Swithin
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Posts
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Posts posted by Swithin
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Ball of Fire
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I think Margaret Wycherly's greatest role is as Mother York in Sergeant York. Also love her as Mrs. Deventer in Random Harvest.
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Cecil Cunningham has a great bit part in Love Me Tonight, as the laundress who sings part of the song, "The Son of a Gun Is Nothing But a Tailor."
She comes in at around 1:56 in this clip:
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I worked with her once, I guess nearly ten years ago. She lived -- perhaps still lives -- part of the year in NYC, up on the Upper West Side. Very sweet person, though not a kid anymore!
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Or as Chico Marx said in one movie or other, "Hair today, gone tomorrow!"
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I love The Naked Jungle ("Madame...PLAY!!!). But you should really see Caged, the best of all women's prison movies.
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Ditto. Despite all the usual hype about those other ladies who were nominated for the 1950 Oscar (Davis, Swanson), Eleanor Parker should have won for Caged. One of the great performances of all time.
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I guess the issue is how close do we stick to the precise issue as presented in the OP. For me, Marlon Brando in The Godfather would fit. I never much cared for his acting early on but thought his Don Corleone really worked. Donat, who has been mentioned by me and others ALWAYS gave a great performance, but in his last, he gave a great performance in a different kind of role.
If we extend the topic to directors (and why shouldn't we, I don't hold with the tyranny of sticking precisely to the OP), John Huston would be my pick. I'm not a great fan of The Maltese Falcon or some of Huston's highly touted work; but I think his last film, The Dead, is simply of the greatest movies ever made, and a film that is also an end-of-career triumph.
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There was no problem with it in those days, it was just called acting. I agree with you, Donat's final performance is a masterpiece. Another late performance -- although she lived many years more -- was Irene Dunne in I Remember Mama. It was one of her last films, and she was brilliant.
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It wasn't the actress (Kent) -- it's the role. I love Rattigan but don't think he portrays women too well. I think his most successful woman is Hester Collyer in The Deep Blue Sea, but Rattigan really intended that to be a male character!
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I'm still wondering whether they really did what they appeared to do to that giant turtle in Cannibal Holocaust (1980). That was probably one of the few times I shrieked in horror in a movie theater.
I've just been thinking of one of the best Hollywood films, The Day of the Locust (1975), a great film that doesn't get the respect it deserves. I've got the DVD, but has it been on TCM?
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Of course, I prefer Phil Ochs' song, "The Hills of West Virginia":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cEpg5HUzo8
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Yes, there's alot of good stuff in September, some of it quite unusual. And John Garfield more than compensates for Kazan and Menjou (not that anyone's politics gets in the way of our enjoying their films, of course!)
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Donat would have been great in The Browning Version, I think! I saw the film for the first time a few months ago, on TCM. The wife -- Jean Kent -- was a bit over the top, too totally nasty. Although I like Leslie Howard, I think of him more as second to the great Ronald Colman, rather than to Donat, whose roles/style seem a bit different to me.
Btw, I knew the actor Barnard Hughes. He told me that, in 1936, he saw two productions of Hamlet on Broadway on the same day! One with John Gielgud and Lillian Gish (Judith Anderson as Gertrude); the other with Leslie Howard. Barney said they were both good, but he preferred Gielgud's. But can you imagine, having two major productions of the same Shakespeare play on Broadway at the same time! I guess those were the days.
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Pretty good stuff in September. Although if I was in the mood to get into a political discussion, I would raise an eyebrow at celebrating both Elia Kazan and Adolphe Menjou in the same month! (Why not throw in Robert Taylor, too?)
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Quite right, Jake. There is only one heaven, and sadly, it's not anywhere on earth!
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Coney Island
My Gal Sal -- great Ferris Wheel scene at end
and don't forget
Night Tide, most mysterious of all.
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I spent a week in Romania some years ago, for work. I was a guest of the Romanian government. It's a beautiful country as West Virginia is a beautiful state. And it shares other similarities with West Virginia as well, which are not so beautiful.
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*Victor Spinetti* has died aged 82. The Welsh-born actor with an Italian father and Welsh mother was born in Abergavenny, Wales. He won a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for his performance in Oh What a Lovely War and appeared in several Beatles films, starting with A Hard Day's Night.
I knew Victor pretty well, through mutual friends in London, and later presented him in his one-man show in New York. He was a kind, sweet man. I had dinner with his mother once -- Lily, a lively, wise Welsh lady. Victor grew up in a Welsh mining community with one of my friends and grew to achieve great success on stage and on film. His partner, the actor Graham Curnow ( Horrors of the Black Museum ) died several years ago. I know how much Victor missed him.
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Skimpole,
I so agree with you about Q’orianka Kilcher, who should have been nominated and should have won for The New World. An exquisite performance in a stunning movie.
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Yes -- your thread, Finance.
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The convention of blackface was for a long time just that: a theatrical convention, like the white-face of Kabuki; or the mask of the ancient Greeks and other cultures. There were many unfortunate aspects to it, but it was an accepted convention of the times, even African Americans appeared in blackface. It may have been more analgous to the offensive Irish characters portrayed in England (where blackface began). There are many excellent books about that complex tradition.
But I agree that it is offensive. I can't watch Fred Astaire as Bojangles of Harlem in Swing Time without wincing!
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Andy, you're way OTT. There have been plenty of offensive portrayals of Fagin and Shylock, all in the name of art.
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I love Blow Up. It was shot in my favorite park in London -- Holland Park. But The Damned was directed by Visconti. There are so many great Visconti films, one could have been chosen to replace The Damned, instead of the Antonioni.
Favorite film soundtracks or film songs
in Your Favorites
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So nice to hear you mention *The Egyptian*, my favorite epic of all time! The soundtrack is great, actually it was composed by both Alfred Newman and Bernard Herrmann. I've been looking for the film on DVD, I thought it had been re-released but can't confirm that.