Morgan Freeman

If there is an actor whose mere on-screen persona is enough to make him likeable as an actor, it is Morgan Freeman. He puts you at ease instantly with his calm exterior, steady gaze, reassuring smile, deadpan humour, unfazed attitude, and deep voice. You can change the order of his filmic qualities if you like but that won’t alter his dignified demeanour. His contemporaries, Anthony Hopkins and Gene Hackman, have a similar bearing but they also have their own distinct qualities.

While I’m no authority on the 6' 2" actor from Memphis, Tennessee, I have enjoyed every film of his that I have watched. Many remain to be seen considering that he has been around since the mid-sixties, a very long time for one who first noticed him in Glory (1989), that too a few years after it was released. 

Last evening, I was watching Along Came a Spider (2001) by Lee Tamahori (Die Another Day) and what struck me about his role was that he wasn't playing equal or second fiddle to anyone. He was actually playing the sole lead as Dr. Alex Cross, homicide detective and profiler of criminals, a role he previously essayed in Kiss the Girls (1997). Both the films are based on novels by James Patterson.

I admit that I haven’t seen him in too many lead roles, not even as Nelson Mandela in Invictus (2009), so you’ll have to fill the gaps there.

Freeman is really on top of his game in Along Came a Spider where he is unintentionally dragged into a case involving the kidnapping of a US senator’s young daughter. As a detective who has just lost his partner, Freeman’s character is clever and cunning and almost always one step ahead of the kidnapper, providing vital clues and breakthroughs to both the FBI and the Secret Service who are eating out of his hands. In the end Freeman, dressed up in a long coat, a tie, and a fedora, shoots the mastermind with a shotgun. I thought he’d make a very good old-world gangster.

In most of his films that I have seen, however, Freeman is standing shoulder to shoulder, or a tad behind, his equally famous contemporaries, be it Matthew Broderick and Denzel Washington in Glory (1989), Kevin Costner in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991), Clint Eastwood in Unforgiven (1992), Tim Robbins in The Shawshank Redemption (1994), Anthony Hopkins in Amistad (1997), Gene Hackman in Under Suspicion (2000), Jim Carrey in Bruce Almighty (2003), Clint Eastwood in Million Dollar Baby (2004), Michael Caine in Batman Begins (2005), Jack Nicholson in The Bucket List (2007) or Michael Caine and Mark Ruffalo in Now You See Me (2013).

I think he has no issues, ego issues really, being in the shadow of other actors. He has been quoted as saying, “Once you've gotten the job, there's nothing to it. If you're an actor, you're an actor. Doing it is not the hard part. The hard part is getting to do it.” If he likes a particular role, he accepts it and acts it out, and I believe he doesn’t ask too many questions.

Morgan Freeman’s cinematic success, aside from his popularity with his female co-stars like Jessica Tandy, Ashley Judd, and Hilary Swank, lies in his capacity to do any role he thinks is right for him, and he does it with conviction. I have a theory that Freeman knows he doesn’t have to play sole lead every time because he is so good at what he does even in multi-star cast films that people frequently mention his part before that of his co-actors. I think that's a fine tribute to a terrific actor.

What do you like about Morgan Freeman and which of  his films do you like the most?

Rest in Peace: Richard Attenborough

The actor’s director
August 29, 1923-August 24, 2014

I didn't know Richard Attenborough through his films as well as I knew him from reading about his films. I could relate to him as an actor, director, and producer of a little over a hundred films. I have, of course, seen less than ten that include The Great Escape, Miracle on 34th Street, and Jurassic Park in the three categories.

He was mostly an actor who catapulted into the limelight in India with Gandhi, his epic directorial venture. Suddenly, Attenborough was a household name, as was the man he cast in the Mahatma's slippers, Ben Kingsley, who by a coincidence happened to be half-Indian; he was born Krishna Pandit Bhanji, in England. Attenborough could not have chosen a more suitable actor to play Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Even today, for many in India Kingsley is still Gandhi.

When Gandhi won eight Academy Awards, an entire nation rejoiced as if the film was made by an Indian. The only thing Indian about Gandhi was its frail and sparsely-clad subject. The award-winning Slumdog Millionaire by Danny Boyle evoked a similar response, though on a much smaller scale. Still, we felt a kinship with both the films, especially Gandhi as it was about a historically important period of time and because it had several noted Indian character actors.

Attenborough (left) directs Kingsley in Gandhi
© Frank Connor/www.bafta.org

Richard Attenborough brought to life the larger-than-life persona of Mahatma Gandhi, more than scores of books and comic-books and audio and video documentaries ever had until 1982.

I think one of the primary reasons why Gandhi became a phenomenal success in India was because Attenborough did not deviate from the real-life script of the Mahatma’s life, his trials and tribulations, the freedom struggle, the partition of India into India and Pakistan, independence in 1947, and his assassination. Everything was as we'd learned about him since school. In fact, as the film rolled we could anticipate certain events that occurred during the freedom movement; like the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Punjab, in April 1919, when General Dyer ordered his men to open fire directly on a crowd of peaceful protesters. Over a thousand men and women died; scores of others jumped into the garden's wells to escape the bullets and were killed. It remains one of the bleakest periods and Dyer the most hated man in Indian history. 

Gandhi is one of my all-time favourite movies and I see it at least once a year when, in a spirit of patriotism, it is telecast on India's republic day, January 26, and on her independence day, August 15—a memorable tribute to a great man and to the human spirit. In India, at least, Richard Attenborough sealed his fame with that epochal film.

Tommy Lee Jones

Another deviation for Tuesday's Overlooked Films, Audio & Video at Todd Mason’s blog Sweet Freedom. Don’t miss out on some real vintage action over there. 

Not long ago, we were watching The Fugitive when a member of the family remarked that Tommy Lee Jones was a very good actor and that he looked pleasant on screen. I thought about it and agreed he was pleasing but also brooding at the same time, which far from diminishing his screen presence actually enhances it. 

Tommy Lee Jones is one of those unassuming actors whom you don't tire of watching and have a certain comfort level with; someone who puts you at ease in your seat; someone like Morgan Freeman, who provides good entertainment and good value. His characters, at least the ones I've seen, are easy going, laconic, frequently bemused, often flustered, and never really in a hurry chasing good or bad guys, and he has been chasing a fair number of them. His cinematic appeal probably lies in his craggy-faced smile; if you think about it, he does smile a lot.

While watching The Fugitive, for the umpteenth time, it occurred to me that Tommy Lee Jones has been cast as a law enforcer in a number of films. He has been stereotyped as cop, sleuth, agent, ranger, prosecutor, and military man, in character roles that, in fact, suit him well. Occasionally, he has played the saviour outside the confines of the law, as in the disaster flick Volcano and in the thriller The Hunted.

I haven't seen all of his movies—in a television and film career spanning forty-two years—but among the ones I have seen, The Fugitive, The Client, US Marshals, and No Country for Old Men stand out; perhaps, because of the common thread running through them. In all four movies, lawman Tommy Lee Jones is chasing someone or other to the point where he actually looks and sounds alike; whether in pursuit of Dr. Richard Kimble (Harrison Ford) in The Fugitive or the young client of Reggie Love (Susan Sarandon) in The Client and Mark J. Sheridan (Wesley Snipes) in US Marshals or Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) and Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) in No Country for Old Men.

The only film where his character looked out of sorts, perhaps owing to the presence of the formidable trio of Bardem, Brolin, and Harrelson, is the Coen brothers’ film, undoubtedly the most violent of the quartet.

Tommy Lee Jones seems to be content in doing the kind of films he has done so far, which is not to say that he doesn't have an impressive body of work behind him.  As he says, courtesy IMDb, “It's no mean calling to bring fun into the afternoons of large numbers of people. That too is part of my job, and I'm happy to serve when called on.” It's what makes him such a likeable actor.

Born in Texas, sixty-eight year old Tommy Lee Jones worked in underwater construction and on an oil rig, had future Vice President Al Gore as his roommate, and is believed to have said that he loved cinema and agriculture.

I have mentioned some of Tommy Lee Jones’ more obvious films while deliberately leaving MIB out. Which of his films do you like?

For previous Actor Profiles, see under Labels.

Jim Kelly, and Enter the Dragon, 1973

A forgotten actor and his cameo in a cult movie is this week’s focus for Tuesday’s Overlooked Films at Todd Mason’s blog Sweet Freedom.

"I broke down the colour barrier. I was the first black martial artist to become a movie star."

One of the segments I look forward to watching at the Oscars and Golden Globe awards is ‘In Memoriam’ where pictorial tribute is paid to artists who have died over the past year. At the Academy Awards this year, many luminaries like Shirley Temple and Philip Seymour Hoffman were honoured. And, as so often happens, some were left out, notably writer Tom Clancy, which was odd since his senior contemporaries Elmore Leonard and Richard Matheson were part of the celebrity montage. However, there are bound to be hits and misses in an event of the scale of the Oscars.

Among the many entertainers who made it to the posthumous list was Jim Kelly, the American actor and martial arts exponent who died on June 29, 2013. He was 67. Not many would remember him.

Born James Milton Kelly, the actor brought his 6' 2" frame and beehive hairdo to bear upon one of the most popular martial arts movies of all time—Enter the Dragon. In doing so, Jim Kelly left a permanent imprint on the cult film whose most famous star was Bruce Lee. Kelly had his task cut out for him, for not only did he have to work in the shadow of the legendary martial artist but he also had to contend with the suave actor John Saxon. While both Lee and Saxon had already established themselves, this was only Kelly's second film and probably his most notable cinematic work.

In Enter the Dragon, director Robert Clouse brings Lee, Saxon, and Kelly together on an island off Hong Kong considered as the hotbed of vice, mainly opium and blood trade, run by Han, a master criminal with a claw hand. It is Bruce Lee's task, as an informal undercover agent, to investigate the suspicious happenings on the island and report to his agency. But Lee has an agenda of his own: avenging the death of his sister. The man responsible for it, O’harra (Robert Wall), is on the island and in Han's payroll. Old friends Roper (Saxon) and Williams (Kelly) accompany Lee to the island to escape from their own problems.

John Saxon and Jim Kelly in Enter the Dragon.

On the island the three men find the ideal cover in a do-or-die martial arts tournament organised by Han and refereed by his beefy henchman Bolo (Bolo Yeung) who requires no introduction. Men must fight men, sometimes until death. Lee, Saxon, and Kelly prove their worth as martial artists though Han never pits them against each other (in fact, I think he tries but they refuse). In one memorable scene, Lee faces O’harra. Before the start of the fight, O’harra picks up a board and smashes it to convey a point to Lee who retorts in his trademark clipped voice, “Boards don't hit back.” Lee has his revenge.

The film ends on a predictable note: Bruce Lee and John Saxon take on Han and his inexperienced men and liberate hundreds of innocent civilians held captive.

This was Jim Kelly's only well-known film and he was eliminated in the first half. Fans of martial arts films continue to ask why. He deserved to remain until the end.

There are many Bruce Lee takeaways from this film, like his "taming" of a venomous snake, his high-pitched shrieks during fights, his skill with nunchucks, his flying kick, and his final battle with Han inside the deceptive room of mirrors. The one thing Lee doesn't bring to this film, not that he was expected to, is humour. Director Robert Clouse leaves that to Jim Kelly who is the funny face of Enter the Dragon.

Although Clouse lays out the red carpet for Bruce Lee, and John Saxon to a lesser degree, Jim Kelly brings his own charm and style to the film, be it with his fists and arms, his wisecracks, betting on fights and making a neat pile, a toss of his head, or his ridiculing of Han.

“Man, you come right out of a comic book.”

After Enter the Dragon, I never saw Jim Kelly again, in spite of being a gifted actor. But, after hearing his name and seeing his face at the Oscars, I looked up his filmography and found that, in 1974, Robert Clouse directed him in Black Belt Jones, described as an "American Blaxploitation action film," and in Golden Needles.

More than these two films, I hope to see Kelly in action film Three the Hard Way (1974) alongside Jim Brown and Fred Williamson; the western Take A Hard Ride (1975) with Jim Brown, Lee Van Cleef, and Fred Williamson; and another action movie called One Down, Two to go (1976), again opposite Brown and Williamson, and Richard Roundtree.

Jim Kelly has left behind a bigger legacy than I thought he'd.

Arnold Schwarzenegger

Do you have a favourite Arnold Schwarzenegger movie?

Arnold Schwarzenegger in Commando

Not such a tough question, is it? Well, I don't know...I'm still thinking. I liked the Austrian-born actor in many of his films like The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgement Day, Collateral Damage, The 6th Day, Commando, End of Days, True Lies, Eraser, Total Recall, Junior, Kindergarten Cop, Red Heat, Last Action Hero, Predator, Twins, Raw Deal, and Conan the Barbarian and Conan the Destroyer.

I might also have seen Red Sonja and The Running Man but I can’t say for sure. I didn’t care for The Expendables 1 & 2. Schwarzenegger looked too old, as did Sylvester Stallone and Jean Claude van Damme. Who let the geezers out of the old-age home?

For me, Schwarzenegger is more than just an actor; he is also a huge entertainer. I can watch his films without my thinking cap on. I prefer him as an action hero rather than as a comedian with a stupid grin. Watch the final scene in Jingle All the Way where he is holding up the last of the Turboman dolls for his son. I wonder if he felt silly later. 

In Conan the Barbarian, Schwarzenegger is crucified to a barren tree in the middle of a desert, the nails hammered right into the centre of both his palms and feet. The vultures are moving in. Schwarzenegger plays dead and when one of the ugly birds attacks him, he turns and seizes its neck with his teeth, bites hard until it goes limp in his mouth, and spits it out. Soon after, he sees one of his men running towards him and Schwarzenegger launches into a bout of insane laughter. He looks almost freaky.

Coming back to my question (do we even need a favourite?), it’d be a toss-up between Commando and Predator. I loved the two films. If I’m forced to pick any one, I’d choose Commando for all-round entertainment—an equal dose of action and humour with plenty of one-liners that Schwarzenegger has honed into an art. Here's a popular one...

Major General Franklin Kirby (James Olson): Leave anything for us?
Matrix (Schwarzenegger, after killing hundreds of men): Just bodies.

He can deliver lines, deadpan.

James Coburn

A brief profile of an ageless and versatile actor for Overlooked Films at Todd Mason’s blog Sweet Freedom.

The last time I profiled Maggie Smith, Keishon, who blogs at Yet Another Crime Fiction Blog (check it out), thought that something had happened to the grand dame of cinema. I guess I conveyed that impression by writing about Maggie Smith out of the blue. 

James Coburn in Eraser

Last evening, I watched action film Eraser (1996) and saw a familiar face—James Coburn—who at 6' 2" and 74 is still going strong. (Addendum: Sergio in comments has brought it to my notice that Coburn died in 2002, a fact I clearly overlooked.) As head of the US Federal Witness Protection Programme, he orders US Marshal John Kruger (Arnold Schwarzenegger) to protect Lee Cullen (Vanessa Williams), a key witness to a scam in a company that manufactures secret weapons for the military. The mastermind, US Marshal Robert DeGuerin (James Caan, who I mistook for Armand Assante), is a friend of Kruger and he wants both Kruger and Lee out of the way. The conspiracy, if exposed, can rattle skeletons on Capitol Hill.

Coburn with his peers from The Great Escape.

This is not about Eraser, it is about Coburn, and I realise just how little I know about this fine actor with the rugged look and a winning smile. He has been hovering around the periphery of my cinematic vision for some years now, cast in secondary roles as both good and bad guy, in films like Eraser, Snow Dogs, The Nutty Professor, and Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit. The only earliest film I remember Coburn in is The Great Escape made over fifty years ago. He didn’t have a beard then.

That’s how long James Coburn has been around. I’ve probably seen him in some of his other films between then and now but don't remember any. I went through his filmography and found only one familiar exception, A Reason to Live, a Reason to Die, a western he starred alongside Bud Spencer and Telly Savalas. He also had a sound television career.

How well do you know James Coburn? Which of his early films do you remember most?

Michael Crawford, aka Frank Spencer and the Phantom

A profile of a gifted actor and singer for Overlooked Films, Audio & Video at Todd Mason’s blog Sweet Freedom.

In the 70s and 80s and long before cable, India’s state-run television Doordarshan (Far Sight) telecast several British sitcoms like Fawlty Towers, Sorry, Are You Being Served?, To the Manor Born, Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em, and 'Allo 'Allo! Yes Minister and Yes, Prime Minister came later followed by American series like Cosmos: A Personal Voyage by Carl Sagan, Dynasty, and Remington Steele. Der Alte, or The Old Fox, was a popular German crime serial at the time.

During this period Doordarshan also broadcast mini movies lasting no more than an hour. They were watched avidly. I remember one such film, Baxter, about a young boy unwanted by his parents (or so I think) and adopted by a young married couple who are fond of him. It was a poignant film. I haven’t been able to trace it since.

All that was in the past though some British sitcoms like Blackadder and 'Allo 'Allo! have made it back to Indian television screens, thanks to cable.

Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman in The Phantom of the Opera, 1986.
© Donald Cooper/Rex Features

A couple of years ago, we watched Joel Schumacher’s The Phantom of the Opera (2004) starring Gerald Butler, Emmy Rossum, Patrick Wilson, and Minnie Driver, and instantly fell for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s awe inspiring music vocalised by the lead actors other than Driver. At the time the film reminded me of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s famous stage production that had English actor and singer Michael Crawford in the title role of the Phantom. I have not seen it, only read about it.

Michael Crawford—now where had I heard that name before? To my pleasant surprise, I discovered that he was none other than the accident-prone, bumbling idiot, and affectionate husband Frank Spencer in Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em which was first broadcast in 1973 and then again until 1978. For a while I actually thought they were two men with the same name. I mean how could the blundering Frank Spencer be the debonair Phantom? A BBC poll rated it one of Britain’s best sitcoms.

In case you haven’t seen the sitcom or heard about it, here’s what it was all about, courtesy Wikipedia: “The wimpish, smiling Frank, sporting his trademark beret and trench coat, is married to (his long suffering wife) Betty (Michele Dotrice) and in later series they have a baby daughter, Jessica, which offered scope for even more slapstick humour. Frank was a gift for impersonators, and for a time it became a cliché that every half-decent impersonator was doing an impression of him, particularly his main catchphrase, “Ooh Betty,” (and) a quavering “Oooh…,” usually uttered with his forefinger to his mouth as he stands amidst the chaos of some disaster he has just caused (and which he himself has invariably escaped unscathed).”

Frank and Betty Spencer (Michael Crawford and Michele Dotrice)
© Wikipedia

While Michael Crawford, CBE, will always be remembered as Frank Spencer in this silly but delightful comedy about a made-for-each-other husband and wife, it would be unfair not to mention his other achievements, particularly as an award-winning singer who has cut albums and a stage actor on both London's West End and New York’s Broadway.

He was only 19 when he got a role in the American film The War Lover (1962) alongside Steve McQueen. At 25, he made his Broadway debut in Peter Shaffer's Black Comedy with Lynn Redgrave and was noticed by Gene Kelly who gave him a part in the film adaptation of the musical Hello, Dolly! Crawford then went on to act in various plays (No Sex Please, We're British), films (Disney adventure Condorman), and sitcoms (Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em, which made him a household name).

Michael Crawford, CBE
© www.wmeentertainment.com

Crawford got his second big break in 1986 when Andrew Lloyd Webber cast him in the musical stage adaptation of Gaston Leroux’s novel The Phantom of the Opera in the title role opposite English soprano Sarah Brightman. 

Over the next two-and-a-half years, he gave more than 1,300 performances on both West End and Broadway winning several music and theatre awards on the way. The Phantom of the Opera has since been produced in nearly 150 cities across 25 countries and recently celebrated its 25th anniversary. In 2011, Crawford and Webber teamed up again for the musical version of L. Frank Baum's novel The Wizard of Oz.

Years later, when Joel Schumacher made The Phantom of the Opera for the big screen, people wondered why the smiling and affable Frank Spencer wasn’t cast in the role of the Phantom. Michael Crawford has never been able to shake off the sitcom tag. In 2004, however, he’d have been 62 and perhaps a tad old to play the Angel of Music but he was the original Phantom, the man who has inspired many Phantoms over more than two decades.

Dame Maggie Smith

A fleeting look at the English-born grand dame of Hollywood for Overlooked Films, Audio & Video at Todd Mason’s blog Sweet Freedom.

Minerva McGonagall has all but erased my memory of Maggie Smith’s earlier films, some of which I have seen though I don't remember much. Close your eyes, think of Maggie Smith, and up pops her image as the stern but kindly transfiguration professor and head of Gryffindor house at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

I recall her, rather vaguely, in Death on the Nile (1978) and A Room with a View (1985), almost entirely in the Sister Act duet (1992 & 1993) and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011), and absolutely everything about her place in Harry Potter’s Voldemortised life. I’m scratching my head over Gosford Park (2001), though.

Dame Maggie Smith was already 67 when the first Harry Potter movie came out in 2001 and a decade older when the two-part film of the seventh in the series was released. Richard Harris, who was slightly older than Smith, died after playing Dumbledore in Harry Potter 1 & 2, making way for another Irish-born actor Michael Gambon, ten years his junior. Maggie Smith, however, continued to lend her distinguished, albeit underrated, presence to the popular franchise till the end. She was overshadowed by the others and most especially by Alan Rickman who played Severus Snape, arguably the best character in the entire series.

Today, Maggie Smith is 79 years old and in spite of health issues is still going strong, delivering fine performances as ever. She is set to appear in a film called My Old Lady (2014) with Kevin Kline and Kristin Scott Thomas. She is also expected to reprise her role in the as-yet unannounced The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel 2 along with Judi Dench, Billy Nighy, and Richard Gere. The first part, set in India, was a very nice film and I recommend it to those who haven't seen it.

The earliest Maggie Smith movie I can recall is The V.I.P.’s because I remember liking it as much for the story as for the multicast. Smith plays Miss Mead, a young secretary to Les Mangrum (Rod Taylor), a cash-strapped businessman from Australia who urgently needs funds to prevent a hostile takeover of his tractor company. They are stuck at London airport, en route to New York, along with an assorted group of rich travellers with their own seemingly intractable problems.

There is Paul Andros (Richard Burton), a brooding tycoon desperately trying to prevent his wife Frances Andros (Elizabeth Taylor) from running away with Marc Champselle (Louis Jourdan), a casanova equally desperate to whisk her away; wealthy filmmaker Max Buda (Orson Welles), who is vexed by tax problems, and Miriam Marshall (Linda Christian), his actress and muse; and the Duchess of Brighton (Dame Margaret Rutherford) who has her own reasons for leaving the London fog behind.

Rod Taylor and Maggie Smith 

Miss Mead doesn't say much in the film but her actions as a loyal secretary speak louder than her words would have. She approaches Paul Andros, rather tentatively, with a financial proposal and is taken aback when the distraught tycoon, after realising why she is doing it, signs his chequebook and hands it over without a word. His generosity is guided by a simple philosophy: of what use is his wealth when he is about to lose his love, at least it can help the devoted secretary win something for her charming boss. Miss Mead is clearly besotted by Les Mangrum, the gentleman-employer.

What I liked about The V.I.P.’s were Maggie Smith's separate scenes and dialogues with Rod Taylor and Richard Burton. They lent a nice touch to a story largely characterised by human foibles. I also found Maggie Smith's character more appealing than Elizabeth Taylor's. 

Note: Yvette Banek has written an excellent review of The V.I.P.’s over at her equally excellent blog In so many words… Click on the link to read the review.