04/19/08:
DEEP THROAT (Gerard Damiano, 1972) 
The R2 DVD edition via which I finally got to watch this “cultural phenomenon” and “censorship milestone” has to be the most atrocious and redundant in existence. I’m sure that even those film buffs personally unfamiliar with the film are aware of what its title is alluding to, but the uninitiated would not really be any the wiser after having sat through it in this truly lamentable guise! Finding the film to be so (intentionally) comical was surprising enough – snatches of dialogue and especially the song lyrics heard throughout are virtual howlers – but I certainly wasn’t expecting the most infamous of theatrically-released adult movies to be this chaste: in fact, it is so heavily cropped on this disc that its hardcore content is virtually nullified entirely. I’m fully aware that what one doesn’t see (but only imagines) is usually more effective than what he does get (or is permitted) to view – but this travesty is simply too ridiculous for words. “And deep throat to you all” indeed!
All that is left for me to do, therefore, is to tell of what it is about and something of its legacy. Linda Lovelace plays a woman who has been born with a misplaced clitoris and, consequently, doesn’t enjoy the physical act of love. Her best friend doesn’t seem to have any such problems and, in fact, arranges marathon lovin’ sessions for Lovelace at her home but to no practical avail. Thus, she visits a nerdy sex therapist who not only manages to identify her organic oddity in no time but, understandably enough, comes up with the obvious solution faster than you can say “Deep Throat”! The cure works wonders and Lovelace is soon employed by the therapist to service his own case studies and himself personally in her own spare time…
Unlike common knowledge, DEEP THROAT was not the first hardcore movie to be exhibited theatrically in America but it was easily the most notorious one of its era. Its unequivocal and overreaching cultural standing need only be assessed by the fact that the mysterious insider in the 1974 Watergate scandal which shook the nation chose to be identified by (of all things) the name of this porn flick! Besides, Oscar-winning director Mike Nichols is said to have personally recommended the film to controversial novelist Norman Mailer at the time of release! While Lovelace appeared in an official sequel two years later and the film itself inspired a feature-length documentary in 2005, there are at least two more adult movies – released in 1987 and 1989 – with “Deep Throat” in their title but these are apparently unrelated to the original.
04/26/08: ALVAREZ KELLY (Edward Dmytryk, 1966)
This is another film I decided to re-acquaint myself with in order to pay a well-deserved tribute to the late, great Richard Widmark. It’s one of the last Westerns he did and, in fact, it came at a time when the old-style Hollywood approach to the genre was coming to an end; actually, Widmark’s co-star from ALVAREZ KELLY – William Holden (here playing the title character) – would only a few years later feature in the film that gave the Western new-fangled maturity and an equally potent elegiac tone i.e. Sam Peckinpah’s THE WILD BUNCH (1969)!
Anyway, to get back to the matter at hand, ALVAREZ KELLY seems to me to be unjustly neglected when it comes to discussing large-scale Westerns of the era. It may be because there is little action
per se – though the climactic skirmish/chase (culminating in the blowing-up of a bridge: let’s not forget that Holden was one of the leads in two big-budget, star-studded war adventures, namely THE BRIDGES AT TOKO-RI [1954] and THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI [1957]) is exciting enough – or the fact that the plot is atypical (inspired by a true incident in which a herd of cattle, sold to the Yanks by neutral Holden during the American Civil War, is stolen
en masse from under their very noses by the opposing Confederate side, led by Widmark and who has abducted Holden to this end!). With respect to this curious narrative, the film opens with a nice animated sequence depicting the importance of securing food at a time of war throughout the ages.
The two stars’ respective parts have been tailor-made for their established screen personas. Holden is cynical, opportunistic and charming (ironically, I’ve just recalled that I used these exact same words to describe Widmark’s younger character in GARDEN OF EVIL [1954]!). Widmark, on the other hand, is here a tough army man whose commitment to the Southern cause makes him ruthless above all else – alienating him from fiancée Janice Rule, and even considering drowning the entire herd in a swamp if it’s to fall back into the hands of the Yanks; sensing his unreasonable outlook early on, Holden quips: “God save me from dedicated men”! They’re at their best in a couple of major confrontation scenes: the first in which a one-eyed Widmark shoots off one of Holden’s fingers (while the latter is in prison) because of his lack of co-operation, and when Holden coolly explains to an aghast – and subsequently furious – Widmark that the clandestine passage he arranged for (on a steamboat which has just sailed) was not for himself but rather the disenchanted Rule! Predictably, but believably, the two men’s relationship ends in mutual respect – with Widmark even saving Holden’s life towards the end.
The supporting cast is led by the afore-mentioned Rule, who does quite well by her Southern belle role (another lady – played by Victoria Shaw – proves more responsive and loyal to Widmark’s exploits), and Patrick O’Neal in the part of the Unionist Major who negotiated the initial deal with Holden, is having a hard time convincing his superiors of the enemy’s incredible plan, and who can’t fathom how the black slaves are unwilling to emancipate themselves (but rather shield those who want to keep them under their thumb!). By the way, surely one of the film’s main assets is John Green’s cheerful and memorable score (complete with a hackneyed yet agreeable title tune sung by The Brothers Four, an obscure folk group which seems to have remained active to this day).
This unusual Western, then, is more than just a pleasant diversion (an epithet by which it’s often dismissed): good-looking, engaging, and certainly never boring – despite a not inconsiderable length of 110 minutes (though it’s listed officially on most sources at my disposal as being 116!).
04/26/08:
SLEUTH (Kenneth Branagh, 2007)
With the passage of time, it has become fashionable in film to not just remake a popular movie or a celebrated literary work but also to re-envisage it. And so it is, therefore, that this new version of Anthony Shaffer’s famous two-hander is thoroughly revamped (by screenwriter Harold Pinter and director Kenneth Branagh, no less) for the technological age we live in, thus having the character of crime novelist Andrew Wyke now inhabiting not an old-fashioned country chateau but a veritably impregnable fortress. When the original film version of SLEUTH appeared in 1972, four-letter words were just being ‘introduced’ onto the silver screen but, judging by Pinter’s excessive use of expletives in his adaptation, one might be inclined to think that the famous writer has only just discovered them for himself! Another unwarranted addition is the utterly tasteless gay overtones which come to the fore in the finale and almost succeed in wrecking the whole movie.
That the new version of SLEUTH is a misfire is unmistakable but that it is not a complete failure is mostly due to Michael Caine’s thespian skills and Kenneth Branagh’s visual flair (more on that later on). Again, in the past there have been various instances where one of the principals in the original movie version is given a cameo in the remake – Victor Mature in SAMSON AND DELILAH (1984; TV), Gregory Peck, Robert Mitchum and Martin Balsam in CAPE FEAR (1991), Charlton Heston in PLANET OF THE APES (2001), etc. – but here Michael Caine takes over Laurence Olivier’s part. Still, this is not even so novel a concept as it might at first appear as Caine had already portrayed basically the same jealous schemer role in Ira Levin/Sidney Lumet’s inferior variant on SLEUTH itself, DEATHTRAP (1982)! On the other hand, Jude Law once again steps inside Caine’s old shoes – having previously embodied the latter’s signature role of ALFIE (1966) in a 2004 remake, a fact which surely must not have escaped the film-makers or casting directors. I’m not particularly fond of ALFIE myself so I haven’t bothered to watch the remake, but I adore the original SLEUTH and I must say that Law’s characterization in this newer version is an annoyingly overbaked one that fails to do justice to Caine’s interpretation in both movies.
A clear indication of how poorly the Harold Pinter-Kenneth Branagh film fares against the Anthony Shaffer-Joseph L. Mankiewicz one is a simple, numerical one: the latter is a hefty 139-minutes long and virtually whizzes by while the former’s 86 minutes feel like three solid hours! The first third is quite decent, actually, but after the highly ineffective ‘Inspector Doppler’ segment, the film sinks fast and not even the constantly mobile camerawork, the ever-changing color palettes and the futuristic nature of Caine’s interior design are able to keep tedium at bay for very long.
