Born: June 1, 1926 in Los Angeles, California, USA
Died: August 5, 1962 in Los Angeles, California, USA (drug overdose)
Birth Name: Norma Jeane Mortenson
Nicknames: The Blonde Bombshell, MM
Height: 5' 6" (1.68 m)
Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, comedienne, singer, and model. She became one of the world's most enduring iconic figures and is remembered both for her winsome embodiment of the Hollywood sex symbol and her tragic personal and professional struggles within the film industry. Her life and death are still the subjects of much controversy and speculation. She was born Norma Jeane Mortenson at the Los Angeles County Hospital on June 1, 1926. Her mother Gladys Pearl Baker was a film-cutter at Consolidated Film Industries. Marilyn's father's identity was never known. Because Gladys was mentally and financially unable to care for young Marilyn, Gladys placed her in the care of a foster family, The Bolenders. - (IMDb)
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000054/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm
Discovery Spot
Detour (Crime, Drama, Film Noir) (1946)
Chance events trap hitch-hiker Al Roberts in a tightening net of film noir trouble.
Director: Edgar G. Ulmer
Writers: Martin Goldsmith (screenplay), Martin Goldsmith (original story)
Stars: Tom Neal, Ann Savage, Claudia Drake - (IMDb)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037638/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
Trash & Treasure Corner
Carnival of Souls (Horror, Mystery) (1962)
After a traumatic accident, a woman becomes drawn to a mysterious abandoned carnival.
Director: Herk Harvey
Writer: John Clifford (written)
Stars: Candace Hilligoss, Frances Feist, Sidney Berger - (IMDb)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055830/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0
The Classic Film Club RSS feed: https://rss.acast.com/the-classic-film-club
Stream podcast episodes on demand from https://theclassicfilmclub.com (mobile friendly).
Subscribe, rate and review The Classic Film Club podcast at all good podcatcher apps, including Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Stitcher, PocketCasts, CastBox.FM, Podbean, Spreaker, etc.
For more, join the Classic Film Club Facebook group and meet up with fellow film enthusiasts from around the globe.
Facebook Group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/711768422887685
Twitter - @tcfcpodcst
YouTube Channel: Coming soon
If you're enjoying The Classic Film Club, please share and tell your friends. Your support would be appreciated...thank you.
#classicfilms #classiccinema #movies #cinema #entertainment #podcast #reviews #tcfc
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-classic-film-club--4614300/support.
00:00:00
Generic: All right, let me go to the.
00:00:02
Movies, play it for Harry, play it for me.
00:00:05
Just put your lips together and look, go ahead, make my day
00:00:09
fasten your seat.
00:00:10
Then it's going to be a bumpy nut. I got a bad feeling about
00:00:14
this.
00:00:14
I'm feeling we're not in Canada.
00:00:18
Welcome to the Classic Film Club with Richard Kipper.
00:00:22
Richard Kuipers: Hello and welcome to this meeting of the
00:00:24
Classic Film Club. The podcast dedicated to taking a fresh look
00:00:28
at movie classics to see how well they stand up today and to
00:00:32
discovering hidden gems from the past 120 years of cinema. I'm
00:00:37
Richard Kipper, a critic with the international trade paper
00:00:39
variety, a film festival programmer and documentary
00:00:43
producer.
00:00:43
And in this show, I'll take a look at three films starring the
00:00:47
legendary Marilyn Monroe. One from her early days, another
00:00:51
released in 1953 the year that Marilyn became a major star and
00:00:55
also her final film upon which so much of her legend rests.
00:01:00
Whenever lists of Hollywood's greatest female stars are drawn
00:01:03
up. Marilyn Monroe is always at the top or very close to it.
00:01:08
Catherine Hepburn, Bette Davis, Audrey Hepburn Greta Garbo and
00:01:12
Ingrid Bergman are among other great names that constantly
00:01:15
appear. But Marilyn dominates not just for the body of work
00:01:19
she left behind, which was only 29 films including bit parts in
00:01:23
a 14 year career.
00:01:25
But for the aura, her name and image still command the ultimate
00:01:30
Hollywood sex symbol and a tragic figure who's struggled
00:01:33
with mental health issues and addiction and died in
00:01:36
circumstances that have inspired countless books and countless
00:01:39
conspiracy theories.
00:01:42
It's almost 60 years since Marilyn died aged just 36. Yet
00:01:46
her name recognition is still incredibly high and her image
00:01:50
still surrounds us when we think of the terms blonde bombshell
00:01:54
and sex symbol. Marilyn Monroe comes to mind more readily than
00:01:59
anyone else still as a pop culture icon. She's everywhere
00:02:03
from Andy Warhol's famous silks screen painting that sold for
00:02:07
$17 million in 1998.
00:02:09
A record at the time for a Warhol original to Sam Shaw's
00:02:13
photo of Marilyn and her flying skirt during the filming of the
00:02:16
seven year itch in 1954 art historian Gail Levin suggests
00:02:21
convincingly that Marilyn was the most photographed person of
00:02:25
the 20th century.
00:02:27
Perhaps only Elvis Presley can rival Marilyn as an icon of
00:02:31
American popular culture. Her life story has been told in
00:02:35
numerous feature films and TV series and her blonde bombshell
00:02:39
look has been adopted by everyone from Madonna to Lady
00:02:42
Gaga. For me, one of the most extraordinary uses of Marilyn
00:02:46
Monroe imagery is in Tommy Ken Russell's 1975 adaptation of the
00:02:52
rock opera by the Who?
00:02:54
The film's eyesight to the blind sequence takes place in what can
00:02:58
best be described as a Marilyn Monroe church followers wearing
00:03:02
Marilyn face masks and wigs are helping blind, deaf and other
00:03:07
disabled people touch a massive statue in that famous flying
00:03:11
skirt. They're hoping and praying for miracles while
00:03:14
priest Eric Clapton sings and plays guitar no less. I watched
00:03:19
just that sequence from Tommy.
00:03:20
Then of course, I couldn't stop and I watched the whole thing.
00:03:23
What an amazing film, Tina Turner is the acid queen and
00:03:26
Jack Nicholson singing. But I digress as so often happens when
00:03:31
we talk about movies. Let's get back to Marilyn who was born in
00:03:35
Los Angeles in 1926 as Norma Jean Mortenson and whose
00:03:40
troubled mother, Gladys Pearl Baker worked as a negative
00:03:43
cutter at the Consolidated Film Industries laboratory.
00:03:48
She was sent to foster homes and at an orphanage and married at
00:03:51
16 and Marilyn was working at the radio plane munitions
00:03:55
Factory during World War II when she was discovered by David
00:03:59
Conover, a photographer from the first motion picture unit of the
00:04:03
US Armed Forces with a successful career as a model in
00:04:07
print advertising and men's magazine, Marilyn landed a six
00:04:11
month contract with 20Th Century Fox in August 1946.
00:04:15
She didn't appear in anything before her contract expired and
00:04:19
was given a second contract which only led to bit parts in
00:04:22
dangerous years, an undistinguished youth drama and
00:04:26
scud who scudder hay, a forgettable romantic comedy.
00:04:31
When this second contract expired, Fox dropped Marilyn
00:04:34
before she was picked up by the much less prestigious Columbia
00:04:37
Pictures. They bleached her hair, platinum blonde and gave
00:04:41
her a starring role in Ladies of the Chorus, which is where I
00:04:44
want to stop for a while and look a little bit more closely
00:04:47
at the very first film to have Marilyn Monroe's name in large
00:04:51
letters on the credits running a lean 61 minutes.
00:04:55
Ladies of the chorus is a B grade black and white backstage
00:04:58
musical romance directed by Phil Carlson, who'd made a few
00:05:02
Charlie Chan films prior to this and went on to direct some
00:05:06
terrific crime dramas like the Phoenix City Story and Kansas
00:05:09
City Confidential.
00:05:11
He also had a huge hit in 1973 with Walking Tall starring Joe
00:05:15
Don Baker in Ladies of the Chorus.
00:05:18
Marilyn plays Peggy Martin, a burlesque performer who's out
00:05:22
there on the chorus line alongside her divorced mother,
00:05:25
Mae played by Adele Jurgens. Despite the fact that Jurgens
00:05:29
was only nine years older than Marilyn on first release.
00:05:33
In 1948 Jurgens was given top billing when Columbia re
00:05:37
released the film in 1952 Marilyn was given top spot and
00:05:41
the opening credits were changed to read Marilyn Monroe in Ladies
00:05:46
of the Chorus as a film. It's ok if nothing special, the standard
00:05:51
issue plot finds Peggy stepping out of the chorus line and
00:05:54
becoming a star when the temperamental leading lady
00:05:57
Bubbles refuses to go on stage.
00:06:00
Peggy's biggest fan is Randy played by Rand Brooks. He's the
00:06:04
son of a socially prominent family and in typical fashion
00:06:07
for films of the day, they fall in love on first date and decide
00:06:11
to marry.
00:06:12
But the big question is whether Randy will have the courage to
00:06:15
tell his mother that he wants to take a burlesque queen for his
00:06:18
wife and possibly scandalize the family. In the process. The film
00:06:22
has a couple of peppy tunes including the opening number
00:06:25
which includes lyrics like our flirty, flirty eyes will wink in
00:06:29
your direction.
00:06:30
We will throw you all a kiss with sweet affection and every
00:06:35
baby needs a daddy which is sung by Marilyn and sounds so
00:06:39
politically incorrect today as it reinforces the notion that
00:06:43
chorus girls are gold diggers hoping to hook a rich boyfriend
00:06:47
like all of the drooling men who come to watch Peggy perform.
00:06:51
Toward the end. It squeezes in some social commentary about the
00:06:54
unfair stigma attached to women in burlesque. But for the most
00:06:57
part, it's a thoroughly average be musical of its time. What of
00:07:02
course makes it worth watching?
00:07:03
Is Marilyn a full five years before she would land her next
00:07:07
leading role. Although it's an unpolished performance, you can
00:07:11
see glimpses of what later made her such a star, the slightly
00:07:15
breathy delivery, the combination of innocence and
00:07:17
sensuality, a sense of hidden sorrow beneath that radiant
00:07:21
exterior.
00:07:23
But it's just glimpses neither the screenplay, Carlson's
00:07:27
direction or Marilyn's confidence are quite strong
00:07:30
enough to lift the film out of being pleasant enough, but
00:07:33
nothing special. Other points of interest include a very nifty
00:07:36
tap dance routine by Adele Jurgens.
00:07:39
You can find ladies of the chorus online and it's still
00:07:42
well worth a look. It's certainly not a chore to watch.
00:07:45
It's a piece of film history and it's a lot better than the first
00:07:49
major films of many other big movie stars before she was let
00:07:53
go by Columbia.
00:07:54
Marilyn did a screen test for Bourne yesterday but she lost
00:07:58
out to Judy Holiday who went on to win an Oscar playing one of
00:08:02
the most memorable dumb blondes of them all undaunted.
00:08:05
Marilyn continued her acting classes and became involved with
00:08:09
Johnny Hyde who was vice president of the big William
00:08:13
Morris Talent agency Hyde paid for Marilyn to have plastic
00:08:17
surgery on her jaw and he wanted to marry her, but she knocked
00:08:20
him back back on the books at Fox again.
00:08:23
She scored small but impressive roles in prestigious films such
00:08:27
as All About Eve and The Asphalt Jungle, both made in 1950
00:08:31
supporting roles in comedies like as young as you feel and
00:08:34
Love Nest, followed by a role in the cracking crime drama. Don't
00:08:38
bother to knock and another one clash by night. Both those from
00:08:42
1952 1953 was Marilyn's year in January.
00:08:47
There was the steamy romantic pot boiler Niagara which the
00:08:51
American women's club movement called immoral. No doubt,
00:08:54
helping it to become a popular hit in November came the bubbly
00:08:58
if somewhat overstuffed rom com How to Marry a Millionaire?
00:09:01
And in the middle was one of Marilyn's career highlights.
00:09:05
Gentlemen prefer blondes. The second film I want to look at in
00:09:08
a bit more depth. And through 21st century eyes talk about
00:09:13
starting with a bang.
00:09:14
No sooner has the 20Th Century Fox logo and the fanfare stopped
00:09:18
than Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell appear in gloriously
00:09:21
spangly red dresses and feathered hats singing two
00:09:25
little girls from Little Rock, which is just the first of the
00:09:28
film's many musical show Stoppers. Marilyn is Lorelai.
00:09:32
Lee. Jane is Dorothy Shaw.
00:09:35
They're besties and their showgirls, not burlesque dancers
00:09:38
like Marilyn in ladies of the chorus. They've got class and
00:09:41
they perform in upmarket venues. Lorelai likes men with the means
00:09:46
to buy diamonds while Dorothy prefers bulky beefcakes to
00:09:49
bulging bank balances.
00:09:51
Lorelai is engaged to Gus Tommy Noonan. A nice but clueless nerd
00:09:56
whose rich and domineering father naturally suspects
00:09:59
Lorelai of being a gold digger. Esmond senior is right in a way
00:10:03
but not completely.
00:10:04
And that's a crucial factor that makes the film such a crowd
00:10:07
pleasing winner in plot twists that don't need to be explained
00:10:11
here, Lorelai and Dorothy end up on a cruise ship bound for Paris
00:10:15
where Gus will be waiting with a wedding ring. Hopefully.
00:10:18
Meanwhile, his money bags dad has hired private detective
00:10:21
Malone Elliott Reid.
00:10:23
His job is to follow Lorelai and get incriminating evidence of
00:10:27
her. No good fortune hunting ways with all the rich men on
00:10:30
board the ship. And to that end, Lorelai starts running rings
00:10:33
around blustery old British billionaire sir, Francis Piggy
00:10:37
Beakman, Charles Coburn at his best.
00:10:40
And for Dorothy, there's plenty of distraction with, would you
00:10:43
believe it? The US men's Olympic team who also happened to be on
00:10:46
board? It's simply marvelous watching Marilyn Monroe play her
00:10:51
dumb blonde character to the hilt with that almost out of
00:10:54
breath vocal delivery.
00:10:56
She maintains an immaculate and hilarious seriousness as she
00:11:00
reels off lines like I won't let myself fall in love with a man
00:11:03
who won't trust me no matter what I might do. Marilyn and
00:11:07
Jane Russell are terrific together while Marilyn does the
00:11:10
slinky kooky stuff.
00:11:11
Jane has a field day as the down to earth half of the duo, she's
00:11:15
got great wise cracks like you're the only girl in the
00:11:18
world who can stand on a stage with a spotlight in her eye and
00:11:21
still see a diamond inside a man's pocket.
00:11:25
It's a very funny and racy script for its day with lots of
00:11:28
clever innuendo and double entendres that I'll let you
00:11:31
discover or rediscover for yourselves, especially that
00:11:35
scene involving Malone and a pair of trousers. How did the
00:11:39
censors ever let that through?
00:11:41
Then? Of course, there's the musical numbers, Jane doing
00:11:44
anyone for love with the Olympic team and Marilyn being nothing
00:11:48
short of sensational with diamonds are a girl's best
00:11:51
friend. The magic starts even before the song properly begins
00:11:56
with Lorelai running away from dozens of men who are holding
00:11:58
pink hearts up to her.
00:12:00
She beats them away with a fan and an ever more high pitched
00:12:03
series of no, no nos before the song kicks in and it is pure
00:12:08
magic. Gentlemen prefer blondes is a bright and breezy outing.
00:12:12
That's not to be taken seriously. But if we do want to
00:12:15
look at it through modern eyes, we could say that it views
00:12:18
Lorelai as a classic scheming female who believes that landing
00:12:21
a rich husband is her one and only chance to attain the life
00:12:25
she wants.
00:12:25
Maybe like Madonna sang in the music video that paid tribute to
00:12:29
diamonds are a girl's best friend. Lorelai really is a
00:12:32
material girl but in the 19 fifties without equal pay, equal
00:12:37
career opportunities and so many other forms of sex
00:12:40
discrimination.
00:12:41
Lorelai's outlook on life and possible paths to happiness and
00:12:44
security have an undeniable truth to them. Context is
00:12:48
everything. And it's through this understanding of the times
00:12:51
in which the film was made that we can understand and appreciate
00:12:55
what Lorelai and Dorothy were facing in the conservative 19
00:12:58
fifties.
00:12:59
Even when she seems to be very much a material girl. There's
00:13:03
also a strong feeling that there's more to Lorelai than
00:13:05
meets the eye. It's worth remembering that the source
00:13:08
material of gentlemen prefer blondes is the 1925 best selling
00:13:12
novel, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.
00:13:14
The intimate diary of a professional lady written by
00:13:17
Anita Loos, the pioneering playwright and author who became
00:13:21
the first female staff scriptwriter in Hollywood when
00:13:25
she was hired by D W Griffith in 1912, her novel was first filmed
00:13:30
in 1928 with Ruth Taylor and Alice White.
00:13:33
Sadly, this is now a lost film and it was later turned into a
00:13:36
stage musical in 1949. The spirit of Loser's novel with its
00:13:41
wise and witty observations of male and female attraction
00:13:45
remain intact in this film and they make the difference when
00:13:48
Dorothy and especially Lorelai make big decisions about the men
00:13:52
in their lives.
00:13:53
As Lorelai says, I can be smart when it's important, but most
00:13:57
men don't like it.
00:13:58
It also helps to explain why beneath all the gloss and fluff,
00:14:02
the film rang emotionally true with audiences while
00:14:05
entertaining them so wonderfully that it became the world's
00:14:08
seventh highest grossing film in 1953 complete with stunning
00:14:13
costumes that Jane and Marilyn wear and wear very well, indeed
00:14:17
great musical direction from the ever reliable Lionel Newman and
00:14:22
Marni Nixon providing the high vocal notes.
00:14:24
Marilynn couldn't quite reach gentlemen prefer blondes is a
00:14:28
bright and breezy treat that stood the test of time and it's
00:14:31
sure to delight audiences forever highly recommended
00:14:34
viewing.
00:14:36
When nude photos of Marilyn that were taken in 1949 appeared in
00:14:40
the first issue of Playboy in December 1953. It could easily
00:14:44
have destroyed her career. But the opposite happened, Marilyn
00:14:48
became an even bigger star. Such was her popularity with both
00:14:52
male and female audiences and such was the sheer almost
00:14:56
otherworldly sensuality and sexuality.
00:14:58
She projected her studio. 20th century, Fox wanted Marilyn to
00:15:02
keep playing Damon Ditsy blonde, but Marilyn had other higher
00:15:06
ambitions declaring that she was tired of the same old sex roles.
00:15:11
Marilyn had a long legal battle with Fox about pay rates and
00:15:14
choice of films and even set up her own company, Marilyn Monroe
00:15:18
productions.
00:15:20
During this time, she was studying acting with British
00:15:23
coach Constance Collier and attended classes at Lee
00:15:26
Strasbourg's famous actors studio. Many in the press mocked
00:15:30
her serious ambitions and the 1955 film Will's success spoil
00:15:35
Rock Hunter was a thinly veiled satire on Marilyn's desire to be
00:15:38
taken seriously. Meanwhile, platinum blonde, Marilyn types
00:15:42
began popping up on screens.
00:15:44
20Th Century Fox hit the jackpot with Jane Mansfield in Rock
00:15:47
Hunter and the Girl can't help it. Universal had less success
00:15:51
with bombshell. Mamie Van Doran in running wild and star in the
00:15:55
dust before she shone briefly at Warner Brothers in untamed
00:15:59
youth. And at MGM in high school, confidential and beat
00:16:03
generation.
00:16:04
But it was Marilyn who eventually succeeded and endured
00:16:07
by refusing to accept her fate as just a sex symbol branching
00:16:11
out into serious acting and winning acclaim for roles such
00:16:15
as Cherie, a singer, dreaming of stardom in Joshua Logan's bus
00:16:19
stop and Elsie, the music hall star who captures the heart of
00:16:22
royalty in the 1957 romantic comedy, The Prince and the
00:16:26
showgirl directed by and co starring the legendary Laurence
00:16:30
Olivier, who famously clashed with Marilynn calling her a
00:16:34
bitch and apparently just wanting her to do nothing more
00:16:37
than an imitation of Vivian Lee, his wife who played the lead
00:16:41
role on the London stage.
00:16:43
That didn't mean Marilyn turned her back on being sexy, sensuous
00:16:46
and ditzy. She simply set the gold standard for these female
00:16:50
types in films like the Prince and the showgirl. Let's Make
00:16:53
Love and the all time great comedy hit some like it hot.
00:16:58
Then of course, there was her final film, the Misfits in 1961.
00:17:02
Also the Swan song of Hollywood legend Clark Gable and the
00:17:06
unfinished feature something's got to give, which was shut down
00:17:09
after Fox fired Marilyn and was eventually reworked as move over
00:17:13
darling in 1963 with Doris Day and James Garner in the lead
00:17:17
roles.
00:17:19
Our third stop on this Marilyn Monroe meeting of the Classic
00:17:21
Film Club is the misfits, which I hadn't seen since I was a
00:17:25
teenager a long, long time ago. I'm so glad I looked at it
00:17:28
again. Recently, it made me realize how I hadn't really
00:17:31
appreciated it properly before I was immediately struck by the
00:17:35
opening title sequence, animated jigsaw puzzle pieces that drift
00:17:39
across the screen.
00:17:40
A portent of the story it tells about characters searching for
00:17:44
their place in the world and a reflection of how troubled
00:17:47
Marilyn's life had become by July 1960 when it began
00:17:50
shooting.
00:17:51
Though some like it hot had been a major hit and earned Marilyn a
00:17:54
golden Globe. Her next film, let's Make Love was only a
00:17:58
modest success and it had mixed reviews. Gossip, Queen Heather
00:18:01
Hopper said it was the most vulgar film. Marilyn had ever
00:18:04
done her marriage to the great American playwright and author,
00:18:08
Arthur Miller was also on the rocks and it was Miller with
00:18:11
almost no screenwriting experience who'd written the
00:18:14
Misfits.
00:18:15
He wrote it as a love letter and a vehicle for Marilyn to show
00:18:18
her dramatic range. And it did just that Marilyn's outstanding
00:18:23
as Rosalyn Tabor, a newly divorced 30 year old living in
00:18:26
Reno. She goes out for a celebratory drink with her land
00:18:29
lady and best friend, Isabelle, the wonderful film Marita and
00:18:33
tells her I always end up back where I started.
00:18:37
There's so much pain in Rosalyn's observation and it
00:18:40
sets up the film's central theme of people going around in
00:18:43
circles, unable to break free from the past and find a place
00:18:46
they can emotionally call home. The black and white photography
00:18:50
by Russell Mette who'd just won the Oscar for Spartacus is stark
00:18:54
and gritty, almost like a newsreel as it brings Roslyn
00:18:57
into the company of three damaged men.
00:19:00
The first is Gay Langland Clark Gable, an aging ex cowboy living
00:19:05
off memories of his younger days as he drifts from town to town
00:19:08
and woman to woman within hours of meeting Roslyn. Gay wants to
00:19:13
marry her. So too does Gay's buddy Guido Eli Wallo, a tow
00:19:17
truck driver and pilot who flew in the war and he is clearly
00:19:20
suffering PTSD.
00:19:22
A condition that wouldn't be categorized as such until 1980.
00:19:26
Back then everything was simply called shell shock. The third
00:19:30
man is Perce Howland Montgomery Clift. In his third last film,
00:19:34
he's a penniless rodeo rider who's been cheated out of
00:19:37
inheriting the family ranch and spends a large part of the film
00:19:40
in a concussed daze after suffering yet another fall in
00:19:44
the ring.
00:19:46
Much of the film takes place in the dusty Nevada desert. Gay and
00:19:49
Guido and less enthusiastically Howland plan to make money by
00:19:53
rounding up wild mustangs.
00:19:55
But when Roslyn discovers exactly what fate awaits the
00:19:58
animals, it triggers a dramatic series of events that forces
00:20:02
each man to finally look in the mirror and see himself in a
00:20:05
harsher new light in the midst of all this damage machismo is
00:20:09
Roslyn an innocent and fragile beauty who at various times
00:20:13
plays the roles of mother, sister, daughter, nurse and even
00:20:18
none to these badly broken men.
00:20:21
The misfits was made under such difficult circumstances. It's a
00:20:24
wonder it was even completed, let alone as powerful as it is.
00:20:28
The temperature was often around 40 degrees. Marilyn habitually
00:20:32
turned up late and had trouble with her lines. And at one stage
00:20:35
production was halted while she went to detox to tackle her
00:20:38
addiction to prescription drugs.
00:20:40
Director John Houston, an American great who made the
00:20:43
Maltese Falcon, the African queen and the forgotten classic
00:20:46
Wise Blood. In 1979 was frequently drunk and even fell
00:20:51
asleep on set. And yet for all of these problems, the misfits
00:20:55
stands up very well. Despite some clunky dialogue and choppy
00:20:59
storytelling, the tale of a woman caught up in this harsh,
00:21:02
rough male environment resonates very strongly.
00:21:06
Arthur Miller's screenplay questions the very essence of
00:21:08
American virility, the romantic figure of the cowboy and
00:21:12
pictures him as lost, outdated and out of touch. His only hope
00:21:16
of survival and renewal is through the love and caring of a
00:21:19
woman such as Roslyn who sometimes screams and sometimes
00:21:23
soothes to help him find a way forward.
00:21:26
The misfits barely broke even at the box office and like so many
00:21:30
films that weren't hits on first release, its stature has risen
00:21:33
steadily over the years.
00:21:35
Part of that is related to the legacy of the film when we watch
00:21:39
the misfits we can't help but be reminded that this was Marilyn's
00:21:42
last completed film and also the final screen appearance of Clark
00:21:46
Gable, the undisputed king of Hollywood in the 19 thirties
00:21:50
star of it happened one night gone with the Wind and six films
00:21:55
with Jean Harlow, another blonde movie goddess whose life ended
00:21:58
far too soon.
00:22:00
Gable died aged 59 only 10 days after filming finished his fatal
00:22:05
heart attack probably brought on by performing more of his own
00:22:08
stunts than he should have. And then there's tortured and
00:22:11
troubled Montgomery Clift, who would only appear in two more
00:22:14
films before he passed away in 1966.
00:22:17
At the age of 45. The last time Clift was seen alive was on the
00:22:22
same night, the misfits was on TV. All of this adds to the
00:22:26
experience of watching the misfits almost 60 years after
00:22:29
first release. I don't think it's quite the American classic.
00:22:33
Some have called it, but it's a very fine film and well worth
00:22:36
watching.
00:22:38
That concludes our Marilyn Monroe meeting today. I hope
00:22:41
this inspires you to look at one or more films featuring this
00:22:44
most extraordinary icon of cinema. It's often been said
00:22:47
that Marilyn made love to the camera and no truer words have
00:22:51
ever been spoken.
00:22:54
spk_2: We're not in Kansas anymore.
00:22:55
spk_3: This is the Classic Film Club with Richard Kipper Time.
00:23:00
Richard Kuipers: Now for our Classic Film Club Discovery
00:23:03
section where we turn the spotlight on lesser known films
00:23:06
that deserve to be more widely seen. This week's title came to
00:23:10
me while I was watching Ladies of the Chorus. Maybe because
00:23:13
it's also in black and white. It's low budget and includes a
00:23:17
couple of musical interludes.
00:23:18
But there the similarities very definitely end made in 1945
00:23:24
filmed in just six days on a budget of next to nothing is
00:23:28
detour an all time film noir classic. And one of the greatest
00:23:33
examples of American Poverty row cinema. Poverty row was the name
00:23:37
given to super low budget companies with offices on or
00:23:40
near Gower Street in Los Angeles.
00:23:43
Outfits such as monogram Pictures, Republic pictures
00:23:47
producers, releasing corporation Grand National films and CBC
00:23:52
productions, which evolved into Columbia Pictures, producer of
00:23:56
Ladies of the Chorus and still one of Hollywood's major
00:23:59
studios. Detour is a gritty, grimy, fatalistic film noir.
00:24:04
It's about Al Roberts, a hitchhiker whose journey from
00:24:08
New York to LA becomes a nightmare brought about by the
00:24:11
worst run of believable. Bad luck. You'll ever see when we
00:24:15
first meet Al, he's in a roadside diner, despondently
00:24:19
drinking coffee and arguing with another customer who's put a
00:24:22
song on the jukebox.
00:24:23
The song reminds Al of happier times when he played piano in a
00:24:27
New York club and had a steady girlfriend, Jane, the club's
00:24:31
singer, but Jane left the Big Apple to try her luck in L A and
00:24:35
Al is in this diner right now because he became restless and
00:24:38
unhappy after Jane left and decided to hitchhike across the
00:24:41
country, the plan was to show up on Jane's door unannounced then
00:24:45
live happily ever after to say things didn't quite work out
00:24:49
that way is an understatement to say the least.
00:24:52
It's how things go wrong for Al that makes detour so compelling.
00:24:57
His voiceover narration is packed with great lines such as
00:25:00
That's life, whichever way you turn, fate sticks out a foot to
00:25:04
trip you up. He described money as a piece of paper crawling
00:25:09
with germs. The people he meets along the way are as damaged and
00:25:13
desperate as he is.
00:25:14
First. There's Haskell a rich man who gives Al a ride. He
00:25:18
seems nice enough. But what are those scratch marks on his hands
00:25:21
all about? Then there's Vera, a young woman tangled up in the
00:25:25
kind of trouble that could make Al's dreams come true or just as
00:25:29
easily ruin his life. You have never seen a fem fatal quite
00:25:34
like Vera.
00:25:35
She's in a class of her own and I don't say that lightly in Al's
00:25:39
words, man. She looked like she'd been thrown off the
00:25:43
crummiest freight train in the world. Yet, in spite of that, I
00:25:46
got the impression of beauty played with mesmerizing
00:25:50
intensity by the aptly named Anne Savage. Vera Barks, snaps
00:25:54
and torments Al with pungent dialogue.
00:25:56
Like if you act wise, Mr, you'll pop into jail so fast. It'll
00:26:01
give you the bends. The tragic irony is that many years later,
00:26:05
actor Tom Neil, who plays Al did in fact end up in jail for the
00:26:09
involuntary manslaughter of his wife. The hurried production and
00:26:13
miniscule budget work in the film's favor.
00:26:16
There's a sense of urgency, a propulsion to the story. That's
00:26:19
remarkable. You can almost see cast and crew working
00:26:22
frantically to finish in about a quarter of the time. It usually
00:26:26
would have taken to film a story such as this in 1945 with barely
00:26:30
a dime for set design, the nightclub where a and Jane work
00:26:34
is little more than a couple of chairs and great lighting design
00:26:37
by cameraman Benjamin Klein.
00:26:40
The filming of Jane's signature song, I can't believe you're
00:26:43
falling in love with me is a real highlight and don't be
00:26:47
surprised if you have that song in your mind for a long time to
00:26:49
come after seeing the film based on the 1939 novel Detour, An
00:26:54
Extraordinary Tale by Martin M Goldsmith.
00:26:58
This existential film noir was directed by Edgar G. Ulmer. A
00:27:02
migrant from what's now the Czech Republic who made many,
00:27:05
many great low budget films. We'll be here forever if I start
00:27:09
to go on about Alma. He's that great. So I'll encourage you to
00:27:13
check out detour just for now.
00:27:15
You can see the glorious restored and uncut print on
00:27:18
prime video and then you might even want to seek out some of
00:27:21
his more easily accessible films like The Black Cat from 1934.
00:27:25
The only film Bella Legos and Boris Karloff ever appeared in
00:27:29
together the Freudian crime Noir Strange Illusion from 1945 the
00:27:34
puppet related horror, Blue Beard from 1944 and The Naked
00:27:40
Dawn, a rare technicolor crime drama for Alma made in 1955.
00:27:45
Although I did end up going on a bit about Edgar G Alma, but he's
00:27:49
so great. He's worth the time. And I do encourage you to try
00:27:52
and find some of his films. And finally a quick trip to the
00:27:55
Classic Film Club trash and treasure bazaar.
00:27:58
We featured quite a few monochrome movies this week and
00:28:01
I'm keeping things black and white with a recommendation to
00:28:04
check out a miraculous American independent feature made in
00:28:08
1962. Carnival Of Souls was the only feature film by Herk
00:28:13
Harvey, a maker of industrial and training films based in
00:28:16
Lawrence, Kansas.
00:28:18
One day while out driving Harvey spotted Salta Pavilion, an
00:28:23
abandoned resort on the shores of Lake Utah and decided he
00:28:27
wanted to use it as the central location for a horror film. His
00:28:30
colleague and friend John Clifford came up with a story
00:28:33
that begins with Mary Henry, a young woman from a small town
00:28:37
going for a joy ride with her friends. When two boys in
00:28:41
another car challenge them to a race.
00:28:43
Mary's vehicle winds up careening off a bridge and
00:28:46
sinking into the river below. That's all I'm going to say. The
00:28:50
rest is for you to discover. But I will say that this is no
00:28:54
ordinary horror film. It's a dreamy, surreal and sublime
00:28:58
journey to strange and captivating places. Carnival of
00:29:02
Souls drifted into obscurity almost as soon as it was
00:29:05
released.
00:29:06
Then in 1989 it was rediscovered, re, evaluated,
00:29:10
restored and re released in cinemas to great success. I have
00:29:15
wonderful memories of watching a brand new print of Carnival of
00:29:18
Souls at the Mandolin Cinema in Sydney with an audience that
00:29:21
frequently gasped at its beauty and its mystery.
00:29:25
There is a generation of film buffs that know about Carnival
00:29:28
of Souls, but 1989 is a long time ago now and I'm really
00:29:32
pleased to keep the name of this film alive here and encourage
00:29:36
you to seek it out. It's currently available on prime
00:29:39
video and on that note, it's time to say the Classic Film
00:29:43
Club. Carnival is over for this week. Thank you very much for
00:29:46
listening and I look forward to our next meeting. Bye for now.
00:29:49
You can now.
00:29:51
spk_4: Work here is done. I love a happy ending.
00:29:53
Generic: You've been listening to the Film Club with Richard
00:29:57
Kuipers available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts,
00:30:01
Spotify, I Heart Radio or wherever you get your podcasts.
00:30:06
This has been another quality podcast production from bitesz
00:30:10
dot com.