Rhapsodies

This week’s theme was a bit of a comedy of errors. I started with the intent with going for corporate marketing based around the Hudsucker Proxy but when I arrived at Scarecrow I found both of their copies out. So I went with yellow journalism and media sensationalism instead. One movie very funny and the other was most definitely not.

The funny one, The Front Page. was directed by  Billy Wilder and starring Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau and was the third film to be based on the play of the same name. It takes place in the press room of a Chicago courthouse on the night before a hanging where a half dozen newsmen (I’m not completely sure if it’s accurate to call them journalists) wait for the hanging to occur and battle to get the most sensationalistic scoop… even if they have to make it up! Then the prisoner escapes and hilarity ensues.

I saw the original play back when I used to usher at Trinity Repertory Theater and loved it. Unfortunately it’s been years so I don’t quite remember it well enough to tell just how straight an adaptation Wilder’s film is. But I think it makes for a good example for my on going pondering about what makes a good film adaptation of a film. I believe Wilder does a good job expanding the story from the single newsroom set of the play and moving around from the courthouse, to a newspaper office, to the train station and elsewhere throughout Chicago.

This was well paced comedy with a great performance from everybody with Jack Lemmon as a cocky star reporter who’s trying to quit the business to get married but can’t resist one last scoop and Walter Matthau as his hilariously amoral editor who will do anything for a story. As far as I’m concerned this is pretty much Matthau’s movie as he dominates every scene he is in with his fast-talking and manipulation.

The non funny film on my list is the film noir classic The Sweet Smell of Success directed by Alexander Mackendrick starring Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis with utterly amazing cinematography by James Wong Howe.

Burt Lancaster plays J.J Hunsecker, a powerful columnist who forces publicist Sidney Falco to attempt to break up his sister and a handsome jazz guitarist.

This is easily my favorite Lancaster performance; He plays Hunsecker as a completely driven and narcissistic demanding respect and stopping at nothing to get what he wants provided it doesn’t tarnish his reputation. Curtis is wonderfully pathetic as Falco who, doing whatever it takes to make a buck and completely dependent on Hunsucker desperate for his approval and trailing behind him like a jackal does a lion.

This is a wonderfully brutal cynical film that paints a dark picture of humanity in a dark vision of New York captured brilliantly by Howe’s camera and accentuated by the jazz soundtrack performed by the Chico Hamilton Quintet.