TomJH
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Posts posted by TomJH
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13 hours ago, Lori Ann said:
I know about 25 Errol Flynn films (including "Cruise of the Zaca") and would rate "Kim" as the worst he ever did.
Lori
Flynn turned down an offer to make King Solomon's Mines, settling on Kim instead. That turned out to be a mistake inasmuch as Solomon would turn be one of the top two or three box office hits of 1950 and would have probably have lead the actor to receive better scripts than he would be offered. The thought of making Solomon on location in Africa didn't appeal to Errol, as opposed to working in more comfort in India. Flynn paid a career price for that decision, much to the delight of Stewart Granger (a Flynn fan, ironically) when he was then offered the lead role in Solomon.
When Granger later thanked Flynn for turning down the film, Errol responded, "Don't remind me."
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When Kim Novak made an appearance at TIFF five years ago she said that (SPOILER ALERT FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN'T SEEN VERTIGO) she identified with the two roles she played in the film. She connected with Madeleine as an artificially created image but, perhaps even more so, with Judy, as a person who wanted to be loved for just being herself.
The emotional vulnerability that Stewart and Novak both bring to the film's final scene (she honest with him for the first time in the film) adds to the devastating irony of what is about to happen to them.
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Psycho is probably Hitchcock's most celebrated film, certainly his most famous, and it had a great influence, of course, on slasher films to come. Well crafted as it may be, though, it's a difficult film for me to really enjoy because of its darkness.
Many of my favourite Hitchcocks are those done with a light touch, the last of them being North By Northwest.
Being, essentially, a psychological study with the superficial trappings of a mystery, Vertigo is not a light hearted film and it puzzled many critics and viewers at the time of its release, failing to be the hit its director desired it to be. Hitchcock, rather ungraciously, blamed James Stewart for part of the film's failure, deciding the actor had been too old for his role. Hitchcock created a great film, in my opinion, though I am less impressed by his criticism of Stewart, especially since I regard his dark portrait as Scotty to be one of the most startling and impressive of his career. Casting this actor against type was a brilliant move.
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Vertigo is one of my favourite Hitchcock films, not for the logic of its story (and there are plenty of holes in this story line) but for its tale about obsession.
It's genuinely disturbing to see James Stewart, he of the formerly wholesome screen persona, delving deep, as he did in many of his roles in the '50s, to find a darker place in a character to portray. Vertigo's ending remains haunting, as a film with a dream-like quality, enhanced so much by Bernard Herrmann's musical score, ends as a nightmare.
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I recall an interview that Gregory Peck had in the early '60s.
When asked to name a film of his he didn't like Peck responded, "Cape Fear, if you want a real turkey."
I wonder if he changed his mind about that film over the years. He had a cameo appearance in the 1991 remake of the film he called a turkey. It's my belief that few talked about the original Cape Fear until Scorcese, an admirer of the film, did his remake. Since then there have been comparisons, with many preferring the Peck-Mitchum version.
Still, when Gregory Peck had that interview not long after his version had been released, I wonder how positive the reviews had been or the public response to the film to possibly account, in part, at least, for Peck's disdain towards the film.
I could be wrong but I believe that somewhere I heard that the scene depicted below was an unexpectedly uncomfortable one for Peck inasmuch as Mitchum held him under the water longer than Greg had expected.
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I watched a couple of scenes from MARA MARU, which was playing on TCM this morning.
It's a programmer, clearly made after Warner Brothers had lost interest in Errol Flynn who was now in his declining years as a star. This is the closest that Flynn came to appearing in a film noir but the film has reams of dull talk in its slow first half as the plot about a treasure hunt starts to unfold.
Still, Flynn, always an underrated actor, has a fine moment towards the end when he slaps his faithful Filipino assistant across the face after the latter refuses to return a jewelled cross to him as the boy wants to return it to a church while Flynn just wants the cross for the money. In just a few seconds Flynn's face captures the anger, frustration and regret that his character feels by his act of violence against a friend. It's a reminder of what a good actor Errol Flynn could be when he tried and he had a well written scene.
Errol Flynn in his prime years, ten to fifteen years before Mara Maru was made, was one of the great glamour Hollywood stars of the time and, no one else, of course, was as convincing or delightful in a role involving costume attire. Flynn had a flair and light heartedness, along with the charm and outrageous good looks, that made those roles seem like so much fun for both him and the audience. But something obviously ate at the soul of this man who seemed on the surface to have so much going for him and he burned himself out far too quickly.
As an actor, with his understated style, combined with the charm, he always made it look so easy, and, as a result, critics tended to be dismissive of his talent. But when I watch Flynn in some roles, be it Robin Hood or Don Juan, General Custer or Gentleman Jim, I can't envision any other actor of any era being his equal in the same role. And yet, in reality, Flynn had few opportunities in his career to really show off his acting skills. Watching him perform, and later show flashes of his talent in a lesser effort like Mara Maru, I often feel a touch of sadness at his largely unrealized potential as an actor.
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19 minutes ago, Dargo said:
What are ya talkin' about here, Hombre?! Gary Cooper wasn't primarily considered western movie star???
Sorry TB, but if anything, Coop was and still is considered primarily a star of westerns, and even though he, like Peck, also starred in many a different film genre.
Betcha if you asked 10 people about Coop, the majority of 'em would say Coop is primarily remembered for his westerns.
(...but with this being said, yes, the reason I brought up Coop's name in this thread and after you brought up this whole Greg Peck in westerns thing, was because I felt when both Coop and Greg did star in this genre, their films tended to be a little more "adult" and more nuanced in tone, or seemingly more so than your typical John Wayne western, anyway)
You're right, Dargo. Cooper made westerns in the silents,and became a star with The Virginian in 1929. He was later cast as Wild Bill Hickok in Demille's The Plainsman, and a few years later was memorably co-starred with Walter Brennan in The Westerner, the same year he played a Texas Ranger in North West Mounted Police. While Coop varied his films roles with his hits with Capra and playing a few real life heroes like Alvin York and Lou Gehrig, he was still so associated with the western genre that he spoofed his cowboy image as a dead shot in Along Came Jones. Cooper is associated with the western genre, despite the variety of his work including a few comedies.
Gregory Peck appeared in a few pensive, 'thinking man" westerns like The Gunfighter and The Big Country, making an impressive contribution to the genre with them. This was during the 50s, when Coop was also making quite a few westerns, some of them of the "thinking man" variety, too, such as High Noon and the Hanging Tree.
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Mozambique (1964)
Yet another cheapie action potboiler with an exotic setting, Mozambique stars Steve Cochran as a down-and-out pilot with employment problems following an accident who is given a one way ticket from Lisbon to the title city to report to a mystery character. There he finds himself attracted to a young blonde singer working in a bar, while getting himself mixed up with drug smuggling and white slavery.
The plot isn't much, nor is the action too convincing. There will be a rescue from an Arab's semi palace with armed guards that will strain any semblance of credibility. Yet this little production is strangely watchable. Part of that is because this British German production was shot on location in Mozambique, bringing some atmosphere, as well as authenticity, to the film. The other is the sight of screen tough guy Steve Cochran in the lead role in what turned out to be his second last film (and the final one released prior to his bizarre death on a yacht off Guatemala, with three young women aboard - which actually sounds like a far more interesting story than the one we see on the screen here).
Hildegard Neff appears as the mysterious widow of the man who hires Cochran and gets to sing one song in German. Martin Benson, a familiar character face even if his name may ring few bells of recognition, is easy to loathe as a scoundrel who seems to specialize in anything that's illegal.
2 out of 4
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14 hours ago, Lori Ann said:
Yesterday I recorded "Hard to Handle" with James Cagney from 1933. He was the only name I knew in the cast. Sterling Holloway had a small uncredited role at the beginning. It was an ok film. Overall not too interesting. As much as I like James Cagney, sometimes he can talk a mile a minute! Haha! But he'll still stay as one of my top 5 favorite actors. For some reason the film was described as something like "press agent puts on a dance marathon and meets a girl & her mother". Not sure why the film was described that way. That dance marathon was just the first 10 minutes of the film. The rest of the film had nothing to do with dancing.
Lori
I enjoyed watching Ruth Donnelly as the gold digging mother of Mary Brian in a comic performance that almost steals the film from Cagney. At one moment Cagney and Brian are having a private conversation in a room. Cagney then opens the room's closed door to have Donnelly fall into the room flat on her face. At another moment Donnelly threatens to put her foot in Cagney's mouth to which Jimmy cheerfully responds, "My mouth's not that big."
To me Hard to Handle is a zippy, unpretentious, fast moving little comedy, highlighted by the high energy performances of Cagney and Donnelly. The opening sequence of a dance marathon down to its final two couples with wise guy Allen Jenkins playing commentator is probably the best set piece of the film. It's also serves as an historical reminder of the popularity of dance marathons during the dirty '30s.
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I've always admired MOBY DICK and that includes Gregory Peck's obsessed Captain Ahab.
But the scenes that stay with me the most are those involving the whale. With '50s special effects that, for the most part, hold up surprisingly well, this is a GREAT scene! And when all is done all we are left with are the sounds of the birds . . .
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To Kill A Mockingbird (1962) tops my list.
After that, chronologically:
The Yearling (1946)
Duel in the Sun (1946)
The Macomber Affair (1947)
The Gunfighter (1950)
Roman Holiday (1953)
Moby Dick (1956)
The Big Country (1958)
On the Beach (1959)
The Guns of Navarone (1961)
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53 minutes ago, Hoganman1 said:
I'd never heard of this film. Thanks for your post. I'll have to see if I can find it. It sounds really interesting and I'm a big Bogart fan.
I think you'll be impressed by Bogie's performance. It had to be extremely frustrating for the actor that, after showing his acting chops in this film, as well as Dead End, also released in 1937, Warner Brothers continued to typecast him in supporting roles as mugs and gangsters for the next few years.
Black Legion occasionally comes on TCM. But, if you can't wait, can be found on DVD.
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Black Legion (1937)
Still powerful social warning from Warner Brothers about white supremacist secret societies operating during the Depression.
Humphrey Bogart, in one of his first lead roles, play a bitter factory workman who, after losing a job promotion to a Pole, joins a secret society called the Black Legion, whose purpose is to "correct" the wrongs done to "real Americans" by foreigners. With a story clearly based upon the Ku Klux Klan (to whom reference is made in the screenplay) they strike with acts of terror at night against foreigners living in the community.
Bogart is highly effective in one of his best screen opportunities prior to becoming a star four years later. He is convincing in his early scenes as a happy family man, that happiness replaced by a bitterness prior to joining the organization. Later in the film Bogart will effectively convey fear and, in a particularly strong scene, he will openly weep in his wife's arms over what he has done with the secret society. I may be wrong but, off hand, I can't recall any other scene in Bogart's career in which the screen tough guy cried.
Bogart receives solid support from Erin O'Brien Moore as his wife. Dick Foran plays his factory friend who becomes concerned about the changes overcoming Bogart, while a young pre stardom Ann Sheridan plays Foran's girlfriend.
The most eerie scene in the film is set at night, with Bogart on his knees before a row of hooded black cloaked men swearing an oath of loyalty to their cause, a gun pointed at his head as he does so. This film still works, its relevance even greater today with FBI warnings about white supremacists being the greatest terrorist threat in America today. No one could ever have envisioned at the time this film was made, of course, that one day the President of the United States would give dog whistles of approval to these groups.
3 out of 4
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21 hours ago, TomJH said:
I purchased an Anchor Bay DVD of Dead of Night quite a few years ago (a dual disc collection combining it with Queen of Spades).
It's a fine transfer which runs 103 minutes. I guess I'm due to watch the film again as it's been a few years since I last saw it. I particularly recall finding the musical score quite chilling.
I see that this two disc collection is still available. I recommend it to fans of the film.
I watched my Anchor Bay DVD yesterday for the first time in a few years and must now admit there is room for improvement. The audio is sometimes a bit muffled and the visuals are not particularly sharp. That's why I just ordered a DVD of the film released last year by Kino Lorber, hoping it will be an improvement. The Anchor Bay release is okay quality but that's about all I can say for it. When I originally purchased it I was pleased as it was the only game in town for this British chiller. Kino has a good name for quality so I am hopeful. As you can see by the image, Kino has released a blu ray of the film, as well.
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I purchased an Anchor Bay DVD of Dead of Night quite a few years ago (a dual disc collection combining it with Queen of Spades).
It's a fine transfer which runs 103 minutes. I guess I'm due to watch the film again as it's been a few years since I last saw it. I particularly recall finding the musical score quite chilling.
I see that this two disc collection is still available. I recommend it to fans of the film.
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9 minutes ago, filmnoirguy said:
Both Rhonda Fleming and Arlene Dahl were ravishing redheads. I wish they could have played sisters in a film. Both Rhonda and Doris Day (2019) were 97 when they died. Will this age be the new norm? A good long life!
They did, in Slightly Scarlet. Arlene is still with us.
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Rhonda Fleming never had a definitive role in one major film by which she will be best remembered. But did this lady ever lend a beautiful, gracious presence to countless programmers and a handful of good films. Slightly Scarlet, Cry Danger, The Spiral Staircase, Inferno and such lightweight fare as A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Yankee Pasha and Alias Jesse James, among others, were all the better for Rhonda's contributions to them. She did more than her share of cheesecake (for which many male viewers were eternally grateful), but was also allowed to graduate, on the occasion, to more dramatic film fare.
Not long ago I saw a dark haired Fleming for the first time as Cleopatra in Serpent of the Nile. Pretty campy stuff, teaming her with a pre-Perry Mason Raymond Burr as Marc Antony. But, silly as a cardboard costumer like this might be, it was always a pleasure to watch Miss Fleming, whether she was playing a heroine or seductress.
RIP, Rhonda Fleming
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I saw the film. Not surprisingly, it's a trivial lightweight comedy time waster, with a grandson declaring "war" on his grandpa after the latter moves into his room, forcing him to live in the attic. Grandpa responds in kind with a declaration of war. If you don't expect much it's painless. Likewise, if you don't see it, you're not missing much.
Hardcore De Niro fans may watch it but this is just another on the long list of nothing films in which he has appeared in the past 20 to 25 years. The Irishman was his first 'important" films in years. Prior to that the last De Niro film I liked was probably The Score in 2001.
I haven't seen The Wizard of Lies and while Silver Linings Playbook is okay, he has a supporting role (in which he is effective).
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I watched The Egyptian last evening for the first time in a few years, having forgotten most of it. I enjoy a good costume epic (Spartacus probably being my favourite) and, while I appreciated the film's sets and costumes I found it difficult to care about any of the characters in the film, least of all Sinuhe (Edmund Purdom), who spends the first half of the film degrading himself in his obsessive desire for a Babylonian seductress (the multi wigged Bella Darvi). Truth is when she finally tells her servant to not allow him access to her home any more I couldn't blame her for being contemptuous of him.
And for such a big costume production am I the only one to bemoan the fact that the film has nothing in the way of spectacular action scenes? It was interesting to try to identify which musical passages were done by Alfred Newman, as opposed to Bernard Herrman, though, unlike some other posters here, I don't regard this score as anywhere near the best of either composer. And I rolled my eyes with the screenplay's attempt to find Christian overtures to a story set in ancient Egypt 300 years before Jesus' birth.
Seeing Gene Tierney playing the ruthless ambitious man-like princess just made me miss how lovely this actress had been just a few years earlier when she played feminine roles.
Overall, The Egyptian is an okay time waster but I can understand why it's not one of the more celebrated screen epics. And to think that it was directed by Michael Curtiz. It only made me more cognizant of the sad decline of the man who had once directed so many of those great Flynn costume adventures that have given me so much pleasure over the years.
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On 10/10/2020 at 3:44 PM, scsu1975 said:
I saw it several years ago on TCM and liked it, although I'm not sure I would sit through it too many times.
Just a note on the score: Alfred Newman and Bernard Herrmann both contributed. Watch the scene where Darvi is being choked underwater; the background music has Herrmann's name written all over it.
Is that the scene in which Herrmann incorporates "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles" into his score?
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On 10/11/2020 at 12:33 PM, NipkowDisc said:
I thought Bella Darvi's acting good but man is she a dog!
You wouldn't be saying that if she was 45 feet taller.
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To the best of my knowledge the Roberts, Mitchum and Ryan, appeared in two films together, Crossfire and The Racket. As MissW said, they are a pair of dominant actors, though it was Ryan who had the better roles in the two films they shared and it was Ryan who stole both shows.
Despite Ryan's brilliance at playing psychologically wounded individuals, and even racists, it's well known that he was one of Hollywood's liberals and, from what I understand, a genuinely nice guy. However you couldn't push Ryan around either. Somewhere I heard an anecdote that during the making of Flying Leathernecks Ryan and John Wayne got into such a heated argument (presumably political; Ryan was opposed to McCarthyism, unlike the Duke) that Ryan wanted to take their discussion "outside." Ryan had been a drill sergeant during the war and had a reputation as being good with his fists, having boxed in the ring. Wayne turned down the offer.
One of my favourite Ryan performances is in Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch. He brings a face weathered middle aged melancholy to the role of a former bandit forced to lead a hunt against former outlaw compatriots, trapped in this role to keep himself out of prison. But he is accompanied on the hunt by low lives and vultures who care nothing about justice, just the money they can scrounge.
I remember, in particular, the impassioned invective that Ryan brought to one scene in which he contemptuously blasts the human carrion eaters who accompany him.
"We're looking for MEN!," he explodes, "And I wish TO GOD I was with them!"
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54 minutes ago, ElCid said:
I think Mitchum knew Conrad would kill him or he would go out the window and the cop out there would kill him. One way or the other it was basically a set-up. As for the gun, I noticed that as well, but SOP should have been that they would never leave a loaded gun around.
Well, it certainly looks like a set up at the end. Which is interesting inasmuch as Mitchum's character is earlier presented in the film as a straight arrow cop who brokes no law breaking by any his men. Yet here he is, trying (and succeeding) in creating circumstances to basically set up a hit on a gangster in his custody to which he turns a casual blind eye. I guess this is the price a hood pays for bombing a police captain's home.
But you have to stop and think about it to come to that realization because, right to the film's end, Mitchum is presented as an honest "good guy" (which is the way the actor plays the role), not a cop who can turn ruthlessly crafty (which, in fact, is what he is with that set up). And it's still worth repeating that Mitchum's character was sloppy stupid to leave Ryan alone with what he thought was a loaded gun.
The Set Up, by happenstance, is the title of a far better Robert Ryan film with which noir fans are very familiar.
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Robert Ryan, of course, has the best role in the film, as did Louis Wolheim as the gangster in the 1928 silent original. Ryan makes the most of it, bringing a hard edginess to his volatile character, MItchum is always more interesting when he is allowed to bring grey shadings to his characterization, which he was not allowed to do here, with his "honest cop" portrayal.
The highlight sequence in the 1928 silent version is a scene in which Wolheim shoots a gangland rival who visits a nightclub he operates. Of course, in the 1951 version Ryan doesn't run a nightclub, nor does he appear to have any rival hoods operating in the city against him.
At the remake's end "the old man" who runs the syndicate remains untouched. That fact is pretty much sloughed off by the film. By the way, was Mitchum deliberately setting up Ryan to be killed, what with the available window in the room and a cop waiting outside, not to mention a thug like William Conrad hanging around with a gun.
SPOILER ALERT: Did sleepy eyed Bob blink even once after the bad guy was gunned down in his cop shop? You'd think he might be annoyed if only because of all the extra paperwork he'd have to fill out, not to mention the suspicious sloppiness of the circumstances which lead to a man being shot down. He might get questioned by his superiors afterwards about that. Not to mention the fact that Mitchum didn't know that the gun he left on the table in the room with Ryan was unloaded. What kind of a cop is he anyway? He leaves a gun with a gangster and thinks the gun is loaded? Maybe it's time for Mitchum to be moved on to another precinct again.
Vertigo 1958
in General Discussions
Posted
Yeh but the audience doesn't even really care about what happens to Elster. Scotty and Madeleine/Judy are the primary concerns of the film. Elster is just an after thought.