Take a Bow

Film: The Entertainer
Format: Turner Classic Movies on rockin’ flatscreen.

Every generation has its own greatest actor. A couple of generations ago, that greatest actor was Laurence Olivier, who, despite that appellation, won only a single competitive Oscar in his career. He was nominated plenty of times, though, and since this is Olivier we’re talking about, I’m not going to be the person who says he didn’t deserve all of the acclaim he got. For me, thinking of Olivier immediately calls up images of Shakespearean dramas, which makes a film like The Entertainer not specifically a departure from his career, but a departure from what I think of when I think of him.

The Entertainer is the story of Archie Rice (Olivier), a Vaudeville-style performer whose career has been dying for years and is hanging on by the smallest thread. He has a show in a seaside resort town in England that is drawing smaller and smaller crowds that are becoming less and less enthusiastic. When the movie starts, his daughter Jean (Joan Plowright) has returned to the town. Her brother Mick (Albert Finney in his screen debut) has just shipped out to the Suez Canal, a hotspot at the time. Her other brother Frank (Alan Bates, also in his movie debut) helps out with the show and is somewhat in awe of his father.

Bombshell

Film: Blue Sky
Format: DVD from New Lenox Public Library through interlibrary loan on laptop.

I seem to be saying what I’m about to say a lot lately: the movie I watched for this review has no idea what it wants to be. Blue Sky is one half domestic drama and one half military thriller, resulting in a complete muddle of a film that has a couple of grand performances at the center. But grand performances in the service of what? I have no idea. Blue Sky, which was shelved for four years after wrapping because of Orion’s money problems, is a mess of a film. It tries to be something for everyone and ends up being something for no one.

Major Hank Marshall (Tommy Lee Jones) is one of the players in the American nuclear testing program in the 1950s. His job, more or less, is to monitor radiation, and he has slowly come to the realization that above-ground testing is an increasing issue. This, and the fact that his wife Carly (Jessica Lange) is a “free spirit” who does things like sunbathe topless within sight of the base, much to the enjoyment of the men. After her last display, Hank is transferred to Alabama to start over again. We get the feeling, particularly from the comments of the Marshalls’ daughters Alex (Amy Locane) and Becky (Anna Klemp), that this is not the first time Hank has been transferred because of Carly’s inappropriate behavior.

Tom Jones

Film: Tom Jones
Format: DVD from Rockford Lutheran High School/Jr. High Library on rockin’ flatscreen.

For whatever reason, Tom Jones was really difficult for me to track down. NetFlix doesn’t carry it, and I couldn’t find it in a local library. Of all the Best Picture winners, only Cavalcade was harder to pin down. Well, I found it in a high school library of all places, mildly shocking due to the racy nature of the film. Oh, there’s no nudity and no language, but there’s plenty of sauciness and implied sex.

Tom Jones is marginally a romance and very much a comedy. It’s worth noting at IMDB also calls it an adventure film, something with which I disagree. It is, more or less, a Georgian Don Juan tale. Our titular character (Albert Finney) is irresistible to women. That he’s also a presumed bastard child of a servant makes no difference. In fact, Tom’s alleged mother is kicked out of the service of her employer, as is the supposed father. Tom is raised in the home of his purported parents’ former employer, Squire Allworthy (George Devine).