Author: thehorsesheadblog

The Plot: During a service in a Black church, a pastor (Carlton Moss) acknowledges the members of his congregation serving in the Army. The pastor’s sermon becomes a lecture on the history of African-Americans who fought for their country throughout its history, citing the importance of African-Americans in shaping our country’s future. This brings us to the present day, with Black men serving in the Army and fighting in World War II. Congregation member Mrs. Bronson (Bertha Woolford) reads a letter from her son, a recently enlisted Army soldier, who writes that despite all the hardships of training and war, every man in the Army – Black or otherwise – understands that they are all fighting for the freedom of the world. Brought to you by the US Department of War.

Why It Matters: The NFR quotes historian Thomas Cripps, who called the film, “a watershed in the use of film to promote racial tolerance”. The write-up also salutes the “dignified, realistic, and far less stereotypical manner” in which African-Americans are depicted in this film.

But Does It Really?: Yes, this film’s subject matter helps it stand out from other WWII propaganda on the NFR. And yes, the film’s depiction of African-Americans is positive and stereotype-free. This all being said, the phrase that kept coming up for me during my viewing of “The Negro Soldier” was “separate, but equal”. While this film highlights our African-American citizens in a way that mainstream media hadn’t up until that point, it’s all couched in the segregation of the time. Black soldiers may be united with White soldiers in their fight against the Nazis, but that union is strictly figurative. Like so many NFR films of this era, “Negro Soldier” is very progressive for its time, but a modern viewing reads more as “two steps forward, one step back”. On the plus side, as of this writing “The Negro Soldier” is the last wartime propaganda on the NFR I have to watch for this blog, so that inadvertently earns the film a few points in its favor.

Shout Outs: Among the many films incorporated into “The Negro Soldier” is the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad from John Ford’s “The Iron Horse”. There’s also apparently footage from “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” and “The River”, but I can’t confirm that.

Everybody Gets One: A theater director from North Carolina, Carlton Moss worked in the Negro Theatre Unit of the Federal Theatre Project, taking over the unit after John Houseman’s departure in 1936. In 1942, Moss was recruited by Frank Capra to write the script for “The Negro Soldier” after initial drafts (by White writers) were deemed unsatisfactory. Moss’ first draft, titled “Men of Color to Arms”, was rejected for being too angry, so Moss re-wrote the script under the restrictions of various government mandates, including the exclusion of any mention of segregation within the film. In addition to penning the screenplay, Moss conducted research for the film, served as a technical advisor, and played the Pastor within the film.

• Carlton Moss continued making films for the next 40 years, becoming an important voice in Black independent filmmaking. Future subjects of Moss’ films included Frederick Douglass, George Washington Carver, and Paul Laurence Dunbar.
• The biggest influence of “The Negro Soldier” was its positive depiction of African-Americans. While the future of American film still had (and has) its share of harmful Black stereotypes, “Negro Soldier” helped paved the way for the likes of Sidney Poitier, Dorothy Dandridge, and countless other Black artists who would help push the development of African-Americans on film into a more positive light.

The Plot: Arthur “Cody” Jarrett (James Cagney) is a tough, merciless gangster with one major Achilles’ heel: His psychological obsession with his mother (Margaret Wycherly). A successful train robbery by Jarrett and his gang catches the eye of the US Treasury Department, and a manhunt begins. Jarrett successfully evades the law by turning himself in for a lesser crime he didn’t commit that doubles as his alibi for the train robbery and spares him from the death penalty in a federal prison. With Jarrett behind bars in a state prison, the Treasury enlists undercover agent Hank Fallon (Edmond O’Brien) to pose as convicted criminal Vic Pardo, gain Jarrett’s trust, and learn who is laundering Jarrett’s stolen money. It’s a cops-and-robber thriller, with an added Freudian element and zero explanation of what exactly the titular “white heat” is. Is it the cops?

Why It Matters: The NFR calls the film “[o]ne of the toughest and most brilliant crime films ever made”. An essay by Raoul Walsh expert Marilyn Ann Moss unsurprisingly focuses on Walsh’s directorial contributions to the film.

But Does It Really?: “White Heat” is in the “minor classic” category of both classic Hollywood movies and gangster pictures. While “White Heat” isn’t as well-remembered as some of Cagney’s earlier gangster offerings, it is an entertainingly tense, well-scripted entry in the genre, with Jarrett’s psychological issues adding a nice complex layer to the proceedings. With a memorable star turn by Cagney and its iconic final moments, “White Heat” is more than worthy of its NFR status.

Wow, That’s Dated: Plenty of dated elements, mainly the pre-GPS direction finders the cops use to track down Jarrett. Also, among the places Jarrett and his gang hide out in are a drive-in movie theater and one of those newfangled “motor-hotels”.

Everybody Gets One: Screenwriters Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts first met in the late 1930s while they were both staff writers at Republic Studios. The met up again in New York during the war, collaborating on the play “Portrait in Black”, which had a successful Broadway run. Goff and Roberts continued their writing partnership for the next 40 years, and although “White Heat” was the peak of their screenwriting careers, the two had a successful run on television in the ‘60s and ‘70s, writing among other things the pilot to the original “Charlie’s Angels”.

Seriously, Oscars?: Warner Bros. didn’t have a lot of major contenders at the 22^nd Oscars, but “White Heat” snuck in with one nomination for Virginia Kellogg’s original story, losing to MGM’s baseball biopic “The Stratton Story”. Kellogg would be nominated in the same category the next year for “Caged”, based on her magazine article “Inside Women’s Prison”.

• Surprising no one, the movie Jarrett, Verna, and Ma watch at the drive-in is a Warner Bros. picture: the war film “Task Force” starring Gary Cooper. Now playing at a theater near you!

• This movie is to the Treasury Department what “Double Indemnity” is to insurance investigation. I had no idea working with the Treasury Department is so action-packed. Characters are getting shot in the line of treasury duty!
• Edmond O’Brien is one of those actors who wasn’t on my radar until I started this blog, and he delivers here in a role similar to his work in “The Killers”. “White Heat” was a big turning point in O’Brien’s career, playing the second lead alongside Cagney. Allegedly the only reason O’Brien didn’t get above the title billing in “White Heat” is because Warners didn’t want people to see Cagney & O’Brien on a marquee and think that Cagney was reuniting with his old co-star Pat O’Brien. I can’t confirm that story, but it’s so dumb it just might be true.
• In the film’s second act, things pivot from a cat-and-mouse chase to a prison drama. It’s not a bad change, but it does become a different movie.
• I’ve been on a bit of an “MST3K” run recently, so imagine my surprise when Sid Melton (aka Monkey Boy) shows up here as one of the prisoners. Primarily an actor of TV and cheap B movies, Melton miraculously has two NFR appearances (this and “On the Town”).
• [Spoilers] Unfortunately, both of this film’s iconic moments are major spoilers. The first is Jarrett’s breakdown in the mess hall upon learning about his mother’s death. Jack Warner tried to get Walsh to film the scene in a chapel to save money (smaller set, less extras), but eventually agreed on the original setting, with the proviso the scene be filmed in under three hours. Apparently, Cagney’s unrestrained reaction was a surprise to everyone on set, and it still packs the intended punch today.

• Man, what a bastard Jarrett is. Throughout the movie he leaves one of his men for dead and shoots another one in cold blood, to say nothing of his verbal and physical abuse towards Verna. This level of screen villainy is a fun trade off with the rules of the Code era: We know Jarrett has to pay for his crimes by the end of the movie, so he might as well do as many bad things as possible before he goes.

• After Jarrett’s prison escape, the movie shift gears again and becomes a third movie about the gang planning a payroll heist at a chemical plant in Long Beach. If nothing else, this third gives us Cagney’s modern retelling of the Trojan Horse tale.
• Once Jarrett learns that Vic Pardo is actually Hank Fallon, he starts shouting “A coppah! A coppah!”. Sure that’s one gangster movie way to respond, but this was a missed opportunity for Cagney to call someone “you dirty rat!” It was right there!
• [Spoilers] The film’s most iconic moment is when Jarrett, alone on top of a huge spherical gas tank and surrounded by cops, goes out in a literal blaze of glory: shooting the tank and shouting “Made it Ma! Top of the world!” as he sets off an explosive chain reaction. This ending would be perfect if we didn’t get Hank’s superfluous coda: “He finally got to the top of the world, and it blew up in face.” We know, Hank, we were there too.

• And finally, the Madonna song “White Heat” gets its name from the movie. Some of Cagney’s dialogue from “White Heat” is sampled, and just like the movie, the song doesn’t explain the title either, although I suspect Madonna’s idea of “White Heat” is a little different. 

The Plot: Dante Hicks (Brian O’Halloran) is called in on his day off to cover a shift at the Quick Stop Groceries convenience store in Leonardo, New Jersey. The day proceeds normally, with Dante receiving visits from his girlfriend Veronica Loughran (Marilyn Ghigliotti), and his best friend Randal Graves (Jeff Anderson) who works at RST Video next door. But as the day wears on, Dante’s luck gets increasingly worse: interacting with a number of bizarre customers, receiving the news that his ex-girlfriend Caitlin Bree (Lisa Spoonauer) is engaged, and trying to ward off Jay and Silent Bob (Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith) who are not-so-discreetly conducting their drug dealing business in front of the Quick Stop. And from these humble beginnings comes the crass, clever, pop-culture infused, jersey-clad work of Kevin Smith.

Why It Matters: The NFR calls the film “hilarious, in-your-face, [and] bawdy-yet-provocative”. The rest of the write-up is a rundown of Kevin Smith, as well as a lengthy blurb from Roger Ebert’s review of the film.

But Does It Really?: As I said the day the Class of 2019 was announced: “Oh for the love of— who put Kevin Smith on the list?”. At first glance, “Clerks” is an odd choice for the National Film Registry, but upon further inspection, its inclusion checks off a lot of boxes. Like many other NFR entries, “Clerks” is an era-defining hit that put its filmmaker on the map, and spawned a franchise and cult following that continues decades after the original film. On its own, “Clerks” is crude (in every sense of the word), but makes up for its guerrilla filmmaking aesthetic with sharp dialogue that captures the existential banality of working customer service. While I’ve never had anything for or against Kevin Smith, this viewing of “Clerks” made me appreciate his place in our movie landscape, and while I have mixed feelings about the final film, I have no objections to “Clerks” making the NFR cut.

Shout Outs: The most iconic scene in the movie comes from Dante and Randal’s conversation about “Return of the Jedi” (with Dante calling “Empire Strikes Back” the superior film). We also get a “Jaws” parody and, thanks to several shots inside the video store, at least 21 other NFR movies available to rent on VHS, from “2001: A Space Odyssey” to “A League of Their Own”.

Everybody Gets One: Hailing from Red Bank, New Jersey, Kevin Smith was inspired to become a filmmaker after seeing Richard Linklater’s “Slacker”, which made Smith realize he could make a movie locally without dealing with Hollywood studios. Smith attended Vancouver Film School for four months before dropping out and starting production on his own movie based on his experience working at Quick Stop Groceries in Leonardo, an unincorporated community near Red Bank. Oh, and like his main characters, Smith was 22 years old when he made “Clerks”. Take that, Orson Welles!

Wow, That’s Dated: Mainly the fact that Randal works at a video rental store. If I were Randal I wouldn’t be so smug when a customer vows never to return.

Seriously, Oscars?: No Oscar nods for “Clerks”, but it did receive three Independent Spirit nominations, including Best First Feature and Best First Screenplay. “Clerks” lost both of these awards to David O. Russell’s “Spanking the Monkey”, a title that somehow isn’t one of the adult movies Randal lists off.

• This movie is so aggressively ‘90s. There’s something about disenchanted young Gen-Xers rattling off pop culture references that encapsulates this era of filmmaking so succinctly. Between this and “Pulp Fiction” (also released by Miramax around the same time as “Clerks”), its feels like independent filmmaking finally found its voice in 1994.
• This is your reminder that there is now a movie on the NFR in which “snowballing” is discussed. If you haven’t seen this movie, please don’t Google that.
• I’m so used to seeing Jay and Silent Bob in bigger movies (and in color) that it’s weird to see them here as supporting characters in a low-budget black-and-white movie. On a related note, Kevin Smith has somehow not aged in 30 years.

• Even at 22, Kevin Smith knew how to make a movie. It’s all rudimentary, but like many an independent filmmaker, you can sense Smith’s love of the game. In addition to writing, directing, producing, and acting, Smith co-edited the film with co-producer Scott Mosier. Given the confident rhythm of the editing, you get the sense that the film wasn’t saved in the edit, but rather enhanced by it, particularly the well-timed cuts that take us from one vignette to the next.
• Multiple actors pull double-duty in this film, but shoutout to Walt Flanagan who shows up as four different minor characters throughout the movie. Flanagan kept getting parts when their original actors flaked on production, and I didn’t realize all four characters were played by the same actor until Flanagan’s name kept popping up in the end credits.

• Despite my issues with “Clerks”, I must admit I laughed out loud quite a bit during my viewing. My favorite line in the movie is Randal declaring, “This job would be great if it wasn’t for the fucking customers”. I’ve said very similar things throughout my own customer service experience. Other lines I found funny include Dante’s refrain of “I’m not supposed to be here today,” and the running gag about the store smelling like shoe polish.

• Of all of this movie’s low-budget hacks, my favorite is the sweater that Rick the trainer is wearing that completely covers his arms. Just take our word for it: He’s ripped.
• Speaking of low-budget filmmaking: How do you stage a fight in a real convenience store without damaging any property? The answer: Not well.
• The film’s ending feels abrupt, but there’s a reason for that. As Dante is closing Quick Stop for the night, he was originally going to be shot and killed by someone robbing the store. Kevin Smith based this sudden downer of an ending on the final scenes from “Do the Right Thing”, though he admitted later that he wrote it because he “didn’t know how to end a film.” It was definitely the right call to cut this: As much as I was let down by the film’s anticlimactic ending, I would rather be confused by its suddenness than depressed by its tragic tonal shift.

• There have been two attempts at a “Clerks” TV series. A pilot was developed in 1995 by Touchstone Television without Kevin Smith’s involvement, but was deemed awful by all involved and never picked up. Smith was directly involved with “Clerks: The Animated Series”, which was quickly canceled by ABC in 2000 after airing only two of the six produced episodes.

• The Quick Stop seen in “Clerks” in still standing, and has definitely leaned into its status as a famous filming location. The RST Video next door, unsurprisingly, closed decades ago, and is currently being used for storage. Attempts to reopen RST Video around 2019 seem to have fallen by the wayside.

• And finally: “Clerks” is one of the rare NFR movies to inspire another movie about its production.“Shooting Clerks” was written and directed by Christopher Downie, who would go on to lead the grassroots Twitter campaign that eventually got “Clerks” into the Registry, with the NFR announcing that “Clerks” received the most public nominations in 2019. Well movie geeks, your voice was heard. Happy now?

The Plot: In 1880s London, newly married Gregory and Paula Anton (Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman) move into the townhouse of Paula’s Aunt Alice, who was mysteriously murdered 10 years earlier. While everything starts well for the couple, Gregory becomes more possessive of Paula as time goes on, to the point of keeping her in the house all day and not admitting visitors. Gregory implies that Paula is going crazy and dismisses all of her concerns, especially her claim that the house gaslights start dimming whenever Gregory goes away at night. Scotland Yard Inspector Brian Cameron (Joseph Cotten) becomes suspicious of Gregory’s behavior and reopens the investigation of Alice’s murder, discovering many secrets along the way, as well as a new term for psychological abuse.

Why It Matters: The NFR praises the film for being “as suspenseful as the day it was made”, singling out Cukor’s direction, Bergman’s “spellbinding performance”, and the longevity of the term “gaslighting”.

But Does It Really?: In any other time, “Gaslight” would have made the NFR solely for its standing as a classic movie thriller. But no, we live in a time where “gaslighting” has crossed-over into the mainstream, and we have to give the film its due for originating the term. Future historical context aside, “Gaslight” holds up very well after all these years, with genuinely suspenseful moments aided by Cukor’s taut direction and lead performances by Boyer and especially Bergman. “Gaslight” is still in the “minor classic” category, but its recent resurgence (for better or worse) has helped make this film an NFR no-brainer.

Everybody Gets One: Despite his extensive Classic Hollywood resume, this is the only NFR appearance for Charles Boyer. A leading stage actor in his native France, Boyer pivoted to film in the 1920s, first in uninteresting supporting roles and later romantic leading roles with the advent of sound. A trip to Hollywood in 1930 found Boyer getting work with MGM and Paramount, often appearing in both the English and French language versions of the same film! Among his most famous roles was jewel thief Pepe Le Moko in 1938’s “Algiers”, a performance that served as the inspiration for Looney Tunes’ Pepé Le Pew.

Title Track: The original play was titled “Gas Light” (two words) when it premiered in England, but for unknown reasons the title was changed when it performed in America: first as “Five Chelsea Lane” in Los Angeles in 1941, and then “Angel Street” on Broadway later that same year. Following the play’s stateside success, MGM bought the film rights, with one of the conditions being that the film retain the play’s original title (albeit as one word instead of two).

Seriously, Oscars?: At the 1945 Oscars, “Gaslight” received seven nominations, including Best Picture. Although the film lost most of its awards to “Going My Way”, it did walk away with two wins: Best Art Direction (Black-and-White) and Best Actress for Ingrid Bergman, the first of her three eventual wins. Coincidentally, when Bergman won Best Actress, she was in the middle of filming “The Bells of St. Mary’s” — the sequel to “Going My Way”.

• [Spoiler? Maybe?] One thing that’s confusing me: Are we supposed to know out the gate that Gregory is the murderer? Like, I get that we obviously shouldn’t empathize with him given his treatment of Paula, but did this movie intend to play its hand that early? The reveal of Gregory’s motives is a bit more gradual in the play, and there is still a bit of mystery regarding that in this film; I guess I thought they would draw it out longer. I wouldn’t be surprised if the studio mandated Gregory’s intentions be moved up to the beginning, avoiding the kind of moral ambiguity that was frowned upon in the Hays Code era.
• On a related note, this movie gave me some serious “Rebecca” vibes. Both films are period pieces about a newly married woman, her husband’s mysterious past, and a deceased woman who haunts everything (metaphorically). I’m not the only one to compare these two films: critic Emanuel Levy includes them in a sub-genre of movie dubbed “Don’t Trust Your Husband”, which includes such other films of the era as “Suspicion”, “Notorious”, and “The Spiral Staircase”.
• One addition I found a bit jarring: the Anton’s nosy neighbor Miss Bessie Thwaites, played by British acting legend and MGM contract player Dame May Whitty. There is some comic relief in the original play, but it’s much more subdued and…British. Having this proto-Mrs. Kravitz pop in throughout the movie feels like another Hollywood diluting of the source material, as well as a supreme waste of Dame May’s talents.
• The Anton’s Cockney maid Nancy is none other than Dame Angela Lansbury in her film debut! Lansbury arrived in America with her family in 1942 to escape the Blitz in London, and she landed “Gaslight” (and an MGM contract) thanks to family friend John Van Druten, one of this film’s screenwriters. In only a few scenes, Lansbury gives us a sample platter of her many talents: foreboding drama, playful comedy, and even a song! No wonder multiple reviews singled her out as a promising newcomer.

• Side note: Angela Lansbury was 17 when she began filming, and a scene of Nancy smoking a cigarette had to be postponed until Angela turned 18 during production. 
• The gaslighting begins almost immediately, and as tough as it is to watch, Bergman and Boyer play their sides expertly; Boyer in particular showcasing some excellent restraint in his performance. According to Ingrid Bergman, despite their on-screen relationship, she and Boyer got along well during filming.

• Shoutout to the film’s cinematographer, MGM staple Joseph Ruttenberg. At a time when film noir was permeating the art form but hadn’t been labeled as such yet, “Gaslight” follows the genre’s aesthetics, with shots of shadows on the wall enhancing the film’s suspense. Ruttenberg also makes it a point to keep the gas lamps in frame, even when the scene doesn’t call attention to them.
• Another major change from stage to screen: In the original play, the third lead is G.W. Rough, an older British detective. For this film, Rough becomes Brian Cameron, a young American working with Scotland Yard. Once again, I assume this alteration was to make the film more palatable to an American audience. I couldn’t find anything to confirm if MGM wanted Cotten for the part or if he was thrown in as part of their deal with Selznick. Either way, he works well for the film, so I have no objections.
• “Gaslight” includes one of my biggest pet peeves in old movies: rear projection walking shots. It’s always so jarring. Like, you couldn’t just film two people walking in an actual park? You had to do it in studio on some sort of treadmill?
• “You’re not going out of your mind. You’re slowly and systematically being driven out of your mind. If only there was a term for that…”

• [Semi-Spoiler] After almost two hours of tension and paranoia, Paula’s final confrontation with Gregory is such a relief. She finally has the upper hand on her husband and it is wonderful. This triumphant climax is slightly undercut by the ending, which tacks on an implied relationship between Paula and Brian, topped off with one more punchline from Dame May Whitty. What is happening?

• Some movies have an iconic scene or a quotable line, but“Gaslight” has made a huge impact on our culture with just one word. The use of “gaslighting” as a term for psychological manipulation can be traced back as early as the 1950s, with many a TV show referring to “the ‘Gaslight’ treatment”. Medical essays started to use “gaslight” as a clinical term around the 1970s, and its usage saw a massive surge in 2016, a newfound popularity that has continued for the last decade. Hmmm, I wonder what happened in 2016?

Further Viewing: MGM’s “Gaslight” was the second film adaptation of the play; the first was made in 1940 by British National Films. When MGM bought the American film rights, there was a rumor that the studio had also purchased the 1940 “Gaslight” and destroyed all prints. This turned out to be false, as the British “Gaslight” began airing on TV in the 1950s, and is still widely available for viewing. The British “Gaslight” hews closer to the original play, and is an overall more streamlined and subtle version of the American film. Side note: To avoid confusion with the MGM “Gaslight”, the British original was re-titled “Angel Street” when it arrived stateside.

December 16^th 2002: The Library of Congress announces 25 more films added to the National Film Registry, bringing the total to 350 films. With all 25 films finally under my belt, let’s take a look back at the NFR Class of 2002:

Star Theatre (1901): “time-lapse photography is neat, and someone had to introduce it to the American mainstream.”

Wild and Woolly (1917): “[Douglas] Fairbanks is entertaining, but we’ve already got three of his later iconic movies on the list.”

Lady Windermere’s Fan (1925): “impressive as an exercise in translating a very wordy play into a much more visual film.”

Theodore Case Sound Test: Gus Visser and His Singing Duck (1925): “technically it has historical significance, but…there weren’t any other films to choose?”

From Stump to Ship (1930): “Thanks to this 30-minute documentation, I feel wholly qualified to be a 1930s logger”.

Punch Drunks (1934): “checks all the boxes you want from a Stooges short”.

Melody Ranch (1940): “a perfect encapsulation of the all-in-good-fun type of movies [Gene] Autry specialized in.”

La Perla [The Pearl] (1947): “Not a classic, but not a relic of its time either.”

The Bad and the Beautiful (1952): “a well-made tale of corrupt Old Hollywood”

This Is Cinerama (1952): “essentially the birth of the widescreen movie as we know it.”

All My Babies: A Midwife’s Own Story (1953): “the kind of unique film the NFR was made for…Just don’t eat before watching it.”

From Here to Eternity (1953): “A well made film with good performances all around, but that’s about it.”

Sabrina (1954): “iconic enough for eventual NFR inclusion, but not tops on anyone’s list.”

Wild River (1960): “an engaging examination of time and place, but as an NFR entry it doesn’t pass muster.”

The Endless Summer (1966): “If you’re going to have one surf film on the Registry, this is a fine choice.”

Navajo Film Themselves (1966): “a specific glimpse into an Indigenous culture…courtesy of the culture itself.”

In the Heat of the Night (1967): “A top-notch film that shows us where we were, where we are, and where we’re going. Now that’s a classic.”

Why Man Creates (1968): “I have no objections to including a film by Saul Bass, whose praises I have sung in many previous posts.”

Fuji (1974): “highlights what experimental animation is capable of.”

Alien (1979): “There’s no way [the NFR] could ignore a move as iconic, as memorable, or as perennially exciting”.

The Black Stallion (1979): “set the template for kids-and-animal films for the next two decades.”

Stranger Than Paradise (1984): “a perfect representation of [Jim Jarmusch’s] work.”

This Is Spinal Tap (1984): “one of the most consistently funny movies ever made.”

Beauty and the Beast (1991): “a spectacular feat of animation, an incredible piece of musical theater, and an overall outstanding film.”

Boyz n the Hood (1991): “a realistic, sincere movie with a strong message.”