Henry Fonda - Tumblr Posts
Studio Sour Grapes
83 years ago, 20th Century Studios (now 20th Century Fox) released the masterpiece, Grapes Of Wrath, based upon the best selling novel by *John Steinbeck. Here is a reminder that the struggle for labor, for content creators, for artists, for writers, for all of us to be seen and valued as human has been a long one. Outright slavery was replaced with other institutions and legal methods designed to marginalize and control specific groups and socioeconomic classes and further divide labor based on race, gender, etc. Those in the arts who tried to call attention to this never ending struggle were (and in some cases still are) labeled with slurs, blacklists, and so on.
The point I am trying to make is that while highlighting the experiences of a downtrodden group of people resulted in some absolutely fantastic written, filmed, acted, and directed artistic endeavors, those endeavors resulted from the hardship and plight of ordinary people and their situation was the result of the greed and antipathy of the 'corporate' owners. Across a multitude of industries and types of labor, the many have been at the mercy of the few. It's easy to vilify the highest paid celebrities and writers in order to sow division and obfuscate the reality for most workers in America, whether within the art industry itself or any other form of labor.
The producers and owners have tried to say that the grapes are sour, that the writers don't make good wine, that the actors have plenty of money to pay for healthcare (not true), and so on.
Don't believe them: feed them the grapes of wrath. Feed them the truth.
*Without getting into the weeds regarding the controversy surrounding Steinbeck's novel & the novel by Sanora Babb's Whose Names Are Unknown (do look it up on wiki; fascinating story), it serves as a tale and backdrop for some of the current topics being discussed right now with respect to appropriation, equal pay, gender, as well as the name, image, and likeness.
Movie number 19: The Wrong Man (Alfred Hitchcock, 1956). Henry Fonda stars as ‘Manny’ Balestrero, a Stork Club musician wrongly arrested for robbery. Unusually for Hitchcock, The Wrong Man is a true story and befitting the subject he shoots in a stark documentary style on the real life locations on which the story takes place. The director cameo, gallows humour and exotic locales which characterise much his 1950’s oeuvre is absent in what is Hitchcock’s most serious work. Fonda is excellent in the role of Manny, conveying fear and bemusement with complete conviction. Vera Miles is equally convincing as his wife whose descent into mental illness is, thankfully, handled with sensitivity and taste. Support comes in the form of underrated British Star Anthony Quayle. Lacking the glossy flamboyance of much of the director’s mid/late 50s movies, The Wrong Man is none the worse for it. This was a first time view for me and I would certainly regard it as among Hitchcock’s finest work. #thewrongman #alfredhitchcock #henryfonda #veramiles #anthonyquayle #filmnoir #hollywood #classichollywood #vintagehollywood #goldenagehollywood #jinglebonesmoviereviews #jinglebonesmovietime #jinglebonesnewyearsresolution #everymovieiwatch2019