Remembering Clyde Geronomi: "Lady and the Tramp"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 62 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux

Lady and the Tramp (1955) – animation
Running time:  76 minutes (1 hour 16 minutes)
DIRECTORS:  Clyde Geronomi, Wilfred Jackson, and Hamilton Luske
WRITERS:  Erdman Penner, Joe Rinaldi, Ralph Wright, and Don DaGradi (based upon the story Happy Dan, the Whistling Dog by Ward Greene)
PRODUCERS:  Walt Disney with Erdman Penner
EDITOR:  Don Halliday
COMPOSER:  Oliver Wallace
BAFTA Award nominee

ANIMATION/COMEDY/MUSICAL/ROMANCE with elements of drama

Starring:  (voices) Peggy Lee, Barbara Luddy, Larry Roberts, Bill Thompson, Bill Baucom, Stan Freberg, Verna Felton, and Lee Millar

Lady and the Tramp is a 1955 animated romantic film from Walt Disney Pictures.  It was the 15th full-length animated feature film from Disney.  The film is based in part on "Happy Dan, the Whistling Dog" by Ward Greene, a short story originally published in Cosmopolitan Magazine.  The film centers on the growing romantic relationship between two dogs, a female American Cocker Spaniel, who is from an upper middle-class family, and a male mutt who is a stray.

Because of drama and turmoil in her owners’ home, Lady (Barbara Luddy), a pampered and sheltered cocker spaniel, wanders away from the safety of her neighborhood and meets Tramp (Larry Roberts), a jolly, freedom-loving, and streetwise mutt with a heart of gold.  They share romantic adventures that occasionally imperil their safety while they move towards an inevitable union.  Memorable songs (written by Sonny Burke and Peggy Lee) and memorable characters including the twin Pekingese cats, Si and Am (Peggy Lee), highlight this classic, Disney’s fifteenth animated feature.

Lady and the Tramp remains Walt Disney’s signature romantic animated film; although romance often plays a part in their full-length animated films; this is the Disney animated love story.  It exemplifies two particular elements that really stand out in a Disney animated features – the art of beauty and technical skills.  The character animation is beautifully drawn making even characters meant to be ugly or villainous quite gorgeous and handsome eye candy.  The background art, backdrops, and sets are also elegant, even stunning.  The technical virtuosity on display is simply dazzling; this is text book work on animating animals.  Characters move with such grace and precision that the film looks, on one hand, like museum quality high art, and, on the other hand, has such striking realism in terms of movement and rhythm.

Lady and the Tramp is probably best known for its romantic heart.  A melodic score, charming and adorable songs, and the star-crossed pair of Lady and the Tramp make this an animated film that captures the romantic in the hearts of young and old viewers.  That’s why this film is so memorable and also well-remembered by adults who first saw it as a child – a true Disney classic.

9 of 10
A+

Sunday, April 2, 2006

NOTES:
1956 BAFTA Awards:  1 nomination: “Best Animated Film” (USA)

Updated:  Thursday, April 24, 2014


The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

Review: Mitchum Makes "The Night of the Hunter" a Classic (Remembering Robert Mitchum)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 29 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Night of the Hunter (1955) – B&W
Running time: 93 minutes (1 hour, 33 minutes)
DIRECTOR: Charles Laughton
WRITER: James Agee (from the novel Davis Gubb)
PRODUCER: Paul Gregory
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Stanley Cortez
EDITOR: Robert Golden

DRAMA/FILM-NOIR/THIRLLER

Starring: Robert Mitchum, Shelly Winters, Lillian Gish, Billy Chapin, Sally Jane Bruce, James Gleason, Evelyn Varden, Peter Graves, and Don Beddoe

The subject of this movie review is The Night of the Hunter, a 1955 American thriller starring the great actor, Robert Mitchum. The film is directed by Charles Laughton, who reportedly also wrote the film’s screenplay, although James Agee is the credited writer. The Night of the Hunter is based upon the 1953 novel of the same name by Davis Gubb. The film follows a reverend-turned-serial killer who stalks two children to learn a secret he believes they know.

In this Depression-era tale, self-proclaimed preacher, Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum), learns from his cellmate, Ben Harper (Peter Graves), a thief and double murdered condemned to hang from the gallows, that he hid $10,000 in stolen money, and only his two children, John (Billy Chapin) and Pearl (Sally Jane Bruce), know where the loot is. When Powell gets out of prison, he charms Ben’s weak-minded widow, Willa (Shelly Winters), into marrying him. However, the children have made a pact never to reveal the whereabouts of the money, and the mature-beyond-his-years John stubbornly refuses to give into Powell’s threats of bodily harm lest they give up the money. As Powell stalks them, the children take up refuge with the indomitable Rachel Cooper (Lillian Gish), an older woman who takes in abandoned and abused children, and so begins an inevitable test of wills between Harry and Rachel for the fate of the Harper children.

The Night of the Hunter is probably one of the scariest Film-Noir motion pictures you’ll ever see. Haunting, eerie, and dreamlike, its hold on the viewer is as relentless as the title character played superbly, with such gusto, and honest-to-God menace by Robert Mitchum. The wedding night scene in which Harry rebuffs Shelly Winters’ Willa Harper simply and definitively says that Mitchum’s Powell is a total asshole. Actually, it’s at that point Winters’ character really begins to register in this film; before that scene, Willa Harper was extraneous. In Mitchum’s scenes with the children, Powell’s demeanor and dishonest piety mark him as an evil shit. However, when he stalks the Harper kids across cinematographer Stanley Cortez’s otherworldly rural landscapes and its seemingly enchanted river, you know that Powell is an all-too-real human murder, even if he takes on a sort of supernatural aura.

In a sense the film is like a fairy tale, some Brothers Grimm tale that taps into primordial fears and bad dreams – young lambs that find that a ravenous wolf has replaced their parents and now stalks them for a prize. There are superb performances by the child actors. Billy Chapin ably becomes the little man that John Harper must become as he takes on the responsibility of both protecting his sister and his father’s legacy, symbolized by the money that Ben Harper stole specifically to make sure his children didn’t go homeless and hungry. It is with bitter irony that it is that same money is the reason Ben’s children end up homeless and hungry. Sally Jane Bruce mixes cuteness, a precocious confidence, and innocence into a unique mixture that allows her to face Harry Powell, to even sit on his lap on occasion.

Lillian Gish’s Rachel Cooper is God’s voice to as Mitchum’s Powell is the bad spirit; she is his exact opposite when it comes to viewing God. While Powell’s God is a hyper vengeful Old Testament deity who allows a madman to roam about killing his human servants, Gish’s Cooper believes in a God who sends children who will do great things into the world – children who will grow into Kings that will in turn save all God’s children.

Some people may be put off by the film’s theatrical style and staging and its religiosity, but that adds a layer of wonderful metaphors and symbols on director Charles Laughton’s otherwise gritty fable. Carefully and deliberately, he shaped The Night of the Hunter into a true classic in the film thrillers genre.

9 of 10
A+

NOTES:
1992 National Film Preservation Board, USA: National Film Registry

Tuesday, February 7, 2006

-------------------

Disney's "Lady and the Tramp" Remains Romance Movie Classic

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 62 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux


Lady and the Tramp (1955) – animation
Running time: 76 minutes (1 hour, 16 minutes)
DIRECTORS: Clyde Geronomi, Wilfred Jackson, and Hamilton Luske
WRITERS: Erdman Penner, Joe Rinaldi, Ralph Wright, and Don DaGradi (based upon the story Happy Dan, the Whistling Dog by Ward Greene)
PRODUCER: Walt Disney
EDITOR: Don Halliday
BAFTA Award nominee

ANIMATION/COMEDY/MUSICAL/ROMANCE with elements of drama

Starring: (voices) Peggy Lee, Barbara Luddy, Larry Roberts, Bill Thompson, Bill Baucom, Stan Freberg, Verna Felton, and Lee Millar

Lady and the Tramp is a 1955 animated romantic film from Walt Disney Pictures. It was the 15th full-length animated feature film from Disney and is based in part on a short story originally published in Cosmopolitan Magazine. The film centers on the growing romantic relationship between two dogs, a female American Cocker Spaniel, who is from an upper middle-class family, and a male mutt who is a stray.

Because of drama and turmoil in her owners’ home, Lady (Barbara Luddy), a pampered and sheltered cocker spaniel, wanders away from the safety of her neighborhood and meets Tramp (Larry Roberts), a jolly, freedom-loving, and streetwise mutt with a heart of gold. They share romantic adventures that occasionally imperil their safety while they move towards an inevitable union. Memorable songs (written by Sonny Burke and Peggy Lee) and memorable characters including the twin Pekingese cats, Si and Am (Peggy Lee), highlight this classic, Disney’s fifteenth animated feature.

Lady and the Tramp remains Walt Disney’s signature romantic animated film; although romance often plays a part in their full-length animated films; this is the Disney animated love story. It exemplifies two particular elements that really stand out in a Disney animated features – the art of beauty and technical skills. The character animation is beautifully drawn making even characters meant to be ugly or villainous quite gorgeous and handsome eye candy. The background art, backdrops, and sets are also elegant, even stunning. The technical virtuosity on display is simply dazzling; this is text book work on animating animals. Characters move with such grace and precision that the film looks, on one hand, like museum quality high art, and, on the other hand, has such striking realism in terms of movement and rhythm.

Lady and the Tramp is probably best known for its romantic heart. A melodic score, charming and adorable songs, and the star-crossed pair of Lady and the Tramp make this an animated film that captures the romantic in the hearts of young and old viewers. That’s why this film is so memorable and also well-remembered by adults who first saw it as a child – a true Disney classic.

9 of 10
A+

Sunday, April 2, 2006

NOTES:
1956 BAFTA Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Animated Film” (USA)

"5 Against the House" a Romantic, Comic Crime Drama

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 75 (of 2011) by Leroy Douresseaux

5 Against the House (1955) – B&W
Running time: 84 minutes (1 hour, 24 minutes)
DIRECTOR: Phil Karlson
WRITERS: Stirling Silliphant, William Bowers, and John Barnwell (based upon the Good Housekeeping magazine short story by Jack Finney)
PRODUCERS: John Barnwell and Stirling Silliphant
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Lester White (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Jerome Thoms
COMPOSER: George Duning

CRIME/DRAMA with elements of romance

Starring: Guy Madison, Kim Novak, Brian Keith, Alvy Moore, Kerwin Mathews, William Conrad, Jack Dimond, and Jean Wills

Released in 1955, 5 Against the House is one of the first filmed heists and one of the first movies to depict a casino robbery. The film follows four college buddies who decide to rob a casino as a hoax. I am primarily interested in this film for two reasons. 5 Against the House is considered to be “film noir,” of which I am a fan. I am also a fan of the late actor, Alvy Moore, and this movie is one of his first big film roles.

Film noir is the term primarily used to describe a category of Hollywood crime dramas generally (but not exclusively) released in the 1940s and 1950s. I have been interested in film noir (or Film-Noir) for a long time, but it is only in the last decade or so that I have specifically sought out these films. 5 Against the House was released in 2009 as part of a five-DVD box set entitled, Columbia Pictures Film Noir Classics 1.

Jack Alvin “Alvy” Moore was born in December 1921 and died in May 1997. Primarily a light comic actor, Moore made numerous guest appearances on television shows, but he is best known for playing the incompetent county agent, “Hank Kimball,” on the CBS television series, Green Acres (1965-71). Moore served in the United States Marine Corps and saw combat in the Battle of Iwo Jima. He broke into film in the early 1950s and had a small speaking role as one of Marlon Brando’s motorcycle gang in the 1953 film, The Wild Ones. As a supporting actor, 5 Against the House was one his early major roles. At one time, Moore had a small production company and produced the cult science fiction film, A Boy and His Dog (1975), based upon the Harlan Ellison short story.

5 Against the House begins with college pals: Al Mercer (Guy Madison), Brick (Brian Keith), Ronnie (Kerwin Matthews), and Roy Cruikshank (Alvy Moore). The young men are on their way back to college from summer jobs when they take a quick side-trip to Reno, Nevada, where they visit the famous casino, Harold’s Club. While there, Ronnie and Roy get caught up in a robbery attempt. After the culprit is apprehended, the boys overhear someone lament that there is no way a casino robbery can be done.

After they return to their college, Midwestern University, Ronnie, a brainy rich kid, begins to formulate a way to successfully rob Harold’s Club. Al reconnects with his gorgeous girlfriend, Kaye Greylek (Kim Novak), who is now a singer at a local nightclub. Meanwhile, Brick, who served during the Korean War, has a psychotic episode after a fellow student goads him into a fight. Al, who served in Korea with Brick, stops the fight and begs Brick to return to a veteran’s hospital for treatment of his head injury and for post-war mental trauma, which Brick refuses.

Ronnie convinces Brick and Roy to join his plan to rob Harold’s Club after he tells them that it is a hoax and that they will return the money afterwards. They plot to find a way to get Al to participate (with Kaye tagging along), but one of them secretly wants the robbery to be real and has no intention of returning a single dime to Harold’s Club.

I wouldn’t call 5 Against the House a great film, but it is certainly a darn good one. The script, by writers Stirling Silliphant (also a producer), William Bowers, and John Barnwell), efficiently covers a lot of ground in terms of characterization, impressive for a film that barely has over 80 minutes of actual narrative. Viewers will get to know the characters, from Brick’s desperation and psychosis to talkative Roy’s ability to diffuse a situation with one quick quip. Ronnie’s rich boy machinations add nice touches to several scenes.

The combined efforts of director Phil Karlson and director of photography Lester White yield a stylish film that can be tension-filled (casino scenes) and laid back (when the boys are on campus). The opening and closing shots of the gateway to Reno and the romantic scenes featuring Al and Kaye epitomize film noir’s alluring contrast of light and dark.

Some film noir movies have beautiful musical scores, and 5 Against the House has an excellent score from George Duning, which is by turns romantic and suspenseful. Kim Novak shimmers while giving superb singing performances of two songs, "The Life of the Party" (written by Hal Hackady and Billy Mure) and "I Went Out of My Way" (written by Helen Bliss).

I watched 5 Against the House mainly to see Alvy Moore, but I was introduced to a film I can add to my “favorite movies” list.

7 of 10
A-

Friday, August 26, 2011

-------------------------