Filmically Perfect

Just mention the title To Kill A Mockingbird, and most people will get a faraway look in their eyes and just sigh, for Harper Lee’s semi-autobiographical paean to childhood strikes a chord in the heart of those who have read the Pulitzer Prize winning novel or seen Robert Mulligan’s award-winning movie, a “studio film with indie sensibilities.” Telling people that this is a Perfect Movie is like telling them that “the sky is blue.” From the script to the casting, from cinematography to set design, from the opening credits to Elmer Bernstein’s evocative score, this is, arguably a truly perfect movie. And this week, we had extra back-up as the magnificent and magnanimous Lee Sklar joined us to add his own commentary and anecdotes. A big thank you to Lee for taking the extra time from his very busy day to discuss To Kill A Mockingbird with “The Film Guys!”

Wes Craven taps into the unconsciousness of the “Me” decade with his 1984 Magnum Opus, A Nightmare on Elm Street. Unlike its many sequels, this film, the story of a resurrected child killer and his relentless pursuit of four teens in their dreams is still truly frightening. Freddy Krueger is a monster in this film, not a comic prop.

On another very special episode of Filmically Perfect join Niki Dakota and the Film Guys as they discuss some of the history of horror films and those “disturbing moments” that remain permanently etched in our minds from those classic horror films of the past.

Social Allegory or Zombie Gore Movie? George A Romero’s taut little horror film proves that a “perfect movie” need not be perfect. Made on a shoestring budget of $114,000 in Pittsburgh, PA and unleashed upon an unsuspecting world in 1968, Night of the Living Dead remains the fount from which all zombie movies have sprung, including several helmed by George A. himself. And while the effects have gotten gorier and the blood flows redder in the newer incarnations, the little B&W epoch remains a groundbreaking epoch in the march of the horror film.

Director John Landis first wrote this script in 1969, during the time he was working in the film Kelly’s Heroes. The script got him lots of jobs, but none of them involved directing this movie! The studios said the script was either too funny to be scary, or too scary to be funny. They couldn’t see both elements existing in the same film. After the success of National Lampoon’s Animal House, Landis got the opportunity to prove that his script would work--and it still does today. David Naughton stars as the ill-fated David Kessler, assisted by Jenny Agutter as his nurse and lover and Griffin Dunne as his dead and progressively rotting friend Jack.

What do you get when you combine Doc Savage, Thomas Pynchon, Orson Welles, H.G. Wells, Saturday Matinee Serials, Rock ‘N’ Roll, “B” Westerns, brain surgery, and Red & Black Lectroids? One of the best, most enduring and most neglected perfect movies of all time. The loyal following for this movie surely rivals The Rocky Horror Picture Show, albeit with less costuming and no toast being thrown at the screen. The amazing cast includes Peter Weller, John Lithgow, Ellen Barkin, Jeff Goldblum, Clancy Brown, Christopher Lloyd, Vincent Schiavelli, Dan Hedaya, Lewis Smith, Matt Clark, Rosalind Cash, and Carl Lumbley, to name a few. It was great fun to profile this film, especially as it has finally been released in a lovingly crafted (except for the cover) super-deluxe widescreen DVD to be enjoyed over and over again. Remember: “No matter where you go...there you are!”

Near the very end of the SIlent Era, just a month before Warner Bros. turned the film world upside down with The Jazz Singer, F. W. Murnau’s lyrical cinematic tone-poem Sunrise was released. It is appropriate that this film ushered out the era of purely visual film language, for they just couldn’t get much better or purer than this. For the uninitiated, we also discuss the world of the Silent Cinema in the first part of this broadcast. Besides being the first silent film we’ve discussed, this was also our first pre-recorded program.

“Have you ever had Deja Vu?” “I’ll check with the kitchen...” answers Bill Murray’s befuddled host as Bill wanders through one of his many February Second go-arounds in Harold Ramis’s wonderful fantasy comedy. A film that has not only demonstrated an enviable lasting power, but has altered the very meaning of the words “groundhog day” in our popular lexicon!

On this “very special” episode of Filmically Perfect, the Film Guys sit down with Niki Dakota to discuss some of those terminologies seen in the credits of films that make you scratch your head and go “Hmmm...” Also, the shocking truth about beloved color films like Gone With the Wind and The Wizard of Oz--that they were actually shot in Black and White!!

Who would’ve cast light comic, later to be known as “everyone’s favorite dad,” Fred MacMurray as the lustful, loathsome insurance man Walter Neff? It was Billy Wilder, who also cast Barbara Stanwyck as the amoral Phyllis Dietrichson, in this adaptation of pulp favorite James M. Cain’s novel, a book that he originally could not get sold! Listen in as we discuss this film that opened the floodgates for one of the greatest of all genres, the Film Noir!

This little bend in the road allows us to relax and prove that even though these films aren’t “perfect” we still love them! Strangler of the Swamp shows that a talented director (Frank Wisbar) can still make a fascinating film even though he has no money. The Girl Can’t Help It, Frank Tashlin’s mad live-action, rock and roll cartoon, may actually end up on our Perfect Movie List--the jury is still out.

What can one say about The Wizard of Oz that hasn’t already been said? A Technicolor fantasy from the high-point of “The Golden Age of Hollywood” whose disaster-laden production would itself make a great movie! A film so ingrained in our psyche that the slightest reference to it in books, in other films and even on t-shirts and bumper stickers brings back a flood of memories. The witch may be dead, but the Wizard lives on!

Starring John Wayne in his eighth (or so) cinematic outing with “a guy who just makes westerns”--Ford’s own self-deprecating assessment. The Searchers is a beautiful and brutal film, running the gamut from familial love to the darkest racism. And John Ford, at a time in his career when many are resting on their laurels, pushed into new territory, reinventing the western and giving us one of the most soul-satisfying films ever.

In 1951, director Robert Wise and Producer Julian Blaustein created one of the ultimate science-fiction classics, whose powerful message has not been diminished by the passing years or the onslaught of computer technology. The film’s message of the need for peace in the face of nuclear annihilation rings eerily true in our post-modern ears in these supposedly more enlightened times. Plus, it’s just a beautifully made film!