KWTN: The Blue Paper

What’s On At the Tropic?

by Phil Mann

CRAZY HEART has already won two Golden Globes-- Best Actor for Jeff Bridges and Best Song for T-Bone Burnett, and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actor. And we’ve still got Independent Spirit Awards and the Big Kahuna of the Academy Awards to go. No less a critic than Roger Ebert predicts Bridges is a “virtual certainty to win his first Oscar.”

“Bad” Blake (it’s not his real name, but “I was born Bad. My tombstone will have my real name. Until then, I’m going to stay Bad.”) is a toohard- drinking, too-hard-living, too-hard-loving country singer. Jean Craddock (Maggie Gyllenhaal), a woman young enough to be his daughter, with a four-year-old son, is the good woman who wants to give the lie to that Badness. She’s also got an Oscar nomination.

It’s not the first time this iconic story has been told. It’s a country song rolled up in a screenplay. But this time it has those ineffable qualities that make for a hit. With an 92% rating on RottenTomatoes.com and an 83% rating on Metacritic. com, “it’s a mesmerizer,” says Rolling Stone. Come for the acting. Stay for the music.

What’s On At the Tropic?

by Phil Mann

For its first five years (2004-2009) the Tropic was a secret spot for local film fans. Behind a little façade blossomed almost 9,000 square feet of viewing pleasure. But I would sometimes hear tourists murmuring, “What’s that, a porn house?” Now, with the addition of a new theater and a doubling of the frontage, the secret is out. Passersby on the 400 block of Eaton Street now see a phalanx of poster boxes for seven first class films, boldly announcing that this is a place demanding your attention.

That’s especially true this weekend, when they dedicate the new Peggy Dow Theater with a celebration and a Peggy Dow Film Festival. Peggy Dow was on contract at Universal Studios from 1949 to 1951.

Her career started when she appeared in the long-forgotten noir thriller Undertow -- along with a bit player then named Roc Hudson. She would later go out with Hudson (“the perfect date,” she acknowledges), star in movies with Dick Powell, Arthur Kennedy and James Stewart, and take over the cover of Life magazine. All within two years. She then left Hollywood, married Tulsa oilman Walter Helmerich, raise five sons, and barely looked back. She wasn’t a mere star, she was a blazing meteor.