Stubs - Odds Against Tomorrow

Odds Against Tomorrow (1959) Starring Harry Belafonte, Robert Ryan, Shelley Winters, Ed Begley, Gloria Grahame. Directed by Robert Wise. Screenplay by Abraham Polonsky and Nelson Gidding (credited to John O. Killens, Nelson Gidding) Based on the novel Odds Against Tomorrow by William P. McGivern (New York, 1957). Produced by Robert Wise Run time: 96 minutes. Black and White USA Drama, Film Noir

Harry Belafonte was perhaps best known as a singer aka King of Calypso, but he was more than that. A vocal and visible supporter of civil rights, he was also an actor, and in the case of Odds Against Tomorrow, also a producer, having founded his own production company, HarBel, which was behind the film.

Stubs - The Sound of Music

The Sound of Music (1965) starring Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer, Eleanor Parker.  Directed by Robert Wise. Screenplay by Ernest Lehman, with the partial use of ideas by Georg Hurdalek. Based on the musical The Sound of Music, music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse, and originally produced on the stage by Leland Hayward, Richard Halliday, Richard Rodgers, and Oscar Hammerstein II (New York, 16 Nov 1959). Produced by Robert Wise. Run time: 172 minutes. Color. Musical, Drama, Romance

In 1965, 20^th Century Fox put out a movie that would not only help it recover from the $30 million loss on Cleopatra (1963), but would go on to be, for a time, the highest grossing film of all-time. By all standards, except for some early reviews, the film was wildly popular and a runaway hit. I remember it playing at my local theater for a year; unheard of today.

The movie is based on the musical that started its run in 1959. The musical’s narrative was derived from Maria Augusta von Trapp’s 1949 autobiography, The Story of the Trapp Family Singers. At that time, the book had already been made into two popular West German feature films directed by Wolfgang Liebeneiner, Die Trapp-Familie (1956), and its sequel, Die Trapp-Familie in Amerika (1958). The Broadway musical saw $2,325,000 in advance sales and ran from November 16, 1959 to June 15, 1963.

Paramount Pictures had optioned rights to Die Trapp-Familie, and approached Vincent J. Donehue, the musical’s Broadway director, about directing an American version, starring Audrey Hepburn, but Donehue advised the studio not to, “You can’t possibly make it as a movie, you’ve got to let it go; the way to do this is a musical for Mary Martin.” Paramount dropped its option when Hepburn wasn’t available.

Stubs - The Curse of the Cat People

The Curse of the Cat People (1944) Starring: Simone Simon, Kent Smith, Jane Randolph, Ann Carter and Sir Lancelot. Directed by Gunther von Fritsch and Robert Wise. Produced by Val Lewton. Screenplay by DeWitt Bodeen. Run time: 70 minutes. USA Black and White. Fantasy, Horror.

Following the success of Cat People, RKO wanted to make a follow-up. While Cat People can be stretched to call it a little h horror film, the sequel that was made, The Curse of the Cat People, is more Fantasy than anything really scary.

Stubs – Star Trek: The Motion Picture

Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) Starring: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan. Walter Koenig, Nichelle Nicols, George Takei, Persis Khambatta, Stephen Collins. Directed by Robert Wise. Screenplay by Harold Livingston. Story by Alan Dean Foster. Based on Star Trek by Gene Roddenberry. Produced by Gene Roddenberry. Run Time: 132 minutes. U.S.  Color. Adventure, Science Fiction

Star Trek (1966-1969) was a TV series ahead of its time. Developed by Gene Roddenberry as a western in space, the series failed to catch on and was cancelled after three seasons in 1969. But good ideas don’t completely die. Star Trek found a rabid following in syndication. While I do not consider myself to be a Trekkie, I did watch the series on the UHF channel back in Dallas that carried the re-runs. (Yes, before cable, satellite and streaming, there was this thing call broadcasting.)

Capt. Kirk (William Shatner), Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy) and
Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelley) from the original Star Trek TV series.

Paramount Pictures considered Roddenberry’s idea to continue the series in a movie, but scrapped it in 1977 to instead concentrate on a new series, tentatively titled Star Trek: Phase II. The proposed series would see Shatner and Kelley return, but Nimoy had declined over financial and creative issues. The series, planned to air in 1978 on a planned Paramount TV network, was likewise scrapped.

Following the success of Star Wars (1977) and Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Paramount decided to resurrect the idea of a feature film. Initially, the Spock character was originally left out, since Nimoy did not plan to return. Give Robert Wise’s children credit. They convinced their father that it would not be Star Trek without Leonard Nimoy as Spock. Jeffery Katzenberg, then a production executive at the studio, was dispatched to meet with Nimoy in New York with a check in the disputed amount of royalties Nimoy was due and Spock was back. (Ironically, Nimoy, who had grown tired of the Spock character, has played Spock not just in subsequent Star Trek TV Series, but is so far the only actor/character from the series to reprise his role in the rebooted film series.)

Getting Spock back in the fold was perhaps the last great idea anyone had when it comes to Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The resultant film is a bit like watching paint dry in space. Unlike the TV series it is based on, the movie is extremely slow paced, to the point of exhaustion.

An alien force has entered the galaxy, a massive energy cloud, which Starfleet observes. Three Klingon warships move to intercept. But the mysterious force not only defeats the Klingons, it vaporizes them. The cloud moves into Federation space and likewise destroys the Starfleet space station, Epsilon Nine, on its trajectory towards Earth.

Spock (Leonard Nimoy), who has been going through Kolinahr, the ridding of all emotions, back on Vulcan. But Spock is distracted from his studies by the arrival of this new intelligence and fails to achieve Kolinahr because of it.

Spock is kept from completing Kolinahr.

Enter Capt. James T. Kirk (William Shatner), now Admiral in charge of Starfleet Operations (is he to blame for the very dull looking uniforms?). With the mysterious cloud coming towards Earth and with the “dry-docked” Enterprise, the only vehicle close enough to intercept, he convinces his superiors to give him the command of the Enterprise, usurping Captain Willard Decker (Stephen Collins), who has been in charge while the Enterprise has been refitted. Decker is not happy about being demoted to Commander and First Officer and is pretty vocal about his displeasure, almost to the point of insubordination.

Captain Kirk gets his first look at the Enterprise after being away for a few years.

One of the new officers is Ilia (Persis Khambatta), a Deltan navigator. Decker knows Ilia from having spent time on her planet. There is obviously sexual tension between the two.

New crew member Ilia (Persis Khambatta) is replaced by a robot version of herself.

Kirk is not as familiar with the Enterprise as Decker is and not everything is working as it should. The first is the transporter, which malfunctions, killing Kirk’s handpicked new Science officer, Lt. Commander Sonak (John Rashad Kamal) and another officer on their way to the Enterprise. But things must get fixed, because Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy (DeForest Kelley) uses that means to board the ship. McCoy, who has apparently retired, has been recalled to activity duty at Kirk’s request.

Dr. "Bones" McCoy is called out of retirement.

Kirk’s own unfamiliarity with the refitted Enterprise almost gets everyone killed as he insists on going to warp speed before the engines have been calibrated properly and the Enterprise creates a wormhole. To the rescue comes Spock, who is ready to be reinstated as a Starfleet officer and replaces Decker as the Science Officer. Spock helps Scotty (James Doohan) calibrate the engines and the Enterprise is off again.

Spocks' return further dilutes Capt. Decker (Stephen Collins) importance
 to the crew. Can you say expendable?

The Enterprise intercepts the cloud and avoids doing anything that might appear to be aggressive. Spock figures out that the alien is sending out a signal that the Enterprise isn’t able to respond at the speed the alien is expecting. When he changes their response, the alien ship sends a probe. The probe takes away Ilia and sends back a robotic doppelganger with Ilia’s memories. She informs the crew that she has been sent by V’ger to determine if the carbon-based life forms (humans) on the Enterprise need to be destroyed.

The Enterprise intercepts the alien cloud headed towards Earth.

Spock, meanwhile, takes it upon himself to take a spacewalk. Landing on the vessel’s surface, Spock does a mind meld and learns that V’ger is a living machine. The systems on the Enterprise must still not be up to snuff, because Spock is away from the ship before any sensors detect and notify the crew.

Spock mind melds with V'ger.

Ilia informs Kirk that V’ger is looking for the Creator and has a message. Kirk thinks fast and tells Ilia that he has information he can only share with V’ger, not a probe. V’ger agrees and Kirk, McCoy, Spock, Decker and Ilia leave the Enterprise. V’ger turns out to be Voyager 6, (the full name covered over by a thin layer of space smudge) sent into space by NASA back in the 20^th Century. Spock, through his mind meld, has learned that Voyager was damaged and found by a race of living machines who interpreted its programming as to learn all that can be learned and share that information with the creator. The aliens built a space ship to house V’ger and upgraded the spaceship to fulfill its original mission. (Apparently the alien machines couldn’t be bothered to clean off the nameplate and see the full name.)

Kirk leads a landing party that visits V'ger.

V’ger has learned so much that it has achieved consciousness. Spock informs us that V’ger sees the Enterprise as the living being and the crew as nothing more than parasites (though this doesn’t explain why the Kilngon ships and Epsilon Nine were also destroyed and not just the carbon-based forms within.)

V'ger turns out to be Voyager 6,  a space probe launched by NASA.

While Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) finds the NASA code to respond to V’ger’s request to share its data, the ship sabotage’s itself. It wants to become one with the creator and Decker volunteers for the job. He and robotic Ilia become one with V’ger. Apparently, they form a new life and move to a new dimension, saving the Enterprise and Earth in the process.

Now the Enterprise can resume its mission, but by this time, I doubted anyone in the movie theater cared. Star Trek: The Motion Picture suffers from so many maladies, I’m not sure I can count them all. The biggest offender, I would say, is pacing. The story plods along, numbing the audience into submission and boredom induced slumber. Painstakingly slow to get to the point and the film spends way too long on everything. When Scotty takes Kirk out to the ship aboard a shuttle craft at the beginning, the indirect path it takes is only so that there can be long loving shots of the starship Enterprise and we can see the loving-look in Kirk’s eyes as he sees his ship after his multi-year absence. I have distinct memories of seeing this the first time, thinking “Get on with it.”

Next is the story, which is nothing but a regurgitated version of an episode from the series, “The Changeling”. In that episode, the Enterprise encounters a probe named Nomad. Originally launched from Earth to explore, the probe collided with an alien probe, reprogrammed itself to find new life, but to also sterilize imperfections (humans). Nomad is looking for its creator, Jackson Roykirk, and mistakes Captain Kirk for him. After killing several crew members, Kirk convinces the probe that it, too, is imperfect, his example being mistaking him for its creator. Nomad, true to its altered mission, destroys itself. Sound sort of familiar? Had they really already run out of original ideas that they had to so blatantly reuse one?

But to make things worse, The Motion Picture reduces series supporting characters Uhura, Scotty, Chekov (Walter Koenig), and Sulu (George Takei) into glorified cameos, instead spending way too long on new characters Decker and Ilia. Okay, they’re added to be expendable, but they still take away from what should have been a victory lap for the series supporting cast, finally getting their just big screen rewards.

And the famous “Space, the Final Frontier” narration is missing. This is like a Bond film without Monty Norman’s James Bond Theme song played at least once. It seems that someone unfamiliar with Star Trek is in charge, rather than its creator.

I hate to pick on production values, but I’m befuddled as to why they would have so changed the uniforms from the series to the movie (and of course so radically change them again in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan). I’m not going to argue about the original series uniforms appropriateness for space travel, but the uniforms were immediately recognizable and distinctive. Why fix what isn’t broken and why change them, especially to such dull and drab colors?

Characters like Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) get reduced screen time in favor of new crew members.

You can argue that things change and military uniforms are no different. But why then wouldn’t the Enterprise label being applied to a new ship by then as well? One of the things that hampers the film from getting going are the painful tracking shots showing just how little about the Enterprise has actually changed. Why is the ship so much more important than the characters? Is the ship the reason people watched the series in the first place? I hope not.

A lot of screen time is spent admiring the Enterprise in drydock.

The special effects haven’t aged well by comparison to modern films and those used in the rebooted film franchise, but you have to remember that at the time they were done, they were pretty good. Maybe they were not as good as subsequent Star Wars films, but were probably on par with the original film, which was the standard bearer at the time.

So much about the film seems to be a miscalculation. While they certainly didn’t cow tow to the fan base, Trekkies being the first fanboys, I can’t think that the film satisfied the core audience it was aimed at. Too much time was spent on characters no one cared about portrayed by actors who make Shatner look like a Shakespearean trained thespian. And the lack of a good original story shows a certain amount of contempt from the fan base that made this filmic resurgence possible in the first place.

One of the influences of Star Wars was the development of the Klingon language, something that would take hold in Search For Spock (1984), when the language was finally fleshed out. This like the alien tongues heard in Star Wars, which gives it a certain, I would suppose, authenticity. Apparently it was James Doohan who came up with the first gibberish which would later be codified. Like nothing else in this film, Klingon as a language would be eaten up by the fan base. Perhaps as a punch line, the Klingon language has been referenced in such diverse TV series as Frasier and The Big Bang Theory.

Watching the movie, then and now, it’s hard to imagine that anyone would see a reason to continue with the exercise. While the film made money, it certainly wasn’t Star Wars money or even as much as Paramount had hoped for. But it was enough for them to see the greenlight of a sequel. Subsequent films would be made, but Roddenberry would be removed as creative director. The second film would likewise return to the original series as well, but was more of a sequel rather than a retelling and would do a much better job of using the entire crew of the Enterprise in the story telling, not just Kirk, Spock and McCoy. Wrath of Khan would pave the way for all the Star Trek (films, series and reboots) to come.

If you’re a completist, then you owe it to yourself to see Star Trek: The Motion Picture, if only to see how bad things can get. Otherwise, I would say that in the vastness of space, it would be easy to avoid this poorly executed film, which is a disservice to the original series fans, whose rabid devotion made it possible.

Stubs – West Side Story

West Side Story (1961) Starring: Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn, Rita Moreno, George Chakiris. Additional singing by Marni Nixon (for Natalie Wood). Directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins. Screenplay by Ernst Lehman. Based on the Broadway Musical West Side Story, conceived, directed and choreographed by Jerome Robbins with music by Leonard Bernstein, words by Stephen Sondheim and book by Arthur Laurents. Produced by Robert Wise. Run Time: 152. Color. U.S. Musical.

In 1947, Jerome Robbins approached Leonard Bernstein and Arthur Laurents about a contemporary musical adaptation of William Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet, which itself was a retelling of an Italian tale. Originally conceived as a love story between an Irish-American boy and a Jewish girl, the idea evolved over the next ten years. The musical that opened on Broadway in 1957 took place on the ethnic and blue collar streets of New York City with the feuding Capulets and Montagues replaced by two street gangs, the Jets and the Sharks. Given the talent involved, it should come as no surprise that the musical would be well represented in the 1958 Tony Awards, being nominated, but not winning, the award for Best Musical. It would lose out to The Music Man.

After its run on Broadway, the musical would open on London’s West End, in 1958, tour the U.S. in 1959 and a return to the Great White Way in 1960, the musical would be turned into a film and released in 1961. The film would go on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Art Direction (Color), Cinematography (Color), Costume Design (Color), Best Director, Best Film Editing, Original Score and Best Sound.

Having never seen the musical on stage, I cannot comment on how the storytelling might differ between versions. While watching the film, I was reminded of On the Town, in as much as West Side Story was shot, in part, on location in New York City and features some very physical and athletic dancing. While some of the film’s dialogue seems as fresh as an old Dragnet episode, the story is still powerful and the music quite memorable.

The Jets, lead by Riff (Russ Tamblyn) dancing through New York City.

In a lot of action movies you know that the fights are choreographed so that actors and extras don’t accidentally hurt one another. But this is nothing compared to West Side Story. This is a musical after all and the fighting is depicted in highly choreographed dance sequences. While the finger snapping and leaps may seem odd to modern audiences, it is hard to imagine what a Michael Jackson video would have looked like if this movie’s choreography hadn’t been there as a blueprint.

While it seems so many of today’s musicals are either retold movies with music or stories put to already written music catalogs, West Side Story boasts some very original and iconic songs: “Maria”, “America” and “Tonight” from the first Act and “I Feel Pretty” and “Somewhere” from the second come to mind. The clash of immigrant and native-born American is still relevant today, especially with the current legislation pending in the Senate, but I will leave it to more political blogs to discuss that aspect, if they so desire.

The Jets are a white-boy gang on the West side of New York City. Led by Riff (Russ Tamblyn), it’s good to be a Jet. That is until the Sharks, a Puerto-Rican gang, show up to test its dominance. Led by Bernardo (George Chakiris), the two gangs pick fights with one another until at last Riff can’t stand it any longer. He calls for a War counsel to set up the rumble that will once and for all decide superiority.

Bernardo (George Chakiris) leads the Sharks. 

Riff wants Tony Wyzek (Richard Beymer) to stand up with him against the Sharks. Tony, a co-founder of the gang, has left street life for a delivery job for Doc’s (Ned Glass) candy store. But loyalties being what they are, Tony agrees to go with Riff to the dance.

Confrontations between the Sharks and Jets leads to a War Council.

Bernardo is also going with his best girl, Anita (Rita Moreno) and his kid-sister, Maria (Natalie Wood). Maria is new to America and this is her first night out.  Once there, though, Maria falls hard for Tony, who likewise falls for her. When the two lock eyes across the dance floor, everything else disappears from their world. Tony walks the streets of New York singing “Maria” as an ode to the girl of his dreams.

It is love at first sight between Tony and Maria.

The famous balcony scene from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is reinterpreted here as a fire escape off an alley, where Tony goes to woo Maria, after Bernardo has taken her home from the dance. The two share their love with the song “Tonight”.

Tony and Maria on the fire escape singing Tonight (though Marni Nixon is singing for Natalie Wood).

Meanwhile, up on the roof, the Puerto-Rican men and women differ in their world view. The song “America” with its broken English lyrics illustrates that the women, led by Anita, seem happy with their new country, which offers them freedoms and opportunities they didn’t know back home. The men’s counter lyrics show their disdain for their treatment and new lives, though no one seems in a real hurry to go home.

Anita (Rita Moreno) leads the other Shark girls in praising "America".

West Side Story takes what I would consider a liberal slant towards street gangs. They are not portrayed as doing anything more illegal than stealing fruit from a cart. Their drive for neighborhood dominance is not to corner the drug trade or extortion. There really is no reason given other than “this is our street.” This is not what I would consider a realistic depiction of street gangs, but hey it’s a musical. The authorities, in the form of Lieutenant Schrank (Simon Oakland) and his right hand man Officer Krumpke (William Bramley) appear helpless and uninformed and in fact, Schrank comes across as an out and out racist, even offering to help the Jets in their battle with the Sharks.

In the comedic-toned “Gee Officer Krumpke” the gangs are depicting themselves as nothing more than downtrodden children finding a family on the streets to combat the lousy role models (drug-using hooker moms and drunkards for fathers) they have back home. As juvenile delinquents they’ve been run through the ringer of society, from being before a judge, to seeing a shrink to seeing a social worker to going to jail, none of which seems to change them.

The Jets try to explain themselves in "Gee, Officer Krumpke".

The Jets and the Sharks meet at Doc’s shop to discuss terms for their rumble. Date, time and location are discussed and agreed to, but once they start talking about weapons, things get out of hand quickly and like the then raging Cold War, each side ups the ante. But Tony arrives and influences the proceedings enough to get an all-out rumble with rocks and bricks downgraded, as it were, to a one-on-one hand-to-hand fight between each gang’s best fighters. While Bernardo is anxious to get his hands on Tony and agrees to the scaled down conflict, Riff selects a different champion, Ice (Tucker Smith).

The night of the big brawl, Tony goes to meet Maria at the bridal dress shop where she works with Anita, who is there long enough to see Tony come in the back way. Tony and Maria are a couple of crazy kids so much in love, but still know there will be societal issues and barriers to cross. Maria’s not convinced her parents will accept Tony, but he’s confident he can bring them round; just as he’s confident his mother will warm up to Maria as well. The two are so convinced that they stage their own mock wedding with the clothes they find in the shop.

Tony and Maria marry themselves.

Meanwhile, Riff and the Jets and Bernardo and the Sharks meet for the fist fight to settle their differences. But both sides come with secret weapons and before long a knife fight breaks out between Riff and Bernardo. Despite their flying about and acrobatic movements, Riff finally finds the business end of Bernardo’s knife. Tony, who had come to stop the proceedings, gets drawn in. When Riff, someone he considers a brother, goes down, he has no choice and fights and kills Bernardo in revenge. A rumble naturally ensues, but the fighting stops and the gangs scatter when the police arrive.

Tony (rear) arrives to try and break up the rumble, but he only escalates things.

Chino (Jose DeVega), Bernardo’s best friend and sometimes escort for his sister, goes to tell Maria that Tony has killed her brother. Chino then goes out, this time with a gun, to seek revenge. Tony meanwhile shows up at Maria’s apartment (whose parents are perpetually out) and receives her forgiveness. Apparently, her love for Tony is stronger than anything else. While not shown, this is the early 60’s for goodness sakes, we get the idea that like Romeo and Juliet, Tony and Maria consummate their relationship that night.

But Anita shows up and Tony leaves through the window, promising to meet with Maria at Doc’s and form their runaway. While Anita doesn’t approve, she still helps Maria. When Schrank arrives to ask questions, Maria sends Anita to meet with Tony. Being a good friend, she goes.

With Doc out raising money for Tony, who is hiding in the cellar, the candy shop is left to the Jets to man. When the pretty and headstrong Puerto-Rican Anita arrives, she does not get a warm reception. Instead the boys try to make her leave, but when she insists on seeing Tony, we’re shown through dance, their manhandling and almost rape of the girl. The action is broken up by Doc, who comes back and chases everyone away. Anita, who up until then has loved America, now sides with Bernardo in her hatred. As she leaves in anger, she tells everyone that Chino has killed Maria with a gun and that he is looking for Tony, only the latter of which is true..

When Doc tells Tony that Maria is dead, Tony runs outside looking for Chino, wanting to be killed so he can join his love in death. But Maria is not dead and she has come looking for Tony. Chino, Maria and Tony are on a collision course which ends with Tony and Maria hugging just as Chino (who turns out is a really good shot) shoots Tony dead in the climactic scene.

No happy ending. Maria tends to a dying Tony after he's been shot by Chino.

Maria is distraught about the senselessness of the violence. Both gangs gather round as Schrank and Krumpke arrive. When the Jets pick up Tony’s dead body, a couple of Sharks help them carry him away. (Great job protecting the crime scene Schrank.) One by one and two by two the gang members disburse, leaving only Chino and the cops, who start to take him away.

We’re left at the end with a sense that nothing really has changed and with all of our leads, except Maria dead, there is really no one in either gang to take control. And the police are really only good at cleaning up the mess, not preventing it from happening. Can you say social commentary?

If you have never seen West Side Story, I would recommend that you see it. This was truly a revolutionary musical in that it tried to tell a then modern day story with modern (jazz influenced) music in a modern way. As in life, there are not always happy endings and everyone has blame in what society has wrought. The problem with what is modern in 1961 is not fifty years later. The last movie I remember hearing someone say “Daddy-O” in was Blackboard Jungle (1955), an early attempt to discuss juvenile delinquency on film. Maybe kids really talked like that back then, but it always comes across as sounding like that’s how adults think kids talk.

The choreography is phenomenal. Building on the athleticism of Gene Kelley’s choreography (I had mentioned On the Town earlier), Jerome Robbins builds upon that and literally takes everything to new heights. I’ll admit the dancing for strutting and fighting takes a little getting used to, but once you get past that, look at the moves these men and women are making. These are not just great dancers, they are practically doing parkour with acrobatic moves, leaping about and pulling themselves up on pipes and fences.

ven aged, the film has a certain power that resonates through the years. The story of Romeo and Juliet has been made many times on stage and screen, but none are quite as unique and well done as this film adaptation of the retelling. You weep for the young lovers who will never live out their dreams.

If you read this, please feel free to leave comments.