skygiants | (no subject)

I saw some movies this weekend I had never seen before! One with

jinian and one with

aberration and one with both. None of them were made more recently than fifty years ago.

Double Indemnity: This is the quintessential film noir. I'm reading a book about noir now and it keeps trying to describe it as a movie about a stone-cold murderess and the weak-willed man she leads astray and I don't think that is true. It's a movie about how two people who probably wouldn't have committed murder individually meet at the right time and sort of push each other into committing murder together. Barbara Stanwyck, Bored and Bewigged Femme Fatale Housewife, is doing it because she's miserable in her marriage and would like some money, and Fred MacMurray, Bored Sleazy Insurance Agent, is doing it because he's having some kind of intense personal one-sided competition with Edward G. Robinson, Super Insurance-Fraud Catching Insurance Agent.

Fred MacMurray is way more intense about Edward G. Robinson than he is about Barbara Stanwyck, by the way. I don't necessarily mean that in a romantic way (although I was willing to bet money that at least one Yuletide fic existed and I was right), but then again, the movie literally does end with Fred MacMurray's tragic declaration of love for Edward G. Robinson, so. And, I mean, Edward G. Robinson is pretty adorable in this film. The biggest surprise for me in this movie was that Super Insurance-Fraud Catching Insurance Agent Edward G. Robinson was so adorable. The second biggest surprise was that the movie is (intentionally) hilarious. The dialogue is so good! Also, I want to read a really good making-of book about Double Indemnity and I don't think it exists.

Stella Maris: This is a silent film in which Mary Pickford plays a cheerful paralyzed upper-class orphan with the WORST GUARDIANS EVER.

STELLA MARIS' GUARDIANS: Because our niece can't walk, let's keep her happy by not letting anybody tell her about anything depressing! Ever! The only things allowed in Stella Maris' room are bunnies, kittens, puppies, and her hot gentlemanly cousin whom she adores.
GENTLEMANLY COUSIN: So I guess I'm not allowed to tell Stella Maris about my alcoholic and abusive wife.
STELLA MARIS' GUARDIANS: Absolutely not. Did you not see the list of allowed topics? Kittens. Bunnies. Puppies. THAT'S IT.

STELLA MARIS: I can walk now!
STELLA MARIS' GUARDIANS: Wonderful!
BEGGARS, SOLDIERS, SAD PEOPLE: HI STELLA MARIS GUESS WHAT WE EXIST
STELLA MARIS: ...
STELLA MARIS' GUARDIANS: ...
STELLA MARIS: So, everything I know about the world is a lie? Everything I know about the world is a lie. Wonderful. Thank god I have a hot gentlemanly cousin whose honesty I can believe in. Kiss me, hot gentlemanly cousin!
GENTLEMANLY COUSIN: ...

GENTLEMANLY COUSIN: So, uh, Stella Maris pretty much expects me to propose any second, so I'm thinking it's time I tell her about my wife.
STELLA MARIS' GUARDIANS: ABSOLUTELY NOT. It will break her poor dear little heart if you tell her that you're married. She must NEVER KNOW about your wife.
GENTLEMANLY COUSIN: .... then ... should I not come by any more?
STELLA MARIS' GUARDIANS: Of course not! It would break her poor dear little heart if you stopped coming. You must NEVER STOP COMING.
GENTLEMANLY COUSIN: ... but ...
STELLA MARIS' GUARDIANS: Secret wives are no big deal! Come on, man, didn't you ever read Jane Eyre?
GENTLEMANLY COUSIN: ....

STELLA MARIS: Gentlemanly cousin, I went to your house to PLAN OUR WEDDING and I met your WIFE and I have LOST MY FAITH IN THE WHOLE WORLD.
STELLA MARIS' GUARDIANS: In retrospect, we should have seen this coming.

So aside from playing Stella Maris, Mary Pickford also plays Unity, a tragic and plucky orphan who gets abused by Gentlemanly Cousin's Evil Wife while Gentlemanly Cousin is off hanging out with Stella Maris. Gentlemanly Cousin adopts her in a fit of guilt, and Unity promptly falls in love with him, which we all know is not going to work out well because a.) she is the Eponine to Stella Maris' Cosette and b.) legally he is her dad and c.) HE STILL HAS AN ACTUAL EVIL WIFE.

This is all melodrama to the max, but we still were not expecting it to end in so much murder. However, Mary Pickford does do an amazing job in the double role, and the cameramen also do an amazing job filming a double role with 1917 technology. Plus there is a genuinely hilarious subplot with a dog!

Touch of Evil: The message of this film noir about a Mexican border cop fighting the corrupt American police force would be a lot more convincing if the noble Mexican border cop was not played by CHARLTON HESTON IN BROWNFACE.

...I thought I had more to say about this movie but I keep just coming back to CHARLTON HESTON.

I feel like reading a better book about film noir than I'm currently reading, if anyone has recs for good books about film noir.

Crossposts: http://bookelfe.livejournal.com/386805.html

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

sovay

The biggest surprise for me in this movie was that Super Insurance-Fraud Catching Insurance Agent Edward G. Robinson was so adorable.

In fact, I adore Edward G. Robinson in Double Indemnity. I had never heard anything about his character going into the film and he pretty much walked off with every scene he was in and some he wasn't. Agreed that it's not the femme fatale model of noir so much as folie à deux—they are both, in fact, terrible at long-term decision-making.

The second biggest surprise was that the movie is (intentionally) hilarious.

Billy Wilder!

This is all melodrama to the max, but we still were not expecting it to end in so much murder.

Right, now I'm curious.

if the noble Mexican border cop was not played by CHARLTON HESTON IN BROWNFACE.

It's pretty much a dealbreaker for me. I can like a lot of Orson Welles—as it happens, I do—but I just look at that casting and nope. While we're on the subject, Welles should never have played Othello in his film of same. Fascinating cinematography. Gripping, haunting opening sequence. Some very good performances, including a Desdemona who isn't a doormat. OH ORSON YOU KNOW YOU COULD JUST HAVE CAST PAUL ROBESON AND MADE PEOPLE WITH AN OUNCE OF TASTE HAPPY FOR ALL TIME.

From:

skygiants

I've seen Edward G. Robinson play evil gangsters and tragic gangsters and even investigators, but I've never seen him be so delightful before! Every single speech is gold. But yes, one gets the impression that Phyllis is by nature much more a relatively passive ill-wisher than an active murderer in her own right. 'Leave the window open on a cold night' is a really ineffective way to kill somebody. While 'it has to be on a train!' is a really ... hubristic way to kill somebody.

I'm always startled by how good Billy Wilder really is! Like, I know, but then I forget. Which is great because then it's always wonderful rediscovery.

SPOILERS FOR STELLA MARIS: To everyone's surprise, Tragic Plucky Orphan Unity picks up a gun and successfully executes a murder-suicide for the abusive evil wife and herself, in order to liberate her relatively bland object of everybody's interest. One imagines that Mary Pickford enjoyed this tremendously, as I'm willing to bet it's the only time she ever got to murder anybody on film.

And ugh, right? ORSON WELLS WHY.

From:

sovay

I've seen Edward G. Robinson play evil gangsters and tragic gangsters and even investigators, but I've never seen him be so delightful before! Every single speech is gold.

He's the protagonist of two Fritz Lang films noirs—The Woman in the Window (1944) and Scarlet Street (1945)—where he is also cast against type, but I haven't seen either one of them yet. He's another gangster in Larceny, Inc. (1942), but a likeable, comedic one—he starts a luggage store as a front for a bank robbery and then discovers, somewhat to his horror, that running a straight business is actually profitable and he's really good at it. I just really love him as Keyes.

To everyone's surprise, Tragic Plucky Orphan Unity picks up a gun and successfully executes a murder-suicide for the abusive evil wife and herself, in order to liberate her relatively bland object of everybody's interest. One imagines that Mary Pickford enjoyed this tremendously, as I'm willing to bet it's the only time she ever got to murder anybody on film.

That is significantly more murder-suiciding than Tragic Plucky Orphans are generally allowed, in silent days or after. And of course because it's Mary Pickford doing both the murdering and the marrying, you get all sorts of alter-ego echoes that are totally implausible if you think about the plot for more than a second.

ORSON WELLS WHY.

It is amazing how well blackface (brownface, yellowface) doesn't work.

From:

skygiants

As a sidenote, the book on noir I'm currently reading also wants me to believe that Billy Wilder and Fritz Lang can be put in the same category as dark and brooding directors because they're both German. I'm not sure this guy has actually seen any other Billy Wilder movies.

It is way more murder-suicide than Tragic Plucky Orphans are usually allowed! (Though the suicide part wasn't clear at the time, and when the intertitles announced that Unity was dead too, the very engaged audience gave a collective 'awwwwww.' I think everyone was hoping for a triumphant murder after which she could get away scot-clean.) The alter-ego echoes are incredibly strong too; Unity marches in and declares that the evil wife needs to stop tormenting Stella Maris before killing her, but, like ... literally all the evil wife did to torment Stella Maris was exist. Unity is the one actively being tormented.

From:

sdelmonte

I am part of that generation who know Fred MacMurray from My Three Sons and maybe The Absent Minded Professor. To see him here, or in another Wilder classic, The Apartment, is something of a shock that first time out. Which is why he's such an effective cad. You never expect it from him, do you?

From:

skygiants

I actually haven't seen MacMurray in anything! Which means that when I do, I'm going to spend the whole time staring at him in suspicion waiting for him to propose a murder.

From:

sovay

To see him here, or in another Wilder classic, The Apartment, is something of a shock that first time out. Which is why he's such an effective cad.

It took me years to recognize him in a role where he wasn't—I started with The Caine Mutiny (1954), then moved on to The Apartment (1960) and Double Indemnity (1944). The Absent-Minded Professor (1961) and The Happiest Millionaire (1967) were very confusing.

I mean, The Happiest Millionaire is confusing no matter what. Tommy Steele sings and there are alligators. And World War I. But I think it's additionally confusing if you've never seen My Three Sons.

From:

cahn

which we all know is not going to work out well because a.) she is the Eponine to Stella Maris' Cosette and b.) legally he is her dad and c.) HE STILL HAS AN ACTUAL EVIL WIFE.

This whole post was (of course) hilarious, but I have to say I kind of loved that the first thing on this list is Eponine-Cosette. I mean, also he's her dad and has an evil wife! But let's not kid ourselves, EPONINE.

From:

skygiants

DON'T BE A PLUCKY LOWER-CLASS ORPHAN IN A LOVE TRIANGLE BASED ON A NINETEENTH-CENTURY NOVEL, life lesson #1. Okay, Stella Maris was written in 1913, but it still basically counts.

From:

jinian

I think it was more like this:

BEGGARS, SOLDIERS, SAD PEOPLE: HI STELLA MARIS GUESS WHAT WE EXIST
STELLA MARIS: ...

STELLA MARIS' GUARDIANS: Actually it's pretty easy to just keep ignoring all those people!

STELLA MARIS' GUARDIANS: ... :D?

From:

skygiants

THEY WERE SO TERRIBLE. Like, I feel bad saying that in a book where other guardians include the actually abusive wife. But .... they were so terrible!

From:

swamp_adder

Oh my god, Double Indemnity, I am in love with this movie, and I am in love with Edward G. Robinson in this movie. He is completely adorable, and his Tragic Platonic Love Story with Fred MacMurray gives me ALL OF THE FEELS.

From:

skygiants

THEY REALLY DID LOVE EACH OTHER. "The murderer was too close for you to see it! NO, CLOSER THAN THAT." It's really, really easy to read the motive for the whole murder as being 'am I smart enough to outsmart the guy I respect the most in the world?' Not that this motive makes Fred MacMurray any less of a heel.