ASK MICK LASALLE
Dear Mick: I’ve been enjoying Fred MacMurray in light screwball comedies. He is such fun to watch in these types of roles. We’re so used to seeing him in dramas.
Alan Rossi, San Anselmo Dear Alan: That’s fascinating to hear, because it tells me things have come full circle. For decades, certainly for as long as he was alive, MacMurray was known as a light comic actor who just happened to have excelled in a handful of dramas — “Pushover,” “The Apartment” and “Double Indemnity.” Many of us still feel he missed his true calling as a heavy. But apparently in recent years, MacMurray’s history as a light comedian has faded, just as his TV career on the sitcom “My Three Sons” has become a distant memory. His dramas are all that’s remembered, and now the comic side of his career is ripe for rediscovery. Hi Mick: I think your readers would appreciate having a removable movie section to refer to during the week. I know I would.
Jane Levinsohn, Corte Madera Hi Jane: We did that about 10 years ago, and it just didn’t go over. The public didn’t seem to like it. You just never know about these things. Dear Mick: If a new film about Hitler showed him grandly posturing using Trump’s weird lying, distorting, evading, distracting behavior, perhaps that sharp knock on the head would finally get through to his dumbed-down cultists that Trump is a world catastrophe in the making.
Rich Conner, San Ramon Dear Rich: Naah. Anybody who likes Trump wouldn’t want to see the movie. It would just preach to the choir. The days of a shared culture, in which everyone sees the same movies, have been over for a long time. Dear Mick: At the end of “The Candidate” (1972), the Robert Redford character, Bill McKay, says to his handlers after pulling his surprise upset, “What do we do now?” Which one, Donald Trump or McKay, is better prepared for the job ahead?
Andy Crockett, Alameda Dear Andy: On the one hand, McKay has enough wit and humility to wonder about his own qualifications. So that’s a good sign. On the other hand, he’s a fictional character, so he can’t do anything. On top of that, McKay is a Democratic senator, so he really can’t do anything. Greetings Mick: As good as Bette Davis was in “All About Eve,” she throws the whole movie off. Do you really believe Anne Baxter’s Eve Harrington is a professional threat to Davis’ Margo Channing? Or even a personal one? Had Claudette Colbert played Margo, as originally planned, the movie would be much more logical. Baxter resembled Colbert, and they both had plummy voices. That would make Eve much more convincing as a threat to Margo.
Gustavo Serina, San Francisco Greetings Gustavo: This is one of those tantalizing what-ifs of movie history. A few things strike me as evident: (1) “All About Eve” works brilliantly; and (2) As it has come down to us, it’s a movie about Bette Davis and the phenomenon of Bette Davisness in the universe, which was not the original intention. A version starring Claudette Colbert would have been more in line with the intentions of the script, and it might have been just as great as the Davis version. It certainly would have gotten rid of the one glaring absurdity of the Davis film, the notion that Davis and Baxter could possibly have been in the same casting range. (As it stands, the scenes of Davis in costume, playing a young woman, look like a trial run for “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane.”) The physical resemblance between Colbert and Baxter would have brought a fascinating other dimension. And the diva element wouldn’t have been lost — Colbert was as much a diva as Davis, albeit in a more Glinda the Good Witch sort of way. That said, I can’t say that it’s a regret that Davis played Margo Channing — it’s the definitive role of a great actress. Still, I wish I could see what a Colbert version might have been like.
Have a question? Ask Mick LaSalle at mlasalle@sfchronicle.com. Include your name and city for publication, and a phone number for verification.