Bus Stop, and The Seven Year Itch

More movies tonight: Debbi and I hit the Stanford Theatre to see a couple of old Marilyn Monroe flicks, the first I've seen other than last month's Some Like It Hot.

Bus Stop (1956) has been mentioned by some (such as the Stanford's guide for the current schedule) as Monroe's best acting performance, and it's pretty good. 21-year-old Montana cowhand Beau Decker (Don Murray, in his movie debut; okay, truthfully I'd never heard of him) and his friend Verge (Arthur O'Connell) travel to Phoenix (the "big city", eliciting chuckles from the audience) for a rodeo. Beau - a rough-and-tumble, no-nonsense, and not-much-common-courtesy type of guy, expects to win every event, and also hopes to find his "angel" - the girl of his dreams. He meets cafe singer Cherie (Monroe) at the club next to their hotel, and plans immediately to marry her. She naturally takes offense at this, but Beau's skull is too thick to understand that she - or anyone else - might have desires that run counter to his, and he proceeds to run roughshod over everyone who stands in the way of marrying her.

Written by George Axelrod based on William Inge's play, Bus Stop is full of heavy western accents and exaggerated costumes and body language. The accents aren't so much the problem as is the often contrived dialogue, which the actors nonetheless do their best to tackle with laudable earnestness. (Murray, for all that his character is a lumbering clod, deserves some credit for his sheer enthusiasm. Kevin Costner's character in SIlverado was surely based on Beau.) Monroe seems nearly unrecognizable from an acting standpoint, and although this might not be a terrific role, she does as good a job as it seems one could expect any actress to turn in.

The film does have a good climax, as Beau finally learns a few lessons he's sorely in need of learning, but the ending itself features several actions of questionable motivation (on the parts of Cherie and Verge), which left me wondering how they'd all turn out three or five years down the road.

Ultimately, Bus Stop suffers from feeling too much like an adaptation of a play (Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean had a similar problem), relying too much on the visceral actions of its characters with too little regard for whether they actually make sense. I was able to gloss over a lot of it since, basically, neither Beau nor Cherie is very bright, but in the end it pushes a bit too far and falls amidst its weaknesses.

On the other hand, The Seven Year Itch (1955) is a fine comedy, although it does feature the stereotypical Marilyn as a blonde bombshell, though even so she does put on a good acting performance in the last third of the film (albeit with not particularly demanding material).

Paperback book editor Richard Sherman (Tom Ewell) is a happily-married man with a son, but every summer his wife and son leave for a long summer vacation, while he stays in Manhattan to work. Along with seemingly every man in New York, when this happens his thoughts turn to the vices of drinking, smoking... and women. Sherman tries his best to be good, but loses his self-control when he finds a beautiful blonde (Monroe, whose character is never named) subletting the upstairs apartment. Sherman has a vivid imagination, and envisions himself talking with his wife and explaining how women have been throwing themselves at him for years, but he's always been virtuous and resisted. All hogwash, of course, once Monroe takes him up on an offer of a drink one evening, setting off his film-long internal struggle with his conscience.

There's no deep moral here, and it's not a situation comedy, as any disastrous ramifications that might come from Sherman's actions are strictly played out (in the funniest possible way) in his imagination, leaving the film as Sherman's humorous agonizing over his conscience and his libido. Ewell's deadpan delivery is what makes the film work, and Monroe is primarily just his foil, although she plays a crucial role in the story's eventual resolution.

The film also features Monroe's famous shot standing over an exhaust vent from the subway (though the famous shot is not the one used in the film), and several hilarious lines, notably Marilyn's upon her entrance to Sherman's apartment, and Sherman's rant at a friend who comes by to visit near the end (including a brilliantly self-referential line which I never saw coming). The Seven Year Itch is just another example of the fine scripts (in this case, by Billy Wilder and George Axelrod, from Axelrod's play) turned out by Hollywood in its classic era. You'll like it.

Incidentally, we also ran into Trish, Michael Walsh, and his roommate Paula at the theatre. They all seem to be doing well, except for the insane hours that Trish is working.

Last night I picked up the week's comics, and had an unpleasant surprise in the bargain: When they pulled my saver (comics I order ahead of time and which they hold for me when they come in) was a limited slipcased hardcover edition of Brian Talbot's Heart of Empire. This was unpleasant because I can't imagine I'd ordered it, since I already own the paperback collection! They pulled my original order form, and indeed there it was, dutifully marked off.

So I'm perplexed. I checked the form and there wasn't anything nearby on that page which I might have intended to mark instead, though strangely one other item I had ordered (and did plan to buy) looked like it had been partially erased (a good trick, since I use black ink when I mark my order). Unfortunately, there no way at this point to determine whether or not I really did mark that item, or if someone else ordered the book after the fact and somehow the wrong book was accidentally grabbed, or something even stranger.

To their credit, the store's owner said he'd try to sell it to someone else, but if he can't then I might be stuck with it. It's probably not a big loss, since I can likely sell it for a chunk of its original price on eBay, but it sure is annoying. I don't mind buying the occasional stray comic book or even cheap graphic novel which I accidentally ordered, but this thing is bloody expensive!

I think I'm going to take some steps to prevent this from happening again, such as filling out a second sheet by writing the titles of big-ticket ($10 and up) items I'm ordering for that month in longhand, both to make sure I don't myself mark something accidentally, and as a double-check for the store when they fill out their own order form for the whole store.

Anyway, I only write about this at length because it really dampened my whole evening. Probably I shouldn't have let it, but I do tend to obsess about things like these.

On a brighter note, I took my car in for scheduled maintenance, and everything seems fine. Hard to believe I bought it nearly two years ago!

And, we had a beer bash at work today which was the best one we've had in quite a while. The Apple "corporate games" were happening, which basically consist of twelve teams competing in various goofy activities (like catching hurled water balloons) and having a fun time. I didn't compete, but it was fun to watch. I spent most of the time chatting with Trish's cow-orkers Jen and Bill, as well as Anders and a friend of his who came over for the bash named Yvette. I was sorry I had to leave early, but I needed to meet up with Debbi for dinner and the film.

A fun day, altogether. Now, this weekend I need to catch up on my sleep, and next week start getting to bed earlier. It's good to have a goal...