TomJH
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Posts posted by TomJH
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*clore wrote: I may be biased, I knew a "Margo" who would do or say anything if it got her what she wanted at the moment. Once gotten, she would turn on you in a heartbeat.*
Right, clore. Joan Bennett's character was a viper, both in word and, more significantly, deed. It really is an education for many of us to deal with a manipulative personality. (Particularly if it is a "nice" guy or girl manipulator). I hope that you never got too badly stung by the Margo you knew.
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*Dargo wrote: good point about Bennett being the noir femme fatale*
I think her noirish character is one of the most intriguing aspects of Macomber Affair, even if the screenwriters do try to gain some audience sympathy for her in the film's final minutes. (She certainly doesn't get any from me).
Preston gets my sympathy, in spite of that ugly scene in which he takes out his frustration on Peck's servant. This is one of my favourite Preston performances.
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Thanks, clore. I didn't know that Quinn finally did play the Old Man.
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*FredCDobbs wrote: Let him go in alone, by himself, with a knife and face the lion.*
Fred, I think there's a difference between being brave and certifiable. Okay, okay, I know it worked for Tarzan.
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+Dargo wrote: (...'cause there's NOTHIN' scarier than ridin' over a twisty mountain road on your motorcycle and suddenly havin' one of those freakin' dumb deer jump RIGHT OUT in front of ya and outta nowhere, ya know!)+
Well, I'm sure the deer's a tad rattled, as well. I can just image him getting back to the doe and fawns, and telling them how he just saw another one of those freakin' dumb guys on a motorcycle again.
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Swithin, he was having a lot of mental health issues towards the end, and was also suffering, I believe, from writer's block. His best friend, Gary Cooper who used to go hunting with him all the time, had also died just two months before.
Four months before Coop's death, the two of them went hiking and talking for a final time together, in Sun Valley, Idaho.
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Jake, I've always thought that Anthony Quinn would have been far better casting in that film that Tracy. Mind you, I'm hardly brilliant in thinking that since Quinn seemed to play every kind of ethnic role around at the time.
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Dargo, not so much the visual look of Macomber Affair as much as Joan Bennett's character made me also think of film noir. Her character could very well be out of that genre. Poor Robert Preston, a noir victim.
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Yeah, Dargo, I'll never be able to connect with the rapport developed between Macomber and Wilson over their shared Hemingwayesque bond after confirming their masculinity by blowing off an animal's head.
I suppose there are still a lot of men that feel that way today. I've talked to countless hunters who talk of their "respect" for the animals that they kill. I'm always asking them, can't you just sneak up on them and take a photo instead? There's plenty of respect shown through photography, as well, I figure.
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Well, the never give her a loaded gun aspect seems pretty obvious to us once we've seen the film.
Still, when they first arrive for their African safari, Macomber is trying very hard to still make the marriage work. I know it's obvious to us that she's not worth it but, well, the poor sap's in love, you know, so he's setting himself up for, shall we say, a more eventful holiday than originally envisioned.
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I'm such a cream puff when it comes to animals, that whenever I see a cutaway shot of a real animal getting killed in a film such as this it makes me cringe a little. Hemingway would not have approved, of course, but I still liked his short story upon which this film was based very much.
The killing an animal for sport aspect when it comes to this film (among many many others) is one that I have to try to close one eye over. I admit, though, it is a challenge. In the case of this particular film, though, I do get caught up in the story and the group dynamic of the relationships of the three main characters.
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Since 95 per cent of that film has nothing to do with the Hemingway short story, it's a real stretch to call this film real Hemingway, obviously.
It's still an excellent film noir, however, and the opening sequence based on the actual short story is, for me, the highlight of the film. Memory tells me that Ernest Hemingway's name appears above the title (ironically). It's been a while since I've seen the film so I stand ready to be corrected about that part.
If Hemingway liked it, so be it, but only the first ten minutes is him. The rest of the embellishment, though, is truly dark and gripping, with Edmond O'Brien, third billed or not, giving an excellent account of himself, with more screen time than either Lancaster or Gardner.
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Anyone notice that after Gregory Peck shoots the lion, when you then see an image of a real lion rolling on the ground it looks like he has a spear through him?
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The film's last five minutes, in which Mrs. Macomber tries to justify her behaviour, is not part of Hemingway's story. Wilson changes suddenly from a cross examination of her to listening to her sympathetically.
I've always regarded that Hollywood wrapup as a minor blemish on an intelligent film. Watching the glee with which Joan Bennett needles her husband, and patronizes him (not to mention jumping into the sack with the great white hunter just to really rub in her contempt towards the husband) makes her a very special kind of b----h.
Bennett is wonderfully vindictive in those scenes, in my opinion, with a cutting edge to her dialogue delivery. Equally impressive, though is a sympathetic Robert Preston, ashamed of his public display of cowardice, and saddled with a wife who has every intention of rubbing it in.
Curiously, though, this film always seems to have "The End" card missing, as did this evening's print on TCM.
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As far as I'm concerned, you started at the top. Adam's Rib is easily the most clever film that they ever made, with both stars in top form, and a great supporting cast.
I suppose that Pat and Mike might be a distant second. On the whole, I prefer their comedies to their dramas. Sea of Grass may be their least appreciated film together.
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Boy, clore, you've really got a memory, digging up this thread from two years ago. And, yes, it did slow my typing down a tad to have those fingers crossed like that. After two years, however, it's difficult to straighten them out now.
Nevertheless, TCM finally is showing Macomber Affair tonight, without doubt one of the best screen adaptions of Hemingway, in my opinion. Only The Breaking Point ranks closer to my heart as a film adaption of the author's work.
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Yes, the film goes on way too long. But on the level of simplistic adventures films with a top list of stars, I find Guns pretty hard to resist. Though, I will admit, part of it may be nostalgia since it's the ONLY film that I saw at the show three times.
I enjoy that moment when David Niven informs Gregory Peck that he has just finished inspecting the Greek fishing vessel upon which they are to sail and he wants Peck to know that he can't swim.
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NoraCharles, it's been a few years since I read the short story but I remember loving it. I particularly liked Hemingway's description of the wounded lion, as he lay in the bushes, waiting for . . . oops, I don't want to give too much away here.
I'll let the readers here watch the movie version first.
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I would tend to agree with MissW that Cagney was probably encouraged to make the Captain a bit of a cartoon.
It would be interesting to know if that's the way the Captain was in the stage adaptions, as well, but I suspect that is the case.
Remember, back in his '30s Warners days, Cagney was an actor who usually embellished his characterizations with invented "bits of business" not in the screenplay to make the characters more interesting or real (such as the Rocky Sullivan shoulder hitch in Angels with Dirty Faces). Warners producers and directors did nothing to discourage the actor from doing this because they found that Cagney's suggestions usually made the scenes more interesting than originally written.
However, Mister Roberts was a well established stage property. While I know that Ford and Fonda went head-to-head over the Roberts characterization, I rather suspect (though I can't prove it) that, unlike those quickie scripts he got from Warners years before, Cagney probably respected the playwrite's established characterization of the Captain as already viewed by thousands in theatres in America, as well as London.
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I think this film will be a real treat for those who have never seen it, or those who haven't had a chance to view it in quite a while.
All three stars are effective in their roles, in my opinion, but I particularly liked Robert Preston as Macomber.
Again, folks, you might record this one. Who knows if TCM will show it again.
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TCM will be broadcasting THE MACOMBER AFFAIR. I don't know if it is a TCM premiere, but, if not, it will still be the channel's first showing of the film in many years.
This tale of a bickering couple (Joan Bennett, Robert Preston) who attempt to restore their marriage by going on a safari on the African plains remains one of the most intelligent film adaptions of a Hemingway work, in this case his great short story, The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber.
Gregory Peck is the film's top billed star, with Zoltan Korda directing.
This film is well worth a view, its relative inaccessibility over the years making it an unjustly little known film to many today.
Set your recorders for this one. You won't be sorry you did it.
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I've always liked Mister Roberts well enough, regarding it as a good, if unexceptional, dramaedy (if that's the correct word to describe it). The primary reason that I think it is worth a couple of viewings is because of the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see those four top male stars working together.
Having said that, I also understand MissW's disappointment that the characterization of the Captain is so two dimensional, particularly since the part is played by James Cagney. As a fan of Cagney, I rather wished that the actor had not made his villainy performance quite so cartoony because he was an actor capable of so much more.
Since, however, this film is a case of the Captain versus the crew, with the Captain clearly portrayed as the "bad guy," perhaps it was felt that bringing greater complexity to the villain would dilute the audience's identification/sympathy with Roberts, Pulver and the rest of the crew. Having Cagney play Morton as a pompus little dictator with an obsessive love for a palm tree clearly makes it easier for an audience to dislike him for the pip squeak that he is.
The price, of course, for that, is that while I think Cagney is still fun to watch in the role (and he was a strong enough personality and actor to stand up to virtually the rest of the cast all by himself), it is still not one of his great performances because of the lack of depth.
Bottom line, I like the film well enough, wish Cagney could have brought more depth to his work but, if he had, it could have diluted the impact of the audience making with the boo hiss towards him as a comic villain.
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Thanks very much for giving us access to some of your Dad's interview with Miss Colbert. She spoke of how instantly comfortable she felt on stage, though at the same time, off stage, she would be uncomfortable walking into a living room filled with people. Colbert joins a long list of stars, it seems, who were essentially shy, yet had a career living in the spotlight.
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Desire is a truly lovely sophisticated comedy romance, noteworthy for the chemistry between Marlene Dietrich, in her first American film without Von Sternberg directing her, and Gary Cooper. It's sly, funny and completely captivating in its charm, thanks to a clever script and the influence of Lubitsch.
Having said that, it would have been even more interesting if John Gilbert had been able to play the role of Dietrich's somewhat possessive benefactor. And Gilbert was clearly capable of good character work, as evidenced by his performances in Downstairs and Captain Hates the Sea.
This is one of the last photographs taken of John Gilbert, shortly before his heart attack death
HEMINGWAY ON SCREEN
in General Discussions
Posted
Those who don't like a particular author's work will, understandably, probably not care for many film adaptions of that author's work either.
I really don't think, however, that one really has to be a fan of Hemingway to appreciate either The Breaking Point or The Macomber Affair, my two favourite adaptions of his works. This would be particularly true, I think, of the former film.
In the case of Macomber, the story does very much touch on the author's feelings (some might say pre-occupation) regarding courage and masculinity.
To me, the interest of the film is in watching the interactions of the three lead characters, with a conniving, manipulative woman at the centre, between her husband, whom she regards as a weakling, and a safari guide. The interest grows even greater when that same woman later realizes that she is losing control over that formerly weak husband, who seems to grow in strength as a result of the expedition after an initial act of cowardice, and the fatal consequences that will ensue as a result.
In that respect, the film noir elements to be found in Joan Bennett's characterization might make this film, I suspect, of interest to those who enjoy watching the machinations of characters from that film genre. It certainly did with me.