March Special Subject – March Minnelli Madness – THE LONG, LONG TRAILER (1954); THE COBWEB (1955); SOME CAME RUNNING (1958); and HOME FROM THE HILL (1960)

It's March Minnelli Madness as we watch three melodramas directed by Vincente Minelli, plus one nightmarish comedy: The Long, Long Trailer (1954), starring Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz; The Cobweb (1955), starring Richard Widmark and Lauren Bacall (among other big names); Some Came Running (1958), based on the novel by James Jones and starring Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Shirley MacLaine; and Home from the Hill (1960), starring Robert Mitchum as an ironic patriarch and a curiously radiant George Peppard as his illegitimate son. We talk about Minnelli as a scrutinizer of masculinity and sexual mores, about certain auteurist concerns that we discover on the fly, and about Minnelli's version of 1950s consumer culture satire. Then, in Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto, we discuss the Minnelli melodrama-adjacent From Here to Eternity (1953), based on James Jones's first and less eccentric novel, with Frank Sinatra in a very different role. 

[We regret to report that the beginning of our conversation re: Home From the Hill somehow got permanently deleted by the cat, so you will note that it picks up in medias res – right after we had exulted in the casting coup of securing Robert Mitchum’s services as an ultra-ironized Big Daddy (“let’s just … let that pass…”) and marvelled at George Peppard’s uncommon facility for conveying unadorned goodness (“I got a wet pup here!”) Sorry about that, folks. I guess that just gives us another reason to revisit the film!] 

 

Time Codes:

0h 0m 45s:        THE LONG, LONG TRAILER (1954) [dir. Vincente Minnelli]

0h 26m 52s:      THE COBWEB (1955) [dir. Vincente Minnelli]

0h 41m 29s:      SOME CAME RUNNING (1958) [dir. Vincente Minnelli]

1h 17m 08s:      HOME FROM THE HILL (1960) [dir. Vincente Minnelli] (truncated by technical glitch)

1h 27m 47s:      Fear & Moviegoing In Toronto – FROM HERE TO ETERNITY (1953) by Fred Zinnemann

 

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* Listen to our guest episode on The Criterion Project – a discussion of Late Spring

* Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s

* Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive)

* Read Elise’s piece on Gangs of New York – “Making America Strange Again”

* Check out Dave’s Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist’s 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project! 

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