Tag: Orson Welles

This Week in Pop Culture Roundup (18 Dec. 2011)

Captain America In case you were too busy planning and then canceling a debate because nobody was going to show up, here are some of the pop culture stories you might have missed. This week’s roundup features some “Best of 2011” lists.

—– Best of 2011 —–

Salon listed its 10 Best Movies from 2011.

Chicago Tribune critic Michael Phillips selected his top 10 films of 2011.

Slate listed the best jazz albums of 2011.

The African-American Film Critics Association named Tree of Life the best film of 2011.

Time Magazine‘s “Person of the Year” is. . . The Protester.

Here are 10 movies from 2011 that you may not have seen but should have.

The Americana Music Association listed its 2011 Top 10 Most Played Albums.


—– Movies —–

Where’s the Batsuit when you need it? Christian Bale got a little roughed up in China while trying to visit a dissident in the country.

Cuban horror spoof Juan of the Dead, satirizes socialism using zombies.

Poptimal has a review of Tinker Tailor Solder Spy.

The first trailer for Men in Black III has been released.

Orsen Welles’s 1942 screenplay Oscar for Citizen Kane went up for auction.

Here’s an interesting video essay about “the Spielberg face” used in the director’s movies:

The Screen Actors Guild Award nominations may change predictions for the Oscars.

Say it ain’t so! Daniel Ruettiger, who inspired the film Rudy, settled w/ the SEC regarding allegations against him.

Paramount Pictures is tweaking its logo.


—– Music —–

No Depression featured a review of a Ryan Adams show in Baltimore.

Questlove from the Roots listed his top five hip-hop concept albums.

On Monday, Billy Joel became the first nonclassical musician to be inducted into Steinway Hall.

In January, Ani DiFranco will release her first album in three years.

Hasidic Jewish reggae musician Matisyahu announced upcoming changes and shaved.

The Los Angeles Times reviewed one of Aimee Mann’s annual holiday shows.

Etta James is terminally ill with chronic leukemia. Since we posted recently Rachel Crow’s version of “I’d Rather Go Blind,” let’s give a listen to James singing her great song.


—– Television —–

The FCC ordered TV stations to regulate the volume of loud TV commercials, taking effect Dec. 2012.

Howard Stern is replacing Piers Morgan on America’s Got Talent.

Steve Carrell of The Office got snubbed in the Golden Globe nominations. That’s what she said.

After interviewing the Kardashians and others on her special, Barbara Walters revealed that her “Most Fascinating Person” for 2011 is the late Steve Jobs.

—– Other Pop Culture News —–

Joe Simon, the co-creator of Captain America, passed away Wednesday night. Vanity Fair has a nice tribute to Christopher Hitchens, who also passed away in the last week. RIP.

Ho Ho Ho! Check out these photos from Life magazine of Santa making kids cry. We hope that your wishes come true without any crying in the upcoming holiday weeks.

What were your favorite pop culture stories of the week? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Treasure Island & Wallace Beery

    Treasure Island Wallace Beery
    On November 13 in 1850, Robert Louis Stevenson was born in Scotland. Although early in his life Stevenson studied civil engineering in law, he eventually became a writer and the author of literary classics like Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde(1886) and Treasure Island (1883).

    There have been different television and film versions of Treasure Island — including different ones with Orson Welles, Charlton Heston, a young Christian Bale, and even the Muppets. But for me, the film that stands out is the 1934 movie directed by Victor Fleming and starring Wallace Beery, Jackie Cooper and Lionel Barrymore. While I enjoyed some of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, Wallace Beery’s Long John Silver is the first movie pirate I think of.

    Beery’s interaction with the young Jackie Cooper in the 1934 Treasure Island are brilliant. Check out this wonderful scene where the pirate works to convince the young boy to help him escape the noose.

    Beery worked with Cooper, who died in 2011, in another classic film, The Champ (1931). According to Wikipedia, Cooper later noted how difficult it was to work with Beery, who kept trying to undermine Cooper’s acting.

    Although another child actor, Mickey Rooney, stated he enjoyed working with Beery, Cooper’s story actually enhances my viewing of Treasure Island. I like the image of Beery as a difficult man who tried to upstage child actors. What else would one expect of Long John Silver? Arrrrgh!

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    The Leopold & Loeb Trial and Alfred Hitchcock

    On January 28, 1936, Richard Loeb was killed in prison. Loeb was half of the infamous murdering pair Leopold & Loeb.  The two men and their crime inspired both the Alfred Hitchcock movie Rope (1948) and a later film, Compulsion (1956).

    In 1924, the media focused on the issue of the death penalty due to the high-profile crime and the “trial of the century.” Two young students from the University of Chicago — Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb – were charged with the murder of 14-year-old Bobby Franks.

    The Crime and Trial

    It was a ridiculous crime. Leopold and Loeb were intelligent, but fashioned themselves as superior to everyone else.  So, they wanted to see if they could accomplish “the perfect crime.” They couldn’t. Police soon found them because Leopold had dropped his rare type of glasses next to the body.

    Clarence Darrow Clarence Darrow, the attorney for the two students, turned the murder case into a referendum on the death penalty after Leopold and Loeb both pleaded guilty. When the 67-year-old Darrow argued for the students’ lives, the local paper reported that a mob “fought like animals to . . . hear Darrow speak.”

    In Attorney for the Damned, Arthur Weinberg explained that several newspapers from around the country published Darrow’s twelve-plus hour plea in whole or in part. The attorney was successful. The two were sentenced to life for the murder and ninety-nine years for kidnapping, but no death penalty.

    After the Sentencing

    Loeb was killed in prison after nine years of incarceration.  But Nathan Leopold lived to be paroled in 1958 at the age of fifty-three. Leopold apparently was quite remorseful for the murder and tried to give something back to society.

    While in prison, Leopold volunteered to be infected with malaria for a study of the disease. After parole, he moved to Puerto Rico, worked at a church-operated hospital helping others until his death.  He eventually married and earned a master’s degree at the University of Puerto Rico.

    Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope

    Alfred Hitchcock’s movie Rope (1948), which was originally a play, has parallels to the Leopold & Loeb crime.  But the movie is highly fictionalized.

    Rope features two students who murder another student to show they are superior intellectuals. They hide the body in a trunk.  Then, they use the trunk as a table for a dinner party as a way to show how they are more clever than everybody else.

    The movie stars Jimmy Stewart as a teacher who attends the party. Do the boys get away with murder? I am not going to ruin it for you.

    Alfred Hitchcock filmed the movie in a unique style with extended takes between cuts.  Ultimately, though, he referred to Rope as a failed experiment. Jimmy Stewart was not happy with his performance either.

    Rope received mixed reviews. It also faced problems as some cities banned it for perceived homoerotic content. Today, though, many critics, like Roger Ebert, praise the movie and argue it is underrated, especially for the way the movie was filmed.

    Filmmakers do not make cheesy trailers like this one anymore.  The trailer for Rope features one of the actors in character talking directly to you about the movie. I wish they still made trailers like this one.

    The trailer for Rope sort of ruins the ending of the movie, so be warned.

    Compulsion With Orson Welles

    The movie Compulsion (1956), directed by Richard Fleisher, also was loosely based on the Leopold & Loeb case. In the movie, Orson Welles played defense attorney Jonathan Wilk, a character inspired by Clarence Darrow.

    Below is a video featuring the defense attorney’s argument before the court. Wilk’s argument is much shorter than Darrow’s 12-hour speech.

    Because modern movie directors think we have short attention spans, the 10-minute speech here is probably longer than you would see in most modern movies, which is a shame. As Darrow knew, it sometimes takes some time to tell a moving story.

    What do you think of the movies Rope and Compulsion? Leave a comment.

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