Friday Minute
No. 156 | September 10, 2010

Once Is Enough

Our theme this week
Actors who have directed one film only

Featured this week (theme introduction)
Monday         —   Marlon Brando:  One-Eyed Jacks (1961)
Tuesday         —   Gary Oldman:  Nil by Mouth (1997)
Wednesday    —   Morgan Freeman:  Bopha! (1993)
Thursday        —   Frank Sinatra:  None But the Brave (1965)

Charles Laughton:  The Night of the Hunter (1955)

 

And the good Lord went on to say, Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.  Ye shall know them by their fruits….  A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit.  Neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.  Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

The Night of the Hunter may be one of the most deeply religious films ever to come out of Hollywood.  It is transcendent at times, and at other times, subversive.  Hymns are sung, scripture is read, a number of characters go on about what the good Lord wants, about the nature of good and evil, and the star of the movie plays a preacher.  But the world of the overtly religious is a corrupt world, and the adults in the picture (with one notable exception) are either corrupt themselves or too gullible to know the difference.  At the heart of the story is a tale of young innocents, children who want no part of world of good versus evil, but only seek haven where it’s safe to be innocent again.

The setting is rural West Virginia during the Depression.  The heroes are a brother and sister, John and Pearl Harper, who lose one parent and then the other, but in the end “abide.”  The villain is Harry Powell, a serial killer wearing the sheep’s clothing of a preacher, who travels from town to town preying on poor widows, taking their money and leaving them dead.  Powell comes looking for the Harper children, hoping to get his hands on $10,000 hidden by their late father, a bank robber that Powell met in the state pen.  Powell befriends the mother, and soon marries her.  When she becomes an obstacle he disposes of her body at the bottom of the river.  The children flee Powell, who chases them downriver.  Eventually they are taken in by Mrs. Cooper, a Bible-quoting, gun-toting older lady who gives them a home.  She protects them from Powell when he arrives, and from the vengeful town mob after Powell is put on trial.

The story moves briskly, taking an economical 93 minutes, but it never rushes.  It takes time to observe its characters, even those on the periphery, in moments of anguish and desperation or tranquility and quiet.  Even the animals get their close-up—an owl in a tree, a frog on a riverbank, two rabbits watching a boat pass by.  (“It’s a hard world for little things,” says Mrs. Cooper, the only one watching out for them.)  The images are unforgettable.  In one shot we see a drop of milk fall from a cow’s teat as John and Pearl climb a ladder to a hayloft in search of a place to sleep for the night.  A sequence with the moon moving across the night sky is simple and beautiful, as is the silhouette of the preacher riding a horse along the ridge.  The waters swirling in the river, the sun bursting through clouds, a tree standing on a hill—the photography throughout the film is stunning, and stirring.

Charles Laughton was one of the most talented and acclaimed actors of his time.  By the mid-1950s, his performing career on the wane, he hoped to move into directing.  The Night of the Hunter was his debut behind the camera.  The reaction at the time was less than favorable—reviews were lukewarm, and the film lost money—and Laughton never directed again.  (He and producer Paul Gregory were set to make The Naked and the Dead next, based on Laughton’s screenplay adaptation of Norman Mailer’s novel, but Laughton dropped out, his health one factor.)

The prevailing view now is far different than it was then.  The Night of the Hunter is considered a classic, Laughton’s masterpiece.  In the past couple of years, critics’ groups have ranked it among the top films of all time.  The French journal Cahiers du Cinéma named it the second-most beautiful film ever in a 2008 poll, and last year the British magazine The Spectator voted it the number-one movie in the history of cinema!

I’ve seen The Night of the Hunter perhaps a half-dozen times, and I’d say it looks better and better after each viewing.  It’s a very rich film.  Its various layers and considerable craft always have more to reveal, and it deserves its status as one of the great achievements of twentieth-century filmmaking.

A few things that set it apart:  The directing, of course.  Laughton apparently watched many silents, especially those of D.W. Griffith, in preparing for the film, and based on the final production he seems adept with a range of styles, including expressionism and film noir.  The success of the film owes much to the writing.  The novel by Davis Grubb was adapted by the extraordinary James Agee (Pulitzer-winning novelist, essayist, poet, and probably the most influential film critic in history), writing his second landmark screenplay of the ’50s (The African Queen was a few years earlier).  The cast was led by Robert Mitchum, perhaps his greatest performance (which is saying a lot), in a chilling portrait of a preacher gone bad.  The children, Billy Chapin and Sally Jane Bruce, were quite effective, and Shelley Winters, as the mother, was at the peak of her career.  Laughton, perhaps in a nod to Griffith, cast one of the earlier director’s famed leading ladies, Lillian Gish, who gave a warm and wonderful performance as Mrs. Cooper, the lady who gave a home to the children and much soul to the film.

In the “good news” department:  You’ll notice the Criterion logo on the artwork above.  The Criterion release (DVD and Blu-ray), with a fine-looking lineup of must-have features, is due in November.

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The Night of the Hunter (1955)
Charles Laughton, director
Stanley Cortez, cinematographer
Davis Grubb (novel), James Agee (screenplay), writers
Trailer

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The Night of the Hunter (1955)
Robert Mitchum, Billy Chapin, Sally Jane Bruce, et al.
The River

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Quote of note
“Ah, little lad, you’re staring at my fingers.  Would you like me to tell you the little story of right hand–left hand?  The story of good and evil?  H-A-T-E!  It was with this left hand that old brother Cain struck the blow that laid his brother low.  L-O-V-E!  You see these fingers, dear hearts?  These fingers has veins that run straight to the soul of man.  The right hand, friends, the hand of love.  Now watch, and I’ll show you the story of life.  These fingers, dear hearts, is always a-warring and a-tugging, one agin t’other.  Now watch ‘em!  Old brother left hand, left hand he’s a fighting, and it looks like love’s a goner.  But wait a minute.  Wait a minute!  Hot dog, love’s a-winning!  Yessirree!  It’s love that won, and old left hand hate is down for the count!”
—Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum), The Night of the Hunter (1955)

…58…59…60.

Thursday Minute
No. 155 | September 9, 2010

Once Is Enough

Our theme this week
Actors who have directed one film only

Featured this week (theme introduction)
Monday         —   Marlon Brando:  One-Eyed Jacks (1961)
Tuesday         —   Gary Oldman:  Nil by Mouth (1997)
Wednesday    —   Morgan Freeman:  Bopha! (1993)

Frank Sinatra:  None But the Brave (1965)

“Nobody Ever Wins.”  Those words, rather than “The End,” appear just before the end credits.  It’s a war film with a message we never seem to learn.

It’s an anti-war film, and not one you’d expect to find from the middle of the 1960s.  Hardly the work of a young radical looking to make a point about the country’s involvement in Vietnam (Kent State, in fact, was still a few years off), None But the Brave is a story about World War II, directed by a guy from the generation who fought it. 

The action takes place on a small island in the Solomons.  A platoon of Japanese soldiers is stranded with no contact to the outside world.  Then a plane carrying American soldiers crashes nearby.   As the two sides learn of each other’s existence, they first have a skirmish, destroying a boat that may have saved them, then begin to cooperate, calling a truce.  The armistice offers an environment for survival.  It lasts only until the Americans establish radio communications with the Navy.  With help on the way, the Americans extend the Japanese the chance to surrender—an offer that’s refused.  Hostilities arise and after a final gun battle the point of the movie—the pointlessness of war—is vividly clear.

Frank Sinatra’s company made the film for Warner Bros, a co-production with Tokyo-based Toho Studios.  It was Sinatra’s only time in the director’s chair (though he had a hands-on role in making several other films without taking director’s credit).  Sinatra starred as well, as a pharmacist with the American platoon.  It’s hardly the most inspired of his performances—he could be quite good at times, though not here.  Among the other actors, the one that got the most attention was Sinatra’s son-in-law, singer Tommy Sands, who was panned for his over-the-top performance.  (Sands was married briefly to Nancy Sinatra and after the divorce, Frank was famously reported to have ruined his career.)

The production was not especially notable, effective at times, cheesy in parts.  What makes the film worth watching is the story, a timeless tale with some crisp writing.  None But the Brave might in fact be a good candidate for a remake.  Hollywood is obsessed with telling the same stories over and over.  Here’s one worth seeing again, where a new, updated production could actually offer an improvement.

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None But the Brave (1965)
Frank Sinatra, director
John Twist, Katsuya Susaki (screenplay), writers
Trailer

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Quote of note
Craddock:  Lieutenant Kuroki.  Our communications have been restored.  One of our destroyers is on her way to remove us from this island.  Captain Dennis has extended me permission to offer you terms.
Kuroki:  Surrender?
Craddock:  I’ll see you and your men receive good treatment.
Kuroki:  Prisoners of war?  No, thank you.  As you can see, I am moving my camp.
Craddock:  Yes, we looked for you there.
Kuroki:  That position was no longer defensible, since you know it so well.
Craddock:  We wouldn’t attack you, lieutenant.
Kuroki:  I would!  The truce is ended.  I belong to the Japanese army.  Until my country advises otherwise, I remain at war.
—Lieutenant Kuroki (Tatsuya Mihashi), Corporal Craddock (Sammy Jackson), None But the Brave (1965)

…58…59…60.

Wednesday Minute
No. 154 | September 8, 2010

Once Is Enough

Our theme this week
Actors who have directed one film only

Featured this week (theme introduction)
Monday         —  Marlon Brando:  One-Eyed Jacks (1961)
Tuesday         —  Gary Oldman:  Nil by Mouth (1997)

Morgan Freeman:  Bopha! (1993)

 

Morgan Freeman has appeared in a couple of films set in South Africa:  in 1992, as a prisoner/boxing tutor in The Power of One, and as Nelson Mandela in last year’s Invictus.  For Bopha!, he let others do the acting as he stepped into the director’s role for the only time in his career.

Danny Glover stars as Micah Mangena, a black police sergeant during the apartheid era.  He has found a niche, done well, and is proud of his accomplishments.  But the situation of a black man upholding the white man’s law is not a simple one, and history—not to mention, Micah’s own son—is not on his side.  Zweli, the son (Maynard Eziashi), does not want to follow his father’s footsteps; he is active politically, protesting at first the teaching of Afrikaans at his school (English is preferred, representing freedom), and ultimately, apartheid.  Micah wants just to do his job, but as the situation escalates he is faced with the difficult decision—which side to take.  The protests have become violent but the law of apartheid is cruel and inhuman.   It’s a test of his conscience, and the fate of his family, his job, and his people are on the line.

Bopha! did not make a big impact at the time (well-meaning films often don’t do well at the box office).  The film, however, did earn critical acclaim, with the cast, led by Glover and Alfre Woodard, receiving good notices.  It’s one of a handful of movies that provide insight into life of South Africans during the time of apartheid—and this one, importantly, is told through the eyes of a black man and his family.

Morgan Freeman has not directed another movie to date, but for what it’s worth, he and yesterday‘s featured actor-director, Gary Oldman, have both found recurring roles as good guys in the latest incarnation of Batman movies, Christopher Nolan edition (Batman Begins, The Dark Knight). 

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Bopha! (1993)
Morgan Freeman, director
Percy Mtwa (play), Brian Bird, John Wierick (screenplay), writers
Trailer

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Quote of note
“If we allow defiance today…tomorrow it becomes violence.”
—Devilliers (Malcolm McDowell), Bopha! (1993)

…58…59…60.

Tuesday Minute
No. 153 | September 7, 2010

Once Is Enough

Our theme this week
Actors who have directed one film only

Featured this week (theme introduction)
Monday         —   Marlon Brando:  One-Eyed Jacks (1961)

Gary Oldman:  Nil by Mouth (1997)

Nil by Mouth is a raw, personal, powerful look at working-class life on the south side of London.  Gary Oldman wrote and directed the film, and it’s hard to say how much of his childhood growing up in public housing made it onto the screen, but it’s a relief to know he survived.  Oldman dedicated the movie to the memory of his father.

The father in the film is a desperate and brutal man named Ray, played by Ray Winstone.  The victim of much of Ray’s abuse is his wife, Valerie, a role for which Kathy Burke won Best Actress at Cannes.  Their young daughter, Michelle, is utterly neglected, not even a concern for the parents, as she witnesses endless streams of profanity and shocking violence.  Billy (Charlie Creed-Miles) is Valerie’s brother, who robs them to feed his drug habit, which leads Ray to seek retribution.  The cycle goes on.  The rage within the family hits a boiling point, with Valerie ending up in the hospital, Ray beaten and semi-conscious in a parking lot, and Billy in jail.

It ain’t a pretty story, but it feels real, too real at times.  Nil by Mouth is like a documentary.  We may not be entertained, in the usual sense of the word, but we get a view of life we don’t get to see very often:  humans living in desperate circumstances, doing desperate things, and like the best of movies, it’s not about them, it’s about us.

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Nil by Mouth (1997)
Gary Oldman, writer-director
Ray Winstone, Kathy Burke

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Quote of note
“When you go out, you go out with your mates, and when you are in, you’re pissed out and your brain’s asleep in front of the fucking television.  I turn the television off, go up to bed, you follow me up at three o’clock in the morning stinking of booze.  That’s what I get.  Either that or you’re knocking me about.  I’m 30 today, you know, and I feel so fucking old.  You know, I’m tired, you know, I wanna be able to look back and say, ‘Yeah, I had a bit of fun,’ you know, when I’m old, instead of saying ‘Everyone fucking felt sorry for me!’  I mean, that’s the life I’ve got.  Do you hear what I’m saying?  I just don’t want it.  I’ll, I’ll find somebody else.  You know, someone who can love me.  Someone kind.”
—Valerie (Kathy Burke), Nil by Mouth (1997)

…58…59…60.

Monday Minute
No. 152 | September 6, 2010

Once Is Enough

ONCE, adv.  Enough.

That’s Ambrose Bierce, not a man to waste words, in The Devil’s Dictionary.  Seems that more than a few actors-turned-directors have read the book.

Acting and directing are different professions offering different rewards.  Actors get the limelight, directors the clout, and that may be why they often trade places.  Who can blame them for wanting both?

The list of actor-directors goes on and on—Chaplin, Welles, Cassavetes, Allen, Eastwood, and many dozens more.  This week we feature a small subset from that roster:  actors who took the reins to direct a film once, but never again.

Note, a couple of this week’s filmmakers are still alive and may not be done yet—we’ll see—but I will skip the one-timers who either have second efforts on the way (e.g., Tom Hanks, Johnny Depp), have also directed television (e.g., Tommy Lee Jones, Zach Braff), or seem a good bet to get behind the camera again (e.g., Drew Barrymore, Edward Norton).

Our theme this week
Actors who have directed one film only

Marlon Brando:  One-Eyed Jacks (1961)

Marlon Brando’s production company owned the rights to a Charles Neider novel, a western based loosely on the story of Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid.  Brando hired and fired several writers (Rod Serling, Sam Peckinpaugh, and Calder Willingham) and the intended director (Stanley Kubrick) before getting Guy Trosper to work on the script and hiring himself for his first and only credit as director.

Brando teamed with Karl Malden, his costar in a couple of landmark films a decade earlier, A Streetcar Named Desire and On the Waterfront, both directed by Elia Kazan.  Brando plays Rio and Malden, Dad Longworth, as bank robbers in an ill-fated heist in Sonora, Mexico.  The third partner, Doc, is killed, and as the two try to escape, Dad betrays his friend, adandoning him on a hilltop where Rio is surrounded by Mexican Rurales.  Rio serves five years in prison, then after his release tracks down Dad in Monterey, California, where he is now sheriff.  Rio plots revenge but falls in love with Dad’s stepdaughter, Louisa (Pina Pellicer, in the best known of the few film roles in her too-brief career).  Rio’s presence is more than Dad can bear, and the sheriff is merciless in inflicting justice on Rio, who is beaten and later jailed on false charges.  After Rio escapes, the two men have their final showdown.

One-Eyed Jacks is a revisionist western, and you can understand what attracted Brando to the material.  The good guys and bad guys are not easy to discern.   Who’s wearing the badge doesn’t tell you much.  In fact, as the title implies (in a deck of cards, one-eyed jacks are pictured in profile), the lead characters are two-faced, one side public and the other hidden.  (Think the Harvey Dent character in The Dark Knight.)  The film is not a simple morality tale.  It’s a swipe at the conventions of westerns, which by the sixties had nearly run their course.  Instead of mesas or Monument Valley, most of One-Eyed Jacks is set at the beach, as west as the West can go, along the white sands of Monterey.  Charles Lamb beautifully captured the scenes, earning an Oscar nomination for cinematography.  It was the last Paramount film to be shot in widescreen VistaVision.

The film runs nearly two-and-a-half hours.  It meanders, more interested in contemplating character than tightly plotted action.  But Brando’s version was much longer—four to five hours, apparently—and the studio cut it in half before releasing the film.  That experience may explain why Brando didn’t direct again, and why no one would hire him.

Opinion on the film is divided.  Some say it’s a classic, some say a mess.  I’d say it’s neither, but it is a well-done, involving tale, with plenty of good reasons to see it even if it weren’t the only movie that Brando ever directed.

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One-Eyed Jacks (1961)
Marlon Brando, director
Guy Trosper, Calder Willingham (screenplay), Charles Neider (novel), writers
Trailer

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Quote of note
“You might be a one-eyed jack around here, Dad, but I’ve seen the other side of your face.”
—Rio (Marlon Brando), One-Eyed Jacks (1961)

…58…59…60.