Michael May's Blog, page 66

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)

Who's in it?: A bunch of cartoons

What's it about?: An animated, musical adaptation of the fairy tale, "Snow White."

How is it?: Reading the Grimm version before watching Disney's affected my enjoyment of the latter. Disney's is still a great, successful adaptation, but I wasn't as over the moon about it as I usually am. On any other day, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a classic. It's amazing that it's 82-years-old. The animation is still top notch, Snow White is still utterly charming, the dwarfs are still hilarious, and the Queen is still completely terrifying.

As I wrote when talking about the Grimm version, the main character of the fairy tale is the Queen and I understand why she feels threatened. Her story isn't really appropriate as text for a children's film, though. Although it would have been possible to highlight as subtext. But Disney wasn't interested in that and I don't fault the filmmakers. It's just something I was thinking about as I watched this time and it dampened my enjoyment a little.

In other ways, it's a great adaptation. The prince comes out of nowhere in the Grimm version, so Disney makes a good call by introducing him earlier in the story and at least paying song-service to his love for Snow. The dwarfs of course are given names and personalities that are missing in Grimm. And the Queen's attacks on Snow are reduced to one, successful one instead of including the Grimm Queen's two, unsuccessful attempts that Snow stupidly refuses to learn from.

I don't know how I feel about sticking the Sleeping Beauty kiss in as the way to revive Snow White. She's revived by accident in Grimm, so I appreciate the attempt to make the prince more involved, but the Love's First Kiss antidote doesn't make a lot of sense. (Frankly, I'm not sure that it even makes sense in "Sleeping Beauty," but I'll wait until I've read the Grimm version of that before I decide.)

The Queen's death is far less horrifying in Disney than in Grimm, but it's still very powerful due to the sheer talent in the animation, score, and sound design. In all other ways, this is a faithful retelling of the Grimm Brothers' version with some extra singing and dancing thrown in.

Rating: Four out of five secret dungeons.

Filthy Horrors | Aaaand Poe

Darla, Jess, and I begin this episode in a haunted cemetery, an appropriate place to talk about one of our favorite writers, Edgar Allan Poe. After some talk about other horror we've been into the last month and a discussion of our own funerals, we dig specifically into "The Cask of Amontillado," "The Masque of the Red Death," and "The Raven." With side-trips to other Poe stories as well as our favorite adaptations of his work.

Please Note: It was windy at the cemetery and the sound overwhelms the discussion a few times during that section of the episode. We cleaned it up as best we could, but if it's bothersome, you might want to skip ahead to about 20 minutes into the show. At that point we've moved inside and the audio is clear for the remainder of the episode.

"Snow White" by The Brothers Grimm

My watch-through of various Grimm adaptations isn't at all going to be exhaustive. Even though it's more than I'll be able to talk about on Filthy Horrors, I've only got about a month to watch and read everything I want to. So I'm hitting the high points. I decided to start with "Snow White" because it's so well known and also because the Disney adaptation is the first of the films I'll be watching.

I'm going to get myself a copy of the Grimms' complete works, but right now I'm reading Maria Tatar's Annotated Brothers Grimm. It doesn't have every single thing, but there are a bunch of stories in it and I love Tatar's notes. The character of Snow White has a justifiably bad reputation as a helpless, reactionary character, but Tatar helped me see that Snow isn't actually the main character of her story at all. That would be the Queen. And while she's never sympathetic, her plight is. In every way that women were valued at the time of the story, the Queen is being undermined by Snow. Even motherhood, as I'll get to in a minute.

In the earliest, oral versions of the story, the Queen isn't Snow's step-mother, but her actual, biological mother. And in at least one version, it's Snow's father who specifically wishes for a daughter with snow white skin, ebony black hair, and blood red lips. Because of this, the king feels a special relationship with Snow and the Queen feels threatened about being replaced by the younger, prettier girl. Motherhood is valued by the culture, but the Queen has already fulfilled that role while Snow is just starting to get ready for it. The best is ahead for her, as it were. Tatar points out that when Snow keeps house for the dwarfs, she's taking her first step towards becoming a wife and mother (though not specifically for the dwarfs who are deliberately asexual and non-threatening; Snow is just practicing in their house).

The Grimms weren't satisfied with only documenting the oral stories they collected. They modified them to suit the tastes and values of their own, then-modern culture. And since motherhood was highly valued, evil mothers in the stories usually became less problematic step-mothers. Which is what happened to the Queen. The story is more horrifying if the Queen is Snow's biological mother, but it also makes a lot more sense because it keeps the overall theme of the story intact.

Snow is innocent in all of this. That's part of her allure and a lot of what the Queen hates about her. But society isn't pure. It assigns disproportionate value to youth and beauty, both of which are fading for the Queen while Snow increasingly becomes the center of attention. I understand why the Queen feels threatened, even while I judge her harshly for what she does about it. And it's telling that she instructs her huntsman to bring back Snow's organs once he's murdered the girl, so that the Queen can eat them, ritually consuming Snow's essence so that the Queen can possess her youth and beauty.

With the Queen as the tragic main character, Snow becomes the antagonist and mostly a symbolic one. That's why she doesn't have a lot of agency. I'm curious to see which adaptations, if any, try to fix that. I'm also curious to see which adaptations keep the focus on the Queen. I know some pay more attention to her than others.

The dwarfs and the prince are just obstacles to the Queen's plans, so they're not super fleshed out either. The dwarfs only give Snow temporary shelter and don't have names or even personalities in the Grimms' version. The prince unintentionally rescues Snow at the end by falling in love with her beauty through the glass coffin. He doesn't appear in the story until the very end, so there's no previous relationship. She is literally just a piece of art that he wants in his home. But as he's transporting her from the forest to his palace, the carriage hits a bump, jostles Snow's coffin, and loosens the chunk of poison apple that's caught in her throat and is keeping her comatose. She's released by happenstance as if the universe is conspiring against the Queen. The value of youth and beauty is a powerful force and the story relentlessly rewards it.

Another example of this is how the Queen dies. Once Snow is revived, the Queen's mirror again proclaims that the Queen is no longer the fairest in the land. It doesn't mention Snow by name though, but only that the prince is now married and his bride now holds the title. The Queen has to go check this out and is horrified to learn that Snow is still alive. The couple seem to have anticipated the Queen's visit though, because there are a pair of white-hot iron shoes that the Queen is forced to wear and dance herself to death. It's violently sadistic, but the Queen is no hero and has more or less earned her fate. Rather than withdraw gracefully into old age, she's tried to murder Snow multiple times. Her comeuppance is fascinatingly brutal.

The Brothers Grimm (2005)

Who's in it?: Matt Damon (Good Will Hunting, Ocean's Eleven, Jimmy Kimmel Live!), Heath Ledger (10 Things I Hate About You, The Patriot, The Dark Knight), Lena Headey (300, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Game of Thrones), Monica Bellucci (Bram Stoker's Dracula, Brotherhood of the Wolf, Spectre), and Jonathan Pryce (Something Wicked This Way Comes, Tomorrow Never Dies, Pirates of the Caribbean).

What's it about?: Witch-hunting charlatans Wilhelm (Damon) and Jacob Grimm (Ledger) question the truth behind their lies when they investigate a series of child abductions in a remote village near a dark forest.

How is it?: We're going to be talking about Grimm fairy tales for an upcoming episode of Filthy Horrors . I know that there won't be enough time to talk about everything I'll want to, so as I'm reading and watching things to get ready for it, I'll use this site as a journal to capture thoughts.

Before I even read one of the Grimms' fairy tales, Terry Gilliams' movie about them seemed like a good place to start. Although I'd completely forgotten that Gilliam directed it. It's got his trademark imagination and whimsy, but not many of the practical effects that I always associate with him thanks to his '80s movies like Time Bandits, Brazil, and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. I miss the inventiveness that went into bringing those fantasies to life. The 2005 CG of The Brother's Grimm doesn't hold up well.

The buildings and other settings all look wondrously fantastical though and the actors are delightful. Ledger is acting against type as the nerdier brother, Jake, who believes the stories he's telling, to the annoyance of the more practical Will. And it's great to see Lena Headey in a role where I can root for her as I always want to do. She plays the village hunter, daughter of a previous hunter who went missing when she was little.

The story is typical Shakespeare in Love shenanigans where we get to see the "inspirations" for so much of the writers' work. The villain (Bellucci) with her long hair, impenetrable tower, and magic mirror is responsible for legends of Snow White's evil queen as well as Rapunzel. She's trying to resurrect herself and reclaim her beauty by kidnapping young girls and putting them to sleep until she's ready to use them for her magic ritual. And she's assisted in this by a werewolf who opens the film luring into the woods a girl wearing a red hood.

To be clear, I love this stuff and the script does a nice job weaving it together. It even sets the story during Napoleon's occupation of Germany so that French characters (like Pryce's ruthless Delatombe) can interact with and potentially inspire the Grimms with Charles Perrault's versions of some of these stories. Cinderella in particular comes up a couple of times.

Rating: Three out of five hunting Headeys.

Greystoked | Tarzan and the Huntress (1947)

Noel and I are joined by Tim from the CinemaSpection podcast to discuss Johnny Sheffield's last film as Boy. In many ways, Tarzan and the Huntress is a return to form for the series; we explore whether or not that's a good thing.

'Casting Off | Crusoe (2008)

After a long, unintended hiatus, 'Casting Off is back with a quick episode where David and I talk about the 2008 TV series Crusoe starring Philip Winchester, Tongayi Chirisa, Sam Neill, and Sean Bean.

Hellbent for Letterbox | 7 Men from Now (1956)

Pax and I have enjoyed the Budd Boetticher/Randolph Scott collaborations we've seen (especially Ride Lonesome, which we reviewed on the show), so for this episode we talk about 7 Men from Now, the very first Boetticher/Scott team-up. I also share a 2019 Western I watched, Ivan Kavanagh's Never Grow Old starring John Cusack and Emile Hirsch. And Pax wraps up Hex, the post-apocalyptic Jonah Hex comic he's been reading.

Fourth Chair Army Invasion | Give That Kaiju Some Work!

Inspired by the upcoming Godzilla movie, I invited Chad Young, Jeff Somogyi, and Evan Hanson to help me recast giant monsters and giant robots in other genres. The conversation occasionally runs off-topic like a giant lizard in downtown Tokyo, rampaging through eBay, stadium seating, summer camp counseling, and Blue Apron chase variants, but ultimately we're able to create a kaiju musical, film noir, roller coaster, and a season of Real Housewives: Terror Tooth.

Three Little Girls in Blue (1946)

Who's in it?: Vera-Ellen (Wonder Man, The Kid from Brooklyn, White Christmas) and a bunch of other people.

What's it about?:Three sisters leave their New England farm to try to snag rich husbands in turn-of-the-century Atlantic City.

How is it?: Exploring the Danny Kaye filmography this year has led to my wanting to also explore Vera-Ellen's career. I've always been amazed at her dancing in White Christmas and was super pleased to see her feet put to great use in Kaye's Wonder Man and The Kid from Brooklyn. I want more.

Kaye isn't in Three Little Girls in Blue, so it's all on Vera-Ellen and the women who play her sisters: June Haver and Vivian Blaine. They're great. Haver is the oldest sister, June, who comes up with the idea to use some inheritance money to pretend to be wealthy socialites and attract rich men. Unfortunately, the inheritance isn't as large as the women hoped, so only June can afford the pretense. The other two have to play her employees. Liz (Blaine) pretends to be June's social secretary while Myra (Vera-Ellen) plays a maid.

I don't have a lot of patience for gold-digging as a plot, but the sisters are sweet and charming, as are their prospective beaux. George Montgomery and Frank Latimore play a couple of bachelors who compete over June, which is another plot I never care for, because it makes it seem like the woman has no choice in the matter and is simply a prize to be won. But Three Little Girls adds more layer to that story than most films do by revealing that June does have a preference between her suitors. She just can't make her preference known because she's not sure how serious either man is. If she picks one and he turns out to be just talk, then she risks losing the other. This is explicit in the movie, so rather than being annoyed at June for encouraging the competition, I'm empathetic with her dilemma (even though I'm not crazy about the gold-digging scheme to begin with).

Things are complicated when Liz starts to fall for one of the guys, but Myra refreshingly becomes attracted to a bellhop. So even in this super mercenary plot there's a strong reminder that love and money are two different things (a point the film makes in other ways, too).

Outside the romantic politics, the songs are mostly really good (with a dull exception or two) and I was excited to learn that Frank Sinatra's "You Make Me Feel So Young" originated here. Most importantly, Vera-Ellen gets a solo dance number. It's a creepy one during "You Make Me Feel So Young" where she's dressed in a little girl outfit (think Shirley Temple with her miniskirt, frilled panties, and giant bonnet), so there's that, but it's still Vera-Ellen dancing up a storm, so there's that.

Rating: Three out of five finagling farm girls.

Dragonfly Ripple | Avengers: Endgame (2019)

An epic movie deserves an epic episode. For only the second time in Dragonfly Ripple history, the entire Dragonfly Ripple and Jetpack Tiger crew assemble to talk over Avengers: Endgame. Did everyone enjoy it? What were the favorite moments? Who cried the most? The answers are here along with SPOILERS galore!