Swithin
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Posts posted by Swithin
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But what about that great Canadian contribution to the horror genre -- "Strange Paradise." Do you know it?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strange_Paradise
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PrincessA, I like your comments about the sceptic in horror films. It's sort of one of the regular roles, almost like a commedia dell'Arte character. I agree that Dana Andrews is a great example. By the way, one of my favorite horror film scenes is from that film -- it's during the seance, when the great British actress Athene Seyler, playing the villain's mother, sings "Cherry Ripe." Dame Athene, a great classical stage actress who lived to 101, famously played Dame Bea in the hilarious film Make Mine Mink.
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Speaking of Canada, which everyone seems to do on this board more than anyone in real life does, I wonder if anyone remembers the Canadian television series *"Strange Paradise."* I was hooked on it many years ago. I particularly liked Cosette Lee as Raxl. Much preferred this series to "Dark Shadows," which I couldn't get into. Some of the episodes seem to be on YouTube, though I haven't fully explored them yet.
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Princess, I'm intrigued by your question about the worst horror film, because I feel standards of measurement and sensibilities are different for horror films. A really, truly bad horror film can be a thing of beauty and a joy forever! So, to answer your question, I would say that stodginess and being boring are qualities that are bad in a horror film. I find a few of the films based on Stephen King novels stodgy and boring (not Carrie ).
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*Conquest of the South Pole* ?
(Well, it makes sense if you think Conquest is a lousy movie).
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Forgive this off-topic note: Christopher Walken's parents had a bakery in Astoria, Queens, NY. They had the best almond croissants! It was called, appropriately, Walken's Bakery.
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Yes, that's quite right, and many of the stars who were major character actors in films were leading men and women on stage, in an earlier era, often in the classics.
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I understand your point. I guess I have a very special respect for the classic character actors, who made the films great. Sometimes I think I think there are alot of people on this board who are a little over the top in the star*#*&^ing vein.
I guess I thought that any of the actors in your thread could be referred to in a sentence as: "that classic character actor.... " and everyone would know what that meant. If I said "that classic character actor Noel Coward...", it wouldn't quite make sense, despite The Master's few character roles.
But anyway, it's a great thread.
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Yes, that's it, Silverwolf! My favorite film about the scientist who wants to live forever (Nils Asther). He has to kill to do it, but the film does sort of have a bittersweet quality, and as he ages at the end, Helen Walker's response is quite touching. (I wish TCM would show it).
Your thread...
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No, far from trying to start an argument, I'm trying to say that, for me, the character actors in the classic films are what make the films great -- they are a special breed, as opposed to the leading stars who might occasionally play supporting (or character) roles. I love your thread which I see as a labor of love to those character actors, but I think it becomes ever so slightly less perfect when you put people in who may be truly great and have contributed a great deal to the cinema (and other forms), but are not part of that special breed of classic character actor, to give you a few examples, like Pallette, Ritter, and above all Bondi. The great Beulah Bondi was the lead in maybe one movie -- Make Way for Tomorrow. If you were doing a thread about classic stars, would she qualify, because she was in one film as a star?
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Well... Olivier is not the lead in "Brideshead Revisited," nor is Gielgud in that, nor in Arthur, but still, I wouldn't classify them as "classic character actors." A few supporting roles doesn't make one a classic character actor, I don't think.
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Would you really consider *Sir Noel* a character actor? He was almost always the lead, generally in plays/films that he wrote/directed himself. Seems odd to classify "The Master" as a character actor, except in the sense that every actor is a character actor!
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Good guess, but no. The title of the film refers to the guy and his address, where he lived for a VERY long time!
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This is where he lived for a very long time: in the Mayfair neighborhood of London, near Green Park.
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Katina Paxinou, a classically trained Greek actress, deservedly won an Oscar for her performance as Pilar, a Spanish woman, in For Whom the Bell Tolls. It's almost condescending to imply, with hindsight, that it's okay for certain actors to have played certain nationalities and ethnicities, but not others. Today, there is a different sensibility. But I don't think we should apply our current model to the films of the past. If you want to do that, you can go way beyond casting with that sort of argument, thereby reducing the films we love to a pile of rubble.
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Tortilla Flat has the best animal scene ever: the dogs having a religious vision. Frand Morgan is brilliant in his role as Pirate. The casting doesn't bother me. Some actors are good, some merely ok. Similar to Juarez, or For Whom the Bell Tolls, with Ingrid Bergman as a Spaniard.
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The Doughgirls ?
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So sorry to hear that, I remember we mentioned his 90th birthday on this board earlier this year. TCM showed the priceless rarity A Night in Paradise, in April, I think, in which Bey plays Aesop.
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Talk about a hijacked thread! Has anyone answered the question about re-scheduling the two films?
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What a great body of work. I'd love to see all those horrors -- I've seen a few of them, but not in years. And my favorite W.C. Fields movie, The Old Fashioned Way, with the great "Gathering Up the Shells at the Sea Shore" song/scene!
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*Victor Francen* as Grodek in The Mask of Dimitrios gives a truly perfect performance in a brief scene.
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Sorry I made an error. My Witchfinder General DVD was transferred from a PAL VHS videotape I purchased in London (not DVD), in the 1990s. I had it transferred recently when I threw out my PAL videotape player. Redemption was the British company. They had a big line of horror films. It now seems to have been absorbed into a company called Salvation, which no longer seems to carry the film.
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I love the silents and think there are still many available that TCM has not yet shown. How about the 1921 two-part film, *The Indian Tomb* (starring Conrad Veidt), for one, has that been shown? I'm not a big fan of the slapstick silents, though. Regarding the question of who should introduce them, might I suggest no one, i.e. silence.
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Maybe think of it this way -- Pleasance's roles were usually NOT pleasant! And Sutherland's name means from the South (at least from the Vikings standpoint), but he's from Canada. So both gentlemen go AGAINST their surnames.
Great Horror Performances!
in General Discussions
Posted
Sorry, I spend a fair amount of time in the UK (going next week in fact), so UK usage (sceptic for skeptic) sometimes creeps in. But you make an interesting point, as septic also plays a role in certain horror films.