Tweet Great Commentary Tracks

[silentfilm]

I watched two DVDs with the commentary tracks on this weekend. Sunset Boulevard (1950) with commentary by Wilder biographer Ed Sikov was fascinating. Of course the film is outstanding anyway, but Mr. Sikov has some great stories about the making of the film.

He doesn't overanalyze. He points out a little of the symbolism in the film, but doesn't dwell on it. When I saw the film, I got that William Holden was the replacement for the dead pet monkey. But I never realized that some of Swanson's costumes were in the style of Salome, who she wanted to portray. And Norma Desmond practiclly did have Joe Gillis' head on a platter by the end of the film.

He also explained how that got that great shot from under Holden as he floats helplessly in the pool. He spends a lot of time talking about the prologue that was cut from the film after preview audiences laughed at it. The extras include two of the snipped prologue shots in the morgue (only the picture elements still exist.)

The second film I watched was Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn with commentary by director Nicholas Meyer. The surprising thing here was that Meyer had never watched the TV show before agreeing to write and direct the film. Much of the commentary was about why he wrote things into the script, or why scenes turned out the way they did.

He was a very young director (it was only his second film), but had a great working relationship with Ricardo Montalban. He even told Montalban that he was wasting his talent doing Fantasy Island, which is very true. He also goes into the difference between movie stars and actors, and you can guess which type he likes better. It was interesting, but I doubt that I would ever listen to it again.

[silentfilm]

I listened to (and watched) Criterion's version of Charade (1963) and the commentary by director Stanley Donen and writer Peter Cook is a hoot. The two obviously got along wonderfully, but they argue at the beginning of the film whether or not to give away the location of the stolen money. Cook (who died in 2003) says nobody listens to the commentary before watching the movie, but Donen won't let him spill the beans until the movie actually does.

They've got a great story about Cary Grant saying that he didn't want to do expository dialog, since usually the supporting characters did that. Also, it was quite a few lines to memorize. Cook and Donen agreed, but no other character knew what Grant's multiple aliased character knew at that point. They convinced Cary to say the dialog, but he hadn't memorized it yet. So they wrote it on a chalkboard and had Grant read it. The other actors really teased Grant about having to read his dialog off a chalkboard.

When they first met before filming, Audrey Hepburn was terrified of meeting Cary Grant. And how do you introduce two stars like them who need no introduction? She accidentally spilled wine on Grant's suit at that meeting.

Donen also got a gag shot of Grant imitating his imitators saying, "Judy! Judy! Judy!', but unfortunately that shot is lost.

Cook had written the screenplay with Grant and Hepburn in mind. It was his first screenplay, and every studio rejected it. So for some money, he adapted it into a novel, and an abridged version ran in Redbook magazine. Suddently the same studios were all interested in his screenplay!

Probably not. There's a Thomas Ince film called The Battle of Gettysburg (June 1913) for which the AFI catalogue lists no literary source, unless you consider a historical event to be a source in itself.

Were there any news reports/exposes of the white female slave trade at the time? That could have triggered the story line.

There were quite a few popular (and lurid) books on the subject. One of my favorites is called "Fighting the traffic in young girls" http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/26081 It was popular enough that I once found a well thumbed edition translated into Swedish. Other books like "The Dance Hall Peril" touched on the subject- of course the 19th century classic in that field is "From the Ball Room to Hell"

Alain Silver and James Ursini have been an outstanding pair of commentators on the DVDs for several film noirs--for example, check out the terrific Nightmare Alley. Great film, great comments that make you like the film even more.

I also like Eddie Muller's commentary track on Robert Wise's House on Telegraph Hill. In many ways, Muller's discussion about the film is more interesting than the film itself, which as I think about it, is sort of the ultimate inverted compliment-- a commentary track more interesting than the film that it comments on (!)