Sophia and Marcello and Vittorio (again)

I have written quite a bit here about the magic created by Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni, particularly when directed by Vittorio De Sica. Vittorio was one of those great larger than life characters (as per my label on him covering his career as both actor and director).

I have been watching some of those early Lorens lately - from BEFORE she went into international and American films: TWO NIGHTS WITH CLEOPATRA (when she was 19 in '53), ATTILA, TOO BAD SHE'S BAD (left) - a delicious '54 comedy where she is conman Vittorio's chatterbox daughter and Marcello is the dim taxi-driver who gets involved with them, it is sheer joy), WOMAN OF THE RIVER - which I liked so much when I saw it as a kid (see labels for reviews), and now finally, the missing link has become available, the 1954 GOLD OF NAPLES - directed by De Sica with Silvana Mangano and Sophia, who was just rising to stardom here. I shall be looking forward to seeing that shortly, review to follow.



Sophia was still only 23 when so-starring with the likes of Alan Ladd (BOY ON A DOLPHIN), John Wayne (LEGEND OF THE LOST), etc. Her 10 American films from 1957-60 are mainly fluff but HOUSEBOAT with Grant, THE BLACK ORCHID and the Cukor western HELLER IN PINK TIGHTS all have their charms. She is more animated back in Italy, Naples to be precise, with Clark Gable in IT STARTED IN NAPLES [his second last film] with Vittorio in support - then in 1960 came the international hit of TWO WOMEN - Vittorio directs, Belmondo is in support and Loren at 25 plays the mother of a 14 year old daughter, gets the Academy Award (the first actress to do so in a foreign language) and goes on to those other interesting European films as well as headlining epics like FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE or OPERATION CROSSBOW. The De Sica ones are rather choice though: YESTERDAY TODAY AND TOMORROW in '64, I particularly like the Naples story where she is the endlessly pregnant wife of Marcello, being pregnant keeps her out of jail, until poor Marcello cannot perform any more. MARRIAGE ITALIAN STYLE in 1965 is terrific as well, from the great Italian play "Filumena". SUNFLOWER in 1970, set partly in Russia, though was a return to old-fashioned melodrama and just did not work at all and was very dated in that interesting period of cinema pushing new boundaries.



De Sica also popped up in other Loren vehicles such as THE MILLIONAIRESS as he continued acting in various movies like THE MONTE CARLO STORY (1957 with Dietrich), NERO'S LOST WEEKEND with Alberto Sordi, Brigitte Bardot and Gloria Swanson (more on this next week) and various movies like THE ADVENTURES OF MOLL FLANDERS and ANDY WARHOL'S DRACULA. Like that other larger than life director who also acted John Huston, Vittorio needed to work to fund his lavish gambling habit. His last big commercial success as director though was the 1971 THE GARDEN OF THE FINZI-CONTINI from the Giorgio Bassani novel. His last directing effort with Loren (and Richard Burton) THE VOYAGE in 1974 was also a return to old fashioned cinema and did not seem to be released for a long time, a dvd was finally issued a couple of years ago here in the UK.



Marcello's LA LOI in '59 has been a recent discovery of mine (as per review) and then of course he began his long Fellini assocation. He and Sophia had one last co-starring outing as part of Altman's not entirely successful PRET-A-PORTER (left) in '94. Vittorio died in 1974, and Marcello in 1996; Sophia now 76 and looking as sensational as ever will hopefully have a few more good roles, after the damp squib that was NINE. It is one of the great international careers, comparable to Taylor's.
Here's an interesting snippit: Back in 1961 when EL CID first opened in New York they wanted to have Heston as sole name above the title (this was after BEN HUR of course) but Loren's contract guaranteed equal billing, it went to court (I remember reading about in the papers) and the first ads had to be pulled to give her equal billing - which probably didn't endear her to Heston then!

Great Katharine

Katharine Hepburn surprised us all in her later years - before she got too frail - by suddenly coming out of seclusion after all those years of slipping in and out of hotels by the kitchens and dodging photographers, as she published her autobiography and accompanying film telling us just what she wanted us to know about her. There she was on lots of interviews and documentaries - always with that red pullover knotted over her shoulders - discussing her career and Spencer. All those books too - photo books, Her Life in Pictures, the very good "The Private World of Katharine Hepburn" with marvellous shots of her at home, at work, at play etc. All those biographies too by Alexander Walker, Barbara Leaming, Charlotte Chandler, Charles Higham, and her own little book about the making of THE AFRICAN QUEEN. Two good ones after her death are the affectionate tribute by Scot Berg, allowed into her inner circle - and the exhaustive tome by William K Mann, which paradoxically made one admire her all the more.

Hepburn was one star who invented herself and continued doing so into her old age. She is the one star I would have liked to have met ( well, apart from Kay Kendall, Romy Schneider and Monica Vitti). Ever since the late '60s when she burst back into our consciousness winning two best actress Oscars in a row, being on the cover of LIFE and other magazines as she was lionised all over again as we sought out the old movies and dutifully attended retrospectives. The only one I did not want to see then, and just saw this week, was THE TROJAN WOMEN - but that is a different story [review to follow].

We will always have HOLIDAY and BRINGING UP BABY and SUMMERTIME and rediscovering those early '30s ones like CHRISTOPHER STRONG ... as we remain fascinated by SYLVIA SCARLETT, ALICE ADAMS, Susan Vance, Tracy Lord, Linda Seton, Tess Harding, Rose Sawyer, Jane Hudson (no, that one), Eleanor of Aquitaine and all the rest - even her Jade in DRAGON SEED is mesmerising in its awfulness... she really only deserved two of those 4 best actress awards though! Pauline Kael wrote very perceptively (in her collected reviews) on the Hepburn '30s persona and how different she was to all those other ingenues.

I like the shot above of her looking at that great collection of MGM stars - she is in the front row wearing slacks - below, its gin-and-tonic time as Kate relaxes at home with old pals dancer Robert Helpmann and Anthony Harvey who directed THE LION IN WINTER. Helpmann had co-starred with her on stage in Shaw's THE MILLIONAIRESS (and they toured Australia) - despite one's affection for Loren and Sellers in the film, this is one show one wishes one had seen...

A Bette moment or two ...

A perfect Bette moment occurs in THE VIRGIN QUEEN, a rather turgid costumer by Fox in 1955, where - 16 years after THE PRIVATE LIVES OF ELIZABETH AND ESSEX - she reprises her Elizabeth I, this time as a querellous, cantankerous middle-aged monarch. The film is really about Walter Raleigh though and his quest to return to the Americas if the queen will grant him the money, and his romance with a lady at the court, Bess Trogmorton - one of Joan Collins' early forays in Hollywood. The film plods along as directed by Henry Koster but Bette enlivens it every time she makes an entrance. The best moment, and which should be one of Bette's classic lines, is when Richard Todd as Raleigh steps forward to put his cloak over the puddle for Bette to walk on - then as they stand around in the cold air another noblemen tries to seek favour by offering her his fur cloak to wrap around her. Bette/Elizabeth strokes the fur and says (in that Bette voice) "sable, the finest sable" to which he replies "yes, Ma'am, there is no finer" and she retorts "much too fine to waste on a mere queen" and flings it in the dust as she flounces off. Perfect!

The Davis impersonators of course had a field day with her 60s films like BABY JANE and DEAD RINGER, which the likes of Charles Pierce used to do a whole act based on the two Bettes, the nice Edie who runs a cocktail lounge on Figuroa and nasty Margaret, who stole Edie's beau and is now a rich widow. The early scenes with them together are great fun as Margaret sashays around her mansion and bites out those lines about "Poor, Father. A. Wino" or "but you have not seen my castoffs!" while Edie snarls "you haven't GOT that much money". Edie at the end of her tether with all her debts and seeing how rich Margaret has cheated her, hatches a plan to kill Margaret and take her place .... will it work? Will her nice detective beau Karl Malden rumble her, or sleazy Peter Lawford (who else?) as Margaret's lover, and there is that dog, and the number to the safe, and forging signatures etc. It is delirious trash but just try looking away as this middle-aged dumpy woman commands the screen. Directed by Bette's old co-star Paul Henreid, and score by Andre Previn.
A 1956 "Films and Filming" had a whole issue on Bette, with a good interview.
And for Jeff: that poster from THE ANNIVERSARY.



Getting back to classic Bette, one always returns to that trio by Wyler: JEZEBEL, THE LETTER and THE LITTLE FOXES, and that perfect trio of NOW VOYAGER, THE GREAT LIE and OLD ACQUAINTANCE, where nice Bette copes with the gorgons Gladys Cooper, superbitch Mary Astor and of course Miriam Hopkins...Then there is DECEPTION in 1946 where her vixen in furs has to choose between Henreid or Claude Rains, and I have a soft spot for JUNE BRIDE which does not really work at all but is great fun, with Bette at her most brittle.
My report on seeing Bette in person in 1972 is at Bette Davis label.

Elizabeth in Vogue

A lovely shot of Elizabeth in 1967 for "The Sixties in Vogue". Plus perhaps the only time Liz and Marilyn were in the same room? at a Sinatra gig in 1961 - this may be a faked picture, but it looks like how they looked at that time. A later shot of Liz and Bette. There is also a picture of Elizabeth and Sophia Loren [which I cannot find now...] taken at the Poni's villa circa 1973 when Burton was making that film with Sophia, De Sica's THE VOYAGE - which did not work for any of them; and of course she looked so perfect in that shot on location for GIANT and THE SANDPIPER....
My report on seeing her, Burton and Losey in 1970 is detailed at Joseph Losey label.

I love Paris in the springtime when it sizzles...

Having done London in the Movies (London label) our thoughts turn to Paris, particularly now that it is April, and influenced by GOODBYE AGAIN (below), here are some random Paris moments, by day and night. Rome, soon ....

There is Tony Perkins driving around Paris in 1961 in GOODBYE AGAIN; Jean Seberg driving in BONJOUR TRISTESSE in '58; Corrine Merchand in CLEO FROM 5 TO 7 (above), '61, waiting to hear her medical prognosis; Paul Newman, Joanne, Diahann Carroll again and Sidney in PARIS BLUES; Jeanne Moreau walking around Paris by night in LIFT TO THE SCAFFOLD; Charles Aznavour and Jacques Charrier driving around trying to pick up girls (like Anouk Aimee and Belinda Lee) in LES DRAGUEURS; young Jean-Pierre Leaud in THE 400 BLOWS, both '59; Sophia Loren doing the twist (it is 1962) with Perkins again in FIVE MILES TO MIDNIGHT, GIGI learning about love..., that all star cast in IS PARIS BURNING? 1966; Charlotte Rampling in PARIS BY NIGHT, Tom Hanks at the Louvre in THE DE VINCI CODE, and of course the MOULIN ROUGE and any number of movies by Truffaut (LE PEAU DEUCE), Malle (LE FEU FOLLET, ZAZIE DANS LE METRO), Demy, Varda, Chabrol et al - Gerard Philipe and Anouk Aimee in their artists' garret in LES AMANTS DE MONTPARNASSE; Gina Lollobrigida and Anthony Quinn over at Notre Dame; Monica Vitti and Maurice Ronet dining at the Eiffel Tower in THE SCARLET LADY, '69; Romy Schneider, Capucine and O'Toole heading the madcap cast of WHAT'S NEW PUSSYCAT, '65 and of course Elizabeth looking stupendous in THE LAST TIME I SAW PARIS, '54 ! Then we have Belmondo and Seberg in BREATHLESS, and (below) Brialy and Gerard Blain in Chabrol's LES COUSINS, '59, and of course Fred and Cyd in SILK STOCKINGS, and over there is that super apartment which LES GIRLS shared (Kay Kendall, Mitzi Gaynor and Taina Elg) mind you that might have been on the MGM backlot. For extensive looks at Paris in the early '60s the extras on Varda's CLEO FROM 5 TO 7 or Malle's ZAZIE are choice.

So yes there's hundreds of movies set in Paris... of course there is Hollwood Paris and the real gritty city of light, as diverse as AMELIE, GARE DU NORD, Tati's PLAYTIME, Godard's ALPHAVILLE, the cartoon GAY PURR-EE, thrillers like LA HAINE, RIFIFI, LE FLIC and Polanski's FRANTIC and THE TENANT, QUIET DAYS IN CLICHY, VICTOR/VICTORIA and of course Garbo in the mythical Paris of NINOTCHKA, and all those French noirs with Gabin, Delon, Moreau, Schneider, Signoret etc, oh and some movie with Gene Kelly...



No one though did Paris in the Movies like Audrey Hepburn - so many of her movies are set in or have visits to Paree: FUNNY FACE, her cookery school in SABRINA and she returns all elegant from her year in Paris, HOW TO STEAL A MILLION where she and O'Toole tootle around in that little car, BLOODLINE, LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON with Gary Cooper, in France at any rate in TWO FOR THE ROAD with Albie, PARIS WHEN IT SIZZLES and of course CHARADE with her fabulous Givenchy outfits for hiding on the Metro or visiting the flea-market, or dining on a bateau mouche down the Seine with Cary Grant ...
I must now play that Malcolm McLaren CD PARIS with the likes of Juliette Greco, Catherine Deneuve and Francoise Hardy vocalising, and some terrific Parisian rhythms. [I have been to Paris about 20 times over the years, its convenient from London now by Eurostar, and one of my best friends was married and living there for over a decade...]

"Films and filming" redux

To tie in with new movie cult magazine LITTLE JOE [inspired of course by Joe Dallesandro] and their appraisal on British movie magazine Films and filming during it's heyday from 1954 to 1980, by Justin Bengry, here are a few more of those daring (then) magazine covers.

To give the magazine it's due this was the late '60s and early '70s when the barriers regarding nudity and daring themes were being stretched all the time, by the likes of Kubrick, Antonioni, Schlesinger, Losey, Visconti and Peckinpah down to more exploitative trash - but yes, as the article states "one could no longer read it on the bus or at the office", hence part of it's decline, and as more explicity gay magazines became available.



As per the labels, I have written about Films and Filming several times before, as I had been getting the magazine since 1962 (when I was 16), I put my own contact ad in when I was 17 in 1963 [in that pre-internet age] and made lots of new friends - one of whom I must write to now, as we are still in contact 48 years later (he is now resident in San Francisco).
I worked for the magazine in the '70s and knew the owner Philip Dosse and did some writing for the editor Robin Bean. Philip and Robin are gone now but they would be pleased to see their magazine is still fondly remembered and is an important cultural artefact.

And as for Little Joe - here is the London advertising for when FLESH opened back then, amid a flurry of police arrests ... it became a hot topic as the quality press campaigned for freedom of choice to see material like this, similar material which now would be available on television most nights.... how things change. (click image twice to enlarge)

Aimez-vous Brahms?

A new selection of Movies We Love! starting with the 1961 sudser GOODBYE AGAIN (others to include BLACK NARCISSUS, JOHNNY GUITAR, A LETTER TO 3 WIVES, ALL ABOUT EVE, NORTH TO ALASKA, LEGEND OF THE LOST, DONA HERLINDA AND HER SON, A BIGGER SPLASH, THE HISTORY OF ADELE H, WILD RIVER and ooh several others...)
GOODBYE AGAIN is a nice entry to those early '60s sudsers like IMITATION OF LIFE, THE BEST OF EVERYTHING, A SUMMER PLACE, BACK STREET, ADA etc. this is a rather low-key one though in black and white, and again we zoom around Paris in the early 60s with rich spoilt Tony Perkins, and his rich bitch mother Jessie Royce Landis (a good role for Jessie here).

It is Ingrid Bergman's show though as 40ish Paula, a successful interior decorator, hired by Jessie and getting involved with her son Tony. Paula has been carrying on for 5 years with businessman Yves Montand who is certainly having his cake and eating it, often letting Paula down at the last minute when he picks up a new 'Maisie' (he calls them all Maisie...). Paula is used to this but longs for commitment. Tony is going to provide it in spades as he follows, woos, flatters and finally gets Paula, which of course in turn makes Montand jealous. There are nicely judged moments along the way as our stars eat, drink, dance and drive around Paris by day and night. Perkins' little boy act gets a bit tiresome actually - he has a nice drunk scene in a nightclub with singer Diahann Carroll, and interesting to see British actress Alison Legatt (the spinster sister in THIS HAPPY BREED) sharing his office where Perkins pretends to work.


Francoise Sagan's novel is nicely adapted here, though the end is amusing now - Paula sends Perkins away saying she is "too old" [Ingrid too old at 40!], when Montand decides to marry her - as his single life isn't quite so satisfying without her to return to. But once married he reverts to his old ways with a new Maisie, leaving Paula on her own again, rubbing night lotion into her face. A nice touch too is when she is driving and crying so she turns on the windscreen wipers as she thinks it is raining.

The older female does not fare too well in these Sagan stories: Kerr in BONJOUR TRISTESSE, Joan Fontaine in A CERTAIN SMILE or Bergman as Paula here. Litvak was good with actresses, viz his films with Davis, De Havilland, Kerr (THE JOURNEY) and Bergman previously in ANASTASIA. This is a nicely satisfying soap - Perkins after PSYCHO had a good run in Europe with some super ladies: Ingrid here, Mercouri (PHAEDRA), Orson's THE TRIAL with Moreau and Romy, with Loren again in FIVE MILES TO MIDNIGHT in '62 and Bardot in THE RAVISHING IDIOT.