Girl in the Gold Boots

Servo: Kevin Spacey and William Holden enjoy the show.

If there was ever a stranger pair…well, maybe it wouldn’t be these two actors. Maybe RuPaul and the Queen Mother. But I’m getting off track. Kevin Spacey is a two-time Oscar winner—he won for the (in my opinion) over-rated The Usual Suspects and American Beauty. American Beauty was the first of the “disenchanted suburbia” movies, and probably the best, what with its use of “Baba O’Reilly” in the trailer and all. William Holden is a legendary leading man; he was in Stalag 17 and Sabrina. He had a really strange rivalry with Bogart—I can’t remember exactly how it started (I’ll have to check Bogart’s biography again) but the result was a car accident during the filming of Sabrina. Bogie was showing off, if I remember correctly. So was Holden. Well you know you got two masculine big shots showing off; that never ends well. Nobody was seriously hurt, but for some reason I just think it’s the funniest thing. Holden was an interesting guy though; he was in love with Audrey Hepburn, and they probably would have married except that Holden couldn't have children. So Hepburn bowed out.


(a shot of a Doctor Dolittle billboard)
Mike: That doesn’t look like Eddie Murphy.

The remake of Doctor Dolittle, starring Eddie Murphy, is one of those rare happenings where the remake does better than the original. In this case, the original (starring Rex Harrison) was one of the biggest flops in Hollywood. Nevertheless, it won an Oscar for best song, and was nominated for Best Picture (for more on this, read Mark Harris' Pictures at a Revolution). Rex Harrison played Dr. Doolittle in the big budget musical about a man who can “talk to the animals” (can you imagine it? talking to a chimp or chimpanzee?). Actually, I remember seeing the original when I was only yea-high and loving it. Which only goes to show you that kids don’t have any idea of good film, or that adults don’t have any idea on what a good film really is. This movie was, I believe, a children’s movie (like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Mary Poppins) and I remember liking it; so it did its job. At least for me. The remake, on the other hand, was one of the summer blockbusters (1998 maybe?). It wasn’t a musical and didn’t follow the story, but it had new technology (that let the animals talk convincingly) and it had Eddie Murphy, fresh from the title role of the popular The Nutty Professor. So which Doctor Dolittle is better? I’d say the remake, but they really are so different in plot and execution that it’d be unfair to compare them. And Eddie Murphy doesn’t hold a candle to Rex Harrison (who’s on the billboard in Girl in Gold Boots). Ah, Rex Harrison. His voice scared the crap out of me in Midnight Lace (or did I just spoil the ending for you?) Did you know he was blind in one eye? No? You don’t care? You want to get on to the next reference? Okay, okay. Sheesh.


Leo: Mr. McCabe!
Servo: Sure thing, Mrs. Miller.

McCabe & Mrs. Miller was a western drama directed by Robert Altman and starring Warren Beatty and Julie Christie. It was named by Roger Ebert as one of the 100 Great Movies (buy his book, it’s really neat), and I personally liked it a lot, although (with its slow pacing and overlapped soundtrack), it may not be for some people. Beatty and Christie actually had a rather long relationship that produced a lot of good movies—this movie, Heaven Can Wait, and Shampoo. Julie Christie is one of my favorite actresses—she starred in Far from the Madding Crowd, Doctor Zhivago, Darling (which I first saw at five in the morning on TCM), The Go-Between, and Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet. Not only is she beautiful but, more importantly, she's intelligent and can act (these three usually don’t go together nowadays). After a short break from acting, she returned to film for a cameo in a Harry Potter movie, and an Oscar-nominated performance in Away From Her. For more on Robert Altman, look in the Devil Doll section.