What a violent show.
-
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 -
ecarle — 13 years ago(October 09, 2012 07:10 AM)
Good stuff, EC. I finally broke down and bought a new (well, used, but pretty good) monitor and it seems to be operational .
Good! Your time permitting, a few of your longer posts will be most welcome. "They got meat on the bones." Good reading.
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.
There is an article in the The New Yorker this October 2012 week about, of all people, Lyle Talbot. It is written by one of his daughters(from Marriage Number Five, which actually lasted a coupla decades to his death) and points out to me that Talbot actually had a decent "male ingenue" role in movies(opposite Carole Lombard in one film) that petered out to Ed Wood movies(in which he was good and pretty much the biggest star in the movies) and a recurring role on "Ozzie and Harriet." Per his daughter, Talbot worked steadily, "never had to sell real estate on the side."
Its a good article about that kind of Hollywood actor.
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)
I wince when I recall witnessing part of the "hard times." It was in the seventies and I was watching TV just to watch. Afternoon TV. A game show called "Beat The Clock," and Forsythe was a celebrity contestant. He was dressed in slacks and a T-shirt that said "Beat the Clock." John Forsythe should NEVER have been dressed in a T-Shirt that said "Beat the Clock." And to beat the clock, Forsythe had to jump into a giant bowl of Jello and retrieve some object.
I've often wondered if producer Aaron Spelling saw that "Beat the Clock" humiliation of Forsythe for soon, Forsythe was cast as "The Voice of Charlie"(and nothing more THAN a voice) on "Charlie's Angels," which also(I forgot this) helped Forsythe get the lead on Spelling's "Dynasty."
He had a good voice, though, and he used it well.
Yes, Forsythe's voice probably was his claim to fame, the "Old Vic" fake-out. I'm reminded that Hitchcock used MANY actors for their great voices from the stars like Stewart, Grant, Fonda to the lesser knowns but distinctive Forsythe, Balsam, PerkinsJanet Leigh. (Actually, I'm not sure which of those latters should be up in the star category with Grant and Stewart. Maybe Leigh.)
Forsythe mainly did TV, but "lucked out" with roles in big movies like "In Cold Blood"(evidently because he looked like the real cop in played in the story), Hitchocck's "Topaz"(hell, he was the only identifiable face on the screen to most US audiences) and that Totally Evil role with Hot Young Al Pacino in "Justice for All."
And in 1984, came the re-release of the "lost" "The Trouble With Harry," just as Forsythe was a big TV star with "Dynasty" and just after Shirley MacLaine had won a comeback Oscar with "Terms of Endearment" so Universal could advertise:
"See Alfred Hitchcock's The Trouble With Harry, starring Oscar Winner Shirley MacLaine of Terms of Endearment and John "Dynasty" Forsythe!"
Why, they were bigger stars than when they made "Harry"!
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.
Well, he had his run, and "F Troop" DID immortalize him. You wanna see something weird? (I stumbled onto it looking at Hitchcock links.) On "You Tube," they have a clip of the old "Hollywood Palace" show fromt he mid-sixties. The celebrity host is a gorgeous, gown-wearing Janet Leigh, and the three F Troop male leads Big Forrest Tucker, funnyman Larry Storch, and handsome ingenue Ken Berry came on stage with Leigh in their F Troop costumes as their characters and did some silly comedy with her with Storch the most flummoxed by the gorgeous Leigh. It is silly stuff, indeed but a nice "time capsule" of mid-sixties TV entertainment programming.
Herschel Bernardi was apparently one of the most amazing casting coups 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, i -
movieghoul — 13 years ago(October 09, 2012 07:46 AM)
Berman worked in recent years as an old, bald man, but still with that Shelly Berman touch.
He played a judge on "Boston Legal" who would admonish lawyers: "I'll have none of that lawyerly fiddle-faddle in my courtroom!"
I think he is still alive.
Berman plays Larry David's father on Curb Your Enthusiasm, usually featured in one episode per season (at least through season 7, haven't seen 8 yet).Speaking of Vera Miles, she was great in a Hitchcock Hour of 1965 the other night. She played the sexy daughter of an old silent movie director played by John Carradine. Young James Farentino wants to marry Vera and kill Carradine, but after Farantino laughs hard at an old silent movie directed by Carradine and starring Vera's late mother("She's terrible," laughs a drunken Farentino) Vera and Carradine kill Farentino.
So far, so predictable. And then, in a truly amazing final scene, Carradine is on the phone to a young woman as Miles starts to take off her make-up. And Vera Miles turns into an old, wizened woman, before our eyes. The wig goes last.
Turns out Vera is Carradine's WIFE, the girl on the phone is their daughter, Farentino was laughing at Miles on screen in that silent.
Its the stunning visual of Vera Miles picking apart her face to reveal an old crone that was shocking.Somewhat, but in some ways also very different, like the storyline of Billy Wilder's Fedora a film that deserves a lot more attention.
-
ecarle — 13 years ago(October 10, 2012 10:19 PM)
Berman plays Larry David's father on Curb Your Enthusiasm, usually featured in one episode per season (at least through season 7, haven't seen 8 yet).
Aha. Well, isn't it interesting that he's still working, all these years later? A few make it through.
.
Turns out Vera is Carradine's WIFE, the girl on the phone is their daughter, Farentino was laughing at Miles on screen in that silent.
Its the stunning visual of Vera Miles picking apart her face to reveal an old crone that was shocking.Somewhat, but in some ways also very different, like the storyline of Billy Wilder's Fedora a film that deserves a lot more attention.
Hmmm. I wonder if Wilder saw the Hitchcock episodeor more to the point, actor-turned-writer Tom Tryon (The Cardinal, In Harm's Way) who wrote the short story "Fedora."
"Fedora" is the only Wilder film from "Witness for the Prosection" on that I still have not seen. I really should. -
telegonus — 13 years ago(October 11, 2012 03:20 PM)
EC: Once again I lost a lengthy response the other night
, thus my tardy return. Fortunately I
think
I'm getting a new pc soon, depending on the timing. The old one just seems to conk out whenever I write long posts, messages, anything, and fails to respond to the preview and response buttons.
Surprisingly, to me, Vera Miles, Martin Balsam, Charles McGraw and many other actors better known for their film work did a lot of television in the 60s, obviously fussy about picking which shows to appear on. Fortunately, they often appeared on shows I like. Balsam was a somber fellow, Bernardi, more down to earth and easygoing. Other contrasting but similar guys: Jack Klugman and Norman Fell, with the former more aggressive and far edgier, the latter more subdued, almost passive.
Then there were the western actors, who were all over the place. John Anderson did his share but I don't think of him as western as, say, R.G. Armstrong or Warren Oates. Armstrong, recently deceased, could have switched roles with Crahan Denton (died a long time ego), as both had that Southern-country thing going for them, with Armstrong more soft-spoken and gentle seeming, Denton more cranky, more harsh. Strother Martin was in there, too, and Denver Pyle, who really came up the hard way via B pictures, kiddie action and western shows, then got bigger films, better quality material.
Shelley Berman was one of those hip comedians, not so hip as Lenny Bruce, more Out There than Bob Newhart. He was very funny, wasn't a wild man like Jonathan Winters or, to a lesser degree, later on, the pre-hippie, short haired George Carlin, who was brilliant back then. I never cared much for the envelope pushing Countercultural persona he developed after 1970. It was sincere enough but he was really too old for that, closer to a beatnick as a type than a hippie. He was one for the coffee clubs and jazz joints but he went for the college crowd later on.
TV reflected the changing times nicely back in the days of
R66
and
The Fugitive
, even
Dr. Kildare
and
Mr. Novak
, the one sort of Jack Kennedy as a young doctor, the other Jack Kennedy as a high school teahcer. The influence on Kennedy on TV was tremendous, greater than any other president I can think of. Even Dick Van Dyke, who didn't resemble Kennedy at all had the Kennedyesque hair; and he and Mary Tyler Moore were rather the Jack and Jackie of sitcom stars. After the assassination it was never the same. First it was those sci-fi sitcoms of the
Bewitched-Jeannie
kind, then the spy and secret agent shows like
UNCLE, I Spy, Secret Agent
, even
The Wild, Wild West
, all influenced by the James Bond films. The more thoughtful, sensitive shows largely vanished after that, with the coming of all-color prime time the last nail in the coffin.
It's like the medium itself couldn't take itself seriously (so to speak). The Massage, as McLuhan nicely put it, it may have been, but the Massage of the 1966-70 period was a strange one, with, among dramatic shows, only the
uber-
straight
Star Trek
and
Mission: Impossible
seeming to attract younger views, to catch that "something in the air" that other shows missed. "That something" was there in comedy shows like
Get Smart, Batman
and
Laugh-In
, not in the serious ones. The "deadpan style" of
Trek
and
MI
was likely a factor in their popularity, reflecting the need to be cool, with, by implication, the more emotional aspects of many of the TV dramas that preceded them, while relevant in their day, with "their day" being in some cases only two or three years earlier, hopelessly unhip once the Counterculture was in full bloom. Another deadpan serious show (though a comedy to kids our age),
Dragnet
, retro with a right wing late 60s spin. Ten years earlier, in its previous incarnation, it was as mainstream as
Perry Mason
. By 1968 it had become almost surreal, To call it Out There would be an understatement, yet young people dug it. Those were mighty strange times. -
ecarle — 13 years ago(October 11, 2012 11:28 PM)
EC: Once again I lost a lengthy response the other night , thus my tardy return. Fortunately I think I'm getting a new pc soon, depending on the timing. The old one just seems to conk out whenever I write long posts, messages, anything, and fails to respond to the preview and response buttons.
Mine's getting that way. The real problem is I can't "save and move" stuff. I pretty much post right to the screen and edit. I've lost a few, that's for sure.
Surprisingly, to me, Vera Miles, Martin Balsam, Charles McGraw and many other actors better known for their film work did a lot of television in the 60s, obviously fussy about picking which shows to appear on. Fortunately, they often appeared on shows I like.
I was thinking that many of those early 60's shows were "anthologies in disguise." David Janssen on The Fugitive and the Route 66 guys would pull up in some town and kind of "witness" that week's "stand alone story" about the people in that town. Thus, a Martin Balsam or a Telly Savalas would be the "star" of that week's episode.
Balsam was a somber fellow, Bernardi, more down to earth and easygoing. Other contrasting but similar guys: Jack Klugman and Norman Fell, with the former more aggressive and far edgier, the latter more subdued, almost passive.
You picture all these guys going into acting, and KNOWING that they are the same, but slightly different, from one another. And yet all four of those guys hung on, one way or the other. Klugman was a "late bloomer," landing first "The Odd Couple" and later "Quincy" and suddenly becoming a widely watched TV star. Martin Balsam never really got that kind of TV role; he had to rely on movies and guest shots until he got the lamented "Archie Bunker's Place," which, to my mind, never had the impact that "All in the Family" did.
Norman Fell had a face that played somewhat Droopy Dawg funny. He had some serious roles, but let's face it, his big movie moment is as the Berkeley landlord in "The Graduate" who doesn't want any "subversives" in his building(in BERKLEY?) Then he went on to a doomed role as the neighbor on Three's Company. I seem to remember a spin-off that I always turned off as soon as the credits came on, with Fell having to wave a toilet plunger like a baton.
Fell had good, small serious parts in two Don Siegel mini-classics: The Killers(as a crook; 1964) and Charley Varrick(as an FBI man; 1973.) I prefer to remember THOSE to the toilet plunger gig.
Then there were the western actors, who were all over the place. John Anderson did his share but I don't think of him as western as, say, R.G. Armstrong or Warren Oates. Armstrong, recently deceased, could have switched roles with Crahan Denton (died a long time ego), as both had that Southern-country thing going for them, with Armstrong more soft-spoken and gentle seeming, Denton more cranky, more harsh. Strother Martin was in there, too, and Denver Pyle, who really came up the hard way via B pictures, kiddie action and western shows, then got bigger films, better quality material.
Its interesting when you think of how many "Western TV actors" there were in the 50's and sixtiesit was a good time to be from the South or the Southwest or homespun Midwest. And then suddenly, the Westerns were over and boy did those guys have to scramble for work.
Sam Peckinpah's 1973 "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid" is great for a number of reasons(though it has been released in about 15 versions) but one reason is Bloody Sam's nifty idea of casting practically every scene with famous Western character actors: RG Armstrong, Jack Elam, Chill Wills, Slim Pickens(absolutely magnificent in his brief tragic cameo as the husband of Katy Jurado.) It was great to see them but also kind of sad to see them because their kind of movies weren't being made much anymore.
Hell, Peckinpah was kind of a "one man employment" center for Western actors for awhile there. From "Ride The High Country" through "Major Dundee" to "Th Wild Bunch" and on to "Cable Hogue," "Junior Bonner" and "Pat Garrett" Sam employed Western guys. (Don't forget Dub Taylor!)
Shelley Berman was one of those hip comedians, not so hip as Lenny Bruce, more Out There than Bob Newhart.
Very deadpan, and Jewish in that New Age Sixties sort of waynot Jack Benny.
He was very funny, wasn't a wild man like Jonathan Winters
Who I just loved, loved, loved
or, to a lesser degree, later on, the pre-hippie, short haired George Carlin, who was brilliant back then. I never cared much for the envelope pushing Countercultural persona he developed after 1970. It was sincere enough but he was really too old for that, closer to a beatnick as a type than a hippie. He was one for the coffee clubs and jazz joints but he went for the college crowd later on.
It was odd how Carlin went from a short-haired guy in a suit and tie to the long-haired hippie freak he was in the seventies. Carlin almost went too quickly "in for the counterculture." It looked kind of fake to me.
His sixtie -
telegonus — 13 years ago(October 12, 2012 12:09 AM)
Time for bed, EC (but here goes): thanks, first off, for the lengthy reply.
I think it was common knowledge in ther "industry" the early 60s that those dramatic shows featuring regulars such as the ones we've discussed were essentially "underground anthologies", a way for creative writers, actors and directors could keep their hands in, so to speak, the television biz, a hedge against the smaller number of feature films being made at that time, plus the new actors that kept on turning up with whom they had to compete, of the actorsthe Derns, Nettletons, Shatners, Dillmans, Rip Torn and all the rest who were horning in on their territory.
I do wonder about why some players went into acting at all. Norman Fell's face and personality were his "fortune", so to speak. He had little talent to speak of and yet he worked steadily. A somewhat similar, more dandyish, livelier actor: Milton Selzer, who was actually quite versatile. Dillman was competent but meh so far as I'm concerned, sort of an upscale (Peter) Mark Richman, somewhat less intense. Selzer, like Fell, had a sad sack air to him but could rally when given a good assignment.
Peckinpah loved those western guys, of which at the time James Coburn was one. He continued to use them to the end. I've never seen
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid
, am not surprised he used many (most?) of those guys. It's the younger guys who seemed headed for western stardom who got hurt the most when westerns began to slide; guys like Jeremy Slate, Tom Simcox and Andrew Prine. It's such a pity that Peckpinpah went out as he did. If anyone could have kept the western going it was him; and he was hip, too. As hip as Sergio Leone, just a different type. He directed a lot of TV before and between features. His
Ride the High Country
, which I saw first run, is one of the best, most moving westerns I've ever seen. Deep down, I sensed that Peckinpah, a
very
anti-Eastablishment guy, was a sort of cowboy beatnick, not a "straight" like John Wayne and Randolph Scott.
Briefly: I love Jonathan Winters every much as you do. He was the greatest "voice genius" of comedy and no one can come close to him. His nearest rival was probably the more erratic, less deeply creative but at his best just as wild Doodles Weaver.
Another comedian like Shelley Berman: Louis Nye. They could have been brothers, and they had similar
schtick
s. Sort of weeping willy types.
I'd forgotten how much money the first few Bond pictures made. They were truly the Star Wars and Indiana Jones pictures of their time, blew away the competition. The series has proved durable but it kind of slipped over the years, as the Charlie Chan pictures did, with Warner Oland passing the baton to Sidney Toler, who then made way (by dying!) for Roland Winters. Connery and Moore were much bigger names and the Bonds double AA features, yet the persistance
and
decline of the franchise does remind me a little of the Chan series, with the difference being that the producer don't know when to quit -
ecarle — 13 years ago(October 14, 2012 10:47 PM)
Time for bed, EC (but here goes): thanks, first off, for the lengthy reply.
Thanks for checking in before "checking out." I return:
I think it was common knowledge in ther "industry" the early 60s that those dramatic shows featuring regulars such as the ones we've discussed were essentially "underground anthologies", a way for creative writers, actors and directors could keep their hands in, so to speak, the television biz, a hedge against the smaller number of feature films being made at that time, plus the new actors that kept on turning up with whom they had to compete, of the actorsthe Derns, Nettletons, Shatners, Dillmans, Rip Torn and all the rest who were horning in on their territory.
Interesting analysis. It IS interesting to me how, once the studio contract era started falling apart, all sorts of new actors started replacing all sorts of old actors. A rather constant churn.
And a tough one. We talk elsewhere of 1960's Psycho, with this group of stars
Anthony Perkins
Janet Leigh
Vera Miles
John Gavin
Martin Balsam
All of them were good enough for movies for awhile, but notice how it didn't take too long for many of them to segue to television. By 1970 only ten years later none of those five could really "headline" a movie again. Only Perkins and Balsam by then were really relevant to "contemporary film."
And try this group of 1970 leads for the movie of MASH
Donald Sutherland
Elliott Gould
Tom Skeritt
Sally Kellerman
All stars of a sort for a time especially Gould. But not THAT long. But 1980, those folks couldn't really headline a movie either.
I do wonder about why some players went into acting at all. Norman Fell's face and personality were his "fortune", so to speak. He had little talent to speak of and yet he worked steadily.
One actor who never rose too high Larry Linville of the TV show "MASH" said "you become an actor because you HAVE to." It was some sort of drive, Linville suggested, and whether that drive took you to movie stardom or TV guest shots, you evidently had no choice in the matter. Instinct drove you.
A somewhat similar, more dandyish, livelier actor: Milton Selzer, who was actually quite versatile.
And he gets to "mysteriously bother" Tippi Hedren at the race track in "Marnie." And then get chased off by Sean Connery. His Hitchcock moment.
Dillman was competent but meh so far as I'm concerned, sort of an upscale (Peter) Mark Richman, somewhat less intense.
Dillman ended up with two points in his favor: (1) he came from Santa Barbara wealth, and he returned there(to Santa Barbara AND the wealth) in his later years as an actor and retiree; and (2) he married the absolutely gorgeous supermodel Suzy Parker, who had a brief and unlamented movie career for awhile(Kiss Them for Me, The Best of Everything.) They stayed married til her death.
Selzer, like Fell, had a sad sack air to him but could rally when given a good assignment.
Yep. And I think Selzer could play "foreign"(on TV at least) a bit better than Fell.
Norman Fell was a Burt Reynolds co-star on Dan August and I recall reading that when Reynold became a movie star he helped get Fell some work on some game show as a celebrity contestantand Reynolds actually showed up on the game show a time or two in exchange for getting Fell the gig.
So there's a NICE Burt Reynolds story for once.
Peckinpah loved those western guys, of which at the time James Coburn was one. He continued to use them to the end.
Oh, yes. Coburn was a "co-star"(under Charlton Heston and Richard Harris) in "Major Dundee"(1964) and the lead as Pat Garrett, which has been called "The definitive James Coburn movie" by David Thomson(perhaps because Coburn plays his part at times with a moustache and at times not, but also because of the power of the role.) Coburn also took a role in Peckinpah's 1977 WWII movie "Cross of Iron" as the star, helping Peckinpah when the latter was having career trouble. I see James Coburn as "starrier" than most of Peckinpah's character guys, though.
I've never seen Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, am not surprised he used many (most?) of those guys.
Its worth a watch, and the story of its making is one of the great Hollywood stories. They'd shot about 1/3 of it when they found out a broken lens had turned all the footage blurry(they couldn't see dailies for WEEKS; the footage was shipped from Mexico to LA and back). MGM Studio head James Aubrey refused to let them re-shoot the scenes(he felt they were blurry but legible)but they snuck in re-shoots anyway. A big feud began between Aubrey and Peckinpah and that's why there are so many different versions of the movie..Aubrey sent a "butchered" version out in 1973 first run.
It's the younger guys who seemed headed for western stardom who got hurt the most when westerns began to slide; guys like Jeremy Slate, Tom Simcox and Andrew Prine.
Yeah. They really got trapped in the end of the TV Western era.
Prine is memorably "the first to get killed" in the pop 1968 Western "Ban -
rbecker28 — 12 years ago(July 25, 2013 08:51 AM)
B. Death of Villains. Fifties/sixties TV shows were not particularly bloody and graphic in their violence, but Congress eventually decided that they were too dependent on the hero always KILLING the villain to end the story. TV network heads were called before committees and scolded. The movement shifted toarresting villains. Maybe wounding them.
And, I must say, this is what made the 1969-1970 TV season, in particular, SO painful to watch.all the villains either sticking their hands up or getting shot in the hand. (Ask any real cop whether it is realistic or safe to aim for the hands when they have to shoot). This was long after Peter Gunn had left the air, but just after the MLK and RFK assassinations. Imprisonment is what works in real life, but NOT always in fiction, where hand shots or sticking hands up frequently is insufficient closure for the story, particularly when the crime was especially evil or when you feel it's not really over as long as the villain's alive.
Things slowly got to a better balance later, and particularly after 1976, when Senator John Pastore, Congress's top critic of the TV industry, retired, and his House counterpart, Rep. Torbert MacDonald, died.