Film Forno

Last night I went to another screening, part of the 11th Film Noir Festival at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood USA. One of the films shown was Deadline U.S.A., the directorial debut of Richard Brooks, who shot to fame soon after with his mega hit Blackboard Jungle. Brooks had been a newspaperman and the veracity his experience brings into play is eye-opening. The scene at the paper are great, especially the scenes in the printing room, these were the days when the paper was printed on giant machines directly downstairs from the reporters desks. A lot of important action takes places right there in front of, over and in the enormous presses. It’s also a very timely piece as the subplot has to do with the selling and closing of a vital newspaper something we are being subjected to on a daily basis across our country, probably across the world. Eddie Mueller (programmer of the Noir Fest) spoke before the screening. He said his father was a newspaperman and this was his favorite film. Then he asked how many people in the audience were in the newspaper game, I would say about half of the crowd raised their hands, this film is beloved by journalists and I can see why. It’s really about the power of the press, about the principles of journalism that inspires a young person to pursue a career in that hallowed field. And never have I seen the ideals of reporting better illustrated, a sensational story of a nude blonde, wearing only a mink coat is fished out of a river, one paper plays it up in true tabloid style, Humphrey Bogart’s paper “The Day” reports it unsensationally.

Bogart plays editor Ed Hutcheson, a tough, obsessed genius newspaperman, unafraid to take on the biggest gangster in town, uncompromising, a beautiful performance. The supporting cast is loaded with great character actors, Kim Hunter as Bogie’s ex-wife, Ed Begley, Jim Backus, Paul Stewart, you’ll see a gallery of faces that you recognize from many films. But the real stand out for me was the dialogue, some of the best, funniest, on the money verbiage I’ve heard in any film. Brooks really knew what he was talking about or should I say writing about.

Brooks on the Right

Michael Cimino was a friend of Richard Brooks and he told me a story about him once. It seems Brooks had just come to Hollywood and he got a gig writing something for Orson Welles. Welles was making Jane Eyre at the time over at Samuel Goldwyn Studios in Hollywood ( across the street from the Formosa Bar) Brooks lived nearby and one night as he was typing feverishly in his apartment, he heard someone yelling his name. He looked out the window and there was Welles, in full Jane Eyre makeup, driving a horse and buggy from the film, out in the street in front of Brooks apartment. ” Brooks, where are my pages! I want my pages!” Welles shouted, urging the young writer to hurry up and finish his assignment. Welles had just taken off from the set still in character, driving a horse and buggy he drove in the film out the gate and down the streets of Hollywood to check up on his writer. Those were the days! But see Deadline U.S.A. if you can, it’s not out on DVD but somebody at Fox should take note and release this wonderful film for the world to enjoy and treasure.

Welles in the Buggy with Joan Fontaine

Here’s a preview of one of tonight’s films screening at the Egyptian theater in Hollywood as part of the 11th annual Film Noir Fest, it’s from Alias Nick Beale directed by John Farrow.

It screens with a rarity directed by super noir sytlist Robert Siodmak, called Fly By Night. Check out this article on the maestro Siodmak, Here.

This is a beautiful film, a model of economy and feeling, with an amazing score by the great Maurice Jarre, a few years before he did Lawrence Of Arabia. I had the great good fortune to work on a film Mr. Jarre scored, Michael Cimino’s The Sunchaser. He was a pleasure to work with. But check out Sundays and Cybele, winner of he 1962 Academy Award for Best Foreign Film . You can watch it on YouTube, here’s the first part.

Here’s the trailer for Antonioni’s Blow Up. I’ve been thinking about this film a lot lately, the ambiguity, the way it doesn’t explain anything, the tension created by you not knowing what will happen next, something sorely missed in contemporary films where you know everything that will occur. Great Art Direction, Great Camera Work, some of the best driving footage since Touch Of Evil. Maybe I’ll write an in depth piece on it soon. It deserves it.

Here’s a documentary on the great maestro of Cinema, Don Luis Bunuel. This is the first part but you can find the rest on YouTube.

Here’s some footage shot during the making of Fellini’s Satyricon. Thanks to Jeff Gent for pointing this out. Oddly enough a guy I worked with many years ago told me he shot a lot of documentary footage on the set of this film, his name is John Taylor, we worked on a PBS kids film with Morgan Freeman. This was just before Freeman’s breakthrough role as a pimp in Street Smart. He had just finished working on Electric Company as The Count and the first thing he told us was ” I ain’t putting on that fucking cape!” So here’s to John Taylor, maybe this is some of his film.

“Peace On Earth” or ” Purity Of Essence”! The letters P.O.E. are the A-bomb attack recall code thought up by General Jack D. Ripper in Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece Dr. Strangelove or How I learned to stop worrying and love the Bomb!

Rainwater and Grain Alchohol!

My old pal Pablo Ferro told me that WeeGee was the still photographer on Strangelove. Stanley knew WeeGee from his days as a young New York photographer for Look magazine.

Watch The Birdie!

Pablo also told me that Peter Sellers was going to play bomber pilot Maj. T. J. “King” Kong but Sellers broke his leg and Kubrick brought in Slim Pickens.

Major Kong Rides The Bomb!
Another friend. Ray Lovejoy, worked as the assisstant editor on the film. He told me that Peter Sellars did many improvised variations in his performances as President Muffley and Dr. Strangelove. Maybe one day Stanley’s daughter will investigate the outtakes.

Lt. Mandrake trying to cope with Gen.Ripper

Legend has it that some negative was destroyed in a lab in England, Kubrick flipped and moved his negative to another lab but he insisted it be moved in an armored car! Ray also told me that Pablo went to the lab late one night, he was working on the title sequence. He barges in at midnight, sporting a Mohawk haircut and wearing an electric Indian blanket. The entire negative cutting department resigned! They quit, walked off! Pablo was ahead of his time.
So Happy Holidays from Dr. Strangelove and all his friends here at Film Forno. Peace On Earth, Purity Of Essence or whatever floats your holiday boat.
Here’s Peter Sellers interviewing WeeGee:

Sellers riffs on English accents on the Strangelove set.

Check out this doc on the great Karel Zeman, Czech animator, special effects guru, all around genius. I don’t know about you but I vastly prefer mechanical, physical, optical effects to the digital junk created by an army of ants with computers. Zeman made the super cool Fantastic World of Jules Verne in a Victorian roto-gravure style, it rocks! Anyway here’s a couple of videos as a sample.The first is the doc, the second is a trailer for Jules Verne.

Xmas is just around the corner so here’s a tale of holiday magic from the old days in NYC when I worked as a film cutter on all kinds of stuff. I needed some sound effects for a project I was working on, I made some calls, finally I found what I was looking for so I jumped into a cab and shot over to 45th st.

Night Falls On 45th St.
Back in the day everything was on 45th street, optical houses, editing rooms, sound transfer, you name it. Once I was on 45th st. , it was also at xmas time, Dec. 16th 1985. It was late afternoon, getting dark, cold, windy. I came out of the Optical House at 45 w 45th and heard sirens , I could swear I saw some guys in overcoats hurrying down the street, looking back and laughing nervously. That night on the news I found out Mafia don Paul Castellano had been hit at Sparks Steakhouse over on 46 th st.

Anyway, I headed over to Magno Empire, a small office in a big building, an offshoot of Magno Sound, a big sound mixing outfit. I go in and ask for Larry, an older gent comes out and goes to get my sound effects, a yong guy working there comes up and we start talking. “You know who Larry is?” he asks. ” Nah, who is he” I reply. “He directed Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer.” the young guy answers. When Larry comes back,I tell him what a fan I am of the show, what a pleasure it is to meet him. Larry lights up like an Xmas tree, he invites me back into his den and we talk for a while. Finally I have to leave, back to work. Larry stops me. “You like Spike Jones?” he asks. “Sure.” I reply. “Here, you’ll love this.” Larry hands me a cassette of Spike Jones greatest hits that he’s put together. I noticed in the end credits of Rudolph that Ralph Friedman was a sound mixer on it. Ralph was the founder of Magno Sound, I guess he was throwing Larry a bone, giving him a gig at Magno Empire in his waning years, not much stop motion to direct in those days. I see on IMDB that Larry (in 1966, two years after Rudolph) directed a stop motion Ballad Of Smokey The Bear. This featured the voice of the great James Cagney.

Larry Roemer wherever you are I salute you.

What the heck, here’s another classic Kung Fu epic starring the great Gordon Liu. This film influenced Quentin Tarantino quite a bit and the ShawScope opening banner seen on this trailer is the one used at the beginning of Kill Bill. It came from a print of this film. Here’s the trailer – This is essential Kung Fu, Check it out!

Here is a biographic film about the late, great Lee Marvin, put together by his friend and collaborator the great director John Boorman. It’s fascinating stuff especially the parts about Lee’s WWII experiences. Thanks to Lars Nilsen, the film guru over at Weird Wednesday for turning me on to ths cool film. There are several parts so keep watching.