Friday Minute
No. 121 | June 18, 2010

Take Five

Our theme this week
Movies that provide (a certain) R&R

Featured this week (theme introduction)
Monday         —   Rio Rita (1942)
Tuesday         —   Rambling Rose (1991)
Wednesday    —   The Rebel Rousers (1970)
Thursday        —   Revolutionary Road (2008)

Red River (1948)

Howard Hawks made most of his movies during the black-and-white era, yet his films are as colorful—and alive—as those of any director in Hollywood history.  His work spans many genres, and though he’d made a few westerns years before, none was near the achievement of Red River, a bona fide classic and his first of five films with John Wayne.  As Thomas Dunson, Wayne played the tyrannical leader of a cattle drive who keeps pushing his men until they mutiny.  The cast includes a young Montgomery Clift and a veteran Walter Brennan.  An unsentimental look at cowboy life, the film features lively performances, sweeping photography, and some heart-pumping action.

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Red River (1948)
Howard Hawks, director
John Wayne, Montgomery Clift, Walter Brennan

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Red River (1948)
Howard Hawks, director
Cattle Drive

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Quote of Note
“We brought nothing into this world and it’s certain we can carry nothing out.”
—Thomas Dunson (John Wayne), Red River (1948)

…58…59…60.

Thursday Minute
No. 120 | June 17, 2010

Take Five

Our theme this week
Movies that provide (a certain) R&R

Featured this week (theme introduction)
Monday         —   Rio Rita (1942)
Tuesday         —   Rambling Rose (1991)
Wednesday    —   The Rebel Rousers (1970)

Revolutionary Road (2008)

Just a hunch, but I don’t think Richard Yates used to watch Leave It to Beaver, or Ozzie and Harriet, or Father Knows Best, or Make Room for Daddy.  Domestic problems with easy answers were not his strong suit.

Yates was a brilliant chronicler of 1950s suburban anxiety, and Revolutionary Road, his first novel (and National Book Award finalist), was at last adapted for the big screen by director Sam Mendes and an excellent cast in 2008.  Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet are Frank and April Wheeler, a young married couple struggling to escape the emptiness of their perfect lives, with Michael Shannon stealing a few scenes as the troubled son of a friend daring to speak the truth.

If the mythic TV view of 1950s life is too much for you, Revolutionary Road is the bitter antidote.

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Revolutionary Road (2008)
Sam Mendes, director
Trailer

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Revolutionary Road (2008)
Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Kathy Bates, Richard Easton, and Michael Shannon

 

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Quote of Note
“If being crazy means living life as if it matters, then I don’t mind being completely insane.”
—April Wheeler (Kate Winslet), Revolutionary Road (2008)

…58…59…60.

Wednesday Minute
No. 119 | June 16, 2010

Take Five

Our theme this week
Movies that provide (a certain) R&R

Featured this week (theme introduction)
Monday         —   Rio Rita (1942)
Tuesday         —   Rambling Rose (1991)
Wednesday    —   The Rebel Rousers (1970)

The Rebel Rousers (1970)

Filmed in 1967 and released after the success of Easy Rider, this low-budget biker flick features quite a cast: old pro Cameron Mitchell, new star Jack Nicholson, Bruce Dern, Diane Ladd (again), and Harry Dean Stanton.  They’re all better known for better work (even better biker flicks), but they seem to be having one helluva time here.  The bikers take over a town and have a drag race to see who’s going to spend the night with an architect’s pregnant girlfriend.  They don’t make ‘em like that anymore.  Suggested musical accompaniment:  crank the Duane Eddy.

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The Rebel Rousers (1970)
Martin B. Cohen, director
Trailer

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Quote of Note
“With the unbridled passion of men possessed, they blasted their way through all opposition in a campaign of sexual self-indulgence that left nothing but burned-out shells of humanity strewn in their path.”
—Narrator, trailer for The Rebel Rousers (1970)

…58…59…60.

Tuesday Minute
No. 118 | June 15, 2010

Take Five

Our theme this week
Movies that provide (a certain) R&R

Featured this week (theme introduction)
Monday         —   Rio Rita (1942)

Rambling Rose (1991)

This could win you a buck or two.  The answer to the trivia question is Rambling Rose.

Rose is a Southern belle with a shady past—a “borderline nymphomaniac,” according to the local doctor—in this family drama set in Depression-era Georgia.  The fine ensemble cast includes Laura Dern in the title role, along with Robert Duvall and Diane Ladd as the father and mother of the well-meaning family that takes her in.

Oh, that trivia question:  What’s the only movie with performances by a mother-daughter pair of actresses in which both were nominated for Oscars?

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Rambling Rose (1991)
Martha Coolidge, director
Laura Dern, Diane Ladd, Robert Duvall, Lukas Haas
Trailer

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Quote of Note
“Rosebud, I swear to God, you are as graceful as a capital letter S.”
—Daddy Hillyer (Robert Duvall), Rambling Rose (1991)

…58…59…60.

Monday Minute
No. 117 | June 14, 2010

Take Five

This will be my twenty-fifth week of MAD About Movies, and after five months plus, it’s time to take a break.  I need some R&R (though I’m unfortunately too busy to enjoy any of that).  Rather than close shop, I will keep the doors open, but I plan to keep it brief.  For the movies this week expect a five-sentence write-up on each.  Like this intro.

Our theme this week
Movies that provide (a certain) R&R

Rio Rita (1942)

Bud Abbott and Lou Costello started in movies by taking their vaudeville routines to the screen, and this film came a couple of years after their debut, their seventh of about three dozen total.  It’s wartime and the story revolves around some Nazi spies at a hotel on the Mexican border looking to smuggle bombs into the U.S.  Doc (Abbott) and Wishy (Costello) are hired as house detectives and discover what the Germans are up to.  The boys engineer a surprise attack when Hitler and his high command come to visit, blowing the hotel to smithereens and thereby ending the war.  (Oops, I think I mixed up that last part with a Tarantino flick.)

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Rio Rita (1942)
S. Sylvan Simon, director
Bud Abbott & Lou Costello

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Rio Rita (1942)
Bud Abbott & Lou Costello

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Quote of Note
Doc:  Can you hear me?
Wishy:  Huh?
Doc:  You can’t hear anything, can you?
Wishy [removes ear plugs from his ears]:  How can I hear you if you’re gonna put these in my ears like that.  [inserts ear plugs in Doc's ears] After all, I can’t hear you if you got ‘em in my ears.
Doc:  Huh?
—Doc (Bud Abbott), Wishy (Lou Costello), Rio Rita (1942)

…58…59…60.