Welcome to the 242nd Edition. I just got a part in the show ARSENIC AND OLD LACE at the Anderson Mainstage Theatre as Lieutenant Rooney and this will be my third show at Mainstage. I have my first rehearsal tomorrow. This week I have one selection from the Random Myspace Profile selection process and next week will have none.
Ned Kelly (2003): I start the week out with part three of my four-part Heath Ledger series. This is my western for the week where Heath plays the title character. Ned Kelly was a real-life outlaw in Australia who is a folk hero there, I suppose like Jesse James is here where he is painted as a Robin Hood. In this film, Ned Kelly is the son of an outlaw so authorities automatically suspect he is a criminal where a corrupt cop exaggerates a story which makes Kelly a very high priced wanted criminal. He then goes on the run with his family and some friends to clear their names. Geoffrey Rush plays the officer brought in to bring in Kelly. Other actors include Orlando Bloom, Naomi Watts, Rachel Griffiths, Joel Edgerton and many others. I watched this instantly on Netflix and while this is not really my favorite Genre, Ledger conveyed the part pretty well leading to quite a showdown at the end. It was also interesting to see that the town was very loyal to him even though they knew they could collect a lot of money. Mick Jagger played the part in a 1970 movie of the same name but I not seen it.
An Education (2009): This is part one of a two-part Emma Thompson series. This is one of those coming of age films where Carey Mulligan stars as Jenny, a student in London who is working like crazy to get into Oxford because that is what her parents want. She then meets a man twice her age named David, played by Peter Sarsgaard, who has quite a charm and even makes her parents like him. He is able to convince her parents that he just wants to expose her to the culture of England. This makes Jenny then pretty much throw everything away feeling this is the excitement she has never experienced but has a decision to make when she discovers the truth about David. Alfred Molina plays her father who is determined to see her go to Oxford but takes that liking to David. Emma Thompson plays the headmistress who does not like Jenny getting involved with an older man. This is a pretty good independent film and I thought it moved pretty well where we see that sometimes education is actually a little important. Sarsgaard was good in his first time in a film to receive top-billing which in my opinion really means nothing.
Barbarella (1968): This is my selection from the Random Myspace Profile selection process and for this week I chose Silicon. This is my guilty pleasure of the week. Jane Fonda stars as the title character who is a 41st century space traveler who is out to save the world from the evil Durand-Durand and yes this is where the great 80s band Duran Duran got their name. This is a peaceful galaxy until Durand-Durand threatens to bring evil back. Along the way she meets some very interesting people and some strange sexual devices where one can be driven to death by torture. The highlight in my opinion is the strip scene in the beginning. This is actually based on a French comic strip.
Guys and Dolls (1955): This is my musical for the week and while I have seen this years ago, I did not remember much and I love watching the movie after I have done a play and not during. As many know, I just got done with this show not too long ago where I played Harry the Horse. Joseph Mankiewicz directed this film adaptation to the classic musical where all the gamblers are in town wanting to be a part of Nathan Detroit's "oldest established permanent floating crap game in New York" but Detroit, played by Frank Sinatra, has a hard time setting it up with his lack of money and his police rival Brannigan trying to put a stop to him. Detroit is also dealing with the pressure of this 14 year engagement to Adelaide, played by Vivian Blaine. Big-time gambler Sky Masterson, played by Marlon Brando, comes into town and Nathan makes a $1000 bet that he cannot take mission girl Sarah Brown, played by Jean Simmons, to Havana but he ends up falling for her instead, something a gambler should never do. Sinatra, Blaine, and Simmons were all very well-cast in their parts but Marlon Brando was cast in the part that has a lot of musical numbers and does not have the greatest singing voice of all time which apparently caused some real-life tension between him and Sinatra. The person who would have been great for the part was Gene Kelly who was sought for the part but MGM would not lend him to the Goldwyn studio. That was the best choice and it is not even a Fred Astaire role. Sheldon Leonard played the part of Harry the Horse that I played in the recent show and his characterization of the character reminded me a lot of what years later would be Marlon Brando in THE GODFATHER. There are lots of good music numbers like LUCK BE A LADY, SIT DOWN YOU'RE ROCKING THE BOAT, and an added song for the movie called ADELAIDE which at a rehearal Mark, who played Detroit in our version, and Geoff, who was Big Jule, spontaneously worked into the show in a very hilarious way. Other facebook friends in our show were Evan, Jimmy, Patrick, Ryan, Kelly, Elizabeth, Bradley, Zach, Ryan, Diane, our great costumer Norma, and if I missed anyone I am sorry.
Wristcutters: A Love Story (2006): This is one that was suggested to me by my Facebook friend Zach and I had it on Netflix but he was very persistent to get me to watch it and then Ed and Marshall both went in with him who are to my knowledge three people who have never met in real life but have the common interest of getting me to watch this movie so I shot it up to the top of Netflix with no regrets. This is an interesting film that looks at an afterlife for people who commit suicide. We first have Patrick Fugit who stars as Zia and breaks up with his girlfriend Desiree, played by Leslie Bibb, and commits suicide. He is then in a world of people who committed suicide where he works at a pizza place, has a weird roommate and is in a world he really does not like very well. He then learns that Desiree killed herself before he did and sets off with his new friend a Russian guitarist, played by Shea Whigham, and a hitchhiker named Mikal, played by Shannyn Sossaman, who is looking for the "man-in-charge" claiming she did not commit suicide but overdosed. This was a very clever film and pretty well-written. It is pretty moving even though it deals with suicide.
James and the Giant Peach (1996): This is my Disney film for the week which I watched instantly on Netflix. James, played by Paul Terry, is an orphan who has been raised by his very mean aunts. He then sees a peach which is in the title and meets many bug friends including the spider he saved. This movie starts out as live action and then becomes animated when James goes into the peach. James always wanted to see New York so that is where James and his new friends set off to go see. Randy Newman wrote some pretty good music numbers. Some of the actors lending their voice are Susan Sarandon, Richard Dreyfuss, FRAZIER alum Jane Leeves, and many others. This is one of many Disney greats where we learn that friendship can come in many forms.
Ned Kelly (2003): I start the week out with part three of my four-part Heath Ledger series. This is my western for the week where Heath plays the title character. Ned Kelly was a real-life outlaw in Australia who is a folk hero there, I suppose like Jesse James is here where he is painted as a Robin Hood. In this film, Ned Kelly is the son of an outlaw so authorities automatically suspect he is a criminal where a corrupt cop exaggerates a story which makes Kelly a very high priced wanted criminal. He then goes on the run with his family and some friends to clear their names. Geoffrey Rush plays the officer brought in to bring in Kelly. Other actors include Orlando Bloom, Naomi Watts, Rachel Griffiths, Joel Edgerton and many others. I watched this instantly on Netflix and while this is not really my favorite Genre, Ledger conveyed the part pretty well leading to quite a showdown at the end. It was also interesting to see that the town was very loyal to him even though they knew they could collect a lot of money. Mick Jagger played the part in a 1970 movie of the same name but I not seen it.
An Education (2009): This is part one of a two-part Emma Thompson series. This is one of those coming of age films where Carey Mulligan stars as Jenny, a student in London who is working like crazy to get into Oxford because that is what her parents want. She then meets a man twice her age named David, played by Peter Sarsgaard, who has quite a charm and even makes her parents like him. He is able to convince her parents that he just wants to expose her to the culture of England. This makes Jenny then pretty much throw everything away feeling this is the excitement she has never experienced but has a decision to make when she discovers the truth about David. Alfred Molina plays her father who is determined to see her go to Oxford but takes that liking to David. Emma Thompson plays the headmistress who does not like Jenny getting involved with an older man. This is a pretty good independent film and I thought it moved pretty well where we see that sometimes education is actually a little important. Sarsgaard was good in his first time in a film to receive top-billing which in my opinion really means nothing.
Barbarella (1968): This is my selection from the Random Myspace Profile selection process and for this week I chose Silicon. This is my guilty pleasure of the week. Jane Fonda stars as the title character who is a 41st century space traveler who is out to save the world from the evil Durand-Durand and yes this is where the great 80s band Duran Duran got their name. This is a peaceful galaxy until Durand-Durand threatens to bring evil back. Along the way she meets some very interesting people and some strange sexual devices where one can be driven to death by torture. The highlight in my opinion is the strip scene in the beginning. This is actually based on a French comic strip.
Guys and Dolls (1955): This is my musical for the week and while I have seen this years ago, I did not remember much and I love watching the movie after I have done a play and not during. As many know, I just got done with this show not too long ago where I played Harry the Horse. Joseph Mankiewicz directed this film adaptation to the classic musical where all the gamblers are in town wanting to be a part of Nathan Detroit's "oldest established permanent floating crap game in New York" but Detroit, played by Frank Sinatra, has a hard time setting it up with his lack of money and his police rival Brannigan trying to put a stop to him. Detroit is also dealing with the pressure of this 14 year engagement to Adelaide, played by Vivian Blaine. Big-time gambler Sky Masterson, played by Marlon Brando, comes into town and Nathan makes a $1000 bet that he cannot take mission girl Sarah Brown, played by Jean Simmons, to Havana but he ends up falling for her instead, something a gambler should never do. Sinatra, Blaine, and Simmons were all very well-cast in their parts but Marlon Brando was cast in the part that has a lot of musical numbers and does not have the greatest singing voice of all time which apparently caused some real-life tension between him and Sinatra. The person who would have been great for the part was Gene Kelly who was sought for the part but MGM would not lend him to the Goldwyn studio. That was the best choice and it is not even a Fred Astaire role. Sheldon Leonard played the part of Harry the Horse that I played in the recent show and his characterization of the character reminded me a lot of what years later would be Marlon Brando in THE GODFATHER. There are lots of good music numbers like LUCK BE A LADY, SIT DOWN YOU'RE ROCKING THE BOAT, and an added song for the movie called ADELAIDE which at a rehearal Mark, who played Detroit in our version, and Geoff, who was Big Jule, spontaneously worked into the show in a very hilarious way. Other facebook friends in our show were Evan, Jimmy, Patrick, Ryan, Kelly, Elizabeth, Bradley, Zach, Ryan, Diane, our great costumer Norma, and if I missed anyone I am sorry.
Wristcutters: A Love Story (2006): This is one that was suggested to me by my Facebook friend Zach and I had it on Netflix but he was very persistent to get me to watch it and then Ed and Marshall both went in with him who are to my knowledge three people who have never met in real life but have the common interest of getting me to watch this movie so I shot it up to the top of Netflix with no regrets. This is an interesting film that looks at an afterlife for people who commit suicide. We first have Patrick Fugit who stars as Zia and breaks up with his girlfriend Desiree, played by Leslie Bibb, and commits suicide. He is then in a world of people who committed suicide where he works at a pizza place, has a weird roommate and is in a world he really does not like very well. He then learns that Desiree killed herself before he did and sets off with his new friend a Russian guitarist, played by Shea Whigham, and a hitchhiker named Mikal, played by Shannyn Sossaman, who is looking for the "man-in-charge" claiming she did not commit suicide but overdosed. This was a very clever film and pretty well-written. It is pretty moving even though it deals with suicide.
James and the Giant Peach (1996): This is my Disney film for the week which I watched instantly on Netflix. James, played by Paul Terry, is an orphan who has been raised by his very mean aunts. He then sees a peach which is in the title and meets many bug friends including the spider he saved. This movie starts out as live action and then becomes animated when James goes into the peach. James always wanted to see New York so that is where James and his new friends set off to go see. Randy Newman wrote some pretty good music numbers. Some of the actors lending their voice are Susan Sarandon, Richard Dreyfuss, FRAZIER alum Jane Leeves, and many others. This is one of many Disney greats where we learn that friendship can come in many forms.
Too Many Wives (1937): This was the matter of having a hard time finding something from this era and saw on TCM they were having a marathon with this Anne Shirley so I decided on this one. She was a child actress all grown up. John Morley stars as Barry who is looking for a job and gladly accepts a job as the fall guy for a newspaper and saves them from many jams. Shirley plays his love interest who works for the paper and is not sure if having this fall guy is a good idea. I can tell this is hard to obtain as even imdb only has 16 votes but was an okay 61 minute b-movie.
Angel on My Shoulder (1946): I found this on the Colours network and jumped on the chance to feature Paul Muni on this blog. I feel he is the most underrated actor from that era and deserves as much exposure as people like Bogart, Gable, and Tracy. Paul Muni stars as deceased gangster Eddie Kagle who when he was killed, ends up in hell where Claude Rains plays the devil whose name is Nick. Nick arranges for Eddie to take over the body of his look-alike who is a respected judge. Eddie accepts this seeing a chance to avenge his murder. However, his actions result in good rather than evil much to the dismay of Nick who is trying to ruin the judge's reputation. Anne Baxter co-stars as the judge's love interest who Eddie starts to like as well. I really enjoyed this one and the scenes of hell were pretty good too.
Letters from Iwo Jima (2006): This is my war film for the week which was directed by Clint Eastwood which was his second WW2 film for the year and the other being FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS. This movie is taken from the Japanese side and focuses on the battle of Iwo Jima between the United States and Japan. Ken Watanabe stars as General Kuribayashi who is part of a nearly impossible battle for the Japanese. This is a very movie takes a good perspective from the Japanese side and another great one in the career of Clint Eastwood who as far as I'm concerned deserves all the credit he gets.
Well, that is it for this week. Tell me what you like and what you hate. Stay tuned for next week which so far includes Maggie Smith, more Emma Thompson, more Heath Ledger, and many others.
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