Author Topic: ABCs at the Movies: The Doubles Round!  (Read 2533295 times)

Offline Fran

  • "ABCs of BBM" moderator
  • Moderator
  • BetterMost 5000+ Posts Club
  • *****
  • Posts: 9,905
"N" is The Night of the Hunter
« Reply #1540 on: November 15, 2007, 01:23:57 am »

Offline Meryl

  • BetterMost Supporter
  • BetterMost Moderator
  • The BetterMost 10,000 Post Club
  • *****
  • Posts: 12,205
  • There's no reins on this one....
"O" is Oklahoma!
« Reply #1541 on: November 15, 2007, 01:31:57 am »


Broadway cast album:



And for the pleasure of our GameMistress, the London stage revival:

Ich bin ein Brokie...

Offline dot-matrix

  • BetterMost 5000+ Posts Club
  • *******
  • Posts: 9,865
  • www.maleimagegallery.com ~Come Join Us~
"P" is Picnic
« Reply #1542 on: November 15, 2007, 01:40:28 am »




Life is not a dress rehearsal

Offline Fran

  • "ABCs of BBM" moderator
  • Moderator
  • BetterMost 5000+ Posts Club
  • *****
  • Posts: 9,905
"Q" is Queen Bee
« Reply #1543 on: November 15, 2007, 01:48:25 am »



Offline Ellemeno

  • The BetterMost 10,000 Post Club
  • ********
  • Posts: 15,367
"R" is The Rose Tattoo
« Reply #1544 on: November 15, 2007, 05:02:23 am »
From IMDb: 

Time has not been kind to The Rose Tattoo, a 1955 release that garnered three Oscars, plus additional nominations. Originally written by Tennessee Williams as a play, the film's shortcomings now cancel out much that audiences might have found entertaining about it 47 years ago. The deficits include bad acting all around (with the exception of the star, Anna Magnani) and an uneven script by Williams (who among other things was apparently clueless about how an adolescent boy and girl, attracted to each other, might talk or behave).

Playing the role of the dim-witted but sexy truck driver who courts a grieving widow (Magnani), Burt Lancaster gives a highly exaggerated "comedy performance" that is occasionally embarrassing to watch. A great natural actor in his other films and noted for his controlled physicallity, Lancaster here gawks, bends, waves his arms, makes faces, cries (clownishly), and is generally ape-like, all the while failing to get inside the character he's portraying. (Leading American actors have always had a problem convincingly playing people less intelligent than themselves; see Lon Chaney, Jr. in Of Mice and Men or, more recently, Jack Nicholson in Prizzi's Honor for more examples of this.)

Under the direction of Daniel Mann (who also directed the play), and intended as a comedy-drama, almost everything in Rose Tattoo is either loud or overblown (though it may have been Williams' wish that it be played this way in a misguided attempt to heighten the humorous dimension of the story). The host of supporting characters are all portrayed as one-dimensional grotesques or harpies who telegraph their every thought or emotion by arm-waving, facial contortions, or semiphoring the kind of villainousness that went out in the early '30s. Nor does Mann seem to have fine control over the physical goings-on by cast members. In some scenes small groups of people rush back and forth like obedient cattle, too obviously responding to off-camera direction; and at the high school prom a male extra noticeably freezes for a second or two as he waits for Marisa Pavan and her sailor dance partner to leave the floor ahead of him.

Magnani, for whom the play was written (though she just appeared in the film, after she had mastered the rudiments of the English language), comes across as the only real human being among a slew of posturing marionettes. Her portrayal of a terribly put-upon Sicilian widow fighting off the knowledge of her dead husband's infidelity and desperately trying to maintain her dignity in the face of snide remarks and out-and-out insults is awe-inspiring. I doubt that her performance has ever been matched by any American actress before or after. (Only Vivien Leigh, a Brit, comes to mind as a mentally disintegrating Blanche du Bois in the film version of Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire.) Williams, who was famously homosexual, understood and probably identified with vulnerable women. (Years before, his own sister, when a young woman, had been seriously mentally ill, "put away," and had undergone a lobotomy. It was no coincidence that her name was Rose.)



Offline belbbmfan

  • BetterMost Supporter!
  • BetterMost 1000+ Posts Club
  • *****
  • Posts: 3,354
  • A love that will never grow old
'S' is The Seven Year Itch
« Reply #1545 on: November 15, 2007, 07:37:00 am »
'We're supposed to guard the sheep, not eat 'em'

Offline MaineWriter

  • Bettermost Supporter!
  • BetterMost Moderator
  • The BetterMost 10,000 Post Club
  • *****
  • Posts: 14,042
  • Stay the course...
    • Bristlecone Pine Press
"T" is The Tender Trap
« Reply #1546 on: November 15, 2007, 07:55:40 am »
Taming Groomzilla<-- support equality for same-sex marriage in Maine by clicking this link!

Offline memento

  • BetterMost Supporter!
  • BetterMost 5000+ Posts Club
  • *******
  • Posts: 5,889
  • There But For Fortune
"U" is Untamed
« Reply #1547 on: November 15, 2007, 08:19:14 am »


From IMDB:

Scarlett O'Hara crosses the veldt: big, enjoyable hokum, 27 November 1999
7/10

Everyone works hard to make this grand-scaled hokum as enjoyable as possible. As a redheaded Irish spitfire, Susan Hayward finally gets her chance to play Scarlett O'Hara, but packs all her chiffons and crinolines [with matching shoes and stockings] in a covered wagon and sets off to cross the veldt with wise Agnes Moorehead and a cast of thousands [well, hundreds]. She's chasing Tyrone Power across South Africa, although he's something of a stiff, but she also loves hearty Richard Egan. The script stuffs in everything from a fancy dress ball to an emergency amputation. Henry King directs it all with some intensity, especially a harrowing and spectacular Zulu attack, and uses the wide screen well to capture the spaciousness of the land. Should be seen on the big screen [or at least in letterbox]

Offline opinionista

  • BetterMost 1000+ Posts Club
  • ******
  • Posts: 2,939
"V" is The Virgin Queen
« Reply #1548 on: November 15, 2007, 08:28:44 am »
With Bette Davis in the role of Elizabeth

Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement. -Mark Twain.

Offline Ellemeno

  • The BetterMost 10,000 Post Club
  • ********
  • Posts: 15,367
"W" is White Feather
« Reply #1549 on: November 15, 2007, 08:50:29 am »