Acting, Radio, Film, and "Suspense"
Sept 27, 2017 16:16:24 GMT
Doghouse6, mattgarth, and 1 more like this
Post by Nalkarj on Sept 27, 2017 16:16:24 GMT
Well, Admin asked that I gauge support for an old-time radio board at one of the existing boards, and here seems the best place.
I'll try to make the general subject work (somewhat) with film as well, if only to warrant its placement here.
I was recently listening to two Suspense episodes, one starring Cary Grant and the other starring Gregory Peck. The former, "The Black Curtain," was based on a book by thriller writer Cornell Woolrich (also known, among his friends, as "that crook who copied Doghouse6 's style"), and the latter, "Murder Through the Looking Glass," was based on a book by mystery writer Craig Rice.
All that is to pre-empt a few observations I had about them. They are very similar--so similar, in fact, that I thought Peck was nearly lapsing into a Cary Grant impression at times (!)--which interested me, as Rice's books had little in common with Woolrich's. The plotting is nearly identical: both involve a man who wakes up, with amnesia, to find that he has apparently been away for a long while. In both, the man's one clue is a monogrammed item (a hat in the former, a handkerchief in the latter) with initials he doesn't recognize. He eventually makes it back to his girlfriend/wife, who informs him that
I was rather surprised that I enjoyed "Murder Through the Looking Glass" a good deal more than "The Black Curtain," especially as I'm a Suspense fan, a Cary Grant fan, and a Cornell Woolrich fan. Part of that, I think, is that I found Peck's acting here superior to Grant's, which I didn't expect, to say the least. Now, I'm not the world's biggest Gregory Peck fan--I don't dislike him, but I find that Peck can be wooden, especially as time went on (To Kill a Mockingbird notwithstanding)--but here he out-Caried Cary Grant, acting out the part of a man in a fog, accused of murder, with conviction and emotion.
Grant was not bad, certainly, but he seemed to take the whole thing a bit slower, as if he were "phoning it in." All of that reminded me of my and Doghouse's discussion about acting, which furnishes the connection, however tenuous, to previous matters on this board. It also made me wonder about the distinct skillset that one needs for radio acting as opposed to film acting. Is there a great difference, acting-wise? I should think so. (There certainly is a great difference for those behind the scenes.)
Thoughts? Does anyone else know these two? Fan of old-time radio? Can we convince Admin that an OTR board is a good idea?
I'll try to make the general subject work (somewhat) with film as well, if only to warrant its placement here.
I was recently listening to two Suspense episodes, one starring Cary Grant and the other starring Gregory Peck. The former, "The Black Curtain," was based on a book by thriller writer Cornell Woolrich (also known, among his friends, as "that crook who copied Doghouse6 's style"), and the latter, "Murder Through the Looking Glass," was based on a book by mystery writer Craig Rice.
All that is to pre-empt a few observations I had about them. They are very similar--so similar, in fact, that I thought Peck was nearly lapsing into a Cary Grant impression at times (!)--which interested me, as Rice's books had little in common with Woolrich's. The plotting is nearly identical: both involve a man who wakes up, with amnesia, to find that he has apparently been away for a long while. In both, the man's one clue is a monogrammed item (a hat in the former, a handkerchief in the latter) with initials he doesn't recognize. He eventually makes it back to his girlfriend/wife, who informs him that
he has apparently committed a murder while in the mental fog. He cannot believe that and hunts down the real murderer while trying to find out what happened to him.
Even the final twists are nearly the same.I was rather surprised that I enjoyed "Murder Through the Looking Glass" a good deal more than "The Black Curtain," especially as I'm a Suspense fan, a Cary Grant fan, and a Cornell Woolrich fan. Part of that, I think, is that I found Peck's acting here superior to Grant's, which I didn't expect, to say the least. Now, I'm not the world's biggest Gregory Peck fan--I don't dislike him, but I find that Peck can be wooden, especially as time went on (To Kill a Mockingbird notwithstanding)--but here he out-Caried Cary Grant, acting out the part of a man in a fog, accused of murder, with conviction and emotion.
Grant was not bad, certainly, but he seemed to take the whole thing a bit slower, as if he were "phoning it in." All of that reminded me of my and Doghouse's discussion about acting, which furnishes the connection, however tenuous, to previous matters on this board. It also made me wonder about the distinct skillset that one needs for radio acting as opposed to film acting. Is there a great difference, acting-wise? I should think so. (There certainly is a great difference for those behind the scenes.)
Thoughts? Does anyone else know these two? Fan of old-time radio? Can we convince Admin that an OTR board is a good idea?
(recall that Alan Reed played Pasquale).