1964--The Year in Review

71 films of note this year--a record-breaking number. And yet it's so easy--and so correct--to rely on Stanley Kubrick's Cold War masterpiece to top them all. It remains the most prescient movie released that year, and the one that most go back to repeatedly, even if it's supremely, wryly unsettling. Its cast is wholly perfect, its look is notably accurate (Ronald Reagan, upon winning the US presidency, expected to see a Ken Adam-designed war room). And the emotion Kubrick evokes for viewers is one of bizarre exhilaration towards the truth his film comedically reveals--a feeling no other movie in cinema history quite leaves us with. The fact that Dr. Strangelove was bested at the Oscars by a middling musical adaptation like My Fair Lady is a fact best forgotten (though it's difficult to do so when Jacques Demy's much more vigorous musical from France flamed our senses with its bright colors and notes; it should be noted, though, that The Umbrellas of Cherbourg was not seen on US screens until 1965, when it garnered more appreciation--though it was still nominated for the Foreign-Language Film award this year). American-born director Richard Lester delivered perhaps the most influential movie of 1964--in ways we would not begin to process for decades to come--via a look at a day in the lives of the most famous people on the planet--The Beatles--who each, against all reasonable expectations, turned out to be adept screen presences while completely transforming the era's music (in a soft spin). The UK continued to make broad strides with the breakthroughs of Julie Andrews, Peter Sellers, and unique epics from Peter Watkins, Peter Glenville, and Cy Endfield (plus the very best James Bond film). The world cinema would see stunners from Pasolini (whose literally revolutionary look at the life of Jesus transfixed everyone), Kalatozov, Teshigahara, Antonioni, Kobayashi (with a visually ravishing horror anthology), Buñuel, Godard, Bertolucci, Dreyer, Paradjanov, and Satyajit Ray. The short film categories are here expanded to include Documentary Shorts, the best of which is a look at childhood dreams and realities directed by a now-forgotten UK filmmaker, yet updated faithfully every seven years since by his dedicated assistant. And the Documentary Feature spot is given to a sharp-eyed filmmaker who reduces endless days of US Senate testimony down to a manageable and unforgettable narrative. Meanwhile, the Live Action Short winner is a shuddery, skillfully filmed Canadian commentary on a possible future without humans--a perfect film to feature on a bill with either Dr. Strangelove or Sidney Lumet's Fail-Safe. And, finally, this year, the Best Song category assuredly explodes with possibilities. NOTE: These are MY choices for each category, and are only occasionally reflective of the selections made by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (aka The Oscars). When available, the nominee that actually won the Oscar will be highlighted in bold.

PICTURE: DR. STRANGELOVE, OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB (US/UK, Stanley Kubrick)
(2nd: A Hard Day’s Night (UK, Richard Lester), followed by:
The Gospel According to St. Matthew (Italy, Pier Paolo Pasolini)
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (France, Jacques Demy)
I Am Cuba (USSR/Cuba, Mikhail Kalatozov)
Culloden (UK, Peter Watkins)
Point of Order! (US, Emile de Antonio)
Woman in the Dunes (Japan, Hiroshi Teshigahara)
Red Desert (Italy, Michelangelo Antonioni)
Zulu (UK, Cy Endfield)
Kwaidan (Japan, Masaki Kobayashi)
Goldfinger (UK, Guy Hamilton)
Diary of a Chambermaid (France, Luis Buñuel)
Band of Outsiders (France, Jean-Luc Godard)
Nothing But a Man (US, Michael Roemer)
A Fistful of Dollars (Italy, Sergio Leone)
Fail-Safe (US, Sidney Lumet)
Becket (UK, Peter Glenville)
Gertrud (Denmark, Carl Th. Dreyer)
Seven Days in May (US, John Frankenheimer)
Shadows of Our Forgotten Ancestors (USSR, Sergei Paradjanov)
The Naked Kiss (US, Samuel Fuller)
Séance on a Wet Afternoon (UK, Bryan Forbes)
The Train (US, John Frankenheimer)
Marnie (US, Alfred Hitchcock)
A Woman is a Woman (France, Jean-Luc Godard)
Four Days in November (US, Mel Stuart)
The World of Henry Orient (US, George Roy Hill)
Mary Poppins (US, Robert Stevenson)
A Shot in the Dark (US/UK, Blake Edwards)
The Best Man (US, Franklin J. Schaffner)
Before the Revolution (Italy, Bernardo Bertolucci)
World Without Sun (France, Jacques-Yves Cousteau)
Gate of Flesh (Japan, Seijun Suzuki)
That Man From Rio (France, Philippe de Broca)
The Killers (US, Don Siegel)
Onibaba (Japan, Kaneto Shindo)
The Masque of the Red Death (UK, Roger Corman)
Charulata (India, Satyajit Ray)
The Chalk Garden (UK, Ronald Neame)
One Potato, Two Potato (US, Larry Peerce)
Zorba the Greek (UK/US, Michael Cocoyannis)
My Fair Lady (US, George Cukor)
7 Faces of Dr. Lao (US, George Pal)
Kiss Me, Stupid (US, Billy Wilder)
At Midnight I Will Take Your Soul (Brazil, José Mojica Marins)
Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (US, Robert Aldrich)
The Fall of the Roman Empire (US, Anthony Mann)
Empire (US, Andy Warhol)
The Thin Red Line (US, Andrew Marton)
The Soft Skin (France, Francois Truffaut)
Marriage Italian Style (Italy, Vittorio de Sica)
Blood and Black Lace (Italy, Mario Bava)
Man’s Favorite Sport? (US…Howard Hawks)
The Pumpkin Eater (UK, Jack Clayton)
Seduced and Abandoned (Italy, Pietro Germi)
Viva Las Vegas (US, George Sidney)
Cheyenne Autumn (US, John Ford)
Lilith (US, Robert Rossen)
The Night of the Iguana (US, John Huston)
Strait-Jacket (US, William Castle)
Robinson Crusoe on Mars (US, Byron Haskin)
Fate is the Hunter (US, Ralph Nelson)
The Incredible Mr. Limpet (US, Arthur Lubin)
The Tomb of Ligeia (UK, Roger Corman)
2000 Maniacs (US, Hershel Gordon Lewis)
The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies (US, Ray Dennis Steckler)
The Horror of Party Beach (US, Del Tenney)
Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (US, Nicholas Webster)



ACTOR: Peter Sellers, DR. STRANGELOVE, OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB (2nd: Tony Randall, 7 Faces of Dr. Lao, followed by: Ivan Dixon, Nothing But a Man; Richard Burton, Becket; Peter O’Toole, Becket; Anthony Quinn, Zorba the Greek; Rex Harrison, My Fair Lady; Stanley Baker, Zulu; Kirk Douglas, Seven Days in May)
 

ACTRESS: Kim Stanley, SEANCE ON A WET AFTERNOON (2nd: Catherine Deneuve, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, followed by: Jeanne Moreau, Diary of a Chambermaid; Barbara Barrie, One Potato, Two Potato; Julie Andrews, Mary Poppins; Abbey Lincoln, Nothing But a Man; Constance Towers, The Naked Kiss; Paula Prentiss, Man's Favorite Sport?; Sophia Loren, Marriage, Italian Style; Anne Bancroft, The Pumpkin Eater)

SUPPORTING ACTOR: Sterling Hayden, DR. STRANGELOVE, OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB (2nd: George C. Scott, Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, followed by: Henry Fonda, Fail-Safe; Michael Caine, Zulu; Slim Pickens, Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb; John Gielgud, Becket; Stanley Holloway, My Fair Lady; Edmond O’Brien, Seven Days in May; Larry Hagman, Fail-Safe; Paul Scofield, The Train)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Lila Kedrova, ZORBA THE GREEK (2nd: Agnes Moorehead, Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte, followed by: Jisoku Yoshimura, Onibaba; Anne Vernon, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg; Grayson Hall, The Night of the Iguana; Maggie Smith, The Pumpkin Eater; Edith Evans, The Chalk Garden; Glynis Johns, Mary Poppins)



DIRECTOR:  Stanley Kubrick, DR. STRANGELOVE, OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB (2nd: Richard Lester, A Hard Day’s Night, followed by: Mikhail Kalatozov, I Am Cuba; Jacques Demy, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg; Pier Paolo Pasolini, The Gospel According to St. Matthew; Peter Watkins, Culloden; Hiroshi Teshigahara, Woman in the Dunes; Michelangelo Antonioni, Red Desert; Sidney Lumet, Fail-Safe; Cy Endfield, Zulu)



NON-ENGLISH-LANGUAGE FILM: THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW (Italy, Pier Paolo Pasolini) (2nd: The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (France, Jacques Demy), followed by: I Am Cuba (USSR/Cuba, Mikhail Kalatozov); Woman in the Dunes (Japan, Hiroshi Teshigahara); Red Desert (Italy, Michelangelo Antonioni); Kwaidan (Japan, Masaki Kobayashi); Diary of a Chambermaid (France, Luis Buñuel); Band of Outsiders (France, Jean-Luc Godard); Before the Revolution (Italy, Bernardo Bertolucci); Gertrud (Denmark, Carl Th. Dreyer); Shadows of Our Forgotten Ancestors (USSR, Sergei Paradjanov); A Woman is a Woman (France, Jean-Luc Godard); Gate of Flesh (Japan, Seijun Suzuki); Onibaba (Japan, Kaneto Shindo); Charulata (India, Satyajit Ray))

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: POINT OF ORDER (US, Emile de Antonio) (2nd: Four Days in November (US, Mel Stuart), followed by: World Without Sun (France, Jacques-Yves Cousteau); What's Happening!: The Beatles in the USA (US, Albert and David Maysles); Empire (US, Andy Warhol))



ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Alan Owen, A HARD DAY'S NIGHT (2nd: Peter Watkins, Culloden, followed by: Jacques Demy, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg; Michael Roemer and Robert M. Young, Nothing But a Man; Kobo Abe and Eiko Yoshida, Woman in the Dunes)



ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Stanley Kubrick, Terry Southern, and Peter George, DR. STRANGELOVE, OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB (2nd: Pier Paolo Pasolini, The Gospel According to St. Matthew, followed by: Edward Anhalt, Becket; Franklin Coen and Frank Davis, The Train; Gore Vidal, The Best Man) 



LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM: 23 SKIDDOO (Canada, Julian Biggs) (2nd: Help! My Snowman's Burning Down! (US, Carlson Davidson), followed by: 21-87 (Canada, Arthur Lipsett); It's Not Just You, Murray (US, Martin Scorsese); Scorpio Rising (US, Kenneth Anger))




DOCUMENTARY SHORT FILM: SEVEN UP! (UK, Paul Almond) (2nd: Faces of November (US, Robert Drew), followed by: 9 From Little Rock (US, Charles Guggenheim); Magic Molecule (Canada, Christopher Chapman, Hugh O’Connor); Electronics in the World of Tomorrow (Finland, Erkki Kurenniemi))



ANIMATED SHORT FILM: THE PINK PHINK (US, Friz Freling) (2nd: Archangel Gabriel and Mrs. Goose (Czechoslovakia, Jiri Trnka), followed by: Canon (Canada, Norman McLaren and Grant Munro); Dr. Devil and Mr. Hare (US, Robert McKimson); Aos (Japan, Yoji Kuri)



BLACK-AND-WHITE CINEMATOGRAPHY: Sergei Urusevsky, I AM CUBA (2nd: Tonino Delli Colli, The Gospel According to St. Matthew, followed by: Hiroshi Segawa, Woman in the Dunes; Gerald Hirschfeld, Fail-Safe; Kiyomi Kuroda, Onibaba)

COLOR CINEMATOGRAPHY: Jean Rabier, THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG (2nd: Carlo di Palma, Red Desert, followed by: Yoshio Miyagima, Kwaidan; Geoffrey Unsworth, Becket; Harry Stradling, My Fair Lady) 

BLACK-AND-WHITE ART DIRECTION:  DR. STRANGELOVE, OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB, Seven Days in May, The Gospel According to St. Matthew, Zorba the Greek, Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte

COLOR ART DIRECTION: THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG, Kwidan, The Fall of the Roman Empire, Goldfinger, Becket 

BLACK-AND-WHITE COSTUME DESIGN: THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW, Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte, The Night of the Iguana, Onibaba, A Hard Day's Night

COLOR COSTUME DESIGN: MY FAIR LADY, The Fall of the Roman Empire, Shadows of Our Forgotten Ancestors, Kwidan, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg

FILM EDITING: DR. STRANGELOVE, OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB, A Hard Day's Night, Zulu, Culloden, Fail-Safe 

SOUND: DR. STRANGELOVE, OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB, Becket, My Fair Lady, Goldfinger, Zulu 



ORIGINAL SCORE: John Barry, ZULU (2nd: Ennio Morricone, A Fistful of Dollars, followed by: Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman, Mary Poppins; Toru Takemitsu,Woman of the Dunes; Mikis Theodorakis, Zorba the Greek) 



ADAPTED OR MUSICAL SCORE: Michel Legrand, THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG, followed by: Luis Bacalov, The Gospel According to St. Matthew; George Martin, A Hard Day's Night; Irwin Kostal, Mary Poppins; Andre Previn, My Fair Lady)  



ORIGINAL SONG: "And I Love Her" from A HARD DAY'S NIGHT (Music and lyrics by John Lennon and Paul McCartney) (2nd: "Goldfinger" from Goldfinger (Music by John Barry, lyrics by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley); followed by: "I Will Wait For You" from The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Music by Michel Legrand, lyrics by Jacques Demy); "A Hard Day's Night" from A Hard Day's Night (Music and lyrics by John Lennon and Paul McCartney); "If I Fell" from A Hard Day's Night (Music and lyrics by John Lennon and Paul McCartney); "Viva Las Vegas" from Viva Las Vegas (Music and lyrics by Doc Pomus and Mort Schuman); "Chim Chim Cheree" from Mary Poppins (Music and lyrics by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman); "A Spoonful of Sugar" from Mary Poppins (Music and lyrics by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman); "Can't Buy Me Love" from A Hard Day's Night (Music and lyrics by John Lennon and Paul McCartney); "This Boy" from A Hard Day's Night (Music and lyrics by John Lennon and Paul McCartney); "I Should Have Known Better" from A Hard Day's Night (Music and lyrics by John Lennon and Paul McCartney); "I'm Happy Just to Dance With You" from A Hard Day's Night (Music and lyrics by John Lennon and Paul McCartney); "Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte" from Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (Music by Frank DeVol, lyrics by Mack David); "Tell Me Why" from A Hard Day's Night (Music and lyrics by John Lennon and Paul McCartney); "My Kind of Town" from Robin and the 7 Hoods (Music by James Van Heusen, lyrics by Sammy Cahn))

SPECIAL EFFECTS: 7 FACES OF DR. LAO, First Men in the Moon, Mary Poppins 

MAKEUP: DR. STRANGELOVE, OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB, 7 Faces of Dr. Lao, Kwidan

Happy Birthday, Burt Bacharach!

To me, he's the essence of cool. I could listen to his music 24 hours a day, even if it weren't required of me. Whether his impeccable notes are ringing along with the words of longtime writing partner Hal David or with lyrics provided by wife Carole Bayer Sager (or anyone else), Burt Bacharach's way with an orchestra or even with a simple piano is astoundingly delicate yet powerful enough to brand many of his tunes in our memories forever. His Wikipedia entry says it best: "Bacharach's music is characterized by unusual chord progressions, striking syncopated rhythmic patterns, irregular phrasing, frequent modulation, and odd, changing meters." His songs are supremely challenging for vocalists to tackle for these very reasons.

Yesterday, May 12th 2011, was Bacharach's 83rd birthday and, while a complete overview of his musical output is truly impossible here, a fairly thorough sampling of the music he's provided to the movies is certainly daunting but doable. So here goes:


It wasn't a hit, but it shoulda been. And Burt doesn't even get credit for writing the song! Yet the theme to The Blob (Irvin S. Yeaworth Jr., 58) might very well be his first great movie tune. (It is, of course, sung by The Five Blobs!)



A House is Not a Home (Russell Rouse, 64), was based on the memoir by 1920 NYC bordello madam Polly Adler. A vehicle for Shelley Winters (whom I imagine is well-cast), it's a rarely-screened film with a title song that long ago eclipsed both the novel and the movie in popularity. It's now a bonafide standard; Brook Benton ("Rainy Night in Georgia") was tapped to do the soundtrack version.



It's been ages since I sat through a Doris Day/Rock Hudson movie. Listening to Bacharach's title song for Send Me No Flowers (Norman Jewison, 64) is as close as I've come since I last tried Pillow Talk out again (and was left cold by it). Doris Day does have loads of charm, though, and I like this little number.



Promise Her Anything (Arthur Hiller, 65) was a Warren Beatty/Leslie Caron romantic comedy written by (of all people) William Peter Blatty (who went on to pen the Sonny and Cher movie Good Times before making history as the producer and writer of The Exorcist). The raucous title song is sung by a Mr. Tom Jones.



Of course, we all know this one. Even if you haven't seen 1965's Woody Allen-penned What's New Pussycat? (and there's very little reason you should), you have to admit you've heard this tune before. It garnered Bacharach and David their first Oscar nods. The song is, again, sung by Tom Jones. And here's where we get into the hits:



The following year, Bacharach augmented jazzbo Sonny Rollins' score to Lewis Gilbert's Alfie with two versions of the same song: one by American Cher, played over the closing credits, and the opening version by Brit Cilla Black. Again, Bacharach and David earned Oscar nominations for perhaps their first absolutely powerhouse movie song, sung as an ode to the womanizing lead character, played by Michael Caine in the 1966 original. This clip features Cilla Black recording her vocals (you'll hear the final track), with Burt Bacharach colorfully conducting the orchestra at London's famed Abbey Road studios (the Beatles were likely recording Sgt. Pepper down the hall).



Also from the same year is this sly title song from the Peter Sellers farce After the Fox (Vittorio De Sica, 66). Sellers performs a sneaky spoken-word counterpoint to the vocals, performed by The Hollies. Next to "The Blob," this is perhaps Bacharach/David's weirdest movie tune.



Obviously, in 1967, we are now at the peak of Bacharachosity, with the charts of the day filled with his songs. That year, the composer/producer/conductor/arranger arrived with what is considered by vinyl-loyal audiophiles to be the finest record with which to test your stereo equipment's dynamics: the soundtrack to Casino Royale, the too-chaotic entry into the James Bond sweepstakes (the film has five people, including Woody Allen and Peter Sellers, portraying Ian Fleming's famed U.K. spy). It also sported five directors (including John Huston). It's a freaking mess. However, Bacharach's score remains its golden remnant. This particular YouTube offering first has Dusty Springfield resplendently delivering the movie's Oscar-nominated song "The Look of Love"--still an astounding ballad, and especially in this context. Afterwards, we're treated to an unusual trailer for the film which features Bacharach's snazzy title track with rarely-heard comic lyrics, sung by (I think) Peter Sellers. This is a real treasure!


Just now, looking at the album cover to Bacharach's soundtrack for The April Fools (Stuart Rosenberg, 69), I find I wanna see this movie more than ever. The sight of the arduous Jack Lemmon laying his head on the indifferent Catherine Deneuve's breast makes me wonder what details are contained in this movie. I had to include one instrumental entry in this overview, just to give readers an idea of Bacharach's impeccable arranging and conducting style. This track illustrates exactly what I adore about Bacharach's music: its bouncy, urbane, slightly melancholy pizazz.



There are those who blast the inclusion of Bacharach/David's "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head" in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (George Roy Hill, 69). They say it slows the movie down and dates it. I would agree. But I think these attributes add to the film's charm. I love the short-focus photography by Conrad Hall (he won an Oscar for it), and the playful editing (by John C. Howard and Richard C. Meyer). I also think the slapsticking by Paul Newman and Katherine Ross add a humanistic whallop to an already friendly (but deadly) film. Yeah, it's not The Wild Bunch, but not everybody can be Peckinpah. I fault Hill's lovely film not a whit for bending to 1960s tastes in this scene. I include this clip, rather than the full (#1 hit) single, because it spotlights not only B.J. Thomas' throaty vocalizing, but also Bacharach's seamless, rollicking instrumental break. The composer won two Oscars in 1969: one for his song (along with Hal David), but also for his short but very sweet score.



Also from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, I have to include the vocal/instrumental break called "South American Getaway." Here, in the movie, Butch, Sundance and Etta Place have migrated to Bolivia after the U.S.A. has become too hot for their bank-robbing ways. This absolutely dazzling track is performed here by an unnamed vocal troupe (and I think it was this track that won Bacharach his second Academy Award of 1969). So, in tribute to these vocalists, I've deemed it necessary to include here a brilliant live performance of "South American Getaway" by a spot-on band called The Swingtones. If you love Bacharach, this is certainly worth watching; they're like the Gold Medal winners of the singing Olympics! By the way, the vocalists here (performing at a 2007 Lincoln Center Bacharach tribute) are, from left to right: David Driver, Chris Anderson, Julian Maile, Sheryl Marshall, Connie Petruk and Jenny Karr. They are superb; I envy them.




All throughout the 1970s, Bacharach still produced Grammy-winning hits like The Carpenters' "Close To You," but moviewise, he coasted comfortably on his many chart hits, which were being used in scads of films well beyond that decade. One of the great sadnesses of his spectacular career was that his one foray into writing an original musical for the movies, Charles Jarrott's 1973 remake of Lost Horizon, tanked badly with both critics and the public. In it, Liv Ullmann, Peter Finch, George Kennedy, Sally Kellerman and Bobby Van star as new arrivals to that bastion of immortality called Shangri-La, with Charles Boyer as the territory's High Lama. The problem with the movie wasn't necessarily the score, but with the film's casting of non-musical talents in the leads, and with Jarrott's grating direction. Working on the project drove a wedge between Bacharach and his lyricist, Hal David, and they never collaborated again afterwards. Still, the film produced a few notable songs, including "Living Together, Growing Together" (covered in a chart hit by the Fifth Dimension) and this number, "The World is A Circle," led by Ullmann. By the way, I think a great movie musical could and should be made from Bacharach/David's Tony-winning Broadway show Promises, Promises, which bore the Dionne Warwick hit "I'll Never Fall In Love Again." In 2010, the production enjoyed an NYC revival with Sean Hayes and Kristin Chenoweth in the leads. Studios could do well in considering adapting Promises, Promises for the screen.


In 1981, upon meeting his future wife, lyricist Carole Bayer Sager, Bacharach re-fired his movie songwriting career in spectacular fashion. His new collaboration with Sager bore gold when the couple, along with Peter Allen and Grammy-winning superstar Christopher Cross, composed "Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)" for the still inviting Dudley Moore comedy Arthur (Steve Gordon, 81). This is, in my opinion, Bacharach's peak in the 1980s. You can be cynical all you want, but it's a still great song--lilting, romantic, picturesque, and beautifully produced.


This song, co-written by Bacharach/Sager (post-marriage) with Bruce Roberts, was composed for what's widely considered to be one of the first movies to portray homosexuality with more than a modicum of acceptance. Making Love (Arthur Hiller, 82) starred Michael Ontkean as a married man (he's hitched to one of Charlie's Angels no less, in the form of Kate Jackson) who starts up an affair with later Clash of the Titans star Harry Hamlin. The hit song is performed by Roberta Flack, and ushers in a new era for Bacharach's music.


Also in 1982 came the first really notable film by future superstar director Ron Howard, called Night Shift. Cleverly written by comedy pros Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel (they went on to write two other Howard comedies, Splash and Parenthood), the film follows the bizarre friendships between nebbish morgue attendant Henry Winkler (then playing WAY against type, after portraying Fonzie on TV's Happy Days for almost a decade), sizzling newcomer Michael Keaton (playing idea-man Bill Blazejowski to goofy-cool perfection) and a band of rudderless prostitutes led by Shelley Long. It's a charming movie, with four Bacharach/Sayer compositions dotting its soundtrack. But the one playing over the final credits, and sung by Rod Stewart, would become a worldwide phenomenon when remade in the mid-80s as an AIDS benefit single by Dionne Warwicke, Elton John, Gladys Knight, and Stevie Wonder. Very few people can recall this, but "That's What Friends Are For" is a song originally written for the movies. And the Oscar membership could hardly be bothered with it back in 1982 (even though "If We Were In Love" from the abysmal Luciano Pavarotti train wreck Yes Giorgio got a nomination).


Long after Bacharach's marriage with Sager ended, he produced one last piece of genius that threw back to his 60s output: his collaboration with Elvis Costello (I think they worked on the lyrics and the music equally) for the sideways musical biopic Grace of My Heart (Allison Anders, 1996). In the film, Illeana Douglas plays a Brill Building-era songwriter modeled after Carole King (with a little Carly Simon and Judy Collins thrown in). In the sometimes shaky film's most powerful scene, Douglas' character performs a new composition for a Brian Wilson type, played by a bespectacled Matt Dillon. Douglas lip-synchs to a performance by the remarkable Kristen Vigard. This stands as one of Bacharach's most indelible songs, through and through. Costello and Bacharach went on to collaborate on a fantastic album, called Painted From Memory (on which Costello performs a perfect rendition of this song).


Finally, I thought I'd include the extremely sweet credits sequence for P.J. Hogan's 1997 comedy My Best Friend's Wedding. Hogan is obviously a Bacharach fan herself, because she peppered this romantic comedy with a litany of the composer's tunes. Its pink-tinged opening sequence takes as soundtrack Bacharach's 1964 hit called "Wishin' and Hopin'," originally recorded by Dusty Springfield. Here, it's sung by Diana King and performed on screen by Jennifer Garrett, Kelly Sheerin, Bree Turner, and the extremely cute Raci Alexander. I love this little scene, and even though the arrangement isn't Mr. Bacharach's, I like to think he approved of this gently modulated version. I think this callback to his 60s-era output serves as a fitting end to my tribute.

For me, Burt Bacharach is not only a giant of musicianship. He is a stone-cold shaper of movie history. He will always be one of my most loved artists. Happy birthday, Mr. Bacharach.

Forgotten Movie Songs #2: "Something in the Air" from THE MAGIC CHRISTIAN

SIR GUY GRAND (over an image of a 10-pound note): Ladies and gentlemen, this is what is commonly known as money. It comes in all sizes, colours, and denominations - like people. We'll be using quite a bit of it in the next two hours... luckily I have enough for ALL of us.

First off, you have to love a movie that gathers the talents of so many far-flung geniuses. Even if it seems too 1960s for you, 1969's The Magic Christian, written by the era's idiosyncratic Terry Southern, still amalgamates Peter Sellers (as the richest man in the world, Sir Guy Grand), a late-Beatles-era Ringo Starr (as his once-homeless adopted son), and a plethora of choice cameos including Richard Attenborough, Christopher Lee, Raquel Welch, John Cleese, Lawrence Harvey, Leonard Frey, Wilfred Hyde-White, Dennis Price, and a unexpectedly lovely cross-dressing cabaret singer played by Yul Brenner, toying at first with Roman Polanski while singing "Mad About The Boy" (a song of which star Peter Sellers did a flawless cover once):



The absolute batshit crazy tempo of Joseph McGrath's The Magic Christian--as it tells the story of the restless Sir Guy Grand's successful attempts to humiliate his fellow wealth-holders--is a superb conduit for the now-iconic, pot-stirring song "Something in the Air," written by and sung by John Steele, who was acting as the frontman for a Who-inspired offshoot group called Thunderclap Newman. The group only recorded one album, called Hollywood Dream, with Who guitarist/songwriter Pete Townshend as their producer. Knowing that, it's obvious that Townshend liked Keene's voice because it sounded very much like his own, and both in that way and in how the single is instrumentally arranged, it becomes kind of a shadowed Who song. Anyway, it's a lovely piece of work, and a perfect second entry for my new series of posts. It appears in the movie as the closing credits song (after a bunch of money-mad dandys have masked their noses while dunking into vats of urine, crap, and blood to gather up free-floating money; this makes the song funnier, by the way). The fact that the song's been used in commercials during the last few years definitely dilutes its original power, of course. But I don't watch much TV, so I guess this doesn't offend me horribly.

As always, the lyrics--by John Steele, as is the music--are printed below the song, which is here performed "live" via some long-lost British pop music boob-tube cavalcade.



Call out the instigators
Because there's something in the air
We've got to get together sooner or later
Because the revolution's here, and you know it's right
And you know that it's right

We have got to get it together
We have got to get it together now

Lock up the streets and houses
Because there's something in the air
We've got to get together sooner or later
Because the revolution's here, and you know it's right
And you know that it's right

We have got to get it together
We have got to get it together now

Hand out the arms and ammo
We're going to blast our way through here
We've got to get together sooner or later
Because the revolution's here, and you know it's right
And you know that it's right

We have got to get it together
We have got to get it together
Now