PANE E TULIPANI / BREAD AND TULIPS (2000)

Crowd-pleasing pablum about an Italian wife & mother who finds that . . . Life Begins at 40. Licia Maglietta is addled & underappreciated as the wife & mother who’s left at a rest stop when the tour bus takes off with her family. And it’s HOME ALONE meets A DOLL’S HOUSE after that. Nora, that is, Licia makes a snap decision to give herself a ‘time out,’ hitchhiking to Venice where she gently falls for a lonely waiter (Bruno Ganz); lands a job with an eccentric florist; finds a BFF with the kooky holistic masseuse down the hall; and discovers that personal bliss can trump hearth & home if the kids are almost grown & hubby’s got his business & a mistress to keep him warm. Didn’t Jill Clayburgh go thru all this in the ‘70s? There’s nothing inherently dated or condescending in the basic idea, but Silvio Soldini megs & co-scripts with a cloyingly saccharine touch with dumbed-down characters acting too stupid for words or straining to be lovable. A shame since Maglietta already is lovable, with a lovely touch of Ingrid Bergman about her, and it’s fun to see the back streets & working-class areas of Venice for a change.

THE PURCHASE PRICE (1932)

A rare Pre-Code dud from Barbara Stanwyck’s early days. She’s a nightclub singer who’s dumped by her society fiancé and refuses to settle for her loyal, but shady sugardaddy. She’s discovered on the lam in Montreal and takes off again, this time as a mail-order bride in North Dakota! The nights are cold, but her marriage is even colder when Mr. Sugardaddy shows up again to save the day. Will Babs go back to her old life or has she become a proper farmer’s wife for handsome, young, dull George Brent. It hardly seems worth all the trouble. Director William Wellman throws in an occasional coarse gag or sentimental tug, but generally keeps his distance until Stanwyck briefly shows her stuff in a big hysterical outburst. Too little, too late.

WATCH THIS, NOT THAT: Only two years back, but an æsthetic world away, F. W. Murnau used similar elements for his final silent wonder, CITY GIRL/’30. A flop in its day, soon forgotten, and still an absurdly unsung masterpiece.

OTHER MEN’S WOMEN (1931)

In this early iteration of a favorite Warners storyline, Grant Withers & Regis Toomey play best pals who come to blows when Mary Astor, wife of the nice guy, falls hard for the bosom-buddy. In this version, the guys run a massive freight train which means they have to fight it out in the small engine car while their train hurtles ahead with no one at the controls. William Wellman did his best megging in the early Talkie era and you can feel him pushing new technical innovations all thru the film. Sometimes the limitations of early sound technology defeat him, but the rain-soaked climax, stunningly shot by lenser Barney McGill is pretty spectacular. (Ignore the unconvincing model shots and gasp at the glistening chiaroscuro and an amazing ultra-close up of Toomey.) Ultimately, the film is done in by the charisma-free leads (Toomey is solid, but bland and Withers just hasn’t got leading-man chops) and by an ending that’s a pointless sacrifice. But there are lovely things in here, like Withers grabbing a lunch counter meal in the time it takes his train to roll by; and in watching film newbies Joan Blondell (cracking wise) and James Cagney (doing a bit of hot hoofing) making everyone else look passé.

THE LAWLESS BREED (1953)

This Raoul Walsh Western gave Rock Hudson one of first starring roles as a hard-luck Texan who killed more people in self-defense than many gunfighters shot on purpose. Even Wild Bill Hickok backs off of this guy. It’s supposedly based on the gunslinger’s auto-bio, but it feels rigged, as drama & as defense. Rock was awful pretty in his salad days, and awful raw as an actor, especially when he goes for a big effect. But the film gets help from Walsh’s clear action staging and from its better than average cast. Julie Adams, Dennis Weaver, Lee Van Cleef & John McIntire all get their licks in. Walsh (or someone) was even able to tamp down on Universal’s typically drenched TechniColor. Watch for a bit of Civil War footage that was borrowed from KANSAS RAIDERS/’50, another Universal Western that’s now on the same damn DVD disc!

TODAY WE LIVE (1933)

If you can wade thru 40 minutes of stillborn romance, you’ll reach the lean WWI actioner Howard Hawks tried to make from William Faulkner’s short story TURN ABOUT. Gary Cooper & Roscoe Karns play U.S. volunteer pilots who sneak Robert Young on one of their bomb runs. They hope to show this rich, young pup what the war’s all about. Young may be a kid in a uniform, and a bit of a sot, but he’s got ‘the right stuff’ and holds his own during the mission. By the time they’ve landed, these three are the best of pals and Young returns the favor by taking Coop & Karns on his next 'torpedo boat' run with his Captain/best pal Franchot Tone. Mutual admiration; dangerous action; clipped, fatalistic banter; heavy-duty male-bonding; and swift action scenes follow. (Borrowed footage & underwhelming process work hurt the air-borne stuff, but the torpedo runs are superb.) Alas, someone @ M-G-M (probably Hawks’ brother-in-law, Irving Thalberg) added Joan Crawford to the story. As an upper-crust Brit, who’s Franchot Tone's sister, Robert Young’s finance and Coop’s fated mate, she tries on an accent and a to-the-manner-born attitude that are as ill-suited to her talents as the costumes she has to wear.

WATCH THIS, NOT THAT: To see Young & Tone break your heart as the best of pals, see THREE COMRADES/’38; to see Coop as a WWI flyboy who’s mistakenly reported dead, see the deliriously romantic & funny LILAC TIME/’28, a late silent with wonderful Colleen Moore. (Alas, LILAC TIME is currently only available on YOU-TUBE in compressed digital mode and COMRADES is only available with Robert Taylor.)

A LION IS IN THE STREETS (1953)

The last, and certainly the oddest of the four films James Cagney made with Raoul Walsh. It’s a Southern Fried political melodrama (think Robert Penn Warren’s ALL THE KING’S MEN on acid) with Jimmy in Huey Long mode as a traveling salesman in bayou country. He becomes a populist hero when he takes on the local cotton cartel, but his easily stoked political ambitions & personal failings quickly drag him down. The film never gets past its soundstage sets or the faux gumbo-friendly accents (Cagney’s is a doozy, though he’s typically entertaining and works nicely with leading lady Barbara Hale) and the short running time causes it to lurch from one explosive situation to another.

KANSAS RAIDERS (1950)

Universal must have liked the results they got with Audie Murphy playing Billy the Kid in THE KID FROM TEXAS/’50 since they quickly resaddled him for Jesse James in this Civil War oater. Here, the James Brothers, the Cole Brothers & Kit Dalton, hoping to aid the Confederacy, all join up with Quantrill’s Raiders, a notorious band of Southern sympathizing renegades acting as a quasi-military outfit. There’s a great true tale buried in here, but don’t hope to find it in this missed opportunity. A shame, since the scale of production is ripe for something more substantial and the cast is loaded with new generation actors in chrysalis (i.e. Tony Curtis, Dewey Martin & Richard Long). As a subtly delusional Quantrill, Brian Donlevy may have been twice the age of the real historical figure, but he still manages to steal the film from the youngsters with melancholy shadings he finds between the lines.

WATCH THIS,NOT THAT: Ang Lee’s sadly ignored RIDE WITH THE DEVIL/’99 brings Quantrill’s campaign to life with a superb young cast of stars-to-be. And you can check out those outlaw brothers in Philip Kaufman’s THE GREAT, NORTHFIELD, MINNESOTA RAID/’72 or in Walter Hill’s THE LONG RIDERS/’80.

THE FOUNTAINHEAD (1949)

King Vidor’s unhappy film version of Ayn Rand’s bestselling novel has always been something of a camp classic. Even in ‘49, Rand’s dialogue was too ripe for its own good and Vidor’s try at an expressionistic tone fails to convince. The famous story, about an architect who refuses to compromise, comes off as self-justifying nonsense (especially in a post-9/11 world) as Rand sets up strawmen for her architect to quash and a glamorous bitch to tame. But the current DVD edition is worth a look if only for a ‘Making Of’ featurette made with Rand’s ‘objectivism’ blinders firmly in place. You’d never know from watching it that Rand’s film career stalled here. Or that the best Rand film was made without her help in Fascist Italy! (WE THE LIVING/’42) You’d certainly never know that King Vidor’s THE CITADEL/’38 also has a hero who sets off bombs to make his point. Or that Vidor’s career was seriously damaged when this film flopped. No mention that Gary Cooper, after two decades at the top of the Hollywood heap, began a six-film slump here. (HIGH NOON/’52 turned things around.) Or that debuting Patricia Neal grimly served out her Warners contract (with a single happy loan-out for THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL/’51) then left Hollywood for five years. And many more topsy-turvy viewpoints. Yet, the single participant who did get a big career bump out of THE FOUNTAINHEAD goes unmentioned. It was Robert Burks whose stylish lensing was noticed by Alfred Hitchcock. They made a dozen classics together beginning with Hitch’s next Hollywood production, STRANGERS ON A TRAIN/’51.

THE BEGGAR’S OPERA (1953)

Superb. Phenomenally entertaining. Though a famous commercial flop upon release, and in a form (17th Century popular opera) that’s never going to appeal across the board, this marvelous film should long have established itself as a cult favorite, a kissin’ cousin to the musical pics of Powell/Pressburger. Now out in reasonably good condition on a Warner Archive DVD, there’s no excuse for missing it. It was the film debut of theatrical legend Peter Brooks, and you can tell he’s more comfortable staging action than editing it, but the decor, dialogue & performances more than compensate. Stateside, the Brecht/Weill 3-PENNY OPERA adaptation is better known than John Gay’s original, but it’s familiar enough for comfort. In this performing edition, the popular London airs Gay repurposed for his tawdry masterpiece have been vigorously adapted and slightly tamed by Arthur Bliss. It all sounds as if Handel had been asked to write OLIVER!, or, perhaps, a down-and-dirty Gilbert & Sullivan. MacHeath is our swashbuckling highwayman & lady killer, and the satire of society & theatrical convention still works beautifully. One exceptional bit has MacHeath about to walk into a trap, but saved because his wench insists on singing yet one more verse of farewell. It’s all been neatly structured as a musical performance set inside a prison. A conceit Brooks would repeat in MARAT/SADE/’66 and which MAN OF LA MANCHA would happily poach as well. But what really lights this film up is it’s wonderful cast. The ladies are lovely, bawdy, and gross, and the men are swine, hypocrites and dandies. Laurence Olivier, as a swashbuckling MacHeath, and Stanley Holloway, as Lockit, the jailer, are the only actors who do their own singing, and they do themselves proud. Just about everyone knows Holloway’s skills as a Music Hall stylist thanks to MY FAIR LADY, but even those who’ve relished his ‘Pooh Bah’ in the Groucho Marx version of THE MIKADO will be gob-smacked by his lower extension. The guy’s got a two and a half octave range. And Olivier, when he’s in his element, is truly an actor beyond compare. Who knew he possessed such a fine high baritone voice. And what a vocal production! Listen to the final line of the film as he lets loose with a stunning messa di voce singing ‘On an opera made byYYYYYYYY,’ than shouting joyously, ‘a Beggar!" It’s a moment fully worthy to stand with his ST. CRISPIAN’S DAY speech in the popular imagination of all actors manque. Along with his quietly devastating work the previous year in William Wyler’s CARRIE, this may be his greatest unheralded perf.