WOMEN OF THE WEST: new Anthology Film Archives series features 18 westerns with female protagonists

The usual suspects are all gathered here: Joan Crawford in Nick Ray's Johnny Guitar, Jean Arthur in Wesley Ruggles' Arizona, and especially Barbara Stanwyck (above), who stars in in three films in this series: Anthony Mann's The Furies, Sam Fuller's Forty Guns and Allan Dwan's Cattle Queen of Montana. These are all from the glory days of the American western, the 1940s and 50s. But among the surprise delights of this new series -- WOMEN OF THE WEST, presented by Anthology Film Archives in New York City and beginning this Friday, August 31, through Sunday, September 16 -- are some unexpected near-gems.

Look for Gordon Parks, Jr.'s Thomasine & Bushrod (above: a sort-of Blacksploitation western from 1974), Maggie Greenwald's The Ballad of Little Joe (a cross-dressing surprise from 1993) and a must for any Lina Wertmuller "completists" out there, The Belle Starr Story, a Spaghetti western from 1968 that Wertmuller co-wrote, co-directed (under the pseudonym of Nathan Wich) and then took over, once her co-writer/director Piero Cristofani left the film.

All these and more are part of the series which TrustMovies imagines will be catnip for feminists, western fans and just about anybody who appreciates oddball movies -- some of them very good indeed.

Having already seen most of the films included here, I'll concentrate on the Wertmuller, which was spanking new to me and is not very good at all. Nor is the print I viewed via DVD screener, said to be provided by The Swedish Film Institute, which is utterly bleached of color and looks like it was transferred from a much-copied VHS tape back in the day.

From the outset almost everything about this silly movie seems rudimentary, as though everyone involved -- from those in front to the camera to those behind it -- were  thinking, "God, let's just get this over with!"

Consequently, it is difficult to determine or even imagine what drew Ms Wertmuller (shown at right) to the project, other than the opportunity to simply be able to direct a movie. Any movie. And, as this occurred very early in her career, it must have provided some important on-the-job training.

What the movie does have is a couple of Italian
"stars" of some note from the 1960s, especially the beautiful, slightly-freckle-faced Elsa Martinelli (shown below) in the leading role as that American woman outlaw icon known as Belle Starr.

Also onboard is the darkly handsome hunk, George Eastman (below), as another outlaw named Larry Blackie, who proves especially good at undressing, rolling his eyes and laughing a lot. The two of them prove to be one of those on again/off again romances in which the lovers keep vying for control over each other, with neither willing to give in (this would become a kind of hallmark of much of Wertmuller's work).

With a screenplay that's as obvious, silly, clunky and pseudo-poetic as it gets, the movie gives us Belle's back story and history -- which includes a lecherous and evil uncle, an Indian maiden rescued from lynching, and a friend-and-maybe-eventual lover (played by Robert Woods, below),

all finally leading up to the major diamond heist that provides the movie's most compelling section -- it's final half hour in which things heat up and get a little interesting for a change.

We get a bit of safe-cracking, the robbery itself, and then -- via a Pinkerton agent (Bruno Corazzari, below) who proves both the movie's major villain, as well as a bizarre bit of actual conscience at film's end -- a nasty, sexy torture scene complete with homoerotic overtones between said agent and our semi-hero Blackie (above).

The Belle Starr Story will take you back to a time when men were men, women women, and those Italian spaghetti westerns were already getting way too long in the tooth. And it'll make you eager to view again some of Ms Wertmuller's later films, while offering the chance to see an example of how this talented director, movie-wise at least, first cut her own teeth.

Her film will play during AFA's Women of the West series on Monday, September 10, at 6:45pm; on Wednesday, September 12, at 9pm and on Friday, September 14 at 9pm.  To view the entire AFA series schedule, simply click here.          

At NYC's AFA, GIMME SHELTER: HOLLYWOOD NORTH offers a few choice Canadian canapés

We don't expect to see movies that fit the term "blockbuster" coming out of Canada. The current and surprisingly popular/divisive Arrival might be the closest thing to a huge mainstream success to come from our northern neighbor in quite some time, yet it's the movie quiet intelligence and ability to draw us into its philosophical/spiritual dimension that proves its most effective weapon. Instead, Canada has long been noted for its smaller films, either art or genre items, many of which were subsidized from the 1960s through the 1980s first by the state-run Canadian Film Development Corporation (CFDC) and later by the Capitol Cost Allowance (CCA) -- the former paid for via tax-payers, the latter by tax-sheltered investments.

The results were iffy, as is usually the case with any programs like these, and a dozen of the films out of the many produced over two decades can be seen in New York City in the current Anthology Film Archives series, GIMME SHELTER: HOLLYWOOD NORTH -- beginning tomorrow, February 24, and running through March 8. On view is everything from Louis Malle's generally-acclaimed-a-classic Atlantic City and Canadian genre king Bob Clark's (Porkys and Black Christmas, the latter of which is part of this round-up) to Claude Chabrol's under-seen (and rightly so) BLOOD RELATIVES, his first film in the English language and very probably his worst, as well.

Because TrustMovies will take Chabrol's work over that of many other filmmakers, this is the film he chose to watch, having seen most of the others already. In addition to Atlantic City, the series features what may be the very best of David Cronenberg's dark and bizarre oeuvre, The Brood, as well as some pretty good genre movies like the youth-quake Class of 1984, the sort-of mystery The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane, and the early what-to-do-about-cults movie, Ticket to Heaven.

As for that Chabrol, Blood Relatives -- adapted from an Ed McBain novel by the filmmaker and Sydney Banks -- probably ought to have been made in French rather than English. Chabrol is said to have thought English worked better because McBain had written the original in that language, But the dialog is often stilted and always so prosaic that is is soon clear that Chabrol had little facility for working in English.

It is clear almost from the first scene what is going on and just who the murderer might be, so we spend the rest of the film catching up with what we already know/suspect. Along the way, we get some nice cameos from the likes of Donald Pleasance and David Hemmings, though that fine French actress Stéphane Audran (above, center right, and Mme Chabrol, for a time) is utterly wasted here.

The theme of the movie would appear to be the varied uses of sexuality and lust -- from pedophilia to near-incest to age-inappropriate couplings, but the filmmaker's usual interest in the hypocrisy of the bourgeoisie seem somewhat misplaced here. as there is no real depth to anything or anyone. Both theme and character seem paper-thin. Though never what you would call a master of the visual, Chabrol's work here seems unusually drab.

The police-procedural plot has to do with the murder of a teenage girl, with the investigation probing her somewhat odd family life and her workplace. The first half of the movie couples event with investigation; the second half, once the murder victim's diary is discovered, is told mostly in flashbacks pushing us toward the big "event."

In the leading role of the investing policeman, Donald Sutherland (above and above) hovers and is one-note, while the remaining performers range from alert to hardly memorable. Though first released in 1978, Blood Relatives didn't make it to the USA -- and then only barely -- until 1981. You'll understand why when you see the film.

To view the entire schedule for AFA's Gimme Shelter: Hollywood North, click here and then scroll down to click on each individual film for details.

Mathieu Amalric retrospective! This fine and surprisingly versatile French actor gets his day in the New York sun -- at FIAF and AFA

It's no secret that the silver screen can make ordinary men look ten feet tall. This seems particularly true in the case of petit Frenchman Mathieu Amalric, whose work TrustMovies has been following for nearly 25 years now and which is currently receiving a well-earned retrospective at both the French Institute/ Alliance Française (FIAF) and Anthology Film Archives (AFA). This actor, who, over the years, has expanded into the roles of writer, director, producer (and even once as cinematographer), takes versatility to new levels. Possessed of a face and body that can appear rather elfin and often quite cute, the actor has managed to essay roles as diverse as killers, lovers, comics, crazies, the works. He's even played, in Quantum of Solace, a memorable James Bond villain.

While the current retrospectives don't come near accounting for his (according to the IMDB) 106 credits, they do give us quite a varied taste of his work as actor, writer and director. Amalric, who turned 50 years old just last month, has amassed quite a resume over the decades, and it should prove a pleasure for New Yorkers to partake of his multi-faceted work over the coming month (or, in the case of FIAF, two).

You can find the FIAF schedule here, which includes a theatrical project Amalric is performing in New York, as well as a number of his films which will be on view during FIAF's popilar CinéSalon showings during November and December.

The AFA schedule, which began last week (apologies for a tardy posting!) can be found here. So head out to either or both of these venues to revel in the work of this unique and consistently surprising Renaissance Man.

The actor's actor: Robert Ryan festival begins today at New York's Anthology Film Archives

"What a man!" That was how my grandmother always remembered her accidental meeting with actor Robert Ryan in a California bus or maybe train station (I was a kid at the time she first told me about this and can't remember which it was). They chatted for awhile, long enough, at least, for her to recall, "He was a perfect gentlemen, and so gracious and kind!" She felt he was hoping to get to know her further, but when she explained to him that she was married, he immediately stopped that line of pursuit.

A huge movie buff, my grandmother followed the lives and performances of actors and actresses as though they were family, and although Ryan's acting often left her cold -- he was too good at playing villains -- she never forgot that meeting, and the actor moved immediately to the top of her list, replacing even Robert Taylor, whom I always thought she kept in primary position only because he was married to her favorite actress, Barbara Stanwyck.

Grandmother would have been first-in-line to view the new series -- Robert Ryan: An Actor's Actor --beginning today at Anthology Film Archives in New York City. Offering only six of the actor's many movies, the films chosen manage to display Ryan's range and capabilities quite well. TrustMovies has seen five of the six (there were no screeners for About Mrs Leslie) and can attest to Ryan's enormous charisma and talent in each. Any one of the films is a must-see if you haven't, and probably a view-again, if you have.

You can check out the entire schedule here, as well as finding info about, directions to and ticket availability at AFA by clicking the appropriate links.

A fun blast from the past: Elijah Drenner's smart bio-doc appreciation, THAT GUY DICK MILLER

You know him -- even if you don't know you know him. I'm referring to actor Dick Miller, who will turn 87 come Christmas Day and who has made, according to his wife Lainie, more than 200 movies throughout his 60-year career (the IMBD gives him credit for a mere 175), begin-ning with Apache Woman -- in which the actor played bit roles as both a cowboy and an indian. Beat that for a dandy debut.

Writer/director Elijah Drenner (shown at right) clearly has a soft spot for American B movies from the eras in which Miller worked (and continues to work: this guy's redoubtable), and he has come up with a documentary that should prove loads of fun for anyone (like me) who already knows and loves Miller's work, as well as for neophytes ready to discover it. The guy has (and always did have) a great face. Good looking and with a great little body when he was younger, Miller was also such a solid, professional and talented actor that he could (and did) play every kind of role well -- from comics to heavies, bit parts to big parts to even playing the occasional leading man.

Watching the terrific assortment of clips from many of Miller's movies should make you want to see (and even re-see) them, so funny and juicy and miniscule-budget are so many of them. One of my favorites is Not of This Earth, which has perhaps the silliest space-alien monster in the history of films (I know, I know: the competition is fierce).

Drenner's movie alternates interviews (lots of 'em) with animation, archival footage and film clips to demonstrate his appreciation of and love for the Miller oeuvre. One of the most talked-about of these is Roger Corman's Bucket of Blood, but there are so many more that resonate, too. We hear all about the filming of various of these, especially The Terror, starring early Jack Nicholson along with late-period Boris Karloff -- the latter of whom, after completing one of Corman's low-budget, finish-'em-fast films, still owed the director three more days of work, so Corman built an entire nonsensical horror film around the actor. Hearing and seeing some of it here, complete with tell-all reminiscences is one crazy delight.

As many clips as we see from the 1950s through the 90s (the prime of Mr. Miller), we also spend a lot of time with him and his wife in present day (or nearly -- shown below) and hear what he feels and thinks about various topics. ("Today's actors are nice guys -- but they're not giants," he notes.)

We learn about Miller's love of portraiture (or maybe caricature). When he was a boy, Disney's people came to call, and he thought they wanted to hire him as an artist. When they told him, no, but as a child actor instead, he simply said, No thanks. A guy who evidently always went his own way, Miller is a man who might have been a much bigger star, had he played the game a little more typically. But then he wouldn't be Dick Miller.

We learn a lot about a later Corman-helmed venture, New World Pictures, that helped start directorial careers of quite a few semi-famous names, from Allan Arkush (above) to Joe Dante (front and center, below) to Paul Bartel, as well as hear from some of the New World acting stable like Mary Woronov.

We also learn the importance of the name and character, Walter Paisley and a certain pink jacket, and see our guy in classics like Little Shop of Horrors (originally titled The Passionate People Eater), The Howling and -- ah, yes -- Gremlins, with stops at movies that ought to have been better seen, such as Matinee (below, with Miller shown between John Sayles and John Goodman) and Explorers.

All told, this is one fine trip down memory lane, featuring a look at and appreciation of an actor who is clearly one-of-a-kind and memorably so. Thanks to Anthology Film Archives, That Guy Dick Miller -- distributed by IndieCan Entertainment, Canada, and running 91 minutes -- will be getting more than a week's run here in New York City, with Mr Miller in attendance with wife, Lainie, who will be here in person for opening weekend, Friday & Saturday, April 3 & 4. The opening night screening on Friday, April 3 will be hosted and moderated by Michael Gingold of Fangoria magazine, while director Elijah Drenner will present the screenings on Sunday & Monday, April 5 & 6. Click here for tickets/directions.

You will also be able to see some of these "classic" films, as AFA has scheduled quite the mini-festival of Miller's oeuvre. Here's the entire schedule, complete with AFA's comments regarding the films:

Roger Corman (shown above)
A BUCKET OF BLOOD
1959, 66 min, 35mm, b&w
In his most famous (and regrettably one of his very few) starring roles, Miller shines as Walter Paisley, an aspiring beatnik who stumbles on art-world success when he accidentally kills his landlady’s cat and, on a whim, covers it in clay. After passing the result off as a genuine sculpture he’s proclaimed an artistic genius. But soon he finds himself pursuing increasingly desperate and horrific means to produce new sculptures and maintain his artistic glory. A BUCKET OF BLOOD is an ingenious satire of counter-cultural pretension, and among the highpoints of Corman and Miller’s careers. Plus: Agnieszka Kurant THE CUTAWAYS 2013, 24 min, digital CUTAWAYS focuses on characters who ended up on the cutting-room floor. Produced in collaboration with the renowned film editor, Walter Murch, and starring Dick Miller, Charlotte Rampling, and Abe Vigoda in their original roles from PULP FICTION, VANISHING POINT and THE CONVERSATION, respectively, it stages a meeting of these phantom characters. –Fri, April 3 at 9:15 and Wed, April 8 at 9:00. DICK & LAINIE MILLER IN PERSON ON FRI, APRIL 3!

Roger Corman
SORORITY GIRL
1957, 61 min, 16mm, b&w
One of the earliest films in both Corman’s and Dick Miller’s filmographies, SORORITY GIRL is a scathingly brutal cheapie that traces the downward spiral of spoiled, sociopathic rich girl Sabra (Susan Cabot). Schooled in emotional stuntedness and inhumanity by her haughty, hateful mother, she wreaks havoc on her fellow sorority members at the University of Southern California, shamelessly exploiting and persecuting them. Typically for Corman, what would have been a cynical exploitation film in almost anyone else’s hands is, despite the conditions of its production, a blunt but remarkably perceptive portrait of a sociopath – though there’s bitchy fun to be had too! –Sat, April 4 at 5:00 and Sat, April 11 at 7:30. DICK & LAINIE MILLER IN PERSON ON SAT, APRIL 4!

GREMLINS CAST REUNION ON SAT, APRIL 4!
Joe Dante
GREMLINS
1984, 106 min, 35mm. With Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates, Corey Feldman, and Dick Miller.
Joe Dante’s GREMLINS was produced by Spielberg and became a huge hit, but it’s no E.T. True, its ‘hero,’ Gizmo the mogwai, is an adorable, wide-eyed, furry little creature of unknown origins (by way of Chinatown). But, given as a gift to our human protagonist Billy (Zach Galligan), Gizmo comes along with three rules: never expose it to bright light, never get it wet, and never, EVER feed it after midnight. Needless to say, rules (especially in horror movies) are made to be broken, and soon the placid town of Kingston Falls is overrun with murderous, anarchic, and not at all furry Gremlins, who lay a path of destruction which Dante delights in portraying. A bona fide 1980s popcorn-movie classic whose mischievous spirit and Looney Tunes-inspired havoc remain fresh thirty years later, GREMLINS is also graced with one of the best latter-day performances by Dick Miller, as Billy’s Gremlins-menaced neighbor Mr. Futterman. –Sat, April 4 at 9:15 and Fri, April 10 at 7:00. Join us on Sat, April 4 at 9:15 for an historic occasion: GREMLINS cast members Dick Miller, Zach Galligan, and Phoebe Cates will be here in person to present the screening! 

Roger Corman
WAR OF THE SATELLITES
1958, 66 min, 16mm, b&w
WAR OF THE SATELLITES attempts Kubrickian themes on a Bowery Boys budget. As humans prepare to leave their planet, an advanced alien race sends down an agent to replace the mild-mannered scientist in charge of the space project. Once again, rebellious youth saves the day, as the professor’s assistant (the irrepressible Dick Miller) sees through the deception and takes matters into his own hands. What differentiates Mr. Corman from more dedicated schlockmeisters like William Castle and Jess Franco is his almost unshakable sobriety. He seldom falls back on making fun of his material, preferring instead to play by the rules and with a straight face.” –Dave Kehr, NEW YORK TIMES –Sun, April 5 at 5:15 and Sat, April 11 at 9:00.

Joe Dante
GREMLINS 2: THE NEW BATCH
1990, 106 min, 35mm.
With Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates, Corey Feldman, and Dick Miller.
Rare is a sequel that bests the original, but GREMLINS 2 manages to outsmart and undermine its blockbuster predecessor a hundred times over. A parable for our times (circa 1990), this improbable tale takes place in the towering Manhattan super-building of Clamp Enterprises, where poor furry Gizmo is being used as a guinea pig by gonzo billionaire Daniel Clamp (played with a Donald Trump-like zeal by the rubbery John Glover). Next thing you know Gizmo gets wet and, well, hell breaks loose. Luckily his pals Billy (Zach Galligan), Katie (Phoebe Cates) and Murray (Dick Miller, natch) are there to help save him and New York from the whacked-out antics of the deplorable, deadly Gremlins. Simultaneously a tribute to the great sight gags of Frank Tashlin and a riotous parody of disaster movies in the Irwin Allen mold, this great meta-film is 100% Joe Dante. –Sun, April 5 at 9:15 and Fri, April 10 at 9:15.

 Joe Dante & Allan Arkush
HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD
1976, 83 min, 35mm.
Print courtesy of the Joe Dante and Jon Davison Collection at the Academy Film Archive.
The directorial debut of both Joe Dante (THE HOWLING, GREMLINS) and Allan Arkush (ROCK ‘N’ ROLL HIGH SCHOOL), this deliriously entertaining pastiche of exploitation film tropes was the result of a bet between producer Jon Davison and Roger Corman that Davison could make the cheapest film yet created for Corman’s New World Pictures. Dante and Arkush pulled off this impressive feat by shooting on leftover short ends of raw stock and by freely incorporating footage from previous New World films, including NIGHT CALL NURSES, BIG BAD MAMA, and DEATH RACE 2000. Amongst its many references and homages to drive-in cinema classics, it includes a cameo by Dick Miller reprising his role as BUCKET OF BLOOD’s Walter Paisley! –Mon, April 6 at 9:00, Thurs, April 9 at 9:00, and Sun, April 12 at 7:00.

Joe Dante
THE HOWLING
1981, 91 min, 35mm. With Dee Wallace, Patrick Macnee, Dennis Dugan, Kevin McCarthy, John Carradine, and Slim Pickens.
A popular Los Angeles TV reporter is given doctor’s orders to visit a remote consciousness-raising retreat called ‘The Colony’ after a traumatic incident with a serial killer. The bizarre behavior of the residents begins to make sense once the reporter discovers that she is staying amidst a community of werewolves! THE HOWLING is not only a great werewolf movie, but also a witty and knowing commentary on the genre itself. "The film is as full of impressive werewolf transformation scenes as of social satire, which is no surprise given that the special effects were done by Rob Bottin (THE THING) and the screenplay was written by John Sayles.” –THE WEXNER CENTER –Tues, April 7 at 9:00 and Sun, April 12 at 9:00. 

AFA and Cineaste Magazine offer another in their screenwriter/blacklist series, Pt 3: Post-Blacklist

If you don't yet know Cineaste Magazine, the most political of the high-end movie magazines, it's time you did. You won't find a more intelligent "read" anywhere in the industry, and it's a fun read, too, as challenging as it is interesting. The magazine is again teaming up with Anthology Film Archives to present the third in its popular series, Screenwriters and The Blacklist: Before, During and After.  We're already at the "after" section, and this latest effort features nine choice films, many of which will have been seen (and seen again) by most movie buffs with a bent for politics, art or a fascinating clunker of a movie. Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here, The Chase, Fail-Safe and M*A*S*H are among the most "seen" of the films, but there are some surprises here, too.

Chief among these is an American western from 1961 of which I had barely heard: THE LAST SUNSET, directed by Robert Aldrich (a prime reason to watch) and adapted by Dalton Trumbo from a novel by Howard Rigsby. Although Trumbo is said to have felt that this was one of his worst screenplays, I'd call it one of his better ones, as he withholds his usual heavy hand with the sermons and simply serves up a nifty story and smart dialog delivered by an excellent cast that includes some of mid-20th-Century-Hollywood's top stars.

Kirk Douglas (two photos up) plays a bad guy on the run in northern Mexico, hunted by Rock Hudson (above) as a good-guy sheriff. The pair end up at the ranch of Douglas' favorite old flame, Dorothy Malone (below) sporting a hairdo seen rarely in the old west but quite often in 1950-60's Hollywood.

Now married to an alcoholic Joseph Cotton, and with a teenage daughter in tow (a surprisingly good Carol Lynley, below), Malone is clearly bored and ready for some action, while Cotton is about to make a major cattle drive north and across the river to the U.S. and, hey, he happens to need a few good men to help him do it.

The stage is set for a lot of things, a couple of which we've not really seen in a Hollywood film but would be seeing soon enough in the more "adult" decade to follow. The themes here encompass everything from attraction and desire to trust, lust, guilt and redemption, all done in a manner in which the good guys and bad get their wires occasionally crossed -- which makes the movie all the more mature and interesting.

The Last Sunset must have seemed a bit too unusual in its time -- ahead of it, actually -- but watching it now, the film takes on a burnished glow from its star power and quiet, low-key achievement. Hudson is used particularly well, while Douglas gives his usual, excellent, in-your-face performance.

The women, as was typical for the time (unless the star was Barbara Stanwyck) are mostly decorative, used for romance and provocation, but the dialog manages to be both intelligent and ripe, and the story itself is so filled with cross-purpose and change that it proves consistently interesting -- adding up to a movie ready for reassessment.

There are plenty more good films here, too, so take a gander at what AFA has to say about its series, below, with all the films and their screening times shown in bold. The Last Sunset screens tonight, Friday, March 6, at 6:45, and again Tuesday, Mar 10 at 9:15, and Saturday, Mar 14 at 2:45.

CINEASTE MAGAZINE PRESENTS: 

SCREENWRITERS AND THE BLACKLIST: 

BEFORE, DURING, AND AFTER 

PART 3: POST-BLACKLIST

Screening at Anthology Film Archives, NYC, from March 6-15 

(Get tickets and direction by clicking on the link above.)

 The damage wrought by the Hollywood blacklist, especially the hardships endured by its victims, has been well documented. This series showcases the artistic contributions of prominent blacklisted screenwriters, including well-known radicals such as Walter Bernstein, Dalton Trumbo, Ben Barzman, Abraham Polonsky, and Ring Lardner, Jr. Recent scholarship by Thom Andersen, Pat McGilligan, Larry Ceplair, and Rebecca Prime emphasizes how films by blacklisted personnel were responsible for scripts (written, in many cases, by unapologetic Communists) that explored, both subtly and blatantly, the nuances of race, class, and gender. 

The third, and final, part of the series focuses on post-blacklist ‘comeback films’ written by some of Hollywood’s most notable screenwriters. Many of the films reflect the impact of the social and political upheavals of the 1960s, particularly the Civil Rights and antiwar movements, on the so-called ‘New Hollywood.’

Racism is confronted in Martin Ritt’s PARIS BLUES (written by Walter Bernstein) and Arthur Penn’s THE CHASE (a Lillian Hellman adaptation of a Horton Foote play), while the plight of Native Americans is tackled in Abraham Polonsky’s spectacular return to form, TELL THEM WILLIE BOY IS HERE. The seasoned writers tackled disparate genres with aplomb. M*A*S*H, Robert Altman’s antiwar comedy, is enlivened by Ring Lardner, Jr.’s irreverent screenplay.

The epic and the western are represented by Ben Barzman’s script for Anthony Mann’s severely underrated THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE and Dalton Trumbo’s highly idiosyncratic treatment of timeworn motifs in Robert Aldrich’s THE LAST SUNSET. SCREENWRITERS AND THE BLACKLIST is co-presented by Cineaste Magazine, which has been a major source for blacklist-related scholarship throughout its 40-plus-year history.  For more info on this special magazine, click here.

Special thanks to series' co-curators Richard Porton and Patrick McGilligan, as well as to Walter Bernstein, Rebecca Prime, Chris Chouinard (Park Circus), Paul Ginsburg (Universal), Michael Horne & Christopher Lane (Sony), Jules McLean, Joe Reid (20th Century Fox), Richard Suchenski (Center for Moving Image Arts, Bard College), Quentin Tarantino, and Todd Wiener & Steven Hill (UCLA).

The Schedule:

Robert Aldrich THE LAST SUNSET 
1961, 112 min, 35mm. Screenplay by Dalton Trumbo, based on the novel by Howard Rigsby. With Rock Hudson, Kirk Douglas, Dorothy Malone, Joseph Cotton, Carol Lynley, and Neville Brand.
Although Dalton Trumbo considered THE LAST SUNSET his worst script, this fascinatingly overripe western is noteworthy for Robert Aldrich’s usual visual panache and a baroque plot that looks forward to the revisionist ‘last westerns’ of the late 1960s and early 70s. After completing the script for SPARTACUS, Trumbo, working again for Kirk Douglas’s Byrna Productions, received a post-blacklist screen credit. The convoluted plot involves the attempts of the upright sheriff Dan Stribling (Rock Hudson) to apprehend outlaw Brendan O’Malley (Kirk Douglas), responsible for the murder of Stribling’s brother-in-law. O’Malley has been lured to Mexico to reignite his romance with Belle Breckinridge under the ruse of working on the ranch of her alcoholic husband John (Joseph Cotten). Ultimately smitten with Belle’s daughter Melissa (Carol Lynley), O’Malley’s misplaced passion results in a particularly audacious plot twist. THE LAST SUNSET, even while straining credulity and reworking themes borrowed from Greek tragedy with mixed results, is a precursor of the sexual frankness that would permeate genre films of the late 60s.” –Richard Porton
–Fri, Mar 6 at 6:45, Tues, Mar 10 at 9:15, and Sat, Mar 14 at 2:45. 

 Irving Lerner CRY OF BATTLE
1963, 99 min, 16mm, b&w. Screenplay by Bernard Gordon, based on the novel by Benjamin Appel. With Van Heflin, Rita Moreno, and James MacArthur.
The overlong source novel for CRY OF BATTLE focused on Filipino leadership of the U.S.-backed guerrilla movement against Japanese occupation of the Philippines during WWII. Adapting it offered Gordon a rare ‘chance to write a film script that would have something to say about American attitudes toward the native people in those days,’ he wrote in his memoir ‘Hollywood Exile, or How I Learned to Love the Blacklist,’ while highlighting the contribution ‘of the Filipinos in the struggle against the Japanese.’ Irving Lerner, loosely associated with the Frontier Films documentary collective in the 1930s, shot the film realistically in and around Manila, with American leads and distinguished Filipino actors. Bosley Crowther rave-reviewed the low-budget film in the October 12, 1963, New York Times (‘acerbic and action-charged’), marking Gordon’s first on-screen credit after a decade of operating under fronts with as much prolificacy as Dalton Trumbo. CRY OF BATTLE’s other claim to fame: it was showing in the Dallas theater where Lee Harvey Oswald was apprehended on November 22, 1963. A snippet can be glimpsed in Oliver Stone’s JFK.” –Patrick McGilligan –Fri, Mar 6 at 9:15 and Tues, Mar 10 at 7:00.

Arthur Penn THE CHASE
1966, 135 min, 35mm. Screenplay by Lillian Hellman, based on the play by Horton Foote. With Marlon Brando, Jane Fonda, Robert Redford, E.G. Marshall, Angie Dickinson, Janice Rule, Miriam Hopkins, Robert Duvall, and James Fox.
Based on Horton Foote’s play, Lillian Hellman’s screenplay was reworked – at the behest of producer Sam Spiegel – by both Michael Wilson and Ivan Moffat. In a 1993 interview with CINEASTE, Arthur Penn complained that he wasn’t able to oversee the film’s editing and bemoaned the fact that Spiegel cut many of star Marlon Brando’s ingenious improvisations. Yet, despite these mishaps, THE CHASE, with its unvarnished depiction of Southern violence, paved the way for pivotal films of the 1960s – especially Penn’s own BONNIE AND CLYDE. Robert Redford, in an early major role, plays Bubber Reeves, a convict on the run after a prison break. Wrongly imprisoned for murder, Bubber’s escape exacerbates tensions in the small Texas town where he’s viewed with suspicion, and where his wife Anna (Jane Fonda) is conducting an affair with the son of the region’s wealthiest man. In an intriguing reversal of the usual stereotype, Brando plays a progressive sheriff at odds with local racist vigilantes.” –Richard Porton “Violence is a subject that an artist who is intuitively and intellectually alive to the world in which he exists can scarcely avoid today; and if there is a more responsible treatment of it anywhere in the cinema, I have yet to see it.” –Robin Wood on The Chase –Sat, Mar 7 at 2:00, Fri, Mar 13 at 6:30, and Sun, Mar 15 at 8:30.

Sidney Lumet FAIL-SAFE 1964, 112 min, 35mm, b&w. Screenplay by Walter Bernstein, based on the novel by Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler. With Henry Fonda, Dan O’Herlihy, Walter Matthau, Frank Overton, Fritz Weaver, Larry Hagman, William Hansen, Sorrell Booke, Dom DeLuise, and Dana Elcar. “Bernstein got to know Lumet, formerly a child actor with the Yiddish Art Theatre, when Lumet was an assistant director to Martin Ritt on CHARLIE WILD, PRIVATE EYE, a half-hour TV show Bernstein wrote under ‘fronts’ in 1950-51. Bernstein would do some of his finest work with these simpatico friends, Ritt and Lumet. A writer’s writer, Bernstein boasts one of the richest of resumés, and seems as comfortable with tense uncompromising subjects, sweeping recreations of history, and, especially in the 1970s, philandering romantic comedies. All his films are social critiques, and his lifelong attention to the military-industrial complex is followed through in DOOMSDAY GUN, his 1994 HBO film with Frank Langella as a supergun genius caught between Israel, Iraq, and the CIA, and something of a bookend to FAIL-SAFE. FAIL-SAFE is one of the tensest of his 1960s credits, a disarmament parable that is splendidly entertaining and disturbing in equal parts. ‘DR. STRANGELOVE without the humor,’ in Danny Peary’s apt phrase.” –Patrick McGilligan –Sat, Mar 7 at 5:45, Wed, Mar 11 at 9:15, and Sun, Mar 15 at 3:30. 

Michael Ritchie SEMI-TOUGH 1977, 108 min, 35mm. Screenplay by Walter Bernstein and an uncredited Ring Lardner Jr., based on the novel by Dan Jenkins. With Burt Reynolds, Kris Kristofferson, Jill Clayburgh, Lotte Lenya, Carl Weathers, and Brian Dennehy. “SEMI-TOUGH is the better known of Walter Bernstein’s two neo-screwball comedies for Michael Ritchie, ‘one of those rare directors,’ as Vincent Canby wrote, ‘who is able to look at Middle America critically without being especially outraged or even surprised.’ (The other Bernstein-Ritchie collaboration, AN ALMOST PERFECT AFFAIR from 1979, a film-biz satire set in Cannes, is also worthy of revival.) A dream cast romps through this free-wheeling send-up of professional sports, celebrity, and monogamy. SEMI-TOUGH would make the perfect double bill with M*A*S*H (written by blacklistee Ring Lardner Jr.) with its anarchic football climax. ‘Things like THE MOLLY MAGUIRES and THE FRONT, which came from scratch, are very important to me and mean a lot to me,’ Walter Bernstein said in ‘Backstory 3: Interviews with Screenwriters of the 60s.’ ‘But so does SEMI-TOUGH, although it came from a book. Michael and I threw out the story and wrote one of our own. Michael and I did our own movie, just like Marty [Ritt] and I did our own movies.’” –Patrick McGilligan –Sat, Mar 7 at 8:30 and Sun, Mar 8 at 6:15.

Anthony Mann THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE
1964, 188 min, 35mm. Screenplay by Ben Barzman, Basilio Franchina, and Philip Yordan. With Sophia Loren, Stephen Boyd, Alec Guinness, James Mason, Christopher Plummer, Anthony Quayle, John Ireland, and Omar Sharif. The second of the two Samuel Bronston historical super-productions to be directed by Anthony Mann (after EL CID), both of which were treated with extreme condescension in their day but have been increasingly recognized as major achievements, THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE is arguably the greater of the two. A darker, more intricately structured film than EL CID, FALL somehow succeeds as both a big-budget, visually astonishing spectacle animated by a genuine interest in Roman civilization, and a sophisticated, uncompromising inquiry into the nature of power. Best known for his collaborations with fellow blacklistee Joseph Losey in exile in Europe, Ben Barzman co-wrote both FALL and EL CID. In both cases he worked with Philip Yordan, a mysterious and controversial figure in the annals of the blacklist – the most famous/notorious ‘front’ of the era, his name appeared on numerous films for which scholars continue to debate the true authorship. –Sun, Mar 8 at 2:30 and Sat, Mar 14 at 5:15. 

Abraham Polonsky TELL THEM WILLIE BOY IS HERE
1969, 98 min, 35mm. Screenplay by Abraham Polonsky, based on the novel by Harry Lawton. With Robert Blake, Robert Redford, and Katharine Ross. The impact of the blacklist on the career of Abraham Polonsky was one of the great artistic tragedies of the period, just as his comeback in the late-1960s was among the most triumphant in Hollywood. Bursting on the scene with the remarkable one-two punch of BODY AND SOUL (1947) (with Robert Rossen directing Polonsky’s masterful screenplay) and FORCE OF EVIL (1948) (which Polonsky both wrote and directed), as well as working on the screenplay for I CAN GET IF FOR YOU WHOLESALE (1951), he refused to testify before HUAC in 1951 and would not be credited on a theatrical feature again until 1968. Given the immensity of his talent, the loss of these prime years is a wound that will never heal. But Polonsky would pick up right where he had left off, with a terrific script for another great filmmaker (Don Siegel’s MADIGAN, 1968), followed by one more astonishing work as writer-director: TELL THEM WILLIE BOY IS HERE. A revisionist Western that probes deeply into the phenomenon of racial and social injustice, it stars Robert Blake as Paiute Indian Willie Boy, who becomes an outlaw after killing his lover’s father in self-defense, and Robert Redford as the sheriff whose imperative to hunt Willie Boy down flies increasingly in the face of his own conscience. –Sun, Mar 8 at 9:00, Thurs, Mar 12 at 7:00, and Sat, Mar 14 at 9:00. 

Robert Altman M*A*S*H
1970, 116 min, 35mm. Screenplay by Ring Lardner Jr., based on the novel by Richard Hooker. With Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould, Tom Skerritt, Sally Kellerman, and Robert Duvall.
Ring Lardner, Jr., a member of the Hollywood 10, won an Academy Award for his adaptation of Richard Hooker’s novel. Even though Altman’s penchant for improvisation angered Lardner, who believed his script was being sullied, Patrick McGilligan argues that the veteran screenwriter’s craftsmanship provided a solid framework that made Altman’s innovations – especially his famous use of rapid fire overlapping dialogue – possible. There’s little doubt that Lardner was responsible for the film’s sardonic anti-war thrust. The film revolves around the antics of two surgeons assigned to a mobile medical unit during the Korean War: Hawkeye Pierce (Donald Sutherland) and ‘Trapper’ John McIntyre (Elliott Gould). M*A*S*H was embraced by the counterculture as an antiwar movie, even though the emerging women’s movement expressed dismay at the casual sexism of Altman and Lardner’s depiction of Major Margaret ‘Hot Lips’ Houlihan (Sally Kellerman).” –Richard Porton “M*A*S*H is a marvelously unstable comedy, a tough, funny, and sophisticated burlesque of military attitudes that is at the same time a tale of chivalry. It’s a sick joke, but it’s also generous and romantic – an erratic episodic film, full of the pleasures of the unexpected. I think it’s the closest an American movie has come to the kind of constantly surprising mixture in SHOOT THE PIANO PLAYER, though M*A*S*H moves so fast that it’s over before you have time to think of comparisons. While it’s going on, you’re busy listening to some of the best overlapping comic dialogue ever recorded.” –Pauline Kael, THE NEW YORKER –Mon, Mar 9 at 6:45, Thurs, Mar 12 at 9:15, and Sun, Mar 15 at 6:00. 

Don Siegel TWO MULES FOR SISTER SARA
1970, 116 min, 35mm. Screenplay by Albert Maltz, story by Budd Boetticher. With Clint Eastwood and Shirley MacLaine.
This inexplicably neglected western, set during the 1860s French intervention in Mexico, is every bit as exciting, perfectly crafted, and disarmingly funny as you’d expect from the dream-team meeting of Hollywood legends Don Siegel and Budd Boetticher. This despite the fact that Boetticher, who wrote the original screenplay with the intention of directing it himself, only to see it eventually re-written by blacklistee Albert Maltz (resident in Mexico, where he’d relocated during the blacklist) and directed by Siegel, despised the final product. Representing Maltz’s first screen credit under his own name since 1948, TWO MULES is more broadly comic than it might have been in Boetticher’s hands, but features Clint Eastwood and Shirley Maclaine at their very best as soldier-of-fortune Hogan and nun-turned-revolutionary Sara, as well as an Ennio Morricone score that ranks among his most inspired. Though it would be a stretch to call it a sober study of the Mexican revolution, the familiarity of both Maltz and Boetticher with Mexico and their unquestionable interest in its history unmistakably inform the film. –Mon, Mar 9 at 9:15, Wed, Mar 11 at 6:45, and Fri, Mar 13 at 9:15.

Nanouk Leopold's IT'S ALL SO QUIET: small, truthful Dutch "family film" opens at AFA

What a tiny treasure is this film about father and son farmers in an isolated area of The Netherlands. The father, very old and very infirm, is cared for -- grudgingly but decently -- by his middle-aged son. The son, however, is cared for by no one and apparently never has been. (The little we learn of his growing up indicates that his father was unduly harsh with him.) This is the heart of the sad, engrossing movie, IT'S ALL SO QUIET (Boven is het stil) that is full of small details -- of caring for the elderly as well as for farm animals -- that builds into a quietly moving study of loneliness and the inability of some of us to ever be able to reach out to anyone else.

As adapted (from the novel by Gerbrand Bakker) and directed by Nanouk Leopold (shown at left), the movie may be slow-moving but it is never uninteresting due to its expert detailing and how simple and subtle it consistently is. Ms Leopold keeps her camera ever watchful regarding the connection between father and son and between son and farm and the few other people who attempt to bridge what seems an incredible distance between them and this sad and unresponsive farmer.

As played by the late Jeroen Willems (above, left), whose untimely death occurred soon after the film was completed, the son, Helmer, is a figure of enormous empathy by us viewers, even though the character himself barely seems able to empathize with others or understand himself and his own needs.

The scenes of Helmer caring for his father (played by Henri Garcin, above, left) offers a look at the day-to-day drudgery -- cleaning up the shit, showering the old man, and the increasingly difficult chore of simply carrying him up the stairs -- that goes into the care of the very elderly.

We also slowly get a sense of the kind of upbringing Helmer must have had, in which showing affection of any kind was frowned upon. Now, this man is so socially insecure and untutored in anything approaching the social graces that he simply cannot respond in any normal way to other people's overtures. (The milk delivery man, above, clearly would like to pursue a relationship with Helmer, but can draw no response except embarrassment from our man.)

When more help is finally needed -- with the farming and the caregiving -- a young hired hand named Henk is brought aboard (Martijn Lakemeier, above, right), and it seems that a kind of break-through may come for Helmer. Things do happen and change does occur, but in the barest of increments. Possibilities lie unseen and unused, and the movie remains sad but ever-so-slightly hopeful.

The film begins and ends with some lovely shots of nature, and the natural world breaks into the narrative now and then. But what you'll remember most, I think, are the shots of the faces here, especially that of Willems, who gives a remarkable performance, all the deeper and more resonant due to his character's inability to connect.

Its All So Quiet -- from Jonathan Howell's Big World Pictures and running 91 minutes, in Dutch with English subtitles) -- begins a one-week run this Friday, January 9, at Anthology Film Archives in New York City. Click here for tickets and here for directions. Elsewhere? I'm not certain. But, being from Big World, there will most likely be a DVD on offer eventually and/or some digital streaming.