Bookends
This is not about how movies look on 4K or Blu-ray. But there are two movies I’d like to point out to your attention, just because they’re good. And surprisingly good.
And they both star Andy Griffith.
I know Griffith from his TV show, I was immediately adverse to it. I had just come up from Nashville, Tennessee to live in a strange place known as Brooklyn. His pilot was on the Danny Thomas show where he played a sheriff in Mayberry, who was also the judge, jury and prosecutor. So when Thomas was arrested for going through a stop sign, he had no chance of surviving southern justice. I know it was all for laughs, but, seriously, there were civil rights problems where I came from and we didn’t think it was funny. Of course Mayberry was all white, and everyone was Christian and went to the same church..
But there was tremendous irony here, that is seldom mentioned. The producer of the show was Sheldon Leonard, a Jew. The co-producer was Danny Thomas an Arab. And it was filmed by Desi Arnaz, a Cuban. They created the show. They just couldn’t be on it.
Andy Griffith’s first movie was A Face in the Crowd, shot in 1957. It is a frightening story how a two-faced entertainer becomes a very popular person in politics. This Andy Griffith is nothing like the ones I had seen on TV. This is not only a great movie, but it reflects very much what is happening now in our politics. In other words it’s current and his performance is outstanding. If you haven’t seen this movie, and I saw it on Turner movie Classics, try to see it. Criterion has a Blu-ray of it.
Griffith has another stellar performance and what I believe to be his last movie, in Waitress, starring Kerri Russell. Against type, he plays an older, crabby, but thoroughly honest person. He is at first unlikable and then becomes understandable. This is a thoughtful movie and he is just, well, damn good.
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