drawing out ms. aniston

Jen has moved beyond being an actress to producer, businesswoman, humanitarian, feminist, entrepreneur, spokeswoman, philanthropist, animal activist, millionaire.

Nearly ten years ago, I devoted a column to some well-deserved praise of Jennifer Aniston, whose on-screen persona perfectly matched the spirit of this site.  A string of Aniston-driven "double-bills" was listed to illustrate her place in my solipsistic movie world of the underrated and neglected.

She is an actor who is attractive, companionable and blessed with crack comic timing and also what The New Yorker's TV critic Emily Nussbaum recently described as "vulnerable warmth." All of which produce a terrific chemistry. Both on-screen and off-. With actors and audiences alike.

Aside from these qualities, the list of films themselves underlined the playfulness and diversity of her decisions ("The Good Girl"! "Friends with Money"! "Office Space"!) and had me wondering exactly why Aniston has been perpetually underrated. Also, she had - and still  has - the potential to revive the kind of breezy movies popularized by Debbie Reynolds and Doris Day in the 1960s, that's if anyone in Hollywood these days is resourceful or creative enough to even consider such a retro revival.

Surprisingly, I was not alone in my assessment: The essay drew in excess of 5,000 hits and 79 comments (to date). Companionable. Yes.

But since then, Jen has moved on, as evidenced in a piece written by Rachel Simon for NBC News, titled "How Jennifer Aniston has stayed America's sweetheart - when so many rivals failed." Being a "movie star" is the least of it these days. There is now so much more to consider and celebrate. Yes, she remains ever-companionable. There's that word again. 

In the interim, other words and expressions have gathered, applying crucially to Jennifer Aniston - words and expressions that go beyond the ease of being an "actress" or "team player" or, yes, even, "friend."

The Jennifer Aniston of the new millennium now commands attention as a producer, businesswoman, humanitarian, feminist, entrepreneur, spokeswoman, philanthropist, animal activist, millionaire.

She has positioned herself as one of the leading, highest-paid, and richest actresses and, more impressively, as an animal devotee. Aniston's new "friends" (apart from her TV besties) have included dogs of all breeds.

And some of these friends have come and gone. There was Norman, her Welsh Corgi-Terrier who was with Aniston during her run on "Friends" and who died in 2008 at age 15. Given that he always slept near her feet, Aniston had his name tattooed on her right ankle after he passed.

When Dolly - the white German Shepherd that she shared with her ex, Justin Theroux, and who appeared on the Aveeno TV commercials with her - passed, Aniston reunited with Theroux to mourn her death, with two other Aniston/Theroux pooches attending - Sally, a Pit Bull mix, and a Hobo Terrier named Clyde who can be seen squeezing his snout into photos during Dolly's funeral. Added to the Aniston/Theroux mix after the funeral, an absolutely adorable Pit puppy named Sally was adopted.

 ~Sophie, Jennifer's Choice~
.

~The quintessential Jennifer Aniston~

In the 20 years since she's become an actress, Aniston has amassed 64 credits (including television), many of which are essentials. Anyone contemplating a Jennifer Aniston Film Festival would do well to consider these ten (listed in no particular order):

"The Good Girl"

"Office Space"

"The Break-Up"

"He's Just Not That into You"

"Friends with Money"

"Management"

"The Object of My Affection"

"Marley & Me"

"Love Happens"

"Derailed"

 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. -J

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~Jen and her Friends~

lonesome rhodes goes viral

“I’m an influencer, a wielder of opinion, a force — a force!”

 -Lonesome Rhodes in "A Face in the Crowd"

Well, now, it turns out that the word "influencer," most closely associated these days with the ambitions of contemporary self-made celebs such as Olivia Jade, is not exactly a current expression linked to the social media.

No, it was coined by Budd Schulberg sometime back in the early 1950s and is invoked by Andy Griffith on screen in Elia Kazan's "A Face in the Crowd," released in 1957. Towards the end of the film, suddenly aware of the power produced by his money-making popularity, Griffith's Lonesome Rhodes screams out, “I’m an influencer, a wielder of opinion, a force — a force!” But exactly when Schulberg came up with the word merits a little research.

"A Face in the Crowd" was adapted by Schulberg from a collection of short stories published by Random House in 1953 under the title "Some Faces in the Crowd."

The story source from the book was one titled "The Arkansas Traveler," which was the working title for the movie. In fact, Kazan filmed all the initial scenes in "A Face in the Crowd" in a rural northeast Arkansas town called Piggott in August of 1956. Bottom line: "Influencer" may date back to '53 or '56, invented for either the short story or the film. It depends.

And I doubt if Olivia Jade was there for either.

 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. -J

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 ~Andy Griffith in a scene from "A Face in the Crowd"
 ~photography: Warner Bros. 1957© 

 ~Dust jacket for "Some Faces in the Crowd" and a page from the story, "The Arkansas Traveler"
~photography: Random House 1953©

~Opening title card from "A Face in the Crowd"
~photography: Warner Bros. 1957©

m. m. m.

Having interviewed an incredible number of film personalities during my years as a movie critic, I am inevitably asked who were the nicest.

Easy. Jack Lemmon comes to mind immediately, of course. After that, I surprise even myself because two encounters of which I have particularly fond memories involved John Wayne and David Niven, especially Niven.

But more about David Niven later, in another essay. Today, I'll share my John Wayne reminiscence, a situation that was unexpected and wholly memorable. It was July 1976 and Wayne was visiting Philadelphia to promote what would be his final film, Don Siegel's "The Shootist."

Paramount welcomed Wayne, celebrating his arrival by staging the event in the massive John Wanamaker department store, specifically with a luncheon in the store's glittery eighth-floor Grand Crystal Tea Room.

The place was packed, overwhelmingly so. (For a time, the Grand Crystal Tea Room was the largest dining venue in Philadelphia, accommodating sit-down receptions of up to 1,000 people.) The late Linda Goldenberg, who was the Paramount rep in Philly at the time, was in charge of seating and sat me next to Wayne, whom I had interviewed a bit earlier in a more subdued location in the store, Wanamaker's Board Room.

Hold on. Lunch with John Wayne. (Which turned out to nothing like my unfortunate encounter with Shirley MacLaine which was covered here a few essays ago.) Lunch with a mythical screen presence, a situation which made it difficult for the person sitting opposite him to be professional and controlled.

It is here that he became Marion Mitchell Morrison (his real name).

For a while, it was just the two of us sitting at the table, making largely small talk. Wayne was soft-spoken, relaxed and courtly. Uncommonly modest and deferential. An actor and man whom critic Richard Schickel once astutely described as "the unacclaimed hero." The Quiet Man.

It wasn't long before we were approached by a Wanamaker executive who I recognized as Benjamin H. Doroff, the store's Executive Vice President, who asked me to move to another chair or table so that he could sit with Wayne. Doroff was a nice man but he was getting adament. Would there be a scene? To quash that possibility, I simply referred him to the table's place cards. "Perhaps you want to check this out with Linda," I said. This is when Wayne intervened. "She's over there," he said, pointing at Linda.

After Doroff left, John Wayne patted me on my hand and said "Well done."

Other people were now sitting at our table. One woman showed up with the July issue of Cosmopolitan to have Wayne autograph one of its stories - a piece titled "Wayne, Westerns and Women" by the feminist film critic Molly Haskell.

Wayne was surprised that the piece was positive. "She likes me?," he asked of Haskell.

Before we got around to lunch, there was another autograph request - of a terrific (and, again, unexpected) 1979 Phil Stern shot of Wayne vacationing in Acalpulco, providing a side of the actor removed from The Duke and closer to Marion Mitchell Morrison. Softer.

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. -J

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 ~John Wayne between interview sessions in 1976
 ~photography: Clayton Davis/Getty images1976©

 ~One of the logos for The Grand Crystal Tea Room
~poster art: Wanamaker 1976©

~A different John Wayne
~photography: Phil Stern 1959©

everybody has one

Bosley Crowther covered film for The New York Times for a whopping 27 years. My one encounter with him was in 1967, the year he retired. I was in college, reviewing for the campus newspaper, and had been invited by Paramount to a New York critics' screening of "Barefoot in the Park."

Encounter is a misleading word. We never actually met and my only recollection of the legendary critic was that he sat in the aisle in front of me, to my right, and that he could be heard ... snoring. Disillusioning.

Flashforward to 2019 and I'm watching Phil Karlson's "Kansas City Confidential," an installment of Turner Classic Movies' "Noir Alley," hosted by the utterly thorough Eddie Muller. Without missing a beat, Muller invokes the name Bosley Crowther during his post-screening discussion, referencing the critic's near-irrational pan of an otherwise solid film.

After quoting a lengthy portion of Crowther's scathing attack on Karlson and his star John Payne in particular -  with the venomous quote also superimposed as an on-screen caption (Chyron) - Muller digs into his bag of words and accurately designates Crowther a "gasbag."

At long last.

Like a certain body part, everybody has one, as the old saying goes (cleaned up here). An opinion, that is. But there are educated opinions, the kind smoothly espoused by Muller - and the kind that seem to evade most professional, working critics, represented by critics like Crowther. 

Finally, the impressively knowledegable Muller, who is nothing less than sophsticated, erudite and astute in his taste and brings panache and snap to his presentations, then flings himself into a long overdue critique of Bosley Crowther, equally scathing. Well done. There's a reason why Muller self-describes as "wordslinger, impresario and noirchaelogist."

Muller is an esoteric wordsmith, refreshingly idiosyncratic at times.

As for Crowther, in many other quarters, he was dismissed as "unnecessarily mean" and was particularly questioned about the cluelessness of his take on Arthur Penn's ”Bonnie and Clyde”and his refusal, unlike other reviewers, to re-evaluate it following the controversy of his attack. Instead, he doubled down and retired not long after that.

Yes, Eddie Muller nailed Bosley Crowther with "gasbag."

Note in Passing: Furthermore, any noir whose cast includes Jack Elam, Lee Van Cleef and Neville Brand in supporting character roles, as "Kansas City Confidential" demonstrates,  has at least three elements worth recommending. Crowther also ignored the film's contribution of leading lady Coleen Grey. Nothing on Preston Foster either. Unprofessional. 

FYI:  The 2019 Noir City 71 / 2020 Noir City Program kicks off Sunday, January 25 with screenings of Richard Fleischer's "Trapped" (1949) and Robert Siodmak's "The File on Thelma Jordan" (1950) at the Castro Theater and concludes on February 3, 2020 with Samuel Fuller's "Underworld, U.S.A." (1961) and Allen Baron's "Blast of Silence" (1961) 

The September 3rd, 1967 New York Times page containing Bosley Crowther's review of "Bonnie and Clyde"

~click on image to enlarge~

 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. -J

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 ~Eddie Muller, TCM's host of "Noir Alley"
 ~photography: Turner Classic Movies 2018© 

 ~Poster art for Phil Karlson's "Kansas City Confidential"
~photography: United Artists 1952©

~N.Y. Times tear sheet containing Bosley Crowther's review of "Bonnie and Clyde"

~news page: New York Times 1967©

the hissy fit

Those who read this site with any regularity are aware that Mervyn LeRoy's 1962 adaptation of "Gypsy" is my all-time favorite movie musical - and a favorite film in general - with much space devoted to finer points.

Case in point: A 60-plus-year hissy fit ensued when the play's star, Ethel Merman, was passed over in favor of movie icon Rosalind Russell.

This casting was - and remains - one of the more contentious aspects of the movie, haunting it ever since and prompting columnist Dorothy Kilgallen to put "Gypsy" under a microscope during its production with regular criticisms. Kilgallen even questioned the inspired decision to bring in Jack Benny for a cameo as a vaudeville comic. "Jack Benny has been hired for a role in the film of 'Gypsy,'" Kilgallen wrote. "Must be in trouble."
A year later, Merman got a consolation prize (so to speak) - and the last word - when she was hired by Stanley Kramer to play the harridan, Mrs. Marcus - mother of Dorothy Provine and Dick Shawn and mother-in-law of Milton Berle - in Kramer's 1963 "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World."

Anyway, Jack Benny, perhaps not coincidentally, popped up for another cameo scene - which leads to a very inside joke.

Merman and company are stranded, their car having broken down, when Benny happens to drive by and asks if they're having trouble.

"NO!" screams Merman as only she could, adding ... "And we don't need any help from you!"

The scene isn't the least bit funny and seems pointless - until you think about Benny's "unclean" participation in Merman's beloved "Gypsy."

I don't know but that throwaway line, "And we don't need any help from you!," always takes on a deeper meaning for me.

Finally, it can be safely presumed, I think, that Jack Warner wasn't stupid: Like everyone else, he had seen the Merman movies, "Call Me Madam" and "There's No Business Like Show Business," and knew that she was no screen personality. Instead, he went for a world-class actress who would bring psychological depth to the character. Rosalind Russell. Terrific.

But, nevertheless, he managed to acknowledge Merman in his film of "Gypsy." It's a small tribute and it occurs in the scene in which Natalie Wood is preparing to perform as Gypsy Rose Lee for the very first time. She's backstage, in her dressing room, and thinks aloud, "I'm a pretty girl, Momma." If you pivot towards Natalie's right shoulder and look closely, you'll see a framed caricature on the wall - a caricature of ...  Could it be?

Ethel Merman!



  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 (real or fabricated) or initials.  Be advised that a "name" will be assigned to any accepted post signed "unknown" or "anonymous." Thank you. -J

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~Jack Benny in a scene from "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" 

~photography: United Artists 1963©

 ~Dorothy Provine and Ethel Merman in a scene from "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World"
 ~photography: United Artists 1963© 

 ~Benny with Mervyn LeRoy on the set of "Gypsy"

~photography: Warner Bros. 1962©

~Natalie Wood in a scene from "Gypsy"

~photography: Warner Bros. 1962©

~Benny performing in "Gypsy"
~Film clip: Warner Bros. 1962©