On August 18th Julius Carry passed away from pancreatic cancer. Apparently he wasn’t famous enough to get mention anywhere that I read even though he was the co-star of the geek favorite ‘The Adventures of Brisco County’ and the 80’s action flick ‘The Last Dragon.’ He was famous enough in our house to cause sadness at the news of his death.

So long, Mr. Carry. RIP.

Yesterday was James Cagney’s 109th birthday. Watch a Cagney movie to celebrate!

Sad news today. Cyd Charisse has passed away at the age of 87. Read the AFP article HERE.

Fred Astaire only made two films with Cyd but the impression these two films made on me were significant. The Bandwagon - arguably Fred Astaire’s best film - and Silk Stockings are filled with humor, great music and, of course, wonderful dancing. Cyd was one of Fred’s best partners and he was generous enough to let her show it. When she danced with Gene Kelly it always seemed that all Gene wanted to do was lift her and carry her around. Fred let her keep her feet on the ground and actually dance.

And, wow, could she dance. I have no problem understanding what Fred meant when he said, “When you dance with Cyd Charisse, you’ve been danced with.”

I’m not feeling well today and i’m stuck at home in bed so I thought I’d make another entry in my ’series’ of favorites. Today’s entry is the third actor in my trio of number ones - James Cagney.

Two posts ago I told how I first became interested in James Cagney via Michael J. Fox. As I wrote then, my first encounter with James Cagney was not through a gangster film filled with sneers, smacks on the chin or the ventilation of snitch-filled car trunks. Mine was of a short, well-mannered man in a tux dancing around an overly-done art-deco night club. Something to Sing About is not one of Cagney’s best films, but I’ve always liked it very much.

After I saw that movie back in high school, I didn’t really go out looking for Cagney films. I did, however, watch them when I happened upon them. The second Cagney film I saw was (a badly colorized version of) Yankee Doodle Dandy while I was in college. This one wasn’t hard to come by - it plays on many stations every Independence Day. I liked this one even more than Something to Sing About and I was a little miffed at my roommate at the time who made fun of his stiff-legged dancing. His style wasn’t as graceful as Astaire, but that didn’t make it bad and I liked it quite a bit.

It wasn’t until a few years later, when I did start seeking out Cagney films, that I finally saw the type of movie Cagney is most famous for and, to be honest, I don’t remember which one it was. Maybe The Roaring Twenties but I know it wasn’t Public Enemy. The first time I saw Public Enemy I was a little shocked at how brutal it was (this was before I knew about ‘pre-code’ films and how they differed from the ‘post-code’ films I was used to seeing) and just how damned scary Cagney could be. Before these gangster films, the worst I had seen Cagney’s characters behave was due to an overabundance of self-confidence.

I love Cagney’s gangster films - or, at least, I love him in these films - but I personally prefer the non-gangster roles. The musicals, the comedies, the straight dramas. When I hear people talk of Cagney today, it’s always in reference to his tough guy roles.

“Does anyone know what a Jimmy Cagney love scene is? It’s when Cagney lets the good guy live.” - Shoot ‘em Up, 2007

His comedic, (non bad-guy) dramatic and musical talents are rarely mentioned in pop culture. I know what a James Cagney love scene is and so did Ann Sheridan, Bette Davis, Rita Hayworth, Olivia DeHaviland and countless other leading ladies.

(As an aside, I actually really like the movie that quote up there is from. It’s spoken by a really, really bad man so I can’t expect him to know any better.)

To get a really well-rounded look-see at what Cagney was really all about, I would recommend the following:

• Public Enemy (as Tom Powers) - Cagney’s break-out role. He was originally cast as the ‘good’ best friend but it was soon clear that he was better suited to the intense role of Tom Powers.
• The St. Louis Kid (as Eddie Kennedy) - A schizophrenic film that starts off as a romantic comedy but turns into a heavy pro-labor union drama.
• The Irish in Us (as Danny O’Hara) - Sharing the screen with two of his best friends, Pat O’Brien and Frank McHugh, Cagney plays the irresponsible brother to Pat O’Brien’s good brother - a pattern that repeated in almost all the movies they shared (one really good exception - Torrid Zone)
• Angels With Dirty Faces (as Rocky Sullivan) - One of Cagney’s most famous roles, which is very much deserved. He is again playing a gangster but this time he is endangering children by encouraging them to follow in his footsteps. He best friend, the priest (Pat O’Brien once again) who looks over these youths, asks him to make a huge sacrifice that goes against Rocky’s very being.
• The Oklahoma Kid (as Jim Kincaid, The Oklahoma Kid) - Yep, this is a western. Cagney made a few more westerns, but not until he was much older. Cagney’s image was very urbane, but his first choice of career was to be a farmer so this role actually felt natural to him and he was disappointed that the public didn’t agree. The bad guy in this movie (complete with an all-black outfit, including his hat) was equally urbane Humphrey Bogart. Not a bad movie and a hoot to watch just for the stark differences in role types for both of these icons.
• The Strawberry Blonde (as T.L. ‘Biff’ Grimes) - A romantic comedy, one of the few Cagney made, this is one of my favorite Cagney films period. The plot isn’t all that original (boy loves the wrong girl - the right girl loves him - the boy finally realizes the wrong girl is an utter bitch and falls for the right girl after having been married to the right girl for years) but the period setting and wonderful performances help it rise above all of this. Rita Hayworth is utterly gorgeous (of course) and can even make the beautiful Olivia DeHaviland look plan in comparison, but we all know which one is worth Cagney’s time, right?
• Yankee Doodle Dandy (as George M. Cohan) - Everyone knows this one, but in case you don’t this is the biographical film of one of the stage performer/composer/director greats. Fred Astaire was Cohan’s first choice, but Cagney was the bettert choice for the role. Fred was a good actor, but Cagney was much better at playing the brash, egotistical, in-your-face - but still likeable - jerk.
• White Heat (as Cody Jarrett) - Yes, another gangster role but this time he’s a ruthless, insane Mama’s boy - a dangerous combination if there ever was one. This was Cagney’s return to a genre he wasn’t thrilled to go back to, but at least he came back with a bang…literally.
• Love Me or Leave Me (as Martin Snyder) - Another bio-pic about a stage man, but this time he’s an ‘agent’ and not the performer. This movie is more about Ruth Etting, played wonderfully by Doris Day, than it is about Snyder, but Cagney’s performance as the brutal and insanely jealous manager is as scary of his role as Tom Powers in Public Enemy. Only, this time, he charms his prey to trap them instead of gunning them down.

There are many others that are just as good, but the above roles are different enough from the others and do a good job at showing just what Cagney was capable of. Not all of these films are available on DVD but you might be able to catch them on Turner Classic Movies if you keep an eye out. Hopefully they will all be available soon.

If you want to hear me go off on a rant, mention Fred Astaire’s widow. If you want to piss me off, tell me Fred Astaire was a no-talent hoofer. If you want to be my friend forever tell me Fred Astaire was the best dancer in musical films ever.

Strangely enough, however, I did not start watching Fred movies because of his dancing. I started watching his movies because he made me laugh.

Back in high school when my parents got divorced I got a bit depressed. Both my mother and I tended to watch  and listen to entertainment that made us laugh. (We both went through a big Ray Stevens kick, but that’s another story I may never tell.) So, I was home alone one day, flipping around the channels when I came upon an old black and white movie. There was this skinny man dressed to the nines sitting on a couch, not speaking and obviously thinking things over. The way he moved his eyes as he did this made me laugh out loud so I finished watching The Gay Divorcee even though I had no idea what was going on.

Over the next month I kept an eye out for that movie (it was on AMC, back when their name actually meant something) and I kept catching snippets of it here and there but those snippets confused me even more. Turns out I was catching bits of The Gay Divorcee and Top Hat. Both have the same cast, minus one, and the plots were so thin that it was understandable.

I finally caught both movies from the beginning and watched them in their entirety. I suppose I was lucky that those two films were my first Fred films - they’re considered two of the best of the Fred and Ginger (Rogers) series - because from then on, I was hooked.

I have always wanted to know how to dance. I don’t know if this actually happened because memory is such a tricky thing, but I remember this vividly: When I was very young my mother told me I could take tap dancing lessons as long as I also took ballet lessons. I told her I wouldn’t take ballet lessons so I didn’t get any lessons. I really wish she had made me take both because I now have a deep appreciation for both styles of dancing.

So, Fred got my attention with his comedic abilities and he held it with his wonderful dancing. Every new film brought new dances and even in the worst of them his performance brought those clunkers up to a higher level. Blue Skies has the amazing ‘Puttin’ on the Ritz‘ number where he dances with over a dozen mirror images of himself. The Belle of New York has the understated soft-shoe ‘I Wanna Be a Dancin’ Man.’ And Let’s Dance has ‘Oh Them Dudes‘ - a very guilty pleasure of mine.

I’m very close to my goal of having everything Fred ever appeared in, including his non-musical performances, but there are several things that aren’t available. I highly doubt we’ll ever see his television specials he made with Barrie Chase on DVD - the music rights issues would only be one of the major obstacles - but I can still keep hoping.

Here’s to you Fred - may there never be a time when the world is deprived of your talents.

I thought I’d give a ‘theme week’ a try. Who knows - it might make me post on a more regular basis. But I doubt it. *lame grin*

So, I’ll start with the man who helped introduce me to the wonderful world of classic films for which I will be forever grateful. Without that introduction I would be devoid of my two of my three favorite actors, Fred Astaire and James Cagney.

So, my thanks goes out to Michael J. Fox. Before I saw Back to the Future I had my favorites - Shaun Cassidy was the first actor I can remember singling out and then Tom Hanks when he was on Bosom Buddies - but my ‘fanship’ of those two can never compare to what happened after I saw Back to the Future.

If you don’t believe me, check this out. Yeah. That’s my website. I’m not ashamed of it - a little defensive, maybe - but never ashamed.

After becoming the uber-geek-fan of MJF back in 1985, I started trying out things those fan magazines said he liked. I even tried Linguini in Clam sauce, for cripes sake - and that was some of the nastiest stuff I ever tasted. Ugh!

He was often quoted as saying he was a big James Cagney fan. I had never even heard of James Cagney so I had no idea what he was all about. And so, one Friday night in Southeast Texas, the local t.v. station had a James Cagney film on their schedule - Something to Sing About. Fortunately, I wasn’t one of those kids that wouldn’t watch anything in black and white - I watched Mr. Ed every night on Nick at Nite - and I watched it. And loved it.

It snowballed after that and now I’m a huge fan of classic films and especially musicals. And despite the fact that Cagney is most famous for his gangster, tough guy roles, I will always think of him as a song and dance man.

I was an obsessive fan of MJF - I’ll be the first to admit it - and I’m sure I drove my parents insane with my never-ending quest to see absolutely everything he had ever appeared in. (I even have a copy of his appearance on ‘Here’s Boomer.’) I haven’t seen everything, but I’m still working on it. And while my fansite may make some doubt this, I’m not that obsessive uber-geek-fan anymore. My respect for MJF is now more about his acting ability than how cute he is. He’s only gotten better as he’s gotten older and I sincerely hope that someday, he’ll be back on the big or small screen entertaining all of us again.

The pictures below are random shots of the film. Click the images to see them larger.

I saw the trailer for this film sometime last summer and have wanted to see it ever since. We rented it Thursday night and watched it last night.

Kind of odd, really. I normally hate covers of Beatles songs. I never saw the point of remaking a Beatles song. The one exception that I can think of is Joe Cocker’s With a Little Help from my Friends. It’s just a great arrangement.

Eddie Izzard Sings ‘For the Benefit of Mr. Kite’

But this movie had me intrigued. An entire movie musical made up on nothing but Beatles songs set during the turbulent 1960’s. It sounded like a perfect match and, for the most part, it is.

NYC dances around JoJo as he arrives in NYC to ‘Come Together’

The plot of this movie isn’t highly original. Boy meets girl - boy loses girl to the anti-war movement - boy gets girl back. (Sorry if you think that’s a spoiler, but if you watch the movie you’ll realize it couldn’t end any other way.)

Fortunately, the characters are fleshed out enough and the performances so good that the viewer cares about them despite their familiarity - or perhaps because of it.

Uncle Sam ‘wants’ Max

The blending of the songs and the inventive visuals along with some superb acting and sometimes amazing singing make this a great film experience. If going to theaters weren’t such a pain nowadays, I would have loved to see this on the big screen. However, I know that it would have been ruined by narcissistic humans who can’t stand not being the center of attention for more than 30 minutes at a time.

(I tend to bitch about that a lot - sorry.)

She’s So Heavy

The main character, Jude (Jim Sturgess) is from Liverpool (natch) and even looks quite a bit like a young Paul McCartney. He goes to America in search of his birth father. He achieves this goal but more importantly he finds his best friend in Max (Joe Anderson) and the love of his life in Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood), Max’s sister.

Max, Jude and Lucy sing to ‘Dear Prudence’

After moving to New York city, their tight-nit group is filled out with Sadie (Dana Fuchs - whose voice is frakkin’ amazing), Jojo (Martin Luther McCoy) and Prudence (T.V. Carpio).

Along with the music and the obvious names, there are many other nods to the Beatles: Max is once seen fixing a fan with a silver hammer; Prudence meets the gang when she comes through the bathroom window; Jude draws a still life after slicing a green apple in half…you get the idea.

The best name ever for a restaurant

There are several nice cameos that really work in the film - Joe Cocker plays three different characters and sings Come Together (probably the best musical number in the film). Bono plays Mr. Robert and sings I Am the Walrus and Salma Hayek plays the Bang, Bang, Shoot, Shoot nurse in Happiness is a Warm Gun.

My husband’s favorite part of the movie

The film was written and directed by Julie Taymor (Frida) and she did a terrific job. The movie is visually beautiful - even in the non-fantastic scenes - and from what I saw in some of the behind-the-scene footage included on the bonus disc, she really knows how to get the best from her performers.

So, if you like the Beatles, musicals or are interested in America during the 1960’s I suspect you would really like this movie.

JoJo, Sadie and Jude sing ‘All You Need is Love’ while Max looks on

We didn’t watch Jericho when it originally aired on TV. We don’t have cable and we were trying to limit our TV watching. Besides, it was on network television and chances were that it sucked anyway.

The husband has a DVD column and will sometimes get review copies. He was sent Season 1 of Jericho and we decided to give it a try. We had heard about the ‘nutty’ campaign of die-hard fans to get a second season so that piqued our interest. Also, I hadn’t known until Chris got the set that it was post-apocalyptic fiction - one of my favorite genres. Besides, Gerald McRaney was in it and a show can’t be all bad if it has Rick Simon in it, right?

So, we watched the first episode…and finished the season in about three days. Damn, but it was good. If I had been watching when it originally aired, I would have sent in some nuts, too. Halfway through the series Skeet Ulrich had been dubbed ‘Super Skeet’ (pronounced Supah Skeet) and we can’t wait to see how he’s going to save the world single-handed.

Tonight, the second season is finally starting. Rumor has it that the episodes they’ve finished will give a sense of completion but will be open-ended enough to continue on with a third season, just in case.

Hopefully ratings will be good and we’ll get a third season, too.

I’m not a big fan of Hugh Grant (I thought Four Weddings and a Funeral was one of the most over-rated films of the 90’s) and while I don’t avoid him, I certainly don’t go out of my way to see his films.

I may have to seek out his latest, though. Romantic comedies that include Drew Barrymore usually have a little something special about them and that is usually Drew herself. She, like Reese Witherspoon, can take a run-of-the-mill character that would be dull and lifeless in most actresses’ hands and turn them into someone one can respect and even like.

Her latest movie, with Hugh Grant, is another romantic comedy titlted ‘Music and Lyrics.’ Not a real high-concept story idea, but the fact that it starts off with a dead-on recreation of an 80’s-style music video makes me even more interested in seeing it. We’ll probably wait for the DVD release but I know it’s something we’ll see eventually and probably enjoy.

Here’s the music video:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0A7dtdc-nU]

Just surfing around YouTube, looking for new Michael J. Fox clips (found his 1980 McDonald’s commercial - that was a hoot) and came across this. Children of the 80’s, enjoy.

(Let’s hope this works)

The Breakfast Club Condensed to 60 seconds

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-cC2wrrEGs]