OTTO PREMINGER, S / D

i am extremely under-premingered.

Fallen Angel is great, definitely a major work.

Anatomy of a Murder is my favorite. Resaw Advise and Consent a few weeks ago: the first 90 minutes are just wonderful...then the hamhanded homo drama kicks in.

Walter Pidgeon missed his calling...he should have been a majority leader intead of actor.

'Resaw' now.

ya... that a new year's resolution or something?

Never seen Bonjour Tristesse...just stuck it in my Netflix queue.

good, you won't suffer NY hipster assholes chuckling through the climax like I did at MoMA.

The Pinkerton intro's much better than the Apatow essay.

In Harm's Way is really good. Great cast.

I learned a new word.

brummagem.

I'm rather under-premingered too. Only seen Saint Joan and Bunny Lake is Missing, both of which were great. I kind of get why you might say the latter is only okay, but I recorded it by accident and got very drawn into the whole thing.

I've always been wary of watching The Man with the Golden Arm as I loved the book and don't want it spoiled, even though EVERYONE says the film is awesome, hm hm. I didn't even realise that Bonjour Tristesse had been filmed - I think that might work better as a film than the book...

Deborah Kerr is amazing in it, and Jean Seberg is better than she is in Saint Joan.

Olivier is very smart and funny in Bunny Lake, but I find the whole gothic bro-sis psych-horror plot a bit wheezy.

...Golden Arm is mad overrated: less cool than you'd expect from the accurate descriptions of the Preminger style in Pinkerton's essay. Sinatra's terrific, though.

maybe i should see advise & consent? river of no return could be interesting.

good, you won't suffer NY hipster assholes chuckling through the climax like I did at MoMA.

is MoMA noted for audience annoyance? I had to suffer thru commentary and kissyface at Fitzcarraldo.

I think that might work better as a film than the book
Ha, I was just thinking the same thing, that the film is better than the book.

Man, I hope I get to see some of these.

gabbneb, you in particular would eat up Advise & Consent.

kissyface at Fitzcarraldo.

lol - huh?

srsly

I think what you heard was just some loose denture hydroplaning, gabbneb.

must've been the naked injuns.

this couple was not geriatric

MoMA is better known for people clacking their dentures (haha xpost), eating plums and punching each other, but occasional the younger Film Forum Snicker Brigade wanders in.

Yes 'neb, you will be riveted by Advise & Consent (even though it's based on a novel by a conservative -- the villain is a blackmailing peacenik Commie dupe).

this def was not the Lincoln Plaza audience

Not just the best Mr Freeze opposite Adam West's Batman
If only they had gone ahead with the original plan to have Cesar Romero play Gene Tierney's Latin Lover, Laura would have had yet another Batman villian associated with it.

Or if Dame Judith Anderson had been on Batman instead of Star Trek.

Daisy Kenyon is almost worth all the recent blogger ecstasy, especially for the first 2/3; here's something on it:

http://mattzollerseitz.blogspot.com/2008/01/you-jury-joan-crawford-otto-preminger.html

Dana Andrews is a hella good actor.

He's quite the antihero in DK.

I wanna read that Geoffrey O'Brien thing about him (or is it Luc Sante)

thing? about Dana Andrews?

Yeah. It's in OK You Mugs. I think C0L!n said that was the best or only thing worth reading in there.

i've been seeing that book remaindered pretty much since it came out, and every so often i'll look in the contents to see if i recognize any of the contributors' name now. i *never ever do*. subtitling it 'writers on actors' was kind of oxymoronic.

Geoffrey O'Brien, Luc Sante, Manny Farber, John Updike? Never heard of 'em

Actually I remembered that I had already read that Dana Andrews piece in Castaways On The Image Planet.

are they rly in it? obviously farber and updike i know. heard of sante.

Table Of Contents
ILX favorites Frank Kogan and Greil Marcus too.

oh klawans too huh.

Fun fact: Godard seeked out Jean Seberg to be in Breathless after seeing Saint Joan (I've only seen Bonjour Tristesse).

Carmen Jones, yes. Amazing it was made when it was.

I really love Bunny Lake is Missing. Although it's harder to watch after the spoilers of a first viewing.

Saw Bonjour Tristesse. What an odd little film. Preminger rather slyly doesn't shy away from the sexual tension between sticky-wicket Niven and Seberg. She's awkward when bantering or acting most adolescent, but she and Kerr (who's really superb and looks great in Preminger's extended great) have great chemistry.

I love the MoMA film audience. It's always like 20% Jewish 75+ psychoanalysts.

has "great" gone viral in Alfred's last line?

Its oddness is inseparable from its greatness. I wonder if Eric remembers it?

Also when I see things at MoMA someone usually starts talking to me without prompt, which I like.

whoops typo.

Carmen Jones, yes. Amazing it was made when it was.

Why? It's a beautiful film, but it's also a segregationist document in its own way.

Preminger was bold, but he was also careful and canny. He wouldn't have stepped over any boundaries if he thought there would be real repercussions.

I think he's one of the greatest Hollywood directors mind.

I've got Where The Sidewalk Ends arriving tomorrow.

I wonder if Eric remembers it?
Film criticism is the art of pretend forgetfulness.

I remember the movie, just not writing about it. No way in hell am I gonna read that piece now.

A bunch of the earliest essays I wrote for Slant's 100 are painfully earnest, I bet. The ones on trashy movies are probably a lot better.

Resaw Advise and Consent a few weeks ago: the first 90 minutes are just wonderful...then the hamhanded homo drama kicks in.

How would you prefer Kennedy-era studio films dealt with homosexuality?

With less handwringing and a better actor than Don Murray. I don't mind the gay bar scene.

Not bad, for a 23-second scene.

what'd you think of the movie overall?

Morbs could link you to my Slant review, I'm too lazy.

I think the way Preminger films the Senate chambers is as precise and fantastic as, I dunno, Bresson at his best.

Another thing I remember liking is that its purportedly central concern (i.e. Leffingwell) ends up repeatedly pushed to the back in favor of more prurient distractions. In other words, it IS politics.

apparently the Laughton character discovers Murray's body in the novel.

(I've read you being earnest without the pain, EH.)

It's certainly not as preachy a political drama as, say, Serling / Frankenheimer's Seven Days In May (which I remember liking). And it's a marvel of sophistication next to Charlie Wilson's War.

Alas, Patricia Neal is unable to intro In Harm's Way tomw night at Film Forum as planned. I will probably library-DVD it.

I never managed to make it this far into Skidoo:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xg463_skidoo-theme-song-carol-channing

(I've read you being earnest without the pain, EH.)

Yeah, I get good and weepy about John Waters.

oh, you!

Carol Channing is actually the only joyful element of Skidoo. In spite of her hard-to-watch strip scene.

Carol Channing is usually the only joyful element in anything she's in.

except Thoroughly Modern Millie.

I have avoided C.C. in most everything except her weekly appearances on PBS specials over the last 35 years singing "Diamonds" or "Hello Dolly!"

Her performance of "Diamonds" on "The Muppet Show" = best evah.

more preminger movies need to come out on dvd

Daisy Kenyon in a couple months.

Denby on Preminger. I haven't finished it.

Oy, Denby:

Preminger was perhaps too refined and modulated in his sophistication to achieve more than occasional greatness as a director. He doesn’t compare, for instance, with his fellow-émigrés Fritz Lang and Billy Wilder. It’s hard to think of a heartbreaking or truly exhilarating moment in his work. Yet, at his best, he raised civil discourse to the level of subtle entertainment: one can get caught up in the intricately choreographed give-and-take of “Advise and Consent” without caring whether the nominee gets confirmed or not

If AAC was just one of many "subtle entertainments," then isn't Preminger a great director?

I think "at his best" suggests there weren't "many." I don't know that O.P. has more than two great films.

Depends how academic we get: Laura, Fallen Angel, Anatomy of a Murder, maybe Advise & Consent as a near-great.

I've got The Cardinal in my queue.

"Can technical skill and craft, combined with worldliness and urbanity, and presented in a distinct style, rise to the level of art?"

UGH!!!!!!

I'm not yet a Hawks convert, but that argument is total idiocy

http://theband.hiof.no/band_pictures/levon_and_the_hawks_1964.html

aargh
http://theband.hiof.no/band_pictures/levon_and_the_hawks_1964.gif

I was this close to going to see Saint Joan last night but didn't make it and now I am regretting it.

i went to the screening of bunny lake w/ keir dullea. he did a funny impression of otto preminger (and confirmed once more that the man was a complete monster)

:o

A friend wd've gone if Carol Lynley had been there. He was scared shitless by Bunny as a kid.

i think denby is pretty much on the money, and i don't usually.

I didn't know that OP and Dorothy Dandridge were lovers, or I just forgot.

I remembered. They had a son, no?

Exodus is surprisingly sentimental and awkward, and about as long as this primary season.

Mort Sahl allegedly stood up at the Exodus premiere at the 3-hour mark and yelled "Otto, let my people go!"

joe, one Dullea monster story, plz!

Yeah, you gotta back these things up with anecdotes.

in bunny lake, made martita hunt do one scene over again about 40 times because she kept making the wrong gesture (the 40th take, she realized she was doing it again, paused halfway, and muttered "oh, FUCK it"). he also said the best day he had while filming BLIM was getting the phone call that he'd landed the main role in 2001

OP wouldn't raise his voice at olivier, tho

dullea's looking really good for his age, btw

well, he was rebirthed by tasteful aliens.

Morbs, have you seen Where The Sidewalk Ends? Pretty good, even if Gene Tierney's a drip.

long ago, I think. Just got Fallen Angel from library.

I'm perversely tempted by that Otto/Milton Berle co-star thing next week.

the only twinbill i may get to the rest of the retro might be The Fan/ Forever Amber

I saw When The Sidewalk Ends once at random as the second half of a double during some noirfest years back and remember being pleasantly surprised.

I might could try to see that twinbill next Tuesday, Morbs.

Fallen Angel is deliciously put together, even if Alice Faye is kind of an annoying simp; her walk through the town w/ Dana Andrews, and her arrest in San Francisco, are one-take tours de force. Great scene of dirty ex-cop Charles Bickford working over sleazy suspect Bruce Cabot.

The first ten minutes (in that bar) are wonderful, aren't they?

I lover "BEER" on both sides of the front door too.

I've riffled through that new Otto bio; Dullea def not fond of OP... more from M Musto:

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/dailymusto/archives/2008/01/foster_hirsch_a.php

musto was also at the BL screening

yes, he gives rundown.

Otto wanted Dr. King to play a senator in Advise & Consent. Yes, MLK.

Destroy w/ extreme prejudice: Skidoo

I saw this when I was about 8 (no, not when it first came out), so I'd love to see it again

how was Forever Amber, ken?

joe, one Dullea monster story, plz!

Dullea and bio author Foster Hirsch were interviewed on WFMU a couple weeks ago. Listen to it at: http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/SE (it's the January 7 show)

Worth the listen

FYI to LA ILXors, there's a Preminger tribute starting now at the American Cinematheque: http://egyptiantheatre.com/archive1999/2008/Egyptian/Otto_Preminger_Films.htm

Ran across this today too...

"In Otto Preminger's luxurious Manhattan townhouse, Tim ran an LSD session for the famed director, then doing 'research' for a movie entitled _Skidoo_. As soon as the acid kicked in, Preminger went into
manic action. Turning on one television set after another, he had three going at once. 'His shiny, hairless head had turned into a space helmet and he was high as an orbiting com-sat as he dialed and tuned ever-changing realities, deliberately disrupting focus and color.' As Tim searched for a Ravi Shankar record to slow Preminger down, he had an epiphany. 'Watching Otto's acclerated brain in action jolted me out of the nostalgic-pastoral phase. At Millbrook we had been living in a time warp. Millbrook was a pleasant but repetitious feudal drill The next stage in evolution, my own at least, was going to involve information and communication. I resolved on the spot to move to Hollywood and learn how realities were produced and directed."

-p.318, _Timothy Leary: A Biography_, Rbt Greenfield (Leary quotes culled from "Emergence of the Drug Culture" from _Flashbacks_)

Morbius, The Fan was so-so, but Forever Amber was very good. Nice painterly Technicolor. Linda Darnell was well cast, and with the red hair she looked kind of like Drew Barrymore. George Sanders was excellent as King Charles II of England and had this great bit where his dogs would follow him everywhere and when he left a room he would say to them "Come, children."

ooh!

Just was leafing through Dark City Dames and for some reason there is a picture of Otto Preminger sitting with Marie Windsor with a caption that says something about the tyrannical director taking her under his wing.

"The tyrannical director proved to be a guardian angel to the young, struggling actress."

Never seen any Preminger, but Anatomy of Murder arrives in my mailbox tomorrow.

(And yes, it was the Denby article that did it.)

hey, Daisy Kenyon's out, pounce.

http://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/dvd_review.asp?ID=1302

I've been skipping around in the Hirsch book, what a trip and a half OP was...

I almost picked it up at the store last weekend. how's his crit?

his crit? better than his dish?

It's OK, he doesn't overpraise stuff that hasn't aged all that well (Man w/ Golden Arm). Quotes a lot of actors who say OP gave em virtually no direction.

Daisy Kenyon is excellent, excellent. Love how the Preminger renaissance is as much a Dana Andrews rediscovery.

and Andrews didn't want to do DK.

Maybe Crawford's most human performance? I dunno -- she seemed looser and, god, more IRONIC?

Joan was going thru menopause during the shoot; the temperature on the set was kept at 50 degrees F.

Yeah, I watched the "featurette." Your boy Hirsch does the commentary and hosts the featurette.

Also: is this the only instance in film of a feeble father-in-law?

the bio was returned today, I read about half.

yeah, the dad-in-law reallty rolled over for Dana. The child-abuse thing is kind of amazing.

a still newer bio, by Chris Fujiwara:

http://thephoenix.com/article_ektid61433.aspx

Oh yeah, I saw that in the bookstore a month or two ago and meant to post about it.

Watching Bunny Lake is Missing tonight. Any thoughts?

I seriously hope the audiences of 1944 realized that Vincent Price and Clifton Webb are playing insolent fags.

Of course. But you need EVIDENCE. You need eeeeeeeeeeeeevvvvvvvvvvidence!

P.S. Bunny Lake is Missing = masterpiece, one of his many. In some ways, it's the perfect Preminger gateway drug since his observational style doesn't mute the thriller aspects that rise to the surface only in subsequent viewings of Fallen Angel or Angel Face. And what he does with Noel Coward is a moral triumph. We are not worthy.

Did you dig it?

I don't think Such Good Friends gets mentioned anywhere here. I used to watch it on TV in the '70s, hoping I'd see Dyan...well, never mind about my bilious private life. Saw it for the first time in ages last year, part of a Preminger series at the Cinematheque. It was okay, barely.

Well, unsurprisingly, I love the shit out of it. Of his 1970s films, it's second only to his apocalyptic swansong The Human Factor. The ending of Such Good Friends offers one of cinema's great images of calm acceptance and mature focus, particularly felt after such a juicily off-kilter film.

I did like the ending, and almost mentioned it in my post--couldn't remember specifically how it ended, though.

Just remembered my favourite film joke ever, attributed to some famous director (forget who): "I passed Otto Preminger's house the other day--or should I say, 'a house by Otto Preminger'?"

Did you dig it?

Laura? Yeah! I own it -- one of my favorite films.

No, no, Bunny Lake is Missing

saw Otto in the Nilsson documentary, encased in a groovy blue hippie outfit on the set of Playboy After Dark as Harry sang.

I just started the Hirsch biography.

Should I bother with In Harm's Way? Not too stodgy?

I bought a remaindered copy of this a few weeks ago:

http://www.jonathanrosenbaum.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/ottopreminger-fujiwara.jpg

I read the Advise and Consent chapter while killing time before a movie. Based on that, I'd never make it through the whole book:

"Appropriately, the dialogue of Advise and Consent is filled with performatives. Senators say 'I move,' or 'I yield,' or 'I ask,' or 'I suggest,' or 'I release,' and their saying these things effectuates the things they say."

Making it the complete opposite of American Beauty, where Kevin Spacey says "Pass the asparagus" and everyone ignores him.

Am reading yet another recently published bio of the guy different from the ones you guys are reading.

j/k. But the guy does seem to have even more biographers than Nikola Tesla.

oh, In Harm's Way is a must, if only for what Kirk Douglas's character... does.

anyone rep for The Human Factor? Dave Kehr presiding over a screening in Brooklyn Monday. I remember hearing Otto being interviewed by Julian Schlossberg (onetime studio exec) on his WABC radio show "Movietalk" when OP was doing press for it.

ok, I guess it was WMCA or WOR (ABC was still a music station then)

Anatomy of a Murder is so good. Jimmy Stewart's performance is the capstone of his fifties work: we see how his aw-shucks manner is an act, turned on and off for deliberate manipulative effect.

Criterion forthcoming btw.... supplements v intriguing:

http://www.criterion.com/films/27901-anatomy-of-a-murder

from G Kenny on above:

"Even in the wrong—-that’s right, wrong—-Academy ratio framing of this 1959 film released on DVD by Sony many years back, this picture maintained a great deal of its fluid multi-leveled visual complexity. The correct 1.85 framing and the boosted detail here (some of which, admittedly, conks out briefly for a shot or two at a time—look for decreased forehead-wrinkle levels in a shot in the first Gazzara/Stewart confab about 19 minutes in, for instance) AMPLIFY that quality, which helps in turn to reveal why it is, in fact, one of the Great Films. The shot of Stewart’s character scoping out the awards and newspaper clippings on the wall of the Thunder Bay Inn here shows Preminger as a definite info-fiend precursor to David Fincher. Haven’t explored extras but don’t need to to award this a personal:— A+ "

LOVE THIS MOVIE

Seeing Laura this Sunday in its newly restored versh - can't wait.

awesome

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54muV-xIhIU

Bonjour Tristesse is on now or soon at FF, I believe

^^It's also due to be announced sometime soon on limited edition bluray from Twilight Time.

box o' three sleeper/dud '67-71 films:

http://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/review/the-otto-preminger-collection/2478

so Jackie Gleason tripping balls isn't worth a look?

yes

doesn't mean it isn't awful

Need to check out some more stuff by this guy.

Anatomy of a Murder is brilliant – probably the best courtroom drama I’ve ever seen. There’s only one weak acting performance (from the main prosecuting counsel) which sticks out a bit but the rest of them are outstanding. Great score from Duke Ellington too.

Laura is super too. Beautiful theme music drifting through it.

Can't remember much about Bunny Lake is Missing a bit of an oddity as I remember...

Bonjour Tristesse was shown (restored!) at the London Film Festival this year. Didn't like it when I first saw it, find myself liking it more and more as time goes on.

Exodus lasts forever but was ok. The old story about it was that at a pre-release screening, one of the production company’s executives (a jew named Mort Sahl) stood up about 2 and a half hours into the movie and called out “Otto, Let my People Go!” (probably apocryphal)...

River of No Return was good but I’ve forgotten most of it. For years I’ve wanted to see Advise and Consent but have always missed it

one of the production company’s executives (a jew named Mort Sahl)

uh? Sahl was one of the great innovative post-Catskills standup comics

(still living btw)

Ah yes, my mistake...

"When Exodus was first released, a funny story circulated concerning comedian Mort Sahl. Supposedly, he stood up in the middle of a premiere screening of the film with Preminger present and shouted, 'Otto, let my people go' in reference to the interminable length of the film. Most critics, but not audiences, tended to agree with Sahl."

Bunny Lake will always be classic to me just because of that one turning point involving a doll

Anatomy of a Murder is brilliant – probably the best courtroom drama I’ve ever seen. There’s only one weak acting performance (from the main prosecuting counsel) which sticks out a bit but the rest of them are outstanding. Great score from Duke Ellington too.

Always loved the way that the score runs through the first half of the film, which is lively and jumping as Stewart's record collection, before disappearing completely for the formal courtroom procedural in the second half, only returning in full swing once the film leaves the courtroom at the very end.

watched 'bunny lake' for the 1st time - solid until the reveal, then nearly unwatchable

Agreed.

i don't know about "unwatchable," but the ending is definitely a letdown. before that there are passages that rival preminger's best work.

bonjour tristesse 4eva

briefly available on DVD in spring '08, alas

that chris fujiwara book mentioned above is pretty worthless IMO. just superficial "analyses" of films with very selective biographical information. and lots of errors of fact.

xpost

i sold my DVD of bonjour tristesse to ryuichi sakamoto!

For the longest time, the Fry's by me kept a copy of BT in their "Foreign" rack.

that's understandable, i guess

is it just me who gets annoyed when foreign films are alphabetized by article? so "la ronde" is in the Ls (as are many if not most French films), "il grido" is in the Is, etc. i feel like video stores would be doing the world a service if they stopped this.

i will always love that ridiculous turning point/reveal in Bunny

boy I can watch Advise and Consent at any time.

Just watched the BluRay of The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell, which is def not top-drawer Otto but is fascinating for its commonalities w/ Advise and Consent (politics, treason, D.C. locations), In Harm's Way (the military as a flawed and even sociopathic institution), Anatomy of a Murder (courtroom drama w/ special Method Actor prosecutor, in this case Rod Steiger). Also its current resonances with "a bad soldier" choosing country over Army -- Gary Cooper as Bradley Manning?

watched the cardinal, long but p good. feels almost gump-like where the main character gets involved w/ race relations in the us south and the rise of nazism in austria. it's also better when it's personal (his questioning his faith and relationship w/ his sister) than when global. some interesting wiki notes

The Vatican's liaison officer for the film was Joseph Ratzinger,[2]

also i thought tryon was really good - didn't know him at all, interesting life and -Thomas Tryon was born on January 14, 1926, in Hartford, Connecticut, as the son of Arthur Lane Tryon, a clothier[1][4] and owner of Stackpole, Moore & Tryon. - this clothing store still exists downtown hartford

I love Tryon's book Harvest Home.

I watched Advise and Consent last night, for what must be the fifth or sixth time (within a window of less than a decade). It’s turning into one of my favorite movies ever, i.e. Top 50 or so. Don’t read this if you haven’t seen it.

Its treatment of politics and politicians is very much of a pre-Vietnam/Watergate moment, and will exasperate anyone with a less accommodating viewpoint--that, as messy as the process may be, you have (mostly) good people trying to (mostly) do the right thing. That’s not what I love about it. (Though I do find it kind of moving when Lew Ayres, seconds after being elevated to the presidency, gets down from his desk and makes his way through the senators.)

It’s the way the story is structured that draws me in and impresses me more and more each time. For the first two-thirds, it’s essentially Leffingwell vs. Cooley. And then, almost out of nowhere, and segueing with a shot that only begins to resonate the second time through--Brig Anderson pulling his car into the driveway and calmly walking towards his perfect house and perfect family--it becomes something else entirely. Alan Drury’s novel was a huge best-seller, so I imagine most people who saw the film in 1962 knew about the big plot twist already; even knowing that it’s coming now, I still find the narrative shift brilliantly rendered.

The film’s treatment of homosexuality is fascinating, spinning off in about six different directions at once. It’s gimmicky--Preminger courted controversy. It’s guilty of the most obvious clichés of its day: the closeted gay character must commit suicide, while another gay character must end up face down in the street, helpless. At the same time, though, Ray Shaff (Anderson’s inconvenient past) is not trivialized or caricatured--he follows Anderson into the street and very rationally tries to explain that he was offered a lot of money, what could he do? Larry Tucker’s character is not a caricature--loopy, yes, but thoughtful. As much as I love the parallel set up between Anderson and Leffingwell, both of them trapped by their pasts, it’s clear that Leffingwell was never actually a Communist, but I think it’s almost as clear that Anderson is gay--the way his wife talks of their marriage seems to make that clear. The other thing the film does...I want to say this carefully; I don’t want to offend anyone who’s gay (or anyone)...is that, via the gay bar, it makes homosexuality the great taboo subject it would have been in 1962, the complete opposite of what almost any kind of art sets out to do today. I can’t remember who it was, maybe Bruce LeBruce or John Waters, saying in an interview that he hated domesticated films like Philadelphia, that he wanted the illicitness of Cruising and the 1970s back. That’s Advise and Consent, at least to a degree. I don’t think it was a film that was discussed very favorably in The Celluloid Closet, but I find those few seconds inside the gay bar, the way that sequence is handled, kind of amazing. (I wonder what Sinatra thought? I would think they would have cleared the use of his song with him.)

Charles Laughton is something else. Not sure I buy the accent, but what a memorable creation. Same for George Grizzard’s Ackerman--in some ways, I find him to be the film’s most interesting character, the one that’s hardest to pin down as a “type” that can be transferred to today.

Though I do find it kind of moving when Lew Ayres, seconds after being elevated to the presidency, gets down from his desk and makes his way through the senators.)

Excellent shot scene, with Preminger's adjudicatory camera noting the space and grandeur of the chamber and the senators' roles in it.

I mostly agree with your take about the gay bar scene. It's a gay place! The bartender, not hiding his effeminacy, encourages him to enter. In fact, the merryness of the bar complements Brigg's moroseness; it's clear Preminger thinks the closet is an awful place.

Lew Ayres was so good at these quiet sad types (in Holiday he gives one of my favorite supporting performances by anyone).

Kael's wrong about that scene; in this case she's the one who looks like a square.

That's definitely the feeling I take away from the film. I understand Kael's complaint ("...it's such a lurid, evil place that the director seems grotesquely straight"), but I'm more apt to put that down to a) Preminger loving controversy, and b) the simple fact that it's 1962, and what else would you expect from a big-budget Hollywood film. But it's much more complex than that--Anderson's wife apologizing for what may be (child notwithstanding) a sexless marriage, the eloquence of Anderson's letter, the seeming decency of Ray Shaff.

Found the background to Drury's conception of Anderson interesting (didn't know about any of this):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lester_C._Hunt#Son.27s_arrest_and_Hunt.27s_suicide

That's what I mean though: even after watching it the first time ten years ago that bar did not look not lurid or evil.

The way that Harley Hudson is shut out of everything and self-deprecatingly jokes about is excellent--every VP should see the film. Anderson, at his lowest moment, telling Hudson that he may be the most underappreciated man in Washington is another nice moment.

"about it"

The conception of Hudson is the most dated element actually, but not to the film's detriment. It's impossible after 1980 to imagine an impotent vice president (even Quayle got invited to Cabinet meetings).

Just watched Laura for the first time since I was a kid, I think it must have been the 2012 release cos I recall from a Bradshaw review that this cut has the original credits restored with the war bond advert "Buy Yours In This Theatre". I don't think I could express anything that hasn't already been expressed how good this movie is. I was shocked at how well preserved the source cut must be for a movie from '44. It is in more pristine condition than many 60's/70's movies I have seen recently. Tierney, Webb and Andrews are all perfect and Price's against type dim lothario is brilliant as well.

i think that was Price's type at that point.

Sorry, yeah it probably was. I just meant against my narrow perception of his type.

Not seen too many of his early roles.

watched it for the first time this week, was also startled by Price

The way in which Preminger, the writers, and Webb depict Lydecker's sexuality is bizarre to say the least; I don't think it's supposed to make sense.

I hadn't noticed before that Laura walks back into her apartment almost exactly halfway through the running time

I'd avoided In Harm's Way because I've found better things to do than watch Kirk Douglas and John Wayne as Navy officers for three hours. Turns out it's a solid movie, in his second tier, with his usual long takes and cool performances. Patricia Neal sets her eyes on Wayne and doesn't quit until she beds him: his best screen partner since Angie Dickinson.

Whirlpool is a bananas noir followup to Laura, and in its way almost as good. Gene Tierney as an unhappy klepto married to a prosperous shrink, and Jose Ferrer is the villainous quack hypnotist who's supplied with some phenomenally acid lines by Ben Hecht.

I only listened to a little of Richard Schickel's disc commentary, but he called Tierney "Fox's resident somnambulist."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huqyli8aE_g

that trailer's kinda spoilerrific, sorry

I've almost checked Whirlpool out several times. Thanks for the push.

Gene Tierney's hair though...

what of it? i really can't tell if women's hair is good or bad, esp retro

I just watched Whirlpool last night (actually over the course of three nights, which I almost never do.) Found myself wishing it was a bit MORE bananas tbh, although most of the plot twists are pretty ludicrous, and Jose Ferrer is wonderfully oily in it.

heh how COULD it be nuttier? w/out being bad?

Let's hope this Laura remake never happens given, to quote Film Comment, the adapter's "feather-light touch":

http://www.avclub.com/article/james-ellroy-write-fox-2000s-remake-1944-noir-clas-208587

Nuttiness in plot contrivances, yeah, but Tierney is glacial and Conte is wooden, I dunno, I just found it slow (hence why three nights to finish it; I kept falling asleep.)

Confession: I don't quite get what's so great about Laura. At least when Clifton Webb isn't on screen.

Dana Andrews and Gene Tierney's instant chemistry on first meeting. He's been hearing about Laura for days and here she is!

I love the scene where they're drinking Shelby's cheap whiskey.

Another confession: when she first appeared in the apartment, I assumed it was a dream sequence. Maybe the way Preminger shot everything prior to her arrival was meant to throw the audience off in such a way?

yep

I didn't particularly pick up on or respond to the chemistry between Tierney and Andrews, which is probably why the middle section of the film felt so saggy to me. Awesome first 30-45 minutes, though, and it certainly picks up again when Webb re-enters the picture towards the end.

I've seen it two or three times, not for a few years. I think I'm basically with you; I like it, but not nearly as much as Double Indemnity or The Big Sleep (which I mention because of historical proximity--I realize all three are very different), not to mention Advise and Consent. My mom would always name either Laura or All About Eve as her favourite movie.

Who's gayer -- Shelby or Walter?

What might make the film odd viewing in 2015 is accepting Waldo and Shelby as Laura's suitors.

when men had CLASS

(yeah, vs Neil Patrick Harris in Gone Girl, gimme a break)

what's that got to do with this thread, gramps?

seems kinda obvious

keyboard dipped in olive water

Haven't you heard of science's latest triumph, the Flag Post?

more otto acid anecdotes:

Nick's thirteen-year-old boy, Griffin, had heard Janis Joplin was going to make an appearance at the party, so he talked Lenny into letting him go. At some point in the evening, a bald German man who seemed to be experiencing a bad acid trip latched onto the boy, asking his help getting settled somewhere. "I thought it was Colonel Klink" from the television show Hogan's Heroes, Griffin said. It was the film director, Otto Preminger.

Laura is wonderful

Is twin peaks an extended homage?

if you haven't yet, watch Where the Sidewalk Ends next dmac.

Thanks but just launched into 1944 The Lodger. Will put on list.

Is twin peaks an extended homage?

among many other things, yeah

I have said this before, but Vincent Price as the dim lothario in Laura is an odd sight when you have grown up with the old creepy one.

otm

Watch Daisy Kenyon.

I can't think of another movie with two homos as putative love interests.

re Laura.

Ach ye lads claim everyone

Such Good Friends has some bright lines (written by Elaine May, mostly) that are in the later Mazursky/Woody skewering-Manhattan-neurotics mode, and Dyan Cannon has her moments, but God what a 'hip' mess.

Here's the Glenn Kenny piece at the time of the Olive DVD/BR release, if you want to see Burgess Meredith's nude bit w/out watching it:

http://somecamerunning.typepad.com/some_came_running/2011/06/preminger-and-the-new-freedoms-such-good-friends-1971.html

Dave Kehr: "The expansive use of widescreen and the carefully choreographed camera movements are gone... replaced by crowded, shallow images of claustrophobic spaces. Packed with some of the most garishly tasteless 1970s décor imaginable, the film’s Park Avenue apartments start to resemble the hamster cage owned by Julie’s two quarrelsome sons. (It’s unclear whom the hamster is supposed to represent, but he remains the film’s most empathetically observed figure.)"

i just read the novel Laura, v much worth it. The Clifton Webb character is tall, obese and even gayer if that's possible; the Vincent Price character is just a desperate Southern 'aristocratic' horndog. Narrator changes with every "part," which i was meh about. Many nice NYC references from the early '40s that will be pleasurable for local history buffs, like Jefferson Market being a women's prison.

I called Such Good Friends "okay, barely" upthread; seemed a little better second time around.

I think Dyan Cannon's good, Ken Howard too. Laurence Luckinbill, her husband, reminds me of Frank Langella in Diary of Mad Housewife: no shading whatsoever, a caricature of male self-absorption circa 1970--he's kind of a drag. James Coco's pretty good, although the scene where Cannon goes down on him while he's on the phone goes on forever. The ending, as I wrote the first time, is nice. Considering when the film came out, right in the midst of the most hopelessly self-indulgent new-American-cinema monstrosities, and considering that Preminger himself was riding the crest of his own auteurist stature, it's really not too bad.

What triggered the sudden interest in hospitals around this time? Within a year of each other, there was Such Good Friends, The Hospital, Frederick Wiseman's Hospital, and some junky thing called Doctor's Wives (Cannon was in that one, too).

Change of Habit w/Elvis & Mary Tyler Moore as well.

Also a bad Peter Sellers film called Where Does It Hurt? (1972).

Also on TV Medical Center peaked in popularity right at that time. Even on daytime TV, General Hospital, which had been one of the less popular soap operas in the '60s, surged to #2 rated soap in 1971-1972.

This hospital thing is actually a question that's occurred to me before. I wonder if it had something to do with the demise of the Production Code in '68. Maybe certain medical topics were considered touchy up to then, and perhaps discouraged by the Code.

Over in Britain there was also The National Health w/Lynn Redgrave.

M*A*S*H* probably fits in there as well.

What most of these films have in common is depicting hospital culture as basically dysfunctional

That's what I was going to say too: that's the focus of the Preminger, Wiseman, and Chayefsky films. It's like all at once the institution was under a lot of scrutiny.

The names in Advise and Consent kill me. Seabright. Brig. Lafe. Dolly. Hardiman. Pidge.

Pidge?

mostly come from Allan Drury (who was quite a reactionary)

I had to buy Otto Preminger's autobiography when I saw a copy on sale last night. Here's the front cover on the left and the back cover on the right. pic.twitter.com/PMCaGsbPJH

— Philip Concannon (@Phil_on_Film) June 19, 2019

love old kool baldies!

Bonjour Tristesse again. Sort of the ultimate tragic D Kerr role, and thru context Seberg somehow doesnt overly evoke a Gidget Goes to the Rivieria vibe.

David Niven's handsy playboy pop is creepy, too.

Anatomy of a Murder acting is so damn good, led by Stewart (as a pretty sneaky lawyer), Remick, Gazzara, Geo C Scott.

The only meh is Arthur O'Connell.

Stewart's work is A+, an example of how he manipulated his aw-shucks persona (e.g. playing with the fishing line in full view of the jury; blowing up knowing full well the judge would rule this or that point inadmissible).

Also, "panties."

Well the writing and casting of Stewart as a foxlike attorney is A+ too; just imagine Gregory Peck, oy.

iMdB, interesting if true:

James Stewart's father was so offended by the film, which he deemed "a dirty picture", that he took out an ad in his local newspaper telling people not to see it.

The only meh is Arthur O'Connell.

Who, of course, was one of the three Oscar nommed.

My Preminger of choice usually goes back and forth between Daisy Kenyon and Advise and Consent, but this one sucks me in every time and might be my private fave.

Edgy admission... KJB is a huge Otto stan but this one has got to be too entertaining for him.

Even with A O'C's reformed drunk, this has less hokey sap than A&C (gay blackmailer face down in the gutter included).

also George C Scott's frozen mug at his eleventh-hour misstep is spectacularly funny.

(btw that young girl playing the dead guy's daughter was played by... Bing Crosby's last wife.)

Sometimes, you are happy when someone dies in a movie. Rarer are you happy when someone commits suicide. One such case is Anne in Bonjour Tristesse.

KJB finally saw Anatomy and loved it.

p sure he'd seen and forgot it

The Human Factor is leaving criterion at the end of the month and worth a watch.

i remember him doing press for that (his last) when it was released. The reviews were respectful, after he'd had a few bombs earlier in the '70s.

is Forever Amber worth checking out? Really not a fan of costume dramas

I think Otto himself was quite displeased with it; predates his autonomous era?

Yes, 1947 I think, replaced John M. Stahl six weeks into shooting. Actually I think it was a deal he made with Zanuck where if he filled in, he could do Daisy Kenyon uninterrupted. Preminger said it was his most expensive movie, "and also the worst."

have you seen Whirlpool, his 1949 gene Tierney noir?

yeah, it's ok

Daisy Kenyon's the masterpiece from this era after Laura.

I like Whirlpool a lot; Jose Ferrer is very funny.

I liked Daisy Kenyon fine but masterpiece seems wild to me, maybe I should revisit... a lot of it just doesn't gel imo, particularly Henry Fonda's thousand yard stare character, seemingly airlifted out of Ford's The Fugitive from the same year.

The warmth and intimacy between the three, the lack of melodrama, etc that put it over. It's nothing like Laura or Preminger's other noir.

Watched The Human Factor last night and thought it was exceptional - I was pretty blown away. If you're a connoisseur of spy movies a la John Le Carre, this one really hits the spot. This Cineaste article captured a lot of what I loved about it (spoilers within, although the first paragraph should give you an idea of whether you will dig this or not):

This 1979 adaptation of Graham Greene’s novel, The Human Factor, was the final film of Otto Preminger’s distinguished, fifty-five-year career, and while far from Preminger’s best-known work, it’s a magnificent capstone, and a quintessential “late film.” Like the final works of some of the other great directors of the period (Howard Hawks’s Rio Bravo [1959] and Hatari! [1962] come to mind, as well as John Ford’s 7 Women [1966], Chaplin’s Limelight [1952], Fritz Lang’s The 1,000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse [1960], and especially Yasujiro Ozu’s final films), The Human Factor displays a cinematic mastery that may at first glance appear downright anticinematic. Radically dedramatized and free of stylistic flourishes, it’s a spy film that intentionally goes against the grain of what most viewers expect from the genre—it daringly courts charges of visual blandness, stilted acting, and unmodulated pacing, resembling a run-of-the-mill TV movie rather than a theatrical feature by one of the towering figures of mid-century Hollywood moviemaking. But to a perceptive viewer, this apparent blankness is the manifestation of a hard-earned cinematic wisdom, a transcendence of the youthful urge towards bold effects or self-evident expressiveness. The Human Factor is a brilliant demonstration of the devastating power that can result from eliminating stylistic adornment.

https://www.cineaste.com/fall2013/from-the-archives-the-human-factor

Sold.

Radically dedramatized and free of stylistic flourishes

I just read the book a couple of months ago. A repressed emotional tone would suit it.

Another unexpected credit in Tom Stoppard's screenwriting history (getting one distinguished writer to adapt another always strikes me as odd).... Nabokov for Fassbinder, Ballard for Spielberg, etc.

I enjoyed The Human Factor, tho OP fanatic KJB claims my failure to recognize it as a "masterpiece" indicates a massive blind spot. It's clear that Iman (who is onscreen a lot as Nicol Williamson's wife) is a first-time actor, but what some critics found "bloodless" or "juiceless" in its lack of high-pitched suspense worked fine for me.

I was put off by that bloodlessness in the first half to 2/3 of the film, but I appreciated it by the emotional payoff at the end -- most lives destroyed by international spycraft/tradecraft are destroyed without firing a shot.

I liked The Human Factor just fine, although if I hadn't known who directed it I'd assume it was, I dunno, Ronald Neame or something. Robert Morley is as amusing as ever.

I thought in the strip-club scene that he was being poisoned, from the way his eyes were bulging.

Laura is so batshit lol. I love it. When Laura's beloved maid Bessie goes into (deserved!) hysterics after realizing she's alive, Laura says, "It's okay, Bessie, go make us eggs." *walks regally out of kitchen*

Happy birthday!

I watched two Premingers this year. Was a little disappointed in Laura, but liked Bunny Lake Is Missing a lot.

I told my Laura-related Morbius story at his memorial.

Which can found here, mostly:

The Rouben Mamoulian Poll

Scroll back one for the set-up from Alfred if you need to.

i just watched Fallen Angel last night. A pretty fine noir, and a pretty interesting story. Dana Andrews' conman character is almost on the outside looking in while the grimmer noir story runs parallel to his less-than-savory con angle. it's a pretty unpredictable story, with a bit more heart and less doom than another similar story might possess. Andrews is vv good, Alice Faye is solid as the good girl, Linda Darnell is phenomenal as the supposed femme fatale, who is really more a lonely, sad, and tragic figure who's used and ogled and cast aside by men.

Like most Linda Darnell roles.

Mistakenly thought Jane Darwell

intrigued to check out Forever Amber while it's still on the criterion channel

That’s kind of a sleeper. Remember some good stuff was in it, especially George Sanders and the dogs, haven’t seen it in ages.

Mistakenly thought Jane Darwell

Trying to fight off Rudy Vallee and Howard Hughes, just to name two.

I saw this when I was about 8 (no, not when it first came out), so I'd love to see it again

― Tom D., Tuesday, 15 January 2008 16:46 (seventeen years ago) bookmarkflaglink

... Skidoo, that is. I tried watching it last week. It's absolutely abysmal. You might think a film where Jackie Gleason goes on an acid trip, Groucho Marx plays a gangster called God and Carol Channing does a striptease would be worth watching - apart from Carol Channing doing a striptease that is - but it's not. Absolutely not. I had trouble staying awake.

The Nilsson songs are sweet though.