To The First Absent Friends of 2022

As often happens when the calendar turns to a new year, the Departure Lounge fills rapidly, and as a result, The Grandstander falls behind in recognizing Absent Friends.  The exigencies of time means that I will be recognizing three Absent Friends in this post, and, as a result, they will no doubt be getting shortchanged in these write-ups, which is a shame, because each deserve full length treatments.

Let us take them in the order in which they left us.

Betty White

1922-2021

Betty White died on New Year's Eve, just a few weeks short of her 100th birthday.  A story I saw on her on CBS Sunday Morning last week indicated that Betty White's relationship with television began, literally, before television even exited.  It seems that she appeared on some experimental versions of this new art form before the medium was unveiled at the 1939 New York World's Fair.  IMDB lists an astounding 550 credits in her filmography.  Game shows, movies, talk and variety shows, voice overs, and, of course, her two most memorable roles in the classic sitcoms, "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and "Golden Girls."  (That same Sunday Morning tribute showed a clip from the MTM Show where her character, Happy Homemaker Sue Ann Nivens, removes a burnt and fallen soufflé's from the oven and then slams the oven door shut with her knee.  My word description doesn't do it justice, but, trust me, it was hilarious.)  Then there was a Super Bowl commercial for Snickers and a hosting gig on Saturday Night Live at the age of 88.   And no one, no one, could deliver a double entendre like Betty White.

I talked with my pal Barb Vancheri, retired film and entertainment critic for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, earlier in the week,  and she told me that she once had the pleasure of meeting and interviewing Betty White, and that she was a nice and as delightful as could possibly be imagined.

Peter Bogdanovich

1939-2022

The obituaries for film director and actor Peter Bogdanovich made for interesting reading.  They of course mention how he burst on to the Hollywood scene as a 32 year old wunderkind director when his "The Last Picture Show" was released.  There quickly followed smash hit comedies "What's Up, Doc?" and "Paper Moon", which were then followed by major flops such as "Daisy Miller" and "At Long Last Love".  His life was then peppered with love affairs, divorces, tragedies (including a homicide), bankruptcies, and ostracism from the Hollywood establishment.

In writing about "What's Up, Doc?" in this space back in 2018, I made this observation:

Also, whatever happened to Peter Bogdanovich's directing career?  After "The Last Picture Show" and this one, he had one other big hit, "Paper Moon" (1973) and after that, pretty much nothing of note.  In fact, IMDB lists more acting credits (53) for him than director credits (34).  He is probably most remembered as Dr. Elliot Kupferberg on "The Sopranos".

The story of Bogdanovich's own life would make a pretty good movie, I think.  Until someone decides to do that, though, I would highly recommend that you seek out and listen to Season One of Turner Classic Movies "The Plot Thickens" podcast, wherein Ben Mankiewicz interviews Bogdanovich.

I found it interesting that in searching Google Images for a picture of Bogdanovich to use in this post, it was almost impossible to find a single photo of him where he is smiling.

Sidney Poitier

1927-2022

Yes, two pictures of the great Sidney Poitier grace this post, pictures from perhaps his two most famous roles: itinerant handyman Homer Smith in "Lillies of the Field" (1963) for which he became the first Black male to win a Best Actor Oscar, and as detective Virgil Tibbs in "In The Heat of the Night" (1967).  In 1967, Poitier had an MVP caliber year, appearing in three box office blockbusters:  "In the Heat of the Night", which was the Best Picture Oscar winner that year and for which Rod Stieger won the Best Actor Oscar, "Guess Who's Coming To Dinner", and "To Sir, With Love".  Oddly, Poitier did not receive an Oscar nomination for any of them, but I think it is safe to say that none of those movies would have been as good had he not been in them.

You can see Poitier delivering one of his most famous lines in this YouTube clip here.

I would strongly urge you to seek out some of the news obituaries for these three Holly wood luminaries from Variety, the New York Times, or the Washington Post.  They all make for great reading, and tell they stories far better than I.

RIP Betty White, Peter Bogdanovich, Sidney Poitier.

The Movies of 1967

When the Pirates fell behind 6-2 against the Blue Jays last night, I disgustingly switched channels to Turner Classic Movies and watched the Best Picture Oscar winner of 1968 (for movies released in 1967), Norman Jewison's "In The Heat of the Night", starring Sidney Poitier and Best Actor winner Rod Steiger.

 

A terrific movie in 1967 when it was released and still a terrific movie in 2014.  Some classic lines...."They call me MISTER Tibbs" and "I've got the motive which is money and the body which is dead"....just a great story with some terrific performances all around.

When the movie, which was shown as part of TCM's "The Essentials" series concluded, co-hosts Robert Osborne and Drew Barrymore spoke about what a watershed year 1967 was for motion pictures and that this was symbolized by the Academy Awards that year.  That prompted me to do a little research.  In addition to "Heat" the other Best Picture nominees were....

"Bonnie and Clyde" 

"Doctor Doolittle" 

"The Graduate" 

"Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" 

From the vantage point of 2014, the only outlier among these nominations was "Doctor Doolittle", which no one talks about much today, but the other four were all amazing movies, still relevant today and still considered among the best movies ever made.

And it didn't stop there.  Steiger took home the Oscar for Best Actor, but his competition included Warren Beatty for "Bonnie and Clyde", Dustin Hoffman for "The Graduate", Paul Newman for "Cool Hand Luke", and Spencer Tracy for "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner". How's that for an all-star ballot?

Katherine Hepburn won for Best Actress for  "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner", and her competition was Anne Bancroft for "The Graduate",  Faye Dunaway for "Bonnie and Clyde", Dame Edith Evans for "The Whisperers", and Audrey Hepburn for "Wait Until Dark".  Again, another all-star ballot.

Mike Nichols took home the Best Director Oscar for "The Graduate" by beating out this Who's Who among movie directors: Arthur Penn, "Bonnie and Clyde", Stanley Kramer, "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner", Richard Brooks, "In Cold Blood", and Norman Jewison, "In the Heat of the Night".

And consider this.  Sidney Poitier, who was NOT nominated for any acting award, starred in two of these great movies, "In the Heat of the Night" and "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner", AND he starred in a third big hit movie of 1967, "To Sir With Love".  Talk about a body of work in one year!

I am sure that film buffs out there could probably come up with a year that was equal to or greater than 1967, but it won't be easy.  

Post-script:  "In the Heat of the Night" ended on TCM in time for me to switch back to the Pirates game in time for me to see the Pirates rally for two runs in the eight inning and beat Toronto, 8-6.  Perfect ending!