Wonderland Burlesque's
Let's All Go To The Movies:
With Or Without
Part I
As the say in show biz: some got it, some ain't.
To do with or without?
That appears to be the question. And these are the men with the all the answers.
Or so these films would have us believe.
Let's take a peek at what the world of cinema has to offer when it comes to the haves and have not.
Either way? It's movie magic!
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The Man Without A Heart
(1924)
When Rufus Asher suspects that Barbara Wier is plotting with his sister's husband, Edmund Hyde, he abducts Barbara and takes her to a lonely mountain retreat. Mistaking Rufus for a vagabond, Barbara shoots him, then nurses him back to health, explaining that she and Edmund were trying to stop an elopement of Edmund's wife with another man!
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The Man With The Golden Arm
(1955)
Frankie Machine is a skilled card dealer and one-time heroin addict. When he returns home from jail, he struggles to find a new livelihood and to avoid slipping back into addiction.
Based on the novel of the same name by Nelson Algren, this American independent drama film noir was directed by Otto Preminger and stars Frank Sinatra, Eleanor Parker, Kim Novak, Arnold Stang and Darren McGavin.
Screen rights to the novel were first acquired in 1949 on behalf of John Garfield, who planned to star in the film version. However, production was delayed because the Production Code Authority (PCA) refused to approve the script, with Joseph Breen stating that the basic story was "unacceptable" because of the Code's prohibition on showing illegal drug trafficking and drug addiction. The ability to obtain PCA approval was critical because at that time, many movie theaters would not show films that had not received approval. Garfield died in 1952 and the film rights were acquired by Otto Preminger from his estate.
Although the novel's author, Nelson Algren, was initially brought to Hollywood to work on the screenplay, he and Otto Preminger were incompatible from the start and the situation did not improve. Algren was quickly replaced by Walter Newman. Preminger and Newman made significant changes to Algren's original story, which led to feelings of bitterness from Algren. When photographer and friend Art Shay asked Algren to pose below the film's marquee, he is reported to have said, "What does that movie have to do with me?"
Ray Bradbury turned down an to collaborate on the screenplay. Bradbury said of the refusal "I don't give a goddamn about drugs; it bores the hell out of me. I don't understand the people who take them. So why would I write a screenplay? I'd get a writer's block immediately."
According to screenwriter Walter Newman, Otto Preminger was interested in Montgomery Clift as Frankie Machine, but the actor was either unavailable or uninterested. William Holden and Marlon Brando were also under consideration for the role of Frankie Machine.
Frank Sinatra jumped at a chance to star in the film before reading the entire script. To prepare for his role, Frank Sinatra spent time at drug rehabilitation clinics observing addicts going cold turkey. He also learned to play drums from drummer Shelly Manne.
Otto Preminger paid Columbia Pictures $100,000 to borrow Kim Novak, from which Ms Novak only received $1,000 per week. Shooting took six weeks. Novak later said that Otto Preminger was so impressed by her involvement in the role, her total dedication, that he remained rather kind, patient, gentle with her, whilst he usually behaved like a tyrant with all the actors he had to work with.
Screenwriter Walter Newman was unhappy with Eleanor Parker as Zosh and related in a 1972 interview that he told Otto Preminger that Shelley Winters should be cast in the role. The writer thought Joanne Woodward would be fine in the role, but she hadn't acted in a film as yet at that point, and Preminger turned her down.
The Motion Picture Association of America originally refused to issue a seal for this movie because it shows drug addiction. The next year the production code was changed to allow movies to deal with drugs, kidnapping, abortion, and prostitution.
The Man with the Golden Arm earned $4,100,000 at the North American box office and the critical reception was just as strong; Variety magazine stated: "Otto Preminger's The Man with the Golden Arm is a feature that focuses on addiction to narcotics. Clinical in its probing of the agonies, this is a gripping, fascinating film, expertly produced and directed and performed with marked conviction by Frank Sinatra as the drug slave."
It was nominated for three Academy Awards: Sinatra for Best Actor in a Leading Role, Joseph C. Wright and Darrell Silvera for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White and Elmer Bernstein for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture. Sinatra was also nominated for best actor awards by the BAFTAs and The New York Film Critics.
In a 1976 appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, Carson asked Frank Sinatra what was the high point of his career. Sinatra replied that while it was difficult for him to choose a particular moment, two that came to mind were winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in From Here to Eternity (1953), followed by his involvement in this film, which he described as "a milestone in the motion picture business".
The film score was composed, arranged and conducted by Elmer Bernstein, and the soundtrack album was released on the Decca label in February 1956. Allmusic's Bradley Torreano called it "one of the finest jazz soundtracks to come out of the '50s" and said that "on its own it still shines as an excellent example of how good film music can get. Bernstein's control over the smallest details of the music is what gives it the energy it contains; his blustery horns and deep percussion are only the front while some gorgeous orchestration happens almost unnoticed behind the music".
The Man Without A Body
(1957)
AKA: Curse of Nostradamus
This low-budget British second-feature horror film was directed by Charles Saunders and W. Lee Wilder and stars Robert Hutton, George Coulouris, Julia Arnall and Nadja Regin.
The film's star, Robert Hutton, said that credited co-director Charles Saunders was hired to meet a British government requirement that a certain percentage of British citizens had to be hired on non-British productions filmed in England. Hutton said in an interview that he remembers Saunders "being on the set all the time and not doing anything. To satisfy the union, they had to hire an English director because of the rules".
The re-animated head of Nostradamus is cause for scorn, both from actors and critics. Hutton said in an interview that he and the other actors "felt stupid talking to the head– we would almost break up! The actor was underneath the table, with his head stuck up through a hole in the table top, and you felt like a damn fool talking to him".
The Man Without a Body was given an X-certificate by the British Board of Film Censors (BBFC) when it was released in the UK, which meant it was suitable for exhibition only to people age 16 or over. The rating was a deliberate manoeuvre on the part of its distributor, Eros Films, which sought out horror films, imported movies and other films aimed at young adults that could get an 'X-cert' in order to exploit the market for such films.
The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "This remarkable shocker piles its horrors up with such extravagant bathos that it finally achieves an almost surrealist quality of absurdity. Script, direction and playing are banal and amateurish; while a new foreign actress, Nadja Regin gives a performance of joyous inadequacy, quite in keeping with the general atmosphere."
The Man With Two Heads
(1972)
This British/American low-budget horror film was directed by Andy Milligan and stars Denis DeMarne, Julia Stratton and Gay Field.
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The Man With Two Brains
(1983)
Recently widowed Doctor Michael Hfuhruhurr, the world's greatest neurosurgeon, injures Dolores Benedict in a car accident. He operates on her and saves her life using a technique of his own invention: cranial screw-top brain entry. As Benedict recovers, Hfuhruhurr falls in love with her and they are soon married. However, Benedict is only interested in Hfuhruhurr's money and Hfuhruhurr still yearns for his previous wife. They travel to Vienna to attend a medical conference where Hfuhruhurr finally divorces Dolores, meets a mysterious Doctor Alfred Necessiter and becomes entangled in a series of murders committed by The Elevator Killer.
Third of four films that Steve Martin has made with director Carl Reiner. The others are The Jerk (1979), Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982) and All of Me (1984).
And that's all for now, folks.
Tune in next time...
Same place, same channel.
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Man With The Golden Arm - Movie Trailer
(1955)
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