too, there was some issue. Patrick McGoohan has been much better, especially in one of my favorite roles of his, as The Prisoner. Only Richard Widmark, as the evil dentist, really shines, for me. (And some of the reviews I read even took issue with his performance...) 

Will Geer is essentially Grandpa Walton here, as the local sheriff, but he is a welcome addition to the otherwise lacking cast. There are a couple of interesting cameos here, including Teri Garr in a brief role as part of a husband/wife team who are robbed of their clothes by Widmark's character's second hand man.

The premise is fairly straightforward, although some of the actual motivations of the main characters take a little while to come out. Initially it appears that Frank Long (Patrick McGoohan) is a straight arrow Federal agent seeking a stash of bootleg moonshine held by local moonshiner Son Martin (Alan Alda).  There is some motivation, however, behind his quest.  You see, it's a foregone conclusion that a) Franklin Delano Roosevelt is going to win the upcoming election (which he did), and that b) he is going to repeal Prohibition (which he also did). 

That stash of moonshine that Son has hidden becomes the MacGuffin of the story. It turns out that Long's motivations are not entirely above board. He is not seeking the moonshine to destroy it, he is looking to make a huge bundle of money off of it because it will represent a head start over the upcoming legal distributors that will come to the fore after the repeal. Added to this intrigue is that Son and Frank were fellow soldiers in World War I.  It doesn't appear at the outset that they were compadres during that conflict, however. Either that or their friendship deteriorated after Frank became an enemy due to his now being a Federal agent.

When his tactics don't seem to be making any progress Long calls in a former "associate", a dentist turned gangster, Emmett Taulbee (Richard Widmark).  Taulbee brings with him his right hand man, Dual Metters (Lee Hazlewood).  

Dual shows his stripes early on when he tries to buy a suit that strikes his fancy from a fellow diner at a restaurant. When the diner is not forthcoming with selling the suit Dual forces him and his girl (Claude Johnson and Teri Garr) to strip naked under threat of a gun.

When Son turns down Frank and Emmett's pittance offer to buy his stash (only $1 a gallon, when the fair market price would seem to be $5 a gallon), Emmett calls in some reinforcements. And there is going to be Hell to pay. These hillbillies are not about to go gentle into that good night, but they underestimate the ruthlessness that the other side is willing to go to to achieve their goal.  What happens is that Martin ends up facing off the gangsters alone because Emmett and company raid Son's neighbors and bust up their stills. (Is everyone in town running an illegal moonshine operation? It would seem that might flood the market a bit, but maybe I don't know how much effort the public was willing to go to get the contraband alcohol...) 

Emmett, when his efforts to turn the neighbors against Son don't get Son to cough up his stash, resorts to some of the same tactics that a fellow bootlegger in Chicago became famous for, that of eliminating anyone who might have some influence on Son's reluctance. Emmett's ruthlessness eventually leads to Frank starting to have second thoughts about the whole operation.

As I said earlier, the denouement of the film is one of the better parts. Son has alienated most of his neighbors by this time, since he steadfastly refuses to give up his stash, despite the unorthodox tactics that Emmett and Frank have been using against said neighbors. So, instead of helping defend Son from the authorities, they instead watch the last action play out from the surrounding hills as it seems that Emmett will finally achieve his objective.

Rotten Tomatoes rates this movie only at 36%. I'm not sure how well it did at the box office, but IMDb only has it standing at just slightly under a 6.0 rating, which means it probably didn't get well received by the public. Wikipedia only notes that the film went over budget on production, but doesn't give me any financial stats other than that.

As I said earlier, it is not entirely all that well acted, although there are several faces that will trigger recognition. Harry Carey, Jr., Bo Hopkins, Tom Skerritt and John Schuck are familiar, and if you like my series of "Hey! I Know That Guy!", you will be interested to know that I had another one of those memories crop up. One of the neighbors of Son is Bill Durham (also sometimes credited by his real name, Charles Tyner). Durham had a significant role in The Outlaw Josey Wales as the trading post operator where Josey acquired the young Indian girl, and as Gus the hotelier in Planes Trains and Automobiles.

So the verdict on this movie; is it worth watching? Well, I'd say it's interesting enough for one time, but as far as that factor of "re-watch-ability", I'd have to give it a "no".  Widmark is the only actor who really makes the movie watchable, but even he is not on his best mark. Given a chance to recast the film I would definitely find someone a bit more believable as a hillbilly than Alda. It had Bo Hopkins in it, and he could have probably essayed the role a bit better. And McGoohan is McGoohan. When he is playing British guys he is pretty much a good actor, but as an American he leaves something to be desired. 

Well, folks, until next time... drive safely.

Quiggy

Cross-ed Knives

To start- a reminiscence:

When I was about 13, being a voracious reader, I got a copy of Dave Wilkerson's The Cross and the Switchblade from the library.  The story was about a preacher who started a ministry in the ghetto of New York City to reach out to drug addicts and gang members.  As I was reading I came across an unfamiliar word.  My mother was cooking supper and so I just asked her :

 "Mama, what's a whore?"

My mother's response was probably the same as it would have been if you were to ask your mother the same question at age 13.

"What are you READING??!!" 

(I'm pretty sure she didn't answer my question... even after I told her what I was reading...)

So, back in the 70's, Hollywood's opinion of Christian themed movies was that it was basically kryptonite at the box office.  "You can't make a Christian themed movie! No one will come see it!".  And to be honest, that was a good call, since the movie didn't even break even.  

Pat Boone, the star, called The Cross and the Switchblade his favorite movie he was in, but that he was paid so little that it was almost charity work. But he believed in the message. Boone, a devout Christian, is quoted as saying the film received positive reviews from both reviewers and the movie going public.  (That "movie going public" was probably mostly comprised of Christians who were already receptive to the message, be that as it may).

Along with Boone, the film is also noted as the first feature role for Erik Estrada, who went on to do, among other things, the role of Ponch in the TV series CHiPs.  The rest of the cast was not as prolific in film as Estrada, however.  For a few of them, IMDb only lists this one in their bios. Considering the caliber of acting throughout, that's not too surprising.

But, to be honest I don't think The Cross and the Switchblade was ever meant to be anything but  an evangelical film. "Evangelical films" by nature, are more about the message than the actual acting. Even with name stars in the lead roles of these kinds of films, sometimes the acting comes off a bit cringy. (Sorry, Kirk Cameron fans, but most of his Christian movies put me to sleep.) 

With the exception of the aforementioned Estrada, none of these people ever had any real impact in film. A read of the cast credits will cause most people to say "Who???". Most of them only had about 10 credits at the most when I checked IMDb.  And many times it's pretty obvious why they didn't have resounding careers. The majority of them would probably have been lucky to have a walk-on role in one of the lowest budget blaxploitation or cheapie drive-in flicks.

With 43 credits, Pat Boone pretty much topped them all. But Boone was probably the worst of the bunch. I never really felt he exhibited enough emotion to be a credible street preacher. 

On the other hand, the stand out role was done by Erik Estrada as Nicky Cruz. His transformation from the street tough to a guy who embraces the message the preacher is giving may have been just a tad too predictable, but as the pre-Christian gang member he exhibited a good range of emotion, and it was easy to see how he became a Hollywood star.

One little side tidbit that, of course, I HAVE to bring to the plate (of course I do, dear regular readers, if you've been reading this blog long)  is the fact that one name appears on IMDb as being an "uncredited" cast member: Harry Reems. To those unacquainted with the seamier side of the industry, Harry Reems made a career out of being a porn star.  (And, no, I've never actually seen any of his movies.. but I know his name. He had roles in Deep Throat and The Devil in Miss Jones, both of which you may have heard of, even if you avoided watching them).

 

 

The Cross and the Switchblade (1970): 

In the opening scene we have one solitary guy, who must've taken a wrong turn at the Brooklyn Bridge, surrounded by a bunch of enemies, and he runs from them.  But he is not successful, and the gang catches up to him and beats the crap out of (maybe even kills him?)  

Cut from there to a court scene where those gang members are on trial. And here is where one of the unintentionally (I hope) funny scenes occurs. There is chaos in the courtroom that no judge I know would have ever allowed. During the proceedings an argument takes place between the prosecuting lawyer and the defense lawyer, and the defense lawyer. I can't possibly put down in writing it out how ridiculous this scene is. Suffice to say the prosecuting lawyer claims that the defense lawyer is an idiot and the defense lawyer demands police protection.

Fortunately the whole movie isn't quite as ridiculous as this scene. Although the ridiculousness isn't quite over.  At this point Wilkerson (Pat Boone) walks into the courtroom, but is ejected because the judge thinks he may have a gun (hidden inside that Bible...? Really....?) The police let him go, however, on the promise that he won't try to enter the judge's courtroom ever again.

The next scene shows Wilkerson sleeping in his car (a rickety looking old 50's model that somehow looks out of place even though in reality it is probably only about 15 years old. A gang of pre-teens proceed to strip his car of it's hubcaps (OK) and also his front hood (and I don't get that part, but then I wasn't a gang member in the 60's..)

When Wilkerson wakes up, one kid pulls a knife on him, but exhibiting some moves he probably learned watching a Bruce Lee movie, Wilkerson gets him in an arm lock. Enter big sister, who manages to convince Wilkerson she wasn't in on the whole thing.  

When she realizes that Wilkerson is the same guy who created a hubbub in the courtroom, she introduces herself as Little Bo Peep and  the kid is her brother, Bottle Cap. (Sometimes this movie made me laugh out loud at what they expected you to believe. I mean, really! Little Bo Peep? Bottle Cap?).

Wilkerson goes immediately into preacher mode and Bo listens with a bemused look.  Wilkerson tells her about how his church sent him from rural Pennsylvania to the Big Apple to reach out to the gang members and junkies in the ghetto. He also proves his true Christian nature by giving Bottle Cap his shoes, leaving him to walk around for the rest of the first quarter of the movie in his socks. (Personally, I wouldn't want to walk around that neighborhood even if I had shoes.)

Wilkerson, of course, is confident in his mission because, after all, he is on "a mission from God" (albeit without a dark suit, hat and sunglasses).  He arranges with Bo to take him where one of the really tough gangs congregate, the Mau Maus. They are currently in conference with members of a rival gang, the Bishops.  But to get there they have to go through a neighborhood that is under the control of the AAAGP: "The American Association for the Advancement of Gangsters and Pot" (I swear I'm not making any of this up...)

Wilkerson tries to proselytize to both, but neither are really all that receptive.  After all, they have bigger fish to fry, like who is going to be the King bee gang in the neighborhood.  The Mau Maus are mostly white and the Bishops are pretty much all black, so it is a racial battle as well as a territorial battle.

Inside the room, we also meet Rosa (Jackie Giroux), who will figure into the story much later.  She is obviously strung out on drugs (later we find she is hooked on heroin). So the meeting occurs with Big Cat(!) and Abdullah representing the Bishops and Israel and Nicky representing the Mau Maus. And we get our first introduction to the second star of the film, Erik Estrada as Nicky. They agree on a time and place to rumble and the allowable weapons (which in 50's and 60's apparently never involved guns). At this point Wilkerson chooses to step up and preach to the gang members.

In an effort to make himself acceptable, he does the cultural thing and high-fives the Bishops, but when he tries the same with the Mau Maus, Nicky slaps his face. Dejected at his lack of success, Wilkerson leaves.  But when he gets back to where he parked the car, like a sign from God (whoops, forgot about this film's message...) there is a church.  He goes in and finds he has some friends in the neighborhood after all because the pastor insists that Wilkerson stay at his house during his tour of duty in the ghetto.

The film cuts back and forth between gang action for the next bit, and I couldn't help but think it was choreographed by the same person who choreographed West Side Story.  Every scene involving chase scenes seems like it was planned for a stage production point of view. Not sure if that was the intention, but it certainly didn't seem spontaneous. The riot scene at the beginning of The Warriors felt more real, and that scene actually WAS choreographed. 

Anyway, among other scenes, Wilkerson manages to rescue Rosa who is dying for another fix. At first Rosa's plan is to slice and dice him because Nicky has an extreme animosity for the preacher. He promises Rosa all the heroin she ants if she'll take Wilkerson out of the picture.

He doesn't help her out with money, instead he takes her back to the pastor's place and all of them work around the clock to get her straight. So you think score one for the street preacher.  But he still has hundreds more, and his big trouble is with the gangs who are more concerned about their territory on earth than their mansion in the kingdom of Heaven.

But Wilkerson has an idea.  A big rally in which hopefully the gang members will attend.  The gangs do attend, but they have other things in mind, like a rumble in a place where the cops won't be so likely to interrupt the party.  But Wilkerson sees through their ruse, and gets two members of each gang to come up and take milk cartons around to pass the congregation for a collection.

(Note: When I saw this the only other time I remember, it was as a kid, probably just before or not long after the reminiscence at the beginning of this blog entry. I vividly remembered even today only one scene, and it was this one. Especially where both gang members give meaningful looks to the donators when they think they didn't put enough in the collection box.)

Initially the gang debate whether to split up the collection first or make it a bonus prize for the winning gang in the upcoming rumble.  But then they come to the idea that's exactly what Wilkerson was expecting, and it would trip him up if they just gave him the collection. Wilkerson apparently was thinking the same thing, given the expression of surprise on his face when the gang comes back and gives him ALL the collection.

Then Wilkerson launches into his sermon, and surprise (not!) several members are profoundly affected by his preaching. (I sincerely hope the real Dave Wilkerson was better at preaching than Pat Boone is at playing Wilkerson preaching. I sure wouldn't have been profoundly affected by that piece.) But he does get Nicky among others on board with God. And that my friends was the point. Nicky Cruz (the real guy, not Estrada) went on to found his own ministry.

 

I only recommend this movie to those among my congregation (followers) who can appreciate the underlying message. (I THINK a few of you are Christian, anyway). But don't go into expecting a real entertaining movie if you are not.  I think Estrada is the only actor in this movie that actually pulls off a decent portrayal.  Most of the rest seem to be clueless how to play their roles convincingly.  Even Giroux as the junkie sometimes bleeds over into the realm of over-acting. Although, she is better than Boone. But give Boone a break, his real forte was doing cheesy white bread covers of Black R & B songs for a white audience in the 50's, and not acting.

 Well, folks, the Plymouth may not be a Ferrari, but I bet it runs better than Wilkerson's old junker.

Drive safely, folks.

Quiggy

 

 

 

A Flawed Hero

This is my second entry in the WW2 Blogathon hosted by Maddy Loves Her Classic Films and Cinematic Essentials



Some of you may already know this story, but it bears repeating.

When I was growing up, a trip to the movies was a rare treat.  My father ran a gas station/convenience store/garage that catered to the lake crowd (at a time when Dallas had no lakes so they made the 75 mile trip north to Lake Texoma).  It was rare that he would close up early to go to the movies.  I personally can only recall three separate occasions.

I don't actually recall this one, but I have word from my father that we went.  In 1970 Patton was at the drive-in and we went.  I'm not sure if we stayed for the entire thing or if Dad got disgusted during the opening sequence and left.  (I meant to ask him before he passed away, but never got around to it...)  I do know that because of George C. Scott's foul language that Dad refused to let my sister and me go to any PG movies after that.  I had to actually beg and plead to be allowed to see Star Wars.

I never got to see the uncut version of Patton until I was well into my 20's, after it came out on video, although I had seen censored TV versions of it.  By then I had been exposed to the language in school.  And compared to such movies as Pulp Fiction and Brian de Palma's Scarface, the language is pretty tame.

Earlier this year, the local movie theater, as part of a series called Flashback Cinema released Patton again.   Flashback Cinema, which may be available at your local theater, has older movies that run on Sundays and Wednesdays, with a different movie every week.  (Just this year I have seen Gone with the Wind, The Princess Bride. Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and Raiders of the Lost Ark just to name a few).


Experiencing Patton in a theater was a treat, in more ways than one.  Not only did I FINALLY get to see it on the big screen, but the showing I went to had one patron, me... it was like getting a private viewing.  These days I don't go to the theater all that often, and it usually requires some good special effects (like things blowing up) to get me to go.  If it's just a regular drama I'd much rather wait until it comes out on video.  (A far cry from 1984 when I went to no less than 43 movies, maybe more, over the course of the calendar year.)

Patton won big at the box office.  It was the 4th highest grossing movie of the year (behind Love Story, Airport and M*A*S*H).  It also garnered a buttload of Oscars.  It was nominated for 10 Oscars and won 7 of them.  (Note:  How it, or maybe Tora! Tora! Tora! didn't win Best Cinematography is beyond me.  That award went to Ryan's Daughter...)  George C. Scott, notably, was a no-show at the Oscars, having already stated if he won he would not accept the award.  He claimed that the Oscar ceremony was just a "two-hour meat parade".  (Back then it was just a two-hour ceremony, I guess, not the interminable 3½-4 hour extravaganza that Hollywood puts on today).  Anyway, he did win, and sure enough, producer Frank McCarthy had to go to the stage to accept on his behalf.

A couple of interesting notes about the film.  According to a DVD interview with Patton's grandson, Robert, the film studio tried to get permission from Patton's family to go more into detail about his life outside of his service in WWII.  But according to the legend, the day they chose to try to negotiate just happened to be the day of Patton's grandmother's funeral.  Oops, bad timing.  The Patton family dug its heels in and refused to allow any of his private affairs to be filmed.  So the film had to focus only on his accomplishments and actions during the War in Europe.

According to an article by Paul Fussell, in the collection Past Imperfect: History According to the Movies, there are a few details that were left out, primarily due to the theme of the movie, that of a flawed but ultimately heroic man.  One incident, he tells, that was left out was an ill-fated attempt to rescue his son-in-law from a German P.O.W. camp.  Not only did a number of American soldiers end up either killed or wounded, Patton did not succeed in his rescue attempt either.  While it may have fit in with the theme of George Patton as a man who does things as he wants, with or without his superiors'  approval, the failure of the attempt would probably have detracted from the overall theme.

Patton (1970):

Patton opens with an iconic scene.  Backed by a huge American  flag, and bedecked in all his glory, George S. Patton (George C. Scott) delivers an address to an unseen audience of soldiers (and by inclusion, the audience in the theater).  {And it is here that I can imagine my father packing up the car and leaving the theater in disgust, but again, I really don't know.}  Patton delivers an address that defines his character for the rest of the movie, that of a man who glories in the fight and relishes the coming defeat of his enemies.

The movie then cuts to the real action.  Gen. Omar Bradley (Karl Malden) surveys the devastation of a recent battle, and expresses dismay at how the American forces fought in their first foray in the war.  He tells his aide that they need a good commander to whip the boys in to shape, to which the aide replies "Patton?  God help us!"

The arrival of Patton at the base sets the stage.  Within the first 15 minutes of his arrival he establishes some hard rules about the conduct of his officers, dresses down a cook for not wearing a proper uniform and tells a doctor that he must wear a helmet even if he has to drill two holes in it so the doctor can use his stethoscope.  He also demands that two soldiers who are in the hospital from self-inflicted wounds be removed, even if they die as a result, thus establishing his view of cowardice.

During the course of the film we are treated to some of the most excellent battle sequences, thus proving Patton's expertise in battle.  But Patton's personality often gets in the way.  As portrayed by Scott, Patton was apparently an egotist of the highest caliber.  He fights with the Army brass every step of the way, trying to get the glory which he views is being siphoned away from him by British General Bernard Montgomery (Michael Bates).

 

At one point he takes the lead and arrives in Messina on the island of Sicily prior to Montgomery's arrival (which was supposed to be Montgomery's privilege.)  This doesn't set well with General Eisenhower and the top army brass.  But Patton's own ego is his downfall in another area.  At a field hospital he reprimands and slaps a soldier whose only "injury" is that he is suffering from battle fatigue, which Patton views as cowardice.  When the press gets wind of it, Eisenhower demands that Patton make a public apology.

But that isn't the only humiliation to which Patton is subjected.  He is also relieved of his command and is used as a decoy to convince the Germans that he will be leading an invasion at Calais, rather than the real objective of Normandy for the real D-Day invasion.  Eventually Patton does get a command again, despite the fact that he continues to do things that gets him in trouble with the brass, including a slight against the Russian allies by omitting their future in a world that will exist after Germany's defeat.

The real Patton died shortly after the defeat of Germany (although the film ends with Patton walking off into the sunset with a statement that "All glory is fleeting.").  One wonders how Patton would have dealt with a world at peace, although the Korean Conflict may have been some source of salvation.  I imagine Patton would not have been happy without a battle to look forward to.  For further research, if you are of a mind, I recommend the book Patton: Ordeal and Triumph by Ladislas Farago.  I read it at as a teenager and it still remains in my memory.  (I have yet to read the other book that was used for source material, A Soldier's Story by Omar Bradley, but I imagine it is just as good.)

One of the most interesting facts about Patton is the fact that Francis Ford Coppola was one of the scriptwriters.  His original script, which included the iconic opening, was misunderstood by the studio heads and he was subsequently fired.  He still got co-writing credit and when the movie won the Oscar for Best Screenplay it turned out to be a salvation for Coppola who was on the verge of being fired as director for The Godfather at the time.  Plus, the opening is probably the most well known part of the whole movie...

Well, folks, the Plymouth isn't exactly a tank (although it's built like one..)  Time to head home.  Drive safely.

Quiggy

Risque Business

This one is dedicated to Chris (Angelman), a fellow blogger, who has inspired me to check out more than a few movies I might never have watched otherwise.

***Note to the Fainthearted:  Both of these movies are VERY adult-oriented.  The movies herein were originally rated X and, although they have been since retroactively rated R, they could be construed as very offensive to some of my more conservative readers.  I don't intend to intentionally try to glorify either one, just make some comments on the background and the content of the movies themselves, but they are graphic in their content.  It goes without saying, if you decide to watch either one, the kids should be put to  bed early first.  You have been warned.***



In the early years of cinema, pretty much "anything goes" (within reason) was the adage that movie producers followed.  In retrospect, even the most audacious and prurient aspects of the movies in the "pre-Code" days are pretty tame, if you watch movies today.  But there was an outcry over the violence and sex as it was portrayed, and "glorified", in the eyes of its detractors  in the movies ca. 1930.  Hollywood chose to be pro-active on the outcry and created a set of rules (known as the Hays Code, after its writer,  Will Hays, then president of the MPAA).

These rules addressed many issues that were being expressed by concerned citizens about the way things were presented in the theaters.  Some of the concerns were how violence and the lawbreakers in movies seemed to be glorified (in the eyes of the detractors).  Sex was another issue.  Moral decency in general was what was wanted by the opposition.  So in 1934, there began to be enforced a code of decency designed to appease these people.  And you had to abide by these rules or your movie wouldn't get released in a manner that would guarantee you a wide release to the public.

But by the early 60's, this began to be a problem for some in Hollywood.  Some directors would push the envelope so to speak, trying to get things in their movies that the code prevented, but they felt compromised their artistic integrity by leaving out.  (It's up to you to decide whether anything they left in was "artistic".)  Eventually, Hollywood and the MPAA had to abandon the Code altogether, and instituted instead a ratings system.

Originally these ratings consisted of four: G, M (later replaced by GP, then PG), R and X (later replaced by NC-17).  PG-13 was added in the 80's in response to Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, which was considered to graphic, violence-wise,  for PG, but not entirely worth pushing it into an R-rating.

X (or NC-17) originally did not mean, entirely, a movie of a provocative sexual nature.  In fact, X was never really an officially recognized rating in the beginning.  It was what movies which did not receive official MPAA ratings or its "Seal of Approval"  were rated (signified by one of the three tamer ratings).  Although this eventually came to mean sexual content, other things might push the Ratings Board to not approve the movie for  recognition, including language, drug use and aberrational behavior.  But if you are of a certain age, say 40 or over, you couldn't be faulted for thinking X was strictly for sex movies.

 ***Confession: In the early 1980's I went to a drive-in to see a horror movie that had been rated X, thinking I'd get to see zombies having sex.  The only thing I got was an upset stomach, as it was pretty graphic, but not for any sex (of which there was none)  It still remains the ONLY movie I ever left in mid-showing.***

Myra Breckinridge (1970)

My first impression on viewing this movie, which I checked out from my local library, was that the library must have no idea what they got.  I'm not easily shocked.  After all, I have seen and even  liked A Clockwork Orange, and truth be told, that one is probably even raunchier on some levels than this movie (it was originally rated X, too.).  I can't even imagine what went through the executives minds when they saw the final output.  If the commentary on my DVD can be believed, however, there was a cloud of smoke over the entire production, and I don't mean cigarette smoke... it would explain a lot of the bizarrenes that floats throughout the movie.

In the beginning we have Myron Breckinridge (Rex Reed),  a gay man who is undergoing a sex change operation.  John Carradine plays the surgeon performing the operation.

The surgeon extraordinaire

And he must be one HELL of a good surgeon, and it must one HELL of a good job, because Myron comes out the other side as... Raquel Welch???

Myron and Myra

Now called "Myra", (although Reed as Myron makes quite a few appearances, which will confuse you, unless you realize that it is the inner self of Myra coming to the fore...at least, I THINK that's what its supposed to be), she starts out on her goal.

Myra (again)

What's her goal?  That's a good question.  I'll let Myra (Myron) herself state it:

"My goal is the destruction of the last vestigial traces of manhood, in order to realign the sexes, while decreasing the population, thus increasing human happiness and preparing humanity for its next stage"

In other words, pervert what is considered normal, and make normality a perversion.... or something like that.  (Hey, don't blame me.  I haven't smoked pot in many years, and I doubt I could figure it out even if I was stoned.)


Myra goes to the Buck Loner Studios in Hollywood where she tells Uncle Buck (John Huston), a former cowboy star and owner of his own studio, that she is Myron's widow.  She claims that through that marriage she is privileged to half of the Buck Loner empire, by virtue of being married to the son of Buck's sister, Gertrude.  Since Buck knows that Myron was not into women, he immediately disbelieves her and sets out to prove it.  But in the meantime he gives her a job in his acting studio, teaching "posture and empathy".  (If you have to ask what those two subjects have to do with each other, you aren't paying attention.  Go back up to the last sentence of the  first paragraph of this movie review...)

Buck Loner doing his impression of the Flying Nun

Myra goes about trying to achieve her goal, which includes seducing both halves of a straight couple in one of her classes, Rusty and Mary Ann (played by Roger Herren and then newcomer Farrah Fawcett).  Meanwhile she still has to keep old Uncle Buck on his toes, who keeps trying to discredit her claim to half of his empire.

Sweet innocent Rusty

Sweet innocent Mary Ann

Also included in the cast is Mae West who, by this time in her life, looked like a badly made kewpie doll, but she still has the acting chops that got her started in the industry 50 years earlier  (At least that's what I'm calling them.).  She plays Leticia Van Allen, a casting agent, but she only deals with men, if you get the idea.  Tom Selleck made one of his first appearances (sans mustache) as one of her stable of actors. ("stable"... Gives a whole new meaning to the word "stud" doesn't it?)

Leticia and her stud of the moment

Along the way in this confusing romp West gets to sing a song (it was in the contract).  Otherwise he appearance in the movie only seems to serve as an excuse for backbiting between Myra and Leticia (and according to the rumor mill, West and Welch did more than a little backbiting behind the scenes.)

I won't give away how the movie ends.  (For one thing, I'm not entirely sure it DOES end...maybe its still running on my DVD player and I just don't know it.)  In case you couldn't tell, this movie is ranked as one of the worst movies ever made.  I can't say anything to that, because many of the other movies on lists I've seen are just plain bad.  Bad acting, bad script, bad directing (think anything done by Ed Wood...)  No one's work in this movie is really worthy of being rated as "bad acting" (except MAYBE Mae West who is basically a caricature of her persona from years before).  Bad script?  Well, I never read the book, so I have no idea how it was originally written, although I have a great deal of respect for what I HAVE read by Gore Vidal (the author of the original novel).  Bad directing?  Now there you could make a case.  It is relevant that Michael Sarne never was asked to direct another Hollywood movie, as much for the fact that this movie bombed and lost a bucket full of money as anything else.

It garnered a lot of bad reviews at the time.  My favorite quote is from Time magazine which says the movie, supposedly a comedy, is "about as funny as a child molester".  And, truth be told, I didn't get half of what was probably supposed to be considered "comedic" in the movie.

There was a lot of controversy upon the release of the movie, including a couple of lawsuits.  See, the director interspersed the movie with cuts from older films, the point being to emphasize the emotions in the scene, I guess.  But some of the real people (older actors and actresses) in those clips took great offense to the use of their images in such a film and sued.   Loretta Young and Shirley Temple's images were the issue, and I guess they didn't take too kindly to the film content and how their images were being used in the context of the film.

Its a wonder some of the actual stars didn't sue over the use of their images in the movie.  Then again none of the major names in the movie is really surprising, considering their output in the same time period.  John Huston in particular stands out.  He seems to be a slimy character, but then you have to remember he was also a VERY slimy character in Chinatown.  

Midnight Cowboy (1969)

Joe Buck (Jon Voight) is a young man with stars in his eyes of going to New York City and becoming rich, doing the only thing at which he thinks he has any skill; being a sexual escort (male hooker).  .Joe is a very naive individual.  And from the start he has no real idea what he is doing.  His first few attempts are colossal failures.

The wide-eyed newcomer

The first time he actually thinks he's picked up a potential client (Sylvia Miles) it actually turns out she is in the same line of work.  One of the rare funny scenes in the movie is when both are trying to surreptitiously bring up the subject of payment.  She goes off on a tear, berating him for asking for money from her.  (She tells him she is 28 years old.  Miles was actually in her late 30's at the time of this movie, and she looks like she's in her middle 40's in this scene, so if she is 28, I'm a recent 18 year old high school graduate...)  Joe, embarrassed, pays her and leaves.

The old hooker with delusions of youth

 While at a bar, Joe meets Ratso Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman), a street hustler, who gives him some advice that he should get a go-between (pimp).

Ratso and Joe meet

 He takes $20 of Joe's money, promising him to hook him up with a person (John McGiver) to help him.  But it turns out that the guy is a street preacher who seeks to convert Joe.  Joe leaves and goes looking for Ratso.

Saving Joe's soul

After several days of wandering the streets looking for Ratso and sitting alone in his hotel room, not making any money, Joe is locked out of his room, due to his delinquency in paying his bill. Eventually Joe runs across Ratso, but Ratso is broke.  He offers Joe to let him stay at his place, which turns out to be an abandoned building.

Life in the desolate side of town

You can't help but feel for these two characters, despite the seediness of their existence.  Joe scrounges money any way he can, including selling blood, while Ratso shows him how to steal stuff.  The two develop a relationship, and because deep down Joe is really a caring person, he is concerned for the gradual deterioration of Ratso's health.  Ratso's dream is to get out of New York and go to Florida, where he believes his health will improve.  Meanwhile Ratso struggles to carry on, and does so in the best fashion he can.

"I'm walking here.  I'm WALKING here!"

Like the previous movie, there are several intercut scenes, some showing Joe's life as a kid, and some seeming to be drug-influenced intercuts which have nothing to do with the movie other than emphasizing the emotion of the scene.  Jennifer Salt, daughter of the screenwriter, shows up as the girlfriend of Joe in some of the scenes in his earlier life. Joe is more or less shown to be a product of his upbringing.  He was raised by a grandmother. The grandmother was either a slut or a kept woman herself.

You don't really get too much of the background of Ratso, since the focus is on Joe, but we do find out that his father was an uneducated immigrant.  The two visit his grave during one scene.  As Ratso's health gradually worsens, Joe's friendship becomes stronger and eventually he does what he has to do to get Ratso and himself to Florida.

On the way

Spoiler Alert! Jump to the next paragraph if you don't want to know how it ends: This movie is stark all the way through and if you are expecting a happy ending, you are doomed to disappointment.  Although Joe and Ratso do arrive in Florida, it is ultimately too late for Ratso as he dies on the bus just as they arrive in Miami.  You can see the sadness in Joe's eyes as he closes his friend's eyes so people will think he is just asleep.

The movie won the Academy Award for Best Picture (the only X-rated movie to achieve that accomplishment).  It also won for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay.  Both Voight and Hoffman got nominated for Best Actor, but lost to John Wayne who finally got a long deserved Oscar for True Grit.  And believe it or not, 40+ year old trying to pass for 28 Sylvia Miles got nominated for Best Supporting Actress (although, personally, I think the Academy was off its rocker for that one. Fortunately Goldie Hawn took home the trophy, however.)

This movie still holds up, even after almost 50 years. But don't take that warning at the header too lightly.  Like a previously reviewed movie here, A Clockwork Orange, it is not a movie for the average family-oriented person.  Exercise caution!

Time to fire up the old Plymouth and head home.  After these two movies, I think I'll avoid Hollywood and New York City and just stay in the relatively saner part of small-town Texas.

Quiggy

Year of the Monkey Pt 1

Monday, Feb 8, is the start of the Chinese New Year.  For those of you not acquainted with the Chinese New Year,  it follows a lunar calendar and has a 12 year cycle with each of the 12 years named after an animal.  Ex: 2005 was The Year of the Rooster, so next year the cycle will start all over again with the Rooster.  It cycles through from Rooster to Monkey (or any variation depending on which year you start counting), and includes, among others, the Year of the Dog, Ox, Tiger, Dragon etc.

2016 is the Year of the Monkey.  By strange coincidence, 1968 was also the Year of the Monkey. I say "strange coicidence" because 1968 was also the year that the first Planet of the Apes appeared in theaters.  Yes, the start of a franchise that included 5 original movies, a short-lived live action TV series, and a cartoon show, also short-lived, indeed began in the Year of the Monkey.  I think that it's just kismet, therefore, that , having just bought the DVD set of the TV series, and, already having the original 5 movies, that I should celebrate the new Chinese New Year with a series of blog postings on that incredible franchise.  So over the next week, I will review the franchise from beginning to end.  (Not the reboot, just the originals).

It's a madhouse!  A madhouse!

The origin of the idea for the first movie came from a book by French author Pierre Boulle, Le Planète des Singes, printed in English as Planet of the Apes and Monkey Planet.  Many people had their hands in the pie over the years, but initially studio execs thought it was not feasible because the apes would look to ridiculous, thus turning a serious film into a comedy.  A screen test was made with some early attempts at ape makeup, including one with Edward G. Robinson, who was to have played Dr. Zaius.

Although the makeup was primitive by the standards eventually used in the movie, it convinced execs that it could be done seriously.  The green light was given and filming began in 1967.  As to why Maurice Evans, as opposed to Robinson, eventually played Dr. Zaius, there are two stories.  The traditional story, one that Heston told, was that Robinson felt he was too sick to go through the rigors the makeup would have required.  Another source I read said he was booted out because he refused to shave off his beard, and the beard was interfering with a good makeup.

As stated earlier, the first movie eventually premiered on February 8, 1968, and the rest is history.

The Planet of the Apes (1968)

The movie begins with astronauts Taylor (Charlton Heston), Landon (Robert Gunner), Dodge (Jeff Burton) and Stewart (Dianne Stanley) in deep space, having been in suspended hibernation after 18 months.  The spaceship, due to some unseen problem, crash lands in a lake in the middle of a desert-like area.  A malfunction in the life-support system kills Stewart, but Taylor Landon and Dodge escape, just before the spaceship sinks into the lake.

L-R: Charlton Heston, Robert Gunner, Jeff Burton

The three wander across the desert, and eventually find greenery, and some very primitive humans.  They barely have time to digest this event before apes on horses attack the humans, shooting some and capturing others alive.  Dodge is killed, and Taylor is shot in the neck and captured.  He is taken to the ape city where he encounters Dr. Zira (Kim Hunter).  He tries to communicate with her, but at first she is only intrigued by the uniqueness of his actions.  See, in this world, humans are mute and caveman-like, so an intelligent human is not something with which the apes have any experience.  She eventually discovers he can write and brings it to the attention of her colleague and boyfriend, Dr. Cornelius (Roddy McDowell).  Both are chimpanzees, who are the scientists of the ape world.

Roddy McDowell as Cornelius and Kim Hunter as Zira

Cornelius and Zira have a nemesis of sorts in their superior, Dr. Zaius (Maurice Evans).  Zaius has the position of both head of the scientific community as well as keeper of the faith.  Ape scriptures, paralleling those of the Catholic church in the Renaissance, state that apes were created by a superior being, not evolved.  Despite evidence to the contrary that Cornelius, who is an archaeologist, has discovered of an ancient civilization that predates the scriptures, Zaius insists that there is no such thing as an intelligent man. Zaius is an orangutan.  The orangutans are the political and social leaders in the ape community.

Maurice Evans as Zaius

Taylor escapes from captivity and runs amuck in the city, scaring the bejesus out of women and children apes, and being chased by gorillas, who are the military force of this ape world.  But he is eventually caught.  By this time, his throat has healed, and one of the most iconic lines in a movie is spoken...

"Get your stinking paws off me. you damned dirty ape!"

The rest of the movie deals with how the ape community will deal with this threat to their treasured beliefs and experiences, that there could be such a thing as an intelligent speaking man.  Eventually things come to a head, and Taylor finds himself, along with his doctor friends (of which, by now Zira and Cornelius are), in the Forbidden Zone where Cornelius found his evidence of a pre-ape civilization.

Spoiler Alert!!!  If you are one of the ½ dozen people in the world who don't know how this movie ends, stop reading now.

Cornelius shows Zaius the artifacts he found which prove his theory, but Zaius refuses to believe the evidence.   After a brief skirmish with Zaius and his gorilla entourage, who had come to the site to  recapture the three, Taylor eventually is free.  He rides along the beach with his female friend Nova (Linda Harrison) and rounds a bend to discover the truth of how this planet came to be.

Damning them all to Hell

Politically speaking all of the POTA movies had some underlying, or even overt political messages within the context of the films.  In the case of the first one, it was clearly an allegory directed at the racial prejudice prevalent at the time in the southern United States.  This was, after all, the era of the Civil Rights movement and the resistance by the authorities in the government there to desegregation.

Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970)

The movie picks up where the original left off, with Taylor riding off into the unknown.  After seeing the destroyed Statue of Liberty, he continues on with Nova, and encounters some strange phenomena that are revealed to be illusions.  He disappears in front of Nova, and the scene cuts to a crashed spaceship which only has two survivors.  The captain dies, but Brent (James Franciscus) survives.  He encounters Nova, who of course, is still mute, but she is wearing Taylor's dogtags.  Brent  convinces Nova to take him to Taylor.  She takes him to the outskirts of Ape City.

Brent sees monkeys

They manage to sneak into the city and find Zira and Cornelius (now being played by David Watson , in the absence of Roddy McDowell).  They mistake Brent for Taylor, but he reveals that he is another astronaut sent in search of Taylor.  They tell him he went to the Forbidden Zone, and give him some help to get him along.  They also warn him not to speak, because he will be identified as a threat, since all humans are mute.

Cornelius, Brent and Zira

There is, at this same time, a war fomenting.  General Ursus (James Gregory) is spouting vicious war propaganda, identifying some threat that exists in the Forbidden Zone.  He has, as a witness, one soldier (out of a dozen) who has returned with outstanding stories of what he saw in the Forbidden Zone.

Ursus urges WAR!

Brent leaves the city but is caught along with some other humans and brought back to Ape City.  He and Nova are identified as being designated for "target practice" and taken to a cage being carted to a different site.  I'm not sure why they had to be transported to a different area, but at least as far as the plot is concerned, it gives them an avenue to escape, which they do.  They ride the horses that were pulling the cart, chased by gorillas who have spotted them.  They hide in an underground cavern.

They eventually find an underground human civilization that has developed post nuclear war.  The humans have developed psychic abilities, and worship a nuclear bomb as a god.

They know of the impending war from the apes above ground and are preparing for it.  But they claim to be peaceful.  Instead of killing their enemies, they use their psychic abilities to get their enemies to kill each other.  But this doesn't seem to work on the apes.  The ensuing battle seems to be going the apes way until Taylor releases the god from his captive shell.

It should be obvious at this point what the underlying political message was in Beneath.  The anti-war Vietnam protests were raging at the time.  There is even a parallel scene within the movie of some young chimpanzees protesting the war as the gorillas march out to war.  There is also a rather overt message against the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

Well that's it for today, kiddies.  Be sure to come back later for more exciting monkey stuff. Drive safely.

Quiggy