Endless Summer, 1940s Tinseltown, Homefront

Hollywood and Los Angeles after World War II: In the heyday of film noir, from the mid-1940s to the mid-1950s, the utopian aspirations that had driven the foundation and meteoric rise of the Hollywood studio system since World War I suddenly seemed fragile and liable to collapse. For the American Right, which had never much liked Hollywood on moral and political grounds, it came to appear as a Communist command post on American soil; for workers, it was a desperately insecure and often hostile place in which to try to make a living; and for the Hollywood moguls it was a dream they once had that was now threatened by industrial unrest, government regulation, and new technologies.

In a lengthy and spirited defense of the Hollywood film industry from its critics published in the New York Times on April 9, 1950, Dore Schary, then head of production at MGM, contended that many Americans viewed Hollywood as a “modern Babylon,” full of “white Rolls Royces,” “blonde secretaries,” and “houses full of bear rugs littered with unclad women.”

Americans loved Hollywood for its visions of stars on the silver screen but they understood the real place barely at all and viewed its inhabitants with mistrust. The apparent encircling of Hollywood by hostile voices stood in contrast to what seemed to be the continuing and unstoppable rise to greatness of Los Angeles, the city in which Hollywood was based but with which its relationship had always been ambivalent. Like Hollywood, Los Angeles emerged strongly from World War II, but unlike Hollywood, it seemed to progress onward and upward for the following twenty years as a result of prioritized investment by the federal government that had begun under the New Deal and continued with the expansion of the city’s vibrant defense, aircraft, and automobile industries, as well as its maritime trade. The postwar era was one of economic boom and relative political stability, characterized by Mike Davis as an “Endless Summer” in which the city consolidated its public image as a conservative, affluent, sunny, healthy, and reliable bastion of a certain kind of American comfort.

The key to the dramatic rise of Los Angeles and other Sunbelt cities in the postwar era was not only their identification of and innovation in new types of economic activity but the successful implantation of a new model of citizenship that was promoted by its advocates as a broadening of the benefits of capitalism to embrace the working class but that seemed to many the enforcement of a new political quiescence.

The historical record reveals that a remarkably straight line can be drawn between the determination of the Hollywood moguls to ensure the continuing profitability of their industry and the consolidation of a new rightist dispensation in American politics and society in the 1950s whose legacy remains with us today in many respects. Throughout the era, the Hollywood moguls and IATSE labor leaders in their pay used anti-Communist discourse to suppress the demands of workers and, in doing so, benefited from the fact that, as Ingrid Scobie has put it, “California led all other states in anti-subversive activity” both before and after World War II. This entailed encouraging investigations by the Fact-Finding Committee on Un-American Activities of the California State Senate and by U.S. congressional committees such as the House Labor Committee and the House Un-American Activities Committee. This strategy in turn was a decisive influence on the formulation of the 1948 Taft-Hartley Act, which broke the power of militant labor in the United States as a whole and enforced a new vision of the worker as a shareholder in capitalism, which became a pillar of the postwar Pax Americana and the later rise of neoliberalism. -'A Regional Geography of Film Noir Urban Dystopias On & Offscreen' essay from "Noir Urbanisms: Dystopic Images of the Modern City" (2010) by Mark Shiel

-Tony Kirby (James Stewart): "It takes courage. You know everybody's afraid to live."

-Alice Sycamore (Jean Arthur): "You ought to hear Grandpa on that subject. You know he says most people nowadays are run by fear. Fear of what they eat, fear of what they drink, fear of their jobs, their future, fear of their health. They're scared to save money, and they're scared to spend it. You know what his pet aversion is? The people who commercialize on fear, you know they scare you to death so they can sell you something you don't need." -"You can't take it with you" (1938) directed by Frank Capra

Kyle Chandler says he would do his best to mimic these black-and-white heroes: "So, when I stepped into acting, it fit real well because I had played these characters already. Before my father died, but especially after, what do you do when you live on 22 acres and there aren't enough kids to play with?," he asks rhetorically. The answer was supplied by Ted Turner's first foray into broadcasting, a channel with a heavy Gable-Stewart-Cooper rotation. James Ponsoldt ("The Spectacular Now" director): "I feel like Kyle as Coach Taylor is sort of a throwback to a Gary Cooper, or a Henry Fonda, or a Jimmy Stewart: this profoundly decent bedrock of a great father and a great coach."

Peter Berg said to me one day, "Dude, how do you do it? You're constantly working, but no one knows who you are." I don't mind that too much. My biggest goals when I came out to Los Angeles were to be married and have a family, and be able to afford to live as an actor. That's what I do now. And little by little, I keep working with these people. This time it's J.J. Abrams and Steven Spielberg. I'm not going to question it. I don't know what I'm going to do next, and I don't care. Everything just keeps going. Like my pop used to say, "Just listen to your gut." That's what I do. In for the long haul; the rest is all just trappings. Source: www.aintitcool.com







"I gave them all up for you." -Jeff Metcalf telling Ginger she doesn't need to be jealous of all the women in his past: "Kids" episode from "Homefront" (starring Kyle Chandler and Tammy Lauren).

True Detective, Homefront Noir, Jeff & Ginger

-I think the big social novel is a crime novel. (James) Ellroy writes social novels, Dennis Lehane writes social novels. (George) Pelecanos writes social novels. As we increasingly become entrenched in this Age of Empire era that were now entering, the sort of — not desolation — but decrepitude and the pervasive feeling of systems not working that are some of the governing aspects especially of noir and crime fiction in general, I think that more and more becomes the medium where you can explore the various aspects of American society currently torn asunder. I think that the kind of noir stuff that actually has a plot can often be the most effective vehicle for delivering what are our most fundamental existential questions. -Interview with Nic Pizzolatto, the New Orleans-born novelist who is the writer-creator of HBO drama “True Detective”. Source: www.nola.com

Marty finds peace with his ex-wife and family, but only after he allows his macho facade to fall. It's only after he breaks down in tears, and shows that everything is not ok, that he can find some peace. Marty takes Maggie's left hand, and we see the wedding ring of her new relationship. And for Rust, the experience of this case, and being near-death after his confrontation with Childress, gives him a "belief" in life, hope, and love. He lets go of his nihilism. In the end, the murder of Dora Lange and all of the speculation as to what The King in Yellow is and what it means didn't really matter in the grand scheme of things. It was only part of the crucible by which these two detectives comment on life, have those views tested, and grow and change through the experience.

Is life an endless repetition where we'll taste all the aluminum and ash over again in a meaningless flat circle? Or is it an existence where things are connected in light and darkness, where we can only have some form of peace when we acknowledge our ignorance? The show doesn't provide a definitive answer to those questions. But the journey of the show's characters in trying to make sense of hunches and flashes of insight about a case mirrors our stumbling around in life trying to make sense of the best and worst moments. Source: www.dailykos.com

"Mob City" (2013) episode 6: Joe turns up at the Union Station and manages to subdue Leslie and hands him over to Rothman. Rothman then asks for the pictures Jasmine had took, which Joe had snatched from the locker. Joe demands Jasmine's safety before handing over the pictures. Rothman tells Joe he will set up a meeting between him and Bugsy Siegel. After leaving the Union Station, Joe tells Jasmine that he was the one who killed Hecky and tells her to leave on the next train out of town and never come back.

'Mulholland Falls' is a 1996 American neo-noir crime thriller film directed by Lee Tamahori and written by Pete Dexter. Jennifer Connelly plays Max Hoover's former lover, Allison Pond. Nick Nolte plays the head of an elite group of four Los Angeles Police Department detectives (based on the real life "Hat Squad") who are known for stopping at nothing to maintain control of their jurisdiction. Their work has the tacit approval of L.A.'s police chief (Bruce Dern). A similar theme is the basis of a 2013 film, 'Gangster Squad,' and a 2013 television miniseries, 'Mob City'.

The noir aesthetic derived from wartime constrainsts on filmmaking practices. Brooding, often brutal, realism was conveyed in low-lit images, recycled sets, tarped studio back lots, or enclosed sound stages. Home-front worries certainly made audiences more receptive to the darker visions depicted in film noir. A somber war-related zeitgeist grew out of harsh realities in America. As Hollywood reacted to war, elements vital to the growth of film noir began to coalesce. The Second World War created a complex array of social, economic, cultural, political, technological and creative circumstances, a catalyst for film noir. -"Blackout: World War II and the Origins of Film Noir" (2005) by Sheri Chinen Biesen

Through the surrealistic settings, David Lynch vibrates the past and present culture of Hollywood in "Mulholland Drive" (2001). The presence of authoritarian film moguls and graffiti-spattered restaurants eviscerates our impression of this idyllic dreamy place. Film-makers [and writers] like Samuel Fuller, Raymond Chandler and Polanski have of course established Hollywood as ‘capital of corrupt’, but Lynch’s vision is a notch above because he embraces the notion through an irrational storytelling method, which again remains contrary to the Hollywood tradition. Source: movierestrospect.blogspot.com

Jeff Metcalf to Ginger Szabo: "I like cheering. Who wouldn't? But that's not why I play ball. I'd play in an empty stadium... And if you want to be an actress just to have strangers can fall in love with you, then I don't get it. Because they wouldn't know the real you, and I know the real you, and I already love you, whether you're a movie star or not." -Jeff tells Ginger that acting is a "screwy" business ("Sinners Reconciled" episode from "Homefront" TV series) Source: lemongrrl.tripod.com

Spunky Ginger Szabo was a drugstore clerk who dreamed of becoming a movie star. After an ill-fated stay in Hollywood, Ginger finally got her big show business break in 1946 when she was chosen to be the Lemo Tomato Juice girl. She later appeared on WREQ (Lemo Tomato Juice Hour) with future husband, Jeff Metcalf.

Jeff Metcalf was a small-town guy who dreamed of being a major league ballplayer. He eventually did make it in the big leagues, joining the Cleveland Indians in 1946, but a leg injury almost cut his career short. Luckily for him, his future wife, Ginger Szabo, intervened and convinced his former coach to give him another shot at a tryout. Jeff persevered and won a second chance with the Indians when they sent him to their farm team in 1947. The road to love was not easy, though. Jeff and Ginger challenged each other each step of the way.

They survived the Ginger's brief, ill-fated stay in Hollywood, Jeff's flirtation with a baseball-loving barmaid, Ginger's career ambitions, and a thousand other misunderstandings. But watching them make up was always the fun part. There was never any doubt at any time how much they really loved each other, and in the end, they were finally married in memorable way : on a train, with Jeff on his way to joining the Indians' farm team. Source: lemongrrl.tripod.com

Kyle Chandler has enormous appeal, yet he hardly strikes the one-dimensional note we tend to expect from anyone labeled a hunk. His Jeff Metcalf is a rarity: a decent guy whose actions aren't easy to predict. "He's pretty upstanding," says Chandler. On TV most upstanding guys end up seeming like wimps. Chandler somehow avoids that pitfall. "As for why he's not a wimp, I guess because the acting is so damn good and realistic," he adds with a laugh. -The Observer Reporter (1992)

-"I think that sense of humor is important in marriage. A sense of humor gets people through marriage." -Kyle Chandler

Kyle Chandler (Flower of my heart) video

Kyle Chandler (Flower of my heart) video

No FNL movie, Peter Berg's 50th birthday

Connie Britton, Peter Berg, Kyle Chandler and Aimee Teegarden

Our clear eyes got a little misty and our full hearts deflated a bit when we heard that the long-rumored "Friday Night Lights" movie is probably never happening. Kyle Chandler has said he thinks the show ended perfectly as it is, and executive producer Peter Berg (Happy 50th birthday!) recently declared the project dead. Though Jason Katims did write a script for a possible "FNL" movie, he doesn't think it will happen, either: "It's a matter of getting everybody onboard and everybody available, so at this point, unfortunately, it doesn't look likely. I was hoping to do it."

We were hoping to watch it, too. But then again, we have to agree with Chandler: The "Friday Night Lights" series finale (which earned Katims an Emmy in 2011 for drama series writing) wrapped up the show's storylines so elegantly that we almost want that to be the last time we ever see Coach and Tami and the Dillon gang. So since we'll probably never see it, Katims wouldn't mind telling us what was in that script he wrote, right? We couldn't get him to divulge many details, but he did reveal to us that the main plot "was going to be the next chapter in Coach's life, the next coaching chapter in his life."

Remember, last we saw Coach and Tami, he was coaching a new high school football team in Philadelphia while she settled in as dean of admissions at a nearby college. So would that mean no Dillon, Texas? Or would Coach's team end up in some kind of playoff game that brings him and his family back to their old stomping grounds? We really shouldn't torture ourselves like this, should we? Source: tv.yahoo.com

'Friday Night Lights' was a great movie, and the TV show. After five shots at it, five seasons, as it went on, it got smaller and smaller and smaller, and it almost got canceled. We were up against 'American Idol' the first year and it got moved,” Chandler said. "[Producers] Jason Katims and Pete Berg and those guys kept it alive, kept the material so fresh, and ended the thing so perfectly. I think that's a tribute to those guys. I like the ending of the show as much as I like the whole thing in the sense that it was just done so classy, it was just done so well. Hats off to those guys." -Kyle Chandler

"The coaches were aware of the gripes, but the bottom line was that Boobie had the talent and they did not. Like it or not he was the franchise, unless, for some reason, they did not need him anymore The negotiations became more and more tense, and the Carter contingent changed its mind. Forget the thought of ever playing in Texas Stadium in the white suburb of Irving. Think now about playing in the Cotton Bowl, deep in the heart of Dallas. The Permian side was momentarily stunned. Of all the places Permian wanted to play the Carter Cowboys, the Cotton Bowl was the last. Its location, a little east of downtown Dallas, made it a magnet for the city’s black community. The two sides finally agreed to play the game at a neutral site in Austin at Memorial Stadium of the University of Texas.

The coaches gave their pre-game speeches in the locker room. 'I knew at that moment I’d given everything I had to give, total commitment. Not holding back anything. Like being truly clean and truly free as far as maximum effort. It’s an emotional feeling, an emotional high that is basically unparalleled.' That was their great cutting edge. That’s what made them different. And they would not give it up, not against the Carter Cowboys with their 4.4 flyboys and their All-American hotshots and the wild-eyed fervor of their fans fueled by all those Kafkaesque court battles to stay in the playoffs, not against anyone." -"Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team, And A Dream" (2000) by H.G. Bissinger

Irresistible Charm: Robert Taylor, Kyle Chandler

"Acting daily with Miss Turner fascinated Robert Taylor. He took it as long as he could and when he discovered she was making no effort to ignore his attentions and in fact, was physically drawn to him, he knew he had to be with her alone. 'She became an obsession. I had to have her, if only for one night….'" -"Robert Taylor: The Man wih the Perfect Face" (1989) by Jane Ellen Wayne

"Rationality and reason now look like poor bets to save us on their own, although the contrary tendency to abandon them altogether is another dangerous dead end. Indeed, the whole arena of the ‘Imaginary’ has become more significant, as people are forced to seek out new ways of representing themselves and their identities and to recognise the way identity is learned and not given. But widening the sphere of experience and perception to include emotion and acknowledgement of desire —of the unconscious— requires a comprehensive revision of what it means to be a man." -"Sexual Difference: Masculinity and Psychoanalysis" (1994) by Stephen Frosh

"The Tastemaker: Carl Van Vechten and the Birth of Modern America" (2014) by Edward White - American culture, perhaps more than any other, is populated by dazzling personalities that, for a brief time, dominate the scene, shape the conversation, and then are largely forgotten. In a society preoccupied with the new and the offbeat, neglect and oblivion seem to be the price one pays for fame and success. Carl Van Vechten illustrates that phenomenon as well if not better than any other twentieth-century figure. With his camera, he captured the likeness of nearly every noteworthy twentieth-century African American creative genius, from Billie Holiday to Mahalia Jackson and James Baldwin.

Wherever he looked, Van Vechten saw the world in black and white. He was the opposite of color blind. Then, too, he took stunning photos of nearly every famous American artist and writer in the 1920s and 1930s, including F. Scott Fitzgerald and Gertrude Stein, but those portraits, they're less dramatic. Source: www.swans.com

A vital change in the characters made by Peter Jackson in "King Kong" (2005) is to Jack Driscoll. In the original "King Kong" (1933), Driscoll (played by Bruce Cabot) is the first mate of the Venture and a regular-Joe leading man of the era. Even though he thinks dames are quite a nuisance, Driscoll falls for Ann, famously played by Fay Wray.

Jackson splits Driscoll into two characters [in his new version]. One is Bruce Baxter (Kyle Chandler), who is a spoof of Hollywood leading men of the 1930s. 'Heroes don't look like me in the real world,' Baxter says. -"Masculinity and Monstrosity in Contemporary Hollywood Films" (2013) by Kirk Combe and Brenda Boyle

Kyle Chandler received one of the faux "Bruce Baxter" posters from King Kong (2005) as a souvenir. His wife hung it up in their bedroom.

F. Scott Fitzgerald is quoted during a toast in "Broken City" (2013): “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter - tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther... And one fine morning- borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

"Picnic" is about the impact of a young, unabashedly virile male on a tiny, repressed Kansas town during the Depression; its rhythms are full of yearning and languor. Scott Ellis invariably conducts them with a lighthearted beat. Ellis has found a powerful protagonist in Kyle Chandler. Physically imposing (that's highbrow for "a hunk"), Chandler also has an irresistible charm that makes his ability to unhinge an entire town plausible. As the young woman who abandons a respectable future for him, Ashley Judd only comes into her own in the final scenes, particularly the one in which she realizes her feelings for him doing an impromptu dance. She does not really project the bottled-up emotions driving her until then. Source: www.ibdb.com

It's nearly impossible to get Chandler to exert even a moment of self-congratulation about his game-changing run as Coach Taylor on FNL. Such an inbred grasp of humility no doubt helped the actor transform one of the great archetypal characters into a quiet study of self-conscious masculinity. As with Britton, the final season allowed for unexpected turns in Chandler's onscreen persona; we saw him, for the first time, challenged by the person who loved him most. Chandler made his mark. To see him triumph over flashier competition like Jon Hamm would be a true "full hearts, can't lose" moment. Source: www.hollywoodreporter.com

Coach Eric (Kyle Chandler) to Tami Taylor (Connie Britton): "I love you. I respect you. I am proud of you. I am in love with you completely. And you're a hell of a hot wife."

Coach Taylor became extremely embarrassed when it came time for any of the lovey-dovey parts. In fact, Season 2 was supposed to open with a Tami-Coach sex scene, but apparently, Chandler was so uncomfortable filming the bit that the producers deemed the footage unusable, and cut it out of the show. From then on, Friday Night Lights wouldn’t attempt another Taylor-couple love scene, and we now know who to blame. Damn you, Chandler. You couldn’t have pulled it together for us? That stings. Source: www.bustle.com

Sin City 2 - Teaser Trailer

Co-directors Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller reunite to bring Miller's visually stunning "Sin City" graphic novels back to the screen in Sin City: A Dame to Kill For. Weaving together two of Miller's classic stories with new tales, the town's most hard boiled citizens cross paths with some of its more reviled inhabitants. Sin City: A Dame to Kill For is the follow up to Rodriguez and Miller's 2005 groundbreaking film, Frank Miller's Sin City.

The cast includes Mickey Rourke, Rosario Dawson, Jessica Alba, Jaime King, Jamie Chung, Dennis Haysbert, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Christopher Meloni, Josh Brolin, Ray Liotta, Juno Temple, Jeremy Piven, Bruce Willis, Eva Green, Julia Garner and Stacy Keach. Source: www.ropeofsilicon.com

Joseph Gordon-Levitt recently sat down with IGN, where he spoke about his role in the new movie: “I loved working with Rodriguez, and actually doing that week on Sin City was really influential because a lot of the short films that we made with HITRECORD were made in a somewhat similar way to the way that Sin City is shot, completely on green screen. You've seen the first episode, so you've seen the one with Elle Fanning. That was shot very much like Sin City. We don't have a huge airplane hangar like he has. We have a corner of our office. [Laughs] We converted that into a green screen site. But you know, just having the actors performing entirely on green screen and then creating the world around them -the difference being of course that Rodriguez has his team of Troublemakers, whereas we put the green screen footage up on our site and anyone is open to contribute their illustrations and animations to get behind it.”

Boxing films: "Southpaw", "Killer's Kiss"

Enemy Featurette - Denis Villeneuve: The Web Of His Mind (2014) - A man seeks out his exact look-alike after spotting him in a movie. After proving themselves to be one hell of a team with last year's Prisoners, Jake Gyllenhaal and director Denis Villeneuve re-team for Enemy, which is currently available exclusively on DirecTV.

While we wait for the March 14th theatrical release date, check out a brand new featurette for the flick, which features interviews with Gyllenhaal, Villeneuve, and co-star Melanie Laurent!
Source: www.dreadcentral.com

Antoine Fuqua Closes Deal To Direct Kurt Sutter-Penned ‘Southpaw’ - Jake Gyllenhaal Set To Star: Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, Olympus Has Fallen) will direct Southpaw, the drama written by Sons Of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter set in the boxing world.

Jake Gyllenhaal is now set to star as a welterweight champion who rises in his profession while his personal life falls apart. The picture, financed by The Weinstein Company, will start before the cameras this summer. Fuqua was looking at a number of projects to helm but decided on Southpaw, and his deal closed last night. Still to cast is the other lead, Titus ‘Tick’ Willis, a former fighter who was forced to retire after losing an eye and was on his way to becoming a pro trainer but retreated after his son was killed. This is a movie that could include some breakthrough performances as the script plays to cultural diversity. Source: www.deadline.com

Killer's Kiss (1955) revolves around Davey Gordon (Jamie Smith), a 29-year-old welterweight New York boxer at the end of his career, and his relationship with his neighbor, taxi dancer Gloria Price (Irene Kane).

Kubrick’s perverse story about a triangle of sexual obsession between a gangster, a dance-hall girl, and a prizefighter was produced before the art-theater marketplace had fully emerged, and it was filmed so cheaply that it has almost no direct sound recording or dialogue. The opening sequence borrows a few images from Kubrick’s earlier nonfiction short, Day of the Fight (1951), and later scenes are photographed with a hidden camera as the players mingle with the nighttime crowds on Times Square.

Throughout, Kubrick uses 1940s-style narration as a substitute for speech, and he often composes over-the-shoulder shots in order to hide lip movements. (He also stages conversations on telephones, which makes the work of dubbing much easier.) His cost cutting sometimes results in an abstract or symbolic effect, reminiscent of the avant-garde. Midway through the film, a flashback-within-a-flashback allows the dime-a-dance girl to take over the narration from the prizefighter: her elaborate story is illustrated by nothing more than the image of a ballerina dancing against a black limbo. The most impressive sequences of Killer’s Kiss employ the style of artful, New York–school street photography—especially in a protracted sequence in Times Square, where Kubrick digresses from the main action. -"More than Night: Film Noir in Its Contexts" (2008) by James Naremore