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As they do every year, Turner Classic Movies salutes the film professionals who left us this year with a poignant tribute video.

The background song is “Before You Go” by OK Sweethearts.

‘L.A. TIMES’ TO INSTITUTE PAYWALL IN FIRST QUARTER OF 2012

No one reads this rag now, but now by not reading we’ll save money. Nice.

PODCAST WITH ‘RISE OF THE APES’ SCREENWRITERS

The married screenwriting team of Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver talk about the five-year experience of making the film, from the germ of the idea straight through to production, and how they got started in Hollywood. No overnight successes in screenwriting. They also co-wrote “Eye for an Eye” and “The Relic,” two underrated favorites of mine.

Budding screenwriters should definitely give this a listen.

SIX ‘BASED ON A TRUE STORY’ FILMS WITH UNPLEASANT EPILOGUES

If we learned anything from How Stella Got Her Groove Back it’s that a 20-year-old is capable of having a mature and fulfilling relationship that’s not based on sex. This is still technically true for the real-life Stella, author Terry McMillan, who wrote the book on which the movie is based. See, her real-life Jamaican lover based their relationship not on sex, but on a love of getting the fuck out of Jamaica by any means possible, even if that meant faking interest in an American tourist twice his age. … But that fact alone isn’t why the couple is separating — as it turns out, Jonathan Plumber, the real-life Winston Shakespeare, is actually gay[.]

[…]

When Hinkley’s residents contacted Erin [Brockovich] about their concerns (“concerns” is a term that here means “money for our cancer bills”), they found that their one-time advocate was now unreachable. Once they finally received the money, they noticed that it was far less than they expected. That’s because the law firm, wanting more than the agreed-upon 40 percent of the settlement ($133 million), took an extra $10 million for “expenses.”

SPIELBERG OBVIOUSLY FEELING BURNED OVER ‘INDY 4′

Spielberg should be embarrassed:

Steven Spielberg won’t make a fifth ‘Indiana Jones’ movie to “prove any point”.

The filmmaker – who has directed all four of the previous installments in the franchise – does know many people did not enjoy the last movie ‘Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’, but would not work on further films just so he could win them round.

He told MTV News: “I would not make a fifth movie to prove any point. If we get a good story, I’ll make it. If George Lucas doesn’t think we should make any more, I’ll listen to him.

“I think audiences think we’re two for two. They love ‘Raiders’. They love ‘Last Crusade’. They don’t love as much ‘Temple of Doom’ or ‘Crystal Skull’.

“Temple of Doom” is fine, imperfect but very much saved by a truly magnificent third act.

“Crystal Skull” is excrement.

DENZEL WASHINGTON IN TALKS TO PLAY ‘THE EQUALIZER‘

Now that Paul Haggis is out, this is a great idea.

‘SHERLOCK HOLMES: A GAME OF SHADOWS’ REVIEW

A Game of Shadows is pure period action drama with a delicious camp twist (cross-dressing aside) that demonstrates Downey Jr has made Holmes as much a part of his nature, as Captain Jack Sparrow is to Depp’s. This alone will keep fans more than occupied throughout Ritchie’s second sleuthing romp – inflated run-time aside.

MATT DAMON TRASHES DIRECTOR OF NEW DAMON-LESS ‘BOURNE’ FILM

Bitter much?

In short, [Damon] was not a fan of the ['Bourne Ultimatum'] script. And in addition to calling out Tony Gilroy, he blames Universal for giving the screenwriter a sweetheart deal that only required one draft from him.

“It’s really the studio’s fault for putting themselves in that position,” Damon tells GQ. “I don’t blame Tony for taking a boatload of money and handing in what he handed in. It’s just that it was unreadable. This is a career-ender. I mean, I could put this thing up on eBay and it would be game over for that dude. It’s terrible. It’s really embarrassing. He was having a go, basically, and he took his money and left.”

“If I didn’t respect him and appreciate his talent, then I really wouldn’t have cared,” Damon said, referring to Gilroy. “My feelings were hurt. That’s all. And that’s exactly why I shouldn’t have said anything. This is between me and him. So saying anything publicly is f—ing stupid and unprofessional and just kind of douchey of me.

Damon? Douchey? Go on.

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LAST NIGHT’S SCREENING

Starting Over (1979): This is a reminder of just how talented an actor Burt Reynolds is. A wonderful film, an intelligent adult romance (written by James L. Brooks) made for adults with a number of memorable scenes and more than a few big laughs that aren’t in any way contrived or cheap.

Reynolds intentionally and effectively underplays the role of Phil Potter, a hapless newly single man who can’t get over his unfaithful ex-wife (Candice Bergen), even though he knows the new woman in his life (Jill Clayburgh) is much better for him. Bergen is young and sexy and holds the key to Potter’s self-confidence. Clayburgh is average-looking, not-so-young, but faithful, intelligent, and caring.

Candice Bergen (playing it perfectly straight) singing those awful songs and Jill Clayburgh standing out in the freezing cold screaming, “I’m not a one-nighter!” (until her nose literally starts to drip) are stand out moments for both actresses who would end up with Oscar nominations.

Reynolds is the one who most deserving of a nomination, though. Two years after “Smokey and the Bandit,” Reynolds completely disappears into this role and garners huge laughs and enormous sympathy with nothing more than a look. The best scenes involve Potter’s support group for divorced men.  It’s a nice subplot with a touching, bittersweet ending.

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SCOTTDS’ EPIC LINKTACULAR

BLU-RAY PLAYER $69.99

TRAILER FOR ‘ROCK OF AGES‘

VINTAGE MOVIE MARQUEES: ‘THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK’ (1980)

TRAILER FOR NICHOLAS SPARKS ADAPTATION ‘THE LUCKY ONE‘

CINEMA TRENDS OF 2011: ESCAPISM, INVASION, SEQUELS AND RESENTMENT

‘RIDDICK 3′ CONCEPT ART REVEALS THE JACKAL

THE 10 BEST MOVIE SONGS OF 2011

POSTER FOR ‘GHOST RIDER: SPIRIT OF VENGEANCE‘

FIRST OFFICIAL PHOTOS FROM ‘THE GREAT GATSBY‘

FATTY ARBUCKLE AND THE DEATH OF VIRGINIA RAPPE

ALEX PROYAS’ ‘PARADISE LOST’ DELAYED DUE TO BUDGET ISSUES

‘JERRY MAGUIRE’ STARS 15 YEARS LATER

DIRECTOR ELI ROTH AND NETFLIX TEAM UP FOR ORIGINAL HORROR SERIES

DISH MAY LAUNCH NETFLIX-LIKE STREAMING SERVICE

GREAT BUT FORGOTTEN: A BLOG DEDICATED TO MOVIES, BOOKS, ETC. THAT DESERVE TO BE LESS OBSCURE

THE 10 WORST THINGS HANNA-BARBERA EVER MADE

2011′S MOST BEAUTIFUL CELEBS

TOP 10 MAN’S LIFE MAGAZINE COVERS

WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR ‘MACGYVER’ SKILLS?

NEW ‘GHOST RIDER 2′ POSTER & EARLY REACTIONS

20 FACTS ABOUT ‘ABOUT A BOY‘

A LOOK BACK AT ‘DAMNATION ALLEY‘

CELEBRATING 60 YEARS OF ‘I LOVE LUCY‘

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CLASSIC PICK FOR THURSDAY, DECEMBER 15

TCM:

8:00 PM  EST: Life With Father (1947) –  A straitlaced turn-of-the-century father presides over a family of boys and the mother who really rules the roost. Dir: Michael Curtiz Cast:  William Powell, Irene Dunne, Elizabeth Taylor. C-118 mins, TV-G, CC.

TCM is loaded for bear with tomorrow’s schedule, but with a number of titles I’ve previously recommended. Regardless, this would still be my pick, a gentle, funny, and warm family story that I once watched three times in a single day. If you want to be transported to a simpler time and gentler place, movies don’t do it much better than this.

Another perfect offering for the kids. Beware, though, a young Elizabeth Taylor will surely steal your adolescent son’s heart and possibly ruin him for life in the process. Who could possibly compare?

Unfortunately, this is another one of those public domain titles where a decent DVD print seems impossible to find. Hopefully, someday, someone will do something about that.

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Please send comments, suggestions and tips to jnolte@breitbart.com or Twitter.

ROD STEWART PLAYS LAS VEGAS

Hard to believe Rod Stewart could turn 66 but he has and is now packing Caesar’s Palace in Sin City.

May he live forever.

About ten years ago I saw Stewart perform live. He wasn’t supporting an album, which can be the best time to catch your favorite artists live. Instead of supporting a new release by playing a bunch of new songs you don’t know, they mainly stick to the hits — and what a reminder that night was of just how many terrific hits Stewart has cranked out over the years. It was a two-and-a-half hour concert loaded with memories all performed by a superstar who was obviously having a great time — in Charlotte, North Carolina, no less.

It’s easy to forget how many great songs Stewart’s recorded over the decades. I found the same is true with John Mellencamp, Elton John, Billy Joel, Tina Turner, and Eddie Money. You tend to kind of forget these performers over the years, but if you take a moment to grab hold of a greatest hits collection or see them live, it’s striking how prolific they were and for how long.

Can anyone name more than a few present-day pop artists under the age 30 who will have that many hits, or even as many as Loverboy? (“Turn Me Loose” will now be stuck in your head all day. I apologize for nothing.)

IS ADAM SANDLER’S “JACK AND JILL” TRAILER FOR REAL?

I stopped second-guessing Adam Sandler after seeing “The Waterboy.” When that trailer came out, between the accent and concept, I was sure I was seeing the stupidest movie ever conceived. Then it made over $100 million (when that still meant something), then I fell in love with the DVD, and now it’s one of those movies I never tire of.

“Jack and Jill” is also directed By Dennis Dugan, the comedic genius behind many of Sandler’s biggest hits and THE GREAT UNDER-RATED COMEDY OF THE CENTURY: “Saving Silverman.”

Recognize.

R-E-C-O-G-N-I-Z-E.

As far as the J&J trailer goes, it kind of won me over when Al Pacino showed up.

A READER EMAIL REGARDING NETFLIX:

There’s no reason why you should know this, so don’t take it as criticism, but Netflix streaming is nearly worthless to hearing impaired people like me who need captions to understand what’s being said on the screen.  For some reason, Netflix streaming doesn’t do captions.

This is an excellent point and when you consider our aging populating, not a small thing. Not to diminish those who face serious hearing issues, but in deference to my lovely wife who rarely has trouble falling asleep, I prefer captions when watching television in bed at night and am frustrated by Netflix’s lack of them. So those with truly serious hearing issues…

Netflix isn’t short on cash. They should fix this.

WILL AND JADA’S MARRIAGE IN THE SPOTLIGHT

So rumors pop up about the state of Will Smith’s marriage, the couple denies the rumors, and now the entertainment media has only exploded the number of speculative stories they’re writing.

For everything I hate about the political and cultural biases in the entertainment media, that  pales in comparison to my loathing of the gossip media. I get that when you choose to become a superstar, you invite this kind of coverage. But it’s still an unfortunate price to have to pay.

The Smiths have children, young children, and whether the rumors are true or not (and who really cares?), no thought is ever given to the innocent bystanders in these matters.

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LAST NIGHT’S SCREENING

Damages (2007): Watched a couple more episodes and am happy to see that the flash-forwards have finally caught up with the main story. They were coming off as melodramatic, but I think they will now make more sense and actually add to the central plot. This isn’t addictive television like “The Wire,” “Lost” or “24,” but I am eager to see what happens next.

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QUICK HITS 

FOUR TEASER CLIPS FROM ‘THE WALKING DEAD’ SEASON 2

STEVE JOBS’ MOVIE LEGACY: PIXAR

HEADLINE I NEVER THOUGHT I’D WRITE: PHOTO OF STEVEN SEAGAL AND JOE THE PLUMBER AT REPUBLICAN FUNDRAISER

“MADE IN TAIWAN” AND 15 OTHER REJECTED “TOY STORY” TITLES

GRRR… GEORGE LUCAS ADDS CGI YODA ON STAR WARS: THE COMPLETE SAGA BLU-RAY

HOLLYWOOD WALK OF FAME BANS REALITY STARS

BECAUSE “THE WOLF MAN” REMAKE WAS SUCH A HIT…

ANOTHER GRATEFUL DEAD TOUR?

CHRISTIAN TOTO INTERVIEWS SADDAM HUSSEIN’S SON AND IRON MAN’S DAD

 THE APOCALYPSE IS NIGH

NOT A HEADLINE FROM 1998

SAM SHEPARD AS AN ELDERLY BUTCH CASSIDY IS A GREAT PIECE OF CASTING

I WISH

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CLASSIC PICK FOR FRIDAY, AUGUST 26

TCM:

4:00 PM  EST: Royal Wedding (1951) —   A brother-and-sister musical team find romance when they tour to London for Elizabeth II’s wedding. Dir: Stanley Donen Cast:  Fred Astaire, Jane Powell, Peter Lawford. C-93 mins, TV-G, C.

Though most famous — and deservedly so — for Astaire’s dazzlingly elegant dancing-on-the-ceiling number (Astaire’s moves with a coat rack are just as impressive), director Stanley Donen’s follow-up to his classic “On The Town” (which he co-directed with Gene Kelly), always surprises me by how good it is. Sure, the story surrounding all the complications that get in the way of True Love is light and predictable, but the execution is impeccable, all of the song and dance numbers are delightful, and Jane Powell (Donen’s third choice after Ginger Rogers and June Allyson) a real breath of fresh air.

“Royal Wedding” tends to get overlooked for a couple of reasons. First off, it lapsed into public domain, so people tend to associate it with all those awful, cheapie DVD releases. Second, it was released in the middle of a slew of higher-profile musical productions and outright masterpieces, such as “Annie Get Your Gun,” “Show Boat,” “An American in Paris,” and “Singin’ In the Rain.”

Stiff competition but “Royal Wedding” is still a deserving entry. It does the all-important job of capturing your attention, holding it, and delivering The Joy.

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

–WEREN’T WE JUST TALKING ABOUT MICHAEL RAPAPORT?–

Big Hollywood’s own Carl Kozlowski co-hosts a weekly (Thursdays 6-8pm PST) podcast called “GrandTheft Audio.” Tonight their special guest is actor Michael Rapaport.  Tune in here. And Sunday you can see the show live. More info here.

–DISNEY EXEC: “A GOOD SCRIPT IS UTTER BULL***T”–

In today’s Variety, Disney Exec Andy Hendrickson argues that moviegoers are only interested in spectacle and not story, and used the top 12 box office champs of all time to back up his claim.

You can argue as to whether or not that’s correct, but at the very least someone is telling the truth about the inexcusable crap studios are delivering these days.  But even if he’s right about moviegoer tastes, why not spectacle AND story? It’s not as though they’re mutually exclusive.

Hollywood can point to the Top 12 all they want, and no doubt that piece of junk “Avatar” is right at the top. But after the spectacle wears off, what does Hollywood have? After the technology is everywhere and no longer “spectacle” and all the “ooh” and “ahh” is removed, who’s going to return to James Cameron’s lame-o, Pocahontas-lite again?

Again, for argument’s sake, I’m not going to get into whether or not Hendrickson is correct about what audiences want today. But you would think these filmmakers would have a little pride in their work and would realize that the reason DeMille’s  ”Ten Commandments,”  Wyler’s “Ben-Hur,” Lean’s “Doctor Zhivago,” and all those terrific WWII epics such as “The Great Escape” and “The Guns of Navarone,” still attract audiences is solely due to the brilliance of their storytelling.

In so many words, what Hendrickson is saying is that no one gives a damn. Well, we already knew that, but if you look at the home video numbers, those chickens are coming home to roost in a big way.

–USA TODAY: “GEORGE LOPEZ EXITS WITH GRACE AND HUMOR.”–

Just as long as he exits.

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LAST NIGHT’S SCREENING

Boiler Room (2000): It’s like a college play with twenty-somethings bringing together the best of Oliver Stone’s “Wall Street” and David Mamet’s “Glengarry Glen Ross,” both of which are referenced in writer/director Ben Younger’s under-appreciated morality tale.  Giovani Ribisi plays Seth, a college drop-out who runs an illegal gambling operation that services bored college kids with too much money out of a cheap apartment. An old friend brings over a co-worker (the underrated Nicky Katt), a ridiculously wealthy stock broker who sees potential in Seth and offers him a job at his small firm.

From here, the story really sizzles because it takes you inside the world of a high-pressure brokerage firm and shows you how all the gears turn.  ”Don’t pitch the bitch,” young men making too much money, and the oddity of selling stocks Wall Street doesn’t, eventually adds up to a dilemma for Seth now that he’s in love with the firm’s secretary (Nia Long) and all that easy money.

The real star of the film, however , is Ron Rifkin, who plays Seth’s father — a sitting federal judge who stands to lose everything if the scandalous and illegal activities his estranged son engages in are ever discovered. Rifkin is simply superb in every scene and the complicated relationship between father and son is what drives the emotional center of the story and, eventually, the plot itself, all to great effect.

Though no “Wall Street” or “Glengarry,” “Boiler Room” is still an engaging film — well paced, structured, and acted — with Ben Affleck doing a pretty good Alec Baldwin impersonation.  

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TODAY’S QUICK HITS

FASCINATING GQ INTERVIEW/PROFILE OF JERRY LEWIS

FRANK CAPRA HONORED WITH U.S. POSTAGE STAMP      

PETER BOGDONOVICH ON “THE SEARCHERS”

HEAVEN HELP ME, I CAN’T UN-SEE THIS.

“STAR TREK” TO RETURN TO TV AS ANIMATED SERIES … AGAIN?

FALL MOVIE PREVIEW, UHM, PREVIEW

RIDDLER RUMORS SUROUND “DARK KNIGHT RISES.”

PLEASE, LORD, MAKE IT STOP.

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CLASSIC PICK FOR FRIDAY AUGUST 12, 2011

TCM:

1:30 AM EST:  Since You Went Away (1944) —   A mother and wife struggle to cope while her husband is off serving in World War II. Dir: John Cromwell Cast:  Claudette Colbert, Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten. BW-177 mins, TV-G, CC.

Oh, how I love this movie.

Wonderful cast, wonderful story, and the Golden Age of Hollywood at its best with big stars, watchable melodrama, and a patriotic streak a mile wide.

Producer David O. Selznick, who would forever be haunted with trying to reproduce his 1939 phenomenon “Gone With the Wind,” tried again here with this deeply moving story of the women left behind to cope during WWII. Obviously, he didn’t (and never would) quite succeed in that, but what you still have is one terrific and moving story that’s well worth every single one of its 177 minutes.

P.S. A fun game to play with every Claudette Colbert film is to try and imagine all the pre-production planning and effort that went into ensuring the right side of her face is never photographed — something she adamantly refused to allow in any of her pictures. Sets were built with this in mind. Tomorrow is Claudette Colbert day on TCM, so if you take a drink every time you see the right side of the Oscar-winner’s beautifully unique face, you’ll be sober as a judge.

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

–“DESPERATE TIMES FOR TV NETWORKS”–

Jace Lacob has an excellent article at the Daily Beast about the demise of scripted television, especially the serialized drama. Most telling is when he reminds us that up to 30 million people once watched “E.R.” Today’s biggest hit is “NCIS,” which reaches about 19 million viewers, whereas “House” and “Desperate Housewives” can’t reach ten million and “Mad Men” barely cracks 2 million.

The blame goes to where it always goes. Event reality shows like “American Idol,” Netflix, the Internet, the DVR… You also have cable networks eating into the broadcast network’s decades-long exclusive hold on audiences. MTV’s “Jersey Shore” recently pulled in nearly 9 million viewers and so did TNT’s “Rizzoli and Isles.” All of these reasons make sense, but you also have to look at the cultural aspects.

Now that people have almost unlimited choices at the click of a remote, they are turning towards programming, like “NCIS,” that’s more in line with their values. “American Idol” appeals to the conservative heartland for all kinds of reasons and (as I’ve mentioned before) networks like Discovery, The Learning Channel and History offer reality programming that stars masculine men, entrepreneurs, small business owners, and a host of people more like us — as opposed to toned Manhattan/Los Angeles-types on narcissistic quests to find themselves and loveless sex.

Furthermore, thanks to streaming, you no longer need to sit through “what’s on.” You no longer need to face a barrage of politically correct sex jokes on “Must-see TV!” You can program an evening with Dick Van Dyke, Andy Griffith, and “Mission: Impossible.”

An amazing technological transformation is happening to the entertainment business today, and it’s mostly a good thing. And this cultural reality created as a result is something the Left just doesn’t want to consider as they analyze these numbers.

–DISH NETWORK LOST 135,000 SUBSCRIBERS IN SECOND QUARTER–

We got angry at DirectTV last year over a price increase, jumped to Dish and have lived to regret it. The remote control sucks, especially the hyper-complicated DVR.

Honestly, if Fox News ever makes its way online, is ever available on some sort of streaming ala carte service, I’m done with cable altogether. I’m tired of paying for channels I never watch in these over-priced packages; tired of being forced to pay $60 a month for 50 channels when all we watch is four or five.

Right now the ONLY reason we have any kind of cable/satellite service is the access to Fox, and I’m thinking that pretty soon even that won’t be enough.

Eventually, most everything will stream or hit DVD. $16.99 to Netflix to watch what I want when I want, makes a whole lot more sense than paying hard-earned money to a bunch of loser channels.

Am I alone on this one?

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LAST NIGHT’S SCREENING

Cube (1997) — A nifty little one-location sci-fi flick that plays like a classic “Twilight Zone” episode. A group of well-defined characters wakes up in a perfectly square cube about the size of a freight elevator with  no clue as to why or how they got there. Very quickly they discover that one cube leads to another cube which leads to another cube which leads to… and on and on, possibly into infinity. Some of the cubes are booby-trapped, some are not, and in a race against time as dehydration looms, they have to work together to find their way out of what they discover is a human maze.  

What makes the story work so well is an inventive plot that keeps the story turns coming. You also have a group of people under intense pressure and as time passes and the cube starts picking them off one-by-one, the tension becomes unbearable.

Original, enthralling, and a perfectly paced 90-minutes. I’ve read that the film was produced for only a few hundred thousand dollars, which proves that nothing — no amount of money — beats a good story.  

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TODAY’S QUICK HITS

ANNE HATHAWAY IS FEARLESS ABOUT AGING. WHAT A RELIEF.

“DIRTY DANCING” REMAKE ANNOUNCED

HARRY POTTER FINALE 3RD HIGHEST-GROSSING FILM OF ALL TIME

“RIO” SETS SALES RECORD ON DVD AND BLU-RAY

“KNOCKED UP” SPIN-OFF COMING SOON

TRYING TO CARE. FAILING.

27 HITCHCOCK CAMEOS IN 4 MINUTES

MADONNA-LITE BORES US ALL AGAIN

THE JASON VORHEES’ BODY COUNT

‘STAND BY ME’ RELEASED — READY FOR THIS? — 25 YEARS AGO TODAY

“JAWS” TOLD PEANUTS-STYLE

FIVE SHOWS TO AVOID WHILE EATING

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CLASSIC PICK FOR WEDNESDAY AUGUST 10, 2011

TCM:

12:00 PM EST: Children’s Hour, The (1961) –  A malicious student tries to destroy the teachers at a girls’ school. Dir: William Wyler Cast:  Audrey Hepburn, Shirley MacLaine, James Garner. BW-108 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format

Probably the best film ever produced about the destructive power of a lie. The climax is especially poignant thanks to William Wyler’s outstanding direction and MacLaine’s heartbreaking performance. Just as good is James Garner who’s perfectly cast in a way that makes his character’s final moments all the more potent.

A remake of this near-classic would likely be an unmitigated disaster. In 1961, Hollywood was still censoring themselves and while we all oppose censorship, I will always argue that Hollywood’s self-imposed restrictions during their Golden Age had a lot to do with why there was a Golden Age — and this near-classic is a perfect example. Homosexuality is a story-thread that runs throughout and the subtle maturity used to explore this and the prejudice of homophobia brings the message home in a way that a more explicit or “sophisticated” update ever could. The very thought of present-day Hollywood stridently telling this story makes me shudder.

The film is based on a stage play written by Lillian Hellman in 1934 and a remake of Wyler’s own 1936 “These Three” — which stripped the story of its lesbian theme. Hellman based the  play (her first hit) on a true story and it was the first to touch on the subject of homosexuality ever staged on Broadway. It was revived in London earlier this year with Keira Knightley and Elizabeth Ross in the leads — and we should all take a moment to pray this doesn’t lead to a film adaptation.

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

First off,  I would be remiss if I did not thank Associate Editor Alex Marlow and all the contributors who gave me great peace of mind during my cross-country move. Big Hollywood didn’t miss a step while I was away. A great job was done by all.  Also, a big, BIG thanks to Andrew Breitbart and his business partner Laurence Solov for simply saying “yes,” when I asked about moving home and, most importantly, for creating the kind of work environment I was eager to return to.

The Morning Call Sheet is planned as a new Monday through Friday feature that will be a sort-of summary/round up of the day’s big news from Hollywoodland, as well as other things as they come up. While the marquee is mostly devoted to the intersection of pop culture and politics, the Morning Call Sheet will give you a rundown of that as well as the day’s straight entertainment news. The hope here is to eventually turn this into a regular newsletter. With help and input from others, the Morning Call Sheet is likely to change and evolve over time. Meaning: tips and suggestions can either be noted in the comments or emailed to jnolte@breitbart.com.

But for now, it’s inauguration time…

–BOX OFFICE:

Transformers, Horrible Bosses, and The Zookeeper are doing well. As if movie stars aren’t already having enough trouble (see below), two star-driven vehicles have flopped miserably. The duo of Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks has already collapsed in week 2 and Jim Carrey’s latest is DOA in week 4.

–ANDREW KLAVAN’S FINAL CHAPTER OF HIS “HOMELANDER” SERIES, “THE FINAL HOUR,” IS ALREADY AVAILABLE AT AMAZON. SOME EARLY REVIEWS HERE.

The Homelander trilogy is not only an exciting, extremely well-written, page-turner of a series (even though they’re written for young adults, I read the first two with little difficulty), it’s the rare fiction novel any parent who believes in God, America, and the evil of terrorism can hand to a child without worrying that after they close the back cover, they will demand you throw away your 100 watt light bulbs.

Conservatives looking for quality entertainment that fits their values, need look no further. Read chapter one here. Even better news … a film version is in the works.

–CUBA SHOOTS ITS FIRST ZOMBIE MOVIE ‘JUAN OF THE DEAD‘

Supposedly the story has something to do with immigration, which is probably the least of Cuba’s worries.

In the film, Havana is overrun by Zombies while’s Cuba’s Commie leaders insist it’s just a plot by US-backed dissidents to bring down the government. It is up to the hero Juan to rid the island of the undead for money. But as the zombie outbreak begins to spread, he is left with no choice but to fight for his own survival.

According to Bruges…

“It’s a zombie film but it’s about Cubans and how we react in the face of a crisis because we’ve had a lot of them here over the last 50 years[.]“ 

“It is a social comedy, it has a bit of everything. It has horror, it has action and it pretty much laughs in the face of problems.”

In other words, hilarity ensues.

Watch the trailer here.

–OH-SO LIBERAL HOLLYWOOD UNDERCUTTING UNIONS?

Say it isn’t so:

Judging from this summer’s output of star-free studio movies, the major difference between the sports world and Hollywood is that showbiz moguls have actually found a way to promote their product without having to rely on the costliest element in the talent equation — the star. “X-Men” and “Transformers” are saleable brands, even without a big name on the marquee. The studios are operating a lot like small-market sports teams like the Tampa Bay Rays — they’re building box-office behemoths using younger, comparatively underpaid talent. …

“It may not be as dramatic as what’s happening in sports, but we’re seeing a steady effort on the part of the studios to erode the status and union power of writers, actors and directors,” he said. “In the feature-writing business, quotes don’t mean anything anymore – -now the studios work backwards from what they’re willing to pay for a job, and if you don’t take the offer, they move on. The size of writing staffs are smaller. The studios are chipping away at everything involving talent.”

More proof, that the era of the movie star is coming to an end. Other than Adam Sandler, Will Smith, Denzel Washington, and Sandra Bullock, stars are no longer the draw. Concept is. One reason for this is that America simply doesn’t like their movie stars as much as they once did. It’s just a fact that they lack the powerful charisma and mystery stars of the past possessed in ways that made them immortal. There are many reasons for this, but just for starters, rather than simply advocate for their own beliefs, too many of today’s celebrities openly insult those who dare disagree — which has done permanent damage to the overall brand.

John Garfield might have flirted with communism, but he never called me a Nazi.

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QUICK HITS

–TRAILER FOR THE NEW ADAM/MADAM SANDLER FILM? OR… IS SANDLER PUNKING CRITICS?

–PRODUCTION VIDEO FROM “THE HOBBIT”

--”DARK KNIGHT RISES” TRAILER TO SCREEN AHEAD OF “HARRY POTTER”?

–COOL POSTER FOR “SHERLOCK HOLMES” SEQUEL

–INTERNATIONAL TRAILER FOR STEVEN SPIELBERG/PETER JACKSON “TINTIN”

–ANOTHER IMMORTAL PIECE OF CINEMA HISTORY SCHEDULED TO BITE THE DUST

–THE SITUATION HAS A SITUATION

–‘GI JOE 2′ HAS A VILLAIN: FIREFLY

–HAVE WE REACHED THE END OF ‘TRANSFORMERS’?

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CLASSIC PICK FOR TUESDAY JULY 12TH

Turner Classic Movies:

6:00 PM  EST Jailhouse Rock (1957) –  After learning to play the guitar in prison, a young man becomes a rock ‘n roll sensation. Dir: Richard Thorpe Cast: Elvis Presley, Judy Tyler, Mickey Shaughnessy.  BW-96 mins, TV-G, CC, Letterbox Format

Tomorrow evening, Turner reminds us that before celebrity and narcotics and Hal B. Wallis got a hold of him, once upon a time Elvis Presley was not only a promising young actor but also the coolest man on the planet. Marvelous soundtrack, and it’s been reported that Elvis himself choreographed the immortal title number.

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Again, the Morning Call Sheet is going to morph and change over time. Please drop a comment or send any tips/suggestion to jnolte@breitbart.com.

In 1964, age 14, I shlepped from Brooklyn into Manhattan to see the British movie Girl With Green Eyes. Those were the days when I actually took movie critics oh-so-seriously. Okay, I was a dopey teenager, what did I know?

Here’s what I remember:

Actress Rita Tushingham: Her name made me giggle because Tushingham is just too close to the Yiddish word tushy, which means butt. My maternal grandmother Chana Gittel used to pinch my rear and exclaim: “Tushy-sweet!”

Everyone in my family thought this was just hysterical.

I wasn’t so sure.

Also, I was kind of huh? about Tushingham. She did not look or sound like a real movie star.

True confession: I was, and probably remain, totally superficial; ga-ga over Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, and of course Brigitte Bardot, though I had not seen one of her movies, only endless photographs which were quite enough to induce sleepless adolescent nights.

Also, I kept staring in horror at co-star Lynn Redgrave’s crooked teeth. Sheesh, even movie stars in Britain can’t get decent dental care. At the time I figured they didn’t have Jewish dentists in Britain. Now I know about the National Health Service. Socialized medicine means periodontal disease… for all.

So I sat in this art house movie theater feeling all sophisticated and —

Bored.

To.

Death.

About ten minutes into the film I was thinking:

1. Is this film in English? Because it really needs subtitles.

2. When does the story begin?

3. Is there a plot?

I think I fell asleep. Probably dreamed of BB.

Anyhoo.

Girl With Green Eyes was on TCM recently and I decided to give it another chance. Forty-seven years is a long time and surely my tastes have changed, hopefully matured.

Synopsis: Tushingham is Kate Brady a young Catholic farm girl who comes to Dublin to find work. She falls in love with the much older and divorced writer Eugene Gaillard, Peter Finch. That’s it. No clever plot twists, no car chases, no nude scenes, no gun battles, no drama. Just meandering scenes spliced together with zero awareness of structure.

Okay, older and wiser me has to admit that Rita Tushingham is a pretty skilled actress. She does not do glamour. No way. But she is a proper working class heroine, a Marxist pin-up.

Finch is also pretty darned good, though he’s hobbled by a role which locks him into endless dour and humorless scenes. But he’s got a great rugged look and it’s easy to see why Vivien Leigh cheated on Laurence Olivier with the emotionally volcanic Australian.

Girl With Green Eyes is a classic example of kitchen sink realism, all the rage in Britain from the late fifties to the mid-sixties, a tedious and mannered cinematic movement that has much in common with Soviet Socialist realism. Other films of this genre are Look Back in Anger (1959), Room at the Top (1959), The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962), The Pumpkin Eater (1964), and Alfie (1966.)

Don’t ask me why, but I stayed with this reel of Thorazine. I wanted to like it because, in truth, I want to like every movie I watch.

Rita Tushingham and Peter Finch in Girl With Green Eyes, 1964.

And then it was all worth it.

One scene.

One line of dialogue.

Tushingham, a devout Catholic, attends Mass. Finch, a cynical and world-weary intellectual, waits outside for his young lover. When she exits church he asks why she bothers with religion. Tushingham’s Kate replies:

“Because when I don’t go to Mass I feel all the goodness going out of me.”

I actually sat up, hit the rewind button and played the scene again. A few times.

Because this little throwaway scene should have been the spine of the movie if the screenwriter and director had understood or cared about dramatic velocity.

It’s a lovely moment that is the saving grace of an otherwise unbearably boring and flabby movie. Tushingham delivers the line with a touching mixture of strength, innocence and spiritual bewilderment. Finch’s reaction shot is perfectly modulated to her heartfelt declaration. He realizes in a stunning rush of clarity that they have no future.

In a sense, G-d has intervened in a doomed relationship.

Forty-seven years later, Girl With Green Eyes delivers a moment in time that’s been worth the wait.

6 a.m. – Lassie Come Home (1943): Roddy McDowall and Edmund Gwenn.

7:30 a.m. – National Velvet (1944)  Mickey Rooney, Anne Revere and Angela Lansbury.

10 a.m. – Conspirator (1952): Robert Taylor and Robert Flemyng.

11:30 a.m. – Father of the Bride (1950): Spencer Tracy, Billie Burke, Joan Bennett.

1:15 p.m. – Father’s Little Dividend (1951): Spencer Tracy, Billie Burke, Joan Bennett.

2:45 p.m. – Raintree County (1957): Montgomery Clift, Eva Marie Saint, Lee Marvin, Rod Taylor.

6 p.m. – Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958): Paul Newman and Burl Ives.

8 p.m. – Butterfield 8 (1960): Laurence Harvey and Eddie Fisher.

10 p.m. – Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966): Richard Burton, George Segal.

12:30 a.m. – Giant (1956): with James Dean and Rock Hudson.

4 a.m. – Ivanhoe (1952): with Robert Taylor and Joan Fontaine.

The 2011 TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood also will feature a special 60th anniversary screening of her brilliant performance opposite Montgomery Clift in George Stevens’ A Place in the Sun (1951). The TCM Classic Film Festival takes place April 28-May 1.

Read full write-up here.

TCM recently aired a seven part documentary on the foundation of Hollywood through 1970 that covered about eighty years of film history. This impossible task was a nice change of pace for the network and hopefully will spark a follow up series. However, taking on so much history in such a short amount of time forced the show to grossly oversimplify certain elements and leave other crucial happenings completely out of the picture. Sure, there were more conservatives in Hollywood in 1940 than today, but the political landscape was different (conservatives and liberals joined against Fascism and Socialism, for starters).

Big Hollywood’s John Nolte, who certainly knows a thing or two about classic Hollywood, recently caught up on Moguls and Movie Stars and was not happy. His criticism was that the series dwelled on the idea that the Studio System, complete with a self-censoring office, held back the full potential of the film industry. Nolte makes a great point in telling us that this doesn’t mean that Hollywood’s full potential is necessarily better. The same reason I argued that conservatives love TCM is why so many people prefer classic films over the new garbage spewing from Tinsel Town. Nolte notes that the series constantly reminds us of why the moguls and their politics were in the way, which is far from the truth:

“Most importantly, these were the men who created, oversaw, guided, and managed an industry that earned the affection of the free world for decades through the bringing together of all the arts — performance, design, dance, music, lighting, the written word — into works that still capture our imaginations. Compare that to today’s Hollywood, an industry that’s now a culturally divisive punch line in jokes about sequels, remakes, spoiled celebrities, and self-importance.”

The truth is that Hollywood would be nothing without men like Jack Warner, Walt Disney, Adolf Zukor, Irving Thalberg, David O. Selznick and many, many more like them. Sure, most of these guys were conservative (leftist historians constantly remind us of this but forget these moguls, many who were immigrants, embodied the American Dream), but the truth is what they did worked. Thomas Schatz, author of the excellent study on the Studio Era The Genius of the System, explores how the system wasn’t perfect, “but somehow it worked, and it worked well.” The nature of the Studio System was conflicted, but it was also drastically more collaborative than most of today’s productions.

While I enjoyed Moguls and Movie Stars, as a film historian it was frustrating to see the single network dedicated to classic filmmaking show such ignorance to some of the most important aspects of the system. They didn’t explain why it worked, only that the conservative moguls were tyrants who oppressed actors and filmmakers. On some occasions they did, but it doesn’t come close to the whole picture. Even director Peter Bogdanovich, who was interviewed for the series, explains that another seven hours or more is necessary to get a better picture of Hollywood. While Bogdanovich (who is also a film historian) may approve of the historical slant of the series, I assume he realizes the oversights that were made.

It takes much more than a matter of hours to understand the depth of the Hollywood Studio System. I have been studying film history for many years and am still continually digging into this magnificent and engaging era. Anyone who loves classic movies and is told that the Golden Age was only full of oppression, censorship and blacklisting needs to do further research on their own. It is impossible to picture Martin Scorsese without Raoul Walsh, John Hughes without Frank Capra or the Coen brothers without Billy Wilder. The Golden Age demanded excellence and has earned eternal respect from anyone who takes the time to see the whole picture.

Remember, the Studio System was a success not a travesty. More people will be appreciating classics like Casablanca, Gone with the Wind, and It’s a Wonderful Life than will be watching Avatar, Harry Potter, or even good films like The Social Network in the next year. Why is this? Because the Studio System continuously churned out great pictures by the month instead of by the decade. Films of the Golden Age were driven more by what the public wanted and less by political ideology, the greatness of this era will no doubt trump today’s Hollywood for many years to come.

There were also a number of eye-rolling moments. The series found it impossible to mention John Wayne without also mentioning he didn’t serve in WWII and went so far as to remind us that while Ronald Reagan served in the Reserves during the war he never left American soil. Naturally, they failed to mention that much to the future President’s frustration, he was disqualified for combat due to extreme near-sightedness.

Furthermore, as though there isn’t one today, the documentary covered the political blacklist of the 1950s and spent an inordinate amount of time arguing against the dreaded Hollywood Production Code, a set of self-imposed guidelines created by industry moguls that spelled out what was and wasn’t acceptable content in motion pictures. According to TCM, any film ”brave” enough to buck up against the dreaded Code was to be celebrated as some sort of moral victory. If you didn’t know any better, you would think the arrival “Bonnie and Clyde” — the film that pretty much marked the end of the Production Code — was as important and liberating as the fall of the Berlin Wall. Hollywood has finally arrived, the documentary seems to say.

Really?

I hate censorship as much as anyone, but I’m not blind to the idea that maybe movies were better under those restrictions, that maybe forcing artists to find more creative ways to telegraph sex, violence, adultery and the like forced them to create better art. The fall of the Production Code did create a new Golden Era of filmmaking during the 1970s, but it was an awfully short-lived one, nothing like the decades between the late ’20s through the late ’50s. Maybe you can’t blame a lack of censorship on the poor quality of films over the last few decades, but I’ll take the results of any one of those awful, stifling years under the dreaded Production Code over any five years post-1970.

The point the documentary appeared most determined to make was that the moguls (and we are repeatedly reminded that they were political conservatives) — Louis B. Mayer, Jack Warner, Darryl F. Zanuck, Sam Goldwyn, Harry Cohn, Adolf Zukor, etc. – were in the way; that they were meddling micro-managers blocking artistic progress, little more than ruthless businessmen eager to consolidate their power and boost their bottom line all at the expense of what could’ve been had they not been so darned conservative.

Yes, they were tough businessmen, but other than an increase in hypocrisy nothing’s changed in Liberated Hollywood. But these moguls were also the men who oversaw four decades of unparalleled artistry, who understood how the motion picture industry worked (because they created it) and who knew from their own backgrounds as impoverished immigrants what the everyday American was looking for up on that screen. These were the men who created immortal screen legends through a movie star farm system and did the same with directors, screenwriters and other behind-the-scenes artists who frequently toiled for years making cheap quickies before a famous title reached their resumes.

Most importantly, these were the men who created, oversaw, guided, and managed an industry that earned the affection of the free world for decades through the bringing together of all the arts — performance, design, dance, music, lighting, the written word — into works that still capture our imaginations. Compare that to today’s Hollywood, an industry that’s now a culturally divisive punchline in jokes about sequels, remakes, spoiled celebrities, and self-importance.

Maybe in this arena I’m being too hard on TCM (the “Film 101″ criticism stands), too defensive on behalf of those I credit with bringing so much joy into my life.  The series did recognize much of what these moguls accomplished, but there just seemed to be this running subtext that as the era of the moguls came to an end, things got better! As though these incredible men were somehow in the way of unleashing the full potential of their own creation. Well, maybe that’s true, but that doesn’t mean that the full potential of their creation is more attractive than the more disciplined one.

And I would like to ask TCM what their thoughts are on the New Production Code? Where was the closing warning about the self-imposed censorship happening today in motion pictures; where you can show all the sex, violence, torture and drug use you want, but cigarette smoking is a big no-no. What about the fact that  in movies today you can make attractive such deadly habits as loveless sex and crime, but the gay jokes have to stop? How is the New Censorship any different from the old Production Code?

Is Hollywood really more liberated and tolerant today? Are the leftists who run the entertainment industry today any less ruthless in their thirst for power than the moguls, any less artistically censorious with their PC commands than the Production Code, any more tolerant of those who disagree with their politics than the Blacklisters?

No. In many ways they’re worse, especially for women.

The only thing that’s different in today’s Hollywood is the political ideology of those who run things, and that in comparison to the conservative, America-loving moguls who started with nothing and changed the world … their movies suck.

That’s the real history of Hollywood.