blake edwards s/d, rfi

experiment in terror

and a Rosanna Arquette cameo for completists like myself

Dave Kehr in NY Times -- never saw this, but Dick Shawn, hell.

'What Did You Do in the War, Daddy?’

Directed by Blake Edwards from a screenplay by William Peter Blatty, this 1966 antiwar farce, made as things were heating up in Vietnam, is one of the most ingeniously constructed American comedies, a brilliantly sustained series of plot reversals, inverted identities and reconfigured values. The nominal star is James Coburn, flashing his frozen con man’s smile as a lieutenant leading a weary company of American soldiers through the last days of the Allied campaign in Sicily. But the picture really belongs to the innovative stand-up comedian Dick Shawn, here in his most significant movie role. As the rigidly authoritarian Capt. Lionel Cash, the stocky, bearish Mr. Shawn undergoes the painfully funny process of self-discovery through which so many of Mr. Edwards’s heroes must pass, frequently in women’s clothing, most famously in “10” (1979) and “Victor/Victoria” (1982).

Dispatched by a Pattonesque general (Carroll O’Connor) to neutralize a company of Italian soldiers quartered in a small village, Cash and his men find the enemy ready and eager to surrender, but only after the annual village festival, scheduled for that evening. Cash, a passionate believer in doing things by the book, reluctantly agrees; and the morning after finds the village square littered with the bodies of hung-over soldiers from both sides who have somehow managed to exchange uniforms during the night.

Cash himself is struggling to regain both consciousness and dignity in the bed of the village beauty (Giovanna Ralli), inconveniently enough the mistress of the Italian officer (Sergio Fantoni) who is Cash’s counterpart. But now that there’s a real reason to fight, there’s no time: The American brass is on the way, alerted by aerial reconnaissance photos and expecting to find a pitched battle in the streets. The troops have no choice but to stage one for them, a spectacle that becomes perhaps the first Italian-American co-production.

Mr. Edwards uses the widescreen format to underline the horizontal layout of the town square set and the soldierly formations that move through it, emphasizing a geometrical order that is always on the point of breaking down into chaos. But he adds a vertical dimension as well, giving the village a second level in the form of the catacombs that run beneath it. Characters drop into their depths unexpectedly, giving physical form to the film’s themes of transition and transformation.

Offering direct access to the darkness and irrationality that always haunt Mr. Edwards’s comic universe, this extra dimension can be both destructive (an American officer, played by Harry Morgan, goes mad as he tries to find his way out of the underground maze) and liberating, offering the characters a magical freedom of movement that comes in very handy when German troops show up who are not in on the joke. Coming at the end of Mr. Edwards’s amazing early ’60s run of commercial successes — “The Pink Panther,” “A Shot in the Dark” and “The Great Race” — this mordant little marvel has long been overlooked, an injustice finally rectified by this well-produced disc from the suddenly very active folks at MGM DVD.

($19.98, not rated)

I think we watched that one on television when I was about ten.

RIP:

http://twitter.com/tedstew/status/15459873546313728

search: Experiment in Terror, A Shot in the Dark, Wild Rovers, "10", Victor/Victoria, SOB

(and a few scenes in The Party)

i didnt like in experiment in terror that yr supposed to buy that you can fit $100k in twenties into a purse

you're one of what Hitchcock termed "the plausibles."

All the Clouseau-Sellers films have funny scenes, but the Panthers get silly. ASitD is an adaptation of a stage farce that Edwards inserted Clouseau into.

"Shot" and the first Panther movie can still send me into paroxysms of laughter.

i saw the great race last month. great setting/idea (stolen by h-b's wacky races) but large sections of the movie suck

Shot in the Dark is a great combination of source materials -- easily the best Clouseau film hands down. Also, love the opening sequence into the credits as well, perfect songs for both parts.

Forgot how good his speech was:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29WRP92X7Mg

RIP

never forget that motorized wheelchair

but sorry, ladies, aside from the opening credits and maybe Buddy Ebsen I don't like Breakfast at Tiffany's

Never cared for him but for a handful of movies but RIP.

Everyone forgets it because it's not a comedy, but The Tamarind Seed is my fave movie of his.

I think I remember when that played Radio City Music Hall. never saw it, reviews were withering.

I think I remember when that played Radio City Music Hall. never saw it, reviews were withering.

Which probably derives more from reviewer expectations. It's a spy movie with little action and a serious Julie Andrews.

I'm deeply saddened by his passing because you can really feel the classical Hollywood cinema passing into antiquity and glimpse its future as an object of inquiry whose relevance will have to be perpetually justified. He extended more poignantly than any director post-1960 the Ford/Hawks/Walsh communities with all their discursive narratives and contextual density. I miss those qualities in today's Hollywood but look forward to the critical reappraisals soon to come. Ramble through his filmography, y'all - there's a lot of great ones there.

RIP

And, yes, The Tamarind Seed is very much one of them. Lovely, lovely film.

Hmm. You'll have to convince me, Kev. I've seen a third of his filmography by my estimate, and with a couple of obvious exceptions I don't see any particular talent for the staging of jokes; the dude had a consistently heavy hand.

Any recommendations?

He's hard to recommend because storytelling, satire, sometimes even a reason for existing are not his strong points. I love the rich, detailed worlds he creates for his main characters. They're still Hollywood films which means they're driven by individual psychology/desire. But at his best, he always gives you a sense of a larger milieu which then has the attractive effect of knocking the self-absorption out of the stories, such as they are.

I'd recommend:

Wild Rovers
The Great Race
The Party
The Tamarind Seed
S.O.B.
That's Life!

And, what the hell, Darling Lili. They all require patience, esp. the latter, and occasionally you'll never again want to ask me for recommendations. But they're all worth it in the end.

And if he doesn't work for you, then check out George Axelrod's (screenwriter of Breakfast at Tiffany's) Lord Love a Duck which contains the funniest scene in cinema history.

I like the quasi-Brokeback chemistry btwn William Holden and Ryan O'Neal, of all people, in Wild Rovers.

I hope his funeral is half as good as the one in SOB.

I've seen Lord Love a Duck (thumbs up) and S.O.B. (last summer...thumbs down). I'll try Wild Rovers.

Also have to shout out for the Peter Gunn TV series. Everyone remembers the theme, but the show itself was quite good.

Are there any directors from the TV anthology days left? Frankenheimer, Lumet, Hill, Schaffner, now Edwards...

"whistling in the dark" sequence in darling lili probably the best thing ive seen of his.

as far as I know, Lumet is still breathing.

George Axelrod's (screenwriter of Breakfast at Tiffany's) Lord Love a Duck which contains the funniest scene in cinema history.

The whole damn movie is a scream -- which scene in particular?

I just threw Switch into the queue, solely on the nostalgia of the strange new feelings 8 year old me felt seeing Ellen Barkin getting used to her boobs in the tv ads.

On a related late-Edwards note, here's a nice capsule review of Skin Deep published shortly after Ritter died.

He wrote and directed a string of "mature" comedies in the eighties that I used to watch on TV.

xpost to Ned

Where Daddy takes Tuesday Weld clothes shopping. It might contain the greatest dissolve in cinema history too. I'm sooooo glad I didn't see it in a theater first because I would have been ejected for overly disruptive laughter.

"Grape Yum-Yum" just narrowly beats The Party's "Birdie Nums-Nums" in the hilarious wars.

"Pink Put-On! Papaya Surprise! Periwinkle Pussycat!"

Where Daddy takes Tuesday Weld clothes shopping. It might contain the greatest dissolve in cinema history too.

Elvis T. was in the room when I saw the film for the first time and he can confirm I was alternately baffled and amazed by that moment.

arrgh... mixed up Lumet and Pollack

No one seems to like Breakfast; always loved it. I know you've gotta deal with Rooney, and I know how much the book was cleaned up. But for me, the party and Hepburn and the song and John McGyver more than make up for any of that. Martin Balsam, too, plus the great scenes between Peppard and Ebsen. And the train pulling away with Ebsen on it...there's just so much that's good about it.

The book wasn't just cleaned up; the whole plot is entirely different.

I think Ebsen was on a bus.

I've never read the book, but I know that they turned it upside down: gay man becomes kept man, hooker becomes..."wild flower," etc. But, same old story, I can only judge it on the film I've seen, not the book I haven't read.

Bus, yes. Doesn't get off the bus, doesn't get thrown under the bus, just sits inside looking sad as it pulls away.

The MSM and fans would howl, but they should film the book someday.

(of course it's set in the late '40s, so too expensive)

(maybe Haynes could do it after Mildred Pierce!)

If they were to give it a try, any thoughts as to who could play Holly? The character is now so completely subsumed into Hepburn's persona, I don't know that it would be possible for anyone else to play her...Like when Frank Langella tried Quilty in the Lolita remake. He never had a chance.

I liked the Adrian Lyne Lolita.

Capote said about 30 years ago he thought Jodie Foster wd be an ideal Holly.

anyway:

TCM will alter its programming on Monday, December 27 to pay tribute to the late Blake Edwards.The new Blake Edwards memorial lineup will be:

8:00 PM Breakfast at Tiffany's
10:00 PM Days of Wine and Roses
12:00 AM The Pink Panther
2:00 AM Victor/Victoria
4:30 AM Operation Petticoat

Haha I was JUST coming here to post that! They replaced Solaris and 2001! Hahahahah!

as much as I like Vic/Vic, that's quite a rote lineup.

Anyway:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTP-cSaYbrE&feature=related

Nice revive, clemenza, and I just rewatched the ring engraving scene inspired by yr choice of it; so great, and a beautiful performance from JM.

It's an obvious choice, but I've always loved the opening credits: the gorgeous orchestral arrangement of the theme, the flup-flup of Holly's dress when she walks, and more than anything the magic hour location shots of empty streets in early '60s New York. Also, the fade to Holly's street and four note musical motif gets me every time.

isn't twilight the Magic Hour? that was clearly shot at 6am.

Read the book.

I've always understood the magic/golden hour to be at each end of the day i.e. dawn AND dusk. But yeah, obviously shot in the morning rather than evening given the emptiness.

Bill -- love the opening credits too; among my favourite. They set up the whole film.

yeah the "magic hour" is more like "magic hours," plural

i should watch this again, i recall it as a mixed bag but the good parts were very very good

did you know that frankenheimer was going to direct this? he and axelrod (who later collaborated on manchurian candidate) put it together as a package. but when the studio engaged audrey hepburn to play the lead, she said she didn't want to work with some (relative) unknown so they got blake edwards to direct.

no one will ever pony up the period budget to do an adap of Capote's plot in the future, sadly

According to the woman who spoke the other night, Capote wanted Marilyn Monroe for Holly, but Lee Strasberg told Monroe she couldn't play a call girl. So she did The Misfits instead.

Only knowing the film, I can't even begin to imagine Monroe in the role. Which I guess again points to how radically different the book must be.

you could be on Chapter 5.

Rooney claimed well into his elder years that Japanese people loved his performance.

Japanese people are notoriously polite.

mickey rooney claimed a lot of things, it should be said.

Take his word on some on other matters but not that.

Blu-ray of The Party now out on Kino. Reviews are still skittish about Sellers' casting as an Indian actor, if less so than Rooney's act in BaT.

how are those mid eighties films: A Fine Mess, That's Life, Sunset?

only saw That's Life when it came out, sort of a middling late-middle-aged dramedy version of ... Cleo from 5 to 7?! It helps if you like Andrews and don't mind late Lemmon.

Those other two are very hard to find fans of.

Yes, TL looks like the sort of thing of which Oscar and Golden Globe dreams are made.

oh I think B.E. knew by that point he wasn't really an awards guy -- V/V got there cuz it was a mildly surprising hit + homosocial value, and lingering heat from the success of "10".

Blind Date was a hit and – wow – so was Skin Deep.

Saw The Party last night for the first time in ages... It wears out its welcome when Sellers is hunting for a bathroom for 10 minutes, but yeah, "birdie num num." It was conceived of as a silent film, but Sellers balked at the last minute. Tati influence pretty clear.

The guy who plays the best drunken waiter ever is Steve Franken, who was an older cousin of Al.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hzRg3Zoawik/UEAq_RmuovI/AAAAAAAAJ68/XTBIzdISt5s/s1600/the-party-steve-franken-tries-to-pry-off-cornish-hen-by-dvdbeaver-800x346.jpg

Watched Victor/Victoria for the first time ever tonight. It is a good 20 mins too long, and much of the slapstick feels tacked on, but its queer-positivity feels remarkable for the time (although I am reminded of a review that I once read of Making Love which suggested that the immediate pre-AIDS era produced a minor, and sadly aborted, golden age for such things). I appreciated that it was Robert Preston's Toddy that provided the arc for the story much more so than Andrews, the film opening not with her but rather with a melancholy scene between Toddy and his young lover and then progressing through his various personal triumphs. Its a lovely performance, justifiably nominated (the only way I can account for Warren's nom, on the other hand, is that the Academy seems to have a thing for these Madeline Kahn in Paper Moon/Mira Sorvino in Mighty Aphrodite types), and if i never for a moment bought Andrews as a man, I not sure that I was really supposed to. I do wish the film hadn't felt the need to let Garner's character off the hook re: his attraction to Andrews so quickly, though I realize that in making this complaint I may be asking a bit too much of a (progressive, but still) mainstream Hollywood comedy from 1982.

I had forgotten that William Peter Blatty had co-adapted A Shot in the Dark, one of 4 scripts for Edwards. Still have never seen 'What Did You Do in the War, Daddy?

Coincidentally was thinking of watching Days of Wine and Roses tonight - but don't see much love for it here...

i believe i saw the original TV play long ago, never the film

(Cliff Robertson, Piper Laurie, John Frankenheimer)

Did watch it.

It's one of the films in David Thomson's 'Have You Seen...?' book. Thomson says that Frankenheimer was too busy to make the movie version, and that Lemmon pushed hard for the lead role, and also suggested Lee Remick as his co-star (tho Edwards had recently worked w/ her on Experiment in Terror, so not sure about that - anyway, she's fantastic in it). First half hour plays like a semi-sequel to The Apartment - Lemmon is a hard-drinking Public Relations man, essentially acting like a pimp for wealthy clients, who introduces secretary Remick to the pleasures of a Brandy Alexander (she likes chocolate not booze when they first hook up.) Film then charts the different stages of their mutual descent into alcoholism, naturally getting progressively darker (literally so - early scenes are all bright West Coast exteriors, later scenes dark, shabby apartments and motels). Some of the writing is a bit too on-the-nose (Remick's father literally grows roses, which at one point are destroyed by Lemmon in drunken desperation) and you need to be fairly pro-Lemmon (I am) to stomach the full-on scenes of him in a strait-jacket, detoxing (def shades of Lost Weekend there). You might also say that the film is unfairly harsh on the Remick character - she turns out to have less willpower than Lemmon - but it provides the film with a pretty bleak ending that still seems desperately sad, and is true to the larger theme of the way that you can corrupt even someone you love. The black and white photography is beautiful and crisp (by Philip H. Lathrop) and the Mancini score is suitably restrained, aside from the rather corny theme song.

So, good movie, well worth watching.

Experiment In Terror was before Days, yes. It's also very much worth seeing.

Thanks, have added it to my Amazon rental list.

Days theme song won an Oscar and sold well (esp for Andy Williams), probly sold a lot of tickets

Watched some baseball tonight: Experiment in Terror, first time. Great opening credits, a couple of very modern jump-scares, '70s-like ending (Two-Minute Warning, Black Sunday) in Candlestick. You get to see Harvey Kuenn leg out a double, Mike McCormick on the mound, and the back of Mays in one shot. Names over the loudspeaker: McCovey, Felipe Alou, Jose Pagan, Wally Moon. I wasn't sure if it was Drysdale or not on the mound--younger than my image of him--but checking the number it was.

Robert Preston would've been 100 last Friday. I've never attempted to survive The Music Man, but he's certainly a live wire of joie de vivre in Victor/Victoria and S.O.B., not to mention Junior Bonner, The Last Starfighter, etc.

The Last Starfighter was my first exposure. I use to confuse him with Karl Malden.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0NcH_XIzKY

Watched Micki & Maude for the first time in 35 years -- a Kael favorite (she compared Dudley Moore favorably with Cary Grant). Definitely doesn't all work, but it doesn't shrink from judging the wacky bigamist ("when it comes to value judgments, he's up there with Nixon and Custer"). Also has a great gag in the last reel, when Ann Reinking is beating up a disguised housebreaking Moore; he takes his beard off, and she starts hitting him harder.

also Amy Irving's dad being a pro wrestler was sort of a genius touch

I thought Micki And Maude was hilarious back in the day, Victor/Victoria is a straight up masterpiece. How come he's not better respected i wonder? I mean.. Tiffany's, A Shot In The Dark.. guy deserves to be better remembered IMO.

He's mostly remembered for the Sellers connection, esp Clouseau, and Tiffany's as well

then for being married to Julie, then maybe "10"

I can see why Operation Petticoat was his breakthrough. Grant and Curtis are ideally cast, and it plays funnier than M*A*SH now. A submarine is really a fine setting for a delirious wartime sex comedy...

supporting cast features three future smash-sitcom second bananas -- Gavin MacLeod is very funny, Dick Sargent too; alas Marion Ross is the least visible of the nuses.

It was written by the same guys who did Pillow Talk that same year, but while nearly as 'dirty' it's a bit less smarmy.

watched "10" over the weekend, probably first time in 20+ years

gen very good slapstick, and maybe best Julie Andrews perf in one of his films

i rewatched a shot in the dark a while back and it is really very good, the wordless intro before the credits is particularly marvelous

also the Dudley-Julie argument about his use of the noun "broad" would pass all but the most rigid language police standards (she wins)

The Tamarind Seed is by no means a total dud, but Julie Andrews is so bloodless when she doesn't sing or clown, and despite the Hitchcock references, Blake was no Hitch. Kind of amazing to see a Maurice Binder title sequence in a non-Bond film too.

Julie IS James Bond

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BR4-PADx-V0

The Tamarind Seed on Amazon Prime. I should stream it then, aye?

it's OKKKKKKKK

I saw our KJB's extravagant praise a decade ago and figured I could play you two off each other.

not takin' the bait

Great score. John Barry?

That's Life! is one of the worst films I've ever seen. Jack Lemmon should've been frogmarched to The Hague.

Experiment in Terror bangs so hard

I was at my mother's house the other day and it's quite a clutter zone. One thing that stood out was a dvd of Darling Lili on a table. It's a garbage movie but she has an attachment to it because her fave little brother who drank himself to death two decades ago is an extra in it. I'm keen to find the scene he's in it to get a grab but even she doesn't know. She doesn't even own a dvd player.. lol