A entertaining original look at 1972’s The Poseidon Adventure vs 2006’s Poseidon. The narrator is very droll and amusing. I agree with every word he says pro and con about the original and all the trash talk about the remake. What a missed opportunity with Poseidon especially coming from director Wolfgang Petersen the man who gave us Das Boot.
People close to me know I stopped being a Catholic in the 7th Grade while still in Catholic school! So it is ironic that I just love watching gaudy pompous religious epics like King of Kings and The Ten Commandments. One of my faves is The Cardinal (1963) to air on TCM Feb. 28 at 4:45pm EST. With the pope quitting (as Bill Mahr joked, “If he can, so can you.”), it is fortunate timing to watch Otto Preminger’s take on how a parish priest in turn-of-the-century Boston rises to the College of Cardinals. It spans over 30 years and is beautifully filmed on location in Boston, Vermont, Vienna and Rome (cinematographer Leon Shamroy lost the Oscar for Best Color Cinematography to himself for Cleopatra). It is too long but for most of the way very entertaining to watch with an all-star cast.
httpv://youtu.be/Bz7CLziCEUk
Tom Tryon is tall, dark, handsome (plus closeted gay and terrified of Otto the Ogre as he was nicknamed) as Father Fermoyle who is vexed by many problems facing good Catholic priests of the day. Does the family allow youngest daughter Mona (Carol Lynley) to marry her Jewish boyfriend even if he is hunky John Saxon? He attempts to convert but changes his mind. Good for him. A desperate Mona sleeps with him to hold on, but once she confesses the sin of lust to her brother he chastises her in a very well-acted confessional scene. Mona runs off to become a tango-dancing hoe with a Latin lover who is Catholic so that should appease her bigoted family. She winds up pregnant and her dear ole priest brother has to decide to save either the mother or the baby. Hmmmm wonder who he chooses? Preminger loved Lynley so much he cast her as Mona’s daughter Regina prompting Carol to joke, “I am probably the only actress who ever gave birth to herself on the silver screen.”
Director John Huston in his acting debut steals the movie as gruff Cardinal Glennon who feels the Roman papacy takes the U.S. for granted and hates that Fermoyle was schooled in Rome by an Italian Cardinal (Raf Vallone, another scene-stealer). Thinking Fermoyle too high-minded, Glennon sends Fermoyle to a poor cold snow-covered parish in Vermont where aspiring nun Lalage Menton (Jill Haworth) washes the feet of a dying pastor (Burgess Meredith) who teaches his new charge humility. According to Jill Haworth, Carol Lynley needed to learn a little of that as Jill found her to be “very full of herself.”
After the Mona debacle, Fermoyle takes a leave of absence and heads to Vienna where he almost becomes romantically involved with the beautiful Annemarie played by Romy Schneider filling in for Audrey Hepburn who backed out. The Viennese ball is a sumptuous affair with Oscar nominated sets and costumes. Once that episode is over it begins to lose me (no more starlets) as there is something involving the Ku Klux Klan in Georgia before back to Rome for the pomp and circumstance as Fermoyle is made a Cardinal.
The critics either loved the movie or despised it, but it won the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture – Drama and Best Supporting Actor for John Huston. He also picked up an Oscar nomination, as did Preminger for Best Director and it was up for Best Film Editing besides the nods for cinematography, art direction and costume design. It lost every category. Jerome Moross’ haunting score was not even nominated, surprising many. There goes that wacky Music branch again.
What really counts is the box office. The Cardinal was a hit and the 6th highest grossing movie of 1964.
Trivia: Tom Tryon beat out Robert Redford, Bradford Dillman and Stuart Whitman to play Father Fermoyle and Carol Lynley was cast as Mona over Ann-Margret, Dolores Hart, Shirley Knight and Pamela Tiffin.
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Last week I Blogged about “Goldfinger” not even being nominated for Best Song in 1964 let alone winning which it deserved in my opinion. My friend Shaun has an even bigger bone to pick with the Academy at his always well written and passionate Blog about the way it snubs hard-working actors in the In Memoriam section. This has been very controversial over the years like showcasing Michael Jackson and not Farrah Fawcett whose movie credits far outnumbered his.
I am embarrassed to admit that I saw Five Easy Pieces (1970) starring Jack Nicholson for the first time just recently. I knew it was about a pianist who rejects his talent to be an Everyman and who has a big-haired low-class Southern girlfriend (Karen Black) and falls for the his brother’s more refined piano-playing fiancee (Susan Anspach) when he returns home to visit his ailing father.
I never had a real interest in seeing the movie and then knew I could not bare to watch when I learned about 13 years ago that my fave Carol Lynley revealed in an interview and confirmed with me that she was offered the role Anspach took. Carol said that she was sent the script and wanted the waitress role, but it was already cast. Since they were only paying scale and she had a daughter to support she passed on it. “Big mistake,” she exclaimed. Yessiree. Nicholson was coming off his starmaking turn in Easy Rider and director Bob Rafaelson was one of the most promising directors of this new Hollywood in 1969. The film was a critical smash receiving a slew of Oscar nominations and a box office hit as well. Carol did Norwood with Glen Campbell and Joe Namath instead. Every actress has their horror stories as they say.
I finally decided to face my fear and recorded it on TCM during Oscar month. I liked the movie a lot but did not love it though I can see why many do. Nicholson’s character was hard to like especially in his treatment of Black. Her character could have just been the annoying white trash loud-mouthed waitress but she played it very sympathetic illiciting compassion. For me, Nicholson’s best moment was in his scene where he breaks down talking to his father suffering from dementia. It was very poignant and touched a cord with me.
While Nichols and Black handle the histrionics wonderfully, Susan Anspach did not impress me in the least. Granted it was a much less flashy role, but for me personally she didn’t have the looks or personality required to make Nicholson’s attraction to her believable and warranted. This is not to say Carol Lynley would have been better in the role. I just did not find Anspach any fun. However, Match Game regular Fannie Flagg as a beer-swilling new mother; Sally Struthers topless as a bowling alley tramp; and True Blood‘s grandma Lois Smith as Nicholson’s homely sister hot for her daddy’s caretaker were lots of fun and it was truly surreal watching them play these roles.
The ending took me by surprise and was bittersweet. However, I liked it and know nowadays they could never do that with focus groups and audiences always demanding the obligatory happy contrived ending.