Ask 411 Movies for 3.20.06: The only column on the ‘net supporting Bucknell
Posted by Leonard Hayhurst on 03.20.2006
Dumbo, the Spanish Prisoner, Mortal Kombat 3, Oscar upsets and Barbara Streisand is a Merry Widow
From the Wal-Mart dump bin I picked up the 20th Anniversary Edition of Midnight Express and Rocky V. I know I should just break down and buy the Rocky box set.
Maureen Stapelton passed away of chronic pulmonary disease last Monday at her home in Massachusetts. She was 80. Stapelton won the Oscar for best supporting actress in 1981 for Reds. She also had two Tony awards for best supporting actress in "The Rose Tattoo" and best actress for "The Gingerbread Lady." She also won a Grammy for her spoken word recording of the classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird. Her other films include Bye Bye Birdie, Airport, Interiors, The Runner Stumbles, The Fan, Johnny Dangerously, Cocoon, The Money Pit, Nuts, Heartburn and Addicted to Love.
Game show host Peter Tomarken and his wife died in a plane crash last Monday. He was 63. Tomarken volunteered his services as a pilot to pick up a patient in San Diego and transport them to the UCLA medical center. Tomarken reported engine trouble shortly after take off and turned around, but crashed. Tomarken was a bit actor, but was best known as the host of "Press Your Luck." Early on he was an editor for Women's Wear Daily and an advertising executive.
NETFLIX MOVIE OF THE WEEK: BUBBLE
I checked this out for JDunk. I don't think you would like it. I won't spoil it for you. At 73 minutes it takes about 45 minutes for the real plot to kick in. It reminds me a lot in visual composition and style to Gus Van Sant's Elephant. As well the main theme of the movie is pretty evident, but there are all these nooks and crannies of elements floating around. The cast are non-actors and their real homes are used in the film. As such it comes off more like a student project than a substantial feature and only got what release and press it did due to Stephen Soderburgh as director. He's an experimental cat and there is a certain interesting quality to the film, but overall it's a lackluster exercise.
THE GREATEST MOVIES NEVER MADE: THE MERRY WIDOW
It might be hard to believe, but at one point two of the greatest international directors of all time were going to team up and co-direct a project. Those men being Sweden's Ingmar Bergman and Italy's Frederico Fellini. The two met in Rome where Bergman was vacationing in 1968. They became fast friends and started pre-production on Love Duet, which would film half in Stockholm and half in Rome. Katherine Ross and Viveca Linfors were in talks to star. However, the two men had their interests diverted to other projects and Bergman canceled the project on his end in 1970. He then made his first English language film The Touch in 1971. While in Hollywood for it he met Elliot Gould and his then wife Barbara Streisand. Bergman announced that Babs would be starring in his next project, an adaptation of the operetta The Merry Widow. The project had been committed to film before and Bergman had directed a stage version early on in his career. The oil crisis of 1973 limited available funds from Bergman's usual backers. He landed $4 million from producer Dino De Laurentiis, but he refused to cover cost overruns and Bergman would not compromise on his planned for budget. After eight months of hitting brick walls when it came to money he decided to abandon that project too.
Q: Hello Leonard, love your column.
In this week's edition, you talk about short movies with wide commercial releases, mentioning one that ran 70 minutes. The first movie that leapt to my mind was Dumbo, which, it turns out, comes in at a ridiculously short 64 minutes, according to imdb:
http://imdb.com/title/tt0033563/dvd Just a tip.
Sincerely yours,
-PJA
A: I glossed over that question last week, because it's hard to find a definitive answer because of the rules over what is a feature and what is not. Yet, I didn't even think to check out animated features. Thanks for the help.
Q: I'm definitely glad that Crash won best picture. I think Brokeback Mountain was generally considered to be the favorite because it was (in a way) groundbreaking, and it seems as though groundbreaking films get more recognition over films that may be just better. I have yet to see any of the other nominees, but Crash was just so amazing, I can't imagine any of them being better overall, so big ups to Paul Haggis.
With that being said, this got me thinking of huge Oscar upsets. Have there ever been any really BIG upsets at the Oscars. Like a nominee who won that nobody thought stood a chance at winning, or a nominee who won and the Academy received a ton of backlash for picking it. This doesn't haven't to be just Best Picture, but any of the major categories really.
-NovemberRainz
A: What happened at the past Oscars has been compared to what occurred in 1982. While on the surface Reds and director Warren Beatty seems akin to Good Night and Good Luck and George Clooney it was similar to Brokeback Mountain. Reds was a controversial, groundbreaking and important film that had all the momentum going into ceremony. The week heading up to the show there was a groundswell of support for sentimental favorite Chariots of Fire. Now Fire doesn't have a whole lot in common with Crash outside of the fact that it was a film that had a solid base among Academy voters that when you got down to brass tacks they just frankly liked it better. We've covered Oscar upsets before, so let's revisit some answers.
Best Actor for Roberto Benigni for Life is Beautiful in 1999: 1998 was considered a very weak year, but no one gave a comedic actor in a foreign film a chance of winning, especially me. Ian McKellen for Gods and Monsters and Nick Nolte for Affliction were considered the sentimental favorites, while Edward Norton was garnering support among the younger members of the academy for American History X and Tom Hanks for Saving Private Ryan was viewed as the Academy's favorite son in recent years. Both Life is Beautiful and best picture winner Shakespeare in Love are seen to have won due to the furious campaigning of distributor Miramax Films and the fairly recent practice of sending screener copies to voters. While the Academy outlawed screeners earlier this year, saying that it was causing films to be bootlegged on the internet, the outcry of several producers and studios have led to this very affective campaigning tool to be reinstated.
Best Supporting Actress for Marisa Tomei for My Cousin Vinny in 1993: This is one of the most famous upsets in Oscar history. Conventional wisdom says that the occasional xenophobia of the Academy reared it's head as Tomei was the only American in a field of Brits that included Joan Plowright for Enchanted April, Miranda Richardson for Fatale, Vanessa Redgrave for Howard's End and Judy Davis for Husbands and Wives. It is interesting to note that this was before the practice of sending out screener copies and My Cousin Vinny was the only film of this group that was easy to find and see in theaters. Rumors abound that presenter Jack Palance, winner of best supporting actor the previous year for City Slickers, either announced Tomei as the winner because he forgot his glasses and couldn't read the name on the card or did it as a joke. The Academy was too embarrassed to admit the error and never corrected it. Tomei poked fun of this when she hosted "Saturday Night Live" and did a monologue revealing that every major accomplishment in her life had came at the hands of Jack Palance, including winning the employee of the month at a Hardee's that Jack Palance was the manager of and she didn't even work there.
Best Actor for Richard Dreyfuss for the The Goodbye Girl in 1978: Forget other nominees John Travolta for Saturday Night Fever, Marcello Mastrioanni for A Special Day and Woody Allen in Annie Hall. This award was about one guy, Richard Burton in Equus. Burton is tied with Peter O'Toole for the most acting nominations without a win with 7 total. Burton hadn't made a film in three years when he returned to the screen to make both Equus and The Exorcist II. It was pretty much a done deal that Burton was finally going to win his Oscar, but the Academy doesn't like being told what to do. Rumor is that a large block of anti-Burton voters assembled to give the award to Dreyfuss just to mess with Burton's mind. Several people said that they saw Burton jump out of his seat as soon as the presenter read "Richard" off the card. That's just cruel.
Best Picture for The Greatest Show on Earth in 1953: Often considered to be the weakest best picture winner of all time and one of the few flicks to win the award after receiving scathing reviews from critics. The movie was the highest grossing film of the year and marked the resurgence of famed silent director Cecil B. DeMille. High Noon and The Quiet Man were considered the frontrunners with Moulin Rouge and Ivanhoe also-rans. It's believed that Noon and Man split the vote and the huge block of old fogies that hadn't even set foot into a theater since the silent era gave the win to DeMille's laughably bad epic of a struggling circus.
Q: Quick question for ya....
Have you ever seen the Mamet classic The Spanish Prisoner? And if so, can you decipher the ending? Was it all a setup, or what? A huge bet with my friend is riding on your interpretation. Thanks!!!
-Steve
A: This has spoilers so don't come crying to me. The Spanish Prisoner from 1997 was written and directed by David Mamet. Joe Ross (Campbell Scott) had developed some sort of ‘process' for the company that he works for that will make them millions of dollars, or the competition if they get it. Joe travels with company lawyer George (Ricky Jay) and secretary Susan (Rebecca Pidgeon) to the Caribbean for a secret meeting with company owner Mr. Kline (Ben Gazzara) and other investors. While there Joe meets apparent millionaire businessman Jimmy Dell (Steve Martin). They become friends and Dell begins to make Joe think that his company is trying to screw him over of his deserved reward for creating the process. He arranges to meet with Jimmy and his lawyer. However, he discovers that the young tennis playing sister that Dell supposedly had is an old woman and begins to think he's getting conned. He contacts an FBI agent (Felicity Huffman) that Susan met on the island. He learns that they have been trailing Dell and want Joe to help them sting him. However, the FBI agents are frauds and Joe is double conned. The plot thickens as Joe goes to police and they think he stole the process himself and has plans to run off to Venezuela. He goes to get help from George and finds him dead. Joe is the primary suspect and goes to Susan. Joe realizes that evidence to Dell's existence and identity are on security tapes on the island. Susan helps to get him out of the country, but it's revealed that she's in on it too. Joe looks done for on a ferry, but US marshals come out of the woodwork and save the day.
I'm guessing your question concerning the end then centers around the US marshals. Were they legit or part of the con? The movie ends with Joe on the docks, but we have to extend the story. If the marshals were fakes then Joe would discover it soon enough when charges aren't pressed against his boss who was indicated by them or he's not asked to testify against Dell and Susan. There are also two linking lines in the film that I think smacks of classic Mamet and tips off that they are real. The black policeman says to Joe at the end of the Asian US marshals "nobody looks at a Japanese tourist." Earlier in the film when Dell is leaving the car dealership and sees tourists he comments on them without Joe being within earshot. So this says that they were trailing Dell the whole time and outside of his network of operatives. However, there are some questionable elements to them. Dell is going to kill Joe when he knows there are two other people on the boat. The marshals use a tranquilizer gun that looks hokey. The marshals van and jackets seem pretty generic. The male marshal uses the St. Patrick's Day pin that Susan pinned on Joe to hide the microphone. A foghorn conveniently goes off when Dell is telling Joe what he did with the process and what sort of comic book villain would reveal his master plan anyway? I believe that Mamet left the ending purposely ambiguous so that people could interpret it anyway they wanted to. There is no definitive answer. However, that's what you want from me. My initial take was that they were real. The more I thought about it I believed they were fake. Then I remembered the Sting where Charles Durning and Robert Shaw are tricked by the fake federal agents hired by Gondorf to close out the con and allow him and Hooker to escape free and clear without being pursued. So I'm going to say yes, the US Marshals were part of the con and all events of the film were part of one massive con. Although I believe parts may have been improvised as Joe proved to be more unpredictable than originally thought.
Q: Okay, you know who it is. Your favorite Music Zone editor. Or so I like to think. Anyways, on to the question. I started watching Mortal Kombat: Annihilation last night to hear the theme song remixed with that badass synth part, and it got me wondering, what ever happened to the production of Mortal Kombat 3? I had heard a lot, but all in all that it definitely was in production. Thanks dude.
-Brandon Ratliff
A: You can be my favorite music zone editor if I'm your favorite movies zone editor.
I fielded this question in my seventh column ever and the movie still isn't out. At that time it was entitled Mortal Kombat: Domination, but since has been changed to Devastation. Shang Tsung once again attempts to takes over the earth and Rayden must reform his group of fighters to take him on, including the deceased Johnny Cage. The new target date is sometime later this year, but it's not in production yet. Mink is set to direct from a script by Drew McWeeny and Scott Swan. In a recent interview on MK Outworld with Chris Casamassa who plays Scorpion he said that Hurricane Katrina set them back several months on location filming and no new shooting date has been scheduled.
Q: Mr. H,
If you have not, you should see Stander w/ Thomas Jane. NetFlix it. I only rented it cause of the Punisher face time and curious about him.
-Paul
A: It's at the top of the Netflix list so I should be able to watch it next week and I'll get back to you. So certainly don't die.
"Beware of all enterprises which require new clothes."
