At the Movies -- Day Three

On Day Three, my nose was stuffy but I didn't let that stop me. I had a full plate of movies ahead of me! 

I started at 9:30 at one of the smaller mall theaters with Boys Town (1938). I haven't seen this one since I was a very little girl and was happy to revisit it.

It's the story of Father Flanagan, who famously believed that "there is no such thing as a bad boy." He created a boys home where at-risk boys could feel safe, get an education, believe in themselves. Spencer Tracy won his first Academy Award for playing the priest, who was the first real person to see an Oscar-winning depiction of himself.

I was very moved by the story and especially by Tracy. Before the movie, a representative of the Academy Museum gave us a little background that made the film even more poignant. Mickey Rooney, who played Whitey, was at this time the #1 star on the MGM lot. He was an important commodity and the studio wanted to get as much product out of him, as quickly as possible. While he was doing the drama Boys Town, he was also making Love Finds Andy Hardy, a comedy-musical. He'd finish playing Whitey on one soundstage and then dash to another where he played Andy. On the same day. He was 17. Considering what we know about his frequent costar, Judy Garland, it's easy to assume studio-provided amphetamines were involved. 

So here we were, watching a beautiful and effecting movie about saving at-risk children starring an exploited child. It was sobering.

Which doesn't diminish the power of the movie or its message. To learn more about the real Boys Town and its good works, click here.

Then it was on to the big IMAX screen to see a glorious presentation of The African Queen (1951). Shari Belafonte, who has traveled extensively through Africa, gave a little talk about the challenges of on location filming 9,000 miles away from Hollywood -- especially in 1951, when soundstages were still the norm. Hepburn, Bogart and director John Huston were all pretty influential and used their star power to get this film made the way it should be made.

I love this movie. This is (at least) the fourth time I've seen it and I'm always moved by the performances. Hepburn is luminous. A woman of faith, falling in love for the first time in mid-life. Her Rosie is just beautiful, inside and out. Bogart is funny and irascible. This is his Oscar-winning performance and he's a charmer.

For Bye, Bye Birdie I met up with Will, Guy and Ann-Margret. She was beautiful and gracious. At 81, she seem pleased to be surrounded by a crowd of classic film fans who really love the movie that made her a star.

Watching it again, I was impressed by how good Dick Van Dyke is. He was funny, sang well, and danced gracefully. Is there anything he couldn't do?

I wish I'd gotten to spend more time with Guy. He's very funny, very easy to be around. But after Birdie, we each went our own way. He was off to The Exorcist. Will, the greatest of Stanwyck fans, chose Sorry, Wrong Number. I went with one of the trashiest, most glorious movies ever.

Elizabeth Taylor was the most notorious women in America when she made this movie. She was The Other Woman who broke up the marriage of America's Sweethearts: Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher. Everyone thought she was a slut, and here she was playing one.

She didn't want to appear in BUtterfield 8. She knew she was being exploited, and what's worse, it was exploitation by MGM, the studio where she'd worked since she was a girl. (The same studio that made Boys Town; these people were assholes.)

Once it was obvious she couldn't get out of it -- litigation was threatened -- Liz gave it her all. Make no mistake about it: this is a silly movie. Her leading man, Laurence Harvey, is so sour and dreadful you can't believe she'd fall for him. Her costar and then-husband, Eddie Fisher, is inconsequential. But Elizabeth Taylor is wonderful in this. She's sincere and authentic. That she won her first Oscar for a movie she always insisted she hated tells you she was much more than a glamour girl.

Any day with LaLiz and the Great Kate is a good day!