This is a post to tell you that there is no post this week. I’ve been traveling for the last few days so I’m taking a quick break from the blog for some rest and relaxation. I’ll be back next week with the first in my Class of 2025 series. I also recently finished writing the post for movie #800 (!), which I’ll publish in a few weeks. No spoilers about which movie it will be, but I promise it will be a super post, man.
One quick story of my travels before I go: I have spent the last few days in New Orleans’ French Quarter for the first time. We visited lots of great places, including a tour of St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, which has an interesting NFR connection. I took this pic of the Charity statue at the Italian Mutual Benevolent Society tomb. You may notice that its right hand is missing, and it turns out it’s Peter Fonda’s fault. During the filming of “Easy Rider” in the cemetery, Fonda climbed up onto the statue’s lap (as seen in the film). After the take, Fonda grabbed Charity’s hand for leverage, only for it to break. This has led to less productions being allowed to film within the cemetery, so thanks a lot you stoned hippies.
Charity’s right hand (last known photo).
I’m back in California this week meeting up with old friends, but we’ll return with your regularly scheduled Horse’s Head next week.
December 20th, 2005: Cutting things a little too close to the holidays, the National Film Preservation Board selects 25 more films for the National Film Registry, bringing our total to 425 films. I have just completed watching and writing about all 25, so you know what that means. Here again is the Class of 2005:
Similar to a typical NFR list in the late ‘90s, the Class of 2005 is a good balance between big-ticket movies (“Giant”-ticket movies, if you will) and more obscure entries that represent a specific time period or genre. Not as many “what’s not on the list yet” entries, though we do get our first Roger Corman movie (even if it’s not one of his more iconic, cheaper movies). We also get “Toy Story”, the first Pixar feature on the list, and only the fourth film to make the NFR at the 10-year minimum mark.
Interestingly enough, a least six movies in the Class of 2005 deal with race relations, primarily regarding African-Americans. I wonder what prompted that? I don’t recall 2005 being a big year for Civil Rights (we had just started George W. Bush’s second term), but it was the year that Barack Obama became the only Black member of the U.S. Senate, and Rosa Parks died that October. I guess something was in the air, or possibly the water.
There’s mention in the NFR press release of the National Film Preservation Board being reauthorized this year as part of the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act of 2005. The big part of this reauthorization is the direction for the Library of Congress to make NFR titles more publicly accessible, as well as the expansion of the number of members on the National Film Preservation Board (though as best I can tell they only added two more At Large representatives). This is all good stuff, so thanks to…who sponsored this measure? Senator Orrin Hatch!? [Shudders] Never mind.
The Class of 2005 includes two films with no information on who actually filmed them. I wonder if anyone can claim they were in both San Francisco in 1906 post-earthquake and Reno in 1910 for the Johnson-Jeffries fight.
Another interesting (at least to me) bit of trivia: three of these films have connections to “The Exorcist”: “The French Connection” was also directed by Friedkin, “The Sting” was the major Oscar rival to “Exorcist”, and “Toy Story” makes a quick head-spinning homage. And yet it would be another five years before “The Exorcist” finally made the NFR.
When the Class of 2005 was announced, Peter Jackson’s remake of “King Kong” was number one at the box office. Also playing was “Brokeback Mountain”, which as of this writing is the sole 2005 film on the NFR, plus another remake of an NFR title: “The Producers”. Other notable titles include “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”, “Walk the Line”, “The Family Stone”, and “The Chroni-WHAT-cles of Narnia”.
Only a handful of Double Dippers this time; by my count all actors. Among them, Paul Newman, Dennis Hopper, Ray Walston, Theresa Harris, and Jane Withers.
Thematic double dippers: Early film of news events, the struggles of working class Black people in Chicago, final scenes set on Christmas Day, big spooky houses, sexual promiscuity, euphemistic pregnancy talk, con artists, Dennis Hopper in thankless supporting roles, smart-ass New Yorkers, stage musicals turned movies (plus one movie turned stage musical), and epilogue text explaining what happened to everyone. There’s also at least three movies in the Class of 2005 on my Die Hard Not-Christmas list (not counting “Miracle on 34th Street”, which is actually a Christmas movie).
Favorite of my own subtitles: The Mark of Zora, Corn on Macabre, The Grift of Song/The Wrath of Con (TIE), I Am a Christ Allegory from a Chain Gang, Take the “H” Train, My SoCal-ed Life (original “Ridgemont High” post only), Rebound for Glory, and Pixar Upper.
Speaking of “Ridgemont High”: Disco sucks. Never forget that.
And finally, I leave you with two notes regarding “Cool Hand Luke”. First, if you’ll permit me to toot my own horn for a second: I am really proud of the Newman’s Own joke in my “Cool Hand Luke” post. That came out fully formed while I was watching the movie. And second: Here’s Lalo Schifrin’s main theme to “Cool Hand Luke”, which is still one of my favorite pieces of music.
The Plot: The Youngers are three generations of an African-American family living in a cramped apartment in Chicago and expecting a $10,000 life insurance check following the death of patriarch Walter Lee Sr. His son Walter Jr. (Sidney Poitier) wants to use the money to open and run a neighborhood liquor store, allowing him to better provide for his wife Ruth and son Travis (Ruby Dee and Stephen Perry). Walter’s outspoken sister Beneatha (Diana Sands) wants to use the money to go to school and become a doctor, but is aware that their mother Lena (Claudia McNeil) is the only person who can decide where the money goes. When the check finally arrives, Lena uses the money to buy a house in the White neighborhood of Clybourne Park. What follows is an exploration of racism and discrimination in America, and a contemplation on who in this country is truly entitled to follow their dreams.
Why It Matters: The NFR write-up on “A Raisin in the Sun” is two very brief sentences; the first calls the film a “[m]odel film adaptation”, and the second describes the cast as “a veritable who’s who of the civil rights era”. Compared to the lengthy paragraphs other 2005 NFR entries received, the “Raisin” write-up is disappointing, if not downright insulting.
But Does It Really?: It’s a miracle the film version of “A Raisin in the Sun” got made at all, especially in 1961 with almost all of its stage creatives intact and minimal Hollywood meddling. 65 years later, I’m happy to report that the film still works, packing the same dramatic punch as it always has (though it’s also disappointing how little of the film feels dated in regards to systemic racism in America). “Raisin” isn’t the most incredible film adaptation of a play, but continues to be an important film due to the strength and ongoing relevance of its source material, aided by some top-notch performances. “A Raisin in the Sun” is certainly worthy of recognition and preservation, if for nothing else the preservation of Lorraine Hansberry and her work.
Shout Outs: Beneatha and Ruth briefly mention both Mrs. Miniver and Scarlett O’Hara while teasing Lena about her new gardening hat.
Everybody Gets One: Lorraine Hansberry’s writing career began in 1951 when she moved to New York and joined the staff of Freedom, a progressive Black newspaper whose writing team included Paul Robeson and Alice Childress. Hansberry was able to become a full-time writer when her then-husband Robert Nemiroff co-wrote the hit song “Cindy, Oh Cindy”. “A Raisin in the Sun” was based on Hansberry’s childhood in Chicago, including her father’s legal battle against a racist White neighborhood, culminating in the 1940 Supreme Court case Hansberry v. Lee (which paved the way for later cases that deemed restrictive covenants unconstitutional). “Raisin” premiered in New York in March 1959, making Lorraine Hansberry the first female African-American playwright on Broadway.
Wow, That’s Dated: The $10,000 check would be worth over $100,000 in today’s money. Other than that, not a hell of a lot.
Title Track: The title, of course, comes from a line in Langston Hughes’ 1951 poem “Harlem”: “What happens to a dream deferred?/Does it dry up/like a raisin in the sun?”
Seriously, Oscars?: Although the film received a number of precursor awards and nominations (and won a special prize at the 1961 Cannes Film Festival), “A Raisin in the Sun” failed to be nominated in any category at the Oscars. Columbia’s major contender that year was the far less controversial WWII movie “The Guns of Navarone”.
Other notes
While the original Broadway production received mixed reviews, “A Raisin in the Sun” was an immediate hit with audiences, and was optioned by Columbia Pictures for a film adaptation just a few weeks after opening night. In a surprise move, Columbia paid an additional $50,000 to Lorraine Hansberry to adapt her own work for the movie, making her the rare (if not only) Black woman at the time to write a Hollywood screenplay.
This is Daniel Petrie’s second film as a director following 1960’s “The Bramble Bush”. While I have no evidence to support this, I assume Petrie was hired because a) there were no Black directors Columbia Pictures would have let helm this big a project and b) his extensive TV background would ensure the film’s production stayed on schedule and under budget. It should be noted that the director of the original Broadway production – Lloyd Richards – was Black.
The film adaptation of “Raisin” definitely feels like a filmed play, but that’s not necessarily the fault of the filmmakers. Hansberry’s original screenplay (which has subsequently been published) included additional scenes of the Youngers outside of their apartment, including more scenes of Walter and Lena at their respective jobs and facing casual racism from their employers and other White characters. As best I can tell these scenes were filmed, but when the first cut clocked in at over 2 1/2 hours, these scenes were the first to go, making the final film seem more claustrophobic. According to UC Berkeley Professor Margaret B. Wilkerson, these additional scenes were most likely deleted to make the film more palatable for a White audience.
With a few minor exceptions, the original Broadway cast reprised their roles for the film version. If nothing else, it’s great seeing their original performances and dynamics preserved on film, and everyone does a good job of reigning in their work from stage to screen.
I like when Sidney Poitier plays a flawed character. So many of his iconic film roles are stoic, infallible men bravely fighting the racism around them, but Walter isn’t any of those things (at least not at first): he’s a weak, resentful powder keg ready to explode at any moment, fiercely protecting any shred of dignity he has left. Poitier’s work is nicely balanced out by the grounded fortitude of Claudia McNeil’s Lena. The story goes that Poitier and McNeil were a bit antagonistic towards each other throughout the play’s run and this film’s production due to an ongoing debate over which of their characters was the true lead (Hansberry herself wasn’t quite sure, but seemed to favor Lena in the long run).
This is definitely one of the few NFR movies to consistently pass the Bechdel test. Yes, Lena, Ruth, and Beneatha spend a lot of time talking about race relations and that check, but at least it’s not all about Walter.
Like Lorraine Hansberry, Diana Sands was a remarkable talent who died far too young. Beneatha is as close to a stand-in for Hansberry as we get, with her vocal activism and atheist beliefs, the latter leading to Lena’s very powerful line “In my mother’s house, there is still God.” Fun Fact: Diana Sands and I share a birthday!
Rounding out the lead quartet is the always great Ruby Dee. Ruth isn’t as flashy as the other characters, but she ties everything together. And when Ruth finally smiles at the prospect of a new house, it’s one of the most uplifting moments in this or any movie. It’s still unfathomable how Dee or anyone else in the cast didn’t get an Oscar nomination. For the record, Ruby Dee would get her first and only Oscar nomination 46 years later for slapping Denzel Washington in “American Gangster”.
I recently re-read the original play, and when it got to Ruth discovering she’s pregnant and putting a down payment on an abortion, I assumed this was all cut for the movie. To my shock, it’s all still there. Nobody directly says the word “abortion”, but it is made very clear what is going on. As far as I can tell the Hays Code only objected to the film’s depictions of racism, and the abortion storyline slipped under their radar. Another instance of the Hays Code being chipped away at in its final years.
Sorta shoutout to veteran cinematographer Charles Lawton Jr. While most of the cinematography fares well within the confines of a cramped apartment, there are a few obvious moments where no one could figure out the best place to put the camera, with actors awkwardly upstaging each other or not in full view of the camera. Still, there are decent compositions throughout, plus creative blocking that moves the characters around organically.
Both of Beneatha’s suitors are played by actors on their way to bigger and better things. Her Nigerian boyfriend Joseph Asagai is played by Ivan Dixon, who went on to star in future NFR entry “Nothing But a Man” and direct “The Spook Who Sat by the Door” (he was also Kinch on “Hogan’s Heroes”, but who cares about that?). The more straight-laced George Murchison is played by future Oscar winner Louis Gossett Jr. in his film debut!
One of the handful of “opened-up” scenes that remains in the final film is a sequence of the Youngers visiting their new house before they move in. In a depressing case of life imitating art, while filming these scenes in a Chicago suburb, a White neighbor contacted the homeowner of the house being filmed at, afraid they were selling their house to a Black family. This is just one example of the constant racism faced by the cast and crew during this film’s production, including the cast’s difficulty finding housing when filming moved to Los Angeles.
Showing up near the end as token White character Mark Lindner is John Fiedler, aka the voice of Piglet, aka Juror #2. It is so weird hearing Piglet nervously navigating a misguided conversation about race relations. Oh d-d-dear indeed.
My one major complaint about the movie is the score by Laurence Rosenthal, particularly in the scene where Bobo tells Walter about what happened to Willie Harris. In what is already the most intense scene in the film, the score unnecessarily ramps things up, becoming too intrusive and oversaturating the moment.
Despite everything that’s happened, the film manages to end on a hopeful note, or at least leaves it up to your interpretation. Despite all their hardships, I believe the Youngers…oh man I just got it! Lena’s plant is a metaphor! It’s growing and flourishing despite its stifling environment. It all makes sense now!
Legacy
“A Raisin in the Sun” opened in New York in March 1961, and while it received positive reviews and decent box office, it just barely missed the break-even point, earning $1.3 million against a $1.5 million budget. While Lorraine Hansberry had some private reservations about the cuts made to her screenplay, she championed the picture and Petrie’s direction in public.
Following the release of “Raisin”, Lorraine Hansberry continued writing, as well as being an activist for the Civil Rights movement, until her tragic death in 1965 from pancreatic cancer at age 34. Several of her writings would be published posthumously, including the autobiographical “To Be Young, Gifted and Black”, which is where the Nina Simone song gets its name from.
“A Raisin in the Sun” has continued being performed on stage throughout the last nearly 70 years, and has returned to Broadway twice (three times if you count the 1973 musical “Raisin”). The play’s first revival in 2004 starred Phylicia Rashad, Audra McDonald, Sanaa Lathan, and…I forget who played Walter. The second revival in 2014 starred Denzel Washington, Sophie Okonedo, Anika Noni Rose, and LaTayna Richardson Jackson impressively serving as a last-minute replacement for Diahann Carroll.
“Raisin” has been filmed for television twice. A 1989 taping for “American Playhouse” starred Danny Glover, Esther Rolle, and Starletta DuPois, with John Fiedler reprising his role from the original Broadway production and film 30 years later! A 2008 TV movie saw almost the entire cast of the 2004 Broadway production reprising their roles, plus John Stamos for some reason. They even got Morgan Freeman to narrate!
The Plot: The legendary “steel-driving man” of folk lore comes to the big screen in “John Henry and the Inky-Poo”. Born a fully grown man, John Henry (voice by Rex Ingram) goes working on the railroad (presumably all the live long day), hammering steel rails into the track more powerfully than any other man on the job. One day, the railroad workers are threatened by the appearance of a steam engine (an “inky-poo”) that can do their job in a fraction of the time. But John Henry, believing that a man can beat any machine, challenges the inky-poo to a steel-driving contest. George Pal’s classic Puppetoons series brings this beloved tale to life in one of the first animated shorts to showcase African-Americans in a positive light.
Why It Matters: The NFR write-up gives context on both John Henry the legend and “John Henry” the film. There’s also a quote from Ebony that praises the “dignity, imagination, poetry, and love” the short gives to the John Henry legend.
But Does It Really?: Longtime readers may recall that this is the second Puppetoon short I’ve covered on this blog, the first was “Tulips Shall Grow” way back in 2017. On its own, “John Henry” is an engaging short and another great encapsulation of Puppetoon’s unique stop-motion aesthetic, but its NFR standing begs the question: Do we really need two of these shorts on the list? I dunno, it just feels like overkill. Then again, we have multiple cartoons on the list from the big dogs at Disney and Warner Bros., so why not a second Puppetoon? I’ll give “John Henry” a pass for its positive-in-its-day representation of African-Americans and get on with this post.
Seriously, Oscars?: “John Henry” received an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Short, losing to the Tom & Jerry short “The Cat Concerto”, which is still widely considered one of the best animated shorts of all time (plagiarism issues aside, but that’s another story). The “John Henry” nomination was the sixth of George Pal’s seven consecutive nominations in the category, and although he never won an Oscar, he did receive a special plaque from the Academy in 1944 for his Puppetoons series.
Other notes
Like many folk tales, the origins of John Henry are unknown. It’s unclear if John Henry was even a real person, though there have been a few attempts over the years to determine the real John Henry and the location of his famous contest. In fact, this short references the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway – “the C&O line” – and the Big Bend Tunnel in Talcott, West Virginia, one of many towns that have claimed to host John Henry’s race against the steam engine. While the folk tale of John Henry had existed since the late 1800s, it had seen a resurgence during WWII, when Henry’s image was used by the U.S. government to demonstrate man’s dominance over machines.
The “John Henry” short came to be because of the controversy over another Puppetoon short. Starting in 1942, there was a series of Puppetoons featuring the character Jasper, who was essentially every negative African-American stereotype rolled into one. (The first one is called “Jasper and the Watermelons”. ‘nuff said). This led to outcry from multiple Black organizations, including the magazine Ebony. Puppetoons creator George Pal addressed these concerns by making “John Henry and the Inky-Poo”, and insisting on all of the voices being provided by African-American talent. Despite this progressive stance, Pal still made a handful of Jasper shorts after the release of “John Henry”.
The short begins with a scene that doesn’t seem to be in any of version of the folk tale: the birth of John Henry. Weirdly enough in this version, John Henry is born a full-blown adult! Where is this coming from?
Shoutout to Rex Ingram, lending his powerful voice to both John Henry and the narrator. Ingram’s film career consisted mainly of the minor, stereotype-ridden roles that most Black actors had to make do with in the ‘30s and ‘40s, but thankfully his NFR representation shows off more of his talents (I remember liking his work as the devil in “Cabin in the Sky”).
The short’s only other verified performer is Lillian Randolph as John Henry’s Ma. Randolph was primarily a voice-over actor, most notably as the voice of Mammy Two-Shoes, the unseen Black stereotype that bookended countless Tom & Jerry shorts. This is one of two NFR appearances for Randolph; she’s also Annie, the Bailey’s housekeeper, in “It’s a Wonderful Life”.
“John Henry” is in the “two steps forward, one step back” school of Black representation in film. Sure, it’s an overall positive and empowering depiction, but we still get plenty of cringe-inducing dialogue that wouldn’t fly 80 years later. Also not helping matters is the fact that the animators clearly used the same head mold for every character, meaning that every Black character in this movie literally looks alike. Yeesh.
I really don’t know that much about the John Henry legend, so imagine my surprise when [Spoilers] he dies immediately after winning the race. The film tries to end on a positive note, saying that the legend of John Henry will never die, but still, quite the surprising downer for anyone unfamiliar with the tale.
“A man can do anything a machine can do, if a man only has a mind to do it.” We may need that moral today even more than we did in 1946.
Legacy
“John Henry and the Inky-Poo” was released in September 1946, receiving critical praise and the aforementioned Oscar nomination. George Pal had originally intended to do more Puppetoon shorts based on other American folk tales, including Casey Jones and Johnny Appleseed, but I suspect the series’ increasing budget issues led to not only these shorts being cancelled, but also the end of the series (the last Puppetoon were released in 1947).
There are countless retellings of the John Henry legend in every art form imaginable, but I’ll give a shoutout to this episode of “Shelley Duvall’s American Tall Tales & Legends” with Danny Glover as John Henry.
I’ve covered George Pal/Puppetoons in greater detail in my “Tulips Shall Grow” post, but I will take this time to remind you that George Pal would go on to produce the sci-fi movie “When Worlds Collide”, which earned him a name drop in the song “Science Fiction Double Feature” at the beginning of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”.
While “V-E + 1” isn’t available for viewing on its own, the footage was incorporated into the 1988 Emil Weiss documentary “Falkenau, vision de l’impossible” [aka “Falkenau, The Impossible”], which can be viewed here.
Before he was a maverick filmmaker, Samuel Fuller was a budding screenwriter who joined the Army once the United States entered World War II, serving with the 16th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division. On May 8th, 1945, two days before Victory in Europe Day (aka V-E Day) and the official end of the war, Fuller and his infantry liberated a German concentration camp in Falkenau, Czechoslovakia. Once the fighting ended, Fuller’s commanding officer ordered Fuller to grab his 16mm Bell & Howell movie camera (a gift from Fuller’s mother) and start filming. In roughly 20 minutes of black-and-white footage, Fuller documents the citizens of Falkenau (many of whom denied any knowledge of the camp’s existence) going into the camp and, upon military orders, picking up the dead bodies of the prisoners, dressing them, loading them onto a large wagon, taking the wagon across town to the cemetery, and giving the prisoners a proper burial. Reflecting on it over 40 years later, Fuller described the experience as “an impossible nightmare I’ll never forget”.
As of this writing, “V-E + 1” is the last NFR entry I’m covering about WWII, and without intending it, the film works as a somber coda to all the other NFR WWII films. After years of watching manipulative propaganda and fictionalized rabble rousing, “V-E + 1” provides a rare glimpse at what happens after a war. No celebrations, no triumphant music, just silent footage of survivors being forced to bury the dead. It was a sobering viewing experience for me; witnessing the weight of what was happening, as well as reflecting on everything I’ve learned about WWII in the last nine years of this blog. “V-E + 1” makes its case for NFR inclusion loud and clear, and I’m glad it has been inducted alongside its more patriotic contemporaries.
Why It Matters: No superlatives in the NFR write-up, just historical context, though there is mention of Fuller’s later filmography that “forced audiences to confront challenging societal issues”.
Other notes
I fully recommend watching the “V-E + 1” footage within the “Falkenau, The Impossible” documentary. While the footage itself is silent, it is presented within the documentary with running commentary from Samuel Fuller himself, chomping on his ever-present cigar and providing crucial context to the footage; giving names to the anonymous soldiers onscreen and reflecting on this traumatic moment in his life/world history. He also revisits the site of the concentration camp in what is now Sokolov, Czech Republic, vividly recalling the attack on the camp before he started filming. As powerful as the footage is on its own, having Fuller’s insight makes it all the more impactful.
Legacy
After the war, Samuel Fuller returned to Hollywood to continue his writing career. He eventually became a director, helming two more future NFR films: “Pickup on South Street” and “Shock Corridor”. Fuller would not make a movie about his wartime experience until 1980’s “The Big Red One”, which included a reenactment of the Falkenau concentration camp’s liberation. This experience led to Fuller finding and preserving the original 16mm footage now known as “V-E + 1”, which he dubbed “my first movie”.
The Horse's Head 