Over the last week of October 2010 I experienced films by three cinema legends, Marlon Brando, James Cagney and Gary Cooper 4th, 8th and 11th in the American Film Institute’s list of top male stars. Humphrey Bogart, Cary Grant and James Stewart being the first three.
I have experienced most of Brando’s early films, A Street car named desire, Viva Zapata, Julius Caesar, The Wild One, On the Waterfront(I have DVD), Desiree, Guys and Dolls, The Teahouse of the August Moon (one of my favourites) and Sayonara. I cannot remember seeing his first, The Men or The Young Lions. The Fugitive Kind made in 1959 was next although I cannot remember seeing before Saturday October 30th. One Eyed Jacks, Mutiny on the Bounty, and a Countess from Hong Kong and The Night of the following Day followed and I also remember seeing The Godfather part one, (DVD and Video Tapes) Last Tango in Paris, and the Missouri Breaks, before the latter years films Superman, Apocalypse Now, The Formula, and a Dry White Wine, Christopher Columbus, the Island of Doctor Moreau, Superman Returns and Superman II. 24 films before today out of some 45.
The Future Kind is based on the Tennessee Williams Play Orpheus Descending, generally regarded as the first of his second era plays 1957-1980, having become an International playwright and script writer with The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar named Desire, The Rose Tattoo and Camino Real, and with Sweet Bird of Youth, Period of Adjustment, and The Night of the Iguana to come. Along with Arthur Millar, Williams is regarded by me as one the great 20th century theatre writers. I have a Penguin edition of the Menagerie which I saw on film in 1950 at the Odeon Wallington with my birth and Care mothers and also later saw the 1987 remake. The volume includes A Street Car named Desire in which Brando starred in 1951. I saw later, the 84 and 95 versions. The third play in the volume is the Sweet Bird of Youth which starred Paul Newman both on stage and in the film which I saw subsequently on TV. Over a decade ago I saw a Royal Shakespeare Production of Camino Real, in Newcastle at the Playhouse Theatre. My favourite work is the Night of the Iguana with Richard Burton and Ava Gardner, the story of a former priest. I thought I had the DVD so will add to my list of films to see again before I die.
The Future Kind is set in a southern USA State county where anyone with Negro blood is prohibited from staying overnight. Brando plays a jazz blues guitarist who wears a snakeskin coat who drifts into town and calls in at the local five and dime general store in the hope of finding work only to encounter Joanne Woodward then aged 27 with some film and TV credits, who calls in to see her sister, played by that great actress Anna Magnani, the wife of the terminally ill owner and unstated Klansman leader. She has been repeatedly warned to keep out of her home county because of her drunken and wanton behaviour and she plays with extraordinary brilliance given the mores of the time. Brando accepts a lift to the local roadhouse where he stays although Woodward is told to move on and he obtains work at the store.
We learn that prior to her marriage Magnani had become pregnant by a local worthy who return claiming that her had no idea of her condition and therefore that she and subsequently lost the child. Her lack of love or respect marriage has imprisoned her until husband is restricted to their first floor accommodation following his discharge from hospital. She sets her cap at Brando who succumbs after she persuades him to make use a room on the ground floor as a bedroom.
The situation comes to a head when she is about to open what appears to be a combination of sweet shop/cream parlour/refreshment bar against the wishes of her husband, especially as she is puting Brando in charge. This leads to the Sheriff, under the instigation of the sick husband giving Brando his marching orders. Woodward returns saying she is leaving not just the county but the USA for a villa in Italy and wants Brando to go with her. He says he is leaving town after the threats but not with her. The wife is distraught and we learn why because she is pregnant by Brando. He stays and they are murdered by the husbands cronies in a fire, repeating an admission that her husband had made that he was part of the mob that burnt her father to death in the past. The wife is played magnificently by Anna Magnani. Woodward ends the piece with a comments about snakes shedding skins. The steamy intensity of the film remains at a high level throughout achieved from the combination of the writing and acting. The film is however depressing with the disaster always the likely outcome.
In contrast Forth Worth is a stock Western film about the battle between the emerging railroad and traditional cattle drivers. Randolph Scott plays a newspaper publisher and editor originating from Forth Worth where he established a reputation as being fast and accurate with his gun but has not returned for two decades following a failed love affair. He is part of a wagon train which is joined by a woman known to Scott who is on her way marry his former best friend, a local wheeler dealer with ambitions to be state governor, buying up local real estate and knock down prices to make a huge profits when the railways come to the town and where he has invested in a cattle depot for what he hopes will become the state transit centre for the cattle meat business in the future. Scott is travelling with his mobile printing press, producing newspapers on their journey en route to a majro town which will support his campaigning approach to journalism.
The town is terrorised by local outlaws who fear the impact of the railway and the local Sheriff is a coward while the would be governor talks big but defends his inaction as waiting for the right time. The “outlaws attempt to kill Scott while on the wagon train, stampeding the herd they are trail taking which leads to the death of an orphan boy the trail with his grand mother and who been befriended by Scott.
Following this incident Scott and Wagon train reach Forth Worth where he is persuaded to stay and help run the local newspaper. The story has several layers including the relationship between the fiancée of the former best friend played by Phyllis Thaxter whose late father had run the local newspaper which Scott now develops into a campaign against the outlaws and the failure of the Town to deal with them. The situation becomes more complicated when the former fiancée fo Scott returns to confront the would be governor for his part in the downfall of her father and which led to her leaving town.
Gradually Scott realises his friend is not the man he thought he was but when he confronts him, he is persuaded to hang fire as the man states that the intention is to return the town to its former development having reduced in population from 5000 to 1000. He is also persuaded to go along with a plan to trap the outlaws to attacking the train in the mistaken belief that it contains $50000 to be used to extend the railway into the town centre. However the promised security agents are not on board and the would be governor is using the expected attack as a means of getting rid of Scott in which he nearly succeeds. Scott escapes and goes after his former friend who returns to his ranch where the fiancée is waiting. The governor persuades Thaxter to his cause and Scott returns to newspaper to launch his print attack in retaliation.
His printing publishing partner has previously been murdered and this has spurred the people to get its act together and attempt to drive the outlaws from the town. However they have been taken up with train fever volunteering to lay the track extension into the town leaving the place deserted. This provides the former friend and the outlaws with the opportunity to launch separate attacks on Scott’s life fortunately witnessed by the fiancée who shoots to prevent Scott being killed. However Scott realises that although she did shoot he had heard two shots alerting him to the other assassin.
The film moves on to the arrival of the train into the town and the celebrations marking the development. Scott has married Thaxter and writes a piece paying tribute to the good actions of his former friend. So what happened to the dream?
Fort Worth is now a major city in the United states with a central population of three quarters of a million, expected to rise to a million and a quarter, and an urban population of over 6 million. The town did become the cattle industry centre and the arrival of the Texas Pacific railway in 1876 did result in the boom predicted as it became the centre of the cattle wholesale trade. However it did also become a traditional wild west city with saloons, gambling and bawdy houses on a grand scale, akin to the Barbary coast in San Francisco with high levels of crime and violence. It was several decades before this aspect became under civil control. The development of oil drilling in Texas added to the economy while its local natural gas deposit improved its position further. The city is also an important cultural and multi cultural centre with the Hispanic and Latino population one third and Black and African just under 30%.
Newspaper publishing and Wild West excess and lawlessness is also the main subject of the Frisco Kid. The film begins with Cagney arriving on the Coast as a seaman and is Shanghaied by a local gang but escapes and retaliates. His actions bring him to the attention of the local newspaper editor and its female propriety whose father was killed by elements on the Barbary Coast because of his campaigning against them. Cagney is attracted to her but sets his sights on making it on the Coast, establishing a theatre like entertainment which attracted the sons and fathers of the growing middle class. His approach led to taking a leadership role in organising the Coast to protect its interests and eliminate the violent and major criminal elements. Just when it seems everything is coming together and his relationship with the newspaper owner blossoms there is a disaster. A close associate is unjustly accused of murdering leading citizen when it was the citizen who drew the weapon and death was accidental. However this is taken as the opportunity to mobilize the town into vigilantism and open warfare with the Barbary coast develops. Cagney narrowly escapes the lynching with the help of the Newspaper owners It is not one of Cagney’s great performances or a memorable film but as with Forth Worth is does chronicle small towns in the USA which grew quickly into major cities is less that 100 years.
I have experienced most of Brando’s early films, A Street car named desire, Viva Zapata, Julius Caesar, The Wild One, On the Waterfront(I have DVD), Desiree, Guys and Dolls, The Teahouse of the August Moon (one of my favourites) and Sayonara. I cannot remember seeing his first, The Men or The Young Lions. The Fugitive Kind made in 1959 was next although I cannot remember seeing before Saturday October 30th. One Eyed Jacks, Mutiny on the Bounty, and a Countess from Hong Kong and The Night of the following Day followed and I also remember seeing The Godfather part one, (DVD and Video Tapes) Last Tango in Paris, and the Missouri Breaks, before the latter years films Superman, Apocalypse Now, The Formula, and a Dry White Wine, Christopher Columbus, the Island of Doctor Moreau, Superman Returns and Superman II. 24 films before today out of some 45.
The Future Kind is based on the Tennessee Williams Play Orpheus Descending, generally regarded as the first of his second era plays 1957-1980, having become an International playwright and script writer with The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar named Desire, The Rose Tattoo and Camino Real, and with Sweet Bird of Youth, Period of Adjustment, and The Night of the Iguana to come. Along with Arthur Millar, Williams is regarded by me as one the great 20th century theatre writers. I have a Penguin edition of the Menagerie which I saw on film in 1950 at the Odeon Wallington with my birth and Care mothers and also later saw the 1987 remake. The volume includes A Street Car named Desire in which Brando starred in 1951. I saw later, the 84 and 95 versions. The third play in the volume is the Sweet Bird of Youth which starred Paul Newman both on stage and in the film which I saw subsequently on TV. Over a decade ago I saw a Royal Shakespeare Production of Camino Real, in Newcastle at the Playhouse Theatre. My favourite work is the Night of the Iguana with Richard Burton and Ava Gardner, the story of a former priest. I thought I had the DVD so will add to my list of films to see again before I die.
The Future Kind is set in a southern USA State county where anyone with Negro blood is prohibited from staying overnight. Brando plays a jazz blues guitarist who wears a snakeskin coat who drifts into town and calls in at the local five and dime general store in the hope of finding work only to encounter Joanne Woodward then aged 27 with some film and TV credits, who calls in to see her sister, played by that great actress Anna Magnani, the wife of the terminally ill owner and unstated Klansman leader. She has been repeatedly warned to keep out of her home county because of her drunken and wanton behaviour and she plays with extraordinary brilliance given the mores of the time. Brando accepts a lift to the local roadhouse where he stays although Woodward is told to move on and he obtains work at the store.
We learn that prior to her marriage Magnani had become pregnant by a local worthy who return claiming that her had no idea of her condition and therefore that she and subsequently lost the child. Her lack of love or respect marriage has imprisoned her until husband is restricted to their first floor accommodation following his discharge from hospital. She sets her cap at Brando who succumbs after she persuades him to make use a room on the ground floor as a bedroom.
The situation comes to a head when she is about to open what appears to be a combination of sweet shop/cream parlour/refreshment bar against the wishes of her husband, especially as she is puting Brando in charge. This leads to the Sheriff, under the instigation of the sick husband giving Brando his marching orders. Woodward returns saying she is leaving not just the county but the USA for a villa in Italy and wants Brando to go with her. He says he is leaving town after the threats but not with her. The wife is distraught and we learn why because she is pregnant by Brando. He stays and they are murdered by the husbands cronies in a fire, repeating an admission that her husband had made that he was part of the mob that burnt her father to death in the past. The wife is played magnificently by Anna Magnani. Woodward ends the piece with a comments about snakes shedding skins. The steamy intensity of the film remains at a high level throughout achieved from the combination of the writing and acting. The film is however depressing with the disaster always the likely outcome.
In contrast Forth Worth is a stock Western film about the battle between the emerging railroad and traditional cattle drivers. Randolph Scott plays a newspaper publisher and editor originating from Forth Worth where he established a reputation as being fast and accurate with his gun but has not returned for two decades following a failed love affair. He is part of a wagon train which is joined by a woman known to Scott who is on her way marry his former best friend, a local wheeler dealer with ambitions to be state governor, buying up local real estate and knock down prices to make a huge profits when the railways come to the town and where he has invested in a cattle depot for what he hopes will become the state transit centre for the cattle meat business in the future. Scott is travelling with his mobile printing press, producing newspapers on their journey en route to a majro town which will support his campaigning approach to journalism.
The town is terrorised by local outlaws who fear the impact of the railway and the local Sheriff is a coward while the would be governor talks big but defends his inaction as waiting for the right time. The “outlaws attempt to kill Scott while on the wagon train, stampeding the herd they are trail taking which leads to the death of an orphan boy the trail with his grand mother and who been befriended by Scott.
Following this incident Scott and Wagon train reach Forth Worth where he is persuaded to stay and help run the local newspaper. The story has several layers including the relationship between the fiancée of the former best friend played by Phyllis Thaxter whose late father had run the local newspaper which Scott now develops into a campaign against the outlaws and the failure of the Town to deal with them. The situation becomes more complicated when the former fiancée fo Scott returns to confront the would be governor for his part in the downfall of her father and which led to her leaving town.
Gradually Scott realises his friend is not the man he thought he was but when he confronts him, he is persuaded to hang fire as the man states that the intention is to return the town to its former development having reduced in population from 5000 to 1000. He is also persuaded to go along with a plan to trap the outlaws to attacking the train in the mistaken belief that it contains $50000 to be used to extend the railway into the town centre. However the promised security agents are not on board and the would be governor is using the expected attack as a means of getting rid of Scott in which he nearly succeeds. Scott escapes and goes after his former friend who returns to his ranch where the fiancée is waiting. The governor persuades Thaxter to his cause and Scott returns to newspaper to launch his print attack in retaliation.
His printing publishing partner has previously been murdered and this has spurred the people to get its act together and attempt to drive the outlaws from the town. However they have been taken up with train fever volunteering to lay the track extension into the town leaving the place deserted. This provides the former friend and the outlaws with the opportunity to launch separate attacks on Scott’s life fortunately witnessed by the fiancée who shoots to prevent Scott being killed. However Scott realises that although she did shoot he had heard two shots alerting him to the other assassin.
The film moves on to the arrival of the train into the town and the celebrations marking the development. Scott has married Thaxter and writes a piece paying tribute to the good actions of his former friend. So what happened to the dream?
Fort Worth is now a major city in the United states with a central population of three quarters of a million, expected to rise to a million and a quarter, and an urban population of over 6 million. The town did become the cattle industry centre and the arrival of the Texas Pacific railway in 1876 did result in the boom predicted as it became the centre of the cattle wholesale trade. However it did also become a traditional wild west city with saloons, gambling and bawdy houses on a grand scale, akin to the Barbary coast in San Francisco with high levels of crime and violence. It was several decades before this aspect became under civil control. The development of oil drilling in Texas added to the economy while its local natural gas deposit improved its position further. The city is also an important cultural and multi cultural centre with the Hispanic and Latino population one third and Black and African just under 30%.
Newspaper publishing and Wild West excess and lawlessness is also the main subject of the Frisco Kid. The film begins with Cagney arriving on the Coast as a seaman and is Shanghaied by a local gang but escapes and retaliates. His actions bring him to the attention of the local newspaper editor and its female propriety whose father was killed by elements on the Barbary Coast because of his campaigning against them. Cagney is attracted to her but sets his sights on making it on the Coast, establishing a theatre like entertainment which attracted the sons and fathers of the growing middle class. His approach led to taking a leadership role in organising the Coast to protect its interests and eliminate the violent and major criminal elements. Just when it seems everything is coming together and his relationship with the newspaper owner blossoms there is a disaster. A close associate is unjustly accused of murdering leading citizen when it was the citizen who drew the weapon and death was accidental. However this is taken as the opportunity to mobilize the town into vigilantism and open warfare with the Barbary coast develops. Cagney narrowly escapes the lynching with the help of the Newspaper owners It is not one of Cagney’s great performances or a memorable film but as with Forth Worth is does chronicle small towns in the USA which grew quickly into major cities is less that 100 years.
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