On Coming Home

It's Memorial Day. The front page of the SF Chronicle heralds Barry Bonds 715th Home Run surpassing Babe Ruth's 714th, this story pretty much consumes the entire page with a nice large color photo of Bonds. Two side story headlines read "Revering those lost to wars" and "Iraqis flee as killings increase" while a third story covers the second part in a series on school resegregation in San Francisco. Turner Classic Movies is showing a classic WWII film called The Longest Day with an all-star cast including Henry Fonda, John Wayne, Peter Lawford and a host of other top-rated actors from this generation.

In contrast, here's a trailer from Coming Home, a film that depicts the effects of another war that we did not need to fight. Released in 1978, Coming Home was produced by Jerome Hellman, directed by the late Hal Ashby with a screenplay by the once blacklisted Waldo Salt. Coming Home proved to be a labor of love by all involved in the production. Jane Fonda, Jon Voight, and Waldo Salt (original screenplay from a story by Nancy Dowd) won Academy Awards.

On Sunset Boulevard

The first time I saw Sunset Boulevard years ago was on"Saturday Night At The Movies." It took a few more years before one of my dreams came true and I made that first drive out Sunset Boulevard. Gloria Swanson played Norma Desmond an aging (50) and once shining star now forgotten and cast aside by the Hollywood system. Interesting that Sunset Boulevard came out in 1950 and I am pretty sure Swanson made her own brief 'comeback' with this film at the age of 50. I've always loved William Holden---never thought of him as a great actor, maybe because it came easily to him, he was a great star and enjoyable to look at on screen. Holden made some wonderful films in the 50's, among them another favorite, Born Yesterday. Take a look at the Sunset Boulevard trailer:



I loved Andrew Lloyd Weber's musical Sunset and feel lucky to have seen the original London production with Patti Lupone. Lloyd Weber fired Lupone later and replaced her with Betty Buckley. Buckley must have been an amazing Norma--- on my next trip to London, I bought tickets to see it again, unfortunately Betty Buckley's stand-in played the role so I never got to see her in "Sunset." Did get to multiple Betty Buckley concerts where she performed two or three of the shows signature songs---stunning.

On Magic . . . never believe it's not so!

<----Click on the movie screen. Magic seems to be everywhere. I am constantly amazed by the creative spirit. Take a look at this Starburst comprised of 81 parachute canopies. Enjoy!

On Tap Dancing

Here's an enjoyable though fuzzy looking film clip of Eleanor Parker and Fred Astaire tap dancing in the 1940 classic Broadway Melody, just click on the movie screen to view! Introduced to tap dancing at age 5 as a "dancing buttercup" in Miss Bagley's Kindergarten Class, I soon found myself watching Shirley Temple movies on television and dreaming of learning how to tap dance like Shirley. Mama brought home Shirley Temple paper doll books for my entertainment. (Once I'd cut Shirley and her outfits out of the book, I never really enjoyed paper dolls). After the "dancing buttercup" period, Mama enrolled me in Virginia Dell's School of Dance where I remained through the third grade. I took up dancing lessons again in high school, years later while living in Washington, DC, a group of friends and I took a tap class. Honestly, I am not a very good tap dancer and usually forgot the routine steps---though I do admire and love all of my dancing heroes!

On A Prairie Home Companion

What fun! Last night the 49th SF International Film Festival closed with A Prairie Home Companion to a packed house at The Castro. You can always count on Robert Altman. With guest appearances by two members of the ensemble cast, Lily Tomlin and Virginia Madsen, the screening ended with a terrific Q&A. Lily Tomlin has been one of my heroes since the Laugh-In days and over the years I've never missed her one-woman shows--always brilliant and generous with her audience and her colleagues, last night was no exception. She and Meryl Streep play the surviving members of the singing Johnson Sisters, playing off one another and with one another throughout their scenes together, their chemistry and fun-loving spirit sparkles on screen. Tomlin told the Castro audience that she took singing lessons for several months before the shoot and still told Altman she was concerned about her singing badly, his response was something like 'then don't sing.' Kevin Kline ever splendid and funny. Woody Harrelson and John C. Reilly hilarious as Dusty and Lefty, two cowpoke trailhands singing every bad joke you may have heard or a few new ones written by Keillor, who also wrote the screenplay. Virginia Madsen talked about not knowing what was going to happen with her character the Angel and that she'd just walk about the set, sometimes directed by Altman and then pulled off because it wasn't working. She said she hung around the set each day sitting on the first row in the audience watching because she just couldn't leave, it was all too much fun and wonderful. A live radio show in a movie. Perfect. A Prairie Home Companion was shot on location at The Fitzgerald Theatre (the sight of the radio show). There are multiple great scenes as the action takes you on stage, backstage and down to the dressing rooms. Exceptional scenes include the ones between Yolanda and Rhonda Johnson as they sit in front of the make-up mirrors reminiscing and talking with Lola played by Lindsay Lohan ---a tribute to classic Altman filmmaking and a triumph for Streep, Tomlin, Keillor and the rest of the cast. A delight.