The Lonely Guy (1984)

This post is my contribution to 1984-A-Thon hosted by Forgotten Films. Click here for a list of all the participating blogs in the blogathon.

1984's The Lonely Guy is one of my favorite Steve Martin films, along with Planes Trains and Automobiles and Roxanne.

This movie (originally panned by Ebert but enjoyed by Siskel - watch their TV review from 1984 here) is a romantic comedy with lots of amusing sight gags and a bit of dark humor. Neil Simon is credited as one of the screenwriters.

In honor of its 30th anniversary, I've come up with 30 reasons why I enjoy this film.

1. Steve Martin's performance. My favorite moment in the film might be when he's interviewing for an apartment and has to answer all the landlord's questions in rapid succession.  Comic brilliance.  

2 The opening credit song Love Comes Without Warning by America and theme music by Jerry Goldsmith. Cheesey, but it seems to fit this era.

3. How it satirizes self-help gurus and dating in general (albeit dating in the 1980s). A well- known 80s' relationship guru of the time - Dr. Joyce Brothers - even agreed to make a cameo appearance.

4. The running "lonely guy" gag. Martin's character lives in a society where single, hopeless-romantics are stigmatized with that label. To enjoy this movie, I think you have to buy into this  premise.

5. The opening scenes giving us a brief history of lonely guys through the ages, such as the caveman who always had to spend New Year's Eve alone. 

6. All the visual humor. For example, when Martin goes apartment hunting, one of the apartments he visits is half underwater!

7. In the memorable restaurant scene, a spotlight shines on Martin after he orders a table for one! Martin sits down and asks the waiter, "Could you turn off the spotlight?" The waiter goes *snap* and off goes the light. Even Roger Ebert who hated the movie enjoyed that scene. 

8. Charles Grodin as Martin's sad-sack best friend. Grodin is a great sidekick to Martin, and creates a memorable character who is sort of like a  human "Eeyore" from Winnie the Pooh. Martin is the more upbeat and ambitious of the two, and they make a great  screen pairing. 

9. In one of my favorite scenes, Martin visits Grodin who has life-size cardboard cutouts of celebrities in his apartment (1980s-era celebrities, of course). A police officer comes by the apartment and painfully admits that he's a "lonely cop" and wants nothing more than a life-size cut-out of Gene Hackman (who of course played a hero cop in The French Connection).

10.  The scene where Martin meets Iris (Judith Ivey) in the diner, and how Iris can immediately tell that he's a "lonely guy". 

11. After the first meeting, Martin loses Iris' phone number and forgets her name. Martin frantically calls almost every almost everyone listed in the phone book. "Hello is there a Doris there? How about Bess or Tess?"

12.  The subway scene. In a classic scene, Martin is riding on a NY subway, looks out the window and suddenly sees Iris. He then grabs a can of spray paint from a gangbanger to write a message on the glass, impressing the gangbanger who exclaims: "Man, you are one baaaad backwards writer!"

13. How Martin's character is a greeting card writer, and the funny greetings he comes up with. I bet that this was the first time the occupation has ever been depicted on film, years before 500 Days of Summer featured a character with the same occupation.

14. The fact that it was directed by Arthur Hiller - who helmed one of the 1970s' most popular romances, Love Story.  He adds a touch of sentimentally that gives the film heart. I like how when the lovers daydream about each other, the scenes are superimposed on free-frame shots.

15. The New York setting, and all the scenes in Central Park. 

16.  The rooftop scene, where Martin cries out for Iris and is joined by other guys on rooptops crying out for women they lost.

17. Martin meets a girl in a bar and starts to tell her how much he wants a real serious relationship, and after a long emotional pitch by Martin, she reveals that she's just looking for sex. 

18. Martin and Grodin pop in VCR tapes of crackling log fires or scenes of fish swimming in an aquarium.

19. Martin and Grodin both buy ferns and treat them like real people. I've never been able to think of ferns in the same way again.

20. Martin visiting his psychiatrist. He rings the doorbell, and the doctor says, "Talk into the box". Martin bares his soul while a nosey neighbor listens to all.

21. The chess scene where Grodin plays chess with a computer that talks back.

22. Martin's fast-talking landlord. 

23. Crooner Steve Lawrence singing "Isn't it Romantic?". You can't have him in a movie without a little singing.

24. How Martin's character finds success with his best-selling book, "A Guide for the Lonely Guy" yet still struggles with his relationships.

25. Martin dressed as Chaplin at a costume party.

26. Grodin watching a sci-fi movie all by himself at another party. 

27. The channel surfing scene. Toward the end of the film, Martin has a disturbing vision of wasting his life away on the couch watching TV, and is thrown into the garbage. He suddenly  jumps off his couch, looks at his remote as if it were a loaded pistol and tosses it to the ground. It's a hilarious moment.   

28. Martin's own personal police escort as he runs to find Iris.

29. The very last scene of the movie. A great pay-off for Grodin's character, and a happy ending that leaves me smiling every time I see it. 

30. Seeing all the outdated technology.  The Lonley Guy feels like it was made a half-century ago or more, as characters use antiquated technology like typewriters, push-button phones, address books, and VHS tapes. No one uses cell-phones or does any texting, tweeting, online dating, or facebooking.   

But this nostalgia factor is one of the reasons why I love The Lonely Guy, and other movies from the 1980s.

If you feel the same, be sure to check out more movies from 1984 in the 1984-A-Thon hosted by Forgotten Films.

Another Year (2010)

I saw this movie the other night. It's great. About a London couple (Jim Broadbent and Ruth Sheen) and the various characters in their life.  Tom (Broadbent) is a geologist who has a few more years before retirement. He enjoys golfing with his friends and gardening with his wife (Sheen) in a communal garden (they are always bringing home vegetables) Both love to cook, so there are a number of scenes where they are cooking for friends and family. In fact, the movie is split into 4 acts divided by the seasons.  There's always a lunch or dinner scene in each act. It's pretty cool.

Ruth Sheen and Jim Broadbent are a
loving and devoted couple who make time for
family and friends

The couple have a 30-year old son. People are asking whether or not he has a girlfriend. Does he have a secret? Gerry (Sheen), a psychologist, has a co-worker (Leslie Manville) who doesn't have many friends or family, so she's always dropping by their house. She's single, lonely, and enjoys a few drinks. But does he have more serious problems? Director Mike Leigh doesn't let us know the full stories of these characters right away. We must watch the entire film. It's captivating. The characters in this movie are so real; they reminded me of my own family. And the acting seems so natural, even improvised, which is what I love about his movies Secrets and Lies, Vera Drake, and Happy Go Lucky.  Leslie Manville is just incredible in this; she won several awards for her amazing performance, including a BAFTA nomination.

Another Year is a quiet, serious adult drama, delightful and fun at times, and even heartbreaking at times.  I highly recommend it.

I saw this Monday night at the Tivoli Theater, an old-fashioned downtown movie house in Downer's Grove, IL

If you saw the movie Happy Go Lucky, do you remember the flamenco instructor?

Well the actress who plays her has a small role Another Year 

Here is a funny scene from Happy Go Lucky featuring the dance instructor.




Read another review from Mike's Movie Projector

Another blog post by Cliched Monologues

I Vitelloni (1953) by Fellini

Italian. 101 Minutes. Directed by Federico Fellini. Beautiful music score by Nino Rota.  Starring Franco Fabrizi (1926-1995), Alberto Sordi (1920-2003), Franco Interlenghi (1931 - )

Fellini's comedy-drama about a group of five slacker best friends in a post WWII Italian town.  The title translates into "good-for-nothings".  In America, these guys might be called "bums", or even "mama's boys". They are healthy young men, and have no excuse not to look for a job. They just lack ambition. When one character does find a job, he gets fired soon afterward due to his misbehavior. So they continue to walk the streets, shoot pool, and pretty much waste time.   A song by The Dave Matthews Band came to my mind after seeing this film, "Wasting Time".

The men in the movie are old enough to have served in the war, but there is no mention of WW2 in this film. I Vitelloni is often called a "neo-realist" film, but there is debate about that. Films usually considered neo-realist are usually grittier (Open City, The Bicycle Thief ), have more of a political message, and are not as off-beat as I Vitelloni. .

The characters are all interesting.

There is a playwright character, Leopoldo (Leopoldo Trieste), who dreams his plays will one day get noticed. In one sequence, he meets an actor he admires and who expresses great interest in his work. You'll have to see the movie to find out what happens next.

Fellini cast his own brother Riccardo Fellini as another member of the group. (Riccardo resembles his brother, actually) In one scene, Riccardo expresses his dissatisfaction with his town by calling it "a rat hole". His character is not full developed, and we know the least about him. However, I don't think this is a major flaw of the film.

The character with the most screen time is the character of Fausto, a real ladies' man. He's played by the actor Franco Fabrizi . Even when married (and with a child to support) he still can't give up his womanizing.

Many filmmakers were inspired by this film. Some of Woody Allen's characters can be found in the men of I Vitorelli, such as Leopoldo (and his encounter with the director) and Fausto, who has been compared to Judah in Crimes and Misdemeanors.  George Lucas also loved this film; the episodic storytelling and hijinks of the immature characters influenced his American Graffiti. And the opening narration where the characters are introduced is just like how Martin Scorsese opened Goodfellas

I think Fellini's own personality can be found in several of these characters. Certainly the writer Leopoldo. Maybe a little of the womanizing of Fausto, who has a conscience in the form of his best friend Moraldo (Franco Interlenghi). I think Moraldo is Fellini. Both despise the hypocrisy and laziness of those around him, and both have bigger dreams somewhere else, in another town (Fellini loved Rome, of course)

There is another minor character a young boy who befriends Moraldo named Guido. Could this be the Guido who grows up to be the character in 8-1/2? An interesting thought. One of the last shots of the film shows him walking on a train rail into the distance, and it sort of reminded me of the end of a Chaplin film.

Though the film doesn't discuss the war, there are a few elements that remind us that the film takes place in post war Italy. First of all, the poor economic conditions. Also, the characters in the film talk about Esther Williams, Ginger Rogers, and other American movie stars. This was a period where Italians were enjoying American films for the first time in years because such films were not brought into Italy under Mussolini.

Other than some of these elements, I think the human nature of I Vitelloni is timeless, and this story could really take place in any decade, even in modern times. As mentioned previously, It's almost a statement (Fellini's statement) against the lack of ambition of these characters, and Fellini (a real life go-getter) is sort of critical of it. The Moraldo character represents this. However, it does make you think about families in general as well.

In American society these days, if a young man in his 20s or 30s is single and lives in the basement of his parent's house, that raises a "red flag" among some single women. They're laughed at. Single women want a "real man". But in some cultures, living with your family is perfectly acceptable.

There's a great scene in I Vitelloni where Alberto Sordi's sister storms out of the house and leaves town, and Sordi is left to be the sole caretaker for his aging mother. Without a job, he is faced with the reality that he needs to find work - and put down the bottle. Scenes like this show that these characters have heart, and are devoted to their families (Although Fausto remains questionable). Additionally, religious characters for the most part are treated with reverence and respect in this film (Fellini is a bit more critical of the Roman Catholic church in his later films).

This is a fascinating movie, filled with emotional dramatic moments, balanced with humor and comedic touches that are very funny. (Available on DVD/Netflix).

The Apartment (1960)

Jack Lemmon plays an office worker who offers up his apartment to his boss and other upper management for their extra-marital affairs.

All goes well until he falls for his boss' (Fred MacMurray) ladyfriend, played by Shirley MacLaine.

In a small role is Jack Kruschen as Jack's doctor neighbor who helps MacLaine recover from swallowing too many sleeping pills. He was nominated for Best Supporting Actor.

Director Wilder took home three Oscars for this cleverly written movie, as he was also the producer and one of the writers.

For another review of this movie, see Emma's post at the All About My Movies blog.

Jack Lemmon in The Apartment

Come Live With Me (1941) Starring Jimmy Stewart and Hedy Lamarr

Hedy plays a illegal immigrant from Vienna (whose father was "liquidated" for his convictions, as a character says - though it's not specified, one can assume she's either Jewish or a political dissenter). She has become a showgirl in a big US city (none is specified, but I guess NY?) and has an affair with a married man. One day a deportation officer comes to summons her, but is overcome by her allure. He suggests she get married so she can become an American citizen. He gives her only a week to do so.

Hedy: Get married? In only a week?!
Deportation officer: Miss, if you can't get married in a week, the boys here must be slippin!

While strolling through the park that night, she bumps into down-on-his luck writer Jimmy, then meets him again later. He invites her up into his shack of an apartment, and we realize how poor he is. "I'm no capitalist", he declares. And his hosting abilities are challenged: "Would you like to have something to drink?" he asks; "Some nice warm beer?"....Some music? I can open the window and we can get the radio from across the street."
And my favorite: "If you'd to browse among my books, the pawn shop is just around the corner."

There is a funny parkbench scene with Jimmy and a beggar, who tries to talk him into becoming a bum, and even tests his will by offering him a dollar.

The subplot involving Hedy's married boyfriend isn't interesting. Overall, I'd say this is a pretty average comedy. It's so much more enjoyable whenever the two stars are together onscreen. Hedy is so pretty and sweet and Jimmy is in his aw-shucks persona again.

A line Jimmy says in this film (after they are married) sums up the movie pretty good: "It's one thing for two strangers to get married, but you've gotta get to know each other before you get a divorce!"

The best part of the film is toward the end when Jimmy brings Hedy to his family home on the farm where his wise grandmother (Adeline De Walt Reynolds) lives.

Fans of either star will enjoy it I'm sure, but it's not one of their best films.

Co-starring Frank Faylen (Ernie from "It's a Wonderful Life")
Donald Meek (Stagecoach, Poppins from "You Can't Take It With You"). Directed by Clarence Brown.

Read the original (Feb 1941) New York Times review here.

Under the Yum Yum Tree (1963) starring Jack Lemmon

This movie - from 1963, same year as "Tom Jones" is a dated but interesting movie about American sexual morality in the early 60s. The basic message of the movie is, "yes, young people are starting to experiment with sex outside marriage, but it's better to get married before living together". Based on a moderately successful Broadway play of the same name, the film is about a young college couple (Carol Lynley and pre-Disney Dean Jones) who live together -unmarried of course- in landlord Jack Lemmon's apartment. Swinging bachelor Lemmon has a secret crush on Carol and - comically - eavesdrops in on the couple's conversations for kicks. Lemmon kind of reminds me of his character in "The Apartment"; but in this film he is more sex-crazed. He only rents to single young girls, and loves to hit on them all. His role is really a supporting one; the main character here is Carol Lynley, who is supposed to personify the liberal, sophisticated young 60s woman willing to experiment with co-habitation before marriage. Paul Lynde and Imogene Coca have supporting roles as the apartment building groundskeeper and his wife. Coca's character is cranky and judgmental about the ideas of young people living together. So here we have Carol Lynley, who is supposed to be so liberal and sophisticated, yet in the end, traditional morality wins out, after some stiff lectures by her female college professor (Edie Adams) about shacking up before marriage: living together properly means being married. So basically, Adams plays a socially conservative college professor, portrayed in this film a positive light. Kind of thing you don't see ever anymore in movies, is it? American culture has changed in 45 years, and this film is proof of that. The final scene with the talking cat is pretty funny.

Read Dawn's recent post on this movie at Noir Chick Flicks.

Michael's Movie Palace

Marty (1955) Starring Ernest Borgnine

This is one of my favorite movies; set in New York, it's about two single adults who don't feel like they fit but find a connection with each other. Ernest Borgnine is a lonely butcher.  He's in his 30s and still lives at home with his Italian mother.

At the butcher shop, everyone asks Marty when he's gonna get married. He and his buddy Angelo/"Angie" (Joe Mantell) hang out at bars and then ultimately end up watching TV at home.

He meets Betsy Blair at a dance. She's called a nasty name by her date, who leaves without her. The two end up talking for the rest of the night.  The original production was a TV film, one of the first ever, and starred Rod Stieger in the lead role. In 1955 the film was remade and released in theaters produced by Burt Lancaster.

Ernest Borgnine, previously known for From Here To Eternity, stars as Marty, a single butcher in.

It's a great film with great characters and dialogue focusing on self esteem and body acceptance, rarely talked about in films at that time. It won Best Picture at the Oscars, and Ernest Borgnine won Best Actor. Betsy Blair and Joe Mantell were also nominated for their roles.