The films of John Cassavetes - part 3: TOO LATE BLUES / A CHILD IS WAITING
August 2nd 2010 15:07
"Most people don't know what they want or feel. And for everyone, myself included, Its very difficult to say what you mean when what you mean is painful. The most difficult thing in the world is to reveal yourself, to express what you have to... As an artist, I feel that we must try many things - but above all, we must dare to fail. You must have the courage to be bad - to be willing to risk everything to really express it all."
- John Cassavetes
The following two films 'Too Late Blues' and 'A Child Is Waiting' will be reviewed as one since they represent Cassavetes years as a studio director and are a fascinating example of how a director working in an environment which does not support his creative nature can have severe effects on the film - as opposed to later on when, aside from 'Gloria' (made in 1980), he would forever work independently.
“Too Late Blues”
Please note that ‘Too Late Blues’ is currently unavailable in all formats and this review is based on a recorded television airing from Canada in 1990.
Too Late Blues was shot in 1961 after Shadows received critical favour in England and parts of Europe. Even though Cassavetes was unhappy with ‘Too Late Blues’, it still has some merit to it. Too Late Blues was the first of Cassavetes three fully directed studio films. The film stars Bobby Darrin and Stella Stevens. Darrin plays ‘Ghost Wakefield’, a jazz musician struggling with the ideals he has for music as his band continues to go nowhere and tensions begin to form among the band members.
Cassavetes wanted Montgomery Clift to play the role of Ghost Wakefield but the studio insisted on Bobby Darrin, who at the time was a major star and the studios wanted to exploit this as Darrin tried to cross over to acting. Too Late Blues is almost like a non-entity in the Cassavetes catalogue, it's not a particularly important film, it's not a great one either - it's more of a curiosity for those who've seen all of his films, the energy in comparison to other Hollywood films is buzzing here but still feels flat in comparison to the man's other films.
The story of idealism and artistry in Too Late Blues will appeal to a limited audience, but what is impressive is to witness two surprisingly complex performances. Stella Stevens delivers a warm and sincere performance as Jess Polanski, a young singer who is disillusioned by the lack of talent she believes people see in her, yet frustrated by the attention she continues to get based solely on her appearance. Bobby Darrin also pulls off a fairly impressive performance but Stevens seems to be the better of the two actors.
At its best Too Late Blues is a promising film about the search for sincerity. At its worst the film falls flat when it doesn’t manage to find what its looking for and occasionally resorts too brief moments of badly contrived melodramatic conflict.
While I can't recommend this film, particularly in comparison to Cassavetes other films, we see a few moments in Too Late blues which have the same spark he perfected in later films. The film doesn’t have as much spontaneity and energy as his brilliant filmShadows did but there are brief moments where the camera gets in a bit too close to the actors and we feel the sweaty, intimate, embarrassing moments and intensity that would reign dominant in later films.
Another element which Cassavetes starts to incorporate in 'Too Late Blues' are some touches of male bonding and rowdiness that would in their more fleshed out form shape his later film 'Husbands', what we see in this one are merely the seeds of that camaraderie being planted.
Now where the film falls short, comes in on account of Cassavetes often relying on an actor or outside influence to add to his films, creating inspired moments of revelation. Unfortunately, working in a studio system for him was not very conducive to his working methods, so the film ultimately has the feeling of an artist behind the camera constantly searching for something that never arrives.
After Too Late Blues, Cassavetes embarked on what became his most miserable filmmaking experience, not as a film itself but for him personally.
A rarity, here is the opening 10 minutes of Too Late Blues
Part 2 of Too Late Blues – You can see the entire film by clicking HERE
‘A Child Is Waiting’
A Child is Waiting is based on a novel by Abby Mann, Produced by Stanley Kramer and starring Burt Lancaster and Judy Garland. The film is about a school for mentally handicapped children. A new teacher, Jean Hanson (Garland) arrives at the school and is taken aback by the head teacher, Dr. Clark’s (Lancaster) approach and toughness towards these children. These two are at odds, particularly on one student - ‘Reuben Whitaker’ who Miss Hanson takes sympathy on.
The film is beautiful at times. It's tenderness and the portrayal of these children is insightful as it treats them with respect, the painful part is the parents, having to come to terms with their child's limitations. There is a generous humanity and understanding shown for all it's characters, no matter what their decisions. Dr. Hanson sees Dr. Clark as too firm and when she becomes too attached to Ruben this causes problems. There's a wisdom in this film and it's clear that Cassavetes cared very deeply regarding this subject, with his point of view making the film fascinating at it's best moments.
Dr. Clark: “Reuben holds a very special place in this institute. He represents our most spectacular failure”.
Hired in 1963 by producer Stanley Kramer (Judgement At Nuremberg, The Men, High Noon), Cassavetes was excited to be directing a film about an important issue by a producer he considered, like many others, to be a maverick who tackled controversial subjects. It would turn out that the film would be taken away from him as Kramer didn't like Cassavetes un-sentimental view on the children, which ironically was the entire point of the film itself.
Cassavetes disappointment in this film reveals an extreme idealism he must have had regarding the Hollywood system, since the film is extremely powerful for the most part and probably hasn’t been tampered with anymore than your typical studio film of that time. He also found the conditions of working in the studios unbearable.
Kramer re-edited this film behind Cassavetes back and even though he tries to make the film more sentimental, he certainly was unable to change certain things which remain impressively raw. Kramer’s re-edits can be spotted easily as he used an unorthodox technique at that time of slowing down shots, including the use of additional music all to create a sugar coated feel, attempting to cover up Cassavetes work.
Cassavetes does an impressive job using real mentally challenged children in the film and the scenes containing the retarded, grown men are quite brilliant. The film certainly takes a toll on the viewer emotionally, unfortunately it does so in what seems to be a heavy handed manner (one could argue that this is also a result of Kramer’s re-edit). Despite it’s flaws, A Child Is Waiting is a tough film, which shows simply the hard truth about how the parents of these children are the real ones who are suffering.
Burt Lancaster gives a muscular performance as Dr. Clark (one of his best in my opinion) who walks a thin line between having enough sternness and enough sensitivity. Judy Garland does a fascinating job of getting under the viewers skin as Jean Hanson, who is so wrapped up with one child that she can’t see how much damage her inexperience is causing. Other cast members like Gena Rowlands, Paul Stewart and also Lawrence Tierney do great work in the film too.
Dr Clark: “Look at me Reuben. I know you don’t like me, I know that, but I have a secret - I like you Reuben. I know what you’re going through, I know you think I don’t but I do, you have to believe that.”
A Child Is Waiting is actually a very good film and for those who follow the directors work and his history, I hope they will look beyond the negativity surrounding the film as it stands up to this day and while it's not perfect by any means, it's portrayal of the mentally retarded children is poignant, with a unique point of view. A Child Is Waiting is now widely available on DVD.
Cassavetes claimed that this was a tremendous learning curve for him, he attempted to trick the notoriously insecure Judy Garland into turning against Burt Lancaster, an act which he thought would improve their on-screen tension, instead it back fired and Lancaster and Garland turned on their director, eventually ignoring everything he said. what he did though it looked like it worked as this is some of the best acting these two ever delivered, in some cases, miles ahead of their other work.
Cassavetes was so furious at Kramer’s re-edit that he attacked him physically, resulting in him being blacklisted from the Hollywood industry. Since Kramer was the most powerful producer on the West Coast at that time, Cassavetes would not be able to get as much as a walk on as an actor.
Cassavetes who married actress Gena Rowlands, had to rely on her solely as the bread winner of the family. Before Cassavetes was once again cast in a leading role by director Robert Aldrich in The Dirty Dozen, he began working on the script for Faces which would go on to do something unprecedented – become the first home movie (which was the phrase before the term ‘independent film’ was coined) to break through commercially, many consider Faces to be his masterpiece (myself included), but by the time ‘Faces’ would be made (exactly ten years after ‘Shadows’), he would be a very different artist, with no youth or idealism to be found. More on ‘Faces’ coming soon.
- John Cassavetes
The Hollywood years
The following two films 'Too Late Blues' and 'A Child Is Waiting' will be reviewed as one since they represent Cassavetes years as a studio director and are a fascinating example of how a director working in an environment which does not support his creative nature can have severe effects on the film - as opposed to later on when, aside from 'Gloria' (made in 1980), he would forever work independently.
“Too Late Blues”
Please note that ‘Too Late Blues’ is currently unavailable in all formats and this review is based on a recorded television airing from Canada in 1990.
Too Late Blues was shot in 1961 after Shadows received critical favour in England and parts of Europe. Even though Cassavetes was unhappy with ‘Too Late Blues’, it still has some merit to it. Too Late Blues was the first of Cassavetes three fully directed studio films. The film stars Bobby Darrin and Stella Stevens. Darrin plays ‘Ghost Wakefield’, a jazz musician struggling with the ideals he has for music as his band continues to go nowhere and tensions begin to form among the band members.
Cassavetes wanted Montgomery Clift to play the role of Ghost Wakefield but the studio insisted on Bobby Darrin, who at the time was a major star and the studios wanted to exploit this as Darrin tried to cross over to acting. Too Late Blues is almost like a non-entity in the Cassavetes catalogue, it's not a particularly important film, it's not a great one either - it's more of a curiosity for those who've seen all of his films, the energy in comparison to other Hollywood films is buzzing here but still feels flat in comparison to the man's other films.
The story of idealism and artistry in Too Late Blues will appeal to a limited audience, but what is impressive is to witness two surprisingly complex performances. Stella Stevens delivers a warm and sincere performance as Jess Polanski, a young singer who is disillusioned by the lack of talent she believes people see in her, yet frustrated by the attention she continues to get based solely on her appearance. Bobby Darrin also pulls off a fairly impressive performance but Stevens seems to be the better of the two actors.
Pop idols Bobby Darrin and Stella Stevens in Too Late Blues
At its best Too Late Blues is a promising film about the search for sincerity. At its worst the film falls flat when it doesn’t manage to find what its looking for and occasionally resorts too brief moments of badly contrived melodramatic conflict.
While I can't recommend this film, particularly in comparison to Cassavetes other films, we see a few moments in Too Late blues which have the same spark he perfected in later films. The film doesn’t have as much spontaneity and energy as his brilliant filmShadows did but there are brief moments where the camera gets in a bit too close to the actors and we feel the sweaty, intimate, embarrassing moments and intensity that would reign dominant in later films.
Another element which Cassavetes starts to incorporate in 'Too Late Blues' are some touches of male bonding and rowdiness that would in their more fleshed out form shape his later film 'Husbands', what we see in this one are merely the seeds of that camaraderie being planted.
Now where the film falls short, comes in on account of Cassavetes often relying on an actor or outside influence to add to his films, creating inspired moments of revelation. Unfortunately, working in a studio system for him was not very conducive to his working methods, so the film ultimately has the feeling of an artist behind the camera constantly searching for something that never arrives.
After Too Late Blues, Cassavetes embarked on what became his most miserable filmmaking experience, not as a film itself but for him personally.
A rarity, here is the opening 10 minutes of Too Late Blues
Part 2 of Too Late Blues – You can see the entire film by clicking HERE
‘A Child Is Waiting’
A Child is Waiting is based on a novel by Abby Mann, Produced by Stanley Kramer and starring Burt Lancaster and Judy Garland. The film is about a school for mentally handicapped children. A new teacher, Jean Hanson (Garland) arrives at the school and is taken aback by the head teacher, Dr. Clark’s (Lancaster) approach and toughness towards these children. These two are at odds, particularly on one student - ‘Reuben Whitaker’ who Miss Hanson takes sympathy on.
The film is beautiful at times. It's tenderness and the portrayal of these children is insightful as it treats them with respect, the painful part is the parents, having to come to terms with their child's limitations. There is a generous humanity and understanding shown for all it's characters, no matter what their decisions. Dr. Hanson sees Dr. Clark as too firm and when she becomes too attached to Ruben this causes problems. There's a wisdom in this film and it's clear that Cassavetes cared very deeply regarding this subject, with his point of view making the film fascinating at it's best moments.
Dr. Clark: “Reuben holds a very special place in this institute. He represents our most spectacular failure”.
Hired in 1963 by producer Stanley Kramer (Judgement At Nuremberg, The Men, High Noon), Cassavetes was excited to be directing a film about an important issue by a producer he considered, like many others, to be a maverick who tackled controversial subjects. It would turn out that the film would be taken away from him as Kramer didn't like Cassavetes un-sentimental view on the children, which ironically was the entire point of the film itself.
Cassavetes disappointment in this film reveals an extreme idealism he must have had regarding the Hollywood system, since the film is extremely powerful for the most part and probably hasn’t been tampered with anymore than your typical studio film of that time. He also found the conditions of working in the studios unbearable.
Kramer re-edited this film behind Cassavetes back and even though he tries to make the film more sentimental, he certainly was unable to change certain things which remain impressively raw. Kramer’s re-edits can be spotted easily as he used an unorthodox technique at that time of slowing down shots, including the use of additional music all to create a sugar coated feel, attempting to cover up Cassavetes work.
Cassavetes does an impressive job using real mentally challenged children in the film and the scenes containing the retarded, grown men are quite brilliant. The film certainly takes a toll on the viewer emotionally, unfortunately it does so in what seems to be a heavy handed manner (one could argue that this is also a result of Kramer’s re-edit). Despite it’s flaws, A Child Is Waiting is a tough film, which shows simply the hard truth about how the parents of these children are the real ones who are suffering.
Burt Lancaster gives a muscular performance as Dr. Clark (one of his best in my opinion) who walks a thin line between having enough sternness and enough sensitivity. Judy Garland does a fascinating job of getting under the viewers skin as Jean Hanson, who is so wrapped up with one child that she can’t see how much damage her inexperience is causing. Other cast members like Gena Rowlands, Paul Stewart and also Lawrence Tierney do great work in the film too.
Burt Lancaster and Judy Garland
Dr Clark: “Look at me Reuben. I know you don’t like me, I know that, but I have a secret - I like you Reuben. I know what you’re going through, I know you think I don’t but I do, you have to believe that.”
A Child Is Waiting is actually a very good film and for those who follow the directors work and his history, I hope they will look beyond the negativity surrounding the film as it stands up to this day and while it's not perfect by any means, it's portrayal of the mentally retarded children is poignant, with a unique point of view. A Child Is Waiting is now widely available on DVD.
Cassavetes claimed that this was a tremendous learning curve for him, he attempted to trick the notoriously insecure Judy Garland into turning against Burt Lancaster, an act which he thought would improve their on-screen tension, instead it back fired and Lancaster and Garland turned on their director, eventually ignoring everything he said. what he did though it looked like it worked as this is some of the best acting these two ever delivered, in some cases, miles ahead of their other work.
Cassavetes was so furious at Kramer’s re-edit that he attacked him physically, resulting in him being blacklisted from the Hollywood industry. Since Kramer was the most powerful producer on the West Coast at that time, Cassavetes would not be able to get as much as a walk on as an actor.
Cassavetes who married actress Gena Rowlands, had to rely on her solely as the bread winner of the family. Before Cassavetes was once again cast in a leading role by director Robert Aldrich in The Dirty Dozen, he began working on the script for Faces which would go on to do something unprecedented – become the first home movie (which was the phrase before the term ‘independent film’ was coined) to break through commercially, many consider Faces to be his masterpiece (myself included), but by the time ‘Faces’ would be made (exactly ten years after ‘Shadows’), he would be a very different artist, with no youth or idealism to be found. More on ‘Faces’ coming soon.
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Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
Surprised there is not more love for JC around here.
Comment by ShaunK
Screen Adventure
I've been going back, and adding new things in. I thought you'd get a buzz out of spotting Monty Clift's name in here.
I really hope that the true film lovers around orble don't entirely miss the boat on this one. Shadows review got no comments at all, and it's a gift and treasure of cinema, plus now that these films are more widely available even in Australia there really is no excuse. It's also surprising since Scorsese has been mentioning Cassavetes name , 'Shadows' and 'Faces' ALOT recently.
Here's to the man!
Comment by Matt Shea
20/20 Filmsight
Comment by Deni
Abstract Magick
Cinema Herald
I have loved JC ever since he caught my eye in The Dirty Dozen. I haven't had the opportunity to explored many of the films he's directed but I'm very much impressed with him as an actor and an all around Hollywood Maverick of tough stock along with his wife and son.
Cheers
Comment by ShaunK
Screen Adventure
Thanks Deni - He was a great actor and his films are strictly for the more adventurous, offering a radically different viewing experience than other film (with the exceptions of these two of course)