Cool News
Mr. Beaks Has Big Warner Archive News! Find Out Which '70s Cult Classic Is Available At Last! Also, 10 Free Discs Up For Grabs!
Before I get into my write-ups for two of the Warner Archive's most noteworthy April titles, a couple of things:
1) We've got five copies each of Ray Enright's THE RETURN OF THE BAD MEN and George Sidney's THOUSANDS CHEER to give away. The former title is a western starring Randolph Scott and Robert Ryan, while the latter is an all-star musical headed up by Gene Kelly and Kathryn Grayson (and featuring the likes of Judy Garland, Lucille Ball, Lena Horne, Mickey Rooney and Red Skelton). If you'd like to win a copy of either, please fire off an email with the subject header "Warner Archive Contest" to mrbeaks@aintitcool.com. Feel free to state a preference, and I'll do my best to accommodate. The deadline for entries is Monday, May 4th at Noon Pacific.
2) Last week, I mentioned that a long-unavailable film was about to be set free from the Warner Archive. I have received permission to reveal the title of this 1970s cult classic. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Alan Arkin and James Caan in Richard Rush's magnificently wrong FREEBIE AND THE BEAN.
I haven't seen FREEBIE AND THE BEAN since I was a kid, so I have no idea how well it holds up. However, I do know that, for a variety of reasons (most of them having to do with political correctness), it would be impossible to make this movie today. And this is a tragedy.
I'll have the rest of the May titles (which should be up on the Warner Archive site this Friday May 5th) when I celebrate FREEBIE AND THE BEAN next week.
And now some thoughts on THE RETURN OF THE BAD MEN and THOUSANDS CHEER...
Whenever the good ol' days of Hollywood filmmaking are fondly recalled as a way of running down today's glut of uninspired studio pictures, someone will eventually counter that the hit-to-miss ratio hasn't changed, sagely noting that there are more "classics" from the '30s, '40s and '50s because there were just more movies period.
This is nonsense. Truly. Yes, the studios churned out scads of mediocre musicals, romantic comedies and westerns during this "golden age", but what was "mediocre" back then has a tendency to look stunningly well-crafted today - at least compared to, say, 20th Century Fox's output throughout the Tom Rothman era. Doubt this? Spend a week watching Roy Rogers westerns or Andy Hardy comedies (even the ones without Judy Garland), and you won't find anything that approaches the combined oeuvre of Adam Shankman, Brian Robbins and Evil Shawn Levy (as opposed to Saintly Shawn Levy) in terms of sheer technical incompetence. At the very worst, you'll be bored. At best, you might be pleasantly surprised.
This is largely because studios weren't in the habit of letting their top talent work with directors incapable of delivering watchable movies. For the most part, they favored unfussy professionals who knew where to put a camera and make days; now, you're the next Howard Hawks if you can make days and shoot enough usable footage for the trailer. Movies today just have to seem entertaining; they don't have to actually be good or make sense.
This is why a slightly above-average film from a slightly above-average director like Ray Enright can feel like a revelation sixty years down the line. And this is the danger of subsisting on a junk movie diet: you forget that there was once a time when audiences could expect to see dozens of well-crafted programmers throughout the course of a year. Look, there is a reason why Enright's RETURN OF THE BAD MEN couldn't get a commercial DVD release until the Warner Archive materialized: it isn't distinctive enough visually, narratively or thematically to be termed "influential"; moreover, I doubt it made much of an impression on any of the great American baby boomer directors who might be tempted to contribute to a making-of featurette (e.g. Peter Bogdanovich, John Milius or John Carpenter). It's just good and satisfying and professionally done.
That said, if it were made today by an unheralded TV director, and populated with a load of dependable character actors like Bill Paxton, Fred Ward, Stephen Lang and Maria Bello, I imagine it would be celebrated as a unexpected throwback and probably round out a number of Top Ten lists as a show of respect for a bygone era when proficiency was the norm, not the exception.
Written by Charles O'Neal, Jack Natteford and Luci Ward, Enright's meat-and-potatos western centers on reluctant U.S. Marshal Vance Cordell's efforts to corral a band of outlaws terrorizing a just-getting-settled Oklahoma during late 1800s. The obvious attractions here are Randolph Scott doing his white-hat act as Cordell, George "Gabby" Hayes as a cranky-but-loveable bank owner, and Robert Ryan killing in cold, cold blood as The Sundance Kid. Cordell's arc has to do with rounding up the outlaws in a timely manner so he can knock off to California and marry his fiancee, Madge (Jacqueline White), but the plot is largely powered by our desire to see the lawman square off with the vicious Sundance (who killed Cordell's kind-hearted Native American ranch hand, Grey Eagle).
The interesting narrative flourishes involve Cordell's reforming of Cheyenne (Anne Jeffreys), a fetching bad girl who runs with Sundance and the Younger gang. Cordell tends to her after she's been wounded in a gunfight, and his kindness - as well as the threat of a good spanking* - ultimately sets her on the straight-and-narrow. Cheyenne also falls for Cordell, but there's never any danger of the upright marshal cheating on his beloved Madge (who's got the makings of an ace cuckold).
The only wild card in the deck is Sundance, who, as written, would just be another blandly evil villain were it not for the laid-back brutality of Robert Ryan. Still one of the most under-appreciated actors of his time, Ryan imbues every moment with the possibility of casual violence. While most of his fellow outlaws seem motivated by the idea of ill-gotten fortune, Ryan's Sundance is only in it for the death. He's a long, long way from William Goldman's iteration of the outlaw, and the movie stays interesting partly because of his chaotic presence in it.
But much credit is due Enright, who distinguishes himself as a fine director of set pieces. Particularly impressive is the film's climactic nighttime showdown, which is lit with a surprising expressionistic flair (thereby amplifying the tension as Cordell stalks Sundance in an eerily quiet saloon). It's at this moment that you wonder why Enright - who made his bones first as an assistant to Mack Sennett, then as a director of musicals (he handled the dramatic sequences in Busby Berkeley's DAMES) - never got a shot at better than middling material. Why was this able craftsman reduced to hacking out, as film historian David Thomson put it, "routine products, sure of their own limits"?
And then you remember that the studio system needed unpretentious workmen like Enright to simply show up and make sure everyone colored within the lines. They weren't making art; they just had a basic responsibility to paying audiences, who deserved, if nothing else, ninety minutes of sturdy, visually appealing entertainment. And while I doubt Enright arrived to set every day thinking about his debt to the public, there was at least professional pride.
Prior to THE RETURN OF THE BAD MEN, the only other Enright western I'd watched was his 1942 version of THE SPOILERS with Scott, John Wayne and Marlene Dietrich. Unlike BAD MEN, that film is almost undone by expectations (thanks to the presence of Wayne and Dietrich), but it's still quite good. I've heard that TRAIL STREET (which is also available from the Warner Archive) may be his best work. Anyone care to vouch for that?
The Archive also sent along George Sidney's patriotic, all-star World War II musical THOUSANDS CHEER. Like many films of this type, it's at at its best when letting the big names take center stage to warble a tune or indulge in a comedy routine. Unfortunately, most of that is saved for the third act, which means you have to contend with soldier Gene Kelly's half-hearted romancing of Kathryn Grayson, who costars as the daughter of Kelly's commanding officer (John Boles). Kelly works hard to get us through the perfunctory plot, but it's still an awfully long sit. That said, the film is interesting from a historical perspective (performance movies like this would have to be shot in IMAX to entice a modern audience); also, it's hard to hate a movie that features Judy Garland and Lena Horne belting out standards. This is a classic case of "your mileage may vary".
I'll be back next week with FREEBIE AND THE BEAN. (And remember, you can only order these titles through the official Warner Archive site!)
Faithfully submitted,
Mr. Beaks
*Evidently, the writers had spanking on the mind when they slapped this one together: e.g. in the film's most unsettling moment, Hayes threatens to take White over his knee. Thank god for the Production Code.
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Awesome!
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If I'd clicked on the article when I first got to AICN, I could have had first. My mouse skills be damned...I didn't even read the article; only came here to put off revising.
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Oh yes I think this along with the
In laws are two of Arkins best.
Warner thou studio be praised. -
Sold, to me.
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Awesome
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Great little crazy film in glorius B/W with Jeffrey Hunter and Ann Francis with a great twist ending.
Also for pure enjoyment The D.I. with Jack Webb predates the great R.Lee Ermey as a tough as shit drill instructor.. Now if Warner would just release -30- with Jack Webb and William Conrad on DVD I will feel complete. -
I guess I could never get past the title. That's really dumb of me. I'll watch it now though.
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I, too, haven't seen this since I was a kid -- but there's a scene where they... oh, hell, I'm not gonna ruin it. But you're right, Beaks, from what I recall, politically incorrect doesn't even come close to describing this gleefully insane gem of a flick. Not only one of Arkin's best, but one of Caan's as well. Netflix, here I come!! Thanks for the Cool News, Beaks!
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makes me want to jump around and act crazy..the theme from S.W.A.T.(the TV series) has the same effect on me..
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I just watched a double feature of "Freebie" and "Slither" (1973 James Caan / Peter Boyle flick that needs to be released too!) a month ago from the DVD-R's I made of them off my VHS copies. Both flicks hold up soooo well. Only the end to "Freebie" at the football game is a bit jarringly wrong-pitched. And Alex Rocco is the man! As Freebie's and Bean's fed up captain, he's the master at slow boil. I'm trashing the DVD-R and buying the widescreen transfer. Keep 'em coming Warner Archives!!
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Wish Warner would release this Coppola flick on DVD sometime in the near future!
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How hot was Valerie Harper back in the day?
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'70s...Warners...cult..Oh please let it be Freebie..I haven't seen it since its theatrical release, so I can't say if it holds up either, but I loved that movie. You basically can't go wrong with '70s era Alan Arkin. Pair this with The In Laws and Hyams' Gould/Blake pairing Busting. Love those long Hyams steadicam shots...
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Was the one I was hoping for... my fave in the blaxploitation scene.
Soon I hope. -
I've read some reviews of these Warner Archives DVDs, and if I'm understanding things, they're just ocpying them to DVR. So you're going to pay 20 bucks for an obscure movie of which your copy that you paid 20 bucks for will only last a few years. Doesn't sound right to me.
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Most ridiculous car stunts ever.
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How about Mother, Juggs & Speed, with Bill Cosby, Harvey Keitel and Racquel Welch?? Now there's a title and a WTF cast...
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Saw it two years ago courtesy of Edgar Wright and the Hot Fuzztival at the Drafthouse. Hilarious film. Certainly holds up as the film that (pretty much) started the buddy-cops-who-hate-each-other genre.
My only complaint is that this title deserves better than Warner Archives. Richard Rush's other forgotten masterpiece, The Stunt Man, had a decent DVD (and even a feature-length documentary of arguable quality) and he's definitely not too busy to share his thoughts on the film.
Whether you like your '70s cops with or without political correctness, F&TB is definitely worth seeing! At least this DVD will give it the fans it should have. -
NO BREWSTER, NO PEACE!
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Shankman has made some awful, AWFUL shit in his time, but he's admitted to it, saying he's been drafted in at the last minute to save a bunch of projects that were about to fail, and did the best he could. It's not the best movie ever, but you should check out his version of the Hairspray musical. Not a patch on the original, obviously, but it's a lot of fun, and has more energy than all of the other movies made by the hacks you mentioned put together.
This post, and all of the chatter about Richard Rush, has made me want to buy The Stuntman. What a great movie. Color of Night? Not so much. -
Really enjoyed the stuff about bygone era film quality.
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If they put out a FREEBIE AND THE BEAN DVD with commentary from Rush, Caan and Arkin they'd make $
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hopefully if it sells well enough, they can give Freebie a proper release with a commentary, etc.
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They played it on Cinemax about 5 years ago and it blew me away (this was after the softcore movies ended around 4AM). Beaks, it holds up even better that a fruitcake. It's so, so very wrong.
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Long, long overdue DVD releases for Richard Rush, the most go-to-hell director who ever snuck movies through the major studios
(Columbia's 'Martini Movies' recently put out his insane Elliot Gound/campus riot "Getting Straight")
But "Freebie" was soooo far ahead of the curve in its taking the cop-buddy genre and twisting it inside out and backwards...Arkin and Caan were far more lethally dangerous to innocent bystanders than any criminals they were chasing. Brilliant chase,fight and shootout sequences...can't wait to order it.
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