Father of the Bride (1950)...and a reflection on mid-century Hollywood...

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXjUTaNJlyyj_G5lT9Xjqv-v6zrCLkmgEWXLm49C0-LAQXMHqtjHp_KNA-TR-1lkNlU8IaCrPUol9tME59_oK9KpmKfzt0LORi_4xf6oPfFfuszELZmJV7qjWxtPRH1JEUOQ2slEA8tcdW/s1600/ElizabethTaylor_FatheroftheBride%255B1%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXjUTaNJlyyj_G5lT9Xjqv-v6zrCLkmgEWXLm49C0-LAQXMHqtjHp_KNA-TR-1lkNlU8IaCrPUol9tME59_oK9KpmKfzt0LORi_4xf6oPfFfuszELZmJV7qjWxtPRH1JEUOQ2slEA8tcdW/s1600/ElizabethTaylor_FatheroftheBride%255B1%255D.jpg" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">During World War II Hollywood churned out popular pictures both entertaining and patriotic, bolstering home front morale and earning enormous box receipts. Between 1942 and 1945, Americans were spending 23% of their recreation dollars on movies and by 1946 weekly attendance was over 90,000,000. But the boom years would soon go bust.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"></span><br /><a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">A decline in movie attendance began in the late '40s driven by changing audience tastes and two major events. In 1948, the Supreme Court ruled that certain film industry practices violated anti-trust laws and required studios to divest themselves of their theater chains. Without a guaranteed outlet for every film produced, filmmaking became riskier and the studios began cutting costs and making fewer films. And then, just as the 20^th century reached its mid-point, the industry faced a threat unlike anything that had come before - the arrival of commercial television.</span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcmJvSWrW4TroK8KfI6nnX_fCVOcZ10PKaFfvDFQlr6XP2CzTuBr6MCqOvVFzo4KbrToKXn011CZ7BwQAAYXVEN7iBcZBPpOUcKieoAzmCQ6FR6hiayoQoho9a2VwmxWco-Jsb3w_x_MvH/s1600/vernon+theatre+empty+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="129" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcmJvSWrW4TroK8KfI6nnX_fCVOcZ10PKaFfvDFQlr6XP2CzTuBr6MCqOvVFzo4KbrToKXn011CZ7BwQAAYXVEN7iBcZBPpOUcKieoAzmCQ6FR6hiayoQoho9a2VwmxWco-Jsb3w_x_MvH/s200/vernon+theatre+empty+2.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">empty seats</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, headed by founder Louis B. Mayer since the 1920s, had been the dominant studio for nearly two decades. But the blow to the studio system and declining audiences affected production companies large and small.  By 1951, Mayer was forced out and MGM’s head of production, Dore Schary, took over.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Director Vincente Minnelli had been one of MGM’s top directors since his breakout film, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Meet Me in St. Louis</b>, the top-grossing film of 1944. Minnelli married the film’s star, Judy Garland, in 1945. The following year he and Garland produced Liza Minnelli, but from 1946 to 1948 the director's career was uneven, including only minor successes along with outright failures. But a 1949 effort, <b>Madame Bovary</b>, was successful and a point of pride with Minnelli. For the most part he'd felt sidelined from major film work by the overwhelming demands of his marriage to the emotionally volatile MGM star.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">In 1950 MGM assigned Minnelli to a Robert Walker comedy, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The Skipper Surprised his Wife</b>. The director was rescued from this bland task by producer Pandro Berman who offered him a more enticing project. Also a comedy, it was an adaptation of Edward Streeter’s 1949 bestseller, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Father of the Bride</b>, for which Berman owned screen rights. Because the two stories shared similarities, Berman wanted the director of <b>Meet Me in St. Louis</b> on his new production.</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">  </span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp74-3-IJjZw8lrVEewBoJL4apHbBA9ydL5CHmbAuU7uAnUDSKEVJvq6-lCtH_9Ehg3TGpDqnI2D7fB4YXlD6avIb5BHCwO0OiI6agsXYgEVGtDqtNtlrHKAgKI5E-Zqf2mez2nn-qQ_an/s1600/jack+benny.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp74-3-IJjZw8lrVEewBoJL4apHbBA9ydL5CHmbAuU7uAnUDSKEVJvq6-lCtH_9Ehg3TGpDqnI2D7fB4YXlD6avIb5BHCwO0OiI6agsXYgEVGtDqtNtlrHKAgKI5E-Zqf2mez2nn-qQ_an/s200/jack+benny.gif" width="144" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jack Benny</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">As the project began to develop, comedian Jack Benny heard about it and approached Dore Schary. He told the production boss he wanted the role of Stanley Banks, the father of the bride. Without consulting the film’s production team, Schary all but promised Benny the part. Berman was not pleased, nor was Minnelli who went to Benny Thau, veteran MGM executive, and told him he wanted <a href="http://myloveofoldhollywood.blogspot.com/2011/04/spencer-tracy-1900-1967.html"><span style="color: #990000;">Spencer Tracy</span></a> for the part and no one else. Thau gave Minnelli the bad news that Tracy was out of the running – the actor had already flatly refused to do the picture.</span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">1950 would mark Spencer Tracy’s 20^th year in movies. The winner of back-to-back Best Actor Oscars in 1938 and 1939, he was by this time one of the most respected actors around. Laurence Olivier remarked that he learned more about acting from watching Tracy than from any technique. But away from the set Tracy wrestled with a serious problem - he was a notorious drinker. Between the efforts of MGM’s PR team and Katharine Hepburn’s care, Tracy had been able to avoid scandal and continue working. By the late '40s it appeared the actor’s drinking had tapered off somewhat, however, his hard living had aged him and he looked older than his years. Despite all this, Tracy was still much in demand and worked steadily, even as the industry went into a serious slump.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div> <br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7aPKgiTOmYaTFXr9ZZoqRZk8eIU0UAEqb-ARbLNCuWFVw1Gsyn_kpkYqdfULV3eL-fq0px4-FB1ijOq5MI1VUX_QJ1aq2VpztVH_qBBiiNcgTq4-PiSni68sLIjsOJWS7HxqTcjGqNaG9/s1600/Adams+Rib.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="281" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7aPKgiTOmYaTFXr9ZZoqRZk8eIU0UAEqb-ARbLNCuWFVw1Gsyn_kpkYqdfULV3eL-fq0px4-FB1ijOq5MI1VUX_QJ1aq2VpztVH_qBBiiNcgTq4-PiSni68sLIjsOJWS7HxqTcjGqNaG9/s320/Adams+Rib.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hepburn and Tracy, <b>Adam's Rib</b> (1949)</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">In the midst of the box office downturn, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Adam’s Rib </b>(1949), one of the the best of the Tracy/Hepburn battle-of-the-sexes comedies, became a major hit. Though Tracy’s follow-up had been a less memorable potboiler called <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Malaya </b>(1949), Vincente Minnelli remained convinced that he was the only actor to play Stanley Banks. Eventually, Minnelli decided to enlist Katharine Hepburn’s help. Hepburn invited him over for dinner and, during the meal, Minnelli told Tracy that with him in the lead the comedy had the potential to become a real classic.This was all it took to win Tracy over and he agreed to take the part. It came out that the actor had not refused to do the picture at all, but had known others were being considered for the part and assumed Minnelli didn't want him. To save face, Tracy had resorted to spreading a rumor that he had turned down <b>Father of the Bride</b>.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Joan Bennett was chosen to play the bride's mother, Ellie Banks. Bennett and Tracy had last co-starred in Raoul Walsh’s <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Me and My Gal</b> (1932) eighteen years earlier. That film had ended with Tracy and Bennett’s characters marrying each other, and Tracy liked to joke that the plot of <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Father of the Bride</b> indicated that his 1932 “marriage” to Bennett had worked out. </span>  </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"> <br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioMxb69uq8Ej7XmK3lGRyQVkMGd1Sy1_lwHyyCVIfc1Qycg18lWDw4V8znCZYjnhPI-U_H1oitLadXAZeHHMEAbyYv10fw_3Gsq3lZuFP5tW3NmSUfdAxVV_fDD7E9RyHztc2b_qZfMp8c/s1600/father+of+bride+taylor+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioMxb69uq8Ej7XmK3lGRyQVkMGd1Sy1_lwHyyCVIfc1Qycg18lWDw4V8znCZYjnhPI-U_H1oitLadXAZeHHMEAbyYv10fw_3Gsq3lZuFP5tW3NmSUfdAxVV_fDD7E9RyHztc2b_qZfMp8c/s320/father+of+bride+taylor+2.jpg" width="252" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Elizabeth Taylor in the 1950s</span></td></tr></tbody></table> <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Elizabeth Taylor, as bride-to-be Kay Banks, supplied the delectable frosting on the rich cake of <b>Father of the Bride</b>'s cast. Spencer Tracy cracked that the film's only hard-to-believe detail was that the lovely girl could possibly be his daughter. Taylor was just 17 when she made the picture, but had already begun to portray more mature characters; at 16 she’d played the wife of 38-year-old Robert Taylor in <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Conspirator </b>(1949). But Elizabeth Taylor was not so mature off-screen. She was still under the thumb and eagle eye of her mother and although the young actress had begun to date, her romances consisted of girlish infatuations and arranged dates mined for publicity by MGM. She was, despite her stunning beauty and poise, quite naïve when it came to love.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><b>Father of the Bride</b>, like <b>Meet Me in St. Louis</b> before it, is in its way a fond glimpse into American family life. Contemporary when it was released, the film plays today as a snapshot of a bygone, fairly idyllic, era. That mid-century moment is caught as if in amber by the solid screenplay of screenwriting team Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, Vincente Minnelli's meticulous attention to what is now period detail...a well-chosen cast, cinematographer John Alton and the minimal, mostly diegetic soundtrack of Adolph Deutsch. <b>Father of the Bride </b></span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">is invariably referred to as a “sparkling comedy.” It most certainly sparkles and brims with sophisticated humor as it casts a skeptical, if bemused, eye on the incongruous goings-on at the heart of its plot, the American marriage ritual, circa 1950. The plot follows suburban lawyer Stanley Banks who is by turns besieged and put upon as he as he spends an enormous amount of money to finance every stage of a tradition that will end in his beloved daughter Kay leaving home. Adding insult to injury, Banks is (amusingly) ignored, belittled, the butt of jokes and barely tolerated while at the same time forced to pay and pay and pay. As the wedding nears he is beset by irrational fears and surreal nightmares. Given that the Stanley Banks character, a lovable and loving curmudgeon, carries the film, Minnelli's judgment was unerring when he insisted on Tracy or no one for the part.</span><br /> <br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkAdP91dKKmqd2nucNypyWa7ZZGqFOyvFTfVedRVFPo-dVrai626P6CEc5wK9QQeli-iEGlQiLyqIGsO1P_x3BFayf63qo4sWZI7zXf3mX0-xk6KqFhGG0HoMO_m-b_wche5yhzE0Bvutu/s1600/crying_over_invitations%255B1%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkAdP91dKKmqd2nucNypyWa7ZZGqFOyvFTfVedRVFPo-dVrai626P6CEc5wK9QQeli-iEGlQiLyqIGsO1P_x3BFayf63qo4sWZI7zXf3mX0-xk6KqFhGG0HoMO_m-b_wche5yhzE0Bvutu/s320/crying_over_invitations%255B1%255D.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elizabeth Taylor and Joan Bennett</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><b>Father of the Bride</b> was released on June 16, 1950, and was an immense hit. Contributing what can best be described as a publicist's dream, Elizabeth Taylor married her first husband, Nicky Hilton, just weeks earlier. Hilton was the son of the founder of Hilton Hotels, and though the pair had only begun dating months earlier, they succumbed to a whirlwind courtship. MGM naturally, and heartily, approved. Taylor's marriage at the very moment she starred as a virginal bride onscreen was an early indicator of something that would become a habit...her life imitating her art. Taylor's marriage to Hilton ended less than a year after it began...even before a quickie follow-up film to <b>Father of the Bride </b>was released in late 1951.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><b>Father's Little Dividend </b>(1951) is a charming, if less inspired, sequel. The dividend is Kay and her husband's first child and the plot, once again, covers the indignities Mr. Banks (Tracy) must endure...this time as grandfatherhood approaches. It, too, was a hit, but it was not on a par with <b>Father of the Bride</b> which had earned Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Screenplay and Best Actor and become an instant classic.</span><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTLdT8R8EqIPDf0-eVrhfklePCwb-0reSRCPRba3qhJBiaBuPbBQyb5mtdB0ti-02GhSvFO8cG1WNl7Yl1e7d1jPPmJZ0K1qHysrXBfASewtZtYrg4Rn1u0cjLrbxtS5lMdxXbgv3SxeGa/s1600/2009_oscar_winners_and_results%255B1%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="185" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTLdT8R8EqIPDf0-eVrhfklePCwb-0reSRCPRba3qhJBiaBuPbBQyb5mtdB0ti-02GhSvFO8cG1WNl7Yl1e7d1jPPmJZ0K1qHysrXBfASewtZtYrg4Rn1u0cjLrbxtS5lMdxXbgv3SxeGa/s200/2009_oscar_winners_and_results%255B1%255D.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Verdana;">By the time both films had been released, Minnelli and Garland were divorced. Their final split came not long after MGM terminated Garland's contract in 1950. As she struggled to rebound and rebuild her career, Minnelli went back to work with a vengeance. He embarked on the most productive and celebrated decade of his career, a period that included <b>An American in Paris </b>(1951), <b>The Bad and the Beautiful</b> (1952), <b>The Band Wagon </b>(1953), <b>Brigadoon </b>(1954), <b>Lust for Life </b>(1956), </span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><b>Designing Woman </b>(1957), <b>Gigi </b>(1958) and <b>Some Came Running </b>(1958). Minnelli received a Best Director Oscar nomination for <b>An American in Paris</b> (winner of six Oscars including Best Picture)<b> </b>and won for <b>Gigi</b> (winner of nine Oscars including Best Picture). Though Minnelli wasn't nominated, <b>The Bad and the Beautiful</b> won five Oscars.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Spencer Tracy went on make another 17 films and earn five more Best Actor Oscar nominations. His later years were difficult; he fell off and got back on the wagon, became withdrawn and taciturn and lost his health. He was fired from a picture for the first time with <b>Tribute to a Bad Man </b>(1956); it would the last time he worked for MGM. He was so ill during the making of his final film, <b>Guess Who's Coming to Dinner </b>(1967) that he was uninsurable and Hepburn put up her own money to help cover the costs. Spencer Tracy died a few weeks after the film was completed and received a posthumous Academy Award nomination for his performance.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Elizabeth</span> Taylor made a permanent transition to adult roles with <b>Father of the Bride</b>.<b> </b>Her stardom was cemented a year later with the haunting George Stevens drama <b>A Place in the Sun</b> (1951). Taylor went on to become one of the biggest film stars of the 1950s and 1960s and remained a celebrity for the rest of her life.</span><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSh2CGpbZc4XjkYD-KlZWEeX_mQ7AdcSyX9D22TC4lZOxroon-52rtH1N0KcVlLbJD6fqZcGDPwOr9Ca0FMg8gTFNLDta6kMPLGQHCWSJvxlRudfl6DICKqPgV8fOpo6wt9RcKWpS1Pdn6/s1600/TV+set+w+rabbit+ears.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSh2CGpbZc4XjkYD-KlZWEeX_mQ7AdcSyX9D22TC4lZOxroon-52rtH1N0KcVlLbJD6fqZcGDPwOr9Ca0FMg8gTFNLDta6kMPLGQHCWSJvxlRudfl6DICKqPgV8fOpo6wt9RcKWpS1Pdn6/s1600/TV+set+w+rabbit+ears.jpg" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Verdana;">The studios of Hollywood met a less cheerful fate. By 1951, TV had made significant inroads into the movie audience. Cities with TV stations showed a decrease in movie attendance and wherever TV appeared, theaters closed. The age of the studio system came to an end by 1954. In 1956, Dore Schary, who had tried in vain to restore MGM's glory, was fired and in 1957 Louis B. Mayer, who had never recovered from his ouster, died at age 73. T</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;">elevision, of course, continued to flourish. By the end of 1952 there were 19,000,000 TV sets in homes across America and by 1955 there were 31,000,000...</span><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Some have called <b>Father of the Bride</b> prototypical of the family-oriented TV sitcoms of the '50s and early '60s. In fact, in 1961 a series version of <b>Father of the Bride</b> debuted on CBS; it was shot at MGM studios. Ruth Warrick (<b>Citizen Kane</b>) played Ellie Banks, Myrna Fahey starred as Kay...and Leon Ames, who had portrayed the father, Alonzo Smith, in Minnelli's <b>Meet Me in St. Louis</b>, took the role of Stanley Banks.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/gC3Ic5qOWkc" title="YouTube video player" width="425"></iframe></div>

Dore Schary Elizabeth Taylor Father of the Bride Father's Little Dividend Joan Bennett Judy Garland Louis B. Mayer MGM Pandro S. Berman Spencer Tracy Vincente Minnelli Father of the Bride (1950)...and a reflection on mid-century Hollywood...

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For the Love of Film (Noir): Renoir, Ryan and a splash of vodka...

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidqNT_Eqrwxlc3yeUhIg9yzhzCYOLPLJ30pcIjn-KKOzjw8AuML2H2tWEZZRmJ4nAAOI6kYs0YlEcoM2bUmjmQCOtMObmMRZhnV5U1rzP5tlxb3CoFs104hKZPtDJYsuhYnUTQ4Bc69fLN/s1600/SF+nite+w+clouds+and+moon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" h5="true" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidqNT_Eqrwxlc3yeUhIg9yzhzCYOLPLJ30pcIjn-KKOzjw8AuML2H2tWEZZRmJ4nAAOI6kYs0YlEcoM2bUmjmQCOtMObmMRZhnV5U1rzP5tlxb3CoFs104hKZPtDJYsuhYnUTQ4Bc69fLN/s400/SF+nite+w+clouds+and+moon.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="line-height: 15pt; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 6pt; margin-right: 6pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: 15pt; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 6pt; margin-right: 6pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><i>This review was part of the <i>For the Love of Film: The Film Preservation Blogathon to benefit the Film Noir Foundation</i>.</i></div><div style="line-height: 15pt; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 6pt; margin-right: 6pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">San Francisco's annual film noir festival, Noir City 9, ran for ten days at the end of January. From all reports the festival, an event that showcased 24 films, was a great success. I would say, from my own experience, it was a smash.<br /><a name='more'></a></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbVGc74gj9U73Rb32-getdfNw1I6gKpHIW7F-jNYsSp0uu6B4L8kLs55ByHKr5gsm8kEQic0ARuasbOXh_1wjffn1QVjdtfl6PG4UVVZaLgFFN-1fg7T4GeoT74w0zSYc2D12fJyojlHGl/s1600/Stranger+on+the+Third+Floor+%25281940%2529+DVDRip+x.264+AC3+Wolfman%255B%2528059257%252908-09-34%255D%255B1%255D.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" h5="true" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbVGc74gj9U73Rb32-getdfNw1I6gKpHIW7F-jNYsSp0uu6B4L8kLs55ByHKr5gsm8kEQic0ARuasbOXh_1wjffn1QVjdtfl6PG4UVVZaLgFFN-1fg7T4GeoT74w0zSYc2D12fJyojlHGl/s320/Stranger+on+the+Third+Floor+%25281940%2529+DVDRip+x.264+AC3+Wolfman%255B%2528059257%252908-09-34%255D%255B1%255D.PNG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elisha Cook, Jr. in Stranger on the Third Floor</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="line-height: 15pt; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 6pt; margin-right: 6pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">My first blog on the festival covered<span style="color: #990000;"> </span><a href="http://eves-reel-life.blogspot.com/2011/01/whos-crazy-now-noir-city-9-opening.html"><span style="color: #990000;">opening night</span></a><span style="color: #ffd966;">,</span> a double bill featuring <b>High Wall </b>(1947) and <b>Stranger on the Third Floor</b> (1940). The evening included a torchy performance by songstress Laura Ellis, special guest Judy Wyler Sheldon, daughter of director William Wyler and actress Margaret Tallichet (one of the stars of <b>Stranger on the Third Floor</b>) and a riveting Serena Bramble montage of films noir/neo-noir/crime set in San Franciscco. Hosting the festival was Film Noir Foundation founder Eddie Muller, "czar of noir," the perfect emcee for a serious noirfest.</div><div style="line-height: 15pt; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 6pt; margin-right: 6pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">On January 26th I trekked to San Francisco's glorious Castro Theatre once more, this time for a screening of French director Jean Renoir's fabled (and final) Hollywood effort, <b>The Woman on the Beach </b>(1947) starring Robert Ryan, Joan Bennett and Charles Bickford. While the festival's theme was "Who's Crazy Now?" and each film reflected lunacy of some kind, this night's double feature also honored Robert Ryan. In his introduction, Eddie Muller talked about the vicious, venal roles that were Ryan's trademark. Muller contrasted Ryan's filmography of villainous character with the man's generous and humane off-screen values. The enthusiastic packed house cheered when Muller announced that Robert Ryan's daughter Lisa was in the audience.</div><div style="line-height: 15pt; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 6pt; margin-right: 6pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">In introducing <b>The Woman on the Beach</b>, Muller disputed the conventional wisdom that RKO mangled Renoir's film following a disastrous preview. Muller, who knows his noir intimately, told a different story. It was true, he said, that a negative preview did occur, but it was Renoir not RKO who aggressively edited the film afterward. Apparently Renoir was rattled by the audience reaction and lost confidence in his ability to connect with American movie-goers...then he began to cut...and cut.</div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ0uRSAKrEK2LTeQF6NptvZmqp17TfIFhOvaKZAQVH7KeY0vgC_UJuxipO4j4JluTrty49qGxEn0CM0Fj5OfPfWsGx0kfYtkALT3IM8nnjm63ytH5BsIw-VRJwsPFaX2iI6CF71s-DDQTj/s1600/bickford.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" h5="true" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ0uRSAKrEK2LTeQF6NptvZmqp17TfIFhOvaKZAQVH7KeY0vgC_UJuxipO4j4JluTrty49qGxEn0CM0Fj5OfPfWsGx0kfYtkALT3IM8nnjm63ytH5BsIw-VRJwsPFaX2iI6CF71s-DDQTj/s320/bickford.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Charles Bickford in The Woman on the Beach</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="line-height: 15pt; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 6pt; margin-right: 6pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><b>The Woman on the Beach</b> is, as one might expect, a visually arresting film. Crashing waves, vast sand dunes, ruins of a wrecked ship on a desolate beach, rocky cliffs...fog, wind, rain. The plot concerns a Coast Guard officer (Ryan) who has survived a torpedo disaster at sea and suffers nightmares and mood swings in the aftermath. He encounters a dark beauty (Bennett) gathering firewood on a misty shore and is drawn into a harrowing triangle. Charles Bickford plays the woman's husband, a celebrated artist, now blind, withdrawn from the world and bitter.</div><div style="line-height: 15pt; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 6pt; margin-right: 6pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">Evidence of heavy editing is hard to miss; there is often little flow from scene to scene. And though the film is beautifully photographed and atmospheric, the script is much less inspired. Ryan and Bickford are interesting, but Bennett is inconsistent and lacks allure as the femme fatale. It is a flawed film, but it has its moments and is well worth seeing.</div><div style="line-height: 15pt; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 6pt; margin-right: 6pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">I planned to leave right after the first film, it was a work night after all, but when Muller announced that Rain Organics Vodka would be serving complimentary shots at intermission, I decided to linger a bit. Luckily I was early in the drink line and had enough time, as I let my ice melt, to peruse merchandise for sale on the mezzanine. Eddie Muller's book, <u>Dark City</u>, was on display and one day soon it will be mine. I referred to a borrowed copy when reviewing <a href="http://eves-reel-life.blogspot.com/2011/01/focus-on-film-noir-warner-home-videos.html"><span style="color: #990000;">Warner Home Video's last film noir collection</span></a>. The book is full of fascinating information and stylishly written...in the noir tradition.</div><div style="line-height: 15pt; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 6pt; margin-right: 6pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">This was my first Noir City, it won't be my last.</div><div style="line-height: 15pt; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 6pt; margin-right: 6pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><a href="http://www.filmnoirfoundation.org/index.html"><span style="color: #990000;">Click here</span></a> to learn more about the Film Noir Foundation.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdNmUaM4JzJc_qbEBR53Is7c4HUhYXPuYxfgMS1HbAyP6f0_isXFwliAnkBIXPXCXlGKCACB4pyixfEzOyr4FbgI2Gq6lXOz3nebxCFc871YXcsyo45-m1h1dMsuherkg7_WEcfVH4vYKz/s1600/fnf_logo08%255B1%255D.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" h5="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdNmUaM4JzJc_qbEBR53Is7c4HUhYXPuYxfgMS1HbAyP6f0_isXFwliAnkBIXPXCXlGKCACB4pyixfEzOyr4FbgI2Gq6lXOz3nebxCFc871YXcsyo45-m1h1dMsuherkg7_WEcfVH4vYKz/s1600/fnf_logo08%255B1%255D.gif" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /></div>

Charles Bickford Eddie Muller Film Noir Foundation For the Love of Film (Noir) Jean Renoir Joan Bennett Robert Ryan The Woman on the Beach For the Love of Film (Noir): Renoir, Ryan and a splash of vodka...

This review was part of the For the Love of Film: The Film Preservation Blogathon to benefit the Film Noir Foundation . San Francisco's ...

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