Filmically Perfect: Recent Episodes
Filmically Perfect
We here at Filmically Perfect believe that Orson Welles' worst film is better than some directors best film! There is no doubt in our minds that this IS one of his best, a twisted sadistic tale of love, murder and drugs on the border. And while some will fault Charlton Heston for his mucho gringo Mexican character, it was he who made sure that Welles was in the director's chair and for that, we can forgive all else!
There are few directors as good as getting under the skin of a character than John Huston. In this film, Huston pulls an astounding performance from Humphrey Bogart, whom he had made into a star some years earlier with The Maltese Falcon. And if that weren't enough, Walter Huston, the director's father and an actor among actors, turns in the performance of a lifetime which garnered him an Academy Award that year!
For those of you who thought "Finally! FP is doing a Alec Baldwin movie!" SHAME ON YOU! This is the one and only original film, directed by the masterful but highly self-destructive Sam Peckinpah and starring Steve McQueen, Ali MacGraw, and the usually lovable Ben Johnson as one of the great swine of the screen! "The Getaway" is one of the great heist capers of all time, told with all the panache and bravado that Peckinpah had at his command.
James Cagney proves that he still has what it takes in this film, one of his last for Warner Bros. Playing the psychotic mama's boy Cody Jarrett, Cagney sets the world on fire (well, the top of it anyway) in Raoul Walsh's explosive drama!
Michael Curtiz proves there’s no genre he can’t handle with this music filled fictional biography of tightly wound jazz trumpeter. Kirk Douglas plays the eponymous Young Man and plays him much like the brash pugilist in Champion, which just preceded this film. And as in any good tale of morals there is good (Doris Day) and evil (Lauren Bacall). Acting as Muse, holding the whole lurid tale together is composer-lyricist-singer-pianist-actor Hoagy Carmichael.
Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly created pure celluloid gold with this musical tale of the upheaval of hollywood with the Coming of SOUND! Kelly and his cohorts Donald O'Connor, Debbie Reynolds and the glorious Jean Hagen make beautiful music together and get to poke a few jokes at the rough times in Tinsel Town as movies learned to talk!
James Stewart and Anthony Mann team up for one last time--and the only time in CinemaScope--to bring to life one of the best and grittiest of the first round of “adult westerns” of the 1950s. Stewart inches ever farther from his nice guy persona of the thirties and forties, while Mr. Mann serves up a steaming bowl of his trademarked sudden, palpable violence. Throw in a stellar supporting cast including Arthur Kennedy, Donald Crisp, Aline MacMahon and the lovable Wally Ford and you have one of the best FILMS, not just WESTERNS, of the 1950s!
Elvis Presley at his most Elvis-like-ness! In one of his few films not overseen by Hal B. Wallis, Elvis shines as the young ex-con/laborer who finds his singing talent while in the hoosegow, assisted by another singing con, played by the great Mickey Shaughnessy. Judy Tyler, whose life ended much too soon, plays The King’s love interest and her sudden death shortly after the completion of this film kept Elvis from watching it for many years.
Barry Levinson’s film of Bernard Malamud’s novel is Baseball as Mythology. It is also one of the most lyrical, beautiful, and sparse sports films ever made. And even though the ending of the film is RADICALLY different from the novel, we still feel this is a perfect movie--and that’s what we’re here to talk about, yes?? Sadly, twenty-three years after the fact, Mr. Levinson went back and tinkered with his film some more, slightly damaging its perfection, in our estimation.
The Film Guys and Niki Dakota do it LIVE for the second time before a stunned audience at the FilmDayton Festival!
Charles M. “Chuck” Jones was arguably one of the finest minds in animation. We devoted an entire episode to him some time back--listen to it here! His singular style is still being aped by lesser talents to this day. Here, in two of his finest outings, Jones takes the wind out of the opera by ruining Rossini and violating Wagner!
Herk Harvey's horror tour de force is a low-budget delight and a perfect example of creativity triumphing over a lack of funds! A marvelously creepy and atmospheric film, featuring one of the most bizarre amusement piers of all time--"Saltair," built by the Mormons on the edge of the Great Salt Lake!
Anthony Mann and John Alton combine their amazing powers to bring one of the first and best police procedural/film noirs of the early post-war era! Shot mostly on location, with interiors at some small rented studio in Hollywood, T-Men proves that it doesn’t take big bucks to make a great movie. It takes great people with madly creative minds!
Billy Wilder’s painful salute to the crumbling facade of “old Hollywood” bears watching again and again. Gloria Swanson, who truly was a symbol of all that was grand and glitzy truly shows just how good an actress can be as the doomed Norma Desmond. William Holden and Erich Von Stroheim also shine as her unwilling and all-to-willing minions.
After a decade of big budget Technicolored thrillers, Hitch turned to the low-ball world of TV style shooting for this, one of his most nerve-jangling exploits.
After thrilling the world with his bawdy and award-winning comedy Tom Jones, director Tony Richardson came to the States to make this savage and withering satire based on Evelyn Waugh’s novel. The cast is filed with some of the most memorable faces in H’wood and everything is stolen by Jonathan Winters in a beautiful duel role as “The Blessed Reverend” Wilbur Glenworthy and his pathetic brother. Favorite Line: “We’ve got to find a way to get these stiffs off my property.”
Not surprisingly, it took Germany's "uber-director" Fritz Lang a few years before he was ready to make his first sound film. In fact, he released two more silent features AFTER the release of "The Jazz Singer!" Knowing Lang, he was waiting until either he was comfortable with the idea os sound, or until the technology of sound had reached a level where it did not stifle his creativity. Either way, it was worth waiting for!
Warren Williams goes toe-to-toe with the demure and extremely cute Loretta Young and the not so demure but still somewhat cute (in a manly way) Wallace Ford in Roy Del Ruth's great comic-drama from 1933. Sex, lies, treachery, and men's underpants come together in this story of a ruthless Department Store manager and his minions.
As far as French film directors go, Raymond Bernard is one of the most neglected. At the time he made "Wooden Crosses" in 1932, there were few directors rated in higher in France. In fact, the success of this film allowed Bernard to mount an amazing three film adaptation of "Les Miserables" that is still considered by many to be the best version of the film. "Wooden Crosses" is an agonizing anti-war film, picturing war as a day-to-day drudgery, accentuated with violent an often pointless battles and deaths. Many compare it to "All Quiet on the Western Front," but we find it much more akin to Kubrick's "Full Metal Jacket" in its depictions. FIND THIS FILM AND WATCH IT!!
Arguably one of the best and most gothic of the early sound horror film cycle, with Bela Lugosi at his best as the villainous Murder Legendre. Made on a shoe-string budget, with borrowed sets and a major star paid only $5000, White Zombie remains as a wonderful example of what could be accomplished inside Hollywood by people who were outside the hollywood scene. And because it is in the Public Domain, you can watch the whole thing right here!
WELCOME TO EPISODE 100!! Charles Laughton created a singular work of art with "The Night of the Hunter." A film so intensely personal that it could never be remade or even duplicated. To prove this, a hideous TV version of the story was made in 1991 and has never been seen again. The Film Guys get a little testy in this one, stating their belief that this is a film for lovers of film only and every one else can go watch something else--like "Love, Actually."WELCOME TO EPISODE 100!! Charles Laughton created a singular work of art with "The Night of the Hunter." A film so intensely personal that it could never be remade or even duplicated. To prove this, a hideous TV version of the story was made in 1991 and has never been seen again. The Film Guys get a little testy in this one, stating their belief that this is a film for lovers of film only and every one else can go watch something else--like "Love, Actually."
The last time we spoke about Luis Buñuel, he was making fun of rich hypocrites in The Exterminating Angel. In this earlier film, a far angrier diatribe on the destructive lives of Mexico City’s street children, Buñuel makes one of his most powerful social statements--and still manages to fit in a few surreal elements!!
“The Boys.”
“Two Minds Without a Single Thought.”
“The Fiddle and the Bow”
“Dick und Doof.”
No matter what they are called, or in what language, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy are two very funny men. Their genteel yet destructive comedy has delighted millions for more than seventy years and here we discuss their single award-winning short from 1932.
Back again after a much longer hiatus than we expected!! Two movies, both great in their own way but not quite perfect, chosen without consultation between “The Film Guys.” Ironically (or maybe not), they chose similar films about youth in fast cars, crime, and the law. The California Kid is a TV movie starring Martin Sheen and Vic Morrow and Streets of Fire is director Walter Hill’s love poem to his lost youth. Both are well worth your precious viewing time!!
An intensely personal piece of cinema, which severely damaged its director’s career and almost killed its star. Yet thirty years on it still packs a punch, whether seen as originally released or with Coppola’s later “older and wiser” edit.
Jeunet and Caro's delightful delicacy "Delicatessen" is arguably the best post-apocalyptic cannibal comedy--ever. Combining a singular look, hearkening back to the silent era of great European cinema, with a wild and ultimately touching story of a clown, a girl and a butcher, "Delicatessen" does what perfect movies do--it pulls you in and, just for a time, removes you from your hum-drum existence.
This might better be titled "Sullivan's Travails" for all that poor John L. Sullivan is put through in trying to research his new pet film project "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?" Writer-Director Preston Sturges leads us through this story, at times hilarious, at times perilous, at times powerful, by our noses and we love it!
Christopher Nolan is now best known for resuscitating “Batman,” to the delight of the Dark Knight’s minions everywhere. He burst on the scene in 2000 with this remarkable, turned about tale that asks more questions than it can possibly answer and has the distinction of a clever concept that doesn’t overwhelm the storytelling.
It's three for the price of one this week as The Film Guys and Niki Dakota present three films which don't appear on their List of Perfect Movies, but which they love nonetheless. From a tribute to Doris and Rock, to teen sex frustration in Ohio and finally C.B. DeMille under the big top! Come one, come all, it's a panoply of movie mayhem!
A production of The Archers, aka Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, "Black Narcissus" is great for only the spectacular Technicolor cinematography. But wait, there's more! A brooding dark storyline, roiling in repressed sexuality and longing also makes it a fun time for all. Top that off with that fact that not one frame was shot on location--that all was made in and around a studio in the UK--and it remains as one of the true cinematic "creations" of the Twentieth Century.
From lowly cel washer to head of a cartoon studio bearing his name, Charles M. "Chuck" Jones was one of the great success stories in American animation. Jones' cartoons have the strongest and most definable style outside of Walt Disney's and are arguably much funnier. Jones maintained that he made his films for just one person--himself--and it shows in the adult qualities of his best work, although even the films he made for child consumption are easily enjoyed by adults.
Albert and David Maysles' "Direct cinema" masterpiece tells the story of four door-to-door bible salesman and the people and problems they encounter. Much of the film focuses on Paul Brennan, "The Badger," whose life and work deteriorate before our eyes like a real life Willy Loman, the tortured title character of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman.
The grand combination of Godfrey Reggio's thoughts, Philip Glass' music and Ron Fricke's cinematography make this film not only an emotional learning experience, but powerful cinema. Often copied, but never equally, even by its two companion pieces "Powaqqatsi" and "Naqoyqatsi," "Koyaanisqatsi" screams out wordlessly about the chaotic and ultimately destructive way of life here on Earth.
As the result of an horrible case of writer’s block, Federico Fellini created one of his most seminal and autobiographical films. The story of a world-famous director, saddled with writer’s block, a film he can got finish, let alone begin, and all the people in his life, present and past, who wander in and out of his thoughts like ghosts. A supreme example of the cinema of dreams.
What a way to start your career! Tim Burton’s debut feature and Paul Reubens’ big screen debut as his beloved and bizarre man-child Pee-wee Herman! The stars aligned for this wacky, silly, “dare-to-be-stupid” comedy that is like no other. And as they proved only a couple years later with Big Top Pee-Wee, lightning could not strike twice for this magical combination.
John Frankenheimer's political thriller, based on Richard Condon's novel, is as riveting today as it ever was, remakes notwithstanding. Frank Sinatra is riveting, Angela Lansbury is incredibly evil, and Laurence Harvey plays the ultimate walking dead man as Raymond Shaw.
Anthony Mann took an aging genre, the western, and an aging star, James Stewart, and turned them both around in Winchester ’73. This film began a partnership that lasted for several years and several marvelous, gritty films. Mann also populates this film (as well as his other westerns) with a fascinating array of players from the amazingly saucy Shelley Winters to the psychotic, giggling Dan Duryea, here giving Richard Widmark a run for his money!
Pat O’Brien as a priest, James Cagney as a murderous hood, and Humphrey Bogart as a sleazy lawyer? How can you go wrong? Lay it all in the extremely capable hands of Warners’ go-to guy, Michael Curtiz, and you’ve got one fine movie! Whaddaya say?
What a better choice for Friday the 13th than Stanley Kubrick acidic comedy about the destruction of our world via Nuclear Holocaust? With an absolutely stellar cast, including great folks like Keenan Wynn and James Earl Jones in small roles, Kubrick just couldn’t go wrong.
And so we complete our second season of Filmically Perfect and, as Vera Lynn sings over the blossoming mushroom clouds, “We’ll meet again!”
STAY TUNED!
The first and best--often imitated never equalled--even by its creators! Join us as we reminisce about one of THE summer movies!
Philip Kaufman’s EPIC filming of Tom Wolfe’s book about the Mercury Space Program is not only a PERFECT MOVIE, but arguably one of the best films of the 1980s! A funny, exciting, touching, important story of bravery, foolishness, love, barbeque, and all things human. A grand portrait of seven brave men and the new world they blazed their trail into!
From that fateful day in 1975, when Film Guy Geo. Willeman got his Super 8mm print of Metropolis, it was a given that this film would be part of our Perfect Movie List. Sure, the story is fairly corny and some of the acting is heavy on the ham, but truly, there is nothing else quite like it. And now, thanks to our friends at Transit-Film, The F.W. Murnau Foundation and Kino Video, we can all enjoy this film in a beautiful new version.
Denis Sanders created the perfect Elvis Time Capsule with his 1970 film Elvis: That’s The Way It Is. Elvis fan or no, one cannot deny the power and influence this fellow from Memphis had on the world of popular music. Here we see him at the top of his newly regained powers, finally free of the crapulous films he had been making in the years preceding. Find the ORIGINAL version and revel in it!
After returning from exile to his native Spain, director Luis Buñuel made one his greatest and most controversial films--Viridiana. After its release, he found himself back on the slow boat to Churubusco, Mexico, where he made this very surreal and angry film, no doubt venting his cinematic spleen towards his Spanish foes.
Harsh--gritty--dark--and that’s just the opening credits!! Martin Scorsese’s unflinching portrait of boxer Jake LaMotta won the “Best Picture” award for 1980 and retains all of its power more than twenty-five years later. It also introduced us to two great actors: Joe Pesci and Cathy Moriarty!
GUANINE--ADENINE--THYMINE--CYTOSINE. The four amino acids that make up deoxyribonucleic acid or DNA, the stuff that we are made of, to paraphrase Sam Spade. They are also the letters that make up the title of Andrew Niccol’s frighteningly prophetic film. Ten years after its release, the events of Gattaca ring truer than ever before. Except for the cool electric Studebaker Avantis--daggone it.
Roger Donaldson’s unfairly overlooked gem is, in our minds, one of the finest stories of the power of the human spirit EVER. Anthony Hopkins’ portrayal of Kiwi cyclist Burt Munro is funny and touching and very, very real. Add to that a certain cinematic verisimilitude not often found these days and you have one hell of a perfect movie!
Alfred Hitchcock, Ernest Lehman, Bernard Hermann, and Cary Grant--what a glorious quartet! Hitchcock winds up the 1950’s with one of his best films of all, the lively, effervescent, wonderful, perfect North by Northwest. A film often held up not only for its entertainment value, but one of the best examples of classical film-making!
Orson & the soon-to-be-ex Mrs. Orson Welles on a cruise of total weirdness. A crazy amalgam of style and mystery and the strangely blonde tresses of the lovely Miss Hayworth. Even in the studio ordered recutting, this film is totally fascinating.
Once again, The Film Guys take to the phones to answer questions about love, life, and movies. The day this show was recorded, the “Blizzard of 2008” struck Ohio, dumping about fifteen inches of snow in less than a day on the startled citizenry
It was as inevitable as night--in the wake of the Coen Bros. Academy Award triumph with No Country For Old Men, J. Todd Anderson gets his chance to speak about his life as “storyboard artist to the stars!” Join The Film Guys and Niki as they talk about the history of storyboarding, as well as memories of their early days in the film school at Wright State University. You might just learn something!!
One of New York’s finest cities gets its big moment with the above line of dialogue, snarled at a perp by the out-of-control “Popeye” Doyle, played by Gene Hackman, in his break through role. We dedicate this episode to his co-star, Roy Scheider, who passed away on February 10th, 2008. A stalwart and capable actor who appeared in another of our Perfect Movies, JAWS. Ironically, Robin Moore, author of the novel The French Connection, passed away on the day this show was broadcast, at the age of 82. Not our fault!!
It's been way too long since we rummaged around the back of our several cinematic closets to bring to you some films we love, but will never be on the Filmically Perfect List of Perfect Movies. And what a triple feature: A Psychedelic Sci-Fi epic, a British romantic Comedy, and a Classic 70's road movie! And as an added treat, the Film Guys let our own Niki Dakota ramble on about one of her favorites. Don't worry, it won't happen often.
Just Kidding, Niki!
With the Academy Awards only a couple weeks away, what better film to chronicle than the one that made the first "Grand Slam", garnering all five top awards: Best Picture, Director, Screenplay, Actor, and Actress. Even so, it is one of the most delightful motion pictures, a mixture of art and accessibility, visual and aural.
Director Fred Zinnemann made only one western during his career, but what a western! An excruciatingly simple and straight-forward tale, High Noon has become so iconic as to have become part of the English lexicon:
high noon noun 1 midday. 2 an event or confrontation that is likely to decide the final outcome of a situation : the high noon of his quest for the presidential nomination. [ORIGIN: popularized by the film High Noon (1952).]
Much like The Misfits, this film features a great movie star in the autumn of his career, giving one of the best performances of his life!
Robert Rossen's scalding tale of drunken love and billiards is as powerful today as it was forty some years ago. Paul Newman, Piper Laurie, George C. Scott, and The Great One (Jackie Gleason) all bring their roles to gritty life. Even Martin Scorsese's color follow-up, The Color of Money, with all its cinematic bravado, cannot hold a candle to the stark black and white-ness of this amazing cinematic treasure.
James Whale's 1935 follow-up to his film Frankenstein is a tour-de-force of gothic story-telling and all around ghoulish fun. Karloff adds another layer to his portrayal of The Monster while the highly nostrilled Ernest Thesiger weirds everyone out as the alchemist Dr. Praetorius.
Mix together equal parts Gable, Monroe, Wallach, and Clift, garnish with Miller and stir with John Huston and you've got one of the most bizarre cinematic cocktails. One has to wonder whether Huston gathered the three "doomed" stars for their talent or for all the emotional baggage they carried. For whatever reason, it worked. Gable in particular is amazing as the worn-out leader and hunter of the misfits.
What better way to start of 2008 than with the Three Stooges?? And here they are in their sole Oscar-nominated short from 1934, Men In Black! Listen to the Film Guys completely befuddle Niki Dakota with their brilliant philosobabble!
John Lasseter's ground breaking feature set the stage for the digital animation explosion and, for good or ill, this type of animation is here to stay, effectively eradicating traditional animation in its wake. Fortunately Toy Story has what it takes to be a "keeper" and a Perfect Movie. Good story, great characters, wonderful music, sublime animation. Oh that more films, real or animated, could be as good as this.
The Film Guys attempt to get a jump on the Christmas Season and give our listeners a few new, cool ideas for DVD giving this year!
Once again, Niki Dakota and the Film Guys open up the lines and allow the public into their twisted little world of Cinema!
Regardless of what our dear host Niki D. thinks, this is one of the great harbingers of the sci-fi explosion of the 1950's! A story line that has been used over and over again--a small group trapped in a secluded area with a vicious monster on the prowl--seldom done better than in this film, directed by Christian Nyby and over-lorded by the redoubtable Howard Hawks!
In "the last great B&W action movie," bruised anti-hero Paul Labiche, portrayed by the ever-great Burt Lancaster, rescues a train-load of impressionist paintings from a mean old Nazi bad guy, played with depth and aplomb by the amazing Paul Scofield, one year away from his Academy Award for A Man for All Seasons. John Frankenheimer beautifully plays the human emotions against the iron and steam of the trains themselves, creating a powerful film about the triumph of the will. Hmm, that didn't come out quite right.
On a very Special Episode of Filmically Perfect, Niki and JT discuss the role of The Library of Congress in Film Preservation with Geo., who is their "inside man" at the new National Audio-Visual Conservation Center in Culpeper, VA.
John Huston's entry into the stable of post-war films about desperate losers is this grimy, tough-as-mails crime drama which would seem much more at home at Warner Bros. than the high-falutin' MGM studio. Nevertheless, it is a great work, enlivened by brilliant portrayals from Sterling Hayden, Sam Jaffe, Marc Lawrence (particularly wonderful as the swarthy "Cobby"), Jean Hagen, James Whitmore, Louis Calhern and the blonde gal seen below--I wonder whatever became of her?
Between West Side Story and The Sound of Music, director Robert Wise created what is arguably one of the best ghost stories ever put to film. A horror film that emphasizes the scariest part of life--just being human.
Brian De Palma's ode to the problems of puberty. Sissy Spacek's career-making portrayal of the tortured Carrie White is one for the ages, going from pathetic, to blissful, to "hell hath no fury like a woman scorned." And now, some thirty years hence, the film is also a time capsule of just how groovy the 1970's really were!
Take a measly $300,000, a simple story told in a beautifully simple, albeit scary, fashion and what do you get? One of the major cash cows of film history and a film that has a lot to answer for!! John Carpenter's little thrill show helped begin the teens-in-peril films (along with the much lesser Friday the 13th) and created a genre that has been copied, aped and ridiculed to death!
As a bonus, stay tuned as the Film Guys and Niki talk about how YOU, our loyal listeners, can help out Filmically Perfect!
Let's do the Time Warp Again--and Again--and Again--and Again--and Again --and Again--and Again--and Again--and Again --and Again--and Again--and Again--and Again --and Again--and Again--and Again--and Again --and Again--and Again--and Again--and Again --and Again--and Again--and Again--and Again --and Again--and Again--and Again--and Again --and Again--and Again--and Again--and Again --and Again--and Again--and Again--and Again --and Again--and Again--and Again--and Again --and Again--and Again--and Again--and Again, etc.
Alfred Hitchcock had fallen upon hard times, successfully speaking, so he put every effort into making sure that THIS FILM was a hit. We think he succeeded and gave Robert Walker, so often cast as "the nice guy" arguably the best role of his career as the lovable sociopath Bruno Anthony. As an added attraction, watch oddly attractive Farley Granger get out-acted by a cigarette lighter!
A raucous comedy with meaning from the creator of “Beavis & Butthead?” What is the world coming to?! Mike judge hits oh so many nails on the head with this little gem that once you’ve seen it, you’ll never look at your cubicle the same again!
An Italian film that pays homage to all that the American West was--or at least the white man’s expansion via the railroad. Sergio Leone’s fourth and arguably finest foray into the wild west featuring perennial nice guy Henry Fonda as the baddest SOB on the screen, trading glances and bullets with some of the Cinema’s greatest faces--Charles Bronson, Jason Robards, and Claudia (sigh!) Cardinale.
Who woulda thunk it? John Waters, the “enfant terrible” of mondo trasho cinema gaining acceptability?! And to top it off a major Broadway musical and then a musical remake of one of his films? Will wonders never cease? Or is it a sign of the end times? Either way, the original 1988 Hairspray is still tacky, still fun, and still manages to put forward a good message about diversity.
Filmically Perfect takes a break from our onslaught of Perfect Movies to listen to the Voice of the People! Thanks to all those who called and apologies to those we didn’t get to talk to! We hope to do this on a more regular basis and will let you know well in advance!
Stepping away from the world of Perfect Movies, the Film Guys take a look at three motion pictures that altered the march of the movies forever. These three, The Great Train Robbery (1903), The Jazz Singer (1927), and Star Wars (1977) each gave the film biz a badly needed injection of life at a time when revenues were falling. If you have a film you feel changed the course of film, please drop us a line!
This movie has meant so much to so many and has affected entire generations throughout the world. Is there any better example of the power of film?
Watch JAWS and witness the birth of a phenomenon: THE SUMMER BLOCKBUSTER MOVIE EVENT!! This annual ritual continues unabated to this day, although the quality of the films has become somewhat questionable as years have passed. Fortunately, the really great summer movies are still available and still just as much fun. If a theatre in your area is running JAWS on the big screen, run, don’t walk, to see one of Steven Spielberg’s greatest films.
We like to think of this as “American Graffiti: The Dark Side.” But seriously folks...As crass and silly as Animal House is, it KNOWS that it is crass and silly and therefore is able to get away with outrageous gags both plausible and implausible. This film is also responsible for some of our most deeply rooted icons in American Popular Culture. Two Examples:
- “Double Secret Probation”
- “To-ga! To-ga! To-ga!”
Need we say more?
What began as a love letter to Berlin by an expatriate filmmaker come home grew into a lyrical albeit existential look into the hearts of men and angels. A unique production in many ways, from its basically unscripted shooting schedule to its very loose structure, Wings of Desire can be a hard film to get into, but ultimately rewarding for those who let it be. Followed several years later by Faraway...So Close!, which we’ll have to get back to you on.
We dedicate this episode of filmically Perfect to Solveig Dommartin, the female lead in Wings of Desire, who passed away at the age of 45 on January 11, 2007.
Stephen King and George Romero combine forces to celebrate the wonderfully horrific EC Comics created by MAD Magazine creator William M. Gaines in the 1950’s, then taken down by Dr. Fredric Wertham’s infamous book, Seduction of the Innocent. A great cast romps through five spooky stories with such aplomb, how could it not be fun??
Paul Verhoeven’s 1987 masterpiece has withstood the test of time and is as fresh, funny, and ferocious as it was twenty years ago. Peter Weller’s balletic performance as the resurrected Officer Murphy takes its place alongside Boris Karloff’s Monster as one of the hunted and the haunted. Don’t worry about sequels 2 and 3--THIS Robocop is all you need!
After directing his debut feature, the deep and disturbing THX-1138, young Jedi George Lucas set his sights on his own past, cruising down the streets of his hometown. A groundbreaking film that most of the money people in Hollywood had no faith in, it was not only highly successful, but spawned a best selling soundtrack album and gave new life to many musical oldies. Can you believe that this same man was responsible for Howard the Duck?
Rob Reiner’s picturization of William Goldman’s delightful 1973 novel (screenplay also penned by Goldman) remains as fresh and fun as it was twenty years ago. Populated with quirky characters portrayed by quirky actors and sunsets right out of a Maxfield Parrish lithograph, this film truly has “something for everyone.” Inconceivable!!
While not his first American film, Shadow of a Doubt is arguably Hitchcock’s first “American” film--his first look at the darkness that lies just beneath the surface of an All-American city. And he begins populating his background with some of his wonderful eccentrics, in this case being Hume Cronyn and Henry Travers and their endless discussions about how to perfectly murder each other. And “Our Town”? Thornton Wilder both contributed to the screenplay as well as getting a special acknowledgment for his assistance.
Our first attempt at a call-in show was wildly successful, at least as far as we were concerned! Thanks so much to all who called, especially those who were not able to get on the show! We are now planning to do more of these and some other outlets to let our friends be heard!!
One of the most reverential and human films about the subject of religion, Robert Duvall’s The Apostle has rightfully earned its place on the List of Perfect Movies. This is a film about real people, told by an actor with a keen eye. A film that can be enjoyed equally by the religious as well as the secular.
A powerful film from one of the hot new directors of the late 1960’s, Arthur Penn. One of the few films that successfully manages to tweak “the old west” while at the same time being highly reverent to the ways of the American Indians. A truly great film, to be watched again and again, if only for the wonderful scenes between Dustin Hoffman and Chief Dan George.
What can we say? This is it--the original article. The one and only real, genuine, except-no-substitutes KING KONG, in glorious, luminous Black & White. Not someone else’s idea of what the story should be but the REAL DEAL. A film that has survived the ravages of time and will be long remembered after the fourteen different edits of the recent “remake” have faded away in a digital haze. Do we love this film? Why, yes, how can you tell?
Richard Donner’s magnificent, half-finished epic has become the iconic embodiment of The Man of Steel, regardless of the machinations of the suits at Warner Bros. and DC Comics. Christopher Reeve’s portrayal is up there with Clark Gable as Rhett Butler, Lon Chaney as The Phantom of the Opera and Sean Connery as James Bond: Often imitated, never equaled. Ironically, Donner has been allowed to “finish” his version as best he could and it is now available as “Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut.”
Lewis Milestone’s ground-breaking sound film epic treats WWI not as an allegory, as many of its predecessors had, but as a painfully human story, showing the hopes and fears of a group of young men being thrust into battle. While in no way an obscure film, it had been cut to ribbons by a variety of editors over the years until it was merely a shell of its former self. Enter The Library of Congress Motion Picture Conservation Center, which worked diligently for more than five years to restore this magnificent film as close as possible to its original form.
It is thought that these shorts were made so that the executives at Paramount could see just how good or bad W.C. Fields was on the talking screen. I guess he must have impressed them as he was immediately pressed into feature films! Of the four shorts he made for “King of Comedy” and golfing buddy Mack Sennett, these two are the most unusual and, ironically, are also both public domain, allowing you to view or even download the complete films for yourself!
Gordon Parks’ breakthrough detective film resonates with as much or more power than it did when it exploded on the scene back in 1971. Richard Roundtree leads the cast as John Shaft, the hero of Ernest Tidyman’s series of novels. The fact that Tidyman was a white novelist makes this film’s resonance all the more amazing.
Below left is one of Gordon Parks’ best known photographs, taken in 1942. Parks became a highly respected photographer, doing much of his best work for LIFE magazine. Rather than retiring, he became a filmmaker in the 1960’s, as well as writing books of poetry and even music for the sequel to Shaft--Shaft’s Big Score!
Henry Hampton’s fourteen hour journey through the American Civil Rights Movement should be required viewing for all, especially those groups today who feel they are getting a bad break. Here is the story of a people, born and raised in the USA, citizens all, expected to follow the laws and pay their taxes, yet still treated like property in many parts of the South. A powerful tribute to truly brave Americans.
“Are you a mod or a rocker?”
“I’m a mocker.”
Ringo’s exchange sets the tone for Richard Lester’s wild, free and groundbreaking little film. In the pantheon of musical performance films, everything is either before HDN or after HDN. This movie, release just about a half year after The Nutty Professor shows the world of teens as it was becoming: not the staid, old big bands and stodgy dances of the past, but fast paced, casual and terribly, terribly hip.
Jerry Lewis’ first film with a strong storyline is also one of his best. A film full of flash and color and fun! Jerry takes R.L. Stevenson’s classic tale, Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde and turns it on it’s head, giving it his own wacky flavor. Regardless of how many times others try to remake it (and with 2007 there will be three!), this version will arguably be the first and best, at least to those of us here at Filmically Perfect.
Whom better to make a film about the American South than British director John Boorman? Well, he was arguably the right choice as the longevity of this simple yet harrowing film attests. Shot under extraordinarily difficult circumstances, with a tiny budget of $2,000,000 and no insurance underwriting, this film, based on James Dickey’s popular first novel has become, in a rather disturbing way, one of the prime films that people connect with the South. And way too much has been devoted to the “squeal like a pig” scene which, although pivotal to the plot, is not the main subject of the story and has actual begun to detract from the film, in my humble opinion. (Geo.) Nevertheless, the film has remained extremely popular in the thirty years since it’s a debut and, if nothing else, introduced us to one of our finest character actors, Ned Beatty.
Arguably one of Bruce Dern’s finest moments on the screen, Douglas Trumbull’s enviro-cautionary fable still resonates today, more powerfully than more ham-fisted attempts such as The Day After Tomorrow. A simple film, where not much seems to happen, but it gets inside your head and travels around with you. In this heated episode of Filmically Perfect, host Niki Dakota declares her dislike for Silent Running, but learns the hard way as The Film Guys verbally pummel her into realizing what they have known all along: that this is a Perfect Movie. But we love her and we are there for her, even when she is mistaken. Like now.
They said we were mad! They said we were crazy! Crazy? Yes, crazy like a fox! To include this seventeen-minute Three Stooges short with the likes of to Kill A Mockingbird and Sunrise? You got it, Bunky! In our proud personal pantheon of perfect productions, this one fills a special place--and in our hearts as well. Jerome “Curly” Howard so shamelessly steals this film from everyone, including his older brother Moe, that we couldn’t not choose it. You don’t agree? That’s fine, but this is our game and we choose the players!
Frank Capra’s first film after WWII was of the utmost importance to him--would audiences still accept what so many critics had labeled “Capra-corn?” In 1946, the answer was “no.” But then, a strange thing happened--television. Slowly, the film began to gain momentum. Then, in the seventies, when it fell into Public Domain, the sudden abundance of viewings, plus the availability on the new home video systems helped turn it into the American equivalent of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.
Ties? A new bathrobe? Socks?? Fuggedahboudit! What every red-blooded cinema fan wants for Christmas (or Hanukkah or whatever celebration you’re into this season) is movies on DVD. Let me qualify that: GOOD movies on WELL PRODUCED DVDs! In this Extra Special episode of Filmically Perfect, J.Todd and Geo., the Film Guys, and Niki Dakota, our most wonderful host, take a look at some of the best sets of DVDs Hollywood has to offer this season and even manage to squeeze in a little history.
Does it amaze anyone else that one of America's favorite Christmas movies comes from Canada? Or that its director had previously made Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things, Black Christmas, and Porky’s? Yes truly, Bob Clark “paid his dues” before reaching what might well be the zenith of his career with this wonderful romp through Jean Shepherd’s mind. Unless there’s something about Baby Geniuses that we all missed...
“Chicken Every Sunday?” Do you remember that movie? No? Well, in order to get Miracle on 34th Street made, director George Seaton had to sign on to direct the other film, a project near and dear to Darryl F. Zanuck, the boss of 20th Century-Fox. Seaton did make the film and it was released in 1949, where it garnered no awards and no nominations. Even today, it is not available in any video format and rarely shows up on television. In the meantime, Miracle ran in the theaters for six months, won three Academy Awards and two Golden Globes and will be watched by millions every Christmas from now until the end of time on VHS, LaserDisc, DVD, satellite, cable, HDTV, etc.
From George Miller, the creator of Mad Max and The Road Warrior comes Babe, a film without a single truck chase or sharp-edged boomerang (although it does have at least one feral child)! Arguably the best talking pig movie ever, it was one of the first to successfully mix traditional puppetry, animatronics, computer animation AND actual live animals to tell this heart-warming but not mushy or cloying story of a young pig’s adventures on the Hogget’s farm. Top it off with a score built around Camille Saint-Säens’ beautiful Third Symphony and you have a perfect film the whole family can treasure!
Brad Bird, now best known for his film The Incredibles, created this beautiful, poignant, and emotionally charged animated film in 1999, where it got totally lost in the flurry of summer movies, grossing less than half of its $48,000,000 budget. This is sad in that it was just the kind of movie people had been crying out for; a family film with stuff for both kids and adults. A film with a lesson, but not the tripe the studios had been dishing out. But slowly, as with so many of the enduring cinema classics, The Iron Giant has begun to find its audience: people who are taking this film to heart and give it the place it deserves in the pantheon of Perfect Movies.
Just mention the title To Kill A Mockingbird, and most people will get a faraway look in their eyes and just sigh, for Harper Lee’s semi-autobiographical paean to childhood strikes a chord in the heart of those who have read the Pulitzer Prize winning novel or seen Robert Mulligan’s award-winning movie, a “studio film with indie sensibilities.” Telling people that this is a Perfect Movie is like telling them that “the sky is blue.” From the script to the casting, from cinematography to set design, from the opening credits to Elmer Bernstein’s evocative score, this is, arguably a truly perfect movie. And this week, we had extra back-up as the magnificent and magnanimous Lee Sklar joined us to add his own commentary and anecdotes. A big thank you to Lee for taking the extra time from his very busy day to discuss To Kill A Mockingbird with “The Film Guys!”
Wes Craven taps into the unconsciousness of the “Me” decade with his 1984 Magnum Opus, A Nightmare on Elm Street. Unlike its many sequels, this film, the story of a resurrected child killer and his relentless pursuit of four teens in their dreams is still truly frightening. Freddy Krueger is a monster in this film, not a comic prop.
On another very special episode of Filmically Perfect join Niki Dakota and the Film Guys as they discuss some of the history of horror films and those “disturbing moments” that remain permanently etched in our minds from those classic horror films of the past.
Social Allegory or Zombie Gore Movie? George A Romero’s taut little horror film proves that a “perfect movie” need not be perfect. Made on a shoestring budget of $114,000 in Pittsburgh, PA and unleashed upon an unsuspecting world in 1968, Night of the Living Dead remains the fount from which all zombie movies have sprung, including several helmed by George A. himself. And while the effects have gotten gorier and the blood flows redder in the newer incarnations, the little B&W epoch remains a groundbreaking epoch in the march of the horror film.
Director John Landis first wrote this script in 1969, during the time he was working in the film Kelly’s Heroes. The script got him lots of jobs, but none of them involved directing this movie! The studios said the script was either too funny to be scary, or too scary to be funny. They couldn’t see both elements existing in the same film. After the success of National Lampoon’s Animal House, Landis got the opportunity to prove that his script would work--and it still does today. David Naughton stars as the ill-fated David Kessler, assisted by Jenny Agutter as his nurse and lover and Griffin Dunne as his dead and progressively rotting friend Jack.
What do you get when you combine Doc Savage, Thomas Pynchon, Orson Welles, H.G. Wells, Saturday Matinee Serials, Rock ‘N’ Roll, “B” Westerns, brain surgery, and Red & Black Lectroids? One of the best, most enduring and most neglected perfect movies of all time. The loyal following for this movie surely rivals The Rocky Horror Picture Show, albeit with less costuming and no toast being thrown at the screen. The amazing cast includes Peter Weller, John Lithgow, Ellen Barkin, Jeff Goldblum, Clancy Brown, Christopher Lloyd, Vincent Schiavelli, Dan Hedaya, Lewis Smith, Matt Clark, Rosalind Cash, and Carl Lumbley, to name a few. It was great fun to profile this film, especially as it has finally been released in a lovingly crafted (except for the cover) super-deluxe widescreen DVD to be enjoyed over and over again. Remember: “No matter where you go...there you are!”
Near the very end of the SIlent Era, just a month before Warner Bros. turned the film world upside down with The Jazz Singer, F. W. Murnau’s lyrical cinematic tone-poem Sunrise was released. It is appropriate that this film ushered out the era of purely visual film language, for they just couldn’t get much better or purer than this. For the uninitiated, we also discuss the world of the Silent Cinema in the first part of this broadcast.
Besides being the first silent film we’ve discussed, this was also our first pre-recorded program.
“Have you ever had Deja Vu?” “I’ll check with the kitchen...” answers Bill Murray’s befuddled host as Bill wanders through one of his many February Second go-arounds in Harold Ramis’s wonderful fantasy comedy. A film that has not only demonstrated an enviable lasting power, but has altered the very meaning of the words “groundhog day” in our popular lexicon!
On this “very special” episode of Filmically Perfect, the Film Guys sit down with Niki Dakota to discuss some of those terminologies seen in the credits of films that make you scratch your head and go “Hmmm...” Also, the shocking truth about beloved color films like Gone With the Wind and The Wizard of Oz--that they were actually shot in Black and White!!
Who would’ve cast light comic, later to be known as “everyone’s favorite dad,” Fred MacMurray as the lustful, loathsome insurance man Walter Neff? It was Billy Wilder, who also cast Barbara Stanwyck as the amoral Phyllis Dietrichson, in this adaptation of pulp favorite James M. Cain’s novel, a book that he originally could not get sold! Listen in as we discuss this film that opened the floodgates for one of the greatest of all genres, the Film Noir!
This little bend in the road allows us to relax and prove that even though these films aren’t “perfect” we still love them! Strangler of the Swamp shows that a talented director (Frank Wisbar) can still make a fascinating film even though he has no money. The Girl Can’t Help It, Frank Tashlin’s mad live-action, rock and roll cartoon, may actually end up on our Perfect Movie List--the jury is still out.
What can one say about The Wizard of Oz that hasn’t already been said? A Technicolor fantasy from the high-point of “The Golden Age of Hollywood” whose disaster-laden production would itself make a great movie! A film so ingrained in our psyche that the slightest reference to it in books, in other films and even on t-shirts and bumper stickers brings back a flood of memories. The witch may be dead, but the Wizard lives on!
Starring John Wayne in his eighth (or so) cinematic outing with “a guy who just makes westerns”--Ford’s own self-deprecating assessment. The Searchers is a beautiful and brutal film, running the gamut from familial love to the darkest racism. And John Ford, at a time in his career when many are resting on their laurels, pushed into new territory, reinventing the western and giving us one of the most soul-satisfying films ever.
In 1951, director Robert Wise and Producer Julian Blaustein created one of the ultimate science-fiction classics, whose powerful message has not been diminished by the passing years or the onslaught of computer technology. The film’s message of the need for peace in the face of nuclear annihilation rings eerily true in our post-modern ears in these supposedly more enlightened times. Plus, it’s just a beautifully made film!