La Strada

Italy, 1954, (B/W) Director and
Screenplay: Federico Fellini


I have got to confess that as a movie fan I haven't seen many Fellini film's just 8 1/2 (1963) and Nights of Cabiria (1957) both which I really loved,  La Strada (The Road) stands out to me as the best of the three. I just recently got his out of the library and hadn't heard much about it but was easily swayed that day by the Martin Scorsese blurb on the dvd cover that read "if there's only one film you have to see of Fellini's it would be this one (La Strada)", sound's like a bold statement that would need some explanation, so far for me it seems pretty accurate, if you must see more than one it would be a great film to begin the Fellini journey with.
La Strada is a highly unpredictable sweet but gritty, it's a tale of two outcasts on the circus circuit. Giulietta Masina plays Gelsomina, a young woman with childish and puppy like qualities. After Gelsomina's sister Rosa dies Gelsomina replaces her and is sold to Zampano (Anthony Qiunn). Zampano is a brute who entertains his audience by ripping chains apart by his strong lungs and ribs, Gelsomina is his sidekick with a painted clown face, playing the drums  and bringing a chaplinesque/Langdon humour to the act. While on the Road Gelsomina leaves Zampano fed up with his animal like behavior of only a need for food, sleep and sex, abandoning Gelsomina for any woman who comes along. It doesn't take long for Zampano to catch up with Gelsomina and the two set out on the road again. Gelsomina still fed up with Zampano by the time they get to Rome, she meets tightrope walker Il Matto, the fool and the total opposite to Zampano. Despite being hated immensely by Zampano and having a thing for Gelsomina , Il Matto can see the two's connection and makes the statement that if she doesn't stay with Zampano who will. So Gelsomina instead of going alone with the circus using her own talents she decides to stick by Zampano. 

Fellini's road film takes us on a unique journey of sweetness and sorrow. Giulietta may steal the show as her lovable inexperienced Gelsomina but Anthony Quinn's portrayal of the unsympathetic animal like Zampano is even more so powerful. Quinn had just come off Broadway playing Stanley Kowalski for A Street Car named desire and there is no doubt he carried Stanley's short fuse temperate with him. But unlike Stanley we see a softer more humanistic side to Zampano in final cut. 

The release of La Strada brought Fellini and his wife Giulietta Masina world wide success bringing home an oscar Best foreign picture of 1956, Fellini in the end of his career had an entire room full of awards for his pictures and over 50 of them were strictly for La Strada.

I personally like La Strada more than the other two i have seen (8 1/2 and Nights of Cabiria) because its simple, sweet and I enjoyed the characters, Fellini deserves every drop of praise he receives for this wonderful film.

Fun Fact: Fellini once worked as a circus Clown 

"Maybe you Remember me. I'm Baby Jane Hudson!"

What ever happened to Baby Jane? (1962), Robert Aldrich's grotesque, psychological thriller and black comedy about two middle aged celebrity has beens. As well as being a great film, the casting has a lot to do with the appeal of the picture. Both Bette and Joan were eager for a successful comeback and Aldrich managed to cast them both regardless of Bette and Joan's feud. If you've seen this you will know it's impossible not to love the script, it is amazing and memorable, the cinematography is beautiful, Bette is a whirlwind and winningly ghastly. 

Bette plays "Baby" Jane Hudson an ex child Vaudevillian who hit the big time in the 1910s.  She was unable to make the transition into films so turned to the bottle.  This resulted in her   living a life outside of reality in her Mini "Norma Desmond" mansion, caking on her thick white make up and torturing her "poor" sister Blanche. Blanche, contrast to Jane, was a major star in the 30s, but that all turned to custard when she was crippled in a car crash in 1935. So Blanche resides in her room wheel chair bound. Since the accident Blanche being the only known cause for the accident was forced to be Blanche's caregiver and as the years grew so did Jane's hatred toward Blanche. 

Present day: Jane loses the plot completely when she learns Blanche is having a popularity comeback as the television is playing her old movies. Jane aims high wanting all the glory she had once owned as a spoiled little brat on vaudeville, so she decides on retrieving her Baby Jane character that never quite got away from her.  She trots off to town heart shaped beauty spot and all, puts an ad in the paper for a composer to play with her as she performs songs from her childhood like "I've written a letter to Daddy". So Victor Buono  comes into the film he plays Edwin Flagg, an overweight giant guy who is smothered by his mother (Marjorie Bennett) and hopes to earn big bucks to get out from under his mothers wing. But Mr Flagg doesn't really quite realize what he is getting into. You can see his disappointment when he first meets  Jane, dressed in a child's outfit for adults trying to resemble her once dollish self. Jane realizes or rather makes herself believe that she will have to kill Blanche so she can go back into show business, because she just simply wont be able to look after her. Jane purposely shuts out almost the whole world from Blanche apart from her maid, Alvira and the telephone (which Jane eventually gets rid of to). And we see a few times the seemingly normal next door neighbors who compared to the Hudsons are almost angelic. Mrs Bates and her daughter Eliza Bates who desperately want to meet the great Blanche but Jane won't allow it because of her jealously. 

The film begins with Jane's fruitful Vaudeville years then after about 12-minutes we go to 1935 the year of the accident along with the credits, the accident is shown unclearly and then we go to Yesterday (the present) where the two sisters live in their decaying mansion with a mutual hatred for each other, never speaking about the accident.

Jane (Bette) gives Blanche (Joan) her pet parakeet for lunch.  thats about as horrifying as this film gets well and dead giant rat for "Din Din" and if you wanna count Bette's Face and Joan's Eye Brows.  

Blanche: "I didn't bring your breakfast, because you didn't eat your din-din!"

Its not a very frightening film (for the general audience, if i was a kid watching this I would probably be freaked out of my mind), its exciting, funny and full of misery. Thanks to Bette's lack of vanity and overall ambition to make that character into someone she saw Baby Jane as.  Sure Bette's acting is over top, but it's so fitting,  she gives you a laugh just the way she acts and presents herself. Her hatred for Blanche which had been growing for years is clear as she acts is an evil tormenter when it comes to Blanche, she cackles as she hears Blanche's scream when she receives her dead rat, but acts like a child and tries to be tantalizing when Victor Buono's character comes on the scene. Its fair to say that Bette was a huge part of this film's success because she had so much character to work with. Joan did a great job as Blanche, maybe not as fun or showy because that's not the way her character is suppose to appear, but she plays the role of  "victim" and paraplegic  pretty well.  Joan's role could of been played by anyone but Joan did a pretty underrated performance and it is a bonus that we get the two actresses side by side on film for the only time. 

Robert Aldrich who produced as well as directed this miracle of American cinema made this on a pretty tight budget but managed to make a film that appealed to everyone in the 60s, all for different reasons.  It was Bette's last really great role in a masterpiece film, you can tell she would of had fun with the Jane role, its one of the few characters where she doesn't touch a cigarette or have her characterized anxious screen appearance.

The casting right through this film is all unforgettable. a couple of years later a lot of the cast members from Baby Jane would appear in another story of decrepit oldies Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte, very similar in trend. This was going to have Joan Crawford star as Charlotte's (Davis) cousin but Olivia De Havilland ended up by playing her, and I have got to say did a great job. It's so true that this film wouldn't of been made if it wasn't for the release of Sunset Boulevard and Psycho which really did pave the way for Baby Jane. Baby Jane isn't as slick as its predecessors, some call it the Tacky Daughter of Sunset Blvd, and it so is.

Joan went on to do a number of tacky flicks like straitjacket and TROG, but at least she had work. Bette went on to do more TV than films but there are some mildly good pictures in her filmography through the 60s-80's. The Nanny, The Anniversary, Dead Ringer (Directed by Paul Henreid)  and a soft and light picture, The Whales of August, starring then relics of the film industry Lillian Gish, Vincent Price and Ann Sothern. But she left the world with an awful picture The Wicked Stepmother, best forgotten. 

Victor Buono who plays Edwin Flagg was second choice (to Peter Lawford), he was a fitting choice and was even nominated (and again should of won) for his role. He had short career due to his premature death in 1982 aged 43. He was only 24 when he played the role of Edwin and 2 years later played Charlottes father in Hush Hush sweet charlotte quite convincingly. His role in Baby Jane is quite vital, he is like the less attractive version of William Holden's character in Sunset Blvd, but not a leading role.

"But Ya are Blanche, Ya are in that Chair"

About What ever happened to Baby Jane: 

• To show Jane as the terrible actress she was suppose to be there's a scene where a couple producers are talking about how awful she is while watching a clip from Bette Davis's early, to put it mildly lesser loved pictures Ex Lady and Parachute Jumper (both 1933)

• Next door neighbor Mrs Bates' daughter Eliza is played by Bette Davis's own daughter Barbara "B.D" Merrill who some years later in 1985 wrote a Mommie Dearest type book called My Mothers Keeper, mother and daughter never spoke since and Bette died in 1989. 

• The final scene at the beach was filmed in Malibu, California at the same spot where director Robert Aldrich filmed the final scene of Kiss me Deadly (1955). When Blanche confesses the truth to "Baby Jane", you can see in the background that same house that was "blown up" by a mysterious box containing radioactive material in "Kiss Me Deadly". 

• According to Bette Davis in her book This N' That, this film was originally going to be shot in color. Bette opposed this, saying that it would just make a sad story look pretty.

• In 1962, this film was a smash hit, grossing nine million dollars initially. In 2010 dollars, this amount would adjust to approximately $64,279,370.86. 

• During the kicking scene, Bette Davis kicked Joan Crawford in the head, and the resulting wound required stitches. In retaliation, Crawford put weights in her pockets so that when Davis had to drag Crawford's near-lifeless body, she strained her back. 

• When Bette is imitating Joan, etc (("Oh Really did she like it")), instead of Bette actually doing Joan's voice, film crew dubbed over Bette with Joan, with a slightly sarcastic Joan tone.  (I used to think it was really Bette until i saw the Commentary saying it wasn't, great commentary on the dvd's Special features by the way)

• Won the oscar for best Black and White costume design. as we all know Bette didn't win and should of! 

• Davis bitched to Aldrich about Crawford's drinking (both were alcoholics) and padded brassieres; Crawford insulted Davis's daughter (who appeared in the film--to put it kindly, she was not burdened by her mother's talent), and the incidents go on and on.

Blanche (in the ending discovers the truth):"You Mean all this time we could've  been friends"

If you haven't seen this I strongly Recommend it! :)

Bette the "Dangerous" Jinx

When Bette was just becoming a well known screen player and before she adapted her well known clichéd screen persona, she was just an actress fighting for the good roles. In 1935 she had appeared in about 28 films and it wasn't until Human Bondage (34) that she was known as a talent to be reckoned with. She had just been disappointed in 1934 by not  being officially nominated for her performance in Of Human Bondage, as her's was a write in. So in 1936 she would receive, as she would call her consolation prize for Human Bondage the best actress academy award for Dangerous. I remember a couple of years ago kind of hankering to see this, and getting really excited when it came on TCM, having at the time just seen Of Human Bondage and thinking wow, she didnt even win. The film itself is a great example of films at that time, it's not what you would call a masterpiece of the era but it isn't a waste of time either. Dangerous wasn't even considered anything special in 1935, the only significant praise the film got was for Bette's Performance and the dialog (not the plot), and I have to say nothing much has changed since then. So I cant say much about the film except that Bette packs a punch as she delivers Laird Doyle's dialog as Joyce Heath. 

Joyce Heath a down and out actress at breaking point, who has turned to the comfort of the drink. As Joyce is spiralling downwards she meets a young architect named Don Bellows (Franchot Tone). Don although engaged to socialite Gail Armitage (Margaret Lindsay)helps out the troubled star. Joyce is convinced that she herself is a Jinx and tries to repel Don from falling in love with her, but this only ensures Don that he has to help her. Don leaves his fiancé for Joyce but everything isn’t all cut and dry. Don is unaware that Joyce is already married, to Gordon. Gordon who was once successful was ruined by his marriage with Joyce, although Joyce basically ruined him financially he is devoted too her and refuses to give her  a divorce.

At just 79 minutes in length the story telling is packed in tightly, which is good in that everything is held together and never dull. Franchot Tone is solid and likable, Margaret Lindsay (Jezebel) who plays Franchot's fiance, isn't on the screen a whole lot but we guess that she would be the opposite of Joyce, honest and good. So Joyce concludes that she will have to commit a murder suicide. But instead of killing both her and her husband, she succeeds in permanently disabling Gordon. Don ends up with his socialite and Joyce with her husband, who surprisingly even after Joyce tried to kill him still wants to be with her. 

When Bette was offered the role she needed some convincing and was turned around when she learnt the actress she was to play was based on one of her idols Jeanne Eagels (Broadway/film Actress and Ziegfeld Girl, 1929's The Letter.), the film being Hollywood ends much happier than Eagels own life. Bette did the role justice, and despite her own feelings about her winning her Oscar and also feeling that Katharine Hepburn was more deserving for Alice Adams. Bette was just as deserving for Dangerous as she was for Human Bondage and this is essentially a Bette vehicle, unlike Human Bondage, she was billed first.  Like many Bette films she is able for a few scenes to erupt like volcano and deliver her lines like daggers, if you've seen this movie you’ll remember this: 

(To Don)I should laugh at you, should I? But I can't help it. You were so awkward that I almost laughed in your face at first. And then it made me sick to think that anyone could be stupid enough to be taken in by old tricks. I thought you might at least be amusing, but you turned out to be dull, and stupid and so afraid. Well you needn't be? I won't hurt your Sunday school romance or your oh so nice career. Hurt me? Get out of here before you give me hysterics!"

Even despite her win she was still given crappy roles at Warners, undeserving of her talents, like Satan Met a Lady (an early adaptation of The Maltese Falcon). Warner's tight region on Bette led her to sue them, unsuccessfully. Although unsuccessful she returned to better roles and more quality pictures like Dark Victory, Jezebel, Marked Woman, a dramatic change from her previous movies. 

Joyce (Davis) and Don (Tone) 

"The Little Brown Wren" she sure made a statement wearing a simple house dress to the 1936 academy awards, she looks more like the Before Aunt Charlotte in Now Voyager than an actress coming to collect her first Oscar. 

Happy Birthday to my Favorite Actress/ The greatest actress, ever

Actress Bette Davis would have turned 102 on the 5th April! so I thought it would be appropriate to do a wee celebration (late, I know). She’s the actress who often played characters you love to hate. Bette the powerhouse is renowned for playing cold hearted characters, like the alcoholic cake face Baby Jane or a murderess in The Letter. She wins you over as the dying socialite in Dark Victory and the ugly Duckling turned swan in Now Voyager and the role she is often cited as being born for, Margo Channing in All about Eve.

Some of her greatest work is from over 70 years ago and nothing is really terribly old fashioned or embarrassing to watch for today’s standards. They don't make actresses like her anymore, no one can measure up to her energy or could be placed as the "New Bette", just won't ever happen. 

She first arrived on the silver screen in 1931 in The Bad Sister for universal. It wouldn't be until 1934 she would get her big break. As Mildred in Of Human Bondage she was nominated for her first of 11 Oscar nods, but Bette's acting was overshadowed by the triumphant success of It Happened One Night and Claudette Colbert would win. In 1936 she won her first Oscar for best actress for the 1935 film Dangerous, she would consider this win an award for Of Human Bondage, but her acting in Dangerous was just as deserving. 

She was born in 1908 in Lowell, Massachusetts into a moderately wealthy upbringing, but this soon turned into something else when her parents divorced. Bette, her mother, Ruth and younger sister, Bobby turned into a trio of gypsies moving from place to place so Ruth could find stable work as a photographer to put her daughters through boarding school.

Bette was inspired to become an actress when she saw Rudolph Valentino in The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse while the trio were living in New York in 21'.

It was then all about Bette, as Ruth her mother rallied for her daughter to attend Cushing Academy, there she would become optimistic with her aspirations to become a great actress.

 

She then attended drama school where she met a young Henry Fonda and was dumbfounded when he never showed any signs of wanting to marry her after the two kissed, once. Years later the two would work on Jezebel together and never speak about the matter. 

Out of school she auditioned for George Cukor's production company, Mr Cukor gave Bette her first paying job as a chorus girl, that would the one and only time she would work for George Cukor as he was not initially impressed with her abilities. 

In the 1929 play Broken Dishes she would be awarded her first major critical praise.

The praise that Broken Dishes awarded her brought her Hollywood. Her first picture The Bad Sister and the additional criticism about her looks sent Bette into depression and she was adamant to leave Hollywood as she thought she would never find another job. But as we all know she did, and she went on to become one of best actresses of all time. Her whole world changed when she joined the lot in 1932 making films like three on a match, The Man Who Played God, The Cabin in the Cotton. And she eventually became known as the 5th Warner Brother, after her mammoth success with Jezebel. 

In her time she managed to sue Warner Bros, over contract differences and make her fair share of enemies. With actress Miriam Hopkins she formed a life long feud, which was brought up by jealously and the fact Bette was having an affair with Miriam's then Husband director Anatole Litvak. Not forgetting the infamous feud with Joan Crawford, but when the two worked together on 1962s camp horror Whatever Happened To Baby Jane the two were nothing but professional, on the set. Baby Jane was Bette's final best actress academy nomination and she was certain she would win, but Joan Crawford's campaigns against Bette worked, and to make things even more conniving she arranged with Anne Bancroft, the winner to accept her award on Anne's behalf. Along with her enemies she had a string of affairs with the likes of Howard Hughes, director William Wyler and with her leading man in a number of films George Brent, the latter two whom she almost married. She was unlucky in love, always wanting to be dominated but always ending up marrying men who were weak in comparison with the larger than life Bette. She married four times, the forth was her All About Eve co-star Gary Merrill, the two had 10 year tremulous marriage. All of her four husbands were Gentiles and friend (and Three on a match co-star) Joan Blondell nicknamed them the "Four Skins" -

She may not have considered herself a good looking actress, but this worked her in favour immensely. Never prudish on dressing up in hideous costume or embarrassed to look like hell on screen, in fact relishing in it. Mr Skiffington, the private lives of Elizabeth and Essex, her ugly Duckling appearance in Now Voyager to quote: "the fat lady with the heavy brows and all the hair" - are just some of her roles where she went straight into the character. As for Queen Elizabeth I Bette even wanted to shave her head, Elizabeth was a baldy, but the studio wouldn't allow and so she just shaved her forehead to give the illusion. 

Now, Voyager is possibly her greatest film, next to All about Eve, not only was she great in it, it's the essential melodrama, her performance is one that she should of  Definitely won her third oscar for. She plays the youngest of her mother's children and is smothered by her elderly mother's rules and set boundaries (Played exquisitely by Gladys Cooper). She eventually gets through her darkened ugly duckling years and becomes a beautiful swan who sacrifices having a husband, to look after a child whose father she could never really be with. - ahh

After her milestone performance in All about Eve in 1950 she was up against three champion performances, Judy Holliday, Gloria Swanson and Bette's Eve co-stars Anne Baxter. Judy Holliday won (she won a Tony for the same role). If it were up to me it would have to be a toss up between Gloria Swanson and Bette Davis, both made huge comebacks for themselves. She was just a great actress and possibly the most misrepresented one ever, to boot. She was a master of her craft and was able to carry out her roles to what seems like a breeze, but still carrying with her her cigarettes and clipped vocals and sometimes what seems like an uneasy or paranoid persona. 

Random Quote:
(about Katharine Hepburn's tie for the 1968 Oscar with Barbara Streisand) "I wanted to be the first to win three Oscars, but Miss Hepburn has done it. Actually it hasn't been done. Miss Hepburn only won half an Oscar. If they'd given me half an Oscar I would have thrown it back in their faces. You see, I'm an Aries. I never lose."

Here's a montage a super Bette Fan created.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter Everybody, 

here's one of my favorite photos, thought I'd share it with you all, it comes from one of my Nana's old kodachrome slide photos, the slide viewer is broken now, so have blown a few up to photograph prints. 

c/ 50s, one of my Nana's friends in a big old car in the sand, east coast beach, N.Z.  

has nothing to do with Easter or movies but you can enjoy it just the same!

:)