COME BACK TO THE 5 AND DIME, JIMMY DEAN, JIMMY DEAN

Cher

COME BACK TO THE 5 AND DIME, JIMMY DEAN, JIMMY DEAN (1982). Director: Robert Altman.

In a small town in Texas twenty years have gone by since the last meeting of a James Dean fan club in 1955, the year of Dean's death. Incredibly, several of these "disciples" come back to the Woolworth "5 and Dime" store, where the members used to congregate, for a 20th anniversary reunion. Two of the members -- big-boobed Sissy (Cher) and decidedly weird Mona (Sandy Dennis), who supposedly has a son fathered by Dean -- never left town and still work for Juanita (Sudie Bond) at the store. Then there's big brassy Stella Mae (Kathy Bates of Misery), sweetly naive Edna Louise (Marta Heflin), and a newcomer, Joanne (Karen Black), who knows everyone and claims she was once a member of the group -- but no one remembers her. As the day progresses, the ladies share revelations and bear their souls.

Kathy Bates with Karen Black in the background

Originally presented on stage with (mostly) the same cast, and with Altman as director, the play had its fans -- primarily due to the presence of Cher and perhaps its camp/transgender factor -- but was not a big hit with the critics, finding it awfully contrived and sitcom-like, which it is. As with the stage production, Altman decided to use the same actors playing themselves twenty years earlier in sometimes poorly delineated flashbacks, and it not only doesn't work but just confuses the viewer. The frequent jumps in time eventually become tiresome. But while the play and movie, both written by Ed Graczyk, have some interesting elements to them, the story ultimately comes off more like a stunt than serious theater. The film never quite makes up its mind if it's a drama or a black comedy. The dialogue doesn't come naturally from the situations, but seems forced just so each character can have her big moment

Settling scores: Karen Black

Then there's the acting, which is frequently over-rehearsed (understandably) and over-emphatic. Cher was originally supposed to play a transsexual character, but decided she'd rather play Sissy (ironic that her daughter became a trans man years later). She is okay, but it's not much of a stretch from what she used to do in sketches on The Sonny and Cher Show. Sandy Dennis is somewhat good as that ultimate loser, Mona, but she's a positive riot of pauses, tics, nervousness, and grotesque facial expressions. Mona manages to get over her own mortification rather quickly. Karen Black [Invaders from Mars] comes off the best as Joanne, who has come to town to settle a few scores, and she has quite a few bravura moments. Kathy Bates is also quite good, as are Sudie Bond, Marta Helfin and Mark Patton [A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge] as Joe, the one male member of the Disciples, whose character manages to run virtually the entire LGBT gamut before the play is over.

I believe the play is meant to be liberal and kind-hearted, and it can be appreciated on that level, but I think some of the same elements could have been reworked into something with a stronger premise and more interesting situations and characters.

Verdict: It is not true that a remake with Caitlyn Jenner is now in pre-production. **1/2. 

DR. T AND THE WOMEN

DR. T AND THE WOMEN (2000). Director: Robert Altman.

Dr. Travis (Richard Gere with a white-haired dye job) is a Dallas gynecologist with an exclusive clientele. His wife Kate (Farrah Fawcett) has a public meltdown -- she takes off all of her clothing and steps into a fountain -- and winds up institutionalized, after which he embarks on an affair with new golf club employee, Bree (Helen Hunt of Empire Falls). Meanwhile his family and patients are bothering him with an assortment of problems: nurse Carolyn (Shelley Long) is secretly in love with Dr. T, and his daughter, Dee Dee (Kate Hudson of The Skeleton Key), has invited her former female lover (Liv Tyler) to her wedding (to a man) as maid of honor; Dee Dee's sister thinks the marriage is a mistake,  for obvious reasons. [Bree has a supposedly open-minded but pretty stupid reaction to this whole rather contrived business.] Other cast members include Lee Grant as a shrink; Andy Richter, who makes no impression, as a buddy; Janine Turner as a neurotic patient; and Laura Dern. In its treatment of the lesbian couple the movie strikes some liberated, if awkward, sparks, but somehow it still seems old-fashioned and unsatisfying, although it's more watchable than a lot of Altman's[Popeye] movies. One interesting sequence graphically shows the miracle of child birth.

Verdict: Typically rambling and unfocused Altman with some good scenes and okay acting. **1/2.

PETER GUNN Season 3

Craig Stevens as Peter Gunn

PETER GUNN Season Three. 1960.

The third and final season of the popular private eye program was unexceptional but entertaining. "Mother" is gone, and Peter's girlfriend, Edie (Lola Albright) opens her own restaurant-club, and hires a maitre'd, Leslie (James Lanphier), after the man's own restaurant is bombed. Although well-played by Lanphier, the character did little more than interrupt Edie and Peter (Craig Stevens) to tell the latter that he had a phone call. Edie herself only appeared sporadically [giving Gunn a girlfriend never made much sense, as it would have been more fun to have him involved with a different "dame" each week, which only happened on occasion]. Hershel Bernardi as Lt. Jacoby appeared in virtually every episode, again functioning practically as Gunn's partner. Late in the season four episodes in a row took place in Acapulco, to which Peter flew for one case and remained for several more. It seems clear that Gunn must have been a wealthy man slumming as a private dick because he rarely makes a lot of money and is always giving away very large bills to his informants. The most memorable episodes this season include: "A Kill and a Half," in which a midget hit man pretends to be a trick or treater; "A Matter of Policy" involving an insurance scheme and a bomb on an airliner; and "Than a Serpent's Tooth," in which Pamela Britton  [DOA] is notable as a woman who is carrying a secret in regards to her husband's death. The final episode -- although it has a standard plot of a millionaire wanting Peter to deal with a blackmailing female -- is very entertaining and features Peter Gunn director (and actor) Robert Gist and the show's executive producer Gordon Oliver in main roles, and both are excellent. Guest-stars for the third season include John Fieldler, Tommy Rettig, Jack Lalanne (who proves to be a terrible actor although he looks fit), Regis Toomey (in a very good turn as a desperate, aging P.I.), Ann Robinson, Kent Taylor [The Day Mars Invaded Earth], Hayden Rourke, Virginia Grey, and Patric Knowles. Robert Altman [That Cold Day in the Park] directed a couple of energetic episodes.

Verdict: Not a true classic, perhaps, but it has its moments. **1/2.

THAT COLD DAY IN THE PARK

THAT COLD DAY IN THE PARK (1969). Director: Robert Altman.

Frances Austin (Sandy Dennis), a well-off spinster, spots an attractive, much younger man (Michael Burns) sitting across from her home on a bench in the pouring rain, feels sorry for him, and asks him inside to get dry and warm -- and not only provides food for him but new clothing and his own bedroom as well. The young man says not a single word, but he's keeping secrets from Frances. As the film proceeds you wonder just how far Frances -- and the young man -- will go in their games with each other. I confess I've never been a great admirer of Altman's, but this is one of his films that I enjoy; while it's certainly not for every taste it's suspenseful and absorbing -- if imperfect. Both Dennis and Burns are excellent, never giving away what their characters might ultimately be up to. [Burns, who was 22 at the time of filming, was baby-faced enough to be convincing as an older teenager. He also appeared in The Mad Room, but most of his credits were on television. Now 64, Burns retired from acting in 1977 to become a college professor.] Also in the cast is Luana Anders from Dementia 13 and The Pit and the Pendulum, who plays a saucy prostitute with her customary vigor. Susanne Benton plays the young man's sister; John Garfield, Jr. plays her boyfriend; and Linda Sorensen is another prostitute -- all are on target. The film is interesting enough as it is that it doesn't really need to head in the lurid, violent direction that it does, but before it sort of loses its grip it's quite entertaining.

Verdict: Flawed but unusual with interesting story and performances. ***.

STREAMERS

STREAMERS (1983). Director: Robert Altman.

First a contemporary review of the play the film was based on:

"Streamers" is David Rabe's award-winning play set in an Army Barracks in Virginia in 1965, concerning young soldiers who are preparing to be sent to Viet Nam. If Rabe had stuck to that subject alone this might have amounted to something. Instead he decides to substitute sexual tension for by now cliched racial tension, and introduces a flip, half-out-of-the-closet gay character who is pining away for another hung-up soldier, while two blacks, one of whom is crazy and gay, look on. The problem with this is that even the homosexual situations are by now cliched, and Rabe has nothing new to say on the subject. Although one senses that neither Rabe nor his play are necessarily homophobic, in order to attain realism, most of the viewpoints expressed on the subject are negative. The gay characters are ultimately unpleasant. We keep waiting for Rabe to say something different, to approach a new area, but all he does is introduce us to two drunken older men who rhapsodize about "streamers"—men whose parachutes don't open. Even the violence that occurs at the climax does not really come out of the underlying tensions of the situation. Rabe simply opts for the bring-in-the psychopath ploy. The violence may have been set off by one man's reaction to the sex act about to be performed between the flip gay and the psycho-black, but it is clear that the black has a screw loose and probably would have been set off eventually by just about anything. The play is grim, sometimes moving, sometimes frightening, and effective as a melodrama, complete with assorted contrivances, but not the deep human drama its proponents would have us believe.

Robert Altman's film version is essentially the same as the play, not "opened up" all that much and only somewhat "cinematic." The performances, however are quite good, with Matthew Modine as the doomed Billy, Mitchell Lichtenstein as the flippant gay Richie, David Alien Grier as Roger, and Michael Wright quite vivid as crazy Carlyle. The chief thing that comes across is that -- like in a lot of modern dramas -- there is a lot of yelling to little effect, and that the film, like the play, never really confronts its various issues. It is pseudo-significant. George Dzundza gives the best performance as Sergeant Cokes. There are intimations that his feelings for the dead Rooney (Guy Boyd) are more than platonic, but this, like so much else, goes ultimately unexplored. The way that Billy, whatever his issues, is carted off like so much flotsam at the end, gives the film a certain chilling poignancy. Altman was probably not the best director for the project.

Verdict: Watch Brokeback Mountain instead. **.

EASY RIDERS, RAGING BULLS

EASY RIDERS, RAGING BULLS: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock 'n' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood. Peter Biskind. Simon and Schuster; 1998.

To the sub-title of this book could have been added the words “and destroyed themselves in the process.” This excellent book studies the lives and works of the major directors who came into their own in the seventies and afterward, when directors and not the studios seemed to become the prime power in Hollywood. The directors – Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, William Friedkin, Martin Scorsese, Hal Ashby, Bob Rafelson, Peter Bogdanovich, Robert Altman and others – are depicted as being just as egomaniacal and domineering as any movie star – in fact, they come off as a bunch of major assholes. Biskind chronicles how Dennis Hopper's Easy Rider began a youthquake in Hollywood that tried to capture the waning audience by making films that were hip and irreverent, full of sex, drugs and violence, and once in a while achieved quality. It also documents how many of the decade's most famous directors imploded on their own egos and self-destructed on drugs and alcohol. [In one of the book's funniest anecdotes we learn how Dennis Hopper stopped mixing his gallon of rum a day -- he also imbibed several beers and consumed drugs daily -- with coca cola and switched to rum and cranberry juice because he thought it would be healthier for his liver!] Directors such as Friedkin and Bogdanovich became so successful so soon that they believed their own publicity and thought there was no production that was beyond them, no idea they couldn't turn into a money-making Oscar contender [boy, were they wrong!]. Some of the people give very frank interviews to Biskind, and – surprisingly – put the blame squarely where it belongs – on themselves. Just about everybody agrees that most of today's movies – sequels, prequels, remakes, and big-screen adaptations of awful old TV shows -- stink.

Verdict: A riveting read. ***1/2.

POPEYE

POPEYE (1980). Director: Robert Altman.

Robert Altman probably wasn't the best choice to helm this live-action adaptation of the classic cartoons, although Popeye is by no means as dreadful as reputed. The trouble is simply that the film isn't well-edited and that the fun peters out long before the conclusion, with silliness and noisiness overtaking humor. Robin Williams isn't bad as Popeye, but Shelley Duvall really steals the show as Olive Oyl, and Wesley Ivan Hurt -- “Swee'pea” -- is one of the cutest babies in the movies. The first half of the picture as Popeye arrives in the fishing village of Sweethaven to find his Pappy is quite charming and entertaining. When Pappy (Ray Walston) shows up, however, we've got one Popeye too many. The climax with Popeye pursuing a captured Olive Oyl isn't well handled by Altman and is boring instead of exciting, although there is a nifty, bad-tempered octopus on hand. Jules Feiffer's screenplay is perfectly workable but gets bogged down in the latter half. However, the scenic design is excellent, and Nillson's songs are memorable, especially “Sweethaven” [despite the closing chords that remind one of Annie's “Tomorrow”] and “Everything is Food.” Paul L. Smith makes a nice Bluto and Roberta Maxwell scores as Nana Oyl. Despite its undeniable imperfections, there are a lot of good things in this movie, including the staging of “Everything is Food,” and it's all quite cute and clever.

Verdict: Fun if you're in a silly mood and don't expect too much. **1/2.