Patrick King"
abrasax93@yahoo.com wrote,
> The 1970s remake of THE BIG SLEEP is even
worth
> watching for Mitchum's
> performance alone. There's a lot wrong with
the
> movie (setting it in
> the UK in the 70s, for a start), but at least
they
> had a good Marlowe.
************ ********* ********* *********
********
I would go so far as to say it's ONLY worth
watching
for Mitchum's performance. And even that's too
little
too late. Had they made it in 1949 in Hollywood
it
might have been a good movie.
_______________ Mitchum's performance is hughly
disappointing. Yes, he has what it takes to make a good
Marlowe, but in this one he is at least 15 years too old. The
dynamics between him and the female leads don't work. and a
Marlowe wearing Saville Row bright blue and silver suits and
driving a Mercedes? I don't think so. Its worth seeing
because its fairly faithful to the original book, (you even
hear some of the original dialogue) but Mitchum's delivery is
flat. None of the one-liners work. He clearly sleepwalks it
in. This film is a textbook example of the fact that a film
needs an intternal spark. Just having a faithful script is
not enough. The only performance in it of interest is that of
Oliver Reed, who was in his prime. Now, He would have made an
interesting Marlowe. Speaking of Actors, I would have
expected, in a forum dedicated to Noir amoung other things,
that more would have been made of Richard Widmark's
passing.
--------------------------------- Get the name you always
wanted with the new y7mail email address.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 30 Mar 2008 EDT