JackFavell
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Posts posted by JackFavell
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Um... I'll try. I actually was going to write more, but I have trouble putting it into words.
One thing I do agree with is that it would end up in the same place, if she had married Alec instead of Fred. It's not the people's fault, its just life.
Because the story is in the first person, I find myself drawn into the thoughts that Laura is having. The very mundane-ness of her life, and the way she is so obviously a normal person, not a movie star type character, brings me emotionally close to her. She does shopping, she has annoying friends, she has a husband who falls asleep on the couch every night and does the crossword puzzle. The daily routine brings them together, but keeps them worlds apart. At the same time, they are one entity, they act as one with the children, get along, laugh, and joke together. They know everything about each other, and nothing. After meeting Alec, Laura begins to live in her mind.
I think like her, I find her very much on my wavelength, so I can put myself very easily into her shoes, even when the plot goes somewhere my life has not. She has a lot of humor in her, and joy, and love, but the passion behind it has left her life. In fact, I think there is a lot untapped inside her, things that she never knew about herself....the wild emotions she can have, the crazy longings she had never realized might be there.....and it is this that she comes to feel more than anything, because of Alec. Once let loose, she wants to run to the one person who she should share them with....Fred.... but she can't, and never will be able to. This to me is the heartbreaking part, the part that chokes me up most. The never. She can never see or write to Alec, and worse, she can never tell Fred. So she is going to be within herself for a long time. That tears me up. I said before I was solitary, but really it isn't that, it's that I am within myself, thinking, in my own life all the time, whether I am with people or not. To not share some of these thoughts with my loved ones would be like death, and it would be a wedge between us too, keeping us apart.
Fred is kind, sweet, but far from romantic. I think there is something in all women that longs for romance and passion, especially when our significant other is sitting there snoring away, or asking what's for dinner when you told him seven times already. You can't really have both, romance and comfort, longevity....at least not all the time. You have to juggle. And you don't always get what you want. Mostly, you put the things you want, especially emotional needs, on the back burner. There's no time for them, and that's OK. Mostly. But if I were to fall for someone else, it would be agony to open up only to be clamped down when I so needed to be free.
What I respond to is the longing and the lifetime quietly unfulfilled. Because she is kind and decent and NORMAL, she would never be able to go with Alec, though for one heady moment, she thought she might. She knows the cost of it would be too great. - her children and husband still come first.
The series of emotions Laura goes through - this is love - I have felt all of it before. It almost doesn't matter who the characters are.... all the facets and situations are here, everything that goes with it is in this short relationship. I am swept up in it. The feeling of giddiness at the beginning, the sweet melancholy of being apart, the dreaming, the time interrupted, the misunderstandings, the frustration, and finally the agonizing pain of saying goodbye, never when we want to. Wanting to die... it's all here in this movie, foreshortened, but just as strong and fresh and intense as in real life, as if I were living it. When Laura rushes out onto the platform and stops herself from going under a train, I FEEL it, the little details of it, just as she does, and it's all because of Coward's script and Lean's direction and Johnson's AMAZING performance, in the film itself and the voice-over. It;s all in the details, the little things we remember. Talk about visceral! I'm in that movie. And there's also the sheer beauty of it. It takes my breath away, as if the steam and the light and the sound were all conspiring together to show the swirling emotion in vivid detail.
There is the ride home with Dolly, the busybody. Just like in real life, there is some kind of cosmic joke in poor stupid Dolly's showing up and talking madly on while Laura and Alec sit dumbly, only able to respond to one another by that brief harmless touch. Why do I know this feeling? Laura has admiration for Alec's remarkable control. Finally, the feeling of nothingness. It's all super real to me. It's True.
Then, when it's too bleak to endure, Fred, completely oblivious, says she's been a long way away..... somehow, he knows just the right thing to say. Man, that's the killer.
"Thank you for coming back to me."
And all that's left of me is a puddle of tears.
I hope this jumble of thoughts helps, I don't think it will.
Edited by: JackFavell on Oct 30, 2011 10:16 PM
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Thanks for the Tom Moore photo, Jeff! Where's Una Merkel? Am I missing something?
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Not to interrupt, but I react more emotionally to *Brief Encounter* than I do to almost any other movie.... except for maybe *Cat People* and *Curse of the Cat People.* I find it terribly emotional, actually because it's all held in.
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Don't worry about the weird glitches on the boards, it's happening to everyone!
I still like Robert Preston in *Music Man*. But I see what you mean.
> You know, the more I see INSIDE DAISY CLOVER, the more I pine for the Prince of Darkness. No, not Chris Lee as Dracula, but Christopher Plummer as Raymond Swan.
> He's even meaner to Natalie than Wade, but I adore him in a sort of kinky way.
He's really very good! I had made up my mind to hate him, and then he made me feel sorry for him, so I liked him. Then later on I did hate him. I guess that's good acting.
> Whenever our program director at work starts screaming at us, I desperately want to shrink him down to size.
When I get mad at people, I wish I was Irena. That would be the way to go.... you could just scare the life out of people, like Alice at the pool. I just love the look on Simone Simon's face when she flicks on the light.
> My BERSERK review is floating around here somewhere, whirling about like the dancing poodles. Ty Hardin and Joan Crawford as lovers, now there's a pair. Don't you just love
> Diana Dors? Joan: "You ****!"
BERSERK SPOILERS
I thought Ty Hardin was Don Murray for a few minutes. Then I thought Robert Hardy was Edward Mulhare, he was so svelt!
Diana was so asking for it! She was born to be killed. Ty surprised me. I was sure he was in on it with sweet homicidal Judy. BERSERK is a wonderful movie! I enjoyed every minute of it. Especially the poodles.
Joanie does it again! I really find myself loving Joan Crawford lately.
Edited by: JackFavell on Oct 30, 2011 8:10 PM
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> {quote:title=CineMaven wrote:}{quote}Yeah, I kind of surmised that. Your sensibilities are more gentle than mine. I can do gore and blood and guts very easily. But I love the old classic horror films. The ones where Sound is so new, you can hear the spaces.
Oh yes! That's a great description! I am definitely sensitive... I have only watched these more modern creature features in the last ten years. You'd have to pay me to watch *Halloween* and I still probably wouldn't do it. *Carrie* was enough to make me jump out of my skin.
> *Theatre of Blood* ( Ha! Saw it a whole bunch of times for Diana Rigg )
I just love the idea of a ham actor coming back to kill his critics. It's so delightfully morbid and cheesy, and really funny.
> *Pit and the Pendulum* - is that Hammer? ( That's Roger Corman )
Aaah. I'll have to try more of Corman's stuff.
> *Mr. Sardonicus* ( I love it! Krull...you've GOT to love Krull! A true Homolkan performance )
Yes, I love my Krull. And leeches. ewwww!
> *Psycho* ( IT IS PERECT!) )
Exactly.
> *The Haunting* ( My sister ran out of the living room and back into our bedroom as a kid. Love it )
I only had the guts to watch this one last year. It turns out to be more talky than I thought. But I still won't watch it at night.
> *Willard* (Eeeeeeew!!! Couldn't take it. Had a big problem with Bruce Davison for *years* b'cuz of this movie. It creeped me out!)
I think it's funny. It made me like Bruce. Now who's the sensitive one?
> What surprised me was having a problem with *"VERTIGO"* one of my all-time favorites. I wonder if it was because it was a dark and stormy night when I saw it.
I think Vertigo is one of those movies that has so much in it, that one could have many different reactions to it, over a long time. *Citizen Kane* is like that for me.
> *Edited by: CineMaven on Oct 30, 2011 2:32 PM - 'cuz I'm stilll bummed over my popcorn!*
Switch to Twizzlers, stat!
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Wow! That's so interesting, how your reaction to this movie changed.... have you seen it on the big screen before? I'm going to assume you have, so that isn't why it affected you this way this time.
Now when I watched it the first time, that is exactly how I saw it... I saw Scotty's cruelty and though I thought the film was a masterpiece, I didn't want to watch it again for a long time... it was far too painful and disturbing to me. Did sweet Scotty change? or was that inside him all the time? If it is, that means that we all have that pathology inside us.
I really enjoyed your post here. You expressed your feelings honestly, just trying to work out why it was different. It was all very simply put, but filtered through your feelings about the film from before.
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They're great as snacks.
I am not too into the Hammer horror films...but I have to admit to not having watched any all the way through. The modern ones I do like are:
Theatre of Blood
Pit and the Pendulum (is that Hammer?)
Mr. Sardonicus
Psycho
The Haunting
Willard
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That's so funny, I watched White Zombie this morning almost completely without sound, and it worked too. I think that is part of the charm of these horror films, at least the early ones. They really are very visual.
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Thanks, Maven. Just knowing you are out there somewhere, with your tongue sticking out, makes me feel better.
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Karen Black is CREEPY.
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> {quote:title=CineMaven wrote:}{quote}
> Why don't you Jackaaa*A*aay? Don't make small people... write a book. (This way you don't have to deal with family looking for their relatives, or trying to stuff their Aunt Martha in their vest pockets).
Haha! I would probably have more luck making little people than I would writing a book. I have no big ideas. I imagine making little people is like baking, which I love to do. Writing is sometimes a chore for me.
> Speaking of Maureen O'Sullivan, I took *"DRACULA'S DAUGHTER"* and Francis Ford Coppola's *"DRACULA"* to the bar Friday for Halloween. Yes, there was still music popping and hubbub...uhm...hubbing. But I was in my glory watching the movies, especially "Dracula's Daughter." Gloria Holden was handsome and sexy and great. I also kept wishing that Maureen O'Sullivan would have replaced Marguerite Churchill. She is the most unappealing actress I think I've ever seen. What Otto saw in her is beyond me. And Otto was a doll in that movie.
> I know...two words you don't often hear in a sentence: "Otto" and "doll."
I am ashamed to admit I've never seen Dracula's Daughter! But it's on my list, second from the top right after Mark of the Vampire. And Otto is a doll in at least one other movie.... I can't for the life of me remember what it is, he plays the second lead who helps out Mary Astor(?) get her hubby back when he's strayed... gosh what the heck is the name of that film?
> Now...where can a girl find a good Dracula when you need him, and don't want to feel guilty. After all...he'll bend you to his will.
If I knew that.....
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OMG! What horror film has dancing poodles in it?
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LOL! I don't know! cause they can stab you in the ankle? Cause they can hide out in your Christmas tree without you knowing it?
I had one moment of fear for the little guy who was going to stab Robert Greig in the neck... Greig is already big enough to hurt you if he rolled over on you at normal size.
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I like forgetting things, it makes everything seem new.
>Love Boyer in BITP, because he's not cutesy-old. The funniest scene for me (in the whole movie, not just that clip) is when the belly dancer flings her black hair into Robert Redford's face, lol.
Yes, heaven save us from cutesy old people, or the touristy ones like in Summertime. Redford gets so uncomfortable it's a riot. He deserves to be made uncomfortable after the way he treated poor Daisy Clover.
Boyer is great. He's the perfect foil for poor Natwick. Don't you think that the real story was probably the opposite? That Natwick was a free spirit, and Boyer was the homebody? I somehow feel that was true, though I have no proof.
I was thinking about Chaney while watching Devil Doll, wondering if it had been tailored for him, but I am glad that Barrymore got the role, he's just super in it. And NO I certainly don't want to make little people who are going to stab me in the eye! I like the cute little doggies! Just think of the savings on doggie waste bags!
I have never seen Berserk before, It's a hoot! I haven't been paying a lot of attention since I had to clean the fish tank out this afternoon. I just love seeing Joan walk into a scene and say, "You blundering imbecile! You worthless IDIOT!" every time.
Uh oh! Catfight!
Edited by: JackFavell on Oct 30, 2011 12:40 PM
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Is there anything more horrifying than the look on Donald Crisp's face as he looks over Stella's shoulder at the ghost of Mary Meredith?
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I think I know that still of Gable at the bar... It's ridiculous how much movie memorabilia one mind can store.
Notice I posted pics of Gable and Cooper from that book? That was no accident. :x
I totally buy the English countryside here even if it is Hollywood...it just works. I love these old 30's and 40's horror films, they have such warmth about them... you can feel the breath on the back of your neck....but there is something gentle and nature oriented, almost soulful about them. The more recent films just can't capture that at all.
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Oh my god, I never noticed before! In *The Uninvited,* the doctor's name is Dr. Scott! Just like *Rocky Horror Picture Show!*
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Oh, fred, that was beautiful.... you choked me up! I'll never forget that story.
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There are literally hundreds of thousands of pictures in it, some promotional stills and studio portraits, but the bulk of it is scenes from the actual movies.
Maven, Goddess, I used to just pore over that book, long before I saw any of the films in it, dreaming away of the beautiful people in those pictures. I think what caught my eye the most was the way the photos are arranged - and Blum does it quite purposefully - there is a page with photos of Ginger Rogers from *Flying Down to Rio*, *Secrets* with Mary Pickford, and Margaret Sullivan in a film I can't remember. All of them are lined are up in a row with their gorgeous frilly white dresses .... I am quite sure that THAT page was one of the ones that I would stare at for hours.....they were so impossibly beautiful and different. Add to that Lillian Harvey from *Congress Dances*, or Joan from *Letty Lynton*, or Kate from *The Little Minister*... it was overpowering. I then made a conscious effort to watch any and all the movies I was fascinated by.
Oh, and I forgot, I am solitary still, but instead of having 50 friends, I have a core group of maybe ten people I hang with now, there are only a few, but they are closer. I do wish I had more friends, but Connecticut is a closed minded place, and I am still the odd man out here. People seem quite judgmental here, or standoffish, or something. They don't share themselves easily.
I'm sitting here watching *The Uninvited*. These warm old horror films are so wonderful and quaint. They warm my soul on this chilly day. Ha! I forgot that line - - the maid just came in and said with a lower class English accent:
"Excuse me sir, but dinner won't be for a few hours yet. It's the lamb bein' awwkward..."
I gotta use that one next time I can't get dinner to come out on time!
Edited by: JackFavell on Oct 30, 2011 11:00 AM
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In *The Devil Doll,* H. B. Warner's laboratory hood looks just like my stove hood...... I wonder if I could make people small under there?
This is now one of my favorite tales at Halloween. The acting is uniformly good, although the young taxi driver played by Frank Lawton has an impossibly stupid name - dodo or toto, I'm not sure... and an accent that he stole from Doug Fairbanks, Jr.!
Lionel is just great in this film, and I love the whole story. The ending speech to his daughter, Maureen O'Sullivan (I wish I looked like her, she's so beautiful and gamine), always brings me to tears... Lionel is so understated in this movie and it works, especially against crazy Raffaela Ottiano.
There is something warm and comforting, very humanitarian about these old horror films, the monster or criminal is often the most sympathetic of characters.... if not, there is a sexual undercurrent, something thrilling about the idea of taking people's will and bending to your desires....or losing that will in some way. In fact, desire is often the catalyst in these stories - *Cat People*, or like in *White Zombie*, where one man's spurned desire is the opening that Lugosi needs to gain control over everyone....
I like to wrap myself up in these warm dark stories like a blanket, stare into the firelight and cozy up to my deepest fears.
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OMG! That's hilarious! I can see a through line from one to the other.
Charles Boyer could do anything. "Jimmy Crack Corn and I don't care." It's not even a great line, but he makes it one.
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OK! It's taken me two days to read through this thread completely.
_MissG -_
Alex D'Arcy is in *Soldier of Fortune* ? I love him, I have to see it. Plus I'm on a Gable roll lately, I watched *Adventure* the other night. I was knocked out by Gable. Greer Garson should have shot the writers, they made her seem so unattractive.
_Frank-_
I hate to ask what happened with *Brief Encounter* ? Be gentle with me. I am glad you liked Franchot Tone. I like him more and more lately. I never realized how good he was till he played that maniac in *Phantom Lady.*
OMG! That Martin Scorsese interview is nuts! I cannot believe how close his experience was to mine. Whats even crazier is that you remembered his story and posted it for me. My book was this one:
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Love the harpsichord! Yeah, Karl Malden is never going to be a sophisticated bon vivant.
I can't believe you watched *Hot Blood!* I actually recorded it and watched it all the way through, but that's because I'm crazy!
It IS directed like a topical musical! I totally get that. Some of the shots on the street were just like West Side Story - I noticed some of these long angle shots from far down the street that made you feel as though either something bad was going to happen, like a fight; or that the Sharks and Jets were going to come dancing toward you into closeup....
I also saw that irony in that vivid color, and the way it was filmed. Even though it was all patently ridiculous, it felt like a documentary on modern day gypsies, lol. As Ray pleaded for tolerance in his directing style, the stereotypes were flying! Old Johnny was hilarious, but such an awful "type". It felt like a split personality of a movie.
I actually liked it far more than I thought I would, but Joe had far too little to do. I almost wished he had played the other old man, stereotype and all.
Edited by: JackFavell on Oct 29, 2011 7:31 PM
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Just to put it to rest, I am not sure that the dad had ever tried something with young Elsa , to me it seemed like an undercurrent that lent an even creepier side to his control of her. For him, man's natural sex drive was tied up in some extremely twisted things in his own nature. I got the distinct feeling that his obsessing on the evil way men were with women was just a projection of his own confused and rather lurid, nasty feelings which he wanted to obliterate. Whether those feelings were about his own daughter is left maddeningly unclear, but the suggestion is there for me and that's enough. I am actually glad it is not addressed more fully. I like these kind of subtexts, but I like them to remain as such.... they add depth, but in the end they aren't too important to the main plotline, only in motivation of the characters.
>*It couldn't be enough to just let it go. You'd think that her death would have been enough punishment for her if she had done what you suggest. It would be a good reason for him being like he is but even more hypocritical for him to impose the sins of the mother on the daughter. Never mind whether there was an incestuous relationship.*
> *In this instance, the father is right and then wrong. Heck did have bad intentions with Elsa (dad's right), but then he grew as a man (dad's wrong). Joshua isn't giving anyone the chance to be right or wrong, because he views himself to be nothing but right. That's where it gets dangerous. That's why the "black and white" worries me so. The doors shut quick with that thinking, and it's almost always one-sided.*
I did think he was a hypocrite - especially if his own sexual feelings were the reason he kept such strict reign on Elsa. For him, sex and love were totally separate entities, in fact, they were mutually exclusive.....like parallel lines, they could not meet each other and combine within his strict religious convictions. A very sad thing, and almost the opposite of what I think the bible says. I got the idea that over time, his convictions became more and more strict, as he became more bitter and hateful, and as his daughter grew to womanhood. He didn't want to think about what the right thing was, he let fear of himself /or of her inner workings guide his actions, not his reason. He let his feelings lead him into the very evil he despises.
> {quote:title=
> FrankGrimes wrote
> *Deep down, Gil is the same as Steve. It's probably their greatest link.*
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We all know what it is to stray, and we all know what it is to see a friend stray. It's beautiful the way this movie works it all out. In the end, it's the friendship of these two old men that provides the gold.
I like that McCrea isn't all high and mighty at the end. There is no greater thing than to show a friend that you respect them, to let them know that YOU knew all along that they were worth something. Forgiveness is left out of the last scene, there is no need for it. Look at that last shot, McCrea is down low - he puts Scott up high in his esteem..... his estimation of his friend is where it should be...Scott is riding the High Country now.
_Ride the high *SPOILERS*_
I LOVE that last scene. It is SO simple, eloquent in it's understatedness. No need to blow trumpets or make more of it than it is. I can't think of a director who wouldn't have intruded himself onto the scene, but Peckinpah relates the story so modestly, no elaboration. No belaboring the point. It's perhaps his finest moment for me, outside of Robert Ryan's final scene in The Wild Bunch.
The gunfight itself is very old fashioned - like we are told in history books how battles were fought, eye to eye, standing tall. The way Peckinpah shows us the two friends, dropped where one was wounded, the camera at eye level, making their last small talk. Then it moves up with Scott as he stands....he looms high in the sky for a moment.
As he turns to walk away, he says, "I'll see you later.", Scott's laconic tone is pitch perfect, it's a quiet double entendre, he's showing the kids there is nothing wrong, and at the same time he means he'll be going too, sometime soon. As Scott walks away in long shot, we return to McCrea, who turns his head and we follow his gaze. It's not a bad place to die, quite beautiful, in fact, with the mountains in the distance and the trees showing a crisp autumn coloring.... it looks clean and clear and good.
Edited by: JackFavell on Oct 29, 2011 6:26 PM
The Annual FrankGrimes Torture Thread
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Posted
I honestly don't know.
My first thought was to say no, I wouldn't feel the same way. I so like Celia Johnson, she is the whole thing, really. And being a woman, I respond to her little thoughts and comments about the details of her life.
But then I remember that Coward was a man, and Lean was a man, and they still came up with this brilliant movie. It's really Coward's thoughts that we are hearing, adjusted by Lean's sensitivity. I suppose I could identify with a male just as well - if it were done correctly.