Trying to Make it With Marlene on the Shanghai Express and Loving Being Taken for a Ride

(I watched Shanghai Express (1932) today, a film which holds a place on my list of 100 favorite English language films. I previously wrote about the film on this blog a few years back. This entry will be a tad different.)

 I want on that train. Hey! Let me on board! I'm totally imaginary so the fare is not a problem. Thanks, man, I wont forget this. Let's check out my fellow passengers.

There's this guy Captain Harvey, aka "Doc," who's got a past with Shanghai Lily (my girl, Marlene Dietrich) He is a tool. I mean the only thing I don't get about Lily is what she ever saw in a walking paste board like him. No doubt he's a good doctor, officer and gentleman but his voice and manner have all the charm of yesterday's oatmeal. This Harvey (Clive Brook) is a walking yawn.

But dig this, I've also got a fall back on this trip. He Fei (Anna May Wong). If I can't muscle laughing boy away from my Lily -- that'd be a shame -- I'll see if this dish will give me a tumble. Yummy. There'd be one helluva lot of consolation in that consolation prize.

One dame I want no part of is that matronly old broad with the little mutt. What a prude. Besides, she's pushing 80 if not 180. Her handle is Mrs. Haggerty (Louise Closser Hale). She's as sour as sugarless lemonade. Being in your golden years is no crime, but being an old biddy is another matter. There's a portly Eurasian gent who's all sophisticated wisdom. Something shady about this character. Goes by the name of Mr. Henry Chang (Warner Oland). Bet I can tell he's up to no good (it helps that I've seen the movie).

Others on this choo choo include a rotund American businessman, a whiny German and a typically holier-than-thou reverend. But my interest is in the notorious Shanghai Lily. She's got a reputation of some sort and I think I know what it's based on: Victorian mores. We're here in the early 1930's but the Brits in this part of Asia have brought their old school prudishness with them. So I'm on board and all I want to do is see Harvey take a hike so I can get cozy with the sultry Lily. Not a problem. Meanwhile I get to enjoy a vintage train ride with as disparate a group of passengers as you'll ever want to meet. My main objective will be to find love in the arms of Lily. Just about the only thing that can stop me is if the Civil War raging across China gets in the way and what are the chances of that? Whattaya mean pretty good!?

Damn all the luck. To intrigue is added strife. My efforts at wooing Lily will be severely hampered by these most dangerous shenanigans. And just as I suspected, that Mr. Chang is not what he claims. He is in fact, a ruthless leader of a warring faction.

Long story short. Once the shooting started I got off the train and returned to reality. I'm a brave man here in the real world (or so I tell myself) but why risk life and limb in a movie, in a fantasy? Course if I really could score with the Dietrich of 1932.....

Twas a fascinating ride on the Shanghai Express. The conductor is no less a personage than Joseph von Sternberg. He created an exciting tale that so wonderfully evokes a time and place that none of us have ever seen but are sure we are visiting. And to think this ride is taking place on a Hollywood backlot! He also caused my infatuation to Dietrich/Lily to increase tenfold. It's the way he photographs her. If her gorgeous puss had an imperfection (it don't) you can bet von Sternberg would never let you see it. The angles, the lighting, the length of shots are all designed to accentuate the world's greatest facial bone structure. It's no surprise that he'd long since fallen for the dame too.

I'm glad I hitched my ride on the Shanghai Express (which is a lot easier since we got a DVD player that plays region 1 &2 DVDs and I got the British DVD). It's one of those deals that's not a ride but an experience. And you don't have to be all girl crazy to enjoy it either. But it helps.

How to Pick Your Next Movie -or- What to Do When There's Nothing You Want to Watch on Your Netflix Queue

Got an email this morning from a reader who was struggling to find the next movie to watch. He claimed to be having a hard time refining his taste in films. He further described himself as having "eclectic taste." (Don't we all?) He just wasn't digging what was on his Nextflix queue.

As a service to my legions of fans (three people is legions, isn't it?) I now provide all of you with an expanded version of my response.

Find a director to enjoy. If, for example, you love Goodfellas (1990), watch other Scorsese films. Or if you liked Some like it Hot (1959), see what else Billy Wilder did. This is a good way to find a style of film making that you enjoy. You're almost certainly not going to like every picture a given director does but you're probably going to like most and thus may tolerate his lesser efforts. Directors, as I will discuss below, are a far more reliable way to select films than stars. Watching one director you like will often lead you to others who have a similar style. Truffaut can lead to Godard, for example, as  Hawks can either lead to Ford or La Cava.

Pick a star. This is much riskier than going with a director because actors have and do all variety of films and some may not be to your taste. Also, since actors generally appear in a lot more films than directors make, they're more likely to be in some stinkers. However with people like Cary Grant, Bogie and Marlene Dietrich you're fairly safe. Notice that the three examples I gave are all stars of bygone eras. It's my impression that even the best of today's actors are more likely to be in bad films. Within the work of a star you can also focus on a genre. For example with Grant there's plenty of screwball comedies, with Bogie there's gangster films and with Dietrich a lot of romance.

Check out Great Films website. This is a great one stop shopping site in looking for films to watch. Brought to you by Tim Dirks, Greatest Films breaks down the "best" movies (yes, subject to debate but this provides a starting point and has all the classics) by such categories as decade, genre, stars. It also has such categories as best film speeches, best film kisses and best film editing sequences. Great fun and easy to navigate, not to mention an effective way to select something for your viewing pleasure.

Fall in love with "old" films. This is real easy to do. Movies from the 1930's in particular will help inspire a love for cinema. You won't get distracted by a an over emphasis on technical wizardry and state of the art special effects. Story and character were king (or queen) which is as it should be in story telling. The humor is not of the gross out variety and although once the production code began being enforced there was de facto censorship, its nice to have stories that aren't overly reliant on shocking violence or profanity. If you have Turner Classic Movies as part of your cable package you're good to go. Sadly not all the best from the 30's are on DVD but there's plenty to get you started. They did make bad movies back in Hollywood's Golden Age, but not of the spectacularly awful variety you see today. If you pick a random movie to watch from 2009 and then one from 1939 your chances of seeing a good film are far better from '39.

Read this blog (and others as well). If you look to your right you'll see labels for various stars, directors, genres etc. that I've covered over the two plus years of Riku Writes existence. You may get some ideas there. There are scads of other film bloggers some, like me, are rank amateurs, others are world renowned film critics like Roger Ebert. In fact, go to his website and check out The Great Movies section. Books can be helpful but that often means you're spending money to get just one person's opinion when you get lots of opinions for free on the internet.

Remember the rest of the world. Given the relatively limited availability of foreign language titles in the US. when you do pick a foreign film in the states you're quite likely to get something really good. So perhaps to an even greater degree than with older films, you stand a better chance of avoiding a bomb. Most of the classics from other countries are available as well as the best of the best directors.

Careful. Don't spend too much time researching movies. Better you should pick one and watch. Happy viewing.

She Did More Than Just Kiss a Woman: Marlene Dietrich in 'Morocco'

The most powerful force I've ever encountered is the human female. The repression of women by men throughout history is evidence of the massive insecurity at the heart of the male psyche. Men have employed all the powers at their command, beginning with physical force, to keep women in positions of servitude whenever possible.  Woman is a force of nature that men, in all our simple mindedness, have never been able to fully comprehend.


Yet a woman will at times fling reason and her God given gifts to the wind and devote herself to a man literally willing to follow the lucky bloke to the ends of the earth. This is part of the total incomprehensibility of women.


As a measure of its extreme stupidity, Hollywood, a male dominion, has turned its back on powerful women and their stories for most of the last half century. Today our female leads are either naifs barely out of adolescence, or silly comic actresses, or pretty but vapid faces whose sole function is as arm candy for hunky leading men.


While actresses like Scarlett Johansson, Tilda Swinton, Penelope Cruz and Charlize Theron are ready willing and most able, modern day producers and directors don't know how to utilize them. They get some good roles, but rarely as stars.


To see a truly transcendent female performance you need a to look back -- way, way back -- to the days of Greta Garbo, Jean Harlow, Barbara Stanwyck and of course, Marlene Dietrich.


Dietrich had a series of incredible performances that made mediocre films good, good films great, and great films masterpieces. The list include Der blaue Engel (1930), Blonde Venus (1932), Shanghai Express (1932), The Devil is a Woman (1935), Scarlett Empress (1934) and of course Morocco (1930).


All these films were from director Joseph von Sternberg who know how to direct a woman, at least Dietrich who he loved, literally, physically and most important to us, cinematically. (All but one of these films came before the enforcement of the Production Code which did far more more harm to women's roles than to men, effectively denying their sexuality, keeping them out of bedrooms and boardrooms.)


Morocco is an utterly ordinary story that is elevated to classic status by Dietrich (with an enormous assist from von Sternberg). Gary Cooper is French Legionnaire Tom Brown and Dietrich is chanteuse Amy Jolly who arrive in the title city almost simultaneously. Brown catches Jolly's opening night performance and the two go gaga for one another. Jolly's first number features her in a tux taking a rose and stealing a kiss from a female in the audience. Sadly this is often all anyone knows about the film and it has been analyzed ad nauseum at the expense of the rest of Morocc's many attributes.


Both Brown and Jolly are avildy pursued by others and their situations are further complicated by their repsective lines of work But this is one of those loves that is "special" in the way so many in films are. Yet this is different than most film story loves. There is a remarkable restraint in what we see of the two together and even what is hinted at. We do not need steamy scenes of passionae love making. Indeed the couples' first scene alone together is a whole lot of talk and the chatter is not all that racy either. But when the female lead is blessed with so much seductive conviction, you don't need a whole lot more to get the idea.


Dietirch was a woman who could (what am I saying she, thanks to the magic of film, still can) turn a man to butter just by crossing her legs. What legs!


Like Willie Mays chasing down a flyball she made it all seem so bloody effortless. There is something so wonderfully natural about her movements, her facial expressions, that combined with some very calculated mannerisms make her the ultimate seductress.
And we haven't gotten to the voice, both spoken and singing and in any of three languages. It has such a stength and conviction to it. Combined with how slowly each word is formed this has the effect of making each word wrap itself slowly around a man's ear, lovingly caressing his eardrums. Surely english being her second language (or third) and her accent enhanced the effect of her speech. The words had to be though through as spoken making them carefully and wonderfully rendered.


What makes Morocco so fascinating is that she's got all of this going for her and then throws in desperation. Despite the employment of all her charms, Legionannaire Brown plays it pretty close to the vest. He loves her but isn't it going to make a spectacle of himself about it. For a woman of such magnetism to have to work so hard for a man gives her a vulnerability that can make male viewers wan to pitch forward and beg the heavens to be with her. Now, today, as she is then, in a movie from 80 years ago. This is aprt of the feminine mystique, to be so powerful yet to fall so hard for one of us. These powerful creatures exposing their hearts and souls and losing not a wit of dignity in the process. No wonder we men fear women.


*Spoiler Alert* In the end the heroine follows the dope and his troop into the vast desert, leaving all behind, kicking off her high heels, helping pull another female follower's goat. It can be viewed as the ultimate act of abasement for this woman to surrender everything for a man. But in this story, with this star it is just an incredibly deep manisfestation of true love. This is her chocie. And her willingnes to leave behind a man who promises wealth (Adolph Menjou) not to mention a career is a declaration of independence.


Morocco is at times stitled, slow and some actions seems unmotivated or over the top. But the effect of Dietrich as this incredibly powerful creature is not to be missed.

Movies and Trains, As Natural as the Cream in Your Coffee

Trains and movies go together as naturally as jazz and saxophones. Directors are afforded a contained area which is at once limiting and liberating. Passageways are narrow and quarters confined and there's no terra firma. On the other hand there's movement, scenery, and challenges for the camera that can create memorable cinema. It's remarkable how many chase scenes successfully take place on trains, along with fist fights, love scenes and silly shenanigans.

Spacecraft, ships, aeroplanes and even submarines have provided moving set locations for films, but not with the degree either of frequency or success as have trains. Train travel was much more common in the United States up until the 1960's. Except for the Northeastern Seaboard, trains in the U.S. are infrequent, expensive and stop everywhere, making such travel tedious and impractical. It's a sad loss for Americans who as such strong individualists all want their own modes of transportation (i.e. cars) and can't abide their tax dollars subsiding a seemingly archaic mode of travel.

So aside from visiting or re-locating to Europe your best bet to enjoy riding the rails is to watch a movie.  There are literally oodles ("did he just write 'literally oodles'"?) of movies, most from the first half of the previous century, that feature lengthy or important scenes on choo choos. I can not even pretend that what I provide below is anything more than a sample. This list could easily be twice, three times, even four times longer. But I do think I've got a representative sample of excellent films where trains were integral to a good story.

The 39 Steps (1939) or Escape on a Train. Alfred Hitchcock frequently used trains and invariably to great effect. In The 39 Steps a man (Robert Donat) wrongly suspected of murder must elude the coppers while on board a moving a train. This first creates drama when a newspaper with his mug on it is purchased and then when the law gets wind he's on the train. A woman is of no help but a bridge is, in this delightful film full of derring do, dash and whimsy.

The Lady Vanishes (1938) or International Intrigue on a Train. Another Hitchcock film. This time there's a charming little old lady on a train and then there's not. Where'd she go and why does no one believe our heroine (Margaret Lockwood) who insists the woman was on board? It won't surprise you to know that there are the proverbial bad guys in this film, most of which is set on a train.  There's also eccentric English gents, romance, a handsome leading man (Michael Redgrave) and a shootout. Great fun in one one of Hitch's most under appreciated efforts.

The Train (1964) or World War II on a Train. In this film from director John Frankenheimer, trains co star with Burt Lancaster in a thriller about the French resistance trying to save rare works of arts from the clutches of the Nazis. The villains are trying to get the artwork out of Paris via -- take a guess ... who said train? Lancaster leaps about trestles, tracks and the trains themselves in his effort to thwart the bad guys. Action aplenty much of it on moving trains. Great stuff for WWII, train and film aficionados. (If you're all three you're in for a real treat.)

Twentieth Century (1934) or Theater on a Train. John Barrymore and Carole Lombard hamming it up and us viewers cracking up. This is great stuff. The film starts in a theater where Barrymore is an impresario and Lombard his discovery. But much of the action takes place aboard a train called the Twentieth Century, a few years later when Lombard is a big star and Barrymore's fortunes are on the wane. He's trying to woo her back with guile, a wing and prayer. Howard Hawks directed the twosome and let em have it. So you get two thespians feasting on the scenery, which remember, is a train.

Go West (1940) or The Marx Brothers on a Train. By rights this shouldn't be here as it's not a terribly good film, especially for the Marx Brothers. But it features one of the great trains scenes of all time. It is an elaborate chase sequence in which the train is veritably cannibalized to fuel itself. It is the embodiment of madcap antics and its on rails.

Shanghai Express (1932) or Scandal and Civil War on a Train. This folks is a great film and its long past high time it got its much due DVD release. Almost the whole shebang takes place aboard a train, namely the Shanghai Express. Marlene Dietrich stars as the notorious Shanghai Lil a well known, shall we say working woman, who's one of several intriguing passengers aboard the express. The journey will find itself right in the  middle of the Chinese Civil War. Joseph von Sternberg directed.

Wild Boys of the Road (1933) or The Depression on a Train. Riding the rails was a common form of transportation for the colorfully named hoboes of America's Great Depression. In this classic from William Wellman, it's teenagers searching for where the grass is greener. They hop a freight, meet compatriots and even get into a brawl with cops. Hoping a freight epitomized those desperate times when cars were abandoned and people searched the land for some sort of break. This movie captures that time as well as any other.

Palm Beach Story (1942) or The Ale and Quail Club on a Train. Folks, this is train abuse pure and simple. What the wealthy and intoxicated members of the hunting and imbibing club do to this train is a scandal. Their gunplay (harmless in intent) terrorizes a porter and provides unwanted air conditioning to a club car. Meanwhile they go on a hunt for a young lady they've taken under their wing, utilizing their beagles. That young lady (Claudette Colbert) not surprsingly hides from her besotted benefactors and in the process meets a very wealthy bachelor (Rudy Vallee). You get it, it's more madcap fare from director Preston Sturges and is howling good fun.

Schindler's List (1993) or The Holocaust on a Train. I enver said this was going to be all yucks and giggles. There is a tragic iconography in the trains pulling into Auschwitz with their doomed cargo. Stuff to haunt your dreams (its done mine) for its grim reality. Schindler's List evokes that horror and particularly the horribly crowded cattle cars.

Some Like it Hot (1959) or Men in Drag on a Train. What could be better than sharing intimate quarters on a train with Marylin Monroe? Not much although watching her cavort with Jack Lemon and Tony Curtis, with the latter two in drag, comes pretty close. This classic comedy's key middle third takes place aboard a Miami bound train. The three stars were never better.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) or Bandits on a Train. Behold the dedicated bank employee who stands steadfast aside his company's safe refusing to yield to the Hole in the Wall Gang. No, he'll not let them near the loot though they threaten to blow it and him to kingdom come. Our persistent thieves are led by Butch (Paul Newman) and Sundance (Robert Redford). Imagine their surprise when too much dynamite is used and money blows hither and yon. And imagine their shock when out of some of the trains cars come armed horseman. The law! The chase is on and birthed by a train.

Strangers on a Train (1951) or A Train With Strangers On It. There's actually not a lot of this film (another from Hitchcock) set aboard a train but what there is is crucial. Strangers opens with the chance meeting of two men who strike up what is to one of them a most interesting conversation (to the other it all seems rather macarbe and odd). Our oddball suggests that they each commit a murder on behalf of the other. Each will have an air tight alibi and thus neither will be suspected. The train and most espeically the tracks provide some key symbolism as well as a starting point.

You May Be in a Movie Made 75 Years ago But...Oh Can't You See What I'm Trying to Say? I Love You!

If you have outrageous luck in life like I have, the one time you really fall deeply in love it ends up being for keeps. I had crushes that ranged from microscopic to titanic. But the real thing only hit me once and I've been married to the woman for many happy years since. (At least they've been happy for me.)

For some there's a downside to finding your one true love -- never experiencing the dizzy elation of losing your heart to another person ever again. But that's not a problem for those of who us also find passion and enchantment in movies.

I fall head over heals regularly while watching films. Often with the same dame over and over, sometimes in the same film.

We experience a lot vicariously through movies. Action, horror, space travel and of course romance. How often do even the most jaded and cynical of us go gaga over someone on screen? Yes, maybe it's the actor or actress we love, but real movie love is when we fall for the character. It's a delicious kind of fantasy that we can indulge in at any age and without regard to our "real life" romantic status.

Yes, I know you imagine me a hard bitten old cynic but I'm a soft touch for a pretty face, especially a good looking dame in a movie and most especially when the movie is from Hollywood's Golden Age. The movies were classier and the women appearing in them were too. They knew how to craft roles for leading ladies back in the 1930' and 40's. Female stars were cultivated and given roles just as substantial as the ones for men.

Below are ten screen sirens I've fallen for. In every case its happened more than once, I've just picked one particularly memorable role for each actress. I've swooned over so many actresses of yore that in narrowing this list to a manageable number I left off such personal favorites as Ginger Rogers, Myrna Loy, Alexis Smith, Joan Blondell, Jean Arthur, Veronica Lake, Thelma Todd and Priscilla Lane. Sorry girls.

Barbara Stanwyck as Jean Harrington in The Lady Eve (1941). Truth be told I've fallen for more of Ms. Stanwycks's characters than any other actress'. It's an odd thing considering that she's far from the most beautiful. But just watching her seduce lucky Henry Fonda in this film makes me rue the day I wasn't born in her era (if such a thing is possible to rue). Ms. Stanwyck was that unbeatable combination of smart and sexy. You could imagine being physically intimate with her (to be ridiculously euphemistic), talking politics with her or just gazing at the stars together. *Sigh*

Loretta Young as Gallagher in Platinum Blonde (1931). We're supposed to be watching Jean Harlow here. She's the star, she's the one the leading man marries. But Ms. Young steals every scene she's in. There are those eyes as big and beautiful as twin full moons. She's young, vulnerable, but capable and I want to skip merrily through a meadow with her. Impossibly beautiful.

Joan Fontaine as Lisa Berndle in Letter From An Unknown Woman (1948). Too pretty for words she is. The face of an angel and not a fallen one either. She looks at the man she loves as if he's the most wonderful creature on Earth. Just as in Rebecca (1940), Ms. Fontaine's idyllic love for her co star is the stuff of every man's dreams.

Ann Sheridan as Goldie West in They Made Me a Criminal (1939). In some respects the actress most similar to my own bride. Totally self assured, bordering on tough, but beautiful and loving and soft. Barring the invention of a time machine I'll never have Ms. Sheridan circa 1940, thank God I've got my own missus.

Paulette Goddard as A Gamin in Modern Times (1936). When I'm looking at Paulette Goddard I'm always afraid that I'll melt into puddle. She cavorts happily with co star Charlie Chaplin, the picture of innocence yet clearly a dame who knows her way on the round block. I wish she'd take me for a spin.

Lana Turner as Elizabeth Cotton in Honky Tonk (1941). It's one of those deals where you say, if you look up such and such a word in the dictionary there's a picture of so and so. You look up gorgeous in the dictionary and there's Lana Turner, from pretty much any movie she made. She's impossibly beautiful with a voice you could bask in. But there's also a bit of guile and attitude. In other words, more than just a pretty face.

Jean Harlow as Vantine in Red Dust (1932). This is a tough one to write about on a family blog. Gentleman, I think you know what I'm talking about, especially during the washtub scene. Talk about a woman who looked like a lot of fun! This is my favorite Harlow picture in large part because she's so damn sexy. But don't mess with her. Ya gotta like a woman who can fend for herself.

Marlene Dietrich as Shanghai Lily in Shanghai Express (1932). Okay I'm going to admit right off that in a one-on-one situation with Ms. Dietrich I'd be a bit intimidated, that's how seductive she is. Fine, I'd submit to her will and take my chances. I like the odds. Ms. Dietrich played a number of uber sexy women and you could have a fun argument about which role was best. I'll go with Shanghai lily. Hardly a politically correct moniker these days but a sexually correct woman in any day and age. (Yahvol, Fraulein Dietrich.)

Carole Lombard as Irene Bullock in My Man Godfrey (1936). You know what makes beautiful and sexy into totally irresistible? When you add funny. Ms. Lombard is a crack up whether here or in Mr. and Mrs Smith (1941) or To Be or Not To Be (1942). And if you're funny you're smart. She's got all that and a body that just don't quit.

Olivia DeHaviland as Hermia in A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935). Ms. DeHavilland was a still a teenager when she played Hermia so I'll extricate myself from an awkward situation by saying it's the teenager in me who's got a massive crush on this version of Hermia. Indeed I get a crush on Ms. D pretty much any time I see her. There's so much verve and happiness to her that a pretty face becomes a complete knockout.

Dietrich and Donat Find Love and Adventure During the Russian Revolution and I Discover A Fantastic Film

I love surprises. I got quite a surprise the other day when TCM offered its first ever showing of a film I'd not yet heard of, Knight Without Armor (1937). I saw that it starred Marlene Dietrich who has greatly enriched my fantasy life over the years (if only I could build a time machine I'd send myself back to the 1930's and...). That it co-starred Robert Donat, so wonderful in Hitchock's The 39 Steps, made it a must for the old DVR.

I didn't know what to expect. At this point in my life if I haven't heard of a film with such major stars in it I assume that it mustn't be very good. In this case I was very mistaken.

Donat plays a British journalist in pre Revolutionary Russia who, upon being booted out of the country for criticizing the Czarist regime, is recruited to stay and spy for his homeland. Meanwhile Dietrich is a very wealthy Countess who lives in luxury with a houseful of servants at her disposable.

Only a revolution could bring these two souls together and Mother Russia obliges. They fall madly in love. I'll dispense with further plot points, its best you discover it for yourself. If you missed it last week, fear not, you won’t have to wait three months or more to see it again. TCM will be re-airing next Monday at 1:00 am. Set your recording device now. (It’s not currently available in DVD.) Go on. Do it right away, you don't want to take a chance of forgetting. The rest of us will wait....

Knight without Armor is a Korda Brothers production and indeed TCM showed it as part of a tribute to the sibling film makers. The Hungarian born producers filmed this story of Russia in England with a German star and a French director born in Belgium, Jacques Feyder. The screenplay, based on James Hilton's novel, was adapted by American Frances Marion. How international can you get?

This melting pot of the movie had me wondering where it had been all my life. Unlike many other films set around the Russian Revolution it manages to be epic in scope without an epic length (just under an hour and three quarters).

One doesn't quite know what to rave about first. There is the lush cinematography of Harry Stradling Jr. who had a long and distinguished career; there is the wonderful score by Miklos Rosza for whom this was the first of nearly 100 films. And there is the brutal honesty of the story itself. White Russians executing Red Russians and Red Russians executing White Russians. By rifle and machine gun. It’s as violent a story you’ll see from the latter half of the Thirties. There is an alarming sense of arbitrariness coupled with an inevitable doom, that makes that violence all the more chilling.

I was struck by how realistic King Without Armor was. Yes you've got a fantastic love story with all manner of near miss high wire escapes and incredible fortune, but you've also got a vivid re-telling of the human toll and the unimaginable tragedy the Russian Revolution caused so many.

The train scenes alone have a documentary feel. The anxious waits at the trains stations, the crowding aboard trains. The desperation to get out, to anywhere. Then there are the on-the-spot trials many resulting in on-the-spot executions that are oh so chilling.

But the film’s most powerful scene is of the countess waking up in her mansion to find the servants gone. Every last one. Not a soul to wait on her hand and foot. There is the overwhelming sense that the world had been turned upside down (it had been) as she races around the empty rooms and out to the gardens finding no one. (The unexplained emptiness is eerie.) Finally she's confronted by an angry mob of revolutionaries seeking revenge on the aristocracy. It's an amazing scene and again the photography and score enhance it, but so does Feyer's composition of it.

And of course there is Dietrich's face. Feyer does not have the camera caress her in lingering close ups as von Sternberg so famously did, but he does have her framed perfectly in many shots. Using that lovely and evocative face to tell the story.

Dietrich is wonderful as the poor little rich girl, her very life capsized only to find an inner strength never before called upon. She also finds love in the arms of a stranger that helps her tap further reservoirs of bravery.

Donat here proves what a terrific star he could have been had not the terrible asthma that ultimately killed him much too soon limited the number of roles he could play. (Production of this film was slowed when he suffered a serious attack that sidelined him for a month). He is dashing and intelligent but shows enough fear to make his character seem all the more human and the story thus more real.

Together Dietrich and Donat are heroic because they betray vulnerabilities and doubt. They are not superheroes but two people facing an imaginable crisis using all the wits at their disposable.

What could have been, and indeed I feared, would be, a corny romance/adventure was a wonderful slice of history and touching love story.

What a great find this film was for me. I already cannot wait to watch it again to find more within it. And to think there is doubtless so much more out there to discover!

Of U-Boats, Avian Killers, Singing Convicts, A Randy Czarina, Steve Martin and My Valentine

I sent the staff of Riku Writes off on a well earned Caribbean cruise this week while I attended to other non blog matters. Hence the five day absence of this blog that many of you no doubt found excruciating. These past few days I've been binging on movies -- so what else is new, right? Let's get you caught up on what I've watched with a few impressions.

A Nous a Liberte (1931). If you guess from the title that this film is French you are correct and a master of the obvious. This was my first encounter with Rene Clair's film and it won't be my last. Based on a single viewing I can affirm that it is one of my favorite films of all time. This was released the same year as another Clair classic, Le Million. Has a director ever put out two such masterpieces in the same year? I think not. The film starts with prisoners singing about the joys of liberty. This is not, strictly speaking a musical, although occasionally the cast bursts into jaunty, buoyant songs. As with Le Million, the musical numbers never interrupt the flow of the story but enhance the story telling. One of the cons escapes and before you know it is a very wealthy man indeed. There are scenes of factory workers that call to mind Chaplin's Modern Times (1936); but A Nous a Liberte came first, a point not lost the film's producers who wanted to sue Chaplin. Clair would have none of it. A Nous a Liberte not only brought to mind Modern Times for me but another Chaplin great, City Lights (1931). I believe it was the wonderful meshing of styles, the strong characters, the humor and the pathos.

The Birds (1963). Talk about something completely different. I hadn't watched this straight through for as long as I can remember and I can remember pretty long. Giant crocodiles, flesh eating extra terrestrials, and rampaging dinosaurs can be pretty frightening to film audiences. But for real fear try something that actually exists. Like common ordinary birds. Ones with an attitude. The commonplace gone mad is truly terrifying. One does not encounter crocs, ETs or prehistoric beasts most days. But birds? Boy howdy. Everyday. Just after the first time I watched The Birds I was walking to school. I must have been about ten,eleven years old. A bird swooped down from a tree and flew very near by my head. I ran the rest of the way to the school at a speed I likely never matched, my heart pounding. I never, never, never walked under that tree again. Alfred Hitchcock directed and who else could have made the story quite so damn scary? The gorgeous Tippi Hedren starred along with Rod Taylor.

The Jerk (1979). Notice a pattern in these films? Neither do I. Carl Reiner directed, Steve Martin starred. This is one of the gall darn stupidest movies ever to be funny enough for repeat viewings. It includes one of my favorite all time movie lines: "I was born a poor black child." When the words are uttered by whiter than white Steve Martin and we then segue to his all black Mississippi family...Comic gold. The Jerk works (excuse the rhyme) in large part because Martin's character, Navin Johnson, is supposed to be really, really stupid. The movie makes no other pretenses other than to be a farce played for giggles. The absolute dead serious sincerity of much of the rest of the cast allows Martin's antics to work all the more. Bernadette Peters (same birthday as me, though several years before) is a darling as the love interest.

Das Boot (1981). Now are you detecting a pattern? Course not. Here we go again with the following phrase: "One of the great films of all time." It really is. There are three versions of Wolfgang Peterson's film. The minced, chopped and diced version initially shown in US theaters. Avoid at all costs. The full super epic length version initially shown on German telly. Worth at least one look. And the medium length -- if nearly three hours can be called medium -- director's cut that's the happy compromise and the most widely shown these days. I've meant to dedicate a full post to this film so will keep this short. Like any great film it gets better with each viewing and I find something else to admire about it with each viewing. If you've never seen it you're in for a treat. If you have seen it, watch it again, you're in for a real treat too.

The Scarlet Empress (1934). I think we can lay to rest once and for all any notion that there's a pattern in the most recent films I've seen. Consider that the next movie I watch will likely be The Gay Divorcee (1934) starring Fred and Ginger and you'll believe me when I say that I don't generally go in for theme weekends. Anyway, this was the first of the movies I got out of the house for. The missus and I saw it at the PFA as our Valentine's Day date (I know, pretty romantic, eh?). Another movie I'd never seen. This was one of the last collaborations between director Joseph von Sternberg and actress Marlene Dietrich. They made seven movies together and I defy anyone to find a better director/actress combo. As in their other pairings, in The Scarlett Empress, von Sternberg has the camera veritably make love to Dietrich. She's in most shots and the camera is forever holding on her face in light and shadow that highlight and indeed help create one of the greatest visages in film history. However this film is as much about elaborate sets and costumes as about Ms. Dietrich. The Scarlett Empress traces the rise of Catherine the Great from a German princess to the ruler of Russia. The movie slipped in just before the full enforcement of the production code eviscerated movies. Thus we get more than a hint of the sexuality that was central to the real life Catherine's story (the film is surprisingly accurate despite its excesses). The Scarlet Empress is at times silly, overly broad and as both the wife and Roger Ebert said, suggestive of a Marx Brothers film. All told it is rather peculiar film cluttered as it is with so much edifice but still a delight to watch. I'll sort it out after a second viewing. (Bizarre footnote: As we were getting up to leave a woman behind us commented to her spouse that there was quite the turnout. "yeah," he grumbled, "but not a very ethnically diverse one." Hmm, I guess the Pacific Film Archives needs to do a little outreach to people of color. I kept a straight face while I typed that line.

Meanwhile it is Valentine's Day. One of the downsides of being an internationally famous blogger is that women far and wide desire me. That in itself isn't so bad. But what is troubling it that some actually suppose to come between my beloved wife and I. Worse yet many of these young ladies are quite famous. One example is Anne Hathaway (pictured above) who can't seem to leave me alone. While I had to turn down Ms. Hathaway's request to be her Valentine I may feel compelled to accompany her to next week's Oscars, though that would not sit well with Penelope Cruz. Obviously my druthers are to stay home with the better half. Well, I shouldn't bore you with my problems. I'm happy and lucky to have a loving and understanding wife who I think I'll favor now with a kiss.....

The Difficulty of Telling a Good Story

Really good fiction and really good cinema attain excellence by not being obvious. A simple way of looking at it is that you generally don't know what's going to happen in the end. A movie like Slumdog Millionaire failed for me because there was nothing to interpret, nothing to think about. It was a visually exciting movie but it asked nothing of the audience. I want to be challenged. From that standpoint No Country For Old Men (2007) was brilliant. Sorting out the whys and wherefores of the character, Anton Chigurh was a meaty task in and of itself.

There's an important point: both fiction and film rely on characters and if they are one-dimensional then your story will be too. It's far too easy to make inflexible characters whose actions are quite predictable. Worse still you can create characters who commit acts that are inconsistent with their personalities. Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull (1980) always acts in accordance with who he is. But who is he? Why is he so true to his nature to the point that he alienates his wife and brother? Does he have no limits?

Michael Corleone, especially in the first Godfather (1972) film is one of the greatest characters of film because he is so complex. I recently posted a question about how and when he transforms from being a law abiding citizen to Mafia boss. It is a stunning and yet totally believable metamorphosis.

One of the things that makes Blonde Venus (1932) not mere entertainment but truly great cinema is Marlene Dietrich's character Helen Faraday. Like many great female performances of the 1930's, this is not just about a night club singer, or housewife, or sexpot, or mother. It's about all of these wrapped in a beautiful yet complicated persona.

The film itself is an utter joy to watch and similarly intriguing to discuss or contemplate.

Perhaps the greatest problem with films of the past 30 years is the over reliance not just on special effects but on a stock characters and a formula story -- something akin to the film serials of the late 1940s. Star Wars (1977) and Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) are wrongfully cited as to blame for this trend. But they appeared as something new or at least as an homage to those serials and other types of adventure films of yore. In their time both films were refreshing and interesting. They cannot be blamed for the ceaseless copying (saving those made by their own creators).

What stimulates our intellect is the unexpected or the expected presented in a new light. With a film like Milk many of us knew the arc of the main character's life. The task then was to tell us the story, not just to get easy cheers and and sobs but to get them the hard way. Audiences had to understand the main character in a new and more profound way. It is the prism through which we are asked to examine a story that causes it resonate.

A movie like The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is linear and obvious. Meanwhile something like In Bruges zigs and zags. Ron Howard did his typically straight forward job of directing with Frost/Nixon but gave the two title characters so much depth that the story was ultimately compelling. He didn't create a hero in Frost or a villain in Nixon. He merely showed that, like the rest of us, they are complex individuals, though in their cases on an international stage.

Restraint is also important. Stephen Daldry couldn't reign in The Reader, letting the movie get away from him. Michael Cimino is a director who had that problem in spades. On the other hand directors like Alfred Hitchcock and Woody Allen have a wonderful economy to their pictures. Many great European directors like Jean Renoir, are similarly gifted. There are too many books that are big and fat and too many three hour films. Writers and directors are prone to excess. Just compare the original King Kong (1933), a masterpiece, to Peter Jackson's overblown monstrosity (no pun intended) of the same name from 2005. In the first it was plenty good enough to see the big ape whip a dinosaur. In Jackson's version one was never enough. He had to have Kong to take on a veritable army.

Dialogue is also central to meaningful film and fiction. One would think that getting the way people talk to each other would be easy. It's not. I don't know why but I do know that in bad stories conversation seems stilted and well, made up. The applicable phrase is that it doesn't ring true. Bad TV shows (which come to think of it is most of them) are positively filled with dialogue that sounds like it was written by someone else. Characters are too witty, too insightful, talk too fast and speak in absolute truths with no nuance. Many speak as if giving sound bytes or quoting from a speech they'd written. I risk infuriating my beloved missus but I positively cannot abide the phony baloney dialogue in one of her favorite shows, West Wing. My children watched a highly popular show called Gilmore Girls in which everyone spoke as if they'd just graduated from Princeton and were getting paid by the word.

For good dialogue watch and listen to a some of Woody Allen's recent films, particularly Vicky Christina Barcelona and Match Point (2005). Tom McCarthy's The Visitor had utterly believable dialogue from professors and immigrants. Billy Wilder films are another source of good dialogue as are most anything directed by Howard Hawks. But for the best in dialogue watch films from the 1970's like Dog Day Afternoon (1975), Network (1976), Taxi Driver (1976) or The Last Detail (1973) (pictured above).

In fiction F Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck and JD Salinger are all giants in large part because of dialogue. The midgets are plentiful.

Of course creating complex yet entertaining stories with complex and believable characters and realistic dialogue is not easy. That's what makes it so satisfying. Most things that are easy to do are not terribly fulfilling. As discerning readers and film goers, it is our task to sift through all the rubbish and find the gems and then share our discoveries.

There's Nothing Like a Dame

I love women.

I find women, on average, far nicer to look at than men (sorry, guys). I also find females endlessly fascinating. The clothing, the smell, the voice, the walk. Very nice. But it's not just sex or sensuality. Women are more at peace with the world. They are by nature nurturing and sensitive.

I think so highly of women I married one. As an extra blessing of that union I fathered two daughters.

I now confess that most of my friends over the years have been males. Us guys speak the same lingo. The vast majority of women wouldn't dream of wasting time blathering about linebackers or the Stanley Cup.

Thankfully movies have done an excellent job at various times of celebrating women. Some would says films have often idealized women. Balderdash! They've merely represented them. What follows is ten examples of ten very different women in powerful roles that I believe represent some of the finer qualities of women. I tried to include a variety of types of women. I admittedly leaned to more physically striking women.

Barbara Stanwyck as Jean Harrington in The Lady Eve (1941). She's a high class grifter who falls for a mark Charles Pike (Henry Fonda), the scion of a beer fortune. Stanwyck's seduction of Fonda is the hottest G-rated scene you'll ever see (see picture, above). Who wouldn't melt in her arms? But Harringotn is also tough. When alerted to Harrington's past, Pike drops her like a bad habit. Hell hath no fury, folks. But Harrington doesn't just get mad, she gets even. What better revenge than to make the poor sap fall for her again?
Stanwycyk as Harringon is tough, smart and beautiful. The ultimate triple threat. It's a man's world? Not where Jean Harrington is concerned.

Sophia Loren as Cesira in Two Women (1960). Women can endure far beyond the capabilities of your average man. A woman with a child can endure beyond anything the world has ever seen. Witness Loren as the mother of young teenage daughter in war torn Italy. Yes she's strikingly beautiful, but the real beauty radiates from within this extraordinary character. What she goes through you'd not wish on your worst enemy and Cesira is a woman you'd want as your best friend. Cesira's courage throughout is one of film's most powerful tributes to womanhood.

Pam Grier as Jackie Brown in Jackie Brown (1997). The power and the glory of a seemingly ordinary woman. Jackie is a stewardess and a smuggler for one bad mutha of a crook, Ordell Robbie (Samuel L. Jackson). When Jackie is busted she's given the chance for freedom if she sets up Robbie. She agrees. But our Jackie has had enough of being used whether by her bosses both legit and illegitimate, the cops or society. This is a tough middle aged black woman who's going to use her toughness for a big score, even if it meets triple dealing. Jackie betrays vulnerability and fear but nothing that will stop her. Grier was given the role of a lifetime and made full use of it creating an indelible character who finds a way out of the urban jungle.

Greta Garbo as Queen Christina in Queen Christina (1933). We go from modern day L.A. to 17th century Sweden and its royal court. Garbo plays a very different sort of Queen. One comfortable in bed with either gender! But it is a man who she falls for, a Spanish emissary no less. The Protestant queen in love with a Catholic? Here's a real scandal! Christian seduces Antonio (John Gilbert) and they share a room -- in an inn! Yes, this is a movie that earned a lot of exclamation points. Mostly because our heroine doesn't let being the ruler of a powerful European country stand in the way of sex or love with the partner of her choice. A women not shy about flouting convention can be fascinating, especially when played by Garbo.

Elizabeth Taylor as Gloria Wandrous in BUtterfueld 8 (1960). The story of a high class hooker may not seem fitting for such a list. But forget what Taylor's Gloria does and focus on how and why she does it. This is not a particularly good film but Taylor is magnificent in it. At the beginning of the movie she's leaving an evening's assignation with an expensive... shall we say, souvenir. Gloria takes as good, if not better than she gives. Sure she's forced by circumstance into men' beds but Gloria is in charge of what Gloria does. The movie and most of all Ms. Taylor's performance deserved a better more satisfying ending. Ultimately this is the story of a woman who made some poor life choices, yet managed to remain true to herself thoguhout.

Marlene Dietrich as Helen Faraday in Blonde Venus (1932). My God she even looks fantastic in a gorilla suit. Women can be complicated and they can screw up just like men do. Dietrich's Faraday makes her share of mistakes. But Faraday is one of the most devoted mothers of film and a good wife too. When her husband goes to Europe to seek a cure for radiation poisoning, Faraday the housewife returns to the cabaret in a nightclub act for the ages. Why? To fund hubby’s trip. Trouble ensues when she falls for a wealthy young man played by Cary Grant. When her husband (Herbert Marshall) returns cured and outraged at the betrayal Faraday takes to the road, son in tow. Ultimately she hits the skids losing it all. Only to bounce right back to the top. Faraday encompasses more strength, talent, beauty, vulnerability and capacity for love than even any woman could dream of, let alone three men in one. What a dame!

Diane Keaton as Annie Hall in Annie Hall (1977)>. There are so many great lines, so many memorable moments in this landmark film that its easy to forget Keaton's transformative performance as the title character. As much as anything else this is the story of one woman's growth. from insecure, fumbling, giggling innocent to smart, talented sophisticated, self-assured Manhattanite. Director Woody Allen has an amazing capacity to direct women in brilliant performances (Keaton, Mia Farrow, Diane Weist, Scarlett Johannson, Penelope Cruz, Mira Sorvino). In Annie Hall Keaton is everything from cute to sexy, from naive to knowing from novice to star.

Katherine Hepburn as Susan Vance in Bringing Up Baby (1938). What's this? You say. Hepburn was nothing but a ditzy broad in this film. Seemingly yes. But what did Vance want and what did she get? Yes, like many women she set her sights on a target and gets him or it. In this case it was Dr. David Huxley (Cary Grant). She fumbled and bumbled her way to this ultimate goal and tickled our funny bones along the way. Some people (aka idiots) don't think that women can be funny. They've never seen this movie. And speaking of idiots, Vance is not one. She may be a bit eccentric but she's a smart, good looking woman who knows what she wants.

Asia Argento as Vellini in The Last Mistress (2007). Speaking of knowing what you want...She can't have him, want get him. Not happening. She doesn't stop. Really this pick is about the ability of some women on screen to just make us guys melt into a useless puddle. Argento is physically stunning. She plays a woman who would seem to be quite skilled in the art of making love. In some circumstances throughout history that's all a woman has had and Argento's Vellini knew how to use it in this tale set among the aristocracy of 18th century France. Argento does what great actresses have done throughout film history: seduce audience members.

Jane Darwell as Ma Joad in The Grapes of Wrath (1940). Obviously women do not have to be young and beautiful to succeed in the world or on screen. Witness Darwell's unforgettable performance in this John Ford classic. As the matriarch of an extended family of Midwestern farmers displaced by the Dust Bowl, California-bound Darwell is as emotionally strong as Goliath was physically. Unlike Goliath there was no David to slay her. She kept on no matter what. Ma Joad was not just strong but wise. She understood reality and faced it head on. And never mind wants. She dealt in a world where can and will were all that mattered.

That was hardly enough was it? No Bette Davis character. Nothing from Jeanne Moreau, Joan Crawford, Kate Winslet, Jean Simmons, Norma Shearer, Simone Signoret or Faye Dunaway. This'll obviously have to be part one. Look for part two in the weeks to come.

The Set Up

(Spoiler Alert)

Okay I'm watching a movie I've never seen before: Golden Earrings (1947). All I know going in is that it stars Marlene Dietrich.  From the opening credits I learn that Ray Milland co-stars. The rest of the cast is unfamiliar to me.

I'm going to look for how the story is set up.

It's London, 1947, a foggy night and we enter a gentleman's club. Not an uncommon opening.

At the front desk the clerk gets a young lad to deliver messages to two members, one described as an American. The American receives his message and learns he must catch a plane to Paris on urgent business. The other message goes to Milland. What's this? He's got streaks of white in his hair, this suggests that we'll soon be going into a flashback as Milland hadn't grayed yet in real life. Milland has received a package with two golden earrings. He seems quite delighted.

So far so good.

Milland goes to the front desk walking by the American who is in the company of two others. The American is immediately intrigued to note that Milland has two holes in his ears as for earrings. In 1947;  this is curious indeed. The American asks his companions about this abnormality. They can shed no light on it. They do say that Milland's character is a fine fellow, a war hero who before the war was a bit of a stuffed shirt.

Interesting.

At the front desk Milland is told that he can indeed get on the next flight to Paris.  He's overjoyed.  This all obviously relates to the earrings he's received. We know the American will be on the flight so more will be revealed. We can guess that Dietrich sent the earrings and Milland is going to meet her. We've got many questions and look forward to their resolution.

Nice start.

The next scene is on the plane and, of course, the American finds himself sitting next to Milland. After a bit of hemming and hawing the question about the earlobe holes comes up. To answer the question Milland will have to tell a story.  Now we'll get the lead-in for the flashback.  Flashback movies offer an air of romance.  A character remembers a happier time, nostalgic for a time and place where there was perhaps adventure and almost certainly romance. The audience relates to the these sentiments and is easily hooked.

Milland's flashback takes us to Germany on the eve of the second world war. He and a mate were on a spying mission for the military and they'd been caught. We start the flashback as they plan their successful daring escape. The two get away from the evil Nazis and are on the run in the heart of Pre-war Nazi Germany.

Cool.

They split up with plans to rendezvous. Fifteen minutes into the movie we're most intrigued and antsy to see Marlene. We are introduced to her from behind with her familiar voice humming a tune as she sits by a river. She is a "gypsy" and it is obvious to even the most causal movie goer that she'll be aiding Milland and there will be love.

The story has been beautifully set up.  I'm ready to sit back and enjoy an  adventure romance set during a key moment in history with the exquisite Marleen Dietrich at the center of the story.

Well done, director Mitchell Leisen and writers Frank Butler and Helen Deutsch.  This has been an absolutely textbook set up for a movie.

Unfortunately, the movie as a whole stunk. Dietrich and Milland had no on screen chemistry. The pacing was poor, the cinematography unimaginative, the story line weak and many of the actors playing Nazis positively chewed the scenery. One wonders if Josef von Sternberg saw the manner in which Dietrich's beautiful face was slighted by Liesen's camera. He likely had a fit.

Leisen had been good with Claudette Colbert in Midnight (1939) and No Time for Love (1943). But I've gotten spoiled seeing the manner in which von Sternberg shot her. It's amazing to note that Dietrich was 46 when Golden Earrings was made and absolutely stunning–hell, she was stunning over ten years later in Touch Of Evil (1958).

So let's go back in time and have Fritz Lang  or Robert Siodmak direct Golden Earrings with Cary Grant or Michael Redgrave as the male lead.

Keep  the set up though, it was bloody good.

On the train with Marlene

One of the great frustrations for lovers of classic films over the years has been those movies that are NOT available on DVD. Gradually that list has diminished but there are still some greats that have yet to be released. This would include many of director William Wellman's works such as Wild Boys of the Road, Heroes for Sale and Wings. Besides Wings silent classics like Greed and The Big Parade await release. A few Jean Harlow gems such as Red Dust and Bombshell are unavailable. Last night I got to watch (thanks to Turner Classic Movies, the greatest TV channel on cable) Shanghai Express starring Marlene Dietrich, directed by Joseph von Sternberg. While other Dietrich greats such as Blonde Venus and Morocco are part of the Marlene Dietrich Glamour Collection, Shanghai Express is nowhere to be found on DVD.
Its a crying shame as this is a true classic.
von Sternberg directed six of Dietrich's films and the two were lovers. One wonders if von Sternberg's adoration of the German-born star influenced the manner in which the camera (he often performed his own cinema photography) lovingly focused on Dietrich, particularly her face in medium range shots. Of course Shanghai Express was made in the early 1930's a time when Hollywood in general knew how to create and promote female stars. Shanghai Express is the ultimate star vehicle. While the story as a whole is excellent and well told, to watch it is to, if not fall in love with Dietrich, at least become entranced by her.
In short the film is about one journey of the express train from Peking to Shanghai. As in John Ford's Stagecoach, a disparate cast of characters are thrown into a journey fraught with peril and filled with romance.
Not incidentally Anna May Wong co-stars. She is very nearly in Dietrich's league which is high praise indeed. In fact TCM showed the film to focus on Wong as part of their look this month at Asians in cinema. It was an excellent choice.
Now someone get this thing out on DVD. I'll buy the first copy.