His Girl Friday

"His Girl Friday" is a dance done in words, right when Rosalind Russel walks into the office of Cary Grant, she's inviting him to a tango, and he's more than willing to oblige. These two people were once married, but there's still a spark to them because they know they can bring out the worst in one another but also the best. In short, these two people were made for each other, in fact they deserve each other, and if they did not end up together in the end, then it would indeed be a tragedy.

The legend of "His Girl Friday" started with the story of when director Howard Hawks invited a bunch of friends over to his house. He or someone at the party took out Ben Hect's play "The Front Page" where the play is inspired from, only with two men in the roles of reporter and editor. Hawks then suggested to have a woman play the reporter role, which suddenly changed the whole dynamic and in fact making it funnier and sexier. For the film, Hawks would get Rosalind Russel to play Hildy the ace reporter, and his favorite actor Cary Grant as her editor Walter Burns, and with that this screwball masterpiece was born.

The set up is simple, Hildy goes into Walter's office telling him she's quitting the newspaper business for good and getting married to a nice momma's boy Bruce Baldwin (Ralph Bellamy) and live the rest of her life in Albaney with him and his mother. We know this isn't the life for Hildy and Walter knows it too, his job is to get her convinced her life is as a "Newspaper man". It just so happens Walter needs Hildy's skills to cover a hanging of a man named Earl Williams who's accused of murdering a cop. Earl may be innocent, but there are many political powers wanting to hang him for their benefit.

Hildy agrees after Walter agrees to give the newlyweds a large insurance policy which is Bruce's vocation. But we, including Hildy know it won't be that simple, Walter will stop at nothing short of murder to scoop the story and keep Hildy on his payroll.

Watching "His Girl Friday" now, is like watching a favorite routine. In these kinds of films, there are certain riffs, certain rythims the actors work with that stay with you. Even after all these years, there are certain lines, or zingers that still get me off guard and surprise me.

The film is never stale, it's fast and furious, life would have to speed up in order to pass these guys by. Everyone in the film live in the moment, to them it's a game, a routine, it's fun, it's exciting. Hawks himself loved focusing on people and their profession, you could see a guenuine affection towards how people could love their work. Hildy in particular is the quintissential Hawks woman, someone who could role with the guys, and just be as tough, even more tough. The most feminine person in the film is poor hapless Bruce and his mother. Of course Hildy shouldn't be with him, Walter is the only one who could upstage her, he's got her number, and she knows it. She loves the dance, she doesn't want the music to stop and niether do we.

Walter is her svengali, make no mistake, he's a manipulator, he's a conman, a crook, and a swindler, and if he wasn't portrayed by Cary Grant, we may not like him. It's to the benefit of Hawks, Grant, and the script, that we want Walter to succeed, he's a comic dynamo, I miss him in that part in the middle where he's not on screen, and when he is finally with Hildy in the last 20 or so minutes, it's like banter that comes down from heaven.

I suppose this film is what you would call a favorite, it's basically as perfect as perfect could be. It's designed to lift you up out of mundane life and watch two people who know eachother inside out have some fun. They are liars, swindlers, and cheaters, but it's okay, this is what love should be, if only it were this perfect everywhere.

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town

"Mr. Deeds Goes to Town" is a charming film, about a man who during the Great Depression comes into a large sum of money, and decides to give it away to people who really need it. In the climax of the movie, this man is prosecuted for his actions and his sanity is tested. Yes, I started this paragraph by saying this is a charming film. It keeps its charm because it was directed by Frank Capra who could balance popular entertainment and social commentary more seamlessly than everybody. But when one thinks of the mindset of this film it gives somewhat of an unsettling vibe.

It's important to note, "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town" was made right smack dab in the middle of The Great Depression in 1936. It was an enormous hit garnering Capra his second of three Oscars for Best Director. This was the moment Capra could do no wrong, he had a knack for mixing screwball comedy and backwoods American sentimentality, although I would say his ideas in the end come off as pretty radical.

"Mr. Deeds Goes to Town", is the story of Longfellow Deeds (Gary Cooper), a naive simpleton from a small town who spends his time playing the tuba and writing poetry. When Longfellow's rich Uncle dies, he comes into a great fortune and is suddenly whisked away to New York City to live the high life. But Longfellow doesn't seem to gel with the big city life. He's pestered by moochers and frauds, people who just want a quick buck from him. When he doesn't want to have anything to do with their reaction is that there must be something wrong with him.

Longfellow's antics are also covered by an ace newspaper reporter named Babe Bennett (Jean Arthur). Babe disguises herself as a damsel in distress whom Longfellow rescues in order to gain his sympathy and get close to him.She begins to write articles which show Longfellow in a very unflattering light. Predictably though Longfellow falls in love with her, and vise versa just to make things more complicated. But the real weight of this story comes when Longfellow decides to give away all his money to needy people, which causes an uproar throughout the moochers and frauds he had to deal with as they try to discredit him.

It's curious to watch "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town" and wonder just what the mindset was in mid 30s America. Capra was obviously making some comment about how the world seems to have gone to the dogs at the height of the Great Depression. As we face an economic crisis of our own, seeing people out of work, yet also seeing some people in America fight to stave off upper class tax hikes, it might not be hard to believe someone trying to give money away could be thought of as an act of insanity, certainly Capra didn't think people were too far from it.

Of course "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town" remains a romantic comedy, and its scenes are meant to exaggerate, but it wears its heart on its sleeve. Capra had a reputation for making earnest moral fables such as these. Longfellow Deeds is the kind of naive simpleton easy to get behind. He's the kind of guy who gets exploited by people like Sarah Palin all the time because he stands for simple American ideals and what the country should be built upon. Palin believes a fellow like Deeds should run the country, and maybe Capra believed that too. Of course politics and the economy are more complicated than the simple ideals, and the movies make a guy like Longfellow a wish fulfillment. What I'm touched by in the film is the utter sincerity, and the heartfelt honesty throughout it. What Capra has done, like he would do with Jefferson Smith in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington", and George Bailey in the more ambiguous "It's a Wonderful Life" is give us someone to root for, someone who knows seeing his fellow man suffer is wrong, and would it be nice to be a millionaire and give that man suffering a helping hand.

"Mr. Deeds Goes to Town" thus transcends any political label you could put upon it, because it's more interested in showing, in very simple terms, the difference between right and wrong. Capra's heroes could not be corrupted, they needed to keep their simple ideals in order to show the audience where the moral compass was pointing. It was only later with "It's a Wonderful Life", where Capra would show the dark side of his heroes and the repercussions of not being able to be corrupted.

Still "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town" raises to big issues, but deals with them like a sweet fable; it's a moral film that children could see and know who the good guys are and who the bad guys are. Gary Cooper was the ideal strong silent type of his time and he's so good and likable, it's hard not the root for him. Jean Arthur is a treasure, a tough talker with a soft center, she would basically play the same role again for Capra in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington", but it's never boring to watch her. A great group of character actors fill the rich scenes of gentle humour and sentiment.

"Mr. Deeds" was remade into a soulless film by Adam Sandler in 1999, it's so easy to see the difference between that film and the original which seemed to have been made with a beating heart.

Battleship Potemkin

Open up any film text book and near the beginning, there will no doubt be a reference, or a chapter concerning "Battleship Potemkin". This film was one of the game changers; like "Birth of a Nation" before it, and "Citizen Kane" after it, it influenced the ways movies were made. Even if you have never seen a piece of "Potemkin's" celluloid, you must be familiar with the famous "Odessa Staircase" sequence, often called the most famous scene in movies. This is the sequence where thousands of Russian peasants are run off the mighty steps at Odessa by Cossacks with guns. It's famous for its brutal images, but perhaps even more famous for its use of editing and montage, which found its way into the basic film language. But there's something I always found off putting about "Potemkin", I can understand its influence and importance, but I'm not sure if I've been profoundly moved by it.

"Battleship Potemkin" tells the story of the famed Russian battleship mutiny of 1905. It was there that the sailors of the ship took command from the officers after they were tired of being malnourished and mistreated.In the film, the mutiny causes an uproar with the peasants of Odessa who also rebel and stir a revolution within Russia. This revolution causes the attack on the Odessa staircase, but it ends with the Battleship gaining sympathy with the other ships as they join together in brotherhood.

The interesting thing about "Battleship Potemkin" is how it seems to document these historic events into a fictional, and propaganda context. The film doesn't follow a series of characters, it doesn't seem to be interested in getting invested with who they are, but rather what it is they are fighting for. By doing this, the film is saying, it's not the individual who's important, but rather the people as a whole. There's nothing wrong with saying that, "Potemkin" wouldn't be the first film to do that, but as someone watching the film I felt a disconnect with it.

"Battleship Potemkin" is a film with an agenda, a political agenda, and maybe it's because I'm not a political person, I didn't feel much sympathy with what they are saying. The opposing faction could just as well make a film which is an argument against what "Potemkin" is saying and so on and so on. That's the problem I find with propaganda films. The best propaganda films I would say come from Frank Capra who could be political but he adds human characters who could be likable and sentimental so it's easy to get on their side.

What "Potemkin" does very well is go along like a fine oiled machine, not unlike its own battleship. The director of the film was Sergei Eisenstein, who was the Godfather of Russian cinema. Eisenstein seems more obsessed with wowing us with this new found film technique of his. He brings about a new storytelling element with his use of montage which are quick cuts to get the audience more involved. The ultimate use of this montage is in the Odessa staircase sequence. It's here Eisenstein is able to get us involved with the human suffering by being able to concentrate multiple stories on the staircase at one time. The editing is swift and effective, Eisenstein is a master at building tension within the frame, the technique is almost invisible, it's only later if you break down the sequence of events do you understand why you become so invested with this scene; no doubt Hitchcock was strongly influenced by this technique.

But still I would argue the effect of this film is largely mechanical, mostly because, the Odessa sequence no withstanding, we are meant to stay away at a distance. Eisenstein seems like a cold director who doesn't let us in in any way. That could be the difference between him and Hitchcock. Despite his reputation as a cold director, Hitchcock did like his characters and he seemed to like his audience as well in order to let them in on the fun.

Perhaps part of the reason I feel this way towards "Battleship Potemkin" is because I'm fatigued by it. I've seen it about as many times as I suppose one should. I can't get anything else from it. I've also seen films by Renoir, Ozu, and Truffaut, who put more of a human touch on their films, and I tend to favour them.

I don't deny the power of "Battleship Potemkin" or its importance on film history, anyone who loves film should see it, there is a beauty to its mechanical way of telling a story. The Odessa scene alone should be studied by anyone who wishes put together a sequence. This was a time where film was still very young and taking its shape, and "Battleship Potemkin" took the kind of leaps this artform had to go in order to grow. I like revisiting films like these if only as a back to basics reminder; what other leaps and bounds are left to explore?