The PCA and Critical Reaction to The Big Combo (1955)

Joseph H. Lewis's The Big Combo (1955), one of my favorite film noirs, is now on Netflix Watch Instantly.  Between John Alton's cinematography, the homoerotic subtext, the graphic and creative depiction of torture (with a hearing aid!), and hardboiled dialogue, I cannot recommend it highly enough.  Here are some notes I took during a research trip at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Margaret Herrick Library from the Production Code Administration (PCA) file and the news clipping files for the film.  Note:  I was unable to import my footnotes.  For those interested, I can either e-mail the below text with footnotes or I can comment on the exact sources below.  

Tag, You're It: Going Ape on Tag, Mid, and Post Credit Scenes

Spoilers ahead. 

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)

It wasn’t difficult to initially underestimate Rupert Wyatt’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011).  Tim Burton’s reboot of the series (2001), now a decade old, left a bad taste in a lot of mouths.  Between the goofy ending and the wooden performances of Mark Wahlberg and Estella Warren, the only redeeming qualities to the film were Helena Bonham Carter and Danny Elfman’s percussive score.  Although Burton’s film was a financial success - it grossed $362 million against a production budget of $100 million - Fox decided against further exploration of one of their many tentpole franchises for years because of the critical backlash against it.  When Rise of the Planet of the Apes was announced for 2011 and a lackluster trailer (The medicine the characters are working on is called “THE CURE!”) hit a mere few weeks before the film’s release, it felt as if Fox was going back to a well of poison for a second time.  Thankfully, however, Rise of the Planet of the Apes benefits from generic manipulation.  A trait which, unlike the prescription enhanced ape of the film, goes unpronounced in Fox’s marketing campaign.   

Senna (2010)

Aside from the Milwaukee Brewers and the Green Bay Packers, my knowledge of sports is often bested by my wife’s.  I’ve never really been drawn to sports and, if I was, my commitment to my graduate education has taken away most of my free time to learn about them.  I watch maybe five football games a year, a handful of baseball games, and I’m taking part in Fantasy Football for the first time since the date of my birth this year.  I mention this for two reasons.  First, prior to watching Asif Kapadia’s Senna (2010), I only knew of the existence of Formula 1 racing and I was ignorant to Ayrton Senna’s existence, let alone his racing career.  Secondly, despite this personal ignorance, I found the film to be one of the best of the year. 

The Killing (1956): Criterion Collection

Stanley Kubrick’s The Killing (1956) is not my favorite work by the visionary director. In fact, the film probably wouldn’t even make it onto a list of my top five Kubrick films. Yet, with a career that included such amazing films as Paths of Glory (1957), Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Barry Lyndon (1975), and The Shining (1980), that’s not an indication that The Killing is a film of poor quality but an indication that Kubrick’s body of work comes the closest to cinematic perfection than any director I can think of. Thus, while The Killing may not by Kubrick’s strongest, that doesn’t keep it from earning a ranking of my top five noirs.

John Huston Triple-Feature: Beat the Devil (1953), Wise Blood (1979), and Under the Volcano (1984)

Introduction 

“[John] Huston is still coasting on his reputation as a wronged individualist with an alibi for every bad movie … Huston has confused indifference with integrity for such a long time that he is no longer the competent craftsman of The Asphalt Jungle, The Maltese Falcon, and The African Queen, films that owe more to casting coups than to directorial acumen.” — Andrew Sarris, “John Huston: Less than Meets the Eye” in The American Cinema (1968).

“People often ask if I have any regrets over my rankings of directors in The American Cinema. Actually, there have been shifts and slides, rises and falls, all along the line. Film history is always in the process of revision, and some of our earliest masters are still alive. The American Cinema was a very tentative probe designed mainly to establish the existence of a subject worthy of study. The rest is refinement and elaboration.”— Andrew Sarris, “Billy Wilder Reconsidered” in You Ain’t Heard Nothing Yet (1998).

Women Comic Book Reader's Day: Reader Submission #1

Hey all!  Just a reminder that September 21st is Women Comic Book Reader's Day.  In order to trumpet the movement, I've put out a call for women readers to share their experiences with the form.  Here is the first profile to run.  Thanks for sharing, Meg!  I am still accepting submissions at damorton@ucla.edu.  Tweet it up at #womenlovecomix2!