The Horse's Head

November 17^th 1997: In the Library of Congress’ recently refurbished Thomas Jefferson Building, Librarian of Congress Dr. James Billington reveals the latest 25 films to join the National Film Registry, bringing the total to 225 movies. 28 years later, yours truly has finished watching all 25 from this class, which means it’s time for a recap. Here is the NFR Class of 1997, along with a blurb from each of my corresponding write-ups.

• Cops (1922): “may be the funniest short I’ve gotten to watch for this blog.”
• Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925): “still quite an impressive feat of filmmaking”
• Grass: A Nation’s Battle for Life (1925): “one of the first documentary features in American film”, “definitely a story worth telling.”
• The Life and Death of 9413: A Hollywood Extra (1927): “the rare mainstream experimental film”, “wonderfully stylized” 
• Wings (1927): “the action-packed aerial sequences more than make up for any shortcomings.”
• The Music Box (1932): “quintessential Laurel & Hardy”
• The Thin Man (1934): “funny as well as suspenseful”, “William Powell and Myrna Loy are effortlessly charming”.
• Hindenburg Disaster Newsreel Footage (1937): “a reminder of some of the tragic missteps taken in our technological advancements”
• Republic Steel Strike Riot Newsreel Footage (1937): “[a] sudden, unsettling view of the day”.
• The Great Dictator (1940): “a no holds barred political satire”, “[p]owerful, profound, and oh yes, it’s funny too.”
• Knute Rockne, All American (1940): “a sanitized, saintly biopic”
• Tulips Shall Grow (1942): “the [Puppetoons] shorts are still entertaining due to their unique animation style and bold storytelling.”
• The Big Sleep (1946): “I have no idea what was going on…but I still had a good time.”
• Motion Painting No. 1 (1947): “You win this round, German artist I’ve never heard of.”
• Little Fugitive (1953): “an endearing look at the world from a child’s perspective.”
• The Naked Spur (1953): “respected enough among western buffs that its NFR standing is justified.”
• Rear Window (1954): “[e]asily one of the best Hitchcock films.”
• The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957): “a thrilling experience”, “a fascinating character study set against some impressive manpower”
• The Hustler (1961): “the film’s strength is its emphasis on character rather than on the game of pool itself.”
• West Side Story (1961): “will always have a place in film history, but overall I don’t know if it holds up”
• How the West Was Won (1962): “the film’s expansive Cinerama photography and all-star cast help put it head-and shoulders above other Westerns of the era.”
• Czechoslovakia 1968 (1969): “artful, well-crafted government propaganda.”
• Harold and Maude (1971): “an influential movie with a devoted cult following”
• Mean Streets (1973): “few directors can get away with getting their stepping stone movie on the NFR list, but Scorsese is definitely one of them.”
• Return of the Secaucus Seven (1980): “perfectly captures [its] time and generation.”

The Plot: In 1868, Howard Kemp (James Stewart) is traveling the Rocky Mountains in pursuit of wanted criminal Ben Vandergroat (Robert Ryan). With the help of local prospector Jesse Tate (Millard Mitchell) and disgraced cavalryman Roy Anderson (Ralph Meeker), Howard succeeds at capturing Ben, along with his female companion Lina Patch (Janet Leigh). Upon his capture, Ben reveals to Jesse and Roy that Howard isn’t a marshal as they originally assumed, but rather a bounty hunter determined to bring Ben in and collect a $5,000 reward. As the group treks across the mountains to turn Ben in, Ben fans the flames of everyone’s distrust for each other in the hopes of escape. The western genre heads to the Rockies in this expertly made tale of morality and greed.

Why It Matters: The film’s NFR write-up is brief, but it packs in salutes to the “tense psychological complexity” of Anthony Mann’s direction, the “strong, clear story-telling” of the screenplay, and the “vivid Technicolor” cinematography by William C. Mellor.

But Does It Really?: Longtime readers know that I don’t care for westerns, but I gotta say I enjoyed “The Naked Spur”. In 90 minutes, I got an intimate character study where five well-defined personalities have their moralities tested, matched by solid performances and great visual storytelling through the direction and cinematography. While the film’s legacy isn’t as strong as other westerns on the list, “Naked Spur” still holds up well 70 years later and is respected enough among western buffs that its NFR standing is justified. If you read my post on “Winchester ‘73” – the other James Stewart/Anthony Mann western on the list – you may remember my hesitation to deem the NFR worthiness of “Winchester” until I had seen “Naked Spur”. Having now watched both, “Naked Spur” is the better movie, but just barely. Both are well-crafted westerns that are worth a viewing, with “Naked Spur” having a slight edge over “Winchester” in terms of overall quality and cultural impact. I’ll rank “Naked Spur” a “minor classic” and “Winchester” a “minor classic/stepping stone”. Both films earn their spot on the Registry, with “Winchester” setting the stage for “Naked Spur”.

Everybody Gets One: Not a lot of information out there about writers Sam Rolfe or Harold Jack Bloom, but I do want to give them a shout-out because “The Naked Spur” was their first produced screenplay! Talk about hitting a home run your first time at bat. As for their careers after “Naked Spur”, see “Legacy” below.

Wow, That’s Dated: Even one of the greatest westerns ever made has its share of misogyny towards its one female character and racism towards the Indigenous tribe encountered by the group. I’d give this movie a Redface warning, but I don’t know who any of those actors are because they’re uncredited. Womp womp.

Seriously, Oscars?: In a very competitive year at the Oscars, “The Naked Spur” managed to earn one nomination for Best Original Screenplay, losing to “Titanic” (not that one).

• It was not until near the end of this film that I realized Millard Mitchell also played the studio boss in “Singin’ in the Rain”. It’s amazing what a grizzled beard can do. Sadly, “Naked Spur” was one of Millard Mitchell’s final film performances; he died of lung cancer within a year of the film’s release.
• Ralph Meeker is one of those actors who I can never quite place, despite appearing in two other NFR movies, including “Kiss Me Deadly” where he plays the lead! As Roy, Meeker is fine, but I don’t remember him being this smug in his other NFR entries.
• Robert Ryan is quickly becoming one of my favorites on the blog. Here he’s playing a character along the lines of Hannibal Lecter or Glenn Ford in “3:10 to Yuma”; the captured criminal who gets the psychological upper hand on everyone around him. Not quite the heavy he is in “Bad Day”, but still an interesting character and an engaging performance. I look forward to seeing his third and as of this writing last NFR entry: “The Wild Bunch”.
• As the obligatory “girl” in the movie, Janet Leigh doesn’t get as much to do as her co-stars, but at least she has more to do here than she did in “Manchurian Candidate”. And despite spending the entire movie roughing it in the mountains, Lina always has perfect hair and makeup with pearly white teeth and a tight bodice. Priorities, I guess.
• The Blackfoot tribe primarily resides in the northwestern US, and while that would make their appearance in Colorado seem inaccurate, I’ll give it a pass because they are specifically hunting down Roy. Speaking of, Roy is recently discharged from the 6^th Cavalry Regiment, which was stationed in Texas at the time, so the Blackfeet aren’t the only ones in this movie who are a long way from home.

• About halfway through the film, Howard starts opening up about his past and the woman he lost along the way, with the parlor song “Beautiful Dreamer” weaving its way through the underscore. It’s hard not to hear Jimmy Stewart crying out for a woman named Mary without thinking of his past life in Bedford Falls.

• This character development for Howard leads to a romantic connection with Lina, which begs the question: Why was every Jimmy Stewart movie in this era about him making out with significantly younger women? Stewart was 44 when he filmed “Naked Spur”, Janet Leigh was 25. I may have to rename my trademark Michael Douglas Scale after the original culprit.
• The film’s third act involves our group’s difficulty crossing a river. Where are the Bakhtiari when you need them?

• As we headed into the film’s climax, I started to wonder “Why is this movie called ‘The Naked Spur’?” Outside of a dramatic close-up during the opening credits, the spurs on Howard’s boots don’t get spotlighted or mentioned. No spoilers, but a spur does figure prominently into the finale, which is all well and good, but it still doesn’t answer my question about the title. I wouldn’t be surprised if Rolfe and Bloom just threw the title together because it sounded good and called it a day.

• Both Sam Rolfe and Harold Jack Bloom continued their writing careers for the next 30 years, eventually producing their own material as well. Sam Rolfe would go on to create two popular TV shows: the western “Have Gun, Will Travel” and the ‘60s spy drama “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.”. Harold Jack Bloom also had a prolific television career, penning episodes for, among many other things, “Have Gun, Will Travel” and “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.”.

• One more question about the title “The Naked Spur”: Is this where “The Naked Gun” gets its name from? I can’t find anything to support my theory, but that must be it, right? Whatever, here’s a clip.

“Cruisin’ J-Town” is currently available to stream on the VC Archives website on a pay-what-you-can sliding scale. So send a few bucks their way and check out their collection!

The Plot: UCLA’s Duane Kubo heads over to L.A.’s Little Tokyo (aka J-Town) to document the performances of Japanese fusion jazz band Hiroshima. While “Cruisin’ J-Town” is primarily footage of Hiroshima’s performances, we also get insight from the musicians, many of whom comment on their own identity struggles amidst the rising Asian-American movement of the early ‘70s. The result is an entertaining blend of Japanese tradition and the funkiness of ‘70s jazz.

Why It Matters: The NFR write-up is mostly a rundown of the film, though they call the interviewees “articulate and interesting”, so that’s something.

But Does It Really?: Oh yeah. “Cruisin’ J-Town” covers two favorites of the NFR: diverse culture and UCLA alumni. The film is an engaging and uplifting chronicle of third-generation Japanese Americans as they take the traditions of their ancestors and create something uniquely their own. And as always, I love anything on this list that’s short and/or has a great soundtrack. Welcome to the NFR, “Cruisin’ J-Town”!

Everybody Gets One: While at UCLA, Duane Kubo co-founded Visual Communications, an organization creating and promoting the art of Asian-American and Pacific Islander filmmakers.  I’m not sure exactly when or how Kubo met up with Hiroshima, which had started performing in Little Tokyo around 1974, but like Kubo, Hiroshima founder Dan Kuramoto was heavily influenced by the political movement of the late ‘60s and the growing Asian-American movement, so I’m not surprised these two found each other.

Wow, That’s Dated: The end credits list support from the U.S. Office of Education, a government department that split into the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services just a few years after this film was released. I wrote this post back in December and initially had a joke about neither of those departments existing by the time this finally got published. I hate it when I’m right.

Title Track: Either the movie takes its title from one of Hiroshima’s songs, or the song gets its name from the movie, I’m not quite sure. Hiroshima released the song in 1980, though it could have been part of their set in 1975. Either way, it’s a banger.

Seriously, Oscars?: No nominations for “Cruisin’ J-Town” from the Oscars or any other awards organization. The 1975 winner for Best Documentary Short Subject was Robin Lehman’s “The End of the Game”, a film about conserving the Afric- wait a minute, didn’t I do this one already?

• Visual Communications is still around as well. Check them out!
• In the last half-century, Hiroshima has released 20 albums (two of which went gold) and have received two Grammy nominations. As of this writing, Hiroshima is still performing with several of the original members seen in this film!

In the early morning of February 26^th, 1972, one of three coal slurry dams overlooking the Buffalo Creek tributary in Logan County, West Virginia burst following heavy rainfall. The burst overwhelmed the structure of the other two dams, and the resulting flood unleashed 132 million gallons of contaminated water onto 16 different coal towns in Logan County. In the end, the flood caused 50 million dollars in property damage (over 375 million dollars today) and claimed the lives of 125 citizens. The Pittston Coal Company, owners of the dams, had found the dam to be “satisfactory” in a safety inspection four days before the flood, and claimed no responsibility for the flood’s destruction, calling the event “an act of God”. While a government sanctioned investigation yielded no definitive action, a citizen committee found Pittston to be responsible for the flood, and subsequent lawsuits were settled by Pittston out of court. “The Buffalo Creek Flood” chronicles the surviving citizens in their quest for any sort of resolution, featuring candid interviews with many locals and political non-answers from government officials. Lundale resident Shirley Marcum echoes the sentiment of many survivors when she declares “I don’t believe [the flood] was an act of God. It was an act of man.”

Admittedly I knew nothing about the Buffalo Creek flood before this viewing, and “The Buffalo Creek Flood: An Act of Man” does what many a great film on the NFR does; it shines a light on a subculture in this country that is often overlooked and undervalued. While it’s easy to portray Appalachians as their worst stereotypes (looking at you, “Deliverance”), “Buffalo Creek Flood” shows us this culture’s humanity during one of the region’s most harrowing tragedies. As I watched “Buffalo Creek Flood”, I felt the devastation that these citizens carried with them in the immediate aftermath of the flood, and found myself frustrated with the government’s lack of response and cooperation. “Buffalo Creek Flood” is a touching report of time and place, and you’ll get no argument from me about its inclusion in the NFR.

Why It Matters: The NFR states that the film “represents the finest in regional filmmaking”. An essay by the film’s director, Mimi Pickering, is a recount of her experience making the movie and a plea for safer coal mining practices to avoid another incident like the Buffalo Creek flood.

Everybody Gets One: A graduate of Antioch College, Mimi Pickering joined the Appalachian Film Workshop (now known as Appalshop) in 1971 as a filmmaker. Shortly after the Buffalo Creek flood, Pickering was approached by the Citizen’s Commission To Investigate The Buffalo Creek Disaster to film their hearings. Pickering and her team spent weeks filming these events (as well as the ongoing damage of the flood) using whatever film or video they had at their disposal, and with no budget or funding, only receiving a grant from the Abelard Foundation after filming had wrapped.

Seriously, Oscars?: No nominations for “Buffalo Creek Flood” from the Oscars or any other awards organizations. The 1975 winner for Best Documentary Short Subject was Robin Lehman’s “The End of the Game”, a film about conserving the African savanna and its wildlife.

• Mimi Pickering revisited Buffalo Creek in 1985’s “Buffalo Creek Revisited”, which shows the growth and healing of the towns effected by the flood and the rebuilding of their communities 10 years later.

• Appalshop continues to produce films, theater, radio, and other media that paint a positive picture of Appalachian culture. Check them out.
• After decades of decline, the Pittston Coal Company sold its coal mines and changed its name to match its more successful subsidiary: Brink’s. To this day, they have not taken any responsibility for the Buffalo Creek flood.
• Buffalo Creek still exists in Logan County, and within the last few years has seen fish and other aquatic life start to inhabit the water for the first time since 1972. The Buffalo Creek flood still looms large in the towns effected by it, with several holding special gatherings to commemorate the 50^th anniversary in 2022.

The Plot: Joey Norton (Richie Andrusco) is a seven-year-old boy living in a Brooklyn apartment with his older brother Lennie (Richard Brewster) and their mother (Winifred Cushing). When their mother leaves for a few days to take care of their grandmother, Lennie must cancel his plans to visit Coney Island and look after Joey instead. While playing with their friend Harry (Charlie Moss) and his dad’s rifle, Lennie and Harry prank Joey into thinking that Joey has fatally shot Lennie. Afraid that the police will get him, Joey takes the six dollars left for him by his mother and runs away to Coney Island. What follows is Joey’s adventures playing the games and riding the rides at the island’s Steeplechase Park, which in the hands of our trio of filmmakers becomes an endearing look at the world from a child’s perspective.

Why It Matters: The NFR praises the film’s “deft, mostly hand-held camera work” and the “unaffected acting” of Richie Andrusco. Unfortunately, the NFR write-up gets the brothers’ names mixed up, referring to Andrusco’s character as “Lennie” throughout the write-up. Whoops.

But Does It Really?: Despite being one of the Registry’s more obscure titles, “Little Fugitive” stands on the unique piece of ground I’m looking for in an NFR entry. While Hollywood was still producing lavish spectacle, three New Yorkers created an authentic, documentary-like story with a distinctiveness that holds up over 70 years later. Admittedly, I found the film’s opening scenes a bit grating, but once Joey took off for Coney Island, I could see what the filmmakers were going for and found the experience to be quite pleasant. A yes for “Little Fugitive” on the NFR, a quick, enjoyable movie and a harbinger of the independent film movement.

Everybody Gets One: Morris Engel was a photographer by trade, though in 1939 he got into filmmaking when he served as cinematographer on “Native Land” by his friend and fellow NFR director Paul Strand. During WWII, Engel was a photographer in the Navy, where he would have used the Cunningham Combat Camera, a small, chest-mounted movie camera that could be used in combat areas. After the war, Engel modified the Cunningham to make it less cumbersome for general use, and after unsuccessfully pitching a series of shorts utilizing this technology to different distributors, decided to go all in on a feature. “Little Fugitive” was created by Engel, his wife Ruth Orkin (an established photographer in her own right), and Raymond Abrashkin (credited here as Ray Ashley), a writer and colleague of Engel’s when they worked at the liberal newspaper PM in the early 1940s.

Wow, That’s Dated: Steeplechase Park (the amusement park on Coney Island that Joey visits), was already in decline by 1953, and the park closed after its 1964 season. The former site of Steeplechase Park has been developed and re-developed over the years and is currently home to the minor league stadium Maimonides Park. While a handful of rides from the neighboring Coney Island parks continue to operate, the Parachute Jump tower is the only remnant of Steeplechase Park still standing.

Seriously, Oscars?: At a time when independent films getting Oscar nods was unheard of, “Little Fugitive” managed to break in with one nomination for its Original Story. Abrashkin, Engel, and Orkin lost to Ian McLellan Hunter Dalton Trumbo for “Roman Holiday”.

• The photographer that takes Joey’s picture in the cowboy cutout is played by Will Lee, the only professional actor in the cast. Lee was still about 20 years away from playing his most iconic character: Mr. Hooper on “Sesame Street”.
• Why does every hot dog in this movie look disgusting? I mean, hot dogs are disgusting, but these specific ones even more so. It must be how they’re cooked.
• The Coney Island scenes have a very similar vibe to the short “Johnny at the Fair”. “’Jiminy,’ thinks Johnny, ‘if only I could get a ride in one of those.’”
• My favorite part of the movie is the runner of Joey trying to knock down the milk bottles, practicing in-between games and improving over time. They don’t hit you over the head with it, just a child trying to reach a goal all by himself, conveyed solely through great visual storytelling.
• When Joey realizes he has run out of money and can’t do the pony rides, he heads to the most crowded beach I’ve ever seen (apparently this was a recurring issue at Coney Island). I laughed pretty hard once Joey realizes he can make money by depositing empty soda bottles he finds on the beach. Turns out business is booming for Joey that day; good thing we don’t litter this much anymore, right? [Nervous laughter]
• Jay Williams plays Jay, the pony ride attendant who assists Joey, and the only adult in this entire movie who questions why a seven-year-old is wandering around Coney Island alone. While Williams was primarily a writer, he did briefly perform stand-up at the Borsch Belt in the 1930s. He has a very genuine, sweet rapport with Joey.

• Look closely during the summer storm and you’ll see “The Greatest Show on Earth” advertised on the marquee of a nearby movie theater. If Joey went to the movies instead of Steeplechase Park, he too might have become one of the most influential movie directors of all time.
• As “Little Fugitive” was coming to its natural conclusion, I had the feeling that the film was going to have a cute ending where everything gets wrapped up neatly. It did, but I admit they stuck the landing and cut to the credits quickly enough that it didn’t overstay its welcome.

• And finally, “Little Fugitive” received a remake in 2006 by filmmaker Joanna Lipper. Other than the modern setting, the only major change is that now Joey and Lennie’s dad is not only still alive, but he’s in prison and he’s Peter Dinklage. The remake was well-received by critics and seems to have neither enhanced nor hurt the legacy of the original.

Further Clicking: Be sure to check out the “Little Fugitive” page on Morris Engel’s official website, which includes some rare behind-the-scenes photos of the film’s production, in color no less!