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Post by topbilled on Mar 12, 2024 15:24:23 GMT
It doesn't take much time before Loretta Young realizes she should have married someone else.
Husband Orson Welles has a vastly different interpretation of 'till death do us part.'
Join us on Sunday for THE STRANGER (1946).
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Post by Andrea Doria on Mar 13, 2024 12:58:07 GMT
I've always been in awe of Loretta.
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Post by topbilled on Mar 13, 2024 17:13:11 GMT
THE STRANGER fell into the public domain in the 1970s, and there were many poor quality prints of the film that surfaced in the 80s and 90s on home video.
This one seems to be a good copy, which I found on YouTube...(if anyone has a link to a better print, please share):
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Post by topbilled on Mar 15, 2024 4:19:03 GMT
Interiors were done at the Goldwyn Studios; exteriors on the Universal backlot. Filming occurred from September to November 1945.
The screenplay was nominated for an Oscar.
John Huston worked on a draft of the screenplay and was initially slated to direct, but was still serving in the military. Huston & Welles became lifelong friends, with Welles acting in many of Huston's later films and Huston acting in Welles' last film THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND.
Welles' first choice for the role of the investigator was not Edward G. Robinson, but Agnes Moorehead. Welles' original idea was to have Moorehead play a spinster woman in pursuit of a Nazi criminal.
The clock tower set was the tallest set constructed in Hollywood at that time. It was 124-feet high. The clock itself had originally been part of the L.A. County Courthouse.
Welles refused to use rear screen projection for any shots when the clock was in motion...and all of these scenes were done in real time.
THE STRANGER was the last film made by independent production company International Pictures before it merged with Universal and became Universal International. THE STRANGER was distributed through RKO and was a hit.
An opening sequence that took place in Latin America and ran for 19 minutes was cut by executives who felt Welles had spent too much time setting up the story and believed all the exposition was unnecessary.
Loretta Young would only allow herself to be shot from the left side.
Richard Long was 18 and had just graduated from high school.
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Post by Fading Fast on Mar 15, 2024 8:43:50 GMT
"Welles' first choice for the role of the investigator was not Edward G. Robinson, but Agnes Moorehead. Welles' original idea was to have Moorehead play a spinster woman in pursuit of a Nazi criminal." - Robinson is, as always, excellent in the role, but Moorehead would have been a cool choice.
"An opening sequence that took place in Latin America and ran for 19 minutes was cut by executives who felt Welles had spent too much time setting up the story and believed all the exposition was unnecessary.
- How neat would it be to see this footage today. I wonder if it exists anywhere?
"Loretta Young would only allow herself to be shot from the left side."
- I know they have to protect their images, but this "star" stuff always feels a bit much. Bette Davis never gave a hoot about any of these vanity moves.
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Post by topbilled on Mar 15, 2024 13:16:30 GMT
"Welles' first choice for the role of the investigator was not Edward G. Robinson, but Agnes Moorehead. Welles' original idea was to have Moorehead play a spinster woman in pursuit of a Nazi criminal." - Robinson is, as always, excellent in the role, but Moorehead would have been a cool choice.
"An opening sequence that took place in Latin America and ran for 19 minutes was cut by executives who felt Welles had spent too much time setting up the story and believed all the exposition was unnecessary.
- How neat would it be to see this footage today. I wonder if it exists anywhere?
"Loretta Young would only allow herself to be shot from the left side."
- I know they have to protect their images, but this "star" stuff always feels a bit much. Bette Davis never gave a hoot about any of these vanity moves.
Moorehead would have brought a unique dimension to the role, sort of like Edna May Oliver as Hildegarde Withers. But I agree, Robinson is excellent and Welles did think highly of Robinson as an actor.
Re: the excised footage, it seems none of it survives, as the negatives were destroyed. There was an additional 11 minutes cut from a later section, so altogether 30 minutes had been removed. The film in its original conception would have run about two hours.
When Loretta Young did THE BISHOP'S WIFE the following year, again she insisted on being shot from the left side...but so did Cary Grant! If their faces were in the same two-shot and one was supposed to be looking at the other reacting, one of them had to be seen in a window or mirror reflection. A reflection would reverse the angle so that with one of them, a left side would seem like a right side.
Apparently Sam Goldwyn the producer was upset when he found about all this extra coordinating of the various camera angles, since it required longer set-ups and delayed shooting. He hauled Young and Grant into his office and said he wasn't paying for half a performance, but a full performance, which meant both sides of their faces.
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Post by Fading Fast on Mar 15, 2024 13:41:02 GMT
"Apparently Sam Goldwyn the producer was upset when he found about all this extra coordinating of the various camera angles, since it required longer set-ups and delayed shooting. He hauled Young and Grant into his office and said he wasn't paying for half a performance, but a full performance, which meant both sides of their faces."
I'd have to watch the movie, which I've seen many times, again to confirm, but I don't remember any "oddness" with Grant and Young's scenes together - and there are a bunch of them - so I'm guessing Goldwyn won out?
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Post by topbilled on Mar 15, 2024 14:01:20 GMT
"Apparently Sam Goldwyn the producer was upset when he found about all this extra coordinating of the various camera angles, since it required longer set-ups and delayed shooting. He hauled Young and Grant into his office and said he wasn't paying for half a performance, but a full performance, which meant both sides of their faces."
I'd have to watch the movie, which I've seen many times, again to confirm, but I don't remember any "oddness" with Grant and Young's scenes together - and there are a bunch of them - so I'm guessing Goldwyn won out? I think Goldwyn won that round. He probably had retakes done to remove the 'oddness' of the choreographed reflection shots in scenes already filmed.
Related to this whole issue of actors favoring one side, there was a DVD extra on one of the releases for thirtysomething, where actress Polly Draper said that even though her character and Melanie Mayron's character were friends on the show, the writers seldom gave them one-on-one scenes. Both actresses favored being photographed from the same side. To make it easier, when appearing in the same scene, they were usually filmed in group shots, not standing next to each other!
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Post by Andrea Doria on Mar 15, 2024 19:26:51 GMT
I had heard that Claudette Colbert only wanted to be filmed on her left side, but not about Cary Grant and Loretta Young. I'm surprised any director put up with that.
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Post by Andrea Doria on Mar 16, 2024 11:02:45 GMT
Just to be mean:
Still all beautiful. Boy these were hard to find, they were aware of the camera even on holiday.
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Post by Fading Fast on Mar 16, 2024 11:43:35 GMT
⇧ Grant and Young looks insanely good; Colbert is the only one I notice a slight drop off in her beauty in these pics, but lighting and hairstyle might be part of it.
We all should have such "bad" sides.
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Post by topbilled on Mar 16, 2024 15:08:01 GMT
Boy these were hard to find, they were aware of the camera even on holiday.
Andrea,
Examples of Colbert from the left side on the blog page below:
www.bingsbasement.com/posts/2019/2/20/claudette-colbert
After clicking on the link, scroll down to the middle of the page...note the GIF for MIDNIGHT where she is dancing and still manages to have her left side photographed!
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Post by Andrea Doria on Mar 16, 2024 22:53:52 GMT
Yes, I knew she preferred to show her left side that's why I was curious to see the right side. I had to look through a lot of left side images, before I found this one of her right side. It seems like an old photo, probably taken so early in her career she hadn't even noticed yet that her left side was prettier.
That's a great link! I see she even keeps her left side toward the camera while being spanked!
As Fading Fast says we all should be so lucky as to look like the "bad side," of these stars. It's kind of sweet that as gorgeous as they are they're still a little insecure about their looks.
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Post by topbilled on Mar 16, 2024 23:23:22 GMT
From TCM's article:
Orson Welles was forced to take on THE STRANGER (1946) to prove he could work within the studio system. CITIZEN KANE (1941) had established him as an important filmmaker, but it managed to turn most of Hollywood against him-- out of fear of the powerful publisher William Randolph Hearst, who was the model for Kane; and out of resentment for Welles' unique contract with RKO which allowed him free rein.
His next film, THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS (1942), potentially an American masterpiece, was cut by the studio while Welles was off shooting an ill-fated project in South America. The shortened studio version of AMBERSONS flopped, as did his next project, a political thriller called JOURNEY INTO FEAR (1942). After a hiatus and bad press, Welles was eager to prove himself capable of bringing in a picture on time and within budget. THE STRANGER would be Welles' most conventional film but one which nevertheless bears some of his distinctive touches.
Welles plays Franz Kindler, an escaped Nazi war criminal who makes his way to a small Connecticut town, posing as Professor Charles Rankin. Insinuating himself into the good graces of the townspeople, particularly the local judge (Philip Merivale) and his daughter Mary (Loretta Young), Kindler/Rankin feels safe. But he is dogged by special federal agent Wilson (Edward G. Robinson). Even a respectable marriage to the judge's daughter can't protect him.
Welles originally wanted Agnes Moorehead as Wilson the Nazi hunter. "I thought it would have been more interesting to have him tracked down by a spinster lady than by Eddie Robinson, but the producers wouldn't agree to it," Welles said later. Eager to please and re-establish himself as a desirable director, however, he went along with Robinson's casting.
Ironically, Robinson turned out to be the difficult one, going into a "big sulk," Welles said, because he thought Welles was shooting his bad side. The director had a hard time imagining how someone as bulldog ugly as Robinson could consider himself having a bad side, but discussed the problem with leading lady Loretta Young (whose good side Welles was favoring). Young agreed to allow a switch in the angle of shots to keep Robinson happy.
Young had different issues. In the scene where Mary first encounters her future husband, she is supposed to be on her way to church but decides to go for a walk with him instead. A devout Catholic, Young refused to be seen skipping services, so Welles changed the scene to another day of the week when Mary was simply out walking her dog.
Ultimately Welles brought the picture in on time and under budget. It did well with audiences and became his only profitable film in Hollywood.
THE STRANGER is a taut thriller and much of it looks unmistakably like an Orson Welles film. Suspenseful plot progression and character development are done in the typical studio fashion, but they're presented in Welles' trademark style, marked by moody lighting and unusual camera angles. This is particularly true in the scene where Wilson shows Mary a film of concentration camp atrocities masterminded by her husband.
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Post by kims on Mar 17, 2024 1:13:02 GMT
In the DeMille CLEOPATRA, Colbert was Cleo and Henry Wilcoxon was Marc Anthony. (Also look for Joseph Schildkraut as Herod). Colbert's insistence on filming her left side was annoying as scene set-ups were dictated by her belief the left side was her best. Stills were photographed and Wilcoxon had the photographer also develop her photos in reverse. She was angry at what she thought were photos of her right side. Wilcoxon told her what he'd done-she was not amused. Her CLEOPATRA was 1934 and still insisted on her left side being photographed in spite of the proof to the contrary.
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