Change Your Image
Tommy-1986
Reviews
Death of a Salesman (1985)
Flawed but still conveys the play's power
While there were a few odd choices in the casting of this TV-movie (Or rather, the then-current BRoadway revival this film preserved), overall the powerful realism and tragedy of Arthur Miller's classic play still shine through. Dustin Hoffman has some very good moments as Willy Loman, but overall his odd physical and vocal mannerisms are a bit too distracting. Still, those good moments are really, REALLY good and enough to almost make you forget everything else. John Malkovich mumbles his way through the role of Biff. It is Kate Reid who gives the greatest performance as Linda. She feels the most like a real person and her "Attention must be paid" speech and her final "Free and clear' monologue are heartbraking. Stephen Lang is suprisingly excellent as Happy, and the supporting cast is good. Tony Walton's sets (Which won him an Emmy) are interesting- not quite "stage-bound," but not really cinematic, either. The whole film has that feel but it's hard to imagine a more haunting and effective score than the one Alex North composed for the original stage production, and which was used in the film. Overall, the play is so good that it really cannot have less than a strong impact, even in a flawed production like this one. But perhaps other film versions (Such as the recently re-released 1966 TV-adaptation with the original Willy and LInda, Lee J. Cobb and Mildred Dunnock) are stronger overall than this one.
Flower Drum Song (1961)
An under-rated, charming film
All right, all right. Yes, "Flower Drum Song" is a bit dated, sexist, and even a little stereotypical. The score contains a few great numbers like "Love, Look Away" and "I Enjoy Being a Girl" (In spite of the sexist lyrics, it's a fun song), but overall is not as good as other Rodgers and Hammerstein scores. But there is still much to like and enjoy in this charming film version of R&H's Broadway hit. The cast is great, and includes several veterans of the Broadway show, most notably former Oscar-winner Miyoshi Umecki, who is utterly enchanting as Mei Li, completely rising above the characterization of a placid "picture bride" who just sort of goes with the flow and doesn't question any of her "superiors" (men) with a performance that is sweetly comical and even a little touching at times. Other Broadway veterans Patrick Adiarte (You would never guess he was the same guy who was that annoying Crown Prince in the movie of The King and I) and Juanita Hall (from South Pacific) are likewise great, and Jack Soo is hilarious as the hip, deadpan Sammy Fong. Of the actors chosen just for the film, James Shigeta has a pleasent voice and acting style as Wang Ta, and Benson Fong is good enough in the rather stereotypical role of the stubbornly traditionalist Chinese father. As for Nancy Kwan as Linda Low, she is rather wooden as an actress and must've been an even worse singer (As she was dubbed by BJ Baker), but does a great job dancing in the nightclub sequences. But yes, Pat Suzuki from the Broadway show would've been a much better choice, judging by the original cast recording. Reiko Sato is pretty good as Helen Chao and Marilyn Horne does a beautiful job of dubbing her in "Love, Look Away." Aside from the great cast, the orchestrations are wonderful and better than the Broadway arrangements, and the choreography by Hermes Pan is really, really good. This is one of the more faithful filmizations of a Broadway show, aside from cutting one song (The forgettable "Like a God"), re-ordering a few others and throwing in a few new scenes. And while perhaps Rodgers and Hammerstein couldn't quite bring the depth to this story of Chinese immigrants adjusting to life in San Francisco's Chinatown, they did it with great charm and overall respect. There are many delights in the score such as "A Hundred Million Miracles," the hilarious "Don't Marry Me," "Sunday," "Grant Avenue," and the lovely "You Are Beautiful." Even if these are not on a level with the other R&H scores, they are well-written and memorable. Truly an under-rated film that deserves another look. Right now in Los Angeles, a new revival of the stage version with a completely new book by Asian-American playwright David Henry Hwang is appearing, possibly on its way to Broadway. It makes sense to finally have this story told from a truly Asian-American perspective, and hopefully, though some of Hwang's choices sound a bit odd, (Putting in something about CHinese opera, cutting Sammy Fong and the whole "Other Generation" song and idea, which is pretty crucial to the original, and making Mei Li a refugee from Chinese Communism) hopefully this new version will further allow people to reconsider their view of this show and its film version.
Anne Frank: The Whole Story (2001)
Compelling, more realistic portrayal of an icon
Though unfortuantely the filmmakers were not allowed to use quotes from Anne Frank's diary in telling the story of its author, this highly compelling TV-filmization of Melissa Muller's excellent biography still serves as an extremely wel-told account of the life of the young Jewish girl who tried so hard to remain a normal teenager in the face of horrifically extraordinary circumstances and even adds a bit more dimension to many of the characters and events in the story. Much more powerful than the 1959 filmization of the Broadway play based on the story, (Which did have some good suspense sequences-And is that necessarily a good thing when you're talking about a subject like this?-but otherwise excessively sentimentalized and sanitized the tale), Robert Dernholm and Kirk Ellis direct with great sensitivity, but nevertheless do not flinch from showing the daily terror of living in a war (Such as in a few quick but incredibly effective air raid scenes) and finally, the degradation of the concentration camps, including brief nudity, which more than likely did destroy Anne's seemingly indomitable spirit as the film suggests, difficult as that is to swallow. The film is also almost uniformally well-cast. Hannah Tyler Gordon not only bears an eerie resemblence to Anne, but also does an astonishnigly fine job of conveying the moods, hopes and feelings of Anne and every teenager, as well as her intelligence and perceptiveness far beyond her years. And with the exception of Ben KIngsley's portryal of Anne's father Otto as a rather cold, resolutely calm and steadfast voice of reason (Except for the shattering final scene), the supporting cast offers excellent, fully dimensional portrayals, particularly Tatjana Balcher's finely shaded Edith Frank, Lili Taylor's Miep Gies, and Brenda Bleythn's Auguste Van Pels, and the young actress playing Anne's friend Hannah Gosslarr. Such new details as Fritz Pfefers longtime sweetheart whom he had to leave to go into hiding and Mrs. Van Pels' change from materialistic whiner to sympathetic helper in the concnetration camps only make them more real. Overall, this is probably the definitive film biography of Anne Frank, a moving and highly important piece of filmmaking and educational tool. In light of the mini-Holocaust New York, Washington DC, and Pennsylvania suffered last month, we should look to Anne again as a reminder of how much we should strive to triumph in our own little ways over such horrors. Perhaps Anne ultimately didn't, but hopefully we can.
Marnie (1964)
Flawed, but not without the Hitchcock touch
"Marnie" has many things against it. First of all, Hitchcock's efforts and getting to the sexual heat and/or vulnerability beneath Tippi Hedren's cold facade aren't nearly as successful as his similar "project" with Grace Kelly. There are brief flashes of something, particularly in the scenes with Louise Latham where as others have noted the sense of a lost child yearning for a mother's love is well-portrayed by Hedren, but on the whole she is unappealing throughout, as she was in "The Birds" (Though she is a bit more expressive as an actor here than in the earlier Hithcock movie). On the strength of her performance alone, it's pretty diffcult to care about what makes Marnie tick. Sean Connery is merely adequate as the man obsessed with finding out what the trouble with this sexually and emotionally frigid obsessive-compulsive liar, assumer of false identities, and kleptomaniac (Yeah, I think I got all her hangups...) is, and the supporting cast, apart from Ms. Latham, is bland. Although the script tries to tie up everything neatly at the end, you still get the uneasy feeling something isn't being said and there are still unanswered questions. But in spite of this, "Marnie" still manages to be a highly entertaining suspense thriller, if not the psycho-sexual one Hitch wanted it to be. Apparently he had a pretty obsessive fascination with Miss Hedren off-camera and it definitly shows up in the film. Because *he* cares so much about figuring out what makes her tick, we begin to us well, even though she doesn't exactly make us want to. But more than that, Hitch's trademark style still hasn't lost its touch, and he can definitly still make your hair stand on the back of your neck with suspense, especially in the scene where Marnie tries to steal money from the publishing company's safe when no one is around... or so she thinks. His direction and Bernard Herrmann's as usual highly effective score ae about the only things "Marnie" has going for it, but they're enough.
Days of Wine and Roses (1962)
A hard-hitting film. Lemmon and Edwards are a surprise.
For most if not all if his career before "Days Of Wine And Roses," Jack Lemmon was known for playing comical "nervous nelly" types (And he's still most famous for that characterization). But he proves in "Days Of Wine And Roses" how affecting and believable he could be in an unfailingly serious treatment of a sensitive subject- how alcoholism can destroy your life and relationships. The much-praised almost delirious desperation he shows in the scene in the greenhouse and especially his expression in the haunting final shot are just two examples of the range he shows in this film. Likewise, Blake Edwards, best known up till that time for directing light comedies like "Breakfast at Tiffany's" (and still best known for the wacky "Pink Panther" movies) was a surprising choice to direct this movie, but he handles it with taste and sensitivity and never makes the treatment heavy-handed. I can't believe I said in a review of "Darling Lilli" (Under my former IMDB screen name of "Tommy-92") that that was the most serious film he ever directed. I hadn't seen this movie but knew of it then; obviously this one is almost certainly the most serious film he ever handled and he does a great job. Lee Remick is very good as Lemmon's wife and the fate of her character is heartwrenchingly ironic to watch. Both she and Lemmon won richly deserved Oscar nominations but unfortunately seem to have gotten lost in the competition (Which included Gregory Peck, Laurence Harvey, Peter O'Toole, Anne Bancroft, Katharine Hepburn, and Bette Davis). In another year, surely... Great performances also from Charles Bickford as Remick's father and Jack Klugman, who handles potentially preachy dialogue with intelligence and restraint in his role as an Alchoholics Anonymous regular. Maybe it could've gone even further than it did but had to be held back because of the restrictions of the time it was made in (1962), but it still is just as powerful, if perhaps maybe a little less shocking, as it was when it first came out. Important not only in its subject matter but in showing the range of two of the most beloved but perhaps under-rated people in movies.