CineMaven
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Posts posted by CineMaven
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I will ma'am. I will. Thank you.
I will say this for right now, the movie took me on a wild roller coaster ride. I didn't know WHERE
it was leading me and with most movies I usually know where I'm going...or where it's taking me.
Van Heflin...he's a wonder!!!
- Janie Maven.
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"... getting some unreliable slave to do his dirty work." - < ( Clore ) >
Good help IS hard to find. And then there's the immigration thing. Besides, when Dracula lost Renfield, well...they broke the mold!
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Helpless or hopeless? She survived...barely and endangered her unborn child. I've got
to get my notes together, and then explain how I saw the film. I'm glad I did see it, (thank
you fairy godmother), b'cuz anything YOU guys are talking about is worth me seeing and
discussing. Sorry to be so --Johnny-- -Janie-Come-Lately.
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"Somehow a little delay does the trick." - Susan in "The Prowler."
Does it? Does it now. This film is easily one of the most unsettling motion pictures I have ever seen; and Evelyn Keyes' character, one of the most masochistic.
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"...I must stay that Maven has great taste in character actors!"- < ( Bronxgirl ) >
Thank you. And I'm generous too. I shall share my Sammykins with you gals, even though the Ben Johnson club is a little possessive with him and will scratch your eyes out if you come near him.
Re: the uniform...doesn't he look commanding??? :x
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"...but everyone who enjoys and looks forward to your inimitably passionate, descriptive, funny, bristling, lively writing."
Pardon me, are you talking about me? Me? Well, I sit here humbled that you would say that. Thank you. If I am Nancy, then YOU are Dorothy Parker. Your rapier wit cannot be touched.
(What the hell, let's just keep this mutual admiration society going, shall we?)
I loved the creepy Miss Branding. She was a genius in low pumps and an odd little hairstyle.
I'll have to imdb Louise Lewis to see what else she's done. Rosanno Brazzi? I'm quite sure Rosanno Brazzi & Marcello Mastroianni would have passed by poor Miss Branding with out
so much as a 'pinch.'
I think she was just misunderstood...until the last five minutes of the movie. I'm so glad you enjoyed my warped view of this warped movie.
Edited by: CineMaven on Oct 2, 2010 10:08 PM - I think the security guard could use a few more lessons in his Stanywck mimicry. He sort of...kind of sounded like Missy. But then again, I've been drinking tonite!
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Ha! A real cinephile with "RED RIVER" as your white noise. Oh, I was blown away that you had that pix from "Contempt." A friend gave me a 45rpm of Georges Delerue's music from the film about a hundred years ago.
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Ernest Truex............... "His Girl Friday."
Also a fantastic episode of "The Twilight Zone." (Kick the Can).
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:-) "Oh thank you loads for saying that Miss Maven! It made me wonder what background music would be appropriate for certain moments in my life."
:-) "That was a terrific read, Ms Maven."
Well WHAT are you two night owls doing up so late? I've got "Psychomania" (1971) on in the background and my heart is breaking when I see George Sanders in this.
I'm glad you like the write-up, Miss G., Miss Fin...you've got to see "Blood of Dracula." It really
is a hoot!
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Anne Francis.
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Next up...."BLOOD OF DRACULA" - < ( CineMaven ) > - 2/16/2010
?I'm still waiting for BLOOD OF DRACULA.? It's only been seven months! < (Bronxgirl) > - 9/26/2010
Well whatever Bronxie wants, Bronxie gets...finally. You can check out the trailer to whet (or lose) your appetite:
http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi263913753/
?Haven't seen this one in some time. I remember that interesting lady teacher.?-< Bronxgirl >
?BLOOD OF DRACULA?
Sandra Harrison Louise Lewis Dir: Herbert L. Strock.
The trailer for this film promises:
* ( DEATH STALKS THE DARKNESS ):
The film uses the tried and Truffaut ?day for night? shots so it never really is dark. You can see the monster coming from a mile away.
* ( FILLING THE NIGHT WITH BLOOD-FREEZING FEARS ):
It?s summer time. And the girls really only have to wear a light sweater. (Running quickly might have helped).
* ( YOU WILL HAVE NIGHTMARES FOREVER ):
Well...uhmm...that would be true. Very true...
Look into my eyes. LOOK INTO MY EYES!! Good. Now listen, no matter what you read below, no matter what I say...just know this:
I LOVE THIS MOVIE!!!!!
So for your perusal...at your leisure or at your own peril...I give you:
?BLOOD OF DRACULA.?
The opening theme music of this great classic portends good important things to come. It?s a nice complex composition. But the movie s(tinks like a boulder. But what can I say...I love it.
It?s a rain-soaked night, and a man and his (2nd) wife drive his daughter (27-year old teenager Nancy) to the Sherwood School For Girls to give her a second lease on life since her mother?s death six weeks earlier. Backseat driver, Nancy reaches over her father?s shoulder to steer the car off the road. Her Dad hauls off and smacks her right in the chops. Her Mom... step- mom says to Nancy's father:
?Give her another one!?
Whoa! See, here?s a gal who won?t spare the rod to spoil the child.
STEP-MOM: ?You could have killed us all!?
NANCY: ?That?s what I tried to do.?
Then all three of them have a cigarette. A dysfunctional family that puffs together, needs therapy with Dr. Phil together. Director Herbert Strock gets artistically auteurish with his "underneath the steering wheel shot looking up at Dad.? Actually the shot disturbed me ?cuz I wanted to know what I was doing down there looking up at him. Dad?s a widower going for his 2nd chance at love with a ?B? girl with fake pearls and mink coat. Don?t quote me on the mink. I?m not sure what kind of animal had that fur first.
See, it takes a good low budget "B" movies to bring out how people really act. None of this: ?you?re grounded, go to your room? malarkey. A smack in the kisser and then light up a cigarette. Keepin? it real, 1950?s-style.
"Don?t give me that blushing bride routine. You put a ring through Dad?s nose,? says Nancy to her step-mother. Don?t blame Nancy too harshly. She?s grieving. Her dad?s been a widow for six weeks now.
SCHOOLMISTRESS to PARENTS: ?You?re driving all the way home tonight??
NANCY: ?They?ll probably stop at a motel.?
YIKES! Geez, this kid?s got a mouth on her! She needs a good schoolin?!! And another cigarette. You?ve got to admit, it?s pretty frank conversation for 1959.
Nancy is taken to her room by the very kindly school?s headmistress. Nancy also has a serious set of matching luggage to boot that would make Bob Barker proud. Four sorority sisters bust into Nancy?s room and rough house her a little. She?s okay with them taking her cigarettes and rifling through her underwear. But when one of them touches her 8 x 10 glossy of her boyfriend...hair-
pulling ensues.
A flinty old maid house-mother comes in and rushes to judgement in a way that Johnny Cochran would have loved to taken on. She blames the new girl, our nicotine-lovin? Nancy, of making all this commotion in the dorm. The ringleader, a cute, prissy, stuck-up brunette who reminds me of the late Joan Hackett, is the head of this girls school?s secret society: the Birds of Paradise. All the girls share the one and only boy this side of the Rockies, Eddie...who looks like a young Jerry ("Law & Order?) Orbach. He tries to make a little bit of a play for the new kid on the block, but she's not having it:
NANCY: "Fall off that cloud. I?ve got a real boyfriend.?
(That would be the boy in the 8 x 10 glossy picture she was fighting to the death over).
EDDIE: "Wow! What a frosty chick!?
GIRL: "That just leaves more water in the jug for the rest of us.?
(Yup, he?s a jughead alright and there?s slim pickins for the girls at the Sherwood School, but what?s the alternative? Oh wait, I ain?t touchin? that option with a ten-foot pole here).
GIRL #2: ?Any way you pour it, I say you?ve got more jug than water.?
See what I mean.
But enough of this silly teenage girl angst. Let's look at The Big Picture. This movie is about Science. This is about the discrimination of Women?s contribution to science. In most movies of the 50?s, women?s contribution seems to be looking good in a tight sweater and wearing a ponytail. Well we certainly can?t accuse Louise Lewis of that. Louise Lewis plays Miss Branding, Science Rebel. Why next to Madame Curie, Miss Branding is, well...Miss Branding. Women scientists in films are mostly relegated to making coffee and not moving the story forward much. She might pour stuff into test tubes, but she's not chasing beasts from twenty thousand fathoms or twenty millions miles from earth. In ?BLOOD OF DRACULA? I think the professor states her case quite succinctly:
"We live in a world ruled by men for men. They won?t even consider my thesis. They mock me...my work. But they?re convinced that they?re on the right track...they search for power in the wrong place.?
She talks of the effects atomic war will bring if science continues the way men have been running it:
"Monsters. Grotesque mis-shapen frightening fiends. Isotopes and fall out in our lungs and our glands. Distorting natural shape and proportion. No one can calculate the hazards of radiation. Wreckless fools, they search in the wrong place.?
To be honest, I loved her speech better than Peter?s in ?The Glass Wall.? She?s preaching to the converted when she?s talkin? to me. (Oh wait, I don?t know if I would have been allowed to go to this college. This is the 1950?s, there was discrimination...what am I thinking: I...I don?t smoke). Is Miss Branding being a pacifist? Nah, nothing as namby pamby as that. She knows our human nature is violent and she feels she can control that violence:
"I can release a destructive power in a human being that would make the split atom seem like a blessing.?
Now isn?t that better than thinking that Scientists have put a human brain into a mouse?s head. (Ha! And that one wants YOUR vote, Delaware!)
I?ve never heard a female movie scientist talk like that...not even Greer as Madame Curie. And the professor has an apt --disciple-- uhm...pupil in our prissy Little Miss Sorority Queen. She?s a future scientist, with a ponytail. Miss Branding is actually a troll. She?s trolling her students for a human guinea pig to help prove her --cockamamie-- theories. She?s looking for "...a disturbed girl perhaps, but with a will of her own.? Oh well, as long as she has a will of her own. And just how is Miss Branding going to rope someone into her science-y experiments? Well, she has to pick her out of a crowd; a crowd full of girls in her chemistry class. Notice...it?s not a Home Ec class. I think its interesting that the movie shows, when boys are not around, girls can learn anything (chemistry...calculus...or hard subjects). Miss Branding picks Nancy for the class experiment. The chemistry experiment purposely goes awry and our Nancy is burned.
More hair-pulling ensues. (Well...sulfuric acid will do that to a girl).
Oh, our poor misguided lady scientist. What type of lesson is she teaching our over-age teenage girl:
"You needn?t be ashamed of that impulse. For some people, special people, no injury gets bet-ter until the score has been evened...You remember the bible? An eye for an eye??
Nancy's father paid tuition for this?
Miss Branding has blurred and basically obliterated those lines of the teacher/student relationship. But if Miss Branding?s going to mix an eye for an eye theology into her Lesson Plan, then academia is down the tubes. I'm no Scientist, but I guess all?s fair in Love and Science.
Have you ever seen anything good come of an amulet in the movies? I haven't...and this one's no different. Miss Branding?s hypnotizing Nancy with a Carpathian amulet is the beginning of Nancy?s transformation to teenage monster. (Doesn't Paris make amulets? Did Miss Branding get more frequent flyer miles to go to Carpathia?) Nancy's about to do some berry berry bad tings to some stuck up sorority sisters. And taking a drag from her cigarette afterwards will not help.
If you do watch this movie (and I sincerely hope you do) I would urge you to skip over the song and dance number in this movie. Ever since "Rock Around the Clock" came out...all movies tried to garner that teenage market. This song scene is even more painful than Virginia Weidler crying in the closet in ?The Women.? Trust me, that song ("Puppy Love") won?t be on Your Hit Parade. Forewarned is forearmed.
So now we have our first victim who looks like a cross between Elizabeth Taylor and Margaret O?Brien. She?s sent downstairs to pick up some supplies. She hears a noise. She doesn?t pay attention to the ominous music signifying a monster in the midst. She is attacked by some...some Monster in the Midst. The police are baffled but they don?t realize that they?ve figured out the culprit of the crime already. You see, one of the lieutenants has laid out the whole plot for his boss and those kids that drove into the drive-in in the middle of the movie. "A Dracula,? says the young detec-tive.
"Pipe down" (paraphrased) says his boss. Well THAT should cost a coupla more kids their lives. Doesn?t look like a whole lot of kids goes to the Sherwood School anyway. I counted ten girls tops.
The dead sorority sister is forgotten after two weeks b?cuz high school hijinks must go on, right? The girls are having a scavenger hunt and must go out to the old cemetery to dig for...uh boy. The scene takes place with one of my favorite 50?s conventions: those day-for-night shots. I absolutely LOVE seeing those. One of the sorority sisters is attacked by a fiend. We see Nancy's transforma-tion. It?s horrifying. Kind of horrifyingly cheesy (but I told you, I love that stuff). She looks like Eddie Munster?s sister (with a scarf) if Herman and Lily had decided to have a second child. It?s not a good look and in broad day-for-night light Nancy attacks her sorority sister and the boy who sang ?Puppy Love.? Him, I didn?t feel sorry for...that song and dance number was horrible. The bad thing is the boy had a chance to run away. (RUN YOU FOOL!!!) But as usual in this kind of fare, he opted to stand there and scream:
?Get away from me.?
No monster worth his (or her) salt EVER listened to screams. He's a goner.
Nancy?s questioned by the cops. This crack team of detectives has her strapped to a lie detector. One good cough would have loosened those flimsy straps. So while she?s being given the third degree, schoolteacher/scientist Miss Branding is standing right outside the door fondling that darned Carpathian amulet and sending telepathic messages to our young(ish) Nancy. Dang that thing is big and doesn?t go with ANY of the teacher?s outfits. She looks like a Caucasian Flavor Flav with that medallion dangling ?round her neck. The first question...
POLICE: "How old are you, Nancy.?
NANCY: ?Eighteen.?
CINEMAVEN: ?She's lying. She's twenty-seven if she's a day. Book her, Dan-o!!?
I would have read her her Miranda rights, and slapped her butt in jail right then and there for THAT lie. But the cops swallow all of her malarkeyed testimony and release her to Miss Branding.
NANCY: "You?ve got to help me. You?ve got to tell me Miss Branding, who am I? What am I doing? I?m living a nightmare. A horrible urge comes over me. I feel a strength that?s almost frightening. It takes possession of me. I must do something awful but when I try to remember, all I can see is...you! I?ve got to know Miss Branding.?
(And you girls thought PMS-ing was bad). But there?s a perfectly logical scientific answer the Scientist/Teacher proffers:
MISS BRANDING: ?...And when you know the whole truth, when you realize the part that you?ve played in saving mankind from its own destruction, you?ll be proud.?
(Uhmmm..)
NANCY: ?But in the meantime what do I do? What you make me do, I feel it?s wrong.?
MISS BRANDING: ?Wrong. Who?s the judge of that??
You?ve just got to hear Miss Branding?s reading of that line. I fell out.
But I ask you seriously...Does the pursuit of science mean that scientists (male or female) can betray the public?s trust? And what happens when a woman is not alllowed to pursue her professional dreams? Oh Miss Branding, Miss Branding. If only your theories were published, or if you could've found a husband. Slaving over a hot stove of corned beef and carriage would have been a lot better than slaving over some Bunsen burners. Life might have been different. Especially for Nancy.
Nancy?s boyfriend Glenn comes to visit. He?s borrowed his dad?s car, cut two classes and made the three-hundred mile drive in less than six hours. (Would your man travel like that for YOU?) There?s been murder on the grounds, he?s desperate to talk to her and when he gets her in the car he tries to jump her bones. How inconsiderate. When she and Glenn kiss she feels that ol? monster feeling coming on and she runs away from him into Miss Branding?s lab. Again she asks her monster mentor for help:
NANCY: ?You?ve got to set me free.?
MISS BRANDING: ?Free to do what??
NANCY: ?Free to be myself. I just left Glenn, my boyfriend. You tried to stop him from seeing me.?
MISS BRANDING: "I didn?t think that was important."
D'OH!!
Miss Branding is so horrible b?cuz she misuses her position and trust. I'm sure she's broken some thirty or so scientific oaths. She engineered those poor students' deaths. And I think she crosses the line from Scientist to just plain bully. Poor Nancy tries to strike a blow for her own indepen-dence. I actually felt sorry for her. She wasn?t really a bad egg. She just smoked and lied about her age, but she was just a girl who was grieving for her lost mother and her anger and grief was turned against her.
But Miss Branding never watched movies, she stayed cooped up in her lab with test tubes and black rubber gloves...and smock. If she had looked at a movie, she?d have seen what happens to Scientists when their experiments turn against them. Nancy was no different. Hair and scarf pulling ensues. And it doesn't end nicely for either Nancy or Miss Branding.
There?s a lesson in this movie. A woman who is not allowed to reach her full potential, can creat a monster who will scratch your eyes out!!!
COMING IN 2011 - ?THE HYPNOTIC EYE" starring Jacques Bergerac.
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Your comic book collection is staggering, filmlover!!!
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Here's a great shot of a beautiful blonde with a beautiful brunette:
http://www.life.com/image/3234036/in-gallery/49761/tony-curtis-life-and-times
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Oh Sammmmmmy! :x
I do like the pix and the recognition you guys are giving him. I still see him in his quiet scene with Katharine Hepburn in "STAGEDOOR" sad that he's about to lose his daughter to a career in the theatre.
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Miss Goddess, now that you mention it...I just pulled out my autographed picture that TCM sent me. He looks very dashing in the photograph.
Sad.
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Whew!!!! What beautiful looks Tony had!!!! Glad to know he was feted at TCM's recent film
festival and could see all the fans he has. Now what movie star wouldn't want to know that.
Sad to read of his passing.
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I'm so glad you've been seeing him. I want to consciously raise the awareness on my Sammy. I especially like the timbre of his voice. Thanx for clueing me in on his background. Juris prudence's loss is classic movie lovers' gain.
:-)
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Awwww gee Ro-Ro...It was your birthday. May I send my belated birthday wishes to you? Happy Birthday Kiddo.
Older? Maybe. WISER? Definitely!!!
Sincerely...
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I second that, Jackaaaaaaaaay:
Double D'OH!!!
< Spit - Take![/u] >
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Oh don't thank me Would Be Star. I think I was being a little bratty. But I'm so happy you found what you needed. Now smile and wink away...and keep writing those meaningful posts!
C.Maven.
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Not my words - it's from Cat People. and I think you will love Lewton. I won't force you to watch, but I hope you do, right away.... Cat People, then Curse of the Cat People, then The Body Snatcher, then The Leopard Man, then I Walked with a Zombie, then..... Oh wait!
Theresa Harris is in I Walked with a Zombie....
I do love her...but I must defer to my girls Margo and Frances Dee.
Ah, but with this one, when you get to the center, you are right back at the outside of the onion.
Neat trick!
You are right, I guess there were fears underneath - but there was also a woman, one who was calm when almost hit with a knife.....
Seeeeee...Bennett is a noir femme fatale after my own ( cinematic ) heart!
Now I can read Moira's very literate essay.
Frank Grimes writes:
Oh, that's a test I easily pass with you. I like ?The Awful Truth.? So many high points of comedy in that one. And I actually like the ending to the film. Cuckoo for each other.
--You passed.-- I mean YAY!!!
A man would need to have vertigo to deal with you gals! And there's no chance a man could murder any of y'all. You're the attackers! Lots of slaps and kicks and stabs and ropes and pins and scissors and tires and long black gloves and boas and bubbles...Oh Toddy, enough about the foreplay. Let's get down to brass tacks and just answer the question. Do you now or have you ever...had vertigo?! Sheesh, it's like pulling teeth!
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Oh my god! You are brilliant...and you made me laugh so hard.....
Brilliant? Me, Elsa? Then how come I can?t clean up my bedroom? (Wait until you read my take on ?Blood of Dracula? for Bronxie on Friday. I?ll scrub that ?brilliant? label from your memory though I hope it will make you laugh).
This makes me very happy. I always feel like the poor cousin when you guys are writing in depth, beautifully worded and accurate descriptions and analyses. I sometimes feel like I
get buried in words trying to describe what I felt or thought. It never comes out on paper
the way I think it.
Don?t you ever think you are a poor relation! You write wonderfully. I think we all totally get what you are saying.
Gosh, I love what you wrote here - because, especially with this movie, I did feel like my sub-conscious was re-writing the movie, trying to make the pieces fit into something I KNOW, something that made sense. I guess I am just like those Greeks and Romans who tried to understand nature, and so they created the myths to explain it.
Awwwwww go on with you. You can?t fool me. I?ve SEEN the chariots carrying the sun across
the sky. HA! And I have a date with a satyr this Friday. What will I wear, what scarf will I wear?
That is actually what I loved about the movie, what I love about Val Lewton's movies.... that feeling that he is speaking just to your inner soul, and that you have to be a willing partici-
pant in the film to get it. I like that direct link to the subconscious. It's dark. It's friendly.
I like how you described that: ?It?s dark. It?s friendly.? Well, I see I must spend a concerted amount of time with Val?s films as well. By the end of my Lewton-Lang session...I should be
crazy as a bed bug. As a filmmaker, I hope to get the audience involved in the film and have a vested interest in what happens to my characters. I've got to really study films that do that well.
I was trying to say that I didn't look really deep into the film, the psychology of the characters or any of the plot contrivances. That's my flaw, but in this case it worked to my benefit, my not thinking.
Ohhhhhh, I see what you?re saying. Let?s make sure we have the order right. Let?s put the cart before the horse:
(1.) We watch a film.
(2.) We ponder it.
(3.) We write about it.
(4.) We read others' perspectives.
(5.) We comment and respond to their p.o.v.
(6.) We beat up on Frank Grimes.
Let?s make sure we put the squirrels before the nuts, shall we. That?s what good amateur cineastic academicians do. You could beat up on Frank Grimes first but...ack! What's the fun in that?
The psychological aspect certainly isn't hammered into us like Hitch did in ?Spellbound.? Sorry, but that's probably my least favorite Hitch.
Oh I find that film okay. (Don't make me do "StageFright" or "I Confess." Hitch may have had a swell time with Cary or Jimmy, but not with Monty). I have other Hitchcock films that are more my favorites. SLEDGEHAMMER: See this is what happens when one tries to put a visual interpre-tation on something that?s psychological or amorphous as a dream. That?s like Leo DiCaprio?s recent movie ?INCEPTION? tried to film a ?DREAM.? It looked brilliant. I hated it though and wanted to tear my eyes out.
Though I love the look of the film, it's about as subtle as a sledgehammer. I didn't get that "psychology is the be all, end all answer to all problems" feeling that I did in ?Spellbound.?
I hear ya Jackaaaay. Wasn?t the 1940?s a new time for the exploration of psychology. Wasn?t everyone going to see shrinks who hid behind their Van Dyke beards?? Weren?t movies doing the psychological thing ("Dancing in the Dark" "Blood on the Moon? etc?) But I know what you mean about the sledgehammer in Hitch?s hand. Me? I was just adoring Ingrid Bergman and young, handsome, new leading man Gregory Peck. There was a plot? I get bedazzled by the beauty of the leads. NOTE TO SELF - Tall T., do NOT use Salvador Dali paintings in your films.
When I was in Spain this spring, we went to Dali's museum. Breathtaking work, by the way. He totally messed with our head. He had the last laugh, I dare say. Still working on editing that footage for you.
In ?Secret Beyond the Door?, I felt that psychology was just one of the pieces of the puzzle, and maybe was even a red herring in an out and out murder mystery/horror film.
Now you?re the one that's brilliant. Psychology as MacGuffin. I say, whatever gets us through the night.
I'm definitely a want what I cannot have person. Though, you are right, the wonderful feeling of knowing someone else wants and loves you is the payoff for all that wanting.
Naaaaaaaaaaaah! Seems like you have all you want up there in your neck of the woods with the dancer and the remote control-snatcher.
She fell for him because he was like no one else, because he was thrilling, because he cut through the bull to see HER, even if it wasn't all that pretty under the makeup.
Cut through her bull? But WHAT was under her make-up? What did Mark uncover... her fears? U mean her fears. Okay, clearly you're talking about her fears. Celia used Mark to help her uncover her fears about marriage, commitment...and scarves. You see how this can be an onion with so many layers to peel. My eyes are watering.
He was unafraid to cross that cafe and immediately make love to her - no pretense of polite conversation. That's the excitement - finding someone who sees you the way you ARE, ugly inner soul and all, and still finds you attractive, beautiful.
I always thought men had the braver scarier, role in society. Going to war? HA! Piece of cake. I?m talking about them being the ones who still have to walk across that crowded room and come up to you and say: ?Hi, what?s your name? May I buy you a drink.?
Again, what I like about Lewton is exactly that. He is unafraid of the dark - I think Lang is unafraid too. Look at ?Clash By Night.?
Yup, two men unafraid. Hiding behind a movie camera.
I've challenged Grimesy, I've made you laugh...I think my job is done here, people.
Now...Beulah? BEULAH! Beulah, peel me an onion!!!
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A.B.Grimes writes - Talk about what you wish. I hope Miss Gun for Hire, Lively Gal, and Madhat get to talk to you about the film.
Jack Favell writes - Me too!
Well then I?ll just add a couple of thoughts to what you say Jackaaaaaaaay. I enjoyed reading your (much awaited) post. And I know we can?t rush these things. Love the way you write. Really, I feel
I can hear you speaking. And you brought a different way of looking at this film that brought a little more clarity to my addled brain. Not that others didn?t, but just wanted you to know that you did as well. :-)
I am probably the only one here who thinks he really killed her. I have to go back and watch again, but I believe that at that point in the film, when his narrative takes over, she has be-
come a ghost - she is suddenly very compliant and understanding, almost too acquiescent.
WHAT THE ...........??????!!!
The rest of the film is his fantasy now that he has become delusional. This is why he can finally tell her about his anger at women, because she is dead.
See? Now see... Woweeeeeeeeeeeee! You have almost single-handedly changed my mind about this film. What a stunning theory. Ouch! Ooh, what was that? I felt something snap in my head. Aaaah, I just felt a hand smack my forehead from the inside of my skull. Maybe THAT?s why Caroline?s ?confession? sounds so uneventful and banal. It?s funny about the different interpreta-tions everyone had here. Do we all see the film that?s at hand before us, or are we constantly re-writing the movies in our subconscious as it plays out on the screen? What is the real film? (Only
the director knows).
It makes such perfect sense to me when you talk of the narration switching from Celia to Mark. That made me start when I was watching the film, it was a fleeting "hmmmm" but I had to quickly put that aside to see what was happening in the film, plot-wise. Apparently, that...was...a...clue. (Oooh, I'd love to do an episode of "MovieCHAT" with you guys!)
I?m such a goofy Capricorn. As I watch a movie, I must follow the story; I must know WHAT the movie is about. Then if I like the story, if it hasn?t played me for a fool I can watch it again to see it for the direction and the cinematography. But the first pass must be me being able to answer ?what is the plot of this movie.?
You can think it through more carefully than I did, but I really just watched it for enjoyment, and not to find a deeper meaning in the movie.
I think we all watched the movie...watch a movie for enjoyment purposes. The deeper meanings come later, but it?s not the initial purpose. Not mine anyway. I just want to sit, watch and enjoy. If
it makes me think...that?s a bonus. If it makes me write...well, everyone run away. Run away! Head for the heeeels!!
The more a man backs away, the more attractive he suddenly becomes. A woman should never be so sure of her conquest - it makes him less attractive. Is it the same for a man?
Hmmm "...never be so sure of her conquest?? I dunno, Jackaay. I s?pose some people want what they cannot have. I guess some people are attracted to unavailability. Some people don?t want to be a member of a club that would have them as a member. But that seems like a waste of time & energy to me. There?s something so warm and comforting to me about that certainty. It?s like the certainty of knowing that there will be a tomorrow or that CK will race to be the first kid on the block post the sad demise of another Obit on the board (no matter how obscure the personality). I had feelings of safety when I was certain that ?my conquest? loved me in word and deed.
Oh yeah...the rug got pulled out from under my safety and certainty later and I have not since recovered. But that?s another story.
Miss Goddess writes - It's kind of like the idea that some have put forward about ?Vertigo? ...that Scottie died in the beginning, after hanging from that ledge, and everything in the movie were the frantic fantasies of his mind flashing before him.
Don?t get me started. Don?t get me started!! Heretics. Heretics all!
Frank Grimes writes - But it is true, some guys do test girls. I was told of an instance where a guy had his girlfriend watch Monty Python. She didn't like it so he moved on. The logic? He considered his sense of humor to be Python-esque, so if she didn't find that funny, she wouldn't find him to be funny.
Uhmmmm, Frank...how do you feel about, say ?THE AWFUL TRUTH?? No no, this is not (much of) a test.
...And I think she never had that experience before - she had guys lining up around the block for her - no one ever pushed her away before, she did the pushing.
Scarlett O?Hara. Surrounded by men at the barbecue, but heartbroken seeing Ashley and Melanie locked arm in arm.
Nor would she have cared if any of THEM they did push her away.... Once love enters the picture, we get crazy - completely terrified that the person we love might stop loving us.
You?ve made me wonder, does the person pushing us away...let me be specific about it being Celia: does the fact that Mark pushes Celia away MAKE her FALL in love. She was attracted to him, and also attracted to his attraction to her. But when she walked towards him on her (dream-like) wedding day, the fact that she got him now scares her. Awwwwwwww it?s all so confusing love and pain and the whole damned thing. Maybe Mark dreamed up everything and played all
the parts in this crazy whacked out (but beautifully photographed) film.
And we do all become frigid nagging, and annoying. It's a given. But we have our good sides too.
Oh snap...those weren?t the good sides? I must change my tactics. I couldn?t figure out what I was doing wrong. And all along I thought it was my snoring.
I wish I could sit with Lang and pick his Teutonic brain. I guess I must suffice with sitting down alone and quietly watch ALL his films in one fell swoop.
So Frank, are YOU really dreaming up all us gals on the Board? Can I be Caroline? (Girls, I call dibs on Caroline. She looked great in her skirt & blouse).
Are you really Scottie Ferguson?
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UH - OH...batten down the hatches, folks. This may be a bumpy read.
I see dead people.
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Focus on Fritz Lang
in Films and Filmmakers
Posted
"I'm going back to my comedies. Life is simpler there!"
"Easy To Wed" is on this morning... < hint! > ( ;-) ) < hint! >