Rivoli Theatre

Here is a vintage shot of the Rivoli.

I love this movie and think it is one of the American greats. So where did the geniuses at AFI put it on their list of great American films? Before or after Star Wars? Or Rocky?

TJ: the stairway scene is a total classic. Again, it’s melodrama to the extreme but the way Wyler photographs it is perfect. He actually places Marshall out of focus while maintaining the camera firmly on Davis. We read Davis' look as nervous anticipation. Without a single word of dialogue she conveys everything with her eyes and her stillness: she knows that if someone comes in, they will save Horace and her goose is cooked. But if they don’t….

It’s one of the finest performances captured on film and fine direction by one of the masters. I’ve heard that Davis' performance pales in comparison to Bankhead’s on Broadway but we’ll never know.

Again, sorry about the off topic film discussion but it’s all part of the same subject.

I have read every single one of Hellman’s plays as I happen to like her stuff a lot. Yep, it’s melodrama to the extreme and some of it, by today’s standards, is corny especially the original text of “The Children’s Hour” (Hellman revised some of it for a later production). So of the setups in that one are howlingly bad. But “The Little Foxes” is grand melodrama at it’s finest.

With regards to her changing the script for the movie, I saw a special on Samual Goldwyn and Hellman DID say that she did have to make changes though she was not specific. But she did say she liked Goldwyn very, very much because he appreciated writers and unlike other studio heads, respected their talents.

Part of the effect of that scene is its brilliant direction and cinematography. They don’t make them like that anymore.
Maybe someone who’s a Hellman expert has some more information on the screenplay and what she’s was forced to add.

To give Goldwyn his due he was also a businessman. So reuniting the lovers in heaven was his way of giving the customers a happy ending. Todays producers are guilty of far worse sops to insure higher grosses for their films.
And by the way Hellman herself might have been responsible for Richard Carlson in order to give the film a stronger social conscience.

Vincent, I was clicking through the channels last night and saw that “The Little Foxes” was on TCM. I don’t get that channel with my subscription (they won’t let you get only one channel…it has to be part of a package…stupid). Anyway, that’s a great one EXCEPT that I loathe some of the changes they made from the play like the creation of the boyfriend for Alexandra. His sole reason for being was so that at the end, Alexandra would have someone to go off with. God forbid the movie censors back then allow a woman to wander off without a man. In the play, Alexandra has no boyfriend and leaves her Mother defiantly alone at the conclusion. But still, Wyler and Davis kept most, if not all, of Hellman’s dialogue and did it in a grand style. It’s a great movie.

As for other changes, Goldwyn made Wyler shoot the scene at the very end of “Wuthering Heights” of the two ghosts of Kathy and Heathcliff. Wyler hated the shot but Goldwyn was a sentimentalist to the core.

“When did this become a forum for old movies? I thought it was about theatres. Only asking.”

I knew someone, sometime would bring this up. But in my opinion, you cannot have a discussion about movie theaters/palaces without it digressing naturally (and IMO, pleasantly…) into a film discussion as well. They work hand in hand. I personally LOVE to hear people talk about the movie palaces, what they saw there and what they thought of the films.

Warren you’re getting cranky again. A few loose threads always add interest.

I personally didn’t care for “Sweet Charity” but Shirley MacLaine gave it her all. It was a major Box Office flop. “Hello Dolly” was one of the top grossing films of the year but its cost of $24 Million which was triple of what most of the musicals cost during that era. The film lost $10 Million at the time but became very popular on VHS and DVD in later years. The following musicals were flops and poor grossers “Sweety Charity”, “Star”, “On A Clear Day”,“Half a Sixpense”,“Goodbye Mr Chips”,“Finnean’s Rainbow”,“The Happiest Millionaire”,“Darling Lili”,“Doctor Doolittle”, “Paint Your Wagon” and “Man of La Mancha”. The Major Hits of the 1960’s were “My Fair Lady”, “West Side Story”, “Mary Poppins”,“The Sound of Music”,“Thorougly Modern Millie”,“Funny Girl” and “Oliver”. The last successful roadshow musical was “Fiddler on the Roof”. “Hello Dolly” was the most expensive musical ever made during that era and if you take inflation into account no current musical comes close. It would probably cost $150 Million or more to produce today. Its ironic that 20thFoxproduced both “Cleopatra” and “Hello Dolly” in the same decade.Brucec

The point I was trying to make was that Sweet Charity is one of the last of the great Hollywood musicals and is fully deserving of a major film revival as it was originally presented on roadshow. There have been in the last few years a number of opportunities to see Cabiria in a theater and none to see Charity. I happen to disagree with the consensus on Cabiria and think that both Fellini and Masina have done finer work(I find her waif thing cloying though her final moments are wonderful.) And Simon improves on both the character of Oscar and the sequence with Vittorio. The Pompei Club is Fellini if he were making a Hollywood musical. Sensational!
But still I resent the thinking that started during the American new wave of the late 60’s and early 70’s that musicals were somehow lesser forms of film ‘art.’ When a great film musical is properly presented it is one of the most exhilarating experiences you can have in a cinema.
And by the way I definitely do not want to see Charity letterboxed at Film Forum.

Kander and Ebbs cheap cynicism was another death knell for the musical.

The fact that “Sweet Charity” was a box office disappointment has been discussed by film scholars. Many feel that it came at the end of the era of the big musical and that the time had past. Tastes had changed radically in films just the previous year with “Bonnie & Clyde” and “The Graduate”. Audiences thought that “Charity” was simply yet another bloated movie musical and they were collectively tired of them. They wanted the new realism that was just becoming terribly in vogue then (and seems quaintly but very dated now).

Ironically, Fosse would effectively put the final nail in the musical’s coffin just four years later with “Cabaret”. That film is best summed up by Pauline Kael when she stated “…it will be a long time before someone bursts into song while on a hayride.”