Showing posts with label king vidor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label king vidor. Show all posts

Saturday, June 20, 2009

The Wizard of Oz

The Wizard of Oz. 1939 MGM/Turner Entertainment.
Starring: Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, Bert Lahr, Billie Burke, Margaret Hamilton, Frank Morgan, Charles Grapewin, Clara Blandick, Terry the Dog (as Toto)
Directors: Victor Fleming, Mervyn LeRoy, Richard Thorpe, King Vidor (last three uncredited)
A 70th Anniversary Collector's Edition will be released on September 29, 2009. All other releases on DVD are currently out of print.

What else can I say about the beloved film adaptation of L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz that hasn't already been said before?

Since I really don't need to summarize the plot of the movie, I can just go ahead and say that it's highly, highly, highly recommended, and everyone needs to see this one at least five times during their life. If you haven't seen it by now, well, we can't do nothin' for ya, man.

Maybe next time, I can try this one out to see if it really works...

Thursday, June 18, 2009

The Fountainhead

The Fountainhead.
1949 Warner Bros. Pictures & Turner Entertainment.
Starring: Gary Cooper, Patricia Neal, Raymond Massey, Kent Smith
Director: King Vidor
Available from Amazon as a single DVD, or part of the Gary Cooper Signature Collection set.

A 1949 movie based on Ayn Rand's first bestseller; she also wrote the screenplay for the film. Rand also made sure that a six minute speech at a trial was filmed in its entirety, and included in the final film after learning that director King Vidor was going to trim it down because it was "long, rambling and confusing". Gary Cooper also didn't understand the entire speech as it was written.

Gary Cooper is Howard Roark, an architect patterned after Frank Lloyd Wright. Roark often works as a quarryman to finance his ambitious projects rather than compromise his ideals. He also falls in love with a heiress named Dominique (Neal), but chooses to end the relationship after the opportunity to construct buildings to his wishes comes up. Dominique ends up married to a newspaperman named Gail Wynand (Massey), who uses his position to blast the "radical" Roark, but comes around in due time and becomes the architect's biggest supporter.

Despite being assured at first that his plans will be followed 100 percent, Roark is horrified to find out that his designs will be radically altered. So, he sneaks in late at night and blows the building to smithereens. Roark is put on trial, and all seems lost until he delivers a passionate testimony that wins him an acquital. Despite this, Wynand is distraught enough that he could do nothing to help Roark during his trial that he commits suicide. Roark and Dominique end up rekindling their romance, fittingly near the architect's latest building site.

Recommended.