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telegonus (736)
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Childhood Favorite
Excellent Actor
Police Stations Etc.
Back To The Original Series
Revisiting Frankenstein
Starting Up Again
Any Thoughts On Why There Aren't More Serious Posters Here?
One Vicious Movie
The 7th Is Made Up Of Phantoms
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Right. The national political parties were not divided by ideology until the 20th century was more than half over. There were many Left progressives in the Republican party in the first half and especially first third of the last century. One only has to look up, among others, Robert LaFollette, Teddy Roosevelt, Hiram Johnson, Charle Evans Hughes (moderate), Wayne Morse, among many others. Liberal New York Mayor John Lindsay served in the 1960s. Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Minnesota elected their share of moderate to liberal Republicans well into the middle of the last century, including California Governor and later Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren and anti-Vietnam War Representative Pete McClusky years later.
As to the Democrats, many "race conservative" Southerners were pro-New Deal under FDR; and many were also with Roosevelt on going to war circa 1940, while Midwestern Republicans, Left and Right, tended to be isolationist even as many were also moderate to liberal economically. There were also conservative northern and western Democrats, especially in upstate New York and New England and the Far West, notably the Southwest. Neither political party was monolithic in terms of ideology till relatively recently. Pre-1900 neither party was much to the Left or Right, as the Industrial Revolution did not lead unionization and more rights and better living conditions for people of modest to medium means. Regional loyalties, and the difference between city folk and country folk were larger factors than economic issues.
Laurence Harvey's performance was fine by me. His accent was not an issue. He was a movie actor, and young though he was, a seasoned one; and he got the job done. If he had tried for an American accent I doubt that it would have worked anyway, as he was known to be British (albeit South African born), and he was already a well known international player, if not a superstar. It was okay for the time, and that's what works for me. I found him credible in The Alamo, from a couple of years earlier, in which he also played an American, also an unlikeable fellow who yet did the right thing in the end, though not conflicted about it.
The Manchurian Candidate was so well made, first rate down the line, some offbeat casting (Sinatra, Henry Silva) didn't hurt it much. It was all part of the film's scheme, with unreality in play, people not being what they seem, not meaning what they say, much of the time anyway; director John Frankenheimer aced it with his expert direction. That some things about this movie are "off', don't feel quite credible, works for me in making it come alive. Some scenes and characters might have been better written, notably James Gregory's Joe McCarthy based senator, too obviously a jerk, and also in too obviously channeling McCarthy in some of his phrasing. John McGiver's senator was a bit too good to be true, and also a composite of in his case many real life political figures of the time (1962) the film was made. All criticism aside, the film is an American classic.
I agree wholeheartedly. Monty Clift was one of the best screen actors ever. He brought authenticity to everything he did. Just by the way he looks, and on paper, he was the world's most unlikely cowboy, yet I find him believable every step of the way in [b]Red River[/b].
Re Tiomkin: some of the music he wrote for [b]Red River[/b] turns up in [b]The Thing From Another World[/b]. It's strange hearing it during the cattle drive in the earlier film, but there it is.
I agree re Fay Dunaway. She was a beauty, and a classic one. Jane Fonda was "prettier" in an almost 'girl next door" way. This made her a better fit for films like They Shoot Horses and Klute. Dunaway was also a fine actress; she took chances; played some unlikable, even loathsome characters. The movies, American movies, were a lot more exciting and fun when these two talented ladies were in their heyday, at around the same time.
A thought on Jane and Faye: they both seemed like grownups even when they were young. Their manners, their voices, made them come across as real women, in the best sense of that term, while few (any?) young actresses in their twenties and thirties today have that quality (foreign, more likely).
Walking Distance for me. Also, it's a sunny episode, while it always feels dark in A Stop At Willoughby, the dream scenes set on old-time Willougby aside. The "today" reality part is just plain dark and depressing. Gig Young's character in WD always either drives or walks. He's healthy, and he looks it. James Daly looks way older than the age he was given in the show (36!); and he doesn't look healthy, either. Gig looks like he's ready to make a change of pace in his life, while Daly looks like his next step will be in a mortuary, which is apparently, and ironically, ends up when he steps off the train.
Entrapment is a theme in both of these early TZ episodes, and it's repeated throughout the series run.
It's a very good show, at its best as good as Dragnet, although the main law enforcement characters aren't so fleshed out. The stories make it work; and yes, there is a good deal of action.
Yes, and re Raymond Burr, he modeled his screen persona on Laird Cregar's, to a degree anyway. At his best, Burr could, like Cregar, draw the viewer in, and make one sympathize or at least empathize with his villainous or evil, as the case my be, characters. Burr was known to have been an admirer of Cregar's, just barely missed knowing or at least meeting him, by a couple of years prior to his arrival in Hollywood after World War II. Yet Cregar truly had no "successors", as such. Victor Buono was probably the nearest to him in this regard, although he had a more genial and lighthearted side. Cregar could play comedy well at times, however when he was playing a truly tragic figure he could own the screen better than any other actor I can think of. The nearest Buono came to play a Cregar-like part was his portrayal of the title role in the 1964 The Strangler, in which he was excellent.
I liked the James Mason Hitchcock hour entry very much when I first saw it just a few years back, when I still had a television, thus still had MeTV (it's a long story, but I moved last November, and the same day accidentally broke my set when I placed it on an overupholstered chair, and it hit the hardwood floor hard, and just smashed).
Mason's star power sells his episode, though it's a good one to begin with, but just imagine if it had been Barry Sullivan, Joseph Cotten or James Daly, good actors all, but not in Mason's league as a star, and not charismatic, and imagine how well it would played. Two of my first hour long seasons eps are from early on, A Piece Of The Action, just a good, well acted story, and Don't Look Behind You, in which Vera Miles seems to be stalked by half the male faculty members of a college. Great atmosphere, a spooky score, fair to middlin' writing, with Dick Sargent coming through in the end like he's the only sane one of the bunch.
I hope so, EC. Also, I'm hoping that the Moviechat admins don't start deleting posts, or closing threads that still have life in them. Psycho is sill alive ad kicking, as a classic movie AND a worthy topic for discussion.
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