laffite
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Posts posted by laffite
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Holiday for Strings
instrumentql
childhood nostalgia
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Ravenous '99
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Gunfight at O.K. Corral
'57
next : Loretta Young
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Madama Butterfly
an opera production where all the performers dressed up like insects. Appalling!
next : ridiculous costume [encore]
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Roogie's Bump '54
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The Red Shoes
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Calamity Jane
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To Be Or Not To Be
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Calendar Girl
(Sedaka)
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Lover Come Back To Me
next : Song beginning with M
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Milner, Martin
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Vera Miles was IN PSYCHO with Martin Balsam
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The Flirting Widow (1930)
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The First Auto
1927
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47 minutes ago, JamesJazGuitar said:
Garfield would have provided a much different vibe, but I'm not sure it would have been a better one; As played by Widmark, Harry Fabian has a real high degree of nervous energy and that "works" for me. Harry is a classic noir protagonist, living on the margins of success and here comes his big-break. For me his actions reflect the type of persona such a noir protagonist would have in such circumstances.
Garfield's screen persona works great in the noir films he was in, but that persona is more of a slow-burn that takes a while before reaching a boiling point (e.g. Force of Evil, The Breaking Point, He Ran all the Way), I just don't see that persona in Harry Fabian.
Also, how Fabian was related to Jules Dassin, who was exiled from America for alleged communist politics, and his bitterness related to all of that. (i.e. Dassin didn't wish for a low-key approach, but instead an in-your-face one giving the finger to what was going on in Washington D.C.).
I'm sure Garfield knew how to generate nervous energy if directed to do so. In non-noir films he does have that early vitality, wanting to be somebody and trying to convince the girl friend to believe in him and his rebellious attempts to be something. True, he was younger in those roles but I would guess he had enough fire in the belly left. Dassin's conception of Fabian is interesting from an historical sense but it might not mean much to anyone sitting in the audience.
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19 minutes ago, JamesJazGuitar said:
Harry Fabian was an American that was out-of-his-element in London. My view is that Widmark does a find job of acting in his portrayal of that.
He is a New Yorker that should have stayed in the Bronx.
Good point, but it doesn't help the movie, particularly.
What about Garfield? He could generate that sort of rebellious enthusiasm. He would been easier to take seriously (for me). He is more noir. Not sure about his stair running though. Maybe they could use elevators.
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1 hour ago, Thompson said:
The trait I like in Widmark most, in his noir days, is his physical movement. He’s very good in chase scenes, very good at running up and down stairs, jumping over railings, etc. His best scene in this one (and I wonder if it is improvised) is with Phil when they take turns upping each other and banging in victory on the drum and cymbal. Widmark pulls off these sorts of spontaneous sudden physical reactions very well.
Maybe he should have tried out for the Olympics. Do they have an event, running up and down stairs. Yes, he certainly can do that well.
I still like the team of Gleason/Meadows. Instead of throwing Alice against walls and concrete edges Ralphie could deliver a few "BAM-zooms" and maybe throw in a "You know where yer goin', Alice ... Yer goin' to the moon!." So yes, Jack, we will book you next time. You'll have to, uh, lose some weight there, big fella. You got some running to do. Whazzat? You'll take the bus? Okay, watch out for those stairs.
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On 4/16/2022 at 7:40 PM, Technicolor33 said:
I only buy movies on Christmas or on my birthday.
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After a stellar introduction By Muller, how can one not be a little disappointed. Richard Widmark reminded me of Ralph Kramden with all the schemes. There was a carefree aspect and a happy enthusiasm about him that lost me. He makes the movie come across as comedy. He doesn't belong in a film with so many find English actors. Despite his antics he is overshadowed by just about all of them. Francis L Sullivan has to just show up and he's great. Stanislaus Zbyszko as Gregorius is simply riveting. No wonder he gets a death scene. Herbert Lom has the thankless task of being steely-gazed tough talker that has been done a thousand time by a thousand actors and he manages to make it his own. A great actor. Wait til you see his Napoleon if you haven't already. Harry Fabian has arguably the most beautiful woman on the earth as a girlfriend and he doesn't even know what to do with her. Beautiful she may be but she didn't have the power to shame Fabian like Alice could with Ralphie boy.. All Hugh Marlow has to do is screw up a spaghetti and he gets the girl. Mike Musurki as The Strangler gets to do the deed and he is not even punished. Maybe the Code excluded slow-witted oafs. Poor Harry is actually innocent. He is only indirectly the cause of Gregorius' demise. But that's the think with noir, an innocent gets over his head and pays for it. Whoever choreographed the Battle of the Titans should have gotten an Oscar.
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Cesar (1936)
fr.
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Ah Wilderness ('35)
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On 4/16/2022 at 6:43 AM, Swithin said:
Your post reminds me of two excellent miniseries adaptations of Dickens: the 1994 production of Martin Chuzzlewit starring Paul Scofield; and the 1998 production of Our Mutual Friend starring Keeley Hawes.
Paul Scofield was great in that but of equal brilliance must certainly be Tom Wilkinson whose turn as Mr Pecksniff is a tour de force.
I recall be charmed by the rapprochement of Mark Tapley and Mrs Lupin, an unlikely match : so much was I taken that I remember searching the novel for passages of these two, recalling that the novel was not nearly as sentimental as I would have liked. I wanted pure, unadulterated sap.
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The first actor/actress that comes to mind..
in Games and Trivia
Posted
Michael Macliammoir
next : fought a duel on screen (or off)