A marvelous, underrated and intelligently scripted epic, the 1966 production of Cinerama's "Khartoum" seems be more appreciated by movie fans today than it was back in the day. Superb performances and fine direction by the equally underrated Basil Dearden, along with Frank Cordell's magnificent score, make it a marvelous cinematic experience.
When they say "They don't make 'em like that anymore", it might well be in reference to Bernardo Bertolucci's "Last Tango in Paris", one of the most controversial films of all time. Released by United Artists, the movie was basically an art house niche market production that became a major sensation thanks to the presence of Marlon Brando, who had just made one of the great Hollywood comebacks of all-time with his towering performance in "The Godfather". However, it was the raw sexual content of the movie that resulted in people standing in line for hours to obtain tickets to what was, in reality, anything but a populist film. Prior to the movie's American release in 1973, the Italian government issued arrest warrants for Bertolucci, Brando and female lead Maria Schneider on charges of obscenity- which, of course, only increased the public's desire to see it. United Artists' head of production David V. Picker wisely mandated that the movie initially only played at a limited number of small cinemas, therefore ensuring media coverage of frustrated movie-goers who complained they couldn't obtain a ticket for love or money. Some critics called the movie a masterpiece while others derided it as pretentious, high class pornography disguised as a "message" movie. One aspect all critics agreed on was that Brando gave one of the great performances of his career as a middle-aged American ex-pat living in Paris who tries to cope with his wife's suicide by initiating a series of kinky and anonymous sexual encounters with a young woman. Brando earned a well-deserved Oscar nomination for Best Actor despite having insulted the Academy by refusing to pick up his "Godfather" Oscar due to his disgust with how Hollywood portrayed Native Americans in films.
"Last Tango" has had its reputation damaged due to the late Maria Schneider's accusations that both Brando and Bertolucci took advantage of her naivete when she starred in the film at the age of 19. Much of the movie was improvised including some last minute scenes of a sexual nature that caught her off guard and which she said she would later regret having filmed. One thing is certain, however, the movie is unique in concept and execution. With today's sterilized film productions, adult sexual situations and nudity have generally gone the way of the dodo bird. Love or loathe "Tango", it represents a time when a major studio could release an "X"-rated title and have it find critical acclaim.
We're delighted that Joe Dante's addictive "Trailers from Hell" site has revisited Stanley Kramer's "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World". All comedy is subjective. It's pointless to try to convince someone they should find a film funny or not funny because it appeals to our basic instincts: if you find it funny, you can't help but laugh. Conversely, if you don't find it amusing, no amount of persuasion can convince you otherwise.
The trailer for this Cinerama comedy epic is narrated by the "Dean of Classic Film Distributors", Michael Schlesinger, who makes the argument that the film isn't just the greatest comedy of all time, the greatest movie of all time! We wouldn't quite go that far but we agree with Schlesinger that every frame of the film fills us with delight. Strangely enough, the late great David V. Picker, who greenlit the film as head of production at United Artists, always loathed the movie because it's excessive budget caused him to fall out with Stanley Kramer, a man he respected greatly and who he worked with on numerous occasions. He forced Kramer to make substantial cuts to the roadshow version before it went into wide release. Some of the missing footage was later found and restored for home video release. The rift between Picker and Kramer was unfortunate but David told us that he felt he had to insist on the trims for commercial reasons. He said the first cut Kramer showed him ran an astounding 4 hours and one minute! Regardless of the controversies surrounding the film, we agree it's certainly a triumph of widescreen cinema.