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Post by Doghouse6 on Oct 6, 2017 21:43:00 GMT
You're welcome, Doghouse, and sorry to hear about the laptop issues. I hope they get resolved somehow. Registry cleaner? I think that The Wolf Man just plain suffers from "the Forties blues" that characterizes most of Universal's horrors of the wartime period. Maybe it was the war. It's like they can't quite ignite and become true classics,--it's not Lon's fault. Son Of Dracula has similar issues, and I like it much more than there werewolf pic. In the previous decade, especially under the Laemmles, their horrors seemed to stand out and apart from most movies of the period, were, at their best, larger than life. Those "Forties blues" may possibly be boiled down into something more elemental: "the Forties Bs;" The Wolf Man, saddled with a budget and schedule significantly pared down from those of its iconic '30s predecessors, can easily find itself tainted, if retroactively, by the "programmer" status of its contemporaries ( The Mummy's Hand and Man Made Monster before, for instance, or The Ghost Of Frankenstein, the aforementioned Son Of Dracula, The Mummy's What-Have-You follow-ups or the "monster mash" mini-epics after, along with "genre hitchhikers" like The Mad Doctor Of Market Street and Night Monster or Chaney's Inner Sanctum exercises). It must be readily acknowledged that, greater budgets notwithstanding, the "Laemmle originals" got by with running times the same or only mere minutes longer than TWM's, but their thematic approaches were more basic, which perhaps accounts for their endurance: each effectively exploits a simple concept to the full while avoiding complex subtextual layering of the sort at which TWM appears to aim. Perhaps its ambitions exceeded its grasp. Notice how I didn't say "bit off more than it could chew?"
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Post by petrolino on Oct 7, 2017 2:47:39 GMT
I often go mad on a full moon, though I never realise it's full at the time. Living in Manchester, England, we'd hear the same tune ringing out at all times ... 'Blue Moon' - The Marcels
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Post by telegonus on Oct 7, 2017 4:47:50 GMT
You're welcome, Doghouse, and sorry to hear about the laptop issues. I hope they get resolved somehow. Registry cleaner? I think that The Wolf Man just plain suffers from "the Forties blues" that characterizes most of Universal's horrors of the wartime period. Maybe it was the war. It's like they can't quite ignite and become true classics,--it's not Lon's fault. Son Of Dracula has similar issues, and I like it much more than there werewolf pic. In the previous decade, especially under the Laemmles, their horrors seemed to stand out and apart from most movies of the period, were, at their best, larger than life. Those "Forties blues" may possibly be boiled down into something more elemental: "the Forties Bs;" The Wolf Man, saddled with a budget and schedule significantly pared down from those of its iconic '30s predecessors, can easily find itself tainted, if retroactively, by the "programmer" status of its contemporaries ( The Mummy's Hand and Man Made Monster before, for instance, or The Ghost Of Frankenstein, the aforementioned Son Of Dracula, The Mummy's What-Have-You follow-ups or the "monster mash" mini-epics after, along with "genre hitchhikers" like The Mad Doctor Of Market Street and Night Monster or Chaney's Inner Sanctum exercises). It must be readily acknowledged that, greater budgets notwithstanding, the "Laemmle originals" got by with running times the same or only mere minutes longer than TWM's, but their thematic approaches were more basic, which perhaps accounts for their endurance: each effectively exploits a simple concept to the full while avoiding complex subtextual layering of the sort at which TWM appears to aim. Perhaps its ambitions exceeded its grasp. Notice how I didn't say "bit off more than it could chew?" True about the short running times, Doghouse. The first batch from Uni, 1931-33, were short compared to even the only slightly later ones. Bride is the only one of the Laemmles that feels truly big,--well, actually the Florey Murders In The Rue Morgue has a largeness to it, which may be more the director than the budget--and then there's the post-Laemmle Son Of Frankenstein, which feels big also, and is loaded with charm. Wyllis Cooper's screenplay is outstanding. Indeed, where The Wolf Man is concerned the script really does "obtrude" into the story, with the near excess of exposition early on (here comes Larry, then dad tells him about his late brother, tries to heal some wounds between them,--and hey--here comes lawman Ralph Bellamy). The scenes with Gwen are awkwardly written, almost as awkward as Larry himself. Larry never truly reconciles with dad. Worse yet, the old man kills him! Nor does he ever,--to put it politely--get it on with Gwen. There are some nice bits from the supporting players but less of a sense of place than in the Laemmle horrors, where even the "minimalist" Transylvanian village in Dracula has more ambiance; and of course there are those whooping it up dancing townfolk in Frankenstein. When watching The Wolf Man I'm always aware that I'm watching a movie, can never suspend disbelief.
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Post by Doghouse6 on Oct 7, 2017 6:33:51 GMT
I often go mad on a full moon, though I never realise it's full at the time. Living in Manchester, England, we'd hear the same tune ringing out at all times ... 'Blue Moon' - The Marcels
That song has quite the history. First written by Rodgers and Hart in 1933 for Hollywood Party as "Prayer" (but neither recorded nor used) with these lyrics: Oh LordIf you're not busy up thereI ask for help with a prayerSo please don't give me the airHart then wrote new lyrics, to be used in Manhattan Melodrama with the title, "It's Just That Kind Of Play:" Act One You gulp your coffee and run Into the subway you crowd Don't breathe, it isn't allowed
It was indeed eventually used in Manhattan Melodrama, but with a new title, "The Bad In Every Man" and a third set of lyrics: It wasn't until 1935 that the title "Blue Moon" and the lyrics we're now familiar with were permanently joined with the tune. Connee Boswell made the first commercial recording:
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Post by Doghouse6 on Oct 7, 2017 19:19:19 GMT
True about the short running times, Doghouse. The first batch from Uni, 1931-33, were short compared to even the only slightly later ones. Bride is the only one of the Laemmles that feels truly big,--well, actually the Florey Murders In The Rue Morgue has a largeness to it, which may be more the director than the budget--and then there's the post-Laemmle Son Of Frankenstein, which feels big also, and is loaded with charm. Wyllis Cooper's screenplay is outstanding. Indeed, where The Wolf Man is concerned the script really does "obtrude" into the story, with the near excess of exposition early on (here comes Larry, then dad tells him about his late brother, tries to heal some wounds between them,--and hey--here comes lawman Ralph Bellamy). The scenes with Gwen are awkwardly written, almost as awkward as Larry himself. Larry never truly reconciles with dad. Worse yet, the old man kills him! Nor does he ever,--to put it politely--get it on with Gwen. There are some nice bits from the supporting players but less of a sense of place than in the Laemmle horrors, where even the "minimalist" Transylvanian village in Dracula has more ambiance; and of course there are those whooping it up dancing townfolk in Frankenstein. When watching The Wolf Man I'm always aware that I'm watching a movie, can never suspend disbelief. Perhaps it's a mindset peculiar to me, but suspension of disbelief isn't something that much enters into the equation when I'm watching films about vampires, ambulatory mummies, re-animated corpses, invisible men or werewolves. Having said that, I do come closest to it with TWM: it's the first of the batch that feels truly modern to me, establishing a credible context of everyday lives and three-dimensional people, upon which intrudes a supernatural element in which none of the major characters - save Maleva and Larry, who know better - believe. It may be that this very aspect I find to be an asset is one you find a liability. The charm to which you refer is something I discern in the "first cycle" of the '30s as a highly stylized and mannered approach and execution that removes the proceedings from anything resembling real-world existences, and suggesting instead almost fairy-tale-like "alternate realities." And don't misunderstand: it's all very charming and part of their mystique. Just the same, I find TWM loaded with atmosphere. And while the screenplay does exhibit a weak moment here or there, they're brief, and most every other scene establishes context that's conveyed with great economy. Within the first minute or two, for example, we know why Larry's there, how long he's been gone, where he's been and why he left (along with the emotional baggage it represents), and all of it from dialogue that fittingly reflects the strained formality of his relationship with Sir John (about whom much can be discerned from the exchange). As much as I love them, Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy and The Invisible Man are weighted with passages that are leaden in their content and drama: most any one involving Mina; any with only Elizabeth and Henry or Victor; Frank and Helen; Kemp and Flora. Although the "romantic rival" subplot is one that Universal seemed fond of featuring (in two of the above as well as in Werewolf Of London and The Invisible Ray), I like the way TWM freshens the formula by flipping it, making the protagonist the "interloper," and along the way managing to give Gwen's two scenes with Frank Andrews either plot-advancing or theme-enriching qualities. Incidentally, I'd guess that the abortive nature of Larry and Gwen's mutual attraction (he never even gets as far as an actual kiss) is grounded in both that aspect and what might have been deemed the distasteful nature of things going any further with her and the film's titular "monster:" Larry's "tainted" by both his status and affliction. Maybe they'd have gone in a different direction if a Bride Of the Wolf Man follow-up had been contemplated. Thank goodness, not. I find I don't really miss any sense of the scale that the first two Frankenstein's impart with their rampaging mobs or villagers cavorting musically in dirndls and lederhosen, or the widespread urban-to-rural panic of The Invisible Man, in what emerges from TWM as intimate family tragedy: there will be no succeeding generations of locals whispering or grumbling about "the Talbot curse;" the "all blacks and whites, no shadings or grays" Capt. Montford summarizes what will be the official story; the grief-and-guilt-ridden Sir John will carry his secret to the grave. That's about the one element the increasingly-cheap sequels get right: eternal-outsider Larry's story is neither epic nor the stuff of legend, and his odyssey will be a lonely one. But as you said in the earlier post, we're no doubt left with agreeing to disagree about this one. If I may add one final thought, however, I think they missed a bet by not following through on Siodmak's original concept, that of leaving it uncertain whether Larry had actually undergone a transformation or it was all in his maladjusted and traumatized mind, which as envisioned could have delivered the best of both worlds: we'd see the creature, but only through Larry's eyes as reflections in things like mirrors or ponds. But that concept was left to Val Lewton to exploit so successfully in Cat People the following year.
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Post by petrolino on Oct 7, 2017 21:05:23 GMT
That song has quite the history. That's really interesting. I've always liked the doo-wop version. Thanks Doghouse.
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Post by Doghouse6 on Oct 8, 2017 2:35:33 GMT
That song has quite the history. That's really interesting. I've always liked the doo-wop version. Thanks Doghouse. My brother-in-law, who lived with us for some months a few years back and whose formative years were, like mine, in the '50s-'60s, was always flabbergasted when my music library revealed to him that songs like Blue Moon, Deep Purple, I Only Have Eyes For You, Blueberry Hill, Fools Rush In, Smoke Gets In Your Eyes or You Belong To Me went back years or decades earlier than the recordings he was familiar with, and had been introduced by people like Dick Powell, Frank Sinatra, Jo Stafford and even Irene Dunne. Later in the '60s, The Mamas and Papas were covering songs that were nearly 40 years old. I've never been quite sure whether it's more credit to arrangers and vocalists or to the songs themselves that they're so readily lent to reinventions that, in many cases, become more iconic and enduring than their original incarnations.
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Post by petrolino on Oct 8, 2017 2:42:11 GMT
That's really interesting. I've always liked the doo-wop version. Thanks Doghouse. My brother-in-law, who lived with us for some months a few years back and whose formative years were, like mine, in the '50s-'60s, was always flabbergasted when my music library revealed to him that songs like Blue Moon, Deep Purple, I Only Have Eyes For You, Blueberry Hill, Fools Rush In, Smoke Gets In Your Eyes or You Belong To Me went back years or decades earlier than the recordings he was familiar with, and had been introduced by people like Dick Powell, Frank Sinatra, Jo Stafford and even Irene Dunne. Later in the '60s, The Mamas and Papas were covering songs that were nearly 40 years old. I've never been quite sure whether it's more credit to arrangers and vocalists or to the songs themselves that they're so readily lent to reinventions that, in many cases, become more iconic and enduring than their original incarnations. Perhaps an imperfect handover of sounds has occurred within this era of massive recycling. I've always believed nothing is really original. My (self-appointed) mentor Roger Corman said practically every technical trick so far has been achieved in some shape or form by creators of the silent movie era and every story comes from one of 4 or 5 templates dating back thousands of years ago. I figure it's food for thought, as always, from Mr. Corman.
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Post by Doghouse6 on Oct 8, 2017 3:10:14 GMT
Perhaps an imperfect handover of sounds has occurred within this era of massive recycling. I've always believed nothing is really original. My (self-appointed) mentor Roger Corman said practically every technical trick so far has been achieved in some shape or form by creators of the silent movie era and every story comes from one of 4 or 5 templates dating back thousands of years ago. I figure it's food for thought, as always, from Mr. Corman. Indeed. I've always heard it as "the seven basic stories" but no matter. Mr. Corman has been, for nearly as long as I've been alive, one of the most astute, wise and fascinating figures in entertainment, and perhaps doesn't receive the attention, respect and veneration he's due, much like protege John Sayles, for not only his intelligence and savvy but for having gone "his own way." All of those qualities, along with his longevity and continued vitality, delight me.
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Post by petrolino on Oct 8, 2017 3:21:27 GMT
Perhaps an imperfect handover of sounds has occurred within this era of massive recycling. I've always believed nothing is really original. My (self-appointed) mentor Roger Corman said practically every technical trick so far has been achieved in some shape or form by creators of the silent movie era and every story comes from one of 4 or 5 templates dating back thousands of years ago. I figure it's food for thought, as always, from Mr. Corman. Indeed. I've always heard it as "the seven basic stories" but no matter. Mr. Corman has been, for nearly as long as I've been alive, one of the most astute, wise and fascinating figures in entertainment, and perhaps doesn't receive the attention, respect and veneration he's due, much like protege John Sayles, for not only his intelligence and savvy but for having gone "his own way." All of those qualities, along with his longevity and continued vitality, delight me. In the words of Smokey Robinson, I second that emotion.
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