Blogs I Love, Part II-A

As I splashed another cup of lukewarm coffee down my gullet this morning, I realized that I had been more like a regular panelist on other people's blog comments sections, and with Spring in fulll swing, I descended into my usual mode of blogging underachievement by devising another segment of Blogs I Love. I've been spending a lot of time at these blogs lately, what with me actually having interests outside of 1930s and '40s movies. Here are a few blogs well worthy of your time and attention. One of them I've listed before but the other two are largely non-film blogs with fascinating subject matter. Let me introduce them:




Goodfella's Movie Blog- Previously mentioned but due for another nod is Dave's blog. He's wrapping up a Film Noir counrdown of epic proportions. Also not to be missed is the amazingly enlightening comments section, where the big brains of film criticism discuss--and often disagree with-- Dave's rankings!

Voyages Extraordinaires, which has the sub-title "Scientific Romances of a Bygone Age." This blog is not mere "Steampunk" as blogger Cory Gross goes into detail on the era as well as the subsequent art, literature, and cinema influenced by the Victorian Age. This includes Disney and Doctor Who in addition to progenitors Jules Verne and H.G. Wells. Do have a look.

Vintage Disneyland Tickets- I've never been to Disneyland but I am making a return trip to Walt Disney World at the end of the month--hence my distracted nature--Tim has posted tons of fascinating Disney-related items such as guidebooks, promotional items, and material meant only for employees' eyes. Through the site one gets a vivid history of Disneyland and I've learned a lot in the short time since discovering the place.

Classic Films I've Never Seen: Walt Disney's Fantasia (1940)

This is the first entry in a series of classic Golden Age films that, you guessed it: I've never seen! We begin with Walt Disney's Fantasia from 1940. I've never had the chance to watch what looks to be a beautifully rendered animated film set to classical music. I'm aware of what the movie contains, and I also realize that there was some abomination of a remake in 2000, the coincidentally named Fantasia 2000, which I avoided at the time because I didn't want that to be my first exposure to the concept. Perhaps 2010 is the year that Disney will open its vaults and allow me to procure a copy of the 1940 "real deal" original--without censorious cuts, either.

I blame my not having seen Fantasia for having come of age in the late '70-early '80s, a time when the Walt Disney studio largely abandoned quality animation and instead focused on live-action epics like Snowball Express, Herbie, The North Avenue Irregulars, Freaky Friday, and The Cat from Outer Space. Nothing against those films, as I liked them all and even nursed a crush on Barbara Harris, too. I must also admit that my attention was given over to "gritty" fare like Star Wars and The Six Million Dollar Man. Still, even as a hair helmeted seven-year-old dope I knew that Disney had a reputation as an animation powerhouse and I wanted to see more of the magic I'd witnessed in Pinocchio (say the word a hundred times and it ceases to sound like a name) and Dumbo. I wasn't really interested in the animated offerings they did release during my own childhood, as they never appealed to me like the one-after-the-other masterworks they cranked out with frightening regularity in both the animated feature length and animated short films.

From what I've seen of Fantasia, it looks marvelous. Disney always gets credit for their wonderful animation--no one, but no one ever rendered water in motion like Disney. Yes, I'm easily entertained, but the Disney crew earned their reputation for excellence. Even if the scripts of most Mickey Mouse cartoons were lacking, it never mattered to me--remember my stance on plotlines--because the animation was always hypnotically watchable and it looks as though Fantasia's animation might've been the peak of that brilliance. I can't wait for the day I see it.

Postscript: In looking up Fantasia, numerous pictures of some singer come up; who the heck is she???

The Guilty Pleasure Syndrome or: How I Learned to Not Care If People Know I'm a Mickey Rooney Fan

I’ve never had any use for the term Guilty Pleasure. Well, except for the purposes of this post…A Guilty Pleasure is usually defined as something of dubious quality or reputation that one enjoys ashamedly. In classic movie parlance, it’s often a critically reviled, poorly made, or widely despised film. But even then the term requires further clarification; as certain movies become cult favorites and earn “cool” status, such as Reefer Madness or Plan 9 from Outer Space. Everyone knows those films are "bad", but they’re "good" in that they’re unintentionally hilarious. Those cinematic masterworks have an infamous reputation and thrive because of it. Therefore, they can freely be declared guilty pleasures without fear of ridicule.

The true guilty pleasure consists of movies that are largely unknown or formerly popular movies whose reputations haven’t aged well because they represent either an “antiquated” viewpoint or lack the “edginess” that every friggin’ thing in pop culture must have these days. These “shameful” or “lame” films haven’t received critical or cultish rehabilitation, either, so you can rest assured that you’ll blush if you dare admit to liking, say, anything with Mickey Rooney in it. As a matter of fact, Rooney’s films are the so-called “Guilty Pleasure” that inspired this very post.

I love Rooney’s Andy Hardy films, a wildly popular and hugely profitable movie series produced by MGM in the 1930s and ‘40s. Despite being made during the heart of the Great Depression, the delightful Hardy movies embody an idealized America and were everything that MGM studio honcho Louis B. Mayer thought represented the best of America. The movies have a naïve charm, wit and sense of optimism that the times required. Seen now, they’re probably laughably “lame” or “saccharine”, and worse than that, “Disneyesque”, which has become another pejorative term. Andy’s father, the stern, patrician but understanding Judge Hardy, was a wonderful counterbalance to Andy’s kooky and youthful zeal. Today’s kids aren’t kooky, or ebullient; in fact, they’re often self-absorbed teen vampires; kind of a Party of Five with fangs.

Rooney aka The Mick, was once the biggest box-office draw in the US of A. And despite a (up and down) career that’s lasted some seventy-five years, Oscar nominations, an honorary Oscar, and praise from no less than Laurence Olivier (Rooney was “the single best film actor America.”), Rooney’s reputation pretty much lies in tatters, so to claim to be a Mickey Rooney fan is tantamount to being a Boy Named Sue. The whole idiocy of the Guilty Pleasure is based on some sort of “cool” taste. In fact, I'm conviced that the term Guilty Pleasure was brought to you by the same people who use the term “They say…” when dispensing advice or “facts.”

The Bottom Line: I don’t believe in Guilty Pleasures. All of my movie interests are present and accounted for. There is no boundary line between what I like that is hailed as a masterpiece or what is routinely reviled by my fellow classic movie aficionados. In this age of revisionism and retro-themed interests, most every film can receive a critical and popular—as defined within classic film circles—reappraisal, thus freeing it from perdition.

So be proud about your less-popular classic film interests and fer cryin' out loud, write about them! The world doesn't need another review of Casablanca but it could sure use a well-thought-out analysis of Andy Hardy Meets Debutante.

Poll Results: Cary Grant

My, how history has changed! The results of last month's poll question, "With whom did Katharine Hepburn have the best onscreen chemistry?" has given Cary Grant a narrow victory over Spencer Tracy. Of the 62 votes cast:


Cary Grant 32 (51%)

Spencer Tracy 30 (48%)

It's easy to understand why Cary won--he's better looking! Isn't that why he won? No? Okay, I'll maintain the position that his looks had nothing to do with his narrow victory. Grant's four films with Hepburn are all comedies and are well-regarded, even the cult favorite Sylvia Scarlett (1936), which was a critical and commercial flop upon its initial release but has now been credited with being the movie where Cary Grant "found his Cary Grantness"--let's all pause to thank director George Cukor--and the duo's other three movies: Bringing up Baby; Holiday; and The Philadelphia Story are out and out brilliant---another pause to thank George Cukor for those last two movies. There are very few duos who've collaborated on movies in which the films themselves, not just the onscreen chemistry, are regarded as masterworks.

What I've noticed about Kate and Cary's films together is that the Hepburn we get in those films is an actress who had yet to develop into the headbutting career woman, an onscreen characterization present in her movies with Spencer. The 1930s Hepburn was, in my view, more apt to play a wounded or fragile character more often than she did post-Philadelphia Story. The Kate of the 1930s is my favorite as her variety and the scope of her roles makes her endlessly fascinating. Her collaborations with Grant rank among my favorite movies of all time, and while I adore Spencer Tracy, his onscreen work with Hepburn is often too combative and I have to be in a tremendously good mood in order to get into the spirit of their movies.