Old Movie Of The Week: The Apartment ( 1960 )

 

 "That's how it crumbles... cookie-wise."

C.C. Baxter ( Jack Lemmon ) is an insurance clerk, working for a large firm in New York, only one of thousands... as he helpfully tells us in this movie's opening voice-over. But C.C. is heading to the top: he soon becomes an executive with his own corner office and keys to the executive washroom. We soon come to realise he's not doing all this on merit alone. He has an "arrangement" with his bosses...

C.C. is renting out his apartment to his superiors so they can have affairs with their secretaries or one-night stands, while he walks the cold streets and naps on park benches, waiting for a chance to get a few hours sleep in his own bed... before going back to work. Juggling the complicated schedule of these office lotharios takes up all of C.C's time and effort, until he begins to fall for sparky elevator operator, Miss Kublick and dreams of a way out. But she has problems of her own...

 

The Apartment is a sparkling, witty and wise comedy/drama courtesy of the master, Billy Wilder. It has a wonderful script by the director and I.A.L Diamond  -  the team behind the previous year's all-time classic Some Like It Hot. ( In fact there's a lovely little reference to Marilyn in this movie, which might be a dig from the long-suffering film-makers at Ms. Monroe's legendary difficulties in the previous film. ) And, even though it's mostly studio-bound, there's plenty of crisp black and white photography and well-realised sets, from regimented offices to smoky bars.

Jack Lemmon gives a delightful performance here, pulling off the tricky role of a basically well-meaning man trapped in a seedy situation. His character benefits materially from renting out his apartment but realises that he is losing his credibility, reputation and privacy. It's a quietly satisfying moment when he finally tells his boss, Fred MacMurray to stick his job... in a polite way...

 

Shirley MacLaine is an actress I've never had a lot of time for... but in this movie she's a revelation. Chirpy and sweet on the surface, but with a real vulnerability underneath, she's especially good in her scenes with Fred MacMurray  -  when she realises that this ex-lover will never leave his wife and family for her, it's heart-breaking. I have to say she's also very cute... which is not something I expected to ever say about Ms. MacLaine.

I really enjoyed The Apartment. It veers from sophisticated, adult comedy to serious drama
( Miss Kublick's attempted suicide ) and back again without breaking a sweat. There's also room for Jack Lemmon to show his mastery of physical comedy: who ever knew that straining spaghetti through a tennis racquet was the mark of a good cook? Oh, and the movie has a killer final line...

 

"Shut up and deal..."

( I'm cheating slightly here, calling this Old Movie Of The Week. Sarah and I actually saw this eight days ago at Gloucester's Guildhall Arts Centre. With all the various goings on around these 'ere parts in the last week, this has been my first real chance to sit down and write a review. But it's not like I've seen any film to beat this over the past week... )

Old Movie Of The Week: Singin' In The Rain ( 1952 )

Old movie of this week... or any other week, to be honest, is Gene Kelly's classic musical love-letter to old Hollywood. I'll just state for the record that I'm not ordinarily a great fan of musicals. In fact, until I was well into my late twenties, the only musicals I had any time for were The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Grease. ( Open-minded or what? ) But my opinion altered as time went by and I became more receptive to "Hey kids! Let's do the show right here!" stuff. I watched the definitive documentary on Hollywood musicals, That's Entertainment, and thought maybe there was something in this "hoofing" business after all...
I still can't handle the Gilbert & Sullivan ilk or the thigh-slappin' likes of Oklahoma or Showboat  though...

For those who don't know ( there must be some out there ) Singin' In The Rain is a story set during the late 1920s when people looked to Hollywood for glamour and escapism from their humdrum lives. Movie star Don Lockwood ( Gene Kelly ) is one of the biggest box office draws of the silent era, especially when playing opposite starlet Lina Lamont ( Jean Hagen ). They're seen as a golden couple by the public and gossip columnists... although Don secretly loathes the self-obsessed, manipulative Lina. Without warning Hollywood is hit by the bombshell that is the first "talkie", The Jazz Singer. Suddenly all the studios need talking pictures and the Lockwood/Lamont movie, The Duelling Cavalier, is a flop waiting to happen. With the help of his best buddy and fellow ex-Vaudevillian Cosmo Brown ( Donald O'Connor ) and new-found love Kathy Selden ( Debbie Reynolds ) Don has to revive his career and extricate himself from the clutches of Lina. But first, there's the matter of Lina's voice which is far too shrill and shrewish for the new-fangled medium of talking pictures...

Singin' In The Rain was actually a cynical attempt by MGM to build a movie around a pile of old Arthur Freed songs from previous films. That changed when star Gene Kelly came on board and single-mindedly turned the movie into the vibrant, post-modern classic that defined his career. He hired actors ( O'Connor ), harrassed others when they couldn't live up to his demanding perfectionism ( Reynolds ), antagonised studio bosses, and generally did whatever was necessary to realise his vision. Happily, the finished product became recognised as the most beloved musical ever.

This movie endures whilst contemporaries have been forgotten for a variety of reasons, not least for the sharp and witty screenplay, cheekily referencing the realities behind the Hollywood facade. Gene Kelly himself once said "Everything in Singin' In The Rain springs from the truth. It is a conglomeration of bits of movie lore." Sometimes biting the hand that feeds you pays off!
The breezy charm of the three leads is also a delight to behold. You can easily believe that Don and Cosmo are old pals who have slogged their guts out to rise above the speakeasys and pool-halls of their youth to become Tinseltown players. And the romance between Don and wannabe starlet Kathy is surprisingly touching for what is basically a light-hearted comedy.
And then there's the dancing...

All the leads bring an exuberance and joie de vivre to their dance numbers but Kelly, of course, is the star of the show and dances his socks off. His effortless, manly style is strong and sinuous, a mile away from the gliding, High Society hoofing of Fred Astaire. That famous scene where Don splashes about in the surprisingly "damp" LA weather is rightfully one of the most iconic moments in movie history -  good news for Kelly, who was fighting a flu-induced fever at the time and was dancing in "rain" laced with milk to make it stand out in Technicolor.
The "Broadway Melody" section of the movie takes up a good 15 minutes of the film and is a dazzling showcase for Freed's songs, Kelly's talents and the absolutely eye-popping visuals by cinematographer Harold Rosson. It's also a fantastic showcase for Cyd Charisse, bringing a real sass and sensuality to her role as an idealised gangster's moll. And she gets to blow smoke out of her nose into Kelly's face!
This section of the film also brings us the beautiful dream sequence below where Kelly pursues Charisse across a sound-stage turned soft-focus Dali landscape. Stunning!

So, Singin' In The Rain is without doubt in my mind a five-star, all-time classic... even if it is a musical :-)

Sarah and I were lucky enough to see the film at Gloucester Guildhall Arts Centre last weekend, shown as part of the venue's season of classic movies. The print was slightly dark and scratchy
( one of Kelly's lines disappeared altogether ) but it was great to see it in 35mm as originally intended. One of my favourite movies... in my favourite venue? Perfect!

Old Movie Of The Week: The Missouri Breaks ( 1976 )

Since I've got a lot of time on my hands while I'm still recovering from my radiotherapy, I've been watching quite a lot of TV ( probably too much! ) and I thought it would be cool to start another semi-regular feature here at TGWS... this time on all the old movies I'm watching. Starting with Arthur Penn's 1976 revisionist Western The Missouri Breaks...

Otherwise known as The Jack & Marlon Show. As the poster tagline says above: "One steals. One kills. One dies."
Jack Nicholson stars as Tom Logan, leader of a group of inept rustlers in late 19th century Montana. More proficient at boozing and whoring than rustling, Logan's gang plan to steal horses from across the Canadian border and sneak them back into the US across the Missouri Breaks. Local landowner David Braxton ( John McLiam ) has other ideas and hires a "Regulator" to hunt them down... in the form of eccentric ( ie bat-shit crazy ) gunman Lee Clayton ( Brando ).

Although a failure at the box office on release this film has gained a solid reputation over the years and I'm glad I've finally got round to watching it. There is some beautiful location filming ( only to be expected from Arthur Penn ), loads of salty, earthy dialogue and a great cast of character actors, led by the ever-dependable Harry Dean Stanton, backing up the stars.



Nicholson plays Tom Logan as a laconic, contained character, knowing his life is going nowhere, who tries for one ( doomed ) stab at happiness when he romances Braxton's daughter, Jane, sparkily played by Kathleen Lloyd. Brando, in contrast, is a delight as a vegetable-munching, dress-wearing, cold-eyed killer... seemingly channelling Richard Harris' accent and his very own eccentricities. The two only share about three scenes but when they do the star power fairly fizzes from the screen. Not a classic film by any means, but definitely a quirky, unusual treat for those ( like me ) who aren't usually Western fans.