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OT: Random TV Viewing: "Deadwood" and "Cinderella Liberty"(Hitchocck connection)

posted 7 years ago by ecarle (14979)
1 reply | jump to latest

I could do these posts at their board, but I think they are more relevant here. Because they are out of my warped mind.

Spinning the cable dial:

"Cinderella Liberty" came on. 1973 -- that very good year. Everybody remembers Nicholson in " "The Last Detail that year. Both that movie and Liberty were based on "Navy novels" by a guy named Daryl Ponicisan or some such. Both movies had a lot of cussing and gave us a low-income "grunt level" view of the Navy sailor man. Nicholson in Last Detail was a bigger deal(Oscar nommed) than James Caan in Cinderella Liberty(a Navy man's "Magical" liberty leave)...but this one's interesting, too.

And I"d call it "The Marnie Climax Love Story."

For Marnie ends with the "horrific" flashback to Little Marnie being moved out of the bedroom so Hooker Mama can bed down with a sailor(Bruce Dern.) THAT story ends in murder.

Well, Cinderella Liberty begins where Marnie ends. James Caan's sailor picks up a "barroom hooker"(Marsha Mason) and goes to bed with her but learns that her pre-teen son shares the apartment(he is already sleeping on the couch, they don't have to move him.)

What Marnie saw as sexual horror, Cinderella Liberty sees as...a love story. Sailor Caan will try to save the hooker and her boy, marry the woman, raise the boy. He's a very good guy. And this is an OK, offbeat love story. 1973 style, with a Paul Williams score for schmaltz. (Remember him?)

Noteable: Marsha Mason would soon be Mrs. Neil Simon and in his scripted movies almost exclusively(including, Chapter One, with James Caan PLAYING Neil Simon under another name.) Those movies were all rather sweet and twee and square(Goodbye Girl, anyone?)

But in THIS movie, Marsha Mason does a lot of nudity, talks a lot of sex, is generally rude and crude and socially unacceptable.

I wonder if Neil Simon fell in love then and there...

(They're divorced now.)

[–] ecarle (14979) 7 years ago

Deadwood.

I"ve been watching Sopranos re-runs on HBO demand (RIP again, Frank Vincent) and, overdosing on them, I switched on over to Deadwood, which ran only three seasons(to Sopranos 6 plus, almost seven.)

Deadwood is a VERY grim, down and dirty, profanity-filled "anti-Western" but it interested me back when it was on (2004-2006) and its fascinating me now.

Its the cast mainly. And specifically the MEN in the cast. What an incredible line-up of male actors(better, in terms of "names," than The Sopranos.)

Better still with some of them: what great voices: Ian McShane, Powers Boothe, the principal from Ferris Bueller -- when these men speak in any combination, its like listening to various voices from God. Gerald McRaney comes in late(Season Two/Three) as the "real" George Hearst and HIS voice is great too.

But they also got handsome Timothy Olyphant(BEFORE Justified -- shows like "Deadwood" make people their names), and notables like John Hawkes and Brad Dourif (from Cuckoo's Nest, all grown up as a frontier doctor) and the guy from Newhart whose brothers were Darryl and his other brother Darryl. And Keith Carradine drops by as Wild Bill Hickock(but not for long; never sit with your back to the door....)

The women are good, too. Molly Parker pulls off "a delicate and dainty woman" who somehow never gets mud on her or men in her(without her consent; she proves lustful.) Robin Weigert's Calamity Jane is a mannish drunk with a hilarious vocal pattern. There are various hookers, all presented as doing the only thing a lot of women COULD do back then.

The plot is "Sopranos goes West." Ian McShane is the villainous town boss who becomes our hero if only because worse men show up in Deadwood and try to take it over(McRaney Number One.) There is also a theme here: how civilization, government, politics and commerce built America out of mud and murder. I like it. I recommend it.

But watch out for one scene where McShane and Raney send forth into the street two big giant bruisers for a fight to the death. One wins by plucking out the other's eyeball -- which remains hanging out for the rest of the fight.

Its not TV, its HBO.

PS. Some years ago, I flew to South Dakota to FINALLY see Mount Rushmore(NXNW, don't you know.) Well, it was 45 miles to Deadwood from Rushmore, and I liked the TV show. I went over there, had a drink, and listened to my pretty female bartender tell me the "true story" of Deadwood. For , like 45 uninterrupted minutes. She was like a robot. Anyway, Rushmore and Deadwood make for a fun trip.