The Blob (1958)

I believe 1958’s The Blob was my introduction to two wonderful things: 1950’s monster movies and Steve McQueen.  The Blob was McQueen’s first lead role in a film and helped propel him to stardom.  Though he was twenty-seven during filming, he plays a teenager, doing all the things teens did in the late ‘50s: take girls out in their car, unintentionally rouse a gang and have to drag race for their respect, run from a monster attacking the movie theater and fear he might die in the local diner.  It must’ve been tough growing up back then.

While Steve (McQueen) is on a date with his girl, Jane (Aneta Corsaut), they see a big red falling star.  Curious, they go in search of where it landed but run into an old man (Olin Howland) with a strange jelly he can’t get off his arm.  They take him to the doctor (Stephen Chase), who doesn’t identify the substance.  While he sends Steve and Jane to look for clues to the ooze, it grows and eventually envelops and dissolves the old man!  It seems to be an alien substance that can only grow and engulf any living thing around.

When Steve and Jane try to warn the police, they don’t believe them.  Their story seems to bizarre, and being kids they’re probably just pulling a prank.  Their parents are called and the teens are taken home.  But Steve can’t just sleep while the town is in danger, and soon there is no denying the wrath of the monstrous blob.

Sure, this movie isn’t very scary.  There’s no blood, gore, sex or violence (though if you’re looking for some, you might have more luck with the 1988 remake).  I would consider it appropriate for all ages.  The horror here is the thought of an alien substance suddenly dropping in on a small town and engulfing it overnight.  It could go on to cover the whole world.  Thank goodness for meddling teenagers and CO2 fire extinguishers.

Oh, and for fun, check out the song that plays during the opening credits.  It’s one of my favorite horror movie theme songs.

“Doctor, nothing will stop it!”

Separate Tables

I must say, that I have had such amazing luck lately with the films not available on Netflix.  Just Friday morning I was able to catch Separate Tables playing on TCM, what perfect timing with my own schedule.  So, if there is a man behind the curtain pulling levers for TCM and picking the most obscure Oscar nominated films to air, I say thank you.

During the off-season at the seaside Beauregard Hotel, it seems that everyone had their own secrets and tries to keep to their separate tables.  At the small potatoes end of the drama, there is a young unmarried couple, Jean (Audrey Dalton) is an artist while Charles (Rod Taylor) is a medical student.  She doesn’t want to be weighted down by the conventional life of marriage and children, but they have to sneak around the glaring looks of the old women in the hotel.  Then there is alcoholic John Malcolm (Burt Lancaster) who is secretly engaged to the hotel owner, Pat Cooper (Wendy Hiller).  When his ex-wife, Ann (Rita Hayworth), arrives, looking to get back together with John, it only brings up painful memories of their relationship and John is afraid of falling into old habits.  Finally, there is Major Pollock (David Niven), a kind old gentleman who enjoys telling stories of his war days and forms a friendly bond with young, innocent Sibyl (Deborah Kerr).  But Sibyl’s mother, Mrs. Railton-Bell (Gladys Cooper), is a domineering old woman who warns her daughter to stay away from the Major.  When Mrs. Railton-Bell reads in the paper that the Major has been accused of lewd conduct in a movie theater, she gathers the other hotel guests to decide whether they should allow the Major to stay or kick him out of the hotel.

In the beginning of the film, our curiosity is provoked by small actions that go unexplained for a little while.  Sibyl and the Major having a polite friendly conversation, then Mrs. Railton-Bell scolding the girl with no real reason.  The Major looking at the paper, then suddenly looking very worried.  These details are like any you might run across in real life, just as poignant, none of our business, but in film we will get the answers.

There is quite a gap between the Major that is told to us and what we see in him.  While the newspaper paints the Major to be a sexually deviant old man, we see only see his gentle kindness and understanding.  Even later when he confesses to his acts, he keeps them politely vague in ambiguity and takes the moment to reach out and try to help Sibyl.  It’s old Mrs. Railton-Bell who turns what she has read into a makeshift trial, and the judgemental old bat simply pleads her side of any case as decent values and Christian virtues, automatically pinning her opposition, the poor Major, as a bad person.

As the film progressed, I became worried, wondering what the relationship was like between Sibyl and Mrs. Railton-Bell behind closed doors.  Mrs. Railton-Bell seems to have Sibyl tightly under her thumb and we get clues pointing to Sibyl having a history of nervous breakdowns.  And as Sibyl reads about the Major in the paper, she squeezes her fist so tight she breaks a pair of glasses, cutting her hand without even noticing.  She seems to be the product of abuse, mental or otherwise.

Between the Major’s issues and the relationship between John and his ex-wife, the topics of sex, lack there of, and deviancy made Separate Tables one of the most racy films of its time.   I was surprised at how much sexual content could be alluded to in the conversations.  I’m sure that whole scene on the patio between was very racy for the times and applaud the film’s bravery in that area.

Separate Tables is one of those films that feels fueled by gossip and human curiosity into private lives, but turns out to be much smarter than that.  Each character has their part in condemnation or redemption, the whole cast is full of great acting and the ensemble really resonates when they’re all together.  Niven won the Oscar for lead actor and Hiller for her supporting performance.  Unfortunately, I don’t know when this wonderful film will be airing again.  Separate Tables seems like a very hard film to find, I was lucky to catch it and I suggest it for everyone.  If I see it scheduled on TCM again, I will let my readers know.

“-Are you on the side of Mr. Malcolm and his defense advice or are you on the side of the Christian virtues — like Mr. Fowler and myself?
–Never in my life have I heard a question so disgracefully begged.  You should be in politics, Mrs. Railton-Bell.”

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Based on the Pulitzer Prize winning play by Tennessee Williams, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof examines the relationships and lies in a Southern family.  Brick (Paul Newman) is an ex-football player who drinks too much and has recently broken his leg in a drunken attempt to relive his days as an athlete.  His wife, Maggie (Elizabeth Taylor) knows the reason he drinks is guilt over a friend’s death.  The couple has not been intimate in a long time, while Brick’s older brother Gooper (Jack Carson) has five unruly children and another on the way.  Gooper’s wife, Mae (Madeleine Sherwood), is the ugliest little lady you can find in the south, but at least she’s fertile.  She lords it over the lovely Maggie and uses her pack of “no-neck monsters” to try to win over the favor, and inheritance, of her father-in-law, Big Daddy (Burl Ives).

Everyone is gathering at the plantation to celebrate Big Daddy’s sixty-fifth birthday.  The doctor has just lied to him that his cancer is cured, but the reality is that he doesn’t have much time left.  Still, all the family celebrates, except Brick who drinks alone upstairs, solemnly thinking about all the mendacity.  Big Daddy wants to leave the land to Brick, his favorite son, but first needs to confront his drinking problem.  When Brick accidentally lets it slip that his father is near death, Big Daddy has even more reason to try to patch things up with his son.

The great thing about this film is that there is tension between everything and no one is left out.  There’s Brick’s excessive drinking, leaving land to the drunk son rather than the first born with a family, Big Daddy’s death creeping closer, an unhappy childless marriage, guilt over a dead friend, Gooper’s unfulfilled need to please his father and those damn kids that everyone hates.  Most of the film is simply conversations, but they’re so fueled and blazing with all these problems, every word is important.  And when a new problem comes up, or a lie is found out, it’s like gas on the fire.

One thing I could not ignore is how horrible those bratty little kids of Gooper and Mae’s are.  They’re enough to make the calm and collected Maggie absolutely lose it, multiple times.  At one point, one of them sneaks into the room she and Brick are in and blow a shrieking whistle right behind her.  If all this fighting going on isn’t enough for your nerves, that whistle, and the other stunts those kids pull, can break them.

When the film came out, Tennessee Williams hated it.  In fact, he would tell people waiting in line for the movie, “This movie will set the industry back fifty years. Go home!”  The film had to change details in the play, including all references to homosexuality, a major theme in the play.  It was also the first film based on his work to be in color, which may have depleted the intended artistic tone.  But the studio wanted to make sure their audience could see Newman’s baby blue eyes.  What a priority.

Until I realized how disappointed Williams was with this film, I was leaning towards declaring it my personal Best Picture of 1958.  Plays by Williams are some of my favorite to read, but alas, I have not read Cat on a Hot Tin Roof yet, but now I absolutely have to.  For now, I have to agree with Williams, if someone cut out a major theme in my work, dolled it up with pretty colors when it’s supposed to be more bleak, I’d be angry too.

“There ain’t nothin’ more powerful than the odor of mendacity!”

Auntie Mame

When Mr. Dennis dies unexpectedly, his only son, young Patrick (Jan Handzlik), goes to New York to live with his only living relative, Auntie Mame (Rosalind Russell).  She’s a fun loving, free-spirited person with a big heart who lovingly welcomes her nephew into her home where she holds lavish cocktail parties with a variety of intriguing people.  Determined to give the boy a very liberal education, Mame signs Patrick up to join a school taught in the ancient Greek fashion- nude and co-ed.  But Dwight Babcock (Fred Clark) is the executor to the estate and in charge of seeing that Patrick’s education is to his late father’s liking and has Patrick sent to an all boys prep school.  Still, while Patrick is getting his conservative education, Mame’s outlook on enjoying life has had a positive affect on the boy and he enjoys holidays with his aunt.  As the years go on, this little family experiences up and downs, the beginning of the depression and many playful adventures.  Later, Patrick becomes engaged to a very conservative “top drawer” girl and wants his Auntie Mame to act normal around her family.  Thankfully, Mame’s got some fun tricks up her sleeve and hosts a dinner party they’ll never forget.

I personally love the way Mame handles exposing little Patrick to all these new ideas.  When he first arrives in the middle of a cocktail party, Mame brings her attention and love straight to her nephew, makes sure he’s fed (octopus and caviar) and proudly shows him off to all her friends.  While Mame is talking to her friends, Patrick asks what certain words mean, and rather than ignoring his query, she tells him to write down any words he doesn’t understand.  Later, his list consists of words like libido, inferiority complex, free love, and bathtub gin.  My, what racy subjects for a school boy!  But it’s not like Mame gives the boy blunt definitions, to some words she says, “You won’t need some of these words for months and months.”  As Patrick grows we see him expressing what Mame has exposed to him in positive ways.  One of my favorite details was when he comes home for a holiday, he brings a Picasso inspired painting of Santa.

The art direction of this film is very clever and centers around Mame’s home.  She loves to decorate and redecorate.  At the beginning of the film her home is filled with dragons and oriental things of bronze and red.  Then, everything is painted a calm blue with abstract art hanging.  My favorite was probably during the climatic dinner scene, with a ten foot high black and white sculpture in a coy pond an abstract mobile and couches that are controlled by decorative pulleys.  Mame embraces so many interesting styles and they’re all so colorful and inventive.

Though Auntie Mame is enjoyable and has a great message, I do think the plot zig-zags too much and the whole film goes on for too long.  These are my only complaints.

What Auntie Mame did for me, was make me remember that I had a wonderful upbringing while being exposed to many ideas that are considered racy to some.  Gasp!  A cooler of beer at a family birthday party?!  I have fond memories of being a small child sitting at a bar with my folks drinking a cherry coke, being introduced to people living alternative lifestyles and being encouraged to learn about different arts and cultures.  It wasn’t until my teens that I realized that some people are very sheltered from these ideas that I had always considered normal.  From the portrayal of the uppity Upton family in the film, I’d rather go on safari with Auntie Mame any day than have a daiquiri that replaces rum with honey.

“Live!  Life’s a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death!”

The Defiant Ones

In 1958, the Civil Rights movement was gaining strength and The Defiant Ones became more fuel for the fire.  Directed by the great Stanley Kramer, the film tells the story of two escaped prisoners chained together and trying to outrun the authorities in the south, one man is black, the other white.  Though it may not have been likely that even this level of integration happened much, if ever, in the south, we accept why these two were chained together in one line, “The warden’s got a sense of humor.”  At first while Noah (Sydney Poitier) and Joker (Tony Curtis) are on the run, the usual black vs white moments come up and Joker seems to think he automatically has say over Noah.  But Noah has equal weight on that chain and doesn’t let Joker push him around.  As their journey wears on, they have to work together and through that they come to understand and respect each other, regardless of skin color.

Growing up on Saturday morning cartoons, I could not help but notice that I’ve seen this plot over and over.  Sometimes it’s a Chinese finger-trap, super-glue or some wayward three-legged race but idea is the same thing:  two uncooperative people stuck together, friction at first, then resolve differences, work together and become friends.  For that basic formula to become a go-to staple for generations, I’m not surprised The Defiant Ones won the Oscar for best original screenplay.

The chemistry between Curtis and Poitier is perfect representation the tension rising in the Civil Rights era.  The way they tug on that chain and bounce anger off one another only slows them down.  The scene where they have to climb out of a deep, muddy hole is the first moments that they really have to work together: if one falls, they both go.  At that point, they aren’t friends yet, but that first step of cooperation is a start.  After the duo is caught trying to steal food in a small town, Joker is threatened with lynching just like Noah and a new foundation of understanding and respect is made.

I watched this film on Turner Classic Movies on Martin Luther King Day and was wondering one thing just before the film started:  Would they edit the N-word?  No, they did not and I was proud.  In today’s world of of constantly making sure we’re politically correct, I find it appalling that people think we need to edit historical literature so that future generations won’t learn such derogatory language.  Don’t get me started on the ignorant people who are messing with Huck Finn.  In a historically accurate film about resolving racial tensions, I find that the use of the word is completely appropriate.  Especially since in 1958, that word was pretty common and less people cared much about any hurt feelings over it.

The Defiant Ones is a smart film that never turns preachy over the subject of race.  It was awarded four acting nominations, including Curtis and Poitier both in the lead actor category.  In fact Sydney Poitier was the first African-American nominated for an acting Oscar at the Academy Awards and would later win for his role in Lilies of the Field.  The Defiant Ones is a great film to kick off Black History Month.

“Ya’ll can’t lynch me! I’m a white man!”

Gigi

Gigi is a Cinderella-type story set in Paris at the turn of the twentieth century.  In wealthy Parisian society, Gigi (Leslie Caron) is a school girl training to be a courtesan.  Gaston (Louis Jourdan) is a young, wealthy playboy who despises the superficial lifestyle of high society and seeks refuge in his friendship with Gigi.  She’s just a playful little girl, no harm, right?  But Gaston starts to realize that Gigi is coming of age and turning into a lovely young woman.  Society expects Gaston to have a pretty young thing on his arm, why not Gigi for a while?

In this film, everything is so colorful and beautifully detailed.  The sets, the costumes, props, everything was visually lovely and justly photographed.  Gigi deservingly won for Art Design, Costume Design and Cinematography.

Now, if you love Gigi (or other “princess” movies) and it holds a special place in your heart, please stop reading here.  I do not want to ruin any beautiful, idealistic fantasies you have created about this film.  My following negative views on Gigi were no doubt the product of my very disenchanted and cynical outlook on “princess” films.

The acting sucked.  These people and their flat lines didn’t match the beauty around them.  When they tried to, it just felt like they were hamming it up.  Not halfway through the film, I got an idea.  What if Gigi had been an animated film?  I’m not joking.  I imagined stylized cartoon people, like in 101 Dalmatians.  They could still sing and dance, but better, with the expressive quality that could match their beautifully colorful setting.  These real actors were not cutting it for me, they literally need to be more animated.

Perhaps it shouldn’t matter so much, but Gigi’s age was really starting to bother me.  Her demeanor says fifteen but Caron’s face says mid twenties.  Top it off with the song “Thank Heaven for Little Girls” and the Parisian school girl uniform, that I associate mostly with the sweet little cartoon Madeline, and I was really getting creeped out.  Maybe in 1958 this was all sweet, innocent and wholesome, but if you’re over the age of eleven and have ever attended a public school, you can easily make a dozen pedophile jokes over Gigi.  Sorry I had to go there, but part of critiquing is blunt honesty.  The way Gigi is pulled between innocent girlhood, possible romance with an older man and learning how to be a gold digging mistress is very unsettling in my eyes.

If age is of no concern, the entire premise is still horrifying to modern women.  Teaching girls to “wait for the high-class jewels” and become snooty women on the arm of a rich man is terrible.  Sure, Gigi has her slight rebellions, but she is still trying to go with it and when she does get a taste of the exquisitely superficial lifestyle, she loves it.  Little girls tend to emulate the “princess” character, do we need our girls ogling over jewelry pretending to inspect it and make sure it’s a quality gift?  If you want to teach little girls they have the choice of being either superficial gold diggers or wives, by all means, pop Gigi in for them.

If I made any aspiring princesses cry, sorry, I warned you not to read any further.  How’s the tiara holding up?

“Thank Heaven for little girls.  They grow up in the most delightful way.  Those little eyes, so helpless and appealing…”