there's nothing about mary

"Mary Poppins Returns."

Exactly where do I start? Well, the first word that came to mind as I trudged my way through the film was "joyless." I leaned towards my wife about a half hour into the movie and whispered, "'This is utterly joyless."

Which is odd, given that it's a big, booming movie musical brimming with overstaged songs about positivity. But it's so aggressively entertaining that the joy that it's intent on sharing is ultimately exhausting. And soulless. (The New York Times' Mahohla Dargis came up with another -less to describe it in her review: "A largely charmless venture," she wrote.)

The film, of course, is a fifty-years-plus sequel to Disney's 1964 movie whose status as "iconic" and "classic" never made much sense to me. Its only memorable element is the remarkable Sherman Bros. song score.

Frankly, the appeal of the character of Mary Poppins has always evaded me. Mary is obnoxious, self-satisfied and rude - and, yes, charmless - even as played by the twinkly Julie Andrews back in '64. She's probably the least qualified nanny to teach life lessons to innocent minds.

Andrews actually won an Oscar as Best Actress for her performance, an achievement that had less to do with her portrayal than with Hollywood's weird, misguided way of punishing Audrey Hepburn for assuming Andrews' original stage role in the film version of "My Fair Lady." The two films were released the same year, and both Hepburn and "My Fair Lady" are arguably superior to Andrews and "Mary Poppins." There, I said it!

The makers of the sequel basically trace over the original movie in an attempt to replicate its musical magic. Each song here is inspired by one from the original. Given their newness, it's difficult - and unfair - to judge the sequel's songs against ones that we've heard over and over and over again for the past five decades. The new songs certainly support the plot, get the job done and may even prove to be memorable but too many of them are protracted and garish in a misguided attempt to be "dazzling."

Again, the words joyless, exhausting and aggressive come to mind.

Talented Emily Blunt, who has been a vivid presence on screen since she caught the attention of critics in the 2004 British drama, "My Summer of Love," is something of a blank as Mary Poppins, not only because she's essentially miscast here but also because, for some bizarre reason, the character has been written to be on the periphery of the plot. She's more of an observer than the film's leading character. Consequently, much more memorable are Ben Whishaw and Emily Moritmer, who play the grown siblings Michael and Jane Banks, around whom the plot revolves.

Mortimer, in fact, is so light and naturally engaging here that it becomes apparent (to me, at least) that Disney cast the wrong Emily as Mary.

Note in Passing: I've a quick question: Exactly for whom was this movie made? Ostensibly, it's a family film geared towards children. Pre-schoolers might like it but older kids today may be too sophisticated and jaded to buy into its retro (read: corny) quality. There was only one child - a little girl - at the screening I attended and she didn't make it through the film's overlong two-hour-and-10-minute running time. The other dozen or so people in the audience (aside from one other guy) were middle-aged women in groups of two or three - women apparently with fond memories of the original film. They're the real audience for "Mary Poppins Returns."

Regarding Comments: All comments are enthusiastically appreciated but are moderated before publication. Replies signed "unknown" or "anonymous" are not encouraged. Please sign any response with a name (real or fabricated) or initials.  Be advised that a "name" will be assigned to any accepted post signed "unknown" or "anonymous." Thank you.

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 ~the umbrella has seen better days

dick & shelley & dick & kay

 

Connections, connections.

While most movie critics have a penchant for list-making, I always preferred locating what I call Hollywood connections. Case in point: Bud Yorkin's "Divorce, American Style," starring Debbie Reynolds and Dick Van Dyke, now more than 50 years old but as astutely observant and contemporary as ever. If anything, this scathing comedy of uncompromising matrimonial realities has improved with age.

A connection: Take note of the funny sequence which Reynolds and Van Dyke share with their respective divorce lawyers, played by Shelley Berman and Dick Gautier - both of whom had a history with Van Dyke.

Berman and Van Dyke had appeared on Broadway with Nancy Walker and Bert Lahr in the 1959 musical revue, "The Boys Against the Girls" and, a year later, Gautier played the title role in the original stage version of Van Dyke's musical hit, "Bye Bye Birdie," directed by Gower Champion.

For some bizarre reason, Columbia Pictures and director George Sidney didn't recruit the witty Gautier to recreate his stage role for their 1963 film of "Birdie"(giving it instead to a gyrating blank named Jesse Pearson).

Another connection… Gautier enjoyed something of a reunion with his “Birdie” co-star, Kay Medford, in Joshua Logan’s 1964 “Mister Roberts” sequel, "Ensign Pulver," starring Robert Walker, Jr. in the title (i.e. Jack Lemmon) role. Medford, who played Mae. Peterson (Van Dyke's mother) in the Broadway musical, was also passed over by Sidney for his film version of the musical. (Maureen Stapelton was cast in the role if Mrs. Petersen on screen.)

Josh Logan's little movie may be negligble, but I will forever be appreciative of his nimble casting of "Pulver" and particularly for correcting Sidney's slight and coming through for both Kay Medford and Dick Gautier.

“Pulver,” by the way, has a most impressive cast.  Medford plays a nurse who flirts with Walter Matthau (who inherited the William Powell role of Doc) and Gautier is a Seabee. Jack Nicholson,  James Coco, Tommy Sands, Jerry Orbach, James Farentino, Larry Hagman, George Lindsey, Gerald O'Loughlin and Peter Marshall play other assorted sailors.

Millie Perkins is Medford’s fellow nurse, and Diana Sands and Al Freeman, Jr. are hilarious as two rather worldly south-seas natives.

Burl Ives inherited the James Cagney role of The Captain of the ship that Pulver, Doc and the seabees call The Bucket.

Note in Passing:  More connections... Champion, who was slated to make his movie directorial debut with the film of "Bye Bye Birdie," actually accomplished that with the 1963 comedy "My Six Loves," starring ... Debbie Reynolds. And Reynolds and Van Dyke's sons in "Divorce, American Style" are played by Tim Matheson and Gary Goetzman.  Matheson still acts, while Goetzman works as a producer in tandem with Tom Hanks, actively involved in Hanks' Playtone production company.

Regarding Comments: All comments are enthusiastically appreciated but are moderated before publication. Replies signed "unknown" or "anonymous" are not encouraged. Please sign any response with a name (real or fabricated) or initials.  Be advised that a "name" will be assigned to any accepted post signed "unknown" or "anonymous." Thank you.

~images~

(from top)

~Dick Van Dyke and Debbie Reynolds in "Divorce, American Style"

~Van Dyke and Dick Gautier in a scene from the same film

~photography: Columbia Pictures 1967©

~Gautier with Paul Lynde and Michael J. Pollard  on stage in "Bye Bye Birdie"
~photography: Friedman-Abeles 1960©

~Kay Medford in the stage version of "Bye Bye Birdie"
~photography: Friedman-Abeles 1960©

~Al Freeman, Jr. (from left), Millie Perkins, Medford and Diana Sands (with Burl Ives on stretcher in foreground)
photography: Warner Bros. 1964©

acting categories and the transgender conundrum

While it's terrific that the Hollywood Foreign Press recognized Ryan Murphy's revolutionary FX series, "Pose," among its Golden Globe nominations, the acknowledgement is still lacking. It's not enough.

The show, a compelling hybrid of Joseph Mankiewicz's "All About Eve" and Armistead Maupin's "Tales of the City" in its exhilarating portrait of trans performers in the 1980s, has been nominated for two Globes - Best Television Series (drama) and Best Actor in a Television Series (drama).

The actor in question is Billy Porter, authentically touching (and impressively restrained) as a vibrant man, now deflated and yet aggressively defiant while in the throes of AIDS.

But as wonderful as Porter is in the series, clearly deserving his nomination, the true revelations of "Pose" are the vivid portrayals by two of its lead trans performers. But neither Indya Moore nor the incredible Mj Rodriguez were nominated. Why? Their acting duet is the titantic supporting structure of the show. Actually, they are the show.

My guess is that their status as trans performers confused the hell out of the Hollywood Foreign Press. I mean, does one nominate them in the "actor" category or the "actress" category. Whichever way the H.F.P. went, it would be in a no-win position, open to charges of insensitivity.

But is the answer to simply ignore two of the best performances of the year, hoping that no one will notice?  Well, I did. And I've a hunch that Ryan Murphy noticed, too, as well as "Pose's" family of trans actors.

That said, it will be interesting to see where the bloated Emmys will stand on this issue. I suspect that there will be more of the same cowardice.

In the meantime, no critic reporting on the Globe nominations in the last few days has even thought to comment on the oversight. Not one. 

Regarding Comments: All comments are enthusiastically appreciated but are moderated before publication. Replies signed "unknown" or "anonymous" are not encouraged. Please sign any response with a name (real or fabricated) or initials.  Be advised that a "name" will be assigned to any accepted post signed "unknown" or "anonymous." Thank you.

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 ~Indya Moore (from left) , Dominque Jackson, Angelica Rossand MjRodriguez in "Pose"

~photography: FX Productions 2018©

the working title

The above still from "Sexual Perversity in Chicago," directed by Edward Zwick from the David Mamet play of the same title, was included in the summer preview press kit distributed by TriStar Pictures in 1986.

However, by the time the film was released that July, the studio got cold feet and retitled it with the generic moniker, "About Last Night..." (One of the film's stars, Jim Belushi, had appeared in  Chicago's Apollo Theater Center production of "Sexual Perversity in Chicago").

It always seemed too good to be true that TriStar would retain the work's original, edgier title. Of course, the generic title was retained for the 2014 Kevin Hart remake (co-starring Joy Bryant, Regina Hall and Michael Ealy), titled simply "About Last Night" without the ellipses.

In the meantime, I have a Kris Kristofferson autographed shooting script for a Michael Cimino film titled "The Jackson County War" which is better known as "Heaven's Gate" (1980). And let's not forget that Billy Wilder's "Ace in a Hole" (1951) became "The Big Carnival" in Paramount's desperate attempt to rescue it from box-office failure.

Which brings me to the point of this essay - namely, those films that underwent a title change - and rarely for the good. I've come up with a few others that originally had singular titles that were vetoed in favor of the nondescript. Feel free to share others that come into mind. Here goes:

Sir Carol Reed's "Nobody Loves a Drunken Indian" (1970), starring Anthony Quinn and based on the Clair Huffaker novel of that title, became the more politically-correct "Flap" on screen and in display ads.

Norman Taurog's Cary Grant/Betsy Drake vehicle, "Room for One More," (1951) became "The Easy Way" for its TV syndication when Warner Bros. decided to spin the film into a sitcom in 1961 starring Peggy McKay and Andrew Duggan. That new title would stick for decades, long after the short-lived TV series was forgotten. The original title returned when Warner Archives released the film (which had long evaded home entertainment) on DVD.

Paul Mazursky's "Jerry Saved from Drowning" (1986)- a remake of the 1932 Jean Renoir French film "Boudu Saved from Drowning" ("Boudu sauvé des eaux") - became "Down and Out in Beverly Hills." Nick Nolte assumed the role originally played by the legendary Michel Simon . And Gerard Depardieu played the role in yet another remake directed by Gérard Jugnot in 2005. It was then simplified to ... "Boudu."  Got that? 

Playwright Tennesse Williams experienced title changes when two of his plays were filmed. Sidney Lumet's Brando-infused "Orpheus Descending" (1960), which Williams co-adapted with Meade Roberts, became "The Fugitive Kind" co-starring Anna Magnani and Joanne Woodward. And Joseph Losey's "The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore" (1968), adapted solely by Williams himself, materialized as "Boom!," starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.

Three lesser-known films had original titled that were, well, wildly original - and preferred by me (if anyone cares).  Edouard Molinaro's "I Won't Dance,"  with the much-missed Kristy McNichol, became "Just the Way You Are" (1984).Tony Bill's "The Baboon Heart," with Marisa Tomei and Christian Slater, became "Untamed Heart" (1993). And Peter Yates' "The Janitor Doesn't Dance,"  starring William Hurt as the janitor and Sigourney Weaver as a reporter, became "Eyewitness" (1981).

Robert Aldrich's 1971 remake of "No Orchids for Miss Blandish" morphed into "The Grissom Gang." (By the way, among the cast in Aldrich's film are Kim Darby and Connie Stevens, both of whom were married at one time to James Stacy.)

Howard Zeiff's sweet-natured "Born Jaundiced" (1991) - a truly great title - became "My Girl."

Four of Robert Altman's films were put through title changes. "The Presbyterian Church Wager"  became "McCabe and Mrs. Miller," (1971), while "Brewster McCloud and His Sexy Flying Machine" was simplied to "Brewster McCloud" (1970). The all-star "Prêt-à-Porter" was translated (no thanks to Harvey Weinstein) to "Ready to Wear" (1994). And "L.A. Short Cuts," based on a series of stories by Raymond Carver of that title, became "Short Cuts" (1993).

When director Robert Mulligan and his producing partner, Alan J. Pakula, decided to film the 1954 Horten Foote play, "The Traveling Lady," they had no idea that a song written for the film would overtake the marketing. The opening titles feature an open highway with the camera staring down and moving along the road. One can imagine the title, "The Traveling Lady," modestly scrawled across the screen. But then composer Elmer Bernstein and lyricist Ernie Sheldon wrote Baby, The Rain Must Fall” for star Steve McQueen's character to sing. The 1965 film's screenplay was written by Foote but it was no longer known as a movie based on a distinguished play. Lee Remick played the traveling lady on film, a role created on stage by Kim Stanley (who reprised it for a live TV production).

Joan Micklin Silver's "Chilly Scenes of Winter," based on the Ann Beattie novel of the same title, became "Head Over Heels" when it was released in 1979, only to revert back to "Chilly Scenes of Winter" for its re-issue.

Andrew Bergman's "Cop Gives Waitress Two Million Dollar Tip," with Bridget Fonda and Nicolas Cage, became the nondescript "It Could Happen to You" (1994).

Jon Avnet's hugely poplular "Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe," based on the book of that title by Fannie Flagg, was reduced to "Fried Green Tomatoes" (1991).

George Cukor's Judy Holliday gem, "A Name for Herself," became "It Should Happen to You" (1954). Frankly, neither title is very good. The film deserved better.

Roman Polanski shortened the title of his film version of "God of Carnage" to the monosyllabic "Carnage"(2011).

Finally, there's a film whose re-title I actually prefer. Jonathan Demme's "Citizen Band" (1977), a so-so moniker that was momentarily changed to the much better "Handle with Care" before Paramount decided to go back and stick with the colorless original.

Two other perfectly fine titles, meanwhile, were preserved at the 11th hour. Gilbert Cates' "I Never Sang for My Father" (1970) was slated by Columbia to be retitled "Strangers" (replete with a title song sung by Roy Clark) before someone there wised up and decided to keep the title of the lovely Robert Anderson play on which it is based.

And William Wyler's 1961 film version of the Lillian Helman play, "The Children's Hour," almost became "The Infamous."  This was the second time that Wyler directed Helman's material and the second time he had to deal with a title change.  He earlier filmed the play in 1936 and it was given  the title, "These Three." In this case, the change made sense, given that the original subject of homosexuality was supplanted by a plot about a romantic triangle. It was no longer "The Children's Hour."

Again, if you have title changes to share, please do!



Notes in Passing:  Regarding the two aforementioned Tennessee Williams plays, both share a Tallulah Bankhead connection. "The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore" had two Broadway stagings (and truncated runs) before being filmed. The first production in 1963 starred Hermoine Baddeley in a role that Williams wrote originally for Bankhead, who would star in the second production the following year. (The part of  Flora Goforth, reportedly, was based on Bankhead.) Tab Hunter co-starred and Tony Richardson directed. "Orpheus Descending" was also written with Bankhead in mind but when it opened on Broadway in 1957, it starred Miriam Hopkins (of Wyler's "These Three"). It was revived by Peter Hall (Rebecca's father) in 1989, who also directed a 1990 TV movie of the material. His star both times was Vanessa Redgrave.

Also, re "The Children's House," I wrote about its fascinating history in an essay back in 2014.

Regarding Comments: All comments are enthusiastically appreciated but are moderated before publication. Replies signed "unknown" or "anonymous" are not encouraged. Please sign any response with a name (real or fabricated) or initials.  Be advised that a "name" will be assigned to any accepted post signed "unknown" or "anonymous." Thank you.

~images~

(from top) 

 ~The cast of "Sexual Perversity in Chicago" - Elizabeth Perkins, Rob Lowe, Demi Moore and Jim Belushi - before it became "About Last Night..."

~Photography: TriStar 1986© 

~Cary Grant, Betsy Drake and the kids in "Room for One More"

~photography: Warner Bros. 1951©

~Lee Remick and Kimberly Block in "Baby, The Rain Must Fall"

~photography: Columbia Pictures 1965©

~Melvin Douglas and Gene Hackman in "I Never Sang for My Father"

~photography: Columbia Pictures 1971©

~Joel McCrea, Merle Oberon and Miriam Hopkins in "These Three"

~photography: The Samuel Goldwyn Company/ United Artists 1936©

~Shirley MacLaine and Audrey Hepburn in "The Children's Hour"

~photography: United Artists 1961©