The NFR Class of 2004: Drop It Like It’s Hot

December 28th, 2004: The NFR cuts it really close and announces its Class of 2004 with only three days left in the year, bringing us to a grand total of 400 films! Having just finished watching all 25, let’s take a look back at the NFR Class of 2004:

Other notes

  • The NFR’s early 2000s were all about including films that represent artists and/or genres not yet on the list, and 2004 was their ultimate: “What’s not on the list yet?” year. Making their NFR debut this year were such important film figures as David Lynch, Jerry Lewis, Bruce Lee, Andy Warhol, Elvis Presley, Florence Lawrence, Danny Kaye, Rin Tin Tin, Our Gang, and Popeye the Sailor. Not the most iconic names on the list, but the NFR would feel incomplete without them. There’s still a few iconic movies, plus the recently pre-ordained classics “Unforgiven” and “Schindler’s List”, but this year is about adding some new faces to the line-up.
  • For the most part, my write-ups on these 25 films are positive, even if I didn’t enjoy the film (multiple entries get my “What is happening!?” designation). It helps that because these films represent artists not yet on the list, I can vouch for their inclusion from a historical perspective, if not through their continued entertainment value.
  • In my “Pups is Pups” post, I complain about this short not having any of the familiar “Our Gang” cast, but Carl “Alfalfa” Switzer shows up in “Going My Way”. That has to be a coincidence, right?
  • A few double-dippers this year covering several branches of filmmaking: Actor Robert Middleton, producer Pandro S. Berman, costume designer Edith Head, editor Ralph E. Winters, visual effects supervisor A. Arnold “Buddy” Gillespie, and composer Walter Scharf. Honorable mention: Popeye shows up twice thanks to his brief appearance as a cardboard cutout in “Kannapolis, N.C.”.
  • Not as many thematic double-dippers this time (a testament to the Class of 2004’s variety) but the ones I caught were: Catchy title songs, island living, non-actors in starring roles, dogs in key supporting roles, unrehearsed footage of children playing, overcomplicated plot lines, and problematic musicals with great distracting dance numbers.
  • In the same vein as “double-dippers”, my Class of 2004 write-ups contain a few shared elements. These include two posts where I show off my knowledge of San Francisco and the Bay Area, and another two where I bring up the Standard Movie Fight Procedure: All henchman or gang members can only attack your hero one at a time. And while plenty of my posts contain “Simpsons” references, two of my Class of 2004 posts reference the specific episode “A Star is Burns”. Makes sense, that’s a very movie-centered episode. And it’s the only reason I know who Eudora Welty is.
  • Speaking of favorite TV shows, several Class of 2004 write-ups reference “Mystery Science Theater 3000”, which inspired me to choose the show as the topic of my ninth anniversary post. On a related note, both “D.O.A.” and “Duck and Cover” have been parodied by Rifftrax.
  • Another runner in my write-ups: two instances of me bemoaning the Academy Awards’ lack of a Best Stunt Design Oscar category, which we’re finally getting in 2028. I can’t prove that my grumbling made it happen, but I can’t not prove it either.
  • When the Library of Congress announced the NFR Class of 2004, “Meet the Fockers” was number one at the weekend box office. Other notable films in theaters at the time include “The Aviator”, “National Treasure”, “A Series of Unfortunate Events”, and very recent NFR inductee “The Incredibles”.
  • Favorite of my own subtitles: Great Scot!, Jay and Silent Job, Not Your Father’s Father, A Nuclear and Present Danger, Kaye Turn, King in the Clink, Jerry & Hyde, and David Lynch’s Adventures in Babysitting. And if my “Unforgiven” subtitle – Old West Action – seems odd, here’s a hint: It’s an anagram. Definitely the first and last time I use one of those for the blog. 
  • Shoutout to my beloved Knights of the NFR, who were responsible for getting “Lady Helen’s Escapade” digitized and available online. Thanks to them, I was able to watch all 25 films from the Class of 2004. Okay fine, 24 and 1/8th of the Class of 2004. I will finish you one day, “Empire”!
  • And continuing my own inability to satisfactorily conclude these “Year in Review” posts: I’ll follow the lesson I learned from “Clash of the Wolves” and end this post with puppies! Look at all these puppies! You can’t tell that this ending is anticlimactic because puppies!

Happy Puppies – I mean Viewing,

Tony

#790) The Court Jester (1956)

#790) The Court Jester (1956)

OR “Kaye Turn”

Directed & Written by Norman Panama & Melvin Frank. Songs by Sammy Cahn and Sylvia Fine.

Class of 2004 

The Plot: The throne of England has been usurped by King Roderick the Tyrant (Cecil Parker) over its rightful ruler, a baby with a royal birthmark on his posterior. The baby is being kept safe by the Black Fox (Edward Ashley) and his band of rebels, including Hubert Hawkins (Danny Kaye), the group’s minstrel who longs to fight alongside the Black Fox. While on a mission to protect the baby with the Maid Jean (Glynis Johns), Hubert and Jean hatch a plan for Hubert to infiltrate the castle posing as the king’s new court jester. There’s plenty of obstacles in Hubert’s path, including a battle with the villainous Lord Ravenhurst (Basil Rathbone), but all of this is secondary to the comedic antics of Danny Kaye. Also there’s something about a pellet with the poison in a chalice with a…a flagon from…a vessel…we’ll come back to that.

Why It Matters: The NFR write-up for “The Court Jester” isn’t very celebratory of the film, with the only superlatives going to the “lilting” songs and Basil Rathbone being his “reliably swashbuckling self”. The write-up also describes Danny Kaye as “mercurial”, which I guess in this context means lively and quick rather than the more negative definitions I associate with the word.

But Does It Really?: “The Court Jester” is on the NFR as representation of Danny Kaye, who while all but forgotten today, was one of the most beloved entertainers of the 20th century. As for the film itself, it’s funny in places, but the entertainment value primarily relies on how much you enjoy Kaye’s schtick, especially his penchant for complicated tongue-twisters. For me, it all wore thin after awhile, and not helped by how many unnecessary plot points and musical numbers are packed into this movie. While “The Court Jester” isn’t as well remembered or celebrated as it once was, I don’t begrudge one of Kaye’s films making it onto the Registry.

Everybody Gets One: Hailing from Brooklyn, David Daniel Kaminsky worked a number of odd jobs before serving as an emcee in the Catskills, where he started going by the stage name Danny Kaye. A vaudeville stint led to his breakout role in the Broadway musical “Lady in the Dark”, in which he performed his first patter song: “Tschaikowsky (and Other Russians)”. Kaye’s film career took off in the 1940s under contract with Samuel Goldwyn, with such films as “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” and “Hans Christian Andersen”. “The Court Jester” was part of Kaye’s contract with Paramount, as was “White Christmas”, which finally made the NFR last week! Additionally, this film was Kaye’s second collaboration with Norman Panama & Melvin Frank, two former Bob Hope writers who had recently made the leap to directing and producing.

Seriously, Oscars?: No Oscar nominations for “The Court Jester”, though Danny Kaye did get a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in a Comedy, losing to Cantinflas in “Around the World in 80 Days”. Although Kaye never received an Oscar nomination in his entire film career, he won two special achievement Oscars: an Honorary Oscar in 1954 “for his unique talents”, and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian award in 1981. 

Other notes 

  • “The Court Jester” was initially budgeted at $2.4 million dollars with a 48 day shooting schedule. By the time production wrapped the film was 28 days behind schedule and cost closer to $4 million dollars, making it the most expensive comedy ever made up to that point. “The Court Jester” was the second film under Kaye’s production company Dena Productions, named after his nine-year-old daughter.
  • We’re off and running with Kaye’s opening credits song “Life Could Not Better Be”. It’s mostly Kaye doing his schtick and interacting with the credits, but I see why they frontloaded this movie that way: we’re about to enter a long Kaye-less exposition dump once the film begins proper.
  • At this point in Basil Rathbone’s career, he was primarily a stage actor, and when a film did come along it was a thankless supporting part like in this or “The Magic Sword”. And while we’re here: Keep sucking in that gut, Rathbone.
  • There isn’t a lot of information on British character actor Cecil Parker, so instead let’s focus on the actor playing his daughter Gwendolyn: Dame Angela Lansbury! It’s always nice seeing Angie pop up on this list, but I don’t appreciate how many of her NFR entries are a waste of her immense talents. For every “Manchurian Candidate”, there’s a “Court Jester” or “National Velvet”.
  • Kaye’s first in-movie number is “Outfox the Fox”, which also prominently features…[deep exhale] Hermine’s Midgets. Unfortunate billing aside, this is the most people with dwarfism I’ve seen in a single NFR entry since “The Wizard of Oz”, so that’s a positive, right?
  • Glynis Johns gets the best entrance in this movie, swinging from a vine in the forest to greet the Black Fox. Knowing Johns for most of my life solely as Mrs. Banks, it’s fun to see her play a much more active part here as the woman doing all the actual work. My one grouse, she’s Danny Kaye’s love interest in this? It’s not even the 12-year age gap that bothers me so much as it is watching Danny Kaye do a love scene.
  • As I settled in with this movie and its overall vibe, I realized that “The Court Jester” is one of the last “general entertainment” kind of films that dominated in the 1940s, when all Hollywood movies had to appeal to a wide audience in a “something for everyone” kind of way. By 1956 this type of filmmaking wasn’t dead, but it was certainly dying. American film was starting to get more sophisticated in the 1950s, with comedies dealing more with modern issues rather than the old “Let’s put [name of comedian] in a [name of film genre]” template.
  • Showing up early on as the real court jester is…John Carradine? Given his stature in the industry, I assumed Carradine would have a bigger part: at the very least a return in the third act for some kind of “that man is an imposter, I’m the real jester” type deal. But nope: He shows up for one scene, gets knocked out by Glynis Johns, and that’s a wrap for John Carradine. 
  • Hey hey hey, Danny, it’s 1956: you leave the foreign gibberish to Sid Caesar.
  • Apparently this is the movie where the exchange “Get it?” “Got it.” “Good.” originated from. I mean, it had to come from somewhere, and it gets repeated enough here that I could see how people picked it up.
  • Also making a welcome appearance in this movie: Mildred Natwick! I just watched “Barefoot in the Park” for the first time, so it was nice to see Natwick pop up here as Griselda, the kingdom’s resident witch. It’s not much of a part, but at least she’s allowed to be funny. 
  • So Hubert changes in and out of Griselda’s hypnosis when anyone snaps their fingers? Even himself? That’s a hell of a design flaw. I can see why Griselda’s on the chopping block. Side note: Hollywood Reporter film critic Jack C. Moffitt claimed in his review that the hypnotism bit in this film was stolen from a routine he had written for 1937’s “Mountain Music” with Bob Burns and Martha Raye (though Moffitt did admit he stole that bit from a similar one in Charlie Chaplin’s “City Lights”).
  • “The Maladjusted Jester” isn’t the pivotal showcase it’s intended to be, but Kaye’s good with a tongue twister, I have to give him that. Shout out to the song’s lyricist: writer Sylvia Fine, aka Mrs. Danny Kaye.
  • Another big centerpiece that fell flat for me is the knighting ceremony, when Hubert is caught up in the knights’ drill routine. The knights are played by members of the Jackson Michigan Zouave Drill Team, who had recently performed their close-order drill formations on “The Ed Sullivan Show” and were cashing in on their 15 minutes of fame with their appearance here.
  • Like I said before, there is too much plot going on around here. I haven’t even mentioned Gwendolyn’s betrothal to Sir Griswold, or Hubert being mistaken for an assassin: there’s just no time, and none of it really matters. A lighthearted comedy like this should only have the bare minimum of plot points taking you from joke to joke, but the ratio is way off here. The film’s second act suffers the most due to serving as set-up for the third act’s big jousting tournament.
  • One thing I will say about Sir Griswold: he’s played by Robert Middleton, who also narrated “Duck and Cover“!
  • As a former ‘90s kid, you cannot have characters in a movie repeatedly say the phrase “mortal combat” without me either shouting it back or saying “Finish him” and/or “Fatality”.
  • We finally arrive at the film’s most famous bit: Hubert trying to remember that “The pellet with the poison’s in the chalice from the palace and the vessel with the pestle is the brew that is true.” It goes on for awhile, but admittedly it’s pretty funny, especially when the “flagon with the dragon” is thrown in and Hubert’s confusion spreads to other characters. Side note: This is the film’s second instance of alleged comedy plagiarism, with many critics noting the similarity between this bit and one from Bob Hope’s “Never Say Die (“There’s a cross on the muzzle on the pistol with a bullet…”). Like the aforementioned “Mountain Music”, “Never Say Die” also stars Martha Raye. Is she the Kevin Bacon-esque center of the comedy bit universe?
  • We got a lot of plotlines trying to get resolved during the film’s chaotic third act, but in the middle of it we get the film’s other highlight: the swordfight between Hubert and Lord Ravenhurst. This is a good time to mention that all three of Basil Rathbone’s NFR movies feature him in a climactic swordfight with our hero. Is this why we haven’t gotten a Rathbone “Sherlock Holmes” movie on the NFR yet?
  • Ah yes the classic NFR movie that ends with our hero flashing part of an infant’s rear end. How did this get past the censors?

Legacy 

  • Despite some decent critical praise, “The Court Jester” only grossed $2.2 million at the box office, meaning it didn’t even recoup its initial budget, let alone the final one. In subsequent years, the film’s TV airings led to a reappraisal, and it’s now considered the best of Danny Kaye’s star vehicles.
  • “The Court Jester” still gets referenced from time to time, primarily “the pellet with the poison” and “Get it? “Got it.” “Good”, though I doubt that most people referencing the latter know what it’s from. 
  • Norman Panama and Melvin Frank continued their creative partnership through the 1960s, and had successful solo writer/director careers after that. Of their later films, Frank’s “A Touch of Class” is the probably the best known.
  • Danny Kaye’s film career was wrapping up when “The Court Jester” was released, but he continued to be a welcomed presence on TV, including on his own variety show in the 1960s (with “Life Could Not Better Be” as its opening theme). Beyond his career in entertainment, Kaye’s most impactful work was his nearly 40 year association with UNICEF as their “ambassador-at-large”. Danny Kaye died in 1987 at age 76, with Sylvia Fine passing four years later at age 78.

The NFR Class of 2025…er, 2026? Maybe?

Finally! After the NFR saw its shadow last December and declared six more weeks of winter, it has finally returned to give us 25 new inductees, bringing the total number of NFR movies to 925. Here in chronological order is the Class of 2025…or 2026, we’ll get back to that in a bit. As always, movies marked with * are ones nominated by me this round, and movies marked with + are ones I have nominated in previous years.

  • The Tramp and the Dog (1896)
  • The Oath of the Sword (1914)
  • The Maid of McMillan (1916)
  • The Lady (1925)
  • Sparrows (1926)
  • Ten Nights in a Barroom (1926)
  • White Christmas (1954)+
  • High Society (1956)
  • Brooklyn Bridge (1981)
  • Say Amen, Somebody (1982)
  • The Thing (1982)
  • The Big Chill (1983)
  • The Karate Kid (1984)+
  • Glory (1989)
  • Philadelphia (1993)
  • Before Sunrise (1995)
  • Clueless (1995)+
  • The Truman Show (1998)*
  • Frida (2002)+
  • The Hours (2002)
  • The Incredibles (2004)*
  • The Wrecking Crew (2008)
  • Inception (2010)*
  • The Loving Story (2011)
  • The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

Other notes

  • Before we go any further, let me state here and now that despite this January 2026 announcement, I am calling this the Class of 2025 going forward. If all goes according to plan we’ll get another 25 movies in December, and I don’t need competing Classes of 2026. This is confusing enough as it is.
  • Looks like I got three films from my ballot on the list this year. Not bad at all. According to the NFR press release, there were 7,559 movies considered. That’s almost 800 movies more than last year. I love that the NFR has been gaining so much traction in the last couple of years.
  • A quick Hail Fellow and Well Met to Acting Librarian of Congress Robert R. Newlen, who to the best of my knowledge selected the NFR Class of 2025. Newlen did a fine job selecting films this year, continuing Dr. Carla Hayden’s emphasis on diversity in terms of talent, genre, and eras of film. As far as I’m concerned, Newlen can just keep on being Acting Librarian for the foreseeable future; let’s say at least the next three years.
  • Like I said, this is a good lineup of movies. Clearly the emphasis was on “lost and found” silent films with recent restorations funded by the Library of Congress. My one bone to pick with these selections: There were NO movies from the ’30s, ’40s, ’60s, or ’70s that the NFR felt inclined to induct? That’s like half of my nomination ballot! I feel like it’s becoming an uphill battle inducting films from the Classic Hollywood studio era. And I get it: priority should be given to recently discovered silent films and newer more diverse titles. As exciting as it is reading these announcements, I always feel a little like Jimmy Kimmel’s Matt Damon bit: “Apologies to ‘The Great Escape’, we ran out of time.”
  • Shoutout to “The Thing”, which received the most public votes of any nominee this year. “The Thing” is one of two Class of 2025 movies that is a remake of a previous NFR title, the other is “High Society”, aka “The Philadelphia Story: The Musical!”
  • I was able to pick out a decent number of “double-dippers” without doing too much research, thanks in part to how many of these movies feature large ensembles. Among those represented twice in the Class of 2025: Antonio Banderas, Tom Berenger, Bing Crosby, Jeff Goldblum, Ed Harris, Edward Norton, Wallace Shawn, and Denzel Washington. I’m sure there’s plenty more behind the camera, and hopefully a few women.
  • Speaking of actors: Two from my “Top 10 Actors Not on the Registry” list have finally made the cut: Jim Carrey and Glenn Close. There are plenty of other great actors making their NFR debut this year, but the one that surprised me the most was Wilford Brimley. I figured with as many bit parts and supporting roles Brimley played over the years he had already made the list. I look forward to finally getting an excuse to reference his commercials for oatmeal and “dye-a-bee-tus”.
  • Due to the delay in the Class of 2025 announcement, I have several posts already written and waiting their turn in the queue. Now that the list is out, it’s time for me to start working on my “Grand Budapest Hotel” post, which you’ll see sometime in mid-March, with several more 2025 entries to follow. I’ll try not to turn the “Grand Budapest” post into a vent session about how much I hated “The Phoenician Scheme”, emphasis on “try”.

And finally: As some of you may know, the National Film Preservation Act is currently set to expire at the end of FY26. Given the current unstable political climate, I genuinely have no idea whether or not the NFR will get renewed, but I’m trying to stay optimistic (again, emphasis on “trying”). All we have control over now is letting our voices be heard. If you feel so inclined, reach out to your House representative and find out which way they plan to vote (heck, call your Senator too, see what they can do about it). If that’s not your style, I encourage you to submit your NFR nomination ballot early this year. That way, the Library of Congress has the numbers to support their case for renewal (let’s see if we can crack 8,000 nominated movies this year!). As for me, I’m gonna keep cranking out these posts, and with any luck my last post in December will be about the Class of 2026 and movie #950.

Happy viewing, and keep taking care of each other,

Tony

#789) D.O.A. (1950)

#789) D.O.A. (1950)

OR “Twenty-Twenty-Twenty-Four Hours to Go”

Directed by Rudolph Maté

Written by Russell Rouse and Clarence Greene

Class of 2004

No trailer, so here’s the opening credits

The Plot: Frank Bigelow (Edmond O’Brien) walks into a police station to report a murder…his own! We flashback to a few days earlier; Bigelow is a successful accountant and notary public in Banning, California. On a whim, Bigelow flies up to San Francisco for some R&R and ends up going to a local nightclub with some newfound friends. The next morning, Bigelow wakes up to what he thinks is a hangover, but a trip to the doctor reveals he ingested a “luminous toxin” with no known antidote and only 24 hours to live! With the help of his faithful secretary Paula (Pamela Britton), Bigelow retraces his steps to determine who would want to poison him and why. Will Bigelow find his killer, or will he end up…Dead On Arrival?

Why It Matters: The NFR calls the film “fast-paced and suspenseful”, saluting O’Brien’s performance and praising the film for being “more cynical than the average film noir”.

But Does It Really?: “D.O.A.” is not without its flaws, but if you’re willing to go along with it, it’s still watchable over 75 years later. We have plenty of B movies on the Registry (including another one starring Edmond O’Brien), but “D.O.A.” is just well known and respected enough that an argument could be made for its NFR inclusion. Plus it’s got on-location footage of downtown L.A.; hardcore cinephiles eat up L.A. footage like catnip. Slightest of passes for “D.O.A.” on the “N.F.R.”

Everybody Gets One: Hailing from what was then Austria-Hungary (now Poland), Rudolph Maté quickly rose the ranks to become a prominent cinematographer in Europe, most notably for Carl Theodor Dreyer’s “The Passion of Joan of Arc”. A move to Hollywood in the mid-1930s saw Maté serve as cinematographer for a number of NFR titles, including “Dodsworth” and “Gilda”. During production of 1947’s “It Had to Be You”, Maté started taking over directorial duties from Don Hartman (I’m not sure why), earning a co-directing credit. “D.O.A.” was Maté’s third film as a director, following his first solo effort, fellow noir title “The Dark Past”.

Seriously, Oscars?: No Oscar nominations for “D.O.A.”, but many of the film’s major creatives had brushes with the Academy. Rudolph Maté received five Oscar nominations throughout his career for his cinematography (including for “The Pride of the Yankees”), Edmond O’Brien went on to win Best Supporting Actor for “The Barefoot Contessa”, and screenwriters Clarence Greene and Russell Rouse took home Oscars as part of the “Pillow Talk” writing team.

Other notes 

  • This film had quite a few “WTF” moments for me, and the first came right after the opening credits. When Bigelow flashes back to a few days earlier, the fade to another scene includes a shot of what appears to be water swirling down a drain. Are they filming the inside of a toilet? Did the ripple effect not exist yet? It’s a weird choice I haven’t seen in any other movie and it threw me for a bit of a loop.
  • After watching him oscillate between lead roles in the B pictures and supporting roles in the A pictures, I consider Edmond O’Brien the Avis of leading men: He’s not number one, but he tries harder. Also, “D.O.A.” continues a weird trend in NFR films where Edmond O’Brien’s character’s occupation is something mundane, yet always leads to adventure and danger. He’s an accountant and notary public here, a life insurance investigator in “The Killers”, and a US Treasury agent in “White Heat”. What’s next, a renegade patent examiner?
  • One of the film’s major attributes, especially for its time, is on-location footage of both San Francisco and Los Angeles. As a former resident of San Francisco, I love seeing this old footage of the city back in the ‘50s. One question: What was Market Week? It looks like a busy celebration in this movie that brings in lots of out-of-towners. I remember Farmers Market on Embarcadero, and I remember Fleet Week, but I don’t recall Market Week.
  • This is one of those movies that is so of its time, this post could just be one long “Wow, That’s Dated” segment. Movies in the late ‘40s/early ‘50s had a different vibe to them. I can’t quite articulate it, but it was just a completely different way of living than we’re used to now. Everything was just fancier, from how people interacted with each other to the overall aesthetics. It’s a little like watching “The Twilight Zone”.
  • Perhaps the film’s most dated moment: a musical interlude with those jive-crazy Fishermen. The scene is entertaining, but it begs the question: Why are the shortest movies always the ones with the most padding?
  • Easily the most unrealistic part of this movie: Bigelow just hopping onto a cable car. Where’s your Clipper Card? Speaking of San Francisco, that’s Grace Cathedral on Sacramento Street that Frank walks by on his way to the doctor. It’s a beautiful view, but that also means Frank just walked up the steepest, longest staircase I’ve ever endured. He should be a puddle of sweat by now. And while he’s there, there’s a really good Tiki bar about a block away. He should check that out before he dies.
  • Bigelow gets two different sets of poison tests from two different doctors? I hope his health insurance covers all of this. On a related note, the doctor Bigelow gets his second opinion from is played by Frank Gerstle, a craggy-faced character actor who has made a few appearances throughout the NFR. I know him best for a film of his that got the “MST3K” treatment, playing a much less helpful doctor in “The Atomic Brain”.
  • I don’t have much to say about Pamela Britton’s work as Paula, other than she does okay with the limited role of “girl Friday”/pseudo-love interest. Britton’s filmography is scarce (she worked primarily on the stage), but she got her due in the ‘60s with a regular role on “My Favorite Martian”.
  • Another very unrealistic story beat: Flying from San Francisco to Los Angeles is not that easy. Maybe back then, but definitely not now. I imagine airports back then were like taxi stands: a row of planes just lined up waiting for passengers to hop in. “Fly me to L.A. my good man, and step on it!”
  • Halliday’s secretary is played by Beverly Campbell, who shortly after this film would revert back to her maiden name, Beverly Garland, and find success on TV, most notably on “My Three Sons”. And hey, she’s got an “MST3K” connection, too! Garland pops up in both “Gunslinger” and “It Conquered the World”.
  • Like I said, cinephiles love when L.A. plays itself in a movie (Hell, there’s a whole movie about it). As we venture into downtown L.A., you’ll notice several shots prominently featuring the Million Dollar Theater, one of the earliest movie houses in the U.S. – built by no less than Sid Grauman. At the time of filming “D.O.A.”, the Million Dollar Theater was owned by Harry Popkin, also known as…the producer of “D.O.A.”!
  • As the plot points start to pile-up on each other in the second half, I started asking, “Am I supposed to be following any of this?” This movie is 90 percent MacGuffins, with Bigelow following each new lead until something else gets his attention. Is this film moving too fast or am I moving too slow?
  • Shoutout to Luther Adler as Majak, the man who may be behind all of this…or not. Adler was primarily a stage actor, and was one of the original members of the Group Theater along with his sister, Stella Adler. “D.O.A.” was one of only a handful of films Adler appeared in, but as a testament to his clout in the acting world, he gets third billing in this movie for essentially one scene. Either that or he had a great agent.
  • What the hell is going on with Majak’s henchman Chester? Neville Brand is giving an unhinged performance that, while entertaining, is throwing the movie out of whack (similar to Dennis Weaver in “Touch of Evil”). And why does he keep talking in the third person? Is he George Costanza? Chester’s gettin’ upset! Side note: Neville Brand gives us our third “MST3K” connection…well sorta: He’s in “Angels Revenge” but his scenes were all cut for the “MST3K” version.
  • As Frank and Paula have their dramatic scene on a street corner professing their love for each other, all I could think was “Get out of the streets! They are trying to kill you!” They couldn’t hear me though because, ya know, it’s a movie.
  • The scene where Majak and his men hunt down Bigelow on a bus is probably why L.A. doesn’t have reliable public transit anymore.
  • The film’s ending wraps everything up a little too quickly, but we get a reprieve of that weird “swirling toilet” flashback thing! And to top it all off, after “The End” we get a disclaimer attributed to Technical Adviser Edward F. Dunne, M.D.: “The medical facts in this motion picture are authentic. Luminous toxin is a descriptive term for an actual poison.” What is happening!?

Legacy 

  • “D.O.A” was released in April 1950, receiving decent reviews and box office before more or less disappearing. The film, however, got an interesting reprise almost 30 years later thanks to the wacky world of U.S. copyright law. Up until 1992, films had to have their copyright renewed every 28 years. When Cardinal Pictures tried to get the copyright of “D.O.A.” renewed in 1978, they learned that the film was actually copyrighted in late 1949, meaning that the copyright expired in 1977 and the film had already slipped into public domain. The film’s newfound public domain status led to it being played more often on TV, giving the film a reappraisal by a new generation of movie lovers.
  • Rudolph Maté continued directing film up until his death in 1964. Later entires in his filmography include “When Worlds Collide” and “The 300 Spartans”, the latter of which inspired the graphic novel “300” and its subsequent film adaptation.
  • “D.O.A.” is one of three NFR titles to be overdubbed by the short-lived ‘80s TV show “Mad Movies” (the others are “Cyrano de Bergerac” and “Night of the Living Dead”). The writers decided that Edmond O’Brien looks like Desi Arnaz, so the whole episode is an extended “I Love Lucy” parody. I think the O’Brien/Arnaz connection is a stretch, but it’s always great finding an excuse to reference “Mad Movies” on this blog.
  • On a related note: “D.O.A.” recently received another parody commentary track, this time courtesy of Bridget Nelson and Mary Jo Pehl at Rifftrax. Clearly I am not the only person who felt the need to make fun of this movie.
  • Another advent of the film’s public domain status is its frequent remakes and/or movies that can steal heavily from “D.O.A.” without paying anyone, most notably a 1988 remake with Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan. Among the others, I saw the 2006 pseudo-remake “Crank” years ago. It has elements of “D.O.A.” mixed with “Speed” and is…well it’s awful, there’s no two ways around it. And somehow there’s a sequel?

#788) Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt (1989)

#788) Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt (1989)

Directed by Rob Epstein & Jeffrey Friedman

Written by Epstein, Friedman, & Cindy Ruskin

Class of 2024

Another topic I am woefully unqualified to discuss at length: the American AIDS epidemic of the 1980s. While “Common Threads” provides an excellent overview, this post can only cover so much of it, and I encourage you to do further research.

The Plot: In the early 1980s, a large number of Americans started being diagnosed with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), leading to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Because a majority of these cases involved gay men, most of America (including the US government) turned a blind eye to this growing epidemic, and by 1985 over 13,000 Americans had died from AIDS. That same year, the National AIDS Memorial began the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, with handmade panels honoring those who had died from the virus, creating the largest communal art project in the world. “Common Threads” tells the story of five people whose names are memorialized on the Quilt, as told by their surviving family, friends, and partners, some of whom were also dying of AIDS at the time of filming.

Why It Matters: The NFR praises the film for being both “a heart-breaking record” of the AIDS crisis and “an extraordinary monument” to the activism it spawned. The write-up also includes a link to the Library of Congress page about the AIDS Memorial Quilt.

But Does It Really?: Watching “Common Threads” was easily one of the most emotional experiences I’ve had for this blog. Although I was alive for the AIDS crisis, I didn’t really become aware of it until after its peak in the mid-90s, and this film compellingly showed me the immediacy of AIDS in the ‘80s. I was deeply moved by this film’s tribute to not only those who died from AIDS, but to their communities that stepped up to fight it. “Common Threads” captures an important moment in American history with love and strength, honoring those affected by the virus without becoming manipulative or insincere. I’m glad the film has finally joined the NFR ranks, and I can’t recommend it enough.

Everybody Gets One: While this is one of three NFR entries for director Rob Epstein, this is the only NFR entry directed by his longtime collaborator Jeffrey Friedman. Originally an actor in his native New York, Jeffrey Friedman pivoted to editing in the 1970s, working in the editorial department for such films as “Raging Bull”. Friedman was inspired to become a documentarian after seeing “Word Is Out” (another NFR entry), and moved to San Francisco, where he met Rob Epstein at a party. “Common Threads” was Friedman’s second directing credit after 1987’s “Faces of the Enemy”, and his first with Epstein.

Wow, That’s Dated: The only giveaway is the original score by Bobby McFerrin. Anyone who was alive when “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” hit the airwaves will instantly clock McFerrin’s unique a cappella sound (accompanied here by his ten-person Voicestra). Understandably, McFerrin’s work here is much more subdued than his famous hit song, and always respectful and reverent to the topic.

Seriously, Oscars?: At the 1990 Academy Awards, “Common Threads” won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. Due to eligibility rules, only the producers (Rob Epstein and Bill Couturié) received the award, although Jeffrey Friedman did go on stage and accept with the producing team. Friedman’s first and so far only Oscar nomination came in 2019 for the documentary short “End Game”. Side note: The Red Ribbon for AIDS awareness, synonymous with award ceremonies throughout the 1990s, wouldn’t make its first appearance until the 1991 Tony Awards thanks to the efforts of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

Other notes

  • The NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt was conceived by Cleve Jones, co-founder of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and friend/former intern of Harvey Milk. During a 1985 candlelight march commemorating the anniversary of Milk’s assassination, the names of people who had died of AIDS were written on signs taped to the walls of the San Francisco Federal Building. The display reminded Jones of a patchwork quilt, and the rest is history. As seen in this film, the Quilt was unveiled at the National Mall in Washington D.C. on October 11th, 1987 with 1,920 panels. Among those who saw the Quilt was Kathy Couturié, who suggested to her husband Bill that it would make a good subject for his next documentary. Epstein and Friedman also saw the Quilt in D.C. and were inspired to make a documentary, and it was while meeting with Cleve Jones about the project that they partnered with Bill Couturié and HBO to make “Common Threads”.
  • Shoutout to co-writer Cindy Ruskin, whose book “The Quilt: Stories from the NAMES Project” helped Epstein and Friedman in their research.
  • If you had asked me to guess who narrates a documentary about the AIDS Quilt, I would not have guessed Dustin Hoffman. The filmmakers wanted someone “unassailably straight” to narrate the film to make it accessible for straight viewers. When James Stewart turned the project down, Dustin Hoffman, fresh off his second Oscar win for “Rain Man”, agreed to provide narration in exchange for, and this is true, bananas to maintain energy during the recording session. Hoffman’s work here is brief, but it does the job.
  • Epstein and Friedman considered over 200 people memorialized on the Quilt before narrowing it down to the five in the final film, each with an accompanying “storyteller” interviewed by the filmmakers. In order of appearance, they are: Dr. Tom Waddell, physician and founder of the Gay Games (Storyteller: His widow Sara Lewinstein), David Mandell Jr., a 12-year-old hemophiliac (Storytellers: His parents David Sr. and Suzi), Robert Perryman, a former drug addict and the only African-American of the five (Storyteller: His widow Sallie), Jeffrey Sevcik, an openly gay activist (Storyteller: Vito Russo. More about him later), and David C. Campbell, a landscape architect (Storyteller: His partner Tracy Torrey, who sadly died of AIDS before the film was released).
  • This being a film blog and all, I must give a special mention to Vito Russo, Jeffrey Sevcik’s partner who was fighting AIDS himself while being interviewed. Russo was a film critic, historian, and author of “The Celluloid Closet” which would be turned into a documentary by…Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman! Unsurprisingly, Russo peppers in a few film references throughout his interview, including “Two for the Road”, “The Member of the Wedding”, and “I Want to Live!”. Vito Russo died from AIDS a little over a year after “Common Threads” was released, and would go on to be the subject of his own documentary in 2011.
  • Among those making appearances in the film through archival footage are such ‘80s newscasters as Tom Brokaw, Bryant Gumbel, and Jane Pauley. We also get a brief appearance from Larry Kramer, the activist and playwright who gave us “The Normal Heart”. On a less enthusiastic note, Eddie Murphy makes an appearance thanks to his widely criticized, very homophobic stand-up routine about AIDS (which also shows up in another NFR entry: “Tongues Untied”).
  • I’ve been mostly academic in this post because I’ve been trying to avoid discussing how emotional I got while watching this movie. The stories of these five unfolded in such an authentic way (told with obvious love from their storytellers) that I felt as if I knew them, making their diagnoses and deaths all the more real to me. My sadness was mixed with the anger I felt as the government continued to ignore the AIDS epidemic, as well as the miseducation and lies coming from those who dismissed AIDS as a “gay plague”. Despite all of this, I had a few moments of cathartic laughter in my viewing (whether or not the filmmakers intended them). The biggest laugh came from Vito talking about how Jeffrey coped with his AIDS diagnosis by filling his apartment with anything blue: “Blue is a healing color. Figure that out, alright?” My second big cathartic laugh came near the end of the film: Sara Lewinstein’s account of Tom Waddell’s “I let you win.”
  • As the film progressed and the five subjects began accepting their inevitable deaths from AIDS, I could feel my tears welling up inside me. But you know what finally made me start crying? ALF. Yes, that ALF: the puppet alien from the ‘80s TV show. Turns out “ALF” was one of David Jr.’s favorite shows, and before he died, ALF (as performed by Paul Fusco) talked to him via a TV satellite hookup. Hearing ALF speaking sincerely to David and telling him to stay positive destroyed me. I’m tearing up again just typing this. From that point on in my viewing, I was a mess as I mourned all of these lost souls.
  • Interestingly enough, the NFR movie I thought of while watching this was the Saul Bass short “Why Man Creates”. If you read my post you may remember that Bass’ final summation was essentially “creativity is a subconscious attempt at immortality.” The AIDS Quilt is a more conscious form of that: these aren’t just names on a quilt, they were real people, they existed, and they will not be forgotten. 
  • Keep a look out in the Special Thanks section of the credits for such big names as Danny Glover, Whoopi Goldberg, and Elizabeth Taylor, the latter who was one of the biggest champions for AIDS research and treatment during the ‘80s and ‘90s, and hosted a screening of this film at New York’s MOMA upon its release.

Legacy 

  • “Common Threads” played an Oscar-qualifying run in L.A. in October 1989 before airing on HBO shortly thereafter. The film was a critical success, earning an Oscar as well as a Peabody.
  • Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman continue to collaborate on films to this day; their most recent is a 2023 film about performance artist Taylor Mac.
  • Sadly, the number of AIDS-related deaths in the United States continued to climb after the release of “Common Threads”. These numbers would not begin to decrease until the late 1990s with the establishment of the National AIDS Strategy and the uptick in high active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). As of this writing, over 700,000 Americans have died of HIV/AIDS since the 1970s, with 13,000 AIDS related deaths every year. There is so much more to discuss beyond the scope of this blog, and the SF AIDS Foundation is a good place to start.
  • Since its unveiling in 1987, the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt has toured across the country, and as of this writing resides in San Francisco. The Quilt now has over 50,000 panels, which have been digitized and can be viewed online at the AIDS Memorial website.