In a cryptic conversation with Alec Leamas (Richard Burton), “Control” (Cyril Cusack) brings up Hans-Dieter Mundt (Peter van Eyck), head of East German intelligence.

Control: “And how do you feel about him?”
Leamas: “Feel?”
Control: “Yes.”
Leamas: “He’s a bastard.”
Control: “Quite.”

Another fascinating Cusack riff:

Control: “Fiedler, my dear Alec, is the lynchpin of our plan. Fiedler’s the only man who’s a match for Mundt, and, uhm… he hates his guts. Fiedler’s a Jew, of course, and Mundt’s quite the other thing.”

I’ve watched The Spy Who Came In From The Cold (’65) several times. Mainly for Oswald Morris’s black-and-white cinematography (the Criterion Bluray is wonderfully rendered in this respect) and especially for the pleasures of Oskar Werner’s performance as the brilliant Fiedler.

Richard Burton is good, of course, but playing the dour, sardonic and scowling Leamas requires him to be relentlessly draining. (He’s such a pill that he even turns down Werner’s offer of free recreational sex with an East German woman.) I actually hate that moment when Burton laughs at Claire Bloom when she confesses to being a devoted commie. She may be naive but at least she deeply cares, and Burton can only snicker at her conviction.

Five years ago I posted about the very first California drive-in theatre — the old Pico Drive-In (10860 Pico Blvd., SE corner of Pico and Westwood Blvds., 1934-1944)

Last night’s viewing of White Heat (‘49) reminded me of the second such operation — the San-Val Drive-In Theatre (2720 Winona Ave. Burbank, 1938-1973).

Newspapers insisted on using a hyphen between San and Val; management disagreed. HE is siding with the news guys.

There’s an Act One scene in which James Cagney‘s Cody Jarrett, Virginia Mayo‘s Verna Jarrett and Margaret Wycherly‘s Ma Jarrett pull into the San-Val to escape a pursuing police car.

And man, the San-Val looks great! — towering big screen, blazing neon signage, car-hops with snazzy outfits.

There are just two…make that three curiosities.

The San-Val’s double feature (right on the marquee) is South of St. Louis (Joel McCrea, Alexis Smith, Zachary Scott, Dorothy Malone) and Siren of Atlantis (Maria Montez, Jean-Pierre Aumont), except the film on the big screen is Task Force (Gary Cooper, Jane Wyman, Walter Brennan).

Curiosity #2 is the fact that South of St. Louis opened on 3.6.49, and White Heat didn’t begin principal photography until 5.5.49…two months later. What are the odds that South of St. Louis played for over two months at the San-Val? I’m presuming White Heat‘s second-unit team shot the San-Val footage soon after the March ’49 debut.

Curiosity #3 is that White Heat opened on 9.2.49 while Task Force didn’t open commercially until 9.30.49. Pissed-off moviegoer: “Hey, I’ve seen a trailer for Task Force…it’s not opening for another month. How come the Jarrett’s are watching it way before the rest of us?”

When it comes to tricky conflicts about shattered professional relationshps, by which I mean alleged sexual intimidation and subsequent financial claims, counter-claims and regrettable consequences, the general understanding in the case of non-minors is that when an offended party opts for anonymity, journalists respect that.

This non-disclosing protocol has prevailed since yesterday’s accusation about alleged sexual assault and harassment on the part of director-writer Paul Schrader, and more particularly about Schrader reneging on a privately negotiated shakedown payment to “Jane Doe”, his accuser.

But what’s the protocol (and I think this is a fair question) when the identity of Schrader’s accuser is fairly obvious to anyone searching around?

Especially given the fact that “Jane Doe” has been (a) anything but shy about her social media profile, (b) has been described in news reports as “a 26 year-old personal assistant to Schrader between ’21 and September ’24”, (c) has been photographed numerous times with Schrader, particularly at the 2022 Venice Film Festival and during last May’s Cannes Film Festival, and has even been identified in photo captions, and (d) has reportedly “posted on social media about how much she loved her job and referred to Schrader as an extraordinary mentor and ‘my man'”?

The AP has reported Jane Doe’s account that Schrader “trapped her in his hotel room, grabbed her arms and kissed her against her will last year while they were promoting his latest film, Oh, Canada, at the Cannes Film Festival in France.” Which, if true, was ridiculous.

Consensual sexual activity with a younger woman is one thing when you’re 60something, but no half-sane male in his mid to late 70s would even flirt with initiating some kind of touchy, vaguely intimate thing with a pretty 26 year-old Zoomer. Schrader is a consecrated Movie God, but appearance-wise “Jane Doe” is way out of his league, and if her allegations are even half-true it was flat-out crazy of him to even hope that anything might happen.

Once you’ve become a mid-to-late 70something you’re more or less finished…it’s over. Okay, unless you’re Richard Gere (75) or Michael Douglas (80), but I’m not so sure about even those guys.