Stubs - American Graffiti

American Graffiti (1973) Starring: Richard Dreyfuss, Ronny Howard, Paul Le Mat,  Charles Martin Smith, Cindy Williams, Candy Clark. Directed by George Lucas. Screenplay by George Lucas, Gloria Katz, Willard Huyck. Produced by  Francis Ford Coppola. Run time: 110 minutes. Color Comedy, Drama

Unlike most famous directors, the oeuvre of George Lucas is a very short list: THX 1138 (1971), American Graffiti (1973), Star Wars (1977), Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999), Star Wars Episode II: Attack of The Clones (2002) and Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005). Not that he hasn’t had an oversized impact on film and culture, but while it would take several semesters of study to watch all of, say, Alfred Hitchcock’s films, Lucas' films could be watched in a weekend of binge watching.

We recently had a chance to complete the Lucas output for my sons recently when TCM showed the film.

Lucas’s first feature film, THX 1138, a fuller version of his student film at USC, was not a financial or critical success. But it was during that production that Coppola challenged him to write something with mainstream appeal.

Feeling that cruising, which had been an integral part of his upbringing, was dead, Lucas decided to make a film celebrating that bygone past time. He, supposedly, based the four main characters on different parts of his own life. A nerd his freshman year in high school, Lucas had become a teenaged street racer.

Stubs - Blondie!

 

Blondie! (1938) starring Penny Singleton, Arthur Lake, Larry Simms, Gene Lockhart. Directed by Frank R. Strayer. Screenplay by Richard Flournoy Based on the comic strip "Blondie" created by Chic Young, owned, and copyrighted by King Features Syndicate, Inc. (1930--). Producer: Robert Sparks Run Time: 70 minutes. Black and White. USA Comedy

One of the longest-running movie series was the Blondie series, which ran for 28 films and was based on the Blondie comic strip created by Chic Young, first published on September 8, 1930. The comic strip is still being published in 2000 newspapers in 47 countries in 35 languages and is now drawn by Dean Young, Chic’s son. The original comic strip revolved around a flapper called "Blondie Boopadoop", who marries wealthy playboy Dagwood Bumstead. The Bumsteads disapprove of Blondie and disinherit Dagwood when the couple marries and he goes to work at a construction company owned by Mr. Dithers.

Blondie and Dagwood from the comic strip.

When Columbia Pictures acquired the film rights, it was announced that Aurania Rouverol would be adapting the series with Gloria Blondell, Joan’s sister, set to star and Sam Marx set to produce. Later, it was announced that Stuart Erwin and Una Merkel were set to star. However, Shirley Deane was originally cast as Blondie, but due to illness, Penny Singleton replaced her, dying her hair blonde.

Blondie! was in production from September 12 to October 7 and in the theaters on November 30, 1938. Its success would spawn the series that would run until 1943, when the studio lost interest after the first fourteen pictures. However, audience response encouraged the studio to re-establish production in 1945 and the series ran through 1950.

Inside Out 2

Following the release of Cars 2, the quality of Pixar’s output had become inconsistent and a step down from their golden years, which allowed the original Inside Out to stand out as their best movies in years at that time, and it still holds up to this day. Their sequels have also been rather hit or miss, so when Inside Out 2 was announced and the trailers began to arrive, I wasn’t sure how to feel about it since their preceding film, Elemental, didn’t really impress from a storytelling standpoint and original director Pete Docter was not at the helm. Despite this, I was still willing to attend an afternoon screening on opening day, with an article in the physical Animation Magazine giving me at least some assurance that some care was taken with staying true to the original. Having gone in with tempered expectations, I walked away feeling like I had seen their best film since 2021’s Luca.

Robot Dreams

When I first saw a trailer for the 2023 film Robot Dreams, based on the graphic novel by Sara Varon, I was intrigued enough by the animation and premise to read the source material as I waited for a US release date. Upon reading the graphic novel, which I enjoyed, I became more interested in seeing how the film would adapt the book, including what changes there might be in translation. When a release date finally came, it would be part of a very limited theatrical run, and so we made sure to get tickets for the earliest possible date we could due to the timeframe of screenings in our area. After finally getting to see it, I found it to be a faithful adaptation that was well worth the wait.

Little Kitty, Big City (Switch)

Although I’m personally not the biggest Nintendo fan, their Nintendo Directs have made me aware of some interesting third-party games for their platforms. Such was the case with Little Kitty, Big City, which I first heard about through their 2023 Indie World presentation, thanks to its art direction and atmosphere. Though I played a demo of the game on PC through Steam and enjoyed it, I intended to play the full game on console, which I did when it launched for the Switch due to it having a reduced launch price on there compared with the Xbox Series X. I then got to playing the game as soon as I could, finding it overall fun in the short time it lasted.

Stubs - Pushover

Pushover (1954) starring Fred MacMurray, Phil Carey, Kim Novak, Dorothy Malone, E.G. Marshall Directed by Richard Quine. Screenplay by Roy Huggins Based on the novel The Night Watch by Thomas Walsh (New York, 1952) and the novel Rafferty by William S. Ballinger (New York, 1953).  Produced by Jules Schermer. Black and White. Run time: 88 minutes. USA. Film Noir, Detective, Drama

While it’s not unheard of, it is still interesting when a movie is based on two sources. In the case of Pushover, the film is based on the novels The Night Watch by Thomas Walsh and Rafferty by William S. Ballinger, even though neither book received onscreen credit.

Even though the film starred Fred MacMurray, an established star, the film’s low budget required a less expensive actress as the female lead. The choice was Kim Novak, a little-known actress who, despite the “Introducing,” label attached to her name, had appeared in small roles (billed under her real name, Marilyn Novak) in earlier RKO productions The French Line (1953) and Son of Sinbad (1953, released 1955). When she signed with Columbia, CEO Harry Cohen wanted to change her name, but Novak would only agree to changing her first to Kim.

Producer Jules Schermer summed up his lead actress, "Kim was not an actress when we started shooting. The face was beautiful. The body was great. She photographed sensationally. But she couldn’t show any emotion. So, we kept her dialogue to a minimum. When you can’t act, you react — which is what we counted on."

The film’s production took about a month, from January 16 to February 13, 1954. Working titles for this film included The Killer Wore a Badge, 322 French Street and The Night Watch. The film premiered on July 30, 1954 as Pushover.

Stubs - The Guardsman

The Guardsman (1931) Starring: Alfred Lunt, Lynn Fontanne, Roland Young. Directed by Sidney Franklin Screenplay by Ernest Vajda Based on the play Testör by Ferenc Molnár (Budapest, 1911). Produced by Albert Lewin (Supervising Producer). Run time: 83 minutes. USA Black and White. Comedy, Drama.

Things don’t always work out as planned. That’s as true today as it was back in 1931, when Irving Thalberg wanted to add husband and wife Broadway actors Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne to the growing stable of MGM stars. To this end, he brought them out west to recreate their 1924 Broadway hit play The Guardsman on film.

The Guardsman went into production on June 25, 1931 and completed on July 23^rd. Made on a budget of $374,000, it was released on November 7, 1931.