Turner This Month - Bravo!

Star of the Month: Grace Kelly

Great, great month on Turner, not the least of which is the cable channel's pick of Grace Kelly as its Star of the Month. Princess Grace made only eleven - count 'em - eleven feature films and she never overacted or chewed at scenery to command attention. She did it quietly - with muted style and serenity. The rest of the month ain't bad either, including an on-going tribute to composer Johnny Mercer. Here are a few highlights...

Jack capers in Quine's "How to Murder Your Wife"

"How To Murder Your Wife" - airing at noon (est) on Sunday, 1 November - may be the least of the six features that Jack Lemmon made with Richard Quine but it's alert fun nevertheless. Part of the problem is that it's hard to buy Jack as a womanizing playboy and man-about-town - the town being New York, no less. But Jack pretty much turns the screen over to his game co-star Virna Lisi and an array of grateful supporting players - Terry-Thomas (barely concealing his homoeroticism as Jack's "man" - his butler); Eddie Mayhoff (still as wittily pushy as when he gave Jerry Lewis a difficult time); Claire Trevor, giving new meaning to the sexist expression, Battle Axe, and Max Showalter (aka, Casey Adams), Jack Albertson, Alan Hewitt, Mary Wickes and Sidney Blackmer who as a soused arbiter of justice gets to utter the line, "I'm as sober as a judge," courtesy of writer George Axelrod. Given so much talent, I just wish "How to Murder Your Wife" was a better comedy.

Charles Walters' affable military comedy, "Don't Go Near the Water" (1957), is worth catching not only for star Glenn Ford's laid-back charm, but for the breezy obscenity of Mickey Shaughnessy's performance as a soldier who can't control his mouth. Watch it at 6 a.m. (est) on Monday, 2 November. Later in the day, at 2 p.m. (est) you can see Dean Martin is his first post-Jerry role in Richard Thorpe's "Ten Thousand Bedrooms" (1957), co-starring Anna Maria Alberghetti.

Goulet and Kwan stranded at the "Honeymoon Hotel"

Henry Levin's "Honeymoon Hotel" (1964) was a misguided attempt to exploit the matinee-idol status of two leading men whose respective careers were each driven by early '60s Broadway musicals. Robert Goulet, a handsome young baritone from Canada, had scored as Lancelot in Lerner and Loewe's 1960 "Camelot," while Robert Morse was the Gotham Golden Boy, thanks to his ambitious puppy in 1961's "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" by Frank Loesser.

Morse had already made his screen debut in 1958 in Joseph Anthony's "The Matchmaker," but "Honeymoon Hotel" was conceived to move him - and Goulet - into star status in a Martin/Lewis-style romp about two horny friends who end up sharing a room at a resort hotel that caters to newlyweds only. And, yes, there's a touch of "Some Like It Hot" here, what with the guys up to their eyes in women they can't touch.

While Morse went on to have a modest film career that peaked with the bland David Swift film version of "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" (1967), Goulet had less success. He had one more leading-man role - in Jack Smight's "I'd Rather Be Rich" (opposite Sandra Dee and Andy Williams) the same year - before seguing into largely TV work, a missed opportunity for an actor both talented and movie-star-ish.

There's not much to say about "Honeymoon Hotel" except that it has a good supporting cast (Jill St. John, Keenan Wynn, Anne Helm, David Lewis, Elsa Lanchester, Elvia Allman, Bernard Fox and Sandra Gould). Charming leading lady Nancy Kwan, meanwhile, is a good sport performing a most bizarre dance (choreographed by Miriam Nelson).

This film was her consolation prize after Ray Stark, the man who discovered her, decided to pass on a film version of Richard Rodgers' "No Strings," that would have reunited Kwan opposite her "World of Suzie Wong" co-star, William Holden. (There was something of a racial fuss at the time because Stark had decided to change the heroine of "No Strings" from Black to Asian, effectively killing plans for the film.)

"Honeymoon Hotel" will be shown at 4 p.m. (est) on Monday, 2 November.

Titles by Saul Bass

Here are four films worth watching just for their titles sequences alone, designed by the master of all titles artists, Saul Bass. Starting at 8 p.m. on Monday, 2 November, catch Alfred Hitchcock's "Vertigo" (1958) and "North by Northwest" (1959), followed by Otto Preminger's "Anatomy of a Murder" 91959) and "Bunny Lake Is Missing" (1965).

Harris and Dean, young acting giants in Kazan's "East of Eden"

Few films have captured the troubling consequences of family life, where love is either withheld or given only grudingly, than Elia Kazan's 1955 film version of John Steinbeck's "East of Eden," a quality that's fully realized by the lovely, careful performances of stars Julie Harris and James Dean. Look for the fabulous Lois Smith in a small role - one of her first parts on film. "East of Eden" plays at 8 p.m. (est) on Tuesday, 3 November.

One of the most irresistible screen presences - ever - was the urbane Gig Young, who gets a day of his own on Wednesday, 4 November, when Turner screens eight of his features, starting at 8 a.m. (est) with Vincent Sherman's "Old Acquaintance" (1943), followed by Peter Godfrey's "The Woman in White" (1948), George Archainbaud's "Hunt the Man Down" (1950), Irving Allen's "Slaughter Trail" (1951), Gerald Mayer's "Holiday for Sinners" (1952), Don Weis's "You for Me" (1952), Richard Thorpe's "The Girl Who Had Everything" (1953) and George Sidney's "A Ticklish Affair" (1963), co-starring the two Jones girls - Shirley and Carolyn.

Hitch Hearts Harris

Alfred Hitchcock has been misrepresented by his infamous "Actors are cattle" quip, with most people deducing that he hated actors. Not true. His point: Directing actors is a matter of moving them from here to there, much like cattle. Anyway, Hitch's final film, "Family Plot" (1976), patly disproves this falsehood. If Hitch wasn't completely beguiled by Barbara Harris (that's her above), then I'm misreading the signs of love.

Find out for yourself when Turner airs the film at 10 a.m. (est) on Saturday, 7 November.

Two Times Two Equals Four Stars

The first films of two British director - Ridley Scott's "The Dullists" (1978), starring Keith Carradine and Harvey Keitel, and stephen Frears' "Gumshoe" (1971), with Albert Finney, Billie Whitelaw and Janice Rule - will be shown on Sunday, 8 November, beginning at midnight (est).

The Screen Team That Stopped...

For one brief moment in the late 1970s-early '80s, Carl Reiner was an auteur and Steve Martin was his muse. In fact, they made four back-to-back films in five years, starting with "The Jerk" in 1979 and followed by three unusually inventive titles - "Dead Man Don't Wear Plaid" (1982) "The Man With Two Brains" (1983) and "All of Me" (1984). Good stuff. Why they stopped is beyond me. Here's your chance to see "All of Me," co-starring Lily Tomlin, at 4:15 a.m. (est) on Monday, 9 November.
They don't build actors like Robert Ryan anymore (check out that gaze, above), and Turner is intent on proving that with an eight-film tribute that it's scheduled for Tuesday, 10 November, begining at 6 a.m. (est) with Robert Z. Leonard's "Her Twelve Me" (1954). It will be followed by Nicholas Ray's "Born to be Bad" (1950), William D. Russell's "Best of the Badmen" (1951), John Farrow's "Back from Eternity" (1956), John Cromwell's "The Racket" (1851), Ray's "On Dangerous Ground" (1951), Harry Horner's "Beware, My Lovely" (1952) and Fritz Lang's "Clash by Night" (1952), opposite Barbara Stanwyck and Marilyn Monroe.

Here is your chance to savor this champion of the masculine outcast and lost soul who, reluctantly, explored human relationships. And you can get a head start by checking out Ryan in Sam Fuller's terrific "House of Bamboo" (1955) at 8 p.m. (est) on Sunday, 8 November.

Bolstered by cutting edge performances by Stacy Keach, Jeff Bridges and the ultra quirky Susan Tyrell, John Huston's corrosive masterpiece "Fat City" (1972), long overlooked and forgotten, turns conventional Hollywood melodrama on its head as it brings its tale of a washed-up boxer (Keach) mentoring a young hopeful (Bridge) to a creepy pitch that is difficult to shake. Watch it at 4 a.m.(est) on Friday, 13 November.

One of the great movie secrets for the past, oh, fifty years, is that Leslie Caron did not do her own singing in Vincente Minnelli's "Gigi" (1958). Like a few other notable screen musicals stars - Rita Hayworth, Cyd Charisse and Vera-Ellen, all dancers - Caron was traditionally dubbed when it came to singing on-screen, although she did warble the slight title tune that highlighted Charles Walters' "Lili."

For "Gigi," Caron was dubbed by sound-alike Betty Wand who also dubbed Rita Moreno on "A Boy Like That" for "West Side Story." Yes, that's right. While everyone - including Moreno - makes a fuss about Natalie Wood and Richard Beymer being dubbed in WSS, she was, too! (Moreno, who exhibits no love for Wood during her commentary for the DVD of WSS, never addresses her own dubbing.) And so was musical star, Russ Tamblyn, whose singing voice isn't his in the Sondheim-Bernstein vehicle. The voice is actually that of his co-star, Tucker Smith. If none of this makes any sense, blame Saul Chaplin, a film-musical perfectionist who also insisted that Juanita Moore be dubbed in "South Pacific," even though she sang the part of Bloody Mary on stage for years before making the Josh Logan film version.

Anyway, listen closely as Caron sings in "Gigi" at noon (est) on Friday, 13 November.

"O.K. ... L.A. ... H.O. ... M.A. ... Oklahoma! Ya-hoo!"

Rogers and Hammerstein's "Oklahoma!" was as revolutionary on screen as it was on stage. This was - to the best of my knowledge - the first major film musical to be helmed by a filmmaker known for more dramatic fare. Comedies - and certainly musicals - were not the forté of the great Fred Zinnemann. (Sidney Lumet, John Huston and Sir Richard Attenborough are three other "serious" filmmakers who would be recruited by the studios to resuscitate the film musical, which fell on hard times in the 1950s and has yet to completely rebound.) Zinnemann was craftly. He was scrupulously faithful to the classic stage musical, but cleverly added a couple little curlicues of his own - namely, method player Rod Steiger and noir mainstay Gloria Graham in crucial supporting roles. Not just that. But Zinnemann let them do their own singing. God bless him.

A fanatical movie-musical lover, I am no purist. I think that casting properly is more important than singing ability - and "Oklahoma!" proves my point. Steiger and Graham are excellent in their roles (Graham cast seemingly against type, but not really) and, while neither is an accomplished singer, I love knowing that it's their voices that are coming out of their mouths - and not the soulless intonations of Marni Nixon, the bane of movie musicals of the 1950s and '60s.

Steiger, in fact, is so good that one regrets that his rendition of "Poor Jud Is Daid" (aka, "Poor Jud Is Dead") with Gordon MacRae was truncated for the film and that Jud's "Lonely Room" number was cut altogether.

"Oklahoma!" (1955) screens 2 p.m. (est) on Saturday, 14 November.

Compare & Contrast: “The Lost and Found RKO Collection”

Last December, Turner discovered and dusted off six forgotten classics of the 1930’s RKO studio era.

Two of the titles - "Living on Love" and "A Man to Remember" - were “B” picture remakes of two other titles in the collection - "Rafter Romance" and "One Man’s Journey." I've no idea when the others will pop up for encore presentations, but Lew Landers' "Living on Love" (1937) and William A. Seiter's "Rafter Romance"" (1933) - both about a man and a woman who unknowingly share the same apartment because they work different shifts - will be rescreened by Turner on consecutive days.

"Living on Love," with Whitney Bourne and James Dunne, airs at 7:15 a.m. (est) on Monday, 16 November; "Rafter Romance," with Ginger Rogers and Norman Foster, at 9 a.m. (est) on Tuesday, 17 November.

Why on earth was this film admired?

Look, I like Jack Lemmon. He's my favorite actor. Of all time. And while I should appreciate the attention and acclaim that came to him via Blake Edwards' drama on alcoholism, "Days of Wine and Roses" (1962), I don't necessarily like the film or Jack's performance in it. J.P. Miller's script is painfully simplistic and Jack's melt-down in a greenhouse while looking for booze is cringe-worthy. That said, Lee Remick is fine, the anchor of this wildly overrated movie.

It screens at 2 a.m. on Thursday, 19 November.

Willie Nelson & Fred Schepisi & Alan Rudolph

Only Turner would be resouceful enough to devote a night to balladeer Willie Nelson who, in his woefully brief film career, worked for more than a few auteurs - including Schepisi who directed him in the revisionist Western "Barbarosa" (1982) and Rudolph who paired him with Kris Kristofferson in the companionable "Songwrite" (1984). They air back-to-back, starting at 1 a.m. (est) on Friday, 20 November. Enjoy!

Double-Bill on Race Relations

The fascination of human relationships, the perilous nature of interracial love, the seduction of escape and the ideology of family are all dealt without compromise in two excellent features, Larry Peerce's "One Potato, Two Potato" (1964) and Hal Ashby's "The Landlord" (1970), being screened back-to-back Friday, 20 November, starting at 8 p.m. (est).

Barbara Barrie stars in the former as a divorcee whose relationship with a black man (Bernie Hamilton) enrages her former husband (Richard Mulligan), threatening her custody battle, and Beau Bridges (above with director Ashby) has his finest film role as the title star of "The Landlord," about a rich white kid who wants to gentrify a tenement apartment, only to become involved with the black tenants he plans to evicit. The sublime Diana Sands and Oscar-nominated Lee Grant co-star.

Fleischer! Encore! Bravo!

The ever underrated Richard Fleischer earns a well-deserved prime-time double bill with back-to-back showings of his tense, smart "Violent Saturday" (1955), starring '50s hunks Victor Mature, Richard Egan and Stephen McNally, and the rough and raw "The Vikings" (1958), which pairs Kirk Douglas with '50s hot couple, Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh, in what amounts to a glorified pirate adventure - albeit a first-rate pirate adventure. Narration by Orson Welles and a memorable music score by Mario Nascimbene add to the adventure of it all.

"Violent Saturday" amd "The Vikings" air back-to-back beginning at 8 p.m. on Sunday, 22 November.

Jean Negulesco's "Road House" (1948)

Not to be confused with the 1989 Rowdy Herrington/Patrick Swayze free-for-all, Negulesco's film is something of a minor classic that Richard Widmark made almost immediately after his breakthrough film, Henry Hathaway's "Kiss of Death." Here, Widmark goes into the nighclub business, shady-division, with no less than Ida Lupino as his chanteuse. Ida ings here - a song called "Again." Bliss - even if she does hit a flat note now and then. Again, I prefer to hear actors doing their own singing.

Celeste Holm and Cornel Wilde co-star. "Road House" airs on Turner at 8 p.m. (est) on Qednesday, 25 November.

Melvin Frank's "Li'l Abner" (1959)

A first-rate musical comedy by Johnny Mercer and Gene De Paul, based on the beloved Al Capp cartoon strip, "Li'l Abner" (1959) was rudely dismissed in its day. But, frankly, it's pretty wonderful, anchored by Michael Kidd's original stage choreography, recreated for the occasion by Dee Dee Wood. Sinatra fave, Nelson Riddle, did the orchestrations.

Oh, yeah, and Jerry Lewis stops by for a cameo.

"Li'l Abner" airs at 11:30 p.m. (est) on Wednesday, 25 November.

I like to think of it as "Call-in-Late" Friday...

I see no reason to get out of bed on Friday, 27 November. That's when, starting at 8 a.m. (est) for 12 hours straight, Turner airs Charles Walters' "Please Don't Eat the Daisies" (1960), H.C. Potter's "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House" (1948), Melville Shavelson's "Houseboat" (1958) and "Yours Mine and Ours" (1968), Vincente Minnelli's "The Long, Long Trailer" (1954) and Billy Wilder's "Some Like It Hot" (1959). The stars? Cary Grant, Myrna Loy, Sophia Loren, Doris Day, David Niven, Henry Fonda, Lucy and Desi and ... Sugar and Daphne (Marilyn and Jack in the still shot above).

Don Sharp's "Psychomania" (1971)

Don't miss this one.

Part Guilty Pleasure, part undiscovered masterpiece, this witty, astute British horror lark mixes bikers with Satanism and is never less than watchable. Nicky Henson, a young Brit hunk who was quite ubiquitous in the early 1970s ("30 Is a Dangerous Age, Cynthia" and "There's a Girl in My Soup"), stars as the reckless hero and, making it further irresistible is the presence of Beryl Reid (that's her, below) and the usually game George Sanders (in what, alas, would be his final film).

Sharp was a sinfully overlooked filmmaker who will forever be honored here for 1975's top-notch Irish thriller, "Hennessy" starring Rod Steiger, Lee Remick, Trevor Howard and Richard Johnson, and 1979's "Bear Island" with the to-die-for cast of Vanessa Redgrave, Donald Sutherland, Richard Widmark, Barbara Parkins, Chistopher Lee and Lloyd Bridges.

A native of Tasmania, Australia, Sharp seemingly retired from filmmaking in 1989, a few years after having directed Jenny Seagrove and Deborah Kerr in the superior teleplay, "A Woman of Substance" (1984).

"Psychomania" airs at 2 a.m. (est) on Saturday, 28 November. Record it.

James William Guerico's "Electra Glide in Blue" (1973)

Very much the counterculture epic of its day, eagerly awaited and ripe for the hero reduction of its Brilliant Young Filmmaker which followed, James William Guerico's "Electra Glide in Blue" operated as something of a film lumière, a modern policier set in the blinding sun of Arizona and starring the idiosyncratic Robert Blake (seen below) - who had earned the blessings of critics from his performances in Richard Brooks' "In Cold Blood" and Abraham Polonsky's "Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here" - as a diminuative cop obsessed with solving the murder of a hermit.

The film's release was trumpeted prematurely by a major article in Esquire magazine in 1971 (actually devoted to Monte Hellman's "Two-Lane Blacktop") and a killer soundtrack. Guerico's film also boasted a compelling performance by Billy "Green" Bush, a singular actor who added to whatever film in which he appeared - and who mysteriously disappeared from the screen in 1993.

"Electra Glide in Blue" screens at 3:45 a.m. (est) on Saturday, 28 November.

William Dieterle's "The Devil and Daniel Webster" (1941)

Dieterle's classic film, based on the Stephen Vincent Benet story, by way of Archibald Macleish's stage adaptation (titled "Scratch"), gets the showcase treatment on "The Essentials," Turner's weekly movie discussion show co-hosted by Robert Osborne and Alec Baldwin. Originally released under the title "All That Money Can Buy," the film reflects on the decisions we make, as illustrated by the dealings of farmer Daniel Webster (Edward Arnold) with one Mr. Scratch (Walter Huston).

Scratch is actually ... The Devil incarnate!

Coincidentally, Baldwin himself directed a version of Benet's story in the late 1990s. With a script cowritten by novelist Peter Dexter, filmmaker Bill Condon and actress Nancy Cassaro (strange bedfellows indeed), Baldwin's "The Devil and Daniel Webster" cast Anthony Hopkins (Baldwin's co-star from David Mamet's "The Edge") as Webster and Jennifer Love Hewitt as The Devil. Apparently a troubled production from the start, the film lists no fewer than 21 producers which may explain why is was repeatedly recut and shelved, much to Baldwin's chagrin.

Ultimately acquired by Bob Yari productions, it played a couple film markets and festivals in 2004 and a few token theatrical engagements in 2007 (mostly in Europe) under the new title "Shortcut to Heaven" before going to video/DVD in 2008 - by which time, Baldwin had his directorial contribution to the film removed from its credits.

The film now lists "Harry Kirkpatrick" as its auteur.

Baldwin, however, remains on screen as the third lead, looking much thinner than he is now, as evidenced by the still shot above. He and his two stars are fine, as are the performers in the stellar supporting cast - Dan Aykroyd, Kim Cattrall, John Savage, Barry Miller, Amy Poehler, Bobby Cannavale, Jason Patric and Darrell Hammond - an indication that Baldwin is a good director of actors. Among the supporting characters in the film are Ernest Hemingway, Lillian Hellman, Charlotte Bronte, Sylvia Plath, James Joyce and Truman Capote. Dexter's contribution? Hmmm.

Stick to the original "The Devil and Daniel Webster," which airs at 8 p.m. (est) on Saturday, 28 November.

cinema obscura: Joe Dante's "Matinee" (1993)

Speaking of 1962 as a great movie year...

Now is the time to praise "Matinee," which happens (perhaps not so coincidentally) to be set in 1962.

Paying homage to genre shlockmeister William Castle, Joe Dante - a genre filmmaking giant himself - resurrects the peerless movie year, 1962, for this astute, affectionately detailed imagining of a shameless, C-level mogul whipping his teen target audience into a frenzy over his latest gimmick flick.

Light and vivacious on the surface, but with a subtle undercurrent of melancholy and regret, "Matinee" is irresistible to anyone who has been transported - and who sorely misses - such Castle-style diversions as "The Tingler" and "Homicidal" with their one-of-a-kind novelty props. ("The Tinlger" had the auditorium seats wired to goose the audience at apt times, while "Homicidal" came with its nifty "fright break," offering patrons a chance to get out of the theater or be scared to death.)

That effortless actor John Goodman uses his size and his winning personality to play the Castle on-screen surrogate here, a man of sheer force, one Lawrence Woolsey, who pulls out all stops and breaks all the rules of showmanship to unveil his latest kitschy horror effort, "Mant," to the teens of Key West, Florida.

Lurking in the background are the Cold War and the Cuban Missle Crisis which, Woolsey, of course, exploits for all they're worth.

Dante faves, Robert Picardo and Dick Miller, pop up as expected, adding to the fun, and there are game turns by Jesse White, David Clennon, Kevin McCarthy, William Schallert and filmmaker John Sayles in supporting roles. But there's also memorable work here by the women - Cathy Moriarty and Kellie Martin, a talented, fetching screen presence who seems to have all but disappeared.

"Matinee" is one of two criminally neglected films by Dante, the other being "The 'Burbs"," a funny film with Tom Hanks and Carrie Fisher. Both films have made it to DVD, "The 'Burbs" apparently in a "director's cut" version, and are definitely worth adding to your film library.

BTW, in time for Halloween, HBO will telecast "Matinee" at 6 a.m. (est) on Saturday, 31 October, but probably the the HBO pan-and-scan style.

façade: John Goodman

I first noticed the remarkable character actor John Goodman in David Byrne's 1986 new-style film musical, "True Stories," a film that Goodman made after having just scored big on Broadway in Roger Miller's 1985 musical, "Big River," and having played small roles in such films as "Sweet Dreams" and "Revenge of the Nerds."

He became a staple in some of the best films of the late 1980s and a household name on the TV series, "Roseanne." The choice supporting roles continued to roll in, but in the early '90s, Goodman started to score lead roles, starting with Frank Marshall's "Arachnophobia" in 1990. His name was suddenly above the title - for a while - and then things went back to the way they had been.

I was reminded of this by "The Babe," the 1992 Arthur Hiller film in which Goodman played Babe Ruth and which has been popping up on HBO of late. Around this time, Goodman had the star roles in Joe Dante's "Matinee," David S. Ward's "King Ralph" (opposite Peter O'Toole), Brian Levant's "The Flintstones" and Luis Mandoki's remake of "Born Yesterday" (in which Goodman replaced Nick Nolte). He was also Bette Midler's leading man in "Stella," a re-do of "Stella Dallas."

But as dazzling as these roles may have been for Goodman, they paled beside the exceptional supporting turns he did, particularly those for the Coen Brothers -"Raising Arizona," "The Hudsucker Proxy," "Barton Fink," "The Big Lebowski" and "O Brother, Where art Thou?"

More recently, Goodman single-handedly rescued Andy and Larry Wachowski's "Speed Racer," as only he can.

A true supporting player, invaluable.

cinema obscura: David Beaird's "It Takes Two" (1988)

David Beaird's "It Takes Two" from 1988 is an unusually accomplished and knowing little film, enchantingly funny and shrewdly observant at the same time, dealing with real-life man-woman issues.

Set on the eve of a wedding, it deals with what men really want (hot cars and hotter women, and lots of them) and what women want (love and a security that might be restricting). Men here, represented by the groom-to-be, are painted as dreamers, while women, in the form of his sweetheart and future wife, are seen as realists.

It's the battle of the sexes, done in an '80s style (when the film was released) but unpretentious. It has a sweet touch.

As in all romantic comedies, the man and woman here are each outraged by an element in the other's character.

Travis Rogers and Stephi Lawrence have lived in Waxahachie, Texas, all their lives, on their families' respective farms. Travis' family breeds horses and is strictly lower middle-class, while Stephi's dad, "Bull" Lawrence, is a "manure mogul."

These kids, just barely out of high school, are absolutely crazy about each other and, what's more, they were made for each other.

But they see things differently.

Travis has never been to a big city and has never owned anything fine, anything to call his own, and has never been with any other woman except Stephi - and he hasn't really been with her. (They're both virgins.) He has dreams of fancy cars and panting blondes, dreams followed by nightmares of Stephi locked inside his queasy stomach, dressed in her wedding gown, natch, for bad measure.

Stephi is spoiled, a bit self-centered and something of a nag, but (thanks to some three-dimensional playing here) you just know how much she loves Travis and how she only wants to make him happy.

When he announces that he wants to invest most of his hard-earned money in a fancy Tovare, advertised as an American imitation Lamborghini, and that he plans to go to Dallas right before their wedding to buy one, Stephi goes along with him, but only after a few fights.

Their fights are actually a kind of mutual criticism, very realistic, and as most married couples know, they are sometimes the only road to accommodation, torturous but introspective.

So while Stephi prepares for their big, big wedding, which is only 46 hours away, Travis goes to Dallas and is immediately hoodwinked by the salesperson at the Emeralds Motors Auto-Plex, an Oz-like place filled appropriately enough with green neon.

Jonni Tigersmith, his sales clerk, is the kind of woman he saw only in his dreams. She takes him for a ride - in more ways than one.

Although it isn't an action film, men should enjoy "It Takes Two," identifying with Travis' feelings and recognizing both Stephi and Jonni.

It's a male fantasy that turns into a male nightmare that, also, somehow ends, well, kinda dreamy.

I feel that I know these people and, more to the point, I feel that I've discovered some remarkable, attractive new talent.

Well, perhaps, not so new...

George Newbern and Leslie Hope, the stars, are two accomplished players who should have gone further in the 20-plus years since "It Takes Two" was first released. Newbern as Travis is a crackerjack leading man, at turns funny and serious and always willing to expose himself to the audience. His Travis is a fine character study of a young man old enough to grow a mustache but young enough to look silly with one.

But the titanic supporting structure of this movie is his co-star, Leslie Hope (who, back in the day, was soon to be seen in Oliver Stone's "Talk Radio" and with Matt Dillon in "Kansas"). As Stephi, Hope reads dialogue as if she were having a candid conversation with her friends and has a smile to die for. And, in the film's big scene, when Stephi thinks Travis has stood her up at the altar, Hope does a monologue that sells us on her character once and for all. Up until that time, we swing back and forth with Stephi, an incredibly complex character.

And a special note about Kimberly Foster who, as Jonni, is sort of a neo-Kim Novak, a striking blonde with a punky edge, a heart of gold (of course) and, most important, a streak of decency.

"It Takes Two" (titled "My New Car" immediately prior to its release in '88) is complex, too, bittersweet and tangy, with a live-in feel.

cinema obscura: Henry Koster's "Take Her, She's Mine" (1963)

Sandra Dee and Bob Denver in Henry Koster's "Take Her, She's Mine," based on the Ephron play

James Stewart took a break from the dark films he made for Alfred Hitchcock and Anthony Mann in the late 1950s to do two family larks for Henry Koster and Twentieth Century-Fox early in the 1960s.

First came, "Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation" in 1962, a film largely remembered for a very weird turn by the singular John McGiver and the film debut of Lauri Peters, who was fresh off the stage version of "The Sound of Music" and still married to her co-star from that show, Jon Voight.

While "Mr. Hobbs" has been available on DVD for quite some time, its successor, Koster's affable "Take Her, She's Mine" from 1963, remains elusive. The Fox Movie Channel is telecasting it on Wednesday, 28 October at 2 p.m. (est).

Adapted by Nunnally Johnson from the play by Henry and Phoebe Ephron, "Take Her, She's Mine" cast Stewart and Audrey Meadows as the overprotective parents of a teenage daughter who's off to study in Paris. The Ephrons based the play on their experiences with their own daughter, Nora - named Mollie and played by Sandra Dee on film.

On stage, the parts of the parents were played by Art Carney (prior to his doing "The Odd Couple") and Phyllis Thaxter, with then-newcomer Elizabeth Ashley winning a Tony award as the problematic Mollie. The Broadway production, which opened at the Biltmore Theatre on 21 December, 1961 and played there for 404 performances, was produced by Harold Prince and directed by George Abbott.

June Harding, a promising young actress at the time, played the role of Ashley's younger sister, Liz, on stage (a part essayed by Charla Doherty in the Koster film). Harding was beautifully showcased when she was part of the ensemble of "The Richard Boone Show," an omnibus jto-do which presented a series of original playlets during the 1963-1964 TV season. She would make her most pleasing film debut opposite Hayley Mills and Rosalind Russell in Ida Lupino's "The Trouble with Angles" in 1966 and then, inexplicably, disappear. A great loss.

The Fox Movie Channel will rebroadcast "Take Her, She's Mine" on Thanksgiving - Thursday, 26 November at 10 a.m.

cinema obscura: Griffin Dunne's "The Accidental Husband" (2008)

Morgan and Thurman in the unreleased "The Accidental Husband," directed by Griffin Dunne.

Uma Thurman's latest film, "Motherhood," directed by Katherine Dieckmann, opened in a few "select" cities this weekend - an indication that it will travel no further theatrically. Next stop: DVD.

But what on earth happend to Thurman's 2008 film, "The Accidental Husband"? It was directed by Griffin Dunne and co-stars "Grey's Anatomy's" Jeffrey Dean Morgan before he even made "Watchmen," and the ubiquitous Colin Firth - and Sam Shepard! With a cast like this, why wasn't "The Accidental Husband" ever released?

In it, Thurman plays a popular radio talk show host, emgaged to Firth but already married to Morgan - much to her chagrin. And confusion. See, she doesn't remember even marrying Morgan. So what gives? This sound like the kind of inane romcom that most studios have no problem releasing - at least, not when the inane romcom stars Sandra Bullock.

Apparently, the Morgan character is harboring some "big secret" which, for me, is code that his character is really gay. I'm only guessing here.

Hey, let's see this film already!

cinema obscura: Gene Saks' "Bye Bye Birdie" (1995)

The cast of the good film of "Bye Bye Birdie," the one directed by Gene Saks, not George Sidney

After nearly 50 years, "Bye Bye Birdie" has made it back to Broadway for, unbelievably, its very first New York City revival.

The beloved Charles Strouse-Lee Adams musical comedy from 1960 (their debut) had been Gower Champion's Broadway directorial debut, with Champion both helming and choreographing, and his appealing cast included Dick Van Dyke as Albert, a reluctant talent agent; Chita Rivera as Rosie, his secretary and muse; the late, inimitable Kay Medford as Albert's grasping mother, Mae; Dick Gautier, dynamite as the Presley-like Conrad Birdie; Susan Watson, the first and best Kim MacAfee, a girl possibly being corrupted by Birdie; Michael J. Pollard (yes!) as Hugo Peabody, her lovelorn boyfriend, and the late Paul Lynde who, as her father, turned the all-American dad into a sissy. A nice subversive touch, especially when set in the idyllic Sweet Apple, Ohio - Small Town, U.S.A.

The New York Times greeted with the new revival with a pre-opening puff piece by Charles McGrath and Ben Brantley's savage pan, both of which invoked unfavorable comments about George Sidney's 1963 film version.

No complaints from me here. Sidney's film was pretty much a bastardization of the show - albeit an inexplicably popular bastardization.

No mention, however, of the fine 1995 television film made from the material by Gene Saks - a version that went back to Michael Stewart's original book for the show (the TV film has no screenplay credit) and that restored the more sophisticated Strouse-Adams songs that Sidney and his hack writer Irving Brecher promptly trashed in order to showcase Ann-Margret, grotesquely miscast as a teen ingenué. Columbia let Sidney and Brecher make so many bizarre and gratuitous changes that you have to wonder why the studio bought the film rights to the show in the first place.

Not that it mattered at the time - or even now - but Sidney's film also starred Van Dyke and Lynde, recreating their Broadway roles (Lynde in a less exaggerated, more conventional version of what he played on stage), a wasted Janet Leigh as Rosie, a game Maureen Stapleton as Mae, Bobby Rydell, a bad actor utterly hopeless as Hugo Peabody, and a humorless stick named Jesse Pearson, a complete wash-out as Birdie.

Jason as Albert

Champion, who was initially set to make his film-directing debut with "Birdie," reportedly took one look at the script and bailed. Among the excised songs were the excellent "An English Teacher," which opened the show, the cynical "All-American Boy," the Sinatra-esque "Baby, Talk to Me," the defiant duet "What Did I Ever See in Him?" and, most jaw-dropping of all, the show-stopping "Spanish Rose." After Champion left, Onna White was brought in to choreograph. (He eventually made his film directorial debut the same year - 1963 - with Debbie Reynolds' "My Six Loves"; Reynolds was Champion's original choice for the screen Rosie; he had Jack Lemmon, his co-star from H.C. Potter's 1955 musical, "Three for the Show," in mind for Albert.)

Janet Leigh, being a good sport and a team player in the misconceived first "Birdie"

The 1963 film Disney-fied the material, stressing the kids (mostly A-M). The adult characters were either downplayed or turned into morons. Albert, ostensibly the lead character, was planning to be an English teacher in the stage version (hence, the opening song); for Sidney's film, his college major was changed to chemistry - an alteration that added all sorts of nonsense involving a pill called Speedo, a turtle and a Russian ballet company. The "Put on a Happy Face" number, staged on Broadway as an appealing Gene Kelly-type bit, incorporated stick-figure animation for the film. The whole affair is crude and idiotic - and unnecessary.

Chita & Dick in the original

And, apparently, the new Broadway revival is just as bad (that's if you go by Ben Brantley, of course). So much for "Bye Bye Birdie's" reputation as "foolproof."

Before Saks filmed his version, he directed a 1991 revival with Tommy Tune and Ann Reinking that opened in San Francisco and then toured. It was full of newcomers - up-and-comging Susan Egan in the A-M role of Kim MacAfee; Marc Kudisch as Conrad Birdie and Steve Zahn (yes!) as Hugo Peabody, the goof who fancies Kim his inmorata.

Alan Sues, from "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In," was once on-board to play the Lynde part of Harry MacAfee - and presumably revive the sissiness of the role - but he never became a part of the ensemble. The role was played by Dale O'Brien, who essayed it as a sitcom dad.

Saks' was the complete show. He added a new song for Tune called "A Giant Step" - and he resisted inserting the title song that was especially written for (forced upon?) the Sidney film. There was one deletion, however: Saks dropped the Act One "How to Kill a Man" dance, a comic dream ballet that I suspect was designed by Champion specifically to showcase Rivera. In it, Rosie dances her way through fantasy murders and the piece ends with Van Dyke's Albert, expiring and ascending into the sky - the rafters - wearing wings and being pulled up by wire.

(Note in Passing: "How to Kill a Man" has never been staged in any other production of "Bye Bye Birdie" that I've seen, only the original - although, frankly, I have no idea if it is included in the new revival.)

When this "Birdie" went on tour, Strouse and Adams added another new song - "He's Mine," a witty battle of wills sung by Rosie and Mae.

Saks ("Barefoot in the Park" and "The Odd Couple") clearly learned a lot in the four years between staging his revival and directing the movie. His '95 TV film is the definitive "Bye Bye Birdie," with more music than I've seen in any other version of the show. "A Giant Step" from the 1991 revival was inserted into the plotline, but not "He's Mine." Instead, Strouse and Adams wrote two new songs, "Let's Settle Down" (for Rosie) and "A Mother Doesn't Matter Anymore" (for Mae). Saks also gave in and used the song "Bye Bye Birdie" twice - over the main credits and also as a pleasing four-part harmony, rendered by a quartet of teenage girls.

Kudisch reprised his role as Birdie for the TV version, joined by versatile Jason Alexander as Albert, a very fine Vanessa Williams as Rosie, Tyne Daly, frighteningly good as Mae, Chynna Phillips, a modest Kim, and George Wendt as Harry. The '95 film also revived the role of Gloria Rasputin, played by Vickie Lewis (who appeared with Alexander on a few "Seinfeld" episodes as his secretary.)

Saks filmed the material in the style of Robert Zemeckis' charming "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" (1978), with production designer Charles C. Bennett and set decorator Cynthia T. Lewis, abetted by cinematographer Glen MacPherson, giving the opening New York scene a gray, near-sepia-toned look and the scenes set in Sweet Apple a pastel glow. Mary E. McLeod's costume design fully complement this coloring. And Ann Reinking, Saks' Rosie on stage, did the first-rate choreography.

All in all, this "Bye Bye Birdie" is one of the all-time best screen musicals...

...even if it was made for the small screen.

And, good news! It's available on DVD.

close-up: Nineteen Hundred and Sixty-Two

David Lean's "Lawrence of Arabia": '62's Crown Jewel

Look, I love the film year 1939 as much as the next cinéphile, but the 70 years of praise that it has accumulated (and, I hasten to add, deserved) tends to diminish other great movie years, before and after.

Case in point: 1962. Great, great year.

For longer than I care to remember, I've been doing spin for 1962. If neglected films are my forté - not to mention, the thrust of this site - then 1962 defines everything that is important to me in terms of movies.

I was a lone voice on the subject until Stephen Farber wrote his fabulous essay,"1962: When the Silver Screen Never Looked So Golden" for The New York Times on Sunday, 15 September, 2002.

Exacerbating matters for films that year, a city-wide strike halted newspaper production in December, which meant no Ten Best lists and no film critics awards in '62. But, now, the film arm of Brooklyn's Academy of Music (BAM) has set out to belatedly correct matters by organizing a modest event titled BAMcinématek 1962: New York Film Critics Circle, which will be devoted to a handful of titles from that year.

Check out A.O. Scott's NY Times report.

Twelve films will be introduced by members of the New York Film Critics Circle, beginning with Jacques Demy's "Lola" on Friday, 23 October, with screenings at 2, 4:30, 6:50 and 9:30 p.m.; NYFCC chair Armond White of New York Press will introduce the Demy movie.

With that said - and in addition to Demy's "Lola" - here is a unannotated list of the noteworthy films of 1962, noteworthy for their breadth and variety and for their eclectic mix of veteran filmmakers and newcomers.

Some are great, some merely good. But I think you'll agree: It was some year. BAM is scratching only the surface of '62's fascinating filmography.

Here goes:

David Lean: "Lawrence of Arabia"

Alain Resnais: "Last Year at Marienbad"

Three by John Frankenheimer: "The Manchurian Candidate," "Birdman of Alcatraz" and "All Fall Down"

Three by Delbert Mann: "The Outsider," "Lover Come Back" and "That Touch of Mink"

John Cassavetes: "Too Late Blues"

Sidney Gilliat: "Only Two Can Play"

Two by Frank Tashlin:
"Bachelor Flat" and "It's Only Money"

Parrish and Harvey, "The Manchurian Candidate"

Guy Green: "Light in the Piazza"

Pietro Germi: "Divorce - Italian Style"

Two by Sidney Lumet: "A View from the Bridge" and "Long Day's Journey into Night"

Two by Vincente Minnelli: "Two Weeks in Another Town" and "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse"

Two by Edward Dmytryk: "Walk on the Wild Side" and "The Reluctant Saint"

Otto Preminger: "Advise and Consent"

Jacques Rivette: "Paris Belongs to Us"

Roger Corman: "Tales of Terror"

Stanley Kubrick: "Lolita"

John Guillermin: "Waltz of the Toreadors"

Delmer Daves: "Rome Adventure"

Leo McCarey: "Satan Never Sleeps"

Newman and Page, "Sweet Bird of Youth"

Two by Sidney J. Furie: "Night of Passion" and "Wonderful to Be Young"

Andrei Tarkovsky: "The Violin and the Roller"

Richard Brooks: "Sweet Bird of Youth"

Orson Welles: "Mr. Arkadin"

Two by Henri Verneuil: "Maxime" and "The Most Wanted Man in the World"

Two by Tony Richardson: "A Taste of Honey" and "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner"

Jack Clayton: "The Innocents"

Michael Cacoyannis: "Electra"

John Ford: "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence"

Peter Ustinov: "Billy Budd"

Agnes Varda: "Cleo from 5 to 7"

Two by Blake Edwards: "Experiment in Terror" and "Days of Wine and Roses"

Freddie Francis: "Two and Two Make Six"

Bryan Forbes: "Whistle Down the Wind"

Serge Bourguignon: "Sundays and Cybele"

Mervyn LeRoy: "Gypsy"

Morton DaCosta: "The Music Man"

Two by Luis Buñuel's: "Viridiana"

'62 produced at least two top movie musicals - LeRoy's "Gypsy" and DaCosta's "The Music Man," both from Warners

Michael Powell:
"Peeping Tom"

Andre Cayette:
"Tomorrow Is My Turn"

Two by Philip Leacock: "13 West Street" and "The War Lover"

Two by Michelangelo Antonioni: "Eclipse" and "Il Grido"

Sam Peckinpah: "Ride the High Country"

Inoshiro Honda: "Mothra"

José Ferrer: "State Fair"

J. Lee Thompson: "Cape Fear"

Arthur Penn: "The Miracle Worker"

Lewis Gilbert: "Damn the Defiant!"

Rock and Doris and Tony - Oh, my!

Martin Ritt: "Hemingway's Adventures of a Young Man"

Michael Gordon: "Boys' Night Out"

David Miller: "Lonely Are the Brave"

Don Siegel: "Hell Is for Heroes"

William Castle: "Zotz"

Daniel Mann: "Five Finger Exercise"

Samuel Fuller: "Merrill's Marauders"

Jane and Blanche Hudson

Richard Quine: "The Notorious Landlady"

Howard Hawks: "Hatari!"

George Seaton: "The Counterfeit Traitor"

Jules Dassin: "Phaedra"

Two by Jack Cardiff: "My Geisha" and "The Lion"

Henry Koster: "Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation"

Frank Perry: "David and Lisa"

Two by Robert Mulligan: "To Kill a Mockingbird" and "The Spiral Road"

David Swift: "The Interns"

Phil Karlson: "Kid Galahad"

Basil Dearden: "Victim"

Richard Fleischer: "Barabbas"

George Roy Hill: "Period of Adjustment"

Lewis Milestone: "Mutiny on the Bounty"

Robert Wise: "Two for the Seesaw"

Guy Hamilton: "The Best of Enemies"

Three by Ingmar Bergman: "Through a Glass Darkly," "Night Is My Future" and "The Devil's Wanton"

Louis Malle: "A Very Private Affair"

Peter Sellers: "I Like Money"

Three by Francois Truffaut: "Jules et Jim," "Love at Twenty" and "Shoot the Piano Player"

Charles Walters: "Billy Rose's Jumbo"

John Huston: "Freud"

George Pollock: "Murder She Said"

Irvin Kershner: "A Face in the Rain"

Jack Garfein: "something wild"

Pierre-Dominique Gaisseau: "The Sky Above - The Mud Below"

Kelly and Gleason on location in Paris for "Gigot"

Shirley Clarke: "The Connection"

Albert Lamorisse: "Stowaway in the Sky"

Robert Aldrich: "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?"

Gene Kelly: "Gigot,"(covered here a year ago as a piece of Cinema Obscura)

Ralph Nelson: "Requiem for a Heavyweight"

Hark Harvey: "Carnival of Souls"

Mauro Bolognini: "Bell'Antonio"

Daniel Petrie: "The Main Attraction"

Akira Kurosawa: "Yojimbo"

George Marshall: "The Happy Thieves"

Federico Fellini: "The Swindle"

Henry Hawthaway, Ford and Marshall: "How the West Was Won"

Ken Annakin, Andrew Morton and Barnhard Wicki: "The Longest Day"

Luchino Visconti, Mario Monicelli, Vittorio DeSica and Fellini: "Boccaccio '70"

And George Cukor: "The Chapman Report" (also recently covered here as another example of Cinema Obscura)

Lemmon and Novak take a break from shooting Richard Quine's "The Notorious Landlady"

bless the beasts: John Huston's "The Misfits" (1961)

Much has been written about the John Huston-Arthur Miller collaboration, "The Misfits" (1961), for nearly five decades now - initially dismissive stuff, later psycholoigcal analyses of the film and, more recently, a warm, belated understanding of a neglected classic.

The film is many things, I suppose, but to the best of my knowledge, it's never been given its due as a great essay on empathy for animals and, by extension, a potent attack on animal exploitation and cruelty.

Marilyn Monroe's character, Roslyn, is of course sensitive to animals and the treatment of them throughout the film, starting with her reaction to modern-day cowboy Clark Gable's dog and later to his threats to shoot a rabbit. But the film's high point, its pièce de résistance, is the prolonged, monumental mustange hunt that caps the film, as Russell Metty's limber camera follows as a zooming plane and speeding truck brutally chase the horses into exhaustion, after which they are bullied, roped and brought to their knees by Gable and fellow cowboys Eli Wallach and Montgomery Clift.

It's a heartbreaking moment. And is anything more liberating and euphoric than when the ropes binding them are cut and they are set free?

Turner Classics screens "The Misfits" tomorrow - Sunday, 18 October - at 4 p.m., est.

cinema obscura: Ed Blum's "Scenes of a Sexual Nature" (2006)

Ewan McGregor is one-half of a couple meditating on life and love in "Scenes of a Sexual Nature."

Once again, The Movie Channel (TMC) unearths a neglected gem - this time, Ed Blum's 2006 British-made ensemble film, "Scenes of a Sexual Nature," a title which inexplicably evaded U.S. release.

The vagaries of those films that get released and those that don't never fail to confound me, given the disposable junk that's routinely dumped in the marketplace.

His film set on one afternoon on Hampstead Heath, London, Blum considers the minutiae of seven couples relaxing there and meditating on life and love.

This is Blum's third directorial credit, following a short and a mock documentary on interrogations techniques.

His assorted couples include Ewan McGregor and Douglas Hodge as gay lovers; the great Eileen Atkins and Benjamin Whitrow as an older couple; Gina McKee and Hugh Bonneville as a pair on their first date, a blind date; Andrew Lincoln and Holly Aird as a couple in a stale marriage (his attention distracted by Eglantine Rembauville-Nicolle); Adrian Lester and Catherine Tate as two on the verge of divorce; Sophie Okenedo and Tom Hardy, who have a chance meeting after she's experienced a break-up, and Polly Walker, a working woman negotiating a "deal" with Mark Strong.

A distant relative of "Love Actually," only superior, "Scenes of a Sexual Nature" has smart, observant talk, complicated feelings and the breezy ambience of its green surroundings. It premieres on TMC on Monday, October 19 at 6:25 p.m. (est), with encore performances on Sunday, October 25 at 4:25 a.m. and Tuesday, October 27 at 6:05 p.m.

Note in Passing: McGregor also plays one-half of a gay couple, opposite Jim Carrey, no less, in Glenn Ficarra and John Requa's prison film, "I Love You Phillip Morris," which has been playing the festival circuit. It is set to open limited engagements on 5 February, 2010, going wide on 12 Feb.

Peter Sarsgaard Channels Alan Bates; The Unexpected anti-Semitism of Lone Scherfig's Beguiling/Troubling "An Education"

The first impression made by Lone Scherfig's "An Education" is that it is a deft throwback to Britain's serious comedies from its Carnaby St. era - you know, Silvio Narizzano's "Georgy Girl" (1966) and Desmond Davis' "Smashing Time" (1967) - with Peter Sarsgaard doing a light, uncanny riff on the irresistible cad/rascal/scamp (pick your own word) that the late Alan Bates routinely played during that period.

Initially, it's fine.

But then its story kicks in. The plotline is familiar to any art-house afficionado who has been exposed to the trailer for the past couple of months: A wonderful 24-year-old actress named Carey Mulligan plays a precocious, a tad pretentious but extremely likable 16-year-old named Jenny who plays the cello in her school orchestra and is light years ahead of the boys her age - and also her parents (Cara Seymour and Alfred Molina), for that matter. The sophistication she seems to studiously affect is actually the real thing. Jenny has only two things on her current agenda - to keep her virginity until she is 17 and to get into Oxford.

Then she meets the big-talking David (Sarsgaard, commanding a subtle British accent here), an older man who sweeps her off her feet and exposes her to the good life. In what amounts to a shameless teen fantasy, Jenny's parents (who are slightly opportunistic, at least her father is) actually approve of David and endorse the relationship. So far, so good. Well, sort of. But then, in what seems like a gratuitious touch, David tosses off the fact that he's Jewish. Then, a scene or two later, he admits that he's something of a crook - a scam artist with expensive tastes to feed - and he rationalizes his penchant for ripping off people. As a real-estate player, he purposely places black families in apartments and condos in order to scare off other tenants/owners, an underhanded way to get their property. "Schwarzes have to live somewhere," he shrugs.

And exactly why did David have to be Jewish? Hmmmm.

Alas, "An Education" is now at a point of no return.

A caring teacher (Olivia Williams, drabbed down way too much) is worried that Jenny might abandon Oxford for David - that he is ruining her life. The school's headmistress (Emma Thompson), meanwhile, is turned off by David's Judaism and, in a rant, reminds Jenny that his people murdered Christ. Less troubling than her intolerance is the film's curious attempt to justify her anti-Semitism by continuing to indict the now wildly unappealing David, revealing each of his secrets/skeletons, one by one.

And so, a film that starts out as a darkly affable little affair quickly degenerates unnecesssarily when its heroine's trust is violated and the ethnicity of her lover is unnecessarily made a crucial part in her betrayal.

David (Sarsgaard) indulges Jenny (Mulligan) in the illusion of romance. She's wised up, not educated.