The Parallax View

 SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

The Parallax View (1974), directed by Alan J. Pakula, mirrors some elements we find in Alfred Hitchcock’s films. There are deaths at the Seattle Space Needle, which is an iconic American landmark. Hitchcock showed treachery occurring at the Statue of Liberty in Saboteur and at Mt. Rushmore in North by Northwest. The point of using these types of settings for Hitchcock was to suggest that there is a sinister aspect below the admirable surface representation. However, Pakula said in an interview that he wanted to show how modern structures dwarf individual citizens. In a way, the larger structures show how powerful forces can dominate the less fortunate. Hitchcock also used the theme of those in power blaming an innocent man for wrongs he did not commit, and that individual tries to discover the truth below a surface of lies. This element also exists in this story.

The word “parallax” adds to the theme of seeing things from various perspectives. The word means that a variety of people can see the same situation in different ways. In the case of the main character, Joseph Frady (Warren Beatty), a journalist, he is an outsider who views the world as something to analyze below the surface of appearances. Others see him as an anti-establishment type, someone outside the mainstream. The fact that he is a recovering alcoholic adds to his outsider status. His name suggests the word “afraid.” Is he afraid of what’s happening, or is he, too, someone to be afraid of.

The opening sequence shows a totem pole with the Space Needle behind it to show how society has minimized a meaningful culture by replacing it with impersonal materialism. Senator Carroll (William Boyce) is in a parade wearing a fireman’s hat, a symbol of unselfish heroism. Inside the Space Needel one waiter appears to be the assassin of a senator while another waiter is the actual killer. This scene stresses how things are not what they seem. Both Frady and his ex-girlfriend, Lee Carter (Paula Prentiss), are there. The innocent man falls to his death as others wrongfully assume he is the culprit, and he falls to his death after a pursuit. What follows is a commission that declares there was a lone gunman. The declaration is not a press conference, so there are no questions, stressing how no contradictions will be voiced against the conclusion that there was no conspiracy. This element of the film reminds us of the Warren Commission which said there was no conspiracy in the killing of President John F. Kennedy. It also refers to similar findings that were made in the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Senator Carroll is an independent politician who may want to run for a higher office. IMDb notes that his name is the same as a signer of The Declaration of Independence, the last word there mirroring the senator’s nonpartisan status. His link to the Declaration paints him as a patriot like those at the pristine birth of American democracy. The fact that the opening takes place on Independence Day stresses Carroll’s “independence” and ironically contrasts with those defiling the tenets of the Founding Fathers.

Three years pass since the death of the senator, and we are witness to Frady’s anti-establishment combativeness. He argues and insults local policemen following his manipulation of an inept arrest where he exposes how they harass him. Frady’s newspaper editor, Bill Rintels (Hume Cronyn), tells Frady he must “curb your talent for creative irresponsibility,” and that they are “in the business of reporting the news, not creating it.” The scene emphasizes Frady’s rebellious nature. Rintel’s office looks like an old-fashioned modest space, which he never seems to leave, not gleaming like a modern press headquarters. Pakula said Rintels is an “anachronism,” a man dedicated to “old-fashioned decency and optimism.” He seems to be someone who is isolated from the current society that has moved away from those values.

Lee has tried to contact Frady and shows up at his home by way of a side entrance, stressing her fear, which she reveals to Frady. She says that eight people have died who were at the event at the top of the Space Needle. She believes they were killed, and she could be next. Frady dismisses Lee’s fear because she is a neurotic who apparently had paranoid and suicidal thoughts in the past. He does learn that there have been two more deaths, and that Carroll’s aid, Austin Tucker (William Daniels) also believes there is a conspiracy.

The next scene is chilling as there is a shot of Lee’s body at the coroner’s building. She had alcohol and barbiturates in her system and died in a car accident. Frady is the last one to come into view through the doorway, which is the audience’s viewpoint, stressing the different ways things are seen, and we can see that he now believes there is something suspicious about the piling up of bodies.

Frady meets with Will (Kenneth Mars), an ex-FBI agent, who says that there is a pill that can fake a heart attack, which is how one of the persons in Seattle scene died. This fact is a foreshadowing of what happens later. Frady says he needs a fake backstory that shows him as a “hostile misfit.” Will says Frady doesn’t have to fake that. Again, we see that Frady, in his own way, fits the profile of those he is hunting. Will says they will set him up to be a man who was once a flasher so as to present him as a person with an embarrassing past to hide, which is the kind of person an organization grooming assassins might recruit. The two are at an amusement park and ride on a children’s train. Could the film be suggesting Frady is on the right track?

Frady visits the place in upstate Washington where a witness to the senator’s death died. He does not look like the locals since he has long shaggy hair and orders milk at a local bar where the male patrons dress like cowboys. A man named Red (Earl Hindman, eventually Wilson in the TV show Home Improvement) questions his masculinity. Unfortunately, Frady must prove his male strength and gets into a fight, eventually knocking out Red, who turns out to be a deputy. Sheriff Wicker (Kelly Thorsden) is one of the patrons, allowing the fight to continue. As Frady says he has a strange way of enforcing the law. The town is outside the mainstream idea of what normally stands for justice, and Frady is the outsider again here, showing his aggressive nature.

The conspiracy widens in the scene where the sheriff takes Frady to the spot below a dam where the witness died. The hugeness of the dam adds to that feeling of individuals overpowered by their surroundings. It was reported as a drowning since the dam sluice opened and the victim drowned. Then the alarm sounds which warns that the sluice is opening again and Frady realizes he will be the next victim. Luckily (a bit of contrivance) Frady has a fishing rod and he hits the sheriff who is pulling a gun, which is how he presumably killed the witness. They are both swept away. Frady survives, but not the sheriff. So, even local law enforcement is part of the deadly apparatus that lurks behind the façade of respectability. (This scene is a bit much since it would seem pretty suspicious that two witnesses to the senator’s death would have died in the same manner at the same location).

Frady goes to the sheriff’s house and discovers a briefcase that provides information about the Parallax Corporation. He escapes the pursuing Red in the sheriff’s police car which he used to get to the house. It is interesting that he must escape the shady local lawman in a car belonging to an officer of the law. Frady is even wearing the cop’s cowboy hat. He drives through an area that spews mud on the car and himself, implying that justice has been defiled. The images add irony to the scene.

Back in Portland, Rintels doesn’t buy Frady’s story, since he reveals that the sheriff and deputy were involved in a utility scandal and that is why they were hostile. Frady said he didn’t reveal he was a reporter and used a fake name. Rintels refuses to help Frady, which adds to the journalist’s isolation.

The briefcase contains psychological testing questions, which Frady brings to a psychology lab. The psychologist says the questions seek “to pull out anger, repression, frustration” which could identify homicidal tendencies. The psychologist has a man who committed gruesome crimes take the test. Frady wants to pretend the answers are his so he can infiltrate the Parallax Company. Apparently, the only way to enter a deceptive organization is by being deceptive.

The depth of the danger facing people who suspect the truth about the recent deaths manifests itself in the person of Autin Tucker, the dead senator’s aid. He learns about Frady’s search for him. He requires Frady to undergo a strip search before meeting him. He warns him that he is unaware of the enormity of the deadly investigation he is pursuing since he has escaped two attempts on his own life. At the dam and here, we have foreshadowing of what can happen to Frady. Tucker, a bodyguard, and Frady go out on a boat. In the water, alone, one would think it was a safe place. Not so. There is an explosion on the vessel, and again, Frady happens luckily to be at the bow of the ship and is blown free. The scene shows how pervasive is the reach of this conspiracy.

Frady revisits Rintels, who thinks the reporter died on the boat. Rintels is onboard with Frady’s news story now, but Frady doesn’t want to print anything yet so he can find out more. He wants to make it look like he did die so as to call off any further scrutiny. He asks Rintels to print his obituary, make a fake will, and appear to be clearing out Frady’s personal property. In the meantime, Frady will take on a false identity under the name of Richard Paley, the man who supposedly answered the Parallax questionnaire, and a potential assassin. He is putting himself in jeopardy, but also Rintels, since he is the only one who knows the truth, which is supposed to set you free, but, in this world, can get one killed.

Frady takes a room in a rundown building to show his outsider status as Paley. When a representative, Jack Younger (Walter McGinn) of Parallax shows up, Frady acts surly and angry when his pot on a hotplate overheats. Younger says it’s his aggressiveness is what makes Paley valuable. Is Frady putting on an act, or is he just unleashing his inner antisocial tendencies?

Frady goes to the address where Parallax does its recruiting. He visits the “Division of Human Engineering.” It’s an ominous title, implying that they can remake individuals into something other than what they currently are. What follows is an almost an extended surreal scene. Frady goes to a large auditorium (that dwarfing feeling again) where there is just one chair which measures his emotional responses to the images projected through his fingers. Words such as “country,” “love” and “enemy” appear with images of people suffering and imprisoned along with patriotic pictures accompanied by rousing as well as soft music. Also, there are still shots of a KKK rally, Hitler, and violent pictures along with an illustration of a comic superhero. The word that appears often is “Me.” The visuals seem to connect patriotism and family love with the individual’s ability to conquer adversaries. It is interesting that we do not gain any knowledge of Frady’s response to these images. Does he actually qualify as a person who fits in with the parallax view of those who will hire him? Here again we have a Hitchcock element since the audience is made to participate in the scene just as does Frady. In his essay, “Dark Towers,” Nathan Heller says that Pakula uses the camera as a “human” who “feels like a bystander.” So, in effect, we also are taking the test.

An effective suspenseful segment follows. Frady sees the man who Tucker showed him a picture of who was at the Space Needle. He was the actual second gunman who killed Senator Carroll. Frady follows the man, who has acquired a briefcase, to the airport. The man checks in the briefcase but doesn’t get on the plane. Frady boards the plane and hears that there is a senator on the plane who the newspaper compares to Carroll. Frady realizes the briefcase contains a bomb. Frady is able to warn a flight attendant anonymously by writing on a cocktail napkin that there is an explosive onboard. The plane turns around based on “technical difficulties” to avoid a panic. After the plane lands and everyone disembarks, the plane explodes. Frady performed a daring and courageous act here.

Younger is at Frady’s apartment when he returns. The man is in the dark mirroring his shady personality. He knows that Paley is not his name based on background checks. Frady makes up a story about hiding his alcoholic past. He is supposed to meet another operative at a hotel, but once more Frady sabotages another job Parallax is planning by sending his supposed associate away. We know Parallax is onto Frady because they send that same assassin to bring Rintels poisoned food which he regularly orders from a deli. They make it look like the editor died of a heart attack, as did a previous victim. More appearances being deceptive. The audiotape of the conversation with Younger that Frady sent Rintels along with other Parallax documents are gone. Frady doesn’t know about the death and that he is now on his own.

Frady goes to see Younger at the Parallax building. The man is not there but Frady sees the same waiter/assassin in the lobby. He follows him again, this time to the LA Convention Center. The large open area, said Pakula, was meant to seem uninviting and menacing, which fits in with the spatial intimidation theme of the story. What Frady doesn’t realize, and what the viewer doesn’t suspect at this point, is that he is being set up. Younger and other suited men are there as they observe from a room high above the floor below, like demonic angels watching their plans take shape. Younger leaves, absent from, and seemingly innocent of, the treachery that follows.

There is a college marching band rehearsing patriotic songs among a multitude of tables. On the floor students show placards of various past presidents. It’s almost a reminder of what Frady saw at the Parallax human engineering site. What will follow is anything but traditional patriotism.

The killer along with other assassins are on a platform above the proceedings below. Senator Hammond (Jim Davis) rides in on a golf cart as he is part of the rehearsal for a speech he will deliver that night. Frady is on a catwalk above the floor. He probably realizes that the senator is the next target. Sure enough, as the senator drives his golf car away from the stage, shots ring out and he is killed. The senator’s golf cart careens into the red, white, and blue tables, symbolizing the destruction of the patriotic scene.

The assassins planted a rifle to implicate Frady as the shooter. The band members see Frady and point at him, assuming he is the killer. It is the same setup that occurred at the Space Needle. As Frady runs toward a door to escape he is shot to death by an assassin who is masquerading as a security guard.

We again have an investigative panel that concludes that Frady killed Hammond. They state that Frady was obsessed with the Carroll shooting, thought Senator Hammond was responsible for the other senator’s death, and that he felt Hammond was out to kill Frady. Again, there are no questions from an unseen press, which implies that even they are impotent to stop the coverup. The lone gunman theory with no conspiracy decision is again presented, with history repeating itself, as it did with the Kennedy and King assassinations. The feeling that all of these decisions are linked is stressed by the camera zooming in on the commission members at the first panel and now the camera pulling away at the second commission, as if it is all one shot taking place at the same time.

The depressing ending concludes this cautionary tail of how even in a supposed open and free society, there can be a deceptive underbelly lurking beneath the benign appearing surface. (For conspiracy theorists, the actor who played Younger (McGinn) died in a car accident in 1977, and director Pakula died in an auto accident in 1998).

If you like science fiction with thought-provoking themes ...

I have some blatant self-promotion for you. My father sparked my interest in science fiction. The first movie I saw in the theater was Forbidden Planet. Over time we watched The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits on TV, and The Andromeda Strain and Close Encounters of the Third Kind in the theaters. This interest led me to write a sci-fi novel:

Galloper’s Quests, based on Gulliver’s Travels, begins in 2079. Navy Captain Samuel Galloper is a scientist who continually seeks answers about the mysteries of the universe. The military only temporarily quieted his feverish mind through its regimented ways. Galloper invents a propulsion system that transforms matter into energy and can open wormholes. However, the military wants to steal his work and use it to wage war. So, Galloper decides to prevent the perversion of his invention by leaving Earth on a journey through the cosmos. He visits three planets whose inhabitants exhibit very different ways of dealing with life. He becomes involved in the armed conflict between two of the planets. Along the way he befriends aliens and a witty robot. He falls in love with an extraterrestrial who might know more about humanity than Galloper does. As Galloper nears the end of his quests, he must weigh the risks of returning to Earth. Will his invention fall into the wrong hands? Will anyone believe his story about his intergalactic travels? What fate awaits his new love if she goes with him?

https://www.amazon.com/Gallopers-Quests-Fall-Earth-Destiny/dp/B0DRTBVDM6/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_

Galloper’s Quests is an ambitious sci-fi adventure that follows Captain Samuel Galloper, a military scientist who dares to defy his superiors in the pursuit of knowledge and freedom. Using his groundbreaking propulsion system, he escapes Earth’s grasp and journeys across the cosmos, encountering strange worlds, authoritarian societies, and existential dilemmas. His story, smuggled to the reader under mysterious circumstances, reads like a personal journal, a mix of raw emotion, philosophical musings, and gripping narrative. From the military’s relentless pursuit of power to the mind-numbing routines of an alien civilization, the novel explores what it means to think freely in a world determined to control you.

Galloper’s inner conflict is as compelling as the dangers he faces. He’s a man torn between duty and conscience, trapped between the structured obedience of military life and the terrifying unknown of free thought. His encounters with Admiral Rutlaw, a hardened military leader obsessed with weaponizing his discoveries, highlight this tension brilliantly. Rutlaw’s interrogation is chilling because it reveals the military’s single-minded goal: control and dominance. Galloper, however, isn’t willing to be a cog in that machine. His escape isn’t just physical; it’s a moral stand, and that’s what makes his journey so captivating.

Then there’s the planet Burc, a place that at first seems promising but quickly reveals itself as another kind of prison. The Burcs live in a rigid, cyclical society where work is endless, thinking is discouraged, and individuality is stifled. Their robotic sentries enforce order, while their Procs, like the conflicted Lask, bear the mental burden of decision-making so others don’t have to. It’s a fascinating concept, one that feels eerily familiar. When Galloper’s carefully constructed picnic table is destroyed by a robot, it’s a perfect metaphor for the futility of creativity in a society that fears change. Burc’s motto, “More work, less thought,” echoes throughout the book, a warning about the dangers of blind obedience.

But Galloper’s Quests isn’t all grim. There’s an undeniable thrill in its interstellar exploration, and Cileone has a knack for making space travel feel both wondrous and dangerous. The HOPS propulsion system, with its ability to fold space and create wormholes, is fascinating, yet terrifying in its unpredictability. The descriptions of travel bodies stretching, consciousness flickering, reality bending are some of the novel’s most immersive moments. When Galloper arrives on a new world, the awe is palpable, reminding us why we dream of the stars in the first place.

Galloper’s Quests is perfect for fans of thought-provoking sci-fi, especially those who enjoy books that question authority, challenge societal norms, and explore the weight of human choices. If you like stories that mix The Forever War’s military critique with 1984’s oppressive regimes and Star Trek’s exploratory wonder, you’ll find a lot to love here. It’s not a light read, it makes you think, it makes you uncomfortable, and at times, it makes you angry. But that’s the point. It’s a journey worth taking, even if the destination isn’t what you expect. – Literary Titan

Bugsy and info on a new novel

 My father sparked my interest in science fiction. The first movie I saw in the theater was Forbidden Planet. Over time we watched The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits on TV, and The Andromeda Strain and Close Encounters of the Third Kind in the theaters. This interest led me to write a sci-fi novel:

Galloper’s Quests, based on Gulliver’s Travels, begins in 2079. Navy Captain Samuel Galloper is a scientist who continually seeks answers about the mysteries of the universe. The military only temporarily quieted his feverish mind through its regimented ways. Galloper invents a propulsion system that transforms matter into energy and can open wormholes. However, the military wants to steal his work and use it to wage war. So, Galloper decides to prevent the perversion of his invention by leaving Earth on a journey through the cosmos. He visits three planets whose inhabitants exhibit very different ways of dealing with life. He becomes involved in the armed conflict between two of the planets. Along the way he befriends aliens and a witty robot. He falls in love with an extraterrestrial who might know more about humanity than Galloper does. As Galloper nears the end of his quests, he must weigh the risks of returning to Earth. Will his invention fall into the wrong hands? Will anyone believe his story about his intergalactic travels? What fate awaits his new love if she goes with him?

https://www.amazon.com/Gallopers-Quests-Fall-Earth-Destiny/dp/B0DRTBVDM6/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_

 

SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

As in other gangster movies, the hoodlum in Bugsy (1991) has a family life that he tries to keep separate from his unlawful activities. Bugsy Siegel (Warren Beatty) has a wife and two children, who appear in the first shot of the film. Later he has a birthday party for his daughter which Meyer Lansky (Ben Kingsley) and his associates invade. As Sigel dashes back and forth between his family and his business associates, that scene shows how the private life and the gangster world can’t be kept apart. When he has a new home with Virginia Hill (Annette Bening), he again can’t segregate parts of his life as she insists on riding with him when he secretly plans to eliminate Harry Greenberg (Elliott Gould), his best friend, for testifying against Siegel’s partner Lucky Luciano (Bill Graham).

We discover immediately by Siegel’s interest in clothes, sun lamps, and facials that he is focused on appearance, which includes his name. He chastises a male shopper that “Bugsy” refers to a creature that crawls in the dirt. It’s lowly, which is not what he thinks of himself. His name is Benjamin, which he reminds others is in the Bible. He wants to be revered, but he is hardly compatible with anything biblical. He also uses women for sex and then discards them, which adds to his self-involved personality. Underneath that fashionable appearance is a man who has no trouble killing a worker who he believes has been stealing from him, and his partners, Luciano and Lansky. We have here the theme of how surface appearance differs from the truth beneath the façade. That Beatty is a handsome fellow adds to this point.

Siegel’s friend, George Raft, who played gangsters in the movies, and Siegel go to the studio where they are shooting a film called “Manpower,” which is appropriate for the crime genre. So, we have a gangster film within a gangster film, thus stressing the appeal for outlaws as independent rebels in the American society. Siegel’s affinity for movie making is evident when he quickly checks himself out in a mirror on the set, making sure that his appearance is pleasing and audience friendly. The headline in a local newspaper stresses the fantasy versus reality of criminal life when it asks in a headline if Siegel is a gangster or a movie star. He even films a scene of himself saying Raft’s lines in the movie “Manpower,” and then plays it back in his new house. So, we have an actor (Beatty) playing a gangster watching himself play an actor pretending to be a gangster. Quite a meshing of fiction and true life.

Siegel buys a home from an opera singer living in Hollywood on the spot with $60,000 he carries around with him in a leather bag. He does the same when he sees a car that he wants. That idea that you can get what you want without restriction is attractive to the American capitalist audience.

On the movie set he meets Virginia, who has a much stronger will than the females Siegel is used to meeting. He tries to put the moves on her and is frank about being married. She tells him he is a smooth talker, but “dialogue is cheap in Hollywood, Ben. Why don’t you run outside and jerk yourself a soda.” She wittily reverses the “soda jerk” phrase and cuts him down to size by saying he should choose that lowly profession.

In a meeting with LA crime boss Jack Dragna (Richard Sarafian), Siegel says either Dragna joins him and his gangster friends in the crime operation or Dragna must shoot him, and he hands Dragna his gun. The impression is that Siegel lives up to the name “Bugsy” because he acts crazily. Siegel wastes no time in getting what he wants. He explains his philosophy of grabbing what he desires when he says, “Time is vicious when you take it for granted.”

Siegel is a complex character. His desire to break American laws is offset by his patriotic enthusiasm. He tells Raft that Mussolini is “Hitler’s partner. He’s our mortal enemy,” and he does not tolerate anyone being in the United States who consorts with the country’s enemies. He actually hatches a pan to get close to the Italian fascist to kill him. When he finds out fellow Italians killed the dictator, Siegel is upset, because he wanted to commit the act, and now he can’t add that item to his list of ego-building accomplishments.

He wins Virginia over, but she knows that they will cause each other grief. That’s because, she says, they are both selfish. She says, “we both want whatever we want whenever we want it, and we both want everything.” Given that premise, they start a passionate love-hate relationship. There is jealousy about her sexual past, which is a double standard given his promiscuity.

Siegel’s sociopathic nature is evident as he confronts Dragna about stealing from him. He yells like a maniac, threatens to kill him, plays Russian roulette, and makes Dragna crawl like a pig. He then calmly eats his dinner, only to be seduced by the turned-on Virginia, who shows her own deviance by getting excited by Siegel acting like a lunatic.

Speaking of crazy people, Mickey Cohen (Harvey Keitel), the head of the LA mob scene, makes a deal with Siegel reluctantly. They go to Las Vegas to check out a rundown place that has a few slot machines that bring in some money. After getting into an argument with Virginia, he gets out of the car, walks into the desert, and gets his epiphany about turning Vegas into a gambling mecca. (IMDb notes that the original idea for turning Vegas into a casino town belonged to Billy Wilkerson, a gambler, Siegel became his partner and then took over the operation).

Despite his wacky personality, Siegel has vision. He explains to Lansky how Nevada allows gambling and if they make it hospitable with a large, luxurious hotel, and add all the elements that a city possesses, like schools and a church, then they will be able to control the city. His ambitions are grand, as he says that after controlling the city, they can control the state, and then have a big say in who is President. He even counters Lansky’s argument about concentrating on Cuba when Siegel says a foreign country can kick you out. That foreshadowing is realized in The Godfather, Part II. Lansky is the voice of reality, trying to reign in Siegel’s off-the-rails behavior, such as trying to assassinate Mussolini. Lansky also alerts Siegel to the fact that the alure of stardom, which feeds Siegel’s narcissism, conflicts with the gangster life, where one doesn’t want to draw attention to the illegal activities being perpetrated.

Siegel eventually wins over even the practical Lansky as he plans his oasis, his “Eden” in the desert, in the form of the Flamingo Hotel. His imagination is grandiose as he says about costs, “Did they ask Michelangelo what it would cost to paint the Sistine Chapel? Did they ask Shakespeare what it would cost to write MacBeth?” Of course comparing the building of a hotel-casino in Las Vegas to immortal works of art shows how egotistical Siegel is.

Siegel’s volatile nature is on display as he contemplates suicide after killing Greenberg. Virginia saves him by getting the gun and shooting it six times to empty the pistol of bullets. Because Virginia’s ex, Joey Adonis (Lewis Van Bergen) calls Virginia a whore, Siegel savagely beats the man, while still checking out how he looks in a window. It’s like Mr. Hyde wanting to keep up appearances as Dr. Jekyll. 

A taxi driver testifies that he dropped Greenburg at Siegel’s house the day Greenburg was killed. So, Siegel is arrested for the homicide. His accommodations in a private jail are plush, with gourmet food and telephone at his disposal which shows how much leverage he has even in prison. Siegel is more concerned about appearances again, saying a photo in the newspaper made him look pale, despite his tanning routines.

The cost of the Flamingo soars, and in his divorce settlement Siegel gave much of his wealth to his wife and children. He must cash in all his assets, including his Hollywood home, to finance the hotel. Virginia has been running the project while Siegel is incarcerated. Siegel gets out after Cohen prevents the taxi driver from testifying in the homicide trial. Siegel’s reckless spending alienates him from Lansky and Luciano.

Siegel tries to get Virginia to fly on separate occasions. She is brash and strong, but she has a deathly dear of flying. Her aversion to getting in a soaring plane may suggest that, despite her ambitiousness, she can’t join Siegel on his grandiose level of reckless daring. But back on earth, on solid ground, she is an aggressive schemer. Cohen tells Siegel that she stole two million from Siegel and put it in a Swiss bank account. Siegel mentions this information when she is jealous of his asking a possible female employee if she likes flying. She accuses Siegel of looking for a new girlfriend. The argument between them leads to Virginia leaving him.

Lansky sums up Siegel’s character when he tells Luciano, in exile in Cuba, and fellow gangsters that Siegel has no business ability because he doesn’t respect the cost of things. It isn’t money he is interested in but making something real from one of his ideas. Lansky says, “He is a dreamer.” These words make one think that if he was more stable emotionally and not a gangster, Siegel could have accomplished a great deal given his imagination and drive.

However, these are hardened criminals only interested in the bottom line, like most big businessmen. Luciano knows about the money in the Swiss account and suggests Siegel is behind it. Siegel also has overspent and oversold investments in the hotel which will tank the whole enterprise if the Flamingo is unsuccessful. It seems fate is working against Siegel, since on opening day there is a powerful rainstorm, in the desert of all places, which means that although it is Christmas, Siegel’s stocking comes up empty. But he has faith and tells Lansky on the phone not to sell his shares in the Flamingo.

Lansky says Siegel must fly to LA that evening. Siegel suspects that he is in trouble but asks Lansky not to involve Virginia in his failures. He is willing to take all the responsibility to protect her. In a sort of ironic play on the last scene in Casablanca, Virginia shows up at the airport with the two million dollars, but Siegel tells her to save it for a rainy day, which is funny because it is raining, and he needs help now. She is even willing to join him on the flight in the dangerous weather, which shows her love for him. Her just offering to help him is enough for Siegel.

Lansky said he would “handle it” if the casino didn’t look like a success. The assumption is that he follows through. Bullets riddle Siegel’s house as he watches his bad screen test. He is killed as the Hollywood-like dream of his fails which is suggested by the shots destroying his video equipment.

The gangsters tell the devastated Virginia that Siegel is dead and they are taking over the Flamingo. Endnotes state that Virginia returned the money to Lansky. However, she couldn’t live without Siegel and committed suicide. Siegel’s advice to Lansky was right. Las Vegas has become a huge money-maker. The last shot of the film shows the Las Vegas strip lit up with an abundance of hotel-casinos. Siegel’s dream came true, but his dangerous life denied him the chance to see it.

It's a Wonderful Life

 It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), directed by and co-scripted by Frank Capra, explores how a person finds a purpose in life. Sometimes that goal leads to the selfish acquisition of wealth. It may mean performing a heroic act on a large scale. And just sometimes it occurs in a small town in helping others find a little happiness in their lives.

This movie is a bit dark for a Capra film, whose credits include It Happened One Night and A Pocketful of Miracles, although another Jimmy Stewart /Capra movie, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, shows the cynical side of politics. This story takes place between 1919 and Christmas Eve, 1945. The opening seems tacky today as twinkling stars in the sky, which represent angels, discuss the need to help George Bailey (Stewart). They have received prayers that he is in despair. They choose the angel Clarence (Henry Travers) for the job so he can finally earn his wings. What follows is a summation of George's life up to December 24 of 1945 so that Clarence knows what he is dealing with.

A couple of incidents in young George’s life set the stage for how even what seems like an insignificant life can have important consequences in the grand scheme of things. The local druggist in the small town of Bedford Falls, Mr. Gower (H. B. Warner) owns a soda shop where George, the boy, works. Gower is distraught because his son died most likely due to the Spanish Flu pandemic. He accidentally puts a poison in a prescription, and George brings that mistake to his attention. George also saves his younger brother from drowning in a break in the winter ice in a pond.

George's father (Samuel S. Hinds) and Uncle Billy (Thomas Mitchell) work at the struggling Building and Loan company that makes low interest loans to people to buy houses. The greedy man who owns most of the town is Henry Potter (Lionel Barrymore). He is on the Building and Loan’s board and would like to put it out of business so he can have a monopoly on charging exorbitant rates on loans to the people of the town. There are references to “Potter’s Field” in the film, which is where poor people were buried when they died, and the implication is that Potter is the nasty capitalistic force that drains the life out of deprived people during their lives. Potter’s appearance almost looks like a ghost and IMDb states that Capra wanted to depict him to look like the famous painting “American Gothic.

The film was seen by some as leaning toward Communism since the banker is depicted as the villain. George’s father says, “All you can take with you is that which you’ve given away,” which suggests that generosity is the true virtue because one is putting others above one’s own needs. George as an adult tells Potter, “this rabble you’re talking about, they do most of the working and paying and living and dying in this community. Well, is it too much to have them work and pay and live in a couple of decent rooms and a bath? Anyway, my father didn’t think so. People were human beings to him. But to you, a warped and frustrated old man, they’re cattle. Well, in my book my father died a much richer man than you’ll ever be.” These statements sound more Christian that communistic, and a Marxist wouldn’t put much stock in prayers and angels.

George is not so altruistic as a young man. He finds his father’s work dreary and wants to get out of “this crummy little town.” He wants to go to college and eventually gain success by building “airfields,” and “skyscrapers,” and “bridges a mile long.” However, his father dies, and his brother Harry (Todd Karns) first goes to college and then marries. His father-in-law offers him a job upstate. George sacrifices his ambitions to take over the family business. He even sees a friend, Sam Wainwright (Frank Albertson), become prosperous. His dreams for himself become eclipsed by his commitment to his father’s vision.

One positive aspect that comes from George’s staying in Bedford Falls is that he marries his childhood sweetheart, Mary Hatch (Donna Reed). Her character is an example of American positivity as she works hard to turn their broken-down house into a welcoming, lovely family home. On their honeymoon night, though, the house is a wreck before her renovations. George’s friend, Bert (Ward Bond), a policeman, and Ernie (Frank Faylen), a cab driver, serenade the newlyweds in their leaky home. The scene stresses how love and friendship overcome financial distress. The couple sacrificed their honeymoon money to keep the business open after Potter maneuvered a run on the Building and Loan company. The investors in the family business also compromise to keep the business afloat, which shows the story’s theme of how generosity toward others aids the community. (Apparently Jim Henson did not consciously name his Muppet characters after the Bert and Ernie characters in this film).

George's company provides several families a chance to own their own homes which aggravates the killjoy, Potter. He offers George an exorbitant salary to work for him and dissolve the Bailey business. Potter is like Satan tempting the Christ-like figure of George. Although leaning toward accepting the job at first, George quickly recovers his moral vision and vehemently rejects Potter’s deal. Capra’s view of moral fortitude offsetting selfish temptation seems a lost hope in our egocentric present times.

Another Job-like event occurs which sends George into despair. Uncle Billy accidentally leaves the $8000 that he is to deposit in the company’s account in a newspaper that Potter acquires. When George learns that the money went missing he becomes desperate. He goes to Potter to beg for a loan but all he has is a small amount of cash surrender value in his life insurance policy. Potter refuses of course and mentions that George is worth more dead than alive based on the payoff upon his death. That plants the seed of suicide in George's mind.

George’s positive disposition turns dark, and he becomes cruel when he goes home, knocking things over and bemoaning the fact that he even has children he must raise. Stewart’s acting ability is strong here as he delves into the depths of a lost soul. He goes to a bridge and is ready to jump off when Clarence appears and dives into the icy waters below. This action sparks a momentary return of George's unselfish nature, and he dives in to save Clarence. As they dry out Clarence realizes that he must show that George’s life has worth. He erases George’s existence. There is a cold wind that blows through the scene and the desolate winter setting points to George's absence in the town’s life.

 George, of course, is unbelieving of what Clarence says he did. But as he goes through the town nobody recognizes him. Bedford Falls now is called Pottersville. There are bars and seedy clubs in place of small family stores. (This scenario may have influenced the story line in Back to the Future II when Biff alters history and takes over the town. Also, this “glimpse” of another life is echoed in another Christmas movie, The Family Man with Nicholas Cage). Martini (William Edmunds) does not own the bar because he never was able to establish himself with his on home the Bailey business provided. George wasn’t there to prevent Mr. Gower from causing the poisoning of his customer. And, George’s brother, Harry, died in the ice water as a child. So, he never became a fighter pilot in the war and didn’t win the Congressional Medal of Honor for saving a whole convoy of soldiers. Mary is a woman without the love of another and has no children, which deeply affects George as she is frightened by his pursuing her. Clarence states the Butterfly Effect when he says, “Each man’s life touches so many other lives. When he isn’t around he leaves an awful hole, doesn’t he?” He goes on to say, “You see George, you’ve really had a wonderful life. Don’t you see what a mistake it would be to throw it away?”

When George finds himself back on the bridge he prays and says he wants to live. Clarence reverses his act, and George is now part of the community he helped build. When he returns home Mary has done a “Go Fund Me” action and tapped into the generosity that Capra sees as exiting underneath all the greed and selfishness in the world. Everyone contributes to save George’s business, and there is a welcoming home of Harry as a war hero. Clarence left a note for George in a copy of Tom Sawyer which says, “Remember, George, no man is a failure who has friends.” The film is saying that it is one’s worth to others that enriches a person.  

Clarence said that when a bell rings an angel gets his wings. A chime on the Christmas tree sounds, telling us that Clarence has been promoted. The film has all sorts of bells ringing, including cash registers, telephones, and doorbells. These chimes not only announce the winning of an angel’s wings but also the saving of human souls. It is thus fitting that the last image of the film is a huge bell ringing, suggesting the possibility of the triumph of human morality.