All of this under the heading of ANTICHRIST: The MOVIE was intended as an experiment in blogging to which I am totally new. If you want to read about those films which have affected me most deeply throughout my life, whether by and single element (acting, direction, screewriting, cinematography, scoring, special effects, etc., READ ON! I promise a few things. Not to bore you silly with "pre-fab" film critics pretentions, discussions of esoteric and anyodyne directorial florishes which ultimately mean nothing, films so obscure that NO ONE beyond the cognoscenti has seen them, and worst of all well-meaning but ultimately UNREWARDING talk of enuii and the MTV stle of editing which infests todays' so called movies to the point of distraction from ALL else. It's like watching a visual SLEDGE HAMMER aimed at one's eyes without relief!
So let's start with an ad hoc favorite film list....NIGHT AND THE CITY (Jules Dassin's 1950 20th Century Fox) Classic film noir with Richard Widmark {in the performance of his career} Gene Tierney, Herbert Lom. Stanislaus Zbyszko, Googie Withers, Hugh Marlowe, Mike Mazurki. As EXPRESSIONISTIC AND AFFECTING as they come.
SOME CAME RUNNING (Vincente Minnelli, 1958, MGM) Minnelli's flair for artisitc and decorative flourish is at it's most inspired peak here, as are truly underrated performances by Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin (what a shock THIS MUST HAVE BEEN AT THE IME), Shirley MacLaine, Martha Hyer, Arthur Kennedy (the last 3 all Oscar nominated). William Daniels superb cinematography (Sinatra's long association with him began here...witness the number of films thereafter he associate produced with Sinatra), Elmer Bernstein's grandly romantic and original score, and the fine script by Cy Howard. And so damned entertaining!
FORBIDDEN PLANET(Fred MacLeod Wilcox, 1956 MGM)...Yes I know...Old school to todays' cretinous MTV style film viewers but still an astoundingly inventive sci-fi twist on Shakespeare's THE TEMPEST with Leslie Nielsen at his most square-jawed, Anne Francis at her pre-HONEY WEST sexiest, Walter Pidgeon at his most charismatic and unknowingly evil villainous best. With Art Direction and Special Effects beyond anything imagined at the time, and of course the ELECTRONIC TONALITIES of LOUIS AND BEBE BARRON, very much in the style of Karlheinz Stochausen's CONTACTE. GROUND BREAKING and still influential. STAR TREK would NEVER have existed without it.
FEMALE CONVICT SCORPION; JAILHOUSE 41. (1972, TOEI Studios, Shunya Ito)...The most visually inventive and stylish film from the Japanese at that time in the low-rent exploitation film genre. A simple revenge story becomes a tour de force through sheer inspired invention of direction, cinematography and performances. If you never see another Japanese film see this one to know where Quentin Tarantino's KILL BILL 1 and 2 were REALLY COMING FROM!
TOYS IN THE ATTIC (1963, Geroge Roy Hill, United Artists). The single best Lillian Hellman adaption on the screen woefully trounced at the time critically. The film is continually wonderful and packed with great performances and direction. Geraldine Page may overdue the "tics" that were part of her acting style all her life but she is just wonderful in this part of the sister who sercetly harbors feelings of incest for her brother (Dean Martin)....Dean Martin...what to say of him. He was a "limited actor"...Yeah RIGHT! That's what Some Came Running, Rio Bravo, Kiss Me Stupid and this film are just great...His roles in all of the aformenetioned films plus ROUGH NIGHT IN JERICHO (Arnold Laven's 1967, Universal western where he plays the nastiest role of his career) are just PERFECT performances. The Panavision cinematgraphy of Joseph Biroc (who
worked most often with director Robert Aldrich) is superb in it's use of the frame. And George Roy Hill's direction is commited and consistantly so far and away above his later films like BUTCH CASSIDY and THE STING that it doesn't look like the work of the same man. A stellar score from George Duning rounds out a great movie. And although attacked at the time for this it IS NOT WATERED DOWN! The incest angle is very explicit but subtle.
TOUCH OF EVIL (1958, Universal-International, Orson Welles) Entirely possible NOW that Welles' universally admired classic and ground breaking masterpiece CITIZEN KANE has overstayed it's welcome due to simple overexposure and imitation, and that this even MORE baroque masterpiece is more entertaining, more inventively directed, and more instinctively involving. Wonderful perfomances from Charlton Heston (way better than he was in his same year Oscar winning performance in Ben-Hur), Janet Leigh (so sexy and yet so unthreateningly so in this), Akim Tamiroff as a sleazy Mexican villain, Mercedes McCambridge as a lesbian druggie, and best of all Dennis Weaver as the precursor to Anthony Perkins in Hitchcock's PSYCHO, as a mentally "challenged" sex-obesssed but REpressed hotel "night man." Scary, frightening and hilarious often at the same time gotta wonder how he managed to play such straight roles for most of his career. With the boomshot from hell opening of cinematographer Russell Metty this is an astounding piece of work.
ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST (1968, Paramount, Sergio Leone) What a cast (Charles Bronson, Jason Robards, Jr., Claudia Cardinale and Henry Fonda who was Leone's FAVORITE actor cast as the worst of all possible villains...hell he shoots kids!), what direction (Leone), cinematography (Tonino Delli Colli, in Techniscope), and possible the very APEX of achievement in film composition as Ennio Morricone (who is without a doubt the most prolific and inspired and consistent composer in film history {more than 500 scores!!}. Score composed BEFORE the film was SHOT. Name me one of todays' corporate directorial a**-lickers who could do this and have a composer of this accomplishment take on the project. A financial flop here and subject to drastic recutting over the years due to this...(SEE Tim Lucas' Video Watchdog back issues for the complete story). For me it is just the finest Western ever made.
Could go on with a few other titles and will before long. ALL POSTS ARE WELCOME HERE and SO are recommendations disagreements etc. My blog is your blog!
Your favorites list changed just a little since you last complied one a number of years ago. Night and the City still seems to be your #1. Of the ones you listed, I never saw Toys in the Attic (I'm embarassed to admit) and am adding that to my must see list). This is a great blog, Dennis. please keep it going!
ReplyDeleteMore on Toys in The Attic...When it came out it was apparently patronized by reviewers at the time BECAUSE of Dean Martin's presence in it. Let us not forget that he despite wonderful performances in THE YOUNG LIONS, SOME CAME RUNNING, RIO BRAVO and the lesser known film CAREER was STILL ill thought of as a dramatic actor. The two actreses playing his sisters Wendy Hiller and Geraldine Page were thought to be out of his league in terms of acting prowess and the part Dean essays (extremely well I might add) in this film was originally played by Jason Robards, Jr. on Broadway! So there was a considerable baggage of snobbish critcal prejudice against giving the film it's due. Yvette Mimieux is also very good as the near child bride as are Gene Tierney, Frank Silvera and Larry Gates playing a totally out of character nasty villain. It is beautifully shot in Black & White Panavision by Joseph Biros and scored with subtlety by George Duning.
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