Stoner Vamp ,'Lessons'
A place to talk about movies--Old and new, good and bad, high art and high cheese. It's the place to place your kittens on the award winners, gossip about upcoming fims and discuss DVD releases and extras. Spoiler policy: White font all plot-related discussion until a movie's been in wide release two weeks, and keep the major HSQ in white font until two weeks after the video/DVD release.
Also, another "Joseph Cotten holds down the fort and gets to watch quietly while someone else chews the scenery" movie.
Which is ironic since that's the kind of role Peck usually plays. Although, for sheer whacko casting against type, nothing beats Peck as Dr. Mengele in BOYS FROM BRAZIL
Peck was lousy casting in Boys from Brazil. And I thought the whole movie was stupid. Bad script, worse casting, just a train wreck through and through.
I find it hilarious that that movie is the one Martin Scorsese mentions as the first movie he remembers ever seeing (at age 4 or something).
Hee. Had I seen the movie when I was 4, I'd have remembered it as well. All that smouldering sexuality and violence. Yowza.
Cotten went against type and played a serial killer in Shadow of a Doubt and he was friggin' excellent in it. Made me wish he had the chance to play more villains. Granted, the movie works because Cotten's outward manners are so deceptively gentle, in keeping with his usual onscreen image.
Talking of Cotten and Jones, I am ridiculously fond of A Portrait of Jennie, which is deeply silly when you think too hard about it, but never fails to reel me in on the atmosphere alone. All that florid lyricism and gorgeous Debussy and the time travel and oh my!
Chemistry? John Garfield and Lana Turner in The Postman Always Rings Twice. I thought the screen would spontaneously combust.
Ellen Barkin and Dennis Quaid in The Big Easy. Chemistry to burn.
Peck was lousy casting in Boys from Brazil. And I thought the whole movie was stupid. Bad script, worse casting, just a train wreck through and through.
Oh, I agree whole-heartedly. Peck and Olivier in a scenery-chewing smackdown, poor James Mason just trying to collect his check with a little dignity, and the out-and-out cognitive dissonance of having Steve Guttenberg turn up as the Israeli nazi-hunter/student at the beginning.
Ellen Barkin and Dennis Quaid in The Big Easy. Chemistry to burn.
Oh gods yes. This movie and Dirty Dancing usually go along on our vacations. Just, you know... Not that we ever watch them. The heat radiating from them is inspiration enough.
Oh, I agree whole-heartedly. Peck and Olivier in a scenery-chewing smackdown, poor James Mason just trying to collect his check with a little dignity, and the out-and-out cognitive dissonance of having Steve Guttenberg turn up as the Israeli nazi-hunter/student at the beginning.
Yep. I don't know whether to cringe or laugh. Or both. It's one I've tried hard to forget.
Mmm'John Garfield.
Mmmmm.
Oh, where was I?
Garfield and Turner are of the sexy to the power of 10 in The Postman Always Rings Twice.
My favorite clothed-but-sexy-as-hell scene is the cabin scene from The Lady Eve. You know, with the removal of her strappy sandals and Stanwyck playing with Henry Fonda's hair and how you could see Fonda's character going utterly glassy-eyed with lust (but not knowing what the hell to do about it)? Her confident sexuality, the fact that she is in complete control of the situation yet obviously finding him rather adorable--I love it. Barbara Stanwyck was da bomb.
I LOVE that scene.