The Plot: Set to percussive music from the Bagirmi tribe of central Africa, “Free Radicals” is an experimental piece of animation consisting of scratches on the film creating “figures in motion”.
Why It Matters: The NFR gives a rundown of Len Lye and this film, but no superlatives or reasoning behind its NFR inclusion. Come on, NFR, back up your picks!
But Does It Really?: “Free Radicals” hits my trifecta for NFR experimental entries: It’s engaging, it’s representative of an important artist (Len Lye), and above all, it’s short. An easy viewing experience and worthy of its NFR status.
Everybody Gets One: Born in New Zealand, Len Lye was a bit of a renaissance man. In addition to being a kinetic sculptor, photographer and poet, Len’s primary medium was direct film: animation that is drawn directly onto the film stock. For “Free Radicals”, Lye used “various kinds of needles” to create the film scratches, as well as “arrowheads for romanticism”. Despite much of his early work being made in New Zealand (and later England), Len Lye moved to America in 1944, becoming a naturalized citizen six years later.
Seriously, Oscars?: No Oscar attention for any of Len Lye’s films. For the record, 1958’s Best Animated Short winner was “Knighty Knight Bugs“, the first (and so far only) Bugs Bunny cartoon to win this award.
As always, it’s futile of me to try and overanalyze the images in this film, so it’s time for another round of Things I Thought I Saw During “Free Radicals”:
A couple of real film scratches posing as art. Nice try, general film wear.
An asterisk. Does this movie have footnotes?
The poster for the original Off-Broadway production of “Assassins“.
One of those Chinese characters that Americans get tattooed on their lower back without knowing what it means.
A credit for the New Zealand Film Commission? Excuse me?
Legacy
“Free Radicals” was completed in 1958, but Len Lye revisited the film in 1979, shortening the runtime from five minutes to four. This was one of Lye’s last projects, as he died in 1980 at the age of 78.
Most of Len Lye’s filmography has been preserved by the New Zealand Film Archive, and you can learn more about the man himself at The Len Lye Foundation’s website.
The Plot: With a reminder of the eight million stories that take place every day in New York City, we zero in on one of them: the murder of model Jean Dexter, and the detectives (Barry Fitzgerald & Don Taylor) who take the case. Over the course of the next few days, the mystery begins to unravel as more clues are revealed, lies are exposed, and the innocent appear more guilty. But all of this serves as the backdrop for the movie’s real star: New York City itself; not a recreation on a Hollywood soundstage, but the real streets with real people.
Why It Matters: The NFR calls the film a “cutting-edge, gritty crime procedural [that] introduced a new style of film-making”. The film’s unique production is highlighted, along with its Oscar wins and “heart-pounding resolution”.
But Does It Really?: Oh sure. “Naked City” is not the first on anyone’s list of essential films, but it does stand out thanks to its on-location production and unique approach to the crime genre which, while on-par with any procedural TV show of the last 70 years, was revolutionary in its day. Producer Mark Hellinger, director Jules Dassin, and cinematographer William Daniels all help create a movie that, while a bit dated now, still has a vibrancy that warrants a viewing, and eventual NFR inclusion.
Everybody Gets One: Jules Dassin started off as an actor, before becoming an assistant director at RKO and eventually a director at Universal. Dassin’s Hollywood career was cut short because of the Blacklist (he was briefly a member of the Communist party), but a move to Europe led to his best known films, including “Rififi” and “Never on Sunday“.
Wow, That’s Dated: Pretty much everything about the crime and its solving would have to get a major overhaul for a modern remake, but the big question is: could “The Naked City” be remade at all? With modern America deeply divided on how exactly the police should protect and serve, the time for a movie in which the cops are the undisputed good guys cracking down on clear-cut criminals is definitively over.
Title Track: Originally titled “Homicide”, “The Naked City” gets its title from the 1945 photography book of the same name by Arthur Fellig, better known as “Weegee”. Although the movie was connected to the book in name only, Weegee was hired to serve as the film’s visual consultant, as his stark photos of New York’s seedier side were exactly what Dassin and Hellinger were trying to convey. Fun Fact: Weegee later served as still photographer on “Dr. Strangelove“, and Peter Sellers based the voice of the titular character somewhat on Weegee’s unique Austrian-by-way-of-Lower East Side accent.
Seriously, Oscars?: A surprise hit for Universal, “The Naked City” received three Oscar nominations, and won two of them: Black-and-White Cinematography for William Daniels and Editing for Paul Weatherwax. The film’s original story by Malvin Wald was also nominated, losing to Fred Zinnemann’s “The Search”.
Other notes
Despite the title, this movie contains zero nudity.
Right from the start, this movie told me how it got on the NFR. In lieu of traditional opening credits, “The Naked City” begins with the narrator (producer Mark Hellinger) announcing that the film you are about to see was filmed on the real streets of New York, and everyone besides the principles are real people. From frame one the real star of this movie is the groundbreaking Neorealism portrayal of the Big Apple.
“The Naked City” was filmed in New York during the summer of 1947. To efficiently film on-location, William Daniels and his camera were hidden in the back of an indiscreet moving van. Allegedly Jules Dassin also hired a juggler to distract pedestrians from the shoot.
Shoutout to the anonymous blonde woman playing the corpse of Jean Dexter, aka “the vic”.
Ah Barry Fitzgerald, Classic Hollywood’s greatest Irish stereotype. Side Note: In keeping with his leprechaun demeanor, Fitzgerald was 5’3″, with all of his co-stars towering over him and making two-shots nearly impossible.
A fun example of how our lexicon evolves over time: at two different points in the movie a woman is described as “handsome”.
This film would obviously make a good double-feature with Mark Hellinger’s other NFR crime drama “The Killers“, but it would also pair well with Fritz Lang’s “The Big Heat“. Both films deal with the dichotomy of a police detective’s brutal career and their angelic home life in the new suburbia of the late ’40s/early ’50s.
As impressive as the on-location shooting is, 1948 Hollywood still hadn’t mastered effective audio recording. Most of the dialogue in this movie is either dubbed in post, or not being picked up clearly by the boom mikes.
In order to preserve the reality of the film, a majority of the cast were stage and radio actors in their film debut. None of them went on to become big stars (like their director, a number of them were blacklisted), but among the new faces are Paul Ford (later of “Sgt. Bilko”) and Kathleen Freeman (later of “And I cahn’t stahnd him“).
Mark Hellinger is not a very helpful narrator. He’s constantly commenting on the case’s dead ends, and is of no help when one of the criminals tries to escape. This is why narrators shouldn’t get involved in their stories.
As for that finale on the Williamsburg bridge: effective and satisfying, sure, but one of the greatest in film history? I don’t think so.
While the narrator’s closing line “There are eight million stories in the naked city. This has been one of them.” has definitely been quoted over the years, I suspect most people don’t know what it’s from, even though if you quote it correctly you say the title.
Legacy
Sadly, producer Mark Hellinger died of a heart attack three months before the film’s release, shortly after watching the final cut. A veteran theater critic back in New York, Broadway’s Hollywood Theatre was renamed the Mark Hellinger Theatre in his honor. The theater closed in 1989, and is now the site of the Times Square Church.
The main legacy of “The Naked City” is the TV show of the same name (well, minus the “The”). Originally a direct follow-up to the movie, “Naked City” was cancelled after one season, but the producers and sponsors convinced ABC to revive the show. The revamped hour-long version ran for three additional seasons. Every episode ended with the film’s final line, and I’ll argue that more people know it from the TV show than from the movie.
Here’s a weird one: “The Naked City” is the name of a standalone mission in the 2011 video game “L.A. Noire”, and is beat-for-beat the plot of this movie, but set in 1940s Los Angeles. So…that’s something.
There are almost 800 movies in the National Film Registry. This has been one of them.
Written by John F. Goodrich. Story by von Sternberg & Lajos Bíró. Titles by Herman J. Mankiewicz
Class of 2006
The Plot: In 1928 Hollywood, Eureka Studios is casting extras for a war epic, and hires Sergius Alexander (Emil Jannings), who claims to have been a General in Czarist Russia. A lengthy flashback to 1917 Russia reveals that Sergius was indeed a General, as well as the Czar’s cousin. While in command, Sergius learns of Leo Andreyev and Natalie Dabrova (William Powell and Evelyn Brent), two actors who are secretly revolutionists with a mission to assassinate the General. Sergius has Leo imprisoned, but begins to develop feelings for Natalie, who reciprocates after seeing his devotion to Russia. Can this romance last in the face of revolution?
Why It Matters: The NFR calls the film “powerful” and says that Jannings’ performance “towers over the screen”. The write-up also calls the ending “one of cinema’s most memorable”.
But Does It Really?: Am I missing something? Everything I’ve read talks about “The Last Command” being an unforgettable masterpiece, but nothing about my viewing could back that up. Yes, it’s well made, and Jannings is giving a great central performance, but overall it didn’t grab me. Josef von Sternberg is represented elsewhere on this list (see “Morocco” and “The Docks of New York“), so this seems like an excuse to include another one of his movies. In fact, almost everything I’ve read about “The Last Command” clumps it together with these other films as an example of von Sternberg’s early work. “The Last Command” is a fine showing for von Sternberg, but can it stand on its own as a classic?
Everybody Gets One: By the late 1920s, German actor Emil Jannings had found success on both stage and screen (including F.W. Murnau’s “The Last Laugh”). Through an agreement with his home studio UFA, Jannings (as well as other actors and creatives) was loaned out to Paramount in Hollywood, and was immediately cast as the lead in films like “Last Command” and “The Way of All Flesh“.
Wow, That’s Dated: Mainly the Hollywood system of the late 1920s, complete with gate-crashing extras and mood music. Also, the $7.50 a day Sergius makes as an extra would be about $114 today.
Title Track: Towards the end, the revolutionist in the movie-within-a-movie tells Sergius “[y]ou’ve given your last command”. So close.
Seriously, Oscars?: At the very first Oscar ceremony, “The Last Command” received two nominations. The film lost Best Writing, Original Story to “Underworld” (another von Sternberg picture), but Emil Jannings won the first Academy Award for Best Actor (along with his performance in the now-lost “The Way of All Flesh”). The winners were announced prior to the ceremony, and knowing he would be leaving America for his native Germany, Jannings wired the Academy with the message “Hand me now already the statuette.” Jannings received his Oscar a month before the ceremony, making him the first Oscar recipient.
Other notes
The idea for “The Last Command” came from Ernst Lubitsch, still an up-and-coming director/screenwriter in the late 1920s. Years earlier, Lubitsch had met General Theodore Lodigensky, who had fled the Communist revolution in Russia and was operating a Russian restaurant in New York. Lubitsch later spotted him in Hollywood as an extra, wearing his general’s uniform. Lubitsch recounted this to Lajos Bíró, who turned the story into a screenplay, originally titled “The General” (I guess he had never heard of Buster Keaton).
Following brief stints with MGM and Charlie Chaplin, Josef von Sternberg landed at Paramount, and his first movie for the studio – the gangster picture “Underworld” – was a huge success. Paramount essentially gave von Sternberg carte blanche for his next project, and the director picked “The General”, now known as “The Last Command”, as his follow-up.
I will say, Emil Jannings is quite good in this. Of course it helps that everyone in the opening Hollywood scenes are hamming it up quite a bit, making his performance seem all the more subtle by comparison. Side Note: With the beard, Jannings kinda looks like The Man Who Came to Dinner.
Once we get to the 1917 portion of the movie, you can see that no expense was spared: big sets, large crowds of extras. Almost 100 years later you can recognize that this film had a larger budget than your normal fare.
It’s nice to see William Powell playing a down-and-dirty revolutionist, as opposed to the more sophisticated Nick Charles types he would later be pigeonholed as.
The main thing that threw me off about “The Last Command” is its tone. The Hollywood prologue suggests a more light-hearted movie: not a full-on comedy, but something more in line with Lubitsch’s later work. The Russia storyline, however, becomes more dramatic (and melodramatic), with an occasional bit of comic relief. “The Last Command” feels like an early pass at “To Be or Not To Be“, complete with actors getting mixed up in political intrigue.
This is the second movie I’ve covered this month that devotes extended screentime to an elaborate military processional. Coincidentally, one of Josef von Sternberg’s first jobs at Paramount was assisting with the mammoth editing of “The Wedding March“.
This is my first venture into the work of Josef von Sternberg, and while I didn’t care for the movie overall, “Last Command” definitely shows off von Sternberg’s mastery of composition, close-ups, and effective editing. I look forward to viewing his later, better known films.
The final scene between Sergius and Natalie is definitely a heartbreaker, but is somewhat stunted by the obvious model train used for its climax. Cool stunt, though.
Easily the most dated reference in the movie: a film extra is told his beard “looks like an ad for cough drops”, which I assume is a reference to Smith Brothers Cough Drops, but that’s only after some deep Googling.
While I disagree that the film’s ending is “one of cinema’s most memorable”, it is an effectual bit of cinematic irony (He’s the actor now. Get it?). This ending may also be one of filmdom’s first examinations of the kind of PTSD experienced by war veterans.
Legacy
Janning’s Hollywood career ended with the advent of talkies, his thick German accent being too difficult to understand. He returned to Germany, and spent the rest of his career making Nazi propaganda. That’s right, the first Oscar winner for Best Actor was complicit with the Nazis. Maybe they should have given the Oscar to Rin Tin Tin after all.
Josef von Sternberg continued cranking out movies for Paramount, but it was a loaned-out assignment for Germany’s UFA that gave him his first classic. “The Blue Angel” was intended as a vehicle for Emil Jannings, but his co-star Marlene Dietrich stole the show. Von Sternberg would bring Dietrich back to Paramount with him and make six more movies together, including “Morocco“.
In terms of legacy, “The Last Command” has received no remakes or homages, and it barely gets mentioned in the conversation of classic silent films. It wasn’t even that successful when it came out! I suspect it’s our continued reverence to Josef von Sternberg (and the film’s place in Oscar history) that has kept “The Last Command” from completely fading away.
#516) Commandment Keeper Church, Beaufort South Carolina, May 1940 (1940)
OR “The Mark of Zora”
Directed by Zora Neale Hurston
Class of 2005
Not a lot of clips I could easily imbed for this post, so here’s a video on Zora Neale Hurston.
NOTE: Zora Neale Hurston’s raw footage of “Commandment Keeper Church” is 42 minutes, and this write-up is based on my viewing of a 16-minute edit made available on The Criterion Channel.
OTHER NOTE: Zora Neale Hurston is a very important, nuanced figure in not only African-American history but also American history period. This post can only scratch the surface, and researching her life and work is well worth your time. A good starting point is her official website!
The Plot: On the weekend of May 18th-19th, 1940, African-American anthropologist and author Zora Neale Hurston arrived in Beaufort, South Carolina with a skeleton crew to record the religious services at Commandment Keeper Church. The raw footage, mixed in some prints with raw audio of the visit, commemorates an energetic gathering at the church, complete with musical performances and an enthusiastic sermon. What seems like an ordinary church service is a record of specific time and place from one of the 20th century’s most notable Americans.
Why It Matters: The NFR admits that the film is “worthy of recognition” because of the then-recently discovered sound recordings that had been synched to the film. There’s also a more supportive essay by religious expert Fayth M. Parks, who is so far the only NFR essayist who mentions their Twitter account.
But Does It Really?: You had me at Zora Neale Hurston. I’m embarrassed to say I knew nothing about Ms. Hurston prior to this viewing, and researching her life for this post has been a satisfying experience. Like the congregation at Commandment Keeper Church, I have seen the light, and recognize Zora Neale Hurston for the significant figure she is. No argument here for the film’s NFR inclusion.
Everybody Gets One: Zora Neale Hurston grew up in Eatonville, Florida, one of the first all-black cities in America. It was during her time at Barnard College that Hurston started to seriously study anthropology, earning her degree in the subject in 1928. Hurston focused on studying various black cultures both in America and abroad. In addition, her research served as inspiration for her fiction novels, most notably the Harlem Renaissance classic “Their Eyes Were Watching God”. In 1940, fellow anthropologist Jane Belo commissioned Hurston to film religious services in Beaufort, South Carolina based on the success of Margaret Meade’s “Trance and Dance in Bali”.
Wow, That’s Dated: As a pseudo-sequel to the Solomon Sir Jones films, “Commandment Keeper” shows the evolution of “Sunday Best” clothing 15 years later. And Beaufort’s warmer weather gives us a better look at the suits and dresses no longer covered in winter coats.
Other notes
If you’re watching this footage with audio, keep in mind it’s not meant to synchronize with the film. The audio is courtesy of the Hurston collection in the Library of Congress, based on field recordings made at the same time as this film. The sound was recorded at a different speed than the film, making total synchronization a challenge for the Library of Congress.
I appreciate Commandment Keeper Church’s simple mission: You see those ten rules in stone? That’s what we’re going by.
The service at Commandment Keeper Church is very different from my experience in Catholic mass growing up. For starters, I was told to remain seated. But what if the spirit moves me?
It’s hard to understand what this congregation is actually singing, but you don’t need subtitles to know what they’re feeling.
There are a variety of percussion instruments being used here, but someone really loves cymbals, there are at least three pairs. Of course, with the right attitude, any two objects can become cymbals.
Look for Zora Neale Hurston making a director’s cameo playing a pair of rattles.
My takeaway from this film (especially once it moves outdoors) is that a church isn’t just a building; it’s a state of being anytime a group of devout followers gather. Not bad for a religious cynic like me.
Legacy
Like many of the greats, Zora Neale Hurston didn’t start getting serious recognition until long after her passing. Interest in Hurston’s work was revived in the early 2000s, resulting in a slew of tributes and honors. In 2014, she received the highest honor bestowed on any American: a Google Doodle.
Zora Neale Hurston is so prolific that she’s still getting new material published! Her non-fiction book “Barracoon: The Story of the Last ‘Black Cargo’” about the Atlantic slave trade failed to find a publisher in 1931 and was stored away for decades until being rediscovered in the early 2000s. “Barracoon” was finally published in 2018, 58 years after Hurston’s death.
In 1971, future “The Color Purple” novelist Alice Walker found the unmarked grave Zora Neale Hurston was buried in, and paid for a new marker praising Hurston as “A Genius of the South.”
NOTE: For this post, I initially watched what I thought was the full, uncut version of “Empire”. Unfortunately it turned out that this was not Andy Warhol’s version, but rather a recreation by a devoted fan (Which I would have noticed had I read the video description. That’ll learn me). The longest excerpt of “Empire” readily available online is a 61 minute video embedded below. As with a handful of other entries on this blog, consider this a placeholder post to be reevaluated once I watch the entire film.
#515) Empire (1964)
OR “485 Minutes of Fame”
Directed by Andy Warhol and John Palmer
Class of 2004
There’s no way I can cover everything about Andy Warhol and pop art in this post, but Warhol’s work is fascinating and definitely worth a look. A good place to start is the official website for the Andy Warhol Museum in his home town of Pittsburgh.
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The Plot: The Empire State Building.
That’s it. That’s the whole movie. It’s one static shot of the Empire State Building from late evening to early morning. That’s your movie. But why look at the Empire State Building for a few moments when you can watch it for 485 minutes (a little over 8 hours)?
Why It Matters: The NFR calls it “[p]erhaps Warhol’s most famous and influential cinematic work”, and stating that the film “redefines concepts of perception, action and cinematic time.” The write-up also includes a photo of the Empire State Building…in 1937. Interesting choice.
But Does It Really?: I will never scale Everest, nor will I see many of the Earth’s natural wonders, but today I watched Andy Warhol’s “Empire” from start to finish [UPDATE: I didn’t]. Andy Warhol is the definitive pop artist of the 20th century, and his work should be preserved wherever it can. Having one of Warhol’s films on the NFR is a natural choice, and “Empire” stands out for its innovation and continued polarizing reception (“Nothing happens!”). A yes for “Empire” and its NFR inclusion, but please, you don’t need to spend eight hours watching this. Let that be my cross to bear. [Eventually]
Everybody Gets One: Andy Warhol spent most of the ’50s as an advertising illustrator in New York, doing his own work on the side and gaining interest in the rising pop art movement. His success as a pop art painter led to his expansion to other artforms, including music, and of course movies. Warhol attended the premiere of the 1962 static musical composition “Trio for Strings” and was inspired to create the first “static film”. His first such film was 1963’s “Sleep”, 321 minutes of Warhol’s then-partner John Giorno sleeping.
Seriously, Oscars?: Oh how I wish “Empire” (or any of Warhol’s films) had gotten some Oscar attention. Imagine how long the acceptance speech would have been…
Other notes
In 1930, construction began on a new office building that would replace the original Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Financed by Empire State Inc., the building was originally to be 50 stories tall, but the “race to the sky” skyscraper competition of the late 1920s led to the plans being revised. The Empire State Building was completed in 1931, coming in at 102 stories and 1,454 feet tall, a world record at the time.
The idea for “Empire” came when filmmaker John Palmer was working for Jonas Mekas’ Film Maker’s Cooperative and took naps on the roof, which offered an impressive view of the Empire State Building. In 1964, the Empire State received floodlights so that the top of the landmark could be seen from that summer’s World’s Fair. Palmer thought the image of the building in floodlights would make a good Warhol film, and Mekas sold Warhol on the idea. Warhol repeatedly stated that the purpose of the film is “to see time go by”.
“Empire” was shot on the 41st floor of the Time-Life Building, about a mile away from the Empire State Building. Filming commenced at 8:06pm on Friday, July 24th, 1964, ending at 2:42am on Saturday, July 25th. Warhol, Palmer, Mekas, and a few others were at the shoot, and I wish that they had recorded the sound. To be a fly on that wall.
While “Empire” was shot at the standard framerate of 24 frames per second, Warhol had the film screened at 16 fps, extending the runtime by about 20%.
Warhol initially didn’t have any money to pay the film processor, so John Palmer agreed to co-finance, on the condition he receive co-director credit on the final film.
Watch closely during the reel changes; Andy Warhol and Jonas Mekas had to turn on the lights during the reel changes, and you can occasionally see their reflections at the beginning of a few reels.
Last summer I visited the Andy Warhol exhibit at the SFMoMA, going in with only the CliffsNotes version of Warhol (“the Campbell’s Soup guy with the hair”). While I’m sure there’s plenty of layers and commentary I didn’t get from viewing his art, they all had the same message for me: Look closer. You see this soup can every day, but have you ever really looked at? What about Marilyn Monroe’s face or the dollar bill? What do you notice when you really look at them? In “Empire”, we get that same idea in film: What if you just stared at a national landmark for 8 hours? What would you see? Personally I saw an iconic building that maintains its uniqueness amidst a sea of other well-known skyscrapers. A landmark’s landmark, if you will.
Legacy
“Empire” premiered in March 1965 at the City Hall Cinema in Manhattan, and according to the Village Voice, a large amount of the opening night audience walked out after 10 minutes demanding their money back.
In a span of 14 years, Andy Warhol made 60 films and hundreds of shorts, though became more removed from the process following being shot at in 1968.
In the early 1970s, Warhol removed his films – including “Empire” – from circulation. After Warhol’s death in 1987, his films were revived and re-evaluated. In the interim, “Empire” had received a reputation of being “unwatchable”, which led to its notoriety. The film has since been screened in countless museums in exhibitions.
I guess Jared Leto is playing Andy Warhol in a new movie? I don’t know…maybe Leto will put his Method Acting to good use and become a pop artist.
Although it lost its standing as the New York’s tallest building in 1970 to the World Trade Center, the Empire State Building is still a New York landmark, and is visited by over four million tourists a year (Except maybe this year).
Further Viewing: I will take this opportunity to remind everyone that Andy Warhol appeared as himself in a 1985 episode of “The Love Boat”, in which he reunites with a former “Warhol Superstar” played by Marion Ross. It’s…something.
The Horse's Head 