TCM Salutes Fred MacMurray

Posted on January 5, 2016 at 3:40 pm

Turner Classic Movies is leading off 2016 with a great choice for their star of the month: Fred MacMurray. I grew up watching him as the genial single dad in “My Three Sons,” and the inventor of flubber (flying rubber) in “The Absent-Minded Professor.” It was only when I was a teenager that I discovered he was outstanding in films that included dark comedy (the fiendish boss in “The Apartment”), light romantic comedy (“Take a Letter, Darling”), westerns (“The Trail of the Lonesome Pine”), musicals (“Where Do We Go From Here?”), Disney family movies (“The Shaggy Dog”), touching love stories (“Remember the Night”), and the film noir classic, “Double Indemnity.”

MacMurray worked with top directors including Edward Dmytryk (“The Caine Mutiny”), George Stevens (“Alice Adams”), Mitchell Leisen (“No Time for Love”), Billy Wilder (“The Apartment”) and Preston Sturges (“Remember the Night”) and actors Barbara Stanwyck, Humphrey Bogart, Marlene Dietrich and, in seven films, Claudette Colbert, beginning with “The Gilded Lily” (1935). He co-starred with Katharine Hepburn in “Alice Adams” (1935), with Joan Crawford in “Above Suspicion” (1943), and with Carole Lombard in four films: “Hands Across the Table” (1935), “The Princess Comes Across” (1936), “Swing High, Swing Low” (1937), and “True Confession” (1937). Here we see him go from insurance salesman to murder accomplice because Barbara Stanwyck is so impossible to resist. “I wonder if you wonder.”

On Wednesdays this month, TCM will show some of his best films, including “Double Indemnity,” “Too Many Husbands,” “Remember the Night,” “Woman’s World,” and “Callaway Went Thataway,” plus one of my favorite goofy movies, “Kisses for My President,” where he plays the husband of the first woman President.

Other 2015 Bests: Character Actors, Kisses, Indies, Docs

Posted on January 5, 2016 at 8:00 am

The Golden Globes will be awarded this week, followed by the Broadcast Film Critics Awards on January 17, 2016 and the Oscars next month. But none of them are likely to mention the following, which I came across in year-end best lists and especially enjoyed.

Stephanie Merry wrote about the year’s best character actor performances for the Washington Post, from the feisty Vuvalini in “Mad Max: Fury Road,” to Bing Bong in “Inside Out,” Sam Elliott in “Grandma” (and, I’d add, “I’ll See You in My Dreams” and “The Good Dinosaur”), and Big Dick Richie in “Magic Mike XXL” her choices are both surprising and, once you consider them, inevitable. I love character actors, and was really delighted to see Merry give them the attention they deserve and so seldom receive.

Roxana Hadadi’s list of the best and worst kisses and sex scenes for Punch-Drunk Critics was a treat because she explains what each moment gives to the film’s story and characters.

WhatsCulture has a great list of the year’s best independent films, from “Tangerine” (shot on an iPhone) to big-budget productions featuring well-known stars like Joel Edgerton and Joaquin Phoenix.

Newsweek’s list of the year’s best documentaries includes Colin Hanks’ film about Tower Records, films about the late Amy Winehouse and Kurt Cobain, the story of the legendary interview of Alfred Hitchcock by Francois Truffaut, and “The Look of Silence,” the companion piece to Joshua Oppenheimer’s stunning “Act of Killing.”

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Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn Dance in the New Year

Posted on December 31, 2015 at 11:44 am

Here’s a scene from my favorite New Year’s movie, Holiday, starring Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, and Lew Ayres.

Happy new year to all!

Die Hard: McClane Meets Hans

Posted on December 19, 2015 at 8:00 am

Yes, Die Hard is a Christmas movie. And this scene, featured in my book, 101 Must-See Movie Moments, is one of my favorites.

Writer Rodrick Thorp saw the movie, “The Towering Inferno,” and that night he dreamed of a man being chased through an office building by men with guns. He turned that idea into a sequel to his book, The Detective (made into a movie by that name starring Frank Sinatra). And that book, which he called Nothing Lasts Forever was adapted for one of the most enduringly popular action films of all time, “Die Hard,” starring Bruce Willis.

It is Christmas. New York City cop John McLane (Willis) is on his way to see his estranged wife at her new office in the Nakatomi building, a skyscraper in LA. But the building is taken over by Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman in his first feature film) who wants the authorities to think he is a terrorist. That is a diversion — he is just after money in the form of bearer bonds. Gruber has figured everything out based on standard police procedures. But McLane is anything but standard. He hides out in the building and defeats Gruber’s men one by one as they come after him, despite a lot of interference from well-meaning cops, civilians, and a television reporter and with some help from a good-hearted local police officer.

Willis is ideally cast as a wise-ass cop who does not play by the rules. His wife (Bonnie Bedelia) sees how angry one of the bad guys is and instantly knows her husband is still alive: “Only John can drive someone that crazy.” The script, largely based on Thorp’s book, is clever and exciting. But one of the best plot turns was impromptu, inspired by some off-screen fooling around.

Rickman, now best known as “Harry Potter’s” Severus Snape, was born in London and is a classically trained actor. This is a rare instance where a newcomer playing the villain takes full advantage of the audience’s unfamiliarity to keep surprising us. (Another good example is Edward Norton, who was nominated for an Oscar for his performance in “Primal Fear.”)

As Gruber, Rickman speaks with a German accent. For most of the movie, while we see Gruber, his only contact with McLane is his voice, via the walkie-talkie and intercom system.

Then the two men see each other for the first time and we expect a confrontation. But Rickman was showing off his impeccable American accent between scenes and director John McTiernan realized that this presented a great opportunity for a twist.

McLane rushes in and sees a man who starts talking to him with a perfect American accent and the demeanor of a frightened executive who has never been exposed to violence. Gruber seamlessly eases straight into another accent and another persona. As the final version of the shooting script puts it, “The transformation in his expression and bearing are mind-boggling.” Instead of the icy German barking orders, he is immediately a completely convincing terrified American, begging McLane not to shoot. We know it is Gruber, but McLane doesn’t.

Whether McLane is convinced or not is for us to discover. But at that moment, Rickman is so persuasive, even some audience members may be confused.

A Christmas Carol: Alastair Sim’s Scrooge Visits Fred

Posted on December 16, 2015 at 8:00 am

The one movie I make sure to watch every year at Christmas is the Alastair Sim version of “A Christmas Carol.” The final scene always brings me to tears.