Last week, as I was channel surfing, I stumbled across the avuncular Robert Osborne introducing his guest, who would select (and the network would show) a few of his favorite movies. Sitting there - Frank Miller. Just when I was ready to get all ticked off at him for selling out, egomania, etc. - he starts talking (hardly at all about The Spirit) and he was terrific. Engaging, thoughtful…
So (and this is not in any order of movies Miller likes best) the first film he had TCM play was “The Naked City”. (Even I was young, when the resulting series was on TV.) Miller said that he had heard about movie for years, but only recently had seen it for the first time - and fell in love with it. Easy to see why. All was filmed on location in NYC - circa 1948. It’s a docu-drama about a homicide or two. What’s most amazing is that shots of the city at night look very much like Miller urban drawings. As he said, the real star of the movie is the city. Recommended, if you can tolerate Barry Fitzgerald, as the lead detective, hamming it up and mugging for the camera. (Fellow aging RC’s will, of course, remember BF as the pastor in the Bing Crosby - best picture Oscar winning - vehicle - yikes! - Going My Way.)
Next up was High Noon. Miller claimed that it was a favorite because he likes lone hero against the world stories (true enough). But I suspect that its selection also had something to do with the fact that the #1 bad guy is named - Frank Miller.