joe's dreaded genre

Since the passing of Robert Osborne in 2017, Turner Classic Movies has taken on a new dynamic, diversifying its features via the showcasing of its chief host - the intrepid, amiable Ben Mankiewicz, who brings brio to every new addition to TCM's line-up and achieves it with an easy-going mastery.

These days, everything seems essential on Turner, not the least of which is a new feature titled Pets on Sets, which examines the role of animals in film and how their participation is manipulated and achieved. The segment works largely because of Mankiewicz who brings it off effortlessly with a concern for the animals being exploited that seems genuine and heartfelt.

Is Ben an animal advocate? I have a hunch that he is. Me? Count me in. But my love of animals is equaled by my dislike of movies about them. I don't want to see any movie that's about a dog, cat, horse or lion. Have you noticed that movies about animals are always - always - sad and disturbing?  Awful things traditionally happen to the animal star.

Movies about animals have become my dreaded genre.
The MGM/Lassie films are the worst. "Old Yeller" is the pits. (Blasphemy, I know!) I do like Asta in the "Thin Man" series and Pyewacket in "Bell, Book and Candle," but those films really aren't about them, are they?

David Frankel's “Marley and Me” is the one rare exception - for me. And it remains a great film in general because it is about a life - in this case, the life of a dog from puppyhood to death - and also because of its complete, unapologetic empathy for the animal. All of this occurred to me belatedly after I wrote a previous essay on a potential remake of ”Born Free.”

Sorry, Elsa.

Throughout this December, Mankiewicz has been hosting Pets on Sets in tandem with Carol Tresan, who with her husband Greg, is  owner and operator of Animal Casting Atlanta, which trains animal actors. And while their Wednesday evening get togethers are dominated largely by discussions of animal performances in finished films, Ben, Carol and Greg do not hesitate to consider what it took to achieve those performances. Was it done with ease? Or - and I hate to ask - was cruelty a factor in the process?

Ben asks all the right questions. No surprise here. And Carol and Greg provide invaluable insight, as well as an inside look into the system. Neither pulls any punches. They educate us. We learn a lot about a movie subject that has never been addressed openly - or, if so, only rarely.

No, this trio does not skirt the tough questions. So, again, is cruelty indeed an occasional factor?

This subject came up back in 1995 when I interviewed the late
Pat Derby and her husband and partner Ed Stewart at their PAWS
facility (Performing Animal Welfare Society) in Galt, Ca.

Pat had worked for almost her entire adult life as an animal trainer (specializing in elephants, bears and tigers). but had a change of heart - as well as a carer change - becaming an outspoken crusader for animal rights on movie sets. Pat had a lot to say. Her story about the orangutan that worked in the 1978 Clint Eastwood film, "Every Which Way but Loose" was particularly disturbing. It precipitated her about-face enlighetnment.

A personal case in point: My wife adores George Stevens' "Giant."  Yes, it's a great movie in every way.  But for me, I can't get past the sequence in which Mercedes McCambridge abuses Elizabeth Taylor's beloved horse by driving her spurs into its sides.  It's an ugly scene and the horse is clearly in agony. But was the horse "acting"?  Later, after the horse throws McCambridge, killing her (justice served), it limps back to the ranch - shot in silhouette, against a nighttime sky. An evocative, haunting moment.

But wait!

For decades, I've wondered exactly how the filmmakers got that horse to limp on cue.  Was it "acting" or real?  It's important to remember that "Giant" was made in less enlightened times when it was routine to trip horses (often crippling or even killing them) for action scenes. My guess is that the horse being bludgeoned with spurs and later limping wasn't "acting." Making that particular moment in "Giant' even more deplorable to contemplate (let alone watch) is that, once the men in the film realize that McCambridge died after the horse threw her, they shoot the poor animal (justice not served).

Finally, I always wanted to interview Doris Day, something that evaded me during my career. One subject that I specifically wanted to address was about a film she made in 1962 - "Billy Rose's Jumbo," a musical named after its elephant star.  The animal is forced to do silly routines that are humiliating for a creature as magnificent and sentient as an elephant. What did it take? Again, was there any cruelty involved?  Doris, of course, was a vocal animal activist and this is one area of her career I would have loved to discuss with her.

That said, thanks Ben and Carol for the observation.

Note in Passing: Getting back to Frankel's "Marley & Me"... The film works beautifully as an intelligent, acute depiction of what's like to have a relationship with an animal and how the sudden absence of an animal companion can make one feel so terribly desolate because, well, the animal is always, reliably there - a point driven in the scene where stars Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson watch videos after Marley's passing.

In one of the videos, Aniston is standing at a kitchen counter talking to a friend.  She has a baby on her hip and eating food off the counter.  Marley is behind her and, almost absent-mindedly, without thinking, she gives Marley some of the food - because she just knew he would be there.

But, now, he isn't. No longer.

"Marley & Me." A truly under-appreciated film, the only "animal movie" I can tolerate.

 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

* * * * *

~images~

(from top)

~Ben Mankiewicz 

~photography: Turner Classic Movies 2019©
  
 ~Marley, as a pup in "Marley & Me"
~photography: Twentieth Century-Fox 2008© 

~Animal trainer Carol Tresan who works in tandem with her husband and partner Greg
~photography: Animal Casting Atlanta 2019©

 ~Animal trainer Pat Derby and friend
~photography:PAWS 1995© 

~Opening title card for the film "Giant"
~photography: Warner Bros.1956©    

~Doris Day and Jimmy Durante in "Billy Rose's Jumbo"
~photography: MGM 1962©  

~Marley, as a young adult in "Marley & Me"
~photography: Twentieth Century-Fox 2008©

you got mail

The letter, unexpected, arrived about a week after I interviewed Angela Lansbury, ostensibly about a 1973 Philadelphia event in which Lansbury was participating at The Academy of Music. Or  perhaps she was touring with Sondheim's "Sweeney Todd - The Demon Barber of Fleet Street."

But it wasn't from Angela.

It was from Lucille Ball who had just started production on the 1974 film version of Jerry Herman's "Mame," which starred Lansbury on Broadway. Apparently, I referenced Lucy's name in the piece (perhaps only fleetingly), she saw it and, being a pro, wasted no time acknowledging her gratitude. It's all very fuzzy now but it must have been something positive.

~click on letter to enlarge~

I suppose the subject of "Mame" came up, with Lansbury explaining that Ball snagged the role because Warner Bros. felt the film needed not just a big star, but an icon - something that Lansbury, also a pro, took in stride.


That said, with the holidays upon us, CBS has scheduled its annual Christmas screening of "I Love Lucy" in tandem as usual with another vintage episode. This year, the double-bill includes "Paris At Last" which originally broadcast on February. 27, 1956 and involves Lucy's problems with a sidewalk artist with "original" oil paintings, the exchange rate for American dollars (and counterfeit French francs) and .. a plate of snails.

CBS will air the back-to-back episodes on Friday, December 20 at 8 est. The network reports that the main titles and end credits are seamlessly combined into one set at the beginning and end of the hour, with no interruption between the showings. (Both episodes have been colorized.)

Would it be too much of a cliché for me to confess that, yes, I too have been bamboozled and still love Lucy? 

Note in Passing: BTW, when Lucy was cast in "Mame," Rosalind Russell, the original Auntie Mame and a contemporary of Ball's, questioned her friend's age, with the implication that she could have easily reprised the role herself. Instead, Roz opined that maybe Cher would have been a more age-appropriate choice at the time. Interesting. Could have worked.


 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

* * * * *

~images~

(from top)

 ~Vintage Lucille Ball
 ~photography: MGM 1940©

 ~The letter (circa 1973)~

~Lucy in the outdoor café scene from the "Paris At Last" episode of "I Love Lucy"
~photography: CBS 1956/2019©

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

* * * * *

~images~

(from top) 

~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

* * * * *

~images~

(from top)

 ~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

* * * * *

~images 
(from top)

 ~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©