A Look at Remakes (And Not All of Them Are Terrible)

Posted on October 12, 2015 at 2:19 pm

The blogger behind Phyllis Loves Classic Movies held an invitational blogathon on a subject many people have strong feelings about: remakes. Phyllis herself took on one, or I should say, two of my favorites: “My Favorite Wife” with Irene Dunne and Cary Grant and “Move Over Darling” with Doris Day and James Garner. (The original remake was to star Marilyn Monroe and Dean Martin, but she was fired shortly before she died and he refused to continue without her.) I was always intrigued by one difference between the two: the 1940 version has the missing wife as a much more independent character with a career, while the 1963 version reflects the era’s more limited idea of the scope of opportunities appropriate for women.

Other participants in the blogathon are just as much fun to read, including the vastly inferior remakes of “Double Indemnity” and “Libeled Lady,” the musical remakes of “Little Shop of Horrors” and “The Philadelphia Story” (“High Society”), and the both good and bad remakes (three movie versions) of “Love Affair”/”An Affair to Remember.” There are also three versions of “Shop Around the Corner” (one a musical with Judy Garland and one updated to the era of email in “You’ve Got Mail”). And there’s a whole category of directors who remade their own films.

What do you think are some of the best/worst remakes?

Ever Wanted to Talk Back to a TV Ad?

Posted on September 28, 2015 at 3:30 pm

Have you ever wanted to let an advertiser know what you thought of the commercial? Or just checked out the actor or theme music? Ispot.tv is a great site with commercials and background info, with comments from viewers on what they like and don’t like.

This Week in Inscrutable MPAA Movie Ratings

Posted on September 24, 2015 at 12:00 pm

Here is the MPAA rating for “Hotel Transylvania 2”

Rated PG for some scary images, action and rude humor

And here is the rating for the first “Hotel Transylvania”

Rated PG for some rude humor, action and scary images

Can anyone tell me what the difference means?

Guest Post from Tara Sonenshine on “Meet the Patels,” Marriage, Yom Kippur, and the Pope

Posted on September 21, 2015 at 4:22 pm

Many thanks to Tara Sonenshine for this thoughtful commentary:

It’s Yom Kippur, The Pope is Arriving, and “Meet the Patels” is in Theaters….Let’s Celebrate “Tradition”

I am very glad to have met the Patels last night via the new film, “Meet the Patels” starring Indian-American actor, Ravi Patel, in a comedic documentary about a young man’s journey to find a wife, on his own, while his parents insist on providing him with an arranged marriage. With Ravi’s sister, Greeta Patel, filming the entire quest, the movie both entertains and inspires. For me, as a Jewish movie goer, the film reminded me of the similarities in cultures and religious traditions mixed with the generational divides that challenge all faiths.

Indian arranged marriages are not too dissimilar from old-fashioned Jewish “Shidachs” where a matchmaker pairs up the groom and bride based on criteria ranging from family background to physical characteristics as well as important considerations like money. The key is parental involvement—something eschewed by modern millennials. Like Jewish parents, the Patels are desperate for their grown children to marry and procreate, and they want Indian tradition to prevail. All that was missing in the movie was a “fiddler on the roof.”

The irony about tradition is that despite the predominance of modern technology, an Internet-driven society, and the notion that people can have “friends” without ever meeting them, there is still something special about being in the same room with those we want to know. Crowds will flock to see the Pope in Washington, Philadelphia, and New York City, even though they can get a better seat at home watching CNN. Our kids use speed dating—simply a scaled up version of what The Patels were offering with “biodata” and martial conventions where single people scope out the potential mates. In the end, there is nothing truly new about services like “Jewish Singles.com” or “Christian Mingle.com” or what The Patels had in mind.

So as Jews around the world celebrate “Yom Kippur,”—the Day of Atonement, and Catholics wave to the “Pope,” let’s toast traditions—may they last forever.

Tara Sonenshine is former under secretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs.

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Understanding Media and Pop Culture

Interview: Karina Longworth on the “You Must Remember This” Podcast, Now on Panoply

Posted on September 17, 2015 at 12:00 pm

Karina Longworth is the creator/narrator of the brilliant “You Must Remember This” podcast, which covers Hollywood history. Last season was entirely devoted to a mesmerizing narrative about the Charles Manson murders. The show has now moved to Slate’s Panoply podcast network and the new season responds to listener requests. Longworth answered my questions about the show.

What led you to tell these stories via podcast rather than a book or series of articles? How does that format change the way you present the stories?

The simple and practical answer is that I started the podcast because I found myself increasingly wanting to consume information that way myself. I still read a lot of books and longform reporting, but I find that there’s too much of that stuff, and potentially interesting things either fall through the cracks altogether, or else I don’t get around to them as quickly as I would like. But I’m always “running out” of podcasts to listen to, so I figured if I made one that was unique I figured there might be people like me who would be willing to take a chance on it.

The more complicated answer is that on some level, I’ve kind of been waiting for this format to come around and become viable for nearly 20 years. When I was in art school as an undergraduate I studied experimental non-fiction film and video, and the work I was making was basically 19 year-old me’s version of this podcast, except that I was editing together montages of mostly found imagery in order to give it a visual element. Now I don’t have to have the visual element.

Hollywood pioneered the idea of press agents and personal brands, and even scandal magazines often suppressed negative stories in exchange for access. How does that affect your ability to research what was really happening?

A big part of the show is about that process, and that uncertainty. In most cases, I don’t think we can know without a shadow of a doubt what really, truly happened. It’s the conflicting stories, and the gaps between the facts we know and the ways in which the stories were or continue to be spun, that I think are really interesting. My hope is that through the process of sifting through all of this, larger truths will emerge.

What was it about the Manson stories that inspired you to delve into such an extended retelling? What do you think made him such a compelling leader? Do you consider him a reflection of his era?

I wanted to talk about a time and a place in which no one suspected Charles Manson was going to orchestra multiple murders — and even after the murders, no one thought he was involved for awhile — because he and everything he was doing simply wasn’t considered to be weird. It was also really clear to me after a little bit of reading that his story was kind of the worst case scenario version of a really familiar Hollywood tale, of the pilgrim who comes to Southern California thinking they’re going to “make it,” only to have their hopes dashed, and then have them respond, shall we say, ungracefully.

What kinds of resources do you use for your research?

Because I’m pressed for time, these days I primarily use biographical books and other mass-published Hollywood histories, but for various different episodes I’ve done more in-depth archival research at places like the Margaret Herrick Library, the Warner Brothers archive at USC, and the BFI Library in London, where I’m currently living.

Can you give us a hint of what some of the listener requests are that you’ll be reporting on this season?

There were so many compelling requests, but as I was weeding through them all, it became clear that multiple people were interested in the stories of the studio moguls, and how the studio system was run during the classical Hollywood era. Also, there were requests for the stories of many individual stars who were associated with MGM. So in the end, I chose 15 stories that would allow me to explore a number of different facets of how the studio worked, why it was so dominant for so many years, and how the system it mastered of creating and promoting stars ultimately fell apart.