Hello! A really good new movie came in… it’s about time. I’ve seen this one twice, and I’m ready to see it again.

It’s not often that I find that my reaction to a movie seems to contradict so many of the reviews out there. For me John Patrick Shanley’s Wild Mountain Thyme is a charming, wholly satisfying romantic comedy in a wistful, witty mode. It’s only the third job of direction from Shanley, over thirty years after the playwright/screenwriter’s similar romantic success Moonstruck. I guess that Wild Mountain Thyme is too easily rapped for elements that are out of fashion. Yep, it’s practically a travelogue for rural Ireland, and yes, some of its characterizations resemble theatrical stereotypes. Half the reviews I read get no further than a critique of the less-than perfect Irish accents, or offhandedly dismiss the show as ‘twee.’  I honestly wonder if these people saw the same terrific film that I did.

If someone can point out to me one insensitive Irish-ethnic moment in Thyme, I’d appreciate it. John Ford’s The Quiet Man deals almost exclusively in rank Irish stereotypes, and we still seem to cherish it. Shanley lightly addresses a couple of these America-Ireland image issues, in a scene on a jet plane. Just what about John Patrick Shanley offends these critics?  In my book he’s great writer and director. His dialogues address basic issues. Christopher Walken and Dearbhla Molloy play elderly, somewhat sickly characters; one of them responds to a complaint with an argumentative shout: ‘you’ve had a good time and raised your children, what more do you want from life?’ (para)

Thyme is stylized somewhere between Moonstruck and Joe Versus the Volcano. It’s a romantic comedy about neighboring farmers Anthony (Jamie Dornan) and Rosemary (Emily Blunt) that ought to have been married twenty years before. Nobody can figure out why not, least of all them, because they’re madly in love with one another. Anthony is a mass of contradictions about his self-worth and his identity. As a child he asks God why he’s so different, but we don’t know what he’s talking about. He must feel his insecurities more strongly than some people do. He’s so confused that he totally mis-reads all the signals from Rosemary. Love-struck Rosemary is too proud and traditional to kick aside the old rules and unilaterally propose; these people define themselves by old codes and want their lives to take traditional forms.

There’s no magic in feeding cows on a farm, but Thyme insists that people need magic in their love lives. Old Tony (Walken) describes falling in love with his wife only years after he married her, in an experience more or less identical to the ‘Bella Luna’ in Moonstruck. In Thyme the magic curses and delights come in the form of stars in the sky, the swans in Swan Lake (as opposed to an opera), a ‘thinning of the brain’ (as opposed to a ‘brain cloud’) and a lost ring.

Shanley doesn’t bother to explain everything — when Anthony tries to explain his romantic blockage, what he says makes little sense. I’m not particularly punitive about accents, nor do I insist that every film relationship make 100% perfect objective sense. Was too busy loving the experience of Wild Mountain Thyme and absorbing its positive characters and John Patrick Shanley wisdoms. Being an apt fan of previous Shanley shows helps. He has a strong voice and an atypical slant to everything he writes. The serious play Doubt says To Hell with political correctness — people must make compromises with the letter of the moral code all the time.

Thirty years ago critics unjustly slammed and buried Shanley’s Joe Versus the Volcano for being purposely goofy, even tacky: daring to style itself in a way that followed no categorizable trend. Yet I’ll champion Volcano as one of the most charming, humane and romantic films of its decade. The same ‘magical’ set of personal themes that shine in Moonstruck continue through Volcano. In Thyme they end up being a code for the mystery of being alive, of defining our self-identity. Shanley characters are reminded of the wonder of existence every time they stare at the night sky. Everybody is bombarded by ‘signs,’ by symbolic clichés. Unhappiness is expressed in perverse ways. Rosemary’s father expressed his life-anger by killing crows. A pair of gates express the way tangled intentions put absurd obstructions in our lives. Rosemary and Anthony are surrounded by externalized symbols. Her beloved horse is battering at the barn door, trying to get out. His dog sits quietly under a table, but is shouted at for causing trouble.

Does nobody listen to what movie characters say any more?   Every other sentence we hear in Thyme is wickedly funny, or a burst of unexpected wisdom, or both. The last climactic fifteen minutes or so is a battle royale of romantic temperament that was likely the core of Shanley’s source play Outside Mullingar. Yep, it can be frustrating that Jamie Dornan’s character is unable to express his feelings for a woman he actually loves more than life itself. Half of the reviews I’ve read reject the movie outright for presenting a romantic blockage that’s so ‘insubstantial.’ How many real human relationships do you know that are fully rational?  At one time or another we’re all alone out there trying to figure out who we are (Wolf?  Swan?  Bee?). If we have a missing hand or a ‘brain cloud’ or we’ve lost our courage or we already feel our love life is a hopeless disaster, we forget that such things are a shared part of the Human Condition.

The reviews I’ve read haven’t gotten far beyond Shanley’s purported artistic crimes of unacceptable accents, travelogue images, stereotypes, etc., to mention anything else about the movie. Also present is Jon Hamm in a decent supporting role, and endearing performances by Danielle Ryan and Lydia McGuinness. And taking on the best-played ‘stereotyped Irish’ part I’ve seen in a long time is none other than Barry McGovern, Joe Banks’ immortal Luggage Salesman.

Anyway, that’s my two cents. As with The Shape of Water and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood I’ve been a good boy and not given anything away, no spoilers. If this sounds tempting, avoid reading too much about the show and just check it out. The Irish accents didn’t offend me (says the uncultured me). It’s the best new thing I’ve so far seen under Covid Confinement.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

Hello!

As they say up on Gower Gulch,  I Cunha Believe It.  It’s been leaked that The Film Detective has plans to follow its remastered disc of Giant from the Unknown with a second Richard E. Cunha Astor Pictures release, the occasionally indescribable Frankenstein’s Daughter.  I have to say I’m keeping my fingers crossed for Cunha’s other two cinematic masterpieces, She Demons and Missile to the Moon. Did they shoot these pictures back-to-back?  All four were released in 1958 and I’ll bet they were filmed to become a pair of double bills.

All four titles might dwell at the weak end of ’50s drive-in exploitation — just look at the trashy posters sometime — but more likely than not they made their money back and then some. I found She Demons to be the most fun, being high-camp schlock with a starring performance from Irish McCalla. It’s also in terrible taste. And I’m here to testify that I saw Missile to the Moon when it was new. I loved it, especially the dreaded lunar ‘Rock Men.’  At age eight I thought they were really scary.

Since Paramount has some rights to these pictures, I wonder if they’re getting released because the corporation fronted for new transfers. I hope all four come out remastered and widescreen-formatted. Giant is announced, Frankenstein’s Daughter seems pretty likely, and at this point I need to emphasize that Demons & Missile are just CineSavant wishful thinking.

Dick Dinman’s latest Classics Corner On the Air show centers on the William Wyler favorite Roman Holiday with the participation of discussion guest Catherine Wyler — and a special ‘cameo’ appearance by Cecilia Peck.

And roving researcher Gary Teetzel comes through with two fun links. The first I may have put up before, it’s an archive.org link to the entire run of the magazine Fantastic Monsters of the Films, the one put together by Paul Blaisdell and Bob Burns way back in the early ‘sixties. I think I only had two issues, but I read them until they fell apart. Now they’re fun to read for the ‘coming soon’ columns that list movies that never happened, or that underwent title changes. Example: A.I.P.’s then-upcoming Panic in Year Zero!  is listed under the title Survival.

Gary also sends along a real find, an episode of TV’s The Jack Benny Program starring Billy Wilder, from 1962. Billy is pretty good — when Jack opens the door at about seventeen minutes in, the tall wilder is leaning on the doorjam in what looks like a typical pose. We wonder if the celebrity value of Billy Wilder might have been lost on average audiences across the country, even though UA had been promoting him as a star director, like Alfred Hitchcock.

Gary located an even more arcane director guest-starring on a TV comedy sitcom: Charles Vidor on the George Burns & Gracie Allen Show. It’s from 1958. I guess now I know what Charles Vidor looked and sounded like.

And finally, author David Schow comes through with a great YouTube piece — A Conversation with Rod Serling. Serling talks like he does on his Twilight Zone intros, with a mild case of lockjaw. It certainly makes him stand out as an individual. He’s also naturally erudite … in other words, I’m jealous. It’s 1968 and he’s not happy that anthology series can’t get on the air. Rod smokes throughout, and even coughs now and then.

The moderators are Bernie Harrison and the author James Dickey, the author of Deliverance. His authentic Southern voice arrives first at 4:55!  Expect plenty of talk about intellectual deserts on television, a medium that Dickey calls a platform for the delivery of commercials.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

Hello!

Correspondent ‘Bee’ sends along this pretty amazing Cartoon Research article by Keith Scott entitled Avery …. Vol. 2??? Well, Imagine That!  The article’s real mission is to divulge the identities of scores of voice talent names and what they did on specific cartoons. The list is pretty amazing, and Scott includes bio information, inside comments, and other research. It makes us more aware of how sophisticated and artful are those Avery cartoon tracks — masterpieces of pitch and timing.   He even identifies a lady who whistles on a cartoon soundtrack.  That reminds me, we’re due to review the WAC’s Tex Avery Screwball Classics Volume 2 Disc…

And contributor-reviewer Lee Broughton has an interesting article up on his Current Thinking on the Western page: the current entry for December 13, 2020 is called An Interview with Filmmaker Chris Keller. I don’t know whether to think of Keller as an amateur or a professional. The uptake on him is that he’s one of those Euro-fans of Italo westerns that visits shooting sites in Almeria, Spain — and films his own movies there. He calls them amateur productions but they’re too elaborate and professional to to be dismissed so quickly. The main one under discussion in the interview is called …. and then the Vultures had a Feast. The article contains a free link to see it online (!) plus links to other Keller mini-masterpieces — made completely with the help of friends. Vultures has the participation of an actress from some Spaghettis, who was married to a director.

And thanks to Matt Rovner for the review today of the Classics of Yiddish Cinema films. Matt collaborated with me on a commentary for Arch Oboler’s sci-fi classic Five, which will be coming from Viavision [Imprint] in February. The image above is from the Yiddish folk-horror movie The Dybbuk (1937), which is partly restored and presented in two versions.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

Hello!

First up is some fun from the rumor mill. Since I’ve heard it from three separate sources now — and one of them someone likely to know, I don’t feel too hasty passing on the unconfirmed report that a Blu-ray is on the way for George Pal’s Destination Moon. That’s the epochal science fiction movie that jump-started both Pal’s live-action career and the entire 1950s Sci-fi wave. For all I know, the in-the-works disc is already common knowledge on the web boards. Various rights for this particular title are spread out here and there so there’s no saying where exactly it comes from or who to ask about it, and I have no further details. What’s important to us diehard fans is getting all the ’50s greats out in editions that show them at their best. The one available DVD of this show is pretty ragged.

Yes, in strict historical terms Germans and Soviets were the first to make movies about going to the moon with rocket technology. But Pal’s picture is the one that captured the imagination just as the feasibility of such an incredible journey gained traction. Moon was still included in the discussion when the real moon landing came in 1969 — the network news shows ran film clips from Pal’s show, and also from Things to Come to illustrate 20th-century notions of ‘The Conquest of Space.’ I remember the news broadcasters reporting that Apollo 11’s LEM module had to do a last-minute sideways maneuver to find a suitable landing spot — and one commentator noting that that a similar close-call incident had been depicted in Destination Moon.

And wow —  What a happy surprise from The Warner Archive Collection for January. The WAC’s Blu-ray announcements showcase four new items: After the Thin Man is the first sequel for William Powell & Myrna Loy, Room for One More is a follow-up for Cary Grant & Betsy Drake’s Every Girl Should Be Married and the great MGM musical Good News has the must- see ‘Pass that Peace Pipe’ number with Joan McCracken.

The killer announcement is for a movie I was beginning to fear would never be cleared for a disc release, the terrific Doris Day musical The Pajama Game. It’s up there as Day’s best or near-best movie — all the songs are wonderful show-stoppers, and Day’s exuberant character is perfectly tuned to her image. It’s also a great show for Carol Haney and Reta Shaw, and of course the choreography of Bob Fosse. Neither The Pajama Game nor Damn Yankees has been around on hard media since 2005 or so; I’m not sure either has even been screened on TCM, although I’m told that a good encoding of Yankees can be seen on Amazon Prime. Pajama Game is going to be a super winter treat.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson