it's really, really good to have you pause for a few minutes (or, in this case, a little more, I'd wager a little more) and indulge your VOLUNTARY passion for OUR benefit (although I more than suspect it feels pretty good for you as well).
one of those odd little--and very minor--coincidences is that I re-watched the 1938 "Dawn Patrol" a…
it's really, really good to have you pause for a few minutes (or, in this case, a little more, I'd wager a little more) and indulge your VOLUNTARY passion for OUR benefit (although I more than suspect it feels pretty good for you as well).
one of those odd little--and very minor--coincidences is that I re-watched the 1938 "Dawn Patrol" a few days ago. I've never seen the 1930 version that Hawks directed, but I bet you have.
it's been a shitty day here for entirely personal reasons, so reading this was even better for taking my mind off my own shit for awhile.
and, because of your Eisner story, my best friend of 6o years just left ten minutes ago, and he was the most-used orchestrator on a bunch of Disney features. he has nothing good to say about the assholes who run things there. and it's inconceivable that ANYONE could prefer Mickey to Bugs. in fact, I've always thought that Mickey has always had something kind of Nixonian about him, quite aside from Walt's incredibly vindictive, lying union-busting and (at the very least) borderline fascism.
The 1930 version is better. Interestingly, it was actually started several years earlier, after "Wings", and a lot of the flying sequences were done earlier. There's a moment in the movie where you see a silver airplane and if you're an airplane nerd for WW1, you know it's a Hanriot, and what only a few people know is that the guy flying it is the great French WW1 ace, Charles Nungesser. He had come to Hollywood to make his fortune but hadn't, and considered himself lucky to get hired to do this flying which gave him enough money to take the train to New York and a ship to LeHavre and he never came back.
I figured that was the case, mostly because of Hawks's well-known flying mania. there's pretty large bunch of people who'd say Hawks was THE great director, although I actually think his westerns aren't as fabulous as some of those folks believe they are. for me, it's Peckinpah, Ford and Anthony Mann. but Hawks and maybe Wellman were the best guys for airplanes. I'd love to get a look at that first "Dawn Patrol" and will search for a copy, since I'm gonna have to be in bed for awhile.
and your piece of '20's movie trivia (which is not at all trivial) is most welcome. I wouldn't have thought a great WWI aviator would have had such a hard time in Hollywood, but the guys running the studios were, pretty universally, assholes at best. some things never change.
Yeah, Peckinpah is Da Man. I don't know how many times I have watched the director's cut of The Wild Bunch (there's a great book I can't remember the title written in the past 5 years about making the movie). Nobody is ever going to come within 20 light years of the first 20 minutes. To me, that is The Perfect Movie. Ford yeah - Stagecoach will always stand up, along with Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Wellman was good with flying because he knew what he was doing - he flew with the Lafayette Escadrille in WW1.
I also watch the Director's cut of "The Wild Bunch" at least once a year. funny thing is, I actually saw it (the Director's Cut) BEFORE I saw the other cut. I was in London in 1969 and it's the last thing I did there. I saw it again in NYC a few weeks later and it had been butchered...virtually no scenes between Holden and Ryan (the latter being one of the great Hollywood actors the studios had no idea how to deal with, and I think "The Setup" is THE best boxing movie). I'm also a huge fan of "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid" even though no audiences ever saw the Director's cut of THAT when Peckinpah was alive. the book you're talking about is by a guy named Stratton...I read it about three years back and have some quarrels with matters of interpretation, but the stories about what an insane shoot it turned out to be are a lot of fun, even if I I'd never have wanted to hang out with old Sam...you know, starting bar fights the stunt guys had to finish, etc. funny thing about "The Wild Bunch" is that I share virtually NONE of the sentiments the movie embraces. I partially take that back...LOYALTY really IS a big deal.
it's really, really good to have you pause for a few minutes (or, in this case, a little more, I'd wager a little more) and indulge your VOLUNTARY passion for OUR benefit (although I more than suspect it feels pretty good for you as well).
one of those odd little--and very minor--coincidences is that I re-watched the 1938 "Dawn Patrol" a few days ago. I've never seen the 1930 version that Hawks directed, but I bet you have.
it's been a shitty day here for entirely personal reasons, so reading this was even better for taking my mind off my own shit for awhile.
and, because of your Eisner story, my best friend of 6o years just left ten minutes ago, and he was the most-used orchestrator on a bunch of Disney features. he has nothing good to say about the assholes who run things there. and it's inconceivable that ANYONE could prefer Mickey to Bugs. in fact, I've always thought that Mickey has always had something kind of Nixonian about him, quite aside from Walt's incredibly vindictive, lying union-busting and (at the very least) borderline fascism.
thanks, Tom.
Ha! Very good!
The 1930 version is better. Interestingly, it was actually started several years earlier, after "Wings", and a lot of the flying sequences were done earlier. There's a moment in the movie where you see a silver airplane and if you're an airplane nerd for WW1, you know it's a Hanriot, and what only a few people know is that the guy flying it is the great French WW1 ace, Charles Nungesser. He had come to Hollywood to make his fortune but hadn't, and considered himself lucky to get hired to do this flying which gave him enough money to take the train to New York and a ship to LeHavre and he never came back.
I figured that was the case, mostly because of Hawks's well-known flying mania. there's pretty large bunch of people who'd say Hawks was THE great director, although I actually think his westerns aren't as fabulous as some of those folks believe they are. for me, it's Peckinpah, Ford and Anthony Mann. but Hawks and maybe Wellman were the best guys for airplanes. I'd love to get a look at that first "Dawn Patrol" and will search for a copy, since I'm gonna have to be in bed for awhile.
and your piece of '20's movie trivia (which is not at all trivial) is most welcome. I wouldn't have thought a great WWI aviator would have had such a hard time in Hollywood, but the guys running the studios were, pretty universally, assholes at best. some things never change.
Yeah, Peckinpah is Da Man. I don't know how many times I have watched the director's cut of The Wild Bunch (there's a great book I can't remember the title written in the past 5 years about making the movie). Nobody is ever going to come within 20 light years of the first 20 minutes. To me, that is The Perfect Movie. Ford yeah - Stagecoach will always stand up, along with Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Wellman was good with flying because he knew what he was doing - he flew with the Lafayette Escadrille in WW1.
I also watch the Director's cut of "The Wild Bunch" at least once a year. funny thing is, I actually saw it (the Director's Cut) BEFORE I saw the other cut. I was in London in 1969 and it's the last thing I did there. I saw it again in NYC a few weeks later and it had been butchered...virtually no scenes between Holden and Ryan (the latter being one of the great Hollywood actors the studios had no idea how to deal with, and I think "The Setup" is THE best boxing movie). I'm also a huge fan of "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid" even though no audiences ever saw the Director's cut of THAT when Peckinpah was alive. the book you're talking about is by a guy named Stratton...I read it about three years back and have some quarrels with matters of interpretation, but the stories about what an insane shoot it turned out to be are a lot of fun, even if I I'd never have wanted to hang out with old Sam...you know, starting bar fights the stunt guys had to finish, etc. funny thing about "The Wild Bunch" is that I share virtually NONE of the sentiments the movie embraces. I partially take that back...LOYALTY really IS a big deal.
Loyalty is the whole story.