Showbiz History: The Help, Madame Butterfly, and the first superhero comic?
Wednesday, February 17, 2021 at 9:00AM 7 random things that happened on this day, February 17th, in showbiz history...
1904 Puccini's beloved opera Madame Butterfly premieres in Italy in what was essentially rough draft form. After audiences booed, he revamped it for four months and the streamlined version became a global success. The opera was based on the play by David Belasco. The story has made it to the big screen six times beginning with the silent film era. Two of the subsequent films were versions of the opera itself, one a Japanese film in 1954 and the other a French film in 1995. Have you seen any film version of this or the opera itself?
1936 The daily newspaper comic strip The Phantom launches (and is still running if you can believe it) essentially giving rise to the superhero genre...
though The Phantom wasn't that exactly. The character has been successful in multiple formats but only one attempt at a feature film followed in 1996 to tepid audience and critical response.
1939 A musical-comedy take on The Three Musketeers starring Gloria Stuart, Don Ameche, and the Ritz Brothers and the adventure film Gunga Din starring Cary Grant and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. both open in theaters. The latter proves a big hit. Neither score with Oscar apart from a lone cinematography nomination for Gunga Din.
1989 A big weekend for well-loved comedies as both Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure starring Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter and The 'Burbs starring Tom Hanks and Carrie Fisher both open in movie theaters
Octavia and Viola at the 43rd NAACP awards
2012 The 43rd annual NAACP Image Awards are held with The Help winning Best Picture and both female movie acting awards for future Oscar winners Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer. Meanwhile Jumping the Broom wins Best Director and both male acting awards. That same night future Oscar winner Regina King wins Best Actress in a Drama Series for her incredible work on Southland. (Emmy voters had yet to notice King, but once they did they couldn't get enough of her)
2017 The Great Wall opens in theaters. Legendary director Zhang Yimou had tried his hand at a Hollywood production and puts Matt Damon in the leading role of an action flick set in China. It didn't go well.
2019 The 69th annual Berlinale wraps with Synonyms as the closing film and the Golden Bear winner. The Paris set Israeli film makes a star (well, at least to cinephiles) of actor Tom Mercier and his yellow coat.
Today's Birthday Suit
Today would have been the 87th birthday of BAFTA winner Alan Bates.
His career stretched from 1960's Laurence Olivier vehicle The Entertainer through the TV miniseries Spartacus (2004) though he's surely best remembered for the films he made from mid 60s through the late 70s. In that stretch of time he appeared in several hits and classics like Georgy Girl, An Unmarried Woman, The Fixer (Oscar nomination), Zorba the Greek, The Rose, and of course participated in that infamous all nude wrestling match with Oliver Reed in Ken Russell's most acclaimed film Women in Love.
Other showbiz birthdays today: Director Alejandro Jodorowsky (The Holy Mountaiin, El Topo), Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Inception, 500 Days of Summer), Barry Humphries (aka Dame Edna), Jason Ritter (The Tale, Parenthood), Rene Russo (Nightcrawler, The Thomas Crown Affair), frequent Oscar nominee Arthur Kennedy (Peyton Place, Some Came Running), Denise Richards (Drop Dead Gorgeous, The World is Not Enough), Oscar winner Brenda Fricker (My Left Foot), Lucy Davis (Wonder Woman, Shaun of the Dead), Lou Diamond Philips (La Bamba, Courage Under Fire), Jerry O'Connell (Stand by Me, Carter), Director Michael Bay (Armageddon, Transformers), Jim Brown (Mars Attacks!, Rio Conchos), Dominic Purcell (Prison Break, Gridlocked), Rory Kinnear (The Imitation Game, Penny Dreadful), Becky Ann Baker (Girls, The Half of It), Chord Overstreet (Glee, 4th Man Out), Spain's Daniel Grao (Julieta, L'auberge Espanole), Ashton Holmes (History of Violence, Revenge), composer Bear McCreary (Godzilla King of Monsters, 10 Cloverfield Lane), rock star Bille Joe Armstrong, athlete Michael Jordan, heiress Paris Hilton, singer Ed Sheeran, and acting legend Hal Holbrook who we just lost.
Reader Comments (13)
I've watched Cronenberg's M Butterfly. Does it count ?
Luiz - yes.
The filmed version of the opera, starring Placido Domingo and Mirella Freni lip-synching to their recorded vocals, uses cinematic techniques to open up the production. It's definitely not a stage bound "straight" performance of the opera. And it is very moving as long as one can move beyond the fact that the Japanese characters are not played by Japanese. Freni is one of the great interpreters of this role. I've also seen a live performance directed by Harold Prince at the Chicago Lyric Opera and another performed at the Bari Opera house (Bari is where Sophia Loren's The Life Ahead was filmed). Beautiful, beautiful music!
Just a shout out to Bear McCreary, who's doing great things in lesser trafficked places. I've followed him since his music in Battlestar Galactica made me sit up and take notice. His five versions of the Outlander intro are worth a listen, and he's not above self-mocking:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJK9qAUQdAE
I always wonder if I am the only one who reads these posts by scrolling down to the birthday suits first...
I saw Synonyms in an actual theatre in an Asian city, back when travel was freer and taken-for-granted unlike now. Tom Mercier is a brave actor and the film itself is a dizzy-tizzy allegory of being simultaneously foreign and native. That last scene is creatively-spot on and well-executed, if a bit sad.
Coming from an opera-loving family, I heard various versions of "Madama Butterfly" but have not seen it live as an opera. Lt Pinkerton is a really callous and one-dimensional character who left Cio-Cio San behind while the latter sings her heartache beautifully. My go-to version is the one with Anna Moffo as Cio-Cio San. My wife prefers the Callas version which is also excellent. I saw the Frédéric Mitterand-directed film version (1996) and it is very much a staged film with lush production. It was alright.
On a related note, I saw a stage production of M. Butterfly which was riveting but I preferred the David Cronenberg film version with Jeremy Irons, John Lone and Barbara Sukowa.
One story about composer Bear McCreary: During the early months of the lockdown we watched Outlander every night until we finished the entire 5 seasons. Every time Raya Yarbrough sings "The Skye Boat Song" it was comforting like a lullaby, like something that cocoons you. Now that we're not on strict lockdown, every time I hear this Bear McCreary composition, I sky-rocket to those nights when we watched Outlander regularly. Maybe it was the company I was more nostalgic than the lives of Jamie and Claire but the opening song always moves me.
Alan Bates and Oliver Reed great rough around the edges men.
Alan Bates!! One of my favorite all-time actors. Very representative of the 60's British leading man but wholly unique as well. He brought a great depth of passion and talent to all his work. One of his best very under discussed performances is as the amnesiac who longs for the love of his youth (Glenda Jackson) while he's forgotten his cold and haughty wife (Julie Christie) in Return of the Soldier which also costars a nearly unrecognizable Ann-Margret. Great film full of magnificent work.
Today is Alejandro Jodorowsky's birthday as well as he's 92-93 right now and still going. He's awesome. Unlike that no-talent piece of shit Michael Bay.
I'm embarrassed to say, as an opera fan, that I've never seen Madame Butterfly.
Alan Bates was handsome, talented a great actor and star- the wrestling scene between Bates and Oliver Reed is one of the most erotic sequences in cinema gay or straight.
Alan Bates was a real looker--right up there with Gregory Peck, Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, Maximillian Schell, Paul Newman and Robert Redford.
One of the roles I feel doesn't get mentioned enough is his terrific turn in Duet for One as Julie Andrews' patient husband. Damn great.
Whatever happened to Joseph Gordon-Levitt? ;(
He was one of my favorite actors at the end of the last decade alongside Ryan Gosling, and I feel like he's vanished.