Cinematic Distractions

[dulcedemon]

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948):
After The Outlaw (1943) from my previous list, I couldn't get enough of Walter Huston. To satisfy my craving, I chose the film for which he had won both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe. His son, John Huston, won for Best Director and Best Writing (Screenplay). The Hustons are not the only father and son duo in this picture.
This was my first time with the original:
"Badges? We ain't got no badges. We don't need no badges. I don't have to show you any stinking badges!"
The disc arrived around Valentine's Day, and coincidentally, when the story begins, down-on-his-luck Fred C. Dobbs (Humphrey Bogart) checks a lottery ticket for a drawing held on February 14th, 1925. The very recently late Robert Blake plays the street kid from whom he buys the tickets.
The initial action takes place in the town of Tampico, Mexico. It's in Tampico that Dobbs meets up with an affable but equally strapped fellow American, Curtin (Tim Holt). Speaking of fellow Americans, almost as famous as the badges speech is this line repeated by Humphrey Bogart as he panhandles on the streets of Tampico: "Will you stake a fellow American to a meal?"
Curtin and Dobbs team up after the both of them get duped by the same construction jobs contractor, played by Barton MacLane at his weaselly best. A barstool warmer, played by Jack Holt, informs them that they have been scammed. The Holts are the other father and son pairing in this picture.
The two men head for a flophouse called the Oso Negro. There they meet Howard (Walter Huston), a seasoned gold prospector yearning for one more good strike, but he is too old and underfunded to set out alone. Huston's monologue about what gold fever does to a man is a thing of beauty.
The adventure begins from there and takes several surprising twists and turns along the way. Its lack of a love interest apart from gold, and its peculiar ending really make it stand out from other films in the adventure genre. Beyond that, the love director John Huston had for his father is apparent in every frame in which he is captured. It's an exquisite monument to Walter Huston as both a man and an actor giving his finest performance. Imagine having such a memento of your father.
The DVD featured an excellent commentary track by author Eric Lax. It's a bit repetitive in a few parts, but overall, it's very informative. I'm glad the Gila monster was not hurt in the making of this film.
Also included among the DVD extras:
Warner Night at the Movies with a special introduction by film critic Leonard Maltin, a plethora of Humphrey Bogart film trailers, a newsreel containing footage of The Mummers Parade and The Chelsea Arts Ball (both scandalously politically incorrect by today's standards), the Bugs Bunny cartoon Hot Cross Bunny (1948), and the Joe McDoakes comedy short So You Want to Be a Detective (1948). I'm not a fan of the Joe McDoakes series, but the titular character is played by George O'Hanlon, who went on to become the voice of George Jetson.

Paris is Burning (1991):
I had freshly arrived on the doorstep of adolescence, when I saw several cast members featured on a daytime talk show around the time this documentary premiered. I thought the talk show was Donahue, but I couldn't find anything to confirm that. There is, however, this episode of The Joan Rivers Show from the same time period:
https://youtu.be/WS2dhtekl1s
Whichever it was, the people and clips from Paris is Burning have stuck with me ever since. I was long overdue to watch it in its entirety.
While waiting for the DVD to arrive, I told my partner only that we were about to receive an important historical document. A documentary is a video document of people and places at specific points in time.
Paris is Burning is an important historical video document of a facet of gay and transgender culture of the Black, and Latinx drag queens and kings who graced the ballroom scene of New York City in the late 1980s.
It's sad to look back on that time as more optimistic than the present. Even then, with the advent of HIV/AIDS, which took the lives of so many of these beautiful people, there was a sense that progress was being made, and that the future would bring acceptance and equal treatment. Here in the present, in this time of persecution and legislated attempts at extermination, I remembered and was compelled to reach for this documentary.
I luxuriated in the majesty of such luminescent beings as Pepper LaBeija, Octavia St. Laurent, Dorian Corey, Paris Duprée, Willi Ninja, Kim Pendavis, and Angie and Venus Xtravaganza. I reflected upon the fierce and glorious countenance of pre-Disneyfication New York City. It was both exhilarating and maddening. The triumphs and tragedies of then are now magnified through the lens of the present at a moment when decades of struggle and progress are set to be turned backward, undone, and erased by gleeful fascists and their minority faction of religious zealots. I don't know where we go from here other than straight to Hell if we let them have their way.
I couldn't help but wonder how things might have gone for some of the people featured had it been two or three decades later. There are very few of them left alive. I knew that before watching it, but it didn't make it any easier to bear.
The DVD included numerous deleted scenes. The running time of those deleted scenes is as long as the documentary itself. Documentarian Jennie Livingston also directed an episode of the dramatic series Pose, which is also about ballroom culture. I haven't seen Pose. I only know about it from looking up information about Paris is Burning. I also came across this 2021 Hollywood Reporter interview with Junior LaBeija, the marvelous and charismatic emcee of the ball competitions without whom the meaning of categories such as "Banjee Girl" would have been lost on me.
‘Paris Is Burning’ Emcee Junior LaBeija on ‘Pose,’ RuPaul and Why He Never Let Hollywood Tell His Story:
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/paris-is-burning-emcee-junior-labeija-pose-rupaul-1234964404/

You Only Live Once (1937):
I have finally found a movie directed by Fritz Lang that I don't like. Hooray! A young Henry Fonda is stiff as a board in his role as ex-convict Eddie Taylor. Had this been made in the 1950s, his part would have undoubtedly been played by James Dean.
Despite being only recently released from prison, Eddie is too cool for almost everything and everyone except his big-eyed fiancée, Joan Graham (Sylvia Sidney). Joan has a pretty cushy job as the secretary of public defender, Stephen Whitney (Barton MacLane). This is one of those rare occasions when MacLane played a good guy. For a prime example of the roles he typically played, see the entry at the top of this list. Stephen sets Eddie up with a truck driving job. Joan and Eddie set out to make all the dreams that they had to put on hold come true. Marriage, a romantic honeymoon, a nice house, and kids...
Unfortunately, society takes a dim view of those who have done time. Not helping matters is Eddie himself. He lost my sympathy early on, which is the main reason why I didn't like this film. He is a delivery truck driver. His new bride and her boss staked their reputations to get him the job. One afternoon, he blows off his scheduled deliveries and uses the company vehicle to take Joan around looking at houses. He returns to work over two hours late, which gets him fired. The audience is supposed to rail at the injustice of it all along with Eddie, but it's merely the consequence of his own actions.
The other thing I couldn't get behind was Joan constantly fawning over him. Her unquestioning loyalty, which was almost admirable at first, quickly became annoying. Being unable to root for the couple made this a hard one for me to get through, even when truly unjust things began to happen.
The things I enjoyed about it were:
--Barton MacLane playing a good guy.
--Margaret Hamilton as one half of the couple running the honeymoon hotel. It seems innkeepers back then had nothing better to do than look through mugshot magazines.
--Fritz Lang's direction shining through the stiff acting and hokey plot.
--Ward Bond in a bit part as a prison guard. He often played bit part cops. The polite way to put it is that those parts suited his personality.
--William Gargan as Father Dolan. It was nice to see him again, but I preferred his performance as Stewart Corder in Four Frightened People (1934).
--Jean Dixon as Bonnie Graham. I failed to gather whether she was supposed to be Joan's aunt, mother, or older sister, but her performance was solid, and her pairing with Barton MacLane lent a touch of brilliance to an otherwise underwhelming film. There is a really bizarre and painfully obvious audio edit to one of her lines. I can only guess as to the reason for it.
--Laid the groundwork for every Bonnie and Clyde movie and the ilk that followed.
I'm of the opinion that the 1974 film Thieves Like Us, which was essentially a remake of They Live by Night (1948), also borrowed heavily from You Only Live Once. I'm also of the opinion that Drew Barrymore bears an uncanny resemblance to Sylvia Sidney, so much so that I was shocked to learn they were of no relation.

It's that time of year when they pass out shapely golden statuettes, so here are my best movies and shows of 2022 listed in semi-particular order. That is not to say these were all new in 2022. They were simply new to me in 2022:

Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)
The Puppet Films of Jirí Trnka (2000)
Russian Doll: Season 02 (2021)
Errementari: The Blacksmith and the Devil (2017)
Hawk the Slayer (1980)
The Green Knight (2021)
The Sandman (2022)
From Up on Poppy Hill (Kokuriko-zaka kara - 2011)
Finding Vivian Maier (2013)
My Neighbor Totoro (Tonari no Totoro - 1988)
Warm Bodies (2013)
The Munsters (2022)
Sexo por compasión (2000)