Got a book off the shelf today, it's going to tell me what I should say

[sovay]

This cold has now officially progressed to the lying-on-the-couch-coughing-staring-at-movies stage. I don't know whether to forecast reviews or radio silence. Might depend on the movies. Angel Face (1953) by Otto Preminger was noir by the numbers to me until it opened into the perspective of its main female character, at which point the story of a spoilt seductress, the patsy who wants no part of her, and a murder gone wrong becomes much less familiarly nasty, much more unavoidably tragic—it has a killer ending and a performance that I hope Jean Simmons is remembered for, even if so much of it only becomes exemplary in hindsight. I had no idea the original live TV version of Twelve Angry Men (1954) had even been recorded, but the smutchy, irreplaceable kinescope runs exactly an hour, is very effectively less personal than the later stage and film versions, and proves that when I thought Robert Cummings was underpowered as a leading man in The Black Book (1949), he was probably just underwritten. I had the company of a very good movie cat and later my husband (who points out that Twelve Angry Men directly prefigures 1776 in its exploration of important civic issues through a male ensemble yelling at each other in a very hot room—it even uses the same device of counting down each vote toward consensus or catastrophe). Also the cold, but it is an unwelcome guest.

Comments

[asakiyume]

What you need is to have someone phone the cold and gaslight it into believing it had forgotten about a prior engagement elsewhere. "Sorry; I'm afraid I have to leave," it then says, and excuses itself, leaving you with husband, cat, and movie--a much better arrangement.

I didn't know there was a live TV version of Twelve Angry Men

[sovay]

"Sorry; I'm afraid I have to leave," it then says, and excuses itself, leaving you with husband, cat, and movie--a much better arrangement.

I like the way you think.

I didn't know there was a live TV version of Twelve Angry Men

I'd known there was a teleplay that predated both the stage play and the film; I hadn't known it had survived in any watchable form because so much early television did not. Apparently it was considered lost until 2003, when this kinescope turned up in the family of a lawyer who had requested a copy from CBS shortly after broadcast (and they'd just sent him one! and his kids hadn't thrown it out! I love these happenstances of preservation). Joseph Sweeney and George Voskovec reprised their roles as Jurors #9 and #11 in the 1957 film and the rest of the cast is otherwise different: Cummings plays Juror #8, the Henry Fonda role, opposite Franchot Tone as Juror #3, the Lee J. Cobb. Lee Phillips plays Juror #5, Jack Klugman in the film. I didn't recognize anyone else except Norman Feld as the Foreman, but spatch had to tell me his name. I kind of want to rewatch the film now, because comparing its memory to the version I just watched, I liked several aspects of the TV version better. Partly as a function of the shorter runtime, there's much less delving into anyone's personal lives, their likes or their dislikes or their occupations; all you have to judge these men by are surface markers like clothes or accent and everything else is the way they conduct themselves during the deliberation, their prejudices, their anxieties, the chances they take, what counts with them to change their minds. A jitterier, edgier air, #8 knowing what he believes but not necessarily knowing how to communicate it in a way that will persuade anyone who isn't already inclined to his point of view. Definitely no names exchanged at the end. I really enjoyed it.

[asakiyume]

Wow, I had no idea that people were able to request copies of shows from the network!

I'd be very interested in reading a side-to-side comparison if you do rewatch the film, though I think what you've given here is a great look at what have to be key elements.

[sovay]

Wow, I had no idea that people were able to request copies of shows from the network!

I've been told it could be done as recently as the '90's. I hope it's still possible.

I'd be very interested in reading a side-to-side comparison if you do rewatch the film, though I think what you've given here is a great look at what have to be key elements.

Thank you! I will keep it in mind. At the moment I seem to be watching a lot of noir and planning on Kiki's Delivery Service.

[asakiyume]

yay Kiki's Delivery Service!

[selkie]

You should watch something with a particularly good cat in it so that Movie Cat feels represented. Representation is important.

Bast, of dubious memory, preferred reality television selections, viz. My Cat from Hell, but a cat who can sit a whole movie is probably more discerning.

[kenjari]

I suggest Kiki's Delivery Service, since the cat in question is also a black cat.

[sovay]

I suggest Kiki's Delivery Service, since the cat in question is also a black cat.

I've never seen that! Hmm.

[kenjari]

It's a Studio Ghibli movie about a 13 year old witch, and the cat is her familiar. It's delightful.

[jesse_the_k]

It's got flying buses!

[rushthatspeaks]

Kiki's is an utterly perfect movie to watch while sick-- gentle, enthralling, lovely.

[asakiyume]

It's charming! It's why we named our black cat Jiji.

It's great on the hardships of establishing yourself independently and going against societal expectations (... most thirteen-year-old girls are not establishing their independence), and the choices you make.

The background characters and the scenery are all wonderful; Miyazaki's love of humanity shines through it.

[sovay]

It's charming! It's why we named our black cat Jiji.

I'll watch it!

[sovay]

You should watch something with a particularly good cat in it so that Movie Cat feels represented. Representation is important.

This is a very true thing.

Bast, of dubious memory, preferred reality television selections, viz. My Cat from Hell, but a cat who can sit a whole movie is probably more discerning.

Two Halloweens ago, he watched Edgar C. Ulmer's The Black Cat (1934) with us. For the record, unlike many movies which have been described to me as weird, that one is legitimately batshit and upsettingly so: it's like two or three axes of interwar nightmare all rolled together, full of the symbols of black magic and science fiction, but there's nothing speculative in it, only the horror of historical atrocity imprinting itself on the landscape like a haunting and human perversity that fetishizes it calling up the ghost again. You can see how it's spiraled back around to relevance these days. But it does contain a significant black cat. And halfway through, Autolycus came into my darkened office where we were watching, hopped up on the desk, and curled himself around my laptop with his tail lying over the right-hand side of the keyboard and his head peering down over the top of the screen into the illuminated action. It was a wonderful image which we could not photograph. He looked like a tutelary spirit. We told him that the black cat escaped along with the standard young couple at the end.

Much less elevatedly, he once watched The Cat from Outer Space (1978) with me and batted occasionally at the screen as if to make contact. Speaking of things with Roddy McDowall in them.

[gwynnega]

You could watch The Shadow of the Cat!

[sovay]

You could watch The Shadow of the Cat!

Oh, my God, that sounds amazing.

[gwynnega]

The titular cat is very pretty. Also, she manages to find time to frolic with a ball of yarn in the midst of taking down a whole family of murderous schemers.

[sovay]

Also, she manages to find time to frolic with a ball of yarn in the midst of taking down a whole family of murderous schemers.

Good cat!

[selkie]

VENGEFUL MURDER KITTEH!

Gosh, it makes up for people being wrong on the internet.

[gwynnega]

Angel Face does have quite an ending. I also like that the girlfriend Mitchum neglects has no interest in running back into his arms at the end.

[sovay]

Angel Face does have quite an ending.

I like how it's a shock and then it's not, because all the signposting information has been given to you, but it is one of the hardest downbeat endings I've seen in a noir and that's saying something for this genre.

I also like that the girlfriend Mitchum neglects has no interest in running back into his arms at the end.

Seriously. Why should she? What was that even?