Rich People and Theorists: Will Recession Affect Movies?

Before this evening's entry, I have to mention that as guest blogger I wrote today's post at Kate Gabrielle's Silents and Talkies as a birthday to tribute to Steve McQueen. Silents and Talkies is only a few months old, but it is already one of the best movie blogs around. Kate Gabrielle does a really good job with its posts, with every one accompanied by one of her paintings, pen and ink drawings, or pencil sketches. I recommend it highly!
---------------------------------------
The current recession and even the Great Depression have apparently been on the minds of many bloggers of late. A while back Serena Whitney did a post on "How to Save Money on Movies during the Recession" at her column at KillerFilm. Katie Richardson at Obscure Film Classics wrote a similarly, if more humorous post entitled "Tips from the Classics in These Tough Economic Times", drawing upon classic films from the Great Depression for tips on how to survive this depression. In Out of the Past Raquelle examined the effect of the Great Depression on movies of that era in a post titled "Food from the Great Depression," even cooking a recipe she obtained from the series of videos entitled Great Depression Cooking with Clara. Movie bloggers have certainly taken notice of the current economic woes.

It was in replying to Raquelle's post that I pondered whether or not the current recession would have an impact on movies being made now. As both Katie at Obscure Film Classics and Raquelle at Out of the Past both ably demonstrated, the Great Depression had an impact on the movies of that era. Raquelle cited the rather insubstantial meals which characters had in both Our Blushing Brides and Gold Diggers of 1933. In her article Katie cited a number of different films ranging from Bed of Roses to Public Enemy to Man's Castle. In the Thirties and even into the early Forties the movie industry certainly took notice of the hard times and incorporated into their films.

Indeed, the Great Depression is pivotal to some of the most famous films of all time. Fans of classic horror films will recall that in King Kong unemployed actress Anne Darrow (the great Fay Wray) was so desperate for food that she was actually going to steal an apple from a street side grocer. Producer Carl Denham, seeking a star for his latest film, actually gets a meeting with her simply by paying for the almost stolen apple and buying her a meal, which she eats as if she has been starving (which she probably has). In the classic screwball comedy My Man Godfrey, socialite Cornelia Bullock (Carole Lombard) hired a homeless man, Godfrey (William Powell), as the family butler. Of course, Godfrey wasn't always a derelict...

Other films would go even further in incorporating the Great Depression into their plots. The plot of Harry Beaumont's Dance, Fools, Dance is set in motion by the Stock Market crash of 1929. In Our Daily Bread down on their luck workers from the city seek to make a living by setting up a farming community based on the economic philosophies of Edward Gallafent. Almost every movie in the gangster cycle of the Thirties, particularly Angels in Dirty Faces, took into account the poverty of the era as a cause of crime. Of course, perhaps no other film delved as deep into the economic woes of the time as The Grapes of Wrath, directed by John Ford and based on the novel of the same name by John Steinbeck. The Grapes of Wrath followed an Oklahoma family who lost their farm through a combination of the ongoing Depression and the concurrent Dust Bowl. While the United States economy had somewhat recovered by 1939 (when The Grapes of Wrath) and 1940, there were still enough people struggling to get by that in Sullivan's Travels director John Sullivan wanted to chronicle the plight of the downtrodden so much that he would even make himself one of them (here I must note, the title for this post comes from Sullivan's Travels).

Here it must be pointed out that the Great Depression was not the only period of economic unrest in the United States. Those of us over the age of thirty five probably remember the recession of the Eighties. Although nowhere as severe as the Great Depression, the recession of the Eighties was one of the worst economic periods in the history of the Untied States. Unemployment was wide spread, farm foreclosures were at a record high, and homelessness was even on the rise. Curiously, however, very little notice was taken of the economic woes of the time in the films of the day. The Farm Crisis was recognised in a few films of the era. Country, released in 1984, followed a family in danger of losing their farm to FHA loans and the effect that has on the family. The River, also released in 1984, mined much of the same territory, although natural disasters played a much larger role in that film.

The movie Wisdom was not only based in the Farm Crisis, but in the crisis faced b y other Americans unable to pay back loans and mortgages. In the movie unemployed John Wisdom makes himself a Robin Hood figure, going from bank to bank and destroying loan and mortgage records. Raising Arizona also faced the economic crisis of the Eighties head on. In the film Hi (Nicholas Cage) falls victim to the economic hardships of the era, all the while his wife Edwina (Holly Hunter) wants to have a baby. Raising Arizona makes no bones about laying the fault of the recession of the Eighties at the feet of the presidential administration of the time--at one point in the movie Hi says, "I tried to stand up and fly straight, but it wasn't easy with that sumbitch Reagan in the White House. I dunno. They say he's a decent man, so maybe his advisors are confused." The science fiction movie They Live also dealt with the recession of the time, only homeless construction worker John Nada (Roddy Piper) learns its true cause (as well as that of pollution, greed, and a number of other modern woes) have produced by aliens in an effort to control our world! The cult classic Repo Man also takes into account the economic hardships of the time.

During the Great Depression it is actually hard to find a movie that was not somehow affected by the economic woes of the era, even if it was only in minor ways. This can be contrasted by the films made during the recession of the Eighties, which for the most part refused to acknowledge that any economic hardship was taking place at all. It is then difficult to say how this the movie industry will deal with the current recession. Will they portray it realistically in films as the movies of the Great Depression did? Or will they entirely ignore it as most films of the recession of the Eighties. It is difficult to say which path the movie industry will take. My own hope is that they will acknowledge the economic hardships of the time. In fact, I would think that if they do not, then audiences will find it hard to believe in any movie set in the present day. After all, how can the average movie viewer accept a film where everything is fine when he or she might go home to only a meagre meal and worrying about the mortgage? As to whether the movie industry will tackle the current recession, I suppose we will have to just wait and see.

Fail-Safe

Those of you under the age of 35 may not remember the time when people lived in constant fear of nuclear annihilation. As hard as it may be to believe now, "nuclear safety" drills were practised in schools as late as the Seventies, even though by that time most of us understood that if the bombs started dropping, we were doomed (well, actually we would've used another four letter word, but you know what I mean...). For younger Baby Boomers and older Gen Xers like myself, then, a movie like Fail-Safe could be as frightening as any horror movie.

Those of you under the age of 35 may also not remember the time when local television stations showed movies on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. It was on one such Sunday afternoon that my brother and I caught Fail-Safe on one of the local channels. We both thoroughly enjoyed the movie, but we agreed it was very frightening. I have seen it many times since then, usually on Turner Classic Movies, and it is as frightening to me now as it was then.

What made Fail-Safe so scary for the children of the Atomic Age was that its premise seemed extremely realistic. When an unidentified aircraft approached the United States from Europe, American bombers were deployed to areas outside the USSR as a fail-safe defence. The bombers had strict orders not to proceed past a specific fail-safe point without a specific code commanding them to do so. As it turns out, the unidentified aircraft proves to be harmless. Unfortunately, a technical error occurs where the code to attack is sent to one bomber group. Worse yet, radio jamming from the Soviet Union prevents the United States from contacting the group. As a result, the bomber group assumes nuclear war is imminent and proceeds towards Moscow...

Fail-Safe was directed by Sidney Lumet and based on the 1962 novel by Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler. It was shot in black and white, in a minimalist style reminiscent of documentaries of the time. The movie also had an extreme feeling of claustrophobia, set as it was for the most part in conference rooms, a bunker, and the cockpit of a bomber. Making the movie's tension even greater was the fact that the Soviets are never seen or heard except through the words of an American interpreter (played by Larry Hagman, later of I Dream of Jeannie). Much of the film lacks a soundtrack and there are even long spaces of silence between characters. As if the subject wasn't terrifying enough, the way the movie was shot made it even more so.

Fail-Safe was made all the more convincing by its cast. Henry Fonda played the President, faced with the hardest choice a president of the time could make. Walter Matthau gave one of the best performances of his career, as the fanatical Professor Groeteschele, a scientist who actually encourages the President to start World War III. Fritz Weaver played Colonel Cascio, the commander of the bomber group who believed the worst was about to happen. The performances of the superb cast only heightened the film's tension.

Fail-Safe would not have an easy journey to theatres. The film was based on the novel Fail-Safe, written by Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler and published in 1962. Unfortunately, the novel was very similar to another novel about nuclear war entitled Red Alert, written by Peter George and published in 1958. George sued Burdick and Wheeler for plagiarism and the suit was eventually settled out of court. The plagiarism suit would ultimately hurt the movie adaptation as well.

Indeed, at the time Columbia Pictures was producing Fail-Safe, they were also producing an adaptation of Red Alert. Directed by Stanley Kubrick, the serious novel Red Alert would provide fodder for the black comedy Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. When Stanley Kubrick learned that a novel based on Fail-Safe was in production, he grew concerned that if released first Fail-Safe could jeopardise both the critical and financial success of Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. Kubrick filed a lawsuit to halt production on Fail-Safe, alleging that the novel Fail-Safe was plagiarised from the novel Red Alert, the source material for Dr. Strangelove. In the end Kubrick successfully delayed the release of Fail-Safe, so that it came out a full eight months after Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb was released.

For Fail-Safe this would mean disaster. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb was both a success at the box office and with critics. It would ultimately be nominated for four Oscars. Worse yet, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb was a satire which treated nuclear warfare as fodder for comedy. The effect that Fail-Safe might have had on audiences was then great reduced in the wake of the success of Dr. Strangelove. Although it generally received good reviews, Fail-Safe bombed at the box office.

Fortunately, Fail-Safe would be redeemed in the years since its release. Aired on television, audiences were able to discover and appreciate the taut Cold War thriller without making comparisons to Dr. Strangelove. By 2000 its reputation had grown to the point that the novel Fail-Safe was adapted as play on television. Directed by Stephen Frears and produced by George Clooney, the teleplay Fail-Safe was broadcast live. It is safe to say that the 2000 teleplay would never have been aired had it not been for the 1964 movie. Although it bombed at the box office, in the end Fail-Safe would prove to be an artistic success.

The TCM Archives Photo and Video Widget

Those of you who are fans of classic movies and have blogs, MySpace accounts, Facebook accounts, and so on might be interested in the TCM Archives Photo and Video Widget. The widget draws photos and videos from Turner Classic Movies' archives. It is updated daily, so there will always be fresh material every day. It can be added to Blogger blogs, MySpace profiles, Facebook posts, LiveJournal, IGoogle, Hi5 posts, Friendster posts, and so on.

Now the widget has some disadvantages. While it can be placed in Facebook posts, it cannot be placed on one's profile or in one's boxes. I am guessing that this disadvantage might apply to other web sites as well. There is also the problem of size. The emeddable archive viewer only comes in a few sizes: 380 by 467, 380 by 400, 380 by 347, and 380 by 250. Unfortunately, if one has a Blogger blog with two sidebars, then one cannot place the widget in a sidebar without one's blog winding up extremely wide. Until TCM comes out with a slightly thinner version of the widget, I will just have to make do with this post. Still, it is pretty cool!

Betsy Blair R.I.P.

Actress Betsy Blair passed on March 13 at the age of 85. The cause was cancer. Best known for her role in Marty, she was later blacklisted.

Betsy Blair was born Elizabeth Boge on December 11, 1923 in Cliffside Park, New Jersey. As a child she took dance lessons. By the time she was 11 she was dancing in an amateur and performing on local radio. She was eventually hired by the John Robert Powers modelling agency. At age 16 she became part of the the chorus line at Billy Rose's Diamond Horseshoe, a nightclub where Gene Kelly was choreographer. The two would marry the following year. Blair made her Broadway debut in the chorus line of Panama Hattie in 1940. In 1941 she appeared as the lead in The Beautiful People. In 1945 she was an understudy for The Glass Menagerie.

Blair made her film debut in The Guilt of Janet Ames in 1947. She went onto appear in such films as A Double Life, The Snake Pit, Mystery Street, and The Kind Lady. She also appeared on television in episodes of The Philco Television Playhouse and Kraft Television Theatre. She also appeared on Broadway in King Richard II. Her career would stall in the early Fifties because of the Hollywood blacklist at the time. In the Forties Blair had attended a weekly Marxist study group in New York City. She would later join such leftist organisations as he Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee, the Sleepy Lagoon Committee, and the Civil Rights Congress. This would bring her to the attention of the FBI and the House Un-American Activities Committee.

It is because of the blacklist that Blair almost did not get her best known role, that of Clara Snyder in the film adaptation of Marty. Before she could win the part, her husband of the time Gene Kelly had to ask studio head Dore Schary to intervene, with the caveat that if he did not he would cease working on It's Always Fair Weather. Blair was nominated for the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for the role. Regardless, of her success with Marty, her career had still been substantially damaged by the blacklist. Blair and Gene Kelly divorced, and Blair sought work in Paris. In Europe she appeared in such films as Rencontre a Paris, Calle Mayor, and Il Grido. She would appear stateside in the movie The Halliday Brand, alongside Joseph Cotton and Viveca Lindfors.

Blair's later career would be a mixed bag. She made appearances on television in both the United Kingdom and the United States, on Goodyear Television Playhouse, ITV Television Playhouse, Shades of Greene, Tales of the Unexpected, thirtysomething, and the mini-series Scarlett. She appeared in several films in Europe, including Rencontre a Paris, I Delfini, and Mazel Tov ou le mariage. She would appear in a few Engilsh speaking films, including Lies My Father Told Me, All Night Long, A Delicate Balance, Flight of the Spruce Goose, and Betrayed.

At the age of 70 Blair earned a degree in speech therapy and spent many years as a speech therapist. She published her autobiography, The Memory of All That, in 2003.

Recording Executive Alan W. Livingston and Screenwriter Millard Kaufman Pass On

Two men recently died whose names would probably not be recognised by the average person. That having been said, both men have had a huge impact on anyone who has been exposed to popular culture. They were recording executive Alan W. Livingston and screenwriter Millard Kaufman.

Alan W. Livingston died on March 13. He was 91 years old.

Alan W. Livingston was born on October 15, 1917 in McDonald, Pennsylvania. His was the youngest of three children. His brother, Jay Livingston, would become one of the most famous composers of all time, co-writing such songs as "Buttons and Bows," "Silver Bells," and the Bonanza theme with Ray Evans. While his brother Jay took piano lessons, Alan Livingston learned to play the saxophone and clarinet. Both Jay Livingston and Alan W. Livingston attended the University of Pennsylvania. While there the two brothers made money with an orchestra which played at school and fraternity dances.

After Alan W. Livingston graduated from college, he worked for three years in advertising. During World War II he served as a second lieutenant in the United States Army. Following the war Alan W. Livingston was hired by Capitol Records as a writer and producer. It was in 1946 that he had the idea of combining storybooks for children with records which Livingston named Record Readers. Among the earliest Record Readers was one called Bozo at the Circus, for which Alan W. Livingston created Bozo the Clown. Other Record Readers would feature characters from Disney movies and Warner Brothers animated cartoons. Alan W. Livingston also wrote the novelty tune "I Taut I Taw a Puddy Tat," performed as a conversation between Tweety and Sylvester and featuring the vocal talents of Mel Blanc.

By the early Fifties Livingston had been promoted to vice president in charge of creative operations at Capitol Records. Livingston signed Frank Sinatra, whose musical career had been ailing. Teaming the singer with arranger Nelson Riddle, Livingston relaunched Sinatra's career with such classic albums as In the Wee Small Hours (one of the earliest concept albums, Where Are You, and Come Fly With Me. In 1955, Livingston left Capitol for the National Broadcasting Company (NBC). His biggest achievement there may have been signing David Dortort to produce the pilot for a new series called Bonanza. He also hired his brother Jay Livingston and his partner Ray Evans to write the show's theme.

After five years with NBC, Alan W. Livingston returned to Capitol Records. He would become president of the company and eventually its chairman of the board. He was also named to the board of Capitol's parent company, Electric and Musical Industries (EMI). While at Capitol Alan W. Livingston singed The Beach Boys, although in the end he would be remembered for signing an even bigger act. In the United Kingdom, Capitol Records' parent company EMI were releasing records performed by a group called The Beatles to fantastic success. Partially owned by EMI, Capitol had the right of first refusal of The Beatles' records. And they did refuse The Beatles, four times in a row. This resulted in Alan W. Livingston receiving a call from Brian Epstein, The Beatles' manager, who asked why Capitol kept turning the band down. When Livingston confessed he had not actually heard the band (he was acting on the advice of Capitol's producers), he consented to listen to one of The Beatles' singles. Livingston did so, and he signed The Beatles to Capitol with an agreement to a $40,000 budget to promote the bands' first single. "I Want To Hold Your Hand" was then released, and Beatlemania swept the United States.

Alan W. Livingston left Capitol again in 1968, and formed his own company Mediaarts, which produced music such as Don McClean's American Pie and movies such as Unman, Wittering and Zigo. Livingston eventually sold Mediaarts to United Artists. He went onto become president of 20th Century Fox Film Corporation's entertainment operations from 1976 to 1980. He was later president of president of Atalanta Investment Company. He also wrote a novel, Ronnie Finkelhof, Superstar.

For a man who did very little in the way as an artist himself, Alan W. Livingston would have an enormous impact on Anglo-American pop culture. He created Bozo, who became a star not only of records but early children's television. He signed David Dortort to create Bonanza, possibly the most popular Western TV show of all time. He signed The Beach Boys and brought The Beatles to the United States, so that he was also responsible for much of the Sixties' biggest music. Without Alan W. Livingston, the landscape of American pop culture would be very, very different.

Screenwriter Millard Kaufman passed on March 14 at the age of 92. He died only two days after his birthday.

He was born on March 12, 1917 in Baltimore. He attended John Hopkins University in 1939, then served as a reporter on Newsday and The New York Daily News. In 1942 he enlisted in the United States Marines. Following the war, Kaufman moved to Los Angeles with the intent of becoming a screenwriter. He did his earliest work for animation studio UPA. It was there that he wrote the story for the short "Ragtime Bear." The short introduced to the world the near sighted, stubborn, and elderly Mr. Magoo. Mr. Magoo would become a hit and a UPA's biggest star. He also wrote one of the Fox and Crow shorts, "Punchy de Leon."

Millard Kaufman would go onto writing featuring films, although his first credit was as a front for blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo--Deadly Is the Female (AKA Gun Crazy). He would go onto write screenplays for Aladdin and His Lamp, Bad Day at Black Rock, Raintree County, The War Lord, and The Klasman. His last screen credit, The Big Blow, is to be released next year. For television he wrote the telefilms The Nativity and Enola Gay: The Men, the Mission, the Atomic Bomb. He was twice nominated for the Academy Award for Best Writing, Screenplay, for Take the High Ground and Bad Day at Black Rock. He served two terms on the board of the Writers Guild of America, West.

Millard Kaufman became a novelist very late in life. He published his first novel, Bowl of Cherries, in 2007 at the age of 90. His next novel, Misadventure, is set to be published this fall. He had also written the non-fiction work Plots and Characters: A Screenwriter on Screenwriting, a primer for writing screenplays.

Millard Kaufman will always be remembered as the creator of Mr. Magoo, but he was also a phenomenal screenwriter. While he had his misfires (The War Lord is one of the worst medieval adventure movies written), Kaufman turned out some extremely original classics, including Take the High Ground (which recognised the fact that our military was integrated in the Korean War) and Bad Day at Black Rock (which dealt with the United States' attitudes towards the Japanese following World War II). Raintree Country was an American Civil War romance which avoided most of the genre's cliches. Kaufman was an original writer who brought a new perspective to film.

Natasha Richardson In Memoriam

Actress Natasha Richardson died yesterday in Lenox Hill Hospial in New York City. On Monday she had experienced a fall during a skiing lesson at the Mont Tremblant Resort in Quebec, Canada. Initially the injury to her head was not considered serious, although an hour later she complained of a headache and was taken to Centre Hospitalier Laurentien in Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts, Quebec. She was tranferred to Hopital du-Sacre-Coeur de Montreal in critical condition then to Lenox Hill in New York City.

Natasha Jane Richardson was born 11 May, 1963 in London. She was the daughter of director Tony Richardson and actress Vanessa Redgrave. Here grandfather was the legendary actor Sir Michael Redgrave, himself a son of stage and silent actor Roy Redgrave. As a member of acting royalty, she made her film debut while very young, in an uncredited role in the movie The Charge of the Light Brigade, directed by her father. She attended the Lyeée Francais Charles de Gaulle in South Kensington and St Paul's Girls' School in Hammersmith. She trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama, which both her mother Vanessa Redgrave and her aunt Lynn Redgrave had attended.

Natasha Richardson appeared in an uncredited role in La Polizia incrimina la legge assolve in 1973. Her first significant role on screen was in Every Picture Tells a Story in 1983. She started his career on stage at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds. She made her first appearance on the West End in a revival of Anton Chekov's The Seagull in 1985, for which she won the London drama critics’ award for most promising newcomer. In London she would appear in the stage adaptation of High Society (1987), Anna Christie (1992), and The Lady from the Sea. She made her debut on Broadway when Anna Christie made the trip across the Pond in 1993. On Broadway she went on to appear in Cabaret (1998), Closer (1999), and A Streetcar Named Desire. Richardson won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for Anna Christie and the Tony Award for Best Actress in Musical for Cabaret.

Richardson appeared only a few times on television. Her debut on the small screen was in a minor role in the 1984 miniseries Ellis Island. She went onto appear in episodes of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Worlds Beyond, and Tales from the Crypt. She also appeared in the telefilms Ghosts, Suddenly Last Summer, Hostages, Zelda, Haven, and The Mastersons of Manhattan.

Natasha Richardson also had a notable film career. Her first major film role was the lead, writer Mary Shelley, in Ken Russell's film Gothic in 1986. Richardson went onto appear in the films Patty Hearst (playing the title character), Fat Man and Little Boy, The Handmaid's Tale, Nell, and Evening. She starred with her aunt Lynn Redgrave in The White Countess. She won the British Independent Film Award for her role in Asylum.

I must confess that I am deeply saddened by the passing of Natasha Richardson. Much of this is because I have always had a bit of a crush on her. At the same time, I must admit that her death reminds me of her own mortality--Natasha Richardson was only a month and half younger than me. But most of all I am saddened because she has left behind a loving husband, actor Liam Neeson, and two young sons. I know that they must be in sorrow that the death of only one so young can bring about.

Natasha Richardson was not only a loving wife and mother, however, but one of the brightest stars of her generation. In her first starring role she was very convincing as Mary Shelley. And she did a great job playing Patty Hearst--it was hard to believe that she was a British actress playing an American heiress. She played alongside such actors as Robert Duvall, Faye Dunaway, Ralph Fiennes, Gabriel Byrne, and Kenneth Branagh, and matched all of them in terms of sheer talent. In dying so young, her death effectively ended a career that was much brighter than many of her contemporaries.

"Gloria" by Them

Okay, I am neither Catholic nor Irish, so I do not observe St. Patrick's Day, but I know that there are many who do. So for their enjoyment and in honour of the Emerald Isle, I thought I would post a song written and performed by Irishmen. That song is "Gloria" and the Irishmen are Van Morrison's band Them.

Van Morrison wrote "Gloria" in 1963 while he was still with The Monarchs, performing in Germany. Returning to Belfast, Ireland, Morrison formed the band Them in 1964. "Gloria" was among the first seven songs recorded in their first session in the studio. It is historic as the very first rock song to actually use two drummers on one recording. Despite this fact and the fact that it would become one of the most legendary rock songs of all time, it would originally see the light of day only as the B-side of the single "Baby, Please Don't Go (Them's cover of the Big Joe Williams song)."

While it was only released as a B-side, "Gloria" soon caught on. American garage band The Gants covered it in November 1965. A month later it was covered by Chicago band The Shadows of Knight. It became the biggest hit of The Shadows of Knight's career and perhaps the most successful version of "Gloria" on the American charts--it went to number 10 on the Billboard singles chart. "Gloria" would later be covered by everyone from Patti Smith to U2.

Here, courtesy of YouTube, is "Gloria" by Them.