Frank Sinatra was born on December 11th, 1915. NINETY-FIVE YEARS AGO! Wow! What was the world like 96 years ago?! What did people do without the overwhelming coolness that is Sinatra?! I can't imagine.
There is a quote from the liner-notes of The Heart of the Matter (a random compilation album I own) that I simply adore. It describes The Chairman of the Board so very well!
Sinatra was like some kind of inexplicable Big Bang, all sound exploding out of him and respectfully being bestowed upon a longing audience. His genius aligned with the planets and he sang about the moon and the stars like they were his personal playthings.
That's kind of the essence of complete and utter coolness.
It's Ingy and Jean Simmons together...chatting about life, science, philosophy, the brilliance of that movie they saw together last night (Gidget Goes Hawaiian actually...;-D)! *sigh* I WANT TO BE THERE!
This movie is complete brilliance. It was complete brilliance in 1941. It will ALWAYS be complete brilliance.
Trivia: The alternate title for the film was actually Baby-Faced Brilliance.*
*It's definitely not recommended that you listen to any trivia I give you. Just like a Hitchcock flashback....I'm liable to be completely lying to you. ;-D
I adore Film Noir. MOST Film Noir.
Film Noir that is utterly nonredeemable and depressing for no reason I do not adore. (Born To Kill, I am looking at you!)
Film Noir that is "awwwwww happy" is my favorite of all. I could watch Laura every. single. day.
And then there are Noirs that are not in anyway "awwww happy", but are still quite amazing. This Gun For Hire is one of those. It's fascinating. No matter how many times one watches it, it is still always a must-be-completely-involved-in-the-story kind of movie. There is no room for finger-puppet making during this movie.
Which isn't a problem at all, because it's a completely engrossing film. The opening scene starts out and Alan Ladd is already giving milk to little kittens, beating up women, helping disabled children, and killing random unarmed people. One begins to understand that this movie is going to be STINKIN' CRAZY.
And pretty Wowzie Kazam.
The acting in This Gun For Hire is really amazing. Veronica Lake and Laird Cregar both stand out brilliantly. And of course there's Alan Ladd. It's really shocking to me that he was fourth-billed. This may be his debut film, but it is definitely my favorite performance from him. He is an unapologetic, coldblooded killer. BUT, YOU FEEL SO SORRY FOR HIM. Oh my gosh. The poor little thing. Can you believe that horrible police officer, Robert Preston?! Why the heck is he persecuting this lonely, misunderstood hitman?! I mean, Alan's nice to cats. AND HE DOESN'T KILL SMALL, DISABLED CHILDREN. What more can you ask for?! Nobody can be completely perfect.
Aww, look at their cute, little innocent faces.
Note: this description does NOT include Robert Preston, who I always forget is even IN this movie. Sheesh. ;-D
I'm not going to say any more about this film, because I of course, do NOT want to give anything away, but really. You should go see it. I can't even think of any regret anyone could have after viewing it. There is not one single flaw in the entire film. AND it's only 81 minutes long, WHAT?! Yeah.
Today I was at Red Robins and my seat was at the perfect angle, so that I was facing two walls. One, with a poster of James Dean....and the other with a poster of Steve McQueen.
Best. Seat. Ever.
(No, I have not blogged in approx. two years, and yes, this is my first post back. HAVEN'T YOU MISSED ME?! ;-D)
My final final is this Wednesday...THEN WE BE HAVING CHRISTMAS PARTY HERE AT CLASSICFOREVER!
-Millie.
P.S. Can anyone give me like a three sentence summary of Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass"?! I need it before 8AM. No time for SparkNotes. THANKS! ;-P
Michael Callan is really-- JUST COOL. He's wonderful in dramatic parts (he had surly J.D.s down so well! ;-D), BRILLIANT in comedy, he danced stupendously (he originated the role of Riff in West Side Story on Broadway), and he's a stinkin' icon for mind-smushing entertainment of the 60's!
I love him.
I also think Michael Callan is far too under-appreciated. Of the many "teen star" types of the 60's, Michael was quite unique, in fact, I wouldn't even categorize him in that "teen star"/Frankie Avalon type (even though Frankie is also awesome, of course, haha). Michael was (I say "was" in terms of his film career, he is still very much alive and well) very interesting in that, although he CLEARLY belonged to the 60's, he also possessed this almost 30's screwball, nonchalant charm. (I hope the preceding sentence made SOME sense! ;-D)
Of course that nonchalant charm could occasionally be silenced, like for instance, whenever he decided to randomly beat up Alan Ladd. ;-D
Michael Callan and his gang of "punks" mugging Alan Ladd in 13 West Street
Oh my gosh! The trailer for 13 West Street is just TOO hilarious not to share!
ANYWAY, back to the utter coolness that is Michael Callan. Another unique piece of Michael, was his background. He was a Broadway dancer and musical star, yet his first film was They Came to Cordura. A western. In fact, he hardly ever starred in films which revolved around his dancing ability. It simply melded into and become part of "him" as an actor. Of course even though he may not be playing a dancer, he definitely dances a lot in his films (random dances that in are always in movies-- he just makes them seem brilliant!).
An exception to that not playing a dancer, but still being a dancer rule comes from Gidget Goes Hawaiian. Where he does in fact play a dancer. My favorite scene. The Mambo. Wowzie Kazam.
Something particularly Michael Callanish that one notices after watching a few of his films (or watching Gidget Goes Hawaiian approximately 63, 426 times ;-D) is the restlessness he is always displaying onscreen. He's literally slightly hopping up and down on one leg-- ALMOST CONSTANTLY! His characters are always moving, always thinking-ahead. Which is probably why he so often played the charming, but irresponsible/rakish/untrustworthy guy. AKA: The perfect role for Michael Callan.
His "absolutely useless" Clay Boone in Cat Ballou
In fact, he got a whole TV show, created for the sole purpose of allowing Michael Callan to swagger around for 30 minutes every week doing absolutely nothing...but smiling. Briliant.
You can watch a whole episode of Occasional Wife here (I PROMISE it's hilarious):
Michael's real-life marriage to his Occasional Wife costar, Patricia Harty. (Also scanned by Kate-Gabrielle)
Basically, what I'm trying to tell you with this post is that Michael Callan is brilliant. And you should definitely check out some of his films. Because he IS necessary viewing for all so-called students of Mind-Smushing Entertainment. That is all.
(Not really. I just end paragraphs with "That is all", because it sounds cool.)
I actually made a tribute to Michael Callan using clips from a bunch of his different movies and a couple television appearances. (And if you are by any chance one of the few people who watched this originally last week when I posted it on Twitter: this is a revised version-- with the glitches taken out and some clips added, removed, or changed.)
Michael with Jane Fonda on the set of Cat Ballou
Official Michael Callan recommends from The Millie:
Cat Ballou - OF COURSE! It's probably his most famous role. AND IT'S SO MUCH FUN!
Gidget Goes Hawaiian - I mustache this movie. Which is odd considering I can't STAND the two lead actors (James Darren and Deborah Walley), but Michael (and Carl Reiner....and Joby Baker) makes up for that by being awesome.
Mysterious Island - Too cool for school! Michael gets to battle giant crabs, and dodo birds, and bees AND float around in a hot air balloon. WHAT?! Yeah.
Bon Voyage! - Yeah, Deborah Walley shows up again. BUT IT'S PARIS. AND MICHAEL DANCES. AND TOMMY KIRK HAS A FAKE MUSTACHE.
The Cat and the Canary - He's the "American" cousin. He's cool.
Okay, basically, I'm just going to name every Michael Callan film ever made....so yeah. Just know that you can watch anything Michael Callan at any time and KNOW that's it's going to be awesome. THAT is the basic life principle you should be taking away from this post! ;-D
