Post by mikef6 on Sept 11, 2018 19:06:27 GMT
BATouttaheck
D.O.A. is a great film, more than great film noir.
O’Brien also appeared in the 1953 film of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. Although MGM used their contract players to fill out most of the cast, the attention at the time was all on Marlon Brando in just his fourth movie. Can he act Shakespeare or only modern drama? Can The Method be used in classical plays? (The answers were a big YES and YES.) Edmond O’Brien was one of many standouts among the American actors as Casca, one of the conspirators and first to stab Caesar. “See what a rent the envious Casca made” says Marc Antony in his famous speech.
And thank you for mentioning Seven Days In May and The Wild Bunch. I was getting ready to do it if nobody else was.
I have said many times, mostly on the old boards, about how important D.O.A. and Edmond O’Brien was to making me a Movie Maniac – so here it is again. In the Bad Old Days of the early 1950s, TV stations would “sign off” around midnight. Often, the last program they would play after the late news was a movie. Even though I was in about the first-grade of school, my Dad would occasionally let me sit up with him to watch the Late Show. The experience with D.O.A. is still a very vivid in my memory after all these years. It kept a very young me spellbound and taught me at a very early age how films can effect a person. I often think that I still watch movies because I am trying to recapture that magic. I had the pleasure of showing it to my two smart-aleck sons when they were high schoolers. I sat them down and told them they couldn’t leave so they started laughing derisively at everything, especially that wolf whistle. But when the mysterious figure fiddles with Bigalow’s drink in the night club, he goes to a doctor and runs away in panic, then another doctor turns out the lights and shows him a glowing test tube…the laughter had stopped. They sat silent as the story spiraled out of control, turning back on itself. Seeing the effect it had, I was awfully smug by the time the movie ended.
In addition to the 1988 remake with Dennis Quaid – which rewrote the plot and cheated on the ending
D.O.A. is a great film, more than great film noir.
O’Brien also appeared in the 1953 film of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. Although MGM used their contract players to fill out most of the cast, the attention at the time was all on Marlon Brando in just his fourth movie. Can he act Shakespeare or only modern drama? Can The Method be used in classical plays? (The answers were a big YES and YES.) Edmond O’Brien was one of many standouts among the American actors as Casca, one of the conspirators and first to stab Caesar. “See what a rent the envious Casca made” says Marc Antony in his famous speech.
And thank you for mentioning Seven Days In May and The Wild Bunch. I was getting ready to do it if nobody else was.
I have said many times, mostly on the old boards, about how important D.O.A. and Edmond O’Brien was to making me a Movie Maniac – so here it is again. In the Bad Old Days of the early 1950s, TV stations would “sign off” around midnight. Often, the last program they would play after the late news was a movie. Even though I was in about the first-grade of school, my Dad would occasionally let me sit up with him to watch the Late Show. The experience with D.O.A. is still a very vivid in my memory after all these years. It kept a very young me spellbound and taught me at a very early age how films can effect a person. I often think that I still watch movies because I am trying to recapture that magic. I had the pleasure of showing it to my two smart-aleck sons when they were high schoolers. I sat them down and told them they couldn’t leave so they started laughing derisively at everything, especially that wolf whistle. But when the mysterious figure fiddles with Bigalow’s drink in the night club, he goes to a doctor and runs away in panic, then another doctor turns out the lights and shows him a glowing test tube…the laughter had stopped. They sat silent as the story spiraled out of control, turning back on itself. Seeing the effect it had, I was awfully smug by the time the movie ended.
In addition to the 1988 remake with Dennis Quaid – which rewrote the plot and cheated on the ending
(Quaid is still presumably to die but is last seen walking into the night.)
There was also a 1969 remake starring Tom Tryon called “Color Me Dead.”