That American twist.
I watched a classic old movie last night- No Orchids for Miss Blandish. The 1948 British version.
It's a very bad movie in many ways, but it's good in others. The good parts stem from the original novel, a crime story that was quite shocking in late 1930's Britain in its portrayal of murder, abduction, torture, and drug use. There are some unforgettable characters in the story.
The bad parts come from what appear to be the attempts of the movie makers to clean it up to get it past the censors. The socialite girl is no longer doped up and held against her will by the sociopathic gangster. Instead, she falls for him.
This makes everything Hollywood perfect, and while they both die in the end, I suppose that's the price to be paid for love.
Still, it's fascinating to watch the hoops that the actress playing the socialite must leap through in her attempts to portray a woman who is simultaneously "brains and beauty", a pampered princess, and a woman in love with a cold, unfeeling murderer. Could be a great role for someone, I guess.
Her character is much more believable as a doped-up victim. But then it wouldn't have that American twist...
11/29/2010
11/23/2010
11/09/2010
11/04/2010
Watching a program on the early days of film making last night, which followed a film about a failed film inventor. In the program, many descendants of famous early movie people gave accounts of the character of their ancestors and how their strength, risk-taking, creativity and sheer willpower led them to succeed.
These were guys who invested everything they had in a projector and a storefront and built that into companies like Warner brothers and Fox. American success stories.
We love to hear these stories- but what about that failed inventor? His story got made into a film, at least. I suppose if you believe in an afterlife, and you further believe that anyone there would care about such things, you might believe he is satisfied now that his story has been told.
Me, I like the boring stories. Stories about people who neither succeeded nor failed spectacularly, but who just lived their lives and enjoyed themselves doing it. It doesn't mean they didn't do interesting things, have powerful feelings, love or hate deeply. It doesn't mean they weren't strong or didn't take risks or were not creative or lacked willpower. Ordinary people do amazing things sometimes.
Living an ordinary life takes more courage and willpower than we give credit for. There really ought to be more stories about it.
(Of course, history is written by the victors. The thousands of nickelodean operators whose storefront businesses didn't grow into major studios never got the chance to make a movie about their lives. But these days we all can, if we want to.)
These were guys who invested everything they had in a projector and a storefront and built that into companies like Warner brothers and Fox. American success stories.
We love to hear these stories- but what about that failed inventor? His story got made into a film, at least. I suppose if you believe in an afterlife, and you further believe that anyone there would care about such things, you might believe he is satisfied now that his story has been told.
Me, I like the boring stories. Stories about people who neither succeeded nor failed spectacularly, but who just lived their lives and enjoyed themselves doing it. It doesn't mean they didn't do interesting things, have powerful feelings, love or hate deeply. It doesn't mean they weren't strong or didn't take risks or were not creative or lacked willpower. Ordinary people do amazing things sometimes.
Living an ordinary life takes more courage and willpower than we give credit for. There really ought to be more stories about it.
(Of course, history is written by the victors. The thousands of nickelodean operators whose storefront businesses didn't grow into major studios never got the chance to make a movie about their lives. But these days we all can, if we want to.)
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