MY FELLOW AMERICANS (1996) AND THE CROSSROADS OF THE NINETIES

Few things define an era better than its politics and films, whether borrowing too many aspects from each other, or capturing an optimism that would soon evaporate in the next decade. While it seemed to get lost in the shuffle of political satires released during the Clinton administration, Peter Segal's 1996 effort has become (for this writer) a microcosm of the post-TCM/Grumpy Old Men era, nestled in that "Cold War is over, let's rest on our laurels" cultural zeitgeist.

Jack Lemmon as Former President Russell Kramer

James Garner as Former President Matt Douglas

Dan Aykroyd as President William Haney

John Heard as Vice President Ted Matthews

Bradley Whitford as Carl Witnaur

Everett McGill as Colonel Paul Tanner,

continuing his run of playing villainous government officials.

Wilford Brimley as Joe Hollis

Lauren Bacall as Margaret Kramer

Intended as yet another Jack Lemmon-Walter Matthau vehicle, My Fellow Americans came off the heels of box-office hits Grumpy Old Men (1993) and Grumpier Old Men (1995), but with Matthau having to drop out for health reasons, he would be replaced by James Garner, himself coming off a successful run of Rockford Files T.V. movie revivals.

Truth be told, Garner pulls off the "ladies man" part of Douglas

better than 90s Matthau would have.

Armed with a solid script and excellent cast, MFA is a surprisingly difficult movie to gauge in that there's so much going on in it. But while it barely made back its budget and was considered weak for a political satire, it, like many 90s mainstream comedies, comes off as more and more wide-eyed with the passage of time.

It's an old premise, but the "two enemies forced to work together" plot

is the movie's glue, given the talents of Garner and Lemmon.

Former Presidents Kramer (Lemmon) and Douglas (Garner) are drawn into an elaborate conspiracy involving bribery, assassinations, cover-ups, and a nationwide manhunt. All the while, they have to contend with both each other and the truth of their unfulfilled lives after their presidencies.

Kramer merchandises his image to all hell in the hopes

of staying relevant after his presidency.

MFA is certainly dated in more ways than one, but its script, cast, direction, and chemistry bring it well above its negative critical reception.

Lemmon somewhat outshines Garner due to having more of a character arc,

and Kramer is surprisingly earnest and vulnerable given the genre.

Douglas is hardly a stretch for Garner's (underrated) capabilities,

but he's perfectly ornery and has terrific chemistry with Lemmon.

(Especially considering the role wasn't intended for him.)

Heard is pitch perfect as Matthews, a few-years-removed riff

on former Vice President Dan Quayle.

Matthews offensively apologizing to the black golfer he hit with his ball

is unfortunately all too timeless today.

The film's only tonal off note is when Genny (Connie Ray), mother of a homeless family

that's driving Kramer and Douglas, explains how she and her husband lost their jobs

and home due to the presidents' policies. The scene is played almost totally seriously, at odds

with the earlier lighter-hearted satire. (The piano music doesn't help, either.)

Sela Ward as Kaye Griffin

Ward only has roughly two scenes in the film, which is a touch weird,

given how the film doesn't have many female characters to start with.

Did she originally have more scenes, or did I overestimate Sisters' popularity?

A more contentious point is that this movie has a serious lack of Bacall.

That, and I don't quite buy her as Lemmon's wife.

Why not have her as his badass campaign manager instead?

While stereotypical, the LGBT characters are equally as kind

as the other characters who help Kramer and Douglas,

and (spoiler!) even help save their lives.

THE ROLE OF THE NINETIES (AND DID WE ACTUALLY ACCOMPLISH ANYTHING?)

Being a 90s kid too young to remember much of that decade, MFA represents for me a warmer, sunnier, safer time, when normalcy and optimism prevailed, and things were in a state of calm. Of course, this outlook has the downside of obscuring systemic problems that were already rife in the 90s, but were conveniently ignored by the white mainstream. 

Still, as I've said before, MFA and Kramer's character arc come off as idealistic in light of what would later happen in real life (especially as reflected in other political satires). Even just a few years later, a movie like MFA probably couldn't be made with the tone that it has. In its present state, MFA may dip into sentimentality at times, but one could make the argument that those "dips" were emblematic of the time, when treacly shows and movies were still popular.

But the microcosm I referred to at the start of this post is how MFA would turn out to be one of the last in a series of comedies aimed at an older adult audience, with casts having at least one Old Hollywood star as a headliner. 

It's mind-boggling now to think of how short the post-Grumpy Old Men era truly was. Seemingly overnight, studios were scrambling to cast Matthau and Lemmon (and/or their contemporaries) in comedy vehicles dependent on their chemistry. Adding to the trend was a renewed interest in Old Hollywood, a large chunk of which was precipitated by Ted Turner's 1986 purchase of the MGM film library. Growing cable channels not only aired classic films, but commissioned many T.V. movies starring the same actors. (Lemmon, Bacall, Gregory Peck, and George C. Scott easily come to mind.)

Lemmon and Scott would even star together in the T.V. movie adaptations of

12 Angry Men (1997) and Inherit the Wind (1999).

After 1996 (or '97) however, things would take a turn. Not only were younger stars like Jim Carrey and Adam Sandler now headlining the biggest comedy hits (and hitting that much-desired 18-35 demographic), but the culture at large was skewing younger and younger. (Even my memory of the time had the Y2K/aliens/dance music aesthetic hit virtually overnight.) Perhaps the best indicator of this shift in retrospect was Bacall, much-hyped for her nomination for The Mirror Has Two Faces, famously losing the Best Actress Oscar to Juliette Binoche. 

But even had this era lasted longer... well, I don't mean to sound morbid, but... the stars were dying. And since the 80s, in increasingly rapid succession. 

Matthau would pass away in 2000, with Lemmon following a year later.

Close friends Garner and Bacall would pass away less than a month apart in 2014.

It may have ended abruptly, but seeing this era's renewed appreciation for the stars and talents while they were still around (and seeing these films appreciated by younger folks now) warms my heart as a classic film and T.V. buff. 

AND THE REST...

In addition to its great main cast, MFA boasts a multitude of character actors and future stars, including (but not limited to)...

90s villain mainstay James Rebhorn as defense contractor Charlie Reynolds

Conchata Ferrell as a truck driver who picks up Kramer and Douglas

While MFA won't win any awards for its depiction of Mexican immigrants,

it does give a small role to Michael Peña in turn.

Comedian and future Simpsons writer Dana Gould as a sandwich delivery boy

who Douglas has tackled by his Secret Service agents as a distraction

Director Paul Feig as a reporter who gets a cramp from writing

down Matthews' cringeworthy apology

John O'Leary as Ben, the night guard of Kramer's presidential library

The legendary Esther Rolle as Rita, the White House Chef

OTHER OBSERVATIONS

Jack Lemmon as one half of a duo on the run who hides on a train?

(And with a Marilyn impersonator to boot!)

Before he would perfect the "walk and talk" on The West Wing, 

Bradley Whitford pioneered the "spin and talk" and the "jog and talk".

"Who dances at speeches with ex-Presidents? Sexual Harassment Panda!"

In case you forgot this was made in the 90s,

James Garner on the toilet singing "Macarena".

Believe it or not, The Odd Couple II would later pretty much

steal this immigrants scene (and do it noticeably worse).

It was only in screencapping for this post that I noticed these priceless

facial expressions from Bacall.

TIDBITS AND SUCH

Although I thought he did a fine job with this film, Garner and Lemmon didn't get along with director Segal, as Garner stated in his 2011 autobiography The Garner Files that Segal "was a self-appointed genius who didn't know his ass from second base and Jack and [Garner] both knew it."

Chris Roberts' podcast I Saw It On Linden Street has a greatly informative episode on MFA here.

All political satires grow more and more relevant with time, but My Fellow Americans proves that satirizing the worst of politics could at least at one time be done with a reassuring counterbalance of American optimism and sense of justice, and the film deserves more notice for its talent, its place in time, and as a companion to the Matthau/Lemmon renaissance.

"You son of a..."

Copyright © Chynna Moore

BLOOD ALLEY (1955)

Here on this blog, I try to some extent not to go for the "classics" or the films everyone else remembers. In the case of John Wayne, while I do find him fascinating to read about, in terms of how his films and career influenced the culture at large, I'm not necessarily going to cover The Searchers, Stagecoach, or even (tempting as it is) The Conqueror, but rather one of his lesser-known 50s Cinemascope efforts. And since I do know something about Chinese history of that time, I thought I'd take a crack at its subject matter.

John Wayne as Captain Tom Wilder

Lauren Bacall as Cathy Grainger

Mike Mazurki as Big Han

Paul Fix as Mr. Tso

Joy Kim as Susu

Henry Nakamura as "Tack"

Berry Kroeger as Old Feng

Based on the novel (and adapted to film) by future Whipping Boy author Sid Fleischman, Blood Alley stars Wayne as American Merchant Captain Tom Wilder, who, after his ship is seized by Chinese Communists, is "shanghaied" (IMDB's words, not mine) into transporting the villagers of Chiku San to Hong Kong (via riverboat and without even a real map) through "Blood Alley" (the Strait of Formosa). All the while, he finds himself attracted to tough physician's daughter Cathy, who herself fights her attraction to the rugged captain.

Wilder not-so-low-key insults a Red Army prison guard

while talking to him about "Baby".

Just from reading the synopsis, you can probably guess Blood Alley is one of several anti-Communist propaganda-themed films Wayne headlined of the era (1952's Big Jim McLain had this ill-advised poster and him in Hawaii tangling with future Alfred Alan Napier), and in some respects, it is exactly what one would expect, while in others, there's some effort (to this reviewer's surprise) to try and show a fairer portrayal of the Chinese people for the time.

San Francisco Bay's China Camp stands in for the fictional Chiku San village.

Filling in for a fired Robert Mitchum, Wayne very much gives a "John Wayne performance", with a few exceptions.

Wilder learns the fate of Cathy's father. Awwww...

Wayne's chemistry with Bacall isn't non-existent, but the structure of the story, coupled with Wayne's Captain Wilder having an imaginary girlfriend named "Baby", brings an odd element to your garden-variety "slap-slap-kiss" sexual tension (albeit not in such quick procession). Whether as a result or not, Wayne and Bacall don't quite gel enough to elevate the material.

See what I mean though?

Wayne and Bacall later reunited for 1976's The Shootist.

Fans of Bacall might be disappointed in her reduced role in the second half of the film, preferring her disposition in the first half, though that's also largely due to the story's focus on the ship's journey and the villagers. I certainly wished she kept more of it up for the rest of the film.

They replaced me in Cactus Flower with who?!

For every aspect I like about Blood Alley (or can at least appreciate), there's another that's either rushed, inaccurate, badly dated, or singed by the "Yellowface" element.

As ridden with "Engrish" as her dialogue is, Kim is great as Susu. One of the few villagers who stands up to Wilder (and him hilariously submitting to her in turn), she pretty much steals the show whenever she's on, getting a chance to sing to the ship passengers later in the film.

Wayne's transformation into Oskar Werner on Columbo

would sadly be short-lived.

Less embarrassingly written is Nakamura's "Tack", an amusingly "Americanized" villager who's an expert marine engineer with an affinity for cigars. Nakamura is so charming in the role, that it just makes the Caucasian actors playing the other villagers stand out even more jarringly.

While I appreciate that Blood Alley doesn't employ "Yellowface" makeup

(for the most part), Fix is so clearly raising his eyebrows to "make slants"

that you wonder how he hasn't gotten a headache yet.

"She's a combination Anita Ekberg and Tura Satana!"

Believe it or not, Ekberg won the Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer that year.

Blood Alley moves along quite well, thanks to Wellman's solid direction and William H. Clothier's great cinematography. Given the image quality, you would be forgiven for thinking this was from a soft DVD transfer, but it's actually due to the technological challenges of restoring films made with Cinemascope lenses (seen in this film's panning shots), 50s Eastmancolor film stock, and the short-lived WarnerColor process.

Some of Blood Alley's scenes employ so much soft-focus that

you'd swear you were watching an Emmanuelle film.

The amount of extras in this film, coupled with the use of real ships, was undoubtedly 

a massive undertaking that should be credited for its execution.

Blood Alley has an excellent, dialogue-free sequence where members

of the Feng family try and take control of the ship, scored only by thunderclaps

(and at one point, the sound of a goat).

The sequence also provides a nice moment of chemistry between Wayne and Bacall.

THE STUFF OF SYNTAX (AND BEYOND)

Because the village of Chiku San is fictional (though the real-life Blood Alley is actually in Shanghai), Blood Alley may get around some scrutiny regarding accuracy, and I shouldn't expect total accuracy in a 50s propaganda movie, but needless to say, this Chinese-Canadian had a field day making fun of the "little things" in this film.

While I commend the white actors for learning a sizable amount of Chinese (all unsubtitled), 

their thick accents clash with the Chinese-American actors speaking Mandarin.

(And Betty, I love you, but girl, you sound Cantonese.)

For those who don't know, because China is such a large, diverse country, its dialects are regarded as mutually unintelligible. You could make the argument that the Communist soldiers might understand more than one dialect, but hearing the different accents in this film is like watching a film set in historical London (back when French was the official language), and its actors from Ireland, Wales, Scotland, and Northern England not even attempting to do a London accent (but even worse).

W.T. Chang as Mr. Han and George Chan as Mr. Sing

No real explanation is given as to why Chiku San's people want to flee

to Hong Kong, other than disliking the government in Beijing. In real life,

the rural villagers would more likely be focused on rebuilding after

the events of both WWII and the Chinese Civil War.

Neighborhood Gossip

Old Feng, patriarch of a large, "Peiping-friendly" family, is no one's idea of a "dyed-in-the-silk" Communist. Just from material obsessions alone, he's closer to the Communists' idea of what a Nationalist looks like.

"Yellowface" aside, Kroeger is (darkly) hilarious as Feng, hitting 

his own relatives for not adequately caring for his engine-less car.

Interestingly, this "token bad Commie" is a fan of the 

American national pastime of using a Viewmaster.

Also, little explanation is offered as to why the Fengs are taken along on the ship (other than for plot inconvenience), so one could infer that any major conflict could have been avoided had the Fengs just run off to Beijing.

LOGO GEMS

Blood Alley uses the 1953 - 1956 three-dimensional variant of the 1948 - 1967 Warner Bros. Shield, usually reserved for 3-D and some 2-D films.

OTHER OBSERVATIONS

An uncredited James Hong has a small speaking role as a Communist soldier.

Wayne bayoneting a lecherous soldier trying to assault Bacall is only 

slightly less funny than Wayne firing a too-small MAC-10 in McQ (1974).

Uh, yeah, no. I have zero issue with Bacall's scenes here.

Before Paul Sorvino in Goodfellas, there was "Tack" and his "magic cigar",

moving from his hand to his mouth between shots.

Chekhov's Throwing Knives

"Help! I'm being seajacked by a six-foot-tall monk

who keeps calling everyone "Pilgrim"!"

The other important Western Union telegram regarding

a disappearance in 1955.

Bacall reacts appropriately to the imaginary girlfriend who stole her real-life nickname.

After seeing all the real ships in the film, the finale's obvious models

will give the audience some real Theodore Tugboat flashbacks.

TIDBITS AND SUCH

Wayne promoted Blood Alley in the I Love Lucy episode "Lucy and John Wayne".

While Blood Alley has some gorgeously-colored posters, some of them also seemingly depict Bacall as either inexplicably black-haired or as Princess Leia. 

Blood Alley is an odd, "crossroads" depiction of how Hollywood saw the Asian community, nestled within your run-of-the-mill historical adventure movie, with a large dash of propaganda, and is best viewed as a historical artifact and a marker of the Cinemascope era.

Copyright © Chynna Moore