Hey folks, Harry here... I was set to go to sleep when I learned that Stanley Kramer is no longer with us in physical form... that he died yesterday of pneumonia.
To many filmlovers like myself Stanley Kramer was an enormous man. A man responsible for bringing not only entertainment, but raw emotional resonance and social conscience to cinema. QUALITY is throughout his career... be it as a Producer or a Director.
I believe I first saw his name in front of the Jose Ferrer CYRANO DE BERGERAC... a film he produced and I happened to see the evening I came home after first being attacked in Elementary School for being a ... cue foreboding music.... FAT KID. I was upset, my parents had given me the sticks and stones speech... but that night Cyrano showed me direction. I knew I wasn't allowed to carry a rapier with me to school with which to dispatch the curs, but I could battle with wits... humiliate them with their own bluntness. I also learned that the odd could triumph not only in individual achievement... but in love. Kramer helped bring this very personal favorite film into existence and if that were it, I'd mourn his passing. But that was not even the beginning.
He helped bring Marshall Will Kane to screen... fighting the hopeless desperate fight to protect a town of cowards from men that would ruin her. A brilliant and harrowing western that he helped bring about with a blacklisted screenwriter. Then there was Lieutenant Commander Philip Francis Queeg and his wonderful strawberries. Ah yes, the strawberries. How could anyone forget the nervous twitch in Bogart's face, the frantic panic and the brilliant portrayal of cowardice by Fred MacMurray's Tom Keefer. I saw THE CAINE MUTINY in High School and delivered the Queeg monologue as one of my monologues in class. I love that film. He was the first to bring us the live action world of Dr Seuss with the truly surreal 5,000 FINGERS OF DR T. He brought us one of Kirk Douglas' greatest roles as Midge Kelly in THE CHAMPION... remember that beaten pulpy face... the tearful joy though his face bleeds and he's the ugliest thing... inside and out we've ever seen... but celebrated as a hero? Great film.
He also helped make Marlon Brando a God. Brando had made STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE... he'd gained critical notice, but when Kramer produced THE WILD ONE... put him in that leather jacket and put him astride that motorcycle... he helped create an icon of cinema that will never fall. "What're you rebelling against Johnny?" ....... "Whattaya Got?" AWESOME! Single handedly making motorcycles and the men that rode them cool and scary at the same time.
Then there was Stanley Kramer the director. From 1958 to 1961... Kramer made one film a year... And lord... what films. THE DEFIANT ONES, ON THE BEACH, INHERIT THE WIND and JUDGEMENT AT NUREMBERG. Each one stronger than the one before. Brutal real honest and poignant. We love Soderbergh now... At this time, you'd love Stanley... and if you know your films you always will.
I could continue through his long and wonderful career... but unfortunately I must sleep a bit before my screening in a few hours, but I will leave you with my favorite Kramer involved moment of cinema...
We must not abandon faith!
Faith is the most important thing!
Then why did God plague us with the
capacity to think? Mr. Brady, why do you
deny the one thing that sets above the
other animals? What other merit have we?
The elephant is larger, the horse stronger
and swifter, the butterfly more beautiful,
the mosquito more prolific, even the
sponge is more durable. Or does a
sponge think?
I don't know. I'm a man, not a sponge!
Do you think a sponge thinks?
If the Lord wishes a sponge to think, it thinks!
Does a man have the same privilege
as a sponge?
Of course!
Then this man wishes to have the same
privilege of a sponge, he wishes to think!
Thank you Mr Kramer, wherever you may be!
