kingrat
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Posts posted by kingrat
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The first time I can recall the mention of a paralegal is in When Harry Met Sally. "Her name is Kimberly. She's a paralegal."
Any other memories of first mentions of newer job titles?
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Another great period for a particular soap was the era about 1978 to 1981 for The Guiding Light, when all the core characters were still around, with the introduction of such characters as Alan Spaulding (Christopher Bernau), Rita Stapleton (Lenore Kasdorf), Jackie Marler (Cindy Pickett), and Kelly Nelson (John Wesley Shipp). This era ends with the firing of Kristin Vigard (the original Morgan Richards), though there would be some good moments later in the 1980s, many of them having to do with Beverlee McKinsey as Alexandra Spaulding. Some of these episodes are available on YouTube. Solid cast, excellent pacing, with plenty of time for the character interactions that soap fans love.
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Top Ten Films of 1965:
King Rat
The Hill
Mirage
The Spy Who Came In From the Cold
A Patch of Blue
Simon of the Desert
Red Beard
Darling
Doctor Zhivago
Othello
Admire rather than like: The Collector, Repulsion
Alternates: Chimes at Midnight, The Flight of the Phoenix, Return from the Ashes
Q: What do you notice about the top eight films on my list, something also shared by The Train and The Pawnbroker (banished to 1964), Chimes at Midnight, Repulsion, and Return from the Ashes?
A: All are in black and white. 1965 is the last great year for black and white Hollywood films. By 1967 the Oscars for B&W cinematography and set design are gone, and Richard Brooks' decision to film In Cold Blood in B&W has a deliberately retro feel.
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Lawrence, I don't care much for Godard's neck-up cinema either. I'd probably recommend Breathless, Band of Outsiders, and Contempt in that order for someone unfamiliar with Godard. After that they're on their own.
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The Girl with Green Eyes is a coming-of-age film which stars Rita Tushingham as the girl, Lynn Redgrave as her best friend, and Peter Finch as the married man she has an affair with. Follows fairly predictable lines, but worth seeing if you like the stars, and I do.
Band of Outsiders is one of the more approachable Godards. Has more in common with Breathless than with the political Godards.
The Soft Skin isn't one of Truffaut's best films, but still worth seeing. Neither wife, husband, nor mistress is particularly sympathetic, but that can work, too. The husband picks up a lovely stewardess (Francoise Dorleac) mainly because he can, and she goes to bed with him mostly because he's a minor celebrity, a prominent critic. This is more honest than many a romantic drama, but I have the uneasy feeling that Truffaut sees this as more of a serious love affair than I do.
Life Upside Down is much better than either the Godard or the Truffaut from this year. Critics of the time welcomed Alain Jessua as a brilliant new talent. Charles Denner gives a great performance as a man who becomes disconnected from both his work life and his home life. Is he becoming a kind of Zen saint, or is he going mad? Jessua's next film is also brilliant (wait till 1967), and then something goes wrong and he only sporadically directs films, mostly SF or horror.
King and Country is based on an anti-war play set in World War I, but obviously with an eye toward Vietnam as well. It's a bare-bones production, and there's some attempt at Brechtian alienation effects. Tom Courtenay as the soldier who refuses to fight and Dirk Bogarde as the lawyer who defends him are both top-notch, and the movie is strictly for their fans and for those who want to see all of Joseph Losey's films. Losey's approach is no more subtle than Stanley Kramer, and it's nowhere near the quality of Paths of Glory/
Nothing But the Best, on the other hand, is worth seeking out. Alan Bates plays a young man who wouldn't, as the saying goes, stop at murder in his climb toward the top. The upper crust is capably represented by Denholm Elliott. It was shown at a festival in San Francisco earlier this year, and a friend who saw it liked it as much as I did from a viewing on TV years ago.
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Speaking of Another World: I was also a big fan of Lisa Cameron, who played Susan Matthews, the unfortunate daughter of Liz Matthews. She and John Cunningham as Dr. Dan Shearer made a terrific couple. John Cunningham has gone on to have a stage career and voiceover spots. He provided the voice for the "Manly Man" video in In and Out. When Harding Lemay took over as headwriter in 1971, he wrote out Lisa Cameron and John Cunningham because he thought there were too many blonde actresses on the show. [unprintable response]
Fans of Another World may enjoy checking out anotherworldhomepage.com, which has plot synopses by year and character guides, among other things.
"Lahoma Vane" is one of the most perfect character names ever invented, and Ann Wedgeworth turned what was supposed to be a short-term role into a career, because everyone knew how to write for her. I love this priceless bit of dialogue from the movie Scarecrow, where Ann Wedgeworth played a character named Frenchy and Gene Hackman played an ex-con:
Ann Wedgeworth (as seductively as possible): "What did you miss most in prison?"
Gene Hackman (without batting an eye): "Home cooking."
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Agnes Nixon, who died a few days ago, created the Alice/Steve/Rachel triangle and some of the other stories that made Another World one of the best soaps of the late 60s. She also created All My Children and One Life to Live, among other shows.
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I have wondered this myself, skimpole. Hardy Kruger is the one I tend to remember from The Flight of the Phoenix. Perhaps the studio wanted to promote Ian Bannen's career at a time when English actors were very popular.
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Leading vs. Supporting Categories in 1965 …
I think Frank Finlay rightfully belongs in the lead actor category for Othello. I believe Kingrat and Swithin pointed out that Iago actually has more lines than does Othello. But Maggie Smith is supporting as Desdemona. It is a not a big part.
Some others as I see it:
James Fox and George Segal are co-leads in King Rat.
Claire Bloom is supporting for The Spy Who Came In From the Cold.
Barbara Harris is supporting for A Thousand Clowns.
James Stewart and Richard Attenborough are both leads in The Flight of the Phoenix.
Orson Welles and Keith Baxter are both leads in Chimes at Midnight.
The absence of Maggie Smith and Claire Bloom in the lead actress race would leave that category exceptionally weak. I'd say they were as important to their films as Patricia Neal in Hud. (Oh wait, I put Patricia Neal in the supporting actress list.)
The lead actor race, however, is particularly strong, with a definite "British invasion" factor.
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O'Toole, Burton, Harris? Who was the best? You be the judge by viewing this clip from The Man Who Would Be King of the Popes...
This is hysterically funny. I'd say it skewers the mannerisms of all three actors.
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Tom, thank you for posting that incredibly beautiful music from The Seventh Dawn, and Lawrence, thank you for the post about Tetsuro Tamba. Definitely one of the best films of the year.
I also agree about the excellence of Mary Astor's brief appearance in Hush . . . Hush, Sweet Charlotte.
A few words about Behold a Pale Horse, which turns up on TCM from time to time. Not one of Fred Zinnemann's best films, though I think it's still worth seeing. Zinnemann discovered that by 1964 not many people remembered or cared about the Spanish Civil War, which was difficult for someone of Zinnemann's generation to imagine. Zinnemann had escaped from Nazi Germany, and after the war he learned that his parents had died in a concentration camp. Franco's government did not want the film made--it was filmed in southwestern France--and Columbia's films were not not shown in Spain for several years because Harry Cohn backed Zinnemann rather than Franco.
The film, based on a novel by Emerich Pressburger of Powell and Pressburger fame, concerns an anti-Franco guerrilla (Gregory Peck) living across the mountains in France and still unrelenting in his opposition to Franco. Peck has essentially become a bandit, albeit an idealistic bandit. His mother is dying, and the chief of police (Anthony Quinn) hopes that Peck will come to see his mother in the hospital and will thus be captured. Peck isn't the best choice for the guerrilla, especially with Anthony Quinn available. Still, Peck does his best. Omar Sharif plays a Spanish priest. As usual, he is extremely handsome, and I think he plays the part well enough.
Mildred Dunnock, as Peck's mother, is so fiercely anti-clerical that she spits at the very idea of receiving a priest, even one sympathetic to the anti-Franco cause (even Omar Sharif) on her sickbed. Rosalie Crutchley plays Quinn's wife--not a couple most of us would ever imagine--and when she talks to her husband on the telephone, we can tell the love she feels for her very much flawed husband.
The print shown by TCM seemed overly dark at time, and it was not clear whether this is the fault of the print or the cinematographer. The ending is a bit odd and abrupt, which is unusual with Zinnemann. There are scenes of tension and excitement as Peck makes his way over the Pyrenees to Spain. The next few years were hard ones for Zinnemann, as he tried to set up a film of Malraux's Man's Fate, but was unable to do so. Fortunately, he had a late career triumph with Day of the Jackal.
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I probably should have included Yootha Joyce in the best supporting actress nominees for her performance in The Pumpkin Eater as a woman who almost has an emotional meltdown at the beauty parlor. The real star of The Pumpkin Eater is Oswald Morris, whose dazzling black and white cinematography would make the film worth seeing all by itself. Although the story is strong, Harold Pinter's time-tricky screenplay has not worn well, in my opinion. Pinter gives us good dialogue, as in the scene with Yootha Joyce, but questionable structure. The time shifts distract us from an interesting question: is Anne Bancroft's desire for a large family a natural feeling, or is a sign of neurosis? She has an abortion because the man she's with doesn't want any more children, and then, of course, he leaves her anyway.
Capucine usually strikes me as a beautiful woman with limited acting ability, but she wakes up and gives a real performance in The Seventh Dawn, a fine film which didn't attract much attention in 1964 because, after all, who cared about Southeast Asia? William Holden and his Malayan friend fight together against the Japanese in WWII, but after the war Holden's friend goes to Moscow to be educated as a revolutionary, so the two are on opposite sides. Capucine plays a former lover of Holden's, and Susannah York is the younger woman he falls for. Fortunately, TCM shows The Seventh Dawn with some regularity.
It's often difficult to determine how much an actor's performance owes to the director, but comparing the actor's work with different directors is sometimes useful. For instance, compare Kim Stanley in The Goddess and Seance on a Wet Afternoon. John Cromwell, himself an actor of some repute, evidently gives Stanley free rein in The Goddess to twitter and fidget and do stuff whenever the cameras are rolling. Not Bryan Forbes, however: Stanley's work in Seance is far less mannered, more purposeful and direct. Forbes' guiding hand helps her shape a much more controlled and centered character.
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The lead actor category this year is quite strong. I'm delighted that Bogie has also seen Nothing But the Best.
Best Actor of 1964:
Anthony Quinn, ZORBA THE GREEK****
Charles Denner, LIFE UPSIDE DOWN
Richard Attenborough, SEANCE ON A WET AFTERNOON
Henry Fonda, FAIL-SAFE
Peter Sellers, DR. STRANGELOVE
Honorable mention: Alan Bates, NOTHING BUT THE BEST; Richard Burton, THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA; Rex Harrison, MY FAIR LADY; Rod Steiger, THE PAWNBROKER; Peter Ustinov, TOPKAPI
Best Actress of 1964:
Anne Bancroft, THE PUMPKIN EATER****
Julie Andrews, MARY POPPINS
Kim Stanley, SEANCE ON A WET AFTERNOON
Debbie Reynolds, THE UNSINKABLE MOLLY BROWN
Jean Seberg, LILITH
Honorable mention: Audrey Hepburn, MY FAIR LADY; Deborah Kerr, THE CHALK GARDEN; Irene Papas, ZORBA THE GREEK; Rita Tushingham, THE GIRL WITH GREEN EYES
Best Supporting Actor of 1965:
Juano Hernandez, THE PAWNBROKER****
Denholm Elliott, NOTHING BUT THE BEST
Paul Scofield, THE TRAIN
Lee Tracy, THE BEST MAN
Gert Frobe, GOLDFINGER
Honorable mention: Brock Peters, THE PAWNBROKER
Best Supporting Actor of 1965:
Grayson Hall, THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA****
Lila Kedrova, ZORBA THE GREEK
Capucine, THE SEVENTH DAWN
Rosalie Crutchley, BEHOLD A PALE HORSE
Mildred Dunnock, BEHOLD A PALE HORSE
Honorable mention: Edith Evans, THE CHALK GARDEN; Siobhan McKenna, OF HUMAN BONDAGE
Best Performance in a Mediocre Film: Dirk Bogarde, KING AND COUNTRY; Runner-Up: Tom Courtenay, KING AND COUNTRY
Best Performance with a Telephone: Henry Fonda, FAIL-SAFE; Rosalie Crutchley, BEHOLD A PALE HORSE
Best Performance with Minimal Screen Time: Juano Hernandez, THE PAWNBROKER; Runners-Up: Rosalie Crutchley and Mildred Dunnock, BEHOLD A PALE HORSE
Best Musical in a Fine Year for Musicals, Unless You Consider It an Opera, Which It Is: THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG
Best Cinematography, Black and White: THE PUMPKIN EATER; Runner-Up: ZORBA THE GREEK
Best Cinematography, Color: THE WORLD OF HENRY ORIENT; Runner-Up: ZULU
Favorite Line: "Seducer!" Grayson Hall to Richard Burton in THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA
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The List of Adrian Messenger is an entertaining mystery by Philip MacDonald. The movie is kind of fun. On one of his TV specials Bob Hope did a parody called "The Mess of Adrian Listinger."
The Organizer is one of the most entertaining films of the year for all who are willing to read subtitles. Marcello Mastroianni plays a professorly type turned union organizer. The nineteenth-century factory feels authentic, though it was re-created. The movie even has that oldest of cliches, the hooker with the heart of gold, and once again it works. The factory owner is cartoonish, but other than that the film makes no wrong moves.
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I changed my list. I dropped Zorba from my runner-ups and replaced it with Zulu.
I don't recall This Special Friendship, Nothing But the Best, or Life Upside Down.
You can only find This Special Friendship and Life Upside Down on VHS. Nothing But the Best is hard to find; I saw it on TV years ago. A friend saw Nothing But the Best at a film festival this year and raved about it.
Nothing But the Best stars Alan Bates as a young man who, as the saying goes, would not stop at murder to better his place on the social scale. Who better to play his upper crust father-in-law-to-be than Denholm Elliott?
Life Upside Down got rave reviews for its first-time director, Alain Jessua, who unfortunately did not go on to have a big career. Charles Denner is terrific as a seemingly ordinary young man who begins to withdraw from ordinary life and concentrate on a Zen-like attention to detail. Or is he simply going mad?
This Special Friendship is like Dangerous Liaisons set in a French boarding school for upper-class boys. The priests who run the school try to discourage "special friendships" between the boys because that might lead to sex. Some of the priests have reason to know a good bit about this kind of relationship. The main character is a titled (and entitled) aristocrat of seventeen who declines a special friendship with a boy his own age but pursues one with a boy of twelve. Some viewers see this as innocent; I believe the film shows us that the young aristocrat is quite a little manipulator. Not a comfortable film, but superbly made by director Jean Delannoy.
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I remember ANOTHER WORLD. It was a Procter & Gamble production and, therefore, those vintage episodes do not survive. For years, the leading characters were Steve, Alice and Rachel and that triangle became one of the most popular soap storylines. Alice's sister (Pat) and brother (Russ) were also prominent characters.
Another World was one of the best, especially from about 1965 to 1975. YouTube has the July 1-3, 1968 episodes which covered Lenore's wedding to Walter Curtin. Unfortunately, neither the picture quality (in B&W) nor the sound quality is good. It's fascinating to see the long shadows cast by the events of these particular episodes. Steven Frame meets both Alice and Rachel on this day, and with hindsight we know that Walter is going to murder the man he mistakenly believes to be his wife's lover. Audra Lindley makes a brief appearance as Liz Matthews; those who know Audra Lindley from Three's Company or movies like Cannery Row would scarcely believe that she set the standard for malevolent mothers-in-law.
I also enjoyed seeing a few episodes of As the World Turns from 1980 when they brought back Joyce Hughes, believed to have died in a car crash after trying to kill her lover and shooting her husband instead. Joyce is the unusual villain who is fragile and vulnerable, even sympathetic, just the kind of woman a man would want to comfort and help. That would be a big mistake. Barbara Rodell plays the part perfectly, and the role may have been tailored to reflect the vulnerability she projects. I'd like to see this whole story play out. These episodes are in color, with good picture quality, except that blonde hair looks brassy and unattractive.
For those interested in seeing movies stars before they were famous, I'm not sure if Christopher Reeve's work on Love of Life is available. He looked like a star from the get-go, with lots of intelligence and a great sense of humor.
James, the soaps at this period rarely referred to current events. The 1950s soaps, from what I can tell, are generally slow-moving, as the radio soaps were, and they have (ugh) organ music. Still, they have some fine performers.
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Good choices, dagoldenage, for the performances. All are certainly among the top contenders.
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1964 was the year to get your Z's, and I don't mean sleeping.
TOP TEN FILMS OF 1964:
ZORBA THE GREEK
ZULU
LES AMITIES PARTICULIERES (THIS SPECIAL FRIENDSHIP)
LIFE UPSIDE DOWN
THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG
THE TRAIN
WOMAN IN THE DUNES
DR. STRANGELOVE
THE SEVENTH DAWN
THE PUMPKIN EATER
Alternates: SEVEN DAYS IN MAY, NOTHING BUT THE BEST
Note: THE PUMPKIN EATER makes the list primarily for the dazzling bright white cinematography of Oswald Morris.
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Interesting to see that the Golden Globes also gave a supporting actor nomination to Gregory Rozakis for America America. Rozakis plays the young Armenian who lives up to the Biblical saying, "Greater love hath no man than he lay down his life for a friend." This did not lead to a big career for Rozakis, and the date of his early death suggests that he died of AIDS.
Unlike most of Kazan's other films, America America depends more on direction and cinematography (by Haskell Wexler) than on performances. This is a film I would like to see on the big screen. I would guess that the lack of financial success on release was mostly due to a general lack of interest at the time in the subject of immigration.
For those of you who have not seen The Fire Within (Le feu follet), this is my favorite Louis Malle film, though not recommended for anyone in a depressed mood. Maurice Ronet plays a young man who, after drying out in an alcohol rehab facility, visits his friends and acquaintances in an attempt to find something worth living for.
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I believe that both The Pawnbroker and The Train were shown at European film festivals in 1964, but only released generally in 1965. I'm happy to let Bogie make the call on this one.
I would be inclined to consider Michael Caine as a supporting actor in Zulu. Basically, however, I'm just pleased that other people have seen this superb film.
Capucine in The 7th Dawn: I would say supporting. William Holden and Susannah York are the leads.
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Yes, this belongs in the off-topic thread, but that seems to be almost entirely devoted to election stuff. Although many primetime shows of the past were saved, many of the tapes for daytime soaps were simply wiped and re-used. Although The Doctors and Ryan's Hope were apparently saved, most were not.
Fortunately, some episodes of vintage 1950s-1970s daytime soaps have been posted on YouTube. These are some of the things I've stumbled upon:
--A mid-50s episode of The Secret Storm that included scenes with Haila Stoddard as Aunt Pauline. She was one of the first actresses to be noted for playing a soap villainess. She's not very wicked in the show I saw, but it was good to have seen her at least once.
--I never saw Rosemary Prinz when she became a big star as Penny on As the World Turns. A mid-1950s episode has Penny exchanging snark for snark with her new (and unwelcome) sister-in-law Lisa (Eileen Fulton, of course). This episode also has Ruth Warrick as Penny's aunt Edith. Penny had idolized her aunt until she found out that Edith was having an affair with the father of Penny's best friend. It was good to see Ruth Warrick playing serious rather than campy, as she did to great acclaim on All My Children.
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Sunday, September 25
2 a.m. La Promesse (1996). From the Dardenne brothers.
I loved La Promesse, except for the slightly odd ending.
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I have read that Irma la Douce was Wilder's biggest commercial success, and that this is the reason he concentrated on comedies for the rest of his career. If you've seen Irma on stage or heard the cast album, you know that the songs are delightful. Too bad they weren't included. Shirley could have sung hers, and Jack Lemmon could have have been dubbed by the male equivalent of Marni Nixon. Like Lawrence, I'll agree that Lemmon is best with some guidance and editing, when he can be wonderful.
Two Italian films would be the top contenders for best set design. One, obviously, is The Leopard, which has some gorgeously designed interiors. The other is The Organizer, which works the other end of the economic scale. It's easy to believe that we are looking at a genuine nineteenth-century factory.
Thanks to all who mentioned Winter Light, for I had forgotten to include Max von Sydow in my supporting actor list. He's a strong contender for the top award. I don't really care for the film, but had vividly remembered his performance as the simple fisherman who's terrified that the Chinese now have the nuclear bomb. When I saw the film again (it was one of Bergman's favorites among his films, and others agree), I was surprised to discover how little screen time Max von Sydow actually has. (The same thing was true of Zohra Lampert in Splendor in the Grass.)
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Is Cary Grant's frilly robe scene in Bringing Up Baby the first use of "gay" in its modern context?
"I just went gay all of a sudden!"
Speedracer, according to Richard Barrios's SCREENED OUT, a movie called EIGHT BELLS (1935) had Franklin Pangborn singing "I Am a Gay Caballero." The song is from 1928 and, according to Barrios, already had acquired a reputation for double entendre.
Your Favourite Performances from 1929 to present are...
in Your Favorites
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The Renoir and Bunuel versions of Diary of a Chambermaid are quite different in tone. The Renoir is almost like Soap or Desperate Housewives, and I think it works well on those terms. The Bunuel is much more serious, a (to my taste) much too solemn denunciation of the aristocracy. Jeanne Moreau is more elegant than all the aristocrats, which is something of a problem in terms of credibility. She seems more like a movie star researching the role of a chambermaid than an actual chambermaid. Some people like the Bunuel more than I do, and like the Renoir less.