A Driving Force

Human beings have a talent for combining things: Clocks and radios, washers and dryers, Brittany Spears and mental illness. Sometimes by accident. I can't tell you how many times I used to walk down the street with an open container of peanut butter only to run into someone with a big slab of chocolate. But every time it happened we both thought, "Hey, these are two great tastes that taste great together!" And so in the history of cinema it wasn't long before someone thought to themselves, "Boy people sure are lazy. There's got to be some way I can show them a movie without them even having to step foot out of their car. I've got it!" That eureka moment came to Richard Hollingshead of Camden, New Jersey. On June 6, 1933 he opened the Camden Automobile Theatre with a showing of Wife Beware starring Adolph Menjou. According to Patrick Robertson's Movie Facts and Feats (1988, Guiness Publishing, p 190) the screen measured 40 ft by 30 ft and the 10 acre site held 400 cars. And there were no car speakers. Nope, the sound came from massive ultra-loud screen speakers. It was another five years before there were even ten in the country and here they are in the order they appeared, courtesy of the Drive-In Theater website, whose history section also elaborates on the information given above. Enjoy.

1. Drive-In Theatre: Camden, New Jersey. June 6, 1933

2. Shankweiler's Auto Park: Orefield, Pennsylvania. April 15, 1934

3. Drive-In Short Reel Theater: Galveston, Texas. July 5, 1934

4. Pico: Los Angeles, California. September 9, 1934

5. Weymouth Drive-In Theatre: Weymouth, Massachusetts. May 6 1936

6. Starlight Auto Theatre: Akron, Ohio. Summer, 1937

7. Lynn Open Air Theater: Lynn, Massachusetts. July, 1937

8. Providence: Providence, Rhode Island. July 21, 1937

9. Miami Drive-In: Miami, Florida. February 25, 1938

10. Detroit Drive-In: Detroit, Michigan. June 2, 1938

So let it be written, so let it be done...

c. Revenge in modern times shall not be justified.

Well, that's curious. Why just modern times? The Production Code has all manner of little oddities running throughout it including things like "c" from Article 1, Section I listed above in which crimes and other immoral actions were okay, as long as they took place way, way in the past. "Modern Times" was never fully defined, although I'm almost positive they weren't strictly forbidding revenge to be shown in the Charlie Chaplin film. Nobody really cared because they all knew what it meant: the Bible was a sacred holy book to millions in America and yet contained some of the most violent, repulsive and profane imagery imaginable. And "violent, repulsive and profane imagery" was just what filmmakers like Cecil B. DeMille wanted to get up on the screen early and often. So if you left out "modern times" from your wording you would immediately rule out many Bible stories which would seem odd since it was religious groups, like the Catholic Legion of Decency, that got the whole enforcement ball rolling in the first place.

The Code still wouldn't allow a filmmaker to have explicit nudity and the like but other things were allowed in Biblical Epics that wouldn't be for non-Biblical Epics. For instance, section VII on dances reads (don't tell Kevin Bacon):

1. Dances suggesting or representing sexual actions or indecent passions are forbidden.

2. Dances which emphasize indecent movements are to be regarded as obscene.

Well, the Bible's just chock full of women doing passionate gyrating dances for pleasure, reward or just some guy's head on a platter. The solution? Easy. Just make it so everyone understands that outside of nudity and explicitly presented violence, the code didn't really apply to Bible movies.

Now I've never ever been a fan of biblical epics but I confess to a guilty pleasure I get from watching The Ten Commandments. I'm sure we've all seen this by now. Well here's ten things I love about Commandments:

1. I love that Charlton Heston acts each line. He may not act them very well, but by God he acts every one of them.

2. I love Anne Baxter's "darting eyes" hamminess as Nefretiri.

3. I love Anne Baxter's taunting of Rameses (Yul Brynner) despite the fact that the taunting will clearly lead to his, her and her son's ruin.

4. I love Edward G. Robinson asking "Where's your messiah now?"

5. I love that the freed Jews actually listen to Edward G. Robinson despite the fact that they have just witnessed their God part an entire effing sea before their eyes!

6. I love that the plan they come up with to return to Egypt and gain Rameses favor is to build a golden calf and march back holding it up before them. Yeah, that'll work.

7. I love that God lives on a mountain and everyone knows when he's home because when he is there's smoke over it. Those cigarettes must be huge!

8. I love that no one, and I mean no one, in the movie even resembles a native of the Middle East or Africa. Cedric Hardwicke?!!?!??!!?

9. I love that DeMille took the entire cast and crew to Egypt for location shooting but 90% of the movie was filmed on sets.

10. I love the parting of the Red Sea. I admit it. When those old-timey special effects kick in I'm giddy with delight.

End Credits: I Want My Money Back!

10 movies, in alphabetical order, from the twenties to the seventies that aren't horror movies, but you wouldn't know it from the title. And one recent one as a bonus, just because.

1. All the Fine Young Cannibals (1960) Watch out Hannibal here comes... Natalie Wood?

2. The Beast of the City (1932) Walter Huston and Jean Harlow. Amazingly they don't do battle with even one oversized sea serpent.

3. Captain Blood (1935) Turns out Blood's his actual last name, he's a doctor and he does in fact become a Captain. Oh well.

4. The Masks of the Devil (1928) John Gilbert as a charming Viennese aristocrat, not the anti-christ. *

5. The Mayor of Hell (1933) Reform school drama with Jimmy Cagney that does not once involve anyone running for office in the netherworld.

6. Roar of the Dragon (1932) Tartan bandits on a remote island with Richard Dix. Where's Draco?

7. Sorcerer (1977) Oh boy, now this is gonna be good! There is no way this title is misleading! It's from the director of The Exorcist after all and it's name is Sorcerer! Yes! I can hardly... wha? Trucks? Who's the French guy with the watch?

8. Up Pops the Devil (1931) Complicated relationships with Carole Lombard. Again no Lucifer.

9. The Valley of the Giants (1927) No giants anywhere! Not one!

10. Wake of the Red Witch (1948) The Red Witch is a boat? It's a boat!?!!?

BONUS from the 21st Century:

Monster's Ball (2001) I know what you're thinking: Frankenstein, the Mummy, Dracula and the Wolfman all whooping it up together. Think again.

* The Masks of the Devils was directed by Victor Seastrom, the pseudonym for Victor Sjöström, the actor who gave such a remarkable performance in Ingmar Bergman's Wild Strawberries.

End Credits: Shocktober Willies List - Eight Men Out

Ed Hardy, Jr of Shoot the Projectionist has published the 12,893 titles that made the final nominating list for 31 Flicks that give you the Willies. Okay, it's not that many, it's actually 181, but damn that's a lot. I sent in my 31 and of course felt like I wanted to re-submit the whole damn thing once I saw the results. It's that title, Flicks that give you the Willies, that threw me off. I wasn't selecting what I thought were the best horror movies ever, or in some cases not even horror movies period, but instead movies that contained moments that creeped me out or to use Ed's words, gave me the willies. As a result, eight of my picks did not make the final cut but given how many different movies there are to vote for I imagine most people had eight or more not make the final cut. I won't bother giving you my entire 31 since 23 are on the nominating list and several are pretty obvious anyway: The Exorcist, The Brood, The Shining and so on. Instead here's the eight that were on my list that did not make the final willies cut over at Ed's with a brief explanation of why they were on my list.

1. Altered States 1980 Directed by Ken Russell and introducing the world to the slightly off-center acting style of William Hurt (it is impossible to imagine more perfect casting in this role) Altered States has a couple of shots that gave me the willies when I first saw it and still do today. First there's the shot of the proto-human that Dr. Jessup (Hurt) has become chasing the janitor in the basement of the University. Second there's the hallucination sequence with burning bibles and the figure of the Anti-Christ on the cross, complete with a goats head of many eyes and horns. Creepy.

2. Child's Play 1988 Demonic dolls creep me out and since I couldn't do television (Ed the taskmaster and his rules) I couldn't do Talking Tina from the Twilight Zone or the Zuni fetish doll from Trilogy of Terror and since I haven't seen a lot of demonic doll movies otherwise but wanted to include one that left me with Chucky. The moment in the movie that willied me the first time I saw in 1988 was when Catherine Hicks picks up Chucky unaware and demands he talk. That's when his eyes open menacingly and boy does he talk.

3. Deliverance 1972 Directed by John Boorman and starring Ronny Cox, Jon Voight, Ned Beatty and Burt Reynolds this film's reputation precedes it. Which is why I was more than a bit surprised it didn't make the cut. Believe me when I tell you that backwoodsmen with shotguns forcing oral sex and fornication with logs on weekend campers gives me the willies. Shiver.

4. Doctor X 1932 I had a feeling this one wouldn't make it but I really enjoy it a lot and the synthetic skin covering Doctor X at the end is creep-a-riffic.

5. Jesus Camp 2006 This is no joke entry. In fact, it would be the only movie on the list that contains characters that actually really do scare me in everyday life. Preaching to children to become warriors to re-claim America for Christ, home schooling their children in anti-science creationist ideologies, viewing sensible, rationale people (you know, people who understand evolution, understand the founding fathers didn't claim the land for Jesus, consider George W. Bush and Richard Cheney menaces to civilization) as evil, or at the very least, the enemy. The little kid Levi who preaches at his dad's cult-house (in the movie they call it a church) about global warming being a liberal fantasy, homosexuality being evil, etc, etc, etc. This whole movie will give you the willies - Trust me.

6. Love Story 1970 Okay, this one's kind of half-joke, half-real. Ali MacGraw's character of Jenny is decidedly not the same character from The Getaway. She couldn't die fast enough in this movie for me. The first line of the movie tells you she's going to die, "What can you say about a twenty-five-year-old girl who died?" so when you meet her and she starts calling Ryan O'Neal "prep" every five seconds you immediately think, "Is she twenty-five yet?" Every line that comes out of her mouth in this movie gives me the willies. Making a movie like this means having to say you're sorry every day for the rest of your life.

7.Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory 1971 Little menacing men with orange faces and green hair taunting little children and their parents with "I told you so" songs after their torturous demise. And there weren't two more of you out there as creeped out by that as me?

8. Wizard of Oz 1939 Yes, yes I know, like the three preceding it this isn't a horror movie but the list asked for films that gave you the willies. And willies for me as a child is easily defined as blue flying monkeys that gleefully abuse tin men, lions and scarecrows while hauling off a young Kansas girl to her inevitable death at the hands of a Wicked Witch. And if that's not enough for you how about sinister talking trees that throw apples at you. This movie has many wonderful moments, but it is also Willie-Filled.

So that's the eight that didn't make it. I look forward to casting my vote but already feel outclassed in the horror genre by so many of the people participating who are horror junkies and know much more about it than me. Still, it should be fun and I may even learn a bit more about the genre beyond the 1980's. And Ed, if some girl named Jenny shows up at your blog calling you "prep" run for you life!

End Credits - Cinema Still Life: It's a Floor Wax and a Dessert Topping!

End Credits and Cinema Still Life have combined for a Preston Sturges salute.

First Preston's very own rules for comedy. They don't sound very sophisticated but they (almost) always seemed to work for Preston. Then The Lady Eve as advertised in Spain, Italy (twice) and Germany. Spain and Italy decided for some reason that the film was "The Three Nights of Eve" while Germany settled for "The Fake Gambler". My favorite is the second Italian one with the proper title. It looks like it's advertising a horror film with Stanwyck cast as Medusa.


Preston Sturges Golden Rules of Comedy

*A pretty girl is better than a plain one

*A leg is better than an arm

*A bedroom is better than a living room

*An arrival is better than a departure

*A birth is better than a death

*A chase is better than a chat

*A dog is better than a landscape

*A kitten is better than a dog

*A baby is better than a kitten

*A kiss is better than a baby

*A pratfall is better than anything

End Credits: The Seven Deadly Sins

The seven films shown at "The Seven Deadly Sins Film Festival" in New York in 1987, each representing one of the deadly sins:

Envy - All About Eve (1950)

Gluttony - Sugarbaby (1985)

Greed - Greed (1924) Well, what else could it be?

Sloth - Oblomov (1979)

Lust - Sunrise (1927)

Anger - Fury (1936)

Pride - The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)

End Credits: Double the Goodness

First theatre to ever show a true double-feature, that is to say, two feature films: The Glaciarium down under (Australia that is). The two films were The Lost Chord from 1911 and The Fall of Troy from 1910. The first is an Australian movie the second is an Italian job. The date of the double feature - May 15, 1911. In case you're wondering about the name, Glaciarium, it's mainstay was putting on ice skating shows. There were five Glaciariums in Australia, two in Sydney alone. The double feature ran at the Melbourne one. But this spectacular ice show is from one of the Sydney Glaciarium (ah, for a Glaciarium in my hometown)









The first successful two color process: Kinemacolor, developed by George Smith. When? 1906. He made a short film (they were all short in 1906) of his son and daughter in colorful clothes playing in the yard. And of course, they're waving a Union Jack.

The first double exposure: Who else? Georges Melies. It came in 1898's Cave of the Demons.

The first time two characters played by the same actor physically interacted: Hang on, because it's a lot earlier than you think - 1921. Mary Pickford played Little Lord Fauntleroy and his mother. Here's the shot:













That's Mary Pickford shaking the hand of Mary Pickford. One scene where she, as Little Lord Fauntleroy, kisses herself, as the mother, on the cheek took over 15 hours to shoot.

The first year two feature movies were released in color: 1922. There was the more known The Toll of the Sea, done with the Technicolor process, and the lesser known The Glorious Adventure done with the Prizmacolor process. Here's The Toll of the Sea:

First, and only time, an actor was nominated twice in the same year for the same performance: 1944's Going My Way featured Barry Fitzgerald in a supporting role but the Academy nominated him for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor. He won the supporting Oscar and the Academy immediately changed the rules: When an actor receives votes for nomination in two different categories whichever he or she gets the most in is the category for which they are nominated.

First time two different actors both won Oscars for playing the same character: March 1975, when Robert DeNiro took home the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for playing Vito Corleone in the 1974 film The Godfather, Part II, the same character Marlon Brando had played in the 1972 film The Godfather, also winning an Oscar for his portrayal.

*****ARCHIVED HALOSCAN COMMENTS FOR THIS POST HERE*****

End Credits: Fun Facts From The Movies

End Credit Fun Facts from the Movies

1. Soylent Green is people! - Who knew? I thought it was tofu.

2. The ice is gonna break! - Where's my hockey gear?

3. There's just no living with a killing. - Not according to Crimes and Misdemeanors.

4. The issue here is monkey. - See, what Gus is saying is...

5. Your name is "Mud" sucker! - I thought it was Chuck.

6. There's no crying in baseball. - Did I ever tell you about that time the ball was rolling down the first base line towards Buckner...

7. Love means never having to say you're sorry - I saw the movie. Apologize. Now!

8. King Kong the first was only three foot six inches tall - And he did his own stunts.

9. Tomorrow is another day - This just in: The sun is hot.

10. When you know the notes to sing, you can sing most anything - Except the Star Spangled Banner.

11. Napalm smells like victory - I had no idea "victory" had a smell. I like to think victory smells like rainbows and lollipops.

12. When you're wringing a chicken's neck, "they squawks." - Well, I'll be damned. You know I'm gonna have to try that.

13. A boy's best friend is his mother - Anyone feel like a shower?

14. One day a real rain's gonna come and wash all the scum off the street - Do I have to move my car that day?

A Birthday Tribute to Alfred Hitchcock

Today is Alfred Hitchcock's birthday. He would have 108 (born 1899) if he were still alive. Of course he is, in his movies which are timeless. A quick tribute from Cinema Styles covering the favorites, least favorites, ups, downs and everything in between.

Favorite Hitchcock Film: Notorious (1946)

Favorite Pre-Hollywood Hitchcock Film: The 39 Steps (1935)

Favorite Performance in a Hitchcock Film: Joseph Cotten in Shadow of a Doubt (1944)

Favorite Tandem Performance (that is, two actors playing off each other beautifully): Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman in Notorious (1946)

Least Favorite Hitchcock Film: Topaz (1969)

Least Favorite Performance: John Gavin in Psycho (1960) Damn near stops the movie. Hitch referred to him on the set as "the corpse."

Most Exciting Hitchcock Film: (Tie) Foreign Correspondent (1940) and North by Northwest (1959)

Most Self-Referential (or autobiographical) Hitchcock Film: Vertigo (1958), of course.

Goofiest Hitchcock Film: (tie) Spellbound (1945) and Family Plot (1976)

Scariest Hitchcock Film: Psycho (1960)

Best use of Monuments in a Hitchcock Film: (Tie) Saboteur (1942) Statue of Liberty and North by Northwest (1959) Mount Rushmore

Best Use of Location in a Hitchcock Film: Vertigo (1958) San Francisco

Best Chase in a Hitchcock Film: Cary Grant pursued by crop duster in North by Northwest (1959)

First True "Hitchcockian" Film: Blackmail (1929)

Most "un-Hitchcockian" Film: (tie) The Farmer's Wife (1928) and Waltzes from Vienna (1934)

Best Hitchcock Comedy: Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941)

Favorite Hitchcock Cameo: Walking with his dogs in The Birds (1963)

Most Clever Hitchcock Cameo: Seated at the table in the photograph in Dial M for Murder (1954)

Best "Children in Peril" scene in a Hitchcock Film: (tie) Strangers on a Train (1951) Merry-go-round sequence and The Birds (1963) Attack on the school scene.

Most Underrated Hitchcock Film: The Lady Vanishes (1938)

First Hitchcock Hollywood Film: Rebecca (1940)

First Hollywood-Altered Hitchcock Ending: Suspicion (1941) They just didn't want Cary to be a killer.

Best Un-Resolved "Ending" to a Hitchcock Film: The Birds (1963)

Most Clever Experiment in a Hitchcock Film: The "one-take, unbroken shot" of Rope (1948)

Best MacGuffin in a Hitchcock Film: The lighter in Strangers on a Train (1951)

Only 3-D Hitchcock Film: Dial M for Murder (1954)

Best Jimmy Stewart Hitchcock Film: Rear Window (1954)

Most Used Actor by Hitchcock: Leo Carroll in six films. I'm not counting Hitch and his multiple cameos.

and finally,

Best Use of Salvador Dali in a Dream Sequence in a Hitchcock Film about a Psychiatrist falling in love with her patient who is an innocent man wrongly accused: Spellbound (1945) I had to get that scene on the list somehow.

*****ARCHIVED HALOSCAN COMMENTS FOR THIS POST HERE*****

End Credits: Let's Do it Again

Directors who made the same film twice. Why? Who the hell knows. Some questions I just don't ask.

Oscar Micheaux: Birthright - 1924 and 1939

Cecil B. DeMille: The Squaw Man - 1914, 1918 AND 1931

Alfred Hitchcock: The Man Who Knew Too Much - 1934 and 1956

Woody Allen: September - 1987 and 1987. He made the movie first with Maureen O'Sullivan, Charles Durning and Sam Shepard, then made it again with Elaine Stritch, Denholm Elliott and Sam Waterston in their roles. Why? Maybe he was bored.

Michael Haneke: Funny Games - 1997 and 2007 (Kind of a ten-year anniversary thing I guess)

Martin Scorcese: Goodfellas 1990 Casino 1995. Oh, wait a minute...

End Credits: Something About This Looks Familiar

Movies remakes that are not, strictly speaking, remakes like Cape Fear or War of the Worlds, but clever adaptations. First the "remake" and then its inspiration, whether movie, play or book.

1. A Star is Born (1937) / What Price Hollywood? (1932)

2. Forbidden Planet (1956) / The Tempest (1611)

3. Apocalypse Now (1979) / Heart of Darkness (1902)

4. Airplane (1980) / Zero Hour (1957)

5. Outland (1981) / High Noon (1952)

6. The Big Chill (1983) / Return of the Secaucus Seven (1980)

7. Clueless (1995) / Emma (1816)

8. A Bug's Life (1998) / The Magnificent Seven (1960) / The Seven Samurai (1954)

9. Mission Impossible II (2000) / Notorious (1946)

10. Flight Plan (2005) / The Lady Vanishes (1938)

**********

End Credit Remakes