Another great artist has gone to Jehovah. Billy Wilder was a
great Hollywood director by any standards but deserves to be
revered by rare-birds for 3 particular movies - LOST WEEKEND,
SUNSET BOULEVARD & the archetypal film noir, DOUBLE
INDEMNITY. Until I'd seen DOUBLE INDEMNITY, Fred MacMurray
& Barbara Stanwyck were 2 of my least favourite actors
but this flick was a revelation. Both of them, especially
MacMurray, were brilliant. The whole movie is stone
brilliant. IMO, it transcends the book, which I feel doesn't
hold a candle to THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE. A little
while ago someone mentioned "perfect" books, IIRC. POSTMAN
was the one book that immediately leaped into my mind. Don't
get me wrong, D.I. the novel is fine, it just don't compare
to POSTMAN. The movie, though ... the first shots of Phyllis
(Stanwyck), or more exactly, her feet, descending a flight of
stairs while Walter (MacMurray) stares at her ankles,
above
,IIRC, high heel pumps, a bright silver (?) anklet almost as
bright as a laser flashing at the camera. To my mind, this is
the most perfect expression of lust I've ever seen on the big
(or little) screen.(Since I first saw DOUBLE INDEMNITY I've
seen 1 or 2 other films noir with either Fred or Barbara
(note: we are on 1st name terms now) so I have a much higher
opinion of both.Previous to discovering these great old
flicks these guys were "My Three Sons" & "Big Country"
(?) (if that's the Western series where Barbs played a
matriarchal answer to Ben Cartwright) to me. (Do I remember
correctly that this series was based, at least originally, on
a Donald Hamilton Western novel?) Anyhow, "Vale, Billy
Wilder". (How come I only realise these guys WERE still alive
when they actually do die?)
Rene
-- # To unsubscribe from the regular list, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to # majordomo@icomm.ca. This will not work for the digest version. # The web pages for the list are at http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/ .
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 28 Mar 2002 EST