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Posted: |
Sep 7, 2007 - 6:16 PM
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By: |
Howard L
(Member)
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JSWalsh replied:
I finally watched THE MOON AND SIXPENCE.
I really enjoyed this. George Sannders and Herbert Marshall are two very ENJOYABLE actors--no matter what it is they're saying in whatever movie I've seen them in, I'm just entertained. Here, playing the prototypical self-centered artist and the voice of decency, respectively, they are perfectly cast. This is basically a dialogue between the two men, and the movie seems to be coming out on the side of "Sure, he was a shit, but he created great art!" middle.
I really despise that basic idea--the Artist having the right to be a jerk because he's trying for Something DEEP--because anyone can use that justification for anything, yet artists are allowed to get away with it. Probably because most people rightly consider most artists children who shouldn't be judged by adult standards.
The only other movie this director did which I've seen was Picture of Dorian Grey, which was similarly closed-in in the interior scenes. He has a knack for such settings.
The drawbacks are the blatant misogyny (a word so overused these days but this movie earns it), and the usual awful Dimitri Tiomkin score.
The color insert scene works well because it looks like home movie footage, and gives the scene an unreal grandeur.
Thanks for the recommendation, I really enjoyed this.
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Posted: |
Sep 7, 2007 - 6:17 PM
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By: |
Howard L
(Member)
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John B. Archibald replied:
I understand that the color insert in the original release created somewhat of a stir at the time. Only a few films did such things, like the last shot of PORTRAIT OF JENNIE, or the views of the portrait in PORTRAIT OF DORIAN GRAY, or the red burst near the end of SPELLBOUND. Since audiences were more accustomed to black&white films at the time, these color accents were more effective. I would also surmise that the first-release prints of MOON AND SIXPENCE were much clearer, without what you refer to as a "home movie" look to them. Frankly, since I'd only heard about the color footage for years, I had assumed it was lost, and am grateful we can see it at all. This is the kind of movie I first caught on TV back in New York, and have never seen broadcast anywhere else.
In order for films like this to be made today, with two men just sitting around talking about art, they'd have to be foreign, or indie. Nowadays, if audiences saw two men together in most of the scenes, they'd immediately assume they're gay. (Interestingly, at large in the world nowadays, you'll frequently see two men eating lunch together, but rarely dinner. If two men are having dinner together, it's usually assumed they're gay.)
Sadly, I agree with you about the Tiomkin score. Unmemorable. Too many of his 40's scores are just that, while others, for such unpredictable titles as TARZAN AND THE MERMAIDS are mini-masterpieces. Go figure. After the genius of LOST HORIZON, his creativity quotient seems to have mostly gone into hibernation, until it was re-born in the 50's, with a whole string of great scores, leading virtually up to his death. But, amazing that so many of his scores in this time period are just boring. I expected great things from the likes of THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY, too, but nope: boring, dull... Uneventful...
Glad you enjoyed MOON.
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Posted: |
Sep 7, 2007 - 6:48 PM
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By: |
Howard L
(Member)
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Let me direct you to T.S.Eliot's THE COCKTAIL PARTY,..."
I have a wonderful lp set of the original cast of this play, wherein Alec Guiness and Irene Worth do this scene. Wonderful.
It would appear, then, that this spiritual journey of which we speak is more something for the individual to fathom, than for anyone else to attempt to explain.
Whoa, John! While reading Razor and thoroughly enjoying the character of Elliott Templeton {Templeton?!}, it was all but impossible not to be reminded of Cocktail's Alexander. In fact, I referenced Alexander in an old "FACT or FICTION?" post many moons ago. I am astonished to see you mention this work in that it is so rare to find another aficionado. I must get my hands on your LP recording somehow, some way. I would KILL to have seen Guinness & Co. but m'birth came about 5 years later. Same old story
But Power was as perplexing as he was as Larry Darrell in "The Razor's Edge"...never able to verbalize exactly what he was seeking or what he ultimately found, but both films let us know he "found" it.
It is also interesting that while Larry believes he may have found the secret to eternity, he too is unable to answer the gnawing question about why evil/suffering is permitted on the part of the so-called loving Creator.
I love this film, Howard. Clifton Webb is amazing in it.
And I can envision him as the PERFECT Elliott. Not to mention Herbert Marshall as Maugham. Aw hell, the whole damn cast looks like a match made in cinema adaptation heaven.
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Posted: |
Sep 8, 2007 - 12:42 AM
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By: |
manderley
(Member)
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.....I understand that the color insert in the original release created somewhat of a stir at the time. Only a few films did such things, like the last shot of PORTRAIT OF JENNIE, or the views of the portrait in PORTRAIT OF DORIAN GRAY, or the red burst near the end of SPELLBOUND. Since audiences were more accustomed to black&white films at the time, these color accents were more effective. I would also surmise that the first-release prints of MOON AND SIXPENCE were much clearer, without what you refer to as a "home movie" look to them. Frankly, since I'd only heard about the color footage for years, I had assumed it was lost, and am grateful we can see it at all.....
As I seem to recall, the "problem" with the color insert in THE MOON AND SIXPENCE is that it was photographed (cheaply) in the two-color CineColor process and has probably been preserved today only because it comes from an old 1940s positive print, and not the original separation negatives. I suspect the whole original camera negative for this independently-produced film is long gone.
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Back to THE RAZOR'S EDGE. It was Darryl Zanuck's personally supervised production, and vied that year, 1946, in Oscar nominations, with such other works as THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES, which won Best Picture over it.
It amazes me now, looking back, to see so much time and money and effort poured into what we would now call "A-List" films, which were not only supposed to be entertaining, but also uplifting. You hardly ever see anything like that now.
Life Magazine did several pieces on RAZOR'S at the time, including a stint as the featured "Movie of the Week," as well as a look at how one scene was shot, specifically, Larry's leavetaking from Isabel after they've been out on the town. There's a great photograph in the article, showing Power and Tierney, in a clinch in the foreground, with some 67(!) technicians in attendance. Totally indicative of the way studio films were made in those days. And, practically all those furniture pieces in that room were real antiques, often used over and over on various sets.
Life later publicly regretted giving the film so much attention. Many regarded it as overblown and even patronizing. I think it has weathered well, however, and is perhaps more effective now. The book was virtually one of the first times a hero foresook fortune and position to go out and seek spirituality, not a popular theme in those days of rampant Hemingway. The film is also a fairly loyal version of the book; there's only one cut sequence I've heard of, a sort of pastoral idyll, when Larry and his friend, the defrocked priest, go out into the country, and meet two country girls, and everyone has, perhaps literally, a romp in the hay. Though it is in the book, I think it was removed from the film because of continuity; it is quite a change in tone from the otherwise serious approach.
SAE has released a legitimate CD of the music tracks, along with a splendid booklet, with lots of photos from the picture. This is well worth getting. It's really Alfred Newman at his best.
My favorite moment in the film is now, and always has been, that solo violin, as Isabel comes down the stairs to see Larry. The music is as beautiful as she is. I've actually seen this film in a theatre several times, and this moment still takes my breath away. Incredible.
The remake with Bill Murray is well-meaning but execrable. It adds backstory, which drags down the story. Murray is sincere, but woefully miscast, even though this was a film he craved to do. And the music, by Jack Nitsche, is unmemorable. I actually saw this version in a press screening, accompanying my film critic brother, where we sat behind Rex Reed and Judith Crist. As we all stood after it was over, someone said, "Where's Gene Tierney when you need her!"
Indeed.
See the 1946 version. Buy the CD. Tell your friends. They don't make classy pictures like this any more.
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An additon:
Clifton Webb had previously made a great impression as the fastidious but murderous Waldo Lydecker, in 1945's LAURA. He was nominated for an Oscar for RAZOR'S, but didn't win. Earlier, he had been mostly a stage actor. I seem to remember him doing a lot of Noel Coward plays, for which Webb had the perfect kind of clipped delivery for Coward's dialogue, including the Broadway production of "Blithe Spirit." After RAZOR'S, he achieved big success with a series of films about a fastidious man, named Mr. Belvedere, who is maneuvered into dealing with numerous precocious children. And he also did several leading roles, in such films as CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN, STARS AND STRIPES FOREVER, and TITANIC.
"Fastidious." That's a polite way of saying he seemed very gay. Of course, in those days, no allowed themselves to say such a thing aloud; so euphemisms ruled conversation and print. There is one hilarious story I've heard, however, when some director confronted Webb on the set, and asked if he was homosexual. (Kind of a stupid thing to ask, when you consider Webb's behavior. I mean, was this director deaf, dumb, and blind?)
Without a beat, Webb looked him right in the eye, and replied, "Devout!"
Classy man. Never took crap from anyone, and lived the life he wanted. Not an easy thing to do in those witchhunting days....
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Posted: |
Sep 8, 2007 - 11:12 AM
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By: |
joec
(Member)
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Back to THE RAZOR'S EDGE. It was Darryl Zanuck's personally supervised production, and vied that year, 1946, in Oscar nominations, with such other works as THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES, which won Best Picture over it.
It amazes me now, looking back, to see so much time and money and effort poured into what we would now call "A-List" films, which were not only supposed to be entertaining, but also uplifting. You hardly ever see anything like that now.
Life Magazine did several pieces on RAZOR'S at the time, including a stint as the featured "Movie of the Week," as well as a look at how one scene was shot, specifically, Larry's leavetaking from Isabel after they've been out on the town. There's a great photograph in the article, showing Power and Tierney, in a clinch in the foreground, with some 67(!) technicians in attendance. Totally indicative of the way studio films were made in those days. And, practically all those furniture pieces in that room were real antiques, often used over and over on various sets.
Life later publicly regretted giving the film so much attention. Many regarded it as overblown and even patronizing. I think it has weathered well, however, and is perhaps more effective now. The book was virtually one of the first times a hero foresook fortune and position to go out and seek spirituality, not a popular theme in those days of rampant Hemingway. The film is also a fairly loyal version of the book; there's only one cut sequence I've heard of, a sort of pastoral idyll, when Larry and his friend, the defrocked priest, go out into the country, and meet two country girls, and everyone has, perhaps literally, a romp in the hay. Though it is in the book, I think it was removed from the film because of continuity; it is quite a change in tone from the otherwise serious approach.
SAE has released a legitimate CD of the music tracks, along with a splendid booklet, with lots of photos from the picture. This is well worth getting. It's really Alfred Newman at his best.
My favorite moment in the film is now, and always has been, that solo violin, as Isabel comes down the stairs to see Larry. The music is as beautiful as she is. I've actually seen this film in a theatre several times, and this moment still takes my breath away. Incredible.
The remake with Bill Murray is well-meaning but execrable. It adds backstory, which drags down the story. Murray is sincere, but woefully miscast, even though this was a film he craved to do. And the music, by Jack Nitsche, is unmemorable. I actually saw this version in a press screening, accompanying my film critic brother, where we sat behind Rex Reed and Judith Crist. As we all stood after it was over, someone said, "Where's Gene Tierney when you need her!"
Indeed.
See the 1946 version. Buy the CD. Tell your friends. They don't make classy pictures like this any more.
I always enjoyed this film and the Newman score. So glad SAE finally issued a legit CD. Saw the movie in theater and now have the DVD. I read the book which was also excellent. The 1946 version does not present the India sequences as well I would wish. Too much Hollywood backlot and alot of the book's details are simplfied. But over all its a much better movie than the remake which does go into areas that the 1946 version does not. There was some last minute pre-premiere cutting done to the 1946 version. Apprantly it was originally concieved as a roadshow with intermission, but was released without it. Some stills are available which do not appear in the final print involving Larry and Shopie in Paris. Anyone know how much is missing?
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Posted: |
Sep 8, 2007 - 5:11 PM
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By: |
Howard L
(Member)
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...there's only one cut sequence I've heard of, a sort of pastoral idyll, when Larry and his friend, the defrocked priest, go out into the country, and meet two country girls, and everyone has, perhaps literally, a romp in the hay. Though it is in the book, I think it was removed from the film because of continuity; it is quite a change in tone from the otherwise serious approach.
Now I recall the section of his encounters with the priest but not the scene you paint. Gonna havta open the book and scan.
It's weird, thinking about Clifton Webb as the critic with the "goose quill dipped in venom" vis-a-vis my mind's view of him portraying Elliott (I haven't watched the film yet). But your description fits the view well. The weirdness is due to an association of this Webb persona thing with David Wayne's portrayal of "Mad Hatter"/"Jervis Tetsch" in the Batman TV series, if you can believe that. I swear when I see that I see a lot of Webb.
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Posted: |
Sep 8, 2007 - 5:11 PM
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By: |
manderley
(Member)
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I love the 1946 RAZOR'S EDGE, and, as has been pointed out, it seems to grow on you as the years go by. The cast and production elements are impeccable---and if you sit down and watch, you really DO get a fascinating story told to you. It's a long way from contemporary filmmaking.
Webb was an arrogant, bitchy, and yet delightful, personality on the screen in his many roles, and I can remember as a child, always looking forward to seeing his next film. I suspect I've now seen all of them, including the sad and feeble view of Webb, with William Holden in SATAN NEVER SLEEPS, when he was becoming quite frail and ill.
It should also be noted that in this age of youthful stars, Clifton Webb, in these years, was one of Fox's absolute top boxoffice stars who could carry a picture nearly by himself. Audiences loved him. Minnelli and MGM desperately wanted him originally for the Jack Buchanan role in THE BAND WAGON, and while I love Buchanan in that, Webb would have been equally marvelous. But Fox valued him too highly, he was always busy, and they wouldn't loan him out.
I believe Webb began in the early part of the last century, appearing with small musical and opera companies in the East---eventually turning up in one or two silent films, and then on Broadway. People tend to forget that Webb, as a singer/dancer, introduced Irving Berlin's, "Easter Parade" in a Broadway show in the early '30s---and there is a recording of Webb performing it. Among other things, Webb also toured the original road company of THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER across the US before being brought back to the screen in LAURA.
Webb was devoted to his Mother, and she appeared publicly with him everywhere---at premieres, parties, etc. When she died, he was bereft, and the story goes that he was crying on the phone to Noel Coward about his loss, and Coward said something to him like, "Please, stop with the tears. I have no sympathy for a 70-year-old orphan!"
It might also be pointed out that in addition to Webb being gay, Power and RAZOR'S director Edmund Goulding were also rumored to be (or at least, bisexual). Another major---and majorly underrated---director of the mid-30's-50's who was gay, was Mitchell Leisen---now sadly forgotten, but whose best films, including EASY LIVING, MIDNIGHT, REMEMBER THE NIGHT, HOLD BACK THE DAWN, KITTY, TAKE A LETTER,DARLING, GOLDEN EARRINGS, TO EACH HIS OWN, THE MATING SEASON, and his final one, THE GIRL MOST LIKELY, exhibited the same style, class and quality as Goulding's. Leisen was reportedly the highest-paid director of the 1940s, and I know that when I was about 5 or 6 years old, I knew HIS name, when I knew hardly anyone else's.
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Posted: |
Sep 12, 2007 - 8:41 PM
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By: |
Howard L
(Member)
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Many moons ago there was a post devoted to opening credits music and how it often heralded the 'importance' of the picture to come. And in that vein, Alfred Newman was one of the masters. Think of The Snake Pit, for starters.
I am now viewing the Razor film and sure enough, his opening credits music just blew me away. He also weaved in popular songs seamlessly among his original underscores. To that end, I was blown away when Isabel/Ms. Tierney makes her entrance to I'll See You In My Dreams, the source of which being a dance orchestra. The song is then interwoven into the private scene away from the party when Larry tells his fiancee of the restlessness that will spur him on to depart to Europe.
So far I am impressed and delighted with how so much of the marvelous Maugham dialogue has been incorporated directly into the film, even if conversations have been compressed for the sake of moving the story along. As such, the novel could easily be adapted into a miniseries but what they have done here works beautifully.
And indeed, the incorporation of 'Maugham' the author into the film, as the novel, fascinates me. Herbert Marshall is perfect in the role.
Oh one other music note: after Isabel breaks up the engagement in Larry's too-modest Paris digs, there is a phrasing highly reminiscent of The Man of My Dreams from Mr. Barry's Somewhere In Time. Quite an ironic titular association with the song cited above, no?!
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Many moons ago there was a post devoted to opening credits music and how it often heralded the 'importance' of the picture to come. And in that vein, Alfred Newman was one of the masters. Think of The Snake Pit, for starters.
I am now viewing the Razor film and sure enough, his opening credits music just blew me away. He also weaved in popular songs seamlessly among his original underscores. To that end, I was blown away when Isabel/Ms. Tierney makes her entrance to I'll See You In My Dreams, the source of which being a dance orchestra. The song is then interwoven into the private scene away from the party when Larry tells his fiancee of the restlessness that will spur him on to depart to Europe.
So far I am impressed and delighted with how so much of the marvelous Maugham dialogue has been incorporated directly into the film, even if conversations have been compressed for the sake of moving the story along. As such, the novel could easily be adapted into a miniseries but what they have done here works beautifully.
And indeed, the incorporation of 'Maugham' the author into the film, as the novel, fascinates me. Herbert Marshall is perfect in the role.
Oh one other music note: after Isabel breaks up the engagement in Larry's too-modest Paris digs, there is a phrasing highly reminiscent of The Man of My Dreams from Mr. Barry's Somewhere In Time. Quite an ironic titular association with the song cited above, no?!
Yes. I need to get the DVD issue of this to replace my VHS one, it's a fine adaptation of my favorite Maugham novel. It would make a good mini series, and though the cable networks seem to have the money and desire to produce limited shows, the subject matter would probably be seen as too literate and thoughtful for mass consumption. As to the 3 so-called "majors" attempting it? Pheh. After all, this is 2007.
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Posted: |
Sep 12, 2007 - 9:47 PM
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By: |
Howard L
(Member)
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You are sooooooooo right about the subject matter being too literate. The film has truly condensed Larry's epic spiritual journey which films must do/have done, etc. and this can be frustrating if you are a from-page-to-screen purist. But for me and the novel and this film, each works in its own right.
This will not stop me from expressing a few misgivings. In the opening of the film, Sophie/Anne Baxter declines a cocktail owing to the wishes of her then-fiance and her self-stated difficulty with alcohol. This does not happen in the book and, as such, her severe character transformation later is that much more dramatic and tragic and heartbreaking in the novel vs. the film.
And a note to John Archibald: I see how the film merged slightly the character of Larry's German miner friend with the Benedictine monk; thus, the miner's "defrocked priest" confession. The film also transferred an important piece of the monk's dialogue into the mouth of the Indian yogi. Of course, Larry's entire stay at the monastery has been excised from the film adaptation, so all these merges and transfers make cinematic sense.
And you guys are right about the cheap cardboard India/mountain sets. But thanks be to Mr. Newman for the abject gorgeous, heavenly scoring. Oh my was he at his best! And I am a sucker for moments like Larry's conversations with the yogi: shades of The Lost Horizon and Brigadoon, et. al. These moments are tailor-made for great scoring moments all right.
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Events compressed, things characters expressed to Maugham only transformed into things said to each other, Isabel getting a bit of comeuppance from the man she truly loved...these were some differences between the novel and the film. But again, the spirit of the novel was captured.
I must say how delighted I was with Anne Baxter's performance. She may have accomplished the best acting, per se, out of a fine cast. And kudos, again, to Mr. Newman for another seamless transition: the soft interpolation of M'Mademoiselle underneath Power's recitation of the Keats verse was c'est magnifique. And I haven't given him credit for his stirring love theme; a tender but painful arrangement early on gives way to a moving climax.
In other words, the usual.
She was superbly understated in that powerful role of Sophie, once the initial hystrionics (necessary because of what she undergoes, of course due to her horrific loss) became the past she wanted to forget, and seemed to cause her to depise God and the rest of the world for what she had gone through. She deserved that BA Oscar win.
"He's a sulky brute..."
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Adenddum to my comments about Miss Baxter's portrayal of Sophie-
That's a tough part to play. With regard to the Bereavement therapy post currently running on the other side of the board, don't YOU, circa 1928 think she could have used some? Wouldn't anyone in her shoes? Such a tragic character, and so terribly sad to see her - well, you know....
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Hey John, I reread the section when Larry meets "Father Ensheim", who was a Benedictine monk on a leave of absence for research purposes. The two daughters of the householder are middle-aged and the only thing Larry does with one of 'em is practice his German. It was the encounter with the monk that led to Larry's stay at the monastery (somewhere outside Bonn).
Larry's only rolls in the hay were with a country widow and "Suzanne", a Parisienne.
Oh well. Shows you where my memory's at.
And I even have a first edition! With dust wrapper!
Go figure.
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