Howard Hawks was one of the most versatile and gifted filmmakers of Hollywood's golden age. Whether he was directing a John Wayne western, a screwball comedy with Cary Grant, a musical with Marylin Monroe or a film noir with Humphrey Bogart, he always delivered a well-made film. Yet he is a figure that many of us do not really know outside of his movies. This is what makes film critic Joseph McBride's book of interviews with Howard Hawks so indispensable.
The book gives us a great insight into Hawks' views on filmmaking. Though he remained unpretentious about his work and didn't fully understand what intellectual French critics saw in his films, he could articulate what makes a great movie better than most critics could. I would recommend that any aspiring filmmaker read this book as his insights into the filmmaking process are very well-thought out and enlightening. This is equally important to students of his work as they can begin to see his approach to filmmaking whenever the watch his movies. At the same time, he states these insights in such an unpretentious manner that is completely approachable. You don't have to be a film scholar to understand or learn from these insights. For those of us interested in film history, learning how one of Hollywood's greatest filmmakers approached making his movies is fascinating.
As well as his insights into the art of filmmaking, Hawks also tells some great behind the scenes stories from his movies. Many of these stories are quite interesting and a few are quite funny. These stories also give us a good look at such movie luminaires as John Wayne, Marylin Monroe, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Becall, Gary Cooper, Walter Brennan and more. To say these stories are invaluable is an understatement.
This movie has a very strong premise for a thriller. An actress on a squeaky-clean sitcom becomes involved in a scandal after becoming pregnant. She decides to get away from it all by heading to a cabin away from prying eyes. However, she soon finds herself in danger in this cabin as well. This simple premise works fairly way as we sympathize with the main character and want to see her make it out okay.
There are a few surprisingly good and effective suspense scenes here as well. The movie also benefits from a strong performance by Sophie Turner.
This movie does have more than its share of flaws though. There are too many subplots going on here that don't end up amounting to much. The villains are not only bland but the actors playing them are truly awful. The movie also suffers from some weak humorous moments and clumsily written dialogue.
While this movie can't fully overcome its major flaws, it is decent thriller with some tense moments.
Hal Roach (who produced many of the Laurel and Hardy films) was fond of saying that 50% of what is in the script will not play. This is what makes this book of movie scripts for Laurel and Hardy films made at the Hal Roach studio such a fascinating read. For those of us who are fans of Laurel and Hardy, it is wonderful to read how greatly these scripts differ from the films we all know. Some have gags that seemed funny in a script format, but the filmmaker's decided wouldn't work in a movie. Some have completely different endings. Sometimes a funnier joke than what was in the script was later improvised. Sometimes the scripts have gags that are funny but would have seemed too out of character to work on screen. Reading these scripts gives us a wonderful glimpse into the hard work that went into making these silly films.
This book also gives you a wonderful look into what a short subject script was like. This is especially fascinating as you look at the silent films. When one thinks of scripts they think of a list of lines making reading a script that simply gives great detail into the action quite enlightening. It is a fascinating insight to see that some of the scripts for the silent films are actually much longer than for the talkies. It is also interesting to note the difference between the earliest scripts and the later. The earliest scripts leave little room for improvisation describing every action on screen. However, some of the later scripts would simply hint at some of the slapstick action allowing the comedians to improvise greatly.
These scripts are compiled by entertainment historian and Laurel and Hardy expert Randy Skretvedt. Having read through many scripts, he selects ones that he knows we be especially fascinating to those who know these films by heart. He also writes introductions before each of the scripts. He gives insight into the changes from script to screen as well as some behind the scenes information about some of these films. His writings are often times also very essential to Laurel and Hardy fans.
Probably the most fascinating of these scripts is the first one, which is a script for a film that was never filmed. What makes this more fascinating is it would have been the first film that the duo would have made together for the Hal Roach Studio.
As well as being a very fascinating and enlightening read, this book is also a lot of fun to read. Though nothing tops the films themselves for comedy, many of these scripts still had me laugh out loud a few times.
One wouldn't think a book of movie scripts could give this much insight into the making of these classic comedies. However, this is one of the most informative books made about the comedy duo. It is also a heck of a lot of fun.
Hello my friends and welcome back for another service of Cowboy Church.
Today's musical selection begins with Roy Rogers and Dale Evans with a wonderful version of the classic hymn, How Great Thou Art. In the book, Happy Trails: Our Life Story, Roy tells of a story that had to do with this song. "I'll tell you about one time we nearly got into a real war with the promoters: at the World Championship Rodeo at Madison Square Garden in 1952. During the first rehearsal I started to practice 'How Great Thou Art,' a religious song I wanted to make the centerpiece of our musical act. There's a line in that song that goes, 'Then sings my soul my Savior God to Thee...' Someone in the front office heard the rehearsal and came to me that night to tell me I wasn't allowed to mention Christ at the rodeo. 'It might work for the kids in Houston, Texas' he told me, 'But this is New York. You can't preach to kids here.' I told him I wasn't preaching but that the Savior was a part of the song and I fully intended to sing that song in New York or anywhere else we performed. They suggested that I could change the words of the song, so it didn't mention Him. I'm not one for grandstand plays but I told those fellas that if I couldn't sing 'How Great thou Art' just how it was written, Dale and I would pack up and leave town. The song stayed in the show. That year we did forty-three performances over twenty-six days and broke all Madison Square Garden attendance records."
This followed by Patty Loveless with Friends in Gloryland. This recording comes from her 2009 album, Mountain Soul ii.
Afterwards is Buddy Jewell with Leaning on the Everlasting Arms. This hymn began with a man named Anthony Showalter. As a fan of gospel music and an elder in a Presbyterian church, he held many "singing schools" at various churches in the south. One day he received two letters from former students who were struggling after their wives had passed. To respond to these letters, Showalter consulted scripture. He came across Deuteronomy 33:27, "The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms." After reading this verse lyrics for a song chorus went through his head and he wrote down, "“Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms; Leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms.” After using this in the letters to his former students he sent this chorus to his friend hymnist, Elisha Hoffman. In the letter he also wrote, “Here is the chorus for a good hymn from Deuteronomy 33:27, but I can’t come up with the verses.” Hoffman then wrote the rest of the lyrics to which Showalter put to music. The hymn was published in 1887.
Then comes Victor Young and his Orchestra with their 1933 recording of The Last Round Up. The Songsmiths provide vocals on this recording. The B-Side to this recording was their version of the Disney song, Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf.
Next comes The Sons of the Pioneers with Suddenly There's a Valley. This song was written by Chuck Meyer and Biff Jones in 1955. Over the years it has been recorded by many artists including Bing Crosby, The Mills Brothers, The Drifters, Glen Campbell, Andy Williams, Reba McEntire and many more. This version of the song comes from the Sons' 1963 gospel album, Hymns of the Cowboy.
Following is Eddy Raven with Love Lifted Me. This hymn was written in 1912 by James Rowe and Howard E. Smith. Rowe's daughter would later state, “ I can see them now, my father striding up and down humming a bar or two, and Howard E. playing it and jotting it down…The two huddled together, working line by line, bar by bar, composing this hymn in tandem.”
Today's musical selection ends with Johnny Cash with Daddy Sang Bass. This song was written by John's friend and early rock and roll star (as well as author of Blue Suede Shoes), Carl Perkins. Both John and Carl had very similar childhoods and this song easily reflects the childhoods of both singer and writer. This song reached #1 on the country music charts.
Now for the fifth chapter of the Buck Jones movie serial, The Red Rider (1934).
Now for a message from pastor Greg Laurie.
Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. Colossians 3:13
Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. Micah 7:18-19
Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:13-14
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23
Thanks for joining me. Come back next week for another service of Cowboy Church. Happy trails to you until we meet again.
Iron Man 2 marked the first MCU film to function as direct sequel to another. Production on this movie began not long after the release of Iron Man (2008). In fact, production began the same month as that movie's release.
In this sequel, after revealing that he is Iron Man, Tony Stark is letting the fame of being Iron Man go straight to his head. At the same time, he learns that the arc reactor that is keeping him alive is also slowly killing him. Worried about his health he appoints his assistant and love interest Pepper Potts to become CEO of Stark Industries. His stress about his failing health and the pressure of being a superhero is getting to him to the point where is developing a real alcohol problem. Things truly get out of hand though when a man with similar technology to him and ties to his father decides to seek revenge on Tony Stark and the Stark name.
Though this may not live up to the greatness of the first film, there is quite a bit about this movie to like. The character exploration of Tony Stark is wonderful here. This movie greatly delves into his flaws. Through this we get to understand him better as a human being and what makes Tony Stark who he is. Even as we delve into his flaws, we also get a good glimpse at why he is still a hero despite them. Of course, Robert Downey Jr.'s performance adds so much to this as he is able to add a lot of humanity to any role he plays. The rest of the cast is great as well. Gwyneth Paltrow is once again wonderful as Tony's assistant/love interest. Don Cheadle does a great job replacing Terrence Howard as Tony's best buddy. Samuel L. Jackson is wonderful as always. Scarlett Johanson is already stealing the show in her first appearance as Black Widow. Sam Rockwell and Mickey Rourke make great villains. This movie also benefits from very strong and exciting action scenes. The climatic action scene is especially wonderful.
This film is however quite messy at times. What made the first film so wonderful is that it had a simple straightforward story with no excess. This sequel however tries to do too much. There is the effect of Tony's fame, his declining health, the government accusing him of having unlawful weapons, the romance between him and Pepper Potts, his fight with his best friend, his alcoholism, Pepper Potts taking over the company, the introduction of Black Widow and of course the main villain's story. This is a whole lot to do over the course of one movie. The result is that it can often feel unfocused and overlong (even if it is one minute shorter than the first movie). The parts are often quite good, but they don't always work together to create a better whole.
Today for fans of Superhero movies, Scarlett Johansson and Black Widow are one in the same. Yet she was not the first choice to play the character. Emily Blunt was quite heavily considered for the role, but scheduling conflicts arose because of her appearing in Gulliver's Travels (2010). Blunt was very disappointed in this and would state about losing this role, "Because I just have to do this Fox movie, and it's fine and I'm gonna have fun. The whole beginning of the year has been rather dramatic, so I'd just rather go in with fresh eyes and know that I've made the right decision. You just don't know until it's all finished and done with, do you?" Scarlett Johansson greatly wanted the role and heavily lobbied for it. Johansson would state, “People were surprised that I wanted to play a comic book heroine, but I loved Iron Man, and I met with Marvel to see what was possible. I had done my research, and the Black Widow character resonated with me. She is dark and has faced death so many times that she has a deep perspective on the value of life. In the sequel, you learn more about the sadness in her past.” She added “I think of her that way. Black Widow is a superhero, but she’s also human. She’s small, but she’s strong. It’s hard not to admire her.”
Terrence Howard not reprising his role in this movie was not due to Howard not wanting to reprise his role. He was the first actor hired for Iron Man and therefore paid the largest salary. When the second film came about, Marvel Studios decided to not pay him anywhere near as much. Howard stated, “We did a three-picture deal. So that means, you did the deal ahead of time. It was going to be a certain amount for the first one, a certain amount for the second, certain amount for the third. They came to me [for] the second and said, ‘We will pay you one-eighth of what we contractually had for you, because we think the second one will be successful with or without you.’ And I called my friend that I helped get the first job, and he didn’t call me back for three months.”
Director Jon Favreau returned for this sequel. However, the film's main writer was someone completely new to Marvel. Justin Theroux had written the script for Tropic Thunder (2008), which also featured Robert Downey Jr and Downey recommended him to Marvel.
Having worked as a storyboard artist on this film was none other than Genndy Tartakovsky. Genndy Tartakovsky is well known to animation fans as the creator of Dextor's Laboratory and Samurai Jack as well as the director of the first three Hotel Transylvania movies and Fixed (2025). About working with him Jon Favreau stated " I had Genndy Tartakovsky. I’ve always liked SAMURAI JACK and I loved his CLONE WARS vignettes that he did. I’ve always liked his work, a lot. And I had met with him, we had lunch together just because I enjoy his stuff and I wanted to meet him. I really dig his sense of humor and his sense of rhythm, and the way that he acknowledges the same cinematic masters that I really love the work of, like (Akira) Kurosawa and (Sergio) Leone. And he finds a way to pastiche it without ever undermining the stakes or the reality of the tension that’s created in his action sequences. Now clearly his stuff is a bit broad for a live action film but I love his rhythm and his attention to detail. It has a real comic booky feel but yet it feels cinematic and not gimmicky and even his cartoons feel… there’s an elegance to them. So in this process as we’re storyboarding and designing sequences he and his team have come in and I’m working with them and they’re working on collaborating with us on the project and that’s a new wrinkle and it allows me… I feel like I’m really learning a lot from collaborating with this guy. And then he has the original IRON MAN film to draw from and he also has a pretty deep knowledge of Marvel. So, he is transitioning into live-action features, which I have no doubt in collaborating with him that he will. There’s a transition that he’s making that hopefully I could be helpful with and at the same time as I move from dialogue and character and story-driven filmmaking I’m able to understand the way to approach action in an interesting and elegant way. So, it’s been a very, very fun collaboration so far."
Iron Man 2 was a box office success and at the time had the fifth highest box office weekend opening. The movie went on to be the tenth highest grossing movie of 2010. Critics were mostly positive, feeling that overall, it was a good movie but not exceptional the way its predecessor was.
Hello my friends and happy Saturday morning. Once again it is time for some classic cartoons.
Today's cartoon selection begins with Dragon Around (1954), a Disney short that pits Donald Duck against Chip and Dale. This short film made its TV debut on an episode of The Mouse Factory entitled Man at Work (1972).
Next is Sylvester and Tweety in Catty Cornered (1953). In this cartoon Tweety is kidnapped by gangster Rocky. Rocky was a character who was only used by director Friz Freleng. He had earlier been the villain in the Daffy Duck cartoon, Golden Yeggs (1950). Most cartoon fans associate Rocky with his dumb partner in crime Mugsy. However, this cartoon was made before the character was created. Mugsy first appeared in Bugs and Thugs (1954). This short would later be edited into the feature-length compilation film, The Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie (1981). About the Sylvester and Tweety cartoons, director Friz Freleng stated, "Tweety doesn't do anything. He can't even put a hat on because his arms are too short. And he's got such a bug head. The comedy comes out of Sylvester and his determination, his stubbornness to get the bird no matter what happens to him. Still, everybody says, 'Oh I love that Tweety.' Audiences are funny. They never love the characters that really get the laughs."
Up next is the Fleischer Screen Song cartoon, Alexander's Ragtime Band (1931). The title song was written in 1911 by the great Irving Berlin and was first recorded the same year by Collins & Harlan. Other artists to have recorded the song include Boswell Sisters, Benny Goodman, Louis Armstrong, The Andrew Sisters, Ella Fitzgerald and Ray Charles.
Next comes The Blue Racer in Wham and Eggs (1973).
Now it is time for a commercial break.
Next is the Mickey Mouse cartoon, The Chain Gang (1930). This film is said to be the introduction of Pluto, but this Pluto bears little resemblance (outside of how he visually looks) to the character we know today. He is not Mickey's dog or even his friend here. In this movie two identical looking bloodhounds are chasing Mickey. Neither of the bloodhounds are differentiated in anyway, so it is hard to say which one would go on to a long film career and which one would fade into obscurity. It is worth noting that a scene involving them would be animated by Norm Ferguson, whose later animation of Pluto is often credited with helping give the dog his personality. Animation from this scene would later be reused in four cartoons featuring Pluto. Ferguson would also animate the opening scene of the picture. The first appearance of these dogs was animated by future Woody Woodpecker and Barney Bear director, Dick Lundy (he also animated their little dance). Les Clark, who would later go on to be considered one of Mickey's best animators, doesn't animate the mouse much here. Instead, he animates the guard yelling, the dogs howling to the musical number, the guards with the machine guns and the pig getting shot. Future supervising director of Pinocchio (1940), Fantasia (1940) and Dumbo (1941), Ben Sharpsteen animated the prisoners with the picks and the scene with the horses and the wagon. Future Donald Duck director Jack King animated the pig trying to smash the rock, the cat playing the cow's tail like a musical instrument and the guard yelling for help. Tom Palmer animates Mickey trying to break the rock, Mickey being pulled back by the ball and chain when he tries to run and the final shot of the picture. Johnny Cannon animates the guard sleeping, the cat dancing, the whistles blowing and Mickey running downhill. Future supervising director for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and Bambi (1942) animates the cow playing the pick like a piccolo, Mickey playing a rock like a musical instrument and Mickey falling through the roof of the prison.
Now for Felix the Cat in Jungle Bungles (1928). The following is a review from The Film Daily. "Felix the cat gets an idea to shoot motion pictures of the animals in the jungle wilds and sets forth on his adventure. This results in some of the cleverest cartoon work that this series has recently produced. One stunt in particular is worthy of special mention. Felix is pursued by savages. He develops his film, and projects it against a large rock, showing the wild animals rushing towards the savages, who flee in terror leaving Felix safe."
Now for the Terry Toons cartoon, Hep Mother Hubbard (1956). This short film was directed by Connie Rasinski.
Today's cartoon selection ends with The Simpsons in The Funeral (1987). This short was made for The Tracey Ullman Show before the animated family got their own TV series.
Thanks for joining me. Come back next week for more animated treasures. Until then may all your tunes be looney and your melodies merry.
Resources Used
I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat: Fifty Years of Sylvester and Tweety by Jerry Beck
Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse: The Ultimate History by J.B. Kaufman and David Gerstein
Director Ron Howard's newest movie is a survival thriller about three groups of people living an otherwise deserted island and the conflicts that arise between them (it is based on a true story). This is quite possibly Howard's darkest film. It is also simply a quite compelling thriller. With all its dark turns and underlying sense of tension, this movie constantly keeps you guessing how it is going to end, and I found myself often surprised by each new twist. The whole movie also has a wonderfully foreboding sense of atmosphere through the whole film. There is also some delving into some deeper themes as we see a philosopher's beliefs be put to the test when he becomes truly desperate. However, what truly makes this film is its excellent cast. Jude Law, Vanessa Kirby, Sydney Sweeney and Ana de Armas are all completely compelling in their performances, bringing a level of depth and gritty realism to these characters.
The movie does have its flaws though. The main one is that the son of one of the couples seems to exist solely for the purpose that they would have a reason to be on the island. He appears occasionally and then will disappear for long periods of time. There are times I kind of forget he existed. He has no personality to speak of and simply works only as a plot device. Another flaw is that the movie is longer than it needs to be and can drag towards the middle section. There are also times when certain dark and uneasy moments seem to exist more for shock value than for help telling the story. Some of the animal gore certainly would have been better if they kept it off screen (there may be a personal bias there as I am a vegetarian and believer in animal rights).
