My friend Scott Marks has been gracious to lend me several of his Christmas movie reviews from his amazing website Emulsion Compulsion.
If you haven't visited his site for some thoroughly honest movie reviews, commentary, and image vaults to die for (including a bunch of Christmas related stuff), take a moment to head over this his site and surf - you'll be there for at least 20 minutes max.
For his final review, Scott chose a movie that was being shown in 3-D at the time and is one of my personal... umm... let me just post the review and let my opinion fall by the wayside:
The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
Directed by: Henry Selick Written by: Tim Burton & Michael McDowell Cast: Danny Elfman, Chris Sarandon, Catherine O’Hara, William Hickey, Glenn Shadix, Paul Reubens, Ken Page, Edward Ivory, Susan McBride, Debi Durst, Greg Proops, Kerry Katz, Randy Crenshaw, Sherwood Ball, Carmen Twillie Aspect Ratio: 1.66 : 1 Running Time: 76 min.
Rating:
Rod Serling didn't known it at the time, but when he spoke about finding another dimension by turning a key and unlocking the door of imagination he was directly addressing the current state of film exhibition.
I have seen the future of movies and it is 3-D... I hope.
The depth expanding novelty process, which has been around since the twenties, saw it's greatest rise in popularity during the Fifties when it was dusted off as a means to combat the onslaught of television. With the exception of Hitchcock's "Dial 'M' for Murder", no other stereoscopic film bothered to utilize depth as a means of storytelling. Everybody just wanted to test the limits of those uncomfortable cardboard glasses.
Arguably, the single greatest exponents of 3-D gimmickry were the Three Stooges. With all the pies and fingers aimed at the lenses there was little time left to stop and savor narrative and textural nuance.
Cost and public indifference brought a quick end to the vogue. Originally it took two interlocked projectors rigged with polarized lenses that were offset by approximately three-inches to bring 3-D to the screen. Theaters had to be refitted with expensive silver screens and doubling the prints meant doubling the shipping costs.
Barely on life support in the Sixties, 3-D experienced a minor revival over the next two decades. By now polarized lenses had all but vanquished their blue and red predecessors. The new single-strip process looked better than ever and, positioned at the dawn of sequelitis, found steady employment in third-part installments of horror films. ("Jaws 3-D", "Friday the 13th Part III" and "Amityville 3-D".)
(CAPT'S NOTE: Don't forget "Comin' At Ya!" from 1981 - first 3-D movie I ever saw)
Ultimately, 70mm killed 3-D as well as Cinerama. Audiences didn't have to endure tri-panel seams, nose-creasing glasses or higher ticket prices. Oddly enough, the sharper image resolution wasn't what gave the film stock its celebrity, but the fuller range of stereophonic sound.
Too costly to shoot in the wide-gauge process, for a period Hollywood was ordering 70mm blow-ups on every fifth picture slated for release. As much as I adore "Gremlins 2", even I was stunned to see it in the grandeur of 70mm. With the advent of digital sound, 70mm was put on the disabled list.
Not until IMAX combined 70mm and stereoscopic cinematography had the potential for worldwide acceptance shown such promise. Glasses were now replaced by helmets equipped with polarized visors and tiny speakers that sat behind your ears assuring optimum stereophonic separation.
Attempts to incorporate narrative into the otherwise flaccid Disney-esque nature documentaries proved fruitless. The domed dinosaur that sits in Balboa Park is a far cry from what came to be known as the IMAX Experience. The closest San Diego comes to true IMAX exhibition is up the road a piece in Irvine.
The IMAX thrill quickly came and went, until now. The brainiacs at Industrial Light and Magic devised a way in which any 2-D film can be digitally catapulted into the third-dimension. It is expensive and time consuming, but the results are staggering.
The original 2-D negative is scanned into a computer and digitally spruced up. Coming up with the second strip was a laborious process as Nightmare producer Don Hahn explained in an interview with animationartist.com: "If you want to see the original version, you just look with your left eye. But then we have to create a whole right eye version... and that's done by rebuilding the whole movie as a digital picture. In other words, if you have a shot of Jack Skellington, you have to build Jack, and you have to build the background behind him, his house and the snow, or whatever is behind him in a digital world. And then we project a movie on to that digital geometry and then move the digital camera over to the right and re-photograph that for the right eye version."
You still have to wear glasses, but Disney has thankfully devised lightweight and comfortable, if not aggressively unfashionable, lenses.
With its surplus of musical numbers and paucity of plot, I confess to not being a fan of the original Goth-approved Nightmare. In 3-D it's a revelation. The studio promises at least one film a year will be converted to 3-D. I vote for a deep-focus enhancement of "Bambi's" Multiplane Camera pyrotechnics. If not a Disney feature, why not one that influenced Uncle Walt like "Triumph of the Will"?
- - Merry Christmas to everyone and Happy Hannukah to all my Jewish friends. Scott Marks
Thanks Scott for this fantastic review! I hate this film and I think Tim Burton is a totally overrated director who can't tell a good story because the dark themes or special effects backing him up get in the way ("Ed Wood" was the lone exception).
We've had many people clamoring for another movie review from our friend Scott Marks... a few people... okay, two people... and one of those was Scott... and the other was me. What's your point?
I've always seen the first 30 minutes or so of this particular movie and chicken out. Maybe Scott's honest opinion will make me want to see the film from beginning to end. On your Marks, get set, go:
The Bells of St. Mary's (1945)
Directed by: Leo McCarey Written by: Dudley Nichols from a story by Leo McCarey Starring: Bing Crosby, Ingrid Bergman, Henry Travers, Joan Carroll & Rhys Williams Running Time: 126 min. Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
When people ask if a sequel has ever surpassed its original, "The Godfather II" and "The Bells of St. Mary's" are always the first that come to mind. ("Gremlins II" runs a close third.) Long before the second installment of the Corleone family trilogy, Bell's had the distinction of being the first sequel to be nominated for a best picture Oscar, and coincidentally makes a stellar cameo appearance on the Radio City Musical Hall marquee in "The Godfather".
Fancy yourself a contemporary filmmaker hired to tell the story of Father O'Malley (Matt Damon in the role originated by Bing Crosby), a showbiz priest assigned a position at an urban Parochial school following the former Pastor's mental breakdown brought about after spending years "up to his neck in nuns."
Once established, Father O'Malley falls in love with Sister Mary Benedict (sinful Angeline Jolie as Saintly Ingrid Bergman), a tubercular nun, all the while helping a prostitute's daughter (Mylie Cyrus substituting for Joan Carroll) get an education. In addition to a earning a compulsory G rating, the final cut has to be sprinkled with a handful of musical numbers.
Nowadays, it would probably be easier to film The Bible in real time, but for Leo McCarey the success of "The Bells of St. Mary's" seemed preordained. The story had been with him since childhood. His aunt, Sister Mary Benedict helped build Hollywood's Immaculate Heart Convent and died of typhoid fever. This was also a follow-up to the the director's Paramount smash "Going My Way". McCarey wrote the story before "Going My Way" which was originally intended to be Bells' sequel.
Normally, films about nuns leave me cold. Who wants to see Audrey Hepburn in "The Nun's Story" when it's made clear by the title that sparkling romance will never enter into it? Only Leo McCarey, the man whom, according to Jean Renoir, understood people better than any Hollywood director, could have slipped this material past the censors.
It should come as no surprise that McCarey, the man who first teamed Laurel with Hardy, is able to find delicate humor in the most unlikely of places. O'Malley's arrival at St. Mary's is shown as a calamitous series of sight gags capped off by the original, and funniest, cat-in-the-hat. Other laughs come from a yawning dog in church and a performance of the nativity story by an all-toddler cast.
I know how crazy this must sound to you. Am I actually recommending a film rife with puppy and kitty cutaways, cute kids and Bing Crosby? You bet! Not Der Bingle's biggest fan, he's actually superb in the role. For two hours I believed that Bing Crosby was a munificent soul. That's acting!
In "Going My Way", Bing is up to his big ears in a vat of sentimental goop almost on par with either visit to "Boys Town". "The Bell's of St. Mary's" is anything but cloying. It's insightful, heartfelt and in many ways more uplifting than "It's a Wonderful Life". It even features Henry Travers one film before gaining winged immortality as Capra's Clarence.
An unsuccessful attempt at explaining the gray box grafted over the studio name and copyright date on both the feature and trailer: Even though "Going My Way" brought Paramount needed recognition and bushels of cash, they chose not to pop for the sequel. Made under the banner of McCarey's Rainbow Productions, Inc., the film was distributed by R. K. O.
In 1957, National Telefilm Associates (NTA) obtained the theatrical rights and for years, all prints bore their logo. The U. S. video rights are controlled by Republic Pictures, and while their otherwise immaculate copy not only lacks the introductory R. K. O. tower, the telecine operator was instructed to obliterate all studio mentions.
Finally, this from imdb.com to further underscore the director's intention of making his film a romantic love story. "The production was overseen by a Catholic priest who served as an advisor during the shooting. While the final farewell sequence was being filmed, Bing Crosby and Ingrid Bergman decided to play a prank on him. They asked director Leo McCarey to allow one more take, and, as 'Father O'Malley' and 'Sister Benedict' said their last goodbyes, they embraced in a passionate kiss, while the offscreen priest-advisor jumped up roaring in protest."
- - Scott Marks
Turner Classic Movies is showing "The Bells Of St. Mary's" on Saturday, December 20, 2008 at 2:30 PM EST. Set your TiVos now or ask TCM to e-mail you a reminder for this film.
Several months ago, I asked Scott Marks, my former film school professor turned San Diego film critic and keeper of one of the most diverse collections of vintage Hollywood memorabilia, for some reviews of Christmas movies to post here at the yuleblog.
Scott is fearlessly honest and doesn't pull punches when it comes to movies. He doesn't write puff pieces (like I do) and share his "one-man's opinion" (stole that term from Irv Kupcinet) for all to share. Without further ado, here is his review of the TV remake of "A Christmas Carol" from 1984. Over to you Scott...
A Christmas Carol (1984)
Directed by Clive Donner Written by Roger O. Hisron from a short story by Charles Dickens Starring: George C. Scott, David Warner, Susannah York, Roger Rees, Frank Finlay, Edward Woodward, Michael Gough, Joanne Whalley and Introducing Anthony Walters as "Tiny Tim" Photographed by Tony Imi in Tele-Vision
Rating:
You know Alis-tair and Ma-goo and Derek Ja-co-bi; Va-nessa Williams played a "Scrooge" named "E-bo-ny." But, do you recall, the an-gri-est Scrooge of them all?
George C. Scott, in the role he was born to play (20 years earlier), stars as Ebeneezer Scrooge in this Classics Illustrated tele-version of Charles Dickens' beloved Christmas staple. By this point in his career, Scott had amassed a big enough steamer trunk filled with tricks where he could stop acting and quickly slip into caricature. Eyes roll, his brow furrows, teeth gnash, the voice thunders and yes, Virginia, there is a blow up scene. In fact there are a few volcanic bursts scattered like uncut diamonds throughout this faithful adaptation.
He first erupts while calling for his beleaguered employee Bob Cratchit (David Warner). Once you've been summoned by a pissed off George C. Scott, all other commands wilt in comparison. He also has a hell of a hard time shaking off the Ghost of Christmas Past (Angela Pleasence). George C.'s mighty mitts are no match for his throbbing temples. Soon we hear that gurgling Scott growl slowly begin to roar, like a tiger starting his engine. His pained anguish can no longer be internalized and he wails, "LEAVE ME!!!" Not exactly a Hardcore "TURN IT OFF!!!," but it kept me humming.
Scott deemed television beneath him, as well he should, and with the exception of a few small screen performances (Fear on Trial, The Price), showed up on set and hit "auto pilot." During his first two ghostly visits, Scott's appearance is pretty much relegated to cutaway shots. The anger must settle and simmer for a few commercial breaks before the grand final venting where he pleads for his life, as all Scrooge's must, with the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come (Michael Carter).
Watch as his face turns into a Fourth of July fireworks show! His agony is so authentic that my head almost exploded from laughter. There are even a few residual chuckles during and after his nice guy epiphany. One would anticipate a crap-eating grin when he tosses that street urchin some goose money on Christmas morning, but when, if ever, have you seen a full-grown Scott jump up and down on a mattress? Turn it on!
IMDB's trivia patrol reports that this is, perhaps, the only version of A Christmas Carol in which Scrooge wears dress-slacks, a dress-shirt and vest instead of the character's customary nightgown, slippers and cap. Legend has it that Scott made a wardrobe call after going ballistic at the very thought of freezing his unmentionables while filming the cold winter exteriors in England.
Aside from Scott's pyrotechnics, this version has a few other things to carol about, most notably a fine supporting cast. What Edward Woodward's Ghost of Christmas Present lacks in girth is more than compensated for by height. At 5' 9" he towers over Scrooge. Woodward is one of the few actors capable of convincingly staring Scott down and one actually feels the menace as he issues Scrooge his cautionary warning. Frank Finlay is perfectly cast as Jacob Marley and David Warner is as kind and compassionate a Bob Cratchit as any committed to film.
CBS obviously pumped some money into the production. They hired Clive Donner (The Caretaker, What's New Pussycat?, Luv) who had already directed Scott in a small screen adaptation of Dickens' Oliver Twist. The cracks in the production design are handsomely plastered by Tony Imi's dark cinematography, but overall the project lacks atmosphere. The filmmaker's idea of ambiance is a smoke machine, a fan and some cobwebs left over from The Munsters.
Then there's cherubic Anthony Walters. In this case, Tim's nickname "Tiny" refers to both his stature and acting ability. Walters can frequently be caught looking off camera for direction. If one more sickening cry of "God bless us all, everyone" came out of this tyke, I'd have beat him to death with the crutch he rode in on. Come to think of it, the over-applied black rings around the kid's eyes make him look as though he already went a few rounds with Mike Tyson. Could this Tim be television's first post modern goth child? Were it not for Scott's impending tirade, I'd suggest you hit stop right after Tiny buys it in the fantasy scene and draw your own cynical conclusions.
- Scott Marks
CAPT'S NOTE: When I worked for Suncoast Motion Picture Company over a decade ago, we were bombarded every Christmas by people asking us when this movie was to be released on home video. Before Christmas, 1995, my store manager attended corporate meetings and relayed this story to me:
The head of Fox Home Video approached the head of Suncoast and wanted to thank him for a great year and "is there anything we can do for you guys?". The Suncoast bigwig asked about the release of this version of "A Christmas Carol".
After several phone calls and wranglings, it was determined that Scott needed to sign off on the release of the video. An overseas phone call was placed to George's home in London - he took the call and was okay with the release - as long as he didn't have to come back to America and sign the papers needed, having just unpacked.
With time running out to get the video released for Christmas, the Fox Home Video guy flew to England (14 hour flight one way) to get the signature needed. Ever hear of a fax machine, George?
Okay... technically, this is NOT a Christmas CD... but I did receive it for Christmas and wanted to share some of the treasures that lie inside.
In the 1970s, the Second City Comedy troupe based in Chicago and Toronto was a breeding ground for the next wave of great comedians: John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Dan Aykroyd, and Bill Murray. While these four went off to immortality at "Saturday Night Live", the other members of Second City banded together and created their own TV show in Canada.
"Second City TV" was seen throughout Canada (and in syndication in the USA) between 1976 and 1980. Joining this cast were John Candy, Joe Flaherty, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Rick Moranis, Catherine O'Hara, Martin Short, and Dave Thomas.
In 1981, NBC needed a summer replacement for its music program "The Midnight Special". They brought SCTV in, gave them a 90 minutes to fill, and "SCTV Network 90" was born. This ran from 1981 to 1983 - winning two Emmys and garnering 15 Emmy nominations in the process while dealing with constant interference from NBC about content, expense, and the like. In 1984, the show moved to Cinemax for its last year with four stars in tow (Flaherty / Martin / Levy / Short).
The two Christmas episodes on this DVD are from Season 4 and Season 5. If you click on these links, they will transport you to an excellent episode guide where each skit is outlined right down to the bumpers!
If you're a fan of Christmas, you owe it to yourselves to find this DVD and get a copy. There are more belly laughs in this CD than any of the Christmas movies of the past five years starring Tim Allen.
If anything, you need to see John Candy dressed as Divine (in FULL Divine drag) singing "Santa Bring My Baby Back To Me" while ice-skating with the Juul Haalmeyer Dancers! Now THAT's Christmas!
On to the next new Christmas CD in my collection...
