Buffista Movies 5: Development Hell
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.
I really need to get that Val Lewton DVD set.
Guess what I got for xmas.
I particularly love "Curse of the Cat People" because it's so very peculiar.
It is that. And both you and Matt are correct that (a) it has a sinister undertone and (b) nothing much happens. It's a very short movie, and the very first directorial credit for Robert Wise. He was interviewed before he died about it, and they ran it after his death this fall on TCM. He had an amazing career. I know the auteur theorists had a low opinion of him, but he did so many cool movies! Shit, he was an editor on Citizen Kane. He did The Haunting! Curse of the Cat People! Worked with Val Lewton and Orson Welles! Cool noirs too.
Hipsters just couldn't forgive him for Sound of Music.
I usually read this blog for the comics content, but this post makes me want to run and see both movies, even more than usual.
“Jean Louise, stand up. Your father's passing.”
Holy carp that line gives me chills just thinking about it. What an incredible movie.
Someone asked about the Best Picture and Director noms, and I just read this on Yahoo:
It was the first time since 1981 that the same five movies were nominated for directing and best picture.
“Jean Louise, stand up. Your father's passing.”
I'm still pissed I missed meeting Harper Lee last fall.
I'm getting a Hoffman/Huffman vibe for best actor and actress.
Shit, he was an editor on Citizen Kane. He did The Haunting! Curse of the Cat People! Worked with Val Lewton and Orson Welles! Cool noirs too.
Hec (and any other interested parties), for Robert Wise, if you haven't, you really need to see THE SETUP. It's in one of the noir box sets that's out there, but it's probably also in a stand alone somewhere, and it's just amazing. Basically a real time story about a boxing match that's supposed to be fixed.
Scorcese co-commentaries with I want to say Wise, but I'm not 100% sure it was Wise (definitely Scorcese, though). I think they were done separately, but it's still interesting.
TKaM is probably the best book-to-film adaptation ever. On the commentary, the director points out that the only big added scene was the one after Atticus put the kids to bed, and Scout asks Jem about their mother. As the oh-so-sad-to-listen-to questions continue on, the camera pans out to Atticus sitting on the porch, listening just as we are. Peck's face is just heartbreaking to watch.
I'm getting a Hoffman/Huffman vibe for best actor and actress.
I'm down with the Hoffman part. I haven't seen Transamerica so I shouldn't judge but I'm really pulling for Reese Witherspoon. I just loved her so much as June Carter Cash.
Some of Wise's credits.
As an editor:
The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)
The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941)
Citizen Kane (1941)
Dance, Girl, Dance (1940)
My Favorite Wife (1940)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939)
As a sound editor:
Top Hat (1935) (sound effects editor) (uncredited)
The Informer (1935) (sound effects editor) (uncredited)
The Gay Divorcee (1934) (sound effects editor) (uncredited)
As a director:
The Andromeda Strain (1971)
The Sound of Music (1965)
The Haunting (1963)
Two for the Seesaw (1962) (Robert Mitchum & Shirley Maclaine?)
West Side Story (1961)
Odds Against Tomorrow (1959) (another cool noir)
I Want to Live! (1958) (great noir/melodrama)
The Set-Up (1949) (as Frank notes, a classic noir/boxing film)
Blood on the Moon (1948) (Western Noir! No really, it's good)
The Body Snatcher (1945)
The Curse of the Cat People (1944)
The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)
If the Sound of Music hadn't doomed him with the hipsters, this credit would haunt him with the film geeks as the man who ruined Welle's second masterpiece. Granted, there's a lot more to it than that (Welle's had basically taken a powder to Rio to film footage for a film that never got finished, as detailed in IT'S ALL TRUE), and Wise didn't really have a choice - someone was going to cut it down, and Wise probably hurt it less than some others would have.
I can't believe you didn't include STAR TREK - The Motion Picture. It's a notable credit certainly. And I've heard his re-edit for the DVD release actually made the picture a lot better. Probably wasn't much he could do about the uniforms, though.
Oh, and THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL - that IS a sci-fi classic.
