Marilyn Monroe would have been 94 years old today.
Unfortunately, Marilyn died when she was just 36 years old and also when she was only starting to get a chance to reveal what she was truly capable of as an actress. It’s a shame, because I would have liked to have seen what type of roles she would have played in her 40s and her 50s. Would she have eventually become a respected, award-winning character actor or would she have ended up like Bette Davis, doing cameos in films that weren’t particularly worthy of her talents? Who knows but it’s a shame that the world will never get to find out.
For her birthday, I’m going to share a scene from one of her earlier films, 1952’s Don’t Bother To Knock. In this film, Marilyn plays an unstable woman who is staying at a hotel. Her cousin (played by Elisha Cook, Jr.) gets her job as a babysitter but is shocked to find out that Marilyn has been trying on her employer’s clothes. After getting admonished by her cousin and pretending to be sorry, she proceeds to then summon another gust (played by Richard Widmark) over to her room.
It’s a simple scene but it’s wonderfully played by Monroe. This was one of her first truly dramatic roles and she does a good job with it.
From Don’t Bother To Knock, here is a scene that I love:
4 Shots From 4 Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking!
Today is Morgan Freeman’s 83rd birthday!
Morgan Freeman is one of my favorite actors but then again, I think he’s one of everyone’s favorite actors. He’s an icon, not just for that famous voice but also because he’s a damn good actor. Though he seems to get cast in a lot of mentor roles, he’s shown that he’s capable of playing a wide variety of roles, from heroes to villains to Gods.
(I have to admit that I would be so intimidated if I ever met Morgan Freeman, if just because I know that if I accidentally said something stupid, he’d probably give me a look of such utter disappointment that it would probably haunt me for the rest of my life.)
For this month, I’ve decided to review movies about mobsters.
There’s no specific reason for that, beyond the fact that I just happen to love mobster movies. Of course, a good gangster film is rarely just about crime. Anyone who has ever seen The Godfather can tell you that. At their best, American gangster films are about the American dream and the lengths that some will go to achieve it.
Plus, they’re just a lot of fun to watch. Some of the greatest actors of all time made their mark in gangster films.
Take 1931’s The Public Enemy, for instance.
Produced during the final days of prohibition and the early years of the Great Depression, The Public Enemy tells the story of three boys who grew up poor. Tom Powers (James Cagney) and his friend, Matt Doyle (Edward Woods) pursued a life of crime, rising through the ranks of organized crime before eventually meeting a tragic end. The third, Mike Powers (Donald Cook), stayed on the straight-and-narrow path. He went into the Marines and he rebuked his brother, Tom, when he discovered that Tom’s money was due to “blood and beer.”
The film opens and closes with a title card that basically tells us that Mike Powers has the right idea but, when you watch the film, you can’t help but wonder if maybe Tom had a point about his brother being kind of a sap. Mike might be a decent citizen and he might have a chestful of medals as the result of his wartime heroics but what else does he have? Tom Powers, meanwhile, has no education and, it would appear, no conscience, no real friends, and no one that he really loves and yet he becomes a rich man who is acquainted with powerful figures. While Mike stays at home with their mother, Tom lives in an ornate penthouse. When his first girlfriend (Mae Clarke) gets on his nerves, Tom shoves a grapefruit in her face and then gets an even more glamorous girlfriend, Gwen (Jean Harlow). (Meanwhile, even dumb old Matt is doing okay for himself, marrying a woman played by Joan Blondell.) It’s hard not to imagine that the film’s original audience — who were still reeling from the Stock Market Crash of 1929 — looked at Mike and Tom Powers and quickly decided that they’d much rather be a part of Tom’s life than Mike’s. Even if Tom is destined for an early grave or a lifetime behind bars, at least he appears to be having fun. Speaking for myself, I’d much rather go out with the guy who has nice clothe and his own luxury apartment than with the self-righteous dud who is still living at home with his mother.
Of course, another reason why we gravitate towards Tom Powers is because he’s played by James Cagney, who was one of the most charismatic of the stars of Hollywood’s Golden Age and whose performance still holds up today. Cagney gives a ferocious performance, snarling out his lines and always moving like a caged animal, even when he’s just preparing to have breakfast. He’s full of an energy that’s both dangerous and exciting to watch. Cagney also brings a very powerful anger to the role of Tom Powers. As played Cagney, Tom Power is not just a criminal because he’s greedy. He’s also a criminal because he has no use for a society that he feels has rejected him since birth and which has never given him a fair chance. He becomes wealthy not just because he wants money but because he wants to taunt everyone who ever said that he wouldn’t amount to anything. He’s every crime is more than act of greed. It’s also an act of rebellion, a joyful to a society that wants to tell people what they’re allowed to believe and do. He’s the ultimate 1930s rebel, giving the the finger to not only the two Hoovers (Herbert and J. Edgar) but also to the good government leftists would be soon be swept into power with FDR. Despite the fact that The Public Enemy was made nearly 90 years ago, there’s nothing creaky about Cagney’s performance. It still feels vital and powerful today and it elevates the entire film.
The Public Enemy holds up surprisingly well. The film may be close to 90 but Cagney’s ferocious performance still feels fresh and powerfully alive.
Back when we were both in college, my friend Evelyn and I would often greet each other by loudly exclaiming, “I hate everything about you!” That always got us a few weird looks but you have to understand that, at the time, we were both making a point about avoiding easy sentiment and …. well, we also liked getting weird looks because we felt like that was a sign that we were bringing down the establishment in some sort of way. That may sound silly now and, to be honest, it sounded silly back then. But still, we had fun and that’s the important thing.
Anyway, I Hate Everything About You is one of those songs that’s really appealing when you’re trying to be a rebel and you want the world to know how pissed off and disillusioned you are. At the same time, it’s also a song that lends itself to all sorts of parody. (Who knows how many people sang, “I. Ate. Everything. About. You!” back in the day?) It’s a catchy song. You can kind of dance to it. You can play it really loud when you’re trying to freak out your mom. The lyrics are fun to write inside your diary whenever you’ve had a bad day.
The music video features three people who hate everything about someone else. One guy is being cheated upon by his girlfriend. One girl is going out with the type of smirkey douchebag who has been killed in countless Lifetime films. Another teenager has to deal with an abusive father. They all go to a hill where they destroy stuff. It’s kind of like how you’re supposed to set your lover’s pictures on fire if you break up. Personally, I say keep the pictures and get a voodoo doll. Just a few pokes from a sharp pin and you’ll have all the revenge you want! And you won’t have to go to some ugly old hill either. Voodoo is a revenge that you can practice from the safety of your own bedroom. Voodo? You do!
The music video was directed by Scott Winig. The cinematography was done by Steve Gainer, who was also one of the credited cinematographers on Movie 43. I mean, goddamn, you want to talk about hate.
Anyway, I hope that you’re not hating anyone right now. I used to hate my neighbor because his dogs were always barking but then I remembered that karma is harsh and unforgiving. This is indeed a disturbing universe, one that is perhaps ruled by the blind and dumb Azathoth.
Just a reminder: In his house at R’lyeh, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming.
Through the Shattered Lens 