The Second Installment of Greed

New characters, puppies, chloroform?
This is a tricky one. The stills help, but the missing footage is heartbreaking.
I feel terrible that all I can think of when I watch this is Steve Martin doing "You'll be a Dentist" from Little Shop of Horrors. My apologies.

Greed

Here's the first installment of my viewing of the Eric von Stronheim film. The scene with the candles in the Gold Mine is quite beautiful. Kissing the tiny sick bird and throwing a man off of a cliff for his disregard for the tiny creature is quite the establishment of a character.

How do you end your day? Would you save a small puppy and throw your co-worker in front of a train?

Speaking of the Weimar Republic...

I'm always trying to find ways to link the Weimar Republic with our current social and economic environment. The report in Time Magazine about Detroit and other news articles about Detroit's deteriorated social and economic situation are mind boggling. CNN reports how bodies are piling up in morgues because families can't afford the $695 to bury them and the city has no money to bury them either. "Oh the shark bites..."

Then a week later there was a huge article in the Detroit Free Press on how when housing and utility assistance was offered the Cobo Center was mobbed. "with his teeth dear..."

Then a few days later I happened to see a jaw dropping documentary on HBO called Outrage.
(I say jaw dropping because you just can't believe what self-loathing produces, I'm so naive!)
This film is about how many of the polices in Washington against same sex couples are championed by closeted, self loathing homosexuals. Really interesting film. "...and he keeps them pearly white..."

Today I came across a film I have hear of but have NEVER seen. Anders als die Andern this film is a stunner. It is so sad that it was destroyed by the Nazi's. The scene that really made the connection for me with the film Outrage, was the scene where the blackmailer of Paul is in an all male bar conspiring to blackmail Paul further which eventually leads to Paul being sent to jail.

So what does this have to do with Detroit? Not sure, but for some reason I can't get Three Penny Opera out of my head. "They call him Mac the Knife".

Anders als die Andern (1919, Germ.) (aka Different From the Others)
This is what Sex in Cinema has listed about the film:
This silent film (only half of it survives) by director Richard Oswald was reportedly the first representation of male homosexuality ("the third sex") in a feature-length film, and the first screen depiction of a gay bar (with gay males and butch females); it was also notable for sympathetically portraying homosexuality; the two ill-fated lovers were prominent pianist Paul Korner (Conrad Veidt) and his young music student, Kurt (Fritz Schulz); the film had a tragic ending (suicide for Korner) due to the effects of blackmail (threats of exposure), jail time for violating anti-homosexuality statutes, and the social stigma of being outed; the film was banned by the Nazis and all prints were ordered destroyed, although one incomplete print surfaced in the Ukraine; the film's themes were repeated in Victim (1961, UK), with Dirk Bogarde.

Bank Runs-You could have knocked me over with a pin

American Madness -Directed by Frank Capra

I wonder if this is how Lehman Brothers went down. One scene illustrates just how quickly rumors get out of control and leads to a bank run. It just takes a pin to pop a balloon.
The underlying issue is that no one seems to trust the bank and who operates it. The flurry of phone calls and panicked voices. A complete void of trust in the financial system.

The topic of hoarded cash, sitting idle is a theme I've heard recently on the news. There is a scene where they discuss bringing the country back to prosperity by getting money in circulation. The scene where they are constructing a bailout is chilling.

We have been here before. In the film a character argues, "Help Jones, and you help the whole circle". He goes on to say, "Jones is no risk, neither are the thousands of other Jone's in this country."

Oh my, hang on tight folks this film is going to hit home. I highly recommend American Madness after you go and see Michael Moore's film, Capitalism: A Love Story.

Goin' South

City girl goes to rural America. Usually it goes the other way around, but this summer I'll be working in a place that looks nothing like New York and barely has internet. I'm trying to think of a movie I can watch before I leave that will prepare me for the amount of bug bites I'm going to collect. Hot Saturday springs to mind. This one reminds me a bit of the opera Susannah. Or the story of Susannah and the Elders. Should get me in the mood. Anyone have any suggestions for precode films that go well with Miller Light and a FEMA trailer?

5th Avenue? Really?

Last night I was in the city and walking down 5th Ave. and could not help but to be stunned by all the vacant stores, spaces and buildings. Very surreal. I just had flashed of downtown Detroit in my mind, but I just can't imagine that New York could deteriorate to that level. We would have to have a few riots, burn down the city and depend entirely on one industry. I think we may have a little more bounce than that. The Beast of the City may be something to look at to warn us where we may sink to and an ending not to be missed! Skyscraper Souls which is about a loan that is jeopardized, a bad stock tip and poor usage of a dead wife. Hold on kids. It's going to be a bumpy ride!

The Creative Profesional

So the NY Times fashion section today writes about the plight of one of my favorite species. The poor suffering white man. The Metro Sexual is finally dead. The look of success is now one of a "Creative Professional". More checks and gingham and less solid and stable. I remember a few years back during the dotcom era when suits just were on vacation. Bannana Republic was the new corporate casual and the client based look was gone. This was due to the decreasing interface between vendor and client, but this one is a little different. No one wants to look like a criminal. I love it. So I'm thinking about men and style and what precode films they could watch that might sympathize with this new sterotype they have to endure. American Madness may be just what the fashion police ordered. It's about a bank robbery that happens under the nose of a bank teller who was an ex-convict who was recently hired. The man in charge is actually the one behind the caper. This film has been criticized for being dated...um...I think you will find it slightly topical.

Joan Crawford for your wedding day

The ultimate mother, Ms. Joan Crawford has a delightful little dark gem for pre and post wedding festivities.  Our Blushing Brides is hardly the syrupy Father of the Bride type film. Or that god awful film My Best Friend's Wedding. Wait...I've got another vomit inducing wedding film..The Wedding Planner. I mean seriously, how many times can people spontaneously break out into the carefully researched demographic group song hitting the nerve of every disposable income consumer in america. I love this one because it was the precode era version of these god awful films. But this is so delicious! So dark! So Ironic. The story involves dumping, suicide and unending romantic disappointment. Good stuff. 

With Friends Like These

I have alot of good friends. Supportive, lovely people. I am a very lucky person. My friends and family have been incredibly supportive throughout the dating, engagement and my recent wedding. I have been thinking alot as to how to thank them. Thank you notes seem just not enough. Gifts seem to express the wrong thing. How would I ever buy them something that is the equivalent of what I feel. (Well I'm sure if I had the ability to give out cars no one would be to offended) This is my attempt to thank them. I was thinking of what precode films my friends may enjoy. My dear friend who assisted me in my wardrobe choices I was thinking this little gem I recently found. The Search for Beauty (1934) which is about debauched connoisseurs of young flesh. It just sounds like so much fun. Three on a Match is another one which I think is a good film. I love the idea that it is about girls talking about old times in a restaurant and light up a cigarette. (I don't think that the superstition that the third member to use the match will become unlucky is what I'm trying to suggest) What I like about it, is that it follows the lives of friends who separate, live their lives and then reunite.

Keeping it Simple

Claudette Colbert fleeing her wedding in her bridal gown which looked more like lingerie was who I always aspired to be as a bride. Free, young and confident and ready to bolt on a moments notice if it wasn't right and always ready to run away with Clarke Gable. (Fortunately, I had absolutely no desire what so ever to bolt on my wedding day. I had found my Clarke Gable.) It Happened One Night was the first wedding in a movie that made a huge impression on me. Or at least I remember thinking, "wow, she looks so sensual and free and sexy in that wedding dress!" or whatever a 6 year olds version of that thought process was. I just remember LOVING that dress. Well, I'm not exactly Ms. Colbert but I just wanted to recommend that movie to anyone who was getting married or had just got married. And since I just don't have the physique or money for that kind of dress, anyone who can pull off that dress, I highly reccommend it. I just got married on Saturday and was trying to think of my favorite pre-code wedding movies and I could think of nothing more glamorous or fabulous than It Happened One Night. Nothing is more romantic than the walls of Jericho. I felt in the spirit of eloping since we had such a simple ceremony but it was so lovely I felt a little like I was running away and eloping. I highly recommend this. Nothing kills romance more than bills and lack of spontaneity. So in these difficult times, put the Bride's Magazine down and run away together. Watch a little Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert and spend the night in a haystack eating carrots.

Battleship LaGuardia

Films in which flying is a theme are not as quick to come to mind. Going through the discomfort of airport security just makes me feel violated. I mean how come I always have to “take off my jacket” and then get complimented on my “nice top”. The guy behind me in the suit doesn’t get that treatment. I guess I’ll miss the TSA looking at my tits when I’m older, but I gotta say sometimes I’m just not in the mood. I feel no matter how successful I become or what I have achieved I always still have to smile and let the TSA look at my tits, or they will call me an ornary bitch and call security , detain me and keep me from my flight. I would love to know what the sexual harassment charges have been since the TSA has wielded so much power in recent years. Real or perceived. So how about a good sexual harassment by a woman film for a Wednesday morning. Red Headed woman with good ol Jean Harlow comes to mine as well as the relentless Baby Face, but I digress. I always love some Baby Face.

Let me think..Flying down to Rio,Wings ...

But since we are about to board the airport, lets move on to a far more interesting topic. Detention. I’m thinking Battle Ship Potemkin may satisfy this airport experience. I remember I went to a film festival last year where the film was featured. The reason they were playing it was that someone had scored the silent film. The airport brings that experience to mind because I had brought my parents and it was like traveling with family. We were stuck in this small screening room unable to leave due to the awkward position of the door and the projector. One would have to climb over a row of people and the projector operator (who by the way thought he was screening Nosferatu until we were an hour in and someone had to bring to his attention that these angry Russians were in fact not going to experience a Vampire after their uprising). My father started giggling and my mother started shifting, their knowledge of films before 1950 is almost like taking Rainman to a casino. The Phillip Glass inspired score, or maybe I don’t know, this guy only learned how to play three or four notes over and over and use anvil like percussion with no regard for what was actually happening on film felt like a government experiment. I was afraid my poor father was going to go into some Vietnam flashback and get all Jacobs Ladder on me. Anyway, despite all the anxiety we really did enjoy watching all those people run down the stairs. If you want to see some serious extra work this is impressive. I can’t imaging someone didn’t get trampled to death making this film. Really incredible. Detention over. Now I have to board the plane.

Snakes on a train

So the Swine Flu has been bumped up by the World Health Organization to a level four and the cases in the US have gone from 10 to 50. Our quarentine is going to last awhile. So let's explore what really has been bugging us all lately. The Man. The man who gets it all, keeps it all, wants it for free, whines too much has no real identity beyond his job and no real emotional investment in anyone other than himself. You know this guy. I had a bad altercation on a train recently after having survived a modern music concert and enjoyed a drink after the show. I had missed my train and had to take the 1:30 am train home which can be quite unpleasant. Not dangerous, just drunk. I was seated next to a gaggle of unbearable human beings. An older white man in a suit, a few younger very aggressive more casually dressed, they were joined later by more men in suits. Passing beers around and stories of prostitutes, cocaine and loud testiments to what their carnal plans were for women they saw on the street and didn't speak to.
I cracked and went after them. It was not pretty. There are reasons why someone like me takes on these creatures, knowing I'm outnumbered and that they are ultimately more powerful. I'm sick of it. I'm sick of working for these people, I'm sick of putting up with them, I'm sick of them on bubble tv and I'm sick of people telling them they are fun or funny or interesting because they are sad and pathetic and shells of human beings. Luckily for me (and because I know exactly how to handle these people: Shock, humiliate, ignore and discard) I convinced the conductor the dispose of these dregs of society. They should also know, that NO ONE LIKES THEM RIGHT NOW! Now is not the time to swagger and brag about money, status and prowess. Now is not the time to wag your entitlement around. Try watching these fine films which Warner Brothers called "Americanism stories" The match king (1932), Skyscaper souls (1932) and States Attorney (1932). Really, really indulgent greed movies. These films make Gordan Gecko look like an amateur. Maybe by watching these films they may learn to get a little humility and think of others before they drop that prostitute off of the balcony.

Love in the time of Swine Flu

So I wake up this morning and am bombarded with sneezing pigs. Vomiting pigs from Mexico. Swine flu has arrived in all of its ad revenue generating programing. Nothing can give us a boost in ad revenue like a good old fashioned health scare. Remember all that duct tape and plastic wrap you bought during the bio chemical scare back in 2001?

While you are holed up in quarantine, hiding from your infectious children let me suggest a few good precode films which may help you get through this time without breaking down and buying some crazy anti-biotic pinata at Home Depot.

The Rains Came (1937) OK, a few years off, but pretty interesting. You can tell this is a post code movie because Myrna Loy falls in love with an Indian doctor and then dies. But, she is very aggressive towards her love interest and is quite the woman of the world. Just to be clear..I'm not saying that Indian people are comparable to Mexican culture, but it deals with people traveling outside of their borders and their experience with another culture and infectious disease. I enjoyed it very much because it has this very powerful Indian woman, I think she's the equivalent of a queen who smokes and talks like Obama. Pretty cool.

If you are feeling a little ambitious you could watch the 1914 film. Tess of the Storm Country stars Mary Pickford and Harold Lockwood who died in 1918 at the age of 33 of Spanish Influenza. We can pay tribute to those who were lost to something that we can quite easily combat now with modern medicine.

1918 was the year of the Great Spanish Flu outbreak. This had a very large influence on film. Many stars were affected by or had survived the outbreak. Vera Kholodnaya, of whom I know nothing about but now I am interested, died of the Spanish Flu (or the Bolsheviks) had here career cut short in 1919 at the age of 26. Be Silent, Sorrow, Be Silent, a 1918 film about a circus performer who is married to a drunk acrobat and gets a sugar daddy, Mirages; Children of the Century and Zhizn za zhizn / A Life for a Life.

While you are in hiding, let me know what you find out about these films.

Influeza 1918 (this is an American Experience film, but looks like this may put things in perspective.)

Movies to Celebrate with as GM goes Bankrupt

So I was reading the headline in the New York Times today about how GM is about to bite it. I am someone who grew up in a car manufactuing community. I saw them close their plant in the '80s and honestly the place I grew up in is better off for it. Now I don't think this is a universal scenario, but survival is possible.
Anyway, while you are crying on the couch from the loss of your job, pension, life, car, home...okay while you are watching a VCR in some homeless shelter with a bunch of people you don't know, find some comfort in this classic Pre-Code film The Crowd.(directed by King Vidor and can I just say that King is a baby name that needs to make a comeback) It is basically a great story of going to New York with hopes and dreams and...the concept that you could have a future. And way you become a drone and the machine destroys you. I havn't seen it in a while but I think there is a great uprising and everyone is better off for having bucked the man in the end. Very profound lovely movie and I have read it is the first time a toilet has ever been filmed in American Cinema...so..you know keep your eyes peeled. This is exciting stuff. I wonder when the first stainless steel appliances were first filmed in American cinema.
Another film I think is pretty obvious, but is appropriate for this moment is Metropolis (directed by Fritz Lang...Fritz not as fun a name as King), now for all you special effects buffs out there, I know this doesn't look like much to you now, but I dare you to actually sit there and make all those models and drawings that they shot against now. I think they were glass paintings...wait, I'll check back later, glass painting came later. Someone let me know if I am wrong.
Anyway, Happy End of the American Dream and know that the world has turned after such tragedies and will continue to turn. You may just not get to spin around the planet with your HD Flatscreen TV.

Women Behind Bars

I just saw a story on the news this morning about a woman named Ms. Primoff. She kicked her daughter out of the car and drove home to her million dollar house in Scarsdale, NY. This caught my attention because I live in the area. She was arrested when she went to go pick up her daughter at the police station later that day and spent a night in jail. She is currently out on $1500 bail. I'm assuming she has been under some stress lately since she is a bankruptsy lawyer.
In order to heal the bond between mother and daughter I'm trying to think of movies they can watch together. A film with Barbara Stanwick perhaps. No, wait! I know this is about 10 years outside of the relm of Pre-code, but I think a little evening on the couch with popcorn and Mildred Pierce my start a dialouge going. Sounds like this 10 year old daughter is not that innocent. A sense a little Veda in the works.
If this mom is simply just overworked and under appreciated, maybe the sweet, post code film Stella Dallas could bring them together just in time for Mother's day. This film is why the Lifetime channel exists.
If it was simply a "You don't understand me" arguement, the a little Our Dancing Daughters will be interesting. It shows that young women have been rebelling and mother's have been frustrated for years.
If the mother is just nuts, well then Night Nurse has a great abusive mother in it. This girl should be grateful her mother is not trying to make money off of her dying.
Ah...the recession. We will be experiencing more and more unstable parental behavior.
Try to look to the Pre-code films for a commisuration with it all.

The Women-The Original Sex and the City

I noticed the other night before on TCM The Women was on. I almost watched it, but I had gotten my finace to watch Grey Gardens the weekend before (he loved it, which really surprised me, but it was quite good). But, I DVR'd it to watch later. But I was thinking as I was watching Sex and the City with my fiance (he surprisingly enjoyed that as well) how similar they are. (I've seen The Women several times, but love to watch it over and over). I can't even talk about the newer version of The Women with Meg Ryan, which I didn't see but seemed like a rip off of Sex and the City since they were released in theatres around the same time. Anyway, the idea of women that they are supportive of each other and flawed and that they have sex and affairs and ruin and save each others lives is not a social network that is seen today in film.
If you love Sex and the City, see the original gangstas. Joan Crawford is a badass in that bathtub and the final line in that movie is great to use at a party or with that girlfriend who has stood you up one too many times.
The thing I think that is most vivid to me is the phone in the bathtub with Joan Crawford. It is fantastic. Oh, and just like Sex and the City the men have a peripheral existance. There are no men in The Women. They exist entirely off screen. Just like Mr. Big's real life and all the men's lives in Sex and the City exist entirely off screen.
Just like most women in most films only exist on the other end of a phone at home or are the accepting hug at the end of a terrible adventure.

Brooke Sheilds on the Today Show

I saw Brooke Shields on the Today Show this morning, talking about how frustrated she was with playing the Mom or the next door neighbor. She was used to playing the lead engenue.
I just want to give a shout out to Barbara Stanwick, Betty Davis, Joan Crawford and Norma Shearer all of whom were playing lead roles in their 40's.
I'm pretty sure about that, correct me if I'm wrong. These women really laid the ground and now it seems as if it's gone with all these unmemorable Kates.

The Catholic League is after Ron Howard

So this is why we no longer have educated frank, interesting films which don't equilize or victemize women. The Catholic League is throwing their weight around and are trying to paint an image of Ron Howard's film Angels & Demons as Anti-Catholic. I can think of alot more things that are Anti-Catholic than a bad Dan Brown story. (To be fair, I just think Dan Brown is just not that good of a writer). I enjoyed DaVinci Code, but this stuff is not exactly great literatrue.
But if we only made movies out of great literature than books that make great movies, blah, blah, blah.
Anyway, I recently went to a film festival and saw some serious Anti-Catholic behavior! Here is a description of the short film.
Our Lady Queen of Harlem by Trinidad Rodriguez (17:00)On a crumbling sidewalk in the heart of Spanish Harlem, a small but impassioned group of women are fighting for their community. When the Archdiocese of New York locked the doors of the church where many of them spent their entire lives worshiping, this determined family of parishioners decided to resist the ministerial decision and take matters into their own hands. A portrait of faith and disobedience, Our Lady Queen of Harlem is an exploration of activism and the very definition of church.

Anyway, call me crazy but kicking people out of their parish is a little more Anti-Catholic.

To me, all this boils down to power. Religion is going to have a rough go of it now. Nobody has complete power over their image anymore with the advent of blogs, twitter, youtube, etc. My advice is to watch The Godlesss Girl and let it offend you and inspire you.

To Mr. Ron Howard, I saw the DaVinci Code and as much as I hated the book, I liked your movie. I thought it thought provoking to all sides involved. I have no idea how someone who is Catholic would be offended by that. If anything it was very pro-Catholic.
But what was important to me about your film as is with the Godless Girl is that it creates a discussion and forces people to ask questions about history. Why that is not important is beyond me. I mean if Frost Nixon gives us an opportunity to take another look at our power culture I don't understand why none of this applies to the questioning of the religious culture.
Also, Mr. Howard, if you are still reading that would be so cool, but anyway more importantly it brings to light again the Catholic Leauge and what damage they did in the 30's through their power and censorship. So much has been lost from film due to this. And from a woman's perspective, I don't think women in film have ever fully recovered. It is a tragedy that Norma Sheer and her contemporaries were once so powerful and now Hanna Montana is what we have to look up to. It is a tragedy. Thank you for pushing them Mr. Howard. Maybe someone will start talking about the damage they did.

The Godless Girl

My fiance was out at the bar and I had to opportunity to just enjoy a really fabulous gem. The Godless Girl is supposed to be one Cecil B. DeMille's last silent film, but there is some debate about that, since there was some dialouge scenes found and added later. What I found just stunning about this movie was the uninhibited debate the movie has with itself about the role of religion in society. It was just so open and honest about how people's experiences and education shape their faith. There is no way that a modern audience would be able to handle this in such a mature and open fashion. Each main charachter gets the shoe on the other foot if you will and has their viewpoints tested and put into real life. I came away with the message that everything sounds great on paper, but until we are put into life's challenges can we really decide what we believe. Interesting movie. The fire in the jailhouse at the end of the film is really unbelievable. Watching it I was horrified, because I knew that special effects were pretty limited at that point and that was a real fire those people were in. I did a little research and found the the actors actually were injured in the making of the film.
The opening title cards are just fantastic. And I have never seen a film about Atheism before. It was just so refreshing and new to actually see what the atheists were debating and how it was done. I mean how on earth could a movie like this get made now!
Opening Title Card: [first card] It is not generally known that there are Atheist Societies using the schools of the country as their battle-ground - attacking, through the Youth of the Nation, the beliefs that are sacred to most of the people. Opening Title Card: [second card] And no fanatics are so bitter as youthful fanatics.