The Horse's Head

The Plot: Det. Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy) is often at odds with the rest of the Detroit Police Department for his reckless behavior and unauthorized investigations. When Axel’s friend Mikey Tandino (James Russo) is murdered, Axel is barred from taking on the case himself. Remembering a conversation with Mikey about his recent work in Beverly Hills with their childhood friend Jenny Summers (Lisa Eilbacher), Axel loads up the car and he drives to Beverly (Hills, that is). Axel’s investigation leads to an art gallery where Jenny works for the instantly suspicious Victor Maitland (Steven Berkoff), but Maitland’s clout in the Beverly Hills art scene thwarts Axel’s plans, as does the interference of local police led by Sgt. John Taggart and Det. Billy Rosewood (John Ashton and Judge Reinhold). That’s enough plot for now; please enjoy Eddie Murphy’s natural star power and that kick-ass synth score.

Why It Matters: Not a lot of superlatives from the NFR, other than calling it “a film that keeps viewers laughing” and praising the “legendary” theme music by Harold Faltermeyer.

But Does It Really?: As an NFR entry, “Beverly Hills Cop” works as representation for both Eddie Murphy and Martin Brest (otherwise represented by, respectively, “Shrek” and “Hot Dogs for Gauguin”). As a film, “Beverly Hills Cop” is still laugh-out-loud funny all these years later, thanks to its evergreen underdog stance and Eddie’s winning performance. And, come on, that score? Forget about it; that alone should have gotten the movie on this list years ago. “Beverly Hills Cop” is still a winner and highlights the best qualities of the ‘80s blockbuster, so no argument for its NFR inclusion from me.

Shout Out: Billy compares the showdown with the bad guys to the final shootout in “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” (Taggart’s response: “Billy, I’m gonna make you pay for this.”)

Wow, That’s Dated: Much like “Die Hard”, this movie uses bearer bonds as a plot device. While bearer bonds still exist, they have been essentially banned in the U.S. since 1988 due to their frequent use in illegal activities, such as drug trafficking as seen in this film.

Seriously, Oscars?: The 1984 Oscars were dominated by more serious fare like “Amadeus”, but “Beverly Hills Cop” managed a nomination for its screenplay, losing to Best Picture nominee/more conventional Oscar bait “Places in the Heart”.

• Axel’s no-nonsense boss, Inspector Todd, is played by Gilbert Hill, a real-life Inspector for the Detroit Police Department during production. Despite having never acted before, Hill more than holds his own against Murphy, though it doesn’t help that he’s saddled with every cop movie cliché in the book (he actually says, “Your ass is skating on thin ice as it is!”). Oh, and Paul Reiser is in these scenes too for some reason.
• As one of Maitland’s henchmen, it’s nice to see Jonathan Banks make a second NFR appearance (he has one of my favorite lines in “Airplane!”). It’s also nice seeing Jonathan Banks with hair!
• The contrast between Detroit and Beverly Hills in conveyed immediately in a quick montage highlighting Axel as a stranger in a strange land. This is followed by a meta-reference to “Eddie Murphy Delirious” that somehow keeps the film’s fourth wall securely intact.

• The $235 per night rate at the Beverly Palms Hotel is about $713 in today’s money. Fortunately, the Biltmore Los Angeles (filling in for the fictional Beverly Palms Hotel) currently has room rates much closer to the film’s unadjusted number.
• Today on “No such thing as a small part”: Bronson Pinchot as Serge. An overly-effeminate, vaguely European art gallery curator should not mesh with the rest of this movie, but Pinchot makes a meal out of the role, not to mention an eight-season series.

• Another ‘80s action staple: the European bad guy. Steven Berkoff was born in England, is of Russian and Romanian descent, and has one of those faces that automatically reads as villainous, leading to a career where he has played everything from a Bond villain to Hitler! Side Note: Berkoff allegedly hates this movie.
• What surprised me most about “Beverly Hills Cop” is how leisurely it is compared to other action comedies. The action set pieces are few and far between, and the comedy is much more character driven, with the laughs coming from the interactions and contrasts between the characters rather than a bunch of one-liners.
• The dynamic between Axel, Taggart, and Rosewood is a lot of fun, with Reinhold and Ashton playing their part of the scenes perfectly; knowing when to play straight man to Eddie Murphy and when to be funny. In fact, I really appreciated that Axel isn’t the only character allowed to be funny in this movie. Taggart and Rosewood have some great interactions, and even Jenny gets in a few good lines, despite being underutilized for most of the movie.
• I only knew Ronny Cox as one of the dueling banjos in “Deliverance”, so I enjoyed seeing him here as Taggart and Rosewood’s boss Lt. Bogomil. “Beverly Hills Cop” kicked off a second phase in Cox’s acting career as various authority figures in such action movies as “RoboCop” and “Total Recall”.
• If this film has one iconic moment, it’s Axel thwarting Taggart and Rosewood on their stakeout by putting a banana in their tailpipe. This is the sequence for which Harold Faltermeyer composed “Axel F”, which has become the iconic theme music for the “Beverly Hills Cop” franchise. And that’s Damon Wayans making his film debut as the hotel employee who offers Axel the banana, doing what I believe is the “Mr. Monopoly” voice that will one day get him fired from “SNL”.

• My biggest LOL in this movie comes when Axel is having the country club valet park his beat-up 1970 Chevrolet Nova: “Can you put this in a good spot? All that shit happened the last time I parked here.”
• As we start wrapping up the plot and heading towards the finale, the film loses some of its momentum and becomes a more typical action movie. It’s all a little too “ba-dow ba-dow” for my taste, but there’s still a few funny moments (especially from Judge Reinhold), and Ronny Cox gets an entertaining reprise of Axel’s “Supercop” monologue from earlier. And because it’s a Simpson/Bruckheimer production, we end on a freeze frame. Ah, the ‘80s.

• Do we know if opera singer Beverly Sills ever saw this movie? The “Beverly Sills Cop” parody writes itself: “I’m your worst fucking nightmare; I’m a soprano with a badge.” (Yes, I know that’s from “48 Hrs.” not “Beverly Hills Cop”, but whatever, I thought it was funny.)

• Martin Brest’s follow-up to “Beverly Hills Cop” was 1988’s “Midnight Run”, which maintains a strong cult following to this day. As for the rest of Brest’s filmography…don’t worry about it.

• Harold Faltermeyer’s “Beverly Hills Cop” theme has become synonymous with the ‘80s and has endured in pop culture. I’ve had it stuck in my head during this entire writing process, specifically the “Family Guy” version with Peter singing along.

• Plans for a “Beverly Hills Cop” sequel began before the first film was even released. Directed by the more action-oriented Tony Scott, 1987’s “Beverly Hills Cop II” was also a hit, but not as well received as the original. 1994’s “Beverly Hills Cop III” was a major letdown (even Eddie Murphy admitted he did it just for the money), but 2024’s revival “Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F.” fared better as a serviceable if not remarkable return to form. Also, despite proposed sequels that would have taken Axel to other countries like England or France, every sequel has him coming back to Beverly Hills for some reason.

• A 2013 pilot for a potential “Beverly Hills Cop” TV series centered around Axel’s hereto unmentioned son, Aaron. Eddie Murphy returned as Axel for a cameo, which led CBS to think he would be a recurring character. When Murphy said that this would not be the case, the network did not pick up the pilot for series.
• And finally, because I have nowhere else to put this: while Eddie Murphy was promoting “Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F.” in 2024, he mentioned his plans to star in a remake of “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” with Martin Lawrence. All the more reason to induct the original film into the NFR if you ask me.

The Plot: As the sun sets on an idyllic farmland, an assortment of birds and frogs and crickets begin to inhabit the night. When a summer storm suddenly arrives, the animals take shelter in a nearby abandoned mill. What this Disney short lacks in story and character it more than makes up for with its artistry and breakthrough technology.

Why It Matters: The NFR write-up is mostly a rehash of the film’s technical achievements: the multiplane camera, plus realistic lighting design and animal movement. The film’s visuals are hailed as “dazzling” and Leigh Harline’s score is declared “compelling”.

But Does It Really?: I’m putting this in the same category as “Flowers and Trees”, a decent Disney short whose NFR worthiness is solely technical. There’s nothing wrong with “The Old Mill”, but its technological advances have been so far surpassed that they are no longer part of the film’s entertainment value. And while the realistic animal depictions are commendable, it leaves us without any memorable characters (at least the realistic animals of “Bambi” could talk). Despite my issues, “The Old Mill” is a quick, visually engaging entry in the Disney canon; not so much a cartoon you can watch and enjoy, but more like a moving painting you can view and admire. I understand and support the film’s NFR induction, but I’m not over the moon about it either.

Everybody Gets One: Not his only NFR movie, but shoutout to this film’s director Wilfred Jackson. Freshly graduated from L.A.’s Otis Art Institute in 1928, Jackson got his start at Disney as a volunteer helping custodial wash animation cels. Jackson quickly rose up the ranks, directing early Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphony shorts by 1929. “The Old Mill” was Jackson’s 51^st Disney short as a director, which he worked on concurrently with his responsibilities as one of the five sequence directors on “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”.

Seriously, Oscars?: Since the inception of Best Short Subject – Cartoons at the Oscars in 1932, Disney had a lock on the category, winning every year for the first eight years; “The Old Mill” was the sixth short in this winning streak. Academy rules at the time gave the award to the producer, not the director, which meant Walt took home his seventh career Oscar with this win, while Wilfred Jackson received zero nominations, despite directing three consecutive Oscar-winning shorts (preceded by “The Tortoise and the Hare” and “The Country Cousin”). The NFR write-up mentions that the multiplane camera also received a technical Oscar, but I couldn’t find anything to back that up.

• The music that bookends the short is the song “One Day When We Were Young”, written by Johann Strauss for his 1885 operetta “The Gypsy Baron”. We are definitely hitting the “Symphony” part of this “Silly Symphony”.
• To the best of my knowledge, the frog croaking is provided by Clarence Nash, who at that point had been with the studio a few years supplying his trademark animal noises. Despite being a voiceover in seven different NFR titles, Nash has yet to have one movie on the list where he voices his most iconic character: Donald Duck.
• Yeah, not much else I have to say about “The Old Mill”. It’s beautiful to look at, and I love the score, especially the wind sounds as the storm intensifies, but this isn’t one of my favorites. I enjoyed seeing this film again after all these years, but it’ll be a while before I watch “The Old Mill” by choice rather than by my self-imposed film blog obligation.

George Washington Carver has a fascinating life story, and this post cannot do it justice. I’ll do my best to give a condensed version for the purposes of this post, but if you only know the bullet points about this guy, you owe it to yourself to learn more.

The Plot: Noted Black surgeon Dr. C. Allen Alexander travels with his Kodak camera to the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama to record their most prominent faculty member: George Washington Carver. At one point known as “A Day in the Life of George Washington Carver”, this 12-minute film is amateur footage of Carver as he goes about his day on campus; taking meetings with students, greeting visitors, and even tending to the garden outside of his office building. That’s about it in terms of content, but come on, it’s George Washington Carver! Any footage of him is worthwhile. 

Why It Matters: The NFR calls the footage “fascinating” and praises the decision to film this in “gloriously resilient” Kodachrome. There’s also a shoutout to the National Park Service, who worked with the National Archives to preserve this and many other films in their collection (Tuskegee University was named a historic site by the NPS in 1974).

But Does It Really?: This is the rare NFR movie where the title alone justifies its significance. It’s footage of one of the most famous American scientists at one of the most prestigious Black universities; no argument here. “Carver at Tuskegee” is induction worthy, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to research both the man and the school. 

Everybody Gets One: Born into slavery in Diamond, Missouri and separated from his family when he was a week old, George Carver was raised by his owner, Moses Carver, following the abolishment of slavery in 1865. Originally planning to study art in school, Carver was encouraged to pursue botany and began studying at Iowa State Agricultural College in 1891 (their first Black student, graduate, and eventually faculty member). Shortly after earning his Master of Science degree in 1896, Carver was invited by Tuskegee Institute president Booker T. Washington to head their Agriculture department, a position he would hold for the rest of his life. Among his many accomplishments, Carver’s work with crop-rotation methods, specifically with soil-enriching crops like peanuts, led to his nationwide recognition and acclaim in the 1910s and 1920s. As time went on and Carver’s health began to decline, the Tuskegee Institute invited C. Allen Alexander of Kalamazoo, Michigan to film Carver so that the school would have at least one recording of him for posterity.

The Plot: “Rocky” Sullivan and Jerry Connolly (James Cagney and Pat O’Brien) are two childhood friends who grow up to become moral opposites; Rocky is a notorious gangster, Jerry is a priest. After serving a three-year prison stint, Rocky reunites with Father Jerry, and befriends some tough neighborhood kids (The Dead End Kids) who look up to his criminal behavior, which greatly concerns Father Jerry. When Rocky’s crooked lawyer Jim Frazier (Humphrey Bogart) reneges on a promise to give Rocky his share of the robbery that got him imprisoned, Rocky holds Jim hostage and fights his organized crime syndicate for the money. As Rocky starts making headlines, Father Jerry makes headlines of his own condemning the actions of the crime world. Oh, and Ann Sheridan is there as another childhood acquaintance of Rocky’s, because there’s always a woman in these kinds of pictures.

Why It Matters: The NFR praises the film’s ability to toe the line between gangster glorification and Code era compliance. The only major superlative goes to the “lovable” Dead End Kids.

But Does It Really?: I’ll give “Angels with Dirty Faces” a “minor classic” designation. While not as iconic as Cagney’s other gangster fare, “Angels” has its supporters and holds up reasonably well almost 90 years later. Like “The Public Enemy” before it, “Angels with Dirty Faces” is well-known enough within the gangster genre that its NFR inclusion was inevitable, if not imperative (it’s been over 20 years since a Cagney gangster pic has been added to the Registry). While I have no qualms about “Angels with Dirty Faces” making the NFR, I’m not too excited about it either.

Everybody Gets One: An aspiring actor in her native Texas, Ann Sheridan made her film debut in 1934’s “Search for Beauty” playing a small role she won as part of a beauty contest. After getting good notices at Paramount, she joined Warner Bros. and successfully oscillated between supporting roles in the A pictures and lead roles in the B pictures. In addition to “Angels”, Sheridan appeared in “Dodge City” with Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland, “The Man Who Came to Dinner” with Bette Davis, and “I Was a Male War Bride” with Cary Grant. Sheridan was also a sex symbol/pin-up girl in the late ‘30s and early ‘40s, being declared Hollywood’s “Oomph” girl in 1939, a title she detested.

Wow, That’s Dated: The $100,000 Rocky is owed for the robbery comes out to about 2.2 million dollars today. If I were owed that much money and didn’t get it, I too would resort to a life of crime.

Seriously, Oscars?: “Angels with Dirty Faces” received three Oscar nominations: Director, Story, and Actor. James Cagney’s nomination was the first of his career, and he lost to Spencer Tracy in “Boys Town” (which also beat out this movie in the Best Story category). Michael Curtiz’s Best Director nomination was noteworthy because one of his fellow nominees was…Michael Curtiz for “Four Daughters”. Curtiz lost both nominations to Frank Capra for “You Can’t Take It With You”, and shortly after this the Academy rules were changed to prevent directors from being nominated twice in the same year (this change was later reversed, allowing Steven Soderbergh to win the category in 2001 for “Traffic” over himself for “Erin Brockovich”).

• Side Note: In my “Going My Way” post, I joked about the turf wars between the Dead End Kids and the Bowery Boys. Further research has shown that the Bowery Boys were a later permutation of the Dead End Kids, with at least three overlapping members. My apologies to the 0.0000001% of you who caught that mistake. Mea culpa.
• The most interesting performance for me was Humphrey Bogart as Rocky’s lawyer. In 1938, Bogart was a rising star at Warner Bros., but was still three years away from “The Maltese Falcon”, which cemented his leading man status. Being so used to Bogart as a bonafide movie star, it’s funny seeing him here not only in a supporting role, but a supporting role where he gets pushed around by James Cagney. Jim Frazier clashes with Bogart’s later screen persona in an interesting-in-hindsight kinda way.

• As I’ve learned many times on this blog, most movie quotes are famous because they get repeated within their film. Case in point: “Whaddya hear, whaddya say?” is said at least seven times in ”Angels”. Cagney attributed the line to a pimp that lived in his neighborhood growing up and he was a bit irked when the line became a go-to for Cagney impersonators. 
• Also dated: the film’s occasional use of the word “boner”, here meaning a major mistake or error and not…well, you know.
• Father Jerry, during one of his radio addresses calling for sweeping reform in city politics: “We must wipe out those we have ignorantly elected.” There’s your “why is this still relevant” line for 2025.
• Once again, we have a movie using real ammunition for their shootout scenes because the technology for blanks had not been perfected yet. How no one got killed during these movies is a miracle, though Cagney admitted years later in his autobiography that he had a close call with a bullet during production of this movie.

• I don’t have a lot else to say about “Angels with Dirty Faces”. It’s one of the smarter gangster pictures, with Rocky cunningly evading the mob and the police in an ongoing cat and mouse game. The film’s final shootout and death row finale are memorable moments, but I don’t have any additional thoughts. It’s good, very good, but that’s all I got.

• Some sources list the 1939 film “The Angels Wash Their Faces” as a sequel to “Angels with Dirty Faces”, and while both films star Ann Sheridan and the Dead End Kids, it is definitely not a sequel. In fact, “The Angels Wash Their Faces” was filmed under the title “The Battle of the City Hall”, but had its title changed to capitalize on the success of “Angels with Dirty Faces”.

• And finally, “Angels with Dirty Faces” is not to be confused with “Angels with Filthy Souls”, the greatest movie within a movie ever made. “Keep the change, ya filthy animal.”

The Plot: During the Great Depression, Godfrey Smith (William Powell) is a “forgotten man” living in a Hooverville shanty town in a dump near Manhattan’s East River. One night, socialite Irene Bullock (Carole Lombard) offers Godfrey five dollars to be the forgotten man she needs to win a scavenger hunt held at a fancy hotel. Initially reluctant, Godfrey agrees to help Irene, and Irene thanks him by hiring him as the family butler. Godfrey adapts to the Bullock family quickly, successfully navigating the eccentric behaviors of Irene’s ditzy mother Angelia (Alice Brady), her long-suffering father Alexander (Eugene Pallette), her scheming sister Cornelia (Gail Patrick), and her mother’s – ahem – “protégé” Carlo (Mischa Auer). Despite their opposing social standings, Irene falls for Godfrey, who tries to gently rebuff her. But this is a 1930s screwball comedy, so you can figure out how this all ends for everybody.

Why It Matters: The NFR calls this “one of the most exemplary screwball comedies of the 1930s”. Lombard and Powell are praised, as is cinematographer Ted Tetzlaff. The write-up also takes a swipe at the “pitiful” 1957 remake. I love it when the NFR throws mud at other movies.

But Does It Really?: Oh sure. While not as celebrated as it once was, “My Man Godfrey” is a funny, harmless movie that holds up reasonably well nearly 90 years on. There’s a decent amount of Depression era terminology in “My Man Godfrey”, and of course the film’s handling of our unhoused population would be very different today, but if you’re willing to meet this movie where it’s at, you’ll have a lot of fun. While the screwball comedy in general is starting to become overlooked, “My Man Godfrey” is a prime example of the genre and a no-brainer for NFR inclusion.

Shout Outs: In a subtle bit of synergy, this movie makes references to “Frankenstein’s Monster” and “Ol’ Man River”, both from previous Universal pictures.

Everybody Gets One: Gregory La Cava started out as an animator working for several studios throughout the 1910s (including William Randolph Hearst’s brief foray into animation). La Cava’s move to Hollywood found him pivoting to directing live action shorts, and eventually features, notably fellow NFR entry “So’s Your Old Man” with W.C. Fields. By the 1930s, La Cava was a freelance director, and in 1936 was hired to direct “My Man Godfrey” by Universal producer Charles Rogers, who deemed La Cava “the best comedy director in Hollywood”.

Wow, That’s Dated: Most prominent among this movie’s Depression era phraseology is its term for the unhoused: the “forgotten man”, taken from a Franklin Roosevelt speech (which in turn lifted it from a William Graham Sumner lecture made 60 years earlier). FDR used the phrase to spotlight our impoverished citizens who were most affected by the Depression (and who would benefit the most from his New Deal), and the phrase quickly entered the vernacular. There’s a whole musical number about it in “Gold Diggers of 1933”!

Seriously, Oscars?: The 9^th Academy Awards were the first Oscars to include the supporting acting awards, and “My Man Godfrey” was the first film to be nominated in all four acting categories. The film also received nominations for its direction and screenplay and is still the only movie to receive these six nominations without a corresponding Best Picture nod. Unfortunately, “Godfrey” went home empty-handed, making this the only film to lose in all six of these major categories until “American Hustle” in 2013.

• Both of our leads are so great in this you would think these parts were tailored made for them: Powell as the classiest and quippiest guy in the room, Lombard as the glamourous ingenue turned clown. But of course, the most interesting fact about this movie is that William Powell and Carole Lombard were married and divorced prior to production!  Despite this, the two remained friends, and Powell insisted on Lombard for the role because he felt the Irene/Godfrey dynamic was not dissimilar to their real-life marriage.

• Because I love inflation adjustments: the five dollars Godfrey is initially offered is about $113 today, and his butler salary of $150 a month is about $3400 a month.
• Shoutout to the supporting cast. Alice Brady is delightful as the family matriarch; her husband…not so much. Yes, I know I rag on Eugene Pallette every time he comes up on this blog, but seriously, fuck that guy. Fortunately for me, this is the last film I’m covering of his that is on the NFR…for now. I will also compliment Gail Patrick as the closest thing this movie gets to an antagonist. There’s something about her that is quintessential 1930s glamour: her demeanor, her outfits, her sharp features. I also enjoyed Jean Dixon as Molly, the Bullock’s maid who always has a wry comment about the proceedings, as the maid often does in these kinds of movies.

• Carlo is clearly Angelica’s side piece, but the censors refused to let him be referred to as a gigolo, so the much vaguer term “protégé” is used. While we’re talking about Carlo; with all due respect to Mischa Auer, how did he get an Oscar nomination out of this? Carlo adds very little to the proceedings, mainly just sitting around and eating. Maybe his gorilla impression went over well with voters.
• Be on the lookout for a very young Jane Wyman as one of the socialites at the scavenger hunt. Also somewhere in the background is Bess Flowers, the “Queen of the Hollywood Extras” who appeared in hundreds of movies, at least 30 of which are in the NFR! Take that, Ward Bond!
• Line that made me laugh out loud: “It’s hard to make beds when they’re full of people.”
• At one point Godfrey admonishes Cornelia and calls her a “Park Avenue brat.” Even movies from the ‘30s know about Brat Summer (a fad that will be long forgotten by the time this post is published).
• I suspect the scene in which Godfrey shows up to work drunk is a shoutout to William Powell’s work as sophisticated alcoholic Nick Charles in the “Thin Man” film series. 
• Irene is quite aggressive in her pursuing of Godfrey (and very – as the kids used to say – extra), but it is satisfying watching her make a fool of herself, and Carole Lombard is of course a delight to watch. Every female comedian who can look elegant while doing a pratfall owes a debt of gratitude to Carole Lombard.
• That’s all I really have to say about this movie: it’s pleasant enough and sticks the landing with a cute ending. If you get a chance, watch Universal’s outtake reel for 1936, which includes bloopers from “My Man Godfrey”. It’s included as a bonus feature on the DVD and is a wonderful chance to see the likes of Carole Lombard and William Powell swearing after a blown take.

• Universal produced a remake of “My Man Godfrey” in 1957 as a vehicle for Austrian actor O. W. Fischer in his Hollywood debut. When Fischer bowed out due to “irreconcilable differences”, David Niven filled in (though Godfrey’s Austrian re-write remained intact). Co-starring June Allyson, the 1957 “Godfrey” isn’t as well remembered today, and as we’ve seen is still a punching bag for those who love the 1936 version.

• The good news: We were spared a musical stage adaptation of “My Man Godfrey” in the 1980s. The bad news: We were spared because one of the show’s composers, the legendary Alan Jay Lerner, died while he was writing the score, and the project was abandoned.
• Ah geez, I can’t end this post on such a downer. Hey here’s those outtakes I was talking about! Look at the potty mouth on Lombard!