kingrat
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Posts posted by kingrat
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I had a lot of fun watching Buck Privates this morning. One dumb joke after another, and I was laughing at all of them. All this, and the Andrews Sisters singing "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B."
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Although 1946 was a strong year, the supporting actress category is weaker than in most years of this decade, especially the upcoming year.
Best Actor of 1946:
Dana Andrews, THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES****
Cary Grant, NOTORIOUS
Henry Fonda, MY DARLING CLEMENTINE
Charles Boyer, CLUNY BROWN
John Garfield, THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE
Honorable mention: Humphrey Bogart, THE BIG SLEEP; Joseph Cotten, DUEL IN THE SUN; John Garfield, NOBODY LIVES FOREVER; Sydney Greenstreet, THREE STRANGERS; Peter Lorre, THREE STRANGERS; John Mills, GREAT EXPECTATIONS; David Niven, A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH; Gregory Peck, DUEL IN THE SUN; George Sanders, A SCANDAL IN PARIS; James Stewart. IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE
Best Actress of 1946:
Jennifer Jones, CLUNY BROWN****
Jane Wyman, THE YEARLING
Ingrid Bergman, NOTORIOUS
Geraldine Fitzgerald, THREE STRANGERS
Deborah Kerr, I SEE A DARK STRANGER
Honorable mention: Olivia De Havilland, THE DARK MIRROR; Olivia De Havilland, TO EACH HIS OWN; Jean Gillie, DECOY; Paulette Goddard, DIARY OF A CHAMBERMAID; Susan Hayward, DEADLINE AT DAWN; Dorothy McGuire, TILL THE END OF TIME; Barbara Stanwyck, THE STRANGE LOVE OF MARTHA IVERS; Gene Tierney, THE RAZOR'S EDGE
Best Supporting Actor of 1946:
Claude Rains, NOTORIOUS****
Charles Bickford, DUEL IN THE SUN
Walter Brennan, NOBODY LIVES FOREVER (favorite WB performance)
Clifton Webb, THE RAZOR'S EDGE
Robert Mitchum, TILL THE END OF TIME
Honorable mention: William Bendix, THE BLUE DAHLIA; Finlay Currie, GREAT EXPECTATIONS; Francis Lederer, DIARY OF A CHAMBERMAID; Roger Livesey, A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH; George Macready, GILDA; Victor Mature, MY DARLING CLEMENTINE; Harold Russell, THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES
Best Supporting Actress of 1946:
Myrna Loy, THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES****
Mme. Leopoldine Konstantin, NOTORIOUS
Rosalind Ivan, THREE STRANGERS
Martita Hunt, GREAT EXPECTATIONS
Virginia Mayo, THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES
Honorable mention: Anne Baxter, THE RAZOR'S EDGE; Una O'Connor, CLUNY BROWN; Donna Reed, IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE
Best Ensemble: THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES
Most Unusual Performance: Una O'Connor, CLUNY BROWN, whose entire performance is a series of significant coughs
Favorite Line: Virginia Mayo in THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES, pointing to sign: "It says Ladies, but I go right on in."
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Bogie, I'm interested in the connections you cite between John Mills, the acting style of Brief Encounter, and subsequent British films. It's always seemed to me that the acting in Bryan Forbes' films was founded on and continuing the acting style of David Lean's British films. Forbes was a close friend of John Mills, too, and they had acted together.
On another subject, I'm particularly fond of Love Letters, stylishly directed by the underrated William Dieterle, and before we leave 1945 I wanted to call attention to the performances of the four main female characters, each of whom is a strong woman. Take Gladys Cooper as Beatrice Remington, for instance. Miss Remington has adopted an orphan and raised her alone, which would have been an unusual thing to do at the time. Or consider Anita Louise in what would usually be the nothing part of Joseph Cotten's fiancee, Helen. When she learns that he's interested in another woman, she doesn't rant, rave, collapse, or try to make him feel guilty. She has the right kind of pride to want only a man who wants her.
Ann Richards plays Dilly Carson, a woman who becomes even more interesting on subsequent viewings. Alan Quinton (Cotten) is taken to a party at her place by a friend who thinks the guys can pick up women there. Dilly has no trouble in saying no to an inebriated Quinton, but the implication is clear (despite the Code) that under other circumstances she might have said yes. She's interested in being friends, and is indeed a true friend to Quinton.
The star of the film, of course, is Jennifer Jones, who plays only one woman, but two characters: Victoria Morland, who fell in love and married a man because of the sentiments expressed in his letters, but in person he seems quite different (because his buddy Quinton actually wrote them)--she may even have killed her husband; and Singleton, who has amnesia and begins her life from the beginning. What would that be like, and can the two women ever be joined into one? Singleton seems to feel none of the restrictions a woman might encounter in British society of the time.
Love Letters has amnesia, borrowings from Cyrano de Bergerac, coincidences and implausibilities, and yet, it holds together and holds up well. The directing, the quality performances, and Victor Young's music, have much to do with this, but some of the credit must go to the screenplay Ayn Rand adapted from a novel by Christopher Massie. The movie is anything but a Randian tract, but it may not be coincidence that all the women seem so strong.
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1946 was a terrific year for films, and some very good ones have to be left out of a top ten.
Top 10 for 1946:
The Best Years of Our Lives
A Matter of Life and Death (Stairway to Heaven)
Notorious
Beauty and the Beast
The Strange Love of Martha Ivers
Three Strangers
The Yearling
The Locket
Cluny Brown
Till the End of Time
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For years I avoided A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, expecting it to be sentimental. Was I ever wrong. This is a fairly grim film, despite the relatively optimistic resolution. The Nolan family is desperately poor, and literally every penny counts. The father, Johnny (James Dunn), is loved by all, but his drinking wastes much of the small income he makes as a singing waiter. The mother, Katie (Dorothy McGuire), keenly feels the unfairness of having to be the one responsible adult in the family. Francie (Peggy Ann Garner) is very bright, but she’s held back in school a year so that she can help her younger brother Neeley (Ted Donaldson). The children almost never have enough to eat.
Ted Donaldson was a guest at the recent TCM film festival. He’s now in his early eighties and appears to be in good health. His parents were both musicians; one job his mother held was playing the organ for radio soap operas. After he failed at learning several musical instruments, his parents decided he might have a gift for acting when he told a story that took up twelve minutes of a radio show’s allotted fifteen minutes. He was cast in a Broadway play, where he was noticed by Harry Cohn. This took him to Hollywood, where he played opposite Cary Grant in Once Upon a Time and then won the part of Neeley in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.
Elia Kazan spent the first two or three days on the set with the entire cast sitting around a large table and reading their parts as if it were a play. Donaldson said that by the time they started filming, they knew how their shoes felt on the apartment floor and believed that the kitchen was a real kitchen, and the audience did, too. Donaldson said he thinks that Dorothy McGuire gives one of the greatest performances ever by an American actress.
As a ten-year-old he had a big crush on Joan Blondell, whom he described as radiating warmth and sex appeal offscreen just as she does onscreen. He told her that when he grew up he wanted to marry her. After filming was over, he asked for her picture. She gave him a photo autographed “Love, Joan ‘I’m waiting for you’ Blondell.”
After the film was shown, a woman who had been sitting near Ted Donaldson told him he had left his water bottle. He quipped, “That’s not water, that’s vodka!”
Kazan liked to cast actors for who they were, not simply for their acting ability. James Dunn was a lovable alcoholic whose drinking had hurt his career, and that’s why Kazan wanted him to play Johnny Nolan.
Wikipedia has a good summary of Betty Smith’s novel, which went back and forth in time, from the meeting of Johnny and Katie to Francie’s romance when she’s grown up and in college. The script wisely focuses on the pivotal year or two in Francie’s life. The film gives the full emotional potential of every scene without dropping into sentimentality or manipulating the audience. The characters and emotions seem real, and that’s why the picture holds up so well.
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Thanks for bumping this thread, Bogey, so we can get ready for 1946 come Sunday.
I would consider Teresa Wright a lead in BEST YEARS alongside Dana Andrews and Fredric March, with everyone else supporting, but it's not an easy call.
Don't know if anyone else will be nominating performances from THREE STRANGERS, but I would regard Geraldine Fitzgerald, Sydney Greenstreet, and Peter Lorre all as leads.
Joseph Cotten in DUEL IN THE SUN seems like a lead to me, along with Jennifer Jones and ColumboFan's darling Greg, rather than a supporting actor like Charles Bickford, Lionel Barrymore, Butterfly McQueen, etc.
Then there's Lizabeth Scott, who probably has more screen time in THE STRANGE LOVE OF MARTHA IVERS than Barbara Stanwyck, which may suggest that she is a lead like Barbara and Van Heflin.
I'll put Jane Wyman in the lead category where Oscar placed her, although this takes away what would be an easy win for her in the supporting category.
Using the year of initial release completely changes my choices for 1946. If confined to the Oscar ballot, I'd easily pick Laurence Olivier for HENRY V and Celia Johnson for BRIEF ENCOUNTER. But now they've already competed in earlier years. I
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Skimpole mentioned having difficulty finding enough performances for his Best Supporting Actress list, so here are at least a couple of suggestions for the years between 1940 and 1967. None of these performances was nominated. I've tried to use Oscar-eligible years rather than imdb years of initial release, and have excluded foreign films because the rules of Oscar eligibility for performances in foreign films are a bit arcane. Obviously there are many wonderful performances in foreign films during this time period.
Supporting Actresses 1940-1967
1940: Ida Lupino, THEY DRIVE BY NIGHT; Lucile Watson, WATERLOO BRIDGE
1941: Paulette Goddard, HOLD BACK THE DAWN; Ona Munson, THE SHANGHAI GESTURE
1942: Betty Field, KINGS ROW; Mary Astor, THE PALM BEACH STORY
1943: Veronica Lake, SO PROUDLY WE HAIL; Jane Withers, THE NORTH STAR (bad film, good performance)
1944: Faye Emerson, THE MASK OF DIMITRIOS; Cornelia Otis Skinner, THE UNINVITED
1945: Joan Blondell, A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN; Wanda Hendrix, CONFIDENTIAL AGENT
1946: Mme. Konstantin, NOTORIOUS; Myrna Loy, THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES
1947: Helen Walker, NIGHTMARE ALLEY; Kathleen Byron, BLACK NARCISSUS; Fay Bainter, DEEP VALLEY; Ann Dvorak, THE LONG NIGHT; Ann Dvorak, THE PRIVATE AFFAIRS OF BEL AMI; Esther Howard, BORN TO KILL; Ruth Nelson, THE SEA OF GRASS
1948: Mary Astor, ACT OF VIOLENCE; Jayne Meadows, ENCHANTMENT
1949: Margaret Wycherly, WHITE HEAT; Flora Robson, SARABAND FOR DEAD LOVERS
1950: Judith Anderson, THE FURIES; Ann Dvorak, A LIFE OF HER OWN
1951: Hildegard Knef, DECISION BEFORE DAWN; Eve Arden, GOODBYE, MY FANCY
1952: Jean Peters, O. HENRY’S FULL HOUSE; Marie Windsor, THE NARROW MARGIN; Edith Evans, THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING ERNEST
1953: Nanette Fabray, THE BAND WAGON; Maureen O’Sullivan, ALL I DESIRE
1954: Brenda de Banzie, HOBSON’S CHOICE; Ruth Roman, THE FAR COUNTRY
1955: Jessie Royce Landis, TO CATCH A THIEF; Aline MacMahon, THE MAN FROM LARAMIE
1956: Marie Windsor, THE KILLING; Marisa Pavan, DIANE; Nina Foch, THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
1957: Ruth Attaway, THE YOUNG DON’T CRY; Kay Thompson, FUNNY FACE
1958: Kay Walsh, THE HORSE’S MOUTH; Athene Seyler, THE INN OF THE SIXTH HAPPINESS; Irene Worth, ORDERS TO KILL
1959: Edith Evans, THE NUN’S STORY; Sybil Thorndike, SHAKE HANDS WITH THE DEVIL
1960: Jo Van Fleet, WILD RIVER; Wendy Hiller, SONS AND LOVERS
1961: Zohra Lampert, SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS; Beatrice Kay, UNDERWORLD USA
1962: Claire Bloom, THE CHAPMAN REPORT (ludicrous film, solid performance); Vera Miles, THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALENCE
1963: Claire Bloom, THE HAUNTING; Wendy Hiller, TOYS IN THE ATTIC
1964: Capucine, THE SEVENTH DAWN; Siobhan McKenna, OF HUMAN BONDAGE
1965: Martita Hunt, BUNNY LAKE IS MISSING; Flora Robson, YOUNG CASSIDY
1966: Frances Reid, SECONDS; Lila Kedrova, TORN CURTAIN
1967: Jo Van Fleet, COOL HAND LUKE; Billie Whitelaw, CHARLIE BUBBLES
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In our recent poll, I voted for Vivien Leigh in SIDEWALKS OF LONDON (ST. MARTIN'S LANE) as best actress of 1938, although the film wasn't released in the U.S. until after GWTW.
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Saw most of WILL SUCCESS SPOIL ROCK HUNTER? last night. It's definitely better than THE GIRL CAN'T HELP IT. Okay, that's not exactly high praise. It did have some amusing moments. Tony Randall is an upgrade from Tom Ewell. Jayne Mansfield is believable as a girl who would do anything for stardom; in THE GIRL CAN'T HELP IT, she's not at all convincing as the girl who doesn't want to be a star.
I did keep getting Jayne and her poodle mixed up, they looked so much alike. One of them kept yelping a lot. This was allegedly funny. Joan Blondell stole every scene she was in.
Also watched ILLEGAL last night. Edward G. Robinson was tailor made for the role of the ambitious D.A. who collapses after he sends an innocent man to chair. I've always liked Nina Foch, but she could have looked more attractive (wardrobe, hair, lighting could have been better), and she has given even stronger performances (EXECUTIVE SUITE, THE TEN COMMANDMENTS). Hugh Marlowe, Edward Platt, and Albert Dekker stand out in support, and Jayne Mansfield has a small part she doesn't mess up. I don't get the "grown woman with little girl voice" as being sexy or attractive, but obviously others do. ILLEGAL was worth seeing once, but possibly not twice.
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A few notes about some of the unseen films:
TCM shows CHRISTMAS IN CONNECTICUT regularly every Christmas. Barbara Stanwyck, Dennis Morgan, and S.Z. Sakall are all in top form. An engaging comedy which TCM has more or less rescued from oblivion.
THE CLOCK is one of the best wartime romances. Judy Garland and Robert Walker meet cute in Grand Central Station, and they only have his two-day leave to fall in love, undergo difficulties, and find their way back to each other. The two stars and director Vincente Minnelli turn what could have been a routine script into something special.
I believe Lawrence and other noir fans will enjoy CORNERED and FALLEN ANGEL. CORNERED, which improved on second viewing for me, deals with the fascinating subject of Nazis being tracked down in South America after the war. Most of the actors besides Dick Powell are not so well known (to me, anyway), but it's an interesting film, despite a rather complex plot. Edward Dmytryk was doing his best work in the 40s. FALLEN ANGEL has men falling in love with waitress Linda Darnell. No surprises there. When she is murdered, there are plenty of suspects, chief among them Dana Andrews as the drifter who's new in town. Rich girl Alice Faye believes in him, but the investigating officer (Charles Bickford) doesn't. Percy Kilbride has a nice turn as the diner owner. Preminger in the 40s and 50s was an excellent director.
JOHNNY ANGEL is another good film noir, atmospherically directed by Edwin L. Marin. George Raft is reasonably good in the title role as a man investigating his father's death. Claire Trevor and Margaret Wycherly deliver their usual strong performances.
THE WICKED LADY is one of the classic Gainsborough melodramas. James Mason plays a dashing highwayman, and Margaret Lockwood is a well-bred lady who discovers the dark side is where she belongs.
MURDER, HE SAYS is a dark farce with Fred MacMurray as the normal guy who gets entangled with a family of murderous hillbillies led by Marjorie Main. This was a big hit at the initial TCM film festival in 2010 and subsequently on TCM.
KITTY is a favorite of Robert Osborne, an 18th-century variation of FOREVER AMBER, with Paulette Goddard as the heroine who rises from poverty to riches, thanks to her beauty, with the help of Ray Milland and Cecil Kellaway (who plays the painter Gainsborough). Very well directed by Mitchell Leisen.
CHILDREN OF PARADISE (LES ENFANTS DU PARADIS) is one of the classic French films. Arletty is the woman desired by many men. Most of the characters come from the theatrical world, and performances from several kinds of theater are shown.
Another French classic, if less well-known, is LES DAMES DU BOIS DE BOULOGNE, script by Jean Cocteau, direction by Robert Bresson, back in the days before Bresson developed his dislike of professional actors. A young couple's romance is interfered with by the well-bred ladies mentioned in the title. Well acted, and with more human emotion than some of Bresson's later films.
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There have been some great performances in my opinion that weren't even nominated:
Rosalind Russell in His Girl Friday, Lee Remick in Anatomy of a Murder and Wild River, Jo Van Fleet in Wild River, Shelley Duvall and Sissy Spacek in Three Women, Cary Grant in The Awful Truth, James Mason in Lolita
You've mentioned some really wonderful performances, especially Lee Remick and Jo Van Fleet in Wild River.
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If you've always wondered what Joan Crawford would have been like in a Hitchcock film, try ABOVE SUSPICION, a Hitchcock-like thriller also starring Fred MacMurray.
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I'd like to mention Turi Pandolfini, whose name I had to dig out of the full credits at imdb for Rome, Open City. He's listed as "Grandfather," which must be the old man who refuses to get out of his bed even when the Nazis insist everyone has to get out of the apartment building. He steals the movie even from Anna Magnani, which is no small accomplishment. How much energy, how much life force those two bring to the film. When they exit, my interest sags. The final act is ideological melodrama, as Rossellini tries to reconcile Catholicism and Communism, choosing homophobia as one common denominator.
The old man who won't get out of bed, though, doesn't know anything about the ideological dilemmas of intellectuals, and he's the character who represents Rome, Open City at its best. A salute to Turi Pandolfini!
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I'm a huge fan of Jeanine Basinger, especially THE STAR MACHINE and A WOMAN'S VIEW. Essential reading.
One of Basinger's suggestions is that an actor needs three films: the one where the actor gets noticed; the film that suggests that the actor is a star; and the one that consolidates the reputation.
Plenty of actors never find the follow-up film. Remember Carrie Snodgress, who made such a hit in DIARY OF A MAD HOUSEWIFE? Many of you will say no, and that's the point. She never had the second film. She later did one of the DIRTY HARRY pics, but never became a star.
A recent example: after PEARL HARBOR--assuming you remember that film--Josh Hartnett was considered a can't miss for stardom. His subsequent films were duds, and his career evaporated.
I haven't seen any of Wanda Hendrix's films other than her first, CONFIDENTIAL AGENT, in which she delivers a terrific performance at age 16. But she never became a star.
In TERESA Pier Angeli seems like an Italian or Italian-American Ingrid Bergman, delivering an outstanding performance. She's perfectly OK in films like SOMEBODY UP THERE LIKES ME, but she no longer has that special charisma. It's as if those people who ruined Vicki Lester's looks when she first did a screen test in A STAR IS BORN had done it to Pier Angeli in real life.
Her sister, Marisa Pavan, is good in THE MAN IN THE GRAY FLANNEL SUIT and even better as Catherine de Medici in DIANE. A very attractive young woman who can act up a storm. I would have thought she was sure to be a star.
How many people saw Susan Kohner in IMITATION OF LIFE and marked her down as a future star? Good-looking, talented, she even had a dad who was a prominent agent.
After seeing Ina Balin in FROM THE TERRACE, I would have expected a bigger career. Hey, maybe I just like 1950s brunettes!
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Katina Paxinou is one of the few actresses who can be as scary as Blanche Yurka. We all agree about the most memorable scene in CONFIDENTIAL AGENT. (Wanda Hendrix is so good in this film it's unfortunate she couldn't sustain a big career.) Paxinou is also mean to Jean Simmons in UNCLE SILAS, coming up in a future year, but there's one even scarier thought: what if she were your mother? See ROCCO AND HIS BROTHERS for details.
Most Moving Scene of the Year (already mentioned as one of the best musical moments): James Dunn singing "Annie Laurie" in A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN, with the reactions of Dorothy McGuire.
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Maureen O'Hara as a possible villainess - THE FALLEN SPARROW, recently shown on TCM.
There's no reason she couldn't have played femme fatales like the Lizabeth Scott character in DEAD RECKONING.
Audrey Hepburn was dressed in off-the-rack clothes in TWO FOR THE ROAD to give her a more contemporary look, and not surprisingly, she rocked them just as if they were designer duds. I've often wondered if Audrey could have played a villain. TWO FOR THE ROAD is unbalanced because as soon as Albert Finney is mean to her, most of the audience simply hates him and takes Audrey's side.
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This year Best Actor is close between two sympathetic villains; Best Supporting Actor matches British star against American character actor, equally deserving; no fewer than sixteen ought to have been nominated for Best Actress, with the top four almost too close to call; and the top three in the Best Supporting Actress race are so divergent in character that it's hard to choose.
Best Actor of 1945:
Laird Cregar, HANGOVER SQUARE****
Edward G. Robinson, SCARLET STREET
Dana Andrews, FALLEN ANGEL
Joseph Cotten, LOVE LETTERS
Robert Walker, THE CLOCK
Honorable mention: Pierre Brasseur, CHILDREN OF PARADISE; Trevor Howard, BRIEF ENCOUNTER; Fred MacMurray, MURDER, HE SAYS; Ray Milland, THE LOST WEEKEND; Tom Neal, DETOUR; George Sanders, THE STRANGE AFFAIR OF UNCLE HARRY
Best Actress of 1945:
Celia Johnson, BRIEF ENCOUNTER****
Wendy Hiller, I KNOW WHERE I'M GOING
Dorothy McGuire, A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN
Jennifer Jones, LOVE LETTERS
Gene Tierney, LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN
Joan Crawford, MILDRED PIERCE
Arletty, CHILDREN OF PARADISE
Ann Savage, DETOUR
Bette Davis, THE CORN IS GREEN
Paulette Goddard, KITTY
Joan Bennett, SCARLET STREET
Maria Casares, LES DAMES DU BOIS DU BOULOGNE
Judy Garland, THE CLOCK
Greer Garson, THE VALLEY OF DECISION
Signe Hasso, THE HOUSE ON 92nd STREET
Margaret Lockwood, THE WICKED LADY
Note: By my count, at least five of these films could have been called "The Wicked Lady."
Best Supporting Actor of 1945:
Michael Redgrave, DEAD OF NIGHT****
James Dunn, A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN
Dan Duryea, SCARLET STREET
John Dall, THE CORN IS GREEN
Jack Carson, MILDRED PIERCE
Honorable mention: Charles Bickford, FALLEN ANGEL; Leo G. Carroll, SPELLBOUND; Percy Kilbride, FALLEN ANGEL; Raymond Massey, HOTEL BERLIN; Lloyd Nolan, A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN
Best Supporting Actress of 1945:
Joan Blondell, A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN****
Wanda Hendrix, CONFIDENTIAL AGENT
Anna Magnani, ROME, OPEN CITY
Ethel Barrymore, THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE
Andrea King, HOTEL BERLIN
Honorable mention: Gladys Cooper, LOVE LETTERS; Linda Darnell, FALLEN ANGEL; Faye Emerson, HOTEL BERLIN; Geraldine Fitzgerald, THE STRANGE AFFAIR OF UNCLE HARRY; Angela Lansbury, THE PORTRAIT OF DORIAN GRAY; Marjorie Main, MURDER, HE SAYS; Mildred Natwick, THE ENCHANTED COTTAGE; Ann Richards, LOVE LETTERS; Flora Robson, SARATOGA TRUNK; Dame May Whitty, MY NAME IS JULIA ROSS
Best Juvenile Performance: Darryl Hickman, LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN
Best Ensemble: A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN
Virginia Ham Award: Katina Paxinou, CONFIDENTIAL AGENT
Note: When contacted by our reporter, Miss Paxinou said, "Who ees thees rat person who make fun of me? Bah! I throw my head back and laugh HA HA HA HA HA!"
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We have thoroughly enjoyed the first season of THE CATCH, now ended. There are only ten episodes, so it would be easy to "catch" up. Peter Krause (back on television! yay!) is a con man; Mireille Enos is the private investigator he loves, dumps, robs, and then . . . it takes off from there. Lots of actors unknown to me, except for Alimi Ballard from NUMBERS, but all are quite good. Lesley Nicol (Mrs. Patmore from DOWNTON ABBEY) turns up as a criminal in the last three episodes of the season.
The cinematography is the exact opposite of darkfests like THE AMERICANS where being able to recognize characters in the gloom is sometimes a significant accomplishment. The colors are bright and glossy, the lighting upbeat, as befits the story. Not the kind of show that wins awards--it would need darkness and violence for that--but marvelously entertaining. I did not think the writers could keep up the twists and momentum. I was wrong.
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Evans Evans was married to John Frankenheimer.
Swoosie Kurtz was named after a popular song from the WWII era: "Alexander was a swoose, half swan, half goose."
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I'll second the mention of Warlock, which also has great cinematography by Joseph MacDonald. Others I like include:
Hombre
These Thousand Hills
The Hanging Tree
They Came to Cordura
Seven Men from Now
Man of the West
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I'm glad that TCM is showing these films again. They are not like anything else I've ever seen (see original post).
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1945 was a very good year for films. The second ten would be a top ten for many years.
Top 10 for 1945:
Children of Paradise
Brief Encounter
Leave Her to Heaven
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Mildred Pierce
Love Letters
Hangover Square
I Know Where I'm Going
Scarlet Street
Dead of Night
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Tom, thank you for posting Lori's amazing tribute to John Garfield. Although I'm a great admirer of Garfield, I never think of him as one of the best-looking actors of his era, yet in some of these shots he is breathtakingly handsome. The variety of looks shows how many different ways he could be cast.
Lawrence makes a great point about the roles Garfield might have played, had he lived. He would have made a sensational Don Corleone in THE GODFATHER. I'd like to have seen his Captain Queeg in THE CAINE MUTINY, too.
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Good one, Tom!
1944's award for Most Memorable Prop is a tie between two portraits:
1. The portrait Dana Andrews falls in love with in Laura.
2. The oversize portrait of Mary Meredith that the director of the Mary Meredith Clinic keeps behind her desk (Cornelia Otis Skinner in The Uninvited).
Portraits are an important motif in several films of this era, including The Portrait of Dorian Gray, Portrait of Jennie, and Pandora and the Flying Dutchman.
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Your Favourite Performances from 1929 to present are...
in Your Favorites
Posted
Hi, Kay! A little more about THREE STRANGERS: All of Negulesco's black & white films (mostly made at WB) are worth seeking out. As for his later career, he either could never quite master widescreen, got too comfortable with life at Fox, his real talent was for noir, or some combination of the above.
THREE STRANGERS: Geraldine Fitzgerald believes in the superstition of buying a lottery ticket with two strangers, who turn out to be a lawyer (Sydney Greenstreet) and a shady guy (Peter Lorre). The good news: the three of them win the lottery! The bad news: the three of them win the lottery! Rosalind Ivan has a most enjoyable turn as a batty upper-crust lady. John Huston wrote the original script (I believe even before he directed THE MALTESE FALCON), it kicked around for several years, as scripts do, and Negulesco finally made it. Huston hated the romantic subplot Negulesco added, which features Peter Lorre. Negulesco is less of an ironist than Huston and more of a romantic, so this works, as far as I'm concerned.
One of the most fascinating aspects of the film for me is that for the first two-thirds of the film we're not really sure what kind of person Crystal (Fitzgerald) will turn out to be: sympathetic heroine, villain, redeemable? Part of the suspense is wondering how this will work out.
Negulesco fought to cast Geraldine Fitzgerald in the lead and fought to cast Peter Lorre instead of a more conventional leading man. It certainly makes for an unusual film.