Kim Morgan counts 11 of her favorites. I love that she chose Mulholland Drive, a movie I love. So there are some surprises in her list, but also the usual suspects.
I’d include In a Lonely Place in my list – the Nicholas Ray directed film which features Humphrey Bogart as a screenwriter in what is his best performance. The performance has the Bogart cynicism without the enlivening draught of wit and self-knowledge. The performance has the torment of the drunk scene in Casablanca without the selfless last monologue on the runway. Bogart has never been better than in In a Lonely Place. I wrote about it here.
I would add ‘The Muppet Movie’.
The seamy underbelly of crooked advertising takes a toll on the artistic aspirations of a young frog dreaming of Hollywood stardom!
I’d also throw Christopher Guest’s ‘The Big Picture’ in there. It was on the other day and I hadn’t seen it in years. Very funny, and Terri Hatcher’s wicked 80s hair is bigger than the coiffes of every member of Winger…collectively.
Oh, and All About Eve!
Kim Morgan rocks. Such a good writer.
She has some bitchin’ rides, too.
Ed Wood and Adaptation! I love this person. Here I was thinking I was the only person alive who liked Adaptation.
Noonz!
I love that movie, too! And yeah, Kim is the best.
I think a group of bloggers are going to do a Charlie Kaufman blog-a-thon in a month or so … I heard some rumblings about it. Should be fun!
I just recently purchased and viewed for the first time “In a Lonely Place” based partly upon your comments and the fact that I’ve always considered myself a Bogart Fan and had never seen it… (shoving large piece of humble pie into mouth).
I absolutely loved the flick and as you mentioned, the one-line sarcastic cynicism is so perfect for Bogey. I don’t know yet that I’d place it above Casablanca (I recently just re-purchased the digitally re-mastered version of that DVD as well) but it is definitely one of his very best.
I watched Casablanca again last week as well. Although I donât know if it was due to watching it on the re-mastered DVD (vs. the extremely wore out VHS) or possibly some of the history I now know about the background of the movie (thanks in part to your blog), I probably enjoyed that movie more than I ever had. Through all my favorite lines to the very end where he holds Ilsa and tells her how they once again âhave Paris backâ. Absolutely âMyâ personal all time favorite. But to be perfectly fair, Iâve only watched âIn a Lonely Placeâ once and who knows⦠Oh yea, one other thing. Maybe it was the fact that this time I was watching it with someone I hadnât seen in almost 10 years. Someone I thought Iâd never see again but would always love. Hmmm⦠only in the movies huh?
Noonz – Yes – totally bitchin’ rides!
Sheila – I just discovered your blog and I have one question – Will you marry me? I seriously think my husband would be okay with it. My only fear is that he will see your blog and realize that you are his soulmate too. :-)
Slightly less hyperbolic – You get everything I love about every obscure black and white movie and unheralded actor that I adore. I will now get nothing done for the next week as every spare moment is spent reading your archives.
I was also greatly surprised that Kim didn’t include IN A LONELY PLACE on her list, considering that she lauded it in an essay of hers. It’s my favorite “Inside Hollywood” movie (I place it higher than SUNSET BLVD.) because I know that Nicholas Ray actually did go through what Steele went through, having to do hack jobs while trying to make something personal out of it; Ray was under contract at RKO just at the moment when Howard Hughes took over and essentially raped the promising studio. While Hughes (a right-winger who supported the blacklist) ironically and miraculously saved Ray (a liberal who briefly joined the Communist Party in the 1930s) from HUAC, it also meant that Ray was indebted to Hughes; it must’ve meant brief freedom when Bogart asked him to make two films for him at Colombia. So as with all of Ray’s films there’s understandably a very raw and personal touch to IN A LONELY PLACE that’s not there in Billy Wilder’s bizarre satire, and Ray says all the things Wilder took 2 hours to say in a handful of scenes, leaving room for the fragile romance between two Hollywood burnouts.
I think that what makes IN A LONELY PLACE work so well, and why Bogart and Ray formed such a tight bond (their collaboration sadly ended here, though both wanted to work together again), was the fact that they were both rebels; Bogart famously fought with Jack Warner (who the hell didn’t?) and Ray made a career out of sympathizing with rebels, from his liberal background to directing REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE. All of Ray’s films philosophize the relationship between environment and its effect on humans; Dix may be a war veteran but it’s also painfully clear that he’s been in Hollywood, the “Dream Factory” for too long, and the fact that his own talent being taken for granted in a system that would rather sell popcorn than make something truly great is really what ignites his fuse.