Did you miss classicfilm? (Looks a bit moribund these days, but a post or two might wake it up... a better prospect than trying to start up a new community with no pre-existing audience, anyway.)
Well, various individual members are still active -- https://classicfilm.dreamwidth.org/read -- and therefore by definition will see anything posted there pop up on their reading pages. We shall see.
Not too long ago, someone on LiveJournal told me I couldn't really call myself a classic movie fan because I hadn't seen Gone with the Wind, Ben-Hur, or Doctor Zhivago. I know I shouldn't have cared about what they thought of me, but...it hurt. It hurt a lot. What's more, I think some part of me believes it.
I've been reluctant to admit I love old movies since, much less talk about them, because I don't want my feelings to get hurt like that again. I haven't even worked up the nerve to post in my own movie-discussion community, much less someone else's.
You don't have to stick to 'classic' (i.e. famous) movies -- you can be a fan of old films without limiting yourself to a specific canon. (Also, "Gone With the Wind" is a genre picture by anyone's definition, and I'll bet people at the time would have roared with laughter to hear it defined as a cinematic classic: it was a big-budget adaptation of the best-selling pulp novel of the year, a bit like the "Harry Potter" and "Twilight" movies. Nobody involved was setting out to make Great Art. "Ben-Hur" was a remake of a special-effects-heavy sword and sandal picture that had been a hit in the silent era, a few years previously -- the equivalent of the "Spiderman" reboot. And "Doctor Zhivago" was a sexed-up adaptation of a historical romance about the Russian Revolution -- the equivalent of, say, Colin Firth in "Pride and Prejudice" :-P) Of the three, to be honest I remember very little of "Doctor Zhivago" at all (I was pretty young when I saw it). I think I found "Gone With the Wind" the most straighforwardly enjoyable -- but it's definitely uneven: the second half is weaker than the first, and Leslie Howard, much as I admire him, is uncomfortable in the role of Ashley and shows it. "Ben-Hur" is a better shape in dramatic terms, but it suffers from a heavy-handed Christian message (as common to most Bible epics of the era).
Perosnally, I don't think "Citizen Kane" is the greatest film of all time; it's a perfectly good film, but I don't see what's supposed to be so special about it. And I don't think "The General" is the greatest silent comedy of all time, though I enjoy it -- that label is apt to lead to great disapppointment. (It's not especially *funny*, or even intended to be, however neatly constructed and historically accurate it is.)
It helps to have seen these things, because then you know what other people are talking about. But not having done so certainly doesn't preclude you from enjoying other old films... and maybe some that people who have only ever seen the famous titles have never actually watched.
I liked Citizen Kane a lot, but it's definitely not a movie for everyone. I'm inclined to think its status as a classic is more due to the direction than anything else. :P On the other hand, I didn't like Vertigo, so I understand.
The first movie I saw with Leslie Howard in it was Romeo and Juliet, but I was so distracted by the terrible costumes that I couldn't pay attention to any of the actors' performances. (It's one of my least favorite Shakespeare plays and I was only watching the thing for Basil Rathbone, anyway.) But Leslie made a good impression on me in The Petrified Forest and an even better one in The Scarlet Pimpernel. What other of his movies would you recommend?
My strategy, if you can call it that, is to find an actor I like and watch whatever movies of theirs sound appealing. Bit of a roundabout approach, but it's led to me discovering gems I probably wouldn't have seen otherwise. (Prince of Foxes, for one.)
Leslie Howard's "Romeo and Juliet" was a pet project for him, but I really didn't think he was that good in it. (And yes, I was watching for Rathbone, too! He is good...)
I've heard that he had an unexpected talent for comedy: the only comedy I've seen him in is "Stand-In", but I don't remember being particularly overwhelmed by it. Here's my original review:
Leslie Howard is one of that handful of actors whose name alone on the credits will get me to watch anything; but given the variety of other talent involved and the general recommendation I'd heard for the film, I have to admit I was left somewhat disappointed in this one.
It's not that "Stand-In" is a bad picture, as such. It's amusing so far as it goes. But the entertainment seems an entirely surface one; I felt that somewhere it was missing the heart that would have made it a much better film, and that has for me provided more enjoyment from films more obviously flawed.
A contemporary reviewer commented that Leslie Howard came across, despite valiant efforts, as ill at ease with physical slapstick better suited to a Harold Lloyd, and suggested he would have been more at home with a more verbal form of comedy; and this may be part of the problem. But I think for me the trouble was just a basic inability to engage with any of the characters on any level beyond the most superficial. Atterbury Dodd's significant trait is emptying ashtrays - for Douglas Quintain it is carrying around a small dog. Beyond this sort of character shorthand there is little depth to either of them: the film is a quick and cheerful satire on the studio set-up, but I didn't actually enjoy it as much as, say, "The Falcon in Hollywood". By the time we get to the stage at which the hero returns unexpectedly to find himself being lampooned, I felt the situation really ought to provoke a pang of partisanship rather than a mild titter.
The role of Atterbury Dodd, the dry-as-dust bespectacled accountant who discovers sympathy for his fellow men and becomes an unlikely hero, is one that might have been typecast for Leslie Howard, and one that he could probably have sleepwalked through if necessary. However, he plays the part here gamely enough, somewhat hampered in the ultimate showdown by his convincing portrayal of a man who literally can't see straight: contrary to Hollywood convention, Dodd is genuinely dependent on his spectacles and cannot be magically transformed into an action hero by losing them. He delivers his big speech in golden-haired clean-cut Scarlet Pimpernel mode, but does it while effectively as blind as a bat -- a fine piece of acting on Howard's part, but the whole sudden conversion from number-pusher to philanthropist is not an entirely convincing character transformation. Likewise, Quintain's much-mentioned (and plot-necessary) love for the thoroughly obnoxious leading lady is stated, but never really credibly depicted. This is lightweight comedy, carried out more or less by-the-numbers.
The other thing that puzzled me was my conviction that I'd seen certain isolated scenes of the film elsewhere, without having any recollection whatsoever of the plot! The scene where the dancing-lesson ends up with feet drawn all over the floor could easily be generic comedy (and in fact I'm now pretty sure I'd seen it in a silent short earlier this year), but that 'jungle woman' footage is very distinctive, and where I could have seen it before is more than I can guess. Perhaps some "100 Greatest Moments" compilation of spoofs and disasters? Joan Blondell makes a cheerful girl-next-door heroine, although I couldn't help being distracted into mentally calculating backwards and working out that her days as a winsome child singer must surely have been before the introduction of talking pictures -- a vaudeville act perhaps? (One side effect of seeing this picture at the National Film Theatre was that the overheard protest "I starred in that role in the silent era!" resulted in an audience murmur of sympathy instead of a laugh at the aging actress' expense...)
Overall the film is an unobjectionable comedy. But it's not the overlooked gem of Humphrey Bogart's -- or Leslie Howard's -- career that I had somewhat rashly been given to expect, and it's not especially funny.
No one could steal a scene quite like Basil Rathbone could. You could even put him in the same scene with Humphrey Bogart or Vincent Price and he'd still steal it! (Doesn't sound likely, I know, but I've seen him do it.)
I don't think I've seen "It's Love I'm After", which I've also heard recommended (and features Olivia de Havilland in a supporting role!)
The Leslie Howard films I've definitely seen and can recommend are "Pimpernel Smith" (if you liked "The Scarlet Pimpernel", you'll like this modern-day update with Howard as a mild-mannered archaeology professor with a band of devoted students engaging in anti-Nazi activities), "The First of the Few" (with a nice role for David Niven -- and if you haven't come across Niven yet, you should!), and "Pygmalion", where he plays the perfect Professor Higgins. (If the film seems to hold strangely explicit echoes of "My Fair Lady", that's because the subsequent musical was based *on* this screen adaptation -- it was the only way they could get past Shaw's opposition!)
Howard has quite a decent cameo in "49th Parallel", which is in itself a good film, but his part is very much a cameo in the context of the entire picture, and a bit typecast as the plucky English gentleman/scholar who doesn't want to fight but will if he has to...
Haven't seen that one, either. The Strawberry Blonde is one film I'd love to watch -- besides Olivia, it has James Cagney and Rita Hayworth! What more could I ask for?
"The First of the Few" (with a nice role for David Niven -- and if you haven't come across Niven yet, you should!)
The name sounds familiar, but I can't recall where I heard it. *shrugs*
I loathed My Fair Lady--ironically, I later grew to love Audrey Hepburn, but Jeremy Brett's Freddy was the only part of the movie I liked. :P
I've seen "The Strawberry Blonde" (I believe that was actually one of Cagney's singing roles, come to think of it) and liked it. If it's the one I'm thinking of, it even has a bouncing-ball singalong (period 'karaoke') screen at the end for the audience to join in the title song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaIBGEVUFHQ
I don't remember it as being particularly great, but it's good enjoyable entertainment.
David Niven was a contemporary, friend and sometime housemate of Errol Flynn: you can see them acting together in "The Dawn Patrol" (an excellent WW1 film) and "The Charge of the Light Brigade" (a bit generic but still enjoyable). Unlike Flynn he had a long and successful career over forty years or more; he doesn't have Flynn's high-wattage charisma or looks, but he has the unmistakable debonair charm of a 1930s Englishman in Hollywood. He starred as a straight actor in "Raffles" and "A Matter of Life and Death" and was hilarious (really, really, hilarious) in "Bachelor Mother" and "The Moon is Blue". He plays Fritz von Tarlenheim in the Roanld Colman/Douglas Fairbanks Jr "Prisoner of Zenda" and an uninspiring Edgar Linton in the Laurence Olivier "Wuthering Heights", and supports Doris Day in "Please Don't Eat the Daisies" (amusing) and won an Oscar alongside Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr in "Separate Tables" (devastating). He is memorable as the playboy father in the award-winning "Bonjour Tristesse"; not so memorable as Percy Blakeney in "The Elusive Pimpernel" (a Powell & Pressburger film that should have been great but somehow wasn't).
He wrote two highly entertaining although not necessarily accurate memoirs ("The Moon's a Balloon" and "Bring on the Empty Horses") which are well worth a read, and he is generally worth looking out for when you spot him in the credits of a film in a supporting part; he was never really a first-rank Hollywood star (a few leading roles aside), but he was a pretty good actor and a charming comedian.
I did see The Charge of the Light Brigade (and cried afterward), so that must be where I remember him from.
This is sort of changing the subject, and I'm almost afraid to ask, but as long as we're talking about Errol Flynn and contemporaries thereof, do you have any thoughts on Tyrone Power?
I don't have any particular impression of Tyrone Power, I'm afraid! Looking up his filmography I see that I've watched him in "Zorro" and in "The Black Swan", both of which I enjoyed, but he didn't particularly register with me as an actor.
What I mainly know about him is that he died inconveniently in the middle of shooting "Solomon and Sheba", and that he is allegedly still visible in the long shots in place of the actor who subsequently substituted for him :-P But I haven't seen the film.
Looking up his filmography I see that I've watched him in "Zorro" and in "The Black Swan", both of which I enjoyed, but he didn't particularly register with me as an actor.
That's more or less what I thought, until I saw The Razor's Edge and almost couldn't believe I was watching the same actor. His performance was heartbreaking.
Well, I'm entirely prepared to believe that he may have hidden depths as an actor, like Flynn; I'll keep an eye out for him.
(In fact, I suspect it may actually be harder to play a convincing swashbuckler than to play a 'straight' part, just as it's easier for a talented comic actor to play tragedy than vice versa. It takes a good deal of credibility to take a larger-than-life character and make the audience believe in him whole-heartedly, rather than just looking clumsy and embarrassed.)
Well, I'm entirely prepared to believe that he may have hidden depths as an actor, like Flynn; I'll keep an eye out for him.
May it be worth your while.
(He has the dubious honor of being my first-ever celebrity crush, so I might be a tiny bit biased, but you'll have to judge for yourself.)
(In fact, I suspect it may actually be harder to play a convincing swashbuckler than to play a 'straight' part, just as it's easier for a talented comic actor to play tragedy than vice versa. It takes a good deal of credibility to take a larger-than-life character and make the audience believe in him whole-heartedly, rather than just looking clumsy and embarrassed.)
Interesting speculation. I imagine that any actor in such a role would have to trust himself completely; if he doesn't believe in what he's doing, neither will the audience. And looking damn sexy while he does it doesn't hurt, either. *cough*
I've tried posting a couple of articles in classicfilm, but I've had zero response despite the fact that other members have been posting in their own journals and have presumably had this stuff on their reading pages -- looks as if there is no interest after all :-(
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(Looks a bit moribund these days, but a post or two might wake it up... a better prospect than trying to start up a new community with no pre-existing audience, anyway.)
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...I don't know. It hasn't been updated in almost a year and I'm not good at reviving dead communities. :/
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(And anyone who goes in for a Pirate Reading List can't be all dull!)
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I've been reluctant to admit I love old movies since, much less talk about them, because I don't want my feelings to get hurt like that again. I haven't even worked up the nerve to post in my own movie-discussion community, much less someone else's.
What do you think? Am I doing it wrong?
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Of the three, to be honest I remember very little of "Doctor Zhivago" at all (I was pretty young when I saw it). I think I found "Gone With the Wind" the most straighforwardly enjoyable -- but it's definitely uneven: the second half is weaker than the first, and Leslie Howard, much as I admire him, is uncomfortable in the role of Ashley and shows it. "Ben-Hur" is a better shape in dramatic terms, but it suffers from a heavy-handed Christian message (as common to most Bible epics of the era).
Perosnally, I don't think "Citizen Kane" is the greatest film of all time; it's a perfectly good film, but I don't see what's supposed to be so special about it. And I don't think "The General" is the greatest silent comedy of all time, though I enjoy it -- that label is apt to lead to great disapppointment. (It's not especially *funny*, or even intended to be, however neatly constructed and historically accurate it is.)
It helps to have seen these things, because then you know what other people are talking about. But not having done so certainly doesn't preclude you from enjoying other old films... and maybe some that people who have only ever seen the famous titles have never actually watched.
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The first movie I saw with Leslie Howard in it was Romeo and Juliet, but I was so distracted by the terrible costumes that I couldn't pay attention to any of the actors' performances. (It's one of my least favorite Shakespeare plays and I was only watching the thing for Basil Rathbone, anyway.) But Leslie made a good impression on me in The Petrified Forest and an even better one in The Scarlet Pimpernel. What other of his movies would you recommend?
My strategy, if you can call it that, is to find an actor I like and watch whatever movies of theirs sound appealing. Bit of a roundabout approach, but it's led to me discovering gems I probably wouldn't have seen otherwise. (Prince of Foxes, for one.)
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I've heard that he had an unexpected talent for comedy: the only comedy I've seen him in is "Stand-In", but I don't remember being particularly overwhelmed by it. Here's my original review:
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The Leslie Howard films I've definitely seen and can recommend are "Pimpernel Smith" (if you liked "The Scarlet Pimpernel", you'll like this modern-day update with Howard as a mild-mannered archaeology professor with a band of devoted students engaging in anti-Nazi activities), "The First of the Few" (with a nice role for David Niven -- and if you haven't come across Niven yet, you should!), and "Pygmalion", where he plays the perfect Professor Higgins. (If the film seems to hold strangely explicit echoes of "My Fair Lady", that's because the subsequent musical was based *on* this screen adaptation -- it was the only way they could get past Shaw's opposition!)
Howard has quite a decent cameo in "49th Parallel", which is in itself a good film, but his part is very much a cameo in the context of the entire picture, and a bit typecast as the plucky English gentleman/scholar who doesn't want to fight but will if he has to...
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"The First of the Few" (with a nice role for David Niven -- and if you haven't come across Niven yet, you should!)
The name sounds familiar, but I can't recall where I heard it. *shrugs*
I loathed My Fair Lady--ironically, I later grew to love Audrey Hepburn, but Jeremy Brett's Freddy was the only part of the movie I liked. :P
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I don't remember it as being particularly great, but it's good enjoyable entertainment.
David Niven was a contemporary, friend and sometime housemate of Errol Flynn: you can see them acting together in "The Dawn Patrol" (an excellent WW1 film) and "The Charge of the Light Brigade" (a bit generic but still enjoyable). Unlike Flynn he had a long and successful career over forty years or more; he doesn't have Flynn's high-wattage charisma or looks, but he has the unmistakable debonair charm of a 1930s Englishman in Hollywood. He starred as a straight actor in "Raffles" and "A Matter of Life and Death" and was hilarious (really, really, hilarious) in "Bachelor Mother" and "The Moon is Blue". He plays Fritz von Tarlenheim in the Roanld Colman/Douglas Fairbanks Jr "Prisoner of Zenda" and an uninspiring Edgar Linton in the Laurence Olivier "Wuthering Heights", and supports Doris Day in "Please Don't Eat the Daisies" (amusing) and won an Oscar alongside Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr in "Separate Tables" (devastating). He is memorable as the playboy father in the award-winning "Bonjour Tristesse"; not so memorable as Percy Blakeney in "The Elusive Pimpernel" (a Powell & Pressburger film that should have been great but somehow wasn't).
He wrote two highly entertaining although not necessarily accurate memoirs ("The Moon's a Balloon" and "Bring on the Empty Horses") which are well worth a read, and he is generally worth looking out for when you spot him in the credits of a film in a supporting part; he was never really a first-rank Hollywood star (a few leading roles aside), but he was a pretty good actor and a charming comedian.
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This is sort of changing the subject, and I'm almost afraid to ask, but as long as we're talking about Errol Flynn and contemporaries thereof, do you have any thoughts on Tyrone Power?
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What I mainly know about him is that he died inconveniently in the middle of shooting "Solomon and Sheba", and that he is allegedly still visible in the long shots in place of the actor who subsequently substituted for him :-P
But I haven't seen the film.
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That's more or less what I thought, until I saw The Razor's Edge and almost couldn't believe I was watching the same actor. His performance was heartbreaking.
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(In fact, I suspect it may actually be harder to play a convincing swashbuckler than to play a 'straight' part, just as it's easier for a talented comic actor to play tragedy than vice versa. It takes a good deal of credibility to take a larger-than-life character and make the audience believe in him whole-heartedly, rather than just looking clumsy and embarrassed.)
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May it be worth your while.
(He has the dubious honor of being my first-ever celebrity crush, so I might be a tiny bit biased, but you'll have to judge for yourself.)
(In fact, I suspect it may actually be harder to play a convincing swashbuckler than to play a 'straight' part, just as it's easier for a talented comic actor to play tragedy than vice versa. It takes a good deal of credibility to take a larger-than-life character and make the audience believe in him whole-heartedly, rather than just looking clumsy and embarrassed.)
Interesting speculation. I imagine that any actor in such a role would have to trust himself completely; if he doesn't believe in what he's doing, neither will the audience.
And looking damn sexy while he does it doesn't hurt, either. *cough*From:
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