AddisonDeWitless
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Posts posted by AddisonDeWitless
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Your assessment of the propoganda-tinged storyline of Tennesee Johnson , ie: "the man who went along with something he wasn't all-in for in the name of the greater good" is very astute, and I can see an inn-teresting parallel between it and the career of today's SUTS honoree, Van Heflin.
Imdb the dude. He was like the Gary Oldman of old Hollywood, although not so much for the vast array of characters he played as the vast array of genres and stories in which he appeared. From his ideal casting in Battle Cry, Shane and 3:10 to Yuma to the frivolity of Presenting Lily Mars to his very odd role in Possessed to his role in the very odd Martha Ivers to the unrepentant villian in The Prowler to his utter weaklings in Act of Violence and Madame Bovary,: he was a terrific and very courageous actor, but sometimes I get the sense (especially in Green Dolphin Street, The Three Musketeers and Bovary ) that he's not 100% certain he's the right guy for the part.
Being an MGM contractree, I think he was handed a lot of stuff that he wasn't "all-in" for, but being a good actor, and one who I imagine liked to eat, he served his term pretty ably.
Edited by: AddisonDeWitless on Aug 6, 2012 1:25 PM
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And I think Van Johnson would have made a fantastic Andrew Jackson.
(we're just joshin' w/ you Miss Wonderly...or Miss O'Shaughnessy, or whatever your name is...)
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> {quote:title=Lori3 wrote:}{quote}I do think Marilyn gives a great performance in Bus Stop, but I have a hard time watching the film because of Don Murray's (character). I don't like (him) at all. He picks up Marilyn's character and carries her around like she is an animal on his ranch.
I totally get your point, and the similar points of others on this matter. There's a lot I could say, and I don't quite know how to phrase it, but I'll try:
There are a lot of other movies (often romantic comedies) wherein the behavior on the screen- were it to be acted out in real life- would likely have an hour-long 48 Hours Mystery: Fatal Love episode dedicated to it, or at the very least garner a restraining order. 1987's Overboard, (hell, a lot of Garry Marshall's films) come to mind. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers has been brought up, as well it should be. Bringing up Baby- that's the one I'll use as a springboard: you know how at the end of that movie, Grant says (and I paraphrase, likely badly, here): "Susan! I've never had so much fun in all-mah life as I've had these past two days!" ? In other words: he acted like he didn't want to be with her at all when all the time he really, really did.
that's how I read Monroe's character: she wanted to go with him, even if it was (p'raps) an unconscious desire at times.
There was an almost abrupt cut from where he catches her at the Bus Depot to the scene of Murray, O'Connell and Monroe in the back of the bus headed to Montana. It was a little jarring, but I read that moment as: she wants this. (I'm sorry if any word choices here in any way suggest the same kind of lingo often used by sexual predators or rape apologists.)
*I'm surprised by the fact that I found the film to be so enchanting, because I tend to find the dark, creepy side of everything*....Maybe it struck home because it's been a looooooooooooooooooooooooong time since anyone has made the attempt to sweep me off my feet...but (believe it or not) it's happened, and at a time in my life when (much like Monroe's character) I really needed it.
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Huge MM fan here, and yet oddly enough, I have never found time to check out what is often cited as one of her finest performances: 1956's Bus Stop. That changed last night as Monroe recieved her first (and looooooooong overdue) inclusion in TCM's ongoing Summer Under the Stars series.
Perhaps the reason why I have avoided the film is that- while I ultimately like (or at least appreciate) most of the *BIG*, yet intimate, CINEMASCOPE films (often-adapted-from-the-theatuh) of the mid-to-late 1950's: I find many to be a bit tedious and trying on my depleted reserves of patience- Picnic, East of Eden, Giant, Tea and Sympathy, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof- they all have their good points, but they're all a bit loooong and in some cases, a tad overheated- or at least relentless in their drama.
Nearly every write-up I've read of Bus Stop has called it "a dramatic comedy"- with a decided emphasis on the drama- and I guess that's why I've sidestepped it. Now that I've seen it: I'll come right out and say it: future reviewers, please leave the "drama" out, it's a COMEDY, a romantic comedy, with some dramatic moments no doubt, but a fun, fast-paced, big and bold and bright, engrossing film that never made me once sigh and look at the clock. It also never depressed me, which is saying a lot, because it so easily could have been a much darker movie. (I'm glad it wasn't.)
I was taken with how much of a resemblance it bears to The Misfits, almost a companion film minus all the gut-wrenching and pain. I wonder if Arthur Miller took his inspiration for the 1961 film from Bus Stop : from the rodeo-mad cowboy, to Monroe's salt-of-the-earth galpal (Eileen Heckart, even more underused than Thelma Ritter) to the knockabout nature of Monroe's character who is forevermore the deer-in-the-headlights of the omnipresent eyes (and hands) of all men everwhere. And I'll also say it: Monroe is even more sensational in this then she is in The Misfits, it is something SO DIFFERENT from anything else she ever did- the accent is on-the-money, she ACES the comedy, she looks great, I don't honestly think she was ever better in anything else.
Monroe deserved an Oscar nomination for this, it's downright embarrassing to look at the line-up of Best Actress nominees for 1956 and see Nancy Kelly nominated for her hopelessly *grating* turn in the truly awful The Bad Seed and even Carroll Baker for her bold work in the likewise awful Baby Doll, but not Monroe, who *deserved* to be on the list with Bergman and Hepburn.
Excellent also was Don Murray, in one of those rare performances that earns a supporting nomination even though the actor is in the film for at least 95% of the screen time; usually I disagree with this placement, but in this case I think it was a very wise idea. (How irked must Murray (and Rooney and Stack for that matter) have been when they lost to the already Oscared Anthony Quinn for his 8 minutes of scene chewing in Lust for Life ?)
*Thanks TCM, for acquiring another underplayed Twentieth Century Fox title and giving us a peak at Monroe's never-dimmed wattage exactly 50 years after she left us.*
Edited by: AddisonDeWitless on Aug 5, 2012 8:47 AM
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One factor to be considered:
I have found on recent viewings of Vertigo that the quasi-Daliesque tripadellic freakout scene is effective in some parts, and the Herrman score is aces every hand, but certain images (ie Stewart's disembodied head coming at us from the bottom of the whirlpool) are a bit funny (as in hah-hah funny) to me.
Whenever I see that image, I always put on my best Jimmy Stewart impression and yell out "now, now w...w...wait a minute: you're crazy and you're drivin' me crazy!" to no one in particular. Whether that's me: the 34 year old cynic, I know not. I also tend to not take things seriously...yet, I can off-hand name quite a few films that don't have a single dramatic moment that could be interpreted as silly or *dated* even by a jaded gen X-er like moi.
Trivia you all 'prolly know already: there is no bell tower in the "Abbey" outside of San Francisco where Vertigo was filmed. It was added, I believe in a matte painting or something of that sort. *Please correct my details if I be wrong, as I cite this from memory.*
Nonetheless I bring you this tidbit of trivia because it seems to me like it holds an awfully good metaphor for these *lists-of-the-bestestest-films-EVUH* that get dropped on us from time to time.
ps- For my money: it doesn't get better than The Wizard of Oz, flaws and all.
Edited by: AddisonDeWitless on Aug 4, 2012 1:11 PM
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> {quote:title=finance wrote:}{quote}What are some of the films that "imitate" Vertigo? Don't include HIGH ANXIETY on your list.
Well, for starters, there's High Anxiety .... Oh, sh-
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It is notable to me that the fourth ranked film on this new-improved-and-for-reals-accurate-this-time list of The Ten Bestest Films EVER is 1939's The Rules of the Game.
*I* *so do not get what the big effin' deal about that film is*.
(Or Grand Illusion either for that matter)
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> {quote:title=Hibi wrote:}{quote}Well, Hitch didnt create the story of Rebecca, it was already a big bestseller, so there wasnt a lot he could do with it...........
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I think it's more that he wasn't allowed to do a lot with it, or put his own spin/interpretation on it (I saw a lengthy, but inn-teresting, documentary on PBS largely about the making of Rebecca, and it seemed like everyone conceded it was all David O's show, which is a shame.)
Imagine that finale (that we only hear about!) wherein Danvers goes after Mrs. DeWinter then sets the mansion on fire as Hitch would have given it to us, not as was dictated per lengthy memorandum from The Selznick Office.
And it is to note that quite a few changes (improvements) were made to the (B-rate) source materials on which Rear Window, Strangers on a Train, The Lady Vanishes and Spellbound. were "based"- maybe your point is that they werent as popular and well-known as Rebecca, but that's still no excuse for (what I have always seen as) the film's non-ending.
I don't think it would've been disrespectful to the source material to give us a little action at the climax.
Edited by: AddisonDeWitless on Aug 2, 2012 10:07 PM
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> {quote:title=scsu1975 wrote:}{quote}Take the time to read how the poll was conducted, and you will realize it has serious flaws. A vote means the film appears in someone's top ten list. In theory, Film A could appear in everyone's top-ten list, and ranked tenth in all those lists (for those who ranked their ten), while Film B could appear in fewer top ten lists, but be ranked first in all those lists. Which film is "better?" Without a weighting system, the data is useless.
Excellent point.
All of these lists are so stupid in the first place,
I still shake my head at that redonkulous list the AFI did of the "Best (including Titanic, Forrest Gump, Fargo, Pulp Fiction, Dances with Wolves, Ben-Hur, Frankenstein (1931), Gigi and Star Wars. ) American (including Lawrence of Arabia and The Third Man ) Films of the 20th Century" and also the list of the "100 Best (so long as they're written by white men) Books of the 20th Century" that was conducted by a publishing house (clearly no bias there, snort snort.)
Edited by: AddisonDeWitless on Aug 2, 2012 2:08 PM major formatting issues
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> {quote:title=finance wrote:}{quote}VERTIGO is not bad, but there are several Hitchcock films that I like better (REAR WINDOW, STRANGERS ON A TRAIN, REBECCA, even NORTH BY NORTHWEST)
Jimmy Stewart's smugness and Grace Kelly's p*ss-elegant bit have made it hard for me to enjoy Rear Window, I also find it hard to swallow than an Insurance Company ever paid for someone to have an in-home massuesse, but hey, it was the 50's.
Rebecca is not a Hitchcock film. I mean, yeah, he directed it, but the fingerprints of David O. Selznick are all over it and it shows. That anemic (offscreen!) climax is one of the biggest let-downs in movie history and I feel sometimes like it was a good thing Hitch had the Rebecca experience because it seemed like he tried to atone for the lack of dramatic finish by really "doing it up" with the finales to the superior Foreign Correspondant from the same year, as well as NBNW and Strangers on a Train.
Strangers on a Train really is probably the best thing he ever did, but Shadow of a Doubt is my own personal favorite.
One of the biggest problems I have with Vertigo is a tiny part of the ending: that nun's flat, toneless declaration "Oh Dear Lord" is from the Kevin "My Boat" Costner school of non-acting, maybe it shouldn't (as it is a small thing) but it takes something away from the film for me.
Edited by: AddisonDeWitless on Aug 2, 2012 1:53 PM
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> {quote:title=Hibi wrote:}{quote}Well, the ending was open to different interpretations. Maybe not Batman, but someone else.........
Michael Caine? (I'd be in to that)
-joking, I read a detailed plot summary of the film, I know how it ends.
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> {quote:title=kriegerg69 wrote:}{quote} The question i have is why do they feel compelled to stuff so many villains into one movie? One is enough, IMHO. Even the Spider-Man movies do the same thing...villain overkill.
I think the Genesis of this was Batman Returns, whose script (IMO) did a pretty good job of combining The Penguin and Catwoman into one story. One of the biggest failngs of Batman and Robin is that it missed a chance to spin a more intriguing story out of the combination of Mr. Freeze and Poison Ivy- I see potential in a story about how Batman has to stop those two from killing everyone while they try to kill each other.
The Dark Knight movies have such casual flirtations with the villians like Scarecrow and R'as Al Ghul (sic?) in trying to make them "buyable" in the real world, they've managed to both minimize their presence and cram too many in at the same time- all the while sucking any "fun" whatsoever out of the whole thing.
And for the record, there is just one villian in The Amazing Spiderman, and (as some critics have noticed) the movie's story arc is driven as much by the romance/ struggling coming-of-age angle as it is by the villian (who is sort of weak I admit, but Je-****, at least it's not a coked-out Willem Defoe in that Maximum Overdrive acid trip get-up.)
Batman has always and will always have the best villians. None of the other comics can compare.
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> {quote:title=Hibi wrote:}{quote}OMG! Wonder how long the next one will be? Egads!
I think (pray/hope) Nolan wants this to be a strict trilogy...And from the plot spoilers about TDKR I've read, he seems to've ended it in that fashion, but with a door propped open for the inevitable reboot circa 2015: Batman and the Search for More Money.
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You know...
No matter how much gravitas and Greek Tragedy you want to coat the whole Batman thing with, at the end of the day: it is the story of a grown man who dresses in a rubber bat suit and gads about, tossing boomerangs at other grownassed people who dress like clowns, cats, waterfowl, etc....
*And I'm down with that*. It's fine. It's fun, it's fantasy.
J'adore the 60's TV series, even the atrocious episodes, because the spirit is so right. I think the Burton films are flawed in many ways, but also close to the best mix of audacity, humor and violent thrills (and Michelle Pfeiffer gives an Oscar worthy turn in Batman Returns straight-up, no arguments about it period.) Batman Forever got close in its own way, not as bad as the rep it earned after Batman and Robin- yes, the nadir for all time- killed it.
But you know what? While I admire the direction in which the filmakers were going at times, on an overall assessment I hate The Dark Knight. It's overlong, overly serious to a fault, pretentious, bombastic, Heath Ledger was terrific, but Bale is ludicrous: the *WHERE ARE THEY????* interogation scene is an overheated buffet of every TV drama /action film cliche from the last two decades, there are a couple of glaring plotholes that immediately spring to mind but you know what else? O*ther than the fact that I recall quite vividly being bored, I don't recall much the f*** else about it.*
I am 34. Growing up, I went to the movies all the time, but *over the past eight years,* *I have been to see a movie in a theater twice*. (and I have to note that the films I have checked out at home that have been made in the last eight years did not impress me much with very few exceptions. )
The two times I have been to see a movie in a theater in the last eight years? One: to go see The (meh) Muppet Movie this Christmas with my nieces (aged four and eight) and the second time just this past weekend wherein we decided to go see something to kill a couple of hours on a hot afternoon by going to see The Amazing Spiderman, something which I was not terribly enthusiastic about.
It was fantastic. Everything that the product-placement riddled, bad CGI-plagued, lame dialogue, thoroughly plot-holed, jingoistic, bombastic films of Sam Raimi weren't. It was a blast from start to finish: smart, fun, well-acted, intimate, engrossing- and Holy s*** Sally Field is Aunt May!
I guess you and me might seem like corporate shills now, but I just adored it and I'd go see it again.
I really need to go to work now....
Edited by: AddisonDeWitless on Jul 31, 2012 9:28 AM
Edited by: AddisonDeWitless on Jul 31, 2012 9:30 AM
Edited by: AddisonDeWitless on Jul 31, 2012 9:31 AM really have GOT to get to work
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Congratulations: you're the first person ever to complain that For Pete's Sake was too short.
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> AddisonDeWitless wrote:
> ps- Again, I know this is tacky, but has everyone involved in From Here to Eternity died by now?
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> Clore wrote: Joseph Sargent, who later became a director was an extra on the film and he's still alive.
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> Oh, but surely when Sargent goes there will be a 24-hour "Jaws: The Revenge" marathon, as well there should be. It's a one-of-a-kind achievement and it deserves an extra special salute.
Edited by: AddisonDeWitless on Jul 29, 2012 5:42 PM
I can't get out of the quotes. Oh well.
Edited by: AddisonDeWitless on Jul 29, 2012 5:43 PM
Ironically the edit where I mention that I can't escape the quote format is not in the quote format. Oh well oh well.
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> {quote:title=finance wrote:}{quote}I looked at November's schedule, and there's a one-day tribute to films with the word "here" in the title. FROM HERE TO ETERNITY is one of them.
You're "putting me on" aren't you?
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Sometimes just the fact that everyone else loves it is a perfectly valid reason for being the one guy in the back who says "eh, so what's the big deal?"
We all need him (or her) to be there.
See also: Titanic, Fargo, Shakespeare in Love, the films of Christopher Nolan and Paul Thomas Anderson, Luise Rainer, Jean Arthur, the music of Adele and Everyone Loves Raymond- that last one especially deserving of a "the f*** they do" just for the pure avarice of the title.
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I didna' think the thread would take off like this. For the record, about 20 or so posts ago, a very regular poster on this site hollywoodhjkl...?hwoodjkl?...ah hell, Kyle wrote an excellent defense of the 24 hour tribute to Borgnine that made me feel tacky for bringing it up in the first place.
He wins. I'm wrong.
ps- Again, I know this is tacky, but has everyone involved in From Here to Eternity died by now? If so, we can only count on TCM to show it on Veteran's Day, Memorial Day, December 7th, The 31 Days of Oscar, Films Set in Hawaii, Donna Reed's birthday, Deborah Kerr/Monty Clift day, salutes to films featuring prostitutes, and the bi-annual Burt Lancaster tribute- which will at least bring the total number of times it is shown a year down to the single digits. (fingers crossed)
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Stewart's not a favorite of mine, but he is incredible in Rope (1948) and (especially!!) Destry Rides Again (1939) It wasn't until I saw the latter film that I got the appeal.
psst- you can watch Destry in its entirety on youtube (or at least you used to could)
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> {quote:title=wouldbestar wrote:}{quote}After all the slams, I had to watch *The Farmer's Daughter *again an reevaluate her performance. You felt her love for Glenn she thought she had to hide and her basic morality was genuine but not naive. That she was thought the least likely to win but did says something.... I can't fault her win.
Inn-teresting assessment.
1947 was a strange, DARK year for films, and especially bleak was the Best Actress race with Crawford and Hayward cracking up in both Possessed and Smash Up! respectively, Dorothy Maguire in Gentleman's Agreement and (the darkest?) Roz Russell in Mourning Becomes Electra.
Of those nominees, everyone ALWAYS says Russell was the shoo-in, but Electra is SUCH A PUNISHING, TEDIOUS, AND INCREDIBLY PRETENTIOUS VENTURE IT'S NO "DUH" TO ME THAT SHE LOST. Rosalind Russell is supposed to be FABULOUS DAHLING, smoking from a cigarette holder, wearing lame' pajamas and dispensing with the bon mots like a Tommy Gun. She is not suppposed to be moping around in front of some BAD BACKDROPS and moaning and wailing to beat the band.
Honestly, I don't think she even deserved the nomination.
Crawford has just won (although her work in Possessed blows her Mildred Pierce turn out of the water, IMO) Hayward was a newcomer, Maguire was (likely) seen as being along for the ride and not the focal point of her movie, so it was betwixt Loretta and Roz, and I don't fault anyone in the world of 1947 for wanting to reward an earnest comedy over a looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong three hours of moaning and groaning, Eugene O'Neil style.
Go to Google Images and check out what Loretta wore the night she won- it's a stunning emerald green tafetta ball gown, kind of dated, but ambitious and inn-teresting nonetheless.
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> {quote:title=Hibi wrote:}{quote}They better treat both sisters equally. Or there'll be a new war up there (or down there). LOL.
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.
(I'm laughing)
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> {quote:title=Hibi wrote:}{quote}I never understood that either (Marty) I like the film but........what else was up that year?
1955 was an iffy year for Best Picture nominees. Bad Day at Black Rock and East of Eden and Rebel Without a Cause should all have been nominated but weren't.
Instead the good but too long The Rose Tattoo, the terrific but somewhat uneven Mister Roberts, and the DREADFUL Love is a Many-Splendored Thing, made the cut- so you see how Marty could take the gong over that competition. (There was another nominee which I cannot recall for the life of me right now and I have misplaced me copy of Inside Oscar.)
Borgnine beat an Actor's Actors line-up of noms to take Best Lead among them Tracy in Black Rock, Cagney in Love Me or Leave Me and Dean in East of Eden. (Henry Fonda wasn't nominated for Mister Roberts but SO should've been.)
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> {quote:title=kriegerg69 wrote:}{quote} [The Poseidon Adventure0 is still much BETTER than the lousy remake a few years ago.
Oh Honey, don't get me started on that thing. (At least it got Wolfgang Peterson to stop directing.)
Van Heflin Day - Fly in the Ointment
in General Discussions
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> {quote:title=RMeingast wrote:}{quote}
> I sometimes get Van Heflin and Cornel Wilde mixed up (similar looks)...
You might need to get your eyes checked. No offense a'tall intended.