Comfort Food Movies

... I'll be having the salmon.

Tap, tap, tap… Is this thing on?

My apologies to you. Some personal and professional busyness shoved this newsletter to the back of the drawer for a bit, but now we’re back and ready to roll.

So much has happened since I last sat down to write this newsletter. The world is different for all of us. For some of us, it is changed utterly, and grief colors everything now. For others, the changes represent relatively mild annoyances, that are nevertheless wearing us down and making us yearn for better times.

Whatever your situation, my hope is that reading Moxie Gazette brings you a few moments of relief. Here’s to you.

News/Reading

This is a great interview with Nancy Olson to mark the 70th anniversary of Sunset Boulevard. An impressive lady.

In these uncertain times (to coin a phrase), the future of movie-going is in doubt. If you value the experience of sitting with others and watching stories unfold on the big screen, look for ways to support your local indie movie theater - especially if said theater is inclined to show classics from time to time. Here, for example, is how my local revival house/indie theater is trying to weather the storm.

Nitrate Diva’s list of films she discovered in 2019 contains a few of my favorites (Counselor at Law FTW) and some I can’t wait to see.

Shallow Dive

(In which I explore a topic of the week in desultory and idiosyncratic fashion).

In stressful times, I find myself turning to a few tried and true films - my comfort food movies. The ones I’ve watched over and over. The ones that fill me with peace and hope. The ones that make me feel that everything is going to be OK.

I doubt I’m alone in this. We all have those films (or books, songs, poems, works of art) that we seek out when everything gets to be too much. But those comforting things are, of course, going to be different for different people. One’s taste in comfort food movies, like one’s taste in comfort food itself, is highly personal, depending on many factors: our personalities and situations, what we loved as children, what we were exposed to at certain moments in our lives, our memories.

So today I thought I’d share a few of my comfort food movies from the classic era in the hope that some of them might provide a little comfort for you too. And I’d love to hear about any go-to films for stressful times that you’ve been indulging in. So, without further ado, and in no particular order:

I Know Where I’m Going (1945) A lot of films get described as “a fairy tale for grownups.” Well, this is the real thing. It tells the story of Joan Webster (Wendy Hiller) a middle-class climber, whose plans to marry for money are thwarted by the Scottish weather and a Scottish naval officer (Roger Livesey). Made by The Archers under amazingly difficult circumstances just as WWII was drawing to a close, this romance sounds, on one level, like a film school writing exercise: take a girl with a desperately desired goal, and then place obstacle after obstacle in her path. But no plot description can do justice to the beauty or the strange, magical humanity of the actual film. I watched this for the first time on my 30th birthday, when I was feeling lost and discouraged. It was balm for the soul. It still is.

Summer Stock (1950) This is an absurd movie. A theatre company hoping for a New York opening takes over a rural New England farm to rehearse. They are able to do this because the farm’s owner (Judy Garland) is the sister of the show’s leading lady. A culture clash expressed in song and dance ensues, and the show’s director (Gene Kelly) finds himself drawn to the farmer, despite the fact that he is engaged to her sister. Maybe you have to have felt like you were left at home while those around you departed to live more glamorous lives; maybe you have to have yearned to do theatre and seen no way to make it happen; maybe you have to have felt like the girl no guy ever wanted. In other words, maybe you have to have been me. But I make no apologies for finding this tale of longing both snark-worthy and utterly touching. And for shear dancing fun I’d put this number right up there with the best of them:

North by Northwest (1959) Hmmm, why should this movie speak to us now? Why should the story of a fairly ordinary, innocent man who finds himself caught up in a terrible (and slightly implausible) situation through no fault of his own resonate with us today? And why should the fact that he keeps his cool through it all and triumphs in the end give us hope? It’s a mystery. So I guess I just enjoy the cool, knowing performances and the sexy good humor. That must be it.

The Apartment (1960) You probably know this one. It’s Billy Wilder’s tale of a mid-level schlub at an insurance company (Jack Lemmon) who loans his apartment to his married colleagues for their adulterous trysts only to realize that his crush (Shirley MacLaine) is having a fling with his boss. Why is this movie, which has so many dark and cynical threads running through it, such a tapestry of delight? I think it’s the fact that the “romantic leads” are, in the words of MacLaine’s character Fran, “so fouled up.” They aren’t rich, they’re working dead-end jobs, and they’re morally compromised. But that’s not the end of it. There’s good in them, and kindness and honor. The movie sees that and draws it out of them. I think we hope our own lives will do the same for us.

High Noon (1952) This one is personal. It’s because I watched it with my father. Because he had a funny story about how he got his own father to take him to see it on a school night when it was first released (he would have been six at the time). Because I taught it to a film studies class several weeks after he died and… found it a struggle. Because he loved the movie, but also saw some merit in Howard Hawks’s critique. (Does Will Kane really handle the situation like a professional?). Because the plaintive strains of “Do Nor Forsake Me, Oh My Darling” tug me right back to childhood. Because the situation it presents is at once both simple and very, very complex. Enough. If you know, you know.

Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959) So bad it’s good. So many unintentionally hilarious moments. Such an important reminder that movies are really hard to make. There’s a sweet earnestness about this turkey that tugs at your heart. You laugh at it, but you ruffle it’s hair as you do so. G.K. Chesterton said “if a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly.” I think Plan 9 was worth it. (Just don’t let this be the only Bela Lugosi or Lyle Talbot film you ever watch).

To Be or Not to Be (1942) Jack Benny and Carole Lombard (in her last film role) are the husband and wife stars of a Polish theatre company. When WWII breaks out, they use their talents to resist the Nazi occupiers. The movie’s blend of farce and then-current horrors led to a mixed reception when it was released. From my point of view it walks the line between mocking the Nazis and minimizing them very successfully. Lombard is so lovely and so funny; Benny is simply perfect. The supporting cast features one gem after another. Just a delightful film about dark times.

Casablanca (1943) What can be said about this movie that hasn’t been said before? Quite a lot, actually. My husband and I watched this recently for the umpteenth time and found new things to talk about. But leave that aside. You probably know and love this. You can probably quote half the script. But somehow it always feels fresh. I’m never indifferent when they start playing the Marseillaise and visiting Rick’s on the first night (with the chess game, and the German banker, and Ugarte) always feels like coming home - an exciting home, full of wit and courage. I defy anyone to stay in a bad mood while viewing Casablanca. I don’t think it can be done. 

The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934) This is the improbable, but thrilling tale of a British aristocrat who risks his life to rescue those unjustly condemned to the guillotine during the French revolution. In order to throw off suspicion, Sir Percy Blakney (Leslie Howard) pretends to be a shallow fop, alienating his lovely, but possibly corrupt, wife (Merle Oberon). Suspense, tension, repressed passion, and a great revelation moment… this movie creaks a little, but still packs a wallop.

The Court Jester (1955) I’ve mentioned this film recently, so I won’t dwell on it. Suffice it to say that, if you are in the mood for some sublime silliness, this Robin Hood parody has you covered.

What to Watch This Week

(On TCM, Netflix, Amazon. All times Eastern).

TCM

Today My Man Godfrey (1936) is showing at 2:00pm. Carole Lombard stars as a spoiled rich girl who has to find a “forgotten man” for a scavenger hunt. She encounters William Powell living in the city dump, takes him home, hires him as a butler and hilarity ensues. It really does. Occasionally the screwiness in this screwball can seem a little forced, but for the most part it pops like champagne. 

Later tonight (at 8:00pm) Double Indemnity is on. This always struck me as a movie about being trapped - trapped by your own evil, of course, but trapped nonetheless. It might hit a bit too close to home in our present circumstances. Nevertheless, if you haven’t seen Billy Wilder’s noir, you really must rectify that. Fred MacMurray is perfect as a man who isn’t quite smart enough to realize he’s a sap, and Barbara Stanwyck is a tantalizingly ambiguous seductress. The whole thing is at once suspenseful and gripping and banal and sad. And I haven’t even mentioned Edward G. Robinson, who’s really my favorite part of the film.  Not to be missed.

On Saturday at 5:45pm you can take in A Face in the Crowd (1957). Elia Kazan’s tale of an unknown who becomes a star was prescient in its dissection of the media and celebrity culture. Andy Griffith is chillingly devious and Patricia Neal was always good.

On Sunday at 11:30am you can catch a matinee of Casablanca (1943). As I said above, it’s always watchable.

That’s followed at 1:30pm by Magnificent Obsession (1954) the story of a feckless rich guy (Rock Hudson) who inadvertently kills Jane Wyman’s husband and then inadvertently blinds her. Yes, yes he does. Seeking redemption, he becomes a great surgeon and falls in love with his victim. Douglas Sirk is an acquired taste; there is no mellow in his melodrama. It is lush and dramatic and over the top and beautiful. You either go with it or you don’t. I choose to go with it.

The Music Man (1962, 3:30pm) is not perfect, but it does preserve Robert Preston’s Harold Hill and for that we should all be grateful.

On Tuesday, starting at 8:00pm TCM has a triple feature of “New York in the 70s movies,” starting with the original Shaft (1971), followed by The Super Cops (1974), and Super Fly (1972). Should be a gritty evening.

On Wednesday at 6:30 you can catch Lili (1953). Leslie Caron stars as an orphaned girl who falls in with a circus and ends up working for an embittered disabled veteran (Mel Ferrer). Simple, but with a disconcerting edge underneath.

Following that, at 8:00pm, is The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) Orson Welles’s flawed, watchable family drama.

Then at 9:45pm is a pre-code drama I’ve never seen: Expensive Women (1931) starring Dolores Costello and Warren William. Looks like fun.

On Thursday at 6:00pm check out Our Miss Brooks (1956) in which Eve Arden is a comic delight.

Amazon

The African Queen (1952) starring Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn is free with Prime. This tale of unlikely lovers (a missionary and a vulgar drunk) becoming even more unlikely war heroes never fails to fill me with hope. 

Also on Prime is The Road to Bali (1952) if you feel like some silliness. Bob Hope has lost some popularity of late, the general consensus being that his gags don’t age well. Maybe it’s just sentimentality (he was a favorite when I was a kid), but I continue to be more in the pro-Hope camp - not every joke works, but the man could sell almost anything.

Netflix

…Continues to be a classic movie desert. But they do have Five Came Back (2017) a documentary about five celebrated directors (Ford, Wyler, Huston, Capra, Stevens) who joined the military in WWII. Based on the 2014 book. I haven’t watched it yet, but I will soon and you can expect a full report.

One Random Thing

(Something non-film related that I enjoyed this week).

You’ve probably see this already, but it’s just so marvelous.

That’s all for this week. Let me know if you watch any comfort classics.

Until next time, stay well.

C