Real People and Their Film Portrayals

Clifford Odets/Barton Fink



William Faulker/W.P. Mathew (Barton Fink)

Richard Basehart as Robespierre in The Black Book (also known as Reign on Terror) 1949 dir: Anthony Mann:

dcairns.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/vlcsnap-507677.png

and the real Incorruptible:




I have no idea why the first picture appears only as a link but the second visually. Is it because the first is a .png file?

Thanks. You posted even before I had finished struggling to upload the links (not as successfully as I had hoped).

The reason it is amazing is that the movie was filmed by John Alton, one of the greatest cinematographers ever and a major contributor to film noir.

As you may remember from other threads, I am not a fan of the liberal definition of Film Noir, permitting it as a description of genres like Gothic, Costume, Adventure, or whatever. But if any film could change my mind it is The Black Book (1949), a trashy faux-historical swashbuckler shot in Film Noir style. Basehart is great in it even though the screenplay (a joint effort by Philip Jordan and the Scottish writer Aeneas MacKenzie) allowed him only a superficial caricature. Robert Cummings is lame as the hero (I can never take his pretty-boy looks seriously in "heavy" roles, he only works in romcoms and family fare for me) and Arlene Dahl is formulaic.

The film really comes alive in the scenes stolen by Arnold Moss (an actor unknown to me) as Fouché, the ingratiating trickster. The strange thing is how much he resembles, in face, voice, style and gesture, none other than Kenneth Williams in Carry On... Don't Lose Your Head (1966) who plays the same character, only slightly more camped up.

Apologies to BATouttaheck for interrupting his superb thread. And thanks to all who put in the work to post these comparative images. Interesting to me is how often the actors do physically resemble those they are portraying. I had not realized that Hollywood cared that much.