Monday, February 28, 2011

Jane Russell, 1921-2011

We here at the Monkey pause to note the passing of one our favorite actresses, Jane Russell. As my big brother noted an e-mail, "in 'the day,' she was hot, hot, hot."

She was indeed.

I am of an age that my first introduction to Jane Russell was during her stint as a foundation undergarment spokesperson "for us full-figured gals," as she put it. I was a little too young to understand what part of her figure she was referring to. Later I figured it out. Hubba hubba.

Probably her most famous role was her first, The Outlaw, in which she co-starred with a cantilevered bra designed by Howard Hughes and his team of aeronautical engineers. Truth be told, it's not a very good movie and she didn't wear the bra anyway. Filming was completed in 1941, but Hollywood's censors delayed its release until 1943, with a nationwide release not coming until 1946.

"They held up The Outlaw for five years," she said later. "And Howard Hughes had me doing publicity for it every day, five days a week for five years."

Russell didn't appear in another film until 1946.

If you want to see her in something good, I'd recommend the two movies she made with Robert Mitchum, His Kind Of Woman (1951) and Macao (1952), and what I think is the best performance of her career, as a nightclub singer trying to keep her gold-digging pal Marilyn Monroe out of trouble in Howard Hawks' musical comedy Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953).

I know everybody remembers Marilyn Monroe's signature performance of "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend," but personally, give me Jane Russell.

March Madness At All Good Things

Voting begins this morning in the March Madness tournament over at All Good Things. 64 of the best actresses in movie history paired off in single-elimination competition. Today is the Silent/1930s Era bracket with some tough first round action—Jean Harlow versus Myrna Loy, Carole Lombard versus Ginger Rogers, and number one seed Greta Garbo against Norma Desmond herself, Gloria Swanson.

Get on over there and vote. It's fun, it's free and it lasts all month.

Today's Oscar Trivia #28

The Oscars are over for another year, but Turner Classic Movies' 31 Days Of Oscar marathon continues. So does the trivia.

The Lion Roars Before 1951, the Best Picture Academy Award was officially a competition among the studios, rather than individual producers. MGM was the studio with the most nominations (41). Among them was a nod to a gritty 1949 World War II drama starring Van Johnson. Name it.

Nomination In A Bottle? Doezens of times actors have been nominated for portraying alcoholics. Name the actor who took home a Best Actor Oscar for his harrowing performance in The Lost Weekend (1945).

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Today's Oscar Trivia #27

Real Women Like men, women who play real people are often nominated for an Academy Award in the leading category. Which actress was nominated for playing Eleanor Roosevelt in Sunrise at Campobello (1960)?

Notable No-Shows Joan Crawford may or may not have actually been ill when she stayed home in bed on the night she won her only Oscar as Best Actress for a 1945 film. What was it?

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Today's Oscar Trivia #26

On Second Thought Sometimes remakes of classic films turn out fine, as in this redoing of a 1931 crime drama, first remade under the title Satan Met A Lady in 1936. Name the definitive, Oscar-nominated 1941 version starring Humphrey Bogart.

The Big Five Only three times in the history of the Academy Awards has a film won in each of the five major categories—Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Screenplay. Name the 1934 comedy with Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable that was the first to accomplish this.

Friday, February 25, 2011

The Monkey's Nephew

We've all heard of the Monkey's uncle—surprised people have been claiming to be him since before I was born—but today it's the Monkey's nephew I'm interested in.

Which one, you might ask—at last count, Katie-Bar-The-Door and I have eight of them between us. But while each of them is "special" in his own way, it's the son of my older brother I have in mind. I've mentioned my older brother before in various contexts—traveling salesman, Auburn resident, Burns and Allen fan—and while these are all valid ways to define him, in the circles I run in the fact that my brother saw the Beatles play live on his 19th birthday makes him The Man, and even if I were to win the Pulitzer Prize for movie blogging, he's still going to be The Man.

That's him there on the left:

Distinguished, ain't he.

Anyway, he has two children. His daughter, Plain Chicken, has a blog of her own, devoted to cats and recipes (though as far as I know, no cats in recipes) (check it out). His son makes his living in the movie business, primarily as a grip or rigging electrician. He's worked on a variety of movies—Zombieland, We Are Marshall, several Tyler Perry comedies—as well as television (e.g. The Walking Dead and Good Eats).

How about that.

I happen to be thinking about him because one his latest efforts opens today, the Farrelly Brothers' Hall Pass. Is it any good? I don't know. Roger Ebert gives it 2 1/2 stars, Entertainment Weekly predicts a number one spot at the box office. We'll see.

Anyway, it seemed to me that if I can write about the likes of Zeppo Marx, I can give my nephew a plug on opening weekend.



Postscript:Oh, I should also mention that the Monkey's nephew is quite a talented photographer. Check out his work here.

The Zeppo Chronicles

Born on February 25, 1901, Herbert Manfred Marx—better known as "Zeppo"—was the youngest of six brothers and along with Leonard, Adolph and Julius Henry—Chico, Harpo and Groucho to the rest of us—made up the greatest comedy team in movie history, the Marx Brothers.

Zeppo's father Sam was a tailor, but his mother Minnie had show business in her blood and she pushed her sons onto the stage at an early age. More than a decade junior to his older brothers, the Marx Brothers were already an established vaudeville act before Zeppo joined the group, and he might not have entered show business at all but for the fact that his brother Milton (a.k.a. "Gummo") joined the army during World War I.

Perhaps because he joined the act so late, Zeppo never really established a strong stage presence and mostly wound up playing the straight man to his brothers. He also sang and when the occasion demanded played the male half of a romantic subplot, but mostly writers didn't know what to do with him and he was shunted the far corners of the action. Nevertheless, Zeppo was around for the Marx Brothers' Broadway successes and their first five movies, made at Paramount Studios.

Zeppo's best roles were in the movies Monkey Business and Horse Feathers. For the former, the Brothers finally hit on the rather obvious idea of letting Zeppo handle the chores of wooing the obligatory girl in their musical comedy routines. I can't say he's great as he chases the girl (Ruth Hall), but he's better than either Oscar Shaw or Hal Thompson who performed the same thankless chores in The Cocoanuts and Animal Crackers, respectively.

In Horse Feathers, he played Groucho's son, a college student for twelve years and running, "a disgrace to our family name of Wagstaff," Groucho complains, "if such a thing is possible." Zeppo involves his dad in a plot to hire ringers for the big game against rival Darwin. He also sings and woos the "college widow," played by Thelma Todd.

I have heard tell that Zeppo was actually a very funny guy and that from time to time he successfully understudied for Groucho, but the fact that the Brothers let writers such as George S. Kaufman (The Cocoanuts and Animal Crackers) stand Zeppo in the corner without protest leads me to believe that either he was never that integral to the act or that he was already tired of performing and was looking forward to the day when he could work behind the scenes.

Once again relegated to a nearly non- existent role in Duck Soup, Zeppo left the act in 1933 to become a theatrical agent. A mechanical whiz, Zeppo also invented a watch to monitor the pulse rate of cardiac patients and founded Marman Products Co., which designed and manufactured, among other things, the Marman Twin motorcycle, and the Marman clamp which held the atomic bomb inside the B-29 used on the U.S. raid on Nagasaki.

Zeppo played one last role with the Marx Brothers in 1938, this time behind the scenes when he negotiated a deal with RKO Pictures for his brothers' services in a movie version of the hit Broadway play Room Service. Zeppo secured $250,000 for the act, a nice payday, but the movie was not a success and afterwards Groucho said only that Zeppo should have asked for more money.

The last surviving Marx Brother, Zeppo died in 1979.

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Today's Oscar Trivia #25

Sister Acts Only two sisters have both won Academy Awards as Best Actress. One is Olivia de Havilland, who is the other? (Hint: Her award came for the 1941 Suspicion.)

Rookies Of The Year Among those who received acting nominations in their film debuts was this smoldering new star, nominated as Best Actor for The Search (1948). Name him.

Five For Four Nine times a movie has had five nominations for acting awards. One such occasion came when Albert Finney, Hugh Griffith, Diane Cilento, Edith Evans and Joyce Redman were all nominated for the same classic 1963 comedy. Name it.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Today's Oscar Trivia #24

Most Honored Foreign Director Federico Fellini's movies have won the most Oscars (four) for Best Foreign Language Film. Name the landmark 1963 film starring Marcello Mastroianni that took the prize.

Awards By Association Alec Guinness' films have won more Oscars (35) in various categories than those of any other performer. What 1951 crime comedy starring Guinness and directed by Charles Crichton won for Best Story and Screenplay?

Most Directing Nominations Which filmmaker leads the pack with 12 nominations for Best Director? (Hint: He directed the 1959 Ben-Hur.)

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

The Comedy Stylings Of Segundo de Chomón

So what has the Monkey been up to recently, other than posting trivia questions straight out of TCM's Now Playing? Working on another of those mammoth essays, this one about early silent comedy, from its beginning around 1890 up to 1914. So far from the era I've watched one hundred sixty-eight comedy shorts and counting. Some are funny, but most of them, I can emphatically assure you, are not.

Anyway, this has nothing to do with any of that. Instead, this post harkens back to Part Two of my essay covering the films of 1906-1914, specifically the paragraph I wrote about Segundo de Chomón, a.k.a. "the Spanish Méliès." Chomón specialized in trick photography and surreal optical effects. Here's one, Le théâtre de Bob from 1906, that relies on stop-action animation and hand-tinted frames.

Just part of our continuing effort here at the Monkey to load you up with useless information ...


El teatro electrico de Bob
Uploaded by informatenlared. - See more comedy videos.

Sonakshi Sinha Hot Photos, Hot Sonakshi Sinha Wallpapers & Photos Gallery

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Today's Oscar Trivia #23

Sound Bites As head of the Columbia sound department, John Livadary holds the record for consecutive nominations in the Best Sound category—13 times for 1934 to 1946 releases. One of his nominations came for the musical biopic A Song to Remember (1945), featuring the compositions of what famous composer?

Best Picture, But Not Most Academy Awards The winner of the best Best Picture Oscar usually wins more awards than any other film that year. But 14 times the Best Picture winner didn't at least tie for the most wins. What political drama named Best Picture of 1949 won three Academy Awards while competitor The Heiress won four?

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

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Today's Oscar Trivia #22

Two In One Seventeen times in Academy Award history the same film has produced two Best Actor or Best Actress nominations. Name the women nominated for the title roles in Thelma & Louise

Monday, February 21, 2011

Today's Oscar Trivia #21

Oscar Onlys Who is the only Oscar to win an Oscar? (Hint: He actually won two, one of them for the lyrics to the song "It Might As We Be Spring" in the 1945 musical State Fair.)

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Hello Stranger Movie Review


Pemain: Chantawit Thanasevee, Nuengtida Sopon
Sutradara: Banjong Pisanthanakun (Shutter, Alone, Phobia, Phobia 2)
Genre: Drama Komedi
Poin (Penilaian Pribadi):
7,5 Untuk Jalan Cerita
8,0 Untuk Pemain Utama
8,0 Untuk Akting Pemain (dan chemistry yang dibangun para pemainnya)
8,0 Untuk Kualitas Pengambilan Gambar
Total Poin: 7,8 (Bagus)


Film komedi romantis yang laris di negeri asalnya ini bercerita tentang dua orang asal Thailand (yang sampai akhir film tidak disebutkan siapa namanya) yang secara tak sengaja bertemu dalam sebuah liburan di Korea Selatan.. Datang ke korea dengan alasan yang berbeda, bertemu dengan cara yang unik, hingga pada akhirnya merasa cocok dan memutuskan untuk menghabiskan liburan bersama, bersenang-senang, tertawa, berbuat hal-hal konyol hingga akhirnya saling menyukai. Memang tidak ada yang spesial dari jalan cerita film ini. Tapi sangat menarik mengikuti perjalanan dan tingkah lucu keduanya dari awal bertemu di bandara Bangkok, di pesawat, hingga bertemu lagi di korea selatan. Belum lagi sosok si laki-laki yang banyak bicara dan selalu saja ngoceh dimanapun ia berada, membuat film ini tidak terasa membosankan hingga akhir, sekalipun durasi filmnya cukup panjang (sekitar dua jam).

Film ini tidak hanya mengandalkan tingkah-tingkah konyol kedua pemainnya untuk membuat kita tertawa. Sebenarnya kekuatan dari film ini terletak di chemistry yang dibangun dua pemeran utamanya. Melalui dialog-dialog mereka lah unsur-unsur komedi dibangun dengan manis. Banyak dialog-dialog di film ini yang membuat saya tersenyum, bahkan tertawa. Dialog di bawah ini adalah salah satunya. 
(Ketika mereka sedang berada di depan dua buah patung pasangan bintang film korea)


L (Laki-laki): Jadi siapa ini? (sambil menepuk pundak patung laki-laki)


P (Perempuan): Bae Yang Joon (sambil memasang tampang jutek)


L: Hmm, Terlihat tampan, tanpa cela. Tapi keras. (sambil mengetok kepala patung). Jika terbentur pasti sakit.


P: (menghela nafas)


L: Hei, sebenarnya aku tidak tahu drama korea. Isinya selalu duduk dan terus menangis sepanjang hari, dan selalu lupa ingatan, bertemu karena cinta lalu mati. Atau aktris yang menyamar jadi pria, dan tak ada yang tahu. Isinya selalu sama. Drama korea selalu saja sama. Menurutku, itu sangat palsu.


P: Apa kau tidak tahu kata romantis?

L: Kebiasaan para gadis, apapun selalu dibilang romantis. Dan, bagaimana jika tokoh utamanya seperti itu (menunjuk dua pasangan gemuk berkacamata tebal yang kebetulan lewat)


P: Oh, (berpikir sejenak). Tampilan luar tidaklah penting. Pasangan korea selatan selalu menunjukan rasa cinta mereka.

L: Heh, apa mereka takut jika tidak ada yang tahu, haha


P: Mulutmu besar sekali!


Gue tertawa ketika si laki-laki ini mengucapkan kalimat, “atau aktris yang menyamar jadi pria”. Maksud dari kalimat itu adalah mengejek kebanyakan aktor korea yang cantik seperti perempuan sehingga mungkin saja itu adalah aktris yang menyamar jadi laki-laki. (no ofense hehe)
Saya suka film ini. Dari awal hingga pertengahan kita dibuat tertawa melalui tingkah-tingkah konyol keduanya, tetapi menjelang akhir, ceritanya menjadi lebih serius dan cukup mengaduk emosi. Walaupun akhirnya menyedihkan, tapi endingnya tetap disajikan dengan manis (dan romantis).

Overall, film ini bagus dan layak tonton terutama bagi yang suka film-film drama komedi. Walaupun sebenarnya jalan ceritanya cukup klise, tapi kekurangan itu dapat ditutupi dengan banyak kelebihan dari film ini, seperti dua pemain utama yang cakep, akting yang natural, chemistry yang oke, sinematografi yang digarap dengan baik, dan ending yang antiklimaks. Satu lagi nilai plus untuk film ini adalah, Lucu tanpa harus ada bumbu sex. Kalimat terakhir itu khusus gue tujukan untuk kebanyakan film-film komedi Indonesia beberapa tahun belakangan. Belum ada Film komedi romantis Indonesia yang cukup berkualitas semenjak film ‘Jomblo’ (2006). 

Sebagai penutup, berikut kutipan kata-kata terakhir yang menurut gue sangat menyentuh dari sang laki-laki di penghujung film ini (Spoiler): 

Kau mungkin tak paham, tahun lalu aku pergi ke korea selatan, dan aku bertemu dengan seorang gadis disana
Kita bepergian bersama, walau hanya beberapa hari
Seperti film romantis, bertemu beberapa hari di luar negeri
Aku tak tahu namanya, tapi kurasa, aku jatuh cinta padanya
Tapi waktu itu dia berkata padaku, mungkin perasaanku hanya ilusi sementara
Aku tak tahu,
Jika ini hanya ilusi sementara, mengapa bertahan lama sekali
Setahun lebih, mengapa aku selalu merindukannya?
Mengapa setiap hari aku selalu ingin bertemu dengannya
Menurutmu, apa aku gila?

Kata-kata penutup yang bikin garuk-garuk tanah haha.