Wally_Hood
One Too Many
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- Screwy, bally hooey Hollywood
Dark Passage with Bogie and Bacall.
I tell you what, JP, that movie looks educational. LOL
"The Public Enemy" - For some reason I find Cagney the least believable of the Warner's "Big Three" of Gangsterism. Bogart had one of the scariest deadpan's ever. His Duke Mantee of "The Petrified Forest" was as unique and chilling an introduction to a mobster as ever filmed. Robinson's "Little Ceaser" is equally impressive. Cagny's lead Debut in TPE leaves me a little flat. He comes across as more punk than pro more "palooka" than puncher. He has a presence on screen but he lacks "menace" or as I'd like the put it... the weight of malevolence.... Still a decent flick though.
Worf
I can see what you mean. Truth be told I'm not a huge fan of the Gangster films. I'd rather watch Cagney dance than be a tough guy. A little off topic, but I've found the same with Joe Pesky in Good Fellas and Casino. Seeing a little annoying guy who look more at home being a discount mattress salesman than doing the fake pyscho-thing and killing people with disposal pens really strained my sense of disbelief...
I just watched "Lifeboat" last night and, as with all great movies that I've seen several times, albeit over twenty or thirty years, something hits me fresh each time. This viewing it was Tallulah Bankhead's performance (and the number of "Ls" in her first name). My memory of her overall is that she seems to float around the 1930s and early 40s as a part-time actress and a part-tiime Bright Young Thing, but not much more. However, her performance in "Lifeboat" is strong. It stars a bit cardboard as the rich woman "inconvenienced" by her ship having been sunk by a German U-boat and, like the Howell's from "Gilligan's Island," she has all her rich-person stuff with her, but once the movie gets going her acting picks up.
She shows a more human side as the trials in the boat increase; she engages the German with Cosmopolitan comfort that, initially, she also subtly uses to dismiss the unwashed masses in the boat who are suspicious of the German; she balances her old friendship with the wealthy businessman and her budding friendship with the sailor convincingly, and her transition when she realizes the German's treachery and the ignorance of her own haughtiness is nuanced and believable. I just looked her up on IMDB and - as suspected - she didn't do that many movies, but I will now look to see them as they pop up.
"It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog." My dad and one of my uncles were only in the 5'6"-5'7" height range, but I've heard stories about their younger days (from relatives who would know) that taught me to never underestimate someone because of their size.One problem with Cagney in "The Public Enemy" is that he's just too small for the role. It doesn't seem plausible that he could physically push so many people around. I do like the movie a lot, but have to add an extra measure of willing suspension of disbelief.
Very masterful and thoughtful post. I admired Hitchcock in how he "walked the tightrope" with the characters in this film. How do you make a bomb throwing Bolshevik, a Capitalist and a woman of privilege unite in violence... put em in a lifeboat with a member of "the master race". Well played.
Worf