LADY IN THE LAKE (1947)
calvin
to see every movie filmed from the main character's point of
view, but it seems to me a valid technique that would have
varied applicability. I think I've seen movies where the
villian's or killer's scenes were done this way, for example.
As for the overall story, well, they didn't have TV to do this
kind of thing in the 1940s. It seemed to me to be Perry
Mason level stuff. Not the same genre, but the same sort
of plot and resolution.
As for the Christmas tie in, maybe the movie was planned
for release during the holiday season, expecting audiences
to find it agreeable.
This will cause everyone to start screaming, but some of
the non-Christmas music sounded like the Ligeti music in
2001. This was notably during the scene of Marlowe crawling
from the wrecked car to the phone booth, but it was heard
in one or two other scenes as well.
Dave in Toronto
Glad you liked it. That makes it a cult movie with at least two
members. I liked the music also, I thought the use of those wordless
choirs very effective. Another plus for me was Audrey Totter, she
appeared in a number of movies in the forties and I always thought she
looked great in those tailored two piece suits she often wore.
Dave in Toronto
calvin
> ... Another plus for me was Audrey Totter, ...
Yes, she was the classy part of the movie. The young
Jayne Meadows, later to become a 50s panel show
regular, was almost unrecognizable. About that trailer,
which I watched after seeing the movie, it did have a
spoiler concerning the Meadows character. I hate
trailers, before or after. Even when they don't contain
spoilers, they still either give away too much, or misrepresent
the movie.
Mark
Old Movie Fan
early Tuesday, November 24th.
Sean O'Hara
> I just can't stand Robert Montgomery. He's stiff as a board.
Then this is the perfect movie for you -- Robert Montgomery barely
appears in it.
--
Sean O'Hara <http://www.diogenes-sinope.blogspot.com>
New audio book: As Long as You Wish by John O'Keefe
<http://librivox.org/short-science-fiction-collection-010/>
william
> I just can't stand Robert Montgomery. He's stiff as a board.
You might want to see "Night Must Fall." The original 1937 version.
William
www.williamahearn.com
jude
> On Nov 21, 8:32 am, Mark <weiss.sl...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> > I just can't stand Robert Montgomery. He's stiff as a board.
> You might want to see "Night Must Fall." The original 1937 version.
??? "Night Must Fall" is not based on a Raymond Chandler book.
Dave in Toronto
He was Elizabeth Montgomery's father so I can forgive Robert anything.
Dave in Toronto
Dave in Toronto
Yes indeed! Great performance and his Welsh accent was spot on.
Dave in Toronto
william
Who said it was? The response of mine addressed Robert Mongomery's
alleged stiffness. Nothing else. What does Chandler have to do with
that?
William
www.williamahearn.com
calvin
please the gimmick itself. I doubt that anyone would
care to see more than one or two movies made this
way, but think about it: All other movies have a third
party, the camera/cameraman in every scene. We're
supposed to ignore that elephant in the room. When
we see characters in a room, we know that the other
side of the room contains lights, cameras, and crew,
but we're conditioned to ignore these voyeurs and
evesdroppers. Most important, we're supposed to ignore
the fact that a picture is being taken, by some third
party who is there.
But with the 'first person camera', all of that disappears.
And the proof that we don't have these uninvited guests
comes when we see in a mirror ourself, a character, and
other characters. This really is quite a profound cinematic
experience, and it's really not very different from how we
perceive ourselves: I see only a huge gaping hole where
my head should be, and have to look down, or in whatever
direction my hands and feet happen to be, to see them,
just like in the movie; and of course a mirror is required
to see me as I really am.
This cinematic gimmick gives us something to ponder
about cinema, even if a little of it goes a long way.
mikeos
I always liked the gravitas he brought to his performance in "They Were
Expendable". Maybe something to do with the fact that he had genuine war
experience to call on, unlike the standard gung-go of his co-star, John
Wayne.
tomcervo
He spent the first part of his career as quicksilver, often the
liveliest thing in the frame. After 8 years or so of this he demanded
and got heavier roles, starting with "Night Must Fall". It was about
that time he help start SAG, endearing himself to the studio heads. A
few years after that, he went to France with a volunteer ambulance
company and saw the Blitzkreig first hand. Doug Fairbanks complained
during the war that Bob had gotten all serious in the Navy--well, no
wonder.
The irony of "Lady in the Lake" is that the 1st person trick seems to
have been a failure in practise. The norm is too normal, and anything
else seems like a gimmick. Yet Welles wanted to film "Heart of
Darkness" that way. As well, Montgomery is a near perfect match for
Chandler's slightly fallen gent, and he's never on-screen--and the
rest of the cast is as good or better than any Chandler adaptation.
El Klauso
but quite productive David ("Dave") Snell, who was very active in the
studio film scene of the late 1930's through late 1940's, wrote "Lady
in the Lake's" music with an uncredited assist from the even more
obscure Maurice Goldman. (If memory serves, someone else - Ken Darby,
perhaps? - assisted with either the choral writing or the choral
directing.)
Mark
> In the Year of the Earth Ox, the Great and Powerful Mark declared:
>
> > I just can't stand Robert Montgomery. He's stiff as a board.
>
> Then this is the perfect movie for you -- Robert Montgomery barely
> appears in it.
>
experiment that, in the end, simply doesn't work. But Montgomery is in
the top five of the most boring and stiffest film actors of the 30s
and 40s. The best thing he did was give us the delicious Elizabeth.
Bill Steele
<5c477835-2253-4abe...@j19g2000yqk.googlegroups.com>,
calvin <cri...@windstream.net> wrote:
In the third-person approach, I think only a few serious cinephiles even
take the trouble to "ignore" the elephant. To most viewers its an
experience in clairvoyance. We enjoy a story unfolding, just as we do
reading a book and not thinking about the process of reading.
The weakness of Lady in the Lake was the tunnel vision required by the
technology of the time. Compare it with the roller-coaster ride in
Cinerama. With widescreen (and color), it could have been at least a bit
more effective. And perhaps in the future with some 180-degree virtual
reality system it will come into its own.
Dave in Toronto
> In article
> <5c477835-2253-4abe-b581-6fe3b104c...@j19g2000yqk.googlegroups.com>,
>
> - Show quoted text -
OK. I just watched _Lady in the Lake_ again, it's on youtube -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwVQwgiTFPY
It's a long time since I've seen it and I must say I liked it even
more this time than I did the first (Heck I must have been about
seventeen when I saw it then). There were all kinds of sublteties I
missed before.
I've enjoyed this thread which helped me focus on a few things .
I liked the opening credits, I agree that the Christmas theme made
little sense but I likened the choral arrangment of the carols and the
clever way they gradually darkened the mood and at the end became
downright ominous as the final credit revealed - A gun!. As has been
mentioned before the music was a big plus throughout - note when
Marlowe first knocked on the door of Kingsby publications he is
whistling "Comin' thro' the rye" (When a body meets a body..).
Regarding the first person technique - I think it can be regarded as a
noble experiment, especially when you think of the cumbersome
equipment of that time - It must have a technician's nightmare. I
think it added a somewhat surreal look to the proceedings which for me
worked just fine. I liked especially the scene where Marlowe is
searching Lavery's house and he goes from room seeing the things as he
looks for clues - again the music is very effective here, especially
as he makes the final discovery.
Some Trivia:
Dick Simmons who played Lavery had a long but very up and down career
in TV and Movies - He was Ronald Colman's stunt double in_ The
Prisoner of Zenda (1937)- he was the man with Miss Torso in
Hitchcock's _Rear Window_. In the mid fifties he become _ Seargent
Preston of the Yukon_ sharing top billing with his horse Rex and his
dog King- I have a vision of a DVD version of _Lady in the Lake_with
Simmons appearing as Seargent Preston and King after the end credits
and Simmons saying the tag-line of the series - "Well King, it looks
as though this case is closed".
Lila Leeds, who played the receptionist, had her five minutes of fame
when she was arrested with Robert Mitchum for possesion of Marijuana.
She a less than illustrous movie career - in 1949 she made _The Wild
Weed_ aka_Marijuana, the Devil's Weed _ which, I understand, was the
community services part of her sentence. She made her last movie in
1949 then seems to have disappeared from the scene.
Next I'm going to re-read Chandler's novel and find out how much of
Chandler's dialogue was used in movie.
Dave in Toronto