I went back to Maltinfest on Sunday and again, a large part of the fun was hanging out in the lobby talking with people of like interests and sensibilities. That was one of the things that made the gathering more pleasing than watching the same films at home on DVD. Another was seeing them on a big screen in an actual movie theater with an audience.
Yet another was hearing the intros by Leonard Maltin, with and without his daughter Jessie, and yet another was that each feature they showed was preceded by a short subject. I took a friend with me to see Absolute Beginners, the 1986 British musical film and before they ran it, they ran a 1933 Screen Song from the Max Fleischer Studio, "Ain't She Sweet?' with Lillian Roth leading the audience in singing-along. It began with an animated sequence of Fleischer-style animal characters and then —
Wait a minute. Why am I describing this film to you when I can show you? Here it is…and make sure you follow the bouncing ball and sing along…
We all sang along at the Egyptian, partly because the film was so infectious and partly because Leonard's wife Alice threatened to brain anyone who didn't. And don't think she makes hollow threats.
I enjoyed it. In fact, I enjoyed it more than Absolute Beginners, which struck me as lots of style and very little substance. The movie was very controversial in its day and I suppose still is. It has some stunning, wonderful moments starting with an astounding tracking shot that runs something like six minutes and introduces several of the key characters.
What's it about? Well, it's kind of about what Wikipedia says it's about…
The film takes place in 1958, a time in which pop culture is transforming from 1950s jazz and early rock to a new generation on the verge of the 1960s. London is post-World War II, but pre-Beatles/Stones. The storyline incorporates elements of the 1958 Notting Hill race riots. Young photographer Colin falls in love with aspiring fashion designer Crepe Suzette but she's only interested in her career. Colin tries to win her affections by taking a crack at the big time himself. Meanwhile, racial tensions heat up in Colin's neighbourhood of London.
But in a way, I thought it was about a lot of clever staging and camerawork and that the storyline, such as it was, was not served well by the style. A lot of folks felt that way and I'm again going to crib from Wikipedia…
Upon release, Absolute Beginners received immense coverage in the British media. At the time, the British film industry was perceived as being on the point of collapse (with the recent failure of the film Revolution). However, the film was panned by critics and became a box office bomb. Some of the criticisms included stylistic anachronisms, such as the mini-skirt and decidedly 1980s music from the likes of The Style Council and Sade, the bowdlerisation of [Patsy] Kensit's character (Crepe Suzette had been depicted as a promiscuous "negrophile" in the book), and the casting of [David] Bowie, who made it a condition of his musical contribution. Although the film was not a success, Bowie's theme song was very popular in the UK and reached number two in the charts.
Some folks at Maltinfest loved it. For me, it fell into the category of "Didn't Like But Glad I Saw It" and I'm glad I saw it on a big, real movie screen because what was good about it would not have been so good on my home screen.
It was followed by more lobby-chatter and then we traipsed back into the theater for the closing event, the much-anticipated — and some folks came just for this — screening of Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla. Preceding it was this 1928 short featuring the well-forgotten comedy team of Shaw and Lee…
That's what vaudeville was like, folks. Those men probably did that act exactly that way thousands of times on stages across the country. We laughed at a lot of it and I suspect we'd have laughed more in 1928 when we hadn't heard some of those jokes all our lives.
Then came the pièce de résistance, if not of Maltinfest, then certainly in the careers of Martin-and-Lewis impersonators Duke Mitchell and Sammy Petrillo. And arguably, Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla was not the worst movie in which Mr. Lugosi ever appeared, though it might have been in the bottom two.
I cannot give you a full review of it because we couldn't stay for the whole thing. Having seen it before though, I can say that if it was all like the first reel of the newly-discovered 35mm print, it never looked better. I know Mssrs. Mitchell and Petrillo have a vast cult following — I even met a gent there who's working on a biography of Sammy Petrillo — but I think it would have been a funnier film if they'd cast it instead with Shaw and Lee.
Still, it was a fun way to end a film fest that sure seemed to please its attendees. I eagerly await the second Maltinfest next year. And the one after and the one after…