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Post by galacticgirrrl on Dec 7, 2022 1:11:52 GMT
Thanks for the "Forever Amber," review, Galacticgirrrl. A long time ago someone recommended the book to me and I remember being sort of surprised at the content as you were with the movie. It just didn't seem to fit the year it was published or the genre of historical romance. I've never watched the movie, but assumed all that was deleted for a 1947 film. Guess not. My thoughts when watching graphic content in old movies are always the same, "My mother would have seen that!" Interesting. I didn't realize it was based on a book. We have a unconnected vintage phone on an obf end table in our home that we pick up during dubious scenes and apologize to grandma. This movie was so strange and subtle the phone never came off it's cradle. Everything is lurking in the shadows. Ish.  |
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Post by jamesjazzguitar on Dec 7, 2022 1:34:54 GMT
Note that in the USA books were not under the same strict censorship laws that movies were. The novel Forever Amber did get a lot of push back from politicians: from Wiki:
While many reviewers "praised the story for its relevance, comparing Amber's fortitude during the plague and fire to that of the women who held hearth and home together through the blitzes of World War II", others condemned it for its blatant sexual references.[3] Fourteen US states banned the book as pornography. The first was Massachusetts, whose attorney general cited 70 references to sexual intercourse, 39 illegitimate pregnancies, 7 abortions, and "10 descriptions of women undressing in front of men" as reasons for banning the novel.[2] Winsor denied that her book was particularly daring and said that she had no interest in explicit scenes. "I wrote only two sexy passages," she remarked, "and my publishers took both of them out. They put in ellipses instead. In those days, you know, you could solve everything with an ellipsis."[2]
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Post by Fading Fast on Dec 7, 2022 9:39:57 GMT
The House of Mirth from 2000 with Gillian Anderson, Eric Stoltz, Dan Aykroyd and Laura Linney
Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth is one of the great American novels of the twentieth century, but its inside-baseball look at the social machination of the upper crust of fin de siècle New York society, where a slight head nod can carry great meaning, is hard to translate to the screen.
Director Terence Davies' version of The House of Mirth takes too long to kick into gear, but for those who stay with it, the second half, finally, catches some of the spirited dialogue, searing social commentary and emotional power of the novel.
Oversimplifying, The House of Mirth is the story of a young beautiful complex and conflicted woman, Lily Bart, who craves the acceptance and luxury of the upper class society of which she lives on the margin. Yet her moral code, which has much to admire and some elements to question, so warps her decision making at times that she becomes her own worst enemy.
The choice of Gillian Anderson, a nice looking actress, to play Lily Bart is an odd one as one of Bart's defining features is her arresting beauty. It's the gift that opens doors for on-the-edge-of-society Bart, but it's also an asset that she senselessly squanders.
If you didn't know all that coming into the movie, Anderson's casting would only confuse a viewer. That's just one of several reasons why, to appreciate Davies' movie, one needs to have read the book first as the story is too complex and nuanced for even a long movie to fully present.
But if you have read the novel and if you sit through the slow start - and, today, can endure the diminishing quality of the film print - there is much in the movie to enjoy, including its beautiful settings, its talented actors and Wharton's piercing dialogue.
The costumes, on-location footage, period details and architecture take you back over a hundred years to the world of the very rich. It's a world where everything physical is heavy and studied, much like the unwritten but restricting rules of this rarified society.
While miscast physically, Anderson delivers an engaging performance as Miss Bart, which requires her showing a range of emotions through facial expression and body English as what was said in that rule-bound society was often quite restricted.
Eric Stoltz is equally impressive as one of Anderson's love interests and her only confidant. The surprise in the cast, though, is Dan Aykroyd as Gus Trenor. He delivers a powerful performance as a man who knows the rules of "society" and is willing to enforce them harshly when he feels he's been deceived.
Laura Linney is also outstanding playing the vicious leader of her insular world, as she, like her husband Aykroyd, plays for keeps in this brutal game of societal chess.
There are several other outstanding performances including Anthony LaPaglia's. His, in particular, deserves note as he plays the outsider, a Jew, trying to break into this very Waspy "society" with a smart balance of aggression and discretion.
LaPaglia's scenes with Anderson capture the insight and power of Wharton's writing as LaPaglia's character sees the entire social game for exactly what it is and tries, time and again, to get Anderson, who also sees it, but can't step outside of it, to make smart decisions for herself.
Despite being about an exclusive and tiny sleeve of the population, The House of Mirth still holds timeless and universal lessons about morality, peer pressure, sexual relations and societal rules and conceits. Plus it's just a heck of a good story with a complex and flawed heroine you can't help rooting for.
The House of Mirth, the movie, falls well short of the book, but as a post-read amusement, it's a worthy effort with impressive acting and period details. It can be enjoyed as we wait for the still-to-be-made definitive movie version of Wharton's classic. |
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Post by marysara1 on Dec 7, 2022 12:55:19 GMT
I just watched the Max Steiner documentary. Ray from the TCM message boards was a contributor(voice) to it.
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Post by jamesjazzguitar on Dec 7, 2022 20:15:14 GMT
I just watched the Max Steiner documentary. Ray from the TCM message boards was a contributor(voice) to it. Hopefully Ray joins this site. He has a lot of legacy knowledge and is a wealth of information. |
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Post by dianedebuda on Dec 8, 2022 12:36:35 GMT
I just watched the Max Steiner documentary. Ray from the TCM message boards was a contributor(voice) to it. Hopefully Ray joins this site. He has a lot of legacy knowledge and is a wealth of information. |
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Janet
New Member
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Post by Janet on Dec 8, 2022 14:37:12 GMT
Hopefully Ray joins this site. He has a lot of legacy knowledge and is a wealth of information. What is SSO? |
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Post by dianedebuda on Dec 8, 2022 15:06:06 GMT
Silver Screen Oasis, another site some TCM forum refugees have joined. Seems to be a site created several years ago by a band of former TCM members that had become somewhat inactive when most posters seemed to have migrated to its Facebook portal. Some activity there now. At this point in time, I'm there mostly because of some refugees that have not joined here and just plain curiosity. Know there's a few others here that are also members of both places.
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Post by marysara1 on Dec 9, 2022 20:29:20 GMT
I watch Show Boat, but did they ever explain what happened to Julie's husband. I thought she became an alcoholic after he was out of the picture.
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Post by dianedebuda on Dec 12, 2022 3:48:17 GMT
I just watched the Max Steiner documentary. Ray from the TCM message boards was a contributor(voice) to it. |
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Post by galacticgirrrl on Dec 12, 2022 4:06:11 GMT
THE NAKED KISS (1964)
Directed by Sam Fuller
I seem to have accidentally continued along the vein of Forever Amber with The Naked Kiss. I am not sure if someone here recommended it but if they did I thank you. I was absolutely blown away. I am in my element when I have no idea where a movie is going, what exactly it is trying to tell me or who the characters are are that I am meeting. I would say the Constance Towers character is unlike any other leading lady on screen before or since.
As with Went the Day Well I think going into this movie knowing nothing is best. Beyond what is shown in the trailer I don't really want to say much. It has left me a bit stunned and stupefied. I feel like I did after watching The Birthday Party or Last Year at Marienbad - gloriously adrift at sea.
The Criterion disc had a number of great extras: Special features include interview with star Constance Towers by Charles Dennis; excerpts from The South Bank Show; interviews with director from a 1967 episode of the French tv series, Cinéastes de notre temps and from a 1987 episode of the French tv series, Cinéma cinémas; cartoonist illustrations, theatrical trailer.
Eugene Archer, writing in The New York Times, wrote that The Naked Kiss "has style to burn" and shows that Fuller is "one of the liveliest, most visual-minded and cinematically knowledgeable filmmakers now working in the low-budget Hollywood grist mill", but denounced the plot as "patently absurd" and "sensational nonsense", judging the whole as a "wild little movie".
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Post by nipkowdisc on Dec 12, 2022 15:16:48 GMT
THE NAKED KISS (1964)
Directed by Sam Fuller I seem to have accidentally continued along the vein of Forever Amber with The Naked Kiss. I am not sure if someone here recommended it but if they did I thank you. I was absolutely blown away. I am in my element when I have no idea where a movie is going, what exactly it is trying to tell me or who the characters are are that I am meeting. I would say the Constance Towers character is unlike any other leading lady on screen before or since. As with Went the Day Well I think going into this movie knowing nothing is best. Beyond what is shown in the trailer I don't really want to say much. It has left me a bit stunned and stupefied. I feel like I did after watching The Birthday Party or Last Year at Marienbad - gloriously adrift at sea. The Criterion disc had a number of great extras: Special features include interview with star Constance Towers by Charles Dennis; excerpts from The South Bank Show; interviews with director from a 1967 episode of the French tv series, Cinéastes de notre temps and from a 1987 episode of the French tv series, Cinéma cinémas; cartoonist illustrations, theatrical trailer. Eugene Archer, writing in The New York Times, wrote that The Naked Kiss "has style to burn" and shows that Fuller is "one of the liveliest, most visual-minded and cinematically knowledgeable filmmakers now working in the low-budget Hollywood grist mill", but denounced the plot as "patently absurd" and "sensational nonsense", judging the whole as a "wild little movie". an enraged bald-headed constance towers coming at you with scissors might be an excellent cure for misogyny. LOL |
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Post by jamesjazzguitar on Dec 12, 2022 19:25:47 GMT
THE NAKED KISS (1964)
Directed by Sam Fuller I seem to have accidentally continued along the vein of Forever Amber with The Naked Kiss. I am not sure if someone here recommended it but if they did I thank you. I was absolutely blown away. I am in my element when I have no idea where a movie is going, what exactly it is trying to tell me or who the characters are are that I am meeting. I would say the Constance Towers character is unlike any other leading lady on screen before or since. As with Went the Day Well I think going into this movie knowing nothing is best. Beyond what is shown in the trailer I don't really want to say much. It has left me a bit stunned and stupefied. I feel like I did after watching The Birthday Party or Last Year at Marienbad - gloriously adrift at sea. The Criterion disc had a number of great extras: Special features include interview with star Constance Towers by Charles Dennis; excerpts from The South Bank Show; interviews with director from a 1967 episode of the French tv series, Cinéastes de notre temps and from a 1987 episode of the French tv series, Cinéma cinémas; cartoonist illustrations, theatrical trailer. Eugene Archer, writing in The New York Times, wrote that The Naked Kiss "has style to burn" and shows that Fuller is "one of the liveliest, most visual-minded and cinematically knowledgeable filmmakers now working in the low-budget Hollywood grist mill", but denounced the plot as "patently absurd" and "sensational nonsense", judging the whole as a "wild little movie". I'm a fan of Fuller and his work. The Naked Kiss's plot is out-there but overall the film is good, especially what Constance Towers brings to it. I just watched her on Gunsmoke she always gives interesting performances. |
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Post by I Love Melvin on Dec 12, 2022 22:47:51 GMT
The Naked Kiss is one nutty movie. Veteran prostitute turns into a candy-striper at a children's hospital? It's a tale as old as time. I love movies from this era because they still bumped up against the old Production Code, even though it was on the way out, so they were still forced to pull their punches, sometimes in hilariously inexplicable ways. Virginia Grey runs what is obviously a "house of ill repute" but it comes off more as some kind of YWCA with a sideline. I love the establishing shot of the white pumps descending the steps of the bus which brought her to town, a definite throwback to Wicked Woman (1953), with a similar woman in white breezing into town.
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Post by Fading Fast on Dec 13, 2022 11:56:10 GMT
The Killers from 1946 with Edmond O'Brien, Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardner, William Conrad, Charles McGraw and Sam Levine
Film noir doesn't get much better than this.
The Killers' post-war noir-perfect style, story, substance and characters take you on a hundred-minute journey through a seedy world of back-stabbing gangsters, psychotic hitmen, an arresting femme fatale and a few weary heroes who slog through all the muck, only looking for the truth, as they've given up on justice.
The Killers opens with a ten-minute-long mob hit executed by two professionals, played with perfect cold detachment by Willian Conrad and Charles McGraw.
Their job has frighteningly become so mundane to them that they've developed an almost bored indifference, but still, quite methodical approach to their "work."
That opening scene - nighttime, a small peaceful-looking town, two professional killers, a few locals, a sleepy diner and, then, a ramshackled boarding house where the hit occurs - is one of the most-noir scenes ever filmed in movie history.
The movie then takes you through a flashback reveal of why that hit happened. Why was the hit man’s victim, a seemingly ordinary gas station attendant played by Burt Lancaster in his big-screen debut, rubbed out in this nondescript town?
Leading you on this journey is not a cop, but an insurance investigator, played by Edmond O'Brien (think Edward G. Robinson's character from Double Indemnity, but with looks and athleticism).
O'Brien is all but on his own in his investigation because his boss' only concern is the company's bottom line, not truth, justice or, God forbid, the American way, as almost everyone in this movie has given up on all of those beliefs.
The plot, which is a bit confusing in the slowly rolled-out and flashback way it's told, is about a heist gone wrong where, six-years later, some of the bad guys are still trying to even the score.
What makes the movie a classic, though, are the characters and atmosphere. It's O'Brien doggedly pursuing the truth, as almost any good noir hero does, for nothing more than the self satisfaction of getting the truth.
He does it even knowing the world doesn't care about truth or justice or anything, but money and sex: a succinct summary of one of noir's overarching themes.
It's also Albert Decker playing the smooth mastermind of the heist whom we meet six years later as a legitimate businessman, but who might have executed one of the most-brilliant double crosses in crime history.
It's Ava Gardner who is so ridiculously beautiful that you do believe smart men will do very stupid things for her. Even better, she uses her head and looks with such cold calculation that it would chill your average femme fatale right off the screen.
Finally, it's all the character actors; it's Sam Levene as the honest police lieutenant happy to swim in O'Brien's wake; it's Jack Lambert as "Dumb-Dumb" who, as one of the gang, proves to be not so dumb when he's chasing down the money and it’s Ann Staunton as O'Brien's cynical but pining-for-her-boss secretary whom she only refers to, sardonically, as "dream boy."
There's more, though, as Lancaster himself is enigmatic as the washed-up-early prize fighter who turns to the numbers racket only to end up in over his head with both a woman and a gangster, so he winds up dead in a nondescript boarding house (it's not a spoiler as his murder is in the opening scene).
He's an earlier version of Brando's character from On the Waterfront if Brando hadn't had a union-boss older brother to get him a job when his boxing career, too, ended prematurely (ironically though, for Brando’s character, his career ended early because of his brother's venality).
The Killers has several other notable players as this is a movie in which every scene and every character is engaging and layered.
Film historians can fight over the meaning and definition of noir, but whatever they decide, The Killers' atmosphere of menace, amorality, violence and foreboding, combined with its warped good and bad guys and its femme fatale for the ages, makes it one of the few iconic, must-see noir movies.
N.B. Of course it's debatable, but it's also arguable Ava Gardner never looked more beautiful than she did at twenty-four in The Killers.
 
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