Frank Tashlin's experience as a Loony Tunes cartoonist is apparent in his smash hit THE GIRL CAN'T HELP IT.
Tashlin, needing background for his music biz comedy, featured rock 'n' roll acts in performance, some incongrously playing in nightclubs - but he achieved, probably unknowingly, a time-capsule of them at the peak of their power.
Vocalists Julie London and Abbey Lincoln take second place to The Platters, Fats Domino, Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran and the incendiary Little Richard singing READY TEDDY and the title song.
Jayne Mansfield had already made five films during 1955 to little success. She was smart enough to accept a starring role in George Axelrod's Broadway comedy WILL SUCCESS SPOIL ROCK HUNTER? Playing a Monroe-esque star, she was an immediate success and 20th Century Fox - tiring of the real Marilyn's behaviour - signed Jayne up as Tashlin's star.
She certainly delivered the cartoonish sexiness Tashlin wanted.
Shelf or charity shop? A keeper in my DVD storage box. It's an added bonus that - apart from Jayne's swerves & curves and the rock 'n' roll legends - Tashlin delivers a very funny satire on celebrity: a one-time gangster hires a washed-up press agent to transform his girlfriend into a celebrity to take her mind off being a housewife. Tom Ewell, who the previous year had appeared with Marilyn in THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH, plays the press agent - haunted by his former client / girlfriend Julie London singing "Cry Me A River" - and Edmond O'Brien is a comic revelation as the former slot-machine Mr Big who wants his girlfriend to record a song he wrote in jail "Rock Around The Rock Pile". There is also fine support from Henry Jones as the gangster's doleful assistant Mousey. But Tashlin focuses everything on Mansfield in eye-popping Deluxe colour: in her defining screen moment, she wobbles along a pavement in a tight-fitting dress in time to Little Richard singing THE GIRL CAN'T HELP IT, oblivious to her effect on the men she passes: a delivery man's ice melts in his hands, a milkman's pint of milk gushes like champagne and a man's glass-lens' crack. As John Waters says in his appreciation, it had such an effect on his ten year-old mind that he replicated it for Divine in PINK FLAMINGOS... only with the passers-by staring in disbelief and horror! Tashlin would re-team with Mansfield the following year for his excellent screen version of WILL SUCCESS SPOIL ROCK HUNTER?
Released two months before France entered WWII, Renoir's film - the most expensive French film yet - was hated by critics and audiences, and was banned by the government for being morbid, depressing, and immoral! Despite 30 minutes of cuts, in 1945 it was banned again!
But now it's acclaimed by critics and directors: it's the only film to feature in the Top 10 of all Sight & Sound's once-a-decade Greatest Film of All Time lists since 1952 - currently at #4.
Renoir's tale of a Marquis holding a shooting party to celebrate an aviator's Atlantic flight looks innocent enough but hides a withering critique of French society.
The aviator obsessively loves the Marquise but she has other admirers; the Marquis invites his mistress to the country hoping to lose her to the aviator.
Downstairs, the servants mirror their masters shallowness but ultimately it's those outside the circle who are expendable.
Shelf or charity shop? I was in two minds about keeping LE RÈGLE DE JU but after having watched it again and in writing about it, it has stayed with me so it can reside in my DVD storage box. A film who's influence can be traced down to Robert Altman's GOSFORD PARK, in retrospect you can see how Renoir's selfish characters would have upset those expecting a positive representaton of French society, both before and after WWII. But he exposes a corrupt upper-class chattering towards the darkness of war - most memorably illustrated by the graphic, relentless shooting party sequence where the party disinterestedly shoot anything that runs or flies; the death throes of a shot rabbit filmed in shocked silence. Jean Bachelet's wonderful deep-focus cinematography revels in all areas of the large sets while Renoir's memorable cast includes Paulette Dubost as the flighty maid Lisette, Marcel Dalio as the Marquis, Nora Gregor as the Marquise, and outside of the chattering classes, Julien Carette as the poacher Marceau who causes havoc when employed downstairs, his nemesis Gaston Modot as the gamekeeper married to a bored Lisette and Renoir himself as Octave, the childhood friend of the Marquise who still remains an outsider. Of course the best performance is by the inquisitive squirrel!
A year after SINGIN' IN THE RAIN, Betty Comden and Adolphe Green wrote another showbiz tale, this time about Broadway, with songs by Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz.
THE BAND WAGON has MGM gloss: directed by Vincente Minnelli with choreography by Michael Kidd, only his second film assignment.
It has a good script, great choreography an attractive cast - Fred Astaire, his British counterpart Jack Buchanan, Cyd Charisse... but something is lacking - perhaps SINGIN's director Stanley Donen would have suited the backstage story over Minnelli's elegance?
Tony Hunter's film career has dried up so he returns to star in a new Broadway show which Jeffrey Cordova - an actor and director from the Legit theatre - wants to direct.
Cordova rewrites it as a musicalization of FAUST and casts ballerina Gabrielle Gerard; Tony is against both ideas, and his attidude annoys Gabrielle too.
After disasterous previews, Tony saves the show with Broadway pizzaz...
Shelf or charity shop? This can dance along the shelf for a while longer. The shoot wasn't too happy - Astaire, like his character, was worried about Cyd Charisse's height as it was their first time working together, Oscar Levant blamed everyone else when he forgot his lines and Jack Buchanan was enduring painful dental work. As I said, it all seems too glossy for it's own good but when the musical numbers start THE BAND WAGON is on a roll - Astaire singing "By Myself" and the dynamic "A Shine On Your Shoes" partnered by Leroy Daniels, the one song written for the film "That's Entertainment" still has the best critique of HAMLET: "When a ghost and a prince meet / and everyone ends as mincemeat". Astaire and Buchanan are class personified singing "I Guess I'll Have To Change My Plan" and the two dance numbers for Fred and Cyd are just glorious - they swooningly fall in love as they dance in Central Park to "Dancing In The Dark", and in the "Girl Hunt Ballet" - a Mickey Spillaine-esque thriller in dance - for two glorious minutes, Fred and Cyd do one of the most stunning routines ever committed to film - before Fosse, there was Kidd. Fred was right to be worried, in her sequinned red dress and black opera gloves, her high kicks and leg slides, her hips, arms and back working overtime, you simply cannot take your eyes off her. All this and Julie Newmar as a dancer too!
THE WIRE's gripping storytelling makes it unforgettable. Between 2002 - 2008, five HBO seasons delivered a forensic view of Baltimore: police, criminals, dock workers, politicians, teachers and newspaper reporters all intersect but discover "the system" always wins.
Homicide detective Jimmy McNulty triggers an investigation when drug dealer D'Angelo Barksdale's murder trial collapses due to witness intimidation. McNulty knows D'Angelo is nephew to drug overlord Avon Barksdale who has proved untouchable.
McNulty is loathed by his superiors, but they allow Lt. Cedric Daniels a surveillance team to run a basic investigation.
But the unit - including narcotics officer Kima Greggs and the analytical Lester Freamon - realize that Barksdale's complex operations demand deeper surveillance. Kima's junkie informant, Bubbles is also enlisted.
Avon with his deputy Stringer demote D'Angelo to running young pushers but he now is conflicted about "The Game"...
Everything changes when Barksdale's operations are targeted by maverick hood drug thief Omar Little.
Shelf or charity shop? SHELF!! Writers David Simon and Ed Burns - one an ex-newspaper police correspondant, the other a former policeman/teacher - based THE WIRE on the Baltimore institiutions they knew and created an astonishing television experience, using a pool of script writers and directors. Over 13 hours their characters come alive, illustrating the internicine power struggles within both the police and criminal worlds. The scripts are masterpieces of long-form narrative which drew complaints from US audiences about the complex story. Dominic West leapt to stardom as McNulty and he was well teamed with Wendell Pierce as Homicide colleague Bunk Moreland - the scene where they investigate a crime scene using every permutation of the work 'fuck' is tv gold. The always excellent Clarke Peters shines as Lestor Freamon, languishing in police admin hell until given a second chance through the case, as is Sonja Sohn as the empathetic narcotics officer Kima. Idris Elba was launched to fame as Stringer Bell, the cool but dangerous deputy of the Barksdale crew, well-cast opposite the intense Wood Harris as Avon Barksdale. Lawrence Gilliard Jr. is unforgettable as D'Angelo, the loyal Barksdale foot-soldier who realizes the devastating impact of "The Game" and there is a memorable performance from Michael B Jordan as the tragic Wallace. Dependant on both sides is Andre Royo as the police informant junkie Bubbles and lurking in the shadows is the unforgettable Omar Little played to charismatic perfection by Michael K Williams.
