sineast

July 12, 2009

> {quote:title=JackFavell wrote:}{quote}

> Harvey is a great choice for Sebastian, but you just made me realize that I have always pictured Sebastian as a variation on Montgomery Clift. Such is the power of suggestion....

My doctor, my son. My son, my doctor. Things could get confusing in that household,

as if they're not already strange enough. Move a couch into the elevator.

Would have been a great cameo for Larry. Wouldn't see his face until near the end, then

he could turn to the camera, medium shot, and give a little mischievous grin, though that

would be out of place with the rest of the film.

July 12, 2009

Shame on you, Holly. Poor old Dennis Price always seems to get overlooked. Despite

Guinness's fine turn in those eight roles, Price's character is really at the heart of

the plot, and probably has as much, if not more, screen time than Sir Alec. He does

a fine job of portraying Louis as a polite, gentlemanly, man about town, who has

learned to hide his humble origins, but is also a striver with a meticulous plan to

work his way to the inheritance via murder. His problem was, with his habit of close

record keeping, he wrote down one thing too many. Hope this shows up on TCM soon,

it really is quite a unique movie.

July 12, 2009

Sebastian probably did exist in real time and space, but his tale is told by others, so

there's something a little ghostly about him, except for his obvious desires. I guess

one could view his death on at least two levels-the symbolic, where he plays all those

games with Death before the inevitable loss, and the concrete, where certain of his

actions lead to his death. One could see either way, or both. The problem I have with

all of Violet's musings on the eternal flow of life and death, nature's winners and losers,

is that there is a distinction to be made: The beasts of nature don't act with malice afore-

thought. The birds eat the turtles merely to survive. With humans, it's different. Sebastian

does act with malice in his exploitation of the poor natives, and his survival really doesn't

depend on them. So humans can opt out of the bloody necessities of nature, and that makes

her view of life much too limiting and without nuance.

I think Bronxgirl was the first to point out the parallel to Moby Dick, especially in

reference to the color white, that vast whiteness and what it might mean. There are

some similarities, but Moby Dick is also a separate work, with its own vast interpretive

history, and it can stand on its own. Haven't read it in many years, but it's worth the effort.

Though we only see Sebastian fleetingly, I've always imagined Laurence Harvey in that

white suit. He seems perfect for the part of the egocentric manipulator with high style.

Olivia appeared in a similar device (maybe it was the same one) in one of her later films.

Throw in Joan Fontaine and you'd have a three-star circus.

July 12, 2009

It's been a while since I've seen it too, Holly. It seemed to show up fairly regularly

on TCM, maybe because of the prominence of the three stars. It will be interesting

to see how the details jive with a general overview of the film. I've never read the original

one-act play, but apparently there were a lot of things added for the movie version.

Instructive to read the play and compare it with the movie.

July 12, 2009

Very perceptive piece on what is truly one of the grandest of all black comedies. Yes,

Guinness is marvelous in his multiple roles, but Dennis Price is sometimes overlooked

due to this. Price did an excellent job as the discarded heir trying to kill his way up

the chain. Though the screenplay is marvelously witty, the concept is rather broad,

so the whole picture is hard to take too seriously, and Price strikes just the right

tone so that it's hard not to be, to some extent, sympathetic to his character, however

wrong his actions. A true comedy classic.

July 12, 2009

Despite the title Suddenly, Last Summer is about anything other than suddenness.

It is an ancient tale, starting eons ago, about life, the struggle for existence, and

despite every effort in that struggle, inevitable death. What happened that summer

is what has been happening every summer (and every other season) since time

immemorial. The only things changing are the transient characters who move through

this endless story. They will be replaced by others as surely as the tides change.

White is the significant color in the movie. Catherine is refreshed by finally be allowed

to smoke a cigarette, a white cigarette, though the inside of the cigarette is anything

but white. And while she draws on her cig, the white outer color is slowly burned away,

as if with each puff, each precious inhalation she takes, a little more of the white is

burned away, just as her life is slowly burning away with every breath she takes. And

inside, unexposed to her superficial view, the corruption of darkness is hidden, un-

noticed, but still there, just as it is in her own life. White is also the color of ghosts and

bleached bones, just as Sebastian is dressed in white, never directly seen, except in

the narrative of others. He is a ghost, a ghost who, though dead but really alive, will

be rendered by the children he manipulated into true death, and will eventually, like

all that lives, be reduced to his inner non-being, a skeleton, bleached white by the

sun.

There definitely seems to be a connection, intentional or not, to Moby Dick. Besides

the obvious iconography of the great white whale and the hunt for it through all time, there

is, in an important even if secondary role, the figure of the cannibal, Queequeg. He earns

his 'daily bread', though he is a flesh eater, by his harpoon, which he uses to penetrate

the flesh of an animal that is innocent, and never meant him or his shipmates any harm.

In the same manner, Sebastian, whose namesake saint was penetrated by arrows, uses

his 'harpoon' to also penetrate the flesh of the innocent, those who never meant him any

harm. And like the great white whale, the innocent rise up against those who meant them harm.

And, as a further possible nod to the novel, they turn into cannibals, just as Queequeg has

followed the opposite path, and renounced it.

Even in small matters, there is a connection. Her man Melville, the very name, speaks to

the sexual confusion that is obvious in the story of Violet, Sebastian, and Catherine. And

returning to the uses of the color white, we are reminded that Violet hails Sebastian as a

poet, but are his verses anything more than so many blank, white pages?

A final possibility is that the white ghost, Sebastian, who is viewed through the eyes of

others, never existed in the first place, is a figurative ghost, who haunts the psyche of

two troubled women, who cannot stand to live without their own illusions, their own

delusions, their own dreams. Could Sebastian, that figure always seeming to be disappearing

toward the bleached white horizon, be an invention of troubled minds, two troubled minds

locked in battle over something that doesn't exist outside their thoughts, two women, battling

over who will be the only one alone to escape?

July 11, 2009

It was stormy and dark, the night. I held it closely to my visual apparati. Oh Yes. Yes. Yes.

Hollywood in the early 50s was a dream town for me. Writing, directing, working with other

geniuses like myself. And then there were the starlets, hundreds of them. I'd invite myself

over to one of their apartments (never let it be said that Gadge didn't know how to save a

dollar) on the pretense of giving an acting lesson for those new to cinema, then liquor them

up good, and go about my erotic business. Yeah, I hear you saying, not original, as a matter

of fact pretty sleazy. Yes, I agree, but fellow movie fans, it worked. As my nickname implies,

I've always been of a practical bent.

Well, one night I went over to see a promising young thespian by the name of Marilyn. She

was going out with a some schmoe named Bob, who worked at an ariplane factory, but he was out of

town, on a trip back to New England. Well, I started out with my usual routine, but alas,

I was not destined to reach my ultimate goal. No sooner did I pour the first drink, then this Marilyn took out a copy of The German Ideology and handed it to me. I took a look inside. Damn

it was in German. "Oh, I'm studying German, so I can read Marx, it's so continental," she

said. Oh no Gadge, I said to myself, how am I going to score now. I had a quick non-cinematic

flashback to my days as a comrade in New York. Hell, we'd never actually read any of that

stuff. I tried to mumble a few phrases about capital, theory of labor, whatever came into my head.

But Marilyn, this blonde beauty, spotted me as a fake a mile away. I usually don't get spotted,

you know I used to be an actor, but she saw through me completely. I tried a few more of

those old phrases, but it was only getting worse. She stood up. "Well, Mr. Kazan, I'm rather tired

and I have an Engels' monograph to read early tomorrow, before I go to the studio to shoot some

publicity photos. So. it was certainly nice meeting you, hope I see you sometime around the

lot." Well, my friends, I knew I was a goner. I could have tried some rough stuff, like I did

every once in a while, when some actress didn't appreciate my artistic genius to its full extent.

But I figured, what the hay, I'll just have to spend a ten spot. I wished Marilyn well with her

studies, left, and went to the nearest bar.

Funny how these things work out, not just in the Wood, but in the real world. A few years later

I walked into a movie theater and who should be up there on the screen, larger than life and

twice as pretty, but Marilyn. Now everybody knows her tragic story. The pills, the affairs with

the Kennedy clan, the secret lesbian relationship with Thelma Ritter. And to think I might

have played my own small role in her life, along with those no-talents. Well, that's life. Gadge

will just have to, as the kids say today, keep on keeping on. But it still rankles that a man of

superior intellectual abilities like me was thrown over for a bunch of German second-raters.

Whatever. I'm going to inform. The waiter. I want another scotch and soda.

July 11, 2009

I think I really didn't understand the extent of the international communist conspiracy until

one night in New York. It was at a little get together with some theater friends down at somebody's

apartment in the Village. I'd been hearing a lot of talk about what a great thing communism

was, but I hadn't thought about it too much, I'm more of an instinctive kind of guy. And that

night, thank goodness, my instincts were working. So in spite of all the talk, I turned and

took a good look at Zero, and I knew right then I was looking at a potential second Stalin.

Then I turned to the other side and saw Strasberg, and I knew deep down, if something

wasn't done by somebody with enough guts, Lee would end up running the New York oblast

of the coming Soviet Union of America. Since that night, I've never regretted any action I took

that would make sure that never came to pass.

Unpublished manuscript excerpt from a memoir tentatively titled "A Streetcar named

Dzerzhinsky"

July 10, 2009

Yep, the CPUSA was not exactly a revolutionary juggernaut, however much the extreme

anti-Communists tried to make it seem one. The Hollywood comrades did probably have

better eats than other members. And yes, there were some spies in the party or under-

ground, but it is doubtful they ever made up a great deal of the membership. Probably

many people joined, as CineSage noted, because of their interest in progressive causes,

especially civil rights. That's why Kazan seemed so ridiculous when trying to present

the CPUSA as some nefarious organization just about to take over the country. It's especially

ridiculous when applied to his little circle of theater and movie people. Maybe he realized that

himself, but he had a career to save-his own.

If I recall it correctly, Bogie and the other folks who first supported the Hollywood Ten, did so

as a free speech issue. I don't think they believed the Ten were actually communists, and when

they found out they were, that changed everything. DC + Hollywood. It's inevitable that this

would make a fascinating little sidelight in our history.

July 10, 2009

Yes, indeed, but with Mike, it wouldn't be your grandad's Blighty. I know it is fiscally

impossible, but I would love for there to be a version of TCM that showed only foreign film

classics, that way one could see these films numerous times instead of just here and there,

every now and then. Every once in a while, Sundance or IFC will show a Mike Leigh film,

but it's a long time between showings. Sorry to go off topic, comrades. Once again,

let's return to the talented and saucy Dame Helen.

July 10, 2009

Robinson Crusoe on Mars: Red Planet TGIF

Next: The Long Good Friday

July 10, 2009

Yes indeed, Holly, I did see her in the Cook, etc. She was good. As with so many

other films, it's been a while, and that's one movie that really demands more than

one viewing. I'm pretty sure it won't turn up on TCM, but maybe I'll get it one of these

days.

Thinking about this English movie, it suddenly came into mind that one of my favorite

directors is Mike Leigh, though he didn't direct that one. Haven't seen him mentioned here

too much, but maybe he has been. I haven't seen one of his movies in some time, probably

why he wasn't on my mind before, but I would place him among the best of contemporary

directors period. He may be a bit of an acquired taste, but he is fantastic. All hail

Mr. Leigh.

Now back to the lovely and talented Dame Helen.

July 10, 2009

What I most admire about Dame Helen, besides the high level of her acting, is

her willingness to make whatever sacrifices are necessary to ensure that the

integrity of her own role is maintained, especially when she goes full-frontal when

this will aid in the artistic presentation of the overall piece. Bravo. Bravissimo.

July 9, 2009

A few that come to mind, almost immediately:

Treasure Island

Jane Eyre

The Narrow Margin

The Defiant Ones

Midnight Run

July 9, 2009

Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice: Perfectly Forgettable Foursome

Next: The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake

July 9, 2009

Hello, butterscotchgreer.

Uh, oh, time to fess up. I'm really not a big fan of musicals. I like many of what people

consider classic musicals, like Singin' in the Rain, On the Town, etc. but in

general I would probably take the original non-musical version over the musical one

most times. I just happened to remember there was a musical version of +Ball of

Fire+, but I've never seen it. But, if I have time, maybe I'll try to catch it if it shows

up on TCM. It is hard to go wrong with Virginia Mayo in Technicolor.

July 9, 2009

Holly, the point about homosexuality is an interesting one. Aunt Puppeteer seems to

know what Sebastian is up to, though it's never very explicit. Back then, there were

probably a lot more people shaking their heads than there are today. Hard to know

how people viewed this fifty years ago. I imagine it played mostly straight. There's

also the trust in psychiatry of fifty years ago that today seems overdone. And all

the talk about life, death, survival, etc., at least in the terms expressed in the film

just doesn't fit like it did back in 1959. All in all, a little florid, like the plants in Auntie's

menagerie. But the film is so solid, it still is enjoyable, even with the camp mixed in.

One of the strongest, if most obvious, impressions I came away with was the sheer

bravado of Auntie's manipulations. Thankfully, Catherine didn't break.

July 9, 2009

Then there was Ministry of Fear set in England with, if I recall correctly, a typical

village fair where Milland wins a cake. Hope that shows up again, been a while since

I've seen it.

I happened to remember a musical version of Ball of Fire was made, and this sounds

like the one, titled A Song is Born from 1948. It starred Danny Kaye, Virginia Mayo

(hey, can't be too bad), and lots of jazz 'guest stars,' including Louis Armstrong. It

was directed by Howard Hawks, who directed Ball of Fire too. Now what is it they

say about sequels?

July 9, 2009

If SLS pops up, and the time schedule is right, I'll probably watch it. Haven't seen it

in quite a while. No doubt a good picture. That being said, this is one of those movies

that is hard to keep on two separate tracks, the somewhat straight ahead film with

plot and characters and meaning, and the camp elements in the movie. And watching it,

I know they'll pop up, exactly when and how many hard to tell, but they'll be there,

from the overgrown meat-eating garden to the psychiatrist's healing words to Liz in

her bathing suit. After 50 years, with this kind of overdrawn material, it's hard too see

how it could be otherwise. And when those two tracks get all mixed up, it'll be even

more cinema fun.

Liz and Monty's characters are the most sympathetic. And Sebastian would have been wise

to pack an AK-47 on his little jaunts to the beach. Kate, with all the Alpha and Omega,

human nature from the primordial ooze, is really just a master manipulatrice (only in

the movie of course). Let the fun begin.

July 9, 2009