Battle Royale #16: Battle of the Sensitive Studs (The Results)

Welly well well my ladies and germs, here we are at the end of another Battle Royale, and therefore, here we are at another Battle Royale victory dance.  The guy dancing this time, you ask?  Well, in the Battle of the Sensitive Studs, where we pitted Paul Newman against Steve McQueen, the spoils go to Pa Newman himself.  With a final tally of 15 to 9, or 63% to 38% (wait a minute, that doesn't add up - nice work Pollcode.com), Newman beat out McQueen, and so congrats to Mr. Newman, and better luck next time to Mr. McQueen.  But then again, I am not actually here to talk about Newman versus McQueen (sorry guys - don't hate me), but instead, about the pitifully low voter turnout this time around.  With just 24 votes cast (and two of those were me, casting my vote on two different servers) this has been the lowest turnout yet, and really none of the voter turnout has been all that spectacular.  I guess, with the exception of the handful of regular voters, Battle Royale is basically a big ole bust.  With that in mind, I am placing a hold on any and all future Battle Royales here at The Most Beautiful Fraud in the World.  It is sad to say, but it just doesn't seem to be worth the time and effort one puts into such things. Who knows though, with enough public feedback, perhaps Battle Royale will return one day, but considering hardly anyone cares enough to vote, I doubt the feedback will amount to even Bogie's proverbial hill of beans.  It has been a great, if not discouraging, run through the first sixteen Battle Royales, and I hope to do it again someday, but for now...c'est la vie, as they say.  But remember, my reviews and other such things will continue uninterrupted, so there's always that.  

Battle Royale #16: Battle of the Sensitive Studs

Welcome to the sixteenth Battle Royale here at The Most Beautiful Fraud in the World.   It is an ongoing series that will pit two classic cinematic greats against each other - and you can vote for who is the greater by  clicking your choice over in the poll at the top of the sidebar.

This time around we are tossing two heavy hitting he-men into the metaphorical, cyber-ring, but these are not your typical he-men.  Yeah, these guys could kick anyone's ass on screen (one of 'em kinda did that off-screen as well), and both could dominate any cast, and yes, both of these men were first-class racing champs both on and off screen, but these guys also had something more than just your typical macho attitude.  These guys could bring you to veritable tears with their acting.  These guys were definitely your first class sensitive studs.  But exactly how does one compare such actors as Paul Newman and Steve McQueen?  Like this.

Both actors hail from the Midwest (McQueen from Indiana, Newman from Ohio), and both served stints in the US military (McQueen as a Marine, Newman in the Navy), and both were avid racing enthusiasts and owned a slew of classic cars between them, and eventually, both men starred together in the 1974 disaster flick, The Towering Inferno (a movie which had the two battling producers and each other for top billing), but that is where the similarities end.  While Newman played the intellectual in life, always honing his craft on stage and screen, McQueen was a ruffian, getting into trouble with the law on numerous occasions, from being tossed in the brig while a Marine to having one of the most famous mugshots of any celebrity.  Newman was a man who went to bat for the left on many occasions (the actor says being placed nineteenth on Nixon's enemies list was one of his greatest accomplishments).  McQueen was a man who had problems with drugs and paranoia and the establishment.  But on screen, both actors brought an intense humidity to their respective roles, and both men brought an utter coolness along with that heat.

After several years on the New York stage, Newman made his big screen in 1954, in the infamously derided biblical film, The Silver Chalice (one of my own so-called guilty pleasures - though I feel no guilt whatsoever), and he followed this up with two decades of fabulous, career-building roles in such classic films as The Long, Hot Summer, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Hustler, Hud, Cool Hand Luke, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and The Sting.  He would later go on to star in The Verdict and The Color of Money, for which he would finally win his long-overdue Oscar for Best Actor.  Newman also starred in lesser-known, but still great films such as The Left-Handed Gun, Buffalo Bill and the Indians, and Road to Perdition.  Oh yeah, and there's his salad dressing and popcorn too.

Meanwhile, after several stage roles in NYC, and after a move to L.A. and many TV appearances, McQueen made his big screen debut in 1956, in a small uncredited part in Somebody Up There Likes Me (a film starring Paul Newman, no less), and followed that up with his first starring role in The Blob in 1958.  After this McQueen starred in such classics as The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape, The Cincinnati Kid, Nevada Smith, The Sand Pebbles, The Thomas Crown Affair, Bullitt, The Getaway, and Papillion.  Due to cancer, McQueen's career never lasted as long as Newman's, but during the height of these two actor's careers (late fifties through the mid-seventies), there was not anyone better at what they did  than either Paul Newman or Steve McQueen - and no one cooler either.  Which brings us to your part in all of this.

All you need do is to go on over to the poll, found conveniently near the top of the sidebar of this very same site, and click on who you think is the greater and/or the cooler of these two legends of the screen - these two sensitive studs.  And remember, you can comment all you wish (and please do comment - we can never have too many of those) but in order for your vote to be counted, you must vote in the actual poll.  After doing that, then you can come back over here and leave all the comments your heart desires.  Who knows, maybe we will get some sort of lively cinematic discussion going.  And also please remember to tell everyone you know to get out the vote as well.  I t would be great to see us reach triple digits this time around.  Voting will go until midnight, EST, the night of Monday, July 22nd (just over two weeks from the starting gate).  The results will be announced the following day.  So get out there and vote vote vote.

Battle Royale #15: Battle of the Tough Guys (The Results)

Well, after vacations and holidays, turmoil at home and abroad (okay, just at home), voting extensions and more voting extensions, Battle Royale numero fifteen has finally come to a close.  This Battle of the Tough Guys was a close one all along, but not so close that the lead ever changed.  From beginning to end, Jimmy Cagney, the song-and-dance tough guy, held his lead over Eddie Robinson, the intellectual tough guy.  In the end, with 40 votes cast, Cagney beat Robinson by a final tally of 22 to 18, or 55% to 45% for those of as more statistical bent.  Does this make Cagney tougher than Robinson?  Yes.  Yes it does.  Yeah, I know, where the hell are all the other tough guys?  Where is John Garfield?  Where is Bogart?  Hell, where the fuck is Mitchum, dammit!!  Yeah, well, I don't know, but it was still fun to see the battle between Jimmy and Eddie.  Of course, forty votes is not exactly a resounding voter turnout, now, is it?  No, it is not.  I have been trying to get these battles up to record heights (the current record is 66 votes cast, followed by 64, but most are in the thirties and low forties) but alas true believers, it just does not seem like that is ever going to happen.  Hell, this round even went an extra two weeks, and still just forty votes - thirty-nine if you don't count my own.  Should teh Battle Royale end?  Should I send it away for lack of interest?  Nah.  I believe we can still get to that triple digit voter turnout.  Ya just gotta believe.  So remember, Battle Royale #16 is just around the corner.  Next week even.  Who will the combatants be?  Who knows?  Maybe you can give me some hopefuls.  And also remember, The Most Beautiful Fraud in the World will still be going strong, with reviews of the latest releases, as well as looks at classic and cult cinema, and lots of other fun stuff.  And in the meantime, let me know what classic film stars (or directors, producers, what have you) you want to see in the metaphorical ring.  See ya on the flip side.

Battle Royale #15: Battle of the Tough Guys

Welcome to the fifteenth Battle Royale here at The Most Beautiful Fraud in the World.   It is an ongoing series that will pit two classic cinematic greats against each other - and you can vote for who is the greater by clicking your choice over in the poll at the top of the sidebar. 

Okay, perhaps using the term tough guys to describe this round's combatants is a bit unfair.  Perhaps it lowers what these two men did in their cinematic careers, to a mere one-dimensional stereotype.  These were more than mere one-dimensional tough guys - much much more.  Edward G. Robinson spoke seven languages, collected art - he even ran an art gallery with Vincent Price for a while - and was a man of great sophistication and taste.  James Cagney, meanwhile, no matter how many thugs and gangsters he would play, always considered himself to be a song and dance man - and even Oscar thought so, since his one and only Best Actor Academy Award was given to him for playing just that, song and dance man extraordinaire, George M. Cohan in 1942's Yankee Doodle Dandy.  Sure, both men grew up on the Lower East Side (Robinson was born in Romania but moved to NYC when he was nine), so they did have a childhood that would likely grow a tough guy or two, but these men were more than just their filmed image - more than just tough guys.  But hey, this is the Battle of the Tough Guys, so let us move on with that in mind.

Both men made their screen breakthroughs in 1931 playing gangsters - Robinson in Little Caesar and Cagney in Public Enemy - and would go onto long and storied careers playing both thugs and gangsters (ie, those aforementioned tough guys) as well as brave and loyal heroes.  Cagney's work in such varied offerings as The Mayor of Hell and White Heat to Man of a Thousand Faces and even A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Robisnon's performances in equally varied films like Tiger Shark and Key Largo to Double Indemnity and Soylent Green, make these two actors Hollywood legends (no doubt about that), but still, it is their tough guy image, their gangster roles, their hoods-with-heart (and sometimes no heart) that these great actors will best be remembered.  It is Robinson asking, "Is this the end of Rico?" and it is Cagney yelling "Made it Ma! Top of the World!"  And now it is your turn to tell the world which one of these Hollywood Tough Guys has made it.  Just go on over to the poll, positioned conveniently near the top of the sidebar, as cast your vote.  And remember, you can spout off all ya want in the comments section of this post (and please do, we like that), but your vote will only be counted if you go to the poll and make your decision.  And also, tell all your friends to vote, so we can get that vote total up to the triple digits.  Voting runs through Midnight EST on the night of Thursday, June 13th, just a little over two weeks from the starting gate, NOW EXTENDED UNTIL THURSDAY, JUNE 27TH AT MIDNIGHT, and the results will be announced and posted the following day.

Battle Royale #14: Battle of the Laconic Leading Men (The Results)

So, we have a battle of two of the greatest leading men in cinematic history, and can only convince 32 people to decide between them?  Crazy, I tell ya, crazy.  Well, anyway, after our second lowest voter turnout in Battle Royale history, we do have a winner to announce between the battle between laconic leading men, Gary Cooper and Gregory Peck.  And that winner is, with a difference of just two votes, 17 to 15, or 53% to 47% for the stats nerds in the crowd, Mr. Frank James Cooper, better known as Gary Cooper.  Yes folks, it looks like Sergeant York is slightly more popular than Atticus Finch. Lou Gehrig over Captain Ahab.  Jimmy Ringo beaten down by Link Jones.  But yeah, it was pretty damn close - just the way we like it here at The Most Beautiful Fraud in the World - and therefore, a true battle.  A true Battle Royale.  Then again, the voter turnout would make this an even better thing.  With each Battle Royale, I wish and hope to get those voting numbers into the triple digits, but it has yet to happen.  With a career best of 66 votes (waaay back in Battle Royale #2) and a career low of 28, it just seems like the idea of such an ongoing contest is something unwanted by most people out there.  You would think there would be enough classic cinema fans out there in cyberland to make this kind of thing a big success, but alas, it does not seem to be.  But enough bellyachin', we have another Battle Royale to prepare for in just a few days, and this one is going to be a tough one...a tough guy one in fact.  See ya in a few days with the battlin' combatants - and maybe this time more people will care about the whole shebang.

Battle Royale #14: Battle of the Laconic Leading Men

Welcome to the fourteenth Battle Royale here at The Most Beautiful Fraud in the World.   It is an ongoing series that will pit two classic cinematic greats against each other - and you can vote for who is the greater by clicking your choice over in the poll at the top of the sidebar.

For this round, we are going to take a look at two of the most stoic, the classiest, and according to the title, the most laconic of leading men.  The first of these great leading men to burst on the so-called scene was the legendary Gary Cooper, who would make his screen debut in 1925 and would make it big in the early 1930's with films ranging from von Sternberg's Morocco to Borzage's A Farewell to Arms to Lubitsch's Design for Living to Capra's Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, for which he would garner the first of five Academy Award nominations for Best Actor.  Coop would win two of these five times, the first in 1941 for Sergeant York and the second in 1952 for High Noon.  Cooper could do comedy (Ball of Fire, as a bumbling square professor to Stanwyck's wild chorus girl), drama (Meet John Doe, one of Coop's most under-appreciated gems), melodrama (The Fountainhead, even if a bit politically ugly), Romance (Desire, one of his films with on-again-off-again lover, Marlene Dietrich) and action (Vera Cruz and Man of the West), and he could do it all with but the twist of his lips or the rise of his brow.

Our second combatant is the equally legendary Gregory Peck, who would first make the scene in 1944 in a film called Days of Glory.  Later that same year, Peck would star in John M. Stahl's The Keys to the Kingdom, for which the actor would receive the first of his eventual six Best Actor nominations, culminating in 1962, when he would win the Oscar for playing Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird.  Like Coop, Peck would work with many of the great directors of his time, from Hitchcock (Spellbound and The Paradine Case) to John Huston (Captain Ahab in Moby Dick) to Elia Kazan (Gentleman's Agreement) to King Vidor (Duel in the Sun, where Peck played a villain in one of my favourite roles by any actor) to William Wyler (Roman Holiday, opposite Audrey Hepburn).  The great roles, and great performances just go on forever - even if sometimes the films themselves could not live up the greatness of the actor.   Films such as Twelve O'Clock High, The Gunfighter, Cape Fear, The Snows of Kilimanjaro, Designing Woman, The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit and The Boys From Brazil.  Peck, like Cooper, was the consummate leading man, and both men can rightfully be called legends.

As far as acting went, Peck and Cooper would play similar types (some even called Peck, "the new Gary Cooper") but when it came to politics, they could not be more opposite.  Cooper, a staunch Republican, was an outspoken opponent of Communism, and even spoke in front of the House Committee on Un-American Activities.  Cooper never named names but did make it known he did not like the "pinko" mentality of a lot of Hollywood.  Peck on the other hand was a lifelong Democrat and a very vocal supporter of civil rights.  Peck even spoke out against the blacklisting of Hollywood writers and actors, though he himself was never blacklisted, probably due to him being to big a star at the time to be squelched by the powers-that-be.  Peck also protested the Vietnam War, though made it clear he wished no harm to our troops, one of which was his own son.  In 1972 he was even thought of as a possible opponent to Ronald Reagan as governor of California.  Both men were idealists and believed strongly in their beliefs, even if those beliefs were proverbial world's apart.

So there ya have it folks.  Which laconic leading man will you choose?  Will it be Gary Cooper or Gregory Peck?  It is all up to you now.  All you need to do is go on over to the poll - placed conveniently near the top of the sidebar of this very same website - and make your vote heard.  And remember, you can rant and rave all you want in the comments section of this post - and please do, because we encourage such antics - but in order for your vote to be counted, you must actually vote in the aforementioned poll near the top of the sidebar.  After that, please feel free to come back here and rant and rave to your heart's delight.  And also, please tell all your friends to get in on the voting fun as well.  Our record voter turnout here in the Battle Royale arena, is just 66 votes - waaaay back in our second battle - but I know we can blow that number out of the proverbial water - maybe even reach triple digits this time around.  Voting will run through midnight EST, the night of May 20th - two-and-a-half weeks from the starting gate - so get out there and vote vote vote.  The winner will be announced in a post on Tuesday, May 21st.

Battle Royale #13: Battle of the Big Boys (The Results)

The biggest battle of 'em all is finally over, and we have ourselves a winner.  But which one of our mighty combatants, the great ape King Kong or the atomic dinosaur Godzilla, is that winner?  Well, let me tell ya, though I am sure even the least astute viewer will be able to figure said victor out by just peering over an inch or two, and looking at the great poster specially made for a 2000 screening of the original 1933 film at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema - but I digress.  For the longest time, this looked like a runaway victory for King Kong (the eventual winner in the one and only cinematic battle these two giants ever had, in the 1962 film, appropriately titled King Kong vs. Godzilla), who at one time even sported an eleven vote lead, but as the end drew closer and closer, so did good ole 'Zilla, at one point coming to within just two votes of his mammalian opponent, but alas, Kong would never relinquish the lead, and poor Godzilla never could quite catch up.  In the end, the great beast who would eventually succumb to the wiles of beauty (though oddly returning in future movies) would win our thirteenth Battle Royale.  With a final tally of 28 votes (or 54% for the more statistically-minded among you) for King Kong to just 24 (or 46%) for his irradiated reptilian brethren, Godzilla, the biggest battle of 'em all has finally come to an end.  Congrats ya big ball of furry angst.

Now, as I am sure even the most basic math skills can easily realize, the 28 Kong votes and 24 'Zilla votes, add up to a grand total of 52 votes cast.  After the 66 votes cast in The Battle of the Hollywood Hoofers (Astaire edging out Kelly by just two votes) and the 64 cast in The Battle of the New Wave (Godard beating compatriot Truffaut by four), the 52 votes cast here are the third best voter turnout we have had in the whole of Battle Royale history.  Still though, I know we can get those numbers up even higher - maybe even into the triple digits like we managed to accomplish with the annual Oscar poll in January and February (almost 200 votes cast there, though it did last a lot longer than the normal two weeks of the typical Battle Royale, and had a more mainstream topic).  So, tell all your friends about the fun to be had, and the pride one can feel in being part of our Battle Royale, and let us get those vote totals up.  And speaking of voting, your next opportunity to do so, will be coming up in just a few days.  On either Tuesday or Wednesday (depending on how busy/lazy I feel), the combatants for Battle Royale #14 will be announced.  These combatants are men of few words but strong morals, and great iconic talent.  Who are they you ask?  Well, be back here on the aforementioned Tuesday or Wednesday, and find out.  In the meantime, there may be a film review or two posted around these parts.  I will leave you with a behind-the-scenes (obviously) shot from the 1962 film, King Kong vs. Godzilla.

Battle Royale #13: Battle of the Big Boys

Welcome to the thirteenth Battle Royale here at The Most Beautiful Fraud in the World.   It is an ongoing series that will pit two classic cinematic greats against each other - and you can vote for who is the greater by clicking your choice over in the poll at the top of the sidebar.

In the past, our battles have been between actors and directors, dancers and comedy teams, but this time around, we are going for something a little different - and something a lot bigger.  For lucky Battle Royale number thirteen, we are going for two of the biggest stars in movie history.  No, not Ollie Hardy and Fatty Arbuckle.  This time around we are pitting two giants of the silver screen against each other in mortal combat.  Real big giants.  Yes ladies and germs, they did battle only once on the big screen, back in 1962 (as well as a brief battle three years later, in the DC comic, Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #84, though for copyright reasons, their names were changed - as well as making a joint appearance in a Peruvian burger commercial), but here they are again for a second epic battle.  You guessed it baby (not that it was a difficult task of guessing, since there is a picture right over there), it is King Kong versus Godzilla.  It's boom time baby!

Kong was born in 1933, in the now classic monster movie by Merian C. Cooper, and Godzilla came about in the self-titled 1954 Japanese film, before becoming Americanized in the 1956 semi-remake.  Throughout cinematic history, both Kong and Godzilla have had numerous filmic incarnations - sequels, spin-offs and remakes galore.  These two movie monster greats can also be found in comicbooks, cartoons and graphic novels, as well as toy lines out the wazoo.  Godzilla even got a Scrappy-Doo-esque little cousin named Godzooky once - but that may not be his most shining hour.  But back to the battle at hand.  Now yes, if one were to compare the size of the atomic-radiated prehistoric dinosaur-esque Godzilla with that of the great ape Kong, Godzilla would be about four or five times bigger than Kong, and therefore the eventual winner (I know, I know, David vs. Goliath, Jack vs. the Giants, etc, but still), but in the 1962 film version, Kong is sized up quite a bit and is therefore the same approximate size as our big freakin' lizard.  In fact, when these two bad ass movie monsters clashed in said 1962 movie, it was Kong who came out the victor, but that doesn't mean he has to here as well - although he still might.  And it is YOU who can decide!!

All you need to do is go on over to the poll - placed conveniently near the top of the sidebar of this very same website - and make your vote heard.  And remember, you can rant and rave about Kong and/or 'Zilla, all you want in the comments section of this post - and please do, because we encourage such antics - but in order for your vote to be counted, you must actually vote in the aforementioned poll near the top of the sidebar.  After that, please feel free to come back here and rant and rave to your heart's delight.  And also, please tell all your friends to get in on the voting fun as well.  Our record voter turnout here in the Battle Royale arena, is just 66 votes - waaaay back in our second battle - but I know we can blow that number out of the proverbial water - maybe even reach triple digits this time around.  Voting will run through midnight EST, the night of April 26th - just over two weeks from the starting time - so get out there and vote vote vote.  The winner will be announced in a post on Saturday, April 27th.  Oh, and by the way, in an attempt to give credit where credit is due, the above artistic rendering of these two giants at battle is by Frank Parr, who's work can be found at Kaijuverse, DeviantART.

Battle Royale #12: Battle of the Foxy Flappers (The Results)

It looks like we have ourselves another runaway victory this time around.  In the twelve Battle Royales that we have had here at The Most Beautiful Fraud in the World, eight of them were close, to the wire, races - one even ending up in a tie (the one tie being Joan Crawford vs. Bette Davis btw) - but the other four were pretty much runaways (especially that Marx Brothers stomping of The Three Stooges, by a whopping 68% margin).  This particular battle, the Battle of the Foxy Flappers, ended up being the third biggest margin of victory yet.  In the end, it was Lulu kicking the proverbial snot, or to go along with the picture to the right, shooting the heck outta the It Girl.  With a margin of 46%, it was Louis Brooks winning out over Clara Bow.  The final tally, as it were, was our Miss Brooks with 35 votes, or 73%, over little Miss Bow, with just 13 votes, or 27%.  I suppose I should have seen such a walloping coming from the beginning, but for some reason, I thought this one might end up being at least a bit closer than what really happened.  I must say though, that my personal choice of the lovely and talented Miss Louise Brooks, does deserve such a victory.

Well, that's it for this round of Battle Royale.  To take an aside and mention some hopeful news about said Battle Royale - this running feature was submitted for nomination consideration over at the Large Association of Movie Blogs.   Here's hopin' it will actually receive a nomination come next week.  Here's also hopin' that perhaps any of the five eligible possibilities (along with Best Running Feature, I have also submitted for Best Movie Reviewer, Most Knowledgeable, Best Design and Best Blog) will garner a nomination or two - something that I was unable to procure in my first two years of eligibility over at the LAMB.  But I digress.  It was a pretty good turnout this time around, with a total of 48 votes, but I know we can do better baby.  With that said, maybe the next Battle Royale, which will begin in just a few days, and will involve a pair of the biggest combatants yet, will garner many more votes than we saw this time around.  Our record is 66 votes (Astaire vs. Kelly, back in our second battle) but I know we can get that number into the triple digits - and get it, we shall.  So, until Battle Royale #13, up and running in just a few days, have fun.  See ya then.

Battle Royale #12: Battle of the Foxy Flappers

Welcome to the twelfth Battle Royale here at The Most Beautiful Fraud in the World.   It is an ongoing series that will pit two classic cinematic greats against each other - and you can vote for who is the greater by clicking your choice over in the poll at the top of the sidebar.

For the twelfth installment of Battle Royale, we are heading back to those halcyon pre-code days of the late silent era and the early sound era - back to that Jazz Age where the booze ran freely (though in supposed hush hush, of course) and the women ran even more so - and how (and not so hush hush).  Yessiree, we are heading back to the days of the flapper.  The days of the bootlegger and the Bronx cheer.  The days of the hood and the hooch and the horsefeathers.  Back to the days when sex sold, and we weren't afraid to say so.  And what two better flappers, what two foxier flappers can you think of, than Miss Louise Brooks and Miss Clara Bow.  Yep, that's right kiddies, it's Lulu versus the It Girl.  Time to get your vote on.  But first, in case you are woefully unfamiliar with these two cinematic beauties - and yes, everyone should be acquainted with them, it has been eighty-some years since either one could be considered relevant in the film industry - please allow me to expand your knowledge base just a bit.

Mary Louise Brooks, a Kansas girl from way back, was just on the verge of superstardom when sound came around, but due to not wanting to be controlled by the studios, or more specifically, Adolph Zukor and Paramount Pictures, the actress with the distinctive bob haircut (she started a trend ya know) and the nickname of Lulu, packed her bags and went off to Germany, becoming the muse for German auteur Georg Wilhelm Pabst, probably second only to Fritz Lang in popularity at the time in theses pre-Hitler days.  Brooks would make just two films with Pabst, but both of them, Pandora's Box and Diary of a Lost Girl, both released in 1929, are still considered masterpieces to this day.  After returning to Hollywood, Brooks' career was stunted, as, thanks to Zukor's unofficial blacklisting of the actress, she was only able to get small parts in mediocre movies, or big parts in terrible movies.  She would retire from acting in 1938, and would eventually, after years of alcohol abuse, become a writer, specializing in the cinema of her youth.  

Meanwhile, Clara Bow, easily the bigger star of the two at the time, was known as the It Girl, and would become the epitome of the flapper on film (though don't let that sway your vote here).  Starring in many flapper films of the age, as well as a role in Wings, the very first Best Picture Oscar winner, Bow was a shining star at Paramount, but her private life left more than a bit of uproar.  Much like the aforementioned Miss Brooks, Bow was a rather boisterous person, and indeed, quite the partier.  Of course, many in Hollywood were quite rambunctious in those days, but Bow took such a life to extremes.  After getting married, retiring from acting in 1933, and moving onto ranch life in the wilds of Nevada, Bow said of her career, "My life in Hollywood contained plenty of uproar. I'm sorry for a lot of it but not awfully sorry. I never did anything to hurt anyone else. I made a place for myself on the screen and you can't do that by being Mrs. Alcott's idea of a Little Women."

All you need do is to go on over to the poll, found conveniently near the top of the sidebar of this very same site, and click on who you think is the greater of these two long lost legends of the screen - these two foxy flappers.  And remember, you can comment all you wish (and please do comment - we can never have too many of those) but in order for your vote to be counted, you must vote in the actual poll.  After doing that, then you can come back over here and leave all the comments your heart desires.  Who knows, maybe we will get some sort of lively cinematic discussion going.  And also please remember to tell everyone you know to get out the vote as well.  I would like to see us reach triple digits this time around.  Voting will go until midnight, EST, the night of Friday, April 5th (just over two weeks from the starting gate).  The results will be announced that weekend.  So get out there and vote vote vote.

Battle Royale #11: Battle of the Sexes (The Results)

Well that sure was a pretty weak Battle Royale now, wasn't it?  With just 34 votes cast, this latest edition, this Battle of the Sexes, was the second lowest voter turnout we have seen so far.  For those so interested, the battle between sisters Olivia de Havilland and Joan Fontaine, with a mere 28 votes, was the lowest, but we are hear to talk about Spencer Tracy versus long time love, Katharine Hepburn.  In the nine films the duo did together, Tracy received billing above Miss Hepburn, in all nine of them.  When asked why this was, Tracy was known for stating the simplest of reasons - he was the man.  Surprisingly, the quite liberated Hepburn allowed him o get away with this - well, at least in public.  Anyway, even though Tracy got top billing in their films, it is Hepburn who takes away the prize in the eleventh Battle Royale - and boy, does she ever run away with it here.  Out of those aforementioned (meager) 34 votes, the four time Oscar winner (a record ya know), received 25 of them.  Yep, that's right folks, the second-billed Katharine Hepburn won - hands down - by a final tally of 25 votes (or 74% for the more statistically-minded) to Spencer Tracy's rather pathetic nine votes (or just 26%).  Incidentally, this was the second worst drubbing anyone has gotten thus far, falling just short of what the Marx Brothers handed to The Three Stooges.  Well, at least Tracy still has his manly nine top billings over his lover.  That's something, right?

But enough of all that.  What I really want to know is, where the hell were are the voters this time around?  Well, where the hell were you!?  Not talking, huh?  Be that way.  What I would like to see, when we return in a few days with Battle Royale #12, a battle that will take us to the Jazz age and some pretty sexy bob haircuts, is a lot of voting dammit.  A lot of it.  I know I have been saying this all along, so why stop now.  I would love to see the voter turnout get into the triple digits.  I know we can do it - I have faith in my faithful readers.  So when the new Battle Royale pops up on Wednesday or Thursday (surely one of those two days), get your vote on - and tell everyone you know to do the same.  I know there are more than enough classic film lovers out there to make this a reality.  So, here's a-hopin'.

Battle Royale #11: Battle of the Sexes

Hey you guys!!  Look what's back.  That's right, it's the triumphant return of the famed Battle Royale.  What is Battle Royale, you ask?  Well, for the uninitiated, it is an ongoing series that pits two classic cinematic greats against each other - and you can vote for who is the greater by clicking your choice over in the poll at the top of the sidebar.  This particular Battle Royale is the eleventh, and after a month and a half sabbatical (to make time for our Oscar poll), everyone's favourite running feature here at The Most Beautiful Fraud in the World, hath returneth.  Now, on with the show.

For this eleventh installment, we are going to do something just a bit different.  Before we had actor vs. actor, actress vs. actress, director vs. director, and so on.  This time a round we are going to toss an actor and an actress in the ring together, and see who comes out smiling.   So, for this round, this Battle of the Sexes, we are tossing Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn into the ring.  Let's watch the feathers fly.  The official unofficial couple made nine films together over their twenty-six year relationship.  Of course, we all know the story - Tracy was married but had a relationship with Hepburn from 1941 until his death in 1967.  The affair was kept a secret from the public (yeah, that was something that could still be done back in those days) but everyone in Hollywood knew about it, including Tracy's wife, who apparently, was okay with the whole shebang.  

Professionally, Tracy and Hepburn were two of the greats of their craft.  If there were a Hollywood Hall of Fame, they would both be members in great standing.  He was nominated for nine Academy Awards, winning twice (back to back even), and she was a twelve time nominee, winning a still record four times (two of hers were back to back as well).   When they worked together, Tracy was always billed first ("I'm the man" would be his reply when anyone asked why this was) but Hepburn was never one for taking second fiddle to anyone, and her star was just as bright.  Hepburn lovingly said in her autobiography, "I would have done anything for him."  Tracy famously said, in Pat and Mike, the couple's seventh film together, "Not much meat on her, but what's there is cherce."  Now it's time for you to make your "cherce."

All you need do is to go on over to the poll, found conveniently near the top of the sidebar of this very same site, and click on who you think is the greater of these two legends.  And remember, you can comment all you wish (and please do comment - we can never have too many of those) but in order for your vote to be counted, you must vote in the actual poll.  After doing that, then you can come back over here and leave all the comments your heart desires.  Who knows, maybe we will get some sort of lively cinematic discussion going.  And also please remember to tell everyone you know to get out the vote as well.  I would like to see us reach triple digits this time around.  Voting will go until midnight, EST, the night of Friday, March 15th (just over two weeks from the starting gate).  The results will be announced that weekend.  So get out there and vote vote vote.

Battle Royale #10: Battle of the Japanese Masters (The Results)

And another Battle Royale has come to an end.  You were asked to make your choice between two Japanese cinema giants - Yasujiro Ozu and Akira Kurosawa.  Now, as some have told me, perhaps this is an unfair fight, for Kurosawa is so well known throughout the world, while Ozu is not nearly as famous in the West.  Maybe an Ozu vs. Mizoguchi fight would have been a better choice - a fairer fight.  But alas, 'twas not to be.  This is Ozu vs. Kurosawa, and since, I am assuming now, that most of my so-called fan base (if one can call it that without sounding too egotistical) are of the more cinephiliac bent, there should be no one claiming to not knowing the work of Ozu.  And let's face it, anyone who likes cinema, should be well aware of the works of Yasujiro Ozu, and if they are not, then shame on them.  But I digress.  Let us get on with the results of this supposedly slanted tenth Battle Royale.  

Of course, perhaps the preceding paragraph was merely just a way to more easily break it to all those Ozu fans and voters out there, that there boy lost the fight.  Yep, that's right fight fans, Kurosawa beat out his mentor and champion, by a cool four votes.  With 46 votes being cast (and yes, that number could and should be higher), the man who gave the world Seven Samurai (a film in my personal top ten btw) beat out the man who gave that same world Tokyo Story (not in my top ten, but still a great work of art), by a score of 25 to 21, or 54% to 46%, if you will.  Perhaps this is due to more people - more voters - being familiar with the works of Kurosawa over Ozu.  Perhaps not.  My vote went to Kurosawa, but that's just me.  I'm a fan of Keisuke Kinoshita after all, and no one knows who that is.  Anyway, congrats to AK and all that.  Let's talk about that aforementioned rather weak voter turnout this time around.  Pathetic even.  

So far, in Battle Royale history, our best turnout was the Battle of the Hollywood Hoofers, where Astaire took down Kelly, 34 to 32.  For those of you unskilled in basic math (and that is probably me a lot of the time), that is 66 votes cast, way back in our second battle.  Godard and Truffaut almost matched that, when they pulled in 64 votes in their battle, which, incidentally, was won by Godard, 34 to 30.  But other than those two rounds, voter turnout has been mostly in the fortysomething range, even dipping as low as a mere 28 when De Havilland took on her sister, Fontaine, and lost 15 to 13.  So my question, ladies and germs, is where the hell are all my voters!?  I know those classic and foreign film cinephiles are out there in cyberspace somewhere.  Must I pit Adam Sandler against Will Ferrell to get people to notice?  Clooney vs. Pitt?  Edward vs. Jacob!?  Now, even though I dig both Clooney and Pitt (my vote goes to Brad), and watch as much modern cinema as I do classic, I am not going to do that with the Battle Royale.  No sirree.  I will stick with the classics of cinema.  

That being said, the goal, as I have been saying since almost the beginning, is to get those votes into the triple digits.  I know we can do it people.  I know we can.  But such an argument is null and void right now, since this Battle Royale is over and the next one will not be appearing until March 1st.  Why March 1st, you ask?  I will tell you.  As I am sure you have noticed, I have an Oscar poll running right now (unless you happen to be reading this more than a month after I have written it, then this whole thing is pretty much null and void) and since I do not want competing polls, Battle Royale will not return until after the Oscars.  So March 1st it is - and this one is going to be a real battle of the sexes.  Oh yeah, and get prepared to vote and making all your friends vote as well, because we are getting that vote count well into the triple digits, baby!  Until then, have fun.

Battle Royale #10: Battle of the Japanese Masters

Happy New Year to all my faithful readers and true believers.  Welcome to the tenth Battle Royale here at The Most Beautiful Fraud in the World.   It is an ongoing series that will pit two classic cinematic greats against each other - and you can vote for who is the greater by clicking your choice over in the poll at the top of the sidebar.

For our first Battle Royale of 2013, we are traveling to the Far East.  To the Land of the Rising Sun.  To Japan, and to the great masters of their long and vast cinematic tradition.  It is a battle between the man considered the most Japanese of all Japanese directors and the man known as the most Western.   Of course, it is Akira Kurosawa going up against Yasujiro Ozu.  It is the great samurai versus the great family man. Granted, Kurosawa was never a samurai, or even a swordsman, and Ozu was never a family man, having stayed single and living with his mother until her death, just two years prior to his own, but these are the films the two directors are most known for making.  Sure, Ozu made some social commentary films, and even a gangster film, and Kurosawa made many films that did not involve samurai or ronin, but their signature pieces are family dramas and comedies, or Gendai-geki if you prefer, and samurai, or Jidai-geki if you will, respectively.  Yes, there were other great Japanese masters, from Mizoguchi to Naruse to the oft-forgotten Keisuke Kinoshita, but when one thinks Japanese cinema, one surely, fairly or not, thinks of Yasujiro Ozu and Akira Kurosawa first and foremost.  And so, this is the battle we respectfully offer up to you now.

Ozu would come first, making his debut in 1927 (many of the director's early films are now, sadly lost), and hitting it big with his first great film, I Was Born, But..., in 1932.  Ozu's career was filled with many great films, mostly centering around traditional Japanese family life and marriage, and he is noted for influencing many a future filmmaker, most notably, his Battle Royale opponent.  Kurosawa made his first film in 1943, and through the help and encouragement of Ozu (he championed the younger director's first film, and helped to get it a wide audience), and came to great prominence, both inside Japan, and, in a real first for a Japanese director, across the globe, in the early 1950's, as films such as Rashomon and Seven Samurai made their way around the then-budding festival circuit.  To this day - fifty years after Ozu's death and final film, and almost twenty after Kurosawa's - these are still the two Japanese directors with which most western cinephiles identify.  Ozu is still considered the great master of classic Japanese cinema.  While everyone was making a big deal over Vertigo topping Citizen Kane in the most recent Sight & Sound critic's poll, Ozu's subtle masterpiece, Tokyo Story, was quietly voted the greatest film of all-time in that same organization's director's poll.  Meanwhile, Kurosawa is the more well-known name here in the west, and his Seven Samurai is pretty much a lock for any self-respecting greatest films list.  I know it is on mine.

So there ya have it kiddies.  Who will you pick as the greatest of the Japanese Masters?  All you need do is to go on over to the poll, found conveniently near the top of the sidebar of this very same site, and click on who you think is the greater of these cinematic legends.  And remember, you can comment all you wish (and please do comment - we can never have too many of those - and it will make me feel less lonely) but in order for your vote to be counted, you must vote in the actual poll.  After doing that, then you can come back over here and leave all the comments your little hearts desire.  Who knows, maybe we will get some sort of lively cinematic discussion going.  And also please remember to tell everyone you know to get out the vote as well.  I would like to see us reach triple digits in votes.  Voting will go until midnight, EST, the night of Friday, Jan. 11th (just over two weeks from the starting gate).  The results will be announced the following day.  So get out there and vote vote vote.

Battle Royale #9: Battle of the Silent Queens (The Results)

Well kiddies, here we are at the end of another Battle Royale.  This time you, my faithful readers and true believers, were asked to choose between those two great stars of silent cinema - Mary Pickford and Lillian Gish.  A choice between "America's Sweetheart" and "The First Lady of American Cinema."  And who did you pick?  Well, it was kind of a landslide.  Not quite as bad as our last Battle Royale, where The Marx Brothers trounced The Three Stooges by a score of 38 to 7, but still quite a mandate.  And who was the mandate for, you ask.  Well, it was for Miss Lillian Gish.  With a final score of 31 to 16, or 66% to 34% if you will, the First Lady beat out the Sweetheart.  From the beginning, I figured Gish would end up the winner (she did get my vote I know), but I expected it to be at least relatively close.  Certainly a lot closer than it ended up being.  Well, Mary does have an Oscar to lord over Gish, so there's at least that.  And yes, I know, if the Oscars had been around, Gish would probably have won one as well.  Then again, the year Pickford won hers, Gish gave one of her finest performances in The Wind.  But I am rambling, so I digress.

Usually, at this point in the festivities, I say that we will be back with a brand spankin' new Battle Royale in just a few days - but such is not the case this time around.   We are holding off the next one until after the new year.  This way, you can all enjoy your holidays without any of the added stress of trying to decide who deserves the crown as Battle Royale Champion.  Ya know, because there is so much stress in that.  Anyway, we will be returning with that aforementioned brand spankin' new Battle Royale after the holidays.  After back-to-back landslides, hopefully this new one will go back to biz as usual, and be a closer race - maybe even a photo finish.  Also hopefully, we can get the voter turnout to be a bit better this time around - something we can perhaps write home about, as they say.  Since the beginning, I have been trying to get as many voters involved as I can.  So far, this has been met with only slight success.  My wish is to get our little game into the triple digits on a regular basis.  As of now, our best turnout was a mere 66 votes (courtesy of Astaire and Kelly), and this time we had just 47 voters.  I send reminders to bunches of hopeful voters, but still nothing.  This time around I sent voter invites to over a thousand people on Facebook alone, not to mention regular tweets, but still only 47 decided to come aboard.   So basically, what I am saying is - c'mon people, let's get this thing going.  I have seen other online polls get hundreds, even thousands of votes, so why can't we!!?  Anyway, have a safe and happy holiday (whichever one you so choose to celebrate) and have pleasant and giddy dreams about our new Battle Royale.  We will be traveling to the Far East next time around.

Battle Royale #9: Battle of the Silent Queens

Welcome to the ninth Battle Royale here at The Most Beautiful Fraud in the World.   It is an ongoing series that will pit two classic cinematic greats against each other - and you can vote for who is the greater by clicking your choice over in the poll at the top of the sidebar.

A long time ago, before movies could talk, or at least before they were willing to talk, there lived a time in cinema called the silent days.  Back in these days of yore, there lived two women who were considered the best of the best when it came to acting.  These queens of the silent days - this Mary Pickford and this Lillian Gish - were the end all and be all of this still young medium called the moving pictures - the flickers if you will.  Gish was called "The First Lady of American Cinema," and Pickford, "America's Sweetheart," and now here they are, nearly ninety years past their hey day, and placed in battle - or, more appropriately, placed in Battle Royale.

Mary Pickford, born Gladys Marie Smith in 1892, in Toronto, Canada (and still, to become America's Sweetheart), made her screen debut in 1909, in a Biograph short directed by D.W. Griffith.  She would spend a good majority of her career making films for Griffith, a man that would become one of her closest friends, and would later help form United Artists with Pickford, her then husband Douglas Fairbanks Sr., and good friend Charlie Chaplin.  At one point in 1919 and 1920, Pickford was quite possibly the most well known woman on the planet.  The supposed storybook marriage of Pickford and Fairbanks was what legends were made of, and helped give birth to the fan magazine.  Mary would move into the sound era, and become an Oscar winner for Best Actress in Coquette, in the second Academy Award ceremonies, but would soon retire from acting.  She appeared in her final film in 1933.  After retirement, Pickford would fall into alcoholism, eventually become a recluse, allowing only her stepson, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and good friend Lillian Gish, visitation rights.  But still, her memory lives on as America's Sweetheart.  

Meanwhile, friend Lillian Gish, born just a year later, in Ohio, would make her screen debut in 1912.  It too was produced at Biograph, and it too was directed by D.W. Griffith, and she too would spend the majority of her silent career under the tutelage of Mr. Griffith.  She would go on to star in such films as The Birth of a Nation, Intolerance, Broken Blossoms and Orphans of the Storm.  While Mary was the covergirl, Lillian was usually the more lauded for her acting prowess.  Gish, unlike friend Pickford, would keep going well into the sound era, including most notably, in one of the greatest films ever made, The Night of the Hunter, in 1955.   Gish's final film would be the 1987 film The Whales of August, also starring Bette Davis and Vincent Price.  Gish would live until the age of 99.

So there you have it ladies and germs.  Choose your favourite between these Silent Queens.  All you need do is to go on over to the poll, found conveniently near the top of the sidebar of this very same site, and click on who you think is the greater of these two great ladies.  And remember, you can comment all you wish (and please do comment - we can never have too many of those) but in order for your vote to be counted, you must vote in the actual poll.  After doing that, then you can come back over here and leave all your comments.  Who knows, maybe we will get some sort of lively cinematic discussion going.  And also please remember to tell everyone you know to get out the vote as well.  I would like to see us reach triple digits this time around.  Voting will go until midnight, EST, the night of Friday Dec 21st (just over two weeks from the starting gate).  The results will be announced the following day.  So get out there and vote vote vote.

Battle Royale #8: Battle of Comic Mayhem (The Results)

It was a shellacking.  A runaway, a landslide if you will.  It was a beating.  It was a bombing.  It was a goddamn slaughter.  Yes ladies and germs, for the first time in Battle Royale history, we have ourselves a definite winner and a definite loser.  No more of these close races and photo finishes.  No more squeak victories or out and out ties.  This was an old fashioned thumping baby.  Much like when Ronald Reagan trounced poor Walter Mondale in the 1984 election, or when readers voted Jason Todd off the proverbial island of Gotham, the Brothers' Marx kicked the Three Stooges collective asses right down Hollywood Blvd. and right up Mulholland Dr..  Battered and bruised, even by typical Stooge standards (it's usually Moe, not someone from outside the family, that does the battering and the bruising) this Battle Royale, our eighth such rodeo, was downright brutal.

To make my rant official, here are the numbers.  The Marx Brothers won, hands down, with a margin of thirty-one votes - and there were only forty-five votes cast.  With a victory of 38 to 7, or, for the more statistically-minded among us, 84% to 16%, Groucho, Harpo, Chico, Zeppo, and even Gummo, who was not in any of the movies but who are we to exclude him, are the victors of the eighth Battle Royale.  Meanwhile, Moe, Larry, Curly, Shemp, Joe and Curly-Joe, are left weeping in the aisles.  I figured this was going to be a Marxist victory from minute one, but I never saw such a shocking disparity coming.  I mean, that was even worse than the thumping Obama gave to that crazy rich white guy last month.  A real old school throwdown.  My one friend, a standing member of the Three Stooges fan club (guess who he voted for), said that cinephiles will always vote Marx over Stooge.  I suppose he was right - in spades.

What really gets my goat though (that's still a saying, right?) is the low overall voter turnout.  With just 45 votes cast in all, this was not one of the better turnouts (66 votes cast in the Kelly/Astaire Hollywood Hoofer bout stands as the record) - and with this rather low voter turnout, my hopes of this becoming some sort of big deal, maybe even getting into triple digits someday, are violently dashed upon the shores of....oh forget it.  You know what I mean, let's get out there and vote vote vote people.  And tell all your friends and enemies to vote vote vote as well.  And when will you get that chance to vote vote vote again, you ask?  Well, I'll tell ya.  In just a few days as Battle Royale #9 is announced right here at this very Bat Channel.  The opponents, you ask?  Well, you'll just have to wait and see on that one.  I can tell this though - it will include some silent cinema royalty for sure. 

Battle Royale #8: Battle of Comic Mayhem

Welcome to the eighth Battle Royale here at The Most Beautiful Fraud in the World.   It is an ongoing series that will pit two classic cinematic greats against each other - and you can vote for who is the greater by  clicking your choice over in the poll at the top of the sidebar.

Hey faithful readers and true believers, Battle Royale has returned with an all new no holds barred fantasy fisticuffs showdown.  This time around, instead of pitting just one against one, as we have in the first seven Battle Royale's, we are going three (or four) on three (or four, five or even six).  This time around, you are asked to choose between the two preeminent comedy teams of classic Hollywood.  Will your love for The Three Stooges win out or will your love for The Marx Brothers claim victory.  It is all up to you.  These are the two most famous (three or more member) comedy teams in classic movie history (sorry Monty Python gang, but we are going classic here and you are a bit too on the new side for such an honour) but these are also two comedy teams that, I believe, have very different fan bases.  While the Marx Brothers were usually more cerebral, the Stooges tended to go more for the gut - though the brothers' Marx had no problem going low either.  I myself have always been more of a Marx guy than a Stooge guy but don't let that influence your decision.  As if.  But I digress.

The Stooges began their career in 1925 as part of a vaudeville act known as Ted Healy and His Stooges.  This original act consisted of brothers Moe and Shemp Howard and fellow comic Larry Fine.  After Shemp's departure in 1932, younger brother Curly joined the group, and in 1934, the three comics broke free of Healy (apparently the relationship had always been rather tempestuous), renamed themselves The Three Stooges, and began a career all of their own.  In 1946, Curly suffered a stroke and Shemp was brought back in to replace him.  This was meant as just a temporary situation but after Curly died in 1950, big brother Shemp stayed on until his own death in 1955.  This brought aboard comic Joe Besser as Shemp's replacement, but this would only last four years before Besser was in turn replaced by Curly-Joe DeRita who stayed with the group until the end in 1971.  That was the year that Larry suffered a stroke.  Fellow comic Emil Sitka was asked to come aboard as a replacement, but these plans never came to fruition.  In 1975 Larry Fine passed away, followed by best friend Moe Howard a few months later.  But the Three Stooges will live in film history forever.

The Marx Brothers meanwhile began their stage career as teenagers way back in 1905.  Eventually all five brothers would be in the act - older brothers Leonard (Chico) and Arthur (Harpo), middle brother Julius (Groucho), and little brothers Milton (Gummo) and, once Gummo left for World War I, Herbert (Zeppo).  Gummo would never rejoin the act (he hated performing) and the other four brothers would move from stage to screen with the film The Cocoanuts in 1929.  Zeppo would only last for five films before he too quit (it's never any fun as the straight man in an act of insanity) and joined his brother Gummo in one of the most successful talent agencies in Hollywood history.  The apocryphal tale of Lana Turner being discovered at the counter of a drug store was hyped to the high hills by her agent Zeppo Marx.  Meanwhile, the remaining three brothers, Groucho, Harpo and Chico, would go on to add to their legendary status until they called it quits as an act after the dismal 1949 film Love Happy.  Groucho always considered their penultimate film, A Night in Casablanca, to be their final film, conveniently erasing the other one from his memory.  Groucho of course, went on to great success on that burgeoning medium known as television.  Chico would pass away in 1961, followed by Harpo in 1964.  Groucho would pass in 1977, with Gummo following a few months later.  Zeppo, the baby, would pass away in 1979.  But, like the Stooges above, The Marx Brothers will live forever in cinematic history.

So the decision is yours oh faithful readers and true believers.  The Three Stooges or The Marx Brothers.  All you need do is go on over to the poll (found conveniently near the top of the sidebar) and vote your collective little hearts out.  And please remember that one must go over to the poll to have one's vote counted.  You can babble away in the comments section all you want (and that is certainly something I encourage, as we never get enough feedback around these parts) but to have your vote count, you must click on your choice in the poll.  And also, please go and tell all your friends to vote as well.  Our biggest voter turnout since starting the Battle Royale series has been just 66 votes.  I know we can get that number to a cool one hundred before it is all said and done and the proverbial smoke does its proverbial clearing.  The voting period will last only until December 1st, so get out there and vote people.

Battle Royale #7: Battle of the New Wave (The Results)

We had ourselves a little technical trouble this time around, which is why the poll widget looks a bit different than in past days, and is why we extended the voting period by a week, but everything is back on track now, and we are finally ready to declare ourselves a winner - even if CNN still isn't ready to call Florida.  That latter bit was a rather topical election joke that may or may not stand the test of time.  Anyway, onto the results.

For this round, you were asked to make your decision between the duo known as the vanguard of the French New wave.  Did your vote go to François Truffaut, or are you more of a Jean-Luc Godard kind of person?  Well, as has been the case in every Battle Royale so far, it was a close race from beginning to end, appearing to maybe coming down to a veritable photo finish, but then some last minute precincts came in (another topical election reference that will probably bewilder future readers), and one candidate shot out in front - and stayed there.  That candidate was, and still is, Monsieur Jean-Luc Godard.  With a final tally of 34 to 30 (or 53% to 47% for the statistically-minded among us) the man who directed Breathless beat out the guy who wrote Breathless (and directed a few films as well).  My own vote, as one should already have figured out by looking at the avatar/profile pic I use everywhere, went to our eventual winner (based solely on the auteur's first decade - do not get me started on what the director has become lately) but this was a tougher decision than I expected it to be.  When I wore a younger man's clothes (wow, did I just quote Billy Joel!?) I was much more a fan of the films of Godard over Truffaut, but as I grow (and in theory, mature?) I see that gap between the director's getting smaller and smaller.  Perhaps someday, maybe someday soon, the gap will cease to exist, and after a crossing of the streams, said gap will go in the other direction.  Anyway, for now I am still on the Godard side of things, but who knows what the future will bring.  So there you go.  

In other news, our total vote count this time around, for those who do not care to do the math, was 64 - just two votes shy of the Battle Royale record of 66 held by the classic Astaire/Kelly bout.  I know we can beat those numbers next time around.  Let's shoot for triple digits, shall we?  Yes we shall.  Anyway, that aforementioned next time around will be coming around in just a few days, and this time it's going to be more than just one on one.  Perhaps it will end up being three on three (or four).  See ya soon.  And congratulations to M. Godard, here pictured with muse and wife Anna Karina.

Battle Royale #7: Battle of the New Wave

Welcome to the seventh Battle Royale here at The Most Beautiful Fraud in the World.   It is an ongoing series that will pit two classic cinematic greats against each other - and you can vote for who is the greater by clicking your choice over in the poll at the top of the sidebar.

With our seventh edition of Battle Royale, I have decided to bring this usually classic Hollywood based contest into the modern day.  Well, by modern day, I am talking the 1960's - at least mainly.  This time around you are being asked to decide between those two rabble-rousing, young buck, revolutionary critics-turned-filmmakers (though I should probably say critics-turned-auteurs) who began it all with the Nouvelle Vague, or the French New Wave if you will, way back in 1959.  Now yes, there were a whole gang of cinematic thugs (and I use that term quite lovingly indeed) that helped create what would become known as the aforementioned Nouvelle Vague - Claude Chabrol arguably was the first to release a New Wave film, and Jacques Rivette, Eric Rohmer, Alain Resnais, Jacques Demy and others were among the creative forces in the movement, but let's face it, it's all about Godard and Truffaut, and we know it.

François Truffaut, the man who, while writing for Cahiers du Cinema, gave us the auteur theory (later expanded and espoused by NY film critic Andrew Sarris) was the heart of the movement while fellow compatriot Jean Luc Godard was its brains - or perhaps the guts.  Your mission, if you accept it, is to pick the one you think is the greater filmmaker - the greater auteur.  Is it the romantic who gave us the acerbic sentimentalism of The 400 Blows or is it the man who broke it all open with Breathless a year later?  The man who brought us Jules et Jim and the Antoine Doinel series or the one who gave us Contempt, Band of Outsiders and Week-end?  The man who said "Film lovers are sick people" or the man who said "Cinema is the most beautiful fraud in the world" (sounds familiar, eh)?  It is a battle between all the Truffaut lovers and all the Godard heads out there.  The decision is yours o faithful readers and true believers.  All you need do is go on over to the poll (found conveniently near the top of the sidebar) and vote your collective little hearts out.

And please remember that one must go over to the poll to have one's vote counted.  You can babble away in the comments section all you want (and that is certainly something I encourage, as we never get enough feedback around these parts) but to have your vote count, you must click on your choice in the poll.  And also, please go and tell all your friends to vote as well.  Our biggest voter turnout since starting the Battle Royale series has been just 66 votes.  I know we can get that number to a cool one hundred before it is all said and done and the proverbial smoke does its proverbial clearing.  The voting period will last two weeks, so get out there and vote people, because all you sick film lovers out there who love the beautiful fraud that is cinema, will definitely need to be in on this one.