Viva Knievel!

Review #2320: Viva Knievel!

Cast: 

Evel Knievel (himself), Gene Kelly (Will Atkins), Lauren Hutton (Kate Morgan), Red Buttons (Ben Andrews), Leslie Nielsen (Stanley Millard), Marjoe Gortner (Jessie), Cameron Mitchell (Barton), Frank Gifford (himself), Eric Olson (Tommy Atkins), Albert Salmi (Cortland), Dabney Coleman (Ralph Thompson), and Sheila Allen (Sister Charity) Directed by Gordon Douglas (#663 - Them! and #686 - In Like Flint)

Review: 

You might wonder why I had this movie on my mind. Of course, you might have a curiosity of who Evel Knievel was. Born in Montana in 1938, Robert "Evel" Knievel was a stunt performer and entertainer that did numerous motorcycle jumps after having the aspiration to do so by seeing a daredevil show. He worked in copper mines, rodeos and served in the Army to go along with working in insurance and motorcycle dealer shipping before he became famous. Eventually, he became his promotor to rent out venues and set up a show to get folks to see him do wheelies before jumping stuff such as a box of rattlesnakes or (eventually) cars. Among the most famous of stunts in the early years was a jump over the fountains at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas on New Years Eve 1967 that actually had him get John Derek and his wife Linda Evans to shoot the jump and landing...whereupon he landed just a bit short of accomplishing a pain-free 141 ft jump and crushed his pelvis and femur among other injuries that one can actually access. In 1971, a biopic of the rider came out that was produced and starring George Hamilton that had him do a monologue about being the "last gladiator in the new Rome" (for his part, John Milius co-wrote the movie and called Hamilton a "great con-man" while Hamilton believed that Knievel became the persona in the movie). Eventually, he went with an idea to jump Snake River Canyon in Idaho that would be closed-circuit TV and broadcast in theaters (to namedrop for fun, it actually had Vince McMahon as an investor while Shelly Saltman served as a promoter) in 1974 with a "Skycycle X-2" that failed to accomplish the jump. Knievel would jump on and off for the rest of his years, whether that involved walking out on his own power in Wembley after breaking his pelvis to having a planned shark-jump lead in him crashing into a cameraman and breaking his arms in rehearsal. Prior to the film being released in June of 1977, Saltman's book called Evel Knievel on Tour came out about the life of Knievel (covering the buildup to the Snake River jump) with interviews that had Knievel speak on the matter of certain subjects. Knievel did not like the book (which was pulled out on threats of lawsuits) and took it upon himself to speak to Saltman. On September 21, Knievel, who apparently had hurt his arms in an accident to the point they were in casts went to the 20th Century Fox lot (Saltman was a studio vice president) and struck him with an aluminum baseball bat that saw a shattered wrist and arm to the point of needing plates for Saltman. This was the first and only film for its star in Knievel; the screenplay was done by Norman Katkov and the story was written by Antonio Santillán. This actually was the last film for its director in Gordon Douglas, who directed a wide variety of movies from Our Gang to Elvis and Sinatra that led to such films as I Was a Communist for the FBI (1951), Tony Rome (1967), and In Like Flint (1967); Irwin Allen was a supervising producer on this film, if you can believe it.

Knievel received a bit of jail time and probation before getting sued in a civil trial. A movie involving a guy keeping his word (like wearing a helmet, for obvious reasons) and playing into his anti-drug image seemed funny when you considered he later assaulted a guy and acted like a bum about paying the guy that he shattered his arm and called it "frontier justice" (Knievel never paid any money to Saltman before dying in 2007). So, you've got two guys who were honored by the Academy with awards (Buttons, Kelly) to go alongside a stunt performer, an ex-Evangelist preacher-turned-actor in Gortner and an actual adversarial role in Nielsen and some sort of weird drug plot after it all started with him breaking into an orphanage to deliver his action figures (take a guess what happened to the market) to children. How exactly was this supposed to be a breathtaking movie for its star when you've got drug-addled guys going around bopping people on the head to take on killer stunts, Monday Night Football's Frank Gifford showing up in a yellow-and-orange suit, and Gene Kelly playing a drunk that doesn't really like his kid? Not to give away the game, but Knievel didn't even do stunts for the film, that fell to Gary Charles Davis to crash on cue (well, except for the one time they use actual archive crash footage). Knievel barely acts at all, as if he was only good on a camera if his hip was fractured rather than showing actual charisma. To say the role Kelly is beneath him seems to understand that his subsequent appearance in Xanadu (1980) was an improvement. Okay, so you might wonder what the idea is with the drugs: after getting Knievel to Mexico and sabotaging his bike so he dies, they will get him back to the States in a coffin with a tour trailer that happens to have drugs in the walls. Nielsen may have been a suitable actor for the occasional drama, but even he can't make this stick to actual credibility, particularly since it practically smells like it should be in a comedy that actually has Knievel lecture the audience about not doing drugs before a stunt in the first half. As a whole, this is a movie filled with enough hokum to batter one into having plates into his arm, inspiring plenty of chuckles in its breathtaking lack of charisma that would be perfectly up your alley for a bad movie night.

Overall, I give it 4 out of 10 stars.

I love you too much to let you off Turkey Week without one more surprise tonight: Atlas Shrugged: Part I.

For Me and My Gal.

Review #1361: For Me and My Gal.

Cast: 
Judy Garland (Jo Hayden), Gene Kelly (Harry Palmer), George Murphy (Jimmy K. Metcalf), Martha Eggerth (Eve Minard), Ben Blue (Sid Simms), Stephen McNally (Mr. Waring), Robert Homans (New York Palace Doorman), and Lucille Norman (Lily Duncan) Directed by Busby Berkeley.

Review: 
"I don't believe in conformity to any school of dancing. I create what the drama and the music demand. While I am a hundred percent for ballet technique, I use only what I can adapt to my own use. I never let technique get in the way of mood or continuity."

A star can come from anywhere, from vaudeville, stage, or elsewhere. Gene Kelly had gone from a career ambition in teaching dance and full-time entertainer to choreographer and dancer in musical revues and Broadway in 1938, having been discovered by noted dancer and choreographer Robert Alton. By 1940, he had received his first breakthrough and lead role with stage work such as The Time of Your Life and Pal Joey. He was eventually signed by David O. Selznick for a chance to do film in Hollywood. It was the urging of numerous people, most notably Judy Garland, that led to Metro Goldwyn Mayer bringing Kelly in to star with Garland in this film, with this serving as her first adult role. The film was written by Richard Sherman, Fred F. Finklehoffe, and Sid Silvers with a story by Howard Emmett Rogers, which was inspired by the real life pursuits of Harry Palmer, a vaudeville actor of the 1910s, who indeed formed an act with Jo Hayden in 1916 and performed for a few years. The details of Palmer and his WWI service differ a bit from the film, where it was his friend who had been in medical school before serving and later dying in the War, not Hayden's brother, along with the fact that he had joined the Red Cross ambulance corps and not the YMCA. The ending to the film is different from actual events, but that was also a product of editing. The film was edited to play up sympathy for Kelly's character because test audiences had felt Murphy deserved to get the girl. As such, scenes were re-done to focus more on Kelly (including a rescue of an ambulance convoy). You may remember Berkeley from his choreography in 42nd Street (1933). He had co-directed (alongside George Amy) She Had to Say Yes that same year, with a gradual shift from choreography to directing occurring in the decade, and Gold Diggers of 1935 was his first solo directorial effort. He directed numerous films (with a few musical number sprinkled between it) until 1949 with Take Me Out to the Ball Game (after being fired from Annie Get Your Gun the following year), with the next eight films in the remaining 12 years of his career being spent in choreography.

With that in mind, one will be fairly interested in this ode to vaudeville alongside a drive to involvement in war that makes for a relatively decent 104 minute experience. Garland gets a chance to shine with songs and in charm, inspiring as ever for her prime. Kelly glides onto the screen with instant presence and no trouble at all, inspiring plenty of enthusiasm and curiosity whenever singing or doing some dancing along with having some chemistry with Garland that makes things zip through without too much tedium. Whether one knows about the cribbing of real-life events or not, the film certainly does seem a bit easy to figure for its eventual end-game, although I really do doubt that the film needed to be edited anyway because simply put, this is Gene Kelly we are talking about. I barely even remember Murphy to begin with, since he comes and goes by the time the film is halfway through. Maybe he had an earlier presence in the original, but here he just seems okay, where one might forget him in the shuffle. Eggerth (known more for her operetta work) does make a presence in her one number to shine, but she really is only there for the first half and that's it. The film is a decent one, with some of the conviction needed to make something that lasts. It has the musical and dance edge with two strong presences in Garland and Kelly to make things work out better than with lesser leads. It isn't really anything great of its era, but the fact that it was the first success for Kelly and also one for Garland makes it memorable enough to endure nonetheless.

One small update. If one is wondering about the effects of coronavirus among writing, I will state that there are only two ways I will stop posting: severe illness or death. 

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.

An American in Paris.

Review #986: An American in Paris.

Cast: 
Gene Kelly (Jerry Mulligan), Leslie Caron (Lise Bouvier), Oscar Levant (Adam Cook), Georges Guétary (Henri "Hank" Baurel), Nina Foch (Milo Roberts), and Eugene Borden (Georges Mattieu) Directed by Vincente Minnelli (#405 - The Reluctant Debutante, #510 - Father of the Bride, #620 - Lust for Life, and #878 - The Long, Long Trailer)

Review: 
This was inspired by the 1928 orchestral composition of the same name by George Gershwin; I can't say I've done many movies based off a orchestral piece before, and I also can't say that they also have a 17-minute dance included as the climax either. In any case, this is a fine film, with a good amount of execution with its music and how it is shot. The music by Saul Chaplin and Johnny Green is fairly entertaining, but the biggest help to making all of the connections click is the things around it; the cinematography by John Alton and Alfred Gilks is top-notch, having a look that just syncs up with the mood; the costumes by Orry-Kelly, Walter Plunkett, and Irene Sharaff are also fine in giving the movie some fine flair. Admittedly, the plot is a bit thin in construction (with the kind of turns that you'd expect from a romance standpoint), but it manages to be enough of a showcase that it doesn't really drag the film too much. It isn't as great as something like Singin' in the Rain (released the following year), but both movie are good in their own right. Kelly is charismatic as ever, having the kind of charm and usefulness that one would expect from him, graceful in movement and stature. Caron, a dancer in her film debut, does alright, although she shines more in the dancing scenes than when sharing time onscreen with the plot, mainly because she doesn't really have chemistry with either Kelly or Guétary, although she at least has some screen presence. Guétary has some mild charm in the scenes that he is in. Levant is fine to watch, with his piano sequences being pretty entertaining. Foch is okay, although her scenes with Kelly don't really go anywhere too special in terms of appeal. The biggest highlight is probably the sequence at the end (lasting 17 minutes), being the ultimate showstopper spectacle for a film musical like this.

This movie won six Academy Awards, with wins for Best Production Design, Cinematography, Costume Design, Best Music Scoring of a Musical Picture, Original Screenplay, and Best Picture. In addition, Kelly received an Academy Honorary Award for "his versatility as an actor, singer, director and dancer, and specifically for his brilliant achievements in the art of choreography on film", and it certainly seems fitting. He pulls in a tremendous performance that (along with all of the other things that shine in the movie) make for a great piece of entertainment that works in most of the right places, charm and all.

Overall, I give it 9 out of 10 stars.

Movie Night: Xanadu.

Review #629: Xanadu.

Cast
Olivia Newton-John (Kira), Michael Beck (Sonny Malone), Gene Kelly (Danny McGuire), James Sloyan (Simpson), Dimitra Arliss (Helen), and Katie Hanley (Sandra) Directed by Robert Greenwald.

Review
This is a musical that...just is so middling with its strengths and weak points. On the one hand, the music by ELO is awesome, or maybe I just love the band, though whatever the case, the music works really well for the movie, "I'm Alive" is a song I admire very much. The characters on the other hand, aren't as coll, though Gene Kelly is a delight even at over 60, especially the scenes when he dances, even if Kelly is just playing himself, which I guess is fine, the other actors are trying to play characters and they don't succeed that well. The story is odd, because I guess...there's a happy ending, though...maybe not, the movie's weird enough, with the roller skates and all. The effects are at least cool, they just work really well for the film, it give off a flashiness feeling, which works well for this film. At times the dancing is good, though it can't hide the fact this is a muddled film. Is it a romance, a fantasy, or...both? Maybe a villain would've helped make this movie a little better (as long as it's not a cliche one, but with this movie, all bets are off), even if this movie already feels like a 40's movie, which isn't that far off, apparently. The movie would later get adapted into a Broadway musical, which is probably more well suited for a premise like this, I suppose. One lasting thing that this film inspired was the creation of the Golden Raspberry Awards (that and Can't Stop the Music), which I guess is something productive. This is at best a campy, but somewhat interesting movie, with some killer music.

Overall, I give it 6 out of 10 stars.

Movie Night: On the Town.

Review #346: On the Town.

Cast

Gene Kelly (Gabey), Frank Sinatra (Chip), Ann Miller (Claire Huddesen), Jules Munshin (Ozzie), Betty Garrett (Brunhilde Esterhazy), and Vera-Ellen (Ivy Smith) Directed by Stanley Donen (#137 - Bedazzled and #227 - Singin' in the Rain) and Gene Kelly (#227 - Singin' in the Rain)

Review

It's been a while since I reviewed a musical or even a film, and this just happens to be both. But look, Frank Sinatra happens to be in this (I wonder if anyone will be thinking to themselves "Who?"), so there's a small first. Gene Kelly pops up once again, always seeming to be impressive in either directing or starring. The film around Kelly does a respectable job, with singing and dancing right off the bat, mostly being useful. Kelly again does manage to carry a good portion of the film, which is useful, along with Sinatra and Garrett. The story may no be much, and it may seem strangely short (at about 100 minutes), but it works for the most part. It has a strange charm, keeping you watching for some odd reason. Countdown to 350 Reviews: 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4...

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.

Movie Night: Inherit the Wind.

Review #228: Inherit the Wind.

Cast
Spencer Tracy (Henry Drummond), Fredric March (Matthew Brady), Gene Kelly (E. K. Hornbeck),  Florence Eldridge (Sara Brady), Dick York (Bertram T. Cates), Donna Anderson (Rachel Brown), Harry Morgan (Judge Mel Coffey), Claude Atkins (Rev. Jeremiah Brown), Elliott Reid (Prosecutor Tom Davenport), and Paul Hartman (Deputy Horace Meeker) Directed by Stanley Kramer.

Review
In the last review, I talked about Gene Kelly and what he did for singing and dancing. Here, he does none of that, but he's still good in a supporting role. Why did I add that last part? It's to mention the main two leads, Tracy and March. They play off each other well, given the proceedings. The film keeps you interested all through out, and the film can still be watched today with no real problems of age. All in all, the cast works, with no real problems. Happy belated (100th) birthday to Gene Kelly. I said it was his birthday, yet I didn't say that in the last review (I'd edit it, but it wouldn't make a difference) Oh well. A hidden gem for the age. Gloomy, but useful film.

Overall, I give it 10 out of 10 stars.

Movie Night: Singin' in the Rain.

Review #227: Singin' in the Rain.

Cast
Gene Kelly (Don Lockwood), Donald O'Connor (Cosmo Brown), Debbie Reynolds (Kathy Selden), Jean Hagen (Lina Lamont), and Millard Mitchell (R.F. Simpson) Directed by Stanley Donen (#137 - Bedazzled) and Gene Kelly.

Review
Eugene Kelly was born on August 23, 1912, which was 100 years ago. Kelly revolutionized dancing and singing in movies. You might be wondering why this is important to list. Because what I happen to review today is all that and more. The whole cast does a great job (especially Kelly and Reynolds) I have to admit, the music and songs are good. I have reviewed a musical before, let me use some words from it: "This is a good film with music in there that helps the story and does not ruin anything, unlike some other musicals," (#073 - The Lion King) In this film, the music does makes you smile and laugh at times and truly doesn't ruin a thing. After 60 years, the film's legacy has grown to be considered one of the greatest musicals/films ever.

Overall, I give it 10 out of 10 stars.