It seems bad to say now, but I never liked Elizabeth Taylor. You know how sometimes in life you just meet someone and you don't know why, but you take an instant dislike to them? Elizabeth Taylor is the cinematic equivalent of that for me.
By the time I was born, Elizabeth Taylor was already a legend, having been in movies since she was a small child, the product of her mother's lost ambitions to be an actress. She somehow made the transition from child star to ingenue to leading lady to freaking movie boss, succeeding where so many other actresses got lost along the way. Indeed, I knew her more for her charitable works, eight marriages and perfume by the time I got around to knowing who she was.
The eight marriages gave me a reason to dislike her. By now, we all know of the Fisher-Taylor-Reynolds affair subsequently followed by the Taylor-Burton-Fisher affair. The first movie I seriously watched Elizabeth Taylor in was Cleopatra and it's easy to dislike her in that movie. I mean, every guy that likes her ends up dead by shanking. It's so easy to see her as a siren luring men to their downfall, certainly some of the evidence supports that. But take the marriage to her third husband, Mike Todd and his sudden death in an airplane accident during the making of Cat On A Hot Tin Roof.
You have no idea how I have been dying to use that title! See it's a pun, right? And yet it actually kind of fits. Because this film is all about deciding if you should conform to what people expect from you. I'm not sure what Pink Floyd: The Wall is about.
Welcome to the fifth edition of the Paul Newman Retrospective. Today we'll be dealing with Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, the first film for which Paul Newman received an Academy Award Nomination and his first appearance in the world of Tennessee Williams with whom he was also friends. That does not mean Tennessee liked this film at all, in fact he told people not to see it. The obvious reason is that since his play dealt with homosexuality, most of that had to be done away with because of the Production Code and you've seen Mad Men, right? I think maybe he was too dismissive, though. Even though they had to take the homosexual storyline out (not like it's totally out, though, it does seem weird for a while that Brick is so hung up about this) they did leave us with a protagonist struggling to find any meaning in life that to him seems to be too often lived dishonestly.
The great dilemma in this film is that the part of Maggie The Cat is played by Elizabeth Taylor, who makes me want to spit blood. It's not even her fault, I think, I just usually don't like her, but I do like her in this performance. It's rendered all the more impressive by the fact that Elizabeth Taylor's husband, Mike Todd, died in a plane accident during filming. Her performance in this is so flawless in spite of that. Now, for you Hollywood history buffs, that was the catalyst of the Taylor-Fisher-Reynolds Affair, soon to be followed by the Taylor-Burton-Fisher Affair. I was watching Oprah with Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher recently and it occurred to me that if I was Elizabeth Taylor and I was going to steal another woman's husband while I made this movie, I would make a play for Paul Newman and not Eddie Fisher. That would make much more sense. People would understand that. Anyway...
The supporting parts are filled out by Burl Ives as Big Daddy, who also sings "Holly Jolly Christmas." Big Mama played by Judith Anderson, Brick's brother Gooper played by Jack Carson (Where are these people getting these names?) and his wife, the perpetually procreating, Sister Woman, played by Madeleine Sherwood, who also appears in another Newman-Williams effort, Sweet Bird of Youth.
We start out in a scene on a high school athletic field where Brick attempts to jump the high hurdles while drunk and breaks his ankle. By the way, has anyone else noticed that the best Paul Newman movies seem to start with a long scene with Newman alone somewhere? Cool Hand Luke, this one, I know there are others. Next, we're back at the Pollitt family home where everyone has gathered to celebrate Big Daddy's birthday. Brick doesn't seem to care about the whole proceeding except where he's going to get his next drink from. Maggie laments the connivings of Gooper and Sister Woman to get their hands on the Pollitt fortune, Brick's lack of interest in it as well as the decline in their love life. Who can blame her, really? Anyway, Big Daddy comes home from a clinic thinking he has a bill of clean health. The family doctor informs Gooper and subsequently Brick that Big Daddy is going to die. Brick's instinct is to bail, which is symptomatic of his larger problem.
Much of the guts in this film derives from the confrontations between Brick and Big Daddy. Big Daddy wants Brick to inherit his empire, Brick doesn't want to. Big Daddy wants to know why Brick drinks and Brick doesn't want to talk about it. Most of it comes down to something called mendacity.
Big Daddy makes Maggie say what happened to Brick's friend, Skipper. It comes down to Brick failing his friend since it is clearly not what happened in the play and even I thought we were getting a little convoluted at this juncture. Big Daddy tries to get brick to face the truth about that and their confrontation leads to Brick spitting out to Big Daddy that he is going to die. It's the first time we see both of them exhibiting vulnerability. This becomes a turning point for father and son, as they're both forced to confront the truth about their lives. As this happens, Sister Woman and Gooper try to talk Big Mama into giving them control of Big Daddy's interests. Maggie stays in the fray there, fighting for position. Big Daddy and Brick come to a similar conclusion, that even if life is fraught with mendacity, it had better be lived than not. Big Daddy seemingly resolves to live out the rest of his days and Brick is going to stop using alcohol to hide from his problems. Meanwhile, Maggie says she is pregnant which is patently untrue, but it really pisses off Sister Woman, everyone else seems to know it's not true, but enters it in the "Who the hell cares?" column. This is ultimately what I like best about the film, we didn't quite get the happy ending, but we're happy enough, as happy as we can be.
What else about this film? It's beautifully shot, even if it's small. The whole thing takes period over a single night. I feel like we get a sense of the heat in the film, even though I can't put my finger on it. Also, this movie has the most monstrous collection of child actors ever and a great line about the Cotton Bowl that I couldn't quite work in here, so you will have to watch the movie. They were going to originally film it in black and white, since most films with an artistic bent were shot in black and white at the time, but director Richard Brooks decided that was crazy given Elizabeth Taylor's eyes and Paul Newman's eyes. Good call. It is obviously different than the play, but I don't think it suffers for it. You just have to look upon it as something separate. I think it becomes about something else, about facing life rather than isolating yourself from it.
So, does the Production Code suck? Would you have liked a real adaptation of Tennessee Williams' play better? Would you have gone for Eddie Fisher, too? If so, why? Will you listen to "Holly Jolly Christmas" differently next time? Do those kids in the meat grinder bother you too? Explain all in the comments section.
Sometimes I think of classic films as a portal into the past: a visual representation of how the world was or how they perceived the world should be. Case in point: The VIPs. Most of the film takes places in a London airport and a hotel by the airport. We see a world that doesn't exist anymore for a number of reasons: the de-glamourization of air travel, the decline of the British Empire and security restrictions following 9/11. The VIPs has multiple story lines that all coincide in the end so in that way it is like Love Actually or Crash. Let's go through some of the players.
Orson Welles is a film director accompanied by a ditzy Italian starlet who is trying to get out of the country before he owes a lot of money to the taxman. The Duchess of Brighton has to take a job in Florida to support the upkeep of her aging homestead. Margaret Rutherford won an Academy Award for the performance. Rod Taylor plays Les Mangrum, a businessman who needs to get to New York to make a bad check he wrote good. His secretary, Miss Mead, is played by Maggie Smith who somehow looks exactly like Maggie Smith as you know her today. I'm still trying to decide if Maggie Smith of today looks young or if the Maggie Smith of yesteryear looks old. Then, we have the main event or at least what gets bums in seats: Elizabeth Taylor plays Frances Andros who's leaving her husband Paul Andros to run away with Marc Champselle played by Louis Jourdan. This was 1963 about the time Cleopatra came out, so Burton and Taylor were still a seriously hot commodity. Oh, and there's a cameo by David Frost. Seriously.
We start out with the Reception Manager at the airport. And here is how the world is different: Reception Manager? Someone to meet you at the ticket counter and do all the crap people hate having to do when they fly? Does that even exist anymore? He's in charge of all our VIPs. We meet Paul and Frances Andros as Paul gives Frances a going away gift as she is on her way to a vacation in Jamaica. Or so she says... On the way in, they happen to bump into Marc Champselle. Frances pretends she doesn't like Marc but things change when Paul leaves because it turns out that the two are eloping together for reasons I don't understand. I really don't. Okay, he works a lot, but doesn't seem to be cheating. He buys nice gifts or his assistant does, come on, he hired the assistant. He thinks he's sending her on a very nice vacation and he came with her to the damn airport. I mean, come on, he didn't kill anybody. She stayed with Paul Newman when he was an alcoholic and sort of hung up on his dead friend. Of course he had those abs... Anyway, re: Paul Andros: Let's just buy a Dr. Phil relationship book and have a conversation, people! I know, when I'm neglected by a millionaire I'll feel differently, well, let's just see. I'm willing to find out for an Hermes Birkin tote. You know, for science.
The thing that delays all of their plans is the fog. Fog sets in. In London. London Fog. Who would have thought it? I love the symbolism of the fog, it's the thing that clouds everything, stops all action and leaves only thought about where they are, what they are doing and if they are where they want to be. Mangrum is worried his check will bounce. Orson wants his money. This is where Anthony Asquith really becomes the Hitchcock of the relationship drama. He uses every plot development to further the tension. See, Frances left a note for Paul telling him that she was leaving him for Marc, assuming that he would go to his board meeting and by the time he read it, she would be over the Atlantic. But if the flight is delayed by the fog, well, then we have a real problem. Frances decides to call home to tell the maid to tear up the note before Paul gets home, but Paul picks up the phone. Uh oh. Well, if the plane can just take off before Paul reads the note and gets to the airport. Well, that's not going to happen. After a false start into their planes, everyone is back in the lounge and guess who has managed to drive over. The way Asquith does the shot is incredible, stop on Taylor and Jourdan as they look up in shock and Burton simply steps into frame. Well, he read the note and he's not happy. Like he has a gun. I didn't know people could get guns in England. Did he have to say he was going to use it to pop a cap in a fox? What? This leads to a chase through the airport past the immigration terminal where Frances and Marc escape from Paul. Yeah, how would an all powerful businessman ever get past an immigration checkpoint? I don't know, buy a ticket? The news comes out that they're all stranded for the night and will be staying at the airport hotel. Instead of buying a ticket, Paul has Marc called over to a private airport office to show how all powerful he is. He offers Marc money to walk away. Yeah, this is pretty much a J.R. Ewing move right here, but I can't say that I blame him for being unhappy. Gun probably too far. Marc refuses, explains how unhappy Frances is and generally leaves Paul feeling like crap. So, we all head to the hotel where Paul and Frances have an argument that really makes me wonder what it would have been like to be a fly on the wall in the Burton-Taylor household. She's unhappy and he decides to let her go, pretty much. Down in the lobby, a despondent Paul writes a letter and meets up with Maggie Smith who asks for the money Mangrum needs to stay out of jail. Paul recognizes Maggie is in love with Mangrum and gives her a blank check. Anyway, this makes our girl a hero and Paul gives his letter to the hotel manager to put it in the mail.
The next morning, the fog has cleared and all of our characters are here in the light of day. The hotel manager gives Frances the letter Paul gave him because he doesn't want to waste a stamp. Seriously, whatever happened to customer service? The guy just asked you to put a stamp on an envelope and drop it in the mail. This hotel sucks. Marc confiscates the letter to be read in New York and we resolve some of the other plot points, but why spoil everything? So, they happen to bump into Paul at the airport who has seriously deteriorated in the twenty four hours since his wife ditched him. Like remember Mark Antony after he lost the Battle of Actium? About to there, only no miniskirt, thank God. Frances tries to get him to go home, but he's clearly a broken man. She demands to see the later. Marc doesn't want to budge, but he relents. Turns out this is a suicide note. Paul's just done without Frances, which by the way, if you read a Richard Burton biography everyone tries to kill herself to hang on to Richard Burton. Seriously? Elizabeth Taylor, Sybil Burton, we can't act like grown women, we have to try to kill ourselves? What kind of message does that send? Anyway, Marc thinks this is a ruse. So, Frances decides even though she loves Marc she loves Paul enough to not want to see him kill himself. So, then we have something like a happy ending and you'll find that love actually is all around... Wait, wrong movie in a London airport.
Okay, so check out the trailer and check out Richard Burton. He was actually a very interesting guy apart from Elizabeth Taylor. Check out this trailer, it's crazy.
It’s February. A month that conjures up Valentine’s Day, Black History Month and NBA All Star Weekend. In this blog, I’ll probably deal more with the first two and probably not at all with the last one. Unless we can count Semi Pro as a classic film. Wait, what about Space Jam? Anyway, I’d like to start by talking about one of the great love stories that gets retold time and time again: Caesar and Cleopatra. And Antony, poor guy. The 1963 Cleopatra is known for two things: it cost a lot of money and Taylor and Burton hooked up while making it. In light of the fact, that it started off their on-again/off-again and finally off-again relationship, I would like to point out that not all love stories end well. Especially this one. We start the movie and join up with Julius Caesar and his armies at Pharsalus, where Caesar defeated Pompey and start Caesar’s pals want him to return to Rome and start sorting out that whole mess. Instead, Caesar puts Antony in charge and decides to go to Egypt and stop the civil war between young King Ptolemy and his sister- some chick named Cleopatra, so that the grain supply isn’t disrupted. Oh, foreign affairs in the Middle East. It never goes well. So, off to Alexandria. Where it’s market day and Ptolemy has set up shop to watch how Caesar is going to handle shoppers. Actually, I work retail and I would like to see how Caesar and his legions would handle throngs of barbarous shoppers. I’d buy tickets to that, but on this occasion it turns out to be a huge letdown because Caesar is going to shop his way through the market to Ptolemy. WHAT?! I’d also like to point out that Caesar’s body slave is mute, which is why I’m guessing he doesn’t tell Caesar stay the hell away from Cleopatra. This is when Caesar finds out that Ptolemy had Pompey killed shows him his head in a jar, which upsets Caesar for reasons that the film doesn’t bother to understand. While Caesar hangs out in his room in the palace, Apollodorus shows up with a rug that contains Maggie the Cat! No, just Cleopatra. They mostly argue and he has a seizure and at some point we’re meant to believe that they fall in love. Anyone else find that difficult to believe? Anyone? Bueller? Cleopatra comes to warn Caesar about her brother’s troops, he’s not really worried. Later, she finds out that’s because he’s already burning down the city, including the Library of Alexandria. My favorite line here is when Cleopatra rattles off the contents and her tutor, Sosigenes, adds “the testament of the Hebrew God.” Like the 1963 audience would go, “Oh, crap! He just burned the Bible!” Now Cleopatra is going to go yell at Caesar some more. There will be boring battle scenes. Eventually, Caesar installs Cleopatra as Queen of Egypt. This isn’t enough for our Cleo, though, she wants to be wife of Caesar and rule the world as Alexander would have wanted it. Cleopatra gives birth to Caesar’s son, Caesarion and has her handmaidens present him to Caesar by laying him on the ground and getting Caesar to pick him up in front of the other Romans, thus legally recognizing the child as his. I personally think there’s a way out of this, like Caesar could probably just say he was going to trip on the kid, so he just as soon picked him up. Back in Rome, they apparently take this sort of thing seriously because all the senators are on the Senate steps gossiping about it. Octavian, Caesar’s legal heir, played by Roddy McDowell does not seem thrilled. Oh, also, Caesar’s wife is trying to act like it doesn’t bother her when Mark Antony visits her. I’m thinking she’s just trying to not look at Antony’s ridiculously short toga. Short to the point of distraction. Like, really. Caesar has to go home and he promises to send for Cleopatra when, you know, he’s totally lost his mind. So, we’re going to skip over the last few years of the Roman Civil War and go back to Rome, where Caesar is pissed off that nobody will just fall in line. Sounds like a good time to have Cleopatra visit. Cleopatra arrives with a racially insensitive dance crew, some rhythmic gymnasts and a giant Sphinx. Really? The streets of Rome are wide enough that a giant gold Sphinx can go through it unimpeded? I really don’t want to harp on historical stuff so much, but come on. Caesar keeps getting pissed off by no one doing what he says, Cleopatra gets pissed off since no one will do what Caesar says, since I guess Caesar does whatever she wants him to do, so it’s really like they’re disobeying her. How dare they not want to obey the lady who just ran over Rome with her giant Sphinx float! Anyway, the Senators decide to tell Caesar that they’ll make him Emperor of Rome on the Ides of March. Nobody wants Caesar to go, but he’s going to go. And get shanked. A lot. Cleopatra decides to leave town even though Antony wants to hit on her. He and Octavian are going to go kill Caesar’s killers, mostly Antony. Unfortunately for Antony this is pretty much the peak of his career, he’s going to blow all of his money and go begging Cleopatra for some. Now, he’s going to be pathetic and ask for money, plead for Cleopatra’s affections and generally make an ass of himself. You would think his pal, Rufio, would try to save him from himself, but instead Rufio is going to set the two of them up on a date. Since everything is going to hell in Rome for Antony, Cleopatra is going to send him back to make peace with Octavian. So, Octavian is going to marry off his sister to him. Cleopatra is going to stab her mattress and hang on to the grain supply. Do you think the Romans knew their food supply was dependent on how pissed off Cleopatra was? So, Antony has to come begging… AGAIN. You would think this guy would learn. She makes him divorce Octavia and marry her. This plays into Octavian’s plans and pisses off the Romans, so Octavian throws an arrow at Cleopatra’s tutor and we have to all go to a naval battle. Antony seems to be doing okay for a while, he’s apparently better at fighting than holding his own with women. Then Cleopatra thinks Antony’s ship is burning so she decides a good time to head home. Antony sees Cleopatra leaving and well, makes an ass of himself. He jumps ship to follow Cleopatra and arrives on her ship to be put on suicide watch once he figures out he made an ass of himself. Now, I love Burton in this part, personally. Cleopatra finds him hanging out in Caesar’s tombs and demands that he speak to her. Oh, my God, lady, leave the guy alone already. Haven’t you done enough? Antony loses it; he finally realizes he’s made an ass of himself and generally ruined his life over a chick. Not cool. He screams and rails with such anger that I would not want to be around when those two argued in real life. Maybe a little, like you see a couple across the way in a restaurant. So, Cleopatra arranges for Antony to go die in battle. Only his troops abandon him which is probably a smart move on their part. She sends away her kid and locks herself in her tomb. Antony returns home to find Apollodorus the last one in the palace. He lets Antony think Cleopatra’s dead and helps Antony shank himself. Then tells him that Cleopatra’s not dead, so he can go make an ass of himself one more time. Super. I’m thrilled. He dies just before Octavian shows up with Caesarion’s ring, so now he’s dead, so Cleopatra decides this is as good a time as any to get poisoned, thus thwarting his plans to drag her through the streets of Rome, presumably not on a golden Sphinx. Does anyone else think it’s odd she never hit on Octavian? Overall, I think the film is bombastic. Four credited screenwriters. There’s a hint. I never buy the love story for a minute. I think maybe Caesar got stupid and Antony got really stupid. Then again, love can be stupid. For fun, you can watch the 1937 Cleopatra with Claudette Colbert in the title role. It’s ancient Rome/Egypt with Howard Hawks-esque dialogue. They should have gotten Cary Grant to be in it. If you have even more time to spare, I would also recommend the excellent HBO series Rome, with Ciaran Hinds and James Purefoy playing Caesar and Antony, respectively. Purefoy wears a significantly longer toga than Burton, though he sometimes wears much less. Enough said.
