Happy 80th Birthday, James Dean

Well, apparently, college has once again got in the way of my formerly perfectly happy, non-productive life. ;-D

Essay to write = no proper celebration post!

BUT, look for it tomorrow (or a bit later this week)! THEN, I will be writing a proper post in celebration of 80 years of awesomely misunderstood rebellion without causation.

Clearly he is partaking of birthday cake!

 

 -Millie

2011 in Film: January

I AM keeping track of every film I watch this year. Oh, I've promised in the past, but never made it past the third week of January. It's going to be different this year. IT IS. ;-D

I have started a new page to keep track of these films; I've been adding to it this whole month.

Of course, with college and all, I haven't been able to watch TOO many movies (sad, but true!). I'm much more likely to just throw on a TV show before I sleep, instead of a long movie!

It was funny, in thinking about the movies I watch this year, I started to think about the TV I watch. CRAZINESS! As far as I can remember I have watched at least one episode (most: multiple episodes) of each of these shows JUST THIS MONTH:

Honey West, The Saint, Mission: Impossible, The Bob Newhart Show, Route 66, Adam-12, Emergency!, Psych (um, around three seasons of it. ;-D), White Collar, Laredo, Lawman, Alias Smith and Jones, Richard Diamond: Private Eye, Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Night Gallery, Ironside (I SWEAR IT WAS JUST BECAUSE BRADFORD DILLMAN WAS GUEST STARRING. Hahaha), Leave It To Beaver, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Monkees... and these are just the ones I remember off the top of my head.

WHAT IS MY LIFE?!

;-D

Anyways, on to the actual film part of this post:

In January I watched 13 films (a pitiful number by any standards). This included 8 new films and 5 re-watches.

My favorite new film: 

Either I Love You Again or How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying (both were seen thanks to Netflix; actually ALL of the new films were because of Netflix). They were both seriously brilliant. William + Myrna is always just genius. And I really just can't live without near constant viewings of over-the-top musicals. ;-D

My least favorite new film:

They Came To Cordura. EASILY. I don't even want to talk about it (okay, I actually live-tweeted practically the entire movie, but still. ;-D) It was so horrible and tragic and depressing. I hated absolutely every character. EXCEPT Rita Hayworth (is she EVER NOT IMPOSSIBLY COOL?!) and Michael Callan (poor Michael got struck down by typhoid and spent most of the movie motionless on a stretcher being carried through the desert by the rest of the characters). I couldn't even stand Gary Cooper's character, AND I LOVE GARY COOPER. And the ending?! SERIOUSLY?!

Runner-up: Man-Trap. This thing. It would have EASILY been first place, but it had David Janssen as a seriously evil evil villain. And he's JUST so cool. And, oh, look at his awesome creeper mustache:

That is all.

 

Best Movie Title:

Normally, a movie called How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying, would EASILY win this category. But this was the month of-- ATTACK OF THE PUPPET PEOPLE! Every other movie title is secondary. ;-D

Best Cast: 

This one is really too close to call!

How do I choose between William + Myrna; Robert Morse, Rudy Vallee, and Michele Lee (ALL ALIAS SMITH AND JONES GUEST STARS, oh...um...); David Janssen, Debbie Reynolds, and Cliff Robertson (My Six Loves); and Audrey + Perkins (Green Mansions). I can't.

Worst Cast:

Ride The Wild Surf. I adore Peter Brown and Barbara Eden. BUT Fabian, Tab Hunter, Shelley Fabares, AND ROGER "FAKE HEYES" DAVIS. It was too much.

Although, They Came To Cordura is a close second: Van Heflin, Richard Conte, AND Tab Hunter (common theme).

Most Viewed Actor:

This one is a tie between a couple of different actors, all with two films each.

Carole Lombard: My Man Godfrey and To Be Or Not To Be (both re-watches)
William Powell: My Man Godfrey and I Love You Again
David Janssen: Man-Trap and My Six Loves (both new)
Tab Hunter: Ride The Wild Surf and They Came To Cordura (both new). Watching two Tab Hunter performances is watching two too many. GAHH!

Also: I saw The Lady Vanishes TWICE (it as a re-watch), sooo....

Films By Decades:


1930's: 2 (3 if counting both viewings of The Lady Vanishes) - 0 new
1940's:  2 - 1 new
1950's: 3 - 3 new
1960's: 4 - 4 new
2000's: 1 - 0 new

Welllll. Here is my month in film. I'm hoping that doing this will make sure I actually keep track of all the movies! :-D

Here's to an awesome year of movies!

-Millie

Photo of the Day!

Nancy Sinatra and John Barry.

Rest in peace, Mr. Barry.

Guest Blogger Emm on "Bradford Dillman...and the 'Impossible' Coolness Thereof"

This guest post for the Bradford Dillman Celebration comes from Emm, currently on a break from blogging (AND WE MISS HER!). She is reviewing Bradford's first appearance on Mission: Impossible. I have actually never seen this episode (THE SHOCK AND HORROR! ;-D). But, after this review, I am definitely checking it out! Sounds awesome! Also the awesome glasses. ;-D Thanks for the wunderbar post, Emm!

The Show: Mission:Impossible

The Episode: Season 2, #25. “Recovery”

The Guest Star: The one and only Bradford Dillman

The Mission (should anyone decide to accept it): To foil The Dill Man's brilliantly evil schemes

Let us proceed with our tale of spyishness and psychological warfare with brilliance abounding at every turn.

An American bomber crashed behind the Iron Curtain, but the fail-safe mechanism didn't explode for inexplicable reasons. If Paul Shipherd (defector/evil genius/brilliant physicist/Bradford Dillman) manages to disassemble it, he'll learn the secret to the entire fail safe system, thus placing the Free World in dire jeopardy. And trust me, you definitely don't want to let The Dill Man in on any of your secrets unless you harbor some ideas about destroying life as we know it.

 

So Jim Phelps & Co. are dispatched to recover the fail safe thingamabob, as well as kidnap Paul Shipherd before he can open it. They can't simply blow up the thing, because experts back in the States want to find out why it didn't explode the first time. But heisting a rather large, sensitive object from the same institution where The Dill Man's brain is at work could pose quite a problem, even for the intrepid members of the IMF. As Jim flatly states, “He's brilliant. He's so brilliant he might succeed.”

Though he chose to defect years before, Shipherd is clearly insecure and uncomfortable with no longer being an American citizen. Tiny details reveal his deep-rooted obsession with the United States, and contact with Americans visibly rattles him. He's also somewhat sensitive, though coldly-calculating and heartless. And he has this very creepy little habit of adjusting his glasses whenever he acquires a tidbit of information that helps to further his brilliantly evil schemes.

 

Of course, because this is Mission: Impossible, The Dill Man can't hope to triumph. But he'll try very hard all the same. Cue evil, terrifying, Bradford-Dillman-smile.

Step 1: Interrogate the American pilot who suddenly turned up. (This would be Jim Phelps – with some oddly dyed hair.)

Step 2: Invite that fellow who manufactures secret what-not for the U.S. government for a nice little tour. (This would be Rollin Hand, AKA Martin Landau.)

Step 3: Kidnap his wife for good measure. (This would be Cinnamon Carter, played by the utterly perfect wife of Martin Landau, Barbara Bain.)

Step 4: Force him to open the fail-safe. Never mind if it kills him.

Little does The Dill Man know he's being completely manipulated by people even cooler than himself who will make him into the spitting image of Martin Landau and smuggle him back to the United States. But not to worry. He completely deserves it.

Cue evil smile.

Watch the entire episode: YAYA!

Quotables: Bradford Dillman

Recently, in the gift shop of Thomas Wolfe's home in Asheville, North Carolina, I read the following in the preface to his Mannerhouse, a play that was staged but once: "In 1949 it was performed by the Yale Dramatic Association, a wretched experience endured patiently by small audiences."

I remember. I enacted the leading role, a character Wolfe based on himself.

-Are You Anybody?: An Actor's Life

Bradford Dillman's Evil Smile.

I simply must quote again from Bradford Dillman's IMDb biography, which states that he "possessed charming and confidant good looks that were slightly tainted by his bent smile, darting glance and edgy countenance that often provoked suspicion."

The evil smile.

Even when Bradford played non-evil roles, one could never fully trust him. All he had to do was smile...

Many actors have a defining characteristic, something that is uniquely "them". This characteristic can be both integral to the actor's image...and difficult for the actor to overcome. For instance, Marilyn Monroe found it difficult for anyone to think of her in any way but as a "dumb blonde". For Bradford-- it's difficult to think of him as anything but an evil genius.

And that's because he always played such brilliantly evil genius'.

And that's also why one can never trust him as a non-evil genius. He played quite a few non-evil roles, but you never know for sure that he's not evil until the end of the movie/TV show. With Bradford, you always want to give him the benefit-of-the-doubt that he IS thoroughly and completely evil and probably runs over old ladies with his car for fun.

When Bradford plays a "conflicted character" it usually means there's a small, odd part of him that wants to do the right thing. 

Okay, anyways (I could keep on making up these examples all day long! ;-D)...

Bradford Dillman really did have THE greatest evil smile ever. He played many different types of villains: those DRIVEN to villainy by circumstances, cold and calculating villains, desperate villains-- whatever. But, his awesomest roles of villainy were his gleeful, over-the-top, brilliantly evil, genius villains. Those villains smiled because they simply liked being evil!

And that's why it's difficult to let Bradford be non-evil. Because you can't tell. What is there to distinguish from Bradford's "I'm a nice guy" smile and his "I'm currently pumping toxic waste into the drinking water of several major U.S. cities" smile? Nothing.

And THAT is exactly why he is so stupendously amazingly cool. He's brilliant and can play any role. But, he NEVER plays a role stereotypically. He never plays an ordinary straight-forward anything. He can't play an ordinary old nice guy anymore than he can play an ordinary old bad guy. All of his performances are complex and unique. 

With every one of his good guy's, his smile betrays a hidden inner core - perhaps an evil inner core. And with every bad guy his smile hints that there's something more behind the facade, maybe a nice guy? (More than likely it's just a deeper and more awesome evil streak. BUT STILL. ;-D)

Anyway. I am a big fan of Bradford Dillman and especially his seriously cool evil smile. 

-Millie

Quotables: Bradford Dillman

My mother had a friend who was never convinced I had talent. Being close to the family, she worried that one day I'd be found out and never work again, leaving my children to starve.

I appeared on an episode of Mission Impossible as a bad guy targeted by the Missionaries for infiltration. The man of many faces, Martin Landau was appointed to impersonate me. It was an easy week for Marty. After stirring up the plot he got to go home and play with the kids, until the final scene, when he peels off a mask revealing his disguise.

Of course, for me it was a full week because I was the guy impersonating Marty, impersonating me.

My mother's friend viewed the episode and was quick to call. "I hope when you did the show you were watching Martin Landau. Now, there's a great actor. You can learn from him. He was more like you than you!"

-Are You Anybody?: An Actor's Life