COLLECTION UPDATE: BARNES & NOBLE CRITERION COLLECTION HALF-PRICE SALE JULY 2021

 For most people, the month of July is the ideal time for outdoor Summer activities like swimming, cookouts, family vacations, etc. But for those of us who happen to be obsessed with collecting  films on DVD and Blu-ray, July is the month to head down to our local Barnes & Noble store, or sign in to their online site, and take advantage of the 50% discount on their selection of titles from the Criterion Collection. And if we happen to miss out on the July sale, there is always another one to look forward to in November. I've been using these sales to add to my own personal collection of Criterion titles for a few years now. This month I picked up sixteen items. I'll begin with the movies I've already watched.

THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE (1962)

Starring Frank Sinatra. Laurence Harvey, Janet Leigh and Angela Lansbury. Directed by John Frankenheimer. This is the only film that I saw previous to this sale. And I also own a DVD copy. This is an amazing film about political intrigue, brainwashing, and twisted family relationships. Not easy to watch in several places, but brilliantly made. Excellent acting by all concerned. One of the reasons I decided to upgrade to this Blu-ray is because it includes an interview with Miss Lansbury. I've often wondered what she might have to say about the monstrous mother-from-hell that she portrays in this movie!

PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK (1975) Starring Rachel Roberts, Dominic Guard, Helen Morse and Ann-Louise Lambert. Directed by Peter Weir. So glad I finally saw this film, especially after hearing such wonderful things about it over the years. Set in Australia in 1900, the story tells of a group of schoolgirls spending the day at this strange geographical landmark. Four girls decide to go exploring, although one of them turns back. The other three go missing, as well as one of the teachers, who goes exploring on her own. Only one of the girls is found alive, and she claims not to remember anything that happened to her or the others. A mystery that is never solved. Completely fascinating.

BRINGING UP BABY (1938) Starring Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant. Directed by Howard Hawks. Screwball comedy at its best. I'm not the biggest Hepburn fan in the world, but she really shines in this one, and is matched perfectly by Grant. The zany story involves a paleontologist, a ditzy heiress, a leopard (make that two leopards), a dinosaur bone and a hilarious progression of misunderstandings, all performed at a breakneck pace with dialogue so quickly spoken that the average viewer will probably miss half of it. Great fun. I may have seen this on television back in my lost youth, but I don't remember it.

HISTORY IS MADE AT NIGHT (1937) Starring Jean Arthur, Charles Boyer, Colin Clive and Leo Carillo. Directed by Frank Borzage. Absolutely one of the best films I've ever seen! This was recommended to me by one of my fellow Youtubers, and I'm so glad I picked it up. It has everything: drama, romance, comedy (mostly supplied by Leo Carillo), disaster, and heroism. Beautifully played by the talented cast. Colin Clive, whom I know mainly from the Frankenstein films, gives a standout performance. I'm becoming a big fan of the films of Frank Borzage.

HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR (1959) Starring Emmanuelle Riva and Eiji Okada. Directed by Alain Resnais. I decided to pick this title up because I had seen another Resnais film, LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD (1961), which had been released by Kino-Lorber, and which I found to be impressive and fascinating. This film is quite different, but no less fascinating. Riva plays a French actress who has a brief, intense affair with Japanese architect Okada in post-war Hiroshima. I can do no justice to the complicated narrative by trying to explain it here. This is a film that must be seen again and again, just like LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD, in order to even come close to understanding its dreamlike structure. Very highly recommended.

ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS (1955) Starring Jane Wyman, Rock Hudson and Agnes Moorehead. Directed by Douglas Sirk. I had heard so many comments about the films of Mr. Sirk over the years, but the only one of his works that I'd seen was IMITATION OF LIFE (1959), which is a big favorite of mine. So I decided to give this one a try, and I'm very glad that I did. Wyman and Hudson play two people from different socioeconomic classes who fall in love and experience prejudice and opposition from friends and family. The cinematography is incredible.

MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION (1954) Starring Jane Wyman, Rock Hudson, Agnes Moorehead and Otto Kruger. Directed by Douglas Sirk. After enjoying ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS, I decided to expand my Douglas Sirk experience, so I went back to Barnes & Noble and bought this film, which was the first pairing of Wyman and Hudson. This has a much more complicated story and gives Hudson to do some of his best dramatic acting of his early career. A very good film. This package also includes the 1935 version of the same story, starring Irene Dunne and Robert Taylor, and directed by John Stahl

THE PALM BEACH STORY (1942) Starring Claudette Colbert, Joel McCrea, Mary Astor and Rudy Vallee. Directed by Preston Sturgess. Sophisticated romantic comedy that is filled with brilliant dialoge that comes fast and furious. Miss Colbert is perfect for a film like this, and she is well matched by the rest of the talented cast. The story has a married couple in New York splitting up. The wife heads for Florida and the hapless husband chases after her. Insane fun. Standout performance by Mary Astor.

THE PARALLAX VIEW (1974) Starring Warren Beatty, Hume Cronyn, William Daniels and Paula Prentiss. Directed by Alan J. Pakula. This would make a marvelous double feature with THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE. An intricate, slow-burn political thriller with Beatty playing a reporter who is investigating the assassination of a senator at the top of the Space Needle in Seattle. Exciting and all too true to life.

DRESSED TO KILL (1980) Starring Michael Caine, Angie Dickinson and Nancy Allen. Directed by Brian De Palma. I avoided seeing this film for decades because I was expecting it to be a cinematic bloodbath that celebrated violence for its own sake. How wrong could I have been? This turned out to be one of the best thrillers I've ever seen. Angie Dickinson plays an unhappily married woman in New York who has a one night stand with a stranger and ends up murdered. A prostitute, played by Nancy Allen, witnesses the killing. She, along with Dickinson's teenage son and her psychiatrist (Caine), get involved in trying to trap the killer. Dark and stylish. 

Listed below are the films I haven't yet watched.

COME AND SEE (1985) Starring Alexei Kravchenko. Directed by Elem Klimov. One of my Youtube friends did a detailed commentary on this film about a year ago. I had never heard of it, but his description fascinated me. He also made it clear how visceral the film is and very difficult to watch at times. As I tend not to process violence terribly well, I avoided picking this up. But I've decided to give it a chance. Most critics have described it as extremely effective and worthwhile. It involves a young man who enters the Soviet Army to fight the Nazis. While he expected adventure and glory, he finds instead a nightmare of unending horror. I will no doubt have to be in just the right mood to sit down and watch this.

THE ROAD TRILOGY:

ALICE IN THE CITIES (1974)

WRONG MOVE (1975)

KINGS OF THE ROAD (1976)

Directed by Wim Wenders

WINGS OF DESIRE (1987) Starring Bruno Ganz. Directed by Wim Wenders. About a year ago, I rewatched Wenders' PARIS, TEXAS (1984), which I had seen and hated on its initial release. But after so many years, I absolutely loved it. As a result, I wanted to explore Wenders' work a little more, so I picked up THE AMERICAN FRIEND (1977), starring Dennis Hopper and Bruno Ganz, a film I also enjoyed. Now I'm ready to keep on exploring. I've heard so many wonderful things about WINGS OF DESIRE.

THE GUNFIGHTER (1950) Starring Gregory Peck. Directed by Henry King. Again, I've been hearing good things about this film from several of my fellow Youtubers who love to collect physical media and post video reviews and commentaries. This is described as a dark take on the Western genre. Peck plays Jimmy Ringo, a gunslinger who is trying to start a new life, but keeps getting pulled back into his old one. Sounds similar to the Clint Eastwood classic UNFORGIVEN (1992), another film I watched recently for the first time.

THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC (1928) Starring Renee Falconetti. Directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer. I've been meaning to pick up this film for a long time. This was made during the last years of silent pictures, and is said to be one of the masterpieces of the era. 

DESIGN FOR LIVING (1933) Starring Fredric March, Miriam Hopkins, Gary Cooper and Edward Everett Horton. Directed by Ernst Lubitsch. From the "pre-code" era of Hollywood films, this involves an unusual "gentlemen's agreement" between three Americans living in Paris. I took a class focusing on pre-code films a few years ago and it opened up my experience to many fascinating films. Miss Hopkins was at the top of her game during this period. And with the added talents of March, Cooper and Lubitsch, this one will have to be good.

THE JIMMY SHOW (2001)

What a pleasant surprise THE JIMMY SHOW turned out to be!

I picked up a copy of the film because it features Ethan Hawke, my new favorite contemporary actor, in a supporting role. Hawke's filmography is quite extensive, and I'm trying to fill in the gaps as much as possible. So I like to peruse the titles available at Oldies.com and take advantage of sale prices. This title came up, one that I'd never heard of. Nor had I ever heard of Frank Whaley, the director and star of the film. After researching his career, I learned Whaley has an extensive filmography of his own, going back to the year 1987. And I've seen some of his films: IRONWEED, FIELD OF DREAMS, BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY, THE DOORS, JFK, and PULP FICTION. Still, I wasn't familiar with his name. After seeing THE JIMMY SHOW, I will be looking for his films as I do Ethan Hawke's.

The film is based on an Off-Broadway play entitled VEINS AND THUMBTACKS, written by Jonathan Marc Sherman. Whaley plays Jimmy O'Reilly, a warehouse worker who aspires to be a standup comedian. He lives with, and takes care of, his invalid grandmother (Lynn Cohen), who raised him. At the film's beginning, his longtime girlfriend, Annie (Carla Gugino), announces she's pregnant, and the two marry and take up residence with Jimmy's grandmother. The couple has a daughter, Wendy (Jillian Stacom). Jimmy is irresponsible at his job and also steals cases of beer from his employer on a regular basis. His best friend at the warehouse, a slacker-type named Ray (Ethan Hawke) keeps warning Jimmy that he's bound to get caught and get fired. There's a local comedy club that has an open mic night, and Jimmy starts appearing there. His attempts at comedy fail miserably, so he begins talking seriously about his life. He gets practically no audience response until some people began heckling him. He heckles them right back. Jimmy loses his warehouse job and ends up in a series of low paying jobs that don't last long due to his behavior. His wife leaves him, and he's devastated by the loss of his family. His club performances become more and more downbeat and cynical as his life spins further out of control.

The circumstances of this story can't be called groundbreaking or even terribly original. But the film is an extremely well constructed and well acted character study. Jimmy O'Reilly is similar to many other cinematic characters we've seen quit often. He's a man who is so caught up in his own desperate delusions and dreams that he isn't able to face the reality he's living inside of. Jimmy suffers one bad break after another, but much of his misfortune is brought on by his own bad choices and lack of responsibility. On the other hand, he accepts, sometimes grudgingly, his responsibility to his grandmother, and for the most part treats her with patience and consideration. He also truly loves his wife and daughter, and that love is returned. But he is unable to sacrifice his ill-fated comedy club dreams and do what's necessary to be a good provider. Frank Whaley is excellent as Jimmy, He's 100% sympathetic, and 100% exasperating at the same time. Carla Gugino, another name I wasn't at all familiar with, does an equally good job as Jimmy's wife.

As for Ethan Hawke, my reason for watching this film in the first place, he gives his usual believable performance as Ray, the slacker, who turns out to be much more solid and responsible than Jimmy. It's interesting to compare the two characters. At first, Jimmy's drive and ambition to make himself into more than just a warehouse worker makes the laid back Ray seem like a pathetic loser. As the story progresses, however, Ray is the one who has more of a grasp on his reality and his need to keep his job and get with the program of living a stable existence, while Jimmy proves himself the consummate slacker.

This film would make a good companion piece to one of my favorite Dollar Tree discoveries, the 2017 film MADTOWN, starring Milo Ventimiglia as another aspiring standup comedian whose monologues at an open mic club reveal the hard, sad truths of his past. Maybe I need to start hanging out at comedy clubs and soak up some real life drama.

THE JIMMY SHOW was filmed on location on Staten Island. Frank Whaley had directed another film there in 1999:  JOE THE KING, also with Ethan Hawke in the cast. 

My one complaint about the film is the piano-based musical score, which was overused and too lighthearted for the downbeat proceedings. When the same music was played over the end credits, I muted the sound because I was tired of hearing it. 

THE JIMMY SHOW played at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2002.

FILM DIARY FOR JUNE, 2021

 All films were first watches unless marked with *.

PLANET OF THE APES  (1968)*

BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES  (1970)

CHALLENGE THE DEVIL  (1963)

SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE DEADLY NECKLACE  (1962)

LIFEBOAT  (1944)*

THE BIRTHDAY PARTY  (1968)

LAWRENCE OF ARABIA  (1963)

ESCAPE FROM THE PLANET OF THE APES  (1971)

CONQUEST OF THE PLANET OF THE APES  (1972)

HIGH SCHOOL  (1940)

INVASION OF THE SAUCER-MEN  (1957)*

BATTLE FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES  (1973)

BEHIND THE PLANET OF THE APES  (1998)

WHERE THE RED FERN GROWS  (1974)

DISTURBIA  (2007)

THE 400 BLOWS  (1959)

MY FAVORITE WIFE  (1940)*

NIGHT AND DAY  (1946)*

VICKI  (1953)*

DANGEROUS CROSSING  (1953)*

THE EYE CREATURES  (1965)

AND THE BAND PLAYED ON  (1993)

HOUSE OF STRANGERS  (1949)*

SAME TIME, NEXT YEAR  (1979)

UNFRIENDED  (2014)

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW  (1964)*

PENGUIN POOL MURDER  (1932)*

MURDER ON THE BLACKBOARD  (1934)*

ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S LIFEBOAT: THE THEATER OF WAR  (2005)

TEENAGERS FROM OUTER SPACE  (1959)*

FLASHBACK  (2020)