Gimme Shelter: Classics for Comfort, CMBA Spring Blogathon 2020

The Classic Movie Blog Association is hosting its annual spring blogathon from May 19 – 22. This year’s theme is “Classics for Comfort,” about films that soothe us in difficult times. Click here for more info and links to participating blogs.

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When we first began to shelter-in-place in my area two months ago, I pulled a Marilyn Monroe collection from the shelf. What could lighten the heart more than frolicking through Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, How to Marry a Millionaire, The Seven Year Itch and Some Like it Hot? Not much. And so I did. Seems a very long time and lots of movies ago now. Among the films I’ve watched since then that have given comfort or relief in different ways are these. 

Sullivan’s Travels (1941), directed by Preston Sturges, starring Joel McCrea and Veronica Lake, with William Demarest, Franklin Pangborn, Porter Hall and many others. You can always count on Preston Sturges for laughs – along with much wit - and Sullivan’s Travels provides plenty of both. The story is set in the depths of the Great Depression, making it an apt choice and a real tonic for the times we’re in right now.

Joel McCrea is John “Sully” Sullivan, a relatively successful Hollywood director. Though his filmography seems to consist mostly of light musicals and slapstick comedies, he has become obsessed with making a film that will “hold up a mirror,” a film about the “problems of the average man,” a sociological film about the suffering of humanity. “Something like Capra,” perhaps.  However, Sully went to boarding school, is a college grad and as is pointed out to him by all who know him, he knows zero about hard luck. But he’s determined to make his serious film, “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”,  and so ends up going on the road to learn more about the down-and-out life. Sully gets more than one lesson on his road trip and eventually ends up mistaken for one of the “forgotten men,” the tramps and hobos who roamed the country, out of work and “on the bum” during the Depression. I have a soft spot for The Lady Eve, my sentimental favorite from Sturges, but there’s no denying that Sullivan’s Travels, a beautifully constructed comedy that also reflects, without a heavy hand, on harsh reality, may  be his best. Preston Sturges dedicated the movie “To the memory of those who made us laugh…” Bless them. And bless him. 

I Know Where I’m Going! (1945) is from the British production company The Archers, headed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, that produced Black Narcissus (1947) and The Red Shoes (1948). This film, unlike those two better known classics, is a less “epic” - though no less magical - sort of film, a black and white romance starring Wendy Hiller and Roger Livesey.

The story follows an ambitious young woman, Joan Webster (Hiller), a white collar factory employee, as she travels from Manchester to the exotic Scottish Hebrides where she will marry a much older wealthy man, the owner of the factory where she works. She is a modern young woman, very stylish and quite determined. But nature, in the form of a heavy storm, will prevent her from embarking on the last leg of her journey. There is also a man (Livesey) of her own age she has just met who poses another kind of obstacle. While Joan waits for the weather to clear, she will enter a world that is not modern at all, in fact there is powerful evidence of the ancient and the primal everywhere around her.

What I love about I Know Where I’m Going! is the reverie that takes hold as the film becomes more and more removed from modern day. As time passes, Joan encounters not only wild nature but also longstanding tradition and the bond between neighbors in an antique out-of-the-way little village.  Cinematographer Erwin Hillier creates a rich and evocative world of bewitching shadows and shapes. The interiors, from a smart Manchester nightclub to the character-drenched homes, inns and shops of the Hebrides, are the inspired work of Alfred Junge who would go on to win an art direction Oscar for Black Narcissus. And there is Wendy Hiller who seamlessly portrays Joan’s transition from stubborn determination and certainty to rising confusion, an upsurge of bullheadedness and, finally, liberation. This is a special film, lyrical and fierce at the same time, and ideal for a time when spirits need lifting. 

Anton Walbrook in Max Ophuls' La Ronde

La Ronde (1950). This French classic directed by Max Ophuls is an adaptation of a famously naughty work by German playwright Arthur Schnitzler. Set in Old Vienna, La Ronde reflects the opulence and festive atmosphere of the fin de siècle era in that city. Ten interconnected vignettes depict a series of seductions with each episode (except one) depicting a romantic liaison that connects to the next. Oscar Straus's waltz theme weaves through La Ronde reflecting mood and tone - and cuing the lovemaking about to begin or coming to an end. The rhythmic pattern of the film gives Ophuls an ideal framework in which to showcase his virtuosity with the camera. The combined effect of revolving stories and characters and a camera ever in motion conjures a dance, a scrupulously synchronized and choreographed Viennese waltz. 

La Ronde features some of the great stars of mid-century European cinema. From France there is Simone Signoret, Simone Simon, Daniel Gelin, Danielle Darrieux, Fernand Gravey, Odette Joyeux, Jean-Louis Barrault and Gerard Philipe. From Italy, Isa Miranda, and in the pivotal role of master of ceremonies, Anton Walbrook of Austria. Those who desire an escape from the grueling news of the day will find considerable merriment and urbane humor in Max Ophuls' La Ronde.

Hitchcock is always a reliable go-to for me when I need a cinematic hug. He understood better than most how to sweep viewers into a tale and hold them there to be thrilled, terrified or mesmerized at his mercy.

Much as I bow at the altar of Vertigo and Psycho, I haven't revisited either of those two yet, for each in its own way seems a little too jarring for times as tense and anxious as these have been so far. But I have watched Rear Window, To Catch a Thief, North by Northwest, Dial M for Murder, Notorious and wonderful Rebecca. 

Doris Day and James Stewart in The Man Who Knew Too Much

A few days ago I found myself streaming The Man Who Knew Too Much, the 1956 remake of Hitchcock’s 1934 original. I’ve never thought of it as top-tier Hitch, but it has its attractions.  There’s the lure of faraway locations, in this case Morocco early in the film and London later on, a compelling story line involving international intrigue, a kidnapping and the portentous crash of cymbals. Of course, the film’s top-billed stars are two of the most easy-going, comfortable actors you could ask for, Doris Day and James Stewart. They are joined by a first-rate international supporting cast including Britain’s  Brenda de Banzie, Daniel Gelin from France, and Austrian Reggie Nalder as a most sinister assassin. And the film boasts an outright hilarious final scene that passes so quickly you almost miss it. My only complaint is that at least a minute or two of Doris Day singing “Que Sera, Sera” could’ve been cut without hurting a thing. 

Moonstruck (1987). I couldn’t leave this modern classic off my list since it is one of the first films I turned to once we were directed to stay at home. Along with a few other memorable romantic comedies – The Shop Around the Corner and Breakfast at Tiffany’s come to mind - this is a most consoling and satisfying film. To begin with, it’s the best romcom of the ‘80s (and there were some good ones in that decade).  And, as much as it is a charming romantic comedy, it is also an amusing and insightful family story. Alla famiglia!

Cher is a widowed young-ish accountant, Loretta Castorini, in South Brooklyn’s Italian-American enclave. She lives at home with her mother, a housewife, her father, a prosperous plumber, and her paternal grandfather (and his five or six dogs). Loretta, who fixates on the bad luck surrounding her first marriage, will become engaged to middle-aged mama’s boy Johnny Camareri (Danny Aiello). Before the wedding, though, he must travel to Sicily and tell his dying mother of his coming marriage. But things will happen while he’s away. Directed by Norman Jewison with a script by John Patrick Shanley and starring Cher, Olympia Dukakis, Nicolas Cage, Danny Aiello, Vincent Gardenia and John Mahoney, Moonstruck could hardly miss. Nominated for six Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director, it won three – Cher’s best actress, Dukakis’s best supporting and Shanley’s screenplay. I love this film for all of this and…the Brooklyn setting, the working class Italian-American milieu, the quirky evolution of romance between Cher and Cage. Actually, everything. That’s amore!

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Along with my hope that you will watch and enjoy these films, my greater hope is that all of you and your families and friends and neighbors will remain safe and healthy.