Movies

A CHILD IS WAITING (1963)

http://www.mrqe.com/lookup?A+CHILD+IS+WAITING+

Filmed in 1962, released in 1963
Last "Hollywood Movie" and probably the one he really did not want his name attached at.

Directed by John Cassavetes
Screenplay by Abby Man (from an original story)
Photography by Joseph La Shelle
Cinematography by Charles Wheller
Sets by Rudolph Gold
Sound by James Speak
Editing by Gene Fowler Jr.
Music by Ernest Gold
Director Assistants: Lindsley Parson Jr., Douglas Green
Song "Snow Flakes" by Marjorie D. Kurtz
Poetry: The Mist and I by Dixie Wilson
Producer: Stanley Kramer, Larcas Production for United Artist
Released by UA

CAST
Burt Lancaster .... Dr. Matthew Clark
Judy Garland .... Jean Hansen
Gena Rowlands .... Sophie Widdicombe
Steven Hill (I) .... Ted Widdicombe
Paul Stewart (I) .... Goodman
Gloria McGehee .... Mattie
Lawrence Tierney .... Douglas Benham
Bruce Ritchey .... Reuben Widdicombe
John Marley .... Holland
Bill Mumy
Elizabeth Wilson (I)
John Cassavetes .... Retarded Adult Who Walks Toward Camera (uncredited)
Brian Corcoran (uncredited)
Frederick Draper .... Dr. Sack (uncredited)
Mario Gallo (I) .... Dr. Lombardi (uncredited)
Butch Patrick .... Bit Part (uncredited)
Jay Phillips (I) (uncredited)
Noam Pitlik (uncredited)
Michael Stevens (I) (uncredited)

PLOT
Burt Lancaster (Dr. Matthew Clark) and Judy Garland (Jean Hansen) play director and teacher with opposing philosophies in school for retarded children. Garland wants to help the most promising of the children with love and attention, Lancaster wants to treat them in an equal way encouraging them to improve, but punishing them when they fail. She becomes especially interested in young Reuben, a shy and aggressive boy, who's parents have not visited him for several years. But Dr. Clark does not appreciate her special interest. Lancaster's greater experience as a teacher eventually proves his method to be the better. A retarded child needs love, but also needs to be educated for a role in society.

FACTS
Running Time: 102
Filmed in California, U.S.A.
Video: VHS (NTSC) by MGM/UA

TRIVIA
1) the movie is shot in a real hospital, Pacific State Hospital of Pomona (Except for Bruce Ritchey (Reuben), the children in the film were all patients)
2) the Studio doesn't like the first editing and decides to re-edit the movie. John Cassavetes disown the film. Stanley Kramer blacklisted John Cassavetes. In a fax sent to EW, Kramer concedes that he and Cassavetes butted heads. "As a first-time director, he was undisciplined and arrogant," Kramer says. "The film was delivered late and I had to reedit it. That is a matter of simple fact and I don't apologize for it." However, Kramer adds, "it is absolutely false that I have ever blackballed another artist. I never have and I never will."
3) "[...] The greatest films are made by artists who dare to plunge into their uncertainties, their places of fear and doubt. Again, Cassavetes can stand as a model of this kind of artist. He went into his films genuinely willing to learn from the process of making them. He used them to explore parts of his life he didn't understand. He had a sense of wonder at all they taught him about life. Let me tell you a little story about one of his greatest works that will make clear what that means. This is the first time I've ever told it. I'm not sure how many of you know about the early part of his career, so I'll briefly summarize it. John made his first film, Shadows, as a no-budget indie production, more or less entirely on his own in New York. The film didn't do that well commercially, but John managed to get some attention by giving interviews. When all was said and done, he was offered a studio contract to make two low-budget features on the West Coast. He was young and naive, and jumped at the chance, and moved to Los Angeles actually believing he could do the same thing he had done as an independent, only this time with a decent budget, a professional crew, and a whole studio support system. He thought it was a dream come true. Well, I probably don't have to tell you what happened. The predictable result was two mediocre movies and a total, unmitigated, career disaster. The studios had talked a good line, but when final cut time came around, they wanted their kind of picture, not his, and on both films John got into incredible fights with his producer, and eventually got thrown off the set of the second picture and blackballed from working in the studios. He went back to his big, new house in the Hollywood Hills and sat at home licking his wounds, unemployed and unemployable. He could hardly believe the way he had been treated and what had happened to him. He was young and idealistic and inexperienced, and had never had a run-in with the kind of men he had had to work with on these two pictures-high-powered studio producers and executives whose only interest was power, money, and the bottom line. Art was a dirty word to these guys. John was treated pretty badly, but he was so different from these men that even when it was over he still couldn't really understand why they'd done to him what they had. So what did he do? He decided to make a movie about them. The result was Faces-the film I walked out on. John made the movie to try to figure out what made these guys tick-how they could be so entertaining, and so much fun to be with, in some ways, and so awful in others. He wanted to understand what they were like when they were home with their wives eating supper. He wanted to understand what their sex lives were like. He told me he was puzzled all the way through the movie: he wrote the script to try to come to grips with them; he shot scenes in dozens of different ways to try to figure out how they might have acted in different situations; he played and replayed the footage on an editing table to try to figure out what it was like to be them. But Cassavetes also told me that a strange thing happened as he made the movie. As he wrote, directed, and edited it, his bitterness and rage dissipated, and he began to feel a deep compassion for these men. He started to realize things that he hadn't before. He let his film teach him, and he gradually changed his mind about these men. He still saw how awful they were, but where he had begun by despising them, he began to feel sorry for them. He saw how they tortured themselves even more than they tortured other people. He saw how unhappy they were, how emotionally needy they were, how insecure, how desperate for love and approval. In short, John eventually came not only to understand the men who had ruined his life, but almost to love them. He came to see them with kindness and sensitivity." from Ray Carney, The State of Independent Film Part I/II, MovieMaker, Issue n.26/27
4) Theatrical release: February 13, 1963

QUOTE
"I like my work here, and that's the reason I'm doing it. The most unusual reason it seems these days for doing anything."--Dr. Matthew Clark (Burt Lancaster)

AWARDS
None

FACES (1968)

http://www.mrqe.com/lookup?^Faces+(1968)

Filmed in 16mm in 1965, released in 35mm in 1968)

Directed by John Cassavetes
Screenplay by John Cassavetes
Photography by Al Ruban (16mm, b/w)
Cinematography by George Sims
Editing by Al Ruban, Maurice McEndree
Art Direction by Phedon Papamichael
Sound by Don Pike
Musical Supervison by Jack Ackerman
Song "Never Felt Like This Before" by Charles Smalls
Associate Producer: Al Ruban
Producer: Maurice McEndree
Released by Faces International Films, Inc

CAST
John Marley .... Richard Forst
Gena Rowlands .... Jeannie Rapp
Lynn Carlin .... Maria Forst
Seymour Cassel .... Chet
Fred Draper .... Freddie
Val Avery .... Jim McCarthy
Dorothy Gulliver .... Florence
Jerry Howard (II)
Carolyn Fleming
Don Kraatz
John Hale (I)
Midge Ware
Kay Michaels (I)
Laurie Mock
Christina Crawford
Ann Shirley
Anita White
Edwin Sirianni
James Bridges (IV) .... Extra
David Rowlands
Dave Mazzie
Julie Gambol
Darlene Conley .... Billy Mae
Liz Satriano
Gene Darfler .... Joe Jackson
Elizabeth Deering .... Stella
O.G. Dunn .... Comedian
Joanne Moore Jordan .... Louise
George Sims (II) .... Bartender

PLOT
Richard and Maria Forst are a Los Angeles married couple. They live in a big house on the Hollywood Hills. He is a successful business man. They have money, important friends and an enviable material wealthy. They have everything, but sometimes everything is not enough to hold a life together, when a feeling of mutual love, respect and understanding is missed. They lost it along the way, confused in their apathy and indifference. Unable to confront with reality, he starts to see a call-girl Jeannie Rapp and she enjoys the company of a gigolo, Chet. He decides to divorce and she try to kill herself after the night with Chet, prey of an unbearable sense of guilty. She survives, he discovers her affair and finally realizes the terrible situation they are in.

FACTS
Running Time: 220 min (16mm preview, March 1968), 129 min (35mm release, October 1968)
Filmed in Los Angeles, California, USA
Video: VHS (PAL and NTSC) and DVD (NTSC Zone1/2) by Buena Vista/Pioneer
First of the "Marriage Tetralogy": how to betray

TRIVIA
1) Gena Rowland was pregnant during the shooting
2) the shooting begins in 1965 (between January and July) with scripts written by John Cassavetes during the dark period after A Child is Waiting (One Fa and Eight)
3) the set is his own house, the editing room is his own garage, the film is 16mm and is more than 125 hours long
4) the budget was of about 40.000$. Due to lack of fund the shooting will be finished only in 1968 for 200.000$
5) the impact of Faces was radical and swift. Ben Gazzara, who later became a close friend and a mainstay in such Cassavetes films as Husbands (1970), The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976), and Opening Night (1978), remembers attending a screening so packed that he was forced to sit on the floor in the aisle. "I was flabbergasted at the behavior on the screen," Gazzara says. "It thrilled me! It made me jealous, quite frankly. I thought, Where the f--- does this genius come from? This ability to take risks?"
6) the New York Film Critics Circle bestowed its Best Picture award on The Lion in Winter, a sumptuous costume drama that beat out Faces by one vote. Enraged, LIFE magazine critic Richard Schickel dubbed his colleagues "deadwood" and resigned from the group in protest.
7) Cassavetes declined to show up at the ceremony of the Academy Awards
8) main differences between the two version: the long sequence of the meeting at the Loser's Club of Richard Frost, Freddie and Jeannie lasted more than 40min, in the new version we have only the last 20sec - an entire scene between Maria Frost, Florence, Louise and Billy has been cut
9) Lynn Carlin was the secretary of Robert Altman. He fired her and John engaged her as Maria Frost in Faces. Altman was surprised of that and asked John if he was mad, given that she was a bad secretary. John did not speak with him for a long time.
10) Every movie had to be made under the Actor's Guild control (the president at that time was Charlton Heston). Due to lack of fund, the Guild had not taken anything. When the movie succeed and received awards, Charlton Heston summoned the compete cast. John said: "Don't touch my actors. If you want some money I'll give it to you but, for Christ sake, leave my actor in peace. They did an experimental movie, they did not pay the union but the have received the same percentage". When John was in New York, Heston called them back and shouted that they had no contract and that the movie was not authorized. He wanted some money but understood there was nothing to squeeze.
11) theatrical release at Little Carnegie Theater in New York City in September 1968 where it stays for 20 weeks and Walter Reade Cinema in New York where ut stays for six months
12) screened at the New York Film Festival in 1968
13) Originally the script was called The Dinosaurs, an evident allusion to the characters in the movie
14) evidently Chet (and Moskiwitz) are intended as new alternative of male type. Unfortunately all the hopes of the '60s did not take roots in American society and the "dinosaurs" are still among us
15) the camera was an Eclair

AWARDS
1969 - Nominated - Oscar - Best Supporting Actor - Seymour Cassel, Best Supporting Actress - Lynn Carlin, Best Writing Story and Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen - John Cassavetes
1969 - Won - NSFC Award - Best Screenplay - John Cassavetes, Best Supporting Actor - Seymour Cassel
1968 - Won - Volpi Cup (Venice Film Festival) - Best Actor - John Marley, Nominated
Golden Lion - John Cassavetes
1969 - Nominated - WGA Screen Award - Best Written American Original Screenplay - John Cassavetes

Faces

HUSBANDS (1970)

"No cute. Nothing cute!"
--John Cassavetes during the filming

http://www.mrqe.com/lookup?^Husbands+(1970)

Filmed in 1969, released in 1970

Directed by John Cassavetes
Screenplay by John Cassavetes
Photography by Victor Kemper
Cinematography by Richard Mingalone, Mike Chapman [New York City], Jeff Glover [London]
Editing by Peter Tanner, Tom Cornwell, Jack Woods
Production Supervision by Fred Caruso
Producers: Al Ruban, Sam Show (for Columbia Pictures)
Released by Columbia Pictures

CAST
Ben Gazzara .... Harry
Peter Falk .... Archie
John Cassavetes .... Gus
Jenny Runacre .... Mary Tynan
Jenny Lee Wright .... Pearl Billingham
Noelle Kao .... Julie
John Kullers .... Red
Reta Shaw .... Annie
Leola Harlow .... Leola
Delores Delmar .... The Countess
Eleanor Zee .... Mrs. Hines
Claire Malis .... Stuart's wife
Peggy Lashbrook .... Diana Mallabee
Eleanor Gould .... "Normandy"
Sarah Felcher .... Sarah
Bill Britten (I)
Arthur Clark (I)
Gwen Van Dam .... "Jeannie"
John Armstrong (I) .... "Happy Birthday"
Charles Gaines
Antoinette Kray .... Jesus Loves Me
Lorraine McMartin .... Annie's mother
Carinthia West .... Susanna
Rhonda Parker .... Margaret
Joseph Boley .... Minister
Judith Lowry .... Stuart's grandmother
Joseph Hardy (II) .... "Shanghai Lil"
Fred Draper
David Rowlands .... Stuart Jackson
Alexandra Cassavetes .... Xan (uncredited)
Nick Cassavetes .... Nick (uncredited)
Edgar Franken .... Ed Weintraub
Anne O'Donnell .... Nurse
K.C. Townsend .... Barmaid
Gena Wheeler .... Nurse

PLOT
Harry, Archie, Gus and Stuart are friends, very close friends. They are neighbors, spend their time together, have wife, a lot of children, big houses, cars and money. They are middle-aged, middle-class professionals. Suddenly, Stuart dies. Gus, Harry and Archie are forced to confront with the loss of the friend and realize that they are not young and free anymore. They are growing old and have responsibilities. Trying to exorcizing the situation they are in, they leave for a three days binge. Alcohol, easy women and general din, in an attempt to recuperate the passing time. The fly to London to follow Harry, who seems to be the most troubled. After a night in a casino and a following sex encounters, Gus and Archie decide to come back to their family while Harry remains in London.

FACTS
Running Time: 154min (San Francisco Film Festival in ), 141 min (release in 1970), 130 min (current with missing reel)
Filmed in New York City, New York, USA - London, UK
Video: VHS (NTSC) by Columbia
Second of the "Marriage Tetralogy": how to leave

TRIVIA
1) Betty Friedan proclaims that the movie is perfect for the Women's Lib (New York Time, 31.01.1971)
2) Barbara Hale on Daily News defined the movie as "the first Hollywood home movie"
3) this si the only movie without a music score
4) Stuar Jackson (the dead friend) is played by David Rowlands, brother of Gena Rowlands
5) Ben Gazzara did not know John Cassavetes personally, he was invited to see Faces and they stayed in touch untill a meeting in a famous restaurant in Sunset Street where John strated talking about Husbands
6) the girls they meet in London were not professional actress. The Chinese one was a dentist assistant.
7) Husband was financed by italian business man Bino Cirogna. Columbia bought the rights for distribution. The budget was fifteen times the one for Faces.
8) the first editing of Husbands (made by Al Ruban) was more on Ben Gazzara. John Cassavetes did not like the way the movie was edited because it was not the way he meant it. After Columbia bought the distribution, John re-edited the film but Columbia did not like the new version (much more sad and dark). Al Ruban asked to edit the movie again but John did not agree and they parted for a long time.
9) during the shooting Peter Falk was very angry and frustrated because he did not understand where the film was going and John did not say anything to the actors about the characters (as he usually did). Only at the end, John wrote an entire essay on the movie and the characters and let the actors read it. Peter Falk was amazingly surprised and asked: "Why didn't you show me that before?".
10) a complete reel of the toilet scene, for a total of eleven minutes, has been omitted from the recent video release.
11) the first edited-version of the movie by Peter Tanner was too funny (of course Columbia loved it) and John Cassavetes (using a clause of his contract) rejected it and re-edited the movie in more than one versions (spending six months of his life). He thought than too many laughs would have misguided the viewers from the real matters.
12) One of the charge most critics attributed to John Cassavetes regarded the semi-improvisation of the movie. The irony is that the only part improvised (not scripted in advance) was a sequence from the singing scene, the one involving Leona Harlow (the woman with the red hat that sings "It was just a little love affair"). Obviously there was a method. Harlow did not know that Cassavetes, Falk and Gazzara were, in fact, acting when they started to swarned all over her. She was really hurt and confused and that's was the reactions John Cassavetes wanted from her.
13) In this movie you can probably find all the nuances of modern living: pain, joy, death, boredom, laughs, family ties, social duties, work, meanness, fear and the will to run away
14) Bogdanovich defined the movie as "the first, and in many ways still the most trenchant and honest, American look at the overwhelming alianation and homelessness which the hypocritical sexual revolution was by then leaving in its wake"

AWARDS
1971 - Nominated - Golden Globe - Best Screenplay - John Cassavetes

The Making of Husbands
Husbands