Critical Jim--The Hit Man

Critical Jim--May
Critical Jim--June
Critical Jim--July
Critical Jim--August The Haunting and Queen of the Damned

By Staff Writer Jim Cohn

July quiz question: At the end of Donnie Brasco, Benjamin "Lefty Guns" Ruggiero receives a phone call from his boss. He leaves his apartment knowing he is going to get whacked for vouching an infiltrator into the mob. Correctly tell me how Lefty Guns died in real life.

Once again, there were no correct answers to the quiz question. However, I'm always willing to recognize a valiant attempt. Or, lacking that, a humorous response will usually catch my eye. While I can't send a Tip of the Black Fedora, Irving Silber, a retiree from Florida, earned a wink and a chuckle for his answer (and I quote), "As for how that person died in real life, after examining all the clues, I'm certain he slipped on a banana peel." Irving, I'm glad you didn't say, "...slipped on a Bonanno peel." That would have been truly PUNishing.

Now the answer: Benjamin "Lefty Guns" Ruggiero died of cancer on Thanksgiving Day, 1995, at age 72, in his home in New York. Source: Gangsters, Inc. website--http://gangstersinc.tripod.com/Lefty.html

THE HORROR! THE HORROR!

This month Critical Jim the Hit Man reviews two horror movies, The Haunting, based on Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House, and Queen of the Damned, based on Anne Rice's series The Vampire Chronicles.

My mother once gave me this sage advice: "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all." Alas, much as I would like to implement that wisdom, I do have to say something. In my incarnation as a movie critic I am duty-bound to explain my opinion. Simply, it is this:

Both author's books are groundbreaking presentations of horror stories-- they enhance the genre by introducing psychological and spiritual elements into their respective milieus, something that was not previously done, at least not nearly as effectively. Jackson and Rice are gifted enough to elevate the horror genre, one not often taken seriously, to the status of literature. If only the movie powers-that-be had had the wisdom to stick more closely to the stories and moods created by their authors. Unfortunately, they didn't.

After viewing them, I can only weakly echo the dying Kurtz's words from Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, "The horror! The horror!"

THE HAUNTING
(1999)
Based on the novel The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Screenplay: David Self
Director: Jan De Bont
Cast: Dr. David Marrow: Liam Neeson; Eleanor Vance: Lili Taylor; Theodora: Catherine Zeta-Jones; Luke Sanderson: Owen Wilson

Everyday Evil

Shirley Jackson's is not a household name. Of those who know of her, only a handful can name more than one or two of her works. Yet, at the time of her death in 1965, she was the prolific author of seven non-fiction articles and books, two family books, seven novels, one play, one work of poetry, and more than fifty-five short stories. Two more anthologies containing previously unpublished novels and stories were compiled by her husband, Stanley Edgar Hyman, after her death. Although her work was popular and received literary acclaim, according to Mr. Hyman, "She received no awards or prizes, grants or fellowships; her name was often omitted from lists on which it clearly belonged or which it should have led." But, her one overriding talent--in addition to her wit, humor, imagination and ability to deftly handle mystery, ambiguity, and suspense--was her gift for seeing the evil that underlies the most mundane aspects of everyday life. It is a gift that will live long to chill the hearts and darken the minds of her fans.

The Movie

Somewhere near the middle of this movie, I thought of the camera my dad gave me when I was a kid. It was an ancient and beautiful, finely crafted twin-lens Yashica, which had been passed down to my father by my grandfather and now to me. Being a curious child, within an hour I had it broken down and was nearly in tears staring at the parts, completely baffled by how to put it together again. Needless to say, when Dad discovered what I'd done, he let me know his feeling in no uncertain terms.

Unfortunately, that is also the story of The Haunting. Based on what may be the finest haunted house story ever told, Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House, the producers, director, and screenwriter decided that they could tweak perfection by tampering with the story.

Those familiar with the book (and if you haven't had the pleasure, please, please treat yourself to a read-it's what great writing is all about) know that the horror between its covers is subtle; a psychological exercise that twists and turns and, finally, controls the mind of Eleanor Vance, emotionally the weakest of four visitors to Hill House. But, the true horror of the book is learning that the house, itself, is evil-without explanation or apology, it is just evil.

And, it is here that the production of The Haunting falls down. For some reason, known only to those who labor in Hollywood, evil for its own sake isn't enough for today's movie audience. A rationale must be provided--in this case having to do with the murder of children by the original owner, Hugh Crain. Now, the spirits of the children call to Eleanor to rescue them from the spirit of Crain so they can rest. Sure, the murder of children will push some buttons in the audience, but it is a trite device, a trick that cheapens, rather than improves, the story told by Ms. Jackson.

The words my Dad spoke to me when he fixed his eyes on his father's camera, in pieces on my bedroom floor, seem appropriate here: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

August Quiz Question: Shirley Jackson's best known work, The Lottery, was published in the June 28, 1948 issue of the New Yorker magazine. The short story received the greatest response of any New Yorker story up until that time--hundreds of letters of outrage and even some subscription cancellations.

Correctly tell me what happened to the winner of The Lottery and win a Tip of the Black Fedora in next month's column from Critical Jim, The Hit Man. Send your answers to Critical Jim at ReadersRoom2@aol.com.
*****

QUEEN OF THE DAMNED
(2002)
Based on The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice

Screenplay: Michael Petroni, Scott Abbott
Director: Michael Rymer
Cast: Lestat: Stuart Townsend; Akasha: Aaliyah; Jesse Reeves: Marguerite Moreau; Marius: Vincent Perez; Maharet: Lena Olin

"They're my gang..."

That's Anne Rice talking about her vampires. Since 1973 when she wrote her first novel, Interview With the Vampire, Ms. Rice has turned the vampire world on its ear, changing the way we think about these legends from wooden night-stalkers who exist only to suck the blood of their victims to sensitive, sensuous beings who, though soulless, at least soulfully ruminate about the differences between life and un-death. She has three major series that she adds to periodically: The Vampire Chronicles; Lives of the Mayfair Witches; and New Tales of the Vampires; as well as non-series historical novels. Reportedly, Ms. Rice wrote "Interview in five weeks. When it was completed, she showed it to her husband, poet/novelist Stan Rice (now deceased). He recognized her talent and said the book would change their lives. It did. It also changed the lives of millions of fans eager for a glimpse behind the curtain Anne Rice had drawn back to unleash The Damned upon the world.

The Movie

Anyone who harbors the ill-placed belief that the purpose of Hollywood is to create funny, happy, scary, or thought-provoking entertainment should see this film. They would quickly be disavowed of that notion. Hollywood is a business--a for-profit business--and money spent on a product needs to be recovered, sometimes, sadly, at the expense of art. The untimely death of Aaliyah, the popular singer who played the title role, was tragic. Her plane crashed, killing all aboard, with the film still incomplete. At that point, the studio had three choices: scrap the film; cast someone else for the title role and re-shoot those scenes; or cut, paste, and cobble together the semblance of a movie from the footage already in the can. The first and second were expensive options. The studio, Warner Bros., chose to protect its investment by reconstituting the footage in the can--a second tragedy.

What they wound up with is Queen of the Damned, not as Anne Rice envisioned it but, rather, as a patchwork of plot threads from the various volumes of Ms. Rice's Vampire Chronicles. These are brought together in a barely coherent telling of Lestat's story.

Still, I prefer to take the movie as an entity separate from the book. After all, this is a movie review, not a book-film comparison. In that light, Queen of the Damned is not terrible, merely mediocre. The acting is adequate, the settings are suitable, the music complimentary, but there are no surprises and the ending is predictable.

My recommendation: If you absolutely must see a vampire movie, you can do worse than this one; but, you can do better, too. Try Vampire's Kiss, The Addiction, or the brilliant Shadow of the Vampire.

Do you have comments about Jim's reviews? He'd love to hear from you. Contact him at: ReadersRoom2@aol.com

Copyright 2003 by ReadersRoom, LLC. All rights reserved.