The Ferris Wheel, Viennese sewers, and c’est la vie

Since Dan mentioned The Third Man in an earlier post, I thought I’d share the famed Ferris Wheel scene between Welles and Joseph Cotten:
It has You-Know-Who’s pen all over it. And the climax in the sewers displays His great, unique visual touch:

Finally, here’s the famed coda.

Note how nonchalantly Martins accepts Anna’s snub. This has the Great One’s DNA all over it…Graham Greene wanted the film to end with Martins and Anna frolicking off together hand-in-hand. Hmm.

The Third Man

Ok, we all know that The Third Man is credited as Carol Reed film, even though the stylistic, visual, and screenplay all scream....well, you know who; at least if you are a cinemaphile.

Anyway, this is the third of four films that the unproduced screenplay I read was reminiscent of.

And, if you are still wondering who really directed the film, well, let me introduce....

The Spy Who Came In From The Cold

The Spy Who Came In From The Cold - Criterion Collection
Uploaded by EgamiMedia1. - Classic TV and last night's shows, online.

This is a good film I reviewed earlier this year. It is another film evoked by the unproduced screenplay I recently read.

As I said:

' And this is why the film is so good. It is the internal machinations, especially in the mind of Leamas, that make this film work. A lesser actor simply could not have sold the part as equivocally as Burton does: is he in the dark or not? Is he an agent on the way down (because of a failed operation) or merely playing one? The title of the film is usually thought to mean that Leamas has finally gained insight into the machinations of the Cold War, but it could also mean the man finally realizes his worth to his employers, the world, and himself. Or, more accurately, his lack of same. The cold that he hits is reality’s nor’easter. And, despite his own reputation as a brilliant roué, Burton proves he truly was a better actor. There are full scenes where the camera just resides its gaze on his mien, and the viewer is riveted. Then there are some bravura editing choices made by Ritt, where scenes end anywhere from a few seconds to a minute or more before they would in conventional Hollywood films. These elisions propel the film forward, narratively, because the audience knows what will occur, and also displays an unusual confidence in the intelligence of the filmgoer.

Yet, despite al that, the film is not great. Neither in the manifest way that a 2001: A Space Odyssey nor a Tokyo Story are, nor in the more subtly great way that a similarly dark tale like The Third Man is. And, I suspect that is because the whole thrust of the tale is small. Yes, it is a Cold War thriller, but compare it to other films that came out in that era- the David Lean epics, the revolutionary pyrotechnics of a Bonnie And Clyde or The Wild Bunch, the aforementioned 2001 or even The Planet Of The Apes. I’m not stating that a film has to be write large to be great, as my prior mention of Tokyo Story proves; but it should resonate to a larger audience, in space and time. The dilemma of Alec Leamas simply does not. His world is a small one, with Byzantine codes of conduct that outsiders cannot grasp, such as his librarian lover, Nan Perry (Claire Bloom). And, while I mention her, Bloom is one of the drags on the film. It’s not so much that she badly acts her part, but that her part is simply one of the few key roles that is not well written. Yes, she’s the love interest, but, wisely, Ritt does not hammer that point home in the film with mushy love scenes. But her character always acts like a lost puppy dog- a Communist Party member that, even in the mid-60s, a decade after the revelations of Stalinist terror, is still a true believer, and utterly naïve about the Communist system’s flaws and horrors. This becomes excruciatingly painful to watch in the East German military courtroom scene where Fielder, Leamas, and British counter-spy Mundt (Peter Van Eyck), have a set-to, while Perry stands doe-eyed. It’s simply not plausible because a) of the aforementioned time frame the film takes place in, and b) Bloom’s age. She was in her mid-thirties at the time of filming, and her character looks that age, too. Were Perry a naïf coed, her reactions, character-wise, might have some credulity, but not at her age.

There are a few other areas where the film falls short, such as the injection of an Anti-Semitic subplot that, while it worked in the novel, seems just tacked on in this abridged form. As example, the Nan Perry character, in the book, is called Liz Gold, thus the whole use of that trope has a deeper resonance that is lost in the film. Also, while the courtroom and escape scenes finally reveal the real intricacies of the plot and counter-plot, they occur so quickly that most viewers will likely be lost. Whereas other moments of the film stop and allow revelation through intensity and cogitation, the film rushes through revelation to bloody denouement like a downhill locomotive, only to have its sudden end leave viewers feeling shell-shocked. This did not bother me, but it’s definitely something Ritt should have given more pause to; especially how Leamas dies, which is, given all we learn of the character, up to that point, simply implausible, and a bow to not a Hollywood ending, but a Shakespearean one which is just as contrived as a Hollywood ending would have been. Of course, that Le Carre was really a spy lends this film, and much of his work, a gloss of realism simply for not being James Bondian; how much of it was really real is not knowable. The screenplay by Paul Dehn and Guy Trosper is solid, thus succeeds and fails mainly on the strength of its source. The reality, however, does not matter, for the aesthetics are what carry the film.'

Costa-Gavras's Missing

Recently I got to read an excellent unproduced screenplay. It reminded me of several films. The first one was Missing, the dramatic film by Costa-Gavras.

Here is the start of the film:

Dan loves Christina Ricci.

Ricci: one hot mama!



Halle Berry sucks. YAWN. I am tired of seeing pictures of whorey women. BORING!

Let's remember what Charlize looked like in Monster, one of Dan's favorite films.



Dan thought so highly of the film that he said this: "I can think of no other great film, other than maybe, Kubrick's 2001, that captures the depth and breadth of the human condition, as that in Monster."

Then he went on to note: "Charlize looks great in the film, I was getting a boner watching her make out with that other hottie, Christina Ricci. No one, not even Zeta-Jones or Grace Kelly, does it for me like Christina Ricci. Her eyes and forehead are stunningly attractive, and that ass, yum. She makes Halle Berry look like the crack ho she was meant to be."





He also thinks that Ricci's finest performance is in the movie Prozac Nation, where she's playing a drugged out, depressed loser that is Liz Wurtzel. Here's what he said in his review:

"Ricci looks stunning in all her shots. I just love it when she takes her shirt off and I want to snip her nips so bad, my god, she is so hot as the depressed and fuckable Wurtzel. I just want to nail her so hard. I mean, look at those tits, that ass..."




Dan also told me the only other women who come as close to Ricci's hotness is Shelley Duvall and Joyce Carol Oates.







That's right, I am in charge of who he fantasizes about. Some people are just too good looking to be photographed.

Halle Berry

Ok, there's a reason why the name Halle Berry needs no introduction when one speaks of the sexiest actresses in the world.

Monster's Ball was a mediocre film, but Halle won an Oscar for getting naked- lucky white boy Billy Bob Thornton!


Halle Berry Monsters Ball - Click here for funny video clips

Yes, she's hot; but a best actress of the year nod? No way.

Rhona Mitra

Ok, let me choose another non-American for the list of sexy babes.

Granted, she's mostly a tv actress, but Rhona Mitra was the first Lara Croft, and much hotter than Angelina Jolie.





Some call her a poor man's Catherine Zeta-Jones, but so what? Yes, she lacks Jones' cheekbones, but she's got a curvier body.

And for those not into Charlize Theron, Mitra does sex scenes too, and with babes, as well as guys:


Rhona Mitra Having Sex - More free videos are here


Rhona Mitra & Kelly Carlson - Nip&tuck - Sex Scene - Click here for more free videos

So, do the babes of today compare with those of yesteryear? You decide.

Charlize Theron

Ok, a while back I did some posts on old time sex symbols. But, who's the top babe today?

Halle Berry and Catherine Zeta-Jones get nods for gorgeous perfection, but sex appeal is more than looks.

My vote would go to the aforementioned (post below) Charlize Theron.

Some proof:


Great cheekbones.



Great body- not too much fat nor oversized breasts.

Plus, she's willing to get nude and frisky (lucky James Spader):

Charlize Theron - Hot Scenes from '2 Days In The Valley' - The funniest bloopers are right here

And:

Charlize Theron Pool Scene - More free videos are here

Who else could top this list?

Mighty Joe Young

16 years after King Kong, Ray Harryhausen took up his mentor Willis O'Brien's lead, and did the effects work on Mighty Joe Young.

As a child, this was long a staple on Thanksgiving afternoon tv film festivals, along with King Kong and Son Of Kong.

It's not a great film, but it is better than given credit for, and better than the 1998 remake (Charlize Theron notwithstanding).

Here's a peek:

Gamera

Never liked Gamera, the giant turtle from the Daiei Studios, rival (mostly inferior) to Toho Studios' Godzilla.

He was slower and more awkward than Godzy, and his rival monsters were very weak in comparison. I was a fan of the original series of films, as a kid, though, and often on the 4:30 movie, after school, I'd see Gamera and Godzilla films.

The best film was the original Gamera, made in black and white, in the year I was born, 1965: Gamera The Invincible.

Like the Godzy films, Gamera was rebooted a few times, but the original magic was always missing. And, as noted, Gamera never had the magic load Godzilla did, anyway.

Here is the opening to the first film:


I did not realize it until posting this clip, though, that Albert Dekker, of Dr. Cyclops fame, was in this film, in the Americanized inserts.

It's interesting how some actors, like Dekker, Vincent Price, or Faith Domergue, got stuck in certain genres, not just for years, but for decades.

Anyway, Gamera eventually was killed off in 1980, then restored in a later series of films which I've not seen, and likely will never see. To me, Gamera was always a Teddy Bear version of Godzilla, and that seems just about right.