I just got the episodes on netflix and have been watching them. Let me start out by saying that I think that this is a g
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ecarle — 13 years ago(September 21, 2012 07:56 AM)
Thanks, EC. I didn't mean to imply that Psycho was as a movie comfy and safe feeling but rather that its ambiance was, until Marion gets killed in the shower. After that there's nothing cozy about it.
A hard call, for me. In its day, nothing cozy about it. But now, through the nostalgia towards 1960 and because "Psycho" DOES pull its horror punchesthat house DOES seem kinda cozy to me.
One of my "stray thoughts" about Psycho is that if one were a lone MALE traveller say a travelling salesman who checked in at the Bates Motel and found Norman reading on the motel porch, you might be able to have a great, amiable, friendly conversation with Norman. Notice how pleasant he is in his initial chit-chat with Arbogast before it becomes a quasi-interrogation.
Lonely Norman might ENJOY a male visitor sitting on the porch and shooting the breeze.
Cozy.
In this respect the first half-hour or forty-five minutes, while they have their dark moments, such as Marion's dealings with the highway cop and Charlie, I suppose Cassidy and his money, is prosaic and easy to take till the shower scene.
A bit, but I find those first 30 minutes or so oddly unnerving, "off-kilter." Especially Cassidy he's creepy.
There is something "nightmarish" about the first 30 of "Psycho" to me in the very REAL way that a nightmare feels, NOT abstract and wild, but as if the real world is just "off" in some way(and the cop AND "California Charlie" ARE "off.")
I just saw "The Birds" this week on the big screen and I was taken by how lackadaisical ITS first 30 minutes or so areeverything was much more odd and creepy in the "normal" beginning of "Psycho." Maybe the b/w photography helped. Probably the casting of menacing Mort Mills and Lincolnsque John Anderson.
Peter Gunn did play out in its own zone, and that zone has been lost due to all TV shows being made in color and the tendency to films TV series in real place, thus Mother's would probably be, today, a real bar somewhere in L.A., "borrowed" for a TV show rather than a standing set on a studio back lot.
Yep. "Peter Gunn" harkens to a time in television when "everything was shot on the backlot" and viewers were invited to suspend their disbelief when the same "downtown street" and same houses showed up in different locales every week.
There is this "street alley with an arch over it" on the Universal backlot that I SWEAR was used for scenes in EVERY 60's Universal contemporary show Ironside, Name of the Game, McCloud. You'd see the arch and chuckle..oh they are THERE. BUT: the arch also appears in movies: "Torn Curtain" and (decades later) in the 1984 Eastwood/Reynolds vehicle "City Heat."
I could have sworn that a scene in one of the PG's I saw last weekend was set in Mrs Bates; bedroom. It had a similar shape and size, and the bed was or appeared to be the same, but not enough happened in it for me to be sure. The time was right (1959) and that master bedroom may well have already been a Universal standing set made over for Psycho shortly thereafter.
Entirely possible. These are the "mysteries of filmmaking." Some of the Psycho sets may well have already been built for Universal-Revue TV series("Psycho" WAS cheaply filmed why NOT use existing interiors?). Some of the "Psycho" sets were used AFTER "Psycho" in TV shows.
But eventually the sets were struck, destroyed, decayed. Hollywood sets weren't really built to last.
And many PROPS were reused,too. I have visited prop rooms at Universal and Warner Brothershuge warehouses with tagged lamps and statues and paintings. "Psycho" stuff probably reappeared elsewhere, and they found some of those props years later for "Psycho II" in 1982.
There was also a drive down a Uni suburban street in which a very Bates-like house was plainly visible, cupolas and all, but it was just a shot lasting less than ten seconds. They seemed to have moved sets around back then, including exertior sets.
Yes, they did put 'em on wheels and drove 'em whereever needed on the lot.
Some Psycho players have turned up in various episodes of PG, including John Anderson, who was a semi-regular for a while, sort of a fill-in Jacobi. Jeanette Nolan was in an episode a week or so ago, playing an aging spinster in a murder tale that had Psycho aspects to it and a very Psycho-like setting.
Hitchcock's movies from 1958 to 1964(Marnie) pretty much use a lot of the actors available at the time, actors you'd see on TV a lot and in movies a little.
Interestingly, from "Torn Curtain" on, Hitchcock rather eschewed "the usual suspects" in American studio casting. Only a handful of familiar American studio faces made it into Torn Curtain, Topaz, and Family Plot, and Frenzy was an all-British cast.
I'm trying to think of other TV series that might have been an influence on Psycho stylistically and/or thematically. The one that comes to mind first, naturally, is Hitchcock's half-hour show. More genteel than Psycho, it channeled a retro mood quite often, though it seldom turned t -
telegonus — 13 years ago(September 21, 2012 01:29 PM)
Dramatically,
Psycho
is off key during those first thirty minutes (give or take). It was probably my familiarity with the film that caused me to describe it as feeling somewhat cozy in those scenes. Not really, as you point out. There are those surreal, near Kafkaesque moments, beautifully timed by Hitch, written by Stefano, that make the newbie to the movie fear for Marion on a number of occasions. Cassidy is weird, the highway cop a little too solicitous, Charlie too knowing (he acts like he knows exactlty what Marion is up to, even though he doesn't, and we "fee Marion's pain" in those scenes).
Hitchcock did use those TV regulars starting more or less unofficially with
Rear Window
, what with Raymond Burr, occasional TV players like Wendell Corey and Thelma Ritter, Frabk Cady, later Mr. Drucker on
Green Acres
. There are a number of soon to be familiar TV faces in
The Wrong Man
, some one has to not blink in order to recognize.
Vertigo
and
North By Northeast
have their share of "TV faces", especially the latter. One can only wonder if Hitchcock did this deliberately.
Checkmate
is a show I remember well, had Hitchcock vibes, as if an offshoot of Hitchcock's own series; and it was filmed on the same lot.
The same could be said for many of the more offbeat
Peter Gunn
episodes as well. In this one could argue that
Psycho
's aesthetic, such as it can be described, was basically a TV one, ramped up to the level of art
.
The movie does, more than probably any other in the Hitchcock canon, seem to derive much of its power from its small screen-like intimacy on the big screen,
not
a Hitchcock trademark before or after. Its supporting cast only seems to back this up. No Leo G. Carroll or John Williams or Jessie Royce Landis or Cedric Hardwicke. No, we get Vaughn Taylor, John Anderson, Mort Mills and Simon Oakland. With all due respect to these talented players, there's not a "prestige" name in the bunch. I believe you mentioned previously that Hitchcock had become quite the TV fan by the time he came to watch
Psycho
, had become as familiar with the conventions of the small screen as the average American viewer. -
ecarle — 13 years ago(September 21, 2012 10:14 PM)
Dramatically, Psycho is off key during those first thirty minutes (give or take).
I would like to note that Marion reaches the Bates Motel at almost exactly the 30 minute markher opening "journey" is not as arbitrary in its timing as it might have seemed(indeed, Hitchcock cut a scene at a gas station, possibly to keep things within 30.)
It was probably my familiarity with the film that caused me to describe it as feeling somewhat cozy in those scenes. Not really, as you point out. There are those surreal, near Kafkaesque moments, beautifully timed by Hitch, written by Stefano, that make the newbie to the movie fear for Marion on a number of occasions.
Yes, I think so. Part of it is that we KNOW "Psycho" is heading towards what a 60's critic called "a nightmare of horror" at the Bates Motel and thus if we KNOW thatthe early scenes are a "gateway TO horror." But part of it is how Hitchcock films the scenes, the actors he chooses and HOW they act, and oh, most certainly the timing.
Cassidy is weird, the highway cop a little too solicitous, Charlie too knowing (he acts like he knows exactlty what Marion is up to, even though he doesn't, and we "fee Marion's pain" in those scenes).
Andwe feel Marion's paranoia"they are all onto her"but they AREN'T.
Hitchcock did use those TV regulars starting more or less unofficially with Rear Window, what with Raymond Burr, occasional TV players like Wendell Corey and Thelma Ritter, Frabk Cady, later Mr. Drucker on Green Acres. There are a number of soon to be familiar TV faces in The Wrong Man, some one has to not blink in order to recognize. Vertigo and North By Northeast have their share of "TV faces", especially the latter. One can only wonder if Hitchcock did this deliberately.
The epic NBNW practically has a TV guy or gal once per minute Ed Binns(12 Angry Men) and Stanley Adams(Star Trek The Trouble With Tribbles) and Ed Platt(Get Smart) and Ned Glass(Charade, Peter Gunn!), the guys at the auction
Even in Hitchcock's late sixties "international" period, some TV guys slip in: David Opatashu in "Torn Curtain," John Van Dreelen and Ben Wright in Topaz.
But he did seem to jump ship on hiring from TV after "Marnie." We just didn't see some of those familar faces like Jack Weston and Roger C. Carmel, etc.
Checkmate is a show I remember well, had Hitchcock vibes, as if an offshoot of Hitchcock's own series; and it was filmed on the same lot.
A "team" of detectives: Owlish Sebastian Cabot, swarthy Anthony George, young Doug McClure. I believe the credit sequence (with swirling b/w paint and scary music by "Johnny Williams" who would score "Jaws" and "Family Plot") can be watched on YouTube.
The show was produced byJACK BENNY(on his agent's recommendation) and Benny actually appeared as a famous comedian(not named Jack Benny) on one episode: "They are trying to kill Jack!"
I saw one episode as a kid with Lee Marvin sinking in quicksand. I saw it at a motel exactly like the Bates. Word.
In this one could argue that Psycho's aesthetic, such as it can be described, was basically a TV one, ramped up to the level of art .
Yes, for all the talk of Clozout and Castle, Hitchocck was ultimately using his TV facilities to make a movie. THAT was the experiment.
Seeing those "TV images" blown up on a big movie screen was disorienting to 1960 audiences, let alone now. And yet: Dwight MacDonald's pan "its just one of those TV shows, but padded" doesn't hold at all. NO Hitchocck show has a scene as intricate as the Shower and Staircase murders.
The movie does, more than probably any other in the Hitchcock canon, seem to derive much of its power from its small screen-like intimacy on the big screen, not a Hitchcock trademark before or after.
That's true. Compare it to the scenes in "North by Northwest" one year before, often with teeming crowds or small groups of people(like the detectives and folks at Glen Cove with Roger.) In "Psycho," it is usually just two or three people, and often in big, big close-ups. Just like on TV.
Its supporting cast only seems to back this up. No Leo G. Carroll or John Williams or Jessie Royce Landis or Cedric Hardwicke. No, we get Vaughn Taylor, John Anderson, Mort Mills and Simon Oakland. With all due respect to these talented players, there's not a "prestige" name in the bunch.
Afraid notnot verus the others you named. Its really a "weird" supporting cast when you think about it.
I believe you mentioned previously that Hitchcock had become quite the TV fan by the time he came to watch Psycho, had become as familiar with the conventions of the small screen as the average American viewer.
Yes. Hitch went home at night and watched TV, like the rest of America. Except he was CASTING all the time.
A casting anecdote from the book I have finished on "Frenzy." When Hitchocck went to cast the film in London, his office was besieged with offers from unknown actors; they got a form letter signed by Hitch's assistant, Peggy Robertson.
But Hume Cronyn(Shado -
telegonus — 13 years ago(September 22, 2012 01:03 PM)
The paranoia is quite strong in those first thirty minutes of
Psycho
. It's almost as if Hitchcock was filming it as an intense entry in his half-hour anthology TV series.
Could it be that Hitchcock deliberately chose a "TV friendly" cast for
NxNW
to make the film more accessible, more familiar feeling than his other films? Just a thought. Even Eva Marie Saint and James Mason had appeared on the small screen; while Leo G. Carroll was by then probably better known as TV's Topper than for his work in films.
Interestingly, the only other Hitchcock film to really channel a TV mood is
The Wrong Man
, which plays, like
Marty
and
12 Angry Men
, as a big screen adaptation of a television play (which it wasn't).
In his later films for Wasserman Hitchcock went more Hollywood than ever, it seems. One may not like the look and feel of many of those Universals but they're movies all the way, don't have a TV "vibe". -
ecarle — 13 years ago(September 22, 2012 06:20 PM)
In his later films for Wasserman Hitchcock went more Hollywood than ever, it seems. One may not like the look and feel of many of those Universals but they're movies all the way, don't have a TV "vibe".
Agreed. And three of those Wassermans made over a ten-year period had a strong "international/foreign" bent. With "Torn Curtain" and "Topaz," Hitchcock shipped foreign actors TO Hollywood(practically everybody other than Paul Newman in "Torn Curtain", including Julie Andrews; and Noiret, Piccoli and the others in "Topaz.") For "Frenzy," Hitchcock went to England and essentially made a "pure British" movie. (In the 1972 edition of "Films in Review," a comprehensive Encylopedia of all films released that year, "Frenzy" was in the "foreign films" section.)
The return to America for "Family Plot" found Hitchcock eschewing a lot of the usual American TV talent in suppporting roles. Many of the actors(like the guys playing the FBI guys and the chopper pilot) were practically unknown Yanks.
I believe that somewhere in this later period Hitchcock himself said he was tired of "all the familar faces" in the supporting casts of American films. -
telegonus — 13 years ago(September 24, 2012 02:42 PM)
That's makes sense that Hitchcock didn't want to repeat himself. He had a few players he was particularly fond of, such as Leo G. Carroll and, later on, John Williams, never had a stock company of the John Ford kind. My sense is that he didn't want to repeat himself, had a "thing" about moving on, as some of us do (not wanting to live in the same town or neighborhood again, as in "been there, done that"; or work for the same employer, even in a new position).
Hitchcock did move on in his career, as each of his "decades" has a discrete, unique feel to it. That said, he remade
The Man Who Knew Too Much
and he certainly recycled the same themes, but one expects the latter. The former strikes me as an odd career move for a director on a roll as Hitch was in the 50s.
Still, Hitchcock's filmography shows us "pairs" or "double" films; movies in which one seems a complement to another even if several years apart, as seems the case with the two mother obsessed young men killer films
Strangers On a Train
and
Psycho
. In the case of
Rebacca
it had a "follow up" the next year with the same star and a similar plot,
Suspicion
, but that was early in Hitchcock's American career when he was under Selznick's thumb.
The "experiment" of
Libeboat
was repeated in the even more "experimental"
Rope
; and the latter was in a manner of speaking complemented by another relatively small scale film also adapted from a successful play,
Dial M For Murder
. Yet these are very different films, with different moods: one set wholly oudoors (albeit filmed in a studio "tank"); the other made wholly indoors; with the last mostly indoors, featuring some brief outdoors scenes. Once in control of his destiny and prior to signing with Wasserman, Hitchcock seemed particularly sensitive to moving on to different themes in his various films. When he made a classic, a winner (and deep down I think he knew it even at the time) he knew better than to make another film like it, thus there's only one
The Lady Vanishes
, one
Rear Window
, one
Psycho
. -
ecarle — 13 years ago(September 24, 2012 09:30 PM)
That's makes sense that Hitchcock didn't want to repeat himself. He had a few players he was particularly fond of, such as Leo G. Carroll and, later on, John Williams, never had a stock company of the John Ford kind. My sense is that he didn't want to repeat himself, had a "thing" about moving on, as some of us do (not wanting to live in the same town or neighborhood again, as in "been there, done that"; or work for the same employer, even in a new position).
Yes, it seems evident that Hitchcock felt a need to reinvent himself so as to "stay current." One finds Billy Wilder in the late years of his career depending almost solely upon old pals Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau and(once) William Holden for his casts. Hawks and Ford used John Wayne a lot. Hitchcock reached out and got Connery, Newman and Andrews and TRIED to get other new young stars.
There was ruthless side to Hitchcock's moving on, too. As great as his "team of the fifties" was(Herrmann, DP Burks, film editor Tomasini and assistants Herbert Coleman and Doc Erickson), he fired Herrmann off "Torn Curtain" and refused to hire Burks for it, and pretty much drove Coleman and Erickson away(Tomasini made his own exit in '65: a heart attack.) We find Hitchcock in his last few movies restlessly hiring different composers, different DPS, different EVERYTHING.
Hitchcock did move on in his career, as each of his "decades" has a discrete, unique feel to it. That said, he remade The Man Who Knew Too Much and he certainly recycled the same themes, but one expects the latter. The former strikes me as an odd career move for a director on a roll as Hitch was in the 50s.
My guess on two pictures "The Man Who Knew Too Much" and "North by Northwest" is that Hitchcock somehow wanted to "reboot" his great 30's British black-and-whites for "Technicolor, VistaVision and Big Hollywood Stars." "Man" was an overt remake(for awhile, it was going to be called "Into Thin Air") but with many changes to the scenes, set-pieces and locales(Morocco in for Switzerland). "NBNW" which Hitchcock called "The American 39 Steps" had that movie as a base, but also aspects of The Lady Vanishes(the train).
Seems to me in capturing The Man Who Knew Too Much, The 39 Steps, and The Lady Vanishes for the Technicolor eraHitchcock really had grabbed the BIG 30's Hitchcock movies. "Sabotage" (a bomber movie) was too grim; "Secret Agent" too of its time, etc. No, Hitchcocok knew what his entertainments were from the 30's, and The Man Who Knew Too Much was a "two-fer": A Child-Kidnapping Story mixed with a Stop-the-Assassination! yarn.
Still, Hitchcock's filmography shows us "pairs" or "double" films; movies in which one seems a complement to another even if several years apart, as seems the case with the two mother obsessed young men killer films Strangers On a Train and Psycho. In the case of Rebacca it had a "follow up" the next year with the same star and a similar plot, Suspicion, but that was early in Hitchcock's American career when he was under Selznick's thumb.
I take your point on the "pairings, but what is funny to me is that OTHER pairs can be made of these movies. As a "commercial"(not thematic) matter, "Strangers on a Train" and "North by Northwest" are linked as "big action entertainments to break a career slump."
The "experiment" of Libeboat was repeated in the even more "experimental" Rope; and the latter was in a manner of speaking complemented by another relatively small scale film also adapted from a successful play, Dial M For Murder. Yet these are very different films, with different moods: one set wholly oudoors (albeit filmed in a studio "tank"); the other made wholly indoors; with the last mostly indoors, featuring some brief outdoors scenes.
Once in control of his destiny and prior to signing with Wasserman, Hitchcock seemed particularly sensitive to moving on to different themes in his various films. When he made a classic, a winner (and deep down I think he knew it even at the time) he knew better than to make another film like it, thus there's only one The Lady Vanishes, one Rear Window, one Psycho.
Thanks to Wasserman that "never do anything twice" formula failed with the back-to-back Cold War failures of "Torn Curtain" and "Topaz", similar in titles and often confused..even though the first one has "big, big stars" and the second one doesn't.
All in all, Hitchcock was pretty damn adroit in matching his work to the Hollywood trends: noirish and Ladies Filmish in the 40's; Techniclor Travelogues(a lot) in the fifties; teenage horror movies (of sorts) with Psycho and The Birds; Cold War espionage in the late sixties, "R" rated sexual horror with "Frenzy" etc.
But he always snuck in "the unexpected": Rear Window ain't a travelogue; Rope is in color and setbound; The Trouble With Harry is its own very twee thing, etc. -
telegonus — 13 years ago(September 25, 2012 04:32 PM)
Thanks for all that
Not a lot of time but yup, you can pair 'em any which way you can (to paraphrase the title of an old Clint Eastwood flick).
The Lodger
arguably connects with
Psycho
, and they're decades apart.
Saboteur
resembles
The Wrong Man
in its falsely accused theme, is otherwise a totally different film.
How's about the two "pastorals", one weeps, the other laughs:
Shadow Of a Doubt
and
The Trouble With Harry
, both very Anglo-Saxon, borderline British, especially the latter.
Rebecca
and
Suspicionm
, famously alike, are in some respects updated in their themes, this time with a real killer, with the new Hitchcock blonde, Grace Kelly, in
Dial M For Murder
.
Vertigo
and
Marnie
? I'm not a big fan of either but there are similarities, especially all the "obsessive psychologizing". -
ecarle — 13 years ago(September 27, 2012 05:53 PM)
Not a lot of time but yup, you can pair 'em any which way you can (to paraphrase the title of an old Clint Eastwood flick). The Lodger arguably connects with Psycho, and they're decades apart
Pair 'em any which way you can and turn 'em any which way but loose
Yes, you can.
Even though we noted that Hitchcock tried to avoid the same film twice in a row(with the Wasserman-forced exception of Torn Curtain and Topaz), we have these "near matches" side by side like Spellbound and Notorious(b/w, Selznick, Bergman, a male star even if the plots are NOT similar at all), Rebecca and Suspicion, etc.
Hitchcock worked long enough where I figure he himself knew that he had several "thriller templates" from which to work:
"Spy thriller": Many of the British films, most of the 40's WWII Nazi films, The Man Who Knew Too Much, NBNW, Torn Curtain, Topaz. Drop only a few of those out, you get "spy CHASE thrillers."
"Movies about psychopaths": The Lodger, Shadow of a Doubt, Strangers on a Train, Psycho, Frenzy
"Twisted obsessional love": Rebecca, Suspicion, Spellbound, Notorious, The Paradine Case, Under Capricorn, Vertigo, Marnie
Now with 53 films, that left PLENTY of tales that don't quite fit those templates The Birds, The Trouble With Harry, the utterly unique Rear Window and yet even THOSE can be paired up:
Psycho and The Birds: irrational killers and horror
Psycho and The Trouble With Harry: Body disposal
Rope and The Trouble With Harry: A body in plain sight.
Rear Window and Psycho: Murder most foul with knives and bathtubs involved
Etc, etc, etc. -
ecarle — 13 years ago(September 29, 2012 10:44 AM)
Rear Window also fits the body disposal category.
Indeed it does. In fact, you might say that "Rear Window" and "The Trouble With Harry" are almost entirely ABOUT(plot-wise, at least) the disposal of a body.
Meanwhile, two other Hitchcock films "Psycho" and "Frenzy" instead rely on lenghty SEQUENCES about body disposal: Norman of Marion's body in Cabin One, Bob Rusk in the potato truck with Babs' body.Billy Wilder said of Hitchcock's movies: "Always a corpse." That's a good parlor game to play: IS there always a corpse? somebody gets killed in almost ALL of Hitchcock's thrillers(only The Wrong Man comes to mind as a film where someone does not.)
But when the emphasis is on DISPOSING of the body, wellI think that is profound and macabre at the same time.
Consider the body of Marion Crane in "Psycho." We knew Marion for 45 minutes, give or take, as a pretty, hard-working, romantically desperate, courageous and borderline crazy HUMAN BEING, and we became enwrapped in her story.
And soonshe is a corpse. Marion Crane as a human being is no more. Whatever one's spiritual groundingthe body is not the person. And in that reality comes a profoundly disturbing vibe: when a human becomes a corpsewe must bury that corpse and remove it from our lives as quickly as possible.
Bob Rusk is a serial killer in "Frenzy" and we come to view body disposal as "part of his job." He throws one in the Thames River, leaves one in her office chair, throws one in a potato sack on a truck, and is about to dispose of his final victim in a steamer trunk. It is almost as if Good Old Bob wants to "be creative" and never dispose of a body the same way twice! -
telegonus — 13 years ago(September 28, 2012 01:30 PM)
True enough, EC, and one can also pair (as in a "dry run") Joseph Cotten's uncle Charley with Norman Bates in
Shadow Of a Doubt
, which with its murderer in small town California does rather anticipate the (admittedly in most other respects very different)
Psycho
. Both films feature lively supporting characters, more so than usual for Hitchcock.
Vertigo
works with
Marnie
but it's a hard sell, for me anyway, as to trying to pair it with any other Hitchcock.
Lifeboat
is a real one off, and I love it.
There are vague similarities between
Rebecca
and
Marnie
, if one can switch the pathology around from male to female.
The Wrong Man
is also a one off, with its neo-realistic style and "commited" non-glamorous setting and characters. I believe you've linked it to
Psycho
, and indeed it's Hitchcock's second to last black and white film. There are also ironies when one compares the two, as Manny is the
wrong man
, wrongly identified, Norman the
right man
, who comes off as so harmless. Manny's as in touch with others (co-workers, family) as Norman is out of touch. Even so, Manny's relative gregariousness doesn't help him, while Norman's isolation
does
help
him
The "three star"
Dial M For Murder
(Milland, Kelly, Cummings) compares in that if in no other respect to the "three star"
North By Norhtwest
(Grant, Saint, Mason). The later film has hotter, better established stars, while the earlier one has the past their respective primes Milland and Cummings, the up and coming,and just about "arrived"Grace Kelly. Totally different films, with the later one as budget as the earlier one is small budget. Interestingly, Milland was a kind of second string Grant, while Eva marie Saint was presented as a sort of midwest Grace Kelly. Needless to say, James Mason and Bob Cummings have little in common
. -
ecarle — 13 years ago(September 29, 2012 10:28 AM)
True enough, EC, and one can also pair (as in a "dry run") Joseph Cotten's uncle Charley with Norman Bates in Shadow Of a Doubt, which with its murderer in small town California does rather anticipate the (admittedly in most other respects very different) Psycho. Both films feature lively supporting characters, more so than usual for Hitchcock.
I've noted before that Hitchocck seemed to do "one psycho picture per decade(Doubt in the 40's Strangers in the 50's Psycho in the 60's Frenzy in the 70's) each one more brutal than from the decade before, and thus they ALL pair up.
But "Shadow of a Doubt" certainly feels most "comfortable" alongside "Psycho" what with their small-town Northern California locales (the real Santa Rosa, the fictional Fairvale) and the idea of Psychotic Evil parked right there in the American back country.
Vertigo works with Marnie but it's a hard sell, for me anyway, as to trying to pair it with any other Hitchcock.
I very much see "Marnie" as Hitchcock's attempt to bring that "Vertigo" feeling back, and it failed because it was a flawed version of a perfect version ofa problematic story in EITHER version.
Once Hitchcock made this climactic "Big Three"(Vertigo, NBNW, Psycho) those three perfect works "harmed" all the final Hitchcock's that followed them:
The Birds, Frenzy: "Not as scary as Psycho"
Torn Curtain, Topaz: "Not as exciting as spy movies as NBNW"
Family Plot: "Not as big a comedy-thriller as NBNW, and both were written by Ernest Lehman."
Marnie: Not as good as Vertigo.
I think "Vertigo" and "Marnie" link up primarly in that they are NOT spy movies, chase movies, comedy thrillers, or psycho movies(even though Scottie, Marnie and possibly Mark DO have serious mental problems.)
They are "obessional love" movies in which the male(James Stewart, Sean Connery) fixates on and dominates a criminal blonde female(Kim Novak, Tippi Hedren.) But one of the two movies(and only one) has a "happy ending."
Lifeboat is a real one off, and I love it.
Yep, and me too. It can perhaps be grouped with Hitchcock's "stunt movies"(Rope, Rear Window) but its grit and grime and hard look at human truthsits quite different in the Hitchocck canon(and his only movie for Twentieth Century Fox, which might be why it looks and sounds different.)
There are vague similarities between Rebecca and Marnie, if one can switch the pathology around from male to female.
Sure. These "Hitchcock romances" are really their own special deal, even if "Rebecca" started as a Selznick project.
However, "switch male/female pathology" makes "Marnie" a virtual remake of"Spellbound":
Spellbound: Professional psychologist Ingrid Bergman works with Gregory Peck to uncover the childhood trauma that damaged him(he accidentally killed his brother.)
Marnie: Amateur psychologist Sean Connery works with Tippi Hedren to uncover the childhood trauma that damaged HER(she intentionally killed her hooker mother's Sailor John.)
The Wrong Man is also a one off, with its neo-realistic style and "commited" non-glamorous setting and characters. I believe you've linked it to Psycho, and indeed it's Hitchcock's second to last black and white film. There are also ironies when one compares the two, as Manny is the wrong man, wrongly identified, Norman the right man, who comes off as so harmless. Manny's as in touch with others (co-workers, family) as Norman is out of touch. Even so, Manny's relative gregariousness doesn't help him, while Norman's isolation does help him
The Wrong Man and Psycho were movies that Hitchocck CHOSE to make in black-and-white when the times were demanding color as a "first choice." We know the reasons Italian neo-realism and "Marty" Kitchen Sink with "Man" and William Castle/Diabolique horror with "Psycho." But I think what "The Wrong Man" REALLY anticipates in "Psycho" is "Hitchocck looking at the dangers of economic desperation." The rich or well-off characters of Rear Window, To Catch a Thief(especially), The Man Who Knew Too Much '56 have been replaced by people who work hard and practically paycheck to paycheck. These are "workaday" characters middle-class on the edge. They are rather "trapped" to begin withand then chaos enters their lives.
The "three star" Dial M For Murder (Milland, Kelly, Cummings) compares in that if in no other respect to the "three star" North By Norhtwest (Grant, Saint, Mason). The later film has hotter, better established stars, while the earlier one has the past their respective primes Milland and Cummings, the up and coming,and just about "arrived"Grace Kelly. Totally different films, with the later one as budget as the earlier one is small budget. Interestingly, Milland was a kind of second string Grant, while Eva marie Saint was presented as a sort of midwest Grace Kelly. Needless to say, James Mason and Bob Cummings have little in common.
I am reminded that Hitchcock's first choice for the elegant, witty and oh-so-cruel villain in "Dial M" was Cary Grant. It is said that -
telegonus — 13 years ago(September 29, 2012 01:25 PM)
All too briefly
How's about Farley Granger for Bob Cummings in
Dial M
. He'd have been a better fit for that particular role, which could have used a "darker" seeming actor than the song and dance Cummings, whom I like but who wasn't quite right for his part IMO.
James Mason was definitely higher in the pecking order than Milland for 1959 and
NxNW
works better with him as the suave villain than the more old hat Ray who by then belonged to another era. What a difference five years make!
I hadn't thought of a
Spellbound-Marnie
connection but that's a good call; and what's more, Bergman and Hedren made two back to back pictures for Hitch, unusual for any actress other than Grace Kelly (to the best of my recollection).
Black and white was in decline when
The Wrong Man
and
Psycho
were made, down but far from out, and many top directors, from Sidney Lumet to John Ford, continued to use, occasionally, for many more years. -
ecarle — 13 years ago(September 30, 2012 03:38 PM)
All too briefly
How's about Farley Granger for Bob Cummings in Dial M. He'd have been a better fit for that particular role, which could have used a "darker" seeming actor than the song and dance Cummings, whom I like but who wasn't quite right for his part IMO.
An excellent choice! It has been said that given that as Milland's Tony Wendice is an ex CHAMPION TENNIS PLAYER, who essentially blackmails another man into killing his unfaithful wife, it is as if Granger's character in "Strangers on a Train" has married and used Robert Walker's plan!(partially.) So how fun it would be to cast Granger AGAINST his old part (not to mention the fact that Granger was an established Hitchcock villain from "Rope," futher darkening his presence.)
Also: Granger simply projected a better sense of youth and sexuality than Robert Cummings(who, as Hitchcock said, had an "amusing face," especially in repose.) Granger would have made for a "younger lover"(ala Caine versus Olivier in "Sleuth") to drive Milland to murder. (And I know that Granger turned out to be openly gay, but this was the 50's at the movies. No matter.)
James Mason was definitely higher in the pecking order than Milland for 1959 and NxNW works better with him as the suave villain than the more old hat Ray who by then belonged to another era. What a difference five years make!
"That's show biz," literally. I think it was Alan Arkin in an interview who said we have no idea how quickly actors can move upor DOWN..the "power list" in Hollywood. (Arkin called it "a caste system.") That's why so many of 'em go nuts.
Also: James Mason simply had more "gravitas" AS a villain than George Sanders(who had started getting "kinda amusing" in his roles) or the aging Milland had in 1959.) I haven't even gone to check what movies George Sanders and Ray Milland were making in 1959, but I doubt they were at the level Mason where was working.
I hadn't thought of a Spellbound-Marnie connection but that's a good call; and what's more, Bergman and Hedren made two back to back pictures for Hitch, unusual for any actress other than Grace Kelly (to the best of my recollection).
Seems about right to me on the back-to-back business. Even the oft-used Mr Grant and Mr Stewart didn't work back-to-back for Hitchcock.
Of course, Grace Kelly worked back-to-back-to-back for Hitchcock(three in a row, a record), and all reports are that if she had stayed in Hollywood, he would have cast her in all sorts of movies if he could The Trouble With Harry(actually, she was still working then, she turned it down), The Man Who Knew Too Much(not as a singer), North by Northwest, Marnie.
Meanwhile, back at the records. Ingrid Bergman didn't work back-to-back-to-back for Hitchocck, but she joins Bergman in "three Hitchcocks." Grant and Stewart tied at "four Hitchcocks." Odd how these things balance out.
Black and white was in decline when The Wrong Man and Psycho were made, down but far from out, and many top directors, from Sidney Lumet to John Ford, continued to use, occasionally, for many more years
Yes, that's trueat least until 1966, the last year of "Black and White" category Oscars(cinematography, art direction) and the year color TVs in homes sold enough for Hollywood to start shifting movie production to color whenever possible so TV networks would buy the product.
Billy Wilder clung to b/w as long as he could everything from "Love in the Afternoon"(1957) to "The Fortune Cookie"(1966) was in b/w, with the sole exception of "Irma La Douce" (which looks like it uses b/w art direction a lot of the time.) (Wait: when did he make "The Spirit of St. Louis"? Did I miss that color film in the sequence?) But "The Fortune Cookie" failed in that big year of 1966, and Wilder only worked in color thereafter.
I suppose with Hitchcock, the point would be that after "I Confess," he stuck to Technicolor as a first choice for his movies(often gorgeously so: To Catch a Thief, The Trouble With Harry, Vertigo) unless he really felt the movie HAD to be in b/w (The Wrong Man, Psycho.) -
telegonus — 13 years ago(October 01, 2012 04:25 PM)
Thanks, EC. So much to do, so little time on-line. I hope this will change this month; the sooner the better.
The only problem with the alternate casting of Farley Granger in
Dial M
might have been the fact that he had just played a tennis player with wife murder issues two or three years earlier, and in a hit film for Hitch, thus it might have seemed a bit strange to see him pop up as the "other man" in a film with a similar plot, also about a tennis player. Still, Hitchcock could have done better than Cummings IMO, and I like the guy, but the part needed more
gravitas
than Cummings was able to handle, and he comes off as weak in the film, but then maybe that was Hitchcock's intention. It's not like he
had
to use Cummings, a Universal contractee hot off the success of
Kings Row
in 1942 but to the best of my knowledge with no contractual obligation to Warners in 1954.
BTW, as this is the
Peter Gunn
board, I saw two back to back episodes last night, both moderately satisfying, neither great. One dealt with a protection racketeer giving Mother a hard time. His thugs tore the joint apart at the end and Mother was played the wonderfully named Minerva Urecal (sounds like the same for a female catheter or something, eh?
), not the more monolithic Hope Emerson, but no matter. The second was about some clever but not clever enough bank robbers and featured a very young Ted (
Psychio
guard) Knight in a major role, looking not that different from his Mary Tyler Moore days.
All this goes to remind me that at least three
Psycho
people have popped up on
PB
. There must be more. That the series was filmed on the same U-I back lot as Hitchcock's series
and
Psycho
makes more some interesting channeling of moods. I wouldn't call
PG
Hitchcockian, though, as it was more Cool Jazz
Noir
, very American and hip, with none of the stateliness one associates with Hitchcock at his most British. One episode did feature a British actor, Cyril Delavanti, who specialized in playing old, literally ancient looking men. He looked even older than Ian Wolfe, had the sort of face that makes one wonder if he could ever have been young.
Those black and white shows are so fun to watch, for me anyway. I'm watching
Naked City
and
Route 66
regularly, when I can, and I'm struck by the much higher (than today's) caliber of writing and acting is on those shows. They were not high art, I suppose, but they were artistic and at times showed real artistry and ambition, sometimes too much for one episode, as happened in one which guest starred Lois Nattleton (remember her?) last night, and which featured Robert Duvall and, of all people, Harvey Korman, in supporting roles. It was a character study, and a good one, maybe crammed too much plot into its less than one full hour running time. I really miss character based shows, the absence of gimmickry, whether CGI or MTV style fast editing, that makes it difficult to impossible for me to watch current shows. Overall, for all the complaining of Newton Minow and others about television as a vast wasteland back fifty years ago it's start to look more and more like a golden age of sorts, or maybe
my
age is showing. -
ecarle — 13 years ago(October 03, 2012 09:05 PM)
The only problem with the alternate casting of Farley Granger in Dial M might have been the fact that he had just played a tennis player with wife murder issues two or three years earlier, and in a hit film for Hitch, thus it might have seemed a bit strange to see him pop up as the "other man" in a film with a similar plot, also about a tennis player.
Possibly too "on the nose." On the other hand, Hitchcock later wanted to use Anthony Perkins as the hero in "Torn Curtain"and that character has to kill a man in a manner that involves a big knife(wielded by the farmer's wife, however.)
And Hitchcock had famously shifted Granger into the "hero" role in "Strangers" after using him as a villain in the gay-pairing "Rope," thus creating some new vibes in the Bruno-Guy relationship.
Still, Hitchcock could have done better than Cummings IMO, and I like the guy, but the part needed more gravitas than Cummings was able to handle, and he comes off as weak in the film, but then maybe that was Hitchcock's intention. It's not like he had to use Cummings, a Universal contractee hot off the success of Kings Row in 1942 but to the best of my knowledge with no contractual obligation to Warners in 1954.Word is that Hitchcock and Cummings were friends of sorts, Hitch would have the Cummingses over for dinner. It seems true that Hitchcock surely liked to work with some fairly bland "suburban" actorsMacDonald Carey, Robert Cummings, John Forsythe, even(at the star level), James Stewart and Cary Grant. Not for him the wildmen like Brando, Douglas, Lancaster, MitchumMonty Clift and Paul Newman were about as wild as he could take.
As I recall, though Cummings had a few notable 40's films "King's Row" is both Cummings AND Ronald Reagan's finest moment he shined mainly as a TV star("Love that Bob")his smarmy features and amusing manner much more helpful to TV stardom than movies.
BTW, as this is the Peter Gunn board, I saw two back to back episodes last night, both moderately satisfying, neither great. One dealt with a protection racketeer giving Mother a hard time. His thugs tore the joint apart at the end and Mother was played the wonderfully named Minerva Urecal (sounds like the same for a female catheter or something, eh? ), not the more monolithic Hope Emerson, but no matter.
I didn't realize the actress in the role changed. A catheter indeed.
The second was about some clever but not clever enough bank robbers and featured a very young Ted (Psychio guard) Knight in a major role, looking not that different from his Mary Tyler Moore days.It seems that Ted Knight just "struggled on" in the sixties until that big part finally came along in 1970 on "MTM." It was a big hit and it made him a name for later, lesser sitcoms, and most famously, "Caddyshack" as the villainous Judge.
On "Mad Men" this past season, they showed white-haired Roger Sterling thumb through a magazine in 1967finding a REAL 1967 ad featuring Ted Knight, half Knight's hair black, half his hair white. The 2012 audience was meant to laugh in recognition(at home watching TV), I'm sure.
All this goes to remind me that at least three Psycho people have popped up on PG. There must be more. That the series was filmed on the same U-I back lot as Hitchcock's series and Psycho makes more some interesting channeling of moods.
Here's the place to note that Francois Truffaut said he didn't understand why America didn't appreciate Hitchcock until he stayed in America for a year or so in the sixties and noted(paraphrased) "There were nothing but mystery and suspense shows on every channel, shows filled with murder and crime, every night, all of them in the Hitchcock tradition but with none of his art."
Perhaps "Psycho" seemed less "strange" in its year of release, given how the occasional glimpses of Fairvale revealed their Universal Revue roots. On the other hand, Hitchcock was VERY sparing showing ANY of the Universal backlot. You can barely see it outside Sam's hardware store window, and shots of the Sheriff's house, or Marion's house in Phoenix were cut out. I think only the church scene really "gives away the backlot." The Bates Motel and House were their own grandiose things.
I wouldn't call PG Hitchcockian, though, as it was more Cool Jazz Noir, very American and hip, with none of the stateliness one associates with Hitchcock at his most British.
Nope. "Psycho" is, arguably, Hitchcock's most American film, with traces of the Western in Cassidy and Chambers and California Charlie(Chambers and Charlie were played by actors who often DID Westerns, John McIntire and John Anderson.)
As I noted somehwere around here, Hitchcock first asked Herrmann to give "Psycho" a jazz score. Perhaps Peter Gunn influenced Hitchcock on this point. Herrmann talked Hitch out of THATand made history.
And then the irony years later, of course: Hitchcock fired Henry Mancini the composer OF the massively famous and jazzy "Peter Gunn" theme off "Frenzy."
One episode did feature a -
telegonus — 13 years ago(October 04, 2012 02:02 PM)
True, EC. Cummings and Hitchcock were friends. I believe Cummings appeared in a Hitchcock hour. John Forsythe was similarly bland, though I prefer the more down to earth Cummings to the preppie-ish Forsythe, who, outside of his TV comedy series
Bachelor Father
and I suppose
Dynasty
, was seldom well cast; probably hard to cast. He had an upper class air to him similar to earlier big screen stars like Robert Montgomery and Franchot Tone, was born too late to make it in that era, did better on the small screen, which was a more place for favorable to retro types like Forsythe.
Psycho
does slyly channel the western in its supporting characters, though not in the three leads, and certainly not in Arbogast and the shrink. Otherwise, it's a down home movie that just happens to be a horror. TV was funny that way. In its early days two of the more popular shows were
The Cisco Kid
and
Hopalong Cassidy
, neither of which would have "sold" as movies then, not after 1950. The same was probablt true for
The Life Of Riley
, certainly the American-Amglo-French Sherlock Holmes series featuring Ronald (son of Leslie) Howard.
I'm really sorry to have missed
Mad Men
entirely
. Lois Nettleton was a Sinatra squeeze? Good for her (and him). Those TV actresses, more so than the actors back then, had a tough time transitioning to big screen roles. Once known for their television work, they tended to remain on television. Sally Field is an exception, as is (was?) Angela Cartwright. Remember such lovelies as Laura Devon, Charlene Holt and Joyce Jameson? Devon was a real looker, and a good actress. Howard Hawks' gave her a chance on the big screen but she didn't "take".
PG
's Lola didn't transition, either, but she was a veteran player by the time she did that show.
As to Cyril Delevanti, I saw him in a
Twilight Zone
I never cared for last night, the one with Barry Morse as a sadistic theater critic who gets his comeuppance. I only saw the end. Strangely, Delevanti, who looked ancient on
PG
, actually seemed to have aged over the years! Another ancient actor, a sort of French Delevanti: Marcel Hillaire. He was in everything back then. Of course we (Americans) had Burt Mustin, so I guess Methuselah-like character actors were popular back in the day.
Last night I saw an
R66
guest starring Lew Ayres as a Nazi hunter masquerading as an oil rig worker to capture a Nazi war criminal. It was very good, not one of the best but high average, featuring a fine supporting cast of players you're almost certainly familiar with, including Michael Conrad, Bruce Dern and Ed Asner (both seen briefly, early on), Roger C. Carmel (a sort of lesser,in all respectsVictor Buono) and Alfred Ryder, an excellent actor who had a spotty film career. You'd recognize the face if you don't recognize his name, He was rather like Norman Lloyd in being expert at playing odd, enigmatic, often seemingly "disturbed" characters.
Yet another comedian who did some TV dramatic work: Larry Storch, who appeared in a Hitchcock hour and who also did well by Kraft's suspense show prioer to
F Troop
. He was actually quite good, not so generically comedic, as, say, Joe Flynn. Storch showed some average guy Jack Carson potential, seemed at times to be consciously imitating Carson, especially in his use of his face. Another guy associated more with comedy, Jerry Paris, of the Dick Van Dyke show, later a director, did his share of dramatic roles, was even a regular on
The Untochhables
for a while, I prefer as a dramatic actor. He didn't have the charm for comedy.
Peter Gunn
's own Herschel Bernardi, who appeared in a lot of comedy, musical comedy included, could also play it straight. He's very good as Lt. Jacobi on
PG
, better I think than, say, Martin Balsam would have been. Bernardi had a light touch, could, as an actor, go with the flow, while I find Balsam's acting style, skillful as it is, somewhat monolithic (for want of a better word), lacking a certain easygoing-common touch quality that came naturally to Bernardi,but that's ne. -
ecarle — 13 years ago(October 07, 2012 08:48 PM)
True, EC. Cummings and Hitchcock were friends. I believe Cummings appeared in a Hitchcock hour. John Forsythe was similarly bland, though I prefer the more down to earth Cummings to the preppie-ish Forsythe, who, outside of his TV comedy series Bachelor Father and I suppose Dynasty, was seldom well cast; probably hard to cast.
Cummings and Forsythe did the TV show; Forsythe appeared in the only Hitchcock HOUR directed by Hitchcockand the last TV show Hitchocck ever filmed. A bit of Hitchcock History for Mr. Forsythe.
I assume Forsythe was younger than Cummings in the fifties and sixties, and so Forsythe was around to get that "brass ring in old age" in the 80's(when Cummings was dead?) on "Dynasty." Forsythe got the role for two reasons: (1) George Peppard had quit it and (2) Forsythe had just made a big splash in the Al Pacino movie "And Justice For All" decidedly "against type" as judge who is the epitome of corruption, evil, and sexual sadism. THAT toughened Forsythe's image up.
I might add I always found Forsythe nicely tough(enough) in "Topaz" when he snarled at a recalcitrant Soviet defector "C'MON, Kusenov!" and rushed at him. Seemed like real anger to me.
He had an upper class air to him similar to earlier big screen stars like Robert Montgomery and Franchot Tone, was born too late to make it in that era, did better on the small screen, which was a more place for favorable to retro types like Forsythe.
When Forsythe completed "The Trouble With Harry" for Hitchcock, Hitch took him aside and made exactly that recommendation: go to TV, young man. Interesting how the sudden appearance of television created whole new careers for handsome actors and actresses who weren't "movie grade." (I don't think radio quite had the same star-making machinery. I may be wrong.)
I remember a quote from a TV actress of the sixties named Ruta Lee, who said: "A lot of us were making a great living SOLELY as TV actors and then suddenlymovie actors were willing to TV. And we all lost our jobs." I suppose she is talking of the influx of folks like Rock Hudson and Tony Curtis and Shirley MacLaine to TVthough a lot of "star series" actually flopped.
Psycho does slyly channel the western in its supporting characters, though not in the three leads, and certainly not in Arbogast and the shrink. Otherwise, it's a down home movie that just happens to be a horror.
I'd say that's about right. I'm guessing your "three leads" are Perkins, Leigh and Miles; Gavin's character was MEANT to be rural, and few years later he played "Destry" on TV.
But honestly: you could put Cassidy, Lowery, the cop, California Charlie, Sheriff and Mrs. Chambers in a TV Western and they'd be right at home.
And here's something: in October of 1960, only a few months after the release of "Psycho," Martin Balsam appeared in the popular Western TV series "Have Gun, Will Travel" starring Richard Boone. Balsam played a crooked small town sheriff, and played him well. Seven years later, Balsam joined Boone in the Western movie "Hombre"(starring Paul Newman) with Balsam as a Mexican stagecoach driver and Boone as the badman who robs its passengers. So though Arbogast made not have been a Western character, the actor who played him could do Westerns.
I'm really sorry to have missed Mad Men entirely .
Well, there are ways to see it on DVD and computers, if you would like. I'll stick with it to the end, but the truth for a Hitchcock Fifties Era Fan is that its first three seasons(set in 1960 through 1963) are where the real nostalgia lies. I'm afraid that "Laugh-In" and Nehru jackets are right around the corner as the show heads for 1968.
Lois Nettleton was a Sinatra squeeze? Good for her (and him).
Yeah, I thought so. Nettleton plays a sex-crazed character in "Dirty Dingus Magee," never takes off her clothes or DOES anything. Still, pretty sexyif alas, in a pretty stupid movie(it seems to be in perpetual rotation on cable these days.) The movie single-handedly drove Frank Sinatra out of movies. Oh, he made a coupla morebut his career ended with "Dirty Dingus Magee" as an accepted, regularly appearing film star.
Those TV actresses, more so than the actors back then, had a tough time transitioning to big screen roles. Once known for their television work, they tended to remain on television. Sally Field is an exception, as is (was?) Angela Cartwright.
And yuh know, even t hough she has two Best Actress Oscars, Sally Field STILL seems like a TV star to me(she went back to a TV series, but will play Mary Lincoln opposite Daniel Freakin' Day Lewis this year.)
Remember such lovelies as Laura Devon, Charlene Holt and Joyce Jameson? Devon was a real looker, and a good actress. Howard Hawks' gave her a chance on the big screen but she didn't "take". PG's Lola didn't transition, either, but she was a veteran player by the time she did that show.
Funny you should mention Laura Devon and Peter Gunn. For Laura Devon replaced the older Lola Albright in the movie of -
telegonus — 13 years ago(October 09, 2012 12:09 AM)
Good stuff, EC. I finally broke down and bought a new (well, used, but pretty good) monitor and it seems to be operational
.
John Forsythe was a good decade younger than Bob Cummings and started much later in films and TV, was mostly a stage actor prior to 1950, while Cummings started out in films in 1935, enjoyed a career as a male
ingenue
type a la Ronald Reagan and, beelieve it or not, around the same time, Craig Stevens. Forsythe's rise, such as it was, was more "legit", thus he was sort of a star or at least a name with a measure of
gravitas
early on. A friend of mine put it nicely years ago when he said he never quite understood Forsythe's "prestige",if that's the right word for itsince he's not that good an actor and it's not like he came up through the Old Vic or something
. I hadn't quite thought about it before like that and there's some truth to it. Forsythe always seemed to carry more "weight" than talent and he did often seem to get a kind of royal treatment in films and on television (yes, I know he had hard times, too) like he was James Mason
. Not quite. He had a good voice, though, and he used it well.
Larry Storch and Tony Curtis were friends. Okay, so that's what got Storch all those good roles in MCA shows! In the end he wound up on
F Troop
, which sort of "immortalized" him. I saw an interview with him years ago in which he said he thought he was going to great places and that
F Troop
was just another rung on the ladder, while in fact it was the peak of his fame, his career. He didn't come off as the least bit bitter.
Herschel Bernardi was apparently one of the most amazing casting
coup
s in Broadway history, or so I remember reading at the time, as his Tevye was widely regarded by fans of the show as superior to Zero Mostel's. I think Mostel was the original, and he was a far bigger name than Bernardi at the time, widely known to the general public, thus he presumably "owned" Tevye in
Fiddler On the Roof
. Then Bernardi came along. My mother and aunt went to see the show and saw the Bernardi version, and they loved it! Sometimes when a star leaves a show it declines, loses steam, but not in this case. Ten years later, ironically, both actors appeared in the anti-Blacklist movie
The Front
, which Woody Allen starred in.
Indeed, Bernardi and Balsam were similar but different. The former had, like Bob Cummings, a more "comedy face", the latter had a more serious demeanor and, as you put it nicely, was more dapper than Bernardi. It was probably Bernardi's more average guy persona that helped put
Peter Gunn
over with, well, more average viewers. Balsam's more somber demeanor in the Jacobi role would have made the show feel more like
12 Angry Beatnicks
(or something
).
An embarrassment of TV riches the past weekend, unusual for me, as I seldom watch TV more than an hour at a time, if that, starting with a mediocre
Thriller
episode that was none the less fun due to, interestingly, Robert (
12 Angry Men
) Webber being the male lead,
noir
icon his Jane Greer the female counterpart, plus a nice, brief performance by the show's director, John Newland, as a one-eyed artist killed by a stranger with a crossbow in his studio late at night. It's always fun to see those U-I sets recycled. I swear I sometimes watch those shows just to see what they'll do with the sets!
The previous day I'd seen Balsam in a
R66
as a social worker, and it occurred to me that he was sort of the go-to guy for "caretaker" roles, often called upon to play a man in charge if a difficult situation, whether as therapist, friend, family member, lawyer, jury foreman, and that his (screen) business often had to do with him dealing with eccentric people, as in
A Thousand Clowns
. Early on, in
Psycho
, he seems to be in such a predicament with Norman, till the tables are turned
.
Then, after
Thriller
, comes a
Twilight Zone
in which (deputy sheriff) John McIntyre played an offbeat role as a man who sells, among other things, love potions. After that was a Jack Klugman episode, the one in which he plays a despondant jazz musician who throws himself under a truck, only to be rescued by (California Charlie) John Anderson as the angel Gabriel. Earlier in the evening I'd seen Anderson as a campaign hat wearing seventy year old retired Arizona general on the warpath against a pair of killers in yet another
R66
. For once Anderson seemed cast as a character who seemed about the same age as he always came off as. Did the man ever look young? He wasn't ancient looking like Burt Mustin, he just seemed born middle aged.
Two good
Peter Gunn
s, one, which I've read about, never seen, featured Shelley Berman as a
very
neurotic comedian who thinks his wife is out to kill him. It was very good and it reminded me not only how talented Berman was but also that Bob Newhart probably owed him the telephone
schtick
he made his own later which I'm guessing Berman got there first with. Sandwiched in-between was a
Fugitive
, very good, reminding me, uncomf