Month: June 2023

#649) All My Babies: A Midwife’s Own Story (1953)

Directed & Written by George C. Stoney

Class of 2002

Other notes 

• I am very unqualified to discuss the aforementioned “socioeconomic conditions” of this movie, but it is worth mentioning that this film about a Black community was made by a White filmmaker. Stoney was able to gain the trust of the Black community depicted in this film with the help of Bishop Noah, a local pastor of Mary Coley’s church. The flip side of that is Stoney having to cow-tow to his (White) producers, depicting a South where both White and Black medical workers interact in harmony, definitely not the case in 1950s Georgia. Stoney also had to make a film that promoted midwives while simultaneously presenting them as “a temporary and unfortunate necessity” in rural Georgia.
• Shoutout to this film’s Chief Electrician Robert Downey, who to the best of my knowledge is of no relation to either Sr. or Jr.
• This movie is that “Forgotten Frontier” style of docudrama in which real people are recreating events from their own lives, which must have been weird. We also get a dangerous combination of thick southern accents and stilted non-acting from these performers. Patience is required for the more expositional scenes.
• The Musical Art Chorus of Washington D.C. lend their vocal talents to the film, underscoring several key moments as joyous and celebratory. That being said, at one point the choir sounds like they’re gonna start singing “Spider-Pig“.
• And now this movie’s most notable moment: a real-time live birth. Just when I think I’ve seen everything on this blog, I witness the beautiful, disgusting miracle of life. This is one of the rare times where going into a film cold was a disservice. Still, this was easier to watch than “Pink Flamingos“. And once the baby arrived, I immediately went into “look at that cute baby” mode. If that baby is still alive, he would be in his early ’70s and probably grossed out that he can watch his own birth.
• Also dated: Dads-to-be waiting in another room while the baby is being born. You get your ass in there and help out! This is your doing too, you bastard!
• A brief sequence of a mother breastfeeding her newborn child reminds me: Breastfeeding is neither gross nor sensual. If you’re on either extreme, mind your own business.
• At one point, the doctor’s admonishment “Something wasn’t clean” echoes in Mary’s head. Maybe I just needed to lighten the mood after this movie’s darker scenes, but all I could think of in that moment was “Pinch hitting for Pedro Borbón, Manny Mota-Mota-Mota.”
• Interesting that the second birth isn’t shown on camera. I guess the kid didn’t sign a release form.
• “My, what a husky little peanut we have here.” That may be the worst thing you can say about a newborn child. I hope that’s not the baby’s first memory.

Legacy 

• “All My Babies” was well received within the medical community, and even managed to be screened at New York’s Cinema 16 as an “avant-garde” piece (This designation allowed a film with childbirth to be publicly screened).
• George Stoney continued making educational films for the next 50 years! Stoney also taught film at Columbia and NYU, and was an early advocate for democratic media, earning the moniker “the father of public-access television”.

• Mary Coley delivered over 3,000 babies during her three-decade midwife career, and continues to be celebrated for her accomplishments; being added to the Georgia Women of Achievement list in 2011.

#648) Life of an American Fireman (1903)

OR “The Editing Inferno”

Directed by Edwin S. Porter

Class of 2016

Other notes 

• So the fire chief has a vision of the fire and then it happens? When did firefighters stop being Precogs?
• Total tangent, but worth mentioning: For years my closest polling place was a fire station, and every time I voted I would ask if I could slide down the pole and the answer was always no. Understandable, but I bet voter turnout would be a lot better if you let people slide down the pole.
• All this talk about firefighters got me thinking about the future of the profession; specifically if AI could ever replace human firefighters. The answer, for the time being, is a surprising no. My research shows that while AI is currently being used to help firefighters respond faster to fires and save more lives, they are only being used to aid humans rather than replace them. Which makes sense: I imagine an AI firefighter calendar wouldn’t sell as well.
• The version I watched of “American Fireman” was from a 2004 DVD release that includes a piano score and a song! Definitely wasn’t expecting to hear an actual voice during my viewing. I cannot for the life of me find out the name of the song, but I suspect it is of the era (it has a Gilbert-and-Sullivan vibe to it). I typed in practically every intelligible lyric of this song into my search engine and couldn’t get a single lead on a name or a composer. WHO ARE YOU!?

Legacy

• Sure, Edwin Porter can’t put “Revolutionary Film Editor” on his resume, but he still made “The Great Train Robbery”, so there.

#647) 3:10 to Yuma (1957)

OR “Van Transit Ford”

Directed by Delmer Daves

Written by Halsted Welles. Based on the short story “Three-Ten to Yuma” by Elmore Leonard.

Class of 2012 

Other notes 

• I definitely got the sense that “3:10 to Yuma” was based on a short story, but the film’s padding didn’t bother me as much as it has with similar NFR films. The original Elmore Leonard story constitutes the second half of this film, with the first half being an appropriate amount of setup and expansion of everyone’s motives.
• We’ve covered three other Glenn Ford movies on this list, and this is the first performance of his that impressed me. Ford was originally offered the role of Dan (more in line with previous Ford roles), but he requested to play against type as Ben instead. I gotta say, maybe this should have been Ford’s type to begin with. Ben Wade has a Hannibal Lecter thing going: as a prisoner, he should have the lowest status of any character, but he manages to keep control with his low-key charm and his ability to exploit people’s psychological weaknesses. Ford is clearly having a field day playing the heavy, inviting you to sympathize with a character that would be villainized in any other Western.

• If I’m going to go on and on about how great Glenn Ford is in this, I gotta give Van Heflin his due. Heflin’s only other NFR appearance is as a co-lead in “Shane“, so it’s nice seeing him take center stage here, with his restrained, conflicted performance meshing well with Ford’s showier part. Also is it just me or does Van Heflin kinda sound like Buster Keaton in his later years? There’s a gravely quality to both their voices that I associate with the vice-filled lifestyles of your Classic Hollywood stars.
• I have no idea why the character of Emmy the saloon girl is here other than to pad the story and be “the girl” in the picture. Don’t get me wrong, Felicia Farr’s not bad, and she conveys a lot of character with her subtle glances, but Emmy doesn’t really add much and we never see her again once the plot kicks in. Farr also must have had a great agent, getting equal billing with Heflin and Ford despite having maybe 10 minutes of screentime. Fun Fact: Felicia Farr was married to Jack Lemmon!

• I do love how much time Ben focuses on the color of Emmy’s eyes. It’s a black and white movie: Who cares? Also, how does Emmy fall for Ben’s creepy come-ons? Maybe I don’t understand how flirting work.
• Robert Emhardt is giving me a sort of Sydney Greenstreet/Burl Ives-without-a-goatee vibe.
• I love that the amount Mr. Butterfield offers Evans is the exact amount he needs to get out of debt. It’s like that Talent Show trope where the grand prize is the exact amount the gang needs to save the rec center. Wow, I don’t know what surprises me more: The fact that I just made a “Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo” reference on this blog, or that it took me six years to do so.
• Shoutout to Charles Lawton Jr., longtime Columbia cinematographer who shoots the hell out of the Arizona landscape and injects a surprising amount of noir-esque shadows into this western. We’ll see more of Lawton’s impressive cinematography when I finally get around to covering “The Lady from Shanghai”.
• Henry Jones gives as much heft as he can to Alex Potter, the movie’s resident redemptive drunk. And every time the kids call him Mr. Potter I flash on Lionel Barrymore.
• Man, Evans’ kids are annoying as hell. The younger one in particular is like a western Dennis the Menace. I laughed pretty hard at the mom’s added prayer to “give us the wisdom that comes with silence.”
• The scenes in the Contention City hotel room (aka where the original short story begins) are understandably the best. Van and Glenn play their respective sides of the scenes with such impressive subtlety that I genuinely didn’t know how the scene would play out. Proof that a scene with just two people talking can be as thrilling as any action scene.

• I’m confused by Alex’s line “I’m a family man in a way.” Is that a euphemism for something?
• That’s an interesting ending. Not bad, but it just kind of happens. The climactic moment might be too obscured by the surrounding elements, but I do love the final shots as the end theme swells.

Legacy 

• “3:10 to Yuma” was released in August 1957, and was a hit with critics and audiences. Even Elmore Leonard considered it one of the better film adaptations of his work. You know who didn’t like this movie? Howard Hawks. Between this and “High Noon”, Hawks hated how philosophical and metaphorical Westerns were becoming, which inspired him to make his own Western in response, fellow NFR entry “Rio Bravo”.

• Delmer Daves continued making westerns throughout the ’50s (most notably “The Hanging Tree”), but his weakening heart condition led him to withdraw from the on-location hazards of westerns for a safer in-studio climate. Daves’ later films include “Spencer’s Mountain” and “A Summer Place”, the latter of which has a theme song that I now have stuck in my head for the rest of the day.

• This is one of those movies that tends to be referenced in pop culture mainly for its title. Someone will refer to a train (or any other important mode of transportation) as “the 3:10 to Yuma”, but that’s about it.
• Did you know that Elmore Leonard wrote the books and short stories that would become the films “Get Shorty”, “Jackie Brown”, and the TV series “Justified”? If I knew any of that, I defintely forgot.

• After a bit of development turnaround, a remake of “3:10 to Yuma” hit theaters in fall 2007. Directed by James Mangold and starring Russell Crowe and Christian Bale, this “3:10” is on the list of rare remakes of classics that are as good as the original. When I told people I was covering “3:10” for the blog, a lot of them assumed it was the remake.

• Perhaps the film’s most enduring legacy happened in another country. “3:10 to Yuma” was one of the last films released in pre-revolution Cuba and citizens used the film’s title as slang for Americans: “yumas” (a variation on “La Yunay”, their term for the United States). After the revolution, American pop culture was banned, but a wave of nostalgia for these old movies hit Cuba in the late 1970s, and some US titles started to make the rounds again. “3:10” returned to Cuban culture, as did the term “yumas”.

Other notes 

• Melchior Lengyel conceived “Ninotchka” during a conference to come up with star vehicles for Greta Garbo, whose film career took a hit when she was labeled “Box Office Poison” by the Independent Theater Owners Association in 1938 . Originally, Ernst Lubitsch was only meant to produce this film, with George Cukor set to direct. Once Cukor left the project in favor of “Gone with the Wind”, Lubitsch agreed to direct, as long as MGM allowed his next project to be “The Shop Around the Corner“. Lubitsch ordered a re-write, and apparently made enough contributions to the script that Wilder & Brackett unsuccessfully lobbied the Writers Guild to give Lubitsch a credit.
• That Wilder/Brackett dialogue comes at you fast and furious in the opening scenes. Lubitsch handles the screenwriters’ trademark repartee with the delicate touch synonymous with his movies. The pacing is quick enough to keep the momentum going, with time to let the dialogue sink in without feeling tossed off a la “Ball of Fire“.
• This is my first experience with young Melvyn Douglas, being more accustomed to his later career as an Oscar winning elder statesman. Here Douglas is quite charming as Count Leon, the kind of romantic cad you would expect to see Don Ameche play (apparently Cary Grant and William Powell were in consideration).

• Wasn’t Garbo in this? Seriously, it is a very long twenty minutes before she shows up. In the meantime there’s a lot of plot setup, plus some comic interludes with the three Russian Board of Trade agents (Sig Ruman, Felix Bressart, and Alexander Granach). There’s also a running gag about the agents ordering French maid/cigarette girls to come up to their hotel room. This is of course back when French maids still dressed like…well, French maids.
• The best exchange in the movie: Ninotchka, upon learning that a porter’s job is to take her bag, “That’s no business, that’s a social injustice.” The Porter: “That depends on the tip.”

• We have previously covered Garbo’s other two NFR films on this blog, and yet have never really talked about the woman herself. Garbo’s work in “Flesh and the Devil” and “Grand Hotel” plays to her established screen persona, the stoic woman caught in a forbidden and/or doomed romance, and I had nothing substantial to say about either other than “Yep, that’s a Garbo performance.” With “Ninotchka” Garbo still plays to type, but also gets the chance to be funny while doing it. Having Garbo play the first half of the movie with a total stone-face is the right choice; milking every laugh out of how thoroughly unamused Ninotchka is by her surroundings. It makes her eventual warming up all the more satisfying. This is the first Garbo performance I actually enjoyed watching; her statuesque exterior giving way to her proverbial feet of clay.
• The scene in the cafe when Leon finally gets Ninotchka to laugh is worth the wait. Side note: The film’s tagline “Garbo Laughs!” is a play on “Garbo Talks!”, the tagline for Garbo’s first sound picture “Anna Christie”.

• I like that Ninotchka is a little awkward upon being with Leon when she buys the hat. Again, it goes with letting Garbo actually play a nuanced character rather than her persona. It’s more entertaining to watch, and helps the film age better.
• Garbo drinks! Apparently Garbo had misgivings about playing a scene where Ninotchka gets drunk on champagne, which she consider vulgar. Lubitsch himself expressed his frustration in the press, calling Garbo “the most inhibited person I have ever worked with.”

• Wow, even Vladimir Lenin gets a laugh in this. There’s your Lubitsch Touch!
• Shoutout to Ina Claire, a stage actress making one of her rare film appearances as the Grand Duchess Swana, the woman Count Leon has a casual dalliance with. Unlike other rom-com third wheels, Grand Duchess Swana is more like 2E from “Breakfast at Tiffany’s“: yes she’s the other woman, but she’s holding all the cards. Claire doesn’t have much to do until the Grand Duchess’ confrontation with Ninotchka at the end, but she nails the scene, making us understand that this woman does not live or die by the love of one man. Interestingly enough, Ina Claire was briefly married to John Gilbert after his famous love affair with Garbo, so I can imagine there was a little extra friction behind the scenes that day.
• Wow, the last chunk of the movie when Ninotchka returns to Russia really drags. I don’t care about how bleak communist Russia is or what happened to the three agents, I just want to know how Ninotchka and Leon get back together.

• During the lulls of the final half hour, I thought, “Didn’t I see Bela Lugosi’s name in the opening credits? Did I miss him?” Turns out Lugosi only has one scene, right before the finale as Commissar Razinin, his only non-vampire NFR appearance. “Ninotchka” was one of Lugosi’s last forays into an A picture before being permanently typecast by his work with Universal monsters. Despite his brief screentime here, Lugosi receives 4^th billing for his performance. Either someone at MGM really liked Lugosi or he had a great agent.
• And then we get a weird tag after Ninotchka and Leon’s “happily ever after”: a throwaway gag about the agents and their restaurant business. Once again, I don’t care about these subplots, just end the movie!

Legacy 

• “Ninotchka” was the hit Garbo needed to combat her “Box Office Poison” label. MGM immediately re-teamed her with Melvyn Douglas for another rom-com, 1941’s “Two-Faced Woman”. The film was not well-received by critics, and while it did okay at the box office, didn’t make its money back and became one of many reasons Garbo left MGM. Garbo had every intention of returning to film after World War II, but every opportunity that arose either fell through or was rejected by Garbo, until eventually she opted for retirement. “Ninotchka” proved to be the penultimate film of Garbo’s career, and her last hit.

• Unsurprisingly, “Ninotchka” did not go over well with Soviet Russia, and an attempt to release the film in Vienna after the war was met with controversy. Vienna finally played “Ninotchka” in 1951 after the city reclaimed its full sovereignty from Russia.
• A musical adaptation by Cole Porter called “Silk Stockings” played Broadway in 1955 staring German actress Hildegard Knef and Don Ameche (I told you he’d be good in that part). The inevitable film adaptation came in 1957, starring Cyd Charisse and Fred Astaire, and was one of the last MGM musicals under the fabled “Freed Unit”.

Other notes 

• First and foremost, a shoutout to David Kiehn and the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum in Fremont, California. All information we have about this film stems from Kiehn’s research. Side note: Like myself, David Kiehn is an alumni of SFSU! What’s up, fellow Gator?
• Among the details Kiehn used to determine the film’s identity: background signs for “Park Theatre” and “Cleveland Club” (what the latter was doing in Indianapolis I have no idea), the carvings on the wagons (unique to Ringling Brothers), and a trolley car labeled “Blake”. This is the kind of deep-dive researching that makes me love film history. It’s amazing what you can figure out with internet access and a thirst for knowledge. By the way, one of the resources Kiehn used was the Internet Archive. If you love any sort of film history research projects like this one, please donate anything you can to them.
• The Polyscope description says the parade is lead by “Mr. Ringling”, though it never specifies which one. They were all still alive in 1902, so it’s anyone’s guess.
• I love the little moment where a female onlooker is tapped on the shoulder and asked to stand back. I wonder if they knew she was partially blocking the shot. “Would you step back miss? You’re obstructing the posterity.”
• There are several parade watchers holding umbrellas. Turns out Indianapolis was unusually hot that day, with a high of 85 degrees! And everyone’s wearing suits and dresses! I would not have survived back then.
• Yes, there are lions and tigers and bears in the parade, but their cages are so dark you can barely see them. I’ll take your word for it, movie.
• Wait, are the clowns the guys on top of the wagon playing instruments? Either that or the bit of film with the clowns is missing from this reel. Regardless, those of you with a fear of clowns should be able to watch this with no problem.
• Everyone in this movie is dressed like they’re in “The Man Who Would Be King“.
• After seeing all the horses in this parade, I have come to the conclusion that circuses smelled awful.
• And there’s elephants too? Yeah, nothing about this experience smelled good. The people of Indianapolis must have been really starved for entertainment in 1902. Thank god the Motor Speedway was only a few years away.
• Did you know that David Letterman, Brendan Fraser, Jane Pauley, Madam C.J. Walker, and John Dillinger are all from Indianapolis? And so is “Double Dare” host Marc Summers! Sorry; I’ve fallen into a research rabbit hole, where were we? Oh right, the circus.

Legacy 

• “Ringling Brothers Parade Film” was released in July 1902, and was available for purchase to be screened at your exhibition hall for $18 (over $600 in today’s money!). The film was still advertised by the Selig Company as late as 1908, but seemingly disappeared after the company folded in 1918. Cut to the Niles Essany Silent Film Museum in 2011, when an elderly couple from Oakland donated an unmarked reel of film they discovered in their home in 1969 (you may be thinking, “Why did they wait 42 years before turning it in?” but don’t we all have items on our To Do list that we keep putting off?) Thanks to the detective work of David Kiehn, the unmarked reel was identified as “Ringling Brothers Parade Film” and received a 5K restoration. The restored film was uploaded onto the Niles’ YouTube channel in October 2020, and made the NFR 14 months later.