Vautrin

Hey now, leave little Stevey alone. I thought he was very believable as Gilbert. Of course fair haired Gilbert was a pretty sneaky fellow and not much of a reliable friend. That's what made him interesting. He did nasty things on purpose that Larry did because he was stupid. Tooey? Toooey was a four-eyed nerd who didn't know his as from his elbow. Fooey on Tooey. I think Lyle was in a few episodes of Beaver himself. One where Beaver had to go to a girls' party and Lyle played the dad whose den Beaver wound up in so Lyle could show him so manly man things. I think that was Lyle, though I wouldn't swear to it.

I was thinking of Edgar Winter, though I never thought he was divine. The other Edgar appeared in a lot of TV westerns, usually playing a charming but somewhat dishonest and fast talking though still slow moving con artist.

Stark was no hero, just a corrupt rube with a wide authoritarian streak.

Talk about two guys from opposite ends of the social spectrum. Hard to think of JJA wanting to hang around with Joe McCarthy. I've read of JJA here and there, but not to the extent of a full biography. I believe he is most notorious for his is he or isn't he a mole in relation to one Soviet defector and the time spent in trying to reach a conclusion. And I always got a kick out of his middle name. Like many CIA spooks, Angleton should have been terminated with extreme prejudice himself. The long hidden secret can now be revealed--JFK was killed by Lee Harvey Oswald with his semi-trusty Mannlicher-Car cano in Dallas.

If I had to listen to Bendix go on and on about Rosie and Roseland or whatever the joint was called, I might have been tempted to get him to go over the side just like little Willie did. Ja wohl.

A slimmer Joe McCarthy without the booze problem. I do get a kick out of the last name. If you need a G. Gordo fix, you can always see how long you can hold your hand over a candle flame.

True. I left that one out on purpose because it really isn't like the typical serial killer film as we never see Uncle Charlie at work. That's not a knock on the film itself. I find it very entertaining, especially the small town atmosphere. When he goes to the bank and tells the president of the bank that he isn't all that interested in money, the banker looks like he was just hit over the head.

Duck, live ammo. I think I read once that Janet Leigh received some kind of award from the bra manufacturers of America or some such group for, well you know. I suppose Hitch would say she still wasn't topless so the male half of the audience was still cheated.

I can't say I am obsessed with Vertigo, just that I often watch it when it is on TCM, even though the plot puzzles have been solved. Maybe that theory connects with the shot that slowly radiates out from Janet Leigh's eyeball after she has been killed in the shower. Or maybe not. I thought the short sequence of the close up of Jimmy and all the things going on in the background while he is dreaming or whatever it was was a big gimmicky, though it doesn't interfere with the overall movie. Frenzy seems to be Hitchcock's contribution to the serial killer genre, made with a lot more skill and care than the usual run of the mill ones. And the rape sequence. Lovely...lovely. Just kiddin'. Maybe Hitch was finally getting his chance to balance the bias he spoke about in Psycho where the female half of the audience gets to see John Gavin topless, but the male half doesn't have the same luck with Janet Leigh.

The real Hoover, dead in an open casket.

I haven't read the book, but I know there is a lot of high tone speculation about the various meanings of Vertigo, which are enjoyable as far as they go. I guess one can take one's pick. Another big one seems to be the meaning of identity, who is the I, who are we really, is there a permanent personality or is it just made up of shifting feelings, etc. Hey, whatever. Round and round the verti goes, where it stops, nobody knows. For someone who doesn't have a lot of time before he falls from that gutter, he sure packed a lot of plot into it. I view it more as just the usual Hollywood improbability, which is sort of covered over and then forgotten, especially when viewers only saw the film one time. After seeing the film a number of times the Carlotta subplot is kind of boring to me, though it is more noteworthy the first time through when one is trying to puzzle out exactly what is going on. Speaking of the obsessiveness of Stewart's character reminds me a bit of It's a Wonderful Life where he is so obsessed with getting out of his small town and seeing the larger world. In a few scenes he ls so frustrated that it looks like he is about to explode. Of course in that case things end on a positive note.

I'm sure that car was sleek and sharp back in '58, but today it looks old and clunky, somewhat like Stewart's character. Guy never quite gets it until the last few moments. I like Vertigo, though I don't know if I'd put it at #1 in Sir Alfred's filmography. There would be a lot of jostling at the top. Tom Helmore is a wonderful villain. Laid back and reserved, he's not the Hey look at me, I'm as crazy as a bedbug type of bad guy. I was glad he got away with it in the American version of the movie. Appreciation for a job well done.

Maybe he should have split the difference and gone with Champale.

About as flimsy as those Depression era hamburgers that always seem to be cooking on a grill in the movies.

You have more faith in the savvy of the Twinky producers than I do. Dolores Haze all in my brain, Lately things don't seem the same.

Hey, the movie ain't that bad. No suicide doors, though possibly hernia doors from the effort needed to open those things.

Not yet. So far she's happy to eat all the artery clogging junk Bill serves up at home, though she tries to eat an apple a day. Breezy is sort of a minor but charming con artist. And Kay Lenz, just like Susan George, is not afraid to show a little skin in the name of artistic integrity.

Kind of messy, especially on a nice new pair of expensive shoes. Spit shine, no thanks.

Just on a personal note, once the kiddies reach double digits I lose all interest. Damnant quod non intelligunt.

Breezy is on YT. I'm about halfway through it. More interesting as a 1973 time capsule than anything else. And Bill does drive a huge car, a big old Lincoln. You could build a small pool in the trunk and still have room for a few suitcases.

The one I saw was more about class difference than about age difference. Anyone dumb enough to title a movie Twinky might be dumb enough to not see a connection between Lolita and Lola. And who knows how many people would have gotten it anyway. So I'm not sure about any Lolita connection. Maybe, maybe not.

Fernando Rey was always good at playing a high class, though subtle, perv. I enjoy watching him salivate over footwear, even though it does nothing for me.

Liv Ullman was very attractive, but she usually didn't have an overt sex appeal. Guess he left that to the Andersson girls, Harriet and Bibi (no relation).

Me too. As I said above, I haven't seen it in years so I can't really comment on it beyond the age difference thing. Today Kay Lenz could play a cougar falling for a young hunk, though she drives a Prius, not a boat.