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.

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

I know Audrey Hepburn is the star of the movie, but I am not happy with this cover for the new 50th Anniversary Edition DVD of Funny Face.

Audrey has not only a full body shot but a HUUUGE head shot, and there’s Fred Astaire, over in the corner, as if he’s just a minor plot point. Hell, he’s hardly recognizable.

….

I take it all back.

I just looked up the original poster art for this movie, from 1957. Fred didn’t fare any better in that artwork either. In fact, he did much worse.

<– It’s not a particularly flattering picture, but Fred does appear in this poster.

He does not for the other two I found.

Poor Kay Thompson, who is the second best thing in the movie, doesn’t appear in any of them. (I don’t think I have to tell you what I think is the best thing. )
C’est la vie, I suppose. Audrey was ‘it’ in 1957. I still don’t get the appeal - she was a decent actress, but nothing all that special that I’ve seen. Maybe it was more about her personality than her acting prowess. I wasn’t around at the time and she’s one I’ve never taken time to research.

I guess it’s good that a DVD that’s getting this special treatment includes Astaire. I can’t be too angry with anything that ’spreads Fred.’

I’ve been waiting for this collection since studios (finally) started releasing classic films. It has four of my favorite films - Babes in Arms, Babes on Broadway, Girl Crazy and Strike Up the Band.

Of course, almost anything Mickey and Judy appear in is something I’m going to want.

This isn’t the first time this has happened, and I dare say that it isn’t going to be the last.

Gene Kelly’s image is being used to sell Volkswagen cars. The new commercial features his face grafted onto a modern dancer doing modern dance moves. The re-creation of the ‘Singing in the Rain’ street set is flawless and the cgi grafting is pretty good, although still noticeable.

Growing trend: Dead actors making new appearances

I have mixed feelings about using dead celebrities’ moving images to sell products. The incident that really raises my hackles is the set of Dirt Devil commercials using Fred Astaire’s image dancing with a vacuum cleaner. My main reason for those bad feelings is the fact that his widow will allow his image to be used to sell something, but won’t allow it to be used to honor someone, such as was the case with Ginger Rogers’ AFI salute. Mrs Astaire claims to be abiding by Fred’s wishes, but it seems that the more money that is thrown at her, the more willing she is to let his image be used.

That’s beside the point and something I could bitch about for days if someone would let me.

My post today is about my mixed feelings about using these images.

One side of me finds it appalling - those people are dead, let them stay dead. Watching their movies or television programs is fine - they made those works themselves. These new commercials and film appearances were not made by them and therefore can sometimes have a really creepy aura about them, especially if you are a fan of these people and know these images so well.

But another voice pops up in my head telling me that by doing this, new generations will be introduced to these actors and they might just become curious enough to start watching movies that are more than 10 years old. Sure, the Volkswagen commercial is a little tasteless, but what if some kid likes it and wants to watch the movie it’s based on. A new fan of classic films could be born as a result.

In other words, I guess I’m trying to figure out if the ends justifies the means. In the case of Fred Astaire especially, it might. Due to the tight-fisted nature of his widow, a man who was once one of the most revered figures in Hollywood is being forgotten. The cost of using his image in documentaries is pretty high so he is being left out. It’s not impossible to see a future where people will believe that Gene Kelly was the only premiere dancer of the golden era of Hollywood simply because Fred’s image isn’t being put out there anymore.

I do believe it could be done in a more tasteful way, however. In the recent film “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow” Sir Laurence Olivier made an appearance playing a character named Totenkoff. He actually played a character, an important one, although he was seen very little. His apperances were not exploitive and his face was not grafted on someone else doing cartwheels down a street.

I guess I’m still of two minds on the subject. With the technology being what it is, I know that this is going to happen more and more often so I suppose I should just get used to it.

I just can’t decide if I’m going to be happy about it or bemoan the use of a dead celebrity’s image for commercial gain.

My new lesson learned today was this: Joel Schumacher should stick to directing musicals.

The first CD I ever owned was the original ‘Phantom of the Opera’ CD which I got for Christmas back in 1990. I have the entire thing memorized and had always hoped to see it onstage someday.

That never happened but the film version was finally made (sadly, without Michael Crawford) and I have now FINALLY seen it. I could recite every line of the film as it is an almost completely faithful version of the stage musical. Besides a few casting flaws (mainly the title character) the film does start to lag in the second half, but so does the original musical. As a whole, it’s still a damn good story and I found the movie very enjoyable.

In the past few years I have grown to dislike Joel Schumacher very much. Living with a comic book geek I was taught how badly he royally f&*ked up the last two Batman films. I have no problem with homo-eroticism but it has no place in the world of Batman - and don’t get started on the whole Batman & Robin thing. That’s not what that relationship is about and it never was. If you don’t buy it, try reading a Batman comic book instead of repeating what you’ve read mis-informed journalists spout off.

But I digress.

When I heard that it was Schumacher who was going to direct this long-awaited film version of Phantom I had mixed feelings. On one hand I thought his over-indulgent directing style might be a perfect fit for a musical; musicals have to be watched with a solid suspension of disbelief or they will never make sense to the viewer and over-indulgence mixes well with that mindset.

However, I was also worried that he would make the Phantom very gay. The Phantom is very much a straight man who loves the arts - yes, it can and does happen.

My fears were put to rest when I saw the movie last night. Gerard Butler was far from charismatic but he never exuded any kind of homosexual leanings and still managed to come off as very passionate about his art. In today’s society where men loving musicals automatically equals gay, I found this to be very refreshing.

I do recommend this film to fans of the original musical and to those who have the patience for a movie that is basically all singing. There are some spoken words (not many), but most of that was sung in the original stage musical.

The visuals in the film are gorgeous, especially the opening scene where the audience is ‘taken back in time’ via the rising chandelier - a scene that literally had shivers running up and down my spine. As stated before, the acting is adequate with one exception that even surprised me - Minnie Driver is hilarious in her role as the diva Carlotta.

I still regret that the Phantom was cast so poorly. Gerard Butler was not charismatic enough and his singing was simply not what should have been required for the role. Michael Crawford would have been the best choice but I suppose the producers thought he was too ‘old.’

Stupid producers.

I honestly don’t know much about Ms. Mayo’s personal life or anything extensive about her career. However, she appeared in two of my favorite James Cagney films: White Heat and West Point Story. The latter is a silly musical, but it’s loads of fun and Ms. Mayo’s performance was sizzling.

Visit her official site for more information about his talented actress that will be very missed.

Marxism of the Day: Lyrics from “Laws of Administration” in the film ‘Duck Soup‘

If any form of pleasure is exhibited.
Report to me and it will prohibited.
I’ll put my foot down,
So shall it be.
This is the land of the Free.

The last man nearly ruined this place,
He didn’t know what to do with it.
If you think this country’s bad enough now,
Just wait till I get through with it.

The country’s taxes must be fixed,
And I know what to do with it.
If you think you’re paying too much now,
Just wait till I get through with it.

I will not stand for anything
That’s crooked or unfair.
I’m strictly on the up and up,
So everyone beware.

If anyone’s caught taking graft
And I don’t get my share,
We stand ‘em up against the wall…
And pop goes the weasel!