Welcome then to the third instalment of ‘So Far So…’ where I take a random and quick look each week at whatever’s on my filmic mind, with a touch of whatever else is occupying my noodle.
This week t’s a couple of hugely different and yet strangely similar movies by the American-Scottish director ALEXANDER MACKENDRICK - ‘The Ladykillers’ (1955) and ‘Sweet Smell Of Success’ (1957).
Mackendrick was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1912 and after his Father died of Influenza (then sweeping the world) found himself being shipped off to Glasgow by his Mother in 1918 ate the age of 7 to be brought up by his Grandfather. Mackendrick neither saw nor heard from his Mother ever again. After graduating from the Glasgow School Of Art he then got a job with the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency and further cut his creative teeth there before setting up in the aftermath of WW2 a production company making documentaries for the Ministry Of Defence, which eventually led to where all things proper would start for the guy - that little West London pearl, Ealing Studios.
Whilst there he directed a small clutch of classics including ‘Whiskey Galore!’ (1949), ‘The Man In The White Suit’ (1951) and of course ‘The Ladykillers’.
To THE LADYKILLERS then. Well, it was Oscar nom’d for Best Screenplay (William Rose), at the BAFTA’s won for Best Screenplay and Best Actress (Katie Johnson) and has the rare honour of a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
I’m not here to inflict lengthy film essays on you though - so here are my takes on it. It’s a fantastic movie. A really fantastic (now) period movie that catches powerfully post-WW2 London/Britain, benefits from an absolutely fantastic screenplay and cast of Actors, and which has a glint in it’s eye both dark & light but always knowing. The performances are universally outstanding and to pick out one would be daft, but I think it’s fair to say that Ealing stalwart Alec Guinness and Katie Johnson lead the ensemble magnificently. And what a supporting ensemble we have in Herbert Lom, Peter Sellers, Cecil Parker, Danny Green, Jack Warner and Frankie Howerd with everyone delivering on the money performances via this perfect exercise in Casting. The Bloomsbury/Kings Cross areas brilliantly capture the post-war urban decay, grime and dourness of the mid-50’s in this country, and a terrific score by Tristram Cary delightfully augments the whole with Mackendrick supremely confident and creative at the tiller. It’s just a GREAT fucking movie, and of course Hollywood clocked this and made sure Mackendrick was bound for California the same year ‘The Ladykillers’ was released.
If you haven’t then do yourself a favour, and if you have do yourself a favour once more and see if it’s aged well since the last time you saw it. Me? Like any great Movie I’ve watched and enjoyed it many times and intend to continue this pattern up until the day I finally shuffle off this mortal coil. It’s rich, witty, deliciously dark, quintessentially British, and in many way damnably perfect. Spread the word (as is my ferocious wont on Twitter) and let’s do our bit to keep such a great work alive well and prospering via the kids, their kids and grandkids well into the next century eh?
And so on we go sharpish to SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS…
Again there’s SO much one could write about this incredible movie but resist I shall and keep things brief by sharing with you that whilst a great provenance certainly doesn’t guarantee a film working, in this case there was just too much good shit behind this movie for it not to work. Mackendrick turned down offers from the likes of Selznick upon his arrival in Hollywood and got into bed instead with Burt Lancaster, Lancaster’s agent Harold Hecht and producer James Hill. After an iffy start with Hecht-Hill-Lancaster Mackendrick eventually ended up attached to the film adaptation of Enrest Lehman’s novelette ‘Sweet Smell Of Success’. Initially Mackendrick was very concerned over Lehman’s dialogue-heavy screenplay, but once that had been sorted it was down to pre-prod and casting. Lehman got ill and had to exit the project, so after Paddy Chayefsky (of ‘Network’ fame) got offered then passed on it, the legendary and legendarily left-wing, HUAC-tastic Clifford Odets parachuted in. It was of course no stretch then for Lancaster to pocket the pivotal role of J. J. Hunsecker. The part of Sidney Falco however was a much more complicated affair for Mr. Tony Curtis.
Curtis was utterly hacked off with what he considered ‘pretty boy’ roles and wanted some meat on the bone that would help prove his acting chops (pun intended). He was contracted to Universal at the time however and they were deeply concerned it would totally fuck his carefully curated career oh handsome heroes. Nevertheless, Curtis worked his ass off convincing everyone who needed to be that he WAS the boy for the job, and got it. Good thing. He was right. 100% right. He and Lancaster are just mighty together in the film. Trying to avoid spoiling anything for those that haven’t, wanting to avoid lengthy story descriptions and supposing if you’re reading this that you’ve come across me via Twitter and must have some degree of faith or interest in my interest in movie preferences - I’ll not get into the plot all. You’ll always get a (best quality) Trailer with anything I write about anyway so if you haven’t caught it before check that out and see if it doesn't float your boat.
But in essence, it’s a total stone cold classic, similarly to ‘The Ladykillers’ it’s witty as fuck with acidic zingers and memorable lines all over the place, darker than the Ealing classic yes, in possession of a rip-roaring score by Elmer Bernstein, beautiful photography from James Wong Howe and our boy Mackendrick just nails the crap out of everything he needed to and then some. It’s moody, unpredictable therefore, pacy as fuck, and as powerfully punchy as peak George Foreman.
So, watch it fresh, watch it re-fresh, but watch it either way because this baby has soooo much to give you.
Finally then my little saunter into Music this week comes in the form of my favourite Live album of all time, namely MAZE - LIVE IN NEW ORLEANS (1980)
Basically any ‘Live’ album has to have three things for me: obviously great music, but it also has to capture the atmosphere that night and be technically sweet enough on the production side to capture both of the aforementioned in the sweet spot of the ear.
Maze - as led by the mighty Frankie Beverly - are super tight, get their seemingly effortless flow on and then some, and just revel in the fact they’re such supreme musicians that sharing this fact live in front of many fellow humans is where they want to be and frankly just where they’re at. And on top of all that there’s NEW ORLEANS - that special special place with such a deep relationship with R&B, Soul and the Blues - which you can feel dripping like sweet viscous molasses over the whole goddam thing. And boy are the audience plugged in and connected too. It’s beautiful beautiful beautiful and been a dear friend to my ears for almost 40 years.
Finally finally then - and I’m gonna do this each week I’ve literally just decided whilst tapping away here - I’m randomly gonna flag one tweet out of the many hundreds I put up on Twitter each week. It won’t have anything to do with number of ‘likes’ or RT’s or any bollocks like that, it’ll just be one that tickles me or that I dug a huge amount that week or, well, fuck knows. Anyway, this week I’m gonna plump for my favourite Commercial of all time. You can watch it below if you haven’t already seen it on my feed, but it’s basically Marty Scorsese brilliantly sending himself up for a few bucks on behalf of American Express. I freakin’ love it, I freakin’ love him, and I hope you enjoy it too. This version also includes a little bit of Scorsese talking about it too.
Ok people, that’s enough of I, have yourself a great rest of the week, hang tough and stay true during what seems to be the collapse of ‘civilisation’ and all else befuckingsides, and I’ll see you next week. Oh, and if you can be arsed do spread the word do about this here thing on the stack of sub, I’d be mighty obliged to y’all.
Goodnight And Good Luck
Michael
Nobody messes with Mrs Lopsided
The Ladykillers is definitely in my top 10 films.
I have never watched Sweet Smell of Success but will get it on dvd.