Teenagers, Partylines, and Rock and Roll Music

The 1963 musical Bye Bye Birdie is an excellent parody film capitalizing on the success and phenomenon of Elvis. Based on a successful Broadway play, the film casts several already high profile names as well as some up-and-coming stars. This is often known as the film that catapulted Kitten with a Whip Ann-Margret to super-stardom. The next year in 1964, Ann-Margaret would go on to star with the real Elvis in the film Viva Las Vegas .

Conrad Birdie (Jesse Pearson) is the biggest rock and roll star in the country who has all of the teen girls hot and bothered and all the teen boys and the parents hot headed. Albert Peterson (Dick Van Dyke) is an aspiring chemist who tries to make his living by writing songs for Bridie in order to gain independence from his mother (Maureen Stapleton) and marry his longtime sweetheart Rosie De Leon (Janet Leigh). Rosie and Albert divise a contest where the winner will give a "Last Kiss" to Birdie before he goes off into the army to serve. The winner is Kim McAffe (Ann-Margaret) of Sweet Apple. Kim has just started going steady with Hugo Peabody (Bobby Rydell), who isn't thrilled that his girlfriend is going to kiss a teen heartthrob on national TV. Likewise, Kim's family of Dad Harry (Paul Lynde) and Mom Doris (Mary LaRoche) aren't excited with the thought of their daughter hanging around Conrad Birdie either. The romantic twists and humorous turns are what make this musical a success. Entertainer Ed Sullivan even makes a classic cameo appearance.

This was the first feature film with Dick Van Dyke, who was also in the stage version of Bye Bye Birdie with Paul Lynde. Van Dyke and Lynde were not happy with the way this film version was produced because of all the focus shifted to Ann-Margaret to make this film her vehicle. The 1995 made-for-TV version of the film is better at following along with the stage production than the 1963 film. In 2011, Adam Shankman, who worked on films such as Hairspray, She's All That, and Bedtime Stories, is slated to do a controversial remake of Bye Bye Birdie. Theatre fans seem very split on whether or not Shankman's version will be wonderful or completely destroy the integrity of more original versions. Bye Bye Birdie continues to have a stage reputation as it and Oklahoma! are the most commonly made high school productions.

For some history and review of the film, you can access this site dedicated to the film or this one, which discusses the history of the film and stage production. You can also read this review thanks to the House of Mirth and Movies blog. For an original trailer of the film, you can watch here. Entertainment Weekly ranked this as one of the Top 50 high school movies. You can read a series of blog entries from the ConradAskland blog on the film as well. With all of its color, dance numbers, and great songs, Bye Bye Birdie is one of my favorite musicals.

"Baby, you're what I want for Chrismas"

Another fun romantic comedy for Christmas is the 1949 film Holiday Affair. The film is a change of pace for star Robert Mitchum, who is more famous for his roles in film noir and war films at the time. The film was made on a tight budget by Don Hartman and was released on Christmas Eve.

Steve Mason (Mitchum) is a department store clerk, who meets Connie Ennis (Janet Leigh), a customer willing to spend top dollar. What Steve doesn’t realize is that Connie is a commercial spy, trying to get the goods on his company. Steve comes to the realization that Connie isn’t what she seems, but in the Christmas spirit, he lets her go rather than turning her in. Of course, the store doesn’t see this as an act of kindness and fires him. Steve goes on a date with Connie, despite the complications with Connie’s boyfriend Carl Davis (Wendell Corey). Connie’s son Timmy (Gordon Gebert) , however, despises Carl and would much rather have Steve as his future step-father. As rom-coms go, the plot is very simple and easy to figure out with your basic complications and funny moments. Still, the film is sweet and great for Chris mast time.

The film still has a pretty big following, despite the fact that it is hard to find and not as well-known as other holiday films. You can find some other reviews of the film, however, like this one from Classicfilmguide.com. Frank’s Movie blog has done this review, this one is provided by the blog Out of the Past, and Eltremendo3000 has this to say about the film. The film was also ranked by Dirty Harry’s Place as one of the Top 25 Christmas films. A synopsis can also be found here, thanks to Turner Classic. The film is great if you want to see a romantic holiday comedy as well as see Mitchum in a new light or see Janet Leigh in a picture other than where she gets stabbed in a shower.

Elections, Politics, and Three Classic Films

In the spirit of election day, and for all of you who want something else to watch besides the twenty-four hour election coverage, I have a few political themed movies that might be of interest. Politics and movies go way back, whether we are thinking of the Hays Production Code, the McCarthy Trials, films that create World War patriotism or just dabbled in political themes. I have three politically minded movies today that stop and make you think as well as are relevant to modern American history.

The first is the 1949 film All The King's Men, stars Broderick Crawford as corrupt politican Willie Stark who has to do a little mudslinging, scratching others backs and keeps his friends rolling in the dough as he rises into the political foreground. Sound familiar? The original version of the story was a novel of the same name written by Robert Penn Warren, based loosely on the real-life personality of Louisianna governer, Huey Pierce Long. Again, Filmsite.org provides a great analysis and synopsis of this film, which those interested can read here. The tale of Willie Stark really embodies the rise and fall of politicians and is an early look at how political campaigns were corruptly run, even back in the earlier days.

The second film is 1952's Suddenly, which stars Frank Sinatra as John Baron, a hired assasain who comes to the small town of Suddenly, bent on the murder of the president. He hides and plots in the house of pacifist and widow, Ellen Benson (Nancy Gates), who is unsuccessfully being courted by the Suddenly town sheriff, Tod Shaw (Sterling Hayden). The town of Suddenly is caught up in stopping the assassain before he does his job. Eleven years before the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, this film has several parallels the story of JFK's fateful day in Dallas. It is even rumored that Lee Harvey Oswald watched this film a matter of days before the assassination.

Again with Old Blue Eyes, the 1962 film The Manchurian Candidate echoes a somewhat different sentiment than Suddenly. When Korean POW Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey) returns to the US, he is greeted as a hero, but he can't remember what he did that was heroic. He and his friend Ben Marco (Frank Sinatra) begin experiencing similar nightmares about the war. Marco's dreams lead him to believe that Shaw is not the war hero everyone thinks him to be and there is something much darker. Shaw also has to deal with a domineering, politically minded mother (Angela Lansbury), the wife of a US Senator, and Marco deals with a blooming love interest (Janet Leigh). When Marco discovers what his buddy Shaw is being set up to do, he and his other army buddies have to get together to not only save Shaw but the fate of the country.

If you want to know more about how film and politics connect, you can check out these two websites. The first is an article by the Harvard Political Review online, which can be read here. The second is on the political website donklephant.com, which has a host of blogs under the topic of politics and film, which can be found here. Also, at a classic film review site on About.com that has a list of the Top Ten Classic Political Films. Finally, I would urge you wherever you are, if you haven't already, go out and vote!

Portrait of a Mama's Boy: Norman Bates

One of the essential Hitchcock films is the frightening psychological thriller Psycho. The film itself is extremely iconic and everyone, even those who have not seen the film, know the suspense and terror connected to Janet Leigh's famous shower scene. I watched the movie this evening on Turner Classic Movies, and even almost fifty years after the film was initially released, Psycho is still as terrifying as ever.

The film is almost two stories in one. At the beginning, secretary Marion Crane (Leigh) wants nothing more than to marry out-of-town secret boyfriend Sam Loomis (John Gavin). When her boss gives her $40,000 to put in the bank, Marion battles with her conscience and finally decides to leave with the money and join Sam so they can start their life together. Suddenly, Marion gets the feeling that she is being followed, that the her boss has turned her in and the police are on her tale. She buys a new car to throw them off her track and then, after a raining night of driving on the highway, Marion finds herself at the out of the way Bates Motel. There she meets the shy Norman (Anthony Perkins), a strange young man with an interesting relationship with his mother. There the film diverges and we are plunged into following the crimes of a deeply disturbed murderer.

Hitch's last black and white film, Psycho was shot so because black and white was inexpensive and blood looks more gory in color. Hitchcock used a variety of camera angles, lighting effects, and shifts to create the eerie atmosphere in Psycho. In order to make his audience feel like voyeurs, a 50 mm lens was used on a 33 mm camera to give it the same appearance as looking through a person's eyes. Hitch is also famous for using tons of different angles and shots to make one scene. The shower scene alone uses somewhere between 70 and 90 different shots spliced together to make the same scene, a scene lasting only 45 seconds. Another little bit of trivia, this is the first movie to have a scene where the audience actually sees a flushing toilet.

The film was #1 on AFI's 100 Thrills list and #14 on the 100 Movies. The quote "A boy's best friend is his mother" was ranked #56 on AFI's top movie quotes. Of course, this film does have those who dislike in. In fact, Walt Disney would never allow Hitch to make a film for him or use any sets at Disneyland because Hitch was the one who made "that disgusting movie" Psycho.

Still, Psycho remains incredibly popular with audiences to this day. For those of you who want to know more about the movie, you can get some more information from these sites. Filmsite.org has a great analysis and review of the movie you can read here. Another website, House of Horrors, offers up a great analysis, review, and some fun and behind the scenes facts about the movie any film buff would be interested in, which you can find here. For those of you who love this movie so much you want to memorize every word, here you can find online a complete transcript of the entire movie. Psycho is a movie that will terrify but it might also become one of your new favorites. I highly recommend watching it, with the lights on of course.

The Queens of Scream

Today I would like to do a tribute to those women who help make the horror film what it is with their terrifying high-pitched banshee screams, loud enough to split our ears in the theatre yet somehow not loud enough to actually reach the ears of people that can help them. I would like to pay tribute to the Hollywood Scream Queen. Without the high volume wails and sometimes overacted "damsel and distress" methods of these women, Hollywood movies would not be as terrifying.

The only place I can think to begin is with Hollywood's oldest and perhaps most famous Queen of Scream, the lady herself, Fay Wray. Most famous as the screaming blonde in the original King Kong, Fay Wray echoed in our ears with her shrill cries of terror and earned herself the title of "The Queen of Scream". Fay Wray created the Scream Queen stereotype and ever after, each woman in a horror film always seems to fall short of Fay's performance.

There are many other noted Scream Queens who came after Fay Wray as stars of some of the Golden Age's most celebrated horror films. Elsa Lanchester starred in the title role of the 1935 film The Bride of Frankenstein, perhaps her most famous part, and created the cult image of the monster's bride with long pointed, streaked white hair. The illustrious career of actress Gloria Stuart included a screamingly good role in the 1933 production of The Invisible Man. Any 50s B-movie fan appreciates the work of Allison Hayes, the star of such films as Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, The Undead, The Disembodied, Zombies of Mora Tau, The Unearthly, The Hypnotic Eye, and The Crawling Hand.

Hillary Brooke is the Scream Queen who appeared alongside comedic geniuses Abbot and Costello in such movies as Africa Screams and was a regular on their show, as well as one a few Sherlock Holmes movies and in Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much. A famous Hitchcock Blonde and one of the most famous Scream Queens is none other than Janet Leigh, who will forever be remembered for her paralyzing shower scene in Psycho. Of course, Hitchcock's slew of screaming starlets belong in a category all their own.

Love them or hate them, Scream Queens play an essential part in making a horror movie what it is. No matter if their screams echo your own or are just plain over the top, Scream Queens and horror films go hand in hand.