A Thousand Clowns

For nearly four years now I have been searching for A Thousand Clowns.  This film seemed to be always out of my grasp, never on DVD, never on Netflix and never on TCM.  That is, until a little while ago.  During TCM’s 31 Days of Oscar, I was finally able to catch this elusive best picture nominee from 1965.

In A Thousand Clowns, Murray (Jason Robards) is out of work in New York and raising his nephew, Nick (Barry Gordon).  Well, that’s the boy’s name for now.  It’s explained later that he was never given a name and has been free to choose his name over the years, but will have to settle on one soon.  How does a boy go over ten years with no official name?  It seems it just wasn’t something his mother gave him before she left, never knowing who the father was.  These aren’t the most important details of the film, but it helps to understand the characters we are dealing with.  They’re the kind of people with multiple clocks on the walls, but none of them set to the same time.
Anyway, Murray, who used to write for the Chuckles the Chipmunk show, is out of work and not serious about finding a job.  He’s happy being free to roam New York as he pleases, usually taking Nick with him.  This keeps Nick out of school enough for social workers to take notice, they want to visit their home for an interview.  The fact that Murray never officially adopted Nick creates further problems.  If the interview doesn’t go well, Nick may have to go live with a foster family.

During the interview, the things Murray says get to Sandra (Barbara Harris), one of the social workers, affects her in a way she never expected.  Murray’s wayward lifestyle, flying by the seat of his pants suddenly makes sense to her and romance is sparked.  Is it love?  Fate?  Or just recklessness?

What I believe propelled A Thousand Clowns into a Best Picture nomination back in 1965 were two things: the acting and a charismatic portrayal of an alternative lifestyle.  Sure, uncle Murray can be seen as a lazy low life, but at least he’s man enough to support his nephew and not leave him like everyone else did.  And let’s be honest, Nick isn’t a bad kid, he could be doing a lot worse.

In my opinion, A Thousand Clowns isn’t a great film, but it is an enjoyable addition to the nominations of 1965.  The dialogue and characters keep it light in the shadow of a more serious subject.  Though the characters may be difficult to identify with at times, they are likable and draw our sympathies.  In my searching, the sixties seem to be the decade with the most outliers up for best picture and A Thousand Clowns isn’t the worst of them.  And it rivals A Christmas Story for best lamp.

“Well you gotta admit, you don’t see boobies like that everyday.”

The Sound of Music

Being the smart-ass kid I was, I never took The Sound of Music seriously.  Something about that beginning image of twirling on an Austrian hilltop immediately turned me away.  Yet I had a deep love for Mary Poppins.  Now that I have finally seen The Sound of Music entirely as an adult, my old cynical outlook has been broken.  Not only are the songs better than I remember, but the singing is not too frequent.  Plus, there’s Nazis and nuns.  How could I have so easily written that off fifteen or so years ago?

The story takes place in Austria, where Maria (Julie Andrews) is a novice at the local convent, but is far too much of a free spirit to be a good nun.  She is assigned to become the governess for Captain Von Trapp (Christopher Plummer), a retired Naval officer and widower with seven children.  When Maria arrives at the Von Trapp residence, the Captain has his children so disciplined they are whistle trained.  Even worse, the children have already been through eleven governesses; they seem to torture the women for fun and attention.  Right away, Maria starts shaking up the children’s routine, behaving more like a friend to the eldest child, Liesl (Charmian Carr), and comforting the children when a thunderstorm frightens them.  Soon she’s got the whole troop in comfy play-clothes, has taught them to sing (seven notes for seven children, that’s rich) and is unknowingly warming her way into the Captain’s heart.

Now for the Nazis.  It is the thirties with Hitler on the rise.  The Captain is trying to just remain neutral and stay out of the mess, but soon he’s in trouble for not flying the Nazi flag.  Then Liesl’s love interest turns from the innocent telegram boy to the poster-child of Hitler youth.  Next thing we know, the Captain is being drafted to lead the Nazi army and the entire family must try to leave Austria and head for the hills.  This sort of action coming up between songs can brings a much harder edge than I had anticipated, and I loved it.

This film makes wonderful use of the beautiful scenery.  With the setting in the quaint hills and mountains of Austria, this is essential.  Anyone who’s ever seen Austrian or Switzerland mountains, even just on a postcard, can appreciate the spectacular beauty this landscape brings to the screen.  The film begins with these images to get us into the right frame of mind and it works.

Honestly, if you find yourself with a narrow minded kid like the former me, try to make him/her give The Sound of Music a chance.  They may not admit it, but if you make them watch and point out the Nuns vs Nazis, they are bound to enjoy it.  Finally, you should not compare, but if you must, The Sound of Music is a less magical form of Mary Poppins.  Really, it’s just silly to believe in magic and Nazis at the same time.

“I haven’t had so much fun since the day we put glue on Fräulein Josephine’s toothbrush.”

A Thousand Clowns (Missing)

This is unfortunate.  1965 would seem recent enough for a film to be readily available, but alas I’ve been searching for this film for a while and still come up short.  As always, my search will continue for A Thousand Clowns and the others that are still missing.  Any helpful hints on where to find these films are always welcome.

Doctor Zhivago

Based on Boris Pasternak’s novel, Doctor Zhivago is the story of a doctor/poet during the Russian Revolution.  In the present, we have Zhivago’s half brother, General Yefgraf (Alec Guinness), questioning a young girl, whom he thinks is Zhivago’s child.  With a collection of Zhivago’s poems in hand, he proceeds to tell her about Yuri’s life, beginning from his childhood when his mother died, through his efforts as a doctor in the war and his hardships in the revolution.

The film quickly becomes a love story set on top of the revolution.  While Yuri (Omar Sharif) is an idealistic student of medicine, he meets Lara (Julie Christie), a poor girl naively caught up with Victor Komarovsky (Rod Steiger).  Later, Lara is not so helpless, breaks into a party and shoots Victor in front of Yuri.  Later, in the war, Yuri and Lara find themselves working together in a makeshift hospital.  These are just unfortunate meetings of chance, but can mean so much to a poet.  But Lara is married to a revolutionary, Pasha (Tom Courtenay) and Yuri starts his own family.  As the revolution intensifies and his poems gain him an unwanted reputation, he and his family travel out to the country to live peacefully.  In the nearby town, there is Lara again and soon she and Yuri start a passionate affair that does not stand a chance against the revolution closing in around them.

David Lean is one of the film masters who makes all his movies look amazing.  Doctor Zhivago is full of beautiful shots using the Russian scenery and brutal snow to his advantage.  The costumes, sets and little details go a long way here.  There’s something poetic about shots of ice crystals on windows that melt away to usher in the daffodils of sprint.  The one image that completely floored me was the snowy palace in the middle of winter.  Between the beautiful Russian architecture and the amount of snow drifting all over the building, it’s an unforgettable image.  The things Lean can do with snow or sand just overwhelm me.

While the film passes for a good epic, I feel that it lacks heart or personality.  For example, in Lean’s masterpiece, Lawrence of Arabia, Lawrence is an amazing character.  He’s often strange but fantastic and the audience genuinely likes him.  We could gush on describing him for hours.  But here, Yuri Zhivago has a basic lack of characteristics.  I thought for a moment how I could describe him, my list read as 1. Poet and 2. Mustache.  He is such a passive protagonist, events happen around him, things happen to him.  His poetic personality is hard for viewers to identify with and connect to.  I acknowledge that he is a person that helps shape these events, but I don’t see those events shaping him.  In real life, it is not a bad thing to just go with the flow, but in a three hour film we need more from a protagonist.

One thing that really bugged me was the fact that Yuri was an influential poet, good enough for his work to be banned, yet we never hear a word of his work.  I realize that his poetry should not be at the center of the story, but it needs to be in there somewhere, perhaps it could shed some personality on Yuri.  At least we see him writing a couple times.

In the end, Doctor Zhivago is a good looking epic that becomes a so-so love story.  With Lean’s wonderful reputation, it’s best not to get too excited when you pick up Doctor Zhivago.  I had high hopes that just became disappointments.  Those snow scenes are beautiful, but can only heal so much.

“The personal life is dead in Russia.  History has killed it.”

Ship of Fools

It’s true, the world is quite the bowl of mixed nuts.  Some of the most interesting interactions you will ever see are of complete strangers from all walks of life crammed into one place.  As the title suggests, this ship, sailing the Atlantic in 1933, is full of all kinds of fools and their time together can be just as enlightening as it can be disheartening.

Stanley Kramer directs a whole slew of characters and big name stars in this film voyage. Some of the passengers include a proud German spouting Nazi ideals (José Ferrer), a young artistic couple with a rocky relationship (George Segal and Elizabeth Ashley), a lonely old rich woman (Vivien Leigh), a crass American man (Lee Marvin), a kind Jewish salesman (Heinz Rühmann) and a little person who observes life onboard and narrates to us (Michael Dunn).  Along the way, the ship picks up hundreds of poor Mexicans immigrating to Europe.  Since the accommodations are all accounted for, they have to sleep on the lower deck, but are just happy to be aboard.  There’s also the ship’s doctor (Oskar Werner) who becomes close to a woman being transported to a prison (Simone Signoret).

When dealing with so many different people in a film, it’s especially important to make sure every character has a distinct voice, motive and style.  Characters too similar to each other can easily confuse the viewer, but thankfully that is not a problem at all here.

It is easy to see that all these characters represent their present world of 1933.  Ferrer’s character is often rambling on about his pure German race, and most people just shrug and turn away.  Rühmann’s Jewish man doesn’t believe anything will really come of the German’s blind hatred of his people.  Sadly, it is only Dunn’s character who is separated enough from the rest of society to see that it will happen.  And Segal’s passionate artist becomes more and more disheartened as upsetting events unfold around the ship.

Some of the most memorable scenes are when the Flamenco dancers are entertaining.  The dancers costumes are beautiful and around the room passengers are enjoying the festive atmosphere wearing party hats.  Ferrer appropriately wears a devil horns cap.  All around the dancing are the little personal stories unfolding more.  Segal refuses to dance, Marvin is drunkenly trying to lure one of the young dancers to sleep with him and a teenage girl is upset that no one has asked her to dance.  It’s all entertaining drama to watch at a distance.

There is a story and a character for everyone in Ship of Fools.  It might not make a bad party film, if hosted well  Perhaps try the murder-mystery style of assigning characters to your guests.    It is not often that a good film can mold so many memorable characters and compelling stories into one solid film.  Between the intelligently constructive narrative and the beautiful black and white cinematography, I completely recommend Ship of Fools.

“I have my own minority group.”

Darling

What luck that I’d have a film like Darling to talk about on International Women’s Day.  Directed by John Schlesinger and starring Julie Christie as Diana, Darling is the story of a selfish young woman who uses her beauty and promiscuity to climb higher in her modeling career and society in the swinging sixties.  Obviously, we are going to have a nice feminist rant this morning.

Diana is telling the story of her life in an interview.  From her voice-over perspective somewhere in the future, she is often removed enough from the images to have different opinions and emotions than her shown character depicts.  The film starts with a man putting up a billboard, slapping Diana’s beautiful face over a poster depicting a message about world hunger.  This image sets the tone for the vain set of values that the rest of the film will show.

Though Diana is married to a man named Tony through most of the film, we don’t ever see him.  Instead, she falls in love with a married man, Robert (Dirk Bogarde).  While the interview voice-over professes, “We didn’t know what we were doing” and “The thought of breaking up someone’s family was absolutely repellent to me,” she seems less than guilty about stealing Robert away from his wife and children.  Through her modeling, Diana meets Miles (Laurence Harvey), an advertising executive who helps further her career as Diana begins an affair with him.  When Robert finds out about Miles, he dumps Diana.  This only makes her throw herself into her modeling career and Miles more.  Eventually, she marries an Italian prince, has wealth, fame and a big royal family, but no happiness.

Diana is one of those kind of people who always wants attention.  One of my favorite scenes showing this is in the apartment when Robert is trying to write.  He’s tapping away on his typewriter while across the room Diana starts tapping at the window, casually rearranging things, and even throws her legs in the air like she’s doing some weird exercise.  Finally, Robert suggests she go out for a while he works.  She just goes to Miles and makes up a huge excuse about being late saying that the car was towed.   She even gets some sympathy money out of the lie.

While I find Diana to be a horrible example of a woman, Julie Christie portrays her amazingly well.  Diana is intelligent enough to know what she wants (fame and fortune) and she knows exactly how to get it, (through using her female charms on the men useful to her).  Christie makes these ideas clear and shows a woman pulling the strings.  Her best scenes are when everything is blowing up in Diana’s face.  The rage, hurt and fact that she has only brought everything on herself is shown brilliantly.  In the palace scene where Diane angrily paces room to room, camera following close behind, she starts breaking things and strips off her jewels and clothing to reveal noting left but her bare body in front of a mirror.  It’s depressing, startling and unflattering moment for the model once called the Happiness Girl.  Julie Christie really earned the Oscar she received for Darling.

To Diane, pure happiness seems like some unattainable myth.  She has complicated her life too much to figure that simple thing out.  The image of Diane’s face on the cover of Ideal Woman magazine is as fake as pairing an image of onion rings with the word Healthy.  The ending image is of a stout old woman, happily singing her heart out on the street.  She will never end up on the cover of a magazine, but she seems to have more happiness in life than Diane ever could.

“You’re just a whore baby, nothing but a whore and I don’t take whores in taxi’s.”