Melodrama

SOAP (ABC, 1977-1980)

November 4, 2020

(fubu/tubi/Vudu) Following in the footsteps of MARY HARTMAN, MARY HARTMAN was this gonzo satire of soap operas created by Susan Harris (an already established writer from LOVE, AMERICAN STYLE, and who would go one to create THE GOLDEN GIRLS). Difference was, this was explicitly comedic, and weekly. The cast was stacked: Katherine Helmond, Richard Mulligan, Robert Guillaume, a young Billy Crystal (a rare recurring gay character*), and more.

Far more screwball than practically anything else on the air at the time, the show aimed for laughs but still pushed the envelope far more than they needed to, and they pulled in loads of eyeballs! That’s why it was so shocking that, at the end of the third season, which features a jaw-dropping cliffhanger, the show was cancelled.

That didn’t stop ABC from producing spin-offs, though. If you’re a child of the 80s, you probably never realized that BENSON was born from SOAP.

If you’re a fan of ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT, you owe yourself to trace your television heritage back and watch this. (Mitch Hurwitz cut his teeth on GOLDEN GIRLS, and no doubt, ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT would not exist if it weren’t for SOAP.) It was well-ahead of its time, and it’s a crime that it’s mostly forgotten.

  • It’s worth noting that MARY HARTMAN, MARY HARTMAN had one of the first gay storylines on TV, but it didn’t last that long, whereas Crystal’s character did. Whether Crystal’s performance was a good thing is another question all together.

MARY HARTMAN, MARY HARTMAN (1976-1977)

November 3, 2020

A breakout daily satirical soap conceptualized by Norman Lear, but shaped by Gail Parent, Ann Marcus and Joan Darling, focused around a severely dysfunctional family and their titular wife, Mary Hartman (played by Louise Lasser), whose life of constant stress and anxiety and insecurity builds to a crescendo of a nervous breakdown. It’s a severely intelligent, often hilarious, self-critical melodrama about domesticity, consumer culture, American media & existentialism that’s just as relevant now as it was when this was first broadcast.

The show nailed its tone out of the gate, as you can see with the infamous ‘Waxy Yellow Buildup’ series opener:

(I really wish SHOUT! featured a longer clip, as the first half of the premiere is amazing. The show quickly picked up its pace, but kept its oft-putting, absurd sensibility, well before it was fashionable.)

It’s worth noting that MARY HARTMAN was a full-blown phenomenon, at least for its first year. If you’ve read the first TALES OF THE CITY (1978), you know that characters planned their days around the broadcast. Lasser was brought onto SNL to do a Mary Hartman bit, which allegedly resulted in her being banned from the show for erratic behavior.

The show was too smart, burned through too much plot, was too emotionally grueling and controversial to have any proper longevity, and it wrapped when Lasser bowed out at the end of the second season which, doesn’t sound like much, but those two seasons consisted of 325 half-hour episodes over the period of under two years.

If you’d like to read more about it (instead of watching all 325 episodes like I have), here are two great places to start:

https://tv.avclub.com/mary-hartman-mary-hartman-combined-soap-opera-satire-1798242393

https://eastofborneo.org/articles/from-a-waxy-yellow-buildup-to-a-nervous-breakdown-the-fleeting-existence-of-mary-hartman-mary-hartman/

In typical Lear fashion, a spin-off was born based on one of the odder characters, Barth Gimble, as FERNWOOD 2 NIGHT, and then reborn as FERNWOOD FOREVER, both tongue-in-cheek takes on local late night programming which are probably better remembered today than MARY HARTMAN is.

BLUE (1993)

September 30, 2020

(kanopy) This is the last of my dramatic film recommendations for a while — October will be 100% horror (mostly film, some TV) and November will be all about TV, and I expect I’ll be too exhausted to write anything for December, so I’m closing September out with my favorite movie ever: BLUE, the final film in Krzysztof Kieślowski’s THREE COLORS trilogy. (Don’t worry, you don’t have to have seen RED or WHITE to get it, but you might want to circle back.)

Please excuse my indulgence, but it’s the film that crystalized to my teen mind what, emotionally, a film could imbue. A story of love and loss, of legacy and exploitation and regret, exquisitely and silently and loudly told. A woman coping with the sudden death of her husband and daughter and the lies she dealt with when they were alive, and those she tries to convince herself of while she’s trying to live. Its economy is devastating; a perfect film for the walking wounded.

That said, Zbigniew Preisner’s score does -a lot- of heavy lifting. (I still hold dear a very nicotine-stained CD of the soundtrack.) So many films cheap out on trying to showcase ‘iconic works created by their protagonists’, but SONG FOR THE UNIFICATION OF EUROPE — Julie’s version, of course because, well, spoilers — is a goddamn masterpiece:

and brings everything full-circle in a moving end-scene (NSFW):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4X3gWrby52I&t=427s

So, yes, there you go. I’m not one for best of lists, but BLUE is undeniably my favorite film ever, and I don’t see that changing any time soon. I hope these words move you to watch it, if you haven’t already. Onto October, and some scary fun!

THE GHOST & MRS MUIR (1947)

September 29, 2020

(VOD) One of the first adapted novel-to-film paranormal romances I can think of. A story of the ghost of a sea pirate overseeing his land, and those who currently inhabit it. Harrison’s stilted as always, but handsome and aloof enough to get away with it. Tierney’s supremely regal, and the closing scene is perfect.

Fun fact: it was also adapted into a late 1960s TV sitcom, including Charles Nelson Reilly as a landlord-ish figure you’d later see on THREE’S COMPANY.

Also, if anyone reading this knows someone at the CW, well, I have a pitch to sell.

SHANGHAI EXPRESS (1932)

September 28, 2020

(DVD/Blu-Ray) While Marlene Dietrich’s breakout film was THE BLUE ANGEL (1930) and the first of several films she’d make with director Josef von Sterberg, and while Sternberg’s MOROCCO (also 1930) was her first American film — and also featured her in a tuxedo — it’s Sternberg’s SHANGHAI EXPRESS (1932) that I think of when I think of Dietrich. It’s the pinnacle of his layered use of sets and textures and Dietrich’s unique ‘butterfly’ lighting style, resulting in a film that looked like nothing anyone had seen at the time, and is often copied, especially the film’s use of netting, feathers, lace, etc.

(More on butterfly lighting: https://onphotography.me/2019/10/13/marlene-dietrich-and-the-invention-of-butterfly-lighting/ )

Warning: certain facets of this film have not aged well, as you may be able to glean from the trailer or, hell, just the film’s title.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3Qljls-FkI

IN A LONELY PLACE (1950)

September 25, 2020

(Plex/Prime/VOD) Adapted from the groundbreaking Dorothy B. Hughes novel, Nicolas Ray’s film is less of an examination of PTSD and toxic masculinity than that of a melodramatic noir of a distrustful couple. It’s a completely different beast, but no less powerful, mostly because Ray was contractually obligated to make the film with his recent ex-wife Gloria Grahame, who he divorced because he caught her in bed with his 13-year-old son, whom she later married. (Yes, really. https://medium.com/@stowens/the-not-so-wonderful-life-of-gloria-grahame-2d996a843c83 )

It’s a gorgeous, sad, film that utilizes Bogart’s charisma and volatility, while also leveraging some pitch-perfect production design, and puts post-WWII emotions on display.

INSIDE DAISY CLOVER (1965)

September 21, 2020

(VOD) A meta ‘Hollywood will tear you apart’ tale featuring Natalie Wood in yet another role where she doesn’t get to use her own voice. It’s so meta that there’s an explicit musical number named YOU’RE GONNA HEAR FROM ME and, while it’s occasionally her own voice, it’s mostly Jackie/Robin Ward.

They really put a pin in it with Daisy’s breakdown scene which, yes it’s overly dramatic, bordering on camp, but I found it stunning, and loved the silencing.

Probably nobody’s favorite film — it’s too ramshackle and self-indulgent, and the end leans too much on being ‘hysterical’ (again, I can’t argue against camp claims) — but it’s worth watching, especially for the numbers.

MADAME X (1966)

August 27, 2020

(VOD) Epic camp melodrama that never quite feels earnest enough, but is still a worthwhile display of a woman spiraling downwards, and the systems set in place that mean to put her in her place. (Also worth nothing: absinthe is a major plot point.)