Wagon Master (John Ford, 1950)

While I was in Palo Alto this past Spring, I went to the Stanford Theater and watched Wagon Master, which was playing that week.

The titular wagon master is played by Ben Johnson.

He's hired by a Mormon pioneer (Ward Bond) to lead his wagon train through the desert to their "promised land'. Jane Darwell (Grapes of Wrath) plays one of the Mormons.

Any film about a slow-moving wagon train in the blistering heat needs to have a good story and interesting characters to hold my interest. The film gets interesting when the group meets a family of gypsy performers and let them travel along. Ben Johnson even falls for the daughter, played by Joanne Dru).

There's an interesting sequence where a group of Native Americans invite the entire group to their campsite.

The film gets even more interesting when the Clegg Family - a group of fugitive brothers - gets involved.  The leader of the group is the ruthless "Uncle Shiloh" (Charles Kemper), a nasty villain.

Co-starring Harry Caray Jr.  Directed by John Ford.

Read a review from Laura of Laura's Misc Musings

Read another blog post from Just Hit Play here

Travels With My Aunt (1972) and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2012)

Over the weekend I went with my aunt to see The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, a new ensemble dramedy about British tourists in India. The stellar cast includes Judi Dench and - in a less-prominent storyline - Maggie Smith as a stubborn guest. Five minutes before the end of the film, Dame Judi says to Maggie, "We haven't talked much, have we?" Nope, they sure didn't, and I wished Maggie was in more of the film.  She's so good you'll want to see her star in a sequel.

I watched another of Maggie Smith's travel-themed movies where she shines in the lead: Travels With My Aunt from 1972.

Travels  is a quirky comedy from director George Cukor that has a screwball tone. Dame Maggie plays an eccentric socialite whose affair with a mysterious lover forces her to travel the world. She brings along her only relative, her nephew Henry, played by Alex McCowen, a perfect straight-man to her more high-spirited personality.

The movie unfolds to reveal more of the mysterious reason for her world travels, and it all comes together in a silly, memorable way.

Co-star Louis Gossett Jr. (who plays a fellow travel companion) shares some of the neat experiences he had filming the Travels in London in his autobiography, An Actor and A Gentleman. He recalls with fondness meeting the Beatles and Jimi Hendrix, all the good food he enjoyed, and how gracious and encouraging Dame Maggie was.

Just a Cineaste blog post on Travels With My Aunt

How You See It (1936)

Here's an old short about projecting a film on a screen.

A Chicago golden-age movie palace aims to go digital

Last summer, the 85-year Patio Theater on the northwest side reopened as a 2nd run movie theater, showing hits like Hunger Games and (this week) Dark Shadows and drawing in the crowds as a friendly neighborhood family theater.

It's reopening was like the mythical phoenix rising from the ashes; the theater had been closed for 10 years, and many thought it would face the wrecking ball.

This summer, owner Demetri Kouvalis has begun a Kickstarter campaign to upgrade to a digital projector in an effort to keep the theater open as long as possible and remain competitive.Another northwest side 2nd-run theater, the 97-year old Logan Theater, recently reopened with several new digital projectors.

The Patio is aiming to raise at least $30,000 in the next month; click here to lend your support.

As Demetri says on the blog post: 

When you allow outside parties and film studios to help finance your new digital projector, they have their hand in the cookie jar. A lot of an independent theater’s creativity vanishes. Each show you play will be monitored, and more often than not, the film studios will force you to play more shows than you are willing to play, or keep a film for an extra week or two, no matter how bad the film performed.

A recent article from the LA Times published some predictions for film:

• By 2012's end, the majority of theaters will be showing movies digitally.
• By 2013, film will slip to a niche status, shown in only 1/3 of theaters.
• By 2015, film will be used in 17% of global cinemas

It seems like the Patio is in an upgrade-or-die situation.

May the phoenix continue to soar.

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Related articles:

Capitol II Theatre facing digital conversion deadline next year (Newton, Iowa Daily News, June 1, 2012)

Movie Studios Are Forcing Hollywood to Abandon 35mm Film. But the Consequences of Going Digital Are Vast, and Troubling (LA Weekly, April 12, 2012)

Where Did All the Projectionists Go? (TimeOut London, May 13, 2012)

Christopher Nolan Fights for 35mm, Understands 3-D and Tries to Educate Everyone Else (Rope of Silicon, April 13, 2012)

The Fight for 35MM Continues (Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule, Nov 30, 2011)

Who's Willing to Fight for 35mm? (Movieline, Nov 22, 2011)

35mm Projection is at Risk. Does That Matter? (Indiewire, Nov 16, 2011)

E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial (1982) 30th anniversary screening

The other day I went to see a 30th anniversary screening of the film ET; it was an outdoor movie event "under the stars", which is usually always a fun experience, even if the movie isn't so great. This was the very first time I've ever seen ET in its entirety;  I've always avoided it over the years and never got into the whole craze.

Suspending my disbelief, I bought into the idea that the alien was smart enough to build a communication device to contact his planet, even in the pre-internet, pre-cell phone days of the early 1980s (what a feat!).

Also I liked the bonding with the boy and the alien. Its fair to say that this movie -unlike its subsequent ripoffs - has a heart, in more ways than one. On a sidenote, Henry Thomas, the actor who played Elliot hasn't vanished into obscurity; he has a new independent movie out where he will portray country music legend Hank Williams Sr (due to premiere in cinemas this summer).

ET has forever captured on film many of the same toys I played with as a kid. I spent countless hours with that Speak-N-Spell. What an awesome toy that was!!  So this brought back some memories!

The version of the film that was shown - I learned later - was the 2002 director's cut, with some additional scenes and some added CGI technology (mostly effects that further animate the alien creature). The GCI didn't fool me; I recognized it right away. However I mistakenly thought the part where the alien watches John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara in The Quiet Man was a deleted scene until I learned that it was in the original. A neat part.

The 2002 DVD (2 discs) has a ton of features that I haven't watched yet.

Summer of 1982: films released

A link to a list:

Summer of 1982: 15 Classic Films Turn 30 list

Wow. I just saw this list and thought to myself: 30.

Could it be 30 years? Hard to believe.

Midway (1976)

Midway was shown on American network television in June of 1992, and I remember watching it and really enjoying the battle scenes, and learning a little about the battle of Midway.

Toshiro Mifune plays Japanese Admiral Yamamoto and Henry Fonda plays American Admiral Chester Nimitz. The battle is planned and executed.

There is a subplot involving American naval captain Charlton Heston and his son played by Edward Albert, whose girlfriend is Japanese. The interracial romance was reflective of the times and relevant to the audiences of the 1970s but otherwise the film isn't  too remarkable.

It's an all star cast, so if you know your classic movie stars, you can play the game "Oh look it's .....". James Coburn, Glenn Ford, Robert Wagner, Dabney Coleman, Pat Morita, Erik Estrada, Robert Mitchum, Hal Holbrook, Tom Seleck, Cliff Robertson and more.

Read another review from the blog Mike's Take on Movies here. 

Richard Dawson Dies: ‘Family Feud’ Host Was 79

Richard Dawson Dies: ‘Family Feud’ Host Was 79: Richard Dawson known best for hosting the “Family Feud” and starring in “Hogan’s Heroes” has died, ABC News has confirmed. He was 79. Dawson was born Colin Lionel Emm in Gosport, Hampshire England on Nov. 30, 1932.