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| Syd |
 Posted: Sat Aug 03, 2013 12:25 pm |
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Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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billyweeds wrote: Dick Powell was in many ways the very best screen Marlowe, and Murder, My Sweet is probably the best Marlowe adaptation. My one caveat is that Claire Trevor is somewhat miscast IMO. SPOILER (She is so obviously trampy and evil that the ending comes as no surprise.)
I liked Anne Shirley. Too bad she retired from the screen after the movie, at age 26. She still managed a 22-year film career. I can see why she wanted to try something else. |
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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
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| Ghulam |
| Posted: Mon Aug 05, 2013 1:29 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4742
Location: Upstate NY
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The French movie "Goodbye First Love" (2011), directed by Mia Hansen-Løve ('Life companion' of Olivier Assayas), may be semi-autobiographical. It is about young first love, but it is also about growing up and about letting go. Beautiful cinematography of French countryside.
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| Syd |
| Posted: Fri Aug 09, 2013 10:34 pm |
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Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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I'm finally watching Bogart/Bacall "The Big Sleep," which it turns out I haven't seen before (although I may have seen a remake, or Marlowe goes around collecting guns in more than one book). I may need to diagram the plot of this movie. This is the one where one character gets killed and the screenwriters just forgot to to tell us whodunit. I liked Dick Powell better in the part; Bogart may be closer to what Chandler envisioned but it's also much like other Bogart roles. I don't like Bacall that much, either. What I like best are two bit parts, the (legitimate) bookstore clerk played by Dorothy Malone, and poor doomed Harry Jones, played by Elisha Cook, Jr.
They killed Harry! The BASTARDS! |
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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Fri Aug 09, 2013 10:52 pm |
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Chandler was there when the movie was being shot and he was asked at one point if he could tell them what some of the plot actually meant and he said, "I have no idea!"
Apparently the movie is faithful to the book. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Fri Aug 09, 2013 11:37 pm |
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Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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| So who killed the chauffeur? My #1 suspect would be Carmen if she didn't have an alibi. After all, she's psychotic. #2 is the butler Norris, and #3 the general himself. You don't believe all that about him being crippled, do you. #4 is the Lauren Bacall character. |
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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sat Aug 10, 2013 5:17 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| I don't like The Big Sleep very much, for all the reasons outlined above. I think it's a cute piece of movie lore that no one including Chandler can understand WTF is going on, but cute doesn't make entertaining in this case. Dick Powell is still my favorite Marlowe, with Elliott Gould second. |
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| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Sun Aug 11, 2013 12:37 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 6916
Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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billyweeds wrote: I don't like The Big Sleep very much, for all the reasons outlined above. I think it's a cute piece of movie lore that no one including Chandler can understand WTF is going on, but cute doesn't make entertaining in this case. Dick Powell is still my favorite Marlowe, with Elliott Gould second. |
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I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man, which of us is possessed? |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Sun Aug 11, 2013 11:22 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
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Taking a break from all the summer madness.......Bubble. Like palate cleansing sherbet between the 3rd and 4th courses.
A 73 minute film!
All unprofessional actors.
Low budget.
Small town Ohio setting.
Characters work in a factory.
HD.
Steven Soderberg
Quiet guitar music.
A murder mystery with no violence.
Donuts, French fries, and baby dolls.
BUBBLE! |
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Lost in my own private I dunno. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Mon Aug 12, 2013 3:57 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: Houston
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marantzo wrote: Chandler was there when the movie was being shot and he was asked at one point if he could tell them what some of the plot actually meant and he said, "I have no idea!"
Apparently the movie is faithful to the book.
This is one of the great Hollywood fabrications. In fact earlier screenplays clarified who killed him. The decision was made to skip it because Hawks was more interested in wham bam continuous action laughs and romance and to hell with plot. Can't say he was wrong, since he created an established classic. But along with Billy, I am not personally fond of it.
I found this terrible xeroxed copy of the article I got my information from. It's filled with underlining and other distracting nonsense but at least the pages of the book are all legible.
http://ucblibraries.colorado.edu/circulation/ereserves/pdfs/courses/FALL/FILM%203043,%20PETERSON/ON%20COURSE%20NOW/WHO%20CARES%20WHO%20KILLED%20OWEN%20TAYLOR.pdf |
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You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.
-Topher |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Mon Aug 12, 2013 10:19 am |
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"This is one of the great Hollywood fabrications."
Joe, the article doesn't say anything about a fabrication. It's an anecdote, though it isn't really known who said what to whom or who if anyone mailed Chandler who sent back that he didn't know who killed the guy. The article also mentioned that the killer of the guy wasn't known in the novel either.
I loved the movie. The article says that Hawks went all over the place with the plot, but below there is a comment from a critic, Paul Jensen (in his book about Chandler) says that the unknown killer is a sign of the faithfulness to the novel. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Mon Aug 12, 2013 10:46 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: Houston
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| Gary, the article shows the book wasn't the confused/illogical work it was considered. As for the supposed conversation, no evidence is given that the conversation between Chandler and the filmmakers occured. The very simple solution (easy to see in the book even if Chandler doesn't bother to spell it out) shows that it isn't a point on which Chandler could have been baffled or the filmmakers unable to piece together what happened. |
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You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.
-Topher |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Mon Aug 12, 2013 12:32 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
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| Befade, I see Sodes got an indie Spirit award for Bubble (directing). I think your review could be turned into a group of haikus without too much syllable shifting and tweaking. I will try to find a copy (no Net in my nearly off-grid hovel). |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Mon Aug 12, 2013 6:04 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
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I think you'd like it, Bart. It's got just enough quirkiness to keep it from being bland.
There's an idea! A Review in Haiku Forum! Moderator? |
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Lost in my own private I dunno. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Tue Aug 13, 2013 2:22 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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I saw Bubble not long after it came out.
A bit slight, kind of intentionally so.
Low-key, for the most part.
Fat American factory workers, surviving and scheming.
Didn't do much for me, but not bad. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| knox |
| Posted: Tue Aug 13, 2013 9:10 am |
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Joined: 18 Mar 2010
Posts: 1246
Location: St. Louis
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| The Big Sleep is a mess because Chandler cobbled it together from four short stories he had previously written for the pulps. (Killer in the Rain, and The Curtain were the two main sources. They had no common characters, but both had a powerful father who is distressed by his wild daughter. He also took small bits of two other stories, The Finger Man and Mandarin's Jade.) This meant loose ends, like who killed the chauffeur. Anyway, it's my least favorite Chandler movie, or book, and my sympathies to anyone seeing the film for the first time. There's something just....unreal about the whole thing. |
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