LAURA (1944)
Added 2023-10-09 20:58:50 +0000 UTCI revisited this film last weekend for the first time in years. No matter what, I am always struck by Clifton Webb's performance and character. He's just so interesting. Like this weird mix between Boris Lermontov in The Red Shoes and Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady. I stand by that his character introduction is one of the most bizarre of all time. >< What do you guys think of it?
Comments
Awesome, I’ll check it out if I can find it. Haven’t experienced a Greek play since reading Antigone in high school.
Bennett Oliver
2023-10-10 05:52:07 +0000 UTCYeah exactly. She's an amazing actress. I first saw her in Medea actually. Which I thought she was incredible in.
Deepfocuslens
2023-10-10 05:34:07 +0000 UTCYeah, that was a good scene, with the perfect amount of resigned awareness of Vincent Price and herself. And it came at the right time, because it was at that point I suspected she was the killer, and the scene does away with that suspicion while giving her some poignant dimension.
Bennett Oliver
2023-10-10 05:16:29 +0000 UTCSeen it several times. Definitely the best Titanic film. Also, there are far worse adaptations than Cameron's such as the 2012 BBC ensemble miniseries which is so incompetently written that I swear the script never got past the first draft. I saw it out of curiosity a few months ago and it left me stunned. The only thing it had going for it was Jenna-Louise Coleman as a stewardess but even she was at the mercy of the awful writing. You will appreciate Cameron's film and even the 1953 version more after seeing this abomination.
Wolfman Brandon
2023-10-10 05:11:51 +0000 UTCHaha yeah, I'd say a little less than veiled for sure so far as the commentary on his sexuality. He totally runs away with the film. But I'd like to give special props to Judith Anderson, who I think is another incredibly underrated character actress from her time. Her scene in the bathroom with Laura, I think she handled just right.
Deepfocuslens
2023-10-10 05:11:18 +0000 UTCFor a great Titanic movie, I recommend A Night to Remember (1958). I would almost consider it as an early example of a docudrama, with very little schmaltz or romanticism to be found. It’s a very British just-the-facts approach to telling the story, and it’s very compelling to watch. It might in fact be the best version of the story, though I’m also a fan of the Cameron film (not fashionable to say, but I stand by it).
Bennett Oliver
2023-10-10 05:06:06 +0000 UTCAt first I thought it might be some sort of homage to the writer Dalton Trumbo, who also liked to write with a typewriter in the tub, but I don’t know how well-known that fact would have been in the mid-1940s. Is it possibly meant to be a veiled comment on his sexuality? My guess is that Waldo is characterized as being at least bisexual in the book on which Laura is based, but since they can’t portray homosexuality explicitly in movies because of the Hays Code, the bathtub scene is the filmmakers’ way of saying that Waldo’s more than comfortable in the company of men. He certainly has many qualities about him revealed as the movie goes on that are stereotypical tropes of gay men, and his obsession with Laura isn’t necessarily defined as a sexual one. As for Dana Andrews’s reaction…perhaps he’s reading between the lines as to what’s happening and is amused by it, or at least remaining civil for the sake of questioning him. I don’t know. You’re right, it’s a strange scene. But Clifton Webb walks away with the movie. His Waldo is the most interesting character, a mixture of venom and vulnerability. And there’s elements of Vertigo to be found in the story, how men become desirous of an ideal or illusion that outmatches the reality at hand. Of course, Hitchcock ran further with the idea than Preminger did, but it’s still a very good noir. I like Dana Andrews too, but I think he’s even better in the next movie he did with Preminger, Fallen Angel. There’s an intriguing combination of heroism and sliminess about him in both films. You wonder which quality is going to win out in the end.
Bennett Oliver
2023-10-10 04:54:19 +0000 UTCIt's...so strange. Dana Andrews goes to meet Webb and ask him about Laura. Webb is sitting in his bath tub, typing on a type writer. He asks Andrews to come in and make himself comfortable....in his bathroom. It's just a very bizarre moment of intimacy that says a lot I think, about his character, and both characters in the scene. He just gets out of the tub without even warning Andrews and the whole time I just want Andrews to be like "um...dude...why are you naked right now?" XD
Deepfocuslens
2023-10-10 00:55:00 +0000 UTCGreat movie! My intro to Otto Preminger who quickly became one of my favorites. Don't quite remember Webb's intro in the movie, would need to rewatch.
Stephen
2023-10-09 22:49:42 +0000 UTCI always found the 53 Titanic to be too schmaltzy for my taste. But he's great in it. Dana Andrews I agree, is fantastic and not talked about much.
Deepfocuslens
2023-10-09 21:48:19 +0000 UTCHim and Dana Andrews, who also stars in the film, are two of the most underrated actors of the Golden Era. I haven't seen this one in years either but Webb recently struck me in Titanic (1953) where he was a divorced father trying to get his son back from Barbara Stanwyck on the ship. The scene where Stanwyck reveals to him that their son is not his and was from an affair on paper is standard melodrama but he adds extra layers and subtleties through a very understated moment where he has his back turned to her while fighting tears in his eyes. It's a superb example of an actor elevating otherwise standard material.
Wolfman Brandon
2023-10-09 21:36:36 +0000 UTCLove that character " Did you know he calls girls DAMES!?"
Bill Banse
2023-10-09 21:08:57 +0000 UTC
