The Horse's Head

The Plot: “Boulevard Nights” centers on two brothers in East L.A.’s Mexican community; older brother Raymond (Richard Yniguez) loves driving his souped-up Chevrolet on Whittier Boulevard and going out with his girlfriend Shady (Marta DuBois), while younger brother Chuco (Danny De La Paz) is a member of the local street gang VGV, which is embroiled in a rivalry with the 11^th Street gang. As a former member of VGV, Raymond tries to persuade Chuco to see his potential outside of the gang, getting him a part-time job at a local auto shop. As Raymond and Shady prepare to get married, Chuco’s devotion to VGV gets him into further trouble as their beef with 11^th Street escalates into a full-out turf war. And if none of that interests you, this movie offers a whole bunch of great ’70s cars to feast your eyes on.

Why It Matters: The NFR calls the film “a pioneering snapshot of East L.A.”, and contextualizes the film with the other “gang” films of the era: “The Warriors”, “The Outsiders”, etc.

But Does It Really?: In all honesty I couldn’t get into “Boulevard Nights” and was ready to write it off as an anomaly on the NFR. But shortly after I finished this post, something remarkable happened to this movie: It got a Blu-ray release. Suddenly a number of articles popped up about this film’s significance as documentation of 1970s East L.A., and I had to rethink this whole post. As a standalone movie, “Boulevard Nights” is okay, but you’ve seen better versions of this same story in 100 other movies. Prior to its very recent reevaluation, most write-ups about this film’s importance could only connect it to “The Warriors” and the countless other gang films of the late ’70s. And if that’s all this movie had going for it, why not just induct “The Warriors”, which is much better remembered today and as of this writing still isn’t on the NFR? Fortunately, the support from this film’s Blu-ray release made me see the love a small but spirited group of L.A. cinephiles have for this movie, so “Boulevard Nights” gets a pass for its NFR induction. I’m happy for the people who champion this movie, but I’m ready to move on.

Everybody Gets One: Both this film’s director and screenwriter were the children of showbiz fathers: Michael Pressman’s father David was a blacklisted director, and Desmond Nakano’s father Lane was an actor. Desmond wrote the screenplay for “Boulevard Nights” while studying at UCLA, and it won the school’s Samuel Goldwyn Writing Award. This got the attention of producer Tony Bill, who optioned the script and financed the film independently with Warner Bros. serving as distributor. Pressman seized the opportunity to direct “Boulevard Nights” to prevent being pigeonholed as a comedy director (he had previously helmed “The Great Texas Dynamite Chase” and “The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training”).

Wow, That’s Dated: This whole thing is very late ’70s but look no further than Raymond’s feathery hair. It’s beautiful, but it dates everything.

Title Track: It tickles me that this movie has a theme song. I have no idea what Warner Bros.’ marketing strategy was, but we got “Street Tattoo (Theme from ‘Boulevard Nights’)” as a result. The song is performed during the end credits by George Benson, with music by Lalo Schifrin, lyrics by Gale Garnett, and additional special lyrics written and performed by Greg Prestopino.

• No disrespect to this cast, many of them making their film debuts, but they are across the board not great. No one’s terrible, but no one stands out as being particularly good. But in everyone’s defense, the screenplay is of no help in that department, with too many cliches and tropes working against any authentic performances.
• The only actor I recognized from this cast is Carmen Filpi, who plays Mr. Diaz the local tattoo artist. I know Filpi best as Jack, the hobo that rides the rails with Pee-Wee in “Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure”.
• I’m always happy to hear a Lalo Schifrin score (his “Cool Hand Luke” theme is one of my favorites), but what’s with the sad “Incredible Hulk” music as Chuco walks the streets by himself? (And for the record “The Lonely Man” was composed by Joe Harnell)
• [Spoilers] The plotline of Raymond and Shady getting married goes smoothly; so smoothly in fact that I became increasingly suspicious that something terrible was going to happen to these two. Raymond and Shady go through with the wedding as planned, but during the reception an 11^th Street gang member, aiming for Chuco, shoots Mrs. Avila (Raymond and Chuco’s mother) instead. Having recently gotten married myself (humble brag), I’m glad I didn’t see this movie before my own wedding. Granted, I currently have no beef with any local gangs that would prompt such a tragic occurrence, but you know me, I’ll worry about anything.
• I really don’t have a lot to say about this movie. It was fine, but its NFR standing is more historical than artistic. In an effort to end on a positive note, I will say that I liked the car stuff with the hydraulics. That was cool. Why couldn’t the movie be more about that?

• Michael Pressman’s directing career continues to this day, primarily in television, directing episodes of everything from “Picket Fences” to “Weeds” to “Blue Bloods”. And because I had to put this somewhere: In 1991 Michael Pressman directed – and this is true – “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze”. Cowabunga indeed.

Why It Matters: Goddammit Class of 2023, why are your write-ups so bad? The film’s official write-up on the NFR website gives a plot recap but no reasoning behind its induction, with the only superlative going to Jean Harlow’s character – “sultry”. The NFR 2023 press release, however, singles out George Cukor’s ability to successfully adapt plays into films, and heralds the ensemble as “arguably one of the greatest assembled to that point in cinema history.” Why wouldn’t you just copy and paste the press release paragraph to the official NFR page?

But Does It Really?: “Dinner at Eight’ is one of those movies that, while not as well remembered today, has lingered on in pop culture enough that its NFR inclusion isn’t too farfetched. Overall, the movie still provides plenty of laughs over 90 years later, though a few of these subplots border on the melodramatic and prevent the film from being an all-out laugh fest. While the whole ensemble is great, in true Cukor fashion this is a “women’s picture”, with Billie Burke, Marie Dressler, and Jean Harlow giving the standout performances. At a time when less and less Classic Hollywood movies are getting inducted into the NFR, I’m glad somebody remembered to add “Dinner at Eight”.

Everybody Gets One: A lifelong veteran of the theater, Marie Dressler found film success in the first feature-length film comedy, 1914’s “Tillie’s Punctured Romance” with Mabel Normand and Charlie Chaplin. Although her acting career waned in the 1920s, Dressler found new success in the sound era at MGM, winning one of the first Best Actress Oscars for her performance in “Min and Bill” alongside her future “Dinner at Eight” co-star Wallace Beery. Sadly, “Dinner at Eight” is one of Marie Dressler’s final films, as she died of cancer the summer after the film’s release at age 65.

Wow, That’s Dated: Obviously there’s references to the Great Depression, plus obscure shoutouts to Peter Stuyvesant, Jenny Lind, and John L. Sullivan (presumably the boxer and not the local car dealership).

Seriously, Oscars?: “Dinner at Eight” received no nominations at the 6^th annual Oscars, though several of the film’s creatives were nominated that year for other films: director George Cukor for “Little Women”, screenwriter Frances Marion for “The Prizefighter and the Lady”, and actor May Robson for “Lady for a Day”.

• The brief scene of Marie Dressler, Lionel Barrymore, and Wallace Beery together made me theorize that “Dinner at Eight” may be the earliest film to feature three Oscar winning actors after their wins. There had only been five ceremonies up to this point, so it’s possible.
• Like most movies from the 1930s, “Dinner at Eight” has dialogue that contains so much era-specific jargon and obscure references that it makes modern viewings more challenging. It’s almost like watching a Shakespeare play: you have to really pay attention to the dialogue, but a good cast can still get the main points across. “Dinner at Eight” is a very entertaining film, but there’s a little bit more homework you have to do to fully appreciate it.
• MGM meta-reference #1: Millicent’s cousin Hattie mentions her husband constantly going to the movies, referring to herself as a “Garbo widow”.
• Jean Harlow has more dialogue in her first scene of this movie than she had in all of “The Public Enemy“. The character of Kitty could easily be grating or unlikeable in the wrong hands, but Harlow gives her a lot of life. Harlow had such command of her vocal register; shifting from low and natural to high and whiny so well that you sense it’s all strategic on Kitty’s part to get what she wants. 

• Billie Burke is absolutely delightful in this. Watching Millicent try to maintain a chipper disposition as her dinner plans continue to unravel is the funniest part of the movie. Glinda the Good Witch may be Burke’s legacy, but this is her best performance.

• Despite being one of the most acclaimed actors of his or any generation, John Barrymore can’t do much with his subplot as a depressed has-been actor, dragging the picture to a grinding halt. Adding insult to injury, he doesn’t even have any scenes with his brother!

• A few of the actors in smaller parts deserve mention here as well. Larry’s agent is played by Lee Tracy, who 30 years later would receive an Oscar nomination for playing a dying ex-president in “The Best Man”. The stage producer who meets with Larry is played by Jean Hersholt, of “Humanitarian Award” fame. Among the hotel staff are a waiter played by Herman Bing, who also voices the Ringmaster in “Dumbo“, and a bellboy played by Edward Woods, whose post-“Public Enemy” career clearly didn’t take off as much as Harlow’s or James Cagney’s.
• MGM meta-reference #2: Carlotta’s dog is named Tarzan, though if you listen closely you can tell that the dog’s name has been dubbed over. It was originally written to be Mussolini, but a cautious MGM had it changed to something less controversial and more synergetic.
• I was very patient with this movie’s first half, knowing that most of it was necessary set-up for the film’s second half, which I presumed would take place during the dinner. As the second half of the movie went along, I kept asking “But when do they get to the dinner?” This movie should be on a double feature with “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” as two NFR movies about people gathering for a titular dinner we never actually see!
• Despite my frustrations, “Dinner at Eight” ends with an exchange between Kitty and Carlotta that has one of the best curtain lines of any movie.

• “Dinner at Eight” is another one of those classic movies that gets referenced more than it gets parodied. Clips from “Dinner at Eight” pop up any time there’s a retrospective on one of its cast or crew, and the title is a mainstay of many sitcoms, including an early episode of “Frasier”.
• To date there have been two remakes of “Dinner at Eight”, both for TV. A one-hour version starring Mary Astor and Pat O’Brien aired in 1955 on CBS’ short-lived “Front Row Center”, and a modernized version aired on TNT in 1989 with an all-star cast including Marsha Mason, Charles Durning, John Mahoney, and Lauren Bacall.

• The original stage version of “Dinner at Eight” gets revived from time to time, with two revivals on Broadway, though neither ran as long as the original 1932 production. In 2017, “Dinner at Eight” was adapted into an opera, which…sure why not?
• And finally, you can definitely see the influence Jean Harlow’s performance had on Lesley Ann Warren’s work as James Garner’s “moll” in “Victor/Victoria”. The hair, the clothes, the voice: it’s all there.

December 27^th, 1995: The NFR is in 7^th Heaven in their seventh year of film inductions, adding another 25 films for a new total of 175. Having finally watched all 25 films, here is my recap for the class of ’95:

• Blacksmith Scene (1893): “We can go ahead and give ‘Blacksmith Scene’ credit for motion pictures as we know them today, because why the hell not?”
• Rip Van Winkle (1896/1903): “the film that put Biograph Studios on the map”, “an entertaining (albeit not intentionally so) viewing experience.”
• Fatty’s Tintype Tangle (1915): “represents the talent of a man whose work has sadly been sidelined”
• The Last of the Mohicans (1920): “I really can’t find a compelling argument to preserve this film.”
• The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921): “a bit of drag.”
• Manhatta (1921): “encapsulates a specific time in American history”
• 7^th Heaven (1927): “another ‘minor classic'”, “holds up well…but I’m not singing its praises either.”
• Fury (1936): “Not [Fritz Lang’s] best work, but…keeps getting better as it goes along.”
• The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938): “checks off all the boxes you want from a Robin Hood movie”
• Stagecoach (1939): “a quintessential western…lives up to the hype.”
• The Philadelphia Story (1940): “a must-watch for classic movie lovers”
• Jammin’ the Blues (1944): “a fun, quick entry…a more raw form of jazz”
• Gerald McBoing-Boing (1950): “a good story with inventive animation, which is really all you can ask for.”
• The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951): “the best kind of science fiction”, “a call for peace”.
• The Band Wagon (1953): “not the best Fred Astaire movie…but it is still very entertaining.”
• All That Heaven Allows (1955): “Yes, it’s a highly-stylized melodrama, but it has that Douglas Sirk touch to it that keeps it watchable.”
• North by Northwest (1959): “The movies don’t get much better than this.”
• To Kill a Mockingbird (1962): “a beautifully told, wonderfully filmed story about perspective and tolerance.”
• The Hospital (1971): “I don’t understand this movie or why it’s on the NFR.”
• Cabaret (1972): “a notch above your average movie musical, if not one of the untouchables of filmdom.”
• American Graffiti (1973): “an enjoyable coming-of-age tale that comes straight from the heart.”
• The Conversation (1974): “an exhilarating movie experience”, “those willing to seek it out will not be disappointed.”
• To Fly! (1976): “a fun, visually engaging movie, and a natural choice to represent IMAX on the NFR.”
• Chan Is Missing (1982): “continues to inspire more varied depictions of Asians throughout our popular culture.”
• El Norte (1983): “one of those movies the NFR is all about.”

The Plot: Siblings Rosa and Enrique Xuncax (Zaide Silvia Gutiérrez and David Villalpando) are indigenous Mayans living in San Pedro, Guatemala during the Guatemalan Civil War of the mid to late 20^th century. When government agents murder their father Arturo (Ernesto Gómez Cruz) and capture their mother Lupe (Alicia del Lago), Rosa and Enrique decide to flee their homeland and make the dangerous journey north through Mexico to America (“El Norte”), where they hope to live out the fantasy American dream they have been told all their lives. After several setbacks in Mexico, Rosa and Enrique arrive in Los Angeles, taking any menial job or day labor while trying to avoid Immigration. “El Norte” is a sobering, heartbreaking account of the ongoing struggles for immigrants, even after they have arrived in “the land of the free”.

Why It Matters: The NFR calls the film a “sweeping story infused with Mayan folklore” and quotes the Variety write-up declaring the film the “first American independent epic”. An essay by Ithaca Teaching Fellow Matt Holtmeier focuses on the film’s visual motifs and evergreen themes.

But Does It Really?: “El Norte” is one of those movies the NFR is all about. I was drawn into the world of “El Norte” almost immediately, feeling and hurting for these two characters every step of the way, and by the end I truly felt like I had been on this journey with them. The film walks a fine line of sympathy without sentimentality, with an artistic style that still feels grounded. This straight-forward, compelling approach helps an audience more readily accept this film’s depiction of the immigrant experience. I can’t recommend “El Norte” enough, and I’m so glad the NFR inducted this film in only its third year of eligibility.

Everybody Gets One: Gregory Nava was raised in San Diego and crossed the US-Mexican border several times throughout his childhood to visit family in Tijuana. The drastic differences between San Diego and Tijuana (separated by a mere fence) were the germ of what became “El Norte”, which Nava wrote with his creative partner (and then-wife) Anna Thomas. Fun Fact: While Anna Thomas was studying film at UCLA, she wrote the cookbook The Vegetarian Epicure, which helped ignite the vegetarian movement of the 1970s!

Wow, That’s Dated: “El Norte” is another NFR film that highlights how much easier air travel was in the 20^th century. You could walk right up to the gate!

Seriously, Oscars?: Despite being an independent production with a limited theatrical release, “El Norte” managed to break through at the Oscars with a nomination for Best Original Screenplay. Facing such eclectic competition as “Beverly Hills Cop“, “Broadway Danny Rose”, and “Splash”, “El Norte” lost to “Places in the Heart”, a Best Picture nominee whose major contribution to pop culture was from its win in another category. To date, the “El Norte” screenplay nomination is the only Oscar recognition for either Gregory Nava or Anna Thomas.

• The secret to the movie’s success is how fully immersed we are in Rosa and Enrique’s perspective. The first hour of “El Norte” is spoken in K’iche’, and the film’s first act is spent entirely in San Pedro with the Mayans and their customs. Once English language is eventually spoken, it is jarring enough to make you understand how foreign English is to Rosa and Enrique for the rest of the film.
• After an understandably tense first act establishing the character motivations and stakes, we get some much-needed levity in the second act. Before arriving in Mexico, Enrique is told to claim to be Mexican so they won’t get deported back to Guatemala, and that the best way to pretend to be Mexican is by infusing his vocabulary with frequent profanity. The first line spoken by a Mexican character in the movie is “Motherfucking tire!”, and this stereotyping gets a very funny pay-off later.
• “El Norte” gives us not one, but two border crossing scenes, filmed near the actual US border with cooperation from Border Patrol. The second is the longer and more harrowing of the two, featuring Rosa and Enrique crawling through a sewer pipe. It’s now impossible for any film buff to watch this scene and not hear Morgan Freeman narrating about “smelling foulness I can’t even imagine.”
• As if the sewer scene wasn’t unpleasant enough already, we get rats! So many rats! According to an article by Roger Ebert, those were actual rats used for the scene, and Zaide Silvia Gutiérrez insisted on performing the scene herself despite her fear of rats. Hats off to Gutiérrez and Villalpando; you couldn’t pay me to do a scene like that.
• The scene where Rosa and Enrique see San Diego for the first time is shot like Dorothy and her friends arriving at Emerald City. I know it’s meant to be a beautiful, pivotal moment for these two, but thanks to the likes of “Anchorman” the city of San Diego is an immediate punchline for me.
• The film’s third act in Los Angeles introduces two characters played by NFR stalwarts. It was a pleasant surprise to see Trinidad Silva in another NFR movie, especially after his character in “¡Alambrista!” unceremoniously disappeared. And at long last this blog has entered its Lupe Ontiveros era, with the late great actor playing Nacha, Rosa’s guardian angel who gets her a job cleaning houses. Ms. Ontiveros has five films on the NFR, four of which have been inducted since I started The Horse’s Head in 2017.
• I found this film’s depiction of White people very interesting. First off, there are mercifully no White saviors. The White characters are not here to help or support Enrique and Rosa; they have their own agendas and are completely unaware of what these two have gone through. The other intriguing aspect was that the White characters – especially Enrique’s wait staff co-workers – all have clever banter with each other, as if we’ve stumbled onto a Neil Simon play mid-performance (Simon also gets name-checked by one of these characters).

• In addition to the obvious comparisons to ¡Alambrista!”, “El Norte” shares a lot of DNA with another NFR movie: “The Grapes of Wrath“. I spent my viewings of both “Grapes” and “El Norte” worried at every point that something bad would happen to our protagonists on their journey to find a better life in California.
• The final few scenes are appropriately devastating, but not in a drawn-out or overly depressing way. Enrique’s last-minute ultimatum is a tense addition, and Rosa’s final monologue is a genuine heartbreaker. Without getting into spoilers: one interpretation of the final shot is that a character has committed suicide, but I think it is there as a reminder of the Guatemalan genocide, which was still very much going on in 1983, continuing through 1996.

Today’s oversimplified history lesson: the Great Plains and the Oklahoma Dust Bowl. As always, I’m just here to talk about the movie, but I encourage further research into these expansive topics.

The Plot: “The Plow That Broke the Plains” is the story of the Great Plains; the 1.1 million square miles of flatland that stretches across 12 states in the Midwest, and how it was nearly destroyed in just a half-century. We begin in the late 1800s as settlers arrive and start developing the grassland. As those settlers continue westward, the remaining farmers start plowing the fields, despite the area’s lack of rivers and rain. The land gets a boost when World War I breaks out and there is a demand for wheat. This excessive growth continues through the 1920s but hits a breaking point with stock market crash of 1929 and the Dust Bowl and ongoing droughts of the 1930s, making the land virtually unfarmable. If only there was an off shoot of the US government that could help rehabilitate this bounteous land. Brought to you by your friends at the U.S. Resettlement Administration.

Why It Matters: Both the NFR write-up and the accompanying essay by Lorentz expert Dr. Robert J. Snyder rehash Pare Lorentz and the film’s production.

But Does It Really?: This is a situation we come across every so often on this blog: two films that cover the same ground (so to speak). Like Lorentz’s other NFR film “The River“, “Plow” is a government funded documentary short about a piece of endangered American land, narrated by Thomas Chalmers, and scored by Virgil Thompson. While they’re both equally compelling, neither is more famous or impactful than the other, which makes both being on the NFR a bit of a headscratcher. Although “The River” was made two years after “Plow”, it was added to the Registry first, and I suspect “Plow” was inducted nine years later as Lorentz’s stepping stone movie. On its own, “Plow” is an effective, dramatic look at nature’s destruction by humankind, but as an NFR entry it seems redundant. However, Lorentz is far from the only obscure filmmaker with multiple entries on the Registry, so I’ll shrug my shoulders and give “Plow” the same pass I gave its cinematic younger sibling. But if I see one more Pare Lorentz movie on this list, NFR, you and I are going to have a talk.

Everybody Gets One: Pare Lorentz started his career as a freelance writer in the 1920s, eventually being assigned as a film critic for Judge magazine even though he had no interest in films. By the 1930s, Lorentz had relocated from New York to Washington DC, and became fascinated with Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal campaign, writing about it at length during Roosevelt’s first term as president. These writings caught the eye of Secretary of Agriculture Henry Wallace, who arranged for Lorentz to meet with Rexford Tugwell (great name) of the newly formed Resettlement Administration. Originally hired as a film consultant, Lorentz agreed to direct a short about the Dust Bowl, a topic that interested him greatly. Unfortunately, his lack of filmmaking experience caused him to lowball his budget, requesting and receiving only $6,000 (about $135,000 today) from the government, and paying with his own money for the extra costs – another $14,000 ($316,000 today).

Wow, That’s Dated: As I said in my “River” post, “this whole thing is pure New Deal propaganda”.

• Like many a New Deal program, the Resettlement Administration was dissolved in 1937, becoming the Farm Security Administration, which begat the Farmers Home Administration, which begat the USDA Rural Development.
• As for the Plains themselves, things finally started picking up in the 1950s thanks to concentrated efforts to better irrigate the land. While the Great Plains are nowhere near as populous as they were before the Dust Bowl, they contain plenty of usable farmland, and in more recent years have shifted their focus to wind power.