Howard Hawks

[Stefan]

No, FrauBlucher, things are not that bad! I meant this in a much more cheerful way.
And also, we are talking Hawks here. Right? But you seem to know that.

[FrauBlucher]

Stefan, I was just summoning my inner Cantinflas to see his response

[Stefan]

Very good, FrauBlucher, I am quite positive he will appreciate this from high above.

[Matt]

I’m perhaps unfairly imagining it as a kind of Around the World in 80 Days-style madcap, episodic adventure, and that’s the last kind of film I would want to see Cary Grant make, even if it were directed by Howard Hawks. Cantinflas might have made for a fine Sancho Panza, even though I can’t think of anyone but Akim Tamiroff (who was Welles’s Sancho Panza) in that role.

[Stefan]

I’m perhaps unfairly imagining it as a kind of Around the World in 80 Days-style madcap, episodic adventure, and that’s the last kind of film I would want to see Cary Grant make, even if it were directed by Howard Hawks. Cantinflas might have made for a fine Sancho Panza, even though I can’t think of anyone but Akim Tamiroff (who was Welles’s Sancho Panza) in that role.

No, no, I am almost sad to say that you are wrong here. Tamirioff has been his own tragic self-reference, at least in his own later works (see "Alphaville"). You KNOW his character right away, and that's what makes him boring. Or sturdy all the wrong way. Cantiflas would have opened a whole other page.
What do the women have say to this?

[Stefan Andersson]

Hawks´s late style:
https://the1517tocinema.blogspot.com/20 ... hawks.html

[domino harvey]

Finally finished my Hawks sound filmography with four of his straggler 30s titles, and by funny coincidence they were all either WWI or plane movies or both. In order of preference:

Road to Glory is an excellent WWI lark that wisely abandons what must initially have been an attempt at remaking Les Croix de bois (only one scene lifted directly from Bernard's film survives in this version-- the grim waiting for the other side's excavators to plant their dynamite under the trenches-- and it cannot compete with the original by any metric) while retaining a lot of the footage regardless to create a more Hawksian approach to leadership. June Lang is stunningly beautiful in the film, but alas the script requires her to do more than exist and she is not up to the challenge here. I can see Lionel Barrymore's character and perf being contentious with some viewers, but I loved it-- who else could have possibly played this character with all his pathos and patheticism as beautifully as Barrymore?

In contrast to the rest of these films, Ceiling Zero is staged mostly like a play, mixing the fast-talking tendencies of Hawks' screwball antics with his love of being the best at something. One character opining that the best thing about flying was that "You're all alone, it's all up to you when you're up there" sounds like Hawks talking to us directly, and helps explain why he keeps going back to these particular exemplars of his professional ideal. One big minus here is that all of the women in the movie, including a teenage pilot, are completely useless. To bring up an unoriginal thought, this is obv a dress rehearsal for the fuller action of Only Angels Have Wings, but it still works on its own merits.

The Dawn Patrol took me a while to warm to, in large part due to some hideous acting choices early on. But then we get an insane action sequence, genuinely impressive even by today's metrics, that amusingly has no narrative function (the fact that it occurs matters, but nothing that happens during the retributive attack does-- this could have been an email, as the kids say) but lots of entertainment value. There's something a little masochistic about the suicide drive in all of these films that betrays a lack of creative imagination within the confines of Hawks' worldview-- I reject the notion that once one can no longer be the best, the natural recourse is to kill yourself, but my God it keeps coming up...

Speaking of wanting to kill yourself, Today We Live is now second for me only to the dreaded Red Line 7000 as Hawks' worst. You can tell Joan Crawford was directed by the lighting department, not Hawks, but every actor in this is terrible, even a reliable That Guy like Roscoe Karns and especially Gary Cooper. Not even all the action sequences in the second half could save this, though, in part because I hated Robert Young in this so much and he kept appearing on screen. Absolute torture to sit through, and with a lot of second hand embarrassment whenever Crawford went off on one of her many dewy-eyed fits of Emoting

[hearthesilence]

Caught a double feature of later Hawks film, starting with Red Line 7000. I knew this was a polarizing film - IIRC Joseph McBride thought it was Hawks's worst or one of his worst, Dave Kehr thought it was an interesting failure, and Jonathan Rosenbaum appreciated it enough to include it in his canon over Red River and The Big Sleep - but I didn't anticipate how much I'd dislike this film. It really left a bad taste and the more it sits in memory, the more I find it revolting. I love Hawks's films and there's definitely a lot of him in this, but what was charming or engaging elsewhere has curdled into something grossly reactionary and out-of-touch. Perhaps the context has something to do with it because it really made him seem like an old man for unfortunate reasons, someone who resented how the culture was changing by 1965. (Even the rock n' roll sounded like an old man's idea of it - usually fake and pedestrian-sounding "rock" arrangements applied to old traditional folk songs or what at heart are pre-rock pop numbers.) I do agree with some of the observations people have made in support of the film, but I'm not sure they're actually commendable, particularly James Caan - it may be a fine performance, but to what end? How they resolve his pathological neuroses is ludicrous and disgusting. I know Robin Wood argued it was highly misunderstood, so maybe someday I'll revisit both his argument and the film to see if anything changes for me, but not anytime soon.

This left some pretty low expectations for Land of the Pharaohs, and it couldn't have been more of a surprise. When it debuted on DVD, it was packaged in a box set of "Cult Camp Classics" which I imagine is how it was usually championed in the past, but in light of the ludicrous and flat out horrendous times we are now living in, what's ridiculous here is no longer unthinkable in present-day life and must now be viewed far differently. While Faulkner and Hawks knew what they were doing in looking for real-life American inspiration - e.g. crafting dialogue as if he was a plantation owner, their own wariness of religious zealotry - I don't think they would've predicted how this film would eventually age. Virtually every detail echoes our current state of affairs, whether dealing with a pathological obsession with wealth that drives a narcissistic pursuit of power, the sociopathic disregard for humanity, or the justification brought by warped religious beliefs. Much has been made about the dialogue and Joan Collins, but they now seem like petty concerns, trivial distractions from what the film really has to say.

[Black Hat]

Where on earth was this double bill screened?

[hearthesilence]

Poor choice of words, it wasn't a theatrical screening, I just saw them on a friend's home server and played them back-to-back.

[hearthesilence]

I was hoping the DCP of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes sent to MoMA for the Marilyn Monroe retrospective would be a newer master, maybe even a new scan or restoration, but alas it’s likely the same one used for the current Blu-ray: thoroughly scrubbed clean of grain. Still a great film, maybe even Monroe’s best, but unfortunate. Hopefully a better 4K restoration will happen just so something better will be available for viewing.

[GoodOldNeon]

That's a shame. La Cinémathèque française is doing their own Monroe retrospective starting next month and I just bought my tickets for Some Like It Hot and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, quietly hoping the latter would be a new restoration. Still, for €7 per ticket, I can't complain.

[bearcuborg]

Poor choice of words, it wasn't a theatrical screening, I just saw them on a friend's home server and played them back-to-back.

I highly recommend Hatari on 4k. It’s a gorgeous presentation, fun film and the commentary is a blast.

[hearthesilence]

That's a shame. La Cinémathèque française is doing their own Monroe retrospective starting next month and I just bought my tickets for Some Like It Hot and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, quietly hoping the latter would be a new restoration. Still, for €7 per ticket, I can't complain.

Some Like It Hot may be the same 4K DCP that's been advertised here and likely the same restoration used for the Criterion UHD. I've seen it projected before and it's absolutely worth going just to be around a packed house - comedies are always much more enjoyable that way. Same with Gentelmen Prefer Blondes despite the DCP's shortcomings - it was packed house that was audibly delighted.

[hearthesilence]

I forgot about this, but in January 2016 MoMA screened a retrospective on choreographer Jack Cole, including Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and George Cukor's Let's Make Love. In many cases they had esteemed choreographers introducing or discussing the films. (Rob Marshall, who started his career as a dancer, actually introduced Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.) Cole is a bit underappreciated, so it was a welcome program, and I forgot that he actually directed the "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" number in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes - that is, he not only choreographed it but dictated the camera setups. No small thing as it's easily the highlight of the entire movie. I guess Hawks knew his limitations and left it to Cole while focusing on his strengths.