The classic movies Ron Howard cherishes most of all: “It’s significance has grown tremendously”
Hollywood is a place that is seemingly always moving forward. Whether it be with studio techniques of making movies or how to give audiences the best viewing experience, the town appears to be thrusting itself toward tomorrow as soon as today begins. But that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t also respect the foundational stones from which the industry can launch itself into the future. Making movies is a lifelong commitment and it means some have enjoyed lives entirely shadowed by the Hollywood Hills – Ron Howard is a shining example.
Starting out as a child star in the Andy Griffith Show, Howard would catch the attention of casting directors looking for America’s boy next door. He was polite, charming, and had an endearingly cheeky demeanour that would gain the young actor a role in The Waltons before finding worldwide fame as Richie Cunningham, the central figure of the hit show Happy Days. The show simply wouldn’t have achieved its huge popularity without Howard’s professional performance.
From there, Howard would begin to look beyond the spotlights on set and start to move his way itno the darkness of the studio. He was no longer interested in being front and centre on the show but wanted to sit in the big chair and direct pictures. It’s a transition that few actors pull off as seamlessly as Howard has, gaining huge acclaim for movies like Apollo 13, Frost Nixon and Cinderella Man, among a host of other movies.
With not only a career but almost an entire life spent entrenched i thebusiness, Howard’s word holds more weight than many up-and-coming filmmakers. With a foot in both the classic and the modern modes of moviemaking, Howard is able to give a holistic vision of what makes a film worth watching. So, when he sat down to pick out some of his favourite classic movies for TCM, he provided a list worth noting down.
First and foremost on his list was an homage to his on-screen father Andy Griffith, as he selected his movie, A Face in the Crowd, a 1957 satire directed by Elia Kazan: “It’s significance has grown tremendously over the decades, both as a distinct piece of cinema and an increasingly relevant social commentary,” Howard notes. “Most personal to me is Andy Griffith’s performance as the central figure, Lonesome Rhodes, an easygoing folk singer who’s transformed by a media producer into a populist figure who’s changing the face of politics.”
There were also nods for Diana Ross’ marvellous portrayal of Billie Holiday in the astounding Lady Sings the Blues, and the charming comedic brilliance of Goldie Hawn in Private Benjamin. But it’s clear Howard’s real attraction was to the more legendary entries.
Another classic, and one which informed his own hit, Cinderella Man, was the 1949 Kirk Douglas movie Champion, about which Howard shared: “Douglas trained and did all his own boxing, despite the fact that apparently he had only recently had some cosmetic surgery done on his nose, and any missed punch landing for real on his face would have been a huge problem,” Howard said.
Howard also noted how the movie was made on a shoestring budget and could have easily been made by the indie movie market today: “Mark Robson helmed this movie, produced by Stanley Kramer, and written by Carl Foreman, all heavyweights in their own right. But it’s interesting to learn that the movie was financed independently and filmed in just 24 shooting days, which is similar to the schedule of most low-budget American indie movies today.”
He finished off his selection with a top of the hat to one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, John Huston. Howard shares: “Historians credit the great director John Huston with actually inventing the Hollywood genre film noir with his adaptation of Dashiell Hammett’s great Sam Spade detective novel. But get this, it was Houston’s first movie as a director,” the director beams while talking about The Maltese Falcon starring the unstoppable Humphrey Bogart.
For Howard, the fact that this was not Huston’s first vocation of choice is astounding: “John’s dad, Walter, was a famous Hollywood character actor, but his nepo-baby son John wasn’t interested in acting at that time. He first worked writing for magazines and the theatre and then eventually drifted into his dad’s racket and began writing and selling screenplays in Hollywood. Those successes led to this directing opportunity.”
The five movies listed by the director are constant reminders that while Hollywood is always moving forward it also has some of the richest archives of any industry. One need only look at Ron Howard himself to know that sometimes, things from yesterday can have a huge impact on tomorrow.
