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Post by galacticgirrrl on Jan 7, 2024 21:46:23 GMT
Really enjoyed that one Andrea Doria.
So many new things to think and ponder.
Interesting how movies change as you move through life even though they are frozen in amber.
Her relationship with her father after her mother died caught my attention - was he abusive?
The strength it took for her to stand her ground against Mr. Davidson.
All quite haunting to me now.
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Post by Andrea Doria on Jan 7, 2024 21:49:13 GMT
Interesting how movies change as you move through life even though they are frozen in amber.
isn't that the truth, books and movies both change as I get older.
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Post by Fading Fast on Jan 7, 2024 21:54:52 GMT
Interesting how movies change as you move through life even though they are frozen in amber.
isn't that the truth, books and movies both change as I get older. Another funny thing is how when I was in my teens, actors in their 40s looked so old; now that I'm in my late 50s, they look so young. I remember once thinking Alexis Smith looked "old" at 38 in "The Young Philadelphians," now I think how young she looks.
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Post by Andrea Doria on Jan 7, 2024 21:55:45 GMT
I couldn't think of the name of Sadie's theme song -- it was St Louis Blues, written 1916. I never would have guessed it was that old.
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Post by jamesjazzguitar on Jan 7, 2024 22:13:17 GMT
Beware the white ermine of despair! (Mae Clark in Waterloo Bridge) Thanks for finding a copy of Rain for me, Topbilled! Her performance in "Waterloo Bridge" is amazing. Mae Clarke gave a lot of solid performances. Too bad many are overshadowed by a grapefruit.
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Post by Fading Fast on Jan 8, 2024 11:17:20 GMT
Rain from 1932 with Joan Crawford, Walter Huston, Guy Kibbee, William Gargan and Beulah Bondi
One reason they don't make movies like Rain anymore is that we no longer live in a religious country and many "sins" today are celebrated or "understood," but in 1932, a woman who drank, smoked and had sex for money was fodder for the religious "reformers."
Rain, based on a W. Somerset Maugham novel, was made when fire-and-brimstone preachers had a sizable following and there was meaningful voter support for their efforts to legislate sin out of existence (see Prohibition).
What Maugham did in Rain was move that battle to a small South Sea island and boil it down to a handful of people, forced by a cholera outbreak, to spend several days together in a small hotel during the rainy season.
Walter Huston plays a religious zealot and leader of a movement, who along with his wife, played by Beulah Bondi, are affronted to have to share a roof with a wanton woman played by Joan Crawford.
Along for the ride are a doctor and his wife who are on friendly terms with Huston and Bondi, but they aren't fervent believers. They want Huston to just leave Crawford alone, but they also don't want to have a big confrontation with Huston over it.
Rounding out the key characters are Guy Kibbee playing the laid back owner of the hotel and bar where everyone is staying and a sergeant, played by William Gargan, from the island’s US army base, who takes an immediate (more than) liking to Crawford.
Huston is insufferable in his religious fervor and judgement. He not only openly condemns Crawford, he goes to the governor of the Island to have her deported. He obnoxiously couches his efforts in terms of saying he's just trying to "save her soul."
Crawford is everything Huston rails against; she drinks, smokes, dances in public and, it's strongly implied, is a prostitute. Yet you have to give the woman her due as Crawford tries repeatedly to stand up to Houston withering attacks.
As this war rages on, Gargan and Crawford develop a relationship, which gives Crawford an ally until Huston uses his influence with the governor to get Gargan confined to the base. Huston is relentless.
Even Huston's friend, the doctor, goes to the governor to try to save Crawford, but he strikes out. Guy Kibbee, the most enjoyable character in the movie, tries to appeal directly to Huston, but it's like talking to a statue.
Kibbee, a perennial character actor, has one of his meatiest roles here as an easy-going non-judgemental man who married an island woman. He implies he left the States because he was fed up with Prohibition. His sincere efforts to help Crawford are moving.
In a powerful scene of religious "conversion," Huston finally breaks Crawford down, even convincing her to go back to the States where she says she'll have to serve time for some unstated crime. You probably won't like the result, but the scene is memorable.
Gargan and the others try repeatedly to save Crawford from "being saved", but she, now zombie like, follows only Huston. Maugham clearly had no truck with the fanatical branch of the Christian missionaries.
The climax, no spoilers coming, plays out against the backdrop of another night of nonstop rain, while the natives are having a festival with dancing and drum-beating music, which Huston dismisses as unimportant since they aren't Christians.
But does he truly dismiss it? The fast moving conclusion needed a bit more setup with hints along the way, but it still doesn't come as a complete surprise. It does, though, dramatically reshuffle the deck.
Today, the "sins" of Maugham's day are all but lauded as religion is no longer the West's cultural northstar. Instead, there are new political pieties that are enforced by secular scolds with the same obnoxious moral condemnation as Huston used in his day.
You'll hate him, but Huston's performance as the all-mighty preacher is scary good. Crawford, still learning her craft, is uneven but moving as the young girl trying to stand up to Huston's enervating assault.
As Huston's fire and brimstone is smashing about, it's Kibbee who provides the antidote with a very "Grateful Dead -" like 1960s live-and-let-live philosophy that makes you wish you could just hang out and have a beer with him. His is a wonderful performance.
Maugham knew how to tell a story, which director Lewis Milestone translated well to the screen with a talented cast. Rain's early talkie clunkiness is noticeable, but the power of the story, even ninety-plus years later, still comes through.
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Post by Andrea Doria on Jan 8, 2024 17:25:36 GMT
Great review by Fading Fast as always. I'm really going to enjoy this month, because I get to watch movies based on works by one of my favorite writers, plus read Fading's insightful reviews afterward.
The quote below is so true it's becoming frightening. I frequently see people bullied off the more political message boards for the slightest suggestion that there might be two sides to an issue or a good point on the other side.
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Post by topbilled on Jan 9, 2024 0:06:10 GMT
RAIN has been with me since we watched it yesterday. It really impressed itself upon my psyche.
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