by Allan Fish
(USA 1972 100m) DVD1
Shake it loose and let it fall…
p Ray Stark d John Huston w Leonard Gardner novel Leonard Gardner ph Conrad L.Hall ed Margaret Booth md Marvin Hamlisch art Richard Sylbert
Stacy Keach (Billy Tully), Jeff Bridges (Ernie Munger), Susan Tyrrell (Oma), Candy Clark (Faye), Nicholas Colosanto (Ruben), Art Aragon (Babe), Curtis Cokes (Earl),
It’s one of the forgotten greats of the seventies. Perhaps because Huston was not a seventies director, a bit of a fossil from the old days who, as David Thomson observed in ‘Have You Seen?’, hadn’t made a decent film in years. That’s perhaps part of what drew Huston to this tale. It’s a film that looks back to past glories, to opportunities lost, to time standing still when actually it’s moving along so fast. The pre-credit montage says all there is to say about the film; a film that’s like waiting for the funeral to begin.
It was set and filmed in Stockton, California, a town that resembles a patient on a Life Support Machine waiting to flatline. In this dead town all people do is dream of escaping or think of what might have been. It’s loser central, and one such loser is Billy Tully, a once promising boxer who went to the skids after a failed marriage led to losing his reputation in and out of the ring until he became a drunken bum. On one of his occasional pie crust promises to himself to get off the wagon he goes to a local gym and spars with a young kid called Ernie Munger, and he sends Ernie off to his old trainer, the kindly Ruben, as he thinks he has something. Billy tries to get back in shape for another fight and a comeback.
What sets it apart from so many boxing films is that it’s not about champions, not about belts and glory. It’s about making a buck. You know these two guys are losers, with Ernie as likely to make it big as Billy is to go sober. But neither Billy or Ruben can accept it; Billy thinks Ernie must be good to spar with him (“there was a time when no-one could hit me” Billy mumbles); Ruben is so desperate for a new white hope that he’s seeing things through, if not rose tinted spectacles then at least a hazier shade of perspiration. Boxing thus only plays a small part in a stuffy of losers stuck in a rut they will never escape from. Billy comes to realise that, from here on in, it’s all downhill.
Huston elicits wonderful performances from his cast; Colosanto was never better – with a seemingly disposable scene sitting up in bed smoking while his wife tries to sleep that is just perfect – and Clark shows promise even before American Graffiti as Ernie’s girl. Bridges seemed a natural choice after The Last Picture Show – another film about a dying town – as the young kid, and then there’s Keach. A respected stage actor, he never got the breaks on screen he merited, but as Billy Tully he could not have been better, reeking of his skid row setting as if he’d lived as a bum for months in preparation. Finally, there’s Tyrrell, a bar slattern to end them all, sounding like Jean Arthur if she’d ever gone on the piss for ten years straight. Richard Sylbert’s smoke-filled interiors perfectly compliment the sun-kissed decay out of doors and the great Conrad Hall’s photography is sublimely grimy, mixing sun and sweat and giving it a rinse in hard liquor. And as for Huston, Billy could have been him, dreaming of former glories; “yesterday is dead and gone” as Kris Kristofferson sings so mournfully in the theme song ‘Help Me Make it Through the Night’. His night had lasted from the debacle of The Red Badge of Courage through twenty years of underwhelming failures to his making Fat City. After this he’d make The Man Who Would be King, Wise Blood, Prizzi’s Honor and The Dead; no great film among them, but all worthy of him. As is that pivotal moment; that freeze in the diner when everyone stands still but the jukebox stills plays, smokes still wafts through the air. This was no mere stop ‘em dead moment, like Cameron Diaz bending down in that red dress, Jane Greer running along the sands of Acapulco. It was a moment of clarity, an epiphany, as if the fabric of reality was bending to allow you to slip through, but you’re reflexes aren’t up to it. Then you’re left, staring blankly into a coffee, unnoticed, anonymous, and as good as dead already. It’s one of the great American films of the seventies.
Click on names for archives
Writers/Founders
Allan, as you say, Huston was considered an “over-the –hill” out of fashion director by the 1970’s with too many years of mediocre work and then comes “Fat City.” (Though I disagree with you that his streak of poor work started with “The Red Badge of Courage.” “The African Queen” was released after “Red Badge”, and is certainly nothing to be ashamed of). I love films about losers (one reason I like “The Wrestler”), where filmmakers, writers seem to apply a greater level of depth to flawed characters.
So many undervalued fringe actors gathered in one film, Keach, Susan Tyrell, Candy Clark, are all marvelous and I love your line about Tyrell “a bar slattern to end them all, sounding like Jean Arthur if she’d ever gone on the piss for ten years straight”. And then there is Jeff Bridges, one of those actor’s whose career is filled with brilliant undervalued performances. The great cinematographer Conrad Hall’s work is evocative of the dark dank boxing gyms and pool halls we have become familiar with in so many film noirs of the 1940’s and 1950’s.
It is films like this that give so much depth to, and make the early 1970’s one of the great periods in American cinema. When you get past the standard “classic” films of the period and look underneath at some of the forgotten works there are still so many genuine amazing works that need to be reconsidered. Thanks Allan for bringing this film some attention.
Great piece here.. I don’t believe I have ever seen this film..
You’re on fire…another one of your best pieces. (Were all of these written before hand, or have some been tweaked since? Either way, good job.)
Yes, Movie Man, Allan has done some great work here. I’ll leave him to respond to you on his review catalogue.
Kaleem, same to you, I expect Allan will respond.
As always John, thanks for your typical thoughtful and informative response, which is always much appreciated here at WitD. Huston’s greatest films of course are classics like THE MALTESE FALCON and THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE, but of his later work I rate his haunting THE DEAD based on Joyce as his best. FAT CITY is a fine film, but I don’t rate it as high as Allan and others. But fair enough.
I respect David Thomson by the way (and have quoted him on occasion) but his summary dismissals of some great films and directors always leaves me with sour taste. He is in one sense a “civilized” John Simon.
Well, speaking to Sam last night, I felt rather sickeningly embarrassed by the attention to Straw Dogs yesterday, which I found a basically standard review. I told him that tomorrow’s was a better piece as you can tell with the flow when you’re writing it. They all take the same short space of time, but some flow very easily, this was one of them.
Sam does love The Dead, but he’s an English teacher, so being based on Joyce is a big plus for him.
John, I was probably being a bit vague, but by debacle over Red Badge I was really referring to what happened to the film rather than the film itself, which may have been great before the idiots in suits got their hands on it. And as for African Queen, it’s an excellent film, yes, but they were made back to back, and though that saw him back to form, I think Red Badge was the start of the slump really, perhaps slump in his passion – remember it was also the time when he was going to make Quo Vadis, then that was taken from him in pre-production, and then Red Badge was butchered. Part of the reason he made TAQ was to get away from Hollywood with old friends. Plus, in Bogie, Hepburn and Cardiff he had three magnificent cohorts, the latter often overlooked for this film compared to his P & P films, but not helped by the awful green-tinged prints circulating on DVD, but Cardiff’s mastery of photography in rough locations – first demonstrated on shooting, again in colour – the wartime documentary Western Approaches on a real merchant ship at risk from U-boats on the Atlantic.
This is one of your best pieces, Allan. I too am a great admirer of this perenially underrated John Huston picture. Speaking as a fellow who lives a short 100 miles or so west of Stockton, I am happy to report that since the time of Fat City, the small city/large town has made some fine strides, even if it probably remains California’s most buttoned-down, “unremarkable” city. I visit periodically. The yearly springtime artichoke festival is rather fun.
In any event, a fine read here, and I agree with you right down the line.
Thank you for clearing that. I agree that “African Queen” was Huston’s way to get away from Hollywood. L. B. Mayer did not want to make “Red Badge” from the start (it was Dore Schary’s baby) and even after it got the green light he hoped it would fail and studio tinkering, cutting something like twenty minutes or so ensured a mediocre film at best.
Cardiff was a master DP who I agree with the lack of a good DVD release, his work on this film is underappreciated. I have only seen “The Red Shoes” from The Archers but it is plain brilliant.
This is Allan’s best review.
These sentences have the clarity of good prose and the aura of great poetry:
“Richard Sylbert’s smoke-filled interiors perfectly compliment the sun-kissed decay out of doors and the great Conrad Hall’s photography is sublimely grimy, mixing sun and sweat and giving it a rinse in hard liquor.”
“It was a moment of clarity, an epiphany, as if the fabric of reality was bending to allow you to slip through, but you’re reflexes aren’t up to it. Then you’re left, staring blankly into a coffee, unnoticed, anonymous, and as good as dead already.”
While I am here, I can’t resist repeating my refrain that such epiphanies can occur in any film, and we can miss sublime cinematic moments by being selective.
Hi! Sam Juliano, Allan Fish, Tony D’Ambra, Alexander Coleman, and most definitely, to all the men (readers) who post here at Wonders in the Dark.
This most definitely would include Great-Great GrandFathers, GrandFathers, Fathers, Uncles, Brothers, Sons, Cousins, and Friends…May you have a….
I hope you all have a pleasant weekend and nice Father’s Day!
DeeDee 🙂
By the way, Allan,
What a very interesting review…Oh! No! I have never watched this film before, but I “may” seek it out to watch!…Who knows?!? 🙄 (Shrug Shoulders)
DeeDee 😉
Thanks very much for that Dee Dee. That is a lovely acknowledgement from you.
And thanks Dennis for your excellent appraisal there of Allan’s great review.
Before I passed along the info below, I wanted to check out the Alexa ranking of WitD in Australia. I was surprised to see that the rank is #12,249!
For all Oz readers then, ABC2 Digital this coming Saturday night at 20:30 EST is broadcasting Fat City followed by John Ford’s Fort Apache (1948).
Very good to hear on both counts Tony. I’m assuming that Alexa rating is very impressive, no?
Yes, very good Sam. You are still up!
Tony, I had trouble sleeping last night, so I checked the PC in the middle of the night. ha!
Huge fan of Fat City. I truly believe it was the beginning of a filmmaking renaissance for Huston and that it led to some films that I consider masterpieces, particularly The Man Who Would Be King, as well as Wise Blood (which I just watched for the first time). I like Prizzi’s Honor, though not quite as much as those two films; it feels almost like a self-parody in regards to Huston’s early noir/heist flicks. Still haven’t seen either Under the Volcano or The Dead, but I plan to. I’ve said this before on other sites, but Huston may very well be my favorite filmmaker.