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| marantzo |
 Posted: Thu May 08, 2014 11:21 am |
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| I saw "Crime in the Streets" when it was out. Didn't like it very much and found it boring. Thought Cassavetes' acting was lousy and the most boring part of the movie. I was 15 or 16 at the time and I was quite knowledgeable about the gangs in the 50's. Cassavetes' character didn't fit as a gang chief. Found his anger and moping just annoying. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Thu May 08, 2014 11:56 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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Cassavetes is a polarizing screen presence. He was great in The Dirty Dozen but forgettable in most everything else and utterly miscast in Rosemary's Baby, where his character was supposed to be Rosemary's loving and charming husband who shockingly was inherently evil. The moment you laid eyes on Cassavetes all you wanted to say to Rosemary was "Watch out for that dude!" Shoulda been Robert Redford.
As for his direction, that's the most polarizing of all. Some revere him for his pioneering spirit. I find his films incredibly self-satisfied and self-indulgent.
The best memory I have of Cassavetes was seeing him and his wife Gena Rowlands walking through Columbus Circle in NYC one Sunday afternoon, looking stoned and beautiful and like the sick soul of Europe. Never before or since have any couple seemed half as glamorous or half as gorgeous. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Thu May 08, 2014 12:42 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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Well, really, I wouldn't have thought to cast Cassavetes, Mineo or the other guy with the fruity smile as the core trio of minor hoodlums. But I think it works and they play off each quite well, despite not being what I would have cast. There is a bit of a theatrical, stagey element just under the surface which runs counter to the realism. Enhanced realism. And Cassavetes is good at that.
I think the more uncertain part is that of the wise social worker. Which could be seen as a bit boring. And the reasons for Cassavetes to be angry and disaffected are stated rather explicitly, especially in the social workers two visits to Cassavetes apartment. I think you'd like it more now for what it is and offers, than a 16 year old would have contemporaneously. It doesn't really rise up to the hyper-charged opening gang fight, and the will they or won't they nature of the second half could rub some the wrong way -- though I thought the tension was maintained throughout. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Thu May 08, 2014 1:03 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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As for his directing, I'm a big fan of A Woman Under the Influence, Gena Rowlands gives an amazing performance, and the awkwardness and off-kilter stuff works well with the theme of mental imbalance.
I like his first film Shadows.
Husbands (1970) is really indulgent and a mess.
I find Ben Gazzara polarizing, which is probably why I don't really care much for Killing of a Chinese Bookie.
I haven't seen Minnie & Moscowitz. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Thu May 08, 2014 1:17 pm |
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Location: New York City
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gromit wrote:
I find Ben Gazzara polarizing, which is probably why I don't really care much for Killing of a Chinese Bookie.
Gazzara can be loathesome, but sometimes on purpose--which is when he's really good. Revisited Anatomy of a Murder last night and was blindsided to find that my fave raves Jimmy Stewart and Lee Remick were not as good as I remembered and that the picture was stolen for me by the aforementioned Gazzara, who made his character subtly and memorably icky. His big breakthrough, however, was as the detestable Jocko de Paris in The Strange One. See it.
The Cassavetes movie I really abhor is Faces, which a lot of people sanctify. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Thu May 08, 2014 1:49 pm |
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| When I was a cabbie in Manhattan, I was waiting at a red light on 5th and 57th when I saw Cassavetes and Peter Falk walking across 5th Ave and 57th right in front of me, and they stopped in the middle of the road arguing something about a movie they were thinking of making. Couldn't hear much of the discussion. They started walking again and made it to the other side just before the light turned green. I still remember thinking, " That was something to see." |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Thu May 08, 2014 1:56 pm |
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| I saw A Woman Under the Influence on TV a few years ago and I liked it very much. Surprised since I was no Cassavetes fan. Gena Rowlands was excellent. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Thu May 08, 2014 2:05 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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Location: NYC
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i loved John Cassavetes, whom I first saw in a TV series in the '50s. In "Staccato" he was a jazz musician who solved crimes, and it seems like every episode had me crying at the end. I finally tracked down a DVD set of the series, but so far haven't had time to watch more than one. It still held up, though. I also enjoyed his "Columbo" episodes.
He was at our film class once, and was as fascinating as I expected. He talked about working with all his buddies as well as Gena, whom he obviously adored. I liked "Woman Under the Influence," but "Gloria" was the all-time best. The remake with Sharon Stone was a pale imitation. (Stone looks sexy with a gun, but Gena was downright frightening. And sexy.) |
Last edited by carrobin on Thu May 08, 2014 2:06 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Thu May 08, 2014 2:05 pm |
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| I just looked up Peter Falk's movies and, BINGO, A Woman Under the Influence was the movie they were quarreling about. It was 1972 at the time I saw them. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Thu May 08, 2014 2:11 pm |
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| I liked Gena's Gloria also, and really liked the Chilean Gloria which is a different movie altogether. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Fri May 09, 2014 3:53 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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marantzo wrote: I liked Gena's Gloria also, and really liked the Chilean Gloria which is a different movie altogether.
Then there's Them's Gloria, where van Morrison really spells things out ...
I'd love to see Johnny Staccato. Sounds interesting and such a period relic. Cassavetes was really into jazz and had Charles Mingus and his sax sidekick Shafi Hadi score one of his early films -- Shadows, I'm pretty sure.
Ben Gazzara was quite good in Anatomy of a Murder. And oddly that's one of the Stewart performances I like best. Often he kind of grates on me. Also a fair amount of jazz in that film, usually on Stewart's record player, as I recall. Lee Remick's Anatomy is pretty good as well.
I've never seen The Strange One.
Gloria with Rowlands is fun at times, but mostly seemed like fairly standard stuff to me -- except a woman reluctantly gets into asskicking. Not really my type of film.
I can't seem to recall anything about Faces beyond the title. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Fri May 09, 2014 12:36 pm |
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"Then there's Them's Gloria, where van Morrison really spells things out ... "
The song Gloria, is in the Chilean movie, Gloria. I won't tell what part of the movie it is in, but it's a scene that I couldn't keep my eyes off of.
It might have played earlier in the pic too, (in the background), but I don't think so.
If this movie is in the theatres or on a disc, you should see it. |
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| yambu |
| Posted: Sat May 10, 2014 3:36 pm |
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Joined: 23 May 2004
Posts: 6441
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gromit wrote: ....Ben Gazzara was quite good in Anatomy of a Murder. And oddly that's one of the Stewart performances I like best. Often he kind of grates on me. Also a fair amount of jazz in that film, usually on Stewart's record player, as I recall. Lee Remick's Anatomy is pretty good as well....
Th judge was excellent, played by Joseph Welch, who achieved immortality at the televised Army/McCarthy hearings:
"...Until this moment, Senator, I think I have never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness. Fred Fisher is a young man who went to the Harvard Law School and came into my firm and is starting what looks to be a brilliant career with us. Little did I dream you could be so reckless and so cruel as to do an injury to that lad. It is true he is still with Hale and Dorr. It is true that he will continue to be with Hale and Dorr. It is, I regret to say, equally true that I fear he shall always bear a scar needlessly inflicted by you. If it were in my power to forgive you for your reckless cruelty I would do so. I like to think I am a gentle man, but your forgiveness will have to come from someone other than me." |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sat May 10, 2014 4:24 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| Joe Welch is one of my heroes. He was excellent in Anatomy of a Murder. as was George C. Scott in his first substantial film role, as the prosecuting attorney. The movie was one of Otto Preminger's only really good movies, probably second only to the immortal Laura. Interestingly, Lee Remick's character in Anatomy was also named Laura. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sat May 10, 2014 5:57 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9008
Location: Shanghai
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Yeah, I forgot about Duke being in the film.
I think his character was named Pie-Eye and Jimmy Stewart sits in and doubles on piano with Duke in one nightclub scene.
The dance bands used to travel the country pretty thoroughly.
In the days of more limited entertainment, not to mention more limited male-female proximity, dance halls were all over and the bigger ones would attract the big name big bands. There's a well-known live recording of the Duke Ellington Orch from Fargo, ND -- though actually it's a fake live performance, with indistinct chatter and clinking glasses added in. So I'm not sure if that bolsters your point or my counter. |
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