Michael Caine Week: Alfie

Hello and welcome back one and all for the third day of Michael Caine Week. Well we have had some thrills, spills and more than enough violence to rival The Wild Bunch, so what say we move more into a comedy? Howsabout a film that allowed Michael Caine a range of seduction, charm and good humors? In 1966, a play by Bill Naughton had done so well on stage that it wad decreed by Paramount that it be made into a film. With a budget of 500,000,  director Lewis Gilbert set out to find out lead role but actors of the range of Richard Harris, Laurence Harvey, James Booth and Anthony Newley turned down the title role due to the taboo subject of abortion. When the original play actor Terrence Stamp declined the reprise the role he suggested his friend and roommate Michael Caine. This is Alfie.

I'm afraid I am a bit of a dog in this one, folks.

Alfie: Make a married woman spoil and you're halfway there.

Our story centers around a veteran womanizer Alfie (Michael Caine of Shiner, Last Orders, Quicksand, Secondhand Lions and The Statement), who is living up life in the fullest of enjoyment as he realizes how badly he treats women. In spite of being charming to them he reflects that maybe he isn't the best example on how to behave.

The movie begins with him ending a relationship with a married woman Siddie (Millicent Martin of Stop the World: I Want to Get Off, From a Bird's Eye View, Moon and Son, Fraiser and Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont) after a brief liaison in a parked car with her and getting out from under his other lady Gilda (Julia Foster of The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, Half a Sixpence, The Great McGonagail and News at Twelve) who is carrying his child. Trying to remain unfeeling and aloof of these women, he is curious about his child turning out to be a son. Try as he might, he simply cannot make things work with the child's mother and she in turn marries a bus driver.

Care for a titillating photo of your wife?

Getting a physical, Alfie finds he has tubercular shadows in his lungs, compounded with the total banning of seeing his son, he has a nervous breakdown forcing him to stay at a convalescent house (recuperation ward) and is visited by Harry (Alfie Bass of The Lavender Hill Mob, The Army Game, Bootsie and Snudge and The Fearless Vampire Killers) who tells Alfie his detachment to women has been more harm than good. After being informed he is such a louse, our fellow picks up where he left off in pursuit of love. Will he find it or is he simply spinning his wheels?

Some trivia about the movie now. Sporadically, Alfie gets to break the fourth wall and talk directly to the audience which is not a common occurence for film and TV but occasionally such is used for a character on reflection and pointification of the soul.

The entire movie was brought in at cost of $500,000 or as the director put it the sum total money executives spend on cigar bills. While the entire film had an instrumental soundtrack by Sonny Rollins, the Oscar nominated song same title, Alfie by Burt Bacharach and Hal David was added for the American release and then later added to British re-release. The British version of which I watched was sang by Cilla Black while the US version was sang by Cher as a last minute replacement for Dionne Warwick. Heck of a way to handle your end credits.

Upstairs neighbor is playing that banjo, again!

Sean Bean Week: Scarlett

Welcome folks to Day 3 of Sean Bean Week and unlike yesterday's goof I assure you Bean has a much greater role in this tale of the South.   A journey from Atlanta, Charleston, Savannah to London and finally to the ancestral home of Ballyhara in Ireland.  This story continues after Gone with the Wind, the sequel manages a six hour mini-series filmed in more than 53 separate locations in the States, England and Ireland in this 1994 creation.  This is Scarlett.

Take that for entering my life, Kilmer!

Set 1873 in Atlanta show begins with Scarlett (Joanne Whalley of Emmerdale, How We Used to Live, A Kind of Loving, Willow, Shattered, Before You Go and The Borgias) at the funeral of Melanie Wilkes, her former sister-in-law and former rival for her very estranged husband, Rhett Butler (Timothy Dalton of Cromwell, Mary, Queen of Scots, Flash Gordon, Jane Eyre, The Living Daylights, Licence to Kill, The Rocketeer and Penny Dreadful).  Heartbroken that Rhett has kept her at bay, Scarlett finds her guardian Mammy (Esther Rolle of Cleopatra Jones, Maude, Good Times, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, Singer & Sons, My Fellow Americans and Rosewood) is dying and Scarlett cannot forsake this woman that would be her mother in every sense of the matter.  Reluctantly Rhett accompanies her to Mammy's death bed.  Moments after this selfless old woman of good works passes away, Rhett and Scarlett have another drag down fight causing him to leave her and she heads back to Atlanta, for some reason convinced she will win him back.

Frankly, I don't care if it scares the living daylights out of her.

With a slight encounter with Ashley Wilkes (Stephen Collins of All the President's Men, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, 7th Heaven and Blood Diamond) she leaves Savannah and forsakes the States in search her roots finding them in the library of her grandfather Pierre Robillard (the late John Gielgud of Secret Agent, Julius Caesar, Richard III, Murder on the Orient Express, Caligula, Chariots of Fire and Arthur) and forced to stay at her grandfather's household while his remaining years are among him in return his estate would be half a million dollars.  She graciously turns him down in a lady like fashion, Butler serves her divorce papers and she chooses to leave to Ireland which of course it is under British rule causing Scarlett reminder of the North's treatment to the South.  With child she strives to make a new change in this life no matter the obstacles in the way.

 She encounters the noble Lord Richard Fenton (Sean Bean of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Sharpe's Challenge, The Hitcher, Outlaw, Sharpe's Peril, Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief, Ca$h and Crusoe) a handsome, pompous and heartless man that badgers and batters the servants about, a man that takes what he wants and expects no questions to the contrary.    He, of course takes a liking to Scarlett who turns him down.  No woman would or can turn this egotistical monster away or he loses face in the eyes that he deems matter.   From his forceful ways he is murdered by a servant girl Mary (Tina Kellegher of In the Name of the Father, The Snapper, Ballykissangel and The Wednesdays)  and yet Scarlett fall under blame for such.  Will Scarlett be found guilty and sentenced to hang?  Will Mary come foreward?  Will Rhett ever seek out Scarlett before it is too late?   Well go watch it but bear in mind this is a mini-series and is about six hours long.

A few highlights about the series.  This film takes slight to unbelievable directions from the novel.  Events unfold for the sake of a TV viewing audience rather than the slower story building sections of a reader.    Lord Fenton is far more evil in this than ever in the novel and Bean depicts a dapper monster than no one dare challenge.   Jean Smart was astounding in this and stole the scenes with her comedy gold.   Every location itself told a tale and set dramatic sequences film worthy so dare not call this just another TV movie.   Joanne Whalley breathed life into Scarlett and while her performance differs with the late Vivian Leigh, she brought strength, character and dignity to the a similiar fashion.  Both Dalton and Whalley bring their A game to these paradigmatic roles and do them justice.  Lengthy but highly impressive.

Thought Jake forgot about me, didn't you?

The Girl with "The Look" Leaves the Stage.

Good day and hello readers.  Say how many of you are aware of the work of Betty Joan Perske?  Actress, singer of film, stage and musical theatre.   Not ringing any bells?  How about her stage name Lauren Bacall?   From her days as a model her sultry looks allowed her to grace magazine covers such as Harper's Bazaar and Vogue.

In 1941, she got the acting bug  and enrolled in the American Academy of Dramatic Arts along a fellow classmate name of Kirk Douglas while she modeled and worked as a theatre usher.   Drawn to the stage she blew away her idol Better Davis in a musical based on the film All About Eve entitled Applause.

Acclaimed director Howard Hawks's wife Nancy noticed Bacall on Harper's Bazaar and urged him to give Bacall a screen test for to have and Have Not.  Nancy mentored Bacall in dress, mannerism, poise and elegance to give her an edge in the business.  At age 19 she appeared in film as lead female role aside Humphrey Bogart in the 1944 film To Have and Have Not.    Meeting her co-star and future husband Humphrey Bogart the chemistry seen on the scene was not forced nor faked.  Having two children by Bogart, son Stephen and Daughter Leslie, each pursued their own lives as Stephen is a news producer, documentary film maker and author while Leslie is a yoga instructor.

  After the tragic passing of Humphrey Bogart, Bacall's career was focused while juggling single parent life to wit she later fell in love with actor Jason Robards, had a child Sam and divorced 8 years later.  From an acting career in TV and Movies spanning more than 70 years she has wowed us with attitude, made tears well up in the eyes and sizzled on the screen.    The Girl with "The Look" leaves us August 12th 2014 at age 89 and Hollywood will never see the like again.

Movie Starlets of the 1940's: Deanna Durbin

Day 4 of Movie Starlets of the 1940's is upon us and this time around we have a Canadian born singer/actress brought in as an extra in the short Judy Garland in Every Sunday and was scooped up into Universal providing a competition against MGM's Judy Garland.  Given she rendered the ideal teenage daughter in 1936 film The Smart Girls giving her the next 18 years a career.  This is Deanna Durbin.

Prom has strict security.

Penny Craig: I'm not spoiled headed, I'm strong minded.









A soprano and well taught vocalist sang anything from popular tunes of the day or even to the range of operatic arias.    From having gorgeous looks, deep brown eyes,  excellent comedic timing offering her next 9 films and was deemed the primary reason Universal Studios was not in bankruptcy, making her one of the highest paid female star.  Using some wise level of investment with placement in merchandise making our young actress independently wealthy by the time she was 18.

No, I will not sing the "Sound of Music".

 Durbin did tire of playing the good girl roles and demanded to get a mature woman's role such as the film noir movie Christmas Holiday and the astounding whodunit Lady on a Train, however the collection to her less than well received musical comedies and romances giving Judy Garland a leg up in the industry.    By 1949 and two divorces she retires from both acting and singing married to Charles Henri David in 1950.
 A few side notes about Durbin at this time.  In 1936, Durbin auditioned for voice overs for Snow White and the Seven Dwarves but Walt Disney himself stepped up and announced her at the time 15-year-old sounding too old for the part.   She was opted to play Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz.

 Her stardom gave her some more unique fans including Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Holocaust survivor and diarist Anne Frank.   In 1941, Durbin received a letter in the official newspaper "Il Popolo d'italia" (The People of Italy)  requesting from dictator Mussolini asking to speak to President Roosevelt on behalf of America's youth to convince him to not get involved in WW2.  As you can imagine, she did not and probably was a bit baffled how America's Sweetheart could sway FDR and his war campaign.

Chef Durbin approves this quiche!

Movie Starlets of the 1940's: Barbara Stanwyck

Welcome back folks to Day 3 of Movies Starlets of the 1940's Week.  Our gal of the hour hails from a six decade long career from stage presence from both film and TV.   With a strong, realistic depiction and deemed a favorite to work with directors Cecil B. DeMille, Fritz Lang and Frank Capra giving her 85 movies in 38 in Hollywood before making her way to television.  This is Barbara Stanwyck.

Larry, yer pulling my sequins!

Phyllis: I think you're rotten.
Walter Neff: I think you're spoiled- so long as I'm not your husband.
Phyllis: Get out of here.






Just before her sixteenth birthday in 1928, our Ruby Catherine Stevens prepared for work a s a chorus girl allowing for her to be recognized for a Vaudeville act Ziegfeld Follies giving her Broadway credentials for more than 9 months and over a hundred performances that playwright David Belasco (Warrens of Virginia, A Good Little Devil and Laugh, Clown, Laugh) who suggested Ruby needed a stage name that popped into the heads of producers and directors and Barbara Stanwyck was created.

Holy cats, yer that Stanwyck kid!

With her first talkie roles of The Locked Door and Mexicali Rose churned out in 1929 were complete flops, Frank Capra (It Happened One Night, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Meet John Doe, The Battle of Russia, The Battle of China and It's a Wonderful Life) cast her in the romantic drama Ladies of Leisure giving her top billing in and starring next to Ralph Graves (Sporting Life, What Am I Bid?, Nobody Home,The Extra Girl, Flight, Ladies of Leisure and Dirigible) showing off some versatility our gal across the way has worked with the likes of Clark Gable, Henry Fonda, Gary Cooper ranging in crime drama, screwball comedy, romantic drama and even making her way into westerns and opening doors from co-workers to more than a few close friends of the like of : William Holden, Ralph Meeker, James Stewart, Linda Evans, Joan Crawford, Jack Benny and Robert Wagner meeting the starlet demand clear up to age 45 before moving to television.

Being from foster care and given no quarter in life, Stanwyck viewed FDR as a bad idealist  and not the best of choices against Nazi Germany.  She even felt Stalin had its influences in decisions on the war and how to run our country.   Robert Wagner and Ms. Stanwyck had a four year fling starting on the set of Titanic and moved to Wagon Train and the latter show that gave more than a few young ones their chance in The Big Valley.

Stanwyck died tragically at 82 with from chronic smoking and special-effects smoke on the set of The Thorn Birds giving her bronchitis causing her congestive heart failure.  Referred as the Best Actress That Never Won an Oscar, Stanwyck was voted the 40th Greatest Movie Star of All Time by Entertainment Weekly and deemed number 11 of the American Film Institute 100 years of the Greatest Screen Legends.   Guess she did alright for herself.

Matriarch actress indeed. Hmph!

Movie Starlets of 1940's: Veronica Lake

Greetings ladies and gentlemen and welcome to Day 2 of Movie Starlets of 1940's.  A time honored cliche' the blonde bombshell does grab attention and invite trouble to themselves they may or may not expected.  Born Contance Frances Marie Ockelman in Brooklyn, New York began working in film in 1936 as an extra and a small role in Sorority House.  Director John Farrow first noticed our dishy blonde allowing her lightly crimp hair draped over her right eye, giving her an air of mystery and giving her natural beauty making her stand out.   Farrow immediately introduced this petite beauty Paramour producer Arthur Hornblow, Jr.  He convinced Constance she needed a stage name to suit her deep blue eyes.  This is Veronica Lake.

Evening boys.

Ellen Graham: Why don't you go to the police?
Philip Raven: I'm my own spoiler.






In 1941, Lake's breakthrough role giving her second female lead in war drama I Wanted Wings were she developed her signature look with her long blonde hair draped in front of her right eye giving her the nickname the "peek-a-boo girl" coupled with a voluptuous figure.     Following up with good starring roles such as: Sullivan's Travels, This Gun for Hire, I Married a Witch and So Proudly We Hail!  Having such chemistry with Alan Ladd giving her femme fatale began with This Gun for Hire and follow up four more film noirs The Glass Key, The Blue Dahlia, Saigon and The Sainted Sisters.  During World War II, Lake became a popular pin-up girl for the soldiers during the war and through around the States to raise money for war bonds.  Able to perform in crime drama, war drama, and romantic drama.

Must you talk of such things?

Rather than offering any acting tutors or even watch over the golden goose having the flop The Hour Before the Dawn and Slattery's Hurricane, Lake's career fell in a slump.  With two divorces under her belt, impending bankruptcy and mad being a Hollywood sex symbol she gathers the kids, walked out on Hollywood to restart her career in New York.  Lake moved to a new medium in television.

With TV doing well enough our gal gets some steam under her allowing her to pursuing Off-Broadway studies and give it her all.  By the 1970's Lake realized she had reached a plateau in her life that the little things in truly matter, being with her children and trying to move beyond acting and yet she moved to England and did her role as Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire on English stage.     Passing away in 1973 due to liver damage at age 51 she lived her dream more than most Americans have the guts and determination to do.

Another street mime!  Gonna nail him!

Movie Starlets of the 1940's: Bette Davis

Good day gentle viewers of the cinema for Day 1 of Movie Starlets of the 1940's.  We begin our week with one of the most influential actresses of the time.  Standing tall and proud at 5'3" yet her performances made her a giantess, bringing ranges of the gal next door to uncompromising and dare I say ruthless characters, this woman's talents hailed her praise from stage tropes to the big screen that she has won two Oscars, an Emmy, a Golden Globe and Canne Film Festival.   This is Bette Davis.

That's right, he needs an entire jug of vodka.

Judith Traherne: Nothing can hurt us now. What we have can't be spoiled.  That's our victory -  our victory over the dark. It is a victory because we are not afraid.




From the humble screen-time beginnings of The Bad Sister with her co-star Humphrey Bogart to the startling madness that is What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? , Davis' work spans over five decades bringing sultry to her role and/monsters to life in only the way of the range her capabilities could muster.   Beloved by most movie viewers are the title roles of All About Eve, Dark Victory, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, Jezebel and The Letter.    The willingness to play less than sympathetic character is well presented in her performances ranging in such genres as: crime dramas, historical and/or period pieces and even some comedies.  Where she excelled highly though was romantic dramas.

D...O...G...  Yes, Mongo that is how you spell Joan Crawford.

Warner Brothers knew they had a gold mine with this lady and purchased her contract for the next 2 decades.  Co-founder of the famous Hollywood Canteen (a club offering dinner, dancing and a wide range of entertainment for servicemen usually before they went overseas, it was open to allied forces as well as women in the branches of service and well.  The cover charge for these folks was to show up in their Class A's.) and first woman president in The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (the organization dedicated to advancing the arts and scientific breakthroughs in motion pictures) but she always felt she was nothing more than a face or figurehead as she deemed the AMPAS did not always hear her proposals.  

Accredited 123 films both cinema and TV, Davis was placed second on the American Film Institute listing her second as the greatest female stars of all time.  Katharine Hepburn still holds the number one spot but she doesn't have Bette Davis Eyes.

Get my agent, I want to direct!