Becker (Eric Roberts), a marketing genius, travels to Sydney from the United States to boost sales of Coca-Cola in Australia.  He’s a hired gun, of sorts, sent by Coca-Cola headquarters to drum up business. The laid-back executives at the Sydney office don’t know what to make of him, but are told by the brass, “Don’t try to understand him. Just know that he doubles and triples sales.” Staff in the Sydney branch decide, wisely, to leave him alone. Given free rein, Becker looks for weaknesses in the Aussie market. A distribution map of the country shows a glaring hole in Coke sales.  Rural Anderson Valley sells no Coke at all. Becker heads to the region to find out why. In Anderson Valley, Becker meets T. George McDowell (Bill Kerr), an autocratic businessman who makes his own brand of soft drinks and controls the soda market there.

The tutti-frutti is made of wombats.

T. George’s passion and entrepreneurship impress Becker. His old-fashioned, but well-run factory turns out delicious products and employs many of the town’s residents. Still, even T. George is no match for the Coca-Cola machine.  The writing’s on the wall. Becker wants to bring in Coke and squeeze T. George out of his own territory.

Stand up, Matilda’s waltzing.

The Coca-Cola Kid has a simple plot and could take place in Australia or even rural Mississippi or Maine if it stuck with the ‘just the facts, ma’am’ approach. It’d also be an average film and be over in thirty-five minutes. What takes it to the next level are the characters and tangential stories Frank Moorhouse weaves into the screenplay. One involves an aboriginal didgeridoo player, Mr. Joe (Steve Dodd) and other local musicians; another, a hotel bellman (David Slingsby), in a subversive political organization who mistakes Becker for a CIA agent. A third story revolves around Terri (Greta Scacchi), Becker’s secretary in Sydney and her chaotic home life and history.

Tonight on Kris Kringle Yoga…

You’ll see familiar faces in The Coca-Cola Kid. Some Australian ‘that guys’ make appearances along with musicians Ricky Fataar and Tim Finn.

Ricky Fataar and Steve Dodd in the studio

Finn also wrote the original songs and the faux Coke ad which features Mr. Joe on the didgeridoo. It’s a catchy tune.  Bill Kerr was a popular and well-known Australian actor and I noticed at least two cast members from The Road Warrior.  Rebecca Smart plays the precocious DMZ beautifully. Greta Scacchi’s role is not as fleshed-out as it could be, but she does a nice job with it as a flaky working mom with a complicated backstory. She and Roberts have great chemistry. Finally, Eric Roberts, plays Becker as a perfectionist who sees Coca-Cola as an extension of the Unites States and espouses its virtues with evangelical zeal.  He’s thrown himself into his work and eschewed a personal life.

Brown and bubbly

He’s not like Alec Baldwin in Glengarry Glen Ross though. He has a tender heart and Roberts has the acting chops for it. In the 1980s, Eric Roberts made some terrific films.  Star 80, The Pope of Greenwich Village, Runaway Train, and The Coca-Cola Kid all show his talent and range.

Becker in a vulnerable moment

During Becker’s mission, he meets a string of quirky, unpredictable characters which bring to mind the Bill Forsyth films Local Hero and Comfort and Joy.  As I thought more about it, I realized one of the offbeat players in The Coca-Cola Kid is Australia itself. Director, Dusan Makavejev lets the camera linger on the scenery as well as the actors. Like Local Hero, the place has a personality. It’s foreign to Becker. Everyone speaks English, but they all function so differently from the businessmen Becker deals with that it throws him. His neat, orderly world changes and it hits him hard. He generally rolls in, sizes up the competition, makes changes, and jets home to Atlanta to await his next assignment. He doesn’t get involved in the private lives of his employees. He doesn’t meet odd people.  He doesn’t get excited or upset. He does his job, then leaves. The funky wonderfulness of Australia and its people gets to him. It got to me too. I saw The Coca-Cola Kid when it came out in 1985 and I hoped Australia was like this.  Maybe it never was, but I like it anyway.

Paramount released ELEPHANT WALK and THE NAKED JUNGLE within a month of one another in 1954.  They often appeared in theatres on a double bill.  If you see them both, you might think you’ve seen the same film twice.  Both center around a rich plantation owner living in a foreign country with a beautiful wife and major psychological issues.  Both leads have flawed marriages.  Both battle wild animals on rampages.  In ELEPHANT WALK, the creatures in questions are, you guessed it, groundhogs.  OK.  I can’t get anything past you.  They’re elephants.  In THE NAKED JUNGLE, the enemies are ants.  Naked ants.  They’re referred to as the Marabunta, which, as you know, mean friendsh…no.  It means naked army ant.  Paramount made both films partially on location.  ELEPHANT WALK takes place in British Ceylon, now Sri Lanka.  They filmed in both Ceylon and Hollywood.  THE NAKED JUNGLE is set in Brazil, but Florida served as a stand-in for the Amazon jungle.  Even the structures of the two films are similar.

Edith Head did herself proud in both films.

In ELEPHANT WALK, John Wiley (Peter Finch) runs a sprawling tea plantation in British Ceylon.  The plantation, Elephant Walk, got its name because John’s father, Tom, built it on the elephants’ traditional path to the river.  After a whirlwind romance in England, John marries Ruth (Elizabeth Taylor) and brings her back to the family bungalow to begin her duties as the lady of the house.  In THE NAKED JUNGLE, Christopher Leiningen (Charlton Heston) writes long, lonely letters from Brazil to his brother in New Orleans.  His brother meets Joanna (Eleanor Parker) and introduces Christopher and Joanna by mail.  The two correspond and eventually marry by proxy.  Joanna travels to the jungle to be Christopher’s wife and run his home.

Soon after taking up residence at Elephant Walk, Ruth notices subtle changes in her new husband.  Charming and loving in England and on their honeymoon, John becomes distant, gruff, and even brutal in Ceylon.  The oppressive atmosphere of Elephant Walk, along with the influence of John’s long dead father, old Tom Wiley, turn John iron-fisted and cruel.  In THE NAKED JUNGLE, immediately after her arrival in Brazil, Joanna sees differences between Christopher’s letters and his demeanor.  Intelligent and gentle during their correspondence, Christopher becomes insulting and downright nasty in person.

This is what John Wiley does instead of hanging out with Liz Taylor.

Leiningen’s sort of an ass.

John Wiley’s main issue is the Governor.  John’s father and the builder of Elephant Walk has been dead for years, but still manages to run the show.  His rules, attitudes, and methods for running the plantation and his house haven’t changed despite his death.  They still celebrate his birthday each year with a big party. They even present gifts to the guests around Tom Wiley’s elaborate, marble crypt, conveniently located on the lawn just steps from the house.  Handy.  The combination of the ever present Tom Wiley, her husband’s hostility, and the middle-aged frat boy mentality of most of the plantation workers drives Ruth away.  She plans to leave with the sympathetic and cultured Dick Carver (Dana Andrews), John’s foreman.

“I hope she picks me.”

Christopher Leiningen’s problem in THE NAKED JUNGLE is sex and his need to be the first to sleep with his new wife.  Joanna, a widow, fulfills all Christopher’s requirements.  She has manners, refinement, and beauty.  She even plays the piano.  The fact of her first marriage, however, drives him crazy.  You see, Christopher has no sexual experience and he can’t stand the thought that his wife does.  He won’t touch her and plans to send her back to the states.

“I’m sending you back.”

Naturally, Ruth can’t leave Elephant Walk.  On her way to the boat for England, everyone gets cholera.  Ruth has to stay to boil linens and burn things.  The cholera epidemic strikes at the same time as a major drought so besides the stacks of dead bodies and the quarantine and all, they’re also running out of water and the elephants get antsy.  Get it?  Antsy?  Anyway, thirsty and fed up, the elephants stampede and John races to save Ruth.

“I’m coming, Ruth!”

Meanwhile, in Brazil, the Marabunta start crawling their way through the jungle toward Christopher’s ranch and civilization in general.  You see, every twenty-seven years, army ants charge through the Amazon eating everything they see.  So the calendar strikes 27 and the ants come-a-runnin’.  Christopher and Joanna have to curtail their trip to the boat to take her back to New Orleans to fight them some ants.

“Hold it right there, you damned, dirty ants!”

Will John Wiley rescue Ruth from elephants?  Will he see the error of his ways and start his marriage again without his dead dad’s interference?  Will he return the ugly elephant necklace he makes Ruth wear?

Will Christopher beat the ants?  Will he decide to love Joanna despite her horrid promiscuity?  Will William Conrad stop speaking with that ridiculous mystery accent?

“I’m not sure where I’m from.”

I’ll never tell.

ELEPHANT WALK did better at the box office than THE NAKED JUNGLE and it’s a better film in general.  Peter Finch does a terrific job as the anguished John Wiley, who embraces his imperious father’s memory even as he fights its hold over him.  He’s great when he’s angry and truly contrite while asking for forgiveness.  Elizabeth Taylor’s Ruth looks spectacular in the gorgeous Edith Head gowns and dresses she wears.  She’s a beautiful and sympathetic character who’s torn between her love for her husband and her fear for him and herself in this unhealthy atmosphere.  Dana Andrews is convincing as John’s overseer who falls for Ruth and tries to help her escape.  Abraham Sofaer plays Appuhamy, the efficient head servant at Elephant Walk whose loyalty to the old master tries Ruth’s patience.  His restraint gives the character integrity and allows us to see the change in him as he finally accepts Ruth.  Direction by William Dieterle along with the Franz Waxman score and the actual location shooting gives this film polish and the A-list actors deliver fine performances.

Abraham Sofaer as Appuhamy

Abraham Sofaer (in back) as Incacha.

THE NAKED JUNGLE is a less solid film than ELEPHANT WALK.  Heston does a decent job as the immature Christopher.  Deep down he’s a poet who hides his soft side and thinks he HAS to object to his wife’s non-virgin status.  As I said, Heston does a decent job, but he lacks the subtlety his character needs.  Eleanor Parker wears the Edith Head costumes brilliantly and plays the put upon wife well, but she’s far too melodramatic.  She’s more subtle than Lana Turner, but that doesn’t take much.  William Conrad plays his part well, but they saddled him with a goofy accent which detracts from his performance.  Conrad played the Heston role in the radio version of the Carl Stephenson story.  I guess they wanted to throw him a bone.  Guess who plays the faithful servant/overseer?  Yup.  Abraham Sofaer.  This time he’s Brazilian.  Ernest Laszlo and George Pal did the photography and production and Byron Haskin directed.

 

All in all, ELEPHANT WALK and the NAKED JUNGLE will both fulfill your animals running amok needs.  There’s great footage of elephants stampeding throughout ELEPHANT WALK and the scene where they wreck Wiley’s mansion is spectacular.  If you’re into that disease thing, the film also has cholera!

George Pal produced THE NAKED JUNGLE and the ant effects are decent.  Scenes with ants overtaking grown men are pretty cool even if they’re unbelievable.

“So many ants.”

Where THE NAKED JUNGLE fails is that ants keep killing people you don’t particularly care about.  A disaster film has to allow us to learn something about its victims before flinging them off cliffs.  If it doesn’t, it’s just some random SyFy film like ANTOPUS VS LOBSTELEPHANT.  To sum up, ELEPHANT WALK is a terrific film with realistic performances that looks wonderful.  THE NAKED JUNGLE is a pretty good film with lots of ants, which is a plus, and a so-so story.  Watch them both and tell me what you think.

I wrote this piece for the Nature’s Fury Blogathon hosted by the always fascinating Barry of Cinematic Catharsis  He’s a nice guy who runs a terrific film blog.  Please check it out.

A series of mysterious deaths, most of them children, follow the nightly German bombings during London’s blitz. After investigating, the Army learns that before their deaths by explosion these children all found a brightly-colored object resembling a thermos and died after approaching or touching it. Eager to learn something about the booby-traps and how to diffuse them, Captain Stuart (Michael Gough) seeks the aid of Sammy Rice (David Farrar), a highly regarded scientist in a top-secret intelligence investigation unit. The unit, housed in a dingy, small back room crack codes, test weaponry, and generally solve problems no one else can. Sammy, the de facto leader of the group meets Stuart and they decide he will call Sammy the next time they find a bomb so he can come to the scene and study it to prevent more deaths.

Sammy goes to work the next day and we see his co-workers. Till, played by Michael Goodliffe works on codes, ciphers, and statistics. Corporal Taylor (a young Cyril Cusack) deals with munitions. Joe (Emrys Jones) spends most of his time between assignments on the phone with his girl. Sue, played by the lovely Kathleen Byron serves as secretary and is having a secret affair with Sammy. The group works well together. They depend on Sammy to advocate for them with the higher ups. With a few exceptions, the middle and upper management are self-serving buffoons interested more in their own advancement than the safety and happiness of the men under them. A fine example of this is a trip the Minister of their section makes to the lab. The men put on a dog and pony show for the insipid man, beautifully played by Robert Morley, and show him some phony experiments to dazzle him. He leaves happily discussing restaurants with the obsequious Waring (Jack Hawkins) and the men can get back to work. Full of in-fighting and political intrigue, the department holds no interest for Sammy. Sammy sidesteps the political machinations, but never states his own opinion preferring to avoid conflict and responsibility. It’s clear he should be running the group, but he refuses to make any effort to do so.

Sammy has other things on his mind. We find out early in the film that Sammy has a drinking problem. Bitter over an accident ten years before which left him with a prosthetic lower leg and in pain, Sammy turned to drink. He no longer drinks whiskey, but it takes resolve and the help of Sue to keep him sober. Sue is always there to support him when Sammy starts to falter. She adores him and he loves and depends on her. It’s a much more adult love story than most films of the 1940s and Farrar and Byron have amazing chemistry. Their physical relationship is implied as well. Soon, the pressures of Sammy’s job, his pain, both physical and mental, and his alcoholism threaten to end his affair and sabotage his career.

All the while, bombs continue to fall on London and more die as a result of them and the booby traps. Captain Stuart and Sammy along with their crews work to stop the senseless killing. The scene with a hungover Sammy and a bomb on a beach is as suspenseful as they come.

In the commentary included on the Criterion version of The Small Back Room, Michael Powell refers to this film as a love story first and a WWII film second. Marketing The Small Back Room as a war film was a mistake, Powell says. No one wanted to see war films in 1949, so the film did poorly at the box office. That’s too bad because the film is a gem. Based on a book by Nigel Balchin, it has everything. A riveting story, characters we care about, and realistic acting by the entire cast make the film a joy. It’s one of those films that makes you wonder what happens to the characters after the film ends. It also looks fabulous. Christopher Challis, who worked as a camera operator on Powell and Pressburger’s 1947 masterpiece Black Narcissus did the cinematography for The Small Back Room. John Hoesli served as art director and Hein Heckroth did the production design. The artists really got to show off in one scene which reminded me of the surrealism of Milland’s bats in The Lost Weekend.

Composer Brian Easdale even used a theremin to highlight the agony of an alcoholic trying valiantly to resist the drink. I can’t say enough about The Small Back Room. The performances by Farrar, Byron, Gough, Cusack, and the whole cast along with gorgeous black and white cinematography and wonderful production values courtesy of The Archers work. I highly recommend it.

Oh yes, I nearly forgot to mention Stonehenge. They shot part of the film at Stonehenge. So the film has terrific acting and writing and it also has Stonehenge…and a theremin. You owe it to yourself to see this.

“I gave her my heart and she gave me a pen.”

Lloyd Dobler, a bright, sweet underachiever, loves Diane Court, class valedictorian. It writes itself, doesn’t it? She’s headed for a promising future and he’ll be lucky if he graduates. Opposites attract and they do sort of a modern Romeo and Juliet thing complete with dueling parents and Lloyd wedging a cross into the door of the high school gym at graduation. Or…they have a short romantic summer in which they learn to be open-minded about people and not take them at face value, then have a moving break-up scene and we see them at different colleges starting their lives apart.

Be still, my heart. Cameron Crowe’s directorial debut could have skated by on a thin premise and the charisma of John Cusack, but the plot, characters, and acting chops of the entire cast lift Say Anything to a higher level of teen angst films. First, the plot allows us to see Lloyd and Diane fall in love, but it also deals with their relationships with family and friends. It’s not all dates and necking and will they or won’t they. Diane has a dad and a job and a desire to step outside her academic life and see the world. Lloyd has military parents stationed overseas and a grown sister (real-life sister, Joan), her young son, and nagging doubts about his own future.

The characters and the actors who play them make this a denser film as well. John Mahoney, as Diane’s father, never disappoints and his single-minded single dad gives a terrific performance as both Diane’s best friend and the first guy to let her down. He also has a wonderfully touching scene. He flirts with the attractive saleslady in a shop and asks her out as he acts the big man and places a large order. She tells him, awkwardly that his credit card has been declined. Embarrassed, Mahoney makes an excuse and leaves the store. The scene speaks to Mahoney’s character and part of the motivation for his misstep. Joan Cusack is solid, as usual. Lili Taylor has a nice smaller role as one of Lloyd’s close friends and has a great line. When Lloyd decides he won’t try to get back with Diane he says it’s “…because I’m a guy. I have pride.” Lili says, “The world is full of guys. Be a man; don’t be a guy.” Eric Stoltz, Lois Chiles, Jeremy Piven, Chynna Phillips, Philip Baker Hall, and Bebe Neuwirth have small roles and the entire ensemble works together nicely. Don ‘The Dragon’ Wilson even appears as Lloyd’s martial arts coach.

Cameron Crowe wrote the screenplay for Say Anything and his dialogue has a natural sound to it. Nothing is forced and the story flows along nicely. The iconic scene with Lloyd holding the boombox over his head playing “In Your Eyes” by Peter Gabriel has less impact in the film than I thought it would, but it carries more emotional weight for me now that I understand it in context. Say Anything had fully formed characters, an interesting plot, and John Cusack. It didn’t fit into the usual teen mold and had a less stylized ambiance than a John Hughes film. I enjoyed Say Anything and I’m glad Cinema Shame gave me a reason to see it.