Typical Shenanigans in Atypical Environs

The house detective sees her wearing only a tiny towel, fleeing the hotel room of an influential millionaire who turns out to be dead but who would suspect plucky little Shirley MacLaine of blackmail? But that is the misunderstanding that fuels the comedy in 1961's All in a Night's Work. Not a particularly funny movie--every joke lands with a thud--or an interesting story but MacLaine and Dean Martin have terrific chemistry and the sets, costumes, and cinematography are just divine.

It's all sets, too, for some reason this crew never wanted to go outside. Hitchcock hated shooting outdoors because of how little control it afforded him but even he would step outside now and then when a shot required. Not even for a brief shot on the street or a beach do we leave sound stages here. This is not a Hitchcock movie but you might be forgiven for thinking it is from screenshots because director Joseph Anthony brought on board Hitchcock's costume designer, Edith Head, his art director, Hal Pereira, and two of his set decorators, Sam Comer and Arthur Krams.

The boardroom sets where Martin's Tony Ryder presides over the company he recently inherited from that influential millionaire have this lovely textured, burnished look, the art direction brought to life by the great cinematographer Joseph LaShelle (Laura, River of No Return, The Apartment).

Dino's face also has a textured, burnished quality and together with the fact that he was clearly slightly buzzed for the whole film I couldn't resist having a bourbon while I watched. MacLaine gives a much better performance--the visible layers of emotion in her reactions are credible as the transparent reactions of an innocent young woman. Martin's performance isn't bad exactly but it's mainly charming in how relaxed he is. It reminded me of how Tyrone Power made George Sanders look like he could use a sword in their sword fights through his own skill on his end--MacLaine's performance enhances Martin's.

She also sells the dialogue in three ways--she makes me believe that she honestly doesn't realise anyone suspects her of sleeping with the dead boss for his money but she delivers her lines in a way that we credibly believe other people think that. And she builds her rapport with Martin all at the same time.

I can't recommend the direction, the plot, or the dialogue but this is a damn fine thing to rest your eyeballs on.

The Weight at the Other Side

The paradox of modern romance is in its contradictory imperatives for responsibility to one's partner. Love should be about taking care of each other, of belonging to each other, yet people should neither expect others to care for their weakness and also shouldn't try to nurse them. The conflicts that emerge can seem like a seesaw and thus the title of 1962's Two for the Seesaw. A thoughtful, sometimes too clever, film about a romance across ideas and ideologies with two great performances from Robert Mitchum and Shirley MacLaine.

The film opens with one of several great location shots in New York City, this one featuring Jerry (Mitchum) contemplating suicide, but most of the film feels very stagebound. It consists almost entirely of dialogue between the two leads and it's not hard to see the movie's origins as a stage play by William Gibson (not Neuromancer William Gibson, another one). But this production directed by Robert Wise does some nice things with the limited space. I liked how the set for Jerry's apartment is connected to Gittel's, the moving camera showing us it's not a split screen and that the actors can likely hear each other.

Gittel (MacLaine) is a young and hopeful member of the counterculture, part of the second or third wave of Beats*. Jerry meets her at the home of a mutual friend during a party mostly consisting of people having shallow debates about art theory. He walks past people talking about dichotomies of motivation and the dogmatism of discussing communication. There are so many people crowded in the little place trying to get their points across it seems like a market bazaar so it's oddly appropriate he comes across Gittel trying to sell an ice box.

All she does is ask Jerry to light a cigarette for her but he has the impertinence to get her number from his friend and call her to ask her out the next day. He tells her about how he's decided he shouldn't be walking around thinking of suicide all the time so he's asking for her help. As she points out to him later, he imposes on her generosity a lot without realising, which is particularly ironic since he spends a lot of time talking about how he doesn't want to be taken care of. "So then you say, 'need you'. I need you. Who says these things in black and white? You care about somebody, you don't make 'em ask. Like a bill that's gotta be paid. What kind of giving is that?" On the other hand, if Jerry hadn't asked, the two would never have been in a relationship in the first place.

But meanwhile, each one understands why the other resents it when someone else presumes to take care of them. MacLaine, as usual, plays a character in a precarious, potentially tragic situation. She doesn't want to tell Jerry too much about it because she doesn't want to "trap" him.

This was around the same time MacLaine was making movies with Billy Wilder and Two for the Seesaw is peppered with fast pace sex jokes that are of the same species as the kind in The Apartment or Some Like It Hot but are a little too corny to be effectively funny and outright lame when they border on dirty.

But they do help serve the dialogue on sexual liberation. Jerry is presented as a more traditional figure, a lawyer who owes his position and wealth to his father-in-law--Jerry's overbearing wife is the reason he's run away to New York to be miserable. He's surprisingly easy-going about Gittel's multiple sexual partners until he sees her kissing a friend with benefits. But both Gittel and Jerry recognise Gittel's sexual attraction to Jerry is as much a part of their relationship as Jerry's sexual attraction to her. When she offers to have sex with him early on because it's his birthday, he walks out because it's another manifestation of the charity he's been trying to get away from.

But where does the charity end and the love begin? When do you start letting someone do something for you more out of their pleasure in helping than in their independent desire to take the action in question? It's a problem Jerry and Gittel are forced to chew on endlessly.

*Incidentally, to-day's Jack Kerouac's birthday

Twitter Sonnet #1214

In cases suited just for travel packed.
In bottles corked for only bees, avast.
For planes were holding ev'ry bag and sack.
And so the moving rocks above amassed.
A waiting sign was mentioned late to-night.
In cheapest coat the frigid thought persists.
A bobbing fruit was stopped and fixed aright.
The apple stilled in cider now consists.
A file found behind the image grew.
A simple use for pages coat the walls.
The words repeat and yet were writ anew.
A chain of lights were spines throughout the halls.
Umbrellas float along the creek of wine.
A voice repelled its way from out the mine.