Torn Curtain

 Torn Curtain (1966)

Starring Paul Newman and Julie Andrews

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

Written by Willis Hall and Keith Waterhouse

Click here for my Letterboxd review

Click here for my earlier RyMickey's Ramblings review

The (current) RyMickey Rating:  B

Slap Shot

Slap Shot (1977)

Starring Paul Newman, Strother Martin, Michael Ontkean, Jennifer Warren, Lindsay Crouse, Jeff Carlson, Steve Carlson, and David Hanson

Directed by George Roy Hill

Written by Nancy Dowd

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: C-

Movie Review - Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)

Starring Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman, and Burl Ives

Directed by Richard Brooks

***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***

Seeing as how the only Elizabeth Taylor movie I'd seen prior to today had been The Flintstones, I figured I'd better make reparations with what some would call a heinous cinematic crime by watching one of the recently deceased star's more revered works.

Without a doubt, even after viewing just one movie of hers (because, let's face it, the less one thinks about The Flintstones, the better), it's easy to see why she became a movie star.  One, she's stunning onscreen.  The camera loves her in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.  She draws your eye to her in every scene.  Second, and perhaps more important, she's a pretty darn good actress.  As modern Southern belle Maggie, she exudes bitchiness and prissiness.  However, you get the odd sense that Maggie is the only character onscreen who is being truthful with all of her feelings which allows the audience to connect with her rather than distance themselves from her.

Family secrets are the underlying basis of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof's story and the film certainly has the aire of 1950s melodrama so prevalent in films back then.  Buoyed by Taylor's great performance and a similarly nice turn from Paul Newman as Maggie's alcoholic husband Brick, who, like his name implies, doesn't allow his emotions to show, the actors elevate the film beyond the corny vibe that easily could have overtaken this piece.  Tennessee Williams can certainly write some great dialog (although he's not credited in writing the screenplay here), but he does have a tendency to layer the emotions and drama on pretty thick.  Don't get me wrong, I've liked mostly every Williams piece I've seen/read, but his depiction of "family" isn't exactly "normal," and, if you're not in the mood for him, his work could seem laughably absurd.

That wasn't the case for me here, though, as I bought into the tale.  Unfortunately, the movie's not without faults.  I felt that the character of Brick simply doesn't work for the first half of the film.  Newman admirably tries to create a persona for the guy, but the character is such a one-note crotchety grump for fifty minutes, that I had difficulty finding any type of personality in the character.  Of course, there is an emotional arc that Brick eventually takes part in, but it took a tad long to get there.  I don't place the fault in Newman, however, it would be interesting to see another take on this to see if Newman's to blame or the character itself is just a tad flawed.

Similarly, I can't say I was a huge fan of Burl Ives' portrayal of Big Daddy.  Even though I'd never seen a staging of the play before, the character of "Big Daddy" is somewhat of a literary icon in that I knew a whole lot about the backstory of the character before the movie even started.  That larger than life ideal that I had set up for myself just didn't mesh with the performance of Burl Ives.

Still, as an introduction to Elizabeth Taylor, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof was a good choice.  She is quite the scene-stealer and certainly carries this film on her shoulders (which, considering the talent that is Paul Newman, is surprising).

The RyMickey Rating:  B

Movie Review - The Towering Inferno

The Towering Inferno (1974)

Starring Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, William Holden, Faye Dunaway, Richard Chamberlain, Robert Wagner, Fred Astaire, and O.J. Simpson

Directed by John Guillermin

***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***

The Towering Inferno, a frivolous action film about a burning skyscraper, is a flick that couldn't be made in a post-9/11 world.  Nor should it be.  There's an oddly prescient line at the end uttered by Steve McQueen's Fire Chief O'Hallorhan that nowadays could send shivers up a viewer's spine...

"You know we were pretty lucky tonight.  Body count's less than 200.  You know, one of these days, you're gonna kill 10,000 in one of these firetraps."

Eerie.

From the same producing team that brought us The Poseidon Adventure (a guilty pleasure of mine), Inferno is a generic disaster flick filled with characters that are placed within the plot simply to allow more deaths to occur by the film's conclusion.  The underlying plot is that architect Doug Roberts (Paul Newman) has built a 140-something-floor tall skyscraper and it's having its unveiling to the bigwigs in San Francisco.  However, on the night of the party, it's discovered that there is some faulty wiring in the building and, sure enough, things go haywire.

That plot is fine...but the paper-thin quality of it can't sustain itself for the film's ridiculously long running time of over 165 minutes.  The film is much too long and considering the "stars" ranging from Fred Astaire to O.J. Simpson, there aren't nearly enough celebrity deaths to whet this viewer's appetite.

Still, I have to say that despite the fact the film isn't all that good, I enjoyed it.  While not quite reaching the guilty pleasure level of The Poseidon Adventure, The Towering Inferno is an enjoyable (long) diversion if you're ever bored one afternoon.  Paul Newman, Faye Dunaway, and William Holden throw in better performances than a film of this caliber deserve and they manage to make the film much more watchable in the process.

The RyMickey Rating:  C+

Hitchcock Month - Torn Curtain

Torn Curtain (1966)

Starring Paul Newman and Julie Andrews

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

Well, I must say that this was a pleasant little surprise that I didn't see coming.  For years, I never managed to put Torn Curtain into the dvd player despite its acting pedigree of Paul Newman and Julie Andrews simply because it seemed like it was going to be a tremendously heavy-handed spy thriller.  I am pleased to report, I was wrong.  While it is a political thriller, Torn Curtain is actually incredibly watchable with just enough twists and complications to make it interesting, but not too many to make it convoluted.

Paul Newman plays Michael Armstrong, an American physics professor and Julie Andrews is Sarah Sherman, his fiancée and assistant.  When the couple arrives in Copenhagen for a conference, Michael begins acting suspiciously.  Sarah soon discovers that he is flying to East Germany and she begins to believe that he is defecting to the other side of the Cold War.  Sarah sneakily follows him behind the Iron Curtain and eventually discovers that Michael is essentially using his physics knowledge to spy on the Germans while pretending to have become allied with them.  Needless to say, things quickly go awry, and Michael and Sarah soon find themselves on a whirlwind chase through East Germany in an attempt to return home.

Most appealing about Torn Curtain is what I mentioned already -- spy thrillers have a tendency to be overly confusing and that's not the case here.  And it's not like Torn Curtain talks down to the viewers -- this isn't "dumbed down" in any way.  But Hitch and his screenwriter managed to make this more of a "chase" movie with touches of political intrigue than vice versa and the result is a successful genre film.

As a little aside, I also wanted to commend Hitch on his lack of subtitles in this flick.  Michael and Sarah are in a foreign country, unable to speak the language.  Rather than (a) have all the characters speak English and/or provide a translator for the characters, or (b) provide the audience with subtitles, Hitch has the Germans actually speak German (a crazy concept, I know) without providing any clues (other than body language) as to what they're saying.  This puts both the characters and the audience in a state of confusion at times.  This adds immensely to the tension in a way that one might not expect.  Incredibly clever on Hitch's part.

Hitch apparently had a tough time with both his lead actors, but none of that difficulty comes out on the screen.  Newman is quite good and Andrews, while completely underused, is always a joy to watch no matter what movie she's in.  The two of them together may lack a little chemistry (which was apparently Hitch's issue with the stars), but I think they simply weren't given enough to work with to make their chemistry truly gel.  Plus, every single side character was truly fun to watch.  Sometimes in Hitchcock films, the secondary character actors tend to overact, but here, I really liked every single actor onscreen.

While there's no jawdropping set pieces, there are several scenes that are quite tension-filled.  As I said in my review of Marnie, it's nice to see that Hitch didn't lose his touch as he started to finish his career (it's a real shame his two final films -- Frenzy and Family Plot -- couldn't end his career with a bang).  Needless to say, I highly recommend giving Torn Curtain a look-see.  It's one that really didn't appeal to me in the slightest prior to watching it, but it's a film that I will certainly watch again in years to come.

The RyMickey Rating:  B+

Classic Movie Review - Cool Hand Luke (1967)

Starring Paul Newman and George Kennedy
Written by Donn Pearce and Frank Pierson
Directed by Stuart Rosenberg

The story here is simple...man gets arrested for a seemingly petty crime, gets sentenced to two years in prison on a chain gang, attempts to escape multiple times, but is constantly getting caught. On its own, the story's okay...however, the flick is just thirty minutes too long and contains one too many escape attempts.

That being said, Paul Newman is pretty awesome. I really liked him in this. There's a charm and charisma that he exudes works extremely well for this character in this setting.

I've got too many other reviews to write to go into much more detail about this. Suffice it to say, Newman was great, but the flick itself was just okay.

The RyMickey Rating: C

Movie Review (Revisited) - The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)

So, I went and watched this movie last night at a movie theater. I actually grew to enjoy the movie a bit more (I already liked it having previously watched it just a few months prior). Below, you'll find my review that was posted back on May 10. Things that are bolded are my thoughts based on this second viewing.

***Available on DVD***

Starring Tim Robbins, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Paul Newman

Written by Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, and Sam Raimi

Directed by Joel Coen (and Ethan Coen)

When the President of Hudsucker Industries kills himself, the board of directors, led by the conniving Sidney Mussburger (Newman), decides that in order to be able to purchase stock in the company at a low price, they need to hire a boob to run the company into the toilet for a little bit. Little did they know that their boob, a fresh out of college Norville Barnes (Robbins), has some ingenious plans dealing with toy production ("you know, for kids") that could prove very profitable for the company and may just foil Mussburger's scheme.

This is only the fifth Coen Brothers film that I had seen and up until this point I had only liked one (No Country for Old Men). I can now add The Hudsucker Proxy to the "like" column. A very Frank Capra-esque, 30s/40s style film, the movie has a genuine feel-good message peppered with quick pitter-patter dialogue between its leads. It certainly feels like the film could've come right out of another era. Nothing racy, raunchy, or explicit here...just the story of a man trying to make his way the best he can.

There were winning performances by Tim Robbins (who, despite the fact that I despise his politcal leanings with a passion, I genuinely like most of his work) and Paul Newman (then again, Paul Newman is always winning). My only problem with the film (and what keeps it out of the upper echelon of my grading rubric) is Jennifer Jason Leigh's performance as a fast-talking newspaper reporter who goes undercover at Hudsucker Industries to find out more about the newly appointed president. She was essentially copying Katharine Hepburn's mannerisms and dialect step-for-step, enunciation-for-enunciation. As the film is certainly a tribute to a bygone era, I'm sure the Coens wanted Leigh's role to be an homage to Hepburn (in some regard), but I just found her performance over-the-top and grating.

And this is where I found a huge difference in watching this movie in a theater and on DVD. On the smaller screen, Leigh's performance seemed way over-the-top, but on the big screen, her performance felt perfect. Yes, she was definitely giving homage to Kate Hepburn in the role, but it really worked this time for me.

Overall, though, this little film is certainly worth a rental if you haven't seen it.

The (Original) RyMickey Rating (5/10/09): B+
The (Revised) RyMickey Rating (7/28/09): A-

Edited to add: I'm a fan of music scores in films (my folks would always give me a hard time about this as I'd often mention the score when I'd talk about whether I liked or disliked a movie) and there's also a great one in this flick by Carter Burwell -- very fitting with the era they were trying to depict...

Movie Review - The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)

***Available on DVD***

Starring Tim Robbins, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Paul Newman

Written by Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, and Sam Raimi

Directed by Joel Coen (and Ethan Coen)

When the President of Hudsucker Industries kills himself, the board of directors, led by the conniving Sidney Mussburger (Newman), decides that in order to be able to purchase stock in the company at a low price, they need to hire a boob to run the company into the toilet for a little bit.  Little did they know that their boob, a fresh out of college Norville Barnes (Robbins), has some ingenious plans dealing with toy production ("you know, for kids") that could prove very profitable for the company and may just foil Mussburger's scheme.

This is only the fifth Coen Brothers film that I had seen and up until this point I had only liked one (No Country for Old Men).  I can now add The Hudsucker Proxy to the "like" column.  A very Frank Capra-esque, 30s/40s style film, the movie has a genuine feel-good message peppered with quick pitter-patter dialogue between its leads.   It certainly feels like the film could've come right out of another era.  Nothing racy, raunchy, or explicit here...just the story of a man trying to make his way the best he can.

There were winning performances by Tim Robbins (who, despite the fact that I despise his politcal leanings with a passion, I genuinely like most of his work) and Paul Newman (then again, Paul Newman is always winning).  My only problem with the film (and what keeps it out of the upper echelon of my grading rubric) is Jennifer Jason Leigh's performance as a fast-talking newspaper reporter who goes undercover at Hudsucker Industries to find out more about the newly appointed president.  She was essentially copying Katharine Hepburn's mannerisms and dialect step-for-step, enunciation-for-enunciation.  As the film is certainly a tribute to a bygone era, I'm sure the Coens wanted Leigh's role to be an homage to Hepburn (in some regard), but I just found her performance over-the-top and grating.

Overall, though, this little film is certainly worth a rental if you haven't seen it.

The RyMickey Rating: B+ 

Edited to add:  I'm a fan of music scores in films (my folks would always give me a hard time about this as I'd often mention the score when I'd talk about whether I liked or disliked a movie) and there's also a great one in this flick by Carter Burwell -- very fitting with the era they were trying to depict...