IRENE CAUSED CATASTROPHIC BOX OFFICE WEEKEND?

Okay, so over a thousand theatres shut down, but in its third week “The Help” still managed to rake in $14.3 million.

Enough people who wanted to see “The Help” saw “The Help.”

How did that happen?

MTV’S VIDEO MUSIC AWARDS WERE ON LAST NIGHT

Why am I just hearing about this now? It is a much-anticipated ritual in the Nolte household that we enjoy ignoring  this obnoxious awards telecast every year, but how are we supposed to enjoy not-watching if we have no idea it’s on?

Get your publicity act together, MTV. Thanks for nothing.

MPAA RELEASES ‘FACT SHEET’ ON COST OF PIRACY

Among other startling  numbers released: 140,000 active links pop up daily that infringe on copyright laws; 6 million people saw “Hurt Locker” in the theatre while 7 million saw it as an illegal download.

Wow.

As right-of-center folks constantly under assault by Hollywood it’s easy to look the other way or even enjoy the damage piracy does to an industry that doesn’t like us very much, but it’s still theft — outright theft.

The only bootleg I’ve ever purchased was “Revenge of the Sith,” more out of curiosity than anything else. It was about a week before the film came out and I was approached in the parking lot of a Los Angeles Circuit City by a guy who could only speak enough English to tell me the cost was five bucks. He had a half-dozen other titles in his hand and I’m assuming his actual stash was someplace else.

The DVD cover art was good as was the picture and sound, though there was a running time-code throughout. And then there was the sinful thrill of knowing I was sticking it to George Lucas.

Still sinful, though.

GET WELL TOM JONES!

Saw Tom Jones a couple of times at the Riverside Theatre in Downtown Milwaukee in the mid-80s. Even went through “Mission: Impossible”-like machinations to get the superstar’s autograph in order to impress a woman I was relentlessly chasing at the time (I eventually caught and married her).  He was in his mid-forties then and an incredible live performer who attracted woman’s panties like static cling and put on the kind of show that has kept him performing through the decades even though he hasn’t had a hit in years.

Today Jones is 71 and Saturday night he was hospitalized due to dehydration.

Let’s hope that’s all it is.

IN-DEPTH REVIEW OF THE UPCOMING BLU-RAY RELEASE OF BRIAN DEPALMA’S “SCARFACE”

…and another reminder that my birthday is just around the corner in March.

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LAST NIGHT’S SCREENING

Call Northside 777 (1948): One of those post-war noir tales that helped aw-shucks Jimmy Stewart become the more adult, hardened James Stewart.

Based on a true story, Stewart plays a heroic reporter (they did exist once upon a time) who gets involved in an 11 year-old case involving the murder of a cop and the man (Richard Conte) who might have been wrongly convicted of the crime.

The Great Henry Hathaway directs in docu-drama style and best of all, much of the film is shot on-location in Chicago; supposedly at the very locations where the real story took place.

As usual, Stewart’s superb as the cynical reporter who goes from exploiting the case to becoming a true believer in his subject’s innocence, and his best scenes are with Lee J. Cobb, who plays his friend and editor. In his few screen moments, though, Conte is the real heart of the story — one of those actors who could grab your sympathy without a word. The haunted look Conte gives his character tells you all you need to know.  

Intelligent, gripping film.

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QUICK HITS

LEO AND MARTY TOGETHER AGAIN? AND SOMEONE’S NOT HAPPY ABOUT IT.

WHEN YOU LACK THE KIND OF TALENT THAT GETS ATTENTION, YOU DO STUFF LIKE THIS…

LITTLE SOMETHING SPECIAL FOR US PREQUEL HATERS

SOMETHING I DO MISS ABOUT LOS ANGELES

10 SCREENWRITING TIPS YOU CAN LEARN FROM RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK…

…AND 10 SCREENWRITING NO-NOS YOU CAN LEARN FROM THE DREADFUL CRYSTAL SKULL

A REMAKE OF FLATLINERS?

31 THINGS WE LEARNED FROM THE DIE HARD COMMENTARY TRACK… AND THE GHOSTBUSTERS COMMENTARY TRACK

RUMOR MILL: IS THE CRITERION COLLECTION WORKING ON A RELEASE OF THE ORIGINAL GODZILLA?

FULL SYNOPSIS OF PIXAR’S UPCOMING “BRAVE”

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CLASSIC PICK FOR TUESDAY, AUGUST 30

TCM:

2:30 PM  EST: Show Boat (1951) —  Riverboat entertainers find love, laughs and hardships as they sail along “Old Man River.” Dir: George Sidney Cast:  Kathryn Grayson, Ava Gardner, Howard Keel. C-108 mins, TV-G, CC.

Something I love and have always loved about home video is the opportunity to watch certain films again and again but for a different reason each time; where you focus on particular aspect of the production. Paying special attention to script, structure, photography, etc. can be a way to send yourself to film school as you attempt to crack the code of a classic (which is harder than you might think) or a way to watch a favorite once again in a whole new light.

Watch “Show Boat” for Ava Gardner’s performance as the tragic Julie. MGM did a pretty spectacular job of creating a colorful, big-budget musical around the mature theme of racism and Garner is the story’s heart and soul. One of the most over-looked and under-appreciated performances out there. Devastating stuff that lasts long after the Technicolor magic fades away.  

–Please send tips/suggestions/requests to jnolte@breitbart.com

–Many thanks again to ScottDS for the great Quick Hits

MGM’s roster of female stars constituted the greatest collection of beautiful and talented women the world has ever known.

One of the greatest was Ava Gardner.

Ava Gardner in “The Killers,” her breakthrough role, 1946.

As an emerging starlet in the early 1940’s, before she made a single movie the breathtaking Southern beauty was the talk of the town.

Mickey Rooney was MGM’s golden boy, a versatile star equally adept at musicals, comedy and drama. His signature role as the small-town youngster Andy Hardy made him something of a cash cow for the studio. The Hardy movies were cheap to produce and earned enormous profits.

In his compulsively readable autobiography, Life is Too Short, Rooney claims that his mother worked as a prostitute in order to put food on the table during the depths of the Depression. Thus, it’s not surprising that Rooney pursued women with an obsessive compulsion, seeking affection and love in all the wrong places: call girls, ambitious actresses and mature women—including Irving Thalberg’s widow Norma Shearer—smitten by Rooney’s brash boyish charm.

The first time Rooney laid eyes on Ava Gardner was when she visited the set of “Babes on Broadway,” in 1941. She was wearing a wispy summer dress and high heels. Rooney was also wearing a dress and high heels—a Carmen Miranda costume.

Rooney recalls the gauzy moment:

“Hello,” said Ava. That’s all. Just hello. And without a smile. But she said it in the soft drawl of her native rural North Carolina, and I was a goner. I had known many beautiful women in my lifetime, but this little lady topped them all. She was five feet one, but she invariably wore high heels, so she was about my height when I was wearing five-inch wedgies.

Ava was eighteen years old, Rooney, twenty-one, and his technique with women, he admits, was a combination of early Neanderthal and late Freud. He pursued the gorgeous young starlet with ferocious determination. After turning down five dates Ava finally succumbed, no doubt out of sheer exhaustion and because as one of MGM’s most powerful and bankable stars Rooney could, Ava understood, help advance her career.

After a night of drinking, dancing and table-hopping at Chasen’s, Rooney was smitten. Ava was exhausted by Rooney’s non-stop patter. He was, she realized, always performing. When Rooney saw Ava to her door at two in the morning he impulsively proposed marriage.

Ava, playing a cool customer but in truth a tongue-tied country girl, gave a little hoot, smiled enigmatically, and ducked into her apartment.

For the next few weeks Rooney kept asking and Ava kept evading. Ava was told by everyone in the Hollywood colony that Rooney never took no for an answer.

Soon after December 7, 1941, Rooney presented Ava with a huge diamond ring and once again popped the question.

There is nothing like war to concentrate the mind on love and romance.

Ava finally surrendered.

They kissed and Rooney started to grope the inexperienced young woman from Grabtown, North Carolina.

But Ava Gardner would not sleep with Rooney before accepting the sacraments of marriage. She was a virgin, and she insisted, that was the way she was going to keep it until the wedding night.

Rooney was out of his mind with desire.

Ava Gardner before her MGM glamour make-over.

Informed of the engagement, L.B. Mayer hit the ceiling. He accused Rooney of trying to destroy MGM. There was an image to preserve and marriage to an unknown hillbilly starlet did not fit the carefully crafted studio profile of Andy Hardy, the clean-cut all-American boy.

Terrified of Mayer’s incandescent temper Ava was ready to postpone the marriage. But Rooney stood up to the most powerful studio chief in Hollywood and threatened to break his contract if Mayer did not give his blessing to the union.

L.B. Mayer realized he was no match for Ava Gardner’s smoldering sensuality and wisely backed down. The wily mogul even hosted a bachelor party for Rooney. The guest list included: Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, Robert Taylor, Lewis Stone, Bill Holden, Robert Montgomery, Lionel Barrymore, William Powell, and Frederic March.

Ava and Mickey were married on January 10, 1942.

The wedding night should have been an MGM soft-focus dream of deep kisses, moonlight and unquenchable passion.

Ava Gardner and Mickey Rooney on their wedding day.

Mickey Rooney confesses the awful truth:

After the ceremony, we kissed our families good-bye and headed for our honeymoon in Carmel, at the Del Monte Inn…

We didn’t have a normal, sexy wedding night. I was a nervous wreck. Getting there had been more than half the fun. Now I didn’t quite know how to savor my victory. To quiet my nerves I drank too much champagne at dinner and barely made it back to our room before I took off my pants and sank into the bed. By the time Ava emerged from the bathroom, all dressed in white satin and lace, I was snoring heavily—dreaming, no doubt about how nice it was, being married to the most beautiful woman in the world.

The marriage was a predictable disaster. Rooney was interested in booze, betting, and babes—not necessarily in that order. Ava reports in her autobiography, Ava: My Story, that she spent her days posing for MGM publicity photos—her career had yet to ignite—then cooked, cleaned, and decorated the house. She was trying to be a good wife.

But Rooney was a serial adulterer who spent all his time at the studio, the track, and a brothel stocked with prostitutes who were dead-ringers for Hollywood movie stars.

Go figure.

Finally Ava walked out on him. One year and five days after he slipped a ring on her finger bearing the engraving: “Love Forever,” they were divorced.

Years later, Ava somewhat wickedly characterized their union as Love Finds Andy Hardy.

Ava’s career soared after appearing as the femme fatale opposite Burt Lancaster in “The Killers,” 1946. But her love life was tumultuous, a blizzard of booze, wrenching love affairs and failed marriages to Frank Sinatra and Artie Shaw, volcanic and abusive men.

Rooney racked up an astonishing seven additional marriages after Ava.

Neither ever found true contentment in love or marriage.

Hollywood was and still is a dream factory that all too frequently weaves nightmares.

In 1947, 15-year-old Elizabeth Taylor told off her boss, MGM head honcho Louis B. Mayer, arguably the most powerful man in Hollywood, for being mean to her mother.  She left the mogul’s office crying, fully convinced she was going to get fired.  It turned out she was wrong and after a few weeks the young actress recognized that she was a valuable commodity and by fighting she could get often get her way.

Early on Elizabeth realized her looks let her get away with a lot.  In her twenties she delighted in belching loudly in public knowing that others would think that there was no way such an uncouth noise could come from someone that beautiful. Another weapon in her arsenal washer use of maladies both real and imagined.  After playing a sickly teenager in the drama Cynthia (1947), people around her noticed if she found working conditions unfavorable she would become incapacitated. She came down with abdominal pains after her co-star James Dean shockingly died in a car crash during the filming of the western Giant (1955) and was hospitalized for two weeks.

Likewise when her lover and leading man Richard Burton announced he was reconciling with his long suffering wife Sybil while making Cleopatra (1963) Elizabeth reportedly took an overdose of sleeping pills.  Her bosses fumed, production was shut down, and then she recovered and eventually landed her man. Elizabeth had little sympathy for studio executives; after charging Jack Warner $1,000,000 for starring in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1966), she nearly fired her agent for agreeing to a contract that required her to show up at work before 10am (it was renegotiated to her liking), and then asked the startled Warner for an expensive diamond brooch on top of her salary (he found her request brazen and unwarranted but eventually complied). 

Her skirmishes were often played out for the benefit of others.  Debbie Reynolds once was shocked to see Elizabeth being belted by her third husband Mike Todd, when Reynolds tried to help, Elizabeth told her not interfere, then the diminutive brunette hit her spouse right back. The Todds enjoyed physical altercations; sometimes they were a prelude to lovemaking.  Elizabeth later made fun of Debbie for being a square.  Another shouting match with Todd in 1957 at an airport was witnessed by writer/producer Ernest Lehman, he remembered it nine years later when he hired Elizabeth to play against type as the foul-mouthed, husband-loathing Martha in Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf.  Her real-life public brawls with her fifth husband and frequent co-star Richard Burton became notorious, yet Burton insisted they never fought while they were alone. (Comedian Benny Hill skewered both Burton and Taylor in a parody about Virginia Woolf):  

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Alcohol was another arrow in the Taylor quiver; even Richard Burton couldn’t keep up with her when it came to imbibing.  Getting her womanizing husband inebriated was a way to prevent him from making passes at his leading ladies such as Ava Gardner in Night of the Iguana(1964).  Other times she’d want Burton to stop boozing and became frustrated when would-be drinking champions would test him; like an old gunslinger he couldn’t refuse.  After the filming of Beckett in 1964, Elizabeth accompanied Richard to a pub with Peter O’Toole.  It hurt O’Toole’s Irish pride that the Welsh-born Burton had the bigger reputation as a boozer, the contest was on. Burton insisted his friend go first; O’Toole consumed an entire large bottle of very potent whiskey. “Your turn, dear Richard.” 

Before the challenge could be met, Peter collapsed unconscious on the floor. Burton then stepped over him, ordered a drink, smiled at Elizabeth and said,” Another victory by default.” 

Elizabeth did not win all her battles. After her dear friend Rock Hudson died of the HIV virus in 1985 she tried to find a cure.  Though her parents were staunch Republicans she mostly supported Democrats, presuming that they would spend more federal dollars on aids research.  She once stated she believed President Bush 41 couldn’t spell AIDS. Elizabeth, who was hugely driven by the profit motive in her personal life, probably would have dismissed the notion that research companies involved with the government had no financial incentive to come up with an antidote, lest their grants dry up.  In 1960, Taylor-stated flatly there was no way any amount of money could get her to star in the drama Butterfield 8; she hated her part — a call girl character — and thought the movie pornographic. Her MGM contract legally forced her to override herself and she ended up winning her first Oscar.  

Elizabeth was willing to fight for both loved ones and causes.   In 1956 her friend Montgomery Clift was in a near fatal car accident; Elizabeth reached her hand down his throat to pull out his dislodged teeth which saved him from choking. She then later insisted producers hire the troubled actor if they wanted her to star in their films.  In 1976, the Israel-loving Liz very quietly offered to exchange herself as a hostage in order to free the 248 passengers who had been hi-jacked on an Air France plane by Palestinian terrorists.  And she risked the wrath of the Hollywood community when she chose not to not to show up to receive her Virginia Woolf Oscar, instead staying with Burton in France when it became apparent that she was going to win and he wasn’t.  As usual Elizabeth showed shrewdness; backstage at the Academy Awards host Bob Hope quipped,” Leaving Burton alone on the Riviera is like locking Jackie Gleason in a delicatessen.“ 

During a 1970 interview with Sixty Minutes Burton and Taylor were asked about the peace symbols they wore around their necks,“They seem to be working, we haven’t had a quarrel in nearly forty-eight hours.”  Richard said.

His wife responded with a laugh and added,” Stick around.”

Sixteen of the top 20 box office earners have either a G or PG rating which should be a clue that R rated films ( “Titanic” being the exception) don’t do as well yet studios continue to add gratuitous irrelevant sex scenes that ruin the film. Why? It certainly can’t be artistic license because the principal reaction to them is usually-‘Ew!!! Why did they do that?” 

Movie-going statistics have dropped significantly among older adults and that’s understandable since most fare today cater to hormonal adolescents without a clue as to the true appeal of sensual art. Yet senior citizens today are former film buffs who would relish worthy theatrical offerings but their treks back to the wide screen lonely leave them disappointed. 

A few years ago I went with an elderly friend to see, “Love Actually,” because we’re both great fans of Alan Rickman. The film has various vignettes of romantic couples and their curious experiences pursuing the love game. One of these couples happens to be two individuals acting in a porn movie and although the intent was to inject irony in the sex scenes showing the relative naïveté of the participants as they try to hook up, it failed miserably. My friend later said that particular graphic display spoiled the otherwise charming film which she no longer would add to her DVD collection when it came out. 

Who decides to add these charm-busters to films? What is it about major appliances like washing machines that attract sexual activity? In the film, “Little Children,” Kate Winslet and Patrick Wilson drop their drawers to perform sexual gymnastics in the laundry room and several other inappropriate venues. “ Annette Bening has her head banged against a motel headboard while her adulterous lover humps her energetically in the Oscar winner “American Beauty.” Did we have to see Viggo Mortensen’s bare butt as he had sex with his wife on the stairs ( note: stairs are a very uncomfortable place to indulge in this activity) in “ A History of Violence?” Of course not and every film would have generated better box office without these unnecessary insertions — pardon the double entendre. 

I could blame corrupt producers and directors but none of these quality-busting scenes would be possible without the cooperation of the actors and actresses involved. I’m continually flabbergasted that these so-called artists actually consider it of thespian merit to simulate raw sex before the eye of the camera. In a way, Eight Avenue peep shows are more candid about their industry. 

Madonna was said to be embarrassed about old nude photographs that might impede her adoption of  the Malawi child David. Her daughter Lourdes is rumored to be more conservative than her Mom. Big surprise that! 

I wonder what the children of Julianne Moore will think of her naked lap dance in “Boogie Nights” when they’re old enough to see the film.

Helen Mirren has managed to eclipse her “Caligula” and other nude, lascivious roles with an Oscar win for “The Queen,” in which she appeared fully clothed but she’s British so she’s can carry that off somewhat. 

As a teen and a young woman, I’d buy all the movie mags with their color pictures of beautiful people who could honestly be called STARS. Now I find it difficult to name one female star today who doesn’t dress or act like a skank. Sorry. I realize it’s a sign of the times but that doesn’t mean I can’t prefer a time when class was what determined stardom. 

When I look at today’s crop of movie denizens, every single one pales in comparison to our former screen legends. There is no one as gorgeous or as talented as the late Paul Newman. Ava Gardner may have had a checkered love life but her on-screen image is still a paean to her beauty and acting ability not her sexual proclivities. 

Supermarket tabloids used to be my guilty pleasure but for the past few years, I can’t drum up interest in any of the figures that the paparazzi chase down. The word “star” is applied to reality TV people who fail to excite my curiosity. I don’t care who’s sleeping with whom nor do I give a whit about what any of them have to say. 

Erotica is now dead in cinema and has been replaced by pornography. I’m trying hard to imagine which of today’s Hollywood elite could produce the same sexual heat that a long gone Maureen O’Sullivan and Johnny Weismuller managed to generate in our own minds. I’ve drawn a blank. Any suggestions?

My beloved United States Army is a blunt instrument, a magnificent club that has pummels our nation’s enemies into submission.  But the Marines are America’s rapier, a razor sharp weapon of war that has never been bested and never will be.  For over two centuries, the United States Marine Corps has been fighting our country’s battles in the air, on land and sea.  They don’t give up.  They don’t quit.  There’s no word for retreat in a Marine’s vocabulary.  And they are making history even today in the mountains of Afghanistan and elsewhere.

November 10th is the Corps’ 234th birthday.  With the indulgence of my Devil Dog brethren, here is this Army veteran’s countdown of the Top Ten Marine Corp movies:

10.  55 Days at Peking:  The Boxer Rebellion in China provides the backdrop for this epic true-life tale of Marines (with help from a few others) protecting civilians from rampaging Chinese peasants.  Charlton Heston is the head Marine; Ava Gardner and David Niven show up as well. 

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9.  Jarhead:  This film of Anthony Swofford’s book about Marines in Operation Desert Storm is a mixed bag.  Perhaps director Sam Mendes was trying to make up for his slander of military men in American Beauty by making an attempt to understand how men function in wartime.  He effectively captures the unreality of that war, but his depiction of the desert environment itself is somehow off (though not as inaccurate as the awful Three Kings).  The clouds of oily smoke after the Iraqis set off the wells did bring back some memories.   Look for Jamie Foxx as a tough Marine sergeant.

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8.  Gung Ho:  This World War Two story recounts the real-life story of the Marine’s raid on the Japanese position on Makin Island early in the war.  Watch for Robert Mitchum as a Devil Dog named “Pig Iron.” 

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7.  A Few Good Men:  This is problematic film for several reasons.  First, it promotes the idea that lawyers as attractive, interesting people, which is demonstrably untrue.  Second, it is positively schizophrenic in its attitude toward the Corps.  Noted Hollywood liberal Aaron Sorkin penned the script, which features Jack Nicholson’s legendary “You can’t handle the truth!”speech.  Many look on that speech as an inspiration, not an indictment.  Regardless, the issue of a society that demands protection yet questions the manner those who protect it do so resonates even more powerfully today than when Sorkin wrote it.

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6.  Aliens:  Okay, so James Cameron’s classic sci-fi flick is not technically about the United States Marine Corps, but ditch the space ships and hi-tech weapons and this band of Colonial Marines would be at home in today’s USMC.  The interplay between the Marines is priceless.  Their gunnery sergeant, played by Al Mathews, is calm, capable and scary.  And as Private Hudson, Bill Paxton plays the most amusing military screw-up in film history.  “Game over, man!  Game over!”

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5.  Generation Kill:  This a miniseries is a tough call because there is a lot good and a lot bad about it, but it honors the Marines who have been fighting for us since 9/11 and so deserves a spot here.  The bad first – there’s too much talking and pondering of the bigger issues going on.  Those portions feel forced into the script to fit the filmmakers’ pre-existing anti-war narrative.  What is accurate is the look and feel of the film.  This light recon battalion is quite similar to an Army cavalry recon squadron, and the way the men lived in and around their vehicle feels true.  One particularly good scene involves a young Marine asking to medevac a wounded civilian.  You expect a typical movie conflict between the sensitive young officer and his uncaring superior, but instead the filmmakers have the battalion commander explain his perspective and the consequences he has to consider when deciding whether to divert evac resources away from his own wounded.  It’s a powerful scene that demonstrates how high ranking officers, often portrayed on film as self-absorbed, obtuse and insensitive, bear enormous responsibilities for making difficult decisions that their subordinates sometimes do not fully appreciate.

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4.  Pride of the Marines:  This is the story of Marine Al Schmid, blinded fighting the Japanese in the Pacific, and his return home.  It is a moving testament to the human cost of war and it demonstrates the price paid by many Marines over the years – and a price many continue to pay today.  It is also the story about how once you become a Marine, you remain a Marine, and how that pride will stay with you throughout your life.

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3. Heartbreak Ridge:  The great Clint Eastwood does a tour of duty here as Tom Highway, a Marine gunnery sergeant his obnoxious new commander labels a “dinosaur.”  When all hell breaks loose on a tropical paradise called Grenada, Clint and his platoon smack around Castro’s minions.  It’s very cool.  One theme of the film is how a great sergeant grows his lieutenants into real leaders, and anyone who has been a platoon leader will smile as the nerdy LT learns to take charge and finally seizes the initiative to win the fight.  Look for Mario Van Peebles as the world’s least likely Marine.

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2.  Full Metal Jacket:  Don’t see this a week before you ship to basic training.  Take it from personal experience that this is a poor idea.  R. Lee Ermey’s hilarious and horrifying turn as a Marine drill instructor is a legend, and properly so.  His four minute verbal assault on his recruits is appalling, and yet one cannot turn away.  The second half of the film, which covers the retaking of the Vietnamese city of Hue during the Tet offensive, is a solid depiction of the terrors of urban combat.  Watch Big Hollywood’s own Adam Baldwin and the rest of the cast as they demonstrate the awesome firepower of a Marine infantry squad:

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1.  Sands of Iwo Jima:  A classic Hollywood story told against the backdrop of the greatest battle in Corps history, it features the Duke in his legendary role as Sergeant Stryker.  As much as we all love R. Lee Ermey, John Wayne remains the gold standard for hardass Marine sergeants.  This is the story of a tough NCO welding a gaggle of recruits into a lethal team of Marines, and this story is being repeated today with a new generation of tough NCOs and recruits.  Only the battlefields, uniforms and weapons are different.  The fighting spirit is the same. 

I bleed Army green, but even I have to admit that the Marines are something special.   But they don’t need validation from me or from anyone else.  They are Marines.  That says it all.

Semper Fi.

 
Sinatra and Ava for Democrat Adlai Stevenson

Where classic Hollywood mostly held their activism to advocating for their causes, too many of today’s classless breed defines their activism through the hurling of invective at the other side - at 50% of the customers. They do it up on the screen and they do it while hiding behind a Hollywood media-machine owned and operated by sycophants who mostly agree. There’s nothing wrong with passion, humor, disagreement and debate, that’s what Big Hollywood is all about, but ad hominem that dehumanizes is the tactic of a new generation eager to fit in with the A-list.  

Today we have “Transformers” star Megan Fox, joining a growing club — spouting this hateful nonsense:

“Transformers” bombshell-cum-uninhibited philosophizer also contemplates — reluctantly — what she would say to Megatron to keep him from destroying the world. “I’d barter with him,” she muses to the July, issue Total Film UK, “and say instead of the entire planet, can you just take out all of the white trash, hillbilly, anti-gay, super bible-beating people in Middle America?”

Any consequence is predictable. Worse case, if it looks like her display of ignorance might become a distraction in the coming “Transformers” hype-machine, Fox will apologize/explain on some venue like the “Tonight Show.” But the bottom line is that there will be no consequence within a community that finds that kind of talk about “those kinds of people” all okey-dokey.

Just for giggles, compare Megan Fox trashing mainstream Middle America with, oh, say, this…

“Well, I think it’s great that Americans are able to choose one or the other. We live in a land where you can choose same-sex marriage or opposite marriage. And you know what, in my country, in my family, I think that I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offense to anybody out there, but that’s how I was raised and that’s how I think it should be between a man and a woman. Thank you very much.”

Now, “Transformers” is going to make a ton of money no matter what Megan Fox says, but the fallout from this kind of star-behavior has already done irreparable damage. Today, the definition of what used to define a true movie star is all but dead.

People used to go to the movies to see stars, but with the possible exception of Will Smith, Denzel Washington and Adam Sandler (arguably there are a few others), those days are over. Most stars can’t even guarantee an opening weekend anymore.

 
The great (and very liberal) Paul Newman

George Clooney couldn’t open a supermarket without the word “Oceans” in the title; the combined firepower of Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr. did “The Soloist” little good; “Duplicity” might have made more money without Julia Roberts, and Harrison Ford’s a flop away from competing with Steven Seagal in the direct-to-video bin. Walk the aisles at Blockbuster and marvel at the familiar faces starring in films no distributor would invest a theatrical release on.

The days of “names” putting butts in seats are over. Today, the star of the movie is the concept. No concept, no profit. Doesn’t matter who’s in it.

Not every actor’s behaved as poorly as the usual suspects, not all of them deserved to lose their firepower, but there have been too many like Megan Fox spoiling it for the rest. And so the movie star has managed to accomplish the one thing capable of causing their own extinction: they’ve deconstructed themselves.

The myth and aura has vanished, and without that all we’re left with is mortals, and way too many unpleasant ones…

The love affair—and I’m using that term loosely—between Ava Gardner and Frank Sinatra was doomed from the start. Both stars were emotionally immature with little impulse control. Both were alcoholics, and both had a history of affairs with equally unstable partners.

And so The Voice and The Shape plunged into a tsunami of a relationship and a six-year marriage (1951 – 1957) punctuated by unbridled passion, threats of suicide, and metronomic doses of violence.

In Autumn of 1949 Gardner and Sinatra, not yet lovers, were both guests at the Palm Springs home of producer Darryl F. Zanuck. The liquor flowed, and the two stars locked in on each other like lethal missiles.

Ava said, “You’re still married.”

Frank responded, “No, doll, it’s all over. It is done.”

For hours they drank and flirted. Ava’s career was going through the roof. Her smoldering role as the femme fatale in “The Killers“—one of the best noir movies ever—catapulted her into the Hollywood stratosphere.

For a shoeless farm girl from North Carolina with no father and little education, Hollywood stardom was a dangerous perfume. In a few short years Ava went from being a sensitive, prim and proper virgin to a notoriously promiscuous, hard-drinking woman.

Sinatra’s career was in trouble. His records were not selling and MGM was anxious to drop his contract as his box office appeal faltered. Sinatra did not help himself by being obnoxious and hostile to the media.

Sinatra and Gardner exited Zanuck’s party with a bottle of booze in hand. They clambered into Sinatra’s Cadillac and putting pedal to metal, Sinatra roared into the night.

Driving along they passed the bottle back and forth.

Like two crazy kids, they were going nowhere fast.

Soon, they ended up in the small town of Indio. Sinatra pulled into the main street and parked. There he and Ava kissed and groped under the stars.

Taking a break from their make-out session, Ava tipped back her head for another long gulp of hooch. Sinatra leaned forward, opened the glove compartment and pulled out two .38 Smith & Wesson pistols.

Sinatra took aim at a street light and fired. Glass exploded. He aimed at another street light and hit it on the first shot.

Ava, a country girl who grew up around hunters, cried: “Let me shoot something.”

Sinatra grinned and handed her the second pistol. Whooping like a Confederate soldier Ava Gardner aimed at the twinkling stars and blasted away.

Frank stared at Ava, mesmerized, and he knew beyond a shadow of doubt that he had finally found his soul mate. Here was the most beautiful woman in Hollywood shooting up the inexplicable universe.

Ava downed more liquor, squinted down the barrel of the Smith & Wesson and fired into the window of a hardware store.

Ava shot the chambers empty and continued to shriek the rebel yell.

Sinatra put the huge Caddy into gear and headed back to Palm Springs. They didn’t get very far before they heard a police siren.

Two small town cops approached with guns leveled.

Sinatra said to Ava: “Christ, what do these clowns want now?”

A few hours later, as Ava lay unconscious on a wood bench in the police station, a publicist from Los Angeles arrived by chartered plane with a big black bag that he handed over to the cops.

Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner were released. There was no paper trail and no publicity.

Two small town cops enjoyed a comfortable retirement.

In the morning, back in Palm Springs, Ava Gardner’s sister, Bappie, was up having breakfast when Ava returned all rumpled and haggard and smelling like a speakeasy.

Bappie wanted to know where Ava was all night.

Ava replied: “I went out with Frank Sinatra. We had a wonderful time.”

Ava Gardner and Frank Sinatra party hard

My main source for this anecdote is Lee Server’s fine biography Ava Gardner, Love is Nothing.

Legal Disclaimer: Big Hollywood does not condone or recommend this style of dating. We strongly support meaningful conversation over coffee or tea, a night at the movies, respect for private property, and oh yeah, firearm safety.

Copyright © Robert J. Avrech

5am PST – Show Boat (1951) – Riverboat entertainers find love, laughs and hardships as they sail along “Old Man River.” Cast: Kathryn Grayson, Ava Gardner, Howard Keel, Joe E. Brown Dir: George Sidney C-108 mins, TV-G

“Show Boat” is all about Ava Gardner, who was so much more than just a pretty face. Here, as the victim of racial prejudice, or films such as “On the Beach” and “Night of the Iguana,” she was able to put across a tragic-laced melancholy that transcended her beauty and added an entire dimension to a character without a word of exposition.  The above clip is a perfect example. Ava’s singing voice may be dubbed but she sells the moment like few others could. I gotta love one man till I die…

YouTube’s removed the audio from their clips, but on the “Show Boat” DVD you can watch the same scene with Gardner’s original singing voice, and for my money it’s much better than the dub. A rare misstep by MGM.

“Show Boat” is also a reminder that wayyyy back in 1951, stuffy old, white-shoe Hollywood was both concerned with and handling matters of racial prejudice with a maturity, and yes, a nuance, Big Hollywood can’t seem to grasp. Classic Hollywood wanted to change hearts. Big Hollywood wants to strut their supposed superiority.