2014 TCM Cruise

The 2014 TCM Cruise is shaping up nicely. They have just sent out a guest list which includes Shirley Jones, Tab Hunter, Ann Blyth and Diane Baker. Here's a gander:

Driving Miss Daisy:The Play w/ Angela Lansbury and James Earl Jones

Have you seen Driving Miss Daisy (2014) the play? It's Alfred Uhry's Pulitzer Prize-winning play about a mid-20th century, Atlanta matron Daisy Werthan and her chauffeur, Hoke. This filmed play stars Angela Lansbury (Gaslight, The Manchurian Candidate) and James Earl Jones (The Great White Hope, Star Wars) and is available in theaters this month.

This is a three-person play which also stars four-time Tony Award-winner Boyd Gaines as Daisy's son Boolie.

THE DISTRIBUTORS ARE LIVING MY DREAM

It's produced by Broadway Near You, which seeks to "dramatically expand the market [of stage performances] by producing high-definition “stagecasts” of A-list theatrical productions for distribution first in cinemas, and subsequently in all media, worldwide. "

This has been a dream of mine since childhood. Long ago, when viewing the CBC's tapes of the Stratford Festival, including Romeo and Juliet with Megan Follows, I wondered why all plays are not on film and disseminated like movies.

Later, as I dove into film reviews, I was powerless to form my own opinions about the stage version of a movie if I hadn't been present to see it. This was frustrating.  I'm glad to see that someone has taken action with this idea.

THE FILMED PLAY IS CHARMING

As to the film itself - it's charming. Someone on the internet calls it Mrs. Potts meets Darth Vader, referring to Lansbury's role as a tea pot in Disney's Beauty and the Beast and Jones' role in Star Wars. But it's not just the familiar names and faces which sell this; those considerations just get you into the cinema. You stay for the performances.
 
Lansbury has said that as long as she can put one foot in front of another, she will act. Her enthusiasm for her chosen profession shines through. Sometimes a little too much, since the story tracks a woman slowing down and aging into her 90s with dementia. Still, her energy is delightful to see.

Jones brings humor and dignity to the role of the chauffeur who lives through a certain time and place without equal rights - a main theme of the tale. According to the published play, the story takes place between 1948 and 1973. The Civil Rights movement would begin during this span of time. Though this is the frame of the play, the individual human connections remain front and center.

Gaines'  role as Daisy's son and Hoke's employer brings a camaraderie with the chauffeur that I don't ever remember seeing before. Although this story is about Daisy and Hoke, this version is the first one where Boolie isn't a third wheel. Before, the son has always seemed to be a mere plot device to get Daisy out of her house or to bring in new subjects to discuss - he hires the car and the chauffeur for her travels, she goes to her son's house for the holidays, there's a running joke about her disliking Boolie's wife, Florine, etc. But here, Boolie is not just a mechanism for pushing the plot, there is an underlying friendship between Hoke and his employer that is a welcomed addition.

THE SCENERY AND PROPS ARE WONDERFULLY SIMPLE 

According to Uhry, and from what I've read in the play and seen live onstage, Driving Miss Daisy is meant to be a simple play - a bare bones story hanging on the dialogue. It is equally effective plain or with little embellishments here or there. "The scenery is meant to be simple and evocative," says the author. This production has kept that simplicity.

Source

A wooden bench represents the back seat of the car where Daisy sits. A chair in front of the bench is the seat for Hoke who handles a steering wheel on a pole with casters. This represents the car.
 
In one scene, a second chair doubles as a passenger seat or as a chair in Boolie's office. The bench does double duty as a seat in Boolie's waiting room.

There's a chair and a small side table that represents Daisy's house, but frankly I don't remember much about it because Lansbury is rarely seated there. She leaps up a lot. Funnily enough, as Daisy ages and the play goes on, Lansbury seems more active. I love her version of this character.

Though they have followed the directive for simplicity, there is well-placed, relative extravagance in the form of image projections.

During key transition scenes, projected, real-life images from the era flit about briefly on the wall.
When Hoke sits in the car waiting for Daisy who is attending a speech by Dr. Martin Luther King, you'll see news reel images of the actual person, lending these fictional characters the depth of reality.



Driving Miss Daisy is a must-see filmed play. It's well-produced with charming actors, realistic scenes and perfectly sparing scenery that remains true to the source material.

Have you seen this film? What did you think of it?

It's a Small World After All

Esther Williams and Cliff Robertson on the set of The Big Show

The first film I screened on a phone was The Big Show (1961) with Esther Williams and Cliff Robertson. The palm-sized screen was much too tiny for comfortable everyday viewing of a film, but the phone would stream movies faster than my sluggish internet service on the laptop.

All of this brings me to a certain moment.

At some point in that film -perhaps the point at which Cliff and Esther start talking marriage and I feel as though I’m intruding on a real conversation- I think, "This is frightfully intimate." Not only are talented people performing at my command, they are in my hand, they are in my pocket; I can take them with me in a way that I'd not done before.

This everyday technology is amazing, but also disturbing for some reason that I can’t articulate.

Robert Wagner mentions in his first autobiography, Pieces of My Heart, that in his childhood, movie stars seemed to be untouchable beings on a 30-foot silver screen that you never thought you’d meet. When television became prominent, TV stars on a smaller screen in your home felt like your neighbors.

What, then, does a tiny screen in your palm do to your experience? Do the people on the screen feel like your toys? That thought makes me uneasy. Still, I’m  interested in what newer media formats will continue to keep classic movies accessible.

What's the first movie you screened on a phone or other mobile device? Did you enjoy the experience?



Further Resources

• You may purchase the film here: The Big Show w/ Esther Williams
• Read about actors' first experiences at the movies: Cary Grant Goes to the Cinema (and other tales of film stars' early movie-watching experiences)

Is Eliza Really Professor Higgins' Fair Lady?

One more My Fair Lady observation. We've recently discussed Lerner and Lowe's My Fair Lady  and its Bernard Shaw predecessor, Pygmalion -about a petulant linguist, Professor Henry Higgins and his pupil, Eliza Doolittle.

We have discussed how My Fair Lady's ending is more definite than it should be. We mentioned how Eliza has risen from the slums and now may choose any life she wants. We discussed how Shaw leaves the end ambiguous so that any life she chooses is immaterial; choice is her happy ending.

Unfortunately, even in Shaw's day, people want hero and heroine to end up married or otherwise romantically involved, even when that makes no sense to the storyline. My Fair Lady hints at such a conclusion.

Well, here's another nail in the coffin for the supposed romance between Eliza and the professor.

Professor Higgins can never love any human being because his ultimate devotion is to only one fair lady - language, specifically "proper" English.

Yes, this bachelor is married to linguistics. He cannot abide what he thinks of as abuse of his lady. This is why when Eliza says "them slippers" instead of  "those slippers" his quiet tone becomes immediately harsh and loud. He's not simply a teacher correcting his pupil; he's defending his one true love - the English language- from Eliza's indifferent tongue.

Much of Higgins' notorious rudeness can be traced back to defending his fair lady against all onslaughts or protecting their exclusive relationship with each other. 

When he tries to sell the idea of his version of English to Eliza, he says, " your native language is the language of Shakespeare and Milton and The Bible. Don't sit there crooning like a bilious pigeon." Referencing these well-known and revered sources of information, he reminds Eliza of his mistress' pedigree. His lady love should be respected, and he cannot fathom anyone who won't regard her as he does. 

When Eliza speaks in her Listen Grove lingo, full of screeching sounds and loud noises, Higgins declares in hyperbolic fervor that someone, "who utters such depressing and disgusting sounds has no right to be anywhere—no right to live. " You'd think someone had slapped his wife.

Later on, after Eliza has learned to speak like a duchess,  she has also found along the way more strength of character. When Eliza declares, "I won't be passed over," Higgins quickly retorts, "Then get out of my way; for I won't stop for you." He mistakes Eliza's request for basic respect as a request for a kind of intimacy that he's not willing to give to any human. His heart belongs to another.


But Eliza has had plenty of men wanting her "that way," as she calls romance. She understands that at the end of the experiment, Higgins' offer to return to his house as one of the bachelors is not some elaborate ruse of a Lothario, but as... well, let's have her say it:

ELIZA: I want a little kindness. I know I'm a common ignorant girl, and you're a book-learned gentleman; but I'm not dirt under your feet. What I done [correcting herself] what I did was not for the dresses and the taxis: I did it because we were pleasant together and I come—came—to care for you; not to want you to make love to me, and not forgetting the difference between us, but more friendly like.

In her stilted conversation, Eliza makes everything about their relationship clear. Shaw allows some of her slum dialect to slip in again at this point to let the audience know that Eliza is sincere.

Higgins agrees that this is how he feels as well - a platonic relationship is in order. 

They must hash this out in plain language because others might expect that these two should become romantically involved, but both of them plainly declare that they do not expect this from each other.


Higgins feels trapped by society's expectations of what a guy is meant to be when a woman his age or younger comes into his life.  To let a woman in your life, Higgins thinks, is to play a set role that he's not interested in. A man is meant to be a love-sick school boy (like Freddie is to Eliza who writes her letters every day) or a somewhat protective father figure (like his linguistic colleague Colonel Pickering is to Eliza, or Eliza's biological father Alfred Doolittle). 

Higgins wants to be neither. To any person. He's only in love with his vowels and protective against slang. Why can't he have a platonic relationship with women as he has with Pickering?

When he explains to his mother that he hasn't married because

My idea of a loveable woman is something as like you as possible.  

This is not -as some have suggested- an Oedipal connection that stunts his romantic progress; it's a liberating perspective that he wishes he could simply have a friendship with a person that he finds interesting, male or female. 

By the end, in Eliza he has found someone like his mother -grounded, wise, opinionated, expecting no less than basic regard and respect. Also, as it is with his mother, Higgins has no intention of becoming her lover.  Eliza is simply a part of Higgins' life, an exceptional part of it. He's grown accustomed to her face, and he will miss her company if she chooses to leave.
 
Ultimately, Higgins is a somewhat asexual being who, if anything, is in a love affair with the never-ending mysteries of his native tongue. Before Eliza ever shows up to Higgins' house for tutoring, before there is some question in the audience's mind about whether the pupil and teacher are a romantic match, Higgins' most ardent affections already have a permanent target; his lady love is language and no one will ever take her place.



Further Resources

• It is the Robert Powell version of Higgins for the BBC in 1981 that brings about today's blog post. Powell brings something rarely seen with this character - tenderness...with the words. He gracefully, eagerly and gently careens around the curves and turns of his lines like a Formula 1 driver at the Monaco Grand Prix. His is fast becoming my favorite version of Higgins.