July 12 - Monte Hellman

Happy 88th Birthday, Monte Hellman! Born today in 1932, this American editor, writer, executive producer, producer and theater and film director began his career as an editor's apprentice at ABC TV. 

 
He later made his directorial debut, being a creature feature. This was with the 1959 American black and white horror/sci-fi film 'Beast from Haunted Cave', produced by American director, producer, and actor Roger Corman ('The Masque of the Red Death'). 

 
This was the film that began an association between Corman and Hellman that lasted for fifteen years. 

Hellman would later work on several of Corman's films and would also finance several features that Hellman would direct. 

 
He would later gain critical recognition for his Westerns of the 1960s of which he is known. These included the 1966 American Western/Acid Western film 'The Shooting' and the 1966 American Eastman Color Western/Revisionist Western film 'Ride in the Whirlwind'. Both of these films starred Jack Nicholson. 

 
Among his credits, Hellman is best known for editing and directing the 1971 American drama/road film 'Two-Lane Blacktop'; his lasting contribution to American cinema. 

 
In this cult favorite road feature, The Mechanic (the Beach Boys' Dennis Wilson) and The Driver (singer-songwriter James Taylor) live only to drag race and maintain their 1955 Chevy. Heading east from California with no particular agenda. 

 
They give The Girl (Laurie Bird) a ride, and en route she incites jealousy between the men by sleeping with them both.  

 
Meanwhile, the trio encounters an overbearing G.T.O (Warren Oates), a wanderer who agrees in challenging to race them to New York as each side puts at stake their most prized possession: their car. 

Harry Dean Stanton has a cameo in the film as a gay road solicitor. He was credited as Oklahoma Hitchhiker. 

 
No summary can do justice to the existential punch of 'Two-Lane Blacktop'. 

With its gorgeous widescreen compositions by Jack Deerson and sophisticated look at American male obsession, this stripped-down narrative from the then-maverick Hellman is one of the artistic high points of 1970s cinema, and possibly the greatest road film ever made. 

 
However, 'Two-Lane Blacktop' is far more introspective, quiet and expectations-defying than its ilk. No cool rock soundtrack. No existential dialogue. No archetypal characters. 

 
And while its ending is as emotionally violent as Dennis Hopper's 'Easy Rider', it's far more challenging and incendiary. 

 
Over time, 'Two-Lane Blacktop' would go on to achieve cult status before being canonized as one of the benchmark works of the New Hollywood movement. 

 
According to English journalist, film critic, and fiction writer Kim Newman, he says: "A depiction of a country in a profound state of bad faith, the film has a lot of on-the-road detail [...] but presents a central set of relationships between uncommunicative folks who are as stuck in their cars and on their courses as toys on a boy's racing game." 

 
In 2012, the Library of Congress selected 'Two-Lane Blacktop' for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." 

 
Hellman is also known for participating in later cult film favorites. 

Most notably, he is best known for serving as co-executive producer on Quentin Tarantino's 1992 American independent crime film 'Reservoir Dogs'. It was Hellman's past work that had been a major influence for Tarantino. 

 
Hellman has been active from 1959–present. 

 
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July 12 - Tod Browning

Happy Birthday, Tod Browning! Born today in 1880 as Charles Albert Browning Jr., this American carnival/sideshow worker, vaudevillian, film actor, screenwriter and film director's career had spanned the silent film and sound film eras. 

 
Browning was born the nephew of American professional baseball center fielder and left fielder Louis Rogers "Pete" Browning (nicknamed "Gladiator" and "The Louisville Slugger").  

 
He had played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1882 to 1894, and played primarily for the Louisville Eclipse/Colonels. Browning later became one of the sport's most accomplished batters of the 1880s 

 
As a young boy, Charles had put on amateur plays in his backyard. He was fascinated by the circus and carnival life, and at the age of sixteen he ran away from his well-to-do family to become a performer. 

 
Changing his name to "Tod", he traveled extensively with sideshows, carnivals, and circuses. His jobs included working as a talker for the Wild Man of Borneo, performing a live burial act in which he was billed as "The Living Corpse".

He also performed as a clown with the Ringling Bros. Circus. Browning eventually drew on this experience as inspiration for some of his film work. 

 
He performed in vaudeville as an actor, magician's assistant, blackface comedian (in an act called The Lizard and the Coon with comedian Roy C. jones) and dancer.  

 
In the 1912 burlesque revue The Wheel of Mirth, Browning appeared in the Mutt and Jeff sketch with American film actor of the silent era and comedian Charles Murray. 

 
Later, while Browning was working as director of a variety theater in New York City, New York, he met American film director D. W. Griffith, who was also from Louisville, Kentucky where Browning was born. 

 
Browning later began acting with Murray on single-reel nickelodeon comedies for Griffith and the Biograph Company (also known as the American Mutoscooe and Biograph Company). 

 
In 1913, Griffith split from the Biograph Company and moved to California. Browning followed and continued to act in Griffith's films, now for Reliance-Majestic Studios.  

 
This included a stint in appearing as an extra in Griffith's second film of which he is best known. This was the epic 1916 American silent black and white drama film 'Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages'. Browning was credited as Crook. 

 
Around that time, Browning began directing, eventually directing eleven short films for Reliance-Majestic. Between 1913 and 1919. Browning also later appeared as an actor in approximately fifty motion pictures. 

 
Throughout his career, Browning had created a handful of monster movies of what are now considered today to be horror classics. He directed these as well as other features in a wide range of genres between 1915 and 1939. 

 
Among his credits of the 1920s, Browning is best known for co-writing and directing the 1927 American silent black and white horror film 'The Unknown'.  

 
It starred Lon Chaney as carnival knife thrower Alonzo the Armless. It also starred Joan Crawford as the scantily clad carnival girl Nanon Zanzi, of whom Alonzo hopes to marry. 

 
Later that same year, Browning co-produced and directed the 1927 American silent black and white horror mystery film 'London After Midnight'. The film was distributed by MGM, and was based on the scenario "The Hypnotist", also written by Browning. 

 
Again starring Chaney, the last copy of the film known to exist was destroyed in the 1965 MGM vault fire, along with hundreds of other rare early films. 

 
Among his credits of the 1930s, Browning is best known for co-producing and co-directing the 1931 American pre-Code black and white supernatural horror film 'Dracula'. 

 
Starring Bela Lugosi in his most memorable film role, 'Dracula' had been adapted from Irish author Bram Stoker's 1897 Gothic horror fiction novel of the same name. 

 
Also among his credits of the 1930s, Browning is best known for directing the 1932 American pre-Code black and white horror/drama film 'Freaks'. 

 
In retrospect, numerous film critics have suggested that the film presents a starkly sympathetic portrait of its sideshow characters rather than an exploitative one. American film critic Andrew Sarris declared 'Freaks' one of the "most compassionate" films ever made. 

 
Nonetheless, other critics have continued to take note of the film's horror elements; in 2009, American film critic, journalist, and former screenwriter Joe Morgenstern proclaimed that 'Freaks' contains some of the most terrifying scenes in film history.  

 
Film scholars have interpreted the film as a metaphor for class conflict, reflecting the Great Depression, and it has been studied for its portrayal of people with disabilities, with theorists arguing that it presents an anti-eugenics message.  

 
In 1994, 'Freaks' was selected for preservation by the United States National Film Registry, which preserves films that are "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". 

 
In 2000, 'Dracula' was selected by the United States Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". 

 
In 2002, Turner Classic Movies aired a reconstructed version of 'London After Midnight', produced by American film preservationist and silent film scholar, and a producer-director Rick Schmidlin. He had used the original script and film stills to recreate the film's original plot.

In 2005 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Quotes, the line "Listen to them. Children of the night. What music they make." ranked in at #83.

 
Browning had been active from 1913–1939. 

 
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