Cruella de Vil, Marc Davis, and New Guinea

In an episode of the Disney Family Album devoted to animator Marc Davis, the scene opens with a display of Davis' collection of New Guinea art. "It has a vitality, shape, and form," says Davis. "It has an inventiveness of design that is like no other art in the world."

From Davis' collection, as seen in episode 17 of Disney Family Album

When I was watching 101 Dalmatians in a dog park in Bloomington recently, I could not help but marvel over the design of Cruella de Vil. There was a mask-like quality to her that I had not recognized before. Indeed, it appeared very reminiscent of the New Guinea masks that Davis was so fond of. This not only includes the high cheek bones, but also the arched eyebrows and the turned up nose.

In particular I want to emphasize the cheek bones and turned up nose, since it also seemed very similar to Lon Chaney's makeup design for Erik in The Phantom of the Opera, giving it a skull-like appearance.

I wondered just how much influence Davis had in the animation of de Vil in 101 Dalmatians. Animation is a collaborative medium, much more so than live action film. It is therefore often difficult to pinpoint who did what without relying on some sort of studio documentation. Some people have become very skilled recognizing animators' work (i.e. Mark Kausler), but most of us laymen are simply unable to do that. Therefore, one of the best pieces of documentation to look for are what are called drafts. Drafts indicate what scenes animators animated on.

As it turns out, seven years ago animator Hans Perk published the drafts of 101 Dalmatians on his blog. Historian Mark Mayerson then followed up with screen captures of the scenes the animators worked on. The result is a more firm understanding of who animated on which scene. As the drafts confirm, de Vil was almost entirely Davis' creation.

But to get back to the New Guinea influence, I want to show one last image. This is the infamous scene number 171, where we cut to a closeup of Cruella as she is about to ram the truck full of dalmatians.

Feel free to continue scrolling down in fear.

Besides resembling a flaming skull, I think this further demonstrates the mask-like qualities of her facial design. The head is a notably rectangular shape rather than an ovular shape. Also, the eyes contain a series of circles that emphasize the psychotic drive in her to "get those puppies." Those circular lines can also be found in a number of New Guinea masks. Indeed, Cruella's head certainly has "vitality, shape, and form" and this, combined with a desire to kill puppies and use their skins as coats, certainly makes for a most frightening villain.

We will have more posts to come on 101 Dalmatians. I apologize for any nightmares.

Roy Lichtenstein: Origins

Have you ever wondered if those paintings of Roy Lichtenstein's of comics characters came from real comics? Well, as David Barsalou has proven, they certainly did. Take a look, at this link.

And Speaking of Welles...

Josh Karp has just written a book on the making of The Other Side of the Wind. You can read an excerpt from Karp's book in Vanity Fair at this link.

And speaking of The Other Side of the Wind, a crowdfunding campaign was launched to help finish the completion of that film. It can be found at this link.

Treasure Island (1972): A Review

By 1972, Orson Welles had other projects on his mind. Since, 1970 he had initiated what he thought would be his big comeback project. Titled The Other Side of the Wind, it concerned a director (John Huston) who was trying to make his comeback film. Welles insisted that the film wasn't autobiographical, despite what he told Huston one day: "It's a film about a bastard director...It's about us, John. It's a film about us." Welles would never finish the film during his lifetime. While filming had started on that project, Welles also began preliminary work on F for Fake. It would be his last finished film. That work began in Almeria while in production of another film. This was Treasure Island.

Welles had had a long association with the Stevenson classic. In July of 1938, Welles and the Mercury Theatre company recorded for the CBS network their version of Treasure Island. It was their second production. Welles, of course, played Long John Silver and gave the buccaneer a light, Musical Hall cockney accent, very reminiscent of Albert Chevalier. As it predates Robert Newton's legendary performance by a good 22 years, it's quite memorable. Among other highlights in the production is Agnes Moorehead's desperate Mrs. Hawkins and a distinctly zany Ray Collins as Ben Gunn, who is introduced by the famed bouncing scherzo from Dukas' L'apprenti sorcier.

A few decades later, Welles was trying to find a producer for his pet project Chimes at Midnight. Eventually he convinced producer Emiliano Piedra to finance his film on the grounds that he would film an adaptation of Treasure Island at the same times. In addition, promised Welles, he would use the same cast as Chimes and would act as writer, director, and lead actor. Needless to say, Welles didn't keep his promise. He shot some footage on a ship and then continued working on Chimes. Welles would complete it in 1966 where it would be praised at Cannes and panned elsewhere.

By 1971, Welles, as usual, needed money. He agreed to do another version of Treasure Island with a Spanish crew. He would act and write; he would not direct.

His heart was clearly not in the project. According to his producer Andrés Vicente Gómez, Welles would actually end up making most of F for Fake during the production of Treasure Island. He was ashamed with the final screenplay and asked that his name be changed to a pseudonym. Borrowing from W.C. Fields (who had billed himself as Mahatma Kane Jeeves when he wrote the screenplay to The Bank Dick) Welles credited himself as O.W. Jeeves. When it came time to record dialogue, Welles, according to Joseph McBride, went to a studio in Rome and was recorded in one night "while guzzling from a bottle of white wine." Welles would later claim that he was dubbed. This is only partially true; Robert Rietti would dub Welles' dialogue in the UK release of the film. The US version retains Orson's intoxicated ramblings.

The results are what you would expect. Welles, conjuring his best Robert Newton impersonation, mumbles his dialogue and is barely coherent. The film itself is amateurishly made and amateurishly acted. Many of the shots consist of your typical 1970s zoom-out shots, found frequently in B-Action movies and stag films. The troubling part is that the script is quite loyal to the book and the film has a good pace. However, I would rather recommend the Mercury Theatre production than this film. I'm sure Orson would agree.

Noon Reading: JK on VB

Animation and Silent Film historian J.B. Kaufman's Movie of the Month: Opening Night from 1932, a Van Beuren cartoon that was made for the opening of the RKO Roxy Theatre in New York City. Take a look.

Kaufman's new book on the making of Pinocchio will be released at the end of this month.

More Screenings to be Aware of

As spring commences and summer approaches, the revival houses of Los Angeles have begun releasing schedules for their upcoming screenings. Both the New Beverly Theater near the Grove and the American Cinematheque's Egyptian and Aero theaters are producing series devoted to Orson Welles for his centennial birthday. The Egyptian and Aero are showing the usual suspects (Citizen Kane, Magnificent Ambersons, etc); the New Beverly is showing some of his more obscure stuff, like Treasure Island.

Meanwhile, the Academy continues their series devoted to the widescreen format with a rare screening of Max Ophüls' last completed film, Lola Montez at the Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood. The screening is this Thursday, May 7th.

The Arclight Cinemas seem to now concentrate their revivals at their Hollywood theater. What few revivals they have are mostly films that came out a couple of years ago. I hate to call them revivals.

Cinespia, the folks behind the cemetery screenings at Hollywood Forever, have released their summer schedule. Nothing of great interest; mostly cult favorites such as the wretched Showgirls. I only went to a cemetery screening once and once was enough.

Cinefamily, the folks behind the Silent Movie Theater, continue to show a silent film only once per month. To their credit though, they tend to pick some interesting films. Saturday, May 16th they will be showing Frank Capra's Submarine. Otherwise, the rest of Cinefamily's calendar is devoted to a few Russ Meyer films and Al Pacino's "Special Project."

Then there is the Los Angeles Conservancy's Last Remaining Seats. Every summer, the LAC prys open the ancient doors of Downtown Los Angeles' great Motion Picture Palaces and hosts screenings. The series begins with Psycho at the Million Dollar Theatre on June 10th and concludes with the now sold out showing of Raiders of the Lost Ark at the Theatre at Ace Hotel on June 27. The selections this year are...disappointing. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Family and Raiders of the Lost Ark are shown constantly at revival houses, especially Wonka. Normally I would recommend How to Marry a Millionaire since--as a Cinemascope film--it would look impressive on the big screen. However, it's playing at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, not one of the best venues in Los Angeles. Lastly, we don't get to hear from the Mighty Wurlitzer this year since their silent selection this year, City Lights, has its own soundtrack. That being said, the film is being shown at the Los Angeles Theatre which is arguably the most ornate of the Motion Picture Palaces and its Chaplin's best feature film. The screening is already sold out though so you might have to beg your friends to "borrow" tickets.

UCLA is continuing their series devoted to the films of William Wellman. At the end of the month they will be showing one of my personal favorites of the director's, Beggars of Life. Also worth noting is a few television shows that will be screening on May 30th from the Television Archives, including an episode of This is Your Life where Edwards' subject of choice is Arries Ann Ward, a 95 year old woman who had been born into slavery in 1862.

Finally, down in El Segundo the Old Town Musical Hall is showing The Little Princess, the Technicolor Shirley Temple film. It's not one of her best films, but it's worth seeing since Technicolor is always worth seeing on the big screen.

As usual, there's a lot to see in this town.

Academy Event: This is Widescreen

For those of you who are lucky enough to dwell in the City of Angels, the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theater, after laying dormant for about a year, is finally opening its doors for some nifty public events. Recently, the Academy has been holding the majority of its screenings at the Bing Theater. While the Bing is not a bad theater, it's not the Samuel Goldwyn, which is one of the best movie houses in Los Angeles and one of the best kept secrets of Los Angeles. Why a secret? The Academy has never been very adept at advertising their public events. The pity is that the events are actually quite cheap: It's $5 for a ticket--$3 if you have a student ID--and parking is free. The Samuel Goldwyn Theater is located in the Academy's Wilshire building in Beverly Hills.

This particular event will be devoted to the Widescreen format, so the majority of films will be from the 1950s and 1960s. The choices are...interesting. A lot of these films are not what I would personally choose and quite a few of them are not what I would call classics. However, the wisdom of the Academy's screening events has always been to educate and the point of seeing a widescreen film on the big screen is that you are seeing a film as it was originally intended to be shown.

The one thing I don't quite understand is that the Academy is screening one half of those movies at the Goldwyn and the other half at the Linwood Dunn Theater at the Academy's Archives in Hollywood. The Dunn is a nice theater, but it's a tiny theater. It's an odd venue for showing widescreen format films.

If you would like to see the schedule, you can find the lineup on the Academy's website.

The first event is Cinerama Holiday. It's at 7:30pm this Friday, May 1st. I hope to see you all there.