Robert Aldrich

[DarkImbecile]

Robert Aldrich (1918-1983)



"A director is a ringmaster, a psychiatrist, and a referee."

Filmography

Features
Big Leaguer (1953)
World For Ransom [uncredited] (1954)
Apache (1954)
Vera Cruz (1954)
Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
The Big Knife (1955)
Autumn Leaves (1956)
Attack (1956)
The Garment Jungle [uncredited co-director] (1957)
Ten Seconds to Hell (1959)
The Angry Hills (1959)
The Last Sunset (1961)
Sodom and Gomorrah (1962)
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)
4 for Texas (1963)
Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)
The Flight of the Phoenix (1965)
The Dirty Dozen (1967)
The Legend of Lylah Clare (1968)
The Killing of Sister George (1968)
Too Late the Hero (1970)
The Grissom Gang (1971)
Ulzana's Raid (1972)
Emperor of the North Pole (1973)
The Longest Yard (1974)
Hustle (1975)
Twilight's Last Gleaming (1977)
The Choirboys (1977)
The Frisco Kid (1979)
...All the Marbles (1981)

Shorts
"The Greatest Mother of Them All" (1969)

Television
China Smith - S01E20 - "Shanghai Clipper" (1952)
China Smith - S01E21 - "Straight Settlement" (1952)
Schlitz Playhouse of Stars - S02E12 - "The Pussyfootin' Rocks" (1952)
The Doctor - S01E05 - "Blackmail" (1952)
The Doctor - S01E10 - "The Guest" (1952)
The Doctor - S01E18 - "A Tale of Two Christmases" (1952)
The Doctor - S01E22 -"Take the Odds" (1953)
Four Star Playhouse - S02E02 - "The Squeeze" (1953)
Four Star Playhouse - S02E05 - "The Witness" (1953)
Four Star Playhouse - S02E09 - "The Hard Way" (1953)
Four Star Playhouse - S02E14 - "The Gift" (1953)
Four Star Playhouse - S02E17 - "The Bad Streak" (1954)
Hotel de Paree - S01E01 - "Sundance Returns" (1959)
Adventures in Paradise - S01E02 - "The Black Pearl" (1959)
Adventures in Paradise - S01E06 - "Safari at Sea"" (1959)

Books
Robert Aldrich, ed. by Richard Combs (1978)
The Films and Career of Robert Aldrich, by Edwin Arnold and Eugene Miller (1986)
Robert Aldrich, by Michel Maheo [in French] (1987)
Whatever Happened to Robert Aldrich? His Life and Films, by Alain Silver and James Ursini (1995)
Robert Aldrich: Interviews, by Edwin Arnold and Eugene Miller Jr., eds. (2004)

Web Resources
"Fascination and the grotesque: What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" by Jodi Brooks, Continuum (1992)
"So What's with the Ending of Kiss Me Deadly?" by Alain Silver, Images Journal (1996)
"The Kiss Me Mangled Mystery" by Glenn Erickson, Images Journal (1997)
2002 career summary by Alain Silver, Senses of Cinema
2010 appreciation by David Thomson, DGA Quarterly
2013 appreciation by Walter Hill, Film Comment

Forum Discussion
568 Kiss Me Deadly
The Big Knife
BD 149 The Flight of the Phoenix
Emperor of the North Pole (Aldrich, 1973)

[John Cope]

Twilight's Last Gleaming will be shown at the Film Society of Lincoln Center in February:

"We will be presenting Robert Aldrich's personal archive print, featuring a number of scenes cut from the original release version."

So what do we know about this? I just watched the film for the first time and was greatly impressed. Still, it's already 144 minutes in the version I saw and it certainly doesn't feel lacking anything. I've heard there was more talk about Vietnam but there's already plenty here.

The only thing I wasn't crazy about was the end. I won't spoil it but I will say that it's very hard to accept after everything we've seen. What I mean by that is that it's hard to believe that the Lancaster and Winfield characters would ever consent to doing what they do at the end knowing what they must know. There is a kind of slowly played out inexorable logic here but I'm not sure that the film's logic is, well, logical. However, I don't know what else could have happened. Maybe I just resist what I see as a flatly pessimistic ending.

[tavernier]

The running time for the "director's cut" is 143 minutes, according to filmlinc.com.

[Ted Todorov]

I saw it yesterday -- amazing movie. So topical for the Iraq war it's not even funny.

Aldrich's daughter said that they are still trying to find out who owns the rights, so don't hold your breath on a DVD. Lorimar (sp?) released it in the US, and she said that it was a front for mafia money.

[Barmy]

Enjoyable but minor. The plotline is absurdly contrived. Acting is of the ACTING style. Leaving aside the faded print, it looks cheap. At least it had a happy ending, from my conservative perspective.

[tavernier]

Barmy, I'm sure you also enjoyed Aldrich's daughter after the screening....she pronounces the word like Dubya does, "nucular."

[Barmy]

I know. I laughed at that.

[Scharphedin2]

Robert Aldrich (1918-1983)

Filmography

China Smith (2 TV episodes “Shanghai Slipper” and “Straight Settlement”)

Schlitz Playhouse of Stars (1 episode, 1952)

The Doctor (1 TV episode “Take the Odds”, 1953)

The Big Leaguer (1953)

Four Star Playhouse (5 TV episodes “The Bad Streak,” “The Gift,” “The Hard Way,” “The Witness,” and “The Squeeze”, 1953-1954) Laserlight (R1) – “The Witness” included on double feature with Richard Donner's Lola (Twinky)

World For Ransom (1954)

Apache (1954) MGM (R1) / MGM (R2 UK)

Vera Cruz (1954) MGM (R1) – also included in Gary Cooper: MGM Movie Legends Collection (tbr 22nd May, 2007) / MGM (R2 UK)

Kiss Me Deadly (1955) MGM (R1) / MGM (R2 UK)

The Big Knife (1955) MGM (R1)

Autumn Leaves (1956)

Attack (1956) MGM (R1) / MGM (R2 UK) / Imagica (R2 JP)

Ten Seconds to Hell (1959)

The Angry Hills (1959)

Hotel de Paree (1 TV episode “Sundance Returns”, 1959)

Adventures in Paradise (2 TV episodes “Safari at Sea” and “The Black Pearl”, 1959)

The Last Sunset (1961) Universal (R1) – included in Rock Hudson: Screen Legend Collection / Gaumont (R2 FR)

Sodom and Gomorrah (1962) Black Hill Pictures (R2 DE)

What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) Warner Brothers (R1) – also included in The Bette Davis Collection, Vol. 2 / Warner Brothers (R2 UK)

4 for Texas (1963) Warner (R1) – also included in The Rat Pack Collection

Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964) 20th Century Fox (R1) / 20th Century Fox (R2 UK)

The Flight of the Phoenix (1965) 20th Century Fox (R1) / 20th Century Fox (R2 UK)

The Dirty Dozen (1967) Warner (R1) – also included in World War II Collection: Battlefront Europe / Warner (R2 UK)

The Legend of Lylah Clare (1968)

The Killing of Sister George (1968) MGM (R1)

Too Late the Hero (1970) MGM (R1) / Anchor Bay (R1) / Prism Leisure (R2 UK)

The Grissom Gang (1971) MGM (R1)

Ulzana's Raid (1972) Universal (R2 UK)

Emperor of the North Pole (1973) 20th Century Fox (R1)

The Longest Yard (1974) Paramount (R1) / Paramount (R2 UK)

Hustle (1975) Paramount (R1)

Twilight's Last Gleaming (1977)

The Choirboys (1977)

The Frisco Kid (1979) Warner Brothers (R1)

…All the Marbles (1981)


General Discussion

Grumpy Old Directors

Hag Horror


Recommended Web Resources

BFI Screenonline

Classic Film and Television

Coninuum, vol. 5 no. 2 (1990) – article “Fascination and the grotesque: ‘What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?'” by Jodi Brooks

Images Journal – article “So What's with the Ending of ‘Kiss Me Deadly'” by Alain Silver

Images Journal – article “The Kiss Me Mangled Mystery” by Glenn Erickson

”'Kiss Me Deadly': Evidence of a Style” – article by Alain Silver in ‘Film Noir Reader 3'

Screening the Past – large collection of essays exploring many facets of Aldrich's films

Senses of Cinema – the usual in-depth exploration of the director (by Alain Silver) with links to a dozen articles on specific films

[nsps]

So I'm going to be in Paris in the beginning of September and was looking to catch a film at the new(ish) Cinematheque Francaise. (I haven't been in town since they moved locations and re-opened the museum in '05.) A Robert Aldrich series is going on at the moment and my schedule would likely allow me to see one of these films, none of which I'd seen before:

Apache
Ulzana's Raid
World for Ransom*
Choirboys*
Too Late the Hero
The Killing of Sister George

*=Not on DVD (to my knowledge)

Anyone have any recommendations or warnings? I've heard bad things about Choirboys, and will probably avoid "Sister George" as I am by no stretch a fan of "Baby Jane" (although I do love Cotton).

Of course, I could also catch Cukor's "What Price Hollywood," Mamoulian's "Love Me Tonight" or probably not "Once Upon a Time in America," as I doubt I could convince my girlfriend to spend four hours in a movie theater while in Paris. (I don't speak French well enough to brave a non-English film, or there are a few more I'd quite like to see.)

[Cinetwist]

I'd probably go see Ulzana's Raid, which I think is his best western or Too Late the Hero, which is a somewhat underrated war film. I'm a big Aldrich fan, and if it was me I'd probably see one of the one's not on dvd, but I think they are supposed to be pretty minor efforts. Oh and I prefer Sister George to Baby Jane by quite a bit, but I think I'm alone in that.

But if I could only watch one film (how painful) I would probably skip Aldrich altogether and go with Love Me Tonight.

[Dr Amicus]

I'll second Ulzana's Raid - a very impressive 70s western. Probably my favourite Aldrich.

Apache is interesting, but suffers from a terrible ending. Sister George I liked, but it's really nothing like Baby Jane. And it's many years since I saw Choirboys - and I'm in no hurry for a repeat.

[akaten]

I'd probably go see Ulzana's Raid, which I think is his best western or Too Late the Hero, which is a somewhat underrated war film. I'm a big Aldrich fan, and if it was me I'd probably see one of the one's not on dvd, but I think they are supposed to be pretty minor efforts. Oh and I prefer Sister George to Baby Jane by quite a bit, but I think I'm alone in that.

But if I could only watch one film (how painful) I would probably skip Aldrich altogether and go with Love Me Tonight.

Wrote a little about World for Ransom elsewhere on this board, the film is shown every so often on FILM4 and looks to be in good condition, so I wouldn't be surprised if it is 'available' for those curious in the meantime - its minor but a very interesting early film for Aldrich fans but if I had to pick one I would also want to go for the search and destroy western Ulzana's Raid - both for the film and also to see if its the US or European cut being screened.

[tojoed]

.. Oh and I prefer Sister George to Baby Jane by quite a bit, but I think I'm alone in that.

You are definitely not alone. But maybe we are.

[knives]

You are not in the least alone.

[Cold Bishop]

I don't know if I can abide that opinion. 1973's Emperor of the North Pole is among his best and most characteristic, and I quite like all his post Dozen films, with perhaps only Lylah Clare and Sister George leaving me with a ho-hum feeling. I personally think the rut he hit in in the late 50s/early 60s, in between Attack and ...Sweet Charlotte to be a lot more disappointing (Baby Jane being the obvious exception)

[knives]

To be entirely honest, I think that Baby Jane is slightly, very slightly, still apart of that dip. While I find to Davis' performance to be one for the ages, Crawford makes herself so separate from the rest of the cast with an at times annoying melodrama in her performance. Also the logic behind the pianist character annoys me so much that I've actually passed up chances to rewatch this on occasion. Those two quibbles aside though it is a very good film.

[Cinetwist]

I don't really see the decline in quality after the mediocre Dirty Dozen either, but again, perhaps that is a somewhat unusual (if not solitary) opinion. And it probably helps that I haven't seen stuff like Choirboys. But I can't think of another American director working at the time who made as good a string of mainstream films as Too Late the Hero, The Grissom Gang, Ulzana's Raid, Emperor of the North Pole and The Longest Yard (I'm not going to try and argue for Hustle even though I liked it well enough). The only director who does better in that time frame is Altman.

I don't really know what the critical opinion is on something like Emperor, but for me it's one of Aldrich's and Lee Marvin's best films. Certainly better than 90% of the rest of the depression era films made at the time.

[Cinetwist]

Hustle is the only one of those titles I would make a case for. Dream casting and a "small" story that focuses the malcontent through a problematic relationship. It's a neglected major Aldirch I think, and the current DVDs look terrible, although it was shot by Joseph Biroc. I've often wondered if the original neg of this ended up in the dreaded CRI stock and there's simply no reasonable elements for it, least of all faded Eastman (or worse) positivies.

In every other case you mention Aldrich seems to deal with similar material in 50s pictures like Attack, Vera Cruz, Last Sunset and obviously Deadly Me Kiss with far tighter control over the scope and much greater concentration of the angst. I just cant sit though those late panoramas again.

Yes, Attack is certainly more satisfying than Too Late the Hero and obviously Kiss Me Deadly towers above everything (and would for pretty much any filmmaker), but I still find Ulzana's a lot more satisfying than those two westerns, although they definitely need revisiting. Does The Last Sunset even have a dvd release? I could imagine my opinion of it improving if I saw a good transfer.

[tojoed]

Does The Last Sunset even have a dvd release? I could imagine my opinion of it improving if I saw a good transfer.

Yes, it's in this box set. I can't vouch for the quality though.

[nsps]

Thanks for all the tips. If nothing else, I'm happy to finally get some posts going in this thread!

I've never been clear on exactly what level Baby Jane works for people. Is it simply camp? I love Davis, but find her performance here shrill and obnoxious. The suspense doesn't work—Crawdford's inability to negotiate the stairs is especially unconvincing. And the final twist feels more obligatory that shocking. Sadly, it's one of only two Aldrich films I've had the chance to see on 35-mm (the other being "The Big Knife," which I caught at Cinefamily while I was in LA earlier this year).

But if I could only watch one film (how painful) I would probably skip Aldrich altogether and go with Love Me Tonight.

Yeah, no kidding, If a film series like this were playing in Salt Lake City, I'd be catching every screening I could. God help me if I lived in Paris. Making matters worse, Charles Vanel's "Dans la Nuit" screens at 9pm on my last night in town (I read French better than I speak it). But anyhow, all this is for a "help NSPS figure out his Parisian repertory film schedule thread."

[Cold Bishop]

I do have to ask if those films are just a smaller chunk of a bigger retrospective, since otherwise, they're some of the oddest choices for Aldrich. Of those, I'd recommend Too Late the Hero or Ulzana's Raid as the better of the pack.

[nsps]

I do have to ask if those films are just a smaller chunk of a bigger retrospective, since otherwise, they're some of the oddest choices for Aldrich. Of those, I'd recommend Too Late the Hero or Ulzana's Raid as the better of the pack.

Yeah, it's one of the Cinématheque's more-than-a-month-long retrospectives (25 August through 5 October), so basically any Aldrich you wanna see, you can see it in Paris in the next month or so. Those are just the films that happen to be playing during my four or five days in the city.

[Cinetwist]

Yeah, the CF only does complete and exhaustive retrospectives these days. An all or nothing approach. It's pretty admirable but when it's done for someone like Jess Franco (or even Mitchell Leisen to an extent) it's a bit odd. I doubt whether there were even any hardcore horror/trash fans that even just saw all the films that weren't on dvd.

To put it into perspective for Aldrich, they're screening The Greatest Mother of Them All, or what exists of it.

[knives]

Does anyone have any information on The Greatest Mother of Them All? From what I can gather it is an incomplete film, but there doesn't seem to be any definitive talk about it.

[Lighthouse]

In Germany in the 80s a version of Ulzana's Raid was shown on TV which combines every scene from Aldrich's US and from Lancaster's European version. It runs about 112 min. I'm normally not a follower of "the longest available version is the best" idea, but here it is the from me preferred version which should be released on disc.