Public Enemy/Switchblade Sisters - Weird Wednesday - Alamo Drafthouse at the Ritz
Writing by blake on Thursday, 6 of December , 2007 at 3:21 am
Ok, I really don’t know how many towns you could find showing a double feature of Public Enemy with James Cagney and Switchblade Sisters with Monica Gayle… yet here in Austin, Texas this past evening at the Alamo Drafthouse at the Ritz aka The Drafthouse Ritz aka Alamo Ritz aka The Ritz aka the A to the Z, this very double feature played!
I really don’t know if I’ve seen any of Cagney’s films earlier than Public Enemy, but upon seeing this film print I’m certainly curious to see where he finally cranks into movie acting. Before he was in movies he was a theater actor and before that he was part of a dance act. Throughout Public Enemy you can just see Cagney get more and more into his character and throwing out wonderful moments that clearly weren’t in the script. For the film itself the pouring rain scene at the end was magnificent. I really don’t know what the first gloomy crime/action moment in a film was but this had to be one of the first. Recent examples that really take this idea to the max would be Matrix Revolutions and the South Korean film Nowhere to Hide.
I have a stack of Cagney stills I will be posting on the site in the coming days. Of real note is I finally found the production notes (which I will also be posting) for a TNT special that was done on him many years ago, that had the side premise of Michael J. Fox possibly one day starring as Cagney in a movie based on his life. I like Fox as an actor but I don’t see him at all playing Cagney. I really can’t think what actor could. Any ideas?
Switchblade Sisters of course was real bliss. I remember back when Rolling Thunder released it and I went out to see it and thought I had lucked out in the one chance of seeing it on the big screen would be in some restored print. I had always longed to see an actual film print from back in the day of it on the big screen. Tonight I finally got my wish. I know everyone picks an actress to fall in love with this in this film and for me it’s Joanne Nail. I’ve actually thought about trying to track her down for an interview, but never went through the Actors Guild yet to do so.
I have a fairly good stack of Switchblade Sisters items that I will be posting throughout the coming weeks.
Category: Alamo Drafthouse Ritz
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Comment by Jack Hill
Made Thursday, 6 of December , 2007 at 12:20 pm
Blake… Thanks for you kind comments. If you would email me I’d be happy to put you in touch with Joanne.
