The Horse's Head

#625) The Shining (1980)

OR “We’ll Leave the Fright On For You”

Directed by Stanley Kubrick

Written by Kubrick & Diane Johnson. Based on the novel by Stephen King.

Class of 2018

The Plot: Writer Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) takes a job as the winter caretaker of Colorado’s Overlook Hotel. With his wife Wendy (Shelley Duvall) and their son Danny (Danny Lloyd) in tow, Jack and his family relocate to the empty hotel for its five-month offseason. Upon arriving, Danny confides in hotel chef Dick Hallorann (Scatman Crothers) of his “shining”, a telepathic power that Dick also possesses. Throughout the ensuing months, the isolation starts making Jack highly irritable, and the family encounter various ghosts and apparitions within the hotel. Jack’s writer’s block and alcoholic relapse lead to a mental breakdown, and he is encouraged by the ghost of the former caretaker (Philip Stone) to murder Wendy and Danny. One of the most celebrated film directors of all time takes a stab (forgive me) at the horror genre, creating an alienating masterpiece that definitely takes some liberties with its source material.

Why It Matters: The NFR calls the film “inventive in visual style, symbolism, and narrative as only a Kubrick film can be”, praising the film’s “stunning visuals” and “iconic performances”.

But Does It Really?: I have seen “The Shining” a few times over the years, and every time I come to the same consensus: It’s equal parts scary and boring. When Kubrick hits, he really connects with this film’s genuinely frightening imagery, but this is mixed with long stretches of the movie that not only slow the pacing considerably, but also manage to deflate any previous tension. Perhaps this was intentional to highlight the characters’ isolation, but it has never been effective in my viewings. Still, I cannot deny the film its NFR status (I submitted the film for consideration the year it was ultimately inducted). Despite its glacier pacing and misguided diversion from the novel, there is no other movie that looks or sounds like “The Shining”. With its abundance of iconic moments and generation-spanning devotion from cinephiles and horror buffs alike, “The Shining” more than earns its spot on the NFR.

Title Track: Stephen King named the novel “The Shining” after John Lennon’s song “Instant Karma! (We All Shine On)”. I would have given this movie an immediate 4 stars if that song played over the end credits.

Seriously, Oscars/Razzies?: Following a divisive critical reaction (though a respectable box office run), “The Shining” became the first Kubrick film in over 20 years to not receive an Oscar nomination. Adding insult to injury, “The Shining” is one of two NFR films to have been nominated for the Razzies (the other is “Purple Rain”) with two nods: Worst Director and Worst Actress. Shelley Duvall’s Razzie nomination was officially rescinded in March 2022 in response to Kubrick’s behavior towards Duvall on set (more on that later).

Other notes 

• Based on Stephen King’s experience staying at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, “The Shining” was published in January 1977, with its film rights being purchased two months prior. Kubrick was interested in making a “commercially viable” horror film following the lackluster box office of “Barry Lyndon”, and “The Shining” piqued his interest out of countless rejected horror novels he read. Filming was scheduled for 16 weeks at England’s famous Elstree Studios, but ended up going for a full year; going over schedule in part to Kubrick’s penchant for retakes, and partly due to a fire that burnt most of the massive Overlook set.
• My biggest complaint about this movie is the same for a lot of people: Jack Nicholson should not be playing Jack Torrance. This of course has nothing to do Nicholson’s unmistakable talent as an actor, but rather the quality his star persona brings to the character. Jack Torrance is an average Joe who slowly descends into madness while at the Overlook. Jack Nicholson already looks unhinged before he gets to the hotel. I’ll argue the true culprits are his perpetually arched eyebrows; typically a boon to his acting “instrument”, but distracting and foretelling here. Still, if the old adage is true, Nicholson is cast for the third act, having a ball overplaying the character’s intense psychosis.

• The other element of “The Shining” I have a complaint about is Kubrick’s mistreatment of Shelley Duvall. During filming, Kubrick purposefully and consistently berated Duvall in front of crew members in order to get a more unstable, emotional performance out of her. This is corroborated by on-set footage shown in a behind-the-scenes documentary of the film (shot by Stanley’s daughter Vivian) featuring several instances of the director loudly chastising Duvall and urging the crew not to sympathize with her. Later in that same documentary, Duvall discloses her awareness of Kubrick’s psychological games, and she subsequently expressed her pride in the final product. Maybe it’s my 2022 sensibility talking, but this is definitely a case where the ends do not justify the means. Encouraging your actors to dig deeper is one thing, but doing so as a detriment to their mental health is quite another.

• Okay, let’s see what I actually like about this movie. Um…well the kid’s good. It helps that Danny Lloyd was unaware he was making a horror film. At least Kubrick protected someone in this cast from potential trauma. While we’re on the subject, I cannot entirely endorse a movie in which a character named Tony possesses a child.
• The long traveling shots throughout the film are incredible, helping give a sense of the dizzying scope and geography of the Overlook (although the shot of Halloran touring the kitchen looks like the Copa shot in “Goodfellas“). Shoutout to cinematographer John Alcott, as well as Steadicam inventor Garrett Brown, who created a modified version especially for “The Shining” that travelled low to the ground. The effect is impressive, especially those shots of Danny riding through the hallways on his Big Wheel tricycle. Brown would eventually receive a technical Oscar in 2006 for another Steadicam variation: the Skycam.

• Oh my god this movie is so slow. It’s to the point that I actually start getting antagonistic towards the film. Take your time, movie; I can wait as long as you can.
• Probably the creepiest scene in the movie is Jack entering Room 237, mainly because of the weird turn it takes. If only he had gone to Room 222 or 227 instead.
• The phrase “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” first appeared in print 1659’s “Proverbs” by James Howell (though the phrase’s definitive origin remains undetermined). The rarely-mentioned second half is “All play and no work makes Jack a mere toy.” According to Vivian Kubrick, Stanley’s secretary spent weeks – if not months – typing out the “All work” pages that appear in the final film for mere seconds.

• A reminder that Benjamin “Scatman” Crothers, the voice of Scat Cat and Hong Kong Phooey, has three movies on the National Film Registry.

• A few takeaways from the finale: Danny sounds a lot like E.T. when he starts shouting “Redrum!”, no one has ever been able to explain the significance of the bear costume (or its compromising position) to me, and the final chase is why people don’t like hedge mazes.

• When I picked “The Shining” to watch for this blog, I vowed I would not fall down the rabbit hole of conspiracy theories regarding this movie’s alleged symbolism, but rather peer down said rabbit hole from a safe distance. As evident from the documentary “Room 237”, there are countless interpretations of this film, ranging from commentary on Indigenous genocide to an analogy of the Holocaust to a confession that Kubrick staged the moon landing! Kubrick lived long enough to dismiss all of these (with his survivors and colleagues continuing the debunking to this day). I suspect the reason this film in particular has so many intense theses is two-fold: 1) Like “2001” before it, Kubrick has delivered a movie that leaves so many of its elements up to interpretation and 2) Given Kubrick’s reputation for his meticulous perfectionism, it is easy to assume that Kubrick devised every detail within the film to correspond with whatever message he was trying to make. Funnily enough, as someone who has never read the book, my own theory is close to Stephen King’s original intention: the hotel itself is an evil entity that, in its attempt to consume Danny, ends up consuming his father instead. That reading is still in the film, albeit watered down by Kubrick’s artistic flourishes.

Legacy 

• “The Shining” was released in May 1980, becoming one of that summer’s biggest hits, and is currently the third highest-grossing Kubrick film behind “2001” and “Spartacus“. By the time Kubrick’s next film – his long gestating Vietnam War drama “Full Metal Jacket” – was released in June 1987, “The Shining” had already started receiving a critical reappraisal and earning its current status as a horror classic.
• Stephen King has made it no secret that he was disappointed with Kubrick’s film version of his book, citing Kubrick’s misinterpretation of the supernatural elements and the miscasting of Jack Nicholson. The 1997 TV miniseries (somewhat emphatically titled “Stephen King’s The Shining”) is a more faithful adaptation of the source material, but still manages to live in the movie’s shadow. Hey, isn’t that the guy from “Wings”?

• IMDb lists over 2,000 movies that have referenced or parodied “The Shining” over the years, but all you really need is “The Simpsons” and my vote for their best “Treehouse of Horror” segment.

• More recent references to “The Shining” come from the films “Ready Player One” and – in what seems to be a recurring segment on this blog – “Space Jam: A New Legacy”.

• Several of the film’s most iconic moments were created specifically for the film, including the Grady twins in the hallway, blood flowing out of the elevator, and an axe-wielding Jack announcing “Here’s Johnny!”. The latter – a reference to “Tonight Show” host Johnny Carson – went over well enough with Carson that he used the clip to open his 1980 anniversary special, causing a brief uptick in the film’s box office.

• Stephen King finally wrote a sequel to “The Shining” in 2013: “Doctor Sleep”, which dealt with Danny as an adult coming to terms with his long suppressed powers to save a similarly gifted young girl. The inevitable film adaptation came in 2019, and somehow managed to be a sequel to the film’s continuity while also receiving Stephen King’s blessing.

• Oh, and apparently we might be getting a spin-off/prequel series called “Overlook Hotel”? I guess HBO Max dropped it from development (but hey, what haven’t they dropped?), and the production company is shopping the show around. My question as always about these origin/reboot things: Does anyone actually want this?

Further Viewing: Another favorite of mine from the recut trailer trend of the mid-2000s, “The Shining” recut as a heartwarming family drama. Another reason to love Peter Gabriel’s “Solsbury Hill”.

#26) Rosemary’s Baby (1968)

OR “Only Demons in the Building”

Directed & Written by Roman Polanski. Based on the novel by Ira Levin.

Class of 2014 

This is the revised and expanded post of my original “Rosemary’s Baby” post, which you can read here.

The Plot: Rosemary Woodhouse and her stage actor husband Guy (Mia Farrow & John Cassavetes) move into the Bramford, a large Manhattan apartment building with a haunted history. After settling in, Rosemary discovers she is pregnant, and becomes increasingly annoyed when their elderly neighbors Roman and Minnie Castevet (Sidney Blackmer & Ruth Gordon) keep interfering with her plans, including making her see another doctor (Ralph Bellamy). As the months past, Guy becomes more distant and irritable, and Rosemary becomes more paranoid about the Castevets’ true intentions. No spoilers but – oh screw it, it’s been 50 years if you haven’t seen it by now you’re not going to – they’re witches who arranged for Rosemary to birth the Devil’s son. How’s that for a twist?

Why It Matters: The NFR calls the film no less than “a masterpiece of the horror-film genre”, praising Farrow, the supporting cast, and Polanski’s “expressive European style of psychological filmmaking”.

But Does It Really?: I had never seen “Rosemary’s Baby” before my first viewing for the blog five years ago, and it turns out this movie is somehow even scarier the second time around. Even knowing what the big reveals were, I still got the heebie-jeebies from watching this movie, thanks in no small part to Mia Farrow’s flawless performance, and Polanski’s excellent protracted suspense (and that’s as much as I’m willing to compliment Polanski). Over 50 years later, “Rosemary’s Baby” remains a hallmark of the horror genre, a landmark in pop culture, and a no-brainer for NFR inclusion.

Everybody Gets One: The daughter of director John Farrow and actress Maureen O’Sullivan, Mia Farrow came to prominence in the mid 1960s; on screen for the popular primetime soap opera “Peyton Place”, and off-screen for her marriage to Frank Sinatra, a man 29 years her senior. Sinatra wanted Farrow to give up her career to focus on their marriage, and while Farrow initially agreed, within a year she had signed on to play Rosemary. When filming delays created a scheduling conflict between “Rosemary” and “The Detective” (a Sinatra film Farrow had been cast in), Farrow was convinced by “Rosemary” producer Robert Evans to stay with the film after showing her a rough cut of her work. Sinatra’s lawyer presented Mia Farrow with the divorce papers on the set of “Rosemary’s Baby”.

Wow, That’s Dated: Rosemary mentions several times that Guy appeared in the plays “Luther” and “Nobody Loves an Albatross”, two real plays that ran on Broadway in winter 1963/spring 1964. Also dated: the idea that a working actor and his unemployed housewife can afford a spacious New York apartment.

Seriously, Oscars?:  “Rosemary’s Baby” was one of the highest grossing films of 1968, but the still very “Old Hollywood” Academy was slow to embrace New Hollywood, and “Rosemary” received only two nominations. Polanski lost Adapted Screenplay to James Goldman for “The Lion in Winter”, but longtime showbiz veteran Ruth Gordon prevailed as that year’s Best Supporting Actress, giving one of the all-time best acceptance speeches.

Other notes 

• In addition to the lead cast, the supporting cast is a murderer’s row of longtime film and stage actors. Among them, Maurice Evans (aka Dr. Zaius), Ralph Bellamy, the instantly recognizable Elisha Cook, Patsy Kelly, D’Urville Martin (later played by Wesley Snipes in “Dolemite is My Name”) and a young Charles Grodin!
• As a longtime scaredy cat, watching horror movies on this list is easier because – true to films of the time – nothing scary happens in the first 45 minutes. It’s the slowest burn of atmosphere and setup. With this second viewing of “Rosemary’s Baby”, I picked up on some of the subtleties that Cassavetes, Gordon, and Blackmer are playing early on. Though with the advent of hindsight, everyone is giving Rosemary plenty of red flags right from the get-go. Come on, the Castavets are pretty unfazed by Terry’s death.
• The best executed, and therefore most terrifying scene in the movie is Rosemary’s “dream”. The editing perfectly conveys the sense of drifting in and out of sleep, and the cinematography gives a wonderfully disorienting feeling as Rosemary realizes that this is no dream. Just brilliant. 5/5, no notes.

• Ruth Gordon & Sidney Blackmer are both outstanding. Sure, Gordon’s Oscar win was as much a lifetime consolation prize as anything else, but this is inspired casting, with her quirky persona helping disguise the character’s evil intentions. Blackmer correctly balances out Gordon by playing it straight, letting his piercing, probing eyes do most of the work instilling terror.

• I somehow missed “Rosemary’s Baby” on my Die Hard Not-Xmas list. I must rectify that immediately.
• Also date: Rosemary’s “just friends” party that is a swinging ’60s shindig. It definitely stands out, but I suspect that’s the point. Guy and the Castevets have dominated and controlled Rosemary’s life so thoroughly, she’s missing out on the ’60s culture the rest of her generation is participating in.

• This occult reveal brought to you by Scrabble: America’s Good Time Game!
• If the voice of Donald Baumgart sounds familiar, it’s Tony Curtis in an uncredited cameo! Polanski wanted a voice that was familiar enough that Rosemary/Mia would feel thrown trying to place the voice while asking about her husband. Coincidentally, Curtis would go on to present Ruth Gordon with her Best Supporting Actress Oscar.
• Behind-the-scene controversies aside, Mia Farrow is pitch-perfect in this movie. Because the movie is solely from Rosemary’s perspective, we truly empathize with her journey, going through our own anxiety and madness as her world is turned upside down. Farrow’s tour-de-force is the phone booth conversation, captured in one uncut four-minute take as Rosemary struggles to reach out to Dr. Hill, her last lifesaver. Side note: the man who enters the booth after her is William Castle, the film’s producer, best remembered for his gimmicky horror B-movies of the 1950s.

• The finale is surprisingly low-key, yet still manages to be disturbing and unsettling. Rosemary’s outburst of “What have you done to his eyes, you maniacs!” is justifiably iconic (as is Roman’s response), and the final moments also manage to be heartbreaking. Another reason I can stomach this more than later horror movies is because there’s a restraint in the horror. We never see Rosemary’s baby, but our imagination of what he could look like is far scarier, as is our speculation of what happens next.

Legacy 

• Despite mixed critical reception, “Rosemary’s Baby” was a smash hit with moviegoers. Perhaps the film’s most important impact on pop culture is the rise of films involving the devil in the ensuing decades. Without “Rosemary”, there’s no “The Exorcist“, “The Omen”, “Devil in a Blue Dress” and countless others.

• This is one of those movies where the poster is just as iconic as the movie itself. A creation by legendary graphic designer Philip Gips, the “Rosemary’s Baby” poster has turned up throughout pop culture, including being replicated for Darren Aronofsky’s 2017 film “Mother!”. God, remember that movie?

• Both the film and the original novel of “Rosemary’s Baby” have sequels. 1976’s “Look What’s Happened to Rosemary’s Baby” was a poorly received TV movie with only Ruth Gordon reprising her role (Rosemary was played by Patty Duke). Ira Levin finally wrote a follow-up novel in 1997 called “Son of Rosemary”, which disregards the TV movie entirely, and was dedicated to Mia Farrow.

• “Rosemary’s Baby” was remade in 2014 as a two-part miniseries starring Zoe Saldana. Transplanting the action to modern day Paris, the new “Rosemary” was not well received. For crying out loud, they aged down the Castevets!

• Ruth Gordon’s long showbiz career was rejuvenated thanks to “Rosemary”, pivoting from screenwriter/character actor to quirky old leading lady, most notably in “Harold and Maude“.

• Mia Farrow’s film career took off after “Rosemary’s Baby”, though in later years she opted to focus more on her family and humanitarian efforts. And the less said about her partnership with a certain problematic writer/director, the better. On a similar note…

• As for Roman Polanski, suffice it to say that he made one more really good film in America (Fellow NFR entry “Chinatown“) before fleeing the US to escape criminal charges, and remains a fugitive to this day (albeit a continually employed, Oscar-winning fugitive).

Further Viewing: This film is as good an excuse as any to bring up “The Kid Stays in the Picture”, a Robert Evans documentary narrated by the man himself (using the audiobook from his memoir of the same name). Is it an intriguing look at one of Hollywood’s most influential producers? You bet your ass it is.

#624) What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)

OR “Twisted Sister”

Directed by Robert Aldrich

Written by Lukas Heller. Based on the novel by Henry Farrell.

Class of 2021

The Plot: Blanche Hudson (Joan Crawford) was a glamorous movie star in the 1930s before a car accident left her confined to a wheelchair. 30 years later, she lives reclusively in her old Hollywood mansion with her sister Jane (Bette Davis), a former child star in vaudeville (“Baby Jane”) who was quickly overshadowed by Blanche’s fame. Jane still resents Blanche and while ostensibly her sister’s caretaker, takes pleasure in tormenting and gaslighting Blanche. When Jane learns that Blanche plans on selling their house and sending her to a psychiatric institution, Jane continues to lose her grip on reality, further cutting Blanche off from the outside world and planning a revival of her vaudeville routine with her pianist Edwin Flagg (Victor Buono). The emotional and physical battle between the two sisters is only rivaled by the alleged off-screen battle between this film’s two stars.

Why It Matters: The NFR hails the film as “vivid and often uncomfortably terrifying” and its significance for highlighting Crawford and Davis’ “memorable, long-running feud” as well as its creation of the Hagsploitation subgenre (more on that later).

But Does It Really?: I have pushed for this movie to make the NFR for five years, so no complaint from me that “Baby Jane” finally made the cut. In addition to being a late-career highlight for both leads (Davis in particular is underrepresented in the NFR), “Baby Jane” is an iconic film that, for better or worse, has added to and helped shaped the legacy of its two stars. The film’s melodrama still plays surprisingly well 60 years later, mixed with some genuinely scary tension and note-perfect performances from Davis and Crawford. “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?” is a unique bit of film history and its addition to the NFR is long overdue.

Everybody Gets One: Victor Buono was primarily a stage and TV actor before landing “Baby Jane”. After first choice Peter Lawford backed out right before filming (he worried the film would ruin his reputation), Robert Aldrich spotted Buono on an episode of “The Untouchables” and cast him as Edwin Flagg. “Jane” was Buono’s first credited film appearance (he gets an “Introducing” credit), and earned him an Oscar nomination. Buono worked in film and TV for the rest of his career, his most famous post-“Jane” role being as the villainous King Tut on “Batman”.

Wow, That’s Dated: A major plot point of “Baby Jane” is the then-current resurgence of Classic Hollywood via TV reruns. Also dated, Blanche’s reliance on a landline. Would she have been able to escape if she had a cell phone?

Title Track: In the studio era of unnecessary title songs, “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?” has an unnecessary title song! While the lyrics are never sung in the film proper, an instrumental version can be heard twice in the film, and Bette Davis sang the lyrics during a promotional appearance on “The Andy Williams Show”.

Seriously, Oscars?: A box office hit, “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?” was nominated for five Oscars, winning one for Norma Koch’s Black-and-White Costume Design. Most famous among its losses, Bette Davis (on her record-breaking 10^th nomination) losing Best Actress to Anne Bancroft in “The Miracle Worker”. Adding insult to injury, Joan Crawford – missing out on a Best Actress nomination herself – arranged to accept the Oscar on behalf of the absent Anne Bancroft.

Other notes 

• Alright, let’s get this out of the way: the Joan Crawford/Bette Davis feud. While there are numerous articles chronicling the two actresses and their decades-long squabble, very little of it can be reliably substantiated. There are a few common threads: a potential affair in the ’30s between Davis and Crawford’s then-husband Franchot Tone, the two actresses competing against each other for roles when they were both at Warner Bros. in the mid-’40s, and the aforementioned Oscar incident (all of this exacerbated by both actresses telling exaggerated tales about each other in their later years). Only Crawford and Davis will ever know for sure what their feelings were towards each other, and while I suspect there was some level of animosity between them, I also believe that much of what we consider “the feud” is subsequent generations taking the actresses’ later tales as scripture and playing an internet trivia game of Telephone. Also adding fuel to the fire are the tell-all books “Mommie Dearest” and “My Mother’s Keeper”, as well as the former’s film adaptation. Speaking of books…
• Henry Farrell’s novel “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?” was published in March 1960 and its film rights were immediately snatched up. The film’s production didn’t pick up steam until a year and a half later, when Robert Aldrich signed on to direct. Aldrich recruited Joan Crawford (star of his previous film “Autumn Leaves”), and Crawford, ever the shrewd business professional, knew this was the right script to bring her and Bette Davis together for the first time. As their “feud” was well-known by 1962, the press leapt at the chance to speculate how the two actors got along (or didn’t) during production. All accounts point to the two being courteous and professional to each other during filming (though not necessarily going out of their way to be friends). Aldrich, however, was encouraged by Warner Bros. to maintain the notion of a feud to drum up free publicity. Most famously, it was Aldrich – not Davis as later purported – who placed a few Coca-Cola bottles on set to prank Crawford, a Pepsi-Cola board member.
• Okay, all of this historical context out of the way, how are these two in the actual film? Unsurprisingly, they’re both very good as two women trapped in their own little world (Blanche literally, Jane emotionally). Davis of course has the far meatier role, leaving no scenery left un-chewed, but still finding room to develop Jane’s descent into madness. Crawford has the quieter role, but plays it with the right amount of terror and strength. The two balance each other perfectly, you can’t have one performance without the other.

• Having a pre-credits scene in your movie was still a novelty in 1962, but having it take a full 12 minutes before the first credit appears is excruciating. And it’s another 8 minutes before Davis and Crawford finally show up! That being said, the actors playing young Jane and Blanche are well-cast (Davis’s counterpart in particular has her exaggerated articulation down pat). Side note: The films used for young Jane’s early movies are real-life Bette Davis flicks “Parachute Jumper” and “Ex-Lady”, while Blanche’s film shown on TV is Crawford’s “Sadie McKee”.

• The Hudson’s nosy neighbor Mrs. Bates is played by Anna Lee, a longtime film actor best remembered today as the nun who steals the car parts in “The Sound of Music“. Her daughter Liza is played by Bette Davis’ real-life daughter B.D. Merrill, future author of “My Mother’s Keeper”. Whoops.
• There’s a lot of racy (by 1962 standards) dialogue in this movie. Jane calls Blanche’s movie “crap”, Edwin insinuates that his mother was promiscuous, and Jane’s muttering of “bitch” is drowned out by Blanche’s buzzer. Was the Production Code on vacation that week?
• Shoutout to Maidie Norman as the Hudson’s housekeeper Elvira. Aware of her limited roles in film and TV due to her race, Norman always played her roles of maids and servants with dignity, to the point of re-writing her “Baby Jane” dialogue to remove – as she put it – “old slavery-time talk”.
• It amuses me that no one in the “real world” seems phased by Jane’s haggard appearance. But then again, she is a woman over 40 in Hollywood: she might as well be invisible.
• As far as gigolos to aging movie stars go, Buono is good, but he’s no Bill Holden. Points, however, deducted from this movie for going out of its way to make a fat joke at Edwin/Buono’s expense.

• Also dated: people memorizing phone numbers. When Blanche finally gets downstairs to call her doctor, I assumed she wouldn’t be able to call because she left the number upstairs. Turns out people used to just know important phone numbers off-hand. What a skill.
• Say what you will about Jane, she’s an excellent mimic. Her Blanche is uncanny; it’s like Joan Crawford is dubbing it in for her (wink wink).
• Even with Davis’ advantage, I can see how Crawford missed out on an Oscar nomination. In addition to being the more passive lead role, Blanche is literally sidelined for most of the film’s second half. There’s not a lot you can do acting-wise when you’re tied up with tape on your mouth.
• The movie’s beach finale is heartbreaking, as the final reveal is made and both women finally recognize the Hell they have created for themselves. Fun Fact: The beach used in this scene is at Malibu, the same stretch of beach Aldrich used to film the final scene in “Kiss Me Deadly“.

• The moral of this movie: For the love of god, work out your childhood trauma, I am begging you!

Legacy 

• “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?” premiered on Halloween 1962, and while receiving mixed reviews from critics was an immediate hit with audiences. As previously mentioned, “Baby Jane” spawned the Hagsploitation (aka “psycho-biddy”) subgenre; low-budget thrillers in which Classic Hollywood stars of a certain age (Olivia de Havilland, Barbara Stanwyck, Shelley Winters, etc.) are either the tormenter or tormented.

• Aldrich, Davis and Crawford all reunited for an immediate follow-up/spiritual sequel “Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte”. As with their previous interactions, stories of Crawford and Davis’s on-set issues are tough to nail down precisely. What we do know is that Joan Crawford left the film one week into the shoot (Crawford cited an illness, Aldrich disputed this) with Davis’ longtime friend Olivia de Havilland coming in as Crawford’s replacement.

• Among Robert Aldrich’s post-“Jane” filmography are action movies “The Flight of the Phoenix”, “The Dirty Dozen”, and “The Longest Yard”. Looks like I have a few more Aldrich pictures to replace “Jane” on my NFR nomination list.

• “Baby Jane” has also remained popular as a cult classic with queer audiences, especially the drag community. Given both stars’ larger than life personas and Davis’ ghoulish makeup, I’m not surprised.

• Perhaps the film’s most parodied moment: Davis’ line reading of “But’cha ARE, Blanche! Ya ARE in that chair!” It’s spoofed by George Costanza of all people!
• “Baby Jane” has received the remake treatment once, as a 1991 TV movie starring real-life sisters Lynn and Vanessa Redgrave. It’s updated for the ’90s, and seems like one of those movies that should work in theory, but somehow doesn’t.

• A reminder that the character of Baby Jane Hudson appears as a background extra in the climactic game of 2021’s “Space Jam: A New Legacy”. I’m sure that went over as well with the kids as Big Chungus.

• But of course, the film’s true legacy is its place as the epicenter of the Davis/Crawford feud. Whatever the truth is, this film will always serve as a fantasy embellishment of what might have transpired between these two titans. The feud was further immortalized in Shaun Considine’s 1989 book “Bette and Joan: The Divine Feud”, which was eventually adapted into the 2017 miniseries “Bette and Joan” with Susan Sarandon and Jessica Lange.

Further Viewing/Listening: The history of the Crawford/Davis is well covered, and while there’s plenty of speculation out there, the two dissections that seem to hue closest to the facts are the “Be Kind Rewind” video embedded below, as well as this episode of the podcast “You Must Remember This”.

#623) The Grapes of Wrath (1940)

OR “Joad Trip”

Directed by John Ford

Written by Nunnally Johnson. Based on the novel by John Steinbeck.

Class of 1989 

The Plot: Freshly paroled from prison, Tom Joad (Henry Fonda) returns to his parents’ farm in Sallisaw, Oklahoma, only to discover it abandoned. Joad learns that the family farm was foreclosed by the bank (this being the Great Depression/Dust Bowl and all), and they have plans to move to California and seek migrant work. Tom finds them before they leave and, along with ex-preacher Jim Casy (John Carradine), joins the Joads on their westward trip. The journey is fraught with hardships and setbacks, including a disappointing lack of work and support upon arrival in California. Despite these struggles, Tom remains steadfast in his belief that honest hard-working people will always band together against oppression.

Why It Matters: The NFR calls the film no less than “American artistry”, highlighting “Gregg Toland’s stark photography and Henry Fonda’s memorably penetrating performance”. They also include a series of production stills from the film.

But Does It Really?: Sometimes a preordained “classic” film can be underwhelming given its legendary status, while others can still wow an audience and make a solid case for their staying power. “The Grapes of Wrath” is somewhere in the middle. It’s very good, I grant you that, but I surprisingly don’t have a lot to say about this movie other than…it’s very good. I think part of that is the film’s straightforward presentation; Ford’s realistic directing style lacks pretension, with Fonda and the rest of the cast giving grounded, understated performances. While “Grapes of Wrath” is never anyone’s pick for Greatest Movie Ever Made, its effective presentation and evergreen theme of survival amongst oppression consistently ranks it among the greatest, and that is more than reason enough to induct “Grapes” into the NFR inaugural class.

Everybody Gets One: Nunnally Johnson started out as a journalist and short story author. When he sold his short story “Rough House Rosie” to Paramount for a Clara Bow vehicle, he quit the newspaper business to become a screenwriter. His screenwriting career spanned 40 years, with a brief detour into directing in the ’50s (“The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit”, “The Three Faces of Eve”). For his efforts adapting “The Grapes of Wrath” to the screen, Johnson received an Oscar nomination, and met his future wife Dorris Bowdon (Rosasharn Joad).

Wow, That’s Dated: The film is – of course – ingrained in the Depression-era culture and Dust Bowl politics of the novel’s setting. So ingrained in fact that a brief text prologue was added to the film for its international release so foreign audiences could understand the historical context.

Title Track: John Steinbeck’s wife Carol came up with the title “The Grapes of Wrath”, taken from the second line of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” (“He is trampling out the vintage/where the grapes of wrath are stored”). This lyric is a reference to a passage from the New Testament. I’m a bit hazy on the details, but I guess Jesus stomped on grapes in a winepress and, I dunno, he fell down or something?

Seriously, Oscars?: A hit upon release, “The Grapes of Wrath” received seven Oscar nominations, including Best Picture. The big winner of the night was “Rebecca“, but “Grapes” took home two major prizes: Jane Darwell for Best Supporting Actress and John Ford for Best Director (his second of an eventual four). Henry Fonda lost Best Actor to Jimmy Stewart in “The Philadelphia Story“, and would end up waiting 40 years before receiving a lifetime achievement statuette, plus a Best Actor win for “On Golden Pond” the following year.

Other notes 

• “The Grapes of Wrath” was published in April 1939, and was immediately the most popular book of the year, subsequently winning a Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. The film rights were snatched up by 20^th Century Fox for $70,000, with a Steinbeck mandated clause that the film adaptation would “retain the main action and social intent” of the novel. Fox studio chief Darryl F. Zanuck co-produced the film, and the project was quickly rushed into production; filming in October and November of 1939, with its New York premiere in January 1940.
• This is my perennial reminder that like so many other Fox properties on this list, “The Grapes of Wrath” is legally a Disney movie. Perhaps a Hooverville expansion in California Adventure?
• Poor Henry Fonda. He’s very good in this, so good it doesn’t look like he’s acting. His Tom Joad is the stoic center of the story, as he should be, but that means no fireworks or hysterics to help you notice his great performance (even his closing monologue is powerfully subdued). I’m beginning to understand why Oscar voters gravitated more towards Jimmy Stewart’s flashier comic turn in “Philadelphia Story”.
• Look how young John Carradine is in this! I didn’t realize Carradine made movies before he was ancient.

• [Spoilers] It’s fun to watch Charley Grapewin go from his reserved performance as Uncle Henry in “The Wizard of Oz” to the more energetic Grandpa Joad. Sad to see him die, though.
• Leave it to Gregg Toland to make anything look this good in black and white. The traveling shots of the American Southwest are impressive, though never as glossy or over-saturated as they would have been if the film was shot in color.
• A good chunk of the Joad’s traveling takes place on Route 66, one of America’s first highways. A quick shot in the montage shows a sign calling it the Will Rogers Highway, an unofficial moniker no doubt popularized after the humorist’s death in 1935. Route 66 would eventually be officially dedicated to the late Rogers in 1952.

• As always, I appreciate when I get to watch a John Ford movie on this list that isn’t a western brimming with negative racial stereotypes.
• Shoutout to Darryl Hickman, playing the youngest child Winfield Joad. As of this writing, he is the film’s last surviving cast member!
• A roadtrip through the Southwest to California with a car on the verge of collapse and the grandparents dying mid-trip? I didn’t realize “Grapes of Wrath” shares so much DNA with “Little Miss Sunshine”. I’m looking forward to this movie’s beauty pageant dance-off finale.
• In a rare moment of something getting past the censors, nobody at the Hays Code offices seemed to catch Tom telling Ma to “get the hell off” the car fender. It’s pretty quiet; I only caught it because I had closed captioning on.
• Jane Darwell had been acting in films since the silent era, but she didn’t hit her stride until she became a contract player and character actor at 20^th Century Fox. Her Ma Joad is far and away her career high point (with her brief appearance as the Bird Woman in “Mary Poppins” a potential second), quietly holding the film together with her warmth and determination. Of that year’s Best Supporting Actress contenders, I’d say Judith Anderson in “Rebecca” is giving the best performance, but you can’t fault the Academy for giving Darwell the trophy. Anderson’s Mrs. Danvers is impressive, but too cold and off-putting to the average moviegoer. Ma Joad is the one you want to hug.

• The Weedpatch Camp is a real labor camp created in the 1930s as part of the New Deal to support displaced farm workers. Even more impressive, Weedpatch is still around, and was inducted into the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.
• If nothing else I was captivated by this movie. I found myself caring for the Joads quite a bit, hoping that each episode would be the one where they finally catch a break (it helps that I was never assigned the book in high school and genuinely didn’t know what would happen). I was surprised by how many moments of kindness there are in this film. Yes, there’s the corrupt labor officials and “red agitators”, but those are nicely balanced by regular people who help out others even when it makes things harder on themselves. Steinbeck’s work is filled with such downer material it’s nice to see these uplifting moments of humanity.

• You’ve definitely heard Tom’s final monologue or a variation of it at some point in your life: “Where there’s a cop beating up a guy, I’ll be there…” It’s delivered calmly yet stirringly by Henry Fonda, the epicenter of his future screen persona. My question: With Tom’s turn to pseudo-vigilante and looking out for the oppressed, did he just become Batman?

• The novel’s original ending continued to chronicle the Joads after Tom left them, and things ended on a sad note – especially for Rosasharn. In an attempt to end the film somewhat optimistically, Ma’s “We’re the people” speech, spoken about two-thirds through the book, was transplanted to the end. I was surprised to see the film continue following Tom’s departure, but ending with Ma’s monologue about how “they can’t lick us” is the right choice. In addition to its upbeat by comparison presentation, it illustrates how much Ma was inspired by Tom’s words to keep fighting.

Legacy 

• “Grapes of Wrath” was a critical and commercial hit right out the gate, solidifying John Ford as one of our great directors, and Henry Fonda as a morally just leading man. One of the biggest fans of Fonda’s performance was John Steinbeck himself, who said the actor made him “believe my own words.”
• The closest anyone has come to remaking this film was the Steppenwolf Theatre Company’s stage adaptation of the novel that played on Broadway in the early ’90s, and was subsequently filmed for TV. The cast included Gary Sinise, Lois Smith, Terry Kinney, Jeff Perry and – Bingo! I got Steppenwolf Company Member Bingo!

• While “The Grapes of Wrath” has maintained its legacy as a classic over 80 years later, I feel that most modern references are to the book rather than the film specifically. Fonda’s “I’ll be there” speech still gets quoted, but “Grapes of Wrath” is primarily remembered for being the good classic movie companion to a good classic book.
• The only parody I can recall off-hand of the movie is that “South Park” episode where the main characters headed out “Californee” way to find some internet.

• No post on this blog is complete without some classic “Simpsons” reference, so here’s Nelson Muntz with his “Grapes of Wrath” diorama. Yes, yes, very good wrath.

Hello readers,

Well, it’s that time of year again; the National Film Preservation Board gathers to select the 25 films that I will one day force myself to binge. As the NFR sticks to their annual tradition, I shall stick to mine: nominating 50 movies and publishing my findings for consideration. Here are my 50 in order of random categorization. Movies with an asterisk (*) denote films I am submitting this year for the first time.

I will keep submitting these movies until conditions improve: Witness for the Prosecution (1957), The Miracle Worker (1962), The Great Escape (1963), It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), Carrie (1976), Big (1988), When Harry Met Sally (1989), The Sixth Sense (1999)

Some of my Favorites: Hardware Wars (1978), Clue (1985), Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (1985), Home Alone (1990), Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie (1996), Austin Powers (1997)*

Some of the GF’s Favorites: The Valley of the Dolls (1967)*, Almost Famous (2000)*

My obligatory Disney selections: The Band Concert (1935)*, Treasure Island (1950)*, The Jungle Book (1967)*

Disney-adjacent movies: Snow White (1916)*, The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939)*

How are neither of these films on the list yet?: Love Affair (1939)*, An Affair to Remember (1957)

Movies I’m surprised I’ve never submitted before: The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945)*, The Misfits (1961)*, The Way We Were (1973)*, Scarface (1983)*, Inglourious Basterds (2009)*

My mission to preserve American Theater on this list knows no bounds!: Original Cast Album: Company (1970), Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There (2003)*

Franchises!: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001)*, Spider-Man (2002)*

Going all in on Jane Fonda: The China Syndrome (1979)*, 9 to 5 (1980), On Golden Pond (1981)*

And Robin Williams too: Good Will Hunting (1997)*

Grab Bag: Dinner at Eight (1933)*, Captain Blood (1935)*, Advise and Consent (1962)*, Cleopatra (1963)*, Shampoo (1975)*, Smokey and the Bandit (1977)*, Blue Velvet (1986)*, Dirty Dancing (1987), Speed (1994), Fight Club (1999)*, No Country for Old Men (2007)

The first round of 2012 submissions: The Avengers (2012)*, Silver Linings Playbook (2012)*, Skyfall (2012)*

On average, 3.6 of the 50 films I submit every year make it into the NFR. I’ll be curious to see what the 0.6 movie is this year. Maybe 72 minutes of a lost film?

And as always, you can submit any American movie you want for NFR consideration. You can start nominating here, and check out a list of movies not yet on the NFR here.

Happy Viewing and Happy Nominating,

Tony