‘Meet John Doe’ and the Old Fakearoo

Dear Reader,

Do you have a little time to sit back and examine a classic movie that will absolutely shock you when seen through the prism of now? This is not my typical short article or essay. This is my own argument that what occurs in the 1941 picture “Meet John Doe” is exactly what has come to pass in America today with the Democratic Congress and their Presidential puppet. All the players and plays are clearly represented here and I was lucky enough to find the entire movie available on YouTube in small 7-10 minute scenes. I have selected only the scenes that I feel you must watch. But please, by all means, Netflix this movie before someone bans it.

“Meet John Doe” was released in 1941, written by Robert Riskin and based upon a treatment titled “The Life and Death of John Doe,” written by Richard Connell and Robert Presnell.  The film was directed by Frank Capra. The plot of the movie clearly shows how a media conspiracy could get a President elected and use him to “turn out the lights on freedom.” The similarity between the movie’s plot and today’s political situation is surreal. Add in the fact that Gary Cooper’s “John Doe” is modeled after Jesus Christ and you’ll be even more chilled at how a power hungry, ruthless political party figures out how to use a fake version of Him for their own gain. The claim by liberals that this is the practice of the religious right will be shattered once you’ve watched all the clips posted here. (more…)

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Tags: Barbara Stanwyck, Capra Corn, conservative hollywood, D.B. Norton, Edward Arnold
Posted Jun 30th 2009 at 11:10 am in Classic Hollywood | 860382 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/mmcgruther/2009/06/30/the-old-fakearoo/%27Meet+John+Doe%27+and+the+Old+Fakearoo2009-06-30+18%3A10%3A19Michael+McGruther

The Day Gary Cooper Liberated Poland

For some strange reason, the image of Gary Cooper on that famous Solidarity poster popped into my head today. So I Googled it and was surprised to see that today is in fact the twentieth anniversary of the elections, and the successful Solidarity candidacy in those elections, that the poster promoted. The poster is doubly iconic, both because of its historical significance and because the image of Cooper from 1952’s “High Noon” was already iconic when the poster was produced. If you haven’t seen “High Noon,” by the way, go see it. Right now. And shame on you.

This being that anniversary, it’s a good day to recollect how much passion, honor, and gritty philosophy went into those old Westerns, how much they can still teach us today, and how much good the American Western has done not just for America, but for the world: the image of Cooper walking alone down that dusty black and white street is a reminder that sometimes when you do good, you have to do it alone. (more…)

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Tags: 20th anniversary, gary cooper, Poland, Solidarity
Posted Jun 4th 2009 at 4:48 pm in Entertainment, Politics | 152230One Commenthttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jlima/2009/06/04/the-day-gary-cooper-liberated-poland/The+Day+Gary+Cooper+Liberated+Poland2009-06-04+23%3A48%3A18Joe+Lima

Haunted by the Memory of Her Song: Fifty Years of ‘Rio Bravo’

The sun is sinking in the west
The cattle go down to the stream
The redwing settles in her nest
It’s time for a cowboy to dream….

Exquisitely crafted, but never ostentatious. Pleasantly mellow, but never lazy. Thematically rich, but never preachy. Respectful of tradition, but never stolid. Deeply compassionate, but never descending into schmaltz. Five decades ago, a group of men now long-dead (and, it must be said, one smokin’-hot woman, still-living) followed an aged veteran director into the Arizona desert to make a humble, heartfelt western based firmly on quintessentially American notions of courage, decency, and good humor. The result of their collaboration, Rio Bravo (1959), remains one of the great visceral pleasures of cinema.

Howard Hawks’ masterpiece stemmed from his disgust with the joyless anti-heroics of uptight, melodramatic westerns like Fred Zinnemann’s High Noon (1952) and Delmer Daves’ 3:10 to Yuma (1957) — dark “message movies” that seemed to revel in smugly depicting small-town Americans as cynics and cowards. The man behind such classics as Scarface (1932), Only Angels Have Wings (1939), To Have and Have Not (1944), Red River (1948), and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) was in his early sixties in 1958, his career winding down after decades of constant production. He had interned for Famous Players-Lasky way back in 1916, and directed his first features in the mid-1920s. Thirty years later he was old and tired, and his last film, Land of the Pharaohs (1955), had been a disheartening flop. Since then, the previously prolific director hadn’t helmed a picture in three years, an unheard-of period of self-exile for a man who had cranked out movies regularly for decades. But the brazen slap across the face that High Noon had given America’s western mythology had bothered him. “I made Rio Bravo,” he later told an interviewer, “because I didn’t like High Noon. Neither did Duke. I didn’t think a good town marshal was going to run around town like a chicken with his head cut off asking everyone to help. And who saves him? His Quaker wife. That isn’t my idea of a good western.” (more…)

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Tags: 3:10 to Yuma (1957), academy awards, alfred hitchcock, Allen Barra, Angie Dickinson
Posted May 3rd 2009 at 5:30 am in Entertainment, Featured Story | 1221545 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/lgrin/2009/05/03/haunted-by-the-memory-of-her-song-fifty-years-of-rio-bravo/Haunted+by+the+Memory+of+Her+Song%3A+Fifty+Years+of+%27Rio+Bravo%272009-05-03+12%3A30%3A38Leo+Grin

Top 5: Is The Color Film Big Hollywood’s Problem?

My original plan was to do a top five list of today’s actors under thirty-five with more personality than the ShamWow! guy, but you can only tap your chin so long.

To try and explain away the fact that the true movie star is fast becoming extinct, a few apologists over the years have tossed out the excuse that there’s no way today’s celebrities, er, uhm, actors can compete with their historical counterparts because color, unlike black and white, makes them too human and thus brings them down to earth. It would be foolish to completely dismiss that idea, but not as foolish as raising it before, oh, say, a lack of presence, talent, and most of all, class. Of course, if you’re determined to hold that position you must also believe that putting Ashton and the Jessica-of-the-day in a good noir film would change everything. (more…)

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Tags: errol flynn, gary cooper, ingrid bergman, john wayne, Linda Darnell
Posted Feb 4th 2009 at 12:17 pm in Top 5 | 4113861 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jjmnolte/2009/02/04/top-5-is-the-color-film-big-hollywoods-problem/Top+5%3A+Is+The+Color+Film+Big+Hollywood%27s+Problem%3F2009-02-04+20%3A17%3A10John+Nolte