An American In Paris (1951)

Team Movie Meats history was made on Monday for two reasons: one, the group watched its first musical Best Picture winner, An American In Paris, and two, the group included Special Guest Christian!!! The film stars Gene Kelly as Jerry Mulligan, an American World War II veteran who is now a struggling painter in France. Jerry and his artwork are sponsored by a proper blonde named Milo, but Jerry only has eyes for French dancer Lise, who is dating Hank. In other words, all four of them would have to make their Facebook relationship status read, “It’s complicated.”

When Jerry narrates the start of the movie and says, “This is Paris, and I’m an American who lives here,” that really helped us understand the meaning behind the title, so that was much appreciated. As things progress, Lise is at first disgusted by Jerry and his refusal to accept her distaste for him. All that changes, however, when he makes the hilarious gesture of pretending to drink perfume in front of her, and from then on she is love-struck. No really, it was that easy. So Lise and Jerry see each other a few times behind Milo and Hank’s backs, putting the viewer in a very awkward position. After all, Milo is a genuine person who offers her services to help Jerry’s career, and Hank is a sweet and very talented singer who saved Lise’s life during WWII. Meanwhile, Lise is cheating on her fiancée and Jerry is using Milo to make Lise jealous. So naturally, we’re supposed to root for Lise and Jerry to end up together.

Luckily we get distracted by plenty of singing and dancing. You may recognize some of the classic songs such as, “I Got Rhythm” and “S’Wonderful,” which appear in movies that pre-date An American In Paris. Still, Hank is a wonderful singer, Kelly’s entire performance is flawless and Lise is an excellent dancer, though TMM’s Nick and Jimi found her so unappealing they had to dock points from their final scores. Do you agree?

OK, so that’s what she looked like last December at age 79, but she still has the same sass! Girrrrrrrrl!

                                                                                                                          

Anyway, there are plenty of entertaining scenes in the movie. Most of them involve Gene Kelly dancing, but his piano playing buddy Adam also has his moments, especially when he learns Jerry is dating Hank’s fiancée. But Milo’s obsession with Jerry gets a bit scary at times, specifically when she weeps about Jerry leaving her when they had met a whopping eight hours earlier. When he agrees to participate in an exhibition she sets up, Milo exclaims, “I would have died if you said no,” prompting TMM’s Nick to add, “I would have eaten your children!”

Since you have only had 50 years to see the ending we will not spoil it, but be aware that you will have to sit through a 16-minute ballet with no singing/dialogue (yes, 16 godforsaken minutes) before reaching arguably the most rushed and unexplained resolution of all-time. Other than that, they nailed it. The ballet scene cost $500,000 to create, which nowadays would be in the upwards of $40 billion, and while TMM’s Tracy enjoyed it, she also stated it was “as if someone thought of a 16-minute dance and thought they had to bullshit a movie around it.” So there’s that.

An American In Paris was nominated for seven Oscars and took home five, beating out A Streetcar Named Desire for Best Picture. Kelly received an Honorary Academy Award “in appreciation of his versatility as an actor, singer, director and dancer, and specifically for his brilliant achievements in the art of choreography on film.” Well deserved. A very weird honor, but well deserved.

So the Academy done felt it, but how did Team Movie Meats feel about An American In Paris?

JIMI: (0.34 Acting + 1.41 Visuals + 1.0 Wow + 0.28 Story + 0.52 Enjoyability) = 3.55

TRACY: (0.51 Acting + 1.82 Visuals + 1.67 Wow + 0.38 Story + 1.78 Enjoyability) = 6.16

RACHEL: (0.65 Acting + 1.79 Visuals + 1.75 Wow + 0.4 Story + 0.5 Enjoyability) = 5.09

TAD: (1.0 Acting + 1.45 Visuals + 1.75 Wow + 0.15 Story + 1.0 Enjoyability) = 5.35

NICK: (0.633 Acting + 1.63 Visuals + 1.75 Wow + 0.1 Story + 0.4 Enjoyability) = 4.513

CHRISTIAN: (0.6 Acting + 1.7 Visuals + 1.7 Wow + 0.11 Story + 0.51 Enjoyability) = 4.62*

FINAL: 4.78

*As our special guest, Christian’s score accounts for 5% of the final score.

Interesting score notes: For the first time, Tad did not have the lowest score – in fact, he had the second-highest … Special Guest Christian’s final score was the closest to the Final average, off by just 0.16 … Jimi, who currently has TMM’s record-high score of 8.26, has now broken the record of the lowest score with a 3.55. When asked to elaborate, he paused and said, “I really didn’t like this movie.” … Five of the six members gave a high Wow factor, including Rachel, who was most wowed by Kelly’s “tornadoes, hello!” … Special Guest Christian’s high Visuals score was summed up when he said “some of it looked goodish.” … And why did Nick, a man who likes almost all movies, give it a 0.4 Enjoyability? “I felt like I’ve been had by the ending, and I don’t appreciate it.”

FAVORITE LINE: “You need radar to get through all this smoke!” (Kelly … or someone in the club, anyway. This was an odd line because, really, there was not much cigarette smoke at all.)

RANDOM VISUAL: The really old woman dancing with Gene Kelly in the first musical number. Very talented, but what the hell was she doing there in the first place?

MOVIE MEAT: Escargot with melted American cheese.

TIME OF DEATH: 11:06 PM on January 17, 2011

NEXT UP: Dances With Wolves (1990), selected by Nick

You Can't Take It With You (1938)

You Can’t Take It With You stars a bunch of no-names like Lionel Barrymore and Jimmy Stewart, but the entertaining script and outrageous physical comedy make up for the lack of star power. Adapted from the successful play of the same name, the plot introduces a familiar “rich, proper family has dinner with wild, wacky outsiders” theme and hilarity ensues. No doubt movies like The Jerk and Meet The Fockers were influenced by this concept but there is one major difference: this film was not in color.

Alice (played by Jean Arthur) is the only “normal” member of the Sycamore family, which includes her always-dancing sister, her xylophone-playing brother-in-law, her non-taxpaying father (Barrymore) and her spacey mother, who steals the show almost every time she speaks. Alice falls in love with Tony (Stewart), whose parents are of the stereotypical wealthy, snobby type, and fears she’ll never be accepted. Alice and Tony agree to have their families get together for dinner; Team Movie Meats’ Nick wondered aloud, “I wonder what will happen when they meet for dinner,” to which Jimi responded, “All I know is that they can’t take anything with them.” And he was absolutely right.

Tony knows Alice’s family will act differently around them so he purposely gives his parents the wrong date so they will see Alice’s REAL family. As you can imagine, they were none too pleased, especially Alice. In fact, the chaos ends up landing both families in jail. Don’t worry; we won’t give away the ending because you have only had 73 years to see it, so it is still in the spoiler alert range. Just know Tony’s parents have a lot to learn about love and friendship, which they have sacrificed over the years for financial and societal status. And yes, hilarity does indeed ensue.

There are lots of great scenes in this movie. As expected, the funnier moments come when the families meet each other for the first time, especially when dance instructor Boris Kolenkhov bodyslams Tony’s dad after hearing he was a former wrestler. Also, Tony gets Alice to scream in the middle of a restaurant when she becomes scared that he will be the one to cause a scene, and her dad confuses the hell out of an IRS agent at one point, explaining why it makes no sense for him to pay taxes. But Alice’s mother, played by Spring Byington, delivers TMM’s favorite line of the movie in the courtroom: when it is said the whole family must be guilty, Byington gasps to her daughter Essie, “I don’t feel guilty, do you?” (Byington was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for the role but did not win.)

You Can’t Take It With You was the highest grossing movie of 1938, bringing in almost $5.3 million worldwide, which in today’s numbers is somewhere in the neighborhood of $700 billion. The film earned seven Academy Award nominations and won Best Picture (obviously) and Best Director (Frank Capra). The competition was nowhere near as fierce as it would be the following year, but there was one glaring omission: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was not nominated for Best Picture, as the Academy felt including an animated feature would set a “bad precedent.”

And now for the moment ya’lls beens seriously waiting for: Team Movie Meats scoring!

JIMI: (1.8 Acting + 1.65 Visuals + 1.9 Wow + 1.23 Story + 1.68 Enjoyability) = 8.26

TRACY: (1.82 Acting + 0.87 Visuals + 1.79 Wow + 1.32 Story + 1.8 Enjoyability) = 7.60

RACHEL: (1.75 Acting + 1.7 Visuals + 1.5 Wow + 1.5 Story + 1.43 Enjoyability) = 7.88

TAD: (1.71 Acting + 1.44 Visuals + 1.69 Wow + 1.0 Story + 1.5 Enjoyability) = 7.34

NICK: (1.8 Acting + 1.611 Visuals + 1.68 Wow + 1.2 Story + 1.7 Enjoyability) = 7.991

FINAL: 7.81

Interesting score notes: Rachel’s score was almost identical to the final average score, off by just 0.07 … Once again, sourpuss-ass Tad had the lowest score. He made a point to say YCTIWY was a lot of fun but it might be a mistake to put Enjoyability very high since we’re only 2 films in and will probably see ones much more exciting than this, leading the others to say, “Oh shut up, just give it what you think it should get.” … The only person to score less than a 1.44 in Visuals was Tracy, who gave them a 0.87; she was not as impressed by the impromptu basement fireworks as the rest of the group … With Jimi giving a 1.9 for Wow Factor, it marked his second consecutive movie he gave a 1.9 score in one category. No one else has given higher than a 1.82 in any category yet. Jimi is also the first to give an 8+ for an overall score … Though the scores indicate Nick enjoyed the movie the most, his overall score just missed an 8 by nine-thousandths of a point … Points appear to have been docked due to Ramsey being the same damn character as Jacob Marley in A Christmas Carol, even down to the dead part.

FAVORITE LINE: “I don’t feel guilty.” (Byington) Honorable mention: “What do you think I am, a goop?” (Arthur)

RANDOM VISUAL: A bunch of random kids dancing for Tony and Alice during their date in the park. These kids were like 8 years old and all of a sudden it’s friggin’ Stomp The Yard over here? Come on.

MOVIE MEAT: Plump, juicy turkey with a side of franks. (Random pairing, no?)

TIME OF DEATH: 11:30 PM on January 6, 2011

NEXT UP: An American in Paris (1951), selected by Jimi

In the Heat of the Night (1967)

In The Heat Of The Night, starring Rod Steiger as Southern police chief Bill Gillespie and Sidney Poitier as Northern officer Virgil Tibbs, was, if nothing else, one of the most important films of its era. With the Civil Rights Act of 1964 being enacted three years earlier, many white people believed racism issues were officially over, while black people responded, “Uh, no.” At that time, few films dared to take on the dramatic conflicts between blacks and whites, especially while portraying the South in an angry, edgy fashion rather than morally confused. The success of the film also spawned two sequels and a television series.

After a prominent Mississippi figure is murdered, the police departments spots Tibbs, an African American they are unfamiliar with, waiting at the train station late at night. For no other real reason than the color of his skin, he is immediately considered a suspect. Once he is taken to the station, however, the officers discover Tibbs himself is a police officer from Philadelphia, in town visiting family. The Philadelphia police department requests that Tibbs help Mississippi’s officers through the murder case, which Tibbs reluctantly does. We won’t spoil the ending since you’ve only had 44 years to see this movie, so it is still too soon. But as you would expect, both the Caucasian officers and the African American Tibbs struggle with believing in one another.

Many iconic cinematic moments take place in this movie. The most famous example comes when Gillespie sarcastically asks what the Philadelphia officers call Virgil, and he answers, “They call me MISTER TIBBS!” The line was named the 16th greatest movie quote by the American Film Institute. Also, another scene features a white character named Eric Endicott slapping Tibbs in the face, which prompts Tibbs to slap him back. This was one of the first times a major motion picture depicted a black character reacting to being provoked by a white character with violence. It is said Poitier would only be a part of the movie if he was allowed to slap Endicott back – and the scene could not be edited out in any showing.

The 1968 Academy Awards were postponed for two days. Originally the show was scheduled to take place on April 8, but Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination earlier that week forced a postponement. When the awards were held on April 10 and In The Heat Of The Night was selected as the winner, a large portion of the crowd was audibly angry, questioning if it had won perhaps due to the aforementioned tragedy. It certainly did face stiff competition with other great films such as The Graduate, Bonnie & Clyde, Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner, and Dr. Doolittle, though the last of which most people agree was significantly better when Eddie Murphy remade it 31 years later.

So that’s the history. But what was the consensus of Team Movie Meats?

JIMI: (1.37 Acting + 1.9 Visuals + 0.40 Wow + 1.53 Story + 1.67 Enjoyability) = 6.87

TRACY: (1.71 Acting + 1.37 Visuals + 0.72 Wow + 1.00 Story + 1.72 Enjoyability) = 6.52

RACHEL: (1.63 Acting + 0.93 Visuals + 1.72 Wow + 1.38 Story +1.55 Enjoyability) = 7.21

TAD: (1.51 Acting + 0.78 Visuals + 0.40 Wow + 1.662 Story + 1.75 Enjoyability) = 6.102

NICK: (1.52 Acting + 1.48 Visuals + 1.38 Wow + 1.44 Story + 1.634 Enjoyability) = 7.434

FINAL: 6.83

Interesting score notes: Jimi’s overall score was almost the exact score as TMM’s average … Tad posted the highest Enjoyability rating, yet had the lowest overall score by a landslide … Rachel and Nick’s Wow Factor was more than a full point ahead of Jimi and Tad. The former duo was stunned with much of the racist commentary, while the latter stated they were not as shocked only because it was expected for this movie (though the “slap scene” certainly earned Wows from everyone) … Tracy had the highest Acting score and second-highest Enjoyability score, but her low Story score had her finish with the second-lowest overall score.

FAVORITE LINE: (tie) “They call me MISTER TIBBS!” (Poitier) and “There’s white time in jail and there’s colored time in jail. The worst kind of time you can do is colored time.” (Poitier)

RANDOM VISUAL: Gillespie’s yellow-tinted sunglasses. A bigot Southern police officer rocking yellow-tinted sunglasses in the late 60s? What is he, J-Lo?

MOVIE MEAT: Southern BBQ'd chicken and country fried steak.

TIME OF DEATH: 10:54 PM on January 5, 2011

NEXT UP: You Can’t Take It With You (1938), selected by Tad. *Note: Tad shockingly used his mulligan on his very first pick after originally selecting Terms of Endearment.