Dogs Bark

So Long, Broadway - - Hello Dolly! (1969, USA Color, 146 minutes - - 11 August 2019, a TCM Big Screen Classic (repeated August 14th)

Not recommended. I have no idea why TCM deemed this movie a Big Screen Classic. Pre viewing, I dimly remembered the stage musical but had not revisited any of the film’s history. Rookie mistake; Hello Dolly is awful and probably - - through its bloated budget and terrible box office - - contributed hugely to the demise of the Broadway to Hollywood roadshow musical. How could a film, directed by Gene Kelly (Singin’ In The Rain) and choreographed by Michael Kidd (Seven Brides for Seven Brothers), display such dancing ineptitude? Maybe because they hated each other? Ditto for Walter Matthieu (Charlie Verrick) and Barbra Streisand (Funny Girl), who have less-than-zero on-screen chemistry. The undernourished supporting cast returned immediately to whatever breadline supplyed them. The only watchable credit goes to costumer Irene Sharaff (The King and I), who dressed the cast with true elegance . . . but screening a musical with the sound off seems perverted.  

Steamtrain Willie - - Beggars Of Life (1928, USA, B/W, 100 minutes) - - 8 August 2019

Strongly recommended. The first ten minutes of Beggars Of Life ranks with the best hard-boiled fiction for concise, grim story telling. The fact that it’s a silent picture - - devoid of snappy dialogue - - makes this opening even more exceptional. But this is an exceptional film. The movie was helmed by William (Wild Bill) Wellman (Wings) and featured Louise Brooks (Pandora’s Box) as yet another ‘lost’ girl . . . this time a girl hobo. Wallace Beery (The Champ) plays a menacing hobo king. The subject of the film is the gritty life of America’s underclass just as the Depression was starting. This is also one of the best train pictures ever made, filmed on location in Carrizo Gorge along the San Diego and Arizona Railway. A real train was run off the tracks to film the spectacular conclusion. But regardless, Brooks and Beery are excellent in this very entertaining - - but hard to find - - masterpiece.

On The Rocks - - Blood And Wine (1996, USA, Color, 101 min) - - 1 August 2019

Recommended. In the commentary, Directer Bob Rafelson (Five Easy Pieces) claims Blood And Wine was a low-budget picture (22 million???). But whatever . . . it’s clearly a very unpretentious one. Its morality tale take on crime puts it in the neo-noir category - - similar to Red Rock West or Jackie Brown - - where regular people break the law in order to restore good and punish the bad. The bad in Blood And Wine are Jack Nicholson (The King Of Marvin Gardens), who’s great as a grifting sommelier, and Michael Caine (Children of Men) who’s better than great as a dying yegg. Stephen Dorff (Judgment Night), Judy Davis (Barton Fink), and Jennifer Lopez (U Turn) are the good guys. True noir needs the lights and shadows; those come from Bryan Singer’s longtime cinematographer Tom Sigal (The Usual Suspects). Rafelson seems to get the genre, having also done the remake of The Postman Always Rings Twice.