The Hollywood studios continue to mine the comic-book and graphic novel genres in search of the next big franchise, even re-booting some series, such as Spiderman and Superman, with new actors and new directors. While there is nothing inherently wrong with reworking or reinterpreting favorite characters—whether they be superheroes from comic books or mythic depictions of historical figures—the lack of mature actors or significant directors in the Spiderman or Superman reboots does not bode well for interesting interpretations of the material. I am more intrigued with what Timur Nuruakhitovich (Night Watch; Day Watch) will do with Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter because of his previous films and personal style.

New depictions of these pop culture characters and historical figures have recently spurred me to consider other legendary or iconic characters due for a reinterpretation. When favorite or mythic characters are revisited, they tend to reflect the issues, trends, and ideas of the era in which they are produced, sometimes intentionally but often unintentionally. Personally, that is what interests me about differing interpretations of familiar characters or events. As I was pondering these ideas, I noticed that on Wednesday TCM is offering a full day of movies featuring a character who has been a pop culture favorite for centuries, Robin Hood. The films range from the classic Adventures of Robin Hood starring Errol Flynn to the western programmer Red River Robin Hood with Tim Holt.

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Tomorrow evening, TCM offers five films starring Robert Mitchum: Cape Fear, River of No Return, Night of the Hunter, Rampage, and Going Home. The films represent about a twenty-year span, from 1954 to 1971, and range from an undeniable classic (Night of the Hunter) to a complete misfire (Going Home). Whatever the film, or its reputation, Mitchum will be the most watchable actor in the cast. Famous for underplaying most of his roles, especially when delivering dialogue, the actor exuded a laid-back self-confidence. His sleepy-eyed good lucks and barrel-chested physique gave him a commanding presence that was impossible to ignore, and he used his physicality to attract, seduce, intimidate, and frighten, depending on the role.  Well into his 50s, Mitchum had no qualms about going shirtless onscreen and off, driving both his female fans and his costars to distraction. If Marilyn Monroe was an icon of female sexuality for male viewers during the 1950s, then Robert Mitchum was the male equivalent for women viewers. I wonder why no one writes about that. . . except for me, I guess.

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This year marks the 50^th anniversary of the death of Marilyn Monroe, which is the perfect occasion for a reevaluation of her films and career. There has been renewed attention in MM because of My Week with Marilyn, and there was a retrospective of her films last summer at BAMcinematek in NYC, but, somehow, I expected more. I keep waiting for a bona fide biographer or film historian to put her films and career into perspective and to address her star image in a post-feminist era. For example, no biography has ever adequately discussed her decision to form her own production company in order to take control of her roles and career. During the 1950s, when the studio system began disintegrating, top male stars from John Wayne to Burt Lancaster formed their own production companies for similar reasons, a fact much discussed in film histories. But, Monroe—one of the few female stars to do so—is never mentioned.

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I am a sucker for old-school show-biz—vaudeville, follies-style Broadway revues, radio drama, television variety series. Tomorrow evening (Tuesday, January 10), one of my favorite movies airs on TCM. Set in 1954, My Favorite Year is an unabashedly nostalgic depiction of the days of live television. The story is told through the eyes of a young would-be comedy writer named Benji who is a gofer for Comedy Cavalcade, a popular television series starring King Kaiser. When legendary movie star Alan Swann is booked as a guest, Benji is assigned the task of getting him to the studio for rehearsal each day and keeping him sober.

Peter O’Toole received an Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of Alan Swann. Walking a fine line between myth and parody, he gives Swan swagger and movie-star appeal while simultaneously exaggerating his drinking exploits into hysterically funny bits. Mark Linn-Baker costars as wise-cracking Benji, and Jessica Harper plays his love interest, who exists as a sounding board for explanations and theories by Benji on what constitutes “funny.” The scant storyline is enriched by colorful performances by an array of character actors, including Joseph Bologna as the egotistical King Kaiser, Lainie Kazan as Benji’s mother, Lou Jacobi as his uncle, Cameron Mitchell as Mafia kingpin Karl Rojeck, Anne De Salvo as comedy writer Alice Miller, and Bill Macy as head writer Sy Benson. In an odd bit of casting, Adolph Green—screenwriter of many MGM musicals, plays Leo Silver, producer of Comedy Cavalcade.

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I have something I need to say. It’s something I don’t say often enough, and for that I am sorry. You deserve to hear it. The words are few but powerful.

I love you. I love you, Muppet Movie.

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One of my favorite films airs tomorrow night, October 4, on TCM. In a Lonely Place is my favorite directorial effort by Nicholas Ray, with terrific performances by Humphrey Bogart and by Gloria Grahame.  Though a box-office disappointment when it was released in 1950, In a Lonely Place has since been recognized as a Nicholas Ray masterwork and written about from every possible angle.  It’s been discussed as an example of film noir, posited as an autobiographical retelling of Ray and Grahame’s disintegrating marriage, and dissected as a product of its paranoiac times (the HUAC investigations and the resultant Hollywood blacklist). I can’t improve on what most critics and historians have written about In a Lonely Place, but I thought I would offer some slightly disorganized observations on why I love this movie.

In a Lonely Place stars Humphrey Bogart as Dixon Steele, a Hollywood screenwriter who is down on his luck because of his drinking and his temper. Few studios and directors want to work with him, so he takes a job turning the latest potboiler novel into a screenplay.  Rather than read the novel, he asks a hatcheck girl, Mildred, to come home with him to tell him the story.  The film has a rich texture in which even small parts are memorable because of the fertile script and the pitch-perfect performances. Mildred is a working-class gal taken with the melodrama of the book who reaches beyond her education and station to describe the story. She notes that one of the male characters looks like a “bronze Apollo,” except she pronounces it “A-polo.”

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Brad Pitt was featured this past week in Parade magazine, the tiny Sunday supplement to most major-city newspapers. In the cover article, he beams about family life with wife Angelina Jolie and their six children. He created a stir among gossip columnists and Internet wags when he referred to his previous marriage to Jennifer Aniston as an inauthentic life, because he was trying “to pretend the marriage something that it wasn’t.” Whether the quote was taken out of context, or whether Pitt isn’t particularly articulate, it was an ungracious comment to make regarding Aniston. Pitt’s offending quote swept across the Internet, and he felt compelled to make a sort-of retraction. All of which played out before the article was even available in Sunday’s issue of Parade.  Pitt’s interview was insensitive to Aniston. Anyone who has ever been thrown over for another person, and then had to endure comments about how happy their former spouses are now that they have moved on, will blanch at his statements.  And, yet, I did not think them so nasty or insulting that they warranted a back-pedaling press statement.

A day or so later, I read an interview with Nora and Delia Ephron about their upcoming stage play opening in Chicago, Love, Loss, and What I Wore. The interview was so dull and the Ephrons’ comments so colorless that I didn’t make it through the article. Both the Brad Pitt feature and the Epron interview reminded me that today’s celebrity interviews are as dull and rote as those found in studio-controlled fanzines of the Golden Age. They exist to promote a new film, a new play, or a new television series but do little to reveal the personality or career of the star or director. Many reasons account for this, including the lack of experienced journalists and interviewers who know how to ask the right questions and provide insightful context for the answers.

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When I was a little girl, I watched soap operas with my mother, making me a life-long fan of the many subgenres and stylings of melodrama. In addition to the daytime dramas, we faithfully tuned in every Tuesday and Thursday evening to watch Peyton Place, a prime-time soap based on Grace Metalious’s originally scandalous novel. The most memorable character for me was not Mia Farrow’s Allison MacKenzie nor Ryan O’Neal’s Rodney Harrington but Constance MacKenzie, who was played by Dorothy Malone. I became a fan of Malone, whose sultry presence and worldly demeanor bubbled beneath the surface of the character, a lonely but noble single mother in a town full of narrow-minded hypocrites.

Malone excelled at playing women who had a past, whether that included regrets over dalliances with bad men or memories of affairs with good ones. Through the experiences of Malone’s characters, you come to realize that there really isn’t much difference. Sometimes trashy and hot-blooded, sometimes provocative and aloof, her most memorable characters are introduced carrying a dark secret or heavy burden, which seems to define them, or at least to motivate their behavior. The unfurling of the trauma and the unburdening of the load become a compelling part of the story. Throughout it all, her characters carry their inner pain with a gritty strength while remaining vulnerable—a delicate balance.

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As we’ve seen this past week on our Blondell Blog-a-thon, Miss Joan Blondell was a survivor.  Through her long movie career she always managed to come out on top, and her image as a plucky dame was one that audiences cherished and wouldn’t forget.  As her motion picture career began to slow down and she entered middle age — never a wonderful time for an actress, then as now — she was fortunate to still have some great career choices available to her.  Joan returned to the stage to much acclaim in the 1950s, and also began to appear on television during the same time, picking up roles on many of the prestigious dramatic  (and often live) anthologies of the TV’s early years.  In the first half of the decade she delighted audiences with roles on Schlitz Playhouse (as Calamity Jane), Suspense, Lux Video Theatre (with her A Tree Grows in Brooklyn co-star James Dunn), Fireside Theatre, Shower of Stars, G.E. True Theater, Shower of Stars, Playwrights ’56, Studio One, Playhouse 90, and The  United States Steel Hour.  The worst part about this fertile period in Joan’s career is that it’s pretty much impossible today to actually watch any of her performances in these very early TV series.  Our loss, for sure.

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