Johnny Simmons

Entertainment Weekly is always up and about making lists, and I always end up having severe issues with them. Their most recent is one on the best films that occur within 24 hours. They've got some fine choices there (Ferris Bueller's Day Off, America Graffiti) but they really missed the ball on some rather obvious choices. So, I've done my duty to make my own list - my top 5 films that occur in a day. I'm not ranking them on merit, but on how well they incorporate the one day theme...

I don't particularly grudge them for not including this on the list, it's not really a popular film. Still, it's a favourite of mine somewhat. In Picnic Hal (played by William Holden) - a good-looking good-for-nothing shows up on the day of their Labour Day Picnic and rocks the town. It's based on the Pulitzer Prize winning play by William Inge and features an ensemble cast with Kim Novak and Rosalind Russell. I suppose Picnic can get a little sentimental at times, but that's part of its appeal I think.

I suppose this doesn't really happen in a day, which could explain why this classic piece is missing from the list. It begins with a prologue and then flashes forward to the morning before Tracy Lord's (Katharine Hepburn) wedding. As the day unfolds she's torn between her fiancee, her ex-husband (Cary Grant) and a newsreporter (James Stewart). After a night of craziness she comes to the right decision in the morning. The film doesn't happen in a day, but it happens in 24 hours - so I say it's eligible. And this one's based on a play too...

Trust Entertainment Weekly to ignore Liz Taylor at her sexiest. In a nutshell, it's about a woman who's trying to convince her husband to sleep with her while her father-in-law may (or may not) be dying and the vultures are gathering around in anticipation the will. It's a depressing film, but Tenneessee Williams excellent writing makes it very accessible and Taylor and Newman give some scintillating performances. Classic...and based on a classic piece of literature too.

It almost topped the list, and with good reason. It has its haters, but this film really makes excellent use of the one day plot point. Mr and Mrs Drayton (Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy) are a white couple who love all races, but they're still somewhat surprised when their daughter Joey (Katherine Houghton) brings home a black man 14 years her senior hoping to get their blessings. The conondrum is that Dr. Prenticehas to leave tonight, so time is of the essence. Guess Who's Coming to Dinner isn't exactly perfection, but it is enjoyable, smart and classic.

What an egregious snub. This film doesn't utilise the full 24 hour, it doesn't even use twelve. This one's based on a play too, incidentally. Martha and George are two sadists (Richard Burton and Liz Taylor). He's a college professor, she's his wife and the daughter of the dean. They may, or may not, have a child. They invite the new young professor and his wife (George Segal and Sandy Dennis) for a night of fun and games. We get games, but not so much fun. After seeing this you'll probably want to stay away from marriage and from liquor, I know I did.

I always feel a little bad for Anne Baxter. Sure, she won her (deserved) Oscar playing a sympathetic prostitute in The Razor’s Edge. But, few recall that film or her performance in it. She’s remembered today for her duplicitous Nefertiti in The Ten Commandments, and the like minded Eve Harrington in All About Eve. It suggests that she has little range, but that’s not true. The thing is the film is supposed to be all about Eve – but it isn’t. It’s a giant irony actually, since the film is really all about Margo. But I like to remember Anne Baxter though, because she’s just as important (and excellent) as Bette Davis. The thing is, I’ve never been overly fond of Ms. Davis. I’ll always appreciate her talent, but I’ve never found myself particularly enamoured with her. I’ve often preferred her less popular work (Now Voyager, The Letter) to her more admired (What Happened to Baby Jane, Jezebel). But I can firmly champion Margo Channing as her more ardent fans do, even if it’s still not my favourite of hers. Still, if Tracy Lords represents the fullest representation of our Lady Kate on screen then Margo Channing is most certainly the embodiment of diva-Bette. But, as usual, I’m getting ahead of myself. I should retrace my steps.

All About Eve is a story that’s not original, but not clichéd either. Margo Channing – a celebrated actress of the stage is realising that her career is waning. She is simultaneously accosted by an overzealous fan who seems (despite the ostensible) intent on replacing the great diva. That is the story – in a nutshell, and yet it doesn’t do justice to the excellence that is All About Eve. It's a film with everything but the bloodhounds snappin' at her rear end. Of course, any classic worth its weight depends particularly on the dialogue, and Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s writing in All About Eve is exceptional, but I don’t think of the writing of the lines when I remember All About Eve so much I think about the line readings. It’s not a conceit on my part to pinpoint each actor in All About Eve – particularly the women – as being at the top of their game (case in point, four of them were nominated for Oscars). But by pinpointing the women I fail to identify one of the most fully nuanced characters of the piece – Addison Meredith, played beautifully by George Sanders. The tagline for All About Eve reads “It’s all about women and their men.” I’m never sure that that is an accurate tagline, but for some reason I rarely recall the men in this show, it’s not that they don’t achieve their task but being caught up in the delicious machinations of the casts we often only remember the ladies (and George).

All About Eve is mostly remembered for its climatic part scene where Davis’ Margo drifts deeper into cynicism. It’s a rare and beautiful moment to see all those excellent actors together in one room literally playing off each other. A young Marilyn Monroe makes as appearance here as Miss Casswell and she as excellent. I’ve never been overly fond of her work, but as I’ve said before, she does wonders with a bit role here. It’s as we watch the tug-of-war between Margo and Eve that I come to appreciate the talents of both ladies. It really does seem to be a perfect match of protagonist and antagonist and it’s all really handled well, but if I were forced to give a favourite performance of the film (more nepotism, than talent based) I’d probably single out Celeste Holme. Celeste plays a friend to Margo who realises Eve’s duplicity too late. The role is a bit contrived but I just find Ms. Holme so mesmerising in it. It is her face (and narration) that takes us back to our first meeting with Eve, and for such a silly role she handles it with a surprising amount of grace. But, honestly, I wouldn’t pick between them. From Davis, to Baxter, from Sanders to Holme, even Ritter in a bit role and all those other performances from actors who's names have become lost in history (George Merrill, Hugh Marlowe).

All About Eve is a rarity, it cruises dangerously close to perfection...who knows? It even achieves it at times. Quotable lines, classic performances, smart direction. It sits comfortably at #18 on my list of favourite films. Slow curtain, the end.

I think I can say I've done my duty in recapping the decade. I've done a number of entries dedicated to the decade in review. I'm sure there's some miscellaneous category, but if it comes to me I'll let you know. I think it's time for me to stop looking back before I turn into a pillar of salt, and I suppose that the logical conclusion is to sum it up with the best films of the decade. But, you know me - always atypical, so I'm not recapping film quality, but acting quality. What were the films this past decade with the best ensembles? It's a question that always triggers me thoughts (I did the same for the nineties). So with no explanations I list the 30 best film ensembles of the decade -with a few runners up. Let me remind you, this is not a list of the best films. It's a list of the ensembles that I think were best - the most collectively good performances, the best chemistry among actors, the most talented....

          

Runners Up (alpha): The Constant Gardener, Closer, Dreamgirls, Erin Brockovich, In the Bedroom, In the Loop, King Kong, The Messenger, The Reader, Sweeney Todd

                      

           

             

...other wise called "Getting to Know You".
     
Well I've caught it folks, so beware. No, not the plage...Univarn has tagged me so I have to oblige him by listing ten movie facts about myself. I'm a little stumped to be honest, so if this gets boring blame him. I tried to rank them, most boring first and so on and then I realised it's all rather boring. Yikes!

             

10. I'm the only movie centred person in my family. We can all agree on books but they're not cinematically inclined. Even weirder, I've never watched a movie with my father. Granted, I don't live with him anymore but it still strikes me as freakishly odd.
           
8. I may have mentioned this before, but I was once a huge fan of Bollywood cinema. There was a period when we were living next door to these very Indian people (actually Indians are almost half the population in Guyana, but these people were particularly ethnic) and I got pulled into the hubbub. It lasted for almost two years. In all honesty, Bollywood films aren't very good - to me at least. They're all musicals, which isn't exactly a bad thing but the songs have nothing to do with the story sometimes. One of the running gags back in the day was watching a movie where they'd be in a desert or someplace similar and they'd break into song and a tree would suddenly appear for the girl to dance on. Good times.
          
7. Hitchcock and Spielberg are often considered to be two of the greatest directors, but I'm  not overly fond of either. My favourite Hitchock film is Rebecca and though I know Anahita is a fervent fan of his I've never been a lover. I like Spielberg even less. The man is talented, but I've never been very fond of his films. If I had to choose I'd say Minority Report is my favourite film of his. Yes, I prefer it to Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan. The thing is I don't like even like sci-fi films like Minority Report...

6. Katharine Hepburn remains as my favourite performance concerning film (actor, director, producer). I've still not see all of her films, though I'm getting there. I do have three biographies of her though (and counting). There's her autobiography "Me: Stories of My Life" which is a hoot. It comes with many photos of the lovely lady; then there's "Tracy & Hepburn" written by her former friend Garson Kanin. I say former because Kate allegedly stop speaking to him after he wrote the bio of her and Spencer with authorisation and I have "Kate: The Life of Katharine Hepburn" which was actually authorised, so I need not feel guilty while reading. They're all excellent.
        
5. I'm not a crier in real life, but my eyes always tend to well when I watch a particularly moving (happy or sad film). When I saw The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King in theatres I sat down while Annie Lennox sang over the credits and bawled. Okay, I didn't actually bawl - but it was not pretty. On the topic of The Lord of the Rings I once watched the three films consecutively one day. That was quite good, actually.
      
4. I don't why, but even though my mother is moderately strict in  regards to every thing else she's never cared to have any input on my movie choices, so I've never been one of those children banned from watching R rated films on TV. I suppose that can account for my wharped mind. I think the first R movie I saw was The Grifters or Dangerous Liaisons (incidentally, both are films from Stephen Frears) and yes - I probably wasn't ready at age ten...but I'm always been a man before time. Ha.

2. I don't like Citizen Kane. My first introduction to Orson Welles was his production of Macbeth, which I loathed. After hearing the vociferous praise for his Citizen Kane I ventured to watch and was no fan. There are times when I hate it, though I'll admit it's not a bad movie...I still don't like it though. I know this is supposed to blasphemous statement and all because it's the greatest film ever made blah, blah, blah. But I really couldn't be bothered. How Green Was My Valley gets so much crap today because of its "stolen" Oscar. The weird thing is, most of the people hating it haven't even seen it. Sigh.

1. I like to think that someday I'll grow up to become a screenwriter of some sort in the not so distance future and I have a tendency to imagine every thing I read as a potential screenplay. I actually wrote about 25 pages of adaptation on Anybody Can Do Anything. Naturally, it was not very good and I just stopped working on it. One of these good days I'll probably get started on writing a real screenplay...hopefully.
                                  
Okay, so that was something pedestrian...I have to nominate five people so ummmm...who would I like to hear do some pointless writing...?
Jose of Movies Kick Ass; Luke of Journalistic Skepticism; Anahita of My Life In Film; Film Intel and Walter of The Silver Screening Room...
                  
If I didn't tag you it doesn't mean I don't like to hear your nostalgic waxing too. Movie Memes are a renewable resource, so there's enough of it to pass around. Do your worst.