I think she's the showstopper in this film. Lancaster is superb throughout, and Perry's direction, though posy, works for the most part. But Rule's scene is my favourite part of the movie. She's exceptional, running through a gamut of emotions in a few minutes of screentime. Great performance.
shareOh, it's a remarkable performance, and the most well-written scene in the film; perhaps of that entire decade. That one scene should be studied in drama classes, it's a masterpiece in fantastic character/relationship writing on every level.
http://dylzo.tumblr.com/.
Pity she hasn't had a larger body of work in which we could draw upon;
i've liked her in the Twilight Zone,Bell Book and Candle and wish she was more widely known.
...tis a pity....
Janice Rule was a brilliant actress who somehow never broke through to major stardom. Like Dorothy Malone and Dorothy McGuire, two other talented actresses who never quite got the recognition they deserved, Rule was a consistently brilliant performer who made a strong impression in film, television, and on the New York stage. Rumor has it that she clashed with Joan Crawford when they were appearing together in the 1951 film GOODBYE, MY FANCY; the legend has it that Rule, who was making her film debut, had a few problems hitting her marks (being in the right spot for the camera) and Crawford snarled at her "Miss Rule, I hope you learn some professionalism or your career in this business will be short." There's nothing else about Rule and Crawford, but Crawford had a habit of crushing the careers of anyone who pissed her off (she ruined the careers of two of her husbands), so who knows if she did something to slow down Rule's progress?
At any rate Rule managed to survive and prosper in the industry for forty years, and always delivered riveting performances in which you usually couldn't take your eyes off her no matter who else was on the screen with her. She left an impressive legacy.
Never mess with a middle-aged, Bipolar queen with AIDS and an attitude problem!
roflol ><
Thanks for the write-up Scott. I had heard of Janice Rule before, but she was one of those people you hear of but don't quite know. Her scene here was the most powerful in the movie. Very impressive how with her performance she held her own with Burt Lancaster word for word, line for line. A beautiful woman too.
shareI've loved THE SWIMMER ever since I first saw it when I couldn't have been more than twelve years old and even back then I recognized the scene between Lancaster and Rule as the high point of the film. Interestingly, the Trivia section on this film on IMDb says the scene with Rule was directed by Sydney Pollack after Frank Perry had left the project; whether that explains why the scene stands out so strongly I couldn't say, but there's no doubt that it is the most unforgettable scene in an unforgettable movie.
Never mess with a middle-aged, Bipolar queen with AIDS and an attitude problem!
roflol ><