Anatomy Of A Voice Cameo: Robert Redford In White House Plumbers

One of the best elements of the highly entertaining HBO mini-series, White House Plumbers, about the bumbling team of ex-CIA and FBO operatives who broke into Watergate in 1972, is its strong cast.

Headed by Woody Harrelson, and Justin Theroux as Richard M. Nixon’s political fixers Howard Hunt, and G. Gordon Liddy; the five episode run, which premiered in May of this year, also features fine supporting efforts from Lena Headey, Judy Greer, Domhnal Gleeson, and Katherine Turner. 

But a surprise casting choice came in episode 4, “The Writer’s Wife,” from Robert Redford reprising, or literally phoning in his famous role as Washington Post reporter, Bob Woodward from Alan J. Pakula’s 1976 classic, ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN.

Sure, it’s an uncredited voice-only appearance, and it’s only a few lines, but its notable because they didn’t just use the audio from the 47-year old film, Redford newly recorded his end of a phone call with Harrelson’s Howard Hunt with a little change in the dialogue. So let’s compare the scenes side-by-side.

 

In ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN, Redford’s Woodward tries to reach Hunt first at the White House, then the Mullen public relations firm, where he is surprised to hear Hunt pick up. In White House Plumbers, Hunt receives the call at home.

Agitated, as he was before he ever got on the phone, Hunt replies:

This is the line that’s a bit different, as it originally went like this:

 

And this is how it goes down this time around:

The difference being that White House Plumbers got Woodward’s question to be more accurate - the crucial evidence of the envelope with Hunt’s name on it doesn’t appear in the 1976 film. Also Redford says “The Watergate” unlike the earlier take. Next, we see a shot of Woodward’s yellow legal pad where he notes Hunt’s reaction.

Hunt’s comment is exactly the same in both versions:

And from Redford/Woodward’s end:

Hunt hangs up, and the cameo is done. Halfway through putting together this post, I found that someone had done a mash-up combining the scenes on YouTube - something I should’ve figured someone would do. I’ll leave you with it what one commenter calls, and I agree, an awesome Easter egg:

More later...

Hal Holbrook: A Film Babble Blog Appreciation

Earlier this week, one of my all time favorite actors, Hal Holbrook, passed away at 95. The grand performer brought his brand of folksy gravitas to many movies including ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN, CAPRICORN ONE, MAGNUM FORCE, THE FOG, WALL STREET, THE FIRM, and INTO THE WILD, which earned him an Academy Award nomination (he should’ve won).

Holbrook’s presence also stole many episodes of such television shows as Evening Shade, The West Wing, The Sopranos, Grey’s Anatomy, Sons of Anarchy, NCIS, ER, and Designing Women, where he acted alongside his wife Dixie Carter.

But his defining role, one that nearly every obit had in their headlines, has to be as the legendary author and orator Mark Twain, who he portrayed 2,200 times over 63 years. The one-man show entitled Mark Twain Tonight, which Holbrook devised and updated through its long run, won the actor a Tony and an Emmy nomination for the CBS broadcast of the play in 1967. There were also three record albums featuring different performances of the material, one of which I own and consider great stand-up comedy (I need to seek out the others).

Here’s a clip from the 1967 special, Mark Twain Tonight (much of the rest of the program can be found on YouTube):

Back to his film work, as that’s how I first came to know him. The first film I saw of his when I was a kid was Peter Hyam’s CAPRICORN ONE (1978). The conspiracy thriller involved NASA faking a mission to Mars, and Holbrook was the Mission Controller who had to convince the astronauts, portrayed by James Brolin, Sam Waterson, and O.J. Simpson (!), to go along with the scheme.

This gave the grand thespian to do what he did best, deliver a wickedly compelling speech which you can watch here (ignore the foreign subtitles; I couldn’t find it without them).

Holbrook played essentially the same role, a dignified yet corrupt authority figure, in Hyam’s THE STAR CHAMBER. The 1983 Michael Douglas legal thriller concerned a secret group of judges who carry out sentences of criminals who beat the rap because of technicalities. This gave Holbrook the chance to make another great speech, but I can’t find it on YouTube so we’ll move on.

It’s possible that the part that led to these dark thrillers was his shadowy (literally he was bathed in the shadows of a dark parking garage) portrayal of Deep Throat, the informant whose meetings with Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward (Robert Redford) helped break the scandal surrounding the Watergate break-in. It’s a small but incredibly juicy role, one so mysterious that we didn’t know who the real man it was based on until 30 years later when his identity was revealed to be FBI agent Mark Felt.

Holbrook’s distinguished demeanor was used to great effect in many parts with political leanings. In one of his earliest films, WILD IN THE STREETS, a wonderfully campy ‘60s romp about teen rebellion, he played a Senator trying to coral the youth vote. This has a crazy scene in which Holbrook and other legislators in Congress are dosed with LSD – quite a different take on an insurrection.

In the short-lived TV series, The Bold Ones: The Senator (1970-71), Holbrook plays another lawmaker, Senator Hays Stowe. He won his first Emmy of five for his performance which I have not seen, but will correct that soon (it’s available on DVD thankfully). He won another Emmy for his portrayal of President Abraham Lincoln in the 1974 mini-series, Sandberg’s Lincoln. 

Holbrook also played Lincoln in the 1985 mini-series, North and South, and appeared in Steven Spielberg’s 2012 film LINCOLN, as Francis Preston Blair. In George Washington, a 1984 TV movie about the first President, he took on the role of John Adams, and played fictional Commander in Chiefs in The Kidnapping of the President, and UNDER SIEGE. So yeah, there was definitely something Presidential about the guy.

One of my favorite parts he played was in Oliver Stone’s 1987 financial thriller WALL STREET. As Charlie Sheen’s brokerage boss, it’s another small but juicy role, but every line Holbrook’s Lou Mannheim says packs a punch as you can see below:

This post just touches on Holbrook’s rich career as there is a lot of his work that I haven’t seen. I’m intrigued by a TV movie he made in the early ‘70s called That Certain Summer, in which Martin Sheen and he play a gay couple, but it looks like it’s hard to find. Incidentally he was in a few other projects with Sheen – WALL STREET, and The West Wing series.

Although he hasn’t acted since 2017, and he hung up his white suit as Twain a few years before that, I’m seriously going to miss this excellent actor. Luckily the bulk of his career is accessible, and will keep fans like me entertained for years to come.

R.I.P. Hal Holbrook (1925-2021)

More later...

THE POST: The War Against Fake News Has Been Fought Before And Won

Opening today at a multiplex near you:

THE POST (Dir. Steven Spielberg, 2017)

After putting his stamp on just about every other cinematic genre out there, Steven Spielberg now tries his hand at newspaper drama with this timely story that’s ripped straight from the headlines, but, obviously, they’re headlines that are over four decades old. Simply, THE POST relays how the Washington Post defied President Nixon and all his men by publishing top secret files detailing the lies the government told and was still telling about the Vietnam war.

As the paranoid, dishonest tactics of the Nixon White House have many times been likened to the Trump Administration’s troubling methods, it may seem a bit too on the nose to get this big star-studded prestige picture from those liberals in Hollywood about how then is just like now, just in time for awards season.

And yes, this is a cautionary tale about how journalism is being threatened in our current era of “fake news,” but despite the predictable packaging, Spielberg has successfully structured an earnest, old fashioned, and highly entertaining showcase for his inspiring subject, and his superb cast.

And it really is a superb cast as Oscar-winners Tom Hanks, as Washington Post Editor Ben Bradley, and Meryl Streep as the Post’s publisher, Katherine Graham, head the strong ensemble that also includes Sarah Paulson, Bob Odenkirk (with David Cross also on board we get a Mr. Show re-union!), Jesse Plemmons, Tracy Letts, Bruce Greenwood, Bradley Whitford, and Carrie Coon.

The film begins in 1966 Vietnam, evoked by the familiar sounds of helicopter blades, and CCR blasting, as we see gritty shots of soldiers loading their guns, and applying war paint. Mulling about these men is Daniel Ellsberg (Matthew Rhys), a military advisor on a fact finding mission to monitor the war’s progress.

After we see Ellsberg witness a night ambush by the Viet Cong in the rainy jungle, he reports back to Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara (Greenwood) that things haven’t gotten any better or worse over the last year, they’ve stayed the same.

To Ellsberg’s disgust, McNamara lies to reporters telling them that “Military progress over the last 12 months has exceeded our expectations,” so Ellsberg steals a top secret 7,000 page document soon to be dubbed “The Pentagon Papers,” that strongly says otherwise about US strategy in south-east Asia, and later leaks it to the New York Times.

That brings us to 1971, where Streep’s Graham is taking the Post’s stock public just as the Times’ is publishing a portion of the Pentagon Papers, which leads to the Nixon administration suing the Times to halt further publication.

Under intense pressure, Graham frets over the legal ramifications of the Post publishing the secret files obtained from Ellsberg while Hanks’ Bradlee scrambles with his staff to distill thousands of pages into articles fit to print under strict deadlines.

THE POST can serve as a companion piece and a prequel to Alan J. Pakula’s, ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN, as it ends where that essential Watergate expose begins, but it stands on its own as a solid, stately tribute to the power of the free press.

Since Hanks, Streep, and Spielberg, all at the top of their game here, have already won multiple Oscars, they may cancel themselves out of the race.

So may co-screenwriter Josh Singer, who won last year for SPOTLIGHT, cinematographer Janusz Kamiński, who’s already won two Oscars for Spielberg films; and composer John Williams, whose won five (count ‘em – five, and three were for Spielberg movies), so I can see this movie not winning anything (it didn’t win any of the six Golden Globes it was up for), but it won’t matter because THE POST is an Oscar-caliber film regardless.

See it so you can see that what is going on now has gone on before, and since it was overcome then, it can be fought and won against again.

More later...

Deep Throat Is Back! (No, Not The Porno)

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

R.I.P. Master Cinematographer Gordon Willis

I was saddened last night to hear of the passing of cinematographer Gordon Willis at the age of 82. The Queens, NY-born Willis' work as Director of Photography on such mighty classics as THE GODFATHER series, seven of Woody Allen's best films, seminal '70s films like KLUTE, THE PARALLAX VIEW, and ALL THE PRESIDENTS MEN all left a lot of iconic imagery forever embedded in my, and undoubtedly many others', movie-loving memories.

In tribute here's 10 of my favorite screenshots from the films Willis shot that I believe capture the immaculate beauty of his compositions (and give some indication of why he was called “The Prince of Darkness”):

1. MANHATTAN (Dir. Woody Allen, 1979)

2. THE GODFATHER (Dir. Francis Ford Coppola, 1972)

3. PENNIES FROM HEAVEN (Dir. Herbert Ross, 1981)

4. THE PARALLAX VIEW (Dir. Alan J. Pakula, 1974)

5. ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN (Dir. Alan J. Pakula, 1976)

6. ANNIE HALL (Dir. Woody Allen, 1977)

7. THE GODFATHER PART II (Dir. Francis ford Coppola, 1974)

8. STARDUST MEMORIES (Dir. Woody Allen, 1980)

9. INTERIORS (Dir. Woody Allen, 1978)

10. KLUTE (Dir. Alan J. Pakula, 1971)

This easily could have been a top 100 Willis screenshots list as I went through so many great images to pick these out. Sure, I'm glossing over what Willis' lens viewed in the '80s and '90s in less classic though still notable movies like PERFECT, THE MONEY PIT, BRIGHT LIGHTS BIG CITY, and, sigh, THE GODFATHER: PART III, but those are the pictures I've chosen!

There are even striking shots from his last film, the critically lambasted THE DEVIL'S OWN in 1997, (frequent collaborator Alan J. Pakula's final film too), that could have made the list as well.

One last parting shot (from STARDUST MEMORIES):

R.I.P. Gordon Willis (1931-2014)

More later...

Film Babble Blog's Top 10 Films Of The '70s

Inspired by Sam Fragoso’s “History of Film: The Best Movies of the 1970s” at moviemezzanine.com, in which ballots from staff and friends of the site contribute their top ten films from the decade many consider to be the finest decade in American cinema, I decided to post my list here (also in their comments section).

So here goes:

1. HAROLD AND MAUDE (Dir. Hal Ashby, 1971)

2. THE GODFATHER: PART II (Dir. Francis Ford Coppola, 1974)

3. MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL (Dirs. Terry Gilliam & Terry Jones, 1975)

4. ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN (Dir. Alan J. Pakula, 1976)

5. THE LONG GOODBYE (Dir. Robert Altman, 1973)

6. MANHATTAN (Dir. Woody Allen, 1979)

7. TAXI DRIVER (Dir. Martin Scorsese, 1976)

8. CHINATOWN (Dir. Roman Polanski, 1974)

9. BADLANDS (Dir. Terrence Malick, 1973)

10. CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND

(Dir. Steven Spielberg, 1978)

More later…

STATE OF PLAY: The Film Babble Blog Review

Taking a break from the heat on my Vegas vacation I found a theater (United Artists Showcase 8) not too far from my hotel and decided to take in: STATE OF PLAY (Dir. Kevin McDonald, 2009) Literally hitting the ground running with a foot chase through a rain drenched Washington DC night resulting in multiple murder, this adaptation of the six part 2003 British miniseries never lets up from its riveting opening. In the cold light of the next day we are introduced to a scruffy haggard looking Russell Crowe as a ace old school reporter (the type who brags about using a 16 year old computer) who buys coffee to get info from the police and makes jaded quips like: "I'll need to read a few blogs in order to form an opinion." A nice timely touch is to then pair him up with a blogger (Rachel McAdams) for his newspaper's online division. Crowe's long time buddy, a congressman played surprisingly solidly by Ben Affleck, is exposed as having had an affair with one of the previous night's victims (Maria Thayer - only seen in photos and cellphone footage) and, of course, something sinister lies in the shadows with an evil corporation possibly pulling the strings. Yes, it's a conspiracy movie with a "trust nobody" vibe that has many allusions to one of the all time greats, ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN with its Washington DC backdrop, intense walks and talks, doors slammed in journalist's faces, and even a shadowy parking garage sequence. The Watergate hotel gets more than just a visual shout out too. Crowe gets many terse tongue lashes from his English editor played beautifully by Helen Mirren in the cluttered newsroom of the fictional "The Washington Globe" (same typeface as The Washington Post in case one misses the connection) while he and McAdams go from lead to lead. For the up to par supporting cast we've got Robin Wright Penn as Affleck's estranged wife, Jeff Daniels as a smarmy Senior Representative, Viola Davis (DOUBT) as a no nonsense pathologist, and a stand-out Jason Bateman as a bisexual fetish club promoter addicted to OxyContin. There are contrivances and clichés galore but the movie moves so fast with such entertaining zeal that none of that matters. Crowe puts in a cantakerously crafted performance that's strong enough to conceal that we are given virtually nothing of backstory of his character, while McAdams appealingly works those "dewey eyed cub reporter's eyes" (as Mirren sneeringly calls them at one point) uping the ante from her previous one note roles like the love interest in WEDDING CRASHERS. There is spare but weighty commentary on the fate of print media in the era of the internets - particularly the likening of bloggers to bloodsuckers (ouch!). Through this all the supreme structure of the film is what really makes it tick. It's played straight with a tightened pace that doesn't ever fall out of focus. Maybe it's not quite in the league of the classic 70's political thrillers it pays ample homage to, but STATE OF PLAY is a worthy addition to the conspiracy cinema canon. More later...