The Horse's Head

#356) The Emperor Jones (1933)

OR “Ah! Wilderness!”

Directed by Dudley Murphy

Written by DuBose Heyward. Based on the play by Eugene O’Neill.

Class of 1999

No trailer, but here’s this movie’s “Take a Shot” moment.

The Plot: Brutus Jones (Paul Robeson) is a charming, albeit temperamental African-American tempted by the sinful city living he is exposed to as a porter. During a crap game, Jones stabs and kills his friend Jeff (Frank H. Wilson), and is sentenced to a chain gang. Jones escapes, and ends up on an island off of Haiti. After becoming business partners with shady trader Smithers (Dudley Digges), Jones successfully takes over the island, and crowns himself “Emperor”. The power immediately goes to Jones’ head, but a tribal revolt (and an extended monologue in the jungle) is not too far behind.

Why It Matters: The NFR calls Robeson’s performance “powerful”, and then just spoils the whole darn movie.

But Does It Really?: I’m on the fence with this one. It definitely stands out from other films of the era, with its progressive casting and (then) experimental camerawork, but the increasingly uneasy racial discussions make for an uncomfortable modern viewing. Ultimately I’ll give “The Emperor Jones” a pass as a representation of Paul Robeson for something other than belting “Ol’ Man River”. Like many early African-American films on this list, do your homework before watching “The Emperor Jones”.

Everybody Gets One: Many of the film’s supporting players were performers from Broadway, opera, and minstrelsy. Among the actors in minor roles is future legendary comedian and Chitlin’ Circuit veteran Moms Mabley! “The Emperor Jones” is currently the only film adaptation of a Eugene O’Neill play to make the NFR. My prediction: the next one will be the 1930 “Anna Christie” starring Greta Garbo (with 1962’s “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” a potential spoiler).

Wow, That’s Dated: The lost profession of train porter. Also the slurs. Mainly the slurs.

Seriously, Oscars?: United Artists was considered a smaller independent studio compared to the larger Hollywood studios of the day (Warner Bros., MGM, etc), and box office disappointment “The Emperor Jones” was left out of the Oscars. United Artists’ only major contender at the 1933 Oscars was a film they distributed but did not produce: English import “The Private Life of Henry VIII”.

Other notes

• Let’s get this out of the way: most of the controversy surrounding “The Emperor Jones” – then and now – was O’Neill’s abundant usage of a certain racial slur that shall go unnamed. O’Neill based the character of Brutus off of a sailor he had known in his waterfront days, but at the end of the day this reasoning is still a white person defending their use of an offensive epithet. Charles Sidney Gilpin, Broadway’s original Brutus Jones, objected to the term and opted to substitute “negro” during his performances. When “Jones” was revived in 1925, O’Neill bypassed Gilpin in favor of a then-unknown Paul Robeson, which led to Robeson reprising the role for the film. It should go without saying, but O’Neill’s original text is restored for the film.
• Screenwriter DuBose Heyward was a few years away from his most famous work, the libretto for “Porgy and Bess”. Everyone has a niche, apparently Heyward’s was writing super stereotypical dialogue for African-Americans.
• Dudley Murphy got his start writing and directing shorts, including fellow NFR entries “St. Louis Blues” and “Black and Tan”, the latter also featuring “Jones” co-star Fredi Washington.
• To the best of my knowledge there’s no singing in the original play, but we cast Paul Robeson as the lead and dammit we’re gonna make him sing!
• Light-skinned African-American Fredi Washington had to reshoot all of her scenes when the producers determined she appeared white alongside Paul Robeson (and miscegenation in the movies was still very taboo). Ms. Washington’s reaction to these reshoots (in essentially blackface) goes unrecorded.

• A ‘30s chain gang? Say hi to Paul Muni for me…oh no he escaped!
• Among the countless pre-code subjects we considered taboo back in 1933 was black-on-white violence. The shot of Brutus hitting a white prison guard over the head with a shovel was removed from the final film, leaving an obvious and jarring cut. If you want to see an approximation of that scene, I feel like “Blazing Saddles” does the trick.
• Once we get on the island the slurs start flying left and right. It’s a difficult viewing experience. Interestingly enough, in some scenes there are sudden cuts before and after the slurs, leading me to believe the offensive terms were deleted from various prints and restored here.
• For all the film’s cons, Robeson is very good, and his Brutus is allowed to be a more dimensional character than African-Americans were allowed to be in the 1930s. There are good turns from the supporting cast as well, but like the original stage play, this is Brutus’ show.
• The final third of the movie is the only part that is faithful to the stage version. The entire play is essentially an extended monologue for Brutus, and the film visualizes several scenes that are mentioned but not seen on stage. It’s definitely a tonal shift for the movie, due to Brutus suddenly speaking in O’Neill’s trademark prose. This all being said, O’Neill signed off on the film’s departures from his text.

• If you can, make sure to watch the restored Criterion Collection version of “Emperor Jones”. If nothing else, they restore the blue tint that the jungle scenes originally had. Nice throwback to when this was commonplace in the silent era.
• My final handwritten note sums up my overall experience with this movie: “Ohhhhhhhhkay.”

Legacy

• The play and film version of “Emperor Jones” made a star out of Paul Robeson, one of the first African-American actors to crossover into white America. Robeson was grateful for the exposure “Emperor Jones” gave him, but struggled with its racially insensitive characterizations, forming the foundation for his subsequent political activism and involvement with the Civil Rights Movement.

• Productions of “The Emperor Jones” saw a resurgence in the 1950s, primarily in response to Robeson being blacklisted for alleged Communist sympathies. A 1955 TV production starred a young Ossie Davis.
• An opera based on “Emperor Jones” premiered in 1933. Although Robeson never performed in the show, he did sing selections from it in the 1936 film “The Song of Freedom”.

• As for the film itself, its original release was limited: white theaters didn’t want to carry a movie with an African-American lead, and several black organizations condemned the movie for its language and depictions of African-Americans. “The Emperor Jones” wasn’t rediscovered and reappraised until the ‘70s when Paul Robeson started raking in the lifetime achievement awards and tributes.

#355) Dead Birds (1963)

Directed by Robert Gardner

Written by Peter Matthiessen

Class of 1998

In 1961, The Peabody Museum Film Study Center of Baltimore, Maryland sponsored an expedition to study the Dani tribe of Western New Guinea, and “Dead Birds” is the resulting documentary. Filmed and narrated by Harvard professor Robert Gardner, with text from author Peter Matthiessen, the film focuses on two members of the Dani tribe: an adult warrior and hunter named Weyak, and a young boy named Pua. Weyak’s days are spent protecting the Dani from a rival tribe, which, like the Dani, believe that killing a member of the other tribe will restore the balance brought on by a death in their own tribe. Pua spends his days tending to the family pigs (a valuable commodity in Dani culture) and playing games with the other children that look remarkably like the battles between the Dani and their neighboring tribe. The film’s title is derived from not only the Dani’s name for its own weapons, but also from their belief that men are like birds, and therefore mortal.

If this blog has taught me anything, it’s to never take a documentary at face value. As I suspected during my viewing, “Dead Birds” is a slight exaggeration of what the Dani Tribe is and was in reality. The footage of the battles between the two tribes was comprised of several separate battles to give them a more epic scale. More egregious, the film was shot silently, and its soundtrack constructed entirely in post-production. The Dani spoken throughout the film was recorded by Harvard anthropologist Karl G. Heider, who did not speak the language and learned it second-hand. This all leads to my conflicted viewing experience with this film. I’m always down to watch a film about a culture other than my own, but what if the account you are receiving is being partially fabricated? Between this and the film’s downbeat view of the culture (complete with pig slaughtering), “Dead Birds” was a tough watch for me. The NFR calls the film “[o]ne of the most influential ethnographic films of the 1960s”, though I have yet to find anyone else who holds “Dead Birds” in such high regard. Robert Gardner’s earlier film “The Hunters” has also been inducted into the NFR, and I fear this may be a case of a filmmaker having more than their fair share of NFR representation.

Further Viewing: Robert Gardner returned to New Guinea in 1989 to explore how the Dani culture had changed. The footage from that trip became the 2013 documentary “Dead Birds Re-encountered”. The original film may be falsified, but the emotions on display when Gardner and Wayek see each other for the first time in almost 30 years definitely aren’t.

Check them out!

 

 

 

#354) West Side Story (1961)

OR “Sang Warfare”

Directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins

Written by Ernest Lehman. Based on the play by Arthur Laurents. Music by Leonard Bernstein, Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim.

Class of 1997

The Plot: “Romeo and Juliet” gets a modern retelling in the 1950s urban jungle of New York’s Upper West Side. There’s an escalating turf war between two gangs of juvenile delinquents: the Puerto Rican Sharks and the all-white Jets. At a local dance, former Jets leader Tony (Richard Beymer) meets Maria (Natalie Wood) – sister of Sharks leader Bernardo (George Chakiris)- and the two immediately fall for each other. Both parties are warned about seeing “one of them”, but the two continue to meet in secret, unaware of their love’s inevitable tragic conclusion. Oh, and it’s a musical.

Why It Matters: Though the NFR’s write-up praises the film for being “even bigger and more elaborate” than the stage production, it points out that both Natalie Wood and Richard Beymer are dubbed and miscast.

But Does It Really?: The original Broadway production of “West Side Story” was a watershed moment for theater, and the film has left a lasting ripple effect on American pop culture, but…it didn’t do much for me. The dance numbers are still electrifying and are matched by Bernstein & Sondheim’s untouchable score, but I couldn’t get into this film beyond its technical achievement. Ultimately, the miscasting of Natalie Wood is the film’s downfall, as is the then-common studio practice of dubbing all of the principles’ singing. “West Side Story” will always have a place in film history, but overall I don’t know if it holds up as well as people claim it does.

Everybody Gets One: Jerome Robbins was already a celebrated Broadway director/choreographer when he staged the original “West Side Story”. When approached by producer Walter Mirisch to choreograph the film, Robbins refused unless he could also direct. A compromise was reached: Robbins would direct the songs and dances, and the more experienced Robert Wise would handle the “book scenes”. Robbins’ extensive retakes led to the film going over-budget and behind schedule, and he was dismissed. “West Side Story” is his only film as a director.

Wow, That’s Dated: Of the main Sharks, Rita Moreno is the only one who is actually Puerto Rican; Natalie Wood is Russian, George Chakiris is Greek, and Jose de Vega is Fillipino. To make matters worse, Natalie Wood talks in a stereotypical Puerto Rican accent, and all of them wore dark makeup so that their skin tones matched.

Seriously, Oscars?: “West Side Story” tied “Judgment at Nuremberg” with 11 Oscar nominations and won 10, including Picture, the Supporting trophies for Chakiris and Moreno, and Director for Wise and Robbins – the first time that prize was shared. Robbins also received an honorary Oscar for his choreography. That’s all well and good, but what about “The Hustler”?

Other notes

• The stage cast of “West Side Story” were bypassed for the film; deemed too old to convincingly play youths. Natalie Wood was cast for her star power, Richard Beymer for his all-American looks. Although both could sing, neither was up to the demands of the score, and were dubbed by, respectively, Marni Nixon and Jimmy Bryant.
• One question about the overture: What am I looking at? I feel like Saul Bass phoned this one in.

• The opening ballet is an exhilarating introduction to this movie’s world, but once we get to Riff and Tony (and an obvious jump from on-location to in-studio) the film loses some of its energy.

• The real star of this movie is Jerome Robbins. His style has been parodied to death, and it doesn’t make sense for gang members to excel at ballet, but his choreography highlights the emotions and tensions of each scene. It is still exciting to watch almost 60 years later.
• The problem with an HD transfer of an old movie is that you can see the process shots coming a mile away. The transition from the dance hall to the streets in “Maria” sticks out with great clarity.

• “America” is the best number, led by charismatic turns from Chakiris and Moreno. Good thing the subject matter is no longer relevant and we acknowledge Puerto Ricans for the American citizens they are, right? …Right? [Nervous laughter, followed by loud sobbing]

• Nice workaround using a fire escape for the balcony scene. In fact, the whole film follows “Romeo and Juliet” quite faithfully, but the updates are so natural you don’t notice.
• “Gee, Officer Krupke” was in the second act of the play, but was swapped with “Cool” for the film. “Krupke” becomes especially superfluous in its earlier placing, but it’s a nice showcase of Russ Tamblyn’s acrobatics.

• As Maria, Natalie Wood is her usual charming screen persona, but it’s impossible for me to get past her accent and dubbed singing. “I Feel Pretty” should be a lovely highlight of the film, but it comes off as an uncomfortable missed opportunity. Catchy song, though.

• I know they’re just going off of “Romeo and Juliet”, but Tony and Maria need to slow their respective rolls. It has been less than a day!
• The “Tonight Quintet” gets back to the film’s emotional core, and demonstrates how to successfully film a song that covers several characters at once. Thomas Stanford earned that editing Oscar.

• As previously mentioned, “Cool” is now placed after the rumble, and makes for a better choice to relieve the tension of the previous scene. Between the famous opening riff and the finger snapping, this is the number that has become our cultural shorthand for “West Side Story”.

• Man, we spend a lot of time with the Jets towards the end of the film. Wasn’t Natalie Wood in this at some point?
• Rare for the early 1960s, the credits don’t appear until after the movie ends, preserving the film’s dramatic tension. Okay Saul Bass, you win this round.

Legacy

• “West Side Story” is one of those movies where the cultural impact is an aesthetic rather than a specific moment. I suspect most people aren’t even aware they’re referencing the movie when they snap their fingers and emulate the choreography.

• Wise and Lehman would reunite to adapt another acclaimed musical for the screen: “The Sound of Music”.

• As of this writing, production is set to begin on a Steven Spielberg directed remake of “West Side Story”. The cast looks promising, and the creatives have a high pedigree, so I’m hopeful.
• “West Side Story” had filmdom’s definitive finger snap for decades. If only Thanos hadn’t gotten the Mind Stone.

• The stage version of “West Side Story” has played around the world in the last 60 years, but you’ll be hard-pressed to find a production that eschews Jerome Robbins’ choreography or Joseph Caroff’s poster art.

• Most notable of the film’s parodies is the Oscar-winning 2005 short film “West Bank Story”, which transplanted the rivalry to Israel and Palestine.

• And of course, this is the breakthrough movie for the legendary, EGOT-winning, unstoppable Rita Moreno.

Listen to This: The “unequaled” original Broadway recording of “West Side Story” made the NRR in 2008. Cary O’Dell is once again on hand with a historical essay, as is a 2017 interview with Stephen Sondheim about all his NRR entries.

#353) Mildred Pierce (1945)

OR “Bridge over Troubled Daughter”

Directed by Michael Curtiz

Written by Ranald MacDougall. Based on the novel by James M. Cain.

Class of 1996

The Plot: Late one night, Mildred Pierce (Joan Crawford) discovers the dead body of her husband Monte Beragon (Zachary Scott) in their beach house. At the police station, Mildred dismisses the notion that he was shot by her first husband Bert (Bruce Bennett), and a flashback tells us how this all started. After she and Bert divorce, Mildred works as a waitress to support her daughters Veda and Kay (Ann Blyth and Jo Ann Marlow). With support from Bert’s former business partner Wally (Jack Carson), Mildred purchases a building from playboy Monte and converts it into a restaurant. Assisted by the wisecracking Ida Corwin (Eve Arden), Mildred becomes a successful entrepreneur, but her relationship with a spoiled, ungrateful Veda has become damaged beyond repair. There’s loads of double-crossing and emotional manipulation in one of Hollywood’s most iconic melodramas.

Why It Matters: The NFR calls it the “quintessential Joan Crawford film” and praises the work of Crawford, Blyth, Arden, and Carson. An essay by NFR-staple Charlie Achuff helps separate fact from fiction regarding the mythos of Joan Crawford.

But Does It Really?: I’ll label this one as “historically significant/a minor classic”. “Mildred Pierce” is not one of the essentials, but overall it is still a pretty damn good film. They sanitized the novel, but this story still has some bite to it, and a confident Crawford leads a strong ensemble. “Mildred Pierce” isn’t the Important Film it was in 1945, but it’s still an entertaining example of what was coming out of the Hollywood studio system, and holds up far better than most films of the era.

Shout Outs: Max Steiner’s score contains a brief reprise of his theme from “Now, Voyager”.

Everybody Gets One: Ann Blyth started acting at the age of five and got her professional start in the original Broadway cast of “Watch on the Rhine”. Shortly thereafter, she signed a film contract with Universal, and was loaned out to Warner Bros. after a successful screen test for Veda Pierce. Blyth’s career never replicated her “Pierce” success, but she’s still going strong at 90, speaking fondly of both the film and Joan Crawford.

Wow, That’s Dated: 1945 was an interesting year for women in America. The war was ending, and the same women who were asked to replace men in the workforce at the start of the war were now being told to go back to being housewives. “Mildred Pierce” was noteworthy for suggesting that women could be productive members of society outside of the kitchen.

Seriously, Oscars?: One of the biggest hits of 1945, “Mildred Pierce” received six Oscar nominations, including Best Picture. The film lost to fellow NFR entry “The Lost Weekend”, but it won the category that mattered most: Best Actress. Joan Crawford was home with pneumonia (allegedly; some claim she opted to stay home rather than risk embarrassment) and director Michael Curtiz presented her the statuette at her bedside.

Other notes

• Joan Crawford spent the ‘20s and ‘30s at MGM playing a high society flapper-type. When those roles no longer satisfied her, Crawford and MGM amicably parted ways in 1942. Crawford was immediately snatched up by Warner Bros., and rejected every script that came her way. Once she learned “Mildred Pierce” had been optioned, she lobbied hard for the role of a hard-working, middle class mother (a full 180 from her previous characters). Michael Curtiz did not want her for Mildred, but relented after she agreed to do a screen test. Curtiz and Crawford clashed often on set, but both praised the other in subsequent interviews.
• The MPAA essentially forbid “Mildred Pierce” from being adapted to film, due to its many “sordid and repellent elements”. As a result, many liberties are taken with the source material. The primary change for the film is the Code’s insistence that these morally complex characters be punished for their actions, hence the addition of the murder subplot, which does not exist in the book.
• I believe these opening credits are just upshore from Deborah Kerr & Burt Lancaster.

• Shoutout to cinematographer Ernest Haller. He’s clearly enjoying the opportunity to mix film noir elements into each shot. Lots of unnecessary shadows in this one.
• Wally is a walking encyclopedia of ‘40s slang (Presumably the “Ball of Fire” edition).
• Did Bert and Mildred ever debate which side of the family Veda’s “evil gene” is from?
• Bruce Bennett was an Olympic shot putter and actor…in that order.

• Does the Chekhov’s gun principle still apply if the gun is fired at the beginning of the movie, and then discovered in a flashback? Discuss with your group.
• Wow, Ann Blyth is stealing this movie right from under Joan. It helps that Veda is the flashier part, and Ann is having a field day playing the bad seed. You earn that Oscar nomination!

• I love me some young, sassy Eve Arden. You earn that Oscar nomination too!
• The movie’s other comic relief, Butterfly McQueen as scatterbrained maid Lottie, does not age as well. Surely Lottie knows which end of the phone receiver you talk into.
• This movie also features the “Chekhov’s Cough” trope. That character is not long for this world.
• The movie loves its extended takes roaming through the restaurant. Is this where “Goodfellas” got it from?
• Even in 1945 the age of consent in California was 18, so knock it off Monte!
• Michael Curtiz is another director who knew the power of the close-up. There are only a handful in this film, but they’re always for something important, and pack the appropriate wallop.
• What could have possibly attracted Joan Crawford to a script about a strained mother daughter relationship? Hmmm…

• I must admit I didn’t take a lot of notes for the film’s second half, primarily because I was just watching the movie. I wasn’t necessarily rooting for Mildred, but I enjoyed being taken along for the ride.
• The ending is completely different from the book, but it’s still a fun noir-ish twist.

Legacy

• “Mildred Pierce” (and her subsequent Oscar win) cemented Joan Crawford’s comeback and solidified her new pubic image as a respected actor rather than a sex symbol. Crawford spent the next decade in prestigious dramas (picking up two more Oscar nominations) and eventually re-invented herself again for “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?”.

• The image of Joan Crawford with thick eyebrows and even thicker shoulder pads comes from “Mildred Pierce”. But you weren’t a ‘40s superstar unless you got spoofed by Carol Burnett 30 years later, and here is “Mildred Fierce”.

• The original novel of “Mildred Pierce” was remade in 2011 as an HBO miniseries starring Kate Winslet. Modern melodrama master Todd Haynes directed, and the series is a significantly more faithful adaptation of the source material. For starters, they acknowledge the book’s Depression-era setting!