Tag Archives: retro scene

Retro Scene: ‘Pink Panther,’ ‘Oyster Princess,’ ‘Tootsie,’ ‘Battle Royale’

Peter Sellers in Blake Edwards' 'The Pink Panther'

Peter Sellers in Blake Edwards' 'The Pink Panther'

Here’s a spotlight on four retrospective screenings, starting tonight:

  • ‘The Pink Panther’ (1964; d. Blake Edwards). Nearing the age of 40, with ‘Lolita’ behind him and ‘Dr. Strangelove’ just around the corner, Peter Sellers teamed with Blake Edwards to create his most beloved character, the bumbling Inspector Clouseau. See it to marvel how Sellers absolutely stole a routine heist picture from matinee idol David Niven (a very game straight man). [Tonight and tomorrow, Texas Theatre]
  • Amusing Aside: In his book ‘The Moon is a Balloon,’ Niven notes that he suffered frostbite in his nether regions whilst taking advantage of the producer’s offer to provide ski instruction on an afternoon off from filming ‘The Pink Panther’ in the Italian Alps. (The producer did not know that Niven was an experienced skier.) Quickly surmising the danger, Niven sought help from several Italian ski guides, who helped him to a hotel bar bathroom, where the actor thawed out his member in a glass of brandy.
  • ‘The Oyster Princess’ (1919; d. Ernest Lubitsch). If you can only see one retrospective screening this week, make it this one, which I was happy to catch at SXSW last month. Austin group Bee Vs. Moth debuted their awesome original score there, and will play it again; it’s a terrific accompaniment to Lubitsch’s film, a very funny, visually inventive story about a very picky heiress, her potential suitor(s), and her very bored father, a wealthy business tycoon. [Saturday night only, Texas Theatre]
  • ‘Tootsie’ (1982; d. Sydney Pollack). Reportedly a troubled production in which the script went through a myriad amount of changes, the finished product emerges as some kind of jewel. The script is still problematic — for one thing, the treatment of Terri Garr’s character is abysmal — but it feels like Dustin Hoffman’s ultimate performance as a thinly-disguised version of his own flinty, vain persona. With Jessica Lange, Dabney Coleman, Geena Davis, Charles Durning, and abundantly funny, cameo-sized roles for Bill Murray and director Sydney Pollack. [Friday night only, Palace Arts Center, Grapevine]
  • ‘Battle Royale’ (2000; d. Kinji Fukasaku). Beyond the superficial plot similarities, what ‘The Hunger Games’ and ‘Battle Royale’ most hold in common is a desire to comment on society. Fukasaku’s message was to young people in Japan, and he marshaled all of his considerable talents and experience to deliver a very potent, chilling time-bomb. But will the half-drunken midnight crowd see past the blood, cheese, and  melodrama? If not, it’s their loss. [Midnight, Friday and Saturday only, Landmark Inwood]
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Retro Scene: ‘Pickup on South Street’

Thelma Ritter and Richard Widmark in Samuel Fuller's 'Pickup on South Street'
Thelma Ritter and Richard Widmark in Samuel Fuller's 'Pickup on South Street'

Thelma Ritter and Richard Widmark in Samuel Fuller's 'Pickup on South Street'

Our new adjunct site, Dallas Film Weekly, will provide “perspective from Flyover Country” on all things film-related. Freely-offered contributions are welcome; please query before submitting. To kick things off, here’s my look at a great picture that screened recently as part of Dallas Morning News film critic Chris Vognar’s Screening Room series, currently focusing on film noir.

The title alone implies a great distance between the movie and the Lone Star State, much less its age. Yet ‘Pickup on South Street’ speaks as much to modern-day viewers in Dallas as it might have to audiences in New York City in 1953.

Writer/director Samuel Fuller’s follow-up to ‘Press Row,’ his sizzling newspaper yarn, was handed to him by Darryl Zanuck, his boss at 20th Century Fox. As Fuller relates in his autobiography, “The Third Face,” Zanuck gave him a script by Dwight Taylor titled ‘Blaze of Glory,’ which Fuller liked: “A woman lawyer falls in love with a criminal she’s defending in a murder trial.” Fuller wanted to “go down a few rungs lower on the ladder of criminality,” and suggested the lead should be a small-time thief. “Zanuck had his doubts,” says Fuller, “but he let me go to work on an original script, fleshing out the main characters and redoing the story my own way.”

In Fuller’s film, Skip McCoy (Richard Widmark) is an experienced pickpocket who we meet on a Manhattan subway as he plies his trade with stealth and skill. One of his victims is a woman who, unbeknown to Skip, is being tailed by FBI agents.

The scene plays out without dialogue, the only sounds emanating from the squeaks and sways of the subway car, cutting between extreme close-ups of Skip, the girl, Skip’s fingers, the FBI, and Skip’s face.

– Read the entire article at Dallas Film Weekly.

Retro Scene: Chaplin’s ‘Gold Rush,’ ‘Pee Wee’s Big Adventure’

Charles Chaplin in 'The Gold Rush'
Charles Chaplin in 'The Gold Rush'

Charles Chaplin in 'The Gold Rush'

If you think about the person you love most in the world, chances are that his or her age is not constantly on your mind. Oh, sure, you’re aware of their wrinkles and gray hair (or lack thereof), but you love the person; the number of years your loved one has been walking the Earth becomes less relevant, even though you want to make sure they live as long as possible.

So it is with film. Charles Chaplin’s ‘The Gold Rush’ is now pushing 87 years of age, but I still love it because the plucky optimism and quiet fortitude of the Little Tramp speaks to me in a way that most modern comics do not. Chaplin’s visual compositions are exquisitely framed and unobtrusive, allowing a full measure of focus on his characters. Individual scenes and images — “boot soup” — remain timeless. And the gags still prompt smiles.

‘The Gold Rush’ opens today for a one-week engagement. Various showtimes at the Texas Theatre.

Like the Little Tramp, Pee Wee Herman (Paul Reubens) is a plucky optimist, but his determination is much more noisy. Children can relate, especially, to Pee Wee’s awkward body language and primal glee, while adults appreciate the ironic aside and knowing winks.

Pee Wee’s joy tends to be infectious, perhaps never more so than in his first film, directed by Tim Burton, who himself was in the early bloom of a creative career. The 80s may be synonymous with empty-headed blockbusters, but Pee’s first adventure provided a ray of subversive light.

‘Pee Wee’s Big Adventure’ opened last night and plays various showtimes through next Wednesday at the Texas Theatre. 

Retro Scene: ‘The Deer Hunter’ at Texas Theatre

'The Deer Hunter'
'The Deer Hunter'

Robert De Niro in 'The Deer Hunter'

Retro Scene is a new, occasional Dallas Film Now feature, highlighting retrospective screenings at area theaters. First up: Michael Cimono’s controversial Vietnam-era dramatic epic.

Coming three years after the U.S. pulled out of Vietnam and admitted defeat, ‘The Deer Hunter’ was part of a mini-wave of films produced by the New Hollywood about a war that cost tens of thousands of lives, encompassing the documentary-style ‘Hearts and Minds,’ the romantic travails of ‘Coming Home,’ and the allegorical fantasy of ‘Apocalypse Now,’ among others.

Directed by Michael Cimino, who had debuted with the modest, impressive ‘Thunderbolt and Lightfoot’ in 1974, ‘The Deer Hunter’ boasted a cast that seems even more impressive with the passage of time. Robert De Niro, John Cazale, John Savage, and Christopher Walken play friends from a small town in Pennsylvania who head off to serve in Vietnam, with Meryl Streep among those left behind to deal with the wreckage of their lives after they return. The performances are superb, and can still be savored for their sheer bravado.

While the sequences set in Vietnam are the ones that probably linger longest in memory, it’s the opening scenes setting up the characters that display Cimino’s artistic intent. You may not like where the story eventually ends up — and I’d agree that the Russian roulette scenes take things much too far, as far as literal-minded unreality goes — but there is great power in the contrasts drawn between the rituals of religion and routine, the sheer beauty of a peaceful landscape, and the horrors of war.

‘The Deer Hunter’ screens tonight at the Texas Theatre, and again on Saturday and Sunday. All screenings in 35mm. (Details here.)