Overrated
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MissMargoChanning — 3 years ago(June 08, 2022 11:34 PM)
Whenever I watch Lolita, I always laugh when he and Shelly Winters are there on the bed and she tells him she gets limp like a noodle whenever she's near him, and he says, "Yes. I know the feeling."
No matter how many times I have seen it, his delivery of that line never fails to make me laugh.
You asked a pretty question; I've given you the ugly answer.
Fasten Your Seatbelts….
It's Going To Be A Bumpy Night! -
TonTon — 3 years ago(June 16, 2022 07:36 AM)
For some reason Burton's voice gets on my nerves. He yells too much or his voice is just too wooden. Sometimes he is so hammy I get indigestion. He had everything to make him great [looks, acting, etc], but somehow just lacks that something extra [in my view].
I cannot say the same about James Mason though. He is beyond reproach [again in my view]. I love what he does with his voice. You gave one great moment in LOLITA. I think Mason delivers that line flawlessly.
I'll add two more.
I like how Mason says to Gregory Peck in THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL "May I call you away from surgery for one moment?"
In NORTH SEA HIJACK, Anthony Perkins says "It has occurred to us that you may try to booby trap the ransom and blow us all to pieces."
Mason: "No, I'm afraid that thought didn't occur to us."
His delivery is flawless. -
MissMargoChanning — 3 years ago(June 16, 2022 03:17 PM)
About the only Burton movie performance I ever actually enjoyed was him as George in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. He let Liz do most of the screeching.
I loved him in North Sea Hijack. Excellent line!
Mason: "No, I'm afraid that thought didn't occur to us."
That was great.
He was just so controlled, and yet, entertaining… even when you knew he was deadly.
The art of survival…
You asked a pretty question; I've given you the ugly answer.
Fasten Your Seatbelts….
It's Going To Be A Bumpy Night! -
TonTon — 3 years ago(July 02, 2022 03:52 AM)
Anything Mason said just seems to roll off the tongue.
What a lot of people don't mention is that Mason was the most popular box office star in British cinema in the 1940s. From 1944-1947 he ranked number 1. It seems that this is overlooked quite often.
Mason also helped change the image of the leading man in English cinema. Before he came along the leading men were more cerebral [Ivor Novello, Robert Donat], but Mason was sexy, sinister and dangerous. The credit usually goes to Anthony Steel for making English men virile, but there were others before that, but I think Mason started that trend. -
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ToastedCheese — 3 years ago(June 08, 2022 10:42 PM)
These polar opposite scales of tagging his acting abilities do not really apply to Mason. He was one of the greats and compared to the drek we see paraded before us now, many millennial and zoomer acting clowns are the over-rated ones. It would be hard to find someone under-rated today.
Norman! What did you put in my tea? -
TonTon — 3 years ago(August 28, 2022 03:37 AM)
Mason's box office popularity shows that he was highly regarded. He was the number one box office star in England from 1944-1947. His longevity and three Oscar nominations also show that he was a well respected actor.