Jimmy, Jimmy, Oh, Jimmy, Jimmy!

H-h-h-h-he is one of the most recognizable stars of Classic Hollywood. With his boyish charm and humble stutter, James Stewart personified the thoughtful, passionate everyman in a career that spanned over fifty years. Born in Indiana, Pennsylvania, Stewart started his entertainment career in college and then went to Broadway. By the mid-Thirties he was making movies in Hollywood and was a bankable star by the end of the decade.

When America went to war, Stewart was drafted- but was found to be underweight. Rather than shrugging his bony shoulders and going back to the safety of a Hollywood soundstage, he kept re-applying (and eating) until he was accepted in the Air Corps, turning down a behind-the-lines instructor position to fly actual combat missions.
His return to Hollywood in Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life (1946) not only created an iconic film role, but signaled a more complex Stewart that reflected Post-War America. He would work with some of the masters of Fifties cinema: Hitchcock, Preminger, Mann, Ford. As he aged, Stewart continued to perform and remained immensely popular, earning a total of five Academy Awards and an Honorary Oscar in 1985.

Stewart was a star- but after an early reputation as a playboy, managed to avoid the kinds of scandal and rumor that attracted the likes of Hedda Hopper and Louella Parson (unless you consider the fact that he was a proud card-carrying Hollywood Republican scandalous). He was known as a consummate professional and an all-around swell fella. The lovable screen persona of Jimmy Stewart became the public image- and it has endured.

On what would have been his 108th birthday here are my Top 5 Jimmy Stewart Movies:

You Can't Take It With You (1938)

Director Frank Capra was on a roll with two Best Director Oscars for It Happened One Night (1934) and Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) so the expectations for his film adaptation of Kaufman and Hart's Broadway hit You Can't Take it With You were high. Capra cast Stewart as Tony Kirby, the lovestruck son of a banker who has to re-examine his political beliefs when he falls for a gal (wise-crackin' Jean Arthur) from a kooky liberal family.

With a family of hams like Lionel Barrymore, Spring Byington, and Ann Miller, who wouldn't do a spit-take over Sunday dinner? The film hops between goofy family comedy and earnest political statement, so there are moments when Capra's social preachiness weighs-down the narrative. But Stewart was perfect as a young man addled by love and an eccentric family, finally succumbing to the charms of both.

The success of You Can't cemented Stewart's endearing stammer and open-mouthed "aw shucks" face in popular culture and became his first big hit. It also started a professional relationship with Frank Capra that would result in legendary films Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) and It's a Wonderful Life (1946). Not to mention Capra earned his third and final Best Director statue. It seems in this case, you can definitely take it with you.

Destry Rides Again (1939)

Stewart's first Western in a career riddled with them is a real charmer. The town of Bottleneck is run by crooked mayor Hiram J. Slade who has just had his henchman dispatch the town sheriff. Enter son of a famous lawman Tom Destry, Jr. (Stewart) who without a gun, begins to clean up this one-horse town. Standing in his way is saloon chanteuse Frenchy (the not French- but who cares? Marlene Dietrich) who winds up falling for the lanky sharpshooter who ultimately has to whip out his pistol to break the bad guys.

Dietrich gives a career-defining performance, playing a world-weary gal who knows her way around a bar and a man. Her warbling of "See What the Boys in the Backroom Will Have" inspired Madeline Kahn's hilarious Lili Von Schtupp in Mel Brooks' classic Western parody Blazing Saddles (1974). And Dietrich's catfight with Una Merkel is a hair-pulling, glass-throwing, chair-breaking masterpiece that caused a ruckus with the censors.

Dietrich and Stewart are absolute magic together- a sort of odd couple with the seductive singer and the reluctant gunman throwing off sparks. Apparently they hit it off offscreen as well. In later years, Dietrich claimed she got pregnant during the affair but got rid of lil' Jimmy without telling the father. This did not prevent her from starring with Stewart years later in airplane drama No Highway in the Sky (1951) where Dietrich takes full advantage of the fact that you could still smoke on planes.

See what the boys in the backroom will have- Emphysema.

The Philadelphia Story (1940)

Is there such a thing as the perfect movie? I would venture to say there is- and this is one of them. George Cukor's romantic comedy about a society wedding was based on a successful Broadway play and had top star wattage. The great Kate Hepburn played uppercrust gal Tracy Lord (no not that Traci Lords) whose wedding to another uppercrust soul (John Howard staying out of the way of the rest of the stellar cast) is complicated when her ex-husband C.K. Dexter Haven (oh so handsome Cary Grant) shows up, along with a pair of newspaper reporters (Stewart and his gal Friday Ruth Hussey), and Tracy's philandering father (John Halliday).

Of course there are mix-ups and romantic entanglements, witty barbs, and enough cocktails to fill a backyard pool. It's one of those movies where you wish you could jump through the screen and tie one on at a garden party with these fascinating folk.

Stewart as disillusioned poet turned newshound plays against his famous image by being cynical and snide- mocking Tracy and her whims and fancies. But once he gets drunk, he gives in to his true feelings and gushes about his awe of her "magnificence." Here is the Stewart we know- the young man spilling out his heart to beat the band grabbing all of our heart strings in his thin hand. Macaulay Connor for this one shining moment becomes Jefferson Smith, giving a filibuster on love. It's a wonderful performance that earned him his only competitive Oscar. And as a member of this mostly Oscar nominated cast (someone was smoking crack and left Grant off the nomination list that year), he helped make one of the great romantic comedies of the Golden Era.


Harvey (1950)

Elwood P. Dowd has troubles. His live-in sister and niece are angry with him because his best friend Harvey is causing a stir. Why shouldn't he? He's an imaginary 6" tall rabbit. Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning Mary Chase play (they used to make a lot of movies out of plays) Harvey was a pet project for Stewart. He had played Elwood on Broadway, and hoped to bring the success he had on stage to the screen. Spoiler alert: He did.

Stewart was at the peak of his genial abilities, making this lost alcoholic who saw the world differently irresistable. Most of the characters in the play believe Elwood is crazy, in fact they want him committed. But for the play to work, we have to believe that Elwood sees Harvey. We can't think he's crazy. And even though we don't see the hulking lepus, we want to. Stewart's innate ability to make us trust and love him achieves those aims, seemingly effortlessly. He would earn his fourth Academy Award nomination for it. 

Harvey is one of those showcase movies built around one star's performance that can feel like an ego-trip. But the supporting cast that includes Oscar winner Josephine Hull joins in the heavy-lifting with Stewart and delivers a picture that works even when Stewart (and Harvey) are offscreen. 

Rear Window (1954)

Before you Hitchcock fans get too up in arms, yes I chose Rear Window over Vertigo (1958) for my favorite Stewart/Hitchcock movie. Vertigo might be a better work of art- but I think Rear Window is a better movie.
Stewart plays photographer Jeff Jeffries who is laid-up in his New York apartment with a broken leg. Unable to get around he sits in his wheelchair and tunes in to a common New York City show- the neighbors. Jeff's apartment looks out onto a back courtyard that is ringed by the rears of multiple buildings, providing a view into the lives of all of his neighbors- or at least those that don't lower their shades. As we watch The Songwriter, Miss Torso, Miss Lonelyhearts, a pair of newlyweds, and Miss Hearing Aid, we become part of a community that doesn't know it's a community.

Jeff is the director linking all of these strangers' lives. When neighbor Lars Thorwald (a creep-a-rific Raymond Burr) begins acting very strangely, Jeff worries that a murder has occurred and uses his girlfriend Lisa (the oh-so posh Grace Kelly) to investigate.

Stewart's trustworthiness is again at the center of his performance. We have to believe that Jeff witnessed a murder- even if we don't see it. We must have faith something happened- even if other characters are reluctant to accept it. With Stewart, that belief comes unconditionally, so that even when doubts creep in, we know that ultimately he will be vindicated. It's watching how the proof is revealed that makes it so much fun.

Hitchcock's brilliant camerawork uses long takes and subtle POV shots to lure us into Jeff's voyeuristic world and link together all of the different characters. The camera rarely leaves Jeff's apartment, opting for long shots that immerse the audience in Jeff's immobile view, making us meta viewers of a viewer.

This "viewed from a distance" technique produces a feeling of helplessness- much how Stewart feels when watching Lisa in danger from the confines of his apartment. Instead of a simple gimmick, Hitchcock's use of the camera allows us to be part of the film- and that ups the thrill level as the mystery unfolds.

Oh and Thelma Ritter appears as a sassy visiting nurse. Who wouldn't want that rubdown?

If all that's not enough to prove how charming Jimmy is, watch him tell a joke.

Lance's Werthwhile Top 5- Dramas

Hello Werthwhile followers!

If there's one question I get when I'm out and about more than any other- well more than, "How do you stay looking so young?"- it is "What are your top ten favorite movies?"
I wish I could answer that. I am a fan of so many movies for so many different reasons, that it's just hard to narrow it down to ten. My favorite movies are like my children. I couldn't pick one or two above the others. I couldn't live with myself if I had to tell one of my kids, "You're the best-est!"  and another, "You're ugly."

But I can't deny you wonderful folks my wise cinema guidance, so I've decided to break the Top 10 Movie Favorites Idea down to Top 5 and into genres so that it's easier for you to swallow. Now these lists are not definitive. There will always be a buttload of good movies that I don't talk about- and if you ask me after I've had three vodka tonics, I could give a totally different list. I also might be saving a couple gems for a future category. But one thing you can be sure of, you won't go wrong with any of the five that I talk about

So to start us off- let's go with the category of Lance's Werthwhile Top 5 Dramas!

1.) The Color Purple (1985)

Have you heard of this director named, Steven Spielberg? As prolific as Hitchcock and as superb a showman as DeMille, Spielberg, whether loved or loathed, is one of the most recognizable living American directors. He has been making movies since 1971, some of which (Jaws (1975), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) , and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)) have become cultural touchstones and the gold standard for popular American film. Heck! He even shot an episode of Night Gallery (1970) with Joan Crawford!

Many people are grossed-out by Spielberg's over-sentimental story-telling and schmaltzy cinematic tricks. But I'm a sucker for it. If a movie makes me choke up and bawl- it has somehow hit all the right movie g-spots in me- and I think that's what good movies should do. The Spielberg movie that makes me cry on cue three times is my favorite- The Color Purple.

Based on the equally stunning novel by Alice Walker, the film follows Celie (Whoopi Goldberg), a young black woman in rural Georgia in the early 1900's. Celie's life is a steady stream of tragedy: raped by her father, her children taken away from her at birth, married off  to an abusive husband, and her beloved sister driven away from her in a hail of stones. But Celie somehow endures and falls in love with juke joint chanteuse Shug Avery (Margaret Avery), giving her life a shimmy she never knew. The film is full of stunning vistas, touching moments, and great performances. The Quincy Jones score is evocative and beautiful- and makes me get all tear-y when I hear it on my i-Pod. In short- it's a typical Spielberg masterpiece.

The film was highly touted and the lesbian love scene (however slight it was compared to the book) caused a loud hub-bub. When the film earned eleven Academy Award nominations, it was assumed it would make Oscar history. It did- by being the most nominated film to not win a single award. It's  too bad- because I personally prefer Color Purple to Out of Africa. Oh well. Spielberg went on to make plenty of successful movies, Whoopi launched a movie career, and Oprah- well she's Oprah.

2.) Midnight Cowboy (1969)

Lots of film folk point to Easy Rider (1969) as being the film that changed American movies- ushering in a new, independent era. But there is a better movie released at the same time, that I think can easily be called the first shot fired in a new American cinema, John Schlesinger's Midnight Cowboy. 

Joe Buck (Jon Voight) is a young country boy with dreams of fame and fortune in the big city. Wearing his cowboy hat, boots, and fringed jacket, Joe gets off a bus at Port Authority with the intention of taking Manhattan by storm with his good looks and charm. Instead, he meets washed-up con-artist and grifter Ratso Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman) who puts him up in an abandoned apartment building that is days away from the wrecking ball- much like these two disillusioned, lost men. The performances from Voight and Hoffman are unforgettable. Hoffman went from playing a confused, clean-cut college grad in The Graduate (1967) to a dilapidated, coughing derelict- proving he was one of the most exciting young actors of the time.

The film was shot in New York City with the grit, grime, and sleeze of the real city oozing out of the frame. The film doesn't shy away from the unsavory acts that some people had to do to get by- which originally earned it an X Rating from the MPAA. Schlesinger (who was a Brit) was able to take the realism coming out of foreign films at the time and apply it to an iconic American city- and the iconic American Dream- and expose both for the disappointment that they can be. The film took home three Oscars including Best Picture. I dare you to watch it and not hum the ear-worm theme song "Everbody's Talkin'" by Nilsson for the next three days,

3.) Network (1976)

People often say this or that film is prescient. Network is prescient. Directed by Sidney Lumet and written by Paddy Chayefsky, the film starts with bad news. Veteran news anchor Howard Beale (Peter Finch whose untimely death meant he won the first posthumous competitive Oscar) is told his sagging program ratings have made him disposable. Beale then announces on live television that he is going to kill himself on his final telecast. The ratings skyrocket and Beale becomes a sort of cultural televangelist flailing against the government, industry, and pop culture.

What makes this film such a great crystal ball is that it shows the ridiculous lengths a corporate-run news industry will go to to get ratings. It foreshadows not only the 24 hour news channels that build every story up to epic, life-threatening proportions until the next story comes along, but also the reality entertainment craze that has us watching the mental breakdowns of housewives, bachelors, and Kardashians everywhere.

The film is flawlessly paced with a career-best performance from William Holden and fantastic turns by Faye Dunaway, Ned Beatty, and Beatrice Straight. Straight won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for what amounts to five minutes of screentime, but the film lost Best Picture to Rocky. I will be peeved about that forevs.

4.) Caged! (1950)

When I say the words "women's prison film" you probably think of scantily clad women showering and shiv-ing each other in front of butch guards. Caged! is so much more than that. Marie Allen (a pre-Sound of Music Baroness Eleanor Parker) is arrested for driving the getaway car for her armed-robber hubby. It's a bad day for her because her husband is killed and in her pre-lock-up physical, she discovers she's pregnant. It only gets worse from there.

Caged! is different from the typical women's prison film because the elements of bitch-ery and lesbianism aren't played for shocks or laughs. They are real parts of the prison system that ultimately degrades the women it is supposed to rehabilitate.

The cast in this movie are not pretty ingenues who have had their hair styled to look "unfortunate." This cast is chock full of character actresses with lined, scarred faces and bodies that look as if they have led lives on the wrong side of the tracks. It's a form of realism that you don't see often in films of this era especially with actresses.

Parker is a revelation, slowly losing her humanity until she becomes one of the animals in the zoo. Hope Emerson as the ward boss is a physical mountain who dominates her scenes with her hands on her hips and a lipstick scowl on her face. The great Agnes Moorehead rounds out the cast as a progressive prison warden whose hopes for these girls keep getting dashed by the system. Both Parker and Emerson were nominated for Oscars for their work.
Don't get me wrong. There are some good laughs here with gems lines like, "Line-up tramps!" But when I saw this film for the first time at Film Forum, my jaw hurt from hanging open. It's my favorite unexpected find.

5.) Meet John Doe (1941)

When people rattle off their favorite Frank Capra films, It's a Wonderful Life (1946) and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) often top the list. But I'm most fond of another Capra classic called Meet John Doe. Ann Mitchell (Barbara Stanwyck) is a newspaper writer who's given a pink slip. She's so mad, she writes her final column about a "John Doe" letter she received from a man who due to all the ills of the world has vowed to kill himself on Christmas Eve (Capra must love Christmas) by throwing himself off the roof of city hall. There's just one problem. There is no John Doe. Clever Ann made up the letter herself. When the readership of the paper explodes over the column, Ann and the paper have to come up with someone to play Mr. Doe to keep the papers selling.

Enter Gary Cooper as an ex-baseball player who has fallen on hard times and is willing to play the part for enough money to buy a donut and get back on the rails with his hobo pal, The Colonel (irrepressibly gruff Walter Brennan). With his down-to-earth, homespun rhetoric, John Doe becomes a symbol for the American Everyman, igniting a political movement he doesn't wish to be part of.

Capra was always obsessed with American society- its politics and influences, and John Doe deftly illustrates not only the needs of the people, but how those needs can be used by greedy politicians to gain power. He seems to say we need a populist movement- but the very existence of such a movement means those needs will be ground-up within the political machine. He offers no jingoistic answers here- and in fact warns us to fear anyone who speaks in slogans and political platitudes. "Make America Great Again!" anyone?

Stanwyck does what she does best- playing a feisty gal who can turn on the waterworks when it's called for. Cooper's skill at playing a simple man is done so beautifully in this picture, you can't help but love him. We all want to be Stanwyck clutching him on top of that snowy city hall, begging him not to jump.




So those are my Top 5 Dramas. What are yours?

Happy Birthday, King!

 From the early 1930's until his death in 1960, the undisputed king of the silver screen was jug-eared rogue, Clark Gable. Before the birth of the Method and the death of the studio system, Gable ruled the Hollywood roost. His presence in a movie was, for a time, a surefire guarantee to send ticket sales soaring. Women wanted to be hauled up a staircase by him, and men hoped to achieve his mastery of masculinity so they could haul their own women. Even little Judy Garland crooned him a love song. His romances on and off the screen were fodder for the gossip columns. He is believed to have fathered a love child with Loretta Young out of wedlock, had a long-standing affair with co-star Joan Crawford, and married his match in Hollywood beauty Carole Lombard. Her death in a plane accident in 1942 devastated Gable, and added mourning widower to the Gable persona. His life became even more like one of his Hollywood movies when he enlisted in the Air Force and flew missions in World War II, becoming a real-life American hero.

While Gable was a male ideal in the golden era of Hollywood, his masculinity was different from those of his cowboy contemporaries. Gable seemed equally at home in a tux or a pair of a dungarees, moving easily between the two classes. He was like a mixture of John Wayne and William Powell. His real talent seemed to be to mesh so well with some of the strongest actresses of the period- in fact, it's hard to think of Gable without his leading ladies. Where the more solitary men like Wayne and Spencer Tracy came off as images of singular manhood, Gable was masculine because he went toe-to-toe with feisty, powerful women, and came out as their equal.

On what would have been his 115th birthday, here is a list of some of my favorite Clark Gable films:

Night Nurse (1931)
Gable's breakout role was as Nick, a dick-y chauffeur for a messed-up rich family (a role James Cagney turned down due to his rising stardom). Nick's not terribly lovable in this- he knocks out Barbara Stanwyck for chrissakes. But there was something about him that stood out, and after this picture, MGM groomed Gable for stardom. The film is dark with drunks and attempted infanticide- and Pre-Code Stanwyck is always a treat.

Red Dust (1932)
The pairing of Gable with MGM blonde bombshell Jean Harlow is cinema magic. Gable is rubber plantation manager Dennis Carson who willingly hosts smartmouth hooker, Vantine (Harlow) during the rainy season. Vantine has hopes of keeping Dennis' attentions until married goody-goody, Barbara Willis  (the beautifully uptight Mary Astor) shows up and piques Dennis' libido. The sexual tension is palpable in this love triangle and as the typhoon rages so do these lovers. Gable and Harlow became good friends on this film and he was co-starring with Harlow when she died suddenly during the making of Saratoga (1937). For those of you who recoil at Asian stereotypes, watch out for Willie Fung as an inane, cackling functionary.

It Happened One Night (1934)
Winner of five Oscars including the only win for Gable, It Happened One Night is an iconic Hollywood comedy that lives up to the hype. Claudette Colbert and Gable are evenly matched as a runaway heiress and a newspaperman who is desperate to get the story. Directed by cinematic master Frank Capra, the movie blends a comedy of classes, a road movie, and a screwball romance. Who can forget Colbert hiking up her skirt to grab a ride on a country road? Or Gable wearing no undershirt in a hotel room divided by a sheet? Legend has it that the scene killed the undershirt industry because men everywhere went undershirt-less like Gable- but that's probably a lot of PR puffing.

Gone with the Wind (1939)
While the earnest search for the actress to play Scarlett O'Hara filled every possible newspaper column and radio minute, the search for Rhett Butler was much easier. Producer David O. Selznick wanted Gable from the beginning so all he had to do was convince his father-in-law Louis B. Mayer to loan out his biggest star to play the role. Mayer acquiesced for a high price and the rest, as they say, is history. The making of GWTW is as much an epic as the movie itself. Books have been written on the subject and the legends have been proved and disproved time and time again.

I'll only say this- Gable seems flawlessly comfortable in the role and with his formidable co-star, Vivien Leigh. It's probably a combination of his acting talent and the director. Gable was keen to get Victor Fleming to replace "women's director" George Cukor. Maybe he was worried the women's performances would overshadow him under Cukor's guidance (he'd acted with strong women before to no complaint), maybe he was uncomfortable working with a "fag" director (the most swishy item of gossip suggested that Gable was once a callboy and Cukor knew it), or maybe he was just very comfortable with Victor Fleming, having already worked with him on the wildly successful Red Dust. Whatever the reason, it is impossible to imagine anyone else saying, "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn", as he exits one of the greatest screen romances ever made.

Strange Cargo (1940)
Strange is the operative word. This film is about a bunch of prisoners who escape a French penal colony and brave a jungle and the ocean to find freedom. Seems like a typical action film, right? Well what if one of the escapees turns out to be Jesus? And what if the prisoners bring along Joan Crawford? Can Jesus and Joan sit in the same boat? In their eighth and final film together, Crawford and Gable spark wonderfully with verbal barbs and slaps to the face before clinching embraces. Crawford said that Gable was the greatest actor because he had balls. And she should know. Crawford claimed that when Carole Lombard died, Gable turned to her for comfort. Watching Gable and Crawford on-screen you can sense that there was indeed a deep bond between these two "tough-guys."

The Misfits (1961)
Marilyn Monroe used to fantasize when she was a child that Clark Gable was her father. So it must have been a titch surreal for Monroe when Gable was cast as her lover in her husband, Arthur Miller's movie. Monroe was ecstatic to work with Gable, but it didn't take long for Monroe's demons, drug abuse, and disintegrating marriage to overwhelm the production. Gable is rumored to have said, "Working with Marilyn on The Misfits nearly gave me a heart attack." He died twelve days after shooting ended of a heart attack.
This is the last completed film of both Gable and Monroe who died in August of 1962 of a drug overdose. For that reason alone, it is a memorable piece of film history. But there is something more to the picture. There is an ethereal quality to it- almost as if these two huge stars were already entering the dreamland of their posthumous legends. At the end they drive into the desert night towards the star-filled horizon- right where they belonged.