classic films
Mask.
KEITH UHLICH
Films by Director Peter Bogdanovich (1939–2022) Targets (1968) The recent death of Peter Bogdanovich is a supreme loss for movie culture. Not only a pre-eminent Old Hollywood cinephile and critic, he was also a major director in his own right, though the acclaim tends to be limited to the three-film run of The Last Picture Show (1971), What’s Up, Doc? (1972) and Paper Moon (1973). Here we’ll sing the praises of four other Bogdanovich films that equally deserve the term classic. Begin with his 1968 debut, Targets, which came about in large part because Boris Karloff (cinema’s original Frankenstein) owed producer Roger Corman two days work. Karloff plays aged horror movie star Byron Orlok, who is reluctantly roped into appearing at a drive-in screening of one of his movies. In a separate, no-less compelling thread, Vietnam veteran Bobby Thompson (Tim O’Kelly) murders his family and goes on a shooting spree, eventually ending up at the same drive-in as Orlok. A showdown between real-life violence and cinematic wish-fulfillment ensues, and the truly chilling thing about the picture is that neither perspective entirely triumphs. This is a smashing debut and something of a tonal outlier in Bogdanovich’s career. (Streaming on Amazon Prime.) They All Laughed (1981) The release of Bogdanovich’s modern, NYC-set romance was marred by the murder 12
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of his then-lover Dorothy Stratten, one of this film’s ace ensemble that also includes Ben Gazzara, Audrey Hepburn, and John Ritter. They All Laughed marries the fantasia of an Old Hollywood screwball to a gritty East Coast realism, tracking via a madcap private-eye narrative several pairings of prospective romantic partners across the 1981 Big Apple. Its wild energy is infectious, as is its time capsule portrait of a city soon to have some of its edges permanently sanded. The real-life air of tragedy that hangs over the proceedings only deepens the aura of regret while not at all mitigating the profound sense of play. Among a grab-bag of highlights, nothing tops Gazzara’s throwaway line to Hepburn in a toy store (“Puzzles, puzzles”), which captures the myriad bemusements of the heart in a phrase. (Available via Amazon.) Mask (1985) After They All Laughed bankrupted Bogdanovich, he pivoted to what, in many hands, would be a shallowly crowd-pleasing tale of an outcast living life to the fullest. Mask—based on the true story of Rocky Dennis, a teenager with a facial deformity known as lionitis—was indeed a hit, though Bogdanovich brings his own Old Hollywood-inspired depths and concerns to the tale, specifically in the John Fordlike portrayal of the biker community that acts as a second-family to Rocky (Eric Stoltz). His actual blood relations are limited to his
freewheeling mother, Rusty, whose portrayal by Cher garnered her a Best Actress award at Cannes and should be included in any pantheon of onscreen matriarchs. (This despite the fact that Bogdanovich and Cher got along like oil and water on set.) Mask is a tearjerker that earns every lachrymal drop, and it has fortunately been reissued on home video in Bogdanovich’s original cut, with seven excised minutes and the soundtrack of Bruce Springsteen songs (replaced hastily in the theatrical release by Bob Seger needle drops) reinstated. (Available via Amazon.) Daisy Miller (1974) Bogdanovich’s adaptation of Henry James’ novella about a doomed 19th-century socialite was heavily criticized for the title performance by Cybill Shepherd (Bogdanovich’s thengirlfriend). Her relentlessly bubbly demeanor is exhausting at best, irritating at worst, but quite on point to James’ satire of upper-crust social niceties. Daisy runs roughshod through anything customary, and this both repels and attracts the handsome young expatriate, Frederick Winterbourne (Barry Brown), who falls for her. Much of the movie is a screwball comedy of manners done in a kind of costumedrama drag. Bogdanovich maintains the unflagging energy right up until the devastating finale, when illness intrudes and the movie’s breezy lightness takes on the weight of grand tragedy. (Streaming on Amazon Prime.) n
