Spies and Nazis and Feuds, Oh My!

Rebecca Gossip!! Go see the film, this Saturday 7pm, Sunday 7:10pm

Laurence Olivier a spy? Yes, it is likely that Sir Larry was recruited by film producer and MI5 operative Alexander Korda to further British Interests in America and to help determine whether Churchill was receiving accurate information from the Roosevelt government. Mmmm, it just adds yet another layer of dashing to the Sexiest Man Not Alive.


Rebbeca the key to busting a Nazi spy ring? True! The key to the code that German spy John Eppler used was found in the English version of Daphne du Maurier's novel.  In 1942 the British discovered a copy of Rebecca on a captured German telegraph operator and subsequently broke the spy ring. For the full story, see  this article  about Egyptian national and Nazi spy John Eppler.

And our last item of the day is a tangled little web. Miss Joan Fontaine, who plays the Mrs. to Laurence Olivier's Mr. Maxim De Winter, is actually none other than the little sister of Olivia de Havilland, "Miss Melanie" herself. The two sisters, though they bear different names, shared a profession and a spotlight, being two of Hollywood's brightest stars in the 1940s. Sister Olivia had actually gained notoriety by playing opposite Errol Flynn's swashbuckling in 8 films. But the spotlight was perhaps not big enough for the both of them. In 1942 Joan and Olivia were both nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress...and Joan nabbed the Oscar. Rumor is that Joan refused to acknowledge Olivia's congratulations, and this slight was not forgotten. Their relationship became strained and continued to fall apart over the next couple of decades. Though both ladies are still alive, they allegedly haven't spoken in over 30 years.   Meow!!

Last night, I dreamt I went to Manderley again.

Soooo, it's finally here, my most anticipated movie of the summer. I've been pining away for this film since I found out there was one, and not only is it Olivier, it's Hitchcock!


I read the Daphne Du Maurier book when I was a girl, maybe 11 or 12 years old. It was simply the greatest book I had ever read, so bleakly romantic, gothic, tragic, tortured. When I read Jane Eyre a few years later i wasn't as impressed as everyone else because it seemed to me to be a paler echo of Rebecca (although obviously now I see that I had that a bit backwards.)

The book was hugely popular, but critically un-loved- "Few saw in the novel what the author wanted them to see: the exploration of the relationship between a man who was powerful and a woman who was not." (Margaret Foster, Daphne du Maurier)

I didn't see it either.  I wasn't resentful of Maxim and his overbearing masculinity- rather I was in love with him. And I certainly didn't guess at any lesbian overtones as Hitch does- Mrs. Danvers was instead every creepy babysitter or mean teacher I had had, a personal archetype which would evolve into Nurse Ratchet later in life.

And most strange of all, I never noticed that Mrs. Maximillian De Winter has no name of her own, and is an anonymous narrator of her own story. That was the most brilliant gambit by Du Maurier. Nothing could be more commonplace than for a woman to be known only by her husband's name, and yet it is the perfect metaphor for the loss of power a woman experiences in the classic "obey thy husband" model of marriage.

But so much for the book. Rebecca the film has become well known as Hitchcock's first collaboration with David O. Selznick, and it has been proposed by some that it is in fact as much a film by one as by the other. There is a famous example of these sometimes clashing visions- Selznick wanted the smoke at the end of the film to form the letter R, which Hitchcock thought was pretty cheesy, and rightfully so. He replaced the shot with a less melodramatic one of a monogrammed R on a suitcase burning in the fire.

If you want to see some of the back and forth between the two titans first hand, I recommend you go to the Making Movies exhibit at the Harry Ransom Center quick before it closes!!


Rebecca, 7pm Saturday, on a gothic double bill with Wuthering Heights

Slick Soaper or Subversive Swipe?

Imitation of Life tonight at the Paramount!! Is it a slick soaper? Is it a subversive swipe at the hollywood machine from which it came? Is a Mexican-Czech woman passing as a black woman passing as a white woman ironic enough for you?

The critics were underwhelmed when this 1959 film was released, but it has since become considered Douglas Sirk's masterpiece and went on to become Universal's most successful film for over a decade- until Airport in 1970. 

Douglas Sirk was mentioned quite a bit a few years ago when Todd Haynes' Far From Heaven was released, but until then I hadn't given him much thought. Although I was impressed with Imitation of Life when I first saw it with my mom over a decade ago, despite it's exploration of race and identity it still felt like an old-fashioned melodrama to me. And on some levels it is- Lana Turner's lavish costumes and jewelry (which cost over a million dollars) signify the old Hollywood excess as much as she herself does. But Sirk was not unaware of what his leading lady symbolized, and seemed to use it to alienate the audience from her. The rich white lady's problems seem so inconsequential in comparison to those of the poor black characters, which move to the center even as Lana Turner and
the class and system she represents are marginalized.

Of course, Sarah Jane is not played by a black woman, but rather by Susan Kohner, an actress of Mexican and Czech descent. Interestingly, this 1959 film is based on an earlier 1934 version starring Claudette Colbert in which Sarah Jane is in fact played by an African American, Fredi Washington. The light-skinned actress had trouble getting other roles- she was too white to play a black servant, and she refused to pass for white on screen in order to be allowed to play opposite a white love interest.


And now for some Trivia! Susan Kohner is the mother of Chris  and Paul Weitz, who brought us the classic American Pie.  Chris directed About a Boy, which was pretty great, but also kind of messed up The Golden Compass and really tortured the hell out of New Moon, so I don't know about that guy.


And finally for a little 50 year old gossip- that's right folks, you heard it here first, but keep it on the QT...It is probable that Lana Turner was also cast to capitalize on the tabloid frenzy that had erupted when her 14-year old daughter Cheryl fatally stabbed Lana's violent mafioso boyfriend Johnny Stompanato in 1957,  "a life-imitating-art episode worthy of a James Cain/Raymond Chandler Southern California potboiler."
 For more on Sirk's possible motives and some Brechtian analysis, read this great article. 

Imitation of Life, 8:55pm, on a tearful double bill with All That Heaven Allows.

Stupid Predators premiere has bumped the second showing on Wednesday, so better get to the Paramount tonight!!

Summer Classics 2010 Schedule

Looking for the schedule? Want to buy tickets online? Need to know more about each film? You're in luck! Click here for all this and more!

Another Thin Man & The Thin Man Goes Home

Now for the scoop on tonight's classics at the Paramount, Another Thin Man and The Thin Man Goes Home.  I haven't seen any of the Thin Man films, so I turned up a little background information on these, the 3rd and 5th installments in the 6-part series.

So here's the first revelation: William Powell's character Nick Charles is not the Thin Man.  That epithet refers to a character from the first movie, Clyde Wynant.  I guess since the first movie was so hugely popular they wanted to keep the Thin Man moniker going, and it has since became conflated with Nick Charles himself.

The first film, The Thin Man, was based on a novel of the same name by hardboiled writer Dashiell Hammitt, who never wrote a sequel. In fact, The Thin Man was his final novel, despite the fact that he lived another three decades, lending the novel an extra air of intrigue.  I always feel like last works have a special message encoded in them, some clue as to why this is the last one.

Another Thin Man brings Nick and Nora into a different realm of the Hammitt universe- the plot is based on "The Farewell Murder," a short story originally starring another Hammitt hero, The Continental Op.

Nick and Nora themselves are supposed by many to be based on Hammitt and his long-time lover Lillian Hellman, the playwright and activist.  They were both pretty outspoken communists and were black-listed by the House Un-American Activities Committee.   We've got our own little political divide here at the Paramount this summer, as "Fun with Nick & Nora" collides with the "Elia Kazan Tribute." Kazan notoriously named names for Senator McCarthy, and Lillian Hellman blasted him in her memoirs and interviews as a collaborator.

I'm looking forward to analyzing Another Thin Man tonight to see if I can find any secret commie propaganda.

Another Thin Man    7 Tues; 9:10 Wed.
The Thin Man Goes Home   9:15 Tues; 7 Wed.
Warner Bros. Cartoon before each feature!!!!!!

Summer Classics Constellation

For film nerds, obsessive compulsives, conspiracy theorists, fans of the Mel Gibson movie Conspiracy Theory, or flow-chart enthusiasts- check out the Summer Classics Constellation I’m constructing.

I'll keep adding to this insane web of coincidence and tenuous connections all summer long, until every film on the list has found its place somewhere in the maelstrom.