1978 - THE WIZ, the legendary bad musical

Writing about this film is like swatting a fly with a jackhammer.  Whatever is said about it today was covered in negative reviews of the film when it was released and they were very negative reviews.  A lot of the criticism of the film was focused on Diana Ross who was able to use her status as a superstar performer to get the role of Dorothy Gail the protagonist of The Wizard of Oz. In the original story Dorothy was a 6 year old girl. The role was rewritten for Ross to play a young insecure woman in her 20's.  Diana Ross hadn't seen 6 years old in a while much less 26 years old.  She was 33 when she played this role and she looked it.  However in spite of the disastrous participation of Diana Ross there was plenty of blame to go around.

For a film that wanted to channel the Black American experience there sure were an awful lot of white people behind the scenes calling the shots.  The director was Sidney Lumet who was known for filming tough dramas about New York City in particular.  Lumet's last film had been Network and there wasn't a dance sequence in that one.  Lumet had never directed a musical before and it showed.  Almost every number is shot in boring wide angle shots apparently more to show off the sets than the performers.

More white people behind the scenes.  Joel Schumacher another white guy wrote the screenplay.  Schumacher's claim to fame was as the director who took over for Tim Burton in the Batman series and ran that into the ground.  The cinematographer Oswald Morris was British.  The editor Dede Allen had cut Dog Day Afternoon and Serpico, again not a lot of singing in those films.   The costume designer Tony Walton was another Brit.  Quincy Jones was the music supervisor on the film and he apparently was not very impressed with the songs which probably didn't help matters.

 

The Wiz was a film with an all black cast and it's failure commercially and critically gave Hollywood executives an excuse not to finance any films which featured black performers and stories a fairly lame excuse considering all the under performing films featuring casts of white people that really suck. 

The film's running time is an unending 133 minutes.       

1971 - THE ANDERSON TAPES, a New York City based crime thriller

New York City filmmaker Sidney Lumet directed this rather clever crime thriller.  The film stars Sean Connery as master criminal Duke Anderson who is planning a big heist in an upper class Manhattan apartment complex.  Unknown to Anderson, his every move is being monitored by lots of illegal government wiretaps. As Duke Anderson plans the heist every move he makes is being recorded.

 

As usual Sidney Lumet has a good feel for the New York City atmosphere. This is unsurprising since he was a native New Yorker.  Lumet is also working with a pretty good screenplay from Frank Pierson.  

 The actual heist itself is very exciting as the criminals have to match wits with the NYPD.

 

The film runs 99 minutes, it was a critical and financial disappointment but I think time has improved it's reputation.

1957 - 12 ANGRY MEN, classic guys in the jury room is pretty good.

12 jurors must decide the fate of a Hispanic youth charged with murdering his father.  They all want to convict him but fortunately good liberal Henry Fonda is there to set them all straight.

Sidney Lumet who at this point in his career had only been directing TV shows made his feature film debut and did a very good job keeping the film interesting considering it was all filmed on one set.

Probably the outstanding aspect of 12 Angry Men was the excellent cast of character actors that were hired for this film.

It's fun to see a lot of these guys who were to become TV and movie stars  at the beginning of their careers.  The film has Jack Klugman, E. G. Marshall, Jack Warden, John Fiedler (the voice of Piglet for Disney) and one of the great over actors of our time,  Lee J. Cobb.  Cobb doesn't just act up a storm, he snorts and bellows and flays around for over an hour and a half, a not inconsiderable achievement.

Truth be told,  Henry Fonda's character comes off as a little smug, he's the sort of self righteous individual you might want on a jury but not as a neighbor.  However, Fonda is such a good actor he pulls off the part like the pro he always was.

96 minutes.