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Post by hitchcockthelegend on Jun 8, 2019 1:06:35 GMT
Rewatched Gaslight last night, review hopefully by Sunday. Wow. Between Niagara and Gaslight, you're onto something of a theme: wives in jeopardy. Further possibilities along those lines from just about every film decade are are nearly endless. Well my other film for the evening was Black Widow (1954), so I did even it out a bit since Van Heflin is harassed by the actions of women throughout! Another with nice colour lensing as well, the use of CinemaScope interesting, doesn't always work but nice for the New York locations.
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Post by Doghouse6 on Jun 8, 2019 1:46:54 GMT
Wow. Between Niagara and Gaslight, you're onto something of a theme: wives in jeopardy. Further possibilities along those lines from just about every film decade are are nearly endless. Well my other film for the evening was Black Widow (1954), so I did even it out a bit since Van Heflin is harassed by the actions of women throughout! Another with nice colour lensing as well, the use of CinemaScope interesting, doesn't always work but nice for the New York locations. That puts the ratio at 2:1. To even it up fully, you could watch Joan Crawford gunning for Van Heflin in Possessed.
Black Widow is one of Rogers's better roles of the '50s; the grande dame of the theatuh suits her well (certainly better than, say, the hard bitten convict she played next in Tight Spot, with Edward G. Robinson as the D.A. who needs her testimony and Brian Keith as the cop guarding her). A few days ago, we watched a different suspenseful mid-'50s CinemaScope production from Fox that was a variation on Rear Window, Henry Hathaway's 23 Paces To Baker Street, featuring Van Johnson as a blind playwright who overhears a kidnapping being plotted, erstwhile Hitchcock protege Vera Miles and some effective London location work. The Blu-ray transfer was simply gorgeous, so much so that even my hubby, who's blind in one eye and needs his prescription updated for the other, remarked on its stunning quality.
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Post by hitchcockthelegend on Jun 8, 2019 2:28:18 GMT
Well my other film for the evening was Black Widow (1954), so I did even it out a bit since Van Heflin is harassed by the actions of women throughout! Another with nice colour lensing as well, the use of CinemaScope interesting, doesn't always work but nice for the New York locations. That puts the ratio at 2:1. To even it up fully, you could watch Joan Crawford gunning for Van Heflin in Possessed.
Black Widow is one of Rogers's better roles of the '50s; the grande dame of the theatuh suits her well (certainly better than, say, the hard bitten convict she played next in Tight Spot, with Edward G. Robinson as the D.A. who needs her testimony and Brian Keith as the cop guarding her). A few days ago, we watched a different suspenseful mid-'50s CinemaScope production from Fox that was a variation on Rear Window, Henry Hathaway's 23 Paces To Baker Street, featuring Van Johnson as a blind playwright who overhears a kidnapping being plotted, erstwhile Hitchcock protege Vera Miles and some effective London location work. The Blu-ray transfer was simply gorgeous, so much so that even my hubby, who's blind in one eye and needs his prescription updated for the other, remarked on its stunning quality. I'll have Black Widow reviewed for the upcoming WFDYSLW thread. What I will say in short form is that I really rather enjoyed it. I was a little disappointed with the revelation finale, but certainly it had my full attention throughout - both visually and as a mystery to unfold. Loved Rogers in it and she seemed to be enjoying the role. Tight Spot - www.imdb.com/review/rw2811262/?ref_=tt_urvI like how you went from one Van to another Van, and linked them to CinemaScope  Glad to read that 23 Paces to Baker Street has had a good treatment to it, it was a film that took me by surprise, as did the performance of Johnson. www.imdb.com/review/rw1987004/?ref_=tt_urv
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Post by Doghouse6 on Jun 8, 2019 23:38:54 GMT
That puts the ratio at 2:1. To even it up fully, you could watch Joan Crawford gunning for Van Heflin in Possessed.
Black Widow is one of Rogers's better roles of the '50s; the grande dame of the theatuh suits her well (certainly better than, say, the hard bitten convict she played next in Tight Spot, with Edward G. Robinson as the D.A. who needs her testimony and Brian Keith as the cop guarding her). A few days ago, we watched a different suspenseful mid-'50s CinemaScope production from Fox that was a variation on Rear Window, Henry Hathaway's 23 Paces To Baker Street, featuring Van Johnson as a blind playwright who overhears a kidnapping being plotted, erstwhile Hitchcock protege Vera Miles and some effective London location work. The Blu-ray transfer was simply gorgeous, so much so that even my hubby, who's blind in one eye and needs his prescription updated for the other, remarked on its stunning quality. I'll have Black Widow reviewed for the upcoming WFDYSLW thread. What I will say in short form is that I really rather enjoyed it. I was a little disappointed with the revelation finale, but certainly it had my full attention throughout - both visually and as a mystery to unfold. Loved Rogers in it and she seemed to be enjoying the role. Tight Spot - www.imdb.com/review/rw2811262/?ref_=tt_urv Rogers, always a very strong screen presence, is among a group of favored performers I'll watch in just about anything, regardless of the material or the quality of her work therein, and she commands attention. I'll say also that she's among a smaller group of actresses whose early work in the '30s was full of invention, disarming freshness and spontaneity, but whose performances from the '40s on became increasingly mannered and reliant on shtick. Joan Crawford and Loretta Young are two others I put into this category. Heflin is one to whom I gave little thought for many years, beyond his being a familiar and reliably polished performer. More recently, I've begun catching up with films of his that I'd missed ( Patterns and The Strange Love Of Martha Ivers, for instance) and giving him closer scrutiny, and have realized there's been much more to him than had originally met my eye. His complexly multi-layered turn as Johnny Eager's devoted, philosophical and pathetic friend is an example of quite brilliant and unforgettable work.
Van Johnson's early tutelage under Spencer Tracy really paid off, and although he may not have seemed a terribly heavyweight performer during his first decade in films, he was more than adept at handling pretty much any type of material: light romantic comedy; zany farce; sober drama; musicals. Taking on roles that didn't require him to carry an entire film, he became invaluable additions to the casts of films like The Caine Mutiny, Brigadoon, Divorce, American Style and State Of the Union (where he even dominated scenes shared with the likes of Tracy and Hepburn). And by the time of 23 Paces, carrying an entire film was no trick at all.
CinemaScope proved a tough nut for some directors to crack at first. Epic scenes depicting a proverbial "cast of thousands" were fine, but when it came to simple, dialogue-driven ones, many tended to stage tableau that merely spread performers across the visual expanse, and photograph them in long takes with near-stationary cameras, without benefit of cross-cutting or closeups.
Even a director like George Cukor, who had long favored lengthy, uninterrupted takes, seemed stumped about how to use widescreen real estate for such scenes. While an uninterrupted take was undoubtedly beneficial to the actors, one of Judy Garland's most searingly dramatic scenes in A Star Is Born is visually marred by the awkward placement of her at extreme screen right, poor Charles Bickford half cut off at left, and decorative makeup table accoutrement getting the most screen space.
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spiderwort
Junior Member
@spiderwort
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Post by spiderwort on Jun 9, 2019 1:19:46 GMT
CinemaScope proved a tough nut for some directors to crack at first. Epic scenes depicting a proverbial "cast of thousands" were fine, but when it came to simple, dialogue-driven ones, many tended to stage tableau that merely spread performers across the visual expanse, and photograph them in long takes with near-stationary cameras, without benefit of cross-cutting or closeups.
So true about Cinemascope, doghouse. The Robe (1953) was the first film shot in that, if I'm not mistaken - a film suitable to it in terms of scope and scale, I suppose, though I never thought it was quite as good as it could/should have been. But the first dramatic, non-epic film that used it perfectly, in my opinion, is Kazan's East of Eden (1955), a powerfully cinematic film that exploits all the merits of Cinemascope by using foreground elements to create interesting compositions, superbly crafted canted angles, and shadows in the foreground and the background to shape the widescreen format, filling it with lots of detail that captures the imagination without ever detracting from the story. To say nothing of beautifully using below and above eye-level angles. Here are some examples. Unfortunately, I couldn't find the ones that really show best what I'm trying to explain.
   
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Post by Doghouse6 on Jun 9, 2019 2:15:26 GMT
CinemaScope proved a tough nut for some directors to crack at first. Epic scenes depicting a proverbial "cast of thousands" were fine, but when it came to simple, dialogue-driven ones, many tended to stage tableau that merely spread performers across the visual expanse, and photograph them in long takes with near-stationary cameras, without benefit of cross-cutting or closeups.
So true about Cinemascope, doghouse. The Robe (1953) was the first film shot in that, if I'm not mistaken - a film suitable to it in terms of scope and scale, I suppose, though I never thought it was quite as good as it could/should have been. But the first dramatic, non-epic film that used it perfectly, in my opinion, is Kazan's East of Eden (1955), a powerfully cinematic film that exploits all the merits of Cinemascope by using foreground elements to create interesting compositions, superbly crafted canted angles, and shadows in the foreground and the background to shape the widescreen format, filling it with lots of detail that captures the imagination without ever detracting from the story. To say nothing of beautifully using below and above eye-level angles. Here are some examples. Unfortunately, I couldn't find the ones that really show best what I'm trying to explain.
Thanks, spider, and no worries about the images; I know exactly what you mean. It was all rather akin to the dawn of sound, when so many experienced directors got thrown by new technology and their customary artistry took a few steps backward. But like Kazan in the '50s, there were some in that era - Capra, Mamoulian and Lubitsch among them - who didn't become intimidated and, as early as '29, were continuing their adventurous visual advancements, combining them with equally bold auditory experiments rather than becoming slaves to "the devil mic" (as one Photoplay article had it at the time).
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Post by morrisondylanfan on Jun 9, 2019 2:19:02 GMT
Hi all,I hope everyone is having a good weekend,and I this week celebrated on May 27th being 14 years since I joined IMDb by watching: William Dieterle's Man Wanted (1932) 7 The first of 6 (!) films he made in 1932,director William Dieterle fluidly blends the depth of field vision of cinematographer Gregg Toland, via delicate,ultra-stylised framed deep-focus close-ups on Ames and Sherman placing their heads side by side. Cracking open an atmosphere of Pre-Code Rom-Com glamour, Dieterle layers on dissolves of the couple changing into various eye-catching costume, Hi there MDF congratulations on your 14 year milestone at IMDb , You celebrated the week with some fabulous entertainment I see... Man Wanted is a great favourite here, lightweight in the story line but sparkling everywhere else. As you point out the eye-catching glamour is a standout, William Dieterle was a meticulous craftsman, bringing with him from Europe great style & taste, outstanding are his composition of sets and props his Mise-en-scène. Man Wanted boasts some of the best Art Deco furnishings , Lois Ames office is sensational. Of course the biggest drawcard always is lovely Kay Francis, with an air of confidence & with her beautiful expressive features she always shines, every characterization an enchanting natural performance... I know you will enjoy films of Peter Solan We should in the same vein as the popular Classic Jap and French threads start a Classic Czech/Slovak Classic film discussion, no time for me today I should not be here now ! Happy Viewing to you...  Hi Planet X,I hope you are having a good weekend,and with having watched it last night,I want to say thank you for telling me about Before This Night Is Over. With the use of music and the mix of improvised dialogue/ a small setting,it actually reminded me of Intimate Lighting (1965). Knowing him only for Hunchback (one of my favourite films) it would delightful to see Dieterle doing something so different.
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