Sidney Lumet

When Ingrid Bergman Rebelled Against Ingrid Bergman

August 31, 2016 by Robert J. Avrech 6 Comments

Ingrid Bergman as the saintly Sister Mary Benedict, “The Bells of St. Mary’s, 1945. — Ingrid Bergman as the saintly Sister Mary Benedict, The Bells of St. Mary’s, 1945.

So powerful are Hollywood movies as propaganda that America has never achieved victory in war without Hollywood’s support.

When Hollywood turns against America at war, defeat is assured. Witness Vietnam, the first casualty of Hollywood’s ideological wrath. The Jane Fonda, Jon Voight vehicle “Coming Home” (1978) was a turning point in Hollywood’s leftward tilt. This film convinced large segments of the American public that Vietnam was a war whose moral foundation—the fight against Communist dictatorship—was replaced by a grotesque narrative of veterans broken in body and spirit, who were, ultimately, victims of American imperialism.

Hollywood’s propaganda machine reaches beyond the content of movies into the very lives of movie stars. Certain roles register powerfully with the public in a manner impossible to predict. These performances end up defining an actor in a manner that resonates so profoundly with audiences that any deviation from that persona can thoroughly shatter an image—and a career.

Perhaps the most fascinating example is the career of Ingrid Bergman (1915-1982).

Friday Photos: Democrat Privilege

May 29, 2015 by Robert J. Avrech 11 Comments

Marilyn Monroe at Ebbets Field, New York on May 12, 1957, where she made the ceremonial first kick in a soccer match between the USA and Israel.

Pop quiz:

Why isn’t the Justice Department investigating the Clinton money laundering operation? Any other so-called charity would be under multiple federal and state indictments.

Hillary Clinton had her own private server when she was Secretary of State. This is indefensible. She destroyed 30,000 emails? Does anyone believe that all these emails were about yoga and Chelsea’s wedding? Hillary Clinton sold her office when she was in office, and she’s selling her office again — in advance of holding the Presidency.

How is it that George Stephanopoulos is pulling down 105 million a year as, get this, a journalist? Why does Stephanopoulos still have a job and yet Brian Williams was dismissed?

Why does the media continue to give Barack Obama a pass on the bloodbath he has created in the Middle East by withdrawing our troops?

And how is it that the Mayor and District Attorney of Baltimore still have their jobs when they are obviously incompetent race hustlers?

Answer: Democrat privilege; whereby Democrats thrive in a moral and legal cesspool that would destroy a Republican.

Some photos to relieve the corruption and squalor which is the operating principle of the postmodern Democrat party.

Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1960s: The Manchurian Candidate

October 10, 2013 by Robert J. Avrech 31 Comments

Angela Lansbury and Laurence Harvey in The Manchurian Candidate, 1962. — Angela Lansbury and Laurence Harvey in *The Manchurian Candidate*, 1962.

We continue our survey of the Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1960s.

For the Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1950s, click here.

For the Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1940s, click here.

For the Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1930s click here.

For the Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1920s click here.

4. The Manchurian Candidate, 1962.

Movies are time capsules.

We view a Hollywood production from, say, the 1930s and we get a series of messages—visual and verbal—that are instant snapshots of the culture from which the narrative was birthed. There are, of course, the fashions, the hairstyles, even the make up, that let us us know that we are in a particular time and place. And of course, the narratives are witnesses to how society viewed itself. The attitudes and values of American culture are on full display, in all their myriad forms, in the movies.

Some movies date better than others. The screwball comedies of the 1930s still play beautifully for contemporary audiences because the battle of the sexes is timeless. Sadly, the women’s weepies of the 40s—take a look at Now Voyager (’42), an amazing Bette Davis film—fare less well because they are seen by today’s women as regressive and misogynistic. Busby Berkeley musicals are fun, admired for their abstraction of the human form, but they are relics, kitch for the priests of high culture.

And this is one of the reasons why The Manchurian Candidate is such an astonishing movie. It is deeply contemporary, post-modernism before the term was invented.

Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1960s: Spartacus

July 26, 2013 by Robert J. Avrech 30 Comments

Kirk Douglas in Spartacus. — Kirk Douglas in *Spartacu*s.

We continue our survey of the Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1960s.

For the Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1950s, click here.

For the Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1940s, click here.

For the Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1930s click here.

For the Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1920s click here.

2. Spartacus, 1960

He wanted Hur.

More than anything, Kirk Douglas yearned to play Ben Hur. But director William Wyler had another actor in mind for Hollywood’s most coveted role. Adding insult to injury, Wyler offered Douglas the mustache-twirling role of Hur’s enemy, the villainous Messala. His pride wounded, Kirk Douglas refused to play a supporting role — not even to Charlton Heston, Hollywood’s supernova star.

Years later, Douglas confessed: “That was what spurred me to do it [Spartacus], in a childish way—the ‘I’ll-show-them’ sort of thing.”

Kirk Douglas was born Issur Danielovich Demsky, an impoverished Jewish kid who remained angry and resentful of authority his entire career.

Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1950s: The Nun’s Story

April 25, 2013 by Robert J. Avrech 27 Comments

Audrey Hepburn as Sister Luke, The Nun's Story, 1959. — Audrey Hepburn as Sister Luke, The Nun’s Story, 1959.

We continue and conclude our survey of the Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1950s.

For the Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1940s, click here.

For the Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1930s click here.

For the Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1920s click here.

20. The Nun’s Story, 1959

Think of Audrey Hepburn and chances are memory conjures the beloved actress as the chauffeur’s daughter in Sabrina, the socialite Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, the restless Princess Ann in Roman Holiday, and the street urchin Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady.