Monday, April 02, 2007
LAST SNORT
Today we watched Ionesco's
This was a production of The American Film Theater (AFT) which was a failed attempt to film famous contemporary plays and then play them in a theatrical kind of way; reserved seats and all that.
It was a failed venture with many bad casting decisions.
Of course, for many of these plays, this is the only record we have and so we must do the best we can.
Zero Mostel who starred in a Broadway production of the play is in this film along with Gene Wilder.
It is directed by Tom O'Horgan, a brief bright flame of talent in the 70s.
He takes the play outside and ruins it. It is a theatrical piece meant for the imagination of the viewer.
Another example of an AFT bust.
But I was there to see Zero Mostel. It is his Film Festival after all.
And amid the wreckage of the production, his performance does come alive and we get a glimpse of the stage work.
The play is about the unaccountable spread of fascism in the 30's and 40's.
The hero, an anti-hero, is a weak, alcoholic man who does not go along with the crowd, all of whom have turned into rhinoceri.
There are a lot of metaphors and symbolism. Overloaded.
This was a nice trip back.
Remember, we were all waking up from the 50's.
Think of this, if and when you see this film, and be kind.
We were innocents trying to make sense of a world that had just gone from one mindless conformity to another one. Never mind what they say about pink shirts and charcoal flannel pants; white bucks.
They were the early signs that things were changing.
It would not be long until we had the flower child and public nudity to say nothing of faggots and all that stuff.
They say that the 60's are over but you know the culture wars continue. It is the same thing today.
Labels: avant garde, films, society, Zero Mostel
Saturday, March 31, 2007
ZERO TIME
Today's film in the Zero Mostel Film Fest was Elia Kazan's
Here, Mostel plays it straight as a killer partnered with Jack Palance. They kill a guy over a gambling debt. The guy is off a ship and has pneumonic plague. So they have it too.
It sounds like a stretch but it is not. The film is very good and has great acting by Richard Widmark (an old flame), Paul Douglas, and Barbara Bel Geddes.
It rates at least a 4 out of Netflix5.
One of the amazing things is to see Mostel move in the final chase scenes. There are no stunt men or doubles. There is running, jumping, sliding, falling. He could always make the moves. Like a lot of fat men.
He and Palance (another maverick) are great together.
Another aside.
Kazan disgraced himself by naming names at the HUAC hearings.
Remember we saw The Front the other day?
Mostel and Bel Geddes were on the blacklist.
This film was made right before the naming. I don't know if they were on Kazan's list but it makes you wonder.
Decades later, when Kazan got a lifetime Oscar, some people remained seated or turned their backs on his acceptance speech. It was very controversial. He is still not forgiven by many in the business.
Mostel didn't work for a few years and then got back into the theater which was not as badly hit by the purge.
Ten years later he was a star in Something Happened on the Way to The Forum both on stage and in the film—that was in the festival too.
This is just another side of this man that makes him so interesting.
We have one more Mostel film to see but it has not arrived yet; Rhinoceros which is actually a filmed theater piece.
They had to send it from someplace in NY State. I guess we don't have much call for filmed theater out here. At least not starring Zero Mostel.
So we will be back to the NYTimes Best Films tomorrow. Then back to Zero.
Labels: blacklist, films, Zero Mostel
Friday, March 30, 2007
MIDEAST CRISIS
Today's Zero Mostel film (festival, remember?) was
with Humphrey Bogart and Lee J. Cobb,
Mostel does his obsequious guy routine. He is pretty good.
But not good enough to overlook the quality of the film which is pretty low.
It is pulp for the eyes.
Bogart plays an anti-hero.
It is OK.
I wanted to see the range of Mostel's career and he was in some stinkers.
This is one.
I got a great photo out of it though. Unaccountably, Wikipedia had this one in his profile.
Labels: films, noir, Zero Mostel
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
APPROACHING ZERO
Today's film in the Zero Mostel Fest was
wherein he plays a shyster lawyer whose son is part of a gem robbery team.
He manages to steal every scene and is the only player that keeps the film moving along.
It is a caper film and not all that good but it was good to see Mostel do his stuff.
The highlight is where he turns the tables on the boys twice. The first time is very exciting.
In the second, he slips them another one and carries on in high gloat.
The rest of the cast is OK. Robert Redford is Robert Redford. George Segal, also typecast, walks through his stuff.
Only Ron Liebman, as the driver, offers the equal energy of our Zero. The scene where they are together is something to see a few times.
The film gets 3 Zero gets 5.
This was the hardest work of all the Mostel films so far.
Labels: films, Zero Mostel
Monday, March 26, 2007
NAMING NAMES
Today's Zero Mostel Film Festival Film was Martin Ritt's
which is about the blacklisting scandals of the 1950's.
The film was made with 7 or 8 people who were blacklisted themselves.
The credits roll with each name and their blacklisted date. A fine payback for the McCarthy and HUAC bastards.
A lot of this will seem familiar; Kafka-esque investigations that sort of crawl up their own assholes but still scare and intimidate people and actually destroy some people's lives.
Zero Mostel plays the comic Hecky Brown who is unable and unwilling to name names. His friendship with Woody Allen (the star) is what turns Woody, the front for blacklisted writers, into a rebellious witness.
It is all very good preserving a delicate balance between comedy and tragedy.
Mostel's role capitalizes on his ability to maintain this balance in all his career. He is hilariously funny and has this underlay of tragic awareness.
I saw this when it came out and was excited about seeing it again.
He is a 5 and the film is a 4 out of Netflix5.
Labels: blacklist, criminal morons, films, Zero Mostel
Sunday, March 25, 2007
ROMAN FARCE
Today's entry in the Zero Mostel Film Festival was Richard Lester's
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966)
In this one, Mostel recreates his stage role.
He is the star.
Phil Silvers, Jack Gilford and Buster Keaton add to the stew.
We see the patented, full bore comic actor Mostel; the rolling eyes, the wild gestures, the 'sounds' that only his voice can make.
Type casting.
The film itself is quite enjoyable. Funny. Fast paced.
A Keystone Cops kind of chariot race near the end drags the film down. Bad decision.
Zero could really sing well. He went on to star in the original Fiddler on the Roof. Sadly, they decided not to use him in the film.
I am sorry that I never saw him on the stage.
Nevertheless, I have this film to watch and listen to for his musical self.
This was Mostel's big return from his blacklisted appearance.
We will see more on this when we watch The Front.
Labels: blacklist, films, Zero Mostel
Saturday, March 24, 2007
ZERO SUM GAME
I am holding a
Film Festival.
I first saw Mostel as a kid. It would have been around the early fifties. Maybe earlier.
It is possible that I saw Dubarry Was a Lady because my first recollection is that he was funny.
That film is not on disc.
We will never know.
From the minute I saw him I thought of him as very special. In my heart.
His history (at the link) is really fascinating. I love the story of his painting in the museum.
All this was brought about by seeing him again in The Producers. Mesmerizing.
So I am going back through some of the films.
Today's film was
This is a Humphrey Bogart noir police procedural. It is pretty good, actually. It is one of those that you could have figured out the answer to the riddle yourself because the clues we see are the same as the ones Bogart sees.
The film also has some other favorite character actors; Everett Sloane and Ted Di Corsia.
Mostel plays a nebbish thug. He is apprehended inside a church and we see him being brought out forcefully; a cop at each arm and leg with him roaring his unique roar.
He soon quiets down and becomes a bit of a sad sack. Somehow he tugs at our hearts even as he talks about his willingness to off someone (with an ice pick). He is a key witness.
He holds all his scenes. Bogart has to push him around and yell to stay on top.
The Mostel imp is inside the character and you can see it.
In a way he is using his nebbishness as protection. I had no doubt but what he would have used the ice pick if given a chance.
The photo above is at about the same time as this film.
It is a good look at the kind of yoeman's work Mostel used in the movies before he got blacklisted and well before his return as a major theatrical star.
I am not going to bother rating these films as there is no point. I am watching Zero not the movie.
Labels: films, noir, Zero Mostel
