Ask 411 Movies for 02.01.10: Make War, Not Love!

Posted by Leonard Hayhurst on 02.01.2010

What are the best World War I movies? Should Freaks be remade? Plus, Psych, Johnny Got his Gun, David Keith, Stalag 17 and the Decline of Western Civilization! It's all covered in the latest edition of Ask 411 Movies!

From YouTube this week, in honor of the upcoming Super Bowl, some old school Tecmo Super Bowl. Christian Okoye, "The Nigerian Nightmare," is unstoppable against the Indianapolis Colts. I mean, he just stands there and people pop right off him.



Actress Jean Simmons, 71, died Jan. 22 of lung cancer. She was married to actor Stewart Granger and director Richard Brooks, with a daughter by both. Her movies include Guys and Dolls, Elmer Gantry, Spartacus, Divorce American Style, The Thorn Birds and How to Make an American Quilt.



Actor James Mitchell, 89, died of respiratory failure Jan. 22. He would be best known as Palmer Cortlandt on "All My Children."



Actor Pernell Roberts, 81, died Jan. 24 of pancreatic cancer. He starred as Adam on "Bonanza" and as the title character on "Trapper John, MD."



Actress Zelda Rubenstein, 77, died Jan. 27 of respiratory failure. She is probably best remembered for her role in the Poltergeist franchise and for her regular part on "Picket Fences."



Q: Sorry, Leonard....but you are wrong about your 'drawing the short end' comment about Dule Hill and James Roday. Those guys are great and have a real chemistry in their show that is rarely seen in television. And while I am not a RAW fan, you should have a great time with those guys in charge.
-IFB

A: We did have a fun time at the show, even though I felt it was a bit lackluster overall. As is known now, James Roday wasn't at the show because he had an emergency appendectomy. Dule Hill was amusing though and I've always liked him since the "West Wing."

While we're here, we might as well preview "Psych." The series now starting its fourth season on the USA Network is about Shawn Spencer (Roday) who passes himself off as a psychic to the cops. Hill plays Gus, his sidekick. Shawn isn't a psychic, but has been trained by his father (Corbin Bernsen) to be observant and deductive in a Sherlock Holmes kind of way.



Q: My mom loves Heartbreak Hotel, I remember watching it alot in the 80s cuz it was on HBO a lot and she had
it on VHS. Long lost the tape, and she hadn't seen it in years. I found it on Deepdiscount.com for cheap about 2 years ago and bought it for her for xmas. Too bad the dvd is in Fullscreen only but what can you do. Cool to see someone else has heard of such an obscure film. Anytime I see David Keith in something (which isn't much) I think of this movie. It was weird to see him in Major League 2 cuz I always associated him with Elvis due to this movie.
-FRS

A: Alright, a cheap reason to profile David Keith. Keith, 55, was born in Knoxville, Tenn. His mother worked for the local school district and his father for the Tennessee Valley Authority. He is a member of the National Advisory Board and PROTECT: The National Association to Protect Children. He received a best supporting actor nomination at the Golden Globes for Officer and a Gentleman. Some of his other movies include Firestarter, The Great Santini, Brubaker, Take this Job and Shove It, The Two Jakes, Running Wild, The Indian in the Cupboard, U-571, Men of Honor, Behind Enemy Lines, Daredevil and was on the recent series "The Class."



Q: TCM is great. I finally caught Johnny Got His Gun a few weeks ago. I'm a longtime diehard Metallica fan so I was stoked to stumble upon it and I was absolutely stunned by its brilliance. I don't know if I've ever felt such uplifting hope as when the nurse spells "Merry Christmas" on his chest and he realizes he now has a date from which to count from. Of course, all that hope is erased by the end as the hammer comes crashing down in a very depressing way. But it's a brilliant film, especially the dream where Jesus practically gives up on him.
-neverAcquiesce

A: Johnny Got His Gun is from 1971. It's based on a 1938 novel by Dalton Trumbo, who also wrote the screenplay and directed the film. Trumbo is one of the most famous members of the blacklisted Hollywood Ten. Luis Bunuel was once in talks with Trumbo to direct. It stars a very young Timothy Bottoms. A World War I soldier loses his arms, legs, eyes, ears and most of his face in an explosion and is now being kept alive by machines in a hospital. He uses his head to tap out Morse code asking someone to kill him, but no one ever picks up on it. Metallica purchased the rights to the film for exclusive use and it came out on DVD for region 1 just last April.



Q: Speaking of remakes, do you think it would be a good idea to remake Freaks? I would love to see a modern take on the 1932 classic.
-Guest 3838

A: I don't think you could get away with the movie today. It's too un-PC and too bizarre. I think using computer effects would just seem cheesy and take away from what makes the original so fascinating with actual circus freaks being used.

In the movie, Cleopatra (Olga Baclanova) is a trapeze artist who marries one of the circus midgets (Harry Earles) for his inheritance. At the same time, she's having an affair with the circus strong man (Henry Victor). The other circus freaks discover Cleo's murder plot and maim her and the strong man. She is shown now playing the chicken woman in the circus because she has been so horribly deformed. In the original ending, the strongman was show singing falsetto, because he was castrated, but it was cut due to negative audience reaction. Director Tod Browning grew up in the circus and based the film on a lot of his own personal experiences, even though the movie is also based on the Tod Robbins' short story "Spurs."



Q: Hey Leonard, Great column. You and Dunn are by far my favorite writers on this site. Anyway this may be more of a music question but in the movie The Decline of Western Civilization Alice Cooper is talking about someone ripping off his act however the name of the artist/group is bleeped out. I was wondering if anyone knew who it was that he was talking about.
-Guest 3838

A: I feel in good company with JD Dunn, although when we were pitted against each other recently in Fact or Fiction for the wrestling zone I felt like Dusty Wolfe in the ring with Ric Flair.

The Decline of Western Civilization is a 1981 documentary from Penelope Spheeris on the Los Angeles punk rock scene. Bands taking part with performances and interviews are Black Flag, The Bags, The Germs, X, Circle Jerks, Catholic Discipline and Fear. The movie caused a riot when first screened in L.A. and Spheeris was asked by police to never screen the movie publicly in the area again. A sequel covering heavy metal was released in 1988 and part three covers the new wave of punk in the mid-nineties was put out in 1998.



The interview you're referring too is from part two and the rumored person that Alice Cooper mentioned is Blackie Lawless of W.A.S.P. I can see it.



Q: Also since some people have been bringing up old war movies, you could do a HELL of a lot worse than Stalig 17
-Mr-X



A: Stalag 17 from 1953 was directed by Billy Wilder and stars William Holden as JJ Sefton. Sefton is an American prisoner of war who deals in black market contraband to get special treatment from the guards. When two prisoners are killed trying to escape, Sefton is accused of being a spy for the Germans. He tries to figure out who the real spy is while watching his back at every turn. Charlton Heston was originally considered for the lead, but when Sefton was made less heroic and more cynical he was dropped for Kirk Douglas. Douglas declined the part as did Holden to start. However, Holden was forced to the do the role as part of his Paramount contract. It won him the Academy Award for best actor. The movie proved to be one of the biggest hits of Wilder's career and he expected a piece of the profits, but Paramount took part of his backend to pay off his previous film, Ace in the Hole, which lost money. Wilder left the studio shortly after. Another reason given for Wilder leaving Paramount is that an executive suggested making the guards Polish instead of German so the movie would play better in West Germany. Wilder was offended by this as his mother and stepfather died in a concentration camp. The movie was said to be the inspiration for "Hogan's Heroes," especially considering one of the guards in the movie is named Sgt. Shultz, but producers of the series denied this and actually won a lawsuit against Paramount who charged them with an illegal adaptation.

Q: 1. I have to say I for one LOVE After Hours. One of the most hilariously bizzare movies of all time.

2. There are thousands of WWII movies but I can count on one hand the number of WWI movies that I've heard of. What are some essential movies about WWI?
-Dr. Mickhead

A: I'll allow you to like After Hours for being hilariously bizarre, but that's the only reason.

As far as World War I movies goes, Johnny Got his Gun mentioned above and Grand Illusion talked about recently fit. Some other notable WWI moves:

Wings (1927): This film won the first Academy Award for best picture, then known as most outstanding production. Jack Powell (Charles Rogers) and David Armstrong (Richard Arlen) are from different sides of the tracks, but becomes friends as fighter pilots during World War I. Jack's neighbor Mary (Clara Bow) is smitten with him, but he only has eyes for Sylvia (Jobyna Ralston), who likes David. Gary Cooper has a small role and it was the first movie that the famed Edith Head did costume design for.



All Quiet on the Western Front (1930): A group of German schoolboys are encouraged by their teacher to join the army as World War I gets going. Their rah-rah heroism is quickly replaced by fear and confusion as they bear full witness to the true horrors of war. Silent and sound versions of the movie were done and released at the same time. Nazis in Germany eventually got the movie banned and interrupted early screenings by releasing rats and stink bombs into theaters. A TV remake was done in 1979 and a new remake is currently in pre-production.



A Farewell to Arms (1932): Gary Cooper plays and ambulance driver in World War I in Italy. He falls in love with a nurse played by Helen Hayes and the two will do anything to be together. The movie is based on a book by Ernest Hemingway. The movie was remade with Rock Hudson and Jennifer Jones in 1957 and as a TV miniseries with George Hamilton and Vanessa Redgrave in 1966.



Sergeant York (1941): Based on a true story, Gary Cooper plays the title character, a hillbilly sharpshooter who is a pacifist and doesn't want to go to war, but after being drafted he inadvertently becomes a war hero. The real life York only consented for the movie to be made on three conditions. The first was for the money paid him be given to a bible school, the second was that no actress known to be a cigarette smoker could play his wife and the third was that York himself be played by Cooper. Cooper was under contract to MGM and they let Warner Brothers use him in exchange for Bette Davis on The Little Foxes. Before landing Cooper, Henry Fonda, Jimmy Stewart and Ronald Reagan were considered for the lead. According to Clint Eastwood, this is the first movie he remembers seeing.



The African Queen (1951):Rose Sayer (Katherine Hepburn) and her brother are missionaries in Africa when World War I breaks out. Germans burn down their mission and beat her brother. He contracts a fever and dies. Rose then seeks to leave the area on the African Queen riverboat piloted by the drunk Charlie Allnut (Humphrey Bogart). When they happen upon a German warship, Rose convinces Charlie to attack and sink it in revenge for her brother. Not before available on DVD for region one, it's set for release in March. The movie was first set to be made in 1938 with Bette Davis and David Niven, but it got shelved. It got going again in 1947 with Davis and James Mason, but was shelved again when Davis got pregnant. Davis wanted the role when she returned to acting, but Hepburn had been cast. Stories have Hepburn upset with how much booze director John Huston and Humphrey Bogart drank during filming and she drank only water to show them up. However, she contracted dysentery due to the water and many others on set got malaria from mosquito bites, but the bugs stayed away from the soused Huston and Bogart. Screenwriter Peter Viertel wrote "White Hunter, Black Heart" based on his experiences during filming and that was later made into a movie by Clint Eastwood.



Paths of Glory (1957): Stanley Kubrick directs Kirk Douglas as an army officer who realizes that the plans of his superiors are nuts and refuses to send his men to certain death. Douglas landed the part after a play he was contracted to do was delayed. Others for the lead were Gregory Peck, Richard Burton and James Mason.



Lawrence of Arabia (1962): Peter O'Toole plays real life British military hero T.E. Lawrence. Opening with Lawrence's death, the movie flashbacks to him as a young intelligence officer in Cairo during World War I. He forms a band of Arab guerillas and leads raids against the Turks. Marlon Brando was up for the lead, but turned it down to play Fletcher Christian in Mutiny on the Bounty. Anthony Perkins was also considered and Albert Finney successfully screen tested, but didn't want to commit the time to the film director David Lean required. To emphasize how long the movie took to shoot, O'Toole once told a story on the "The Tonight Show" that thanks to re-shoots there is a scene of him walking down a staircase where he's a year older at the bottom of the steps than he is at the top when the scene started. Stephen Spielberg, who loves the movie, once said that he estimated the cost to make the film today to be about $285 million.



The Blue Max (1966): Bruno Stachel (George Peppard) is a lower class German who feels out of place among the elite fighter pilots of World War I. To prove his worth, his goal is to win the Blue Max medal for shooting down twenty enemy pilots. Bruno's general (James Mason) finds him useful as a hero to the regular troops until he finds out that his wife (Ursual Andress) has designs on him.



Gallipoli (1981): A young Mel Gibson plays an Australian track star drafted into the army and sent to fight the Turks in Gallipoli during World War I. Gibson's Frank Dunne is used to run messages back and forth between the front and headquarters when radio communications go down. While the battled depicted did take place, all characters are fictional. Director Peter Weir was said to have described Gibson at the time as "full of beans and really with no grand career ambition." Wrong he was.



Don't die.

"How do you expect to win the war with an army of clowns? "
"We sort of hope you'd laugh yourselves to death."