Watch the Landlord Get His

THE LANDLORD
(Hal Ashby, US, 1970, 35mm, 114 mins.)

There's no worse career move in Hollywood than dying. Hal Ashby is
now largely forgotten because he had the misfortune to die at the end
of the '80s, but he had the most remarkable run of any '70s director.
-- Peter Biskind, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls (1998)

*****

Few things are sadder than the director who makes one good film before pas-
sing away (see Bill Sherwood, Parting Glances) or disappearing from view (see
Neal Jimenez, The Waterdance). That's to say nothing of one-shot director Char-
les Laughton (The Night of the Hunter). More commonly, there's the director who
makes one good film—and a bunch of bad ones (too many to name). Fortunately,
Hal Ashby (1929-1988) avoided every one of those depressing categories.

Yet his biography is ultimately a bummer. At least that's how Peter Biskind spins
it in the irresistibly dishy Easy Riders, Raging Bulls (David Thomson goes so far as to dismiss him as a "sad casualty"). Not having read much about the man elsewhere,
I found Biskind persuasive regarding the filmmaker's passive-aggressive battles
with producers, problems with women and drugs, and agonizing death from cancer.

But along the way he worked with the biggest stars (Jack Nicholson, Warren Beatty, and Jane Fonda), directed several hits (Shampoo, Coming Home, and Being There)—and one certifiable cult classic (Harold and Maude)—and even garnered a few awards (including an Oscar for editing mentor Norman Jewison's In the Heat of the Night).

The Landlord, which is finally receiving a well deserved theatrical re-release,
was his first film. Being There (1978) was his last really good one. Then he
lost his way. The Internet Movie Database notes four more movies, one con-
cert film, one straight-to-video effort, a tele-film, and an episode of Dennis
Franz's ill-fated Hill Street Blues spin-off, Beverly Hill Buntz—his final credit.

If Ashby's debut got overlooked upon release, it was at least assembled by
the brightest talent around. The film was produced by Jewison, shot by Gordon
Willis (The Godfather) and Michael Chapman (Taxi Driver), and scored by Bob Dylan associate Al Kooper—with an assist from the Staple Singers. The cast includes
Beau Bridges, Susan Anspach, Pearl Bailey, and Academy Award winners Lee Grant (Shampoo) and Louis Gossett, Jr. (An Officer and a Gentleman). As Bridges demurred
to The New York Times earlier this year, "I was just doing my best. I was in there
with some giants." (His brother, Jeff Bridges, presided at Ashby's memorial.)

Though Harold and Maude would secure his reputation the following year—once
it caught on, that is—Ashby's first film proves he was a natural. Without such
storied collaborators, his ability might not be so readily apparent, but it's worth noting that most of them, at the time, weren't as well known as they are now.

Like Harold and Maude, The Landlord manages to be simultaneously dated and timely—and I don't mean that in the pejorative sense. It isn't just a product of
the counterculture, it takes that culture to task, which means Ashby revels in the signs and signifiers of the time (marijuana, miniskirts, etc.). But it isn't an A-list exploitation picture like Easy Rider, and nor is it a morality lesson on race relations like Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (which comes in for some playful ribbing).

The film draws from the two forms, and that may be why it didn't make more
of an impact; it was harder to classify, its audience harder to identify. Of course,
the director and his star were also virtual unknowns. That can't have helped, although Bridges couldn't be better as Elgar Enders, a wealthy New Yorker who
fancies himself hip and open-minded. (And I love that his name sounds uptight
and righteous at the same time, like a blue-blooded spin on Medgar Evers.)

His white-gloved mother, Joyce (Oscar nominee Lee Grant), also thinks she's
got it together. Her uncomfortably close relationship with her son anticipates
the male-female dynamic in Harold and Maude. Not that that was an incestuous
union, but the age gap suggested a mother-son (or grandmother-grandson) re-
lationship. There isn't—thank God—any hanky-panky between Elgar and the still-beautiful Mrs. Enders, but it's clear her clueless coddling has stunted his growth.

At 29, Elgar still lives at home, lazy recipient of his croquet-playing family's
largess. As the movie begins, he's just acquired a Brooklyn tenement with plans
to restore it, and live like a king. The thing is—it's still occupied. And located in
an all-black neighborhood. Elgar doesn't let that stop him. He isn't a racist. He's
just never been around (non-deferential) African Americans before. So, he's scared...and fascinated. His neighbors, on the other hand, are wary and disdainful.

If this was a big-budget production, Elgar and his tenants would learn from each other and live happily ever after (cue "Ebony and Ivory”). The Landlord isn't quite
as naïve as its central character, but nor is it completely cynical. (The script, an adaptation of Kristin Hunter's novel, was written by black actor/director Bill Gunn
of Ganja & Hess fame.) Instead, mistakes are made, feelings get hurt, and some
of the lessons learned are just as quickly un-learned (Elgar's relatives seem to change, but their prejudices are too deeply ingrained). Did I also mention that it's painfully, almost surrealistically funny? If you're familiar with Ashby's early work—particularly the profanity-laced The Last Detail—this should come as little surprise.

By the end, Elgar has knocked up one tenant and fallen for a local light-skinned lovely. Nowadays, that wouldn't seem so strange. Even in 1970, "shocking" might've been a bit much, but it probably did seem subversive, since Elgar sleeps with Diana Sands' married hairdresser (Gossett Jr. plays her militant husband), while seeing Marki Bey's dancer/art student. These encounters are complicated by class and gender as both women lack Elgar's range of options. I'm not sure I buy the ending—which means to please all three—but I like the cautious optimism it represents.

According to Biskind, Ashby and Jewison fell out over that ending (Jewison
was set to direct the picture until Fiddler on the Roof came along). This is fitting, somehow. Elgar finally breaks from his bourgeois background, while Ashby finally frees himself from his spiritual paterfamilias (Ashby's real-life father, an uncom-
promising farmer, committed suicide when he was 12; he discovered the body).

It's tempting to describe The Landlord as great, especially since it hasn't been seen on the big screen in years, and Ashby is one of those rare directors who occupies the sweet spot between cult figure and award-winning auteur. In truth, it's closer to really good—Elgar's asides to the audience are largely extraneous and the cutting can be distractingly busy (Ashby did, after all, edit Jewison's split-screen caper The Thomas Crown Affair)—but "really good" is no small feat for a first film. Plus, Judith Crist and Gene Shalit denounced it as one of the year's worst! How's that for incentive?

Ignore those cranks. The Landlord belongs on the list with 2007's other essential long-lost debuts, like Killer of Sheep and Permanent Vacation, which also captures a time when anyone could afford to live in the now-hot neighborhoods of Park Slope and SoHo. And don't wait for the DVD—enjoy the artistry of Ashby, Willis, Chapman, Kooper, and cast (including Robert Klein, Mel Stewart, and Hector Elizondo)—on the big screen. And weep for the ongoing gentrification of the greatest city in the world.

It's kind of an imperfect film because it was Hal's first, and he kind of
honed his craft as he went along, but I'd like people to know about it.
-- Beau Bridges

*****

The Landlord plays the Northwest Film Forum from 11/23 - 29, Fri. - Thurs.
at 7 and 9:15pm (plus Sat. and Sun. at 4:30pm). The NWFF is located at
1515 12th Avenue on Capitol Hill between Pike and Pine. For more inform-
ation, please click here or call 206-329-2629. Images from the Internet Mo-
vie Poster Awards Gallery, The Passionate Moviegoer, and Senses of Cinema.