R.I.P. Ernest Lehman

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Troublemakers didn't have anything on Ernest Lehman. He put Cary Grant into harm's way on Mount Rushmore, helped Audrey Hepburn bewitch Humphrey Bogart and gave the Sharks and the Jets something to fight about in their big-screen face off.

But Lehman was no ordinary troublemaker; he was a screenwriter.

The celebrated scribe, whose résumé included Oscar nominations for endangering Grant in North by Northwest, matching up Hepburn and Bogart in Sabrina, engaging street gangs in West Side Story and heaping on the domestic turmoil in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, died Saturday at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles following a lengthy illness, the Writers Guild of America announced Tuesday. He was 89.

In a statement, writer-director Daniel Petrie Jr., president of the Writers Guild of America, West, praised Lehman as a "creative giant among writers and within the industry.

A three-time cowriter of the Academy Awards telecast, Lehman never won a competitive Oscar as either a writer or a producer, a title he held on two Best Picture hopefuls, Hello, Dolly! and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.

The Academy made it up to Lehman in 2001, presenting him with an honorary Oscar in appreciation of "a body of varied and enduring work."

"I accept this rarest of honors on behalf of screenwriters everywhere," Lehman told the black-tie audience. "We have suffered anonymity far too often."

If Lehman wasn't a household name like Grant and Hepburn, then he was a familiar name to the right people--the people who got pictures made.

In little more than 20 years, Lehman earned screenplay credits on 15 films, three of which (North by Northwest, West Side Story, The Sound of Music) would go on to be named by the American Film Institute as among the 20th century's 100 greatest U.S. movies.

True to the spiel that went along with the honorary Oscar, Lehman was versatile. He wrote big, showy prestige pictures, specializing in the stage-to-screen transformations of The King and I, West Side Story, The Sound of Music and Hello, Dolly!. He wrote stark black-and-white dramas, chiefly, Sweet Smell of Success, the arguable signature work, cowritten with Clifford Odets, that exposed the very dark underbelly of the publicity trade, Somebody Up There Likes Me, the biopic about boxer Rocky Graziano, and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, yet another play adaptation. And he wrote North by Northwest, the classic Alfred Hitchcock thriller.

As a writer-director hyphenate, Lehman brought Philip Roth's comic novel Portnoy's Complaint to the screen in 1972.

Born Dec. 8, 1915 in New York City, Lehman wrote for radio, a theater publicist and the literary world before breaking into Hollywood in 1948 with the story for the comedy, The Inside Story. His past work provided him and Hollywood with a wealth of material--his novella, The Comedian, begat a celebrated 1957 TV production; his former life as a lackey for a publicist provided the inspiration for J.J. Hunsecker and Sidney Falco, the slicksters of Sweet Smell of Success.

"Sweet Smell of Success is one of those rare films where you remember the names of the characters because you remember them," critic Roger Ebert wrote in 1997, "as people, as types, as benchmarks."

Lehman, who became a father for the third time in his late 80s, is survived by his children and wife Laurie. A private memorial service is scheduled for Friday in Los Angeles, the WGA said.

― Gear! (Ill Cajun Gunsmith) (Gear!), Wednesday, 6 July 2005 22:20 (twenty years ago)

Woolf is my favorite movie ever. I love Sweet Smell and North By Northwest too. RIP.

― miccio (miccio), Wednesday, 6 July 2005 22:23 (twenty years ago)

Sweet Smell is one dark hearted film, and the dialogue is awesome, I will dig out North by Northwest and listen to Lehman's commentary sometime soon. RIP.

― mzui (mzui), Wednesday, 6 July 2005 22:47 (twenty years ago)

For some damn reason I don't think I've ever heard of The Sweet Smell of Success, except as a title. I'm intrigued, and my ignorance will be rectified. I do however have said NXNW DVD and am most happy for it.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 7 July 2005 00:53 (twenty years ago)

West Side Story and the Sound Of Music. It's impossible to imagine how thrilling it would have been to be a part of either of these. RIP.

― jim wentworth (wench), Thursday, 7 July 2005 01:11 (twenty years ago)

Sweet Smell really surprised me, being so acrid and sharp. Great James Wong Howe camera work, makes New York seem jazzy and threatening.

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Thursday, 7 July 2005 02:28 (twenty years ago)

ned see sweet smell IMMEDIATELY.

:( :(

RIP

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 7 July 2005 16:57 (twenty years ago)

Smell Sweet See ASAP

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 7 July 2005 16:57 (twenty years ago)

I saw him do a Q&A on North By Northwest once at UT Austin, the two high points of this being him discussing his story conferences with Hitch and when he fielded a delicate question from an undergrad very gracefully. RIP.

― k/l (Ken L), Thursday, 7 July 2005 17:02 (twenty years ago)

If just for The Sweet Smell of Success, Lehman belongs to the ages.

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Thursday, 7 July 2005 17:58 (twenty years ago)

Sweet Smell of Success rocks. [curmudgeon] Nobody writes screenplays like that anymore dammit. [/curmudgeon]

RIP

"Games? Must we?" - James Mason, North by Northwest

― Joe (Joe), Thursday, 7 July 2005 21:03 (twenty years ago)

north by northwest more like butts by buttswest

― Esteban Buttez!!, Thursday, 7 July 2005 21:09 (twenty years ago)

what does the phrase "north by northwest" mean anyway?

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Thursday, 7 July 2005 23:52 (twenty years ago)

"Sweet Smell of Success" is indeed magnificent; abrasive Scot (Mackendrick) meets abrasive New Yorker and the partnership is incendiary. Best role I know of for Tony Curtis, and one amongst many for the great Burt Lancaster.

― Tom May (Tom May), Friday, 8 July 2005 00:10 (twenty years ago)

what does the phrase "north by northwest" mean anyway?

it's a shakespeare quote but I've never fully understood (or at least remembered) what it had to do with the movie.

― miccio (miccio), Friday, 8 July 2005 00:33 (twenty years ago)

From Hamlet: "I am but mad north by northwest", is that it? I'm not sure where the "but" goes. I think north by northwest is the compass point between north and northwest. I believe an earlier title of the film was the more cumbersome In A Northwesterly Direction, because that was roughly the path that Cary Grant/Roger O Thornhill traced out. Another early title, this one more facetious was The Man In Lincoln's Nose.

I've always assumed, or maybe my high school English teacher told me, that the quote from Hamlet means he is only a little mad, a little crazy (in 1/16 of the circle?).

― k/l (Ken L), Friday, 8 July 2005 00:41 (twenty years ago)

Thornhill also flys North on Northwest airlines...

But I'm pretty sure Hitchcock denied the Shakespeare allusion--I think the final title is from someone at the studio--and that the title, which refers to a direction that doesn't exist on a compass, alludes to the mixed-up, fantastical nature of the plot.

― C0L1N B... (C0L1N B...), Friday, 8 July 2005 01:10 (twenty years ago)

He didn't really do too much to Albee's original for Virginia Woolf. Though I guess he was smart enough to realize he didn't really have to. He came up with some clever ways around the swearing. (The gong for punctuation at the bar.)

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Friday, 8 July 2005 02:25 (twenty years ago)

it's a shakespeare quote but I've never fully understood (or at least remembered) what it had to do with the movie.

doesn't it have something to do with the spot where cary grant shows up for a rendezvous only to be

SPOILERS (LIKE ANYONE HASN'T SEEN THIS MOVIE)

attacked by a crop dusting plane?

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 8 July 2005 03:05 (twenty years ago)

the genius of lehman and hitchcock is pretty much right there: cary grant (in a very nice suit i might add) is attacked by a crop dusting plane.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 8 July 2005 03:07 (twenty years ago)

i mean to top that you'd have to invent, i dunno, barbara stanwyck eaten alive by giant walnuts.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 8 July 2005 03:07 (twenty years ago)

the genius of lehman and hitchcock is pretty much right there: cary grant (in a very nice suit i might add) is attacked by a crop dusting plane.

I remember hearing that Hitchcock told Lehman that he specifically wanted a scene that divorced fear and paranoia from the city and that's what Lehman came up with. (I could be misremembering this, though--I'm a little foggy)

― C0L1N B... (C0L1N B...), Friday, 8 July 2005 03:21 (twenty years ago)

i think i read that they came up with that scene well before the plot had even been fully sketched out.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 8 July 2005 03:38 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, I heard that from a film prof. (which is also where I think I heard the rural fear thing as well)

― C0L1N B... (C0L1N B...), Friday, 8 July 2005 03:42 (twenty years ago)

SPOILERS CONT'D:

Plot hole, however: Why did the bad guys set Kaplan up by sending him out to meet Kaplan? (Of course, we know that Grant isn't Kaplan, but the bad guys are convinced that he is Kaplan.)

― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Friday, 8 July 2005 03:49 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, it turns out that there is no such compass point, it just sounds like one- there is a Northwest by North, for example. Since Cary Grant is pretending to be the imaginary George Kaplan, it makes sense the he is going in (or to be found at) an imaginary direction.

When I went to the screening the cropduster scene-that SPOILER was hilarious, Amst- was about a thousand times more scratched up than the rest of the print, presumably from all the the in-film-class replaying of it, if not for being the actual print used by Tom Bosley's That's Hollywood!.

― k/l (Ken L), Friday, 8 July 2005 03:52 (twenty years ago)

(Kaplan xpost)

― k/l (Ken L), Friday, 8 July 2005 03:53 (twenty years ago)

i think the idea was to create a deliberately non-claustrophobic chase scene, or at least a threatening scene in the most benign environment they could imagine

― s1ocki (slutsky), Friday, 8 July 2005 03:57 (twenty years ago)

also to put urbane cary grant (in his beautiful gray suit) in a totally alien environment.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 8 July 2005 04:17 (twenty years ago)

NBN isn't as good as its original version, The 39 Steps, but it's got better dialogue. Grant confronting James Mason at the auction is so classic ("Seems to me you boys could stand a little less training from the FBI and a little more from Actors Studio" or something).

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Friday, 8 July 2005 11:43 (twenty years ago)

My favorite exchange is also from the auction
CG: How do we know it isn't a fake?
FA: You're no fake, you're a genuine idiot.

FA= Frustrated Auction-goer

― k/l (Ken L), Friday, 8 July 2005 11:53 (twenty years ago)

Quote from Hamlet is ""I am but mad north-north-west, when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw," but as C0l1n said, Hitch denied the connection.

Discussion of compass points here

― k/l (Ken L), Friday, 8 July 2005 12:07 (twenty years ago)

Also, Martin Landau is probably the most blatantly gay villain in a Hollywood film up to that time. "Call it my woman's intuition." (Did audiences of the time just close their ears?)

Alfred, do you think Robert Donat is more charismatic than Cary Grant? There's nothing wrong with The 39 Steps, but as Hitchcock said discussing the UK version of Man Who Knew Too Much, it's "the work of a talented amateur" by comparison. I mean, the Herrmann music alone elevates it. I may be in the minority, but I think "Family Plot" is a fun little bauble.

Lehman's significant roles on "Woolf" were as a producer and a dodger of censorship in the adaptation.

I'm not sure how the original librettos of the two mega-Oscar musicals were changed, but they're unimportant films, and Sound of Music just plain sickens.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Friday, 8 July 2005 12:36 (twenty years ago)

it isn't a remake of the 39 steps! i guess it is a reshuffling of some of the earlier film's ideas,but equally it's a reshuffling of ideas from non-hitchcock movies. i think both films are magnificent, but the joy of n.b.w. is probably more sustained, and less hokey. and yeah, it has cary grant.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 8 July 2005 12:40 (twenty years ago)

Not a remake but as close a reworking of its Wrong Man Chased theme as you can get (no one's gonna compare it to Saboteur).

Did Lehman ever cop to what percentage of the Sweet Smell script was his? cuz ppl usually assume all the corrosive lines are Clifford Odets'.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Friday, 8 July 2005 12:43 (twenty years ago)

I might slightly prefer The 39 Steps at this point, but I already had this British vs. Hollywood Hitch conversation with Dr. Morbius here

― k/l (Ken L), Friday, 8 July 2005 12:51 (twenty years ago)

Ken, you never told what Jimmy Stewart said to the other actors about working with Hitch.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Friday, 8 July 2005 13:02 (twenty years ago)

I didn't? I thought he said "We're in the hands of a master."

― k/l (Ken L), Friday, 8 July 2005 13:09 (twenty years ago)

then he made a fist and sort of stammered and hunched over and looked worried

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 8 July 2005 13:21 (twenty years ago)

Exactly.

― k/l (Ken L), Friday, 8 July 2005 13:32 (twenty years ago)

And awoke in a puddle of his own sick! (cf Dana Carvey as Stewart as Beat poet)

Anyone else like "Black Sunday"? I did when I was 15, but probably haven't seen the whole thing since. Never realized Lehman had a Bruce Dern period.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Friday, 8 July 2005 13:38 (twenty years ago)

Lehman, who became a father for the third time in his late 80s
Wow! I didn't notice this until I read another obit just now. His wife was 50 years younger than him.

― k/l (Ken L), Friday, 8 July 2005 13:46 (twenty years ago)

In North by Northwest, the protagonist undergoes a revolution in his character as he's forced into a new identity; nothing equivalent happens in the 39 Steps (which I might prefer, anyway, for reasons that have nothing to do with identity switch, obviously).

― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Friday, 8 July 2005 14:37 (twenty years ago)

Well, what about when he makes the stump speech for candidate McCrocodile, as he is affectionately known to the voters?

― k/l (Ken L), Friday, 8 July 2005 14:46 (twenty years ago)

plus Eva Marie Saint > Madeleine Carroll

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Friday, 8 July 2005 14:49 (twenty years ago)

Donat doesn't find his identity and purpose by becoming McCrocodile; not part of a character transformation.

― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Friday, 8 July 2005 15:15 (twenty years ago)

I know, I was kidding. And he doesn't become McCrocodile anyway, he merely makes a rousing speech on his behalf.

― k/l (Ken L), Friday, 8 July 2005 15:20 (twenty years ago)

I love how focused (and short) The 39 Steps is; not a wasted motion. Donat is just as charming as Grant is, in his own way, although Grant by the time of NTW wasnt so much acting as projecting an image (which Hitch does a marvelous job of deconstructing); Donat gaves a straight workmanlike performance.

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Friday, 8 July 2005 16:24 (twenty years ago)

>which Hitch does a marvelous job of deconstructing<

And that woman who catches Grant zipping thru her room: "Stop! *take* Stopppp..."

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Friday, 8 July 2005 16:34 (twenty years ago)

And you can't help but think that Grant's sartorial panache is a veiled reference to "The Man With The Grey Flannel Suit."

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Friday, 8 July 2005 16:39 (twenty years ago)

That was the very scene Lehman discussed with the UT Austin freshman.
(xpost)

― k/l (Ken L), Friday, 8 July 2005 16:40 (twenty years ago)

Rough week for Hitchcock screenwriters. Ed McBain died (screenplay for The Birds).

― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Friday, 8 July 2005 17:00 (twenty years ago)

wasnt so much acting as projecting an image

which is in his case, very much *acting*

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 8 July 2005 17:20 (twenty years ago)

Agreed. I agree with David Thomson's assessment: Cary Grant is probably the greatest film actor of the 20th century.

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Friday, 8 July 2005 17:45 (twenty years ago)

I went to see the currently overexposed Peter Bogdanovich introduce films at MOMA a few times. When he introduced His Girl Friday he told how Cary Grant enjoyed his imitations of various directors and would request that he "Do Howard!" meaning of course Howard Hawks. At the request of one of Cary's wives, on his birthday Bogdanovich left two answering machine message, one in the voice of Hawks, (goofy, folksy voice says) "Happy Birthday, Cary," and one in the voice of Hitch ,(sly, droll drawl says) "Happy Birthday, Cary" (maybe he left a third one in his own voice?) He then told us he actually did a better Hawks than Hitch but the public couldn't appreciate it because they didn't know what Howard Hawks sounded like.

― k/l (Ken L), Friday, 8 July 2005 19:22 (twenty years ago)

wow, i never knew peter bogdanovich was friends with directors and actors from hollywood's golden age!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Friday, 8 July 2005 19:24 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, it's quite surprising, isn't it, s1ocki?

― k/l (Ken L), Friday, 8 July 2005 19:28 (twenty years ago)

(for a minute I thought your post was signed n/a)

― k/l (Ken L), Friday, 8 July 2005 19:28 (twenty years ago)

Grant as "the greatest film actor" ... Notorious and Bringing Up Baby aren't exactly the same thing, but his limited range -- sterling as he was at working within it -- seems to make "greatest male movie star" a better judgment. I like Tracy, Cagney or Nicholson, myself.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Friday, 8 July 2005 19:31 (twenty years ago)

His range is limited, but range doesn't (necessarily) make one great. "Film actor" is the important qualifier. 'm not sure I would call Laurence Olivier a great film actor, although he was a great actor who gave a handful of great film performances.

But back to Grant. No other actor understood the medium's charms and limitations. He created an alter ego which he developed, tweaked, and deconstructed so adeptly that eventually he merged with his alter ego, a phenomenon even Grant was aware of ("I played Cary Grant until Archie Leach turned into him. Or vice versa," he said once).

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Friday, 8 July 2005 19:45 (twenty years ago)

well, i think grant is a lot better than the three morbius mentioned - i've never seen a tracy performance that i thought was in the league of grant's best, cagney is awesome but not exactly notable for his range, and nicholson has been giving more or less the same performance (with a couple exceptions) for two decades. basically i agree with alfred: i might put james stewart in the same class as grant, but very few others.

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Friday, 8 July 2005 19:53 (twenty years ago)

it isn't a "limited range" so much as a carefully constructed character of "cary grant." he wouldn't be such an identifiable "star" if he had a "wide range."

tracy, cagney, and grant are among the greatest actors ever, and i'm not going to quibble about who is best.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 8 July 2005 19:57 (twenty years ago)

though it's worth noting that tracy, while definitely a star in that he had a definite persona, can sometimes seem less of a "star" because an integral part of that persona was a kind of reg'lar guy self-effacement. hence the "spencer tracy accent" was for years hollywood's benchmark for normal-sounding acting voices.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 8 July 2005 19:58 (twenty years ago)

Garfield, Gabin, Lancaster, Penn...

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Friday, 8 July 2005 20:01 (twenty years ago)

(xpost)

It also made Tracy, for all his charm and skill, boring in the wrong movie. Many times he just coasted; but I suppose this could be said for Cary Grant too. I agree with Pauline Kael: you never held Grant's bad films (of which there are plenty) against him.

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Friday, 8 July 2005 20:29 (twenty years ago)

So I guess I'm not the only one around here without much to say about Ernest Lehman? I do remember one more thing from his story conference story- he and Hitch couldn't figure out how to deal with some plot point for a long time and then they finally they came up with "he crashes through the table!" I can't even rememeber exactly what happens in the movie.

― k/l (Ken L), Friday, 8 July 2005 20:46 (twenty years ago)

people don't see grant's bad films as often as they used to, because they don't get revived!

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 8 July 2005 21:08 (twenty years ago)

Hey guys, Black Sunday is showing at the PFA tonight! Should I go? I think I might.

― I Named Veal (nordicskilla), Friday, 8 July 2005 21:54 (twenty years ago)

I think I saw that as a kid. Isn't the one where the dude's (Dern?) going to attack the Super Bowl?

― M. White (Miguelito), Friday, 8 July 2005 21:57 (twenty years ago)

Plot hole, however: Why did the bad guys set Kaplan up by sending him out to meet Kaplan? (Of course, we know that Grant isn't Kaplan, but the bad guys are convinced that he is Kaplan.)

Possible explanations:

a) All they did was tell Eve to get him to the outskirts/field by any means necessary, and left her to make up the pretext as to why (i.e., meeting Kaplan) when giving the instructions to Thornhill.

b) They believe Thornhill IS Kaplan, but realize he is going to continue to pretend like he is not Kaplan (being a savvy agent dude) and therefore will follow through with acting like he wants to meet the 'real' Kaplan. By sending him off to the outskirts to meet Kaplan, they are adopting a 'playing along with your contrivance and duping YOU' strategy.

― Joe (Joe), Saturday, 9 July 2005 00:24 (twenty years ago)

Except there's nothing in the film to signal any of this to the viewer. I think they just goofed.

― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Saturday, 9 July 2005 00:56 (twenty years ago)

Isn't the one where the dude's (Dern?) going to attack the Super Bowl?

yes!

― Nevada Lime (nordicskilla), Saturday, 9 July 2005 00:58 (twenty years ago)

I think Cagney is my favorite. Two of my favorite performances of all time are his in White Heat and One, Two, Three.

― Gear! (Ill Cajun Gunsmith) (Gear!), Saturday, 9 July 2005 00:59 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, Gear, One, Two, Three! My favorite exchange:

Scarlet Coca-Cola: Look at him, isn't he dreamy? (shows picture of big East German demo/parade)
Cagney/Coke Exec: You fell in love with Kruschev?

― k/l (Ken L), Saturday, 9 July 2005 01:09 (twenty years ago)

Or was it Khrushchev she was in love with?

I guess I've gotta brush up on my umlaut.

― k/l (Ken L), Saturday, 9 July 2005 01:10 (twenty years ago)

When Lancaster's sister's annoyingly straight fiancé - an average Joe so righteous that he actually calls himself "an average Joe" - wants to state something as simple as "Your brother made you say that," he comes out with, "That's fish four days old. I won't buy it. It comes out of that mouth I love like a ventriloquist's dummy. That's J.J. Honegger saying good-bye." The degree to which Average Joe spouts J.J.'s slang is the degree to which he is potentially corruptible.
--Richard Corliss Talking Pictures.

― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Saturday, 9 July 2005 01:12 (twenty years ago)

too bad Corliss doesn't even know the main character's name!

― Gear! (Ill Cajun Gunsmith) (Gear!), Saturday, 9 July 2005 01:16 (twenty years ago)

Haha! Actually, there is something about the dialogue of TSSOS that is more over-the-top than, say, a film noir would be- it is almost campy, heck, it is campy, but maybe that suits the subject matter.

One thing I love about that movie is the night shots of the old 52nd Street. I used to work on 52nd Street, and the only thing left from those days is The 21 Club.

― k/l (Ken L), Saturday, 9 July 2005 01:26 (twenty years ago)

Cripes! I didn't notice the misspelling! (Though one could argue that the main character's name is Bernie Schwartz.)

(But actually I mistyped; Corliss wrote "Honsegger," which is closer, but no cigar.) (And for all we know Corliss got it right and some editor changed it; that's been known to happen.)

― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Saturday, 9 July 2005 01:29 (twenty years ago)

What did Tony Curtis yell out of the limo window at the standing-at-the-bus-stop Walter Matthau? Was it "Screw you, Walter" or "Walter, I nailed Yvonne DeCarlo"?

― k/l (Ken L), Saturday, 9 July 2005 01:33 (twenty years ago)

"I'd hate to take a bite out of you. You're a cookie full of arsenic."

― Gear! (Ill Cajun Gunsmith) (Gear!), Saturday, 9 July 2005 01:35 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, that's the big line. In my head I hear him saying that mashed up with him telling Peter Riegert "You're my eyes and ears" in Local Hero.

― k/l (Ken L), Saturday, 9 July 2005 01:37 (twenty years ago)

TSMOS' dialogue is TOTAL camp. It's too smart-alecky and clever by half, rather like All About Eve (Addison DeWitt and J.J. Hunsecker aren't the scathing wits Mankiewicz and Mackendrick would like us to think), which doesn't mean the movies aren't great.

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Saturday, 9 July 2005 02:39 (twenty years ago)

clifford odets wrote some hilariously bad dialogue for a bunch of 1930s movies. like movies where gary cooper stops kissing some girl for a moment to speechify about world brotherhood. ugh.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Saturday, 9 July 2005 05:18 (twenty years ago)

All About Eve a good comparison.

― k/l (Ken L), Saturday, 9 July 2005 10:42 (twenty years ago)

yes that's Black Sunday. Joe Robbie has a cameo.

I agree Sweet Smell is fun but overrated... it's '50s 'truth' w/ a sledgehammer. Looks great tho, and Burt is a pip.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 9 July 2005 14:24 (twenty years ago)

You say it's camp as if that were a bad thing. I can't think of any English movies that equal its dialog (maybe Glengarry?).

― Chuck_Tatum (Chuck_Tatum), Saturday, 9 July 2005 15:35 (twenty years ago)

Is it heresy to think N by NW is a little bit too long? Not as long as Some Like It Hot, but getting up there.

― k/l (Ken L), Saturday, 9 July 2005 18:27 (twenty years ago)

(xpost)

Glengarry is equally stylized, but it's more terse. All About Eve's dialogue is florid when it isn't ridiculous; it's like construction workers speaking in Shakesperean blank verse. I'll admit that it's one its principle charms.

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Saturday, 9 July 2005 20:11 (twenty years ago)

what would take out of n by nw????

poo blank verse movie: i'll take "force of evil"

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Saturday, 9 July 2005 20:14 (twenty years ago)

Well, its runtime is north of two hours, which is long for this kind of fast-paced movie- if I'm gonna deal with a long runtime I prefer a glacially paced art film in a foreign language. When I try to watch NXNW these days, by the time we get to the finale, I'm tired, too tired to climb Mount Rushmore in either direction- I'll take the elevator. When push comes to shove, I'm not sure I really could take anything out- however, a possible solution does present itself. Another working title was Breathless, wasn't it, so why he couldn't he do like the other Breathless and dispense with the smooth Hollywood editing and just chop out a bit here and a bit there?

― k/l (Ken L), Saturday, 9 July 2005 22:30 (twenty years ago)

what like jump cut from cary grant on top of rushmore to cary grant hanging by a nose?

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Saturday, 9 July 2005 23:32 (twenty years ago)

by that logic he should've done the last scene like the breathless bedroom scene!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Saturday, 9 July 2005 23:46 (twenty years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.