Thank you! I made the mistake of thinking that I would not have lots of feelings about this film, including I want to see an IB Tech print of this so hard. It ran on 35 mm last November at the Brattle Theatre and I had no idea. I wouldn't have been able to see it then, but it's funny how just out of reach it's been.
It's been a while since I saw this movie, but I remember really liking it. I loved Lizabeth Scott and Mary Astor, and I don't remember if I mentioned it before, but I think it's one of the movies that first made me seriously notice Wendell Corey.
Understandably! If I'd never heard of him, I would still have been writing about his part and his performance. He's as vivid as the Technicolor.
But I didn't know that this was his first movie, that's even more impressive!
He got good notices for it, too! Quite a lot of the rest of the film did not. I can understand it confusing people in 1947. It reminded me of discovering Tanith Lee.
The gender duality of Johnny's character is so interesting--a traditional sidekick, while also having traits of many noir female characters, including getting slapped. "Fellas, it is gay" sums up the movie very accurately!
I can't believe there's no fic on AO3 for this thing, either. The Venn diagram of people who watch old movies and people who write fanfiction cannot be that small.
It's possible I'm not remembering this right, but there's a scene near the beginning, I think, when they are driving into town and talking about beer, and Johnny sort of smacks his lips... I wouldn't have thought of this without your review of "The furies" and that cake licking scene, but it feels subtly and quietly suggestive in the context of such a queer movie? And maybe it also flew past the censorship, and it's great!
You are remembering correctly and I think you're right about the suggestiveness, too. Thank you for drawing the connection! This entire movie seems to have flown past the censors. I'm not complaining, but I can't figure out how.
(If it's useful, I found it on Archive.org. It has Spanish subtitles, but they hopefully won't get in the way too much!)
Oh, that's great! Thank you so much. I couldn't find it when I was searching earlier, but I am running extremely tired. The subtitles do not detract from the everything else of the movie.
The signet ring observation is a sharp one--my eyesight is too bad and I would have never noticed it!
I'm not sure when I did: after The Accused (1949) and I Walk Alone (1947), I think, and then I started watching for it. Now I'm thinking of Gary Cole in Office Space (1999), wearing his character's sfnal class ring from the recently canceled Crusade (1999) just because he could.
But it made me curious--I thought it could be a school ring, and while I didn't find any conclusive evidence, some of his yearbooks popped up almost immediately! Look at him!
Oh, my God, he's so young and so recognizable and I'm so glad he stopped center-parting his hair, it was doing nothing for him.
no subject
Thank you! I made the mistake of thinking that I would not have lots of feelings about this film, including I want to see an IB Tech print of this so hard. It ran on 35 mm last November at the Brattle Theatre and I had no idea. I wouldn't have been able to see it then, but it's funny how just out of reach it's been.
It's been a while since I saw this movie, but I remember really liking it. I loved Lizabeth Scott and Mary Astor, and I don't remember if I mentioned it before, but I think it's one of the movies that first made me seriously notice Wendell Corey.
Understandably! If I'd never heard of him, I would still have been writing about his part and his performance. He's as vivid as the Technicolor.
But I didn't know that this was his first movie, that's even more impressive!
He got good notices for it, too! Quite a lot of the rest of the film did not. I can understand it confusing people in 1947. It reminded me of discovering Tanith Lee.
The gender duality of Johnny's character is so interesting--a traditional sidekick, while also having traits of many noir female characters, including getting slapped. "Fellas, it is gay" sums up the movie very accurately!
I can't believe there's no fic on AO3 for this thing, either. The Venn diagram of people who watch old movies and people who write fanfiction cannot be that small.
It's possible I'm not remembering this right, but there's a scene near the beginning, I think, when they are driving into town and talking about beer, and Johnny sort of smacks his lips... I wouldn't have thought of this without your review of "The furies" and that cake licking scene, but it feels subtly and quietly suggestive in the context of such a queer movie? And maybe it also flew past the censorship, and it's great!
You are remembering correctly and I think you're right about the suggestiveness, too. Thank you for drawing the connection! This entire movie seems to have flown past the censors. I'm not complaining, but I can't figure out how.
(If it's useful, I found it on Archive.org. It has Spanish subtitles, but they hopefully won't get in the way too much!)
Oh, that's great! Thank you so much. I couldn't find it when I was searching earlier, but I am running extremely tired. The subtitles do not detract from the everything else of the movie.
The signet ring observation is a sharp one--my eyesight is too bad and I would have never noticed it!
I'm not sure when I did: after The Accused (1949) and I Walk Alone (1947), I think, and then I started watching for it. Now I'm thinking of Gary Cole in Office Space (1999), wearing his character's sfnal class ring from the recently canceled Crusade (1999) just because he could.
But it made me curious--I thought it could be a school ring, and while I didn't find any conclusive evidence, some of his yearbooks popped up almost immediately! Look at him!
Oh, my God, he's so young and so recognizable and I'm so glad he stopped center-parting his hair, it was doing nothing for him.
(He was in the glee club!)