Dothery
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Posts posted by Dothery
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You've got a point, there. Sometimes, it is hard to please us! I remember watching the Miss America Pageant as a child, never imagining that a black girl would ever win the title. When Vanessa Williams became Miss America, half of us were thrilled. The other half were upset because she was light-skinned with long hair and green eyes and 'looked white' (which she didn't, IMO). I guarantee you, if she had been dark with a short afro, some in the black community would have been upset because she didn't have the long hair! Go figure.......................
Suddenly, reading your post, I was reminded of Ricky Nelson singing "Garden Party ..." "If you can't please everybody you've just got to please yourself." Or something like it.
I sat behind him on a flight from Japan to Okinawa once. He was a nice, polite guy with a really pleasant smile. He and his band were touring the Far East circuit. They made much of our little three-year-old boy, who was showing them his new sneakers. Nice guys.
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Now, that may not be fair but it certainly is reality. As I say to my students, we have to deal with things as they are, not as we wish them to be.
I remember an interview with the late Senator Daniel Inouye of Hawaii in which he said he talked like a "local boy" when he was in the Army, until several officers took him under their wing and taught him proper English. They told him his brain would be no use to him if he didn't change his language, and he believed them. He said it began his career in government and he never stopped being grateful that they had encouraged him to change.
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Excellent analysis of ROPE, TB.
I watched a segment on Clarence Darrow, who defended Leopold and Loeb, and saw that Leopold was actually paroled. Loeb died in prison.
The movie's opening was revolutionary, I thought. No lead-in, just the murder, as I remember.
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I hope this isn't out of place, but I thought you might enjoy it.
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This is Mr. Crosby's film, and he carries it off with the assuredness of an accomplished performer. But with the obvious exceptions of Technicolor and VistaVision, this is not a marked improvement over HOLIDAY INN, where he previously costarred with Fred Astaire.
How right you are, TB. I never liked it. I had always loved "Holiday Inn," and I was affronted by this movie, which was such an obvious effort to cash in on the success of the song. For one thing, Irving Berlin wrote such a raft of great songs for HI that I still remember so fondly ... just yesterday I was humming "Let's Start the New Year Right ..." I did enjoy a couple of things about "White Christmas," particularly Danny Kaye breaking up Bing in the "Sisters" number, and I'm very fond of Dean Jagger. I watch some of it some years, but when I do I sit here staring grumpily at it, shaking my head and thinking it was a waste to make it in the first place.
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Producing the best product possible was NOT the main goal of studios during that era.
I can understand that, since there was no competition for entertainment dollars then. No TV, vaudeville was gone, and the only thing we had was a once-a-week movie. They could throw anything they wanted at us. Also, they had their own theaters then, so the product always had a venue.
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What was up with RKO in the mid-30s, casting some of their most urbane stars as backwoods folk, although the incongruity of Kate Hepburn in SPITFIRE probably made them come to their senses and not have Astaire do this role.
Fox repeated this error some years later, in insisting another patrician actress, Gene Tierney, play the Ellie May role in TOBACCO ROAD.
Arturo, when I was a kid watching these pictures, I remember figuratively throwing up my hands at some of the casting decisions made by the powers that be, including Gene Tierney in "Tobacco Road." Even as teens we could tell when somebody was really copping out. We felt betrayed, but we went anyway, because when the movie changed it was obligatory to go and see the new one.
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I agree. THE UNINVITED is one of my favorites from its era. If only half today's horror-supernatural films were made as well.
The big thing about it was that this was the first actual ghost story we'd seen, at least that I knew of. It didn't turn out to be a dream, or a trick played by somebody on somebody else. It was a genuine malevolent GHOST.
I got a kick out of seeing Cornelia Otis Skinner playing the loony head of the "institution." She wrote such funny books that it was hard to see her being grim. We loved her humorous stuff in those days.
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Re: Classic Film Criticism
Posted: Oct 2, 2012 12:06 PM
*THE UNINVITED (1944)*
From Agee on March 11, 1944:
Through an adroit counterpointing, syncopating and cumulation of the natural and the supernatural, the filmmakers turn a mediocre story and a lot of shabby clichés into an unusually good scare picture. It seems to me harder to get a fright than a laugh, and I experienced thirty-five first-class jolts, not to mention a well-calculated texture of minor frissons.
Agee is right on the money in this review. I was propelled out of my seat over and over when I first saw this movie, back in the days when we sat in the dark and watched them on the big screen. I remember the audience going crazy with fear at the doors flying open in one scene. The days when that could happen in a movie are, I think, long gone. We REALLY enjoyed them. I still watch it now and then on the ancient tape I bought years ago. It still holds up and scares me almost as much. The music is so gorgeous it's hard to remember it's a ghost story except in the nursery scene. It's hard to remember too that there was a time when there was no "Stella By Starlight" in the standard repertoire.
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Re: Classic Film Criticism
Posted: Jun 4, 2012 12:04 PM
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*THE PARADINE CASE (1948)*
From Agee on February 14, 1948:
Hitchcock uses a lot of skill over a lot of nothing. Some very experienced work by Laughton and Leo G. Carroll; better work by Ann Todd and Joan Tetzel, who is at moments very beautiful. Valli is something to look at, too. The picture never for an instant comes to life.
Quarreling with Agee would seem to be futile, since he's mostly right, but I have to disagree on one point: Ethel Barrymore's plaintive performance (and that in itself is no mean feat, Miss B. being plaintive) went straight to my heart. That horrible man she was married to ... her "Tommy" ... ought to have been shot dead. The picture finally did come to life for me with Laughton and Miss B.
Her acting the part of this beaten-down woman struck me as even more amazing when I realized what a very strong person she was herself. My favorite story about her is when she was being photographed with her brothers during the making of the only movie they appeared in together, "Rasputin and the Empress," I think it was. As he was composing the picture, the photographer said to John B., "Tell your sister something," and Jack said, "TELL her something? I'll ASK her something, if you want."
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Yes, it is interesting to see how Agee regards NOTORIOUS when the film was first released. I think sometimes, due to nostalgia, we tend to over-rate classic movies. Though this is certainly a great picture by any era's standards.
God, how I loved the actress who played Claude Rains' mother in that movie. And him, of course. A gripping movie in the key scenes.
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*FURIA (1947)*
From Agee on February 14, 1948:
An Italian farmer's wife (Isa Pola) plays around with a Cornel Wilde-ish groom (Rossano Brazzi). This is filmed with a carnal and psychological frankness I am happy to see, and the censors should be thanked for saving a good deal of it. The picture is essentially sincere rather than pornographic. It is also rather childish in conception and inept as art. Good work by the two most prominent actors in the cast.
I looked for this on Netflix but of course it wasn't there. My great desire when I get to heaven is to have one of him issued to me along with my harp and wings. By that time we will have been purified of all our carnal desires and can just hang out and play music and fly around. -
I do think EYRE would've been better if Welles had directed the entire thing. Agee is right that after its excellent beginning, it becomes mired in cliches and long, drawn-out exchanges between the main characters with very little action. It essentially becomes a two-character play, which in cinema, tends to be rather boring.
I seem to remember Joan Fontaine writing that he practically did direct it. Came in first day and took over, saying, "We'll start on Page Five."
Do you mind if I say, at the risk of sounding obvious, that this is a woman's picture and that men really don't have the same perspective? I adored Welles in it. I thought Fontaine was close to what Bronte had meant her to be, from the book. One of my favorite scenes of all time is the one where Rochester tells off Blanche Ingram in the garden and sends her off calling him a boor and a cur. I thought Hillary Brooke was sensational in it, too. One extremely talented woman.
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*THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE (1946)*
From Agee on March 23, 1946:
THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE may be fun to see, but I feel it has been overrated. Even though she plays it well, I am not impressed by Dorothy McGuire, or anyone else, stunting along through several reels as a suffering mute. Nor am I willingly hornswoggled by Ethel Barrymore's unprincipled use of her lighthouse eyes, wonderful as they are.
Still, the movie is visually clever. And until some member of the Screen Writers' Guild takes care to correct me, neglecting as I am doing such nonentities as the set designer, cameraman and editor, I will mainly credit Robert Siodmak for that; he merely directed the show.
And just for fun, the next time you see it, look at the eye peeking through various holes to indicate the murderer is on the watch. It's Siodmak's. -
Re: Classic Film Criticism
Posted: Dec 2, 2011 8:05 AM
*TALL IN THE SADDLE (1944)*
From Agee on November 4, 1944:
A medium-silly Western, done, however, as if those who made it knew that, and were getting and giving what mild pleasure they could out of the knowledge.
I will go to my grave knowing every line of this movie. When I lived in England, the BBC was the only channel available, and ITV was about to launch in competition with it. Every afternoon at five, ITV would come on the air and play this movie as a test. For months. Every single day.
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American soldiers and Indians shortly after the Civil War. Shirley Temple and her husband, John Agar, handle the love interest as if they were sharing a soda-fountain special,
TB, it's a shame Agee couldn't have known about the loathing Agar had for Shirley while he was making that movie. He hated her and kept telling her so in their scenes together. I'm amazed she didn't get an Academy award for pretending to be able to stand him, much less be in love with him. A terrible experience for her, at least, poor thing. She nearly tried to kill herself at one point from his abuse. I can't help thinking those things do play into whatever performance any actor is trying to give. They may be skilled, but are they THAT good? Anyway, he was right about the attitude.
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Also, you once again call the cast noir actors which gives short shrift to their work in other genres and art forms. They were highly trained versatile performers working across a broad spectrum of film, stage, radio and television media.
Yes, they were. I liked them, and it was worth seeing the movie just for the privilege of watching them on screen, regardless of the plot. May I digress a little?
I've always been an admirer of Ginger Rogers' varied talents, but none so much as the way she wore clothes. I watched "Weekend at the Waldorf" about seventeen times over the years just to look at her in that divine wardrobe.
This movie was nicely done, I thought, for its limitations. And that big black hat Ginger wore! Her profile was pure gold photographically.
When she got old she got lumpy, but in her prime she was amazingly slender. Lots of tennis, as I recall. One of her husbands (Bergerac) said he couldn't stand having lunch with her. He would eat, but she'd sit there with a lettuce leaf.
Reginald Gardiner was always a favorite of mine. I could watch him forever. Loved him in Christmas in Connecticut. Van Heflin was a friend of a friend of mine, and I'd watch him for that reason sometimes. One of his best, I thought, was "Grand Central Murder" ... that's my story and I'm sticking to it. That one was more noir than this one.
I never knew George Raft to be accused of acting, which is fine, because I never expected much of a performance from him. He just had to stand there and look good, and that was enough for most of us. I was surprised when, at a point where he was declared to be a pretty depraved type and therefore not welcome in England, he said he'd never had a drink in his life. Maybe that was the trouble ... no, I'm being facetious. Anyway I LIKED him in this movie. I really did. I watched him all the way through it and thought, Man, that is one handsome dude.
Gene Tierney seemed so placid in this you'd think she was sedated. Maybe she was.
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By the way, speaking of this title, there is a thriller from the 1980s with the same name, starring Debra Winger and Theresa Russell. I wonder if folks consider that a neo-noir...?
That's the one I thought it was. The house it was set in is here up the coast in Puako on the Big Island of Hawaii. It's used for events and weddings, and is the most magnificent place you can imagine. On the ocean, with a lava rock wall that surrounds it on three sides that I've heard cost several hundred thousand. Just the wall. The estate was built by Maurice Sullivan, who owned the Foodland chain of grocery stores. Worth seeing the movie just to look at the house.
I didn't think it was a neo-noir. Just a weird picture.
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Brando was very kind to a friend of mine, a limo driver. He drove him one night to a TV interview (Larry King) and home again with a group from the show. He settled down to wait outside the house to drive them home, but Brando came back out and said, "No, you're not going to stay out here by yourself," and invited him in, telling him that he was one of the group, and to call him Marlon. My buddy was amazed, but was treated very nicely, included in everything and went home with great memories of swimming in Brando's pool. MB tried to give him extra money when he left and was surprised when he refused it, but slapped him on the back and said, "I like this guy."
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Most awful: From The Harvey Girls: "It's a Great Big World." Ghastly song, horrible choreography, couldn't believe Judy Garland would do it, or Cyd Charisse (although Judy had the clout and Cyd didn't).
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I was always astounded at how Peter Lawford kept everybody from noticing his crippled right hand. He could only use it to hold a glass or push a door or something that didn't require dexterity, and yet no one ever mentioned it. He worked at keeping it hidden.
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Brando was actually hilarious in TEAHOUSE, though politically incorrect.
I liked him in that picture, though he didn't like himself in it. He talked later about how Glenn Ford was constantly trying to upstage him, and he started moving so that he couldn't, and Ford was really flustered. Funny, I thought.
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I was really taken with Maureen O'Hara's autobiography, "'Tis Herself." Very honest, very revealing about Jimmy Stewart, John Ford, Duke Wayne and others. Some she liked, others she loathed. You get the feeling she's talking right to you.
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... regarding her, she was a lesbian. So be it!
Who was a lesbian? If you're talking about Marjorie Main, she was a widow, and a little nuts, besides. Debbie Reynolds talks about it in her book, saying Marjorie used to talk to her dead husband all the time as though he were still there, letting him in and out of the car, for example.
LIttlest Rebel with Shirley Temple makes blacks look stupid
in General Discussions
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In my personal experience this 'local connection' can depend of a few factors but in most cases it is highly tied to one's childhood. i.e. if one grew up as a Red Soxes fan (e.g. went to the games with Dad), one would remain a Red Soxes fan for life regardless of where one lives as an adult. The teams in the city where this person lives as an adult often become the second tier teams they root for.
James my dear, I must caution you that in your reference to the Red Sox, you are speaking not simply of a ball team, but of a RELIGION. A philosophy. A boulder pushed up the mountain for decades, that Sisyphus finally got to the top. This is hardly just a matter of geography. Be reverent.