My Fair Lady (1964) * * *

The film opens with title credits and a musical overture from the film accompanied by colorful close-ups of spring flowers which line the stairway of the Covent Garden Opera house in London. Elegantly dressed high society opera-goers are leaving after a performance and heading for horse-drawn cabs and motorized vehicles. They bustle about to find shelter when rain begins to fall and street vendors cover their wares in the marketplace. Young Freddie Eynsford-Hill (Jeremy Brett) collides with Eliza Doolittle (Audrey Hepburn), a disheveled Cockney flower vendor, while looking for a cab for his mother Mrs. Eynsford-Hill (Isobel Elsom). Eliza accuses both of them of ruining her "full day's wages" of scattered violets that are now trod in the mud: "Well, if you'd done your duty by him as a mother should, you wouldn't let him spoil a poor girl's flowers and then run away without payin'."

When Colonel Hugh Pickering (Wilfrid Hyde-White) gives Eliza some coins, but isn't given flowers in return, Eliza is cautioned by a bystander that a suspicious character behind a pillar, Professor Henry Higgins (Rex Harrison), is "takin' down ev'ry blessed word you're sayin'." She immediately assumes that she is in trouble for selling flowers illegally and defends herself as a "respectable girl." She says to bystanders that she did nothing wrong: "Well, I'm makin' an honest livin'." Higgins appears and calms her down by showing her his notebook with strange shorthand symbols, and he reads back to her from his notes what she said with the exact same exaggerated pronounciation: "I say, capt'n; n' baw ya flahr orf a pore gel."

Henry Higgins is an arrogant and misogynistic professor of phonetics who believes that it is the accent and tone of one's voice which determines a person's station in society. Eliza goes to Higgins seeking speech lessons. Her great ambition is to work in a flower shop, but her working-class accent makes her unsuitable for such a position. All she can afford to pay is a shilling per lesson, whereas Higgins is used to training wealthier members of society. He boasts to his new acquaintance, Colonel Hugh Pickering, another expert in phonetics, that he can teach any woman to speak so "properly" that he could make Eliza Doolittle pass as a duchess at an Embassy Ball. Pickering, who is staying with Higgins, is intrigued by the idea and makes a bet with Higgins that he will not be able to do it, and Higgins accepts the challenge.

Pickering: What about your boast that you could pass her off as a duchess at the Embassy Ball, eh? I'll say you're the greatest teacher alive if you make that good. I'll bet you all the expenses of the experiment that you can't do it. I'll even pay for the lessons.
Eliza: Oh, you're real good. Thank you, capt'n.
Higgins: You know, it's almost irresistible. She's so deliciously low. So horribly dirty.
Eliza: I ain't dirty. I washed my face and hands before I come, I did.
Higgins: I'll take it. I'll make a duchess of this draggle-tailed guttersnipe.
Eliza: Ah-ah-ah-ow-ow-oo!
Higgins: We'll start today, now, this moment! Take her away, Mrs. Pearce, and clean her. Sandpaper, if it won't come off any other way. Is there a good fire in the kitchen?
Mrs. Pearce: Yes, but...
Higgins: Take all her clothes off and burn them and ring up and order some new ones. Just wrap her in brown paper till they come.
Eliza: You're no gentleman, you're not, to talk of such things. I'm a good girl, I am. And I know what the likes of you are, I do.
Higgins: We want none of your slum prudery here, young woman. You've got to learn to behave like a duchess. Now take her away, Mrs. Pearce, and if she gives you any trouble, wallop her.

Higgins: Eliza, you are to stay here for the next six months learning to speak beautifully, like a lady in a florist's shop. If you work hard and do as you're told, you shall sleep in a proper bedroom, have lots to eat, and money to buy chocolates and go for rides in taxis. But if you are naughty and idle, you shall sleep in the back kitchen amongst the black beetles, and be wolloped by Mrs. Pearce with a broomstick. At the end of six months you will be taken to Buckingham Palace, in a carriage, beautifully dressed. If the king finds out you are not a lady, you will be taken to the Tower of London, where your head will be cut off as a warning to other presumptuous flower girls! But if you are not found out, you shall have a present... of, ah... seven and six to start life with as a lady in a shop. If you refuse this offer, you will be the most ungrateful, wicked girl, and the angels will weep for you.

Eliza's dustman father, Alfred P. Doolittle (Stanley Holloway), shows up three days later supposedly to protect his daughter's virtue, but he really wants money from Higgins and is bought off with £5. Higgins is impressed by the man's honesty, his natural gift for language, and especially his brazen lack of morals. Alfred Doolittle explains, "Can't afford 'em!" Eliza the Cockney flower girl poses as a member of the aristocracy while Professor Henry Higgins looks on. He criticizes Eliza's "detestable boo-hooing" and crude pronunciations.

Higgins: A woman who utters such disgusting and depressing noise has no right to be anywhere, no right to live. Remember that you are a human being with a soul and the divine gift of articulate speech, that your native language is the language of Shakespeare and Milton and The Bible. Don't sit there crooning like a bilious pigeon.

Eliza goes through many forms of speech training, such as speaking with marbles in her mouth. At first she makes no progress, but just as she, Higgins, and Pickering are about to give up, Eliza tries one more time and finally gets it right. She begins to speak with an impeccable upper class accent. As a test, Higgins takes her to Ascot Racecourse, where she makes a good impression with her stilted, but genteel manners, only to shock everyone by a sudden and vulgar lapse into Cockney while encouraging a horse to win a race: "C'mon Dover, move your bloomin' arse!" Higgins, who dislikes the pretentiousness of the upper class, partly conceals a grin behind his hand.

The bet is won when Eliza successfully passes as a mysterious lady of noble rank at an Embassy Ball and dances with a foreign prince. Also at the ball is Zoltan Karpathy (Theodore Bikel), a Hungarian phonetics expert also trained by Higgins. After a brief conversation with Eliza, he certifies that she is of royal blood. This makes Higgins' evening, since he has always considered Karpathy as an ill-bred crook. However, after all her efforts, Eliza is not given any credit--all the praise goes to Higgins. This and his callous treatment towards her afterwards, especially his indifference to her future, causes her to walk out on him, leaving him mystified by her ingratitude.

Pickering: (on telephone to Scotland Yard) No, she's no relation, no. What? Well, just let's call her a "good friend", shall we? I beg your pardon! Listen to me, my man, I don't like the tenor of that question--what we do with her is our affair--your affair is bringing her back so we can continue doing it!

Accompanied by Freddy Eynsford-Hill, a young man she met at Ascot and who has become enamored of her, Eliza returns to her old stomping ground at Covent Garden, but finds that with her genteel manners, upper-class accent and lovely clothes, she no longer fits in. She meets her father, who has now developed the £5 Higgins gave him into a large fortune and is set to marry Eliza's step-mother. He feels that Higgins has ruined him, since he is now more bound in life by morals and responsibility. Eventually, Eliza ends up visiting Higgins' mother who is incensed at her son's behavior.

Mrs. Higgins: However did you learn good manners with my son around?
Eliza: It was very difficult. I should never have known how ladies and gentlemen really behaved, if it hadn't been for Colonel Pickering. He always showed what he thought and felt about me as if I were something better than a common flower girl. You see, Mrs. Higgins, apart from the things one can pick up, the difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves, but how she is treated. I shall always be a common flower girl to Professor Higgins, because he always treats me like a common flower girl, and always will. But I know that I shall always be a lady to Colonel Pickering, because he always treats me like a lady, and always will.
Higgins: The question is not whether I've treated you rudely but whether you've ever heard me treat anyone else better.

Higgins finds Eliza the next day and tries to talk her into coming back to him. During a testy exchange, Higgins' ego gets the better of him and he explodes when Eliza announces that she is going to marry Freddy and become Karpathy's assistant. As well as his dislike of Karpathy, Higgins considers Freddy pathetic and not up to Eliza's new standards. Eliza is satisfied that she has had her "own back" and rejects him. Higgins has to admit that rather than being a "a millstone around my neck... now you're a tower of strength, a consort battleship. I like you this way." Eliza leaves, saying they will never meet again.

After an argument with his mother in which he concludes that he does not need Eliza or anyone else in life, Higgins makes his way home, stubbornly predicting that Eliza will come crawling back. However, he comes to the horrified realization that he has "grown accustomed to her face". He is reduced to playing an old phonograph recording of her voice lessons. Then, to his great delight, Eliza suddenly returns.

Musical Numbers

Act I

* "Overture"
* "Why Can't the English?"
* "Wouldn't It Be Loverly?"
* "An Ordinary Man"
* "With a Little Bit of Luck"
* "Just You Wait"
* "Servants Chorus"
* "The Rain in Spain"
* "I Could Have Danced All Night"
* "Ascot Gavotte"
* "Ascot Gavotte (Reprise)"
* "On the Street Where You Live"
* "Intermission"

Act II

* "Transylvanian March"
* "Embassy Waltz"
* "You Did It"
* "Just You Wait (Reprise)"
* "On The Street Where You Live" (reprise)
* "Show Me"
* "Get Me to the Church on Time"
* "A Hymn to Him"
* "Without You"
* "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face"
* "Finale"
* "Exit Music"

MY FAIR LADY is a musical film adaptation of the Lerner and Loewe stage musical "My Fair Lady", based on the 1938 film adaptation of the 1913 stage play "Pygmalion" by George Bernard Shaw. The ending and the ballroom scene are from the film PYGMALION (1938) rather than the play. It's the kind of Technicolor spectacle that isn't made anymore. Witty and classic songs, a great script, marvelous sets and locations, and gorgeous costumes create incomparable eye candy in a lavish motion picture with a runtime of 170 minutes. In the history of movie musicals, only GIGI (1958) has earned more Oscars (9) than MY FAIR LADY. It won 8 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor (Rex Harrison), Best Director (George Cukor), Best Color Cinematography, Best Color Art Direction/Set Decoration, Best Sound, Best Score (André Previn), and Best Color Costume Design (Cecil Beaton).

In 1956 songwriters Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe musicalized Shaw's "Pygmalion", and when producer Jack L. Warner saw the Broadway premiere of "My Fair Lady", he made plans for the best musical in the history of Warner Brothers. The musical romantic comedy was expensive to produce at $17 million--their most costly film to date. MY FAIR LADY was met with immediate critical acclaim and became one of the most commercially successful films in the history of movie musicals, earning $72,000,000. Warner Bros. paid a record $5.5 million for the screen rights and Julie Andrews, who had made flower girl Eliza Doolittle famous in the New York and London stage shows, was passed over in the film's casting for Audrey Hepburn.

Jack Warner explained in his autobiography: "Why did I choose Audrey Hepburn instead of Julie Andrews, the original Eliza? There was nothing mysterious or complicated about that decision. With all her charm and ability, Julie Andrews was just a Broadway name known primarily to those who saw the play. But in Clinton, Iowa and Anchorage, Alaska, and thousands of other cities and towns in our 50 states and abroad you can say Audrey Hepburn, and people instantly know you're talking about a beautiful and talented star. In my business I have to know who brings people and their money to a movie theater box office. I knew Audrey Hepburn had never made a financial flop..." Warner Bros. paid Hepburn a salary of $1 million for her work on MY FAIR LADY, making her only the second actress in the history of Hollywood to receive a seven-figure sum for a single film. Elizabeth Taylor as CLEOPATRA (1963) was the first, and she reportedly fought long and hard for this role as well.

Hepburn's singing was judged inadequate, and she was dubbed by Marni Nixon. Rex Harrison declined to pre-record his musical numbers for the film, explaining that he had never talked his way through the songs the same way twice and couldn't lip-sync to a playback during filming. He has a unique "non-singing" vocal style. To allow Harrison to sing his songs live during filming, Warner Bros. Studio Sound Department put a wireless microphone in Harrison's neckties, the first time in history that one was used to record sound during filming. André Previn then conducted the final version of the music to the voice recording. The sound department earned an Academy Award for its efforts. MY FAIR LADY features great songs such as "On the Street Where You Live", "With a Little Bit of Luck", and "I Could Have Danced All Night."

The cast also includes: Mona Washbourne (Mrs. Pearce), John Holland (Butler), Elizabeth Aimers (Cockney), Helen Albrecht (Ascot extra), John Alderson (Jamie), Mary Alexander (Cockney), LaWana Backer (Ad lib at Church), Frank Baker (Elegant bystander), Lois Battle (Second Maid), Brittania Beatey (Daughter of elegant bystander), William Beckley (Footman), Marjorie Bennett (Cockney with Pipe), Oscar Beregi Jr. (Greek Ambassador), Betty Blythe, Diana Bourbon, Iris Bristol, Sue Bronson, Meg Brown, Buddy Bryant, Walter Burke, Bea Marie Busch, Colin Campbell, Jeannie Carson, Paulle Clark, Natalie Core, Tom Cound, Jennifer Crier, Maurice Dallimore, Allison Daniell, Henry Daniell, and many others. Frederick Loewe composed the original music. Alan Jay Lerner wrote the screenplay from G. B. Shaw's stage play "Pygmalion". George Cukor directed.

By the 1990s, the original film had fallen into disrepair and there was fear of total deterioration. CBS discovered this after two widescreen laserdiscs won "Worst Laserdisc of the Year" two years running. Film restorers Robert A. Harris and James C. Katz in conjunction with 20th Century Fox saved the film and preserved the film's image quality for future generations. A 30th anniversary theatrical re-issue in 1994 by Fox (with new 70mm prints) reinforced the film's popularity.

Currently Warner Bros. owns the DVD rights to the film (under license from CBS), while CBS Television Distribution owns the television rights. The first video release was by MGM/CBS Home Video in 1981, and was re-released by CBS/Fox Video in 1984, 1986, 1991, and 1994. A VHS release by Paramount Pictures in 2001 is currently out of print. The original DVD that featured the restoration was released in the late 1990's. This DVD includes a 9 minute featurette, actor profiles, audio commentary, and Audrey Hepburn singing in 2 scenes. This original 1 disc DVD has since been updated to a special 2 disc Edition. The new DVD includes all the features found on the original DVD, except the actor profiles. It includes the restored print but is a new transfer from the restored print. However, the new transfer is not perfect and supposedly has aliasing problems throughout. The average viewer probably won't notice this, but you can buy the original edition DVD with the superior transfer. One advantage of the 2 disc Edition DVD is that it includes a 58 minute 1994 documentary hosted by Jeremy Brett, Audrey Hepburn's love interest in the film. As well, there are more features on this disc that aren't included on the original DVD, such as footage from the film's premiere, the 1963 production dinner kickoff, and discussions with Harrison and Hepburn.

PYGMALION (1938) is the non-musical movie version of the play from G. B. Shaw's own screenplay. It was filmed in Britain by co-directors Anthony Asquith and Leslie Howard, who also co-starred with Dame Wendy Hiller. Against Shaw's wishes, a happy ending was added, with Eliza fleeing Higgins with Freddy but then returning to Higgins' home. Shaw did retain the controversial line "Not bloody likely!" from his play, making Wendy Hiller the first person to utter that swear word in a British movie. The film was a financial and critical success, and won Shaw an Oscar for Best Screenplay. In early June 2008 it was reported that a remake of MY FAIR LADY was being planned, starring Daniel Day Lewis and Keira Knightley as Eliza Doolittle, for release in 2009 or 2010. It would be produced by Duncan Kenworthy and co-developed by Columbia Pictures and CBS Films. Emma Thompson was reported to be set to write the screenplay.

A Home at the End of the World (2004) * * *

In suburban Cleveland in the 1960s, people have a habit of dying around rebellious 14 year-old Bobby Morrow (Andrew Chalmers). First his hippie brother, then his mother, and then his father. Bobby moves in with the family of his best friend from school, conservative and gawky Jonathan Glover (Harris Allan). When the two boys sleep together, even before Bobby moves in permanently, Jonathan puts the moves on him, and Bobby gets involved. The two are inseparable until Jonathan's mother Alice (Sissy Spacek) discovers them in a VW together and Jonathan pulls away from Bobby. Bobby helps Alice accept her son's homosexuality, and she teaches Bobby how to bake, setting him on a career path.

Eight years later, father Ned (Matt Frewer) decides that it's time Bobby move out on his own. Bobby (Erik Smith) follows Jonathan (Dallas Roberts) to NYC, only to be rejected by his childhood friend, at which point he turns to Jonathan's roommate, the free-spirited Clare (Robin Wright Penn), for solace. Jonathan shares a colorful East Village apartment with the bohemian and somewhat older Clare. Bobby (Colin Farrell) moves in, and the three create a nuclear family in the 1980s.

Clare: (on Bobby, when meeting him for the first time) Where did you find him?
Jonathan: He found me.
Clare: Jonathan, blue is your friend. See, blue is the color of sky and water.
Jonathan: White goes with everything
Clare: Yes, well, honey, it's a house, not an outfit.
Jonathan: Hey. I'm sorry about... well, all this. I knew I'd see you both again. I just imagined... well, different circumstances.
Clare: It's OK.
Bobby: It's OK.

Although Jonathan is gay and highly promiscuous, he is deeply in love with Clare, who seduces and falls into a relationship with the bisexual Bobby. Their romance occasionally is disrupted by sparks of jealousy between the two men until Jonathan, tired of being the third wheel, disappears without warning. He re-enters their lives when Ned dies and Bobby and Clare travel to Phoenix, Arizona for the services. The three take Ned's car back east with them, and impulsively decide to buy a house near Woodstock, New York, where Bobby and Jonathan open and operate a cafe while Clare raises the baby daughter she and Bobby have had.

Bobby: Clare, come on.
Clare: I'm pregnant, you f**kers!
Jonathan: Bobby, if you want my family so badly, I hereby bequeath them to you. No, better yet, I hereby bequeath you my whole, entire life. I hereby dub you Jonathan Glover. Tomorrow, when they cremate my father's body, you can be the son and I'll be the best friend. You can come back from the service, and you can console my mother!
Clare: Jonathan, stop it.
Jonathan: You're better at it than I am! You're better qualified, so go! Go at it. Be their son, with my blessing!
Clare: Listen to me, you little s**t! All he's ever done is worship you. And all you've ever done is walk out on him. Don't you dare speak to him like that, you hear me?
Jonathan: You don't know what you're talking about. You don't know the first thing about worship.
Clare: Do you know--do you have any idea how much--how much I wanted you? How much I loved you, you asshole. And then - what an idiot I am. How pathetic is that? Me in love with you. And then Bobby comes along, and I fell in love with this one, and I think that we... that the three of us, maybe we could... F**k it. Just leave me alone and go back in the house and have a drink.

Jonathan discovers what appears to be a Kaposi's sarcoma lesion on his thigh and, although Bobby tries to convince him it's simply a bruise, others soon appear. Clare takes the baby for what ostensibly is a brief visit to her mother in Philadelphia, but Bobby and Jonathan accurately suspect she has no intention of returning and Bobby decides to care for Jonathan during his last days. On a cold winter day, they scatter Ned's ashes in the field behind their home, and Jonathan makes Bobby promise he will scatter his in the same place following his now inevitable early death from complications due to AIDS.

(last lines)
Bobby: I've been thinking. We should repaint Rebecca's room. Like, pink. She'd like that, don't you think?
Jonathan: Mm-hmm.
Bobby: She'll come back someday. To this house, I mean. It'll be hers.
Jonathan: I guess it will be.
Bobby: She probably won't want it, right? She probably won't have any idea what to do with it. But still, it'll be hers, y'know?
Jonathan: It'll be hers. Listen. This'll be an all right place to put my ashes, too, OK?
Bobby: Sure. I mean, whatever you want.
Jonathan: You've built us a very good home.
Bobby: That's not what... That's what you did. That's what you did for me, y'know?
Jonathan: It's funny, isn't it?
Bobby: What?
Jonathan: The big, beautiful, noisy world. Everything that can happen.
Bobby: Yeah. It's funny.
Jonathan: Growing up in the country doesn't doom anybody to good behavior. Most of the realy interesting murderers come from derelict farms.

This movie does a great job of evoking the late 1960s in America, and looks at what we mean by love, commitment and loyalty. More importantly, it re-examines the idea of family, and shows us how it can be redefined. Probably the writer did not intend to punish his characters for their deviancy, but it does seem to be the case. The thinness of the material is a handicap, with numerous emotional scenes left dangling in a narrative vacuum. Some obvious scenes, like the birth of Claire's baby, are inexplicably left out. The changing of the years with a selection of golden oldies becomes tiresome, and the sweet and funny adolescent earlier passages are exhausted by the time we reach the somewhat abrupt conclusion. Farrell's controversial frontal nude scene, allegedly cut for being distracting, was not restored for the DVD release. But the DVD includes a short making-of documentary.

Film critic Roger Ebert wrote: "The movie exists outside our expectations for such stories. Nothing about it is conventional. The three-member household is puzzling not only to us, but to its members. We expect conflict, resolution, an ending happy or sad, but what we get is mostly life, muddling through... Colin Farrell is astonishing in the movie, not least because the character is such a departure from everything he has done before." A.O. Scott of the New York Times wrote: "The actors do what they can to import some of the texture of life into a project that is overly preoccupied with the idea of life, but the mannered self-consciousness of the script and the direction keeps flattening them into types."

The cast also includes: Ryan Donowho (Carlton Morrow), Asia Vieira (Emily), Quancetia Hamilton (Dancing Party Guest), Jeff J. J. Authors (Frank), Lisa Merchant (Frank's Date), Ron Lea (Burt Morrow), Michael Mayer (Jonathan's Co-Worker), Barna Moricz (Wes), Virginia Reh (Woman at Home Cafe), Joshua Close (Reiner), and Wendy Crewson (Isabel Morrow). Michael Cunningham wrote the screenplay based on his 1995 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel "The Hours". Duncan Sheik composed the original music, and the soundtrack includes songs by Laura Nyro, Leonard Cohen, and Dusty Springfield. Michael Mayer directed.

My Own Private Idaho (1991) * * *

Mike Waters (River Phoenix) is a gay hustler standing alone on a deserted stretch of highway somewhere in Idaho. He starts talking to himself and notices that the road looks "like someone’s face, like a f**ked-up face." He suffers from narcolepsy, experiences an episode and dreams of his mother comforting him as he replays home movies of his childhood in his mind. Mike wakes up to being fellated by a client. After his hotel encounter, he returns to his favorite spots to pick up potential clients. A wealthy older woman Alena (Grace Zabriskie) takes him to her mansion where he meets two fellow hustlers she also hired. One of them is Scott Favor (Keanu Reeves), Mike’s best friend. Mike is in love with Scott, who insists he is straight and his hustling on the streets is only temporary. While preparing to have sex with the woman, Mike experiences another narcoleptic fit and awakens the next day with Scott in Portland, Oregon.

Scott: I never thought I could be a real model, you know fashion-s**t, cause I'm better at full body stuff. It's okay so long as the photographer doesn't come on to you and expect something for no pay I'm trying to make a living, you know, and I like to be professional 'Course if the guy wants to pay me, then s**t-yeah. Here I am for him. I'll sell my ass, I do it on the street all the time for cash. And I'll be on the cover of a book. It's when you start doing things for free, that you start to grow wings. Isn't that right, Mike.
Mike: What?
Scott: Wings, Michael. You grow wings, and become a fairy.

Mike: (in a coffee shop) How'd we get home?
Scott: That German guy. Hans. He brought you downtown, you were passed out. He said he was heading to Portland, so I asked him for a ride.
Mike: For some reason I'm forgetting a German guy named Hans.
Scott: Well. You were sleeping.
Mike: How much do you make off me while I'm sleeping?
Scott: Just a ride, Mike. I don't make anything. What, you think that I sell your body while you are asleep?
Mike: Yeah.
Scott: No, Mike. I'm on your side.

Mike and Scott are soon reunited with their mentor Bob Pigeon (William Richert), a middle-aged man and father figure to a gang of street kids and hustlers who live in an abandoned apartment building. Scott, the son of the mayor of Portland, admits to Bob in private that when he turns 21, he will inherit his father’s fortune and reject the street hustler lifestyle. Mike yearns to find his mother and he and Scott leave Portland for Idaho to visit Mike’s older brother Richard (James Russo), who lives in an old trailer. Richard tries to tell Mike who his real father is but Mike says that he knows it is Richard. He tells Mike that their mother works as a hotel maid and when Mike and Scott visit the hotel they find out that she went to Italy to find her own family.

Bob: Scott. When you inherit your fortune, on your twenty-first birthday, let's see... how far away is this?
Scott: One week away, Bob, just one more week.
Bob: Let's not call ourselves robbers, but Diana's foresters. Gentlemen of the shade. Minions of the Moon. Men of good government.
Scott: When I turn twenty-one, I don't want any more of this life. My mother and father will be surprised at the incredible change. It will impress them more when such a f**k-up like me turns good than if I had been a good son all along. All the past years I will think of as one big vacation. At least it wasn't as boring as schoolwork. All my bad behavior I'm going to throw away to pay my debt. I will change when everybody expects it the least.

Richard: That guy. He was your real dad, Mike.
Mike: Don't f**k me in the head anymore man! I know the f**king truth! I know who my f**king real dad is!
Richard: Who?... Who?
Mike: Dick, you. Richard, you're my dad. I know that.
Richard: You know too much.

Mike: What do I mean to you?
Scott: What do you mean to me? Mike, you're my best friend.
Mike: I know, man, I know... I know... I know I'm your friend. We're good friends, and that's good to be, you know, good friends. That's a good thing.
Scott: So...
Mike: So I just...(pauses) That's okay. We're going to be friends.
Scott: I only have sex with a guy for money.
Mike: Yeah, I know, I mean...
Scott: And two guys can't love each other.
Mike: Yeah. Well, I don't know, I mean, I mean for me, I could love someone even if I, you know, wasn't paid for it. I love you, and... you don't pay me.
Scott: Mike...
Mike: I really wanna kiss you, man. (pauses) Well goodnight man. (pauses again) I love you, though. (pauses again) You know that. I do love you.
Scott: (moves some things out of his way) Alright, come here, Mike. (pats the ground) Let's just see. It could be fun. Just gonna see, come on.
(Mike moves over towards Scott and lowers his head. They presumably start to kiss)

In Italy, Mike and Scott find the country farmhouse where Mike’s mother worked as a maid and an English tutor. The young woman Carmella (Chiara Caselli) who lives there tells Mike that his mother returned to the US months ago. Carmella and Scott fall in love and return to the US leaving Mike to return home on his own. Back in Portland, Bob and his gang confront a newly reformed Scott at a posh restaurant but he rejects them. That night, Bob has a fatal heart attack. The next day, the hustlers hold a rowdy funeral for Bob while in the same cemetery, a few yards away, Scott attends a solemn funeral for his recently deceased father.

Mike is back on a deserted stretch of Idaho highway. He falls into another narcoleptic stupor and two strangers pull up in a truck, steal Mike’s belongings and drive away. Moments later, a car pulls up and a driver picks Mike up, places him in the vehicle and drives off.

(last lines)
Mike: I'm a connoisseur of roads. I've been tasting roads my whole life. This road will never end. It probably goes all around the world.

This melancholy film loosely based on Shakespeare's "Henry IV", Part 1, is a dreamlike, eerie, haunting, engaging, and often surreal masterpiece. The plot is loose, cinematography is lush, and River Phoenix gives one of the best performances of his tragically short career. It's a marvelous balancing act: the movie feels grungy and and as transcendent as poetry at the same time. There is a lot of vulgar language, nudity and simulated sex. Strangely, at no point in the film is AIDS mentioned, although Mike is seen carrying a condom in one scene. Whatever the reason, AIDS does not exist in this movie about promiscuous hustlers.

Film critic Roger Ebert wrote, "The achievement of this film is that it wants to evoke that state of drifting need, and it does. There is no mechanical plot that has to grind to a Hollywood conclusion, and no contrived test for the heroes to pass." The origins of MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO come from John Rechy's 1963 novel "City of Night", which features characters who are street hustlers that do not admit to being gay.

The cast also includes: Rodney Harvey (Gary), Michael Parker (Digger), Jessie Thomas (Denise), Flea (Budd), Tom Troupe (Jack Favor), Udo Kier (Hans), Sally Curtice (Jane Lightwork), Robert Lee Pitchlynn (Walt), Mickey Cottrell (Daddy Carroll), Wade Evans (Wade), Matthew Ebert (Coverboy), Scott Patrick Green (Coverboy / Cafe Kid), Tom Cramer (Coverboy), Vana O'Brien (Sharon Waters), (Shaun Jordan (Cafe Kid), Shawn Jones (Cafe Kid), George Conner (Bad George), Oliver Kirk (Indian Cop), Stanley Hainsworth (Dirtman), Joshua Halladay (Baby Mike), Douglas Tollenen (Little Richard), Steven Clark Pachosa (Hotel Manager), Lannie Swerdlow (Disco Manager), Wally Gaarsland (Rock Promoter), Brian Wilson (Rock Promoter), Mark Weaver (Rock Promoter), Conrad "Bud" Montgomery (Rock Promoter), Pat Patterson (Cop), Steve Vernelson (Cop), Mike Cascadden (Cop), Eric Hull (Mayor's Aide), James A. Arling (Minister), James Caviezel (Airline Clerk), Ana Cavinato (Stewardess), Melanie Mosely (Lounge Hostess), Greg Murphy (Carl), David Reppinhagen (Yuppie at Jake's), Tiger Warren (Himself), Massimo Di Cataldo (Italian Street Boy), Pao Pei Andreoli (Italian Street Boy), Robert Egon (Italian Street Boy), Paolo Baiocco (Italian Street Boy), Mario Stracciarolo (Mike's Italian Client), Heather J. Braden (Yuppie at Jakes), Kirsten Kuppenbender (Portland Street Girl), Jesse Merz (Mean Kid #2), Tom Peterson, Eli Swenson (Street Hustler), and Gus Van Sant (Man behind hotel counter). Bill Stafford composed the incidental music. Gus Van Sant wrote the screenplay derived from William Shakespeare's stage play "Henry IV". He wrote the original screenplay in the 1970s when he was living in Hollywood. Directed by Gus Van Sant.

This milestone independent film is now available on DVD from the Criterion Collection. It includes a two-hour interview with Van Sant (audio only), a new making-of retrospective, interviews galore, deleted scenes, and an impressive booklet with essays and printed interviews.

WADD: The Life & Times of John C. Holmes (1999)* * ½

This documentary is an in-depth look at the "King of Porn" as told by those who knew him. The main thing we learn about John Curtis Holmes (1944 -1988) is he was "a bullsh**ter who believed his own bulls**t". Furthermore, his manager who tells us this is also a bullsh**ter. For example, he lies about the gay films Holmes appears in to protect his straight image. So it's a good idea to be skeptical of statements made by those interviewed. No two people have exactly the same take on Holmes, and their stories often contradict one another.

Veteran documentary director Cass Paley tells of the sordid and often bizarre rise and fall of Holmes, attempting to unravel the myths surrounding him and show the darker side of his persona. Starting from his humble upbringing in rural Ohio, the film chronicles his rise to fame from the "Johnny Wadd" detective series, to his 27 fan clubs and his reported $3,000 a day salary. John Holmes was quite a good actor and in porn films constantly shows his c**k to the camera. He is the undisputed "King of Porn". In WADD John Leslie says, "John Holmes was the first, and you can't replace the first...That's why he will never be topped in that sense." And Larry Flynt says, "John Holmes' name is synonymous with the adult entertainment industry. His participation was legendary, and his work will be legendary for many decades to come."

Through interviews and clips from some of his 2,500 plus films, a disturbing dark side emerges from his good old boy image. He came from a broken home, had an abusive childhood, kept a wife secret from his porn colleagues for 19 years, pimped out his 16-year-old mistress for drug money, was arrested and incarcerated for his connection with a grisly mass murder, and eventually died of complications from AIDS. In the process, Paley shows us the wild porn industry world during its 1970s heyday. There are brief nude and sex scene clips in the first half of the film, but only a few with hard-core penetration.

Famous for his gigantic uncut monster c**k, John Holmes led a hedonistic high life with a plethora of drugs, and was surrounded by beautiful porn starlets. Veteran porn actress Annette Haven states, "It's true that his c**k was never hard. It was like doing it with a big, soft kind of loofah." Let me translate: like all big d**k porn stars, John Holmes used a vacuum pump cylinder, so usually his c**k had a hard inner core but was softer on the outside.

Aged 25 when censorship changes ushered in legal hard core pornography, Holmes' 13 inch d**k quickly established him as the genre's main attraction. Ron Jeremy has stated that Holmes was actually 11½ inches and used to brag that he was 14 inches. The sex, fame and drugs of the 1970s and '80s made him increasingly paranoid, arrogant, delusional and out-of-control, culminating in a series of brutal drug-related murders that Holmes at the very least witnessed on Wonderland Avenue in 1981. He was incarcerated in connection with the murders, but released due to lack of evidence, then charged with committing 4 murders, but acquitted. Finally, he was released from jail regarding contempt charges for remaining silent at his trial.

In 1972 Holmes was arrested for pimping and pandering, but he avoided prison time by becoming an informant for the LAPD. While at the top of the porn industry he was a police informant against it. Mike Sager says, "It's ironic that here he is credited with single handedly bringing porn to people's attention, yet at the same time he was simultaneously having all these other stars busted." Furthermore, even though he knew he had AIDS, he flew to Italy and made a film with Italian porn star Cicciolina. She says in WADD that she knew he was sick, but thought it was just flu.

Now John Holmes is a legend, the only porn star who is a bona fide mainstream celebrity. Everybody has heard of him and most have seen his c**k. Two Hollywood movies, "Boogie Nights" and "Wonderland" are loosely based on his life. Although this film was released by VCA Pictures (a porno film distribution company), it does not aim to titillate. WADD is an honest attempt at making a serious documentary. But there is a fair share of nudity, foul language, and quite a few brief glimpses at Holmes' monster c**k. The organ itself is the main reason to see Holmes, and those who watch this documentary just for that will be disappointed.

Paley interviews most of the people involved with Holmes during his life: his manager (Bill Amerson), his first wife (Sharon Holmes), his mistress (Dawn Schiller), his porno film directors, etc. Unfortunately, two important people in Holmes' life, his wife and his mistress, are shown in semi-darkness. Although their information is clear, we can't see or identify with them. Holmes comes across in many different ways. Some claim he was gentle and friendly, others claim he was a jerk. In interview clips he is handsome, intelligent, articulate, charming, confident, happy, energetic, and charismatic. He said that he slept with 14,000 women. Everyone denies this figure, and say the actual number was realistically somewhere around 3,000. Even Holmes couldn't remember which stories were true. Paley presents all this conflicting information and doesn't sort it out for us. Or maybe he couldn't. John Holmes seems to be a multi-faceted enigma.

WADD runs a lengthy 110 minutes. It was shot on video and lacks a unifying narrative voice. Using a narrator to present facts and stories would have improved this talking head documentary. With too much focus on Holmes' friends and family, everything becomes muddled, biased, and questionable. The film is intelligent, fascinating, and entertaining, but scattered. Lone Wolf has a great feature article about John Holmes in an issue of "Rolling Stone" magazine. However, after viewing this documentary, I realized most of the "information" in the article is bulls**t. The bottom line is this film is for those interested in the adult film industry and fans of John Holmes who should beware of the plentiful bulls**t.

The cast includes: John Holmes, Sharon Holmes, Dawn Schiller, Bill Amerson, Denise Amerson, Sean "Duke" Amerson, Juliet Anderson, Paul Thomas Anderson, Det. Tom Blake, Bunny Bleu, Martin Brimmer, Paul Cambria, Bob Chinn. David Clark, Ron Coen. Misty Dawn, Mitchell Egers, Don Fernando, Larry Flynt, Al Goldstein, Annette Haven, Bobby Hollander, Jim Holliday, Ron Jeremy, Gloria Leonard, John Leslie, Vonda Lia, William Margold, Sharon Mitchell, Kitten Natividad, Richard Pacheco, Ann Perry, Candida Royalle, Mike Sager, "Reb" Sawitz, Ilona Staller (Cicciolina), Joel Sussman, Kenneth Turan, and Bob Vosse. Scripted by Martin Brimmer with music by Brad Raylius Daniel and Tad Dery. Cass Paley produced and directed, but in the credits uses the name Alan Smithee, meaning he does not want to be associated with the film--possibly because 15 minutes were removed from his documentary.

QUOTES from WADD

John Holmes: It was the third year in college. The girl next door asked me if I wanted to make $100. And I said, Who do I have to kill? $100 is a lot of money. She said it was for a stag film and the producer was looking for someone who was overtly large. So I said sure. I wasn't planning on going into political sciences, so I figured what's it matter? So I made a stag film.

* If one respects what you do, what you represent, and how you speak and how you carry yourself--you don't have to be overly macho, you don't have to be over-complimentary. Gain her respect. And treat her as an equal. Don't bullshit her. Treat her as a human being. Treat her as you would treat yourself. As soon as you have that respect from her, she'll treat you with the same respect that you show. Then you f**k the s**t out of her.

* You really cannot trust anyone about anything 100%. It's lonely, but it's just one of the sacrifices to be successful in the field.

* Everything in life is an act. Everything. It's the performance that counts.

* I did the orgy trip for 2 or 3 years. Almost every week-end. In between tricks and freebies and girls in films, and keeping track of the films and averaging out how many girls you go to bed with in each film helps a lot. It's slightly over 14,000.

* (why he stays in the bathroom so long on sets) I don't always hide in the bathroom, sometimes I hide other places. It's just that the bathroom is usually the only room with a lock on the door.

William Margold: We're talking about a d**k from my elbow down.

Bill Amerson: I saw John measure himself several times, it was 13 and a half inches. I first met John Holmes in 1969 while casting for some still magazine work at the "Crossroads of the World" on Sunset Boulevard. We had an open casting call. It was towards the end of the day, and in walked this tall, skinny, very skinny, kid with somewhat of an afro haircut. He didn't look like the type of male model we could use for our nude photo shoots. My business partner said anyway to take him in the back room, have him take off his clothes to take some polaroid snap shots of him, say "Thank you very much", send him on his way, and that was that. We went into the back room, he undressed, I set up the camera when he turned around, I took one look down at the size and length of his appendage, before I even took the first photo I said to him, "You're going to be a star." And that's how I met John Holmes.

Interviewer: Do you take drugs?
John Holmes: No.
Interviewer: Are you sure? You honestly don't take drugs?
John Holmes: No, I don't take drugs. Drugs take me.

Bill Amerson: The closest John ever got to UCLA was stealing something out of a car in the parking lot. John didn't go to UCLA, he quit school in the 9th grade.

(on the Wonderland Avenue murders)
Det. Tom Blake: John then told me, "Hey, if I testify against these people who did the murders, or if I say anything to you about anything, Sharon's gonna be dead. Dawn's gonna be dead. The rest of my family and friends are gonna be dead. They won't kill me, they'll kill my whole family. What do I accomplish?" So then, John said, "Look, you can put me in jail, charge me with those murders, I don't care. I'm gonna take my chances. I can't testify or tell you what happened. I'm going to take my chances." He finally said, "And Tom, I'll deny ever having this conversation with you. If you tell anyone what I said, I will deny ever talking to you about this."

Ron Jeremy: What was so fascinating about John Holmes was the fact that he had this gigantic penis. He was just this tall, skinny, overgrown little boy with this huge schlong. And when it comes down to porn, no matter how you slice it, that's is what people get a kick out of. I mean today, you can have all the good looking guys with the muscular, body-builder physiques. But guys in the audience just want to see this long, gigantic penis on some skinny guy going into the vagina of some cute blonde or brunette.

Candida Royalle: John had a real Jeckyll/Hyde personality. One minute, he could be sweet, charming, and pleasant to talk to. The next, if you say the wrong thing to him, or provoke him in the slightest, he could become this angry, ranting and raving guy you want to avoid at all costs. Now, I never was victim of any of his moodiness other than, he knew he could throw his weight around on the set. So if there was something he didn't want to do, if he wanted to stop, that shoot was shut down.

Bob Vosse: Almost no one in the business knew John Holmes or anything about his personal life about where he was born, lived, his family, his wife, or anything. John had almost no social life and very few friends. He didn't want you to be his friend. I tried to be John's friend, but I can't say that I was ever his friend. He didn't want friends. I shot much more than half of the films John made in his life. John never trusted me, but he never trusted anyone. Believe it or not, I never had John's home phone number. In all those years, in the nearly 20 years that I knew him, I never had a phone number to reach him at, and he never told me or anyone his phone number or his home address. If I wanted to contact John, I would have to phone this answering service in Santa Monica, leave a message, and wait for him to call me back. And this was true with everybody. Even at the height of his career, directing the Swedish Erotica films, I never had his address or phone number. Despite working with him all those years, and all the money we paid him, we never had a phone number for him.

Sharon Holmes: John never considered anyone in the porn business his friend. He used people, just like he felt that he had been used all his life. I never met any of the people that John worked with. To John, everyone in the business he worked with he referred to them as "dirt," "scum", "slime", or "bastard." And I'm not talking about "bastard" in a kind way. By early 1980, John couldn't find work, or couldn't get enough money from work to support his escalating drug habit, is when he began robberies. He was often out of the house on robbery or drug runs and the less I saw him, the happier I was. John asked me to come with him and start a new life and I told him, "You can't change"... It was the first time in my life that I used the word "f**k", and I told him to "Get the f**k out of my life"... And that basically was the last time we ever spoke.

Bob Chinn: I first met John Holmes in 1971...he told me that he was an actor. So I said, "Well okay. What have you done? Show me your credentials." And so, he pulled down his pants... and showed me his credentials...By 1979, it was difficult for John to maintain an erection when he had done so much cocaine. To require him to get erect would take a lot of time and a lot of patience. But I didn't have the time, the patience, or the budget to deal with that...John had this compulsive, tendency to lie all the time. He loved lying. Tall tales, white lies, you name it. He would go on lying about stuff even after you knew he was lying, and he would still go on lying after he knew that you knew he was lying.

Bill Amerson: Oh yes, John did believe a lot of his own lies. John often got so carried away with lying about stuff that he frequently began to believe his own lies himself. One of the stories that John told to the public was of my doing. During the early years of his career, John and I came up with a story about John being a gigolo. Once a year during the late 1960s and early 1970s, John would fly to England to stay for a week with a wealthy, middle aged widow named Lady Agatha to be her companion and escort. She would pay him $10,000, as well as pay for his round-trip plane ticket and give him one diamond a year so he could it put onto a ring that he wore on his right forefinger. Now for the record, none of that was true. But the public loved hearing it and the press ate it up. Many years later during the summer of 1984, John and I rented a fishing boat and we went fishing off Catalina Island. John then started talking about the old days, and how he loved traveling on location to Mexico, Hawaii, etc, to film some of his films. During that time he said, "Remember when I used to go to England once a year to meet with Lady Agatha?" Incredulous, I looked at him and patiently said, "John, you never went to England in your life." John said, "What do you mean?" I said, "We made that up. Don't you remember? That was a story you and I made up together for the press." After a pause, John said, "Oh, that's right." So, bottom line, he did believe a lot of his own bulls**t.

(last lines)
Sharon Mitchell: I know where to find him. I can always push "play".

Selected John Holmes Films

Johnny Giant (1969)
Body Lust (1969)
Sex and the Single Vampire (1970)
The Danish Connection (1970)
Johnny Wadd (1971)
Flesh of the Lotus (1971)
Fulfillment (1971)
Blonde in Black Lace (1972)
Tropic of Passion (1973)
The Danish Connection (1974)
Oriental Sex Kitten (1975)
Tell Them Johnny Wadd Is Here (1976)
Liquid Lips (1976)
Fantasm ('Fruit Salad' segment) (1976)
The Autobiography of a Flea (1976)
Tapestry of Passion (aka Black Magic) (1976)
Hard Soap, Hard Soap (1977)
Eruption (1977)
The Jade Pussycat (1977)
Pizza Girls (1978)
The China Cat (1978)
Blonde Fire (1978)
The Erotic Adventures of Candy (1978)
The Senator's Daughter (1979)
Taxi Girls (1979)
California Gigolo (1979)
Sweet Captive (1979)
Insatiable (1980)
Prisoner of Paradise (1980)
Aunt Peg (1980)
Up 'n Coming (1983)
Nasty Nurses (1983)
Private Pleasures of John C. Holmes (1983)
Girls on Fire (1984)
Looking for Mr. Goodsex (1985)
The Grafenberg Spot (1985)
Rockey X (1986)
The Return of Johnny Wadd (1986)
Saturday Night Beaver (1986)
The Rise of the Roman Empress (1986)
The Devil in Mr. Holmes (1986)
Young John Holmes 1 & 2 (2001)
Around The World With John Holmes (2005)
The Early Films of John Holmes (2007)

The Time Machine (1960) * * *

H. George Wells (Rod Taylor) is a scientist who invites four upper-class friends to a dinner in London On January 5, 1900. But their host is absent, and as requested, they begin the meal without him. Then Wells staggers in, exhausted and disheveled, and recounts his adventures since they last met on New Year's Eve 1899.

A week earlier, George discusses time as the fourth dimension with his friends, including David Filby (Alan Young) and Dr Philip Hillyer (Sebastian Cabot). He shows them a tiny experimental machine that he claims can travel in time, and that his larger version can carry a man "into the past or the future". When activated, the device first blurs, then disappears. They dismiss it as a trick and leave. Filby warns George that if it was not a trick, it is not for them "to tempt the laws of Providence." They agree to meet again next Friday.

Wells: When I speak of time, I'm speaking of the fourth dimension.
Filby: If that machine can do what you say it can do, destroy it, George! Destroy it before it destroys you! Take your journey on your contraption. What would you become? A Greek, a Roman, one of the pharaohs?
Wells: David, I've got to tell it now. While I still remember it!
Filby: Relax, try to relax. You've all the time in the world.
Wells: You're right David, that's exactly what I have. All the time in the world.

Wells goes to his lab where the full-scale model is located, sits in it, pushes the lever forward, and watches time pass at an accelerated rate. To his astonishment, he observes the changing of women's fashion on a mannequin in the window of a shop across the street. He stops at September 13, 1917. There he meets a man in uniform whom he mistakes for David Filby, but it turns out to be his grown son James (Alan Young) who informs Wells that his father had died in the "war".

Wells returns to the machine and travels to June 19, 1940. There are barrage balloons and bombing. He cannot believe the war has lasted so long, then realizes "this was a new war." His next stop is August 18, 1966, where he is briefly fascinated by the changes in the neighborhood, which is now part of a future metropolis with skyscrapers and an elevated monorail. However, he is puzzled to see people hurrying into a fallout shelter amid the blare of air raid sirens. An older, gray-haired James Filby tries to get him into the shelter, warning him that "the mushrooms will be sprouting". Shortly after, James spots an "atomic satellite zeroing in" and flees into the shelter. An explosion turns the sky red and destroys the entire city, and lava oozes down the street. Wells restarts the machine just in time to avoid being incinerated. The lava covers the machine, cools and hardens, forcing Wells to travel far into the future before it erodes away.

He stops the machine on October 12, 802,701, next to a low building with a large sphinx on top. Wells explores the idyllic pastoral paradise and spots young adults by a river. A woman is drowning, but the others are indifferent. Wells rescues her, but is surprised by her lack of gratitude or other emotions. She calls herself Weena (Yvette Mimieux) and her people the Eloi.

As night falls, Wells learns that the Eloi have no government, no laws, and little curiosity. It seems a paradise on earth with clean air, fruit growing in abundance, and a society of young beautiful people who don't have a care in the world. However, humans have forgotten all that has been learned through the centuries, and the Eloi prefer to frolic in the sunshine. Wanting to learn why, he asks to see their books. He finds them all covered in dust, rotted by mold, and they disintegrate when he handles them.

Wells: What have you done? Thousands of years of building and rebuilding, creating and recreating so that you can let it crumble to dust. A million years of sensitive men dying for their dreams, for what? So you can swim, and dance, and play.

Wells returns to where he had left his time machine, but it has been dragged into the building, behind locked metal doors. Weena follows him and insists they go back inside, for fear of the Morlocks. As Wells tries to recover his machine, a Morlock grabs Weena, but Wells saves her. They listen to the talking rings. The next day Weena shows him openings in the ground like air shafts. She then takes him to a museum with "rings that talk" and tell of a centuries-long nuclear war. One group of survivors remained underground in shelters while the rest decided to "take their chances in the sunlight, small as those chances might be." Wells climbs down a shaft, but turns back when a siren sounds. Weena and the Eloi walk towards the open building in a trance, conditioned to seek refuge from a non-existent attack. When the siren stops, the doors close, trapping Weena and some others inside.

To rescue her, Wells climbs down a shaft and reaches a large cave. In one chamber, he sees human skeletons and learns the terrible truth: the evil subterranean mutant Morlocks feed on the Eloi. The Morlocks are shown to be hulking, brutally monstrous ape-like creatures. Wells finds they are sensitive to light and uses matches to keep them at bay, eventually making a makeshift torch. A Morlock knocks it away, but one of the male Eloi summons up the courage to punch the Morlock. Weena pitches in as well. Wells gets the Eloi to set fire to material in the cave, driving off the Morlocks, then leads the Eloi up the shafts to safety. Under Wells' direction, they drop tree branches into the shafts to feed the fire. There is an explosion, and the area caves in.

Finding the doors to the building now open, Wells goes to get his machine, but they close behind him. A Morlock attacks, but Wells activates the machine and travels into the future, watching the Morlock turn to dust. Wells returns to January 5, 1900. He tells his story to his friends, but only Filby believes him. After George's friends leave, Filby returns, but by the time he reaches the laboratory it is too late, Wells has left again. The housekeeper, Mrs Watchett (Doris Lloyd), notes that he took three books. Filby rhetorically asks her which three books she would have taken to restart a civilization.

(last lines)
Mrs. Watchett: Mister Filby, do you think he'll ever return?
Filby: One cannot choose but wonder. You see, he has all the time in the world.

THE TIME MACHINE, also known as H.G. WELLS' THE TIME MACHINE, is a science fiction film based on H. G. Wells's 1895 novel of the same name about a man from Victorian England who builds a time machine and travels to the distant future. He discovers that humanity has been divided into two hostile species: a mild gentle race, and a cannibalistic one living underground. His machine is stolen by the underground race and he must risk being captured and eaten to return to his own time.

The movie's charm lies in its Victorian setting and the marvels from H.G. Wells' classic story. The pioneering spirit of the movie is enthralling, but it gets a bit mediocre when Taylor turns into a hero, rescuing beautiful blonde Eloi Weena and battling with the chubby green Morlocks whose light-bulb eyes blink out when they die. Although it's quaint when compared to the special-effects of the digital age, the movie is still very entertaining and filled with a timeless sense of wonder.

MGM art director Bill Ferrari created the Machine, a sled-like design with a big, rotating vertical wheel behind the seat and an inscription on the control plate "Manufactured by H. George Wells". As Wells travels in his invention, Oscar-winning special effects show us what the scientist sees: a cavalcade of sights and sounds as he races through time at varying speeds, from lava flows of ancient earth to the rise and fall of a towering future metropolis.

The cast also includes: Tom Helmore (Anthony Bridewell), Whit Bissell (Walter Kemp), Bob Barran (Eloi Man), Paul Frees (Talking Rings voice), Josephine Powell (Eloi Girl), and James Skelly (Second Eloi Man). Russell Garcia composed the original music. David Duncan wrote the screenplay derived from H.G. Wells' novel of the same title. Produced and directed by George Pál.

Warner Brothers provides an excellent wide screen (1.66:1) transfer on the DVD. The colors are clear, sharp and vibrant, and the picture quality is nearly flawless with only a little infrequent softness that is likely from the original film. There are no scratches, dust or other defects. The soundtrack is remastered in Dolby Dig 5.1, available in both English (Dolby Digital 5.1), French (Dolby Digital 2.0), and comes through clean and clear. There are some special features, including a theatrical trailer, plus cast and crew biographies. Also included is a 47 minute Behind The Scenes documentary that looks like it was made for television broadcast as there are obvious stopping points for the inclusion of commercials. Titled "The Time Machine: The Journey Back", it is hosted by Rod Taylor, and offers a lot of details about the film, but the main focus seems to be on the machine itself, how it was developed, created, and its long and curious history after production on the original film ceased. This takes up most of the running time, and the rest is used to create a reunion tale as some of the original actors resume their character roles for a short bit. The documentary has it's own scene selections to choose from or you can just watch it straight through. The film may be viewed in French and has subtitles in English and French, but the black bar area is not used--they are at the bottom of the film.

This movie was produced and directed by George Pál, who also filmed a 1953 version of H. G. Wells' THE WAR OF THE WORLDS. Pál always wanted to make a sequel to his 1960 film, but it was not until 2002 when H. G. Wells' great-grandson Simon Wells directed a film with the same title. In 1993, a combination sequel-documentary short, TIME MACHINE: THE JOURNEY BACK, directed by Clyde Lucas, was produced. In the third part, Michael J. Fox talks about his experience with Time Machines in BACK TO THE FUTURE (1985) and its two sequels. In the last part, written by original screenwriter David Duncan, Rod Taylor, Alan Young and Whit Bissell reprise their roles.

THE TIME MACHINE (2002) is an inferior version that grinds all the sharp edges off the original story to make it child-friendly, so no one can get hurt watching it. H. G. Wells' original material has been picked clean and what remains are the social aspects of TIME MACHINE, but even those elements have been sanitized by filmmakers intent on making a movie that will offend no one.

Although the original film version as well as Wells' novel were set in London, this TIME MACHINE has been transplanted to Manhattan. Guy Pearce plays Prof. Alexander Hartdegen, an eccentric whose behavior causes his friend David Philby (Mark Addy) to sigh with exasperation. Prof. Hartdegen invents an electric toothbrush and says, ''It'll help people keep their teeth well into their 40's." He walks the streets of old New York without his bowler and corresponds with a patent clerk named Albert Einstein. ''Mr. Einstein deserves all the help I can give him,'' Prof. Hartdegen blurts out.

Pearce does his best with the stereotypical characterization of a distracted genius. He's fidgety and his mouth is slightly agape when he sees a horseless carriage. His excitement almost keeps him from an appointment with his girlfriend and the tragedy that will compel him to invent a time machine. Prof. Hartdegen gets inside his gleaming contraption and travels through time in unimaginative adventures trying to change the course of history. Despite the attention Prof. Hartdegen's machine draws, we can tell we're in a fantasy. It's impossible to suspend disbelief when he parks the time machine in Times Square, and no one tries to steal it, deface it or even put a parking ticket on it. Pearce's performance is reduced to a series of open-mouthed takes, gaping at the wonders of the future worlds that have been created by special-effects technicians.

Cities sprout and recede around his time-travel contraption as it moves through the ages. One onlooker says his glass globe with brass knobs and pipes probably makes quite a cappuccino. Prof. Hartdegen lands in 2030 and 2037 before ending up thousands of years in the future. He meets the peace-loving Eloi who dwell in pods affixed to mountains, the apparent future of Manhattan apartments, since they live in what used to be NYC. This remake of THE TIME MACHINE directed by Simon Wells, H. G. Wells's great-grandson, shows the awareness of its past by using Alan Young, one of the stars of the 1960 film of THE TIME MACHINE in a cameo role.

In this version, Prof. Hartdegen is mostly a passive observer and all of his trips can't change anything until he gets to the distant future. Then he gets to be the man who inspires the dusky-skinned, pacifist Eloi to fight against the cannibalistic monstrous Morlocks, led by the Über-Morlock (Jeremy Irons). Irons plays the über-creature with the kind of whimsy he used in portraying bloodless subspecies in DIE HARD WITH A VENGENCE (1995) and REVERSAL OF FORTUNE (1990). His flair gives THE TIME MACHINE its only real kick.

Otherwise, this is a drab film, despite the look of the Eloi. In Pal's 1960 version they are white skinned. This one makes the logical point that racial mixing will lead to a future race of dark skinned people. H. G. Wells' original 1895 story had the bonus of fury. He wanted to challenge the close-minded British caste system with his Socialist ideals and also didn't want to let scientists get away with what he perceived was a godlike desire to control humanity. His unnamed hero was partly responsible for the bleak future he journeyed through. But this remake of THE TIME MACHINE is like the Eloi--all of the aggression has been bred out of it.

However, there are a few thoughtful parts. A holographic figure played by Orlando Jones has artificial intelligence. He's ''a compendium of all human knowledge'' in the 2030 library. By the film's end, Mr. Jones is a griot, telling stories of what was. The only emotion that THE TIME MACHINE evokes is a sadness about what could have been, as Prof. Hartdegen's housekeeper, Mrs. Watchit (Phyllida Law), wonders what path her master has taken. THE TIME MACHINE is rated PG-13 for violence and scenes of intense danger featuring the Morlocks, which look less menacing than those in the original version.

Little Caesar (1931) * * *

For the re-release of LITTLE CAESAR and THE PUBLIC ENEMY (1931) in 1954 an identical prologue was added before the opening credits, advising that gangsters are a menace that the public must confront.

A martial fanfare plays over the credits, superimposed on a book with the title of the film. This was the first of Warner Brothers' social consciousness films about crime, and begins with a title card on a piece of parchment with a quote taken from St. Matthew in the Bible. The message sets the film's moral tone and forecasts its eventual outcome:

...for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword. Matthew: 26-52

After the titles and opening credits, the film begins at a gas station robbery committed by two men. One man drives a vehicle to the gas station at night. When the proprietor approaches, the other man shoves him back inside and turns out the lights. There are gunshots, after which the second man runs back to the car and they depart. Later, at an all-night diner, the same car is seen parked outside. Inside, one of the men sits at the counter while the other carefully winds the clock back a few minutes, in an effort to provide them with an alibi for the robbery. The man at the counter is Joe Massara (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.), the vehicle's driver, and the man who resets the clock is the gunman, Caesar Enrico "Rico" Bandello (Edward G. Robinson). Reading the newspaper as they eat their food, Rico notices an article about top gangster "Diamond" Pete Montana (Ralph Ince), who was recently feted by his peers. Rico and Joe discuss the idea of moving east to Chicago. Discussing their plans, Rico wants to gain the power and notoriety of gangsters like "Diamond" Pete. Joe only wishes to exit the gangster lifestyle and go back to being a professional dancer, which he had done prior to meeting Rico--an idea which Rico finds contemptible.

Rico: Yeah, money's all right, but it ain't everything. Yeah, I'll be somebody. Look hard at a bunch of guys and know that they'll do anything you tell 'em. Have your own way or nothin'. Be somebody. I could do all the things that fella does, and more, only I never got my chance. Why, what's there to be afraid of? And when I get in a tight spot, I shoot my way out of it. Why sure. Shoot first and argue afterwards. You know, this game ain't for guys that's soft!
Joe: You'll get there, Rico, you'll show 'em.
Rico: Joe? This was our last stand in this burg. We're pullin' out.
Joe: Where are we goin'?
Rico: East! (He gestures toward the newspaper story) Where things break big!

After arriving in Chicago, Joe becomes a professional dancer after meeting and falling in love with Olga Stassoff (Glenda Farrell), who works at a nightclub that is partly owned by Little Arnie Lorch (Maurice Black)--a rival of Rico's new boss Sam Vettori (Stanley Fields), who gives Rico the nickname that becomes the title of the film. Vettori and Rico clash almost immediately. Rico feels that Vettori is not too bright, and also is defensive of Joe, who Vettori thinks is too soft for crime. Vettori resents Rico's intelligence and ambition, feeling that his position as the boss is threatened. Matters are not helped much when Rico first tries to step out of place during a meeting between Lorch, Vettori, and "Diamond" Pete, who is the overboss of the other two. Pete warns the two bosses about a man named McClure, who is the head of the new crime commission and apparently cannot be bribed. Later, during a New Years' Eve robbery of the nightclub where Joe and Olga work, McClure is gunned down by Rico when he unintentionally interrupts the robbery. This also strains relations between Joe and Rico, because Joe resents that Rico forced him to act as a lookout for the robbery due to his job at the nightclub.

Vettori: A million guys in this town, and you have to knock off the crime commissioner!
Rico: You won't be sorry for lettin' me in, Mr. Vettori. I'll shoot square with ya. I'll do anything you say. I ain't afraid of nothin'...There's nothin' soft about me. Nothin' yella. I don't quit.
Vettori: All right, you stick around, but remember, I'm the boss and I give all the orders. And when we split, we split my way, and no squawks, you get me?

Vettori is apoplectic when he hears of McClure's murder, but Rico, emboldened by his actions, verbally chastises Vettori. After a visit from police Sargeant Tom Flaherty (Thomas E. Jackson), who is looking for clues in the murder of McClure, Rico seizes control of the gang completely. After refusing to split the money from the robbery the way Vettori wants to, Rico tells his boss that he can "dish it out" but not take it. Vettori's position is further weakened when his own men turn their backs on him. Defeated, Vettori silently acquiesces to Rico's control of the gang.

Joe: Once in the gang, you know the rest.
Olga: I don't want to know. Only maybe, maybe it could be different this time, if we try.
Joe: I've never seen a guy that could get away with it yet.

However, all is not well for Rico. The driver of Rico's getaway car named Antonio "Tony" Passa (William Collier Jr.) froze during the robbery and later crashes the car instead of disposing of it. At his mother's home, he is seen suffering immensely from feelings of guilt, and decides to confess to a priest. He is stopped by Otero (George E. Stone) on the way, and after refusing his share of the robbery money, he informs Otero of his plans. Otero frantically rushes to inform Rico, who then proceeds to find Passa and shoot him on the steps of the church. He is given a lavish funeral by Rico and the other mobsters.

Rico becomes a very powerful gangster, and is eventually feted at a banquet. Even though it is the era of Prohibition and illegal liquor sales are booming, Rico is an abstainer. Joe continues to see Olga and distance himself from Rico's life of crime. After hearing Lorch and associates discuss a planned hit on Rico, he informs Otero. They are too late to stop the hit which is bungled because the gunmen are poor shots and only graze Rico's arm. Rico then confronts Lorch, storming Lorch's gambling house with his men and offering him a choice: leave town under his own power, or leave in a coffin. Flaherty and others read in a society column article that Lorch has left for Detroit.

Sgt. Flaherty: So somebody finally put one in you.
Rico: Yeah, but they just grazed me though.
Sgt. Flaherty: The old man will be glad to hear it. He takes such an interest in you.
Rico: You tell him the cops couldn't get me no other way, so they hired a couple of gunmen.
Sgt. Flaherty: If I wasn't on the force I'd have done the job cheap.
Rico: Did you ever stop to think what you'd look like with a lily in your hand?
Sgt. Flaherty: No, I never did.

Eventually Rico is invited up to see the man known only as the "Big Boy" (Sidney Blackmer), who would apparently be the film's equivalent to the Italian Mafia's capo di tutti capi. After a humorous scene where Otero, who has become Rico's right-hand man, assists an uncomfortable Rico with putting on a tuxedo, Rico is informed by the "Big Boy" that they wish him to take "Diamond" Pete's place. Rico does so, then contacts his old friend Joe. Although they have not spoken in a long time, Rico presumes that Joe is still interested in working for him again more directly. When Joe refuses to return to Rico's gang because of his love for Olga, Rico becomes outraged, telling Joe that if he returns to Olga, he is signing the death warrant for both of them. Rico answers a phone call, and when he returns Joe is gone.

Joe is in a panic and tells Olga what Rico has said and tries to get her to leave town with him. But Olga has had enough and tries to convince Joe to contact Sgt. Flaherty and turn state's evidence on Rico. Olga calls Flaherty, but Rico and Otero arrive before the police do. Joe then challenges Rico to kill him. Rico approaches Joe, preparing to shoot him at point blank range. However, Rico finds he cannot kill his old friend in cold blood. At that moment, Sgt. Flaherty and the police arrive, and during a struggle Joe is shot and wounded. Rico and Otero make their way down the fire escape and into an alley. Otero is killed and Rico is forced to become a fugitive. Unable to return to his apartment and retrieve his money, he is forced to stay at Ma Magdalena's, a grocery store he has established as a safe house. He is blackmailed by Ma (Lucille La Verne) when she refuses to give him more than $150 out of the $10,000 he had stashed there.

Time passes and Rico is next seen in a flophouse, having reached his lowest point. He is no longer the suave and confident character he once was, and has even taken up drinking. When listening to some of the other men read a newspaper article about Vettori about to be hanged and an interview with Sgt. Flaherty, Rico becomes incensed and calls Flaherty, bragging that he will once again rise to the top of the underworld. Flaherty has the call traced and catches up with Rico as he is staggering down the street. In a shootout in front of a billbard, Rico is mortally wounded by Sgt. Flaherty. As he dies he utters what has since become a classic quote, "Mother of mercy, is this the end of Rico?"

In a tragic twist of irony, the very billboard where Rico dies is advertising a new act by Joe and Olga, who have since risen to fame as a song and dance team.

One of the best and most famous of the early classic gangster films is LITTLE CAESAR, often called the grandfather of the modern crime film. It's the story of the rise and fall of Rico, a small time gunman who claws his way to the top of the mob and then tumbles from his throne. His downfall is caused by his best friend who became a nightclub performer and wants to leave the mob behind. With its portrayal of an underworld character who rebelliously challenges traditional values, it is a taut, fast-moving and vivid film that set the genre's standards and launched the gangster movie. One of the first gangster film of the talkies era and made during the Pre-Code era, it is generally considered the prototype of future gangster films. Robinson's performance as the brutal and ambitious gangster known as Little Caesar is timeless and close to perfect.

LITTLE CAESAR reflects the technically primitive nature of early film making, with a straight-forward, blunt narrative composed of a series of tableaux, yet its hard-hitting gritty realism grips audiences. There are few close ups and only three times in the movie do we see close shots of Edward G. Robinson--including the famous last scene. Most shots are full body shots taken from a distance "stage style" as we hear his snarling voice barking out orders and sometimes looking a bit wooden. However, it is still an entertaining movie and definitely worth watching.

Unlike many other gangster films, the film does not feature graphic bloodshed, depict violence on-screen, or sensationalize street language. But its tone is somber and tough. Its low-budget sets and cheap, sleazy atmosphere add to the film's impact. The movie's rich black-and-white cinematography was provided by Tony Gaudio. W. R. Burnett, the author of the novel on which the film's screenplay is based, was also co-scriptwriter of SCARFACE (1932). In Burnett's novel the line reads "Mother of God, is this the end of Rico?", and a take was filmed with Robinson saying it verbatim. However, the studio felt that the line would be blasphemous coming from a murderous villain, so the alternate take was used instead.

It's a great movie that defies criticism, but it feels as old as it is. Action takes place around concealed microphones, musical scoring is virtually nonexistent, and some of the melodramatic elements--like the scene with the doting Italian mother--seem to belong in the Victorian age. Rico's character was based mostly on ruthless gangster Al Capone, and also resembles Brooklyn underworld gangster Buggsy Goldstein. Rico is not likable and was never meant to be. The character of "Diamond" Pete Montana was modeled on Big Jim Colosimo--"King of the Pimps" and "Father of the Chicago Mob. "Big Boy" kingpin was based on corrupt politician and Chicago mayor Big Bill Thompson.

The cast also includes: Armand Kaliz (De Voss), Nicholas Bela (Ritz Colonna), Ernie Adams (Cashier), Elmer Ballard, Ferike Boros (Mrs. Passa), Kernan Cripps (Detective), George Daly (Machine-gunner), Adolph Faylauer (New Year's Celebrant), Ben Hendricks Jr. (Kid Bean), Al Hill (Rico's Butler), Gladys Lloyd (McClure Guest), Noel Madison (Killer Peppi), Tom McGuire (Detective on Phone), Louis Natheaux (Hood), Henry Sedley (Scabby), Gay Sheridan (Nightclub Extra), Larry Steers (McClure Guest), Landers Stevens (Crime Commissioner Alvin McClure), and Robert Walker (Lorch Henchman). David Mendoza composed the original music. Francis Edward Faragoh, Robert Lord, Robert N. Lee, and Darryl F. Zanuck wrote the screenplay based on W.R. Burnett's 1929 novel of the same title. Mervyn LeRoy directed.

In 2000 LITTLE CAESAR was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". In June 2008, the American Film Institute revealed its "Ten top Ten"--the best ten films in ten "classic" American film genres--after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. LITTLE CAESAR was listed as the ninth best in the gangster film genre.

The Star (1952) * * *

Margaret Elliot (Bette Davis) was once one of Hollywood's great stars, but as she ages into her 50's, both her career and her life have reached rock bottom. An actress who once knew the heights of fame as an Oscar-winning movie queen is forced to confront the depths of defeat. Bankrupt and washed-up, she lives in the past without accepting the reality of her age and her own demanding nature. Drowning her sorrows in alcohol and self pity, Margaret is in serious denial about herself.

She hasn't worked for several years, her marriage has fallen apart, her former husband has custody of her pre-teen daughter Gretchen (Natalie Wood), and she's running short of money. Margaret's agent Harry Stone (Warner Anderson) can't get her a part, and isn't willing to lend her the money to pay her bills. When they learn that Margaret is all but penniless, her sister (Fay Baker) and brother-in-law (David Alpert) turn their back on her, and Margaret's landlady Mrs. Adams (Kay Riehl) threatens to evict her. One evening in downtown LA, Margaret runs into her agent outside of a storefront auction house. Her possessions are being sold to the highest bidder and he's just purchased a gaudy candelabra that used to belong to her. "Be a scavenger," she wails to him, "Pick my bones."

Margaret heads over to the mansion of her wealthy ex-husband John Morgan to tell his new wife Peggy (Barbara Woodell) a thing or two. "You threw yourself at him," she harangues, "You told him how bad I was for him, that I was too busy with my career, that what he needed was a real wife." Then, she rolls her eyes and snorts, "Ugh…pure soap opera."

Peggy: Is it money? Do you want more from John?
Margaret: More money? I never asked Johnny for money.
Peggy: He's given you $2500 over the past two years.
Margaret: Well, I gave him $ 25,000 when I divorced him so he could marry you.

Margaret goes upstairs to visit with Gretchen. "My six months with daddy was up on the sixteenth," she helpfully reminds her mother, "I was wondering when you'd come for me." Margaret makes up excuses because she can't afford to take care of her own child. Gretchen has been busy defending her mother's professional honor by beating up any of the neighborhood kids who call her mother a has-been. Margaret tries to save face and says that she's starting a new movie soon, "If you're a star, you don't stop being a star."

Margaret: Haven't you ever cried because you're happy?
Gretchen: No.
Margaret: Well, you see, some people cry when they're happy and laugh when they're mad.

After tucking her daughter into bed, she heads home to her small apartment. Despite Margaret's financial situation, her ungrateful sister and brother-in-law ask for their monthly stipend. "Can't you get it through your thick skulls that I'm broke!" she bellows, "Dead, flat, stony broke!" After throwing them out, she picks up her Academy Award and goes on a bender."Come on, Oscar--let's you and me get drunk," Margaret says to the Academy Award itself, which she cradles bitterly. With her Oscar on the dashboard and a drink in her hand, Margaret drives through the affluent neighborhood that she used to call home. "Going, going, gone," she tearfully reminisces before being arrested by police and thrown in the jail drunk tank, saying "You don't seem to know who I am!" The next morning, Margaret is bailed out by an old industry acquaintance, Jim Johannson (Sterling Hayden).

Jim Johannson put up bail because she did a "swell thing" for him once: "I go out to repair your bathhouse and ten days later I'm playing opposite Margaret Elliot in Faithless." Despite the fact that it was "the worst picture ever made", he's eager to return the favor and give her a helping hand. He urges Margaret to leave Hollywood behind, and offers to care for her if she'll have him. After she is evicted from her apartment, Johannson takes her back to his place, a comfortable apartment that overlooks the shipyard he owns and operates. When she awakens in his bed, all her troubles come flooding back to her. Margaret's night in jail has made the morning papers. She quickly makes a call to her daughter to explain the previous night's misadventures, "Mother was at the jail getting atmosphere for her new picture," she claims.

Johannson tries in his own down-to-earth way to use the boat engine he's working on as an analogy for the downward spiral that Margaret is facing. But she's content on mulling over the ghosts of her former career, "I was sick of the tripe they were forcing me to play," she tells him, "They said I was box-office poison." Johannson gives her a harsh but realistic life assessment: "You're confusing what was with what is. It was swell while it lasted. But now it's over."

Margaret: It'll never be over!
Johannson: Once though you were a woman, but I was wrong. You're nothing but a career!

Margaret slaps him and runs out on the only person who cares about her. At a drugstore she tries to buy some sleeping pills, but steals an expensive bottle of perfume instead. She then returns to Johannson and confesses. "What's the matter with me? Going, going, gone." In a confessional mood, she tells him that it was no favor to get him the lead in "Faithless". When a distinguished leading man refused to play opposite her, she swore to get even by making the next man she saw a big star.

Johannson takes it all in stride and suggests that, since she has it, she put on some of the fancy perfume. Oddly, it doesn't have any scent. "It must have been a display bottle," he guesses, "Well, when you grabbed it you thought it was real. It's the story of your life isn't it?" Yes, in a wonderfully heavy-handed way, it sure is. Margaret's real world rehabilitation begins with a refreshing day spent sailing with Gretchen and Johannson. Since her movie career option is essentially out, Johannson helps her get a "real" job working behind the counter in a department store. This is probably the worst idea ever, truly a disaster. Two women recognize her and begin to gossip over whether it's appropriate to have a jailbird working in the lingerie department.

"Take a good look ladies, so there's no doubt. It is Margaret Elliot and it is a disgrace," she fumes, "Margaret Elliot waiting on a couple of old bags like you!" She tosses some lacy merchandise at them and storms out from behind the counter. "I'm going back where I belong. I am Margaret Elliot and I intend to stay Margaret Elliot!"

"One good picture is all I need," she says, puffing away on a cigarette as if her life depended on it, "They can't put me out to pasture." Margaret's pleas to her agent finally result in an audition with producer Joe Morrison (Minor Watson), and she holds on to the desperate hope she may have one more chance at regaining her stardom. Morrison is making "The Fatal Winter", and she manages to get a screen test for a part in a film she always wanted to do. Margaret is shocked to learn that her star power holds less clout than it used too. They want her to shoot a screen test for the role of the older sister, not the lead. Offered to be tested for a supporting role in the film, she accepts, believing that if she plays the character as a sexy young girl she will be awarded the top role.

The next day, after enduring the make-up and hair for the frumpy sister, Margaret ducks into a dressing room and changes her hair and wardrobe to a more flattering style. When it becomes clear that she's intent on playing the vamp instead of the aged recluse the part calls for, the young director attempts to make a few suggestions. But she won't listen and plays it her own way. During the scene, Davis is playing it bad on purpose, wonderfully bad in fact. After shooting the obviously atrocious test, Margaret asks for some feedback. "Fine," the director deadpans, "Your fans would love it."

Full of ego and hubris, Margaret actually believes that the test will win her the part of the young lead. She buys a new wardrobe and is eager to go out and celebrate her "return to the screen" with Johannson. "You're going to have a little brother," she tells her Oscar statuette. But all the excitement has worn her out and she ends up sleeping most of the evening away. Margaret is in for a rude awakening when she settles into her seat inside the studio screening room to see her test. "Oh it's horrible, it's horrible," she sobs when she realizes how painfully inappropriate her performance was. She's ruined her chance for the comeback she so desperately wanted and shouts at her b & w image flickering across the screen. Margaret fails the test, told that she no longer has that "dewy quality". When she realizes what she has done, her world comes crashing down on her, self realization sets in, and she confronts what's most important--being a star, or being a woman.

Her agent takes Margaret back to his Bel Air home for a rest. She awakens to the sounds of a cocktail party downstairs. She tries to sneak out, but ends up chatting with colleagues and overhears that someone else got the part she tested for. Barbara Lawrence, the starlet playing the coveted lead in "The Fatal Winter", causes quite a stir when she shows up. A young producer sits with Margaret and tells her about a script that she might be interested in. If the producer sounds familiar, it's because he's Paul Frees, the voice actor with a list of credits a mile long, including feature films and several animated TV shows. He describes his "Hollywood story" and it's main character, a delusional actress of Norma Desmond-like proportions. Could he be telling the pitiful story of Margaret's life? She flees the party and picks up Gretchen in the middle of the night. They drive to Johannson's apartment where, in a tacked on happy ending, Margaret literally runs into the arms of the only man who understands and loves her. He gives her a tender kiss.

This 1950s melodrama is stark and grim, a penetrating study of Hollywood and an aging actress who has problems with work, booze, family, and money, years after she won an Academy Award. Davis has no qualms about appearing as a woman who is aging, as she appears with bags and circles under her eyes and has a somewhat jowly and bitter look. The wardrobe is mostly drab, and the sets are pedestrian. This all works to effect, symbolic of Margaret Elliot's new reality. Sterling Hayden gives a credible performance and a teenage Natalie Wood as Margaret's daughter is adorable in the role.

THE STAR is a great film. Its theme is that careers are important, but not as important as the relationships we have with other people, such as our family and other loved ones. Some people think this is a sexist slant for the movie, but it's a message equally true for men and women who want fame and fortune instead of just enjoying their lives and being with the people they care about. This movie is disliked by some people because they resent the truthful message about those obsessed with the American Dream according to Hollywood.

The cut-rate script and production values betray THE STAR as a product of Davis' post-Warner Bros. films. It does have some sunny location shots of San Pedro, plus a young Natalie Wood before she broke out of child-star roles. But the biggest draw, other than Davis, is the Hollywood behind-the-scenes juice, and the guessing game of how close the material was to Davis' own career. The parallels between Davis' real life and the character she plays are often eerily similar. Davis had plenty of her own personal and professional disappointments to draw upon.

Davis said that she based her portrayal of the washed up actress on her rival Joan Crawford, but Crawford's career was one of the most durable Hollywood ever produced. The script was written by the husband and wife team Katherine Albert and Dale Eunson, who were long-time friends of Crawford's. THE STAR is as much about Davis as it was Crawford. Whether she's playing herself or a thinly veiled version of Crawford, is beside the point. The end result is one hundred percent Bette Davis. This film proves that no one does a better Bette Davis impersonation than Davis herself. She manages to employ every mannerism in her personal bag of acting tricks. The result is a deliriously over-the-top performance from one of Hollywood's best actors.

The cast also includes: Minor Watson (Joe Morrison), June Travis (Phyllis Stone), Paul Frees (Richard Stanley), Robert Warrick (R.J., Actor at Party), Barbara Lawrence (Herself), Herb Vigran (Roy), David Alpert (Keith Barkley), James Anderson (Actor playing Jed Garfield in "The Fatal Winter"), Florence Auer (Old Biddy in Store), Marie Blake (Annie, Stones' Maid), Claire Carleton (Jailbird), Byron Foulger (Druggist), Gil Frye (George, Assistant Director), Sam Harris (Party Guest),Al Hill (Cameraman), John Indrisano (Projectionist), Marcia Mae Jones (Waitress), Lorin Raker (Somers), Frank J. Scannell (Auctioneer), Dorothy Vaughan (Annie's Friend in Department Store), and Katherine Warren (Mrs. Ruth Morrison). Victor Young composed the original music. Dale Eunson and Katherine Albert wrote the screenplay. Stuart Heisler directed.

The 1950's were a difficult time for Bette Davis. After her career defining role in ALL ABOUT EVE (1950) and before the box-office success of WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? (1961), the quality of the work she was offered declined. Davis herself referred to the decade as her "ten black years". It was during one of those "black years" that she starred in the camp exposé THE STAR (1952), a low-budget drama about an aging actress who is desperate for a comeback. It's certainly not one of Davis' more subtle performances, but she received her ninth Academy Award nomination for Best Actresss for her role--but she lost to Shirley Booth in COME BACK, LITTLE SHEBA (1952)--a role that had been first offered to Davis.

Multiple Maniacs (1970) * * ¾

Lady Divine (Divine) runs the travelling sideshow "Lady Divine's Cavalcade of Perversions", a free exhibit of various perversions, fetish acts, cheap thrills, and obscenities such as the "Puke Eater". The show is actually a front for a group of psychotic kidnappers, with Lady Divine the most vicious and depraved of all. Although the show is free, the performers must persuade and even physically drag reluctant passers-by to attend. At the end of every show, the shocked audience is led into a tent where they are robbed at gunpoint by Lady Divine.

Mr. David: Yes folks, this isn't any cheap X-rated movie or any 5th rate porno play, this is the show you want! Lady Divine's cavalcade of perversions, the sleaziest show on earth! Not actors, not paid impostors, but real actual filth who have been carefully screened in order to present to you the most flagrant violation of natural law known to man! These assorted sluts, fags, dykes and pimps know no bounds! They have committed acts against God and nature, acts that by their mere existence would make any decent person recoil in disgust.

On a Baltimore street, the makeshift carnival show has been erected in a few tents. Barker Mr. David (David Lochary) promises a parade of shocking performers, including a woman licking a bicycle seat, armpit lickers, "actual queers, kissing on the lips", a heroin addict going cold turkey, and a naked human pyramid. After Lady Divine shoots and kills a woman who insults her, she leaves town to stay with her prostitute daughter Cookie Divine (Cookie Mueller). Lady Divine and her lover Mr. David argue. She is bored with the routine and wants to concentrate on robbing and murdering people, without the facade of the smutty sideshow Cavalcade. Mr. David is alarmed by her increasing viciousness. He gets together with Bonnie (Mary Vivian Pearce), his young mistress he has been seeing on the side.

Bonnie: Oh Mr. David, this is even better than amyl nitrate. It's better than Carvada. It's even better than heroin! Oh Jesus, this is even better than last time! if only we could perform acts 24 hours a day! Oh, that would be supreme happiness.

Lady Divine: How dare you contaminate my dressing room with this little piece of filth!
Mr. David: She is not. She is an auto-erotica copraphrasiac and a gerontophiliac, and I just thought you might be interested in her for the show, that's all.
Bonnie: Yes and I can start immediately. I have this great act all worked out, with this great old man in his late 70s and his mirror, well, actually he's my...
Lady Divine: (in disgust) Oh!
Bonnie: ...and we used to have kind of a thing together, and I heard about this show and I thought what an ideal setup, I mean!
Lady Divine: Get her out! Get her out of here! How can you flaunt your cheap little one-night-stands in my face, especially at a time like this!

After Lady Divine leaves the carnival murder scene and visits Cookie and her boyfriend Steve (Paul Swift), a member of the Weather Underground, she receives a call from Edith (Edith Massey), proprietor of the local bar, who tells her that Mr. David has been at her bar with another woman. She heads there to catch them and kill Mr. David, but is raped on the way by two glue-sniffers. While recovering from this, the Infant of Prague (Michael Renner Jr.) appears and leads her to a church, and she interprets this as divine approval of her plan to kill Mr. David. In the church Lady Divine prays, then is approached and seduced by young Mink (Mink Stole). They have a sexual encounter in the church pew involving Mink inserting a rosary into Lady Divine's rectum, a "rosary job", while describing the Stations of the Cross.

Lady Divine: (in church, trying to pray, notices Mink) She coughs, as if to attract my attention towards her, and gave me a lewdly religious glare... It was then that I realized that she was using her rosary as a tool of erotic pleasure! She made me get into a kneeling position. My head was spinning. And all at once, she inserted her rosary into one of my most private parts!
Mink: I usually sleep in churches, you know, in the confessionals. They lock all the churches up at night now because of all the thieves and they never check the confessionals. Saturday nights are the only problem, and nights that are holy days because of early masses the next day. And Lent, s**t, forget it, I gotta hang in synagogues then, and it's just not the same thing if you know what I mean. Oh, Jesus, you're my first celebrity I ever gave a rosary job to! And at St. Cecilia's, oh, wow, imagine!
Lady Divine: Oh, but I don't even know your name!
Mink: It's Mink, but lots of people just call me The Religious Whore.

Now lesbian lovers, Lady Divine and Mink go to Edith's bar with the intent to kill Mr. David and his mistress, but they are too late. David and Bonnie, who have decided to kill Lady Divine to protect themselves, have left. Mr. David returns to Cookie's house to kill Lady Divine, but finds only Cookie and fellow performer Ricky (Rick Morrow) there. An argument ensues and Bonnie accidentally kills Cookie. They tie up Ricky and hide Cookie's corpse just before Lady Divine and Mink return.

Lady Divine: What about you, Mr. Angel? What about those house-robbings and how about Sharon Tate! How about that!
Mr. David: I told you to never bring that up again. I cannot remember it and I will not.
Lady Divine: Had a real ball that night, didn't you?
Mr. David: Stop it!
Lady Divine: If I didn't know any better I'd swear you were having an orgy!
Mr. David: Well, you were there, too!
Lady Divine: Ah, but I didn't do what you did pig! You're going to jail. If I go to jail, it'll be for other things, and if I go to jail, I just might start remembering. I just might crack that Tate case for them--what have I got to lose?

Bonnie tries to shoot Lady Divine, but Lady Divine attacks and kills her with a knife. She then turns on Mr. David and kills him too, devouring his internal organs and becoming extremely frenzied. In a fit of raging passion she kills Mink after she shoots Ricky, and becomes more crazed when she finds her daughter's body hidden behind the couch.

Just after collapsing, exhausted from the ordeal, a giant 12 foot lobster named Lobstora enters and rapes Lady Divine. Afterwards she says "You're a maniac now Divine", stumbles out into the street, steals a car, terrorizes a couple in a lovers' lane, returns to the city, destroys a car, then runs around Baltimore, insane, bloody, and wearing a mink coat. The film ends with the appearance of the National Guard, who surround Lady Divine on the street and shoot her down, accompanied by the sound of Kate Smith singing "God Bless America".

MULTIPLE MANIACS is a trashy comedy film by Baltimore, Maryland filmmaker John Waters. The movie features actors who were part of the Dreamland acting troupe for Waters' films, including Mary Vivian Pearce, David Lochary, Mink Stole, Edith Massey, and Cookie Mueller. Of course, the star is Divine, a huge and strangely attractive 300 pound transvestite whose real name was Glenn Milstead. It is Waters's second feature film, the first with sound, a dragged-out affair with some great moments. You'll love it or hate it, there's no in between.

Inspired by the Sharon Tate killings, which were unsolved when Waters began shooting, MULTIPLE MANIACS is Waters' response to the peace and love ideals of the late 1960s hippie movement. In his book "Shock Value", Waters calls this his favorite of his films, for its "meanness and harsh documentary look." Although a technical improvement over his first feature MONDO TRASHO (1969), it's still pretty rough. The filming, like the subject matter, is crude, but shows hints of Waters's keen eye for visuals. There appears to have been only one take of each scene, with the camera moving back and forth from speaker to speaker to avoid editing. Given that limitation and Waters's outrageous, hilarious dialogue, his cast does quite well. Look and listen for Divine and Cookie flubbing their lines, Divine's wig almost falling off as he is being violated by Lobstora, and Mink Stole trying not to laugh as a male pedestrian walks by when she and Divine are discussing the murder of Mr. David and Bonnie.

Filmed on a $5000 budget, MULTIPLE MANIACS is a tribute to H. G. Lewis's 1964 shocker 2000 MANIACS, a John Waters favorite. The plot is a parody of Roman Polanski's REPULSION (1965), as we see the demented visions of a sexually confused woman driven to madness. Most of the film's early scenes are somewhat drab with shocking dialogue. The main set is Waters' apartment, but it picks up near the end as Divine does an over-the-top impersonation of a madwoman, comparing herself to Godzilla and stalking the streets of Baltimore. An extended scene of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ is incomprehensible or in the wrong movie, although it is probably related to the "rosary job" scene with Lady Divine narrating her version of Christ. There is graphic violence, extensive nudity, sexual situations, adult situations, substance abuse, and profanity. If you don't enjoy circus freaks, transvestites, and sex with lobsters, you probably won't get the humor in MULTIPLE MANIACS. However, if you enjoyed John Waters' infamous PINK FLAMINGOS (1972), "the filthiest film ever made!", then you'll like this sleazy trash film. This is a true camp classic in black and white with a not too black and white plot. There is no category for this movie. It is unique.

The cast also includes: Susan Lowe (Cavalcade pervert), Howard Gruber (Gilbert), Vincent Peranio (Freak), Jim Thompson (Freak), Dee Vitolo (Freak), Ed Peranio (Freak), Bob Skidmore (Cavalcade Patron), Margie Skidmore (Murdered spectator), Jack Walsh (Straight Person), Susan Walsh (Female Church-Goer), Gilbert McGill (Freak), Pat Moran (Cavalcade Patron), Paul Landis (Freak), Mark Lazarus (Straight Person), Harvey Freed (Straight Person), Susie Nichols (Freak), Steve Waters (Lover's Lane Boy), Julia Richardson (Freak), William Kirby Cullen (Freak), Jack Roberts, Mark Isherwood, Berenica Cipcus (Cavalcade Pervert), Hawley Peterson, Tom Wells (Freak), Cowboy Foulke (Freak), George Figgs (Jesus Christ), and Alan Reese. Written, scored, produced and directed by John Waters.

John Waters: I made this film, which glorified violence, at the peak of the hippie love generation. But hippies liked it. Part of its success was to offend my target audience in a humorous way. Of course, now that sounds much more calculated than I was.