Lost in the Backlot
Harvey (1950)
directed by Henry Koster
rating: 4 out of 5 cravats
on DVD with ELO
No one was more surprised than I when The Philadelphia Story finally felt more like a play than a movie. If John Huston's relentless adaptations of famous novels never transcended their sources (and yes, I was too enthusiastic about Fat City), they at least felt like more than someone pulling a camera over an open book. The passage from Broadway to Hollywood was a well-trod road in the studio era, but even the most nimble travelers (like The Philadelphia Story) wore their staginess like dirty overcoats. A movie like Harvey can be oh so beautifully written, and acted like a gift for Gentleman Jim, but still the sort of prestige picture that Universal paid a million dollars to film in 1950. If Stewart wished he'd lent less innocence to Elwood P. Dowd, he's right (Harvey, if anything, is a Joseph Mitchell hard-luck hero), but still one wonders if even Mitchell could top Jim saying such sweet things about the rooms where people gather so as not to be alone.
How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966)
directed by Chuck Jones
rating: 4 out of 5 cravats
on DVD with ELO
Obviously if I didn't remember that Boris Karloff was both narrator and Voice of Grinch, it had been far too long since my last watch. And do you know what makes TV so great? Brevity. Not even half an hour, and still a heart ten sizes too big for the medium. You could launch the next space shuttle from Chuck Jones' sense of timing, which - like Fairbanks' - was probably impeccable even at death.
directed by Henry Koster
rating: 4 out of 5 cravats
on DVD with ELO
No one was more surprised than I when The Philadelphia Story finally felt more like a play than a movie. If John Huston's relentless adaptations of famous novels never transcended their sources (and yes, I was too enthusiastic about Fat City), they at least felt like more than someone pulling a camera over an open book. The passage from Broadway to Hollywood was a well-trod road in the studio era, but even the most nimble travelers (like The Philadelphia Story) wore their staginess like dirty overcoats. A movie like Harvey can be oh so beautifully written, and acted like a gift for Gentleman Jim, but still the sort of prestige picture that Universal paid a million dollars to film in 1950. If Stewart wished he'd lent less innocence to Elwood P. Dowd, he's right (Harvey, if anything, is a Joseph Mitchell hard-luck hero), but still one wonders if even Mitchell could top Jim saying such sweet things about the rooms where people gather so as not to be alone.
How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966)
directed by Chuck Jones
rating: 4 out of 5 cravats
on DVD with ELO
Obviously if I didn't remember that Boris Karloff was both narrator and Voice of Grinch, it had been far too long since my last watch. And do you know what makes TV so great? Brevity. Not even half an hour, and still a heart ten sizes too big for the medium. You could launch the next space shuttle from Chuck Jones' sense of timing, which - like Fairbanks' - was probably impeccable even at death.
posted by NPK at 8:31 AM
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