Mommie Dearest.

Review #2245: Mommie Dearest.

Cast: 

Faye Dunaway (Joan Crawford), Diana Scarwid & Mara Hobel (Christina Crawford), Steve Forrest (Gregg Savitt), Howard da Silva (Louis B. Mayer), Rutanya Alda (Carol Ann), Harry Goz (Alfred Steele), Michael Edwards (Ted Gelber), Jocelyn Brando (Barbara Bennett), Priscilla Pointer (Margaret Lee Chadwick), and Selma Archerd (Connie) Directed by Frank Perry (#1957 - David and Lisa)

Review: 

In 1978, Christina Crawford wrote a book about her upbringing (as an adopted daughter) at the hands of legendary actress Joan Crawford, who adopted Christina after her birth in 1939. She stated that her mother had valued her career more so than her family life, complete with having Christina call various men that she happened to see "Uncle". When Joan died in 1977, she left Christina (and her adopted brother) out of the will for "reasons which are well known to them." Various people around Crawford had their own thoughts about the allegations of abuse leveled by Christina, which included two of her (adopted) siblings, who sued her because she claimed that Cathy and Cynthia were not biological sisters or adopted legally. The actual life of Joan Crawford probably could have made its own miniseries even without the aforementioned book. Crawford (born Lucille Fay LeSueur) had a dubious childhood (involving a stepfather accused of embezzlement). At any rate, she went from dancing in the chorus of revues to the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer days (of nearly two decades). The San Antonio native was quoted as working hard to practice her dictation, complete with repeating a word fifteen times to get it correct for ones she had not known to pronounce. She actually adopted five children (three girls), with one of them being returned back to the family on their request. The furor of the book led to film rights being sold to Paramount, as one would expect. Robert Getchell was hired in to write the screenplay (Crawford had done a script but it wasn't used) before Tracy Hotchner and Frank Yablans (who produced the film) were brought into re-write the script before the bringing in of Frank Perry to direct (and deliver re-writes for the only writing credit he ever received on a film) as opposed to the original intent of Franco Zeffirelli to direct Anne Bancroft. At any rate, the film only focuses on two of the four children raised by Crawford (Christina, Christopher, Cathy, Cynthia). Incidentally, Christina has been on record as not being a fan of the film, although she noted once (while promoting her one-woman show "A Conversation with Christina Crawford: Live and Onstage in Surviving Mommie Dearest") that there was a certain amount of folks who seemed to enjoy the film as a melodrama that "lost a sense of reality." The movie was not exactly loved by critics, but audiences apparently were fine with the film to where Paramount Pictures actually marketed it as an unintentional comedy (“Faye Dunaway in Mommie Dearest—the biggest mother of them all.”) midway through release. Perry, who had directed eleven films prior to this one, directed just three further features (one of those in Monsignor (1982), is apparently worse) prior to being diagnosed with prostate cancer that led to his death at the age of 65 in 1995.

In its sympathy for the devil, one sees a great contradiction with this film. It jumps around in its selection of what it believes would make an interesting biopic. Its attempts at showing the conflict of a person who tried to be a regal and "always on" movie star but also a dear mother that expected the most from the children she chose to adopt. You have a method actress at the height of their career (coming off an Academy Award win a few years prior) who had to contort the muscles around their mouth and hold it so one could see the resemblance to Crawford who seemed to believe that when back home she could feel Crawford in her presence. People either see the film as unintentionally amusing or disturbing, but all I see is a very average experience that has one domineering performance and obvious pacing problems. I think of it as "The Rocky Horror Picture Show effect", where the hype about it being a cult favorite leads to a really average viewing experience. The movie around Dunaway never really gets going because, well, imagine making a movie where you don't think about Christina Crawford a fraction of the time that you see (and hear) Dunaway chew the scenery. I think there is something quite compelling about what you might as well call the Faye Dunaway Experience that might make you want to see it. Yes, stuff such as the "wire hanger" sequences probably don't lend favors to Dunaway in the long run, but I think there is something really worthwhile in seeing Dunaway basically morph into Crawford in spirit. Dunaway apparently blamed Perry in not apparently having the experience (incidentally, Perry had directed eleven films prior to this) to assess when an actor should rein in their performance. The enjoyment of the film is in how much you care for that performance above else, because Scarwid and Hobel basically get swept up as dominos to be moved around as if all that matters is to see a family monster more than, well an actual story moving from A to B (you don't even get to see the screen Crawford die on screen, she just passes and boop, that's that). One kind of would like to have seen more from Forrest, who seems bemused to be in the film (incidentally, he plays a person that didn't exist in real life). Biopic or no biopic, I think a point-by-point movie about Crawford in all the facets of a career (the hard work and the domineering personality) would have been a better flick than this. Sure, you could call that "cliched", but it probably would've tried to reach a level of "honest" that this film never really reaches. The 129-minute runtime lumbers with some of the ambition required but not nearly enough in actual depth. Sure, some of the film is amusing because of the sheer audacity in dialogue. If the film was compelling in drama, maybe one would take interest in seeing what gets played out in the "historical record", but instead of harrowing edge, it comes off as exaggerated in a way that is hollow; in short: it isn't as funny as one thinks from a so-called "camp favorite" and it isn't as moving as it surely wishes to be. As a whole, I really wish the film was better. It yearns to be taken seriously as a work about the toils of trying to be both a consistent star in the classic studio system and simultaneously trying to mold her children in her image. Instead, it became a film misunderstood by ones willing to criticize it or think of it as some sort of goofy trash. 

Overall, I give it 6 out of 10 stars.

About (fucking) time: the NC-17 rated Showgirls up next.

David and Lisa.

Review #1957: David and Lisa.

Cast: 

Keir Dullea (David Clemens), Janet Margolin (Lisa Brandt), Howard Da Silva (Dr. Alan Swinford), Neva Patterson (Mrs. Clemens), Richard McMurray (Stewart Clemens), Clifton James (John), Nancy Nutter (Maureen), Matthew Anden (Simon), Jamie Sanchez (Carlos), Coni Hudak (Kate), and Karen Lynn Gorney (Josette) Directed by Frank Perry.

Review: 

It should only be natural to cover a New York director. The son of a stockbroker and an Alcoholics Anonymous aide, he was interested in the theater from a young age, working as a parking lot attendant as a youth for the Westport Country Playhouse. He attended the University of Miami before studying under Lee Strasberg and going on to produce plays in Connecticut. He served in the Korean War and became involved with television in 1961 before making his first film with David and Lisa (1962). He would make a variety of films that were generally on the edge of the studio system. In total, Perry directed fourteen feature films, where he was known for films such as The Swimmer (1968), Diary of a Mad Housewife (1970), and Mommie Dearest (1981) before he died in 1995 at the age of 65, with his last directorial effort being a documentary in On the Bridge (1992) about his struggle with prostate cancer.

It is an adaptation of the novella of the same name by Theodore Isaac Rubin, a psychiatrist and author. It was Ann Perry (daughter to playwright Eleanor Perry) who brought the novella to the attention of the Perrys. Eleanor Perry wrote the film, the first of numerous collaborations as writer with F. Perry, who was enlisted to direct (their partnership dissolved in 1971 after they divorced). Each of the Perrys received an Academy Award nomination for their work, which is no small feat for a film made for roughly over $150,000. Admittedly, the premise does sound like a film that could have just been a cheap feature for the exploitation circuit, considering that the lead character is a kid who has an intense fear of being touched. But it is a quirky love story, one that isn't just a feature of sensationalism or goop for cheap tricks, one that asks what it means to help people not stay numb inside. Dullea got his start in acting in television in the 1960s, such as Route 66 (which got him his first film role with Hoodlum Priest (1961). Dullea received notice for this role, although he did grouse at the momentary idea of him being thought of as a troubled youth for typecasting (Dullea has been quoted as saying that his true preference is for the theater). In a role filled with compulsive tendencies that could make one not know where he might spring himself next, Dullea proves worthy to the challenge of making a compelling performance, one where we see the pain wrapped inside someone scared to let someone reach within. The scenes with his parents aren't too long, but they underlie the stark contrast between the perceived "normal" family members and how he was shaped by them. This was the film debut for Margolin, who had thought about being a doctor before being encouraged to give her other interest in acting a try; in 1961, she went from prop girl at the New York Shakespeare Festival to 18-year-old Tony Award nominee. She pulls a double act in self-realization, which means a good chunk of dialogue is short or in rhymes, but she handles it in a way that is warm without cloying that makes for compelling chemistry between Margolin and Dullea. Da Silva provides solid support in efficient timing (mostly spent with Dullea) that isn't there to wax poetically or grandstand in authoritative boredom. The movie is mostly kept inside the psychiatric center, with a few interesting exceptions, such as a sequence where the group is seen out in public and reacts to a rude sentence told to them by repeating it right as they are walking off, as if being in the same room as others a bit different than them is too much. 

It is a tactful movie about people thought to be outside the margins: people who need psychiatric help. It doesn't do so by sugarcoating the leads or turning it into a simple black-and-white tale of treatment. It is the kind of movie where a simple gesture of togetherness in a film as well-executed as this makes the difference between ham-handedness and dynamite, for which the film rests in the latter category. It is a crushing tale of acceptance that makes a useful character study of two wayward souls finding some sort of path forward together. Quick to the point in 93 minutes without needing easy resolutions or cheap tricks, David and Lisa is a testament to the power of independent filmmaking and the potential it can bring thanks to the efforts of the Perrys and all involved.

Overall, I give it 9 out of 10 stars.

Unconquered (1947).

Review #1371: Unconquered.

Cast:
Gary Cooper (Captain Christopher Holden), Paulette Goddard (Abby Hale), Howard Da Silva (Martin Garth), Boris Karloff (Guyasuta, Chief of the Senecas), Cecil Kellaway (Jeremy Love), Ward Bond (John Fraser), Virginia Campbell (Mrs. John Fraser), Katherine DeMille (Hannah), Henry Wilcoxon (Captain Steele), C. Aubrey Smith (Lord Chief Justice), and Victor Varconi (Captain Simeon Ecuyer) Directed and Produced by Cecil B. DeMille (#1245 - The Squaw Man)

Review: 
"Creativity is a drug I cannot live without."

When it comes to innovators and crucial pieces of cinema to link past and present, Cecil B. DeMille serves as a key member of sound and silent cinema for America. He made 70 films from 1914 to 1958 that were known for their epic scale and showmanship. He developed a love of the theater from his playwright father (who suddenly died when Cecil was 11), and he graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts (after time with military college) in 1900. He started his career as an actor that same year, and he would later turn to directing and producing plays in the 1910s. He was soon introduced to Broadway producer Jesse L. Lasky by his producer mother Beatrice, and the two would join forces with Samuel Goldwyn alongside Oscar Apfel to form the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company in 1913, with their studio being a barn in Hollywood, one of the first in the region that is now a state landmark (named after Lasky and DeMille). Their landmark first feature was from DeMille and Apfel with The Squaw Man (1914), which was DeMille's debut (he of course would later film two remakes of the material). DeMlle spent his time directing numerous films nonstop, with his style soon being characterized by having extensive research that turned into collaboration with writers to mold a story together in his vision, which also applied to his efforts on visuals along with editing and lighting. He did not tend to give direction much to actors, preferring to work with them in the office with read-throughs as opposed to doing so on set, where he was an authoritarian that commanded attention from his cast and crew, no matter how big they could be. Actors who did not want to take physical risks for the sake of the film could incur his wrath, such as with this film, where Goddard objected to risk herself for a scene with hurling fireballs (which not surprisingly was proven correct when the stuntwoman later got burned for the scene). He didn't speak to her for years and later denied her a role in one of his subsequent films. Although he is known for his spectacle epics, he directed a variety of genres over the course of his career, ranging from Westerns to romances to comedies, with numerous highlights being Cleopatra (1934), The Greatest Show on Earth (1952, his lone Best Picture win), and The Ten Commandments (1956, a remake of his 1923 film that served as his last venture), and he has served as influence and inspiration to directors such as Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese.

The film was written by Charles Bennett, Fredric M. Frank and Jesse Lasky Jr, with un-credited work by Jeanie Macpherson. DeMille had been inspired by The Judas Tree, Neil Swanson's novel about people who had been sent to 18th century America to be sold as slaves after conviction in England. Despite hiring two experts to research about the topic of colonial slavery, he wanted to romanticize the American colonial conquest more than anything else, which means that the final result is a film that seems to go anywhere it wants with its colonial setting, certainly seeming the part with costumes and its cinematography from Ray Rennahan than with other aspects, a ridiculously watchable curiosity. It certainly does seem a bit bloated at 146 minutes, complete with a $4.3 million budget and a shooting schedule that was just as excessive and a battle sequence that had over 800 extras and plenty of dynamite. Cooper (in his fourth and final collaboration with DeMille) pulls off a subtle performance as usual, one that we care to follow along with no trouble because of how natural he plays the hero. Goddard drives the screen with some passion, rolling just fine in chemistry with Cooper in a rustled role that seems fitted for a dime-store novel, complete with color to really emphasize her bright hair for sequences such as the impromptu auction or the bathing one. Da Silva (known for his stage work alongside his work in film) makes for a conniving adversary that the audience can seethe at whenever sharing the screen with either lead, although the climax certainly proves anticlimactic for both sides. Karloff (who was asked to study the Seneca language for the role) seems reserved here for his brief time on screen. Kellaway and Bond give a moment of levity or two, at least. One may very well call this film kitsch and get away with it because of how silly it can get with characters and situations (particularly when relating to history) so overblown that might make The Outlaw and Duel in the Sun bat an eye. It doesn't mean I despise the film however, since there are aspects in terms of cast and design that do tend to work out well - if you are going to make a film resemble a damsel-in-distress novel with big costumes, one can't go too wrong with something like this, which is too long, too big and too perfect for a few moments to gawk and perhaps have amusement with, for better or worse.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.