JackFavell
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Posts posted by JackFavell
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OK. Get ready to ramble.....
*M and the Third Man*
I just recently rewatched *M* and discovered that, at least to me, there were many connections between it and *The Third Man*. Many people compare *Citizen Kane* and TTM, but I think a case could be made that M and TTM are closer cinematically.
*SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT*
First of all, they have in common a lead character who is a reprehensible criminal. Throughout each movie, our feelings about these criminals change. In The Third Man, we go from thinking *Harry Lime* is just a sort of kindly black marketeer, to realizing that he considers his victims less than human. He becomes a monster before our eyes. As M starts, we see *Hans Beckart* as a monster, but by the end we have begun to see that he is a victim, and almost sympathetic (thanks to an incredibly strong performance by *Peter Lorre* ).
In M, there are significant, long sections of the film in which there is total silence.Then the silence is suddenly punctuated by sounds, eerily coming out of the dark, or off screen, or even rising over a totally black screen. These noises consist of crowd noises, children playing, agitated talking, singing, whistles, bells and tapping. In TTM, there are significant, long sections in which the zither music is playing, sequences of Holly running down a street, or scrambling over rocks or down stairs. When the music stops, we hear an amazing series of sounds - of footsteps echoing, crowd noises, children's voices, agitated talking, tapping, gun shots, and dripping water. The sounds eerily come out of the dark, sometimes coming from different directions, we don't know where they are coming from....Both movies are quite amazing in their use of sound.
Both movies have a balloon, and a balloon man. Both balloons hold our attention uncomfortably, stealing the scenes they are in from the actors.... In M, the balloon floats crazily in the phone wires in the Elsie Beckmann scene. It is a horrible image, making us think of a body jerking in the throes of death. At the end of the film, the same balloon flies up above and behind Peter Lorre's frightened face, taking our attention, and reminding us that he is always being followed, shadowed by his crime.
The balloon (and balloon man) in The Third Man literally fills the frame, obscuring our view, just as it possibly ruins the stake-out for Calloway, blocking his view of Lime....It isn't quite as uncomfortable an image as in M, but it is distracting. For some time, I have thought that it was meant to be a kind of red herring, making the audience think, "Is that Harry in disguise? Is he making his getaway?"
Both films have a double chase setup, a desperate search that turns awry. Both also deal with mistaken identity - the mob at the beginning of M mistakenly accuses one then another innocent (or not so innocent) person of being the murderer; whereas in TTM, the dead body is a double - the never seen and unfortunate Harbin, mistakenly assumed to be Harry.
Both movies have many other things in common - the use of flashlights directed at the camera, wet city streets, stairs, doorways, verticals.... an expressionistic use of lighting. But the movies differ from each other as well. M uses the theme of concentric circles and clock imagery to make it's main points. TTM uses crumbling ruins, odd craggy unnatural faces, the idea of falling, and theatrical imagery to make it's main points. But they feel the same, and the underlying ideas are so similar. I don't know if *Carol Reed* ever saw the *Fritz Lang* movie. I can imagine Reed seeing M, then years later making TTM, never even realizing that the other movie might have been buried in his subconscious. I also think it's possible that Reed may never have seen M. It may have been his favorite film. It's taken me years of watching both movies to realize how connected they are, at least in my mind.....
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Le Chevalier Laffite, who is never wrong...
Yes, that's true!
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Let me know how it is when you get a chance to watch it. I have been dying to see it!
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Laffite- you are so kind, and a true knight in shining armor!
I may post on the "Rambles" thread, if you think it wouldn't be too lengthy.
Thank you again, Mon ami.
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Laffite- That really made me laugh!
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You have Downstairs?
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I like the color of Marion Davies' eyes- she always had that light quality, even in black and white pictures.
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I had them both on my list at one time, but they kept getting bumped. I don't know, Eugene Palette is awfully good in Robin Hood as well, and as for Mischa... well, Destry Rides Again comes to mind....
Oh, golly I love these guys! I like the fact that we can watch and appreciate their performances and know who they are even now, years and years later. I feel like a torchbearer or something, keeping these folks alive by remembering....now I'm just getting sappy...
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Bronxie - Belgian Waffle sounds deliciou...uh....I mean beautiful! It will cast a nice warm glow over everything.
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I was actually screaming at the TV, and my husband just happened to be there. I would have screamed even if he hadn't been there....
You would definitely recognize Pat Flaherty's voice... He talks like.... well.... like a big mug. His most noticeable performance is in My Man Godfrey- he is the other forgotten man in the ash pit at the beginning. In fact, he has the first line in the movie... "Hello, Duke."
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I have always heard that she was very religious, but man, she got around.....
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Now you made me realize I forgot Monty Woolley, too....
I was watching Pat and Mike (a movie I've seen about eighty times) the other day, and suddenly there was this big close-up of Pat Flaherty!!!! I screamed at my husband, "IT'S PAT FLAHERTY!!!!" and he looked at me like I was crazy (which I am). It's just that I never noticed that he was in this movie. He was the golf commentator down on the course. He got his one line and then disappeared again, as usual. I'm beginning to think he is actually in EVERY movie ever made.....
I mean, just look at the big mug.... I just want to squeeze him hard and pinch his cheeks!
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I watched most of Man's Castle, and thought it was quite interesting. I really should go back and watch it again before I say anything. Although I enjoyed the performances and the movie, I couldn't quite get my head around the Loretta Young - Spencer Tracy combination. I thought they were an odd couple, which is really strange, because apparently (according to Robert O) they were having an affair and Loretta said later that Spencer was the love of her life. Maybe I couldn't appreciate the movie because Osborne dropped this bombshell right before the movie started and I was still reeling from the shock..... and besides, I thought Clark Gable was the love of her life (?).....
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Ach! I'm ashamed I didn't think of Dr. Jacquith or Belle Watling.....
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Nevertheless...I am still pouting.
Ahhhhh. But you look so cute when you pout, mon cheri ......
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I always liked Wild River, though I think it is flawed. It strikes me as way more relaxed Kazan, so it's funny that you would say that the lack of humor bugs you. Montgomery Clift is also more, I don't know, likeable? in it which is nice for a change.
I didn't get to see much of Tracy Day, but They Gave me a Gun really hit the spot with me. I am a big Gladys George fan, so this may be why I kept coming back to watch bits of this movie all morning. Tracy was splendid and natural I thought. I would love to see the whole thing sometime.
Message was edited by: JackFavell
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It's worth trying to catch, possibly next time TCM shows it. As good as it is, it's never been on home video as far as I know. No DVD, no laserdisc, not even VHS. Zip. And Claude Rains is quite good in it, also.
It's a shame that this movie is not available. It looks so interesting and immediately caught my eye on my IMDB search of Fay Bainter.
My runner- up list of favorite character actors and actresses:
11. Henry Daniell - Camille/The Great Dictator
12. George Voskovec/Joseph Sweeney- Twelve Angry Men
13. Harry Davenport - Meet Me In St. Louis
14.James Gleason - Here Comes Mr. Jordan
15. Hugh Griffith - How to Steal a Million/ A Run for Your Money
16. Edmund Gwenn - Miracle on 34th Street/The Trouble with Harry
17.Cecil Kellaway - Harvey
18.George Tobias - for having my maiden name.
19. Charles Lane - for being the first character actor I knew.
20. Jack Gilford for being able to imitate pea soup coming to a boil.
21. Elsa Lanchester - Witness for the Prosecution
22. Marion Lorne - Strangers on a Train
23. Gladys George - The Roaring Twenties
24.Aline MacMahon -
25. Florence Bates - Saratoga Trunk
26. Joan Blondell - Desk Set
27. Margaret Hamilton - The Wizard of Oz
28.Josephine Hull/ Jean Adair Arsenic and Old Lace
29.Virginia Weidler - The Philadelphia Story
30. Mary Wickes- The Man Who Came to Dinner/ Now, Voyager
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Is the movie *The Prisoner of Shark Island*?
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That choked me up, MissG. especially the beautiful portrait of "The Araner".
*The Ship*
I am standing upon the seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails in the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength and I stand and watch until at last she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come down to mingle with each other.
Then someone at my side says, "There she goes!" Gone where? Gone from my sight... that is all. She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side and just as able to bear her load of living freight to the place of destination. Her diminished size is in me, not in her. And just at the moment when someone at my side says, "There she goes!" there are other eyes watching her coming and other voices ready to take up the glad shout, "There she comes!"
Henry Jackson Van Dyke (1852-1933)
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mdffyx- You picked some of my favorite pics from that book! I have always LOVED that picture of Olive Borden especially, and the Lars Hanson one is another big favorite. I can't believe how good they look on the computer. When I have tried to scan pics, they too look "dotty". So I am relieved that there is a way to minimize it.
Jeff- Those look great, and especially the Janet Gaynor! I am amazed at what you can do in that short amount of time. I can't remember Gaynor's eye color from A Star is Born" either.... I love that movie too, so it just goes to show you how obsewrvant we really are.
I am tempted to say they are blue.... just a guess
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I really love your description of Spring Byington! You are right about her performance in Little Women. Because it is such a different role for her, until recently, I had forgotten that it was she who played Marmee!
I feel the same way about Fay Bainter lately. I knew her as Andy Hardy's mom, or from State Fair and Jezebel, which is pretty much the same thing. But then I saw her in two movies in which she played very different characters, and I realized that this patient, kindly "mom" was a really good actress.
The first is Quality Street. Her character, Susan, is a shy, quiet old maid, and she is perfect back up for Hepburn's saucy portrayal of Phoebe Throssel. Bainter has a scene in which she tells of her own true love, whom she was to marry, but fate intervened. Bainter was so touching, and played the scene beautifully, making Hepburn completely disappear for a few minutes.
The other movie was "The Shining Hour" and Bainter was the sick and twisted sister of Melvyn Douglas! She must have relished the role, in which she had to go up against Joan Crawford. She was just great in a role that you would normally not think of her in.
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Here are a couple of caps- I can send more later today, but for now I have to go...
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there's a lovely spread of photos from Peter Pan in one of my books - one always catches my eye. She is kneeling in front of Peter, sewing his shadow on to his toe.... I will try to scan it tonight....
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Felix Bressart is so wonderful in everything. He is right up there at the top of my favorites.
I think Gene Lockhart deserves closer attention. Of course, I always think of him as the quintessential Bob Cratchit... the nice, weak but good-hearted soul slaving away at his job, never saying anything bad about anyone. But then you watch him in something like His Girl Friday, and you see the same man, giving a very realistic performance as the officious, corrupt and spineless Sheriff Peter B. Hartwell. It makes me think that he probably could have played anything well.....
Here he is again, playing a COMPLETELY different type.....
*Algiers* with Alan Hale, Joseph Calleia, Charles Boyer, Gene Lockhart and Stanley Fields.
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And now I'm off to bed. I'm plum tuckered out.