I Just Watched...

[Allhallowsday]

...Omigod! That clip opens with a very young William Duell wearing a pony tail!

Known to me as Shoe Shine Johnny in Police Squad!

It's like seeing an old friend.

You do what I do, recognize a face and remember where else I saw that face... and who is it?!

[Swithin]

Swithin, I believe you are watching what is actually on the screen, unfiltered through Welles' reputation. "But Welles is a genius and an auteur, so every moment he put on film must be great." Uh, no. You will find great stuff in some of Welles' films. Also some not so great stuff. As you discovered.

I got the impression that the film's reputation lies in the noir-ish cinematography and that opening sequence, and it's a reputation that has grown over the years. Critics of the day were not overly impressed.

I do get a kick out of Dietrich's performance as a bar owner and the way she tosses out her lines, like "You're a mess, honey" and "You should lay off those candy bars."

One thing overlooked is that the basic story of police corruption is reversed from the stereotypes of the day - that the police in Mexico are corrupt. In fact, the Hays Code, though eroding bit by bit in the late 50s, called for "special care to be exercised" when the subject matter involved law enforcement officers. The source material in the novel "Badge of Evil" did not involve the US-Mexico border towns at all and the resulting contrast between police officers of different backgrounds and moralities. This was an element Welles added to the film.

Interesting. Did you mean to say, "involved US law enforcement officers"? I.e. I doubt the Hays Code would care about police corruption that was done by non US law enforcement officers. Also, The Racket (both version), is all about US law enforcement corruption. And isn't it ironic that the Mitchum version and TOE both have Ray Collins as one of those officials. Collins didn't clean up his act until he got the Perry Mason gig!  

Having watched only 25 minutes, my assumption is that the Orson Welles character is the villain. That doesn't surprise me, since he puts on a thick southern accent, and ever since I was taken to see The Phenix City Story as a little kid, I just assume that anyone who talks like that is the evil party.

Dietrich was a hoot in the one scene I've seen with her. And yes, Heston plays a Mexican as does the wonderful Armenian actor Akim Tamiroff. Tamiroff has good experience using his Armenian accent as a sort of generic foreign accent, playing a Cuban in Anthony Adverse and a Spaniard in For Whom the Bell Tolls.

[Dargo]

CHARLTON HESTON as Mexican?

Yeah, so?!
I mean, he also played a Semitic Jew who talks to a burning bush AND a Castillian warlord who comes to dominate the Iberian Peninsula!
(...and nobody ever talks about THAT, right?!)

Y'mean he wasn't Semitic? He didn't ride his horse with cold dead hands...?

Nope, but I DO recall seein' him once driving four white horses in front of his chariot with those hands o' his, anyway.

(...btw, this now leads me to ask the following here: What movies DID Chuck here end up dying in?...I know he does in 'El Cid', anyway)

[scsu1975]

(...btw, this now leads me to ask the following here: What movies DID Chuck here end up dying in?...I know he does in 'El Cid', anyway)

Beneath the Planet of the Apes, Midway, The Omega Man and Earthquake come to mind.

[Dargo]

(...btw, this now leads me to ask the following here: What movies DID Chuck here end up dying in?...I know he does in 'El Cid', anyway)

Beneath the Planet of the Apes, Midway, The Omega Man and Earthquake come to mind.

Thanks, Rich!

I had especially forgotten that Chuck buys the farm in 'Earthquake' and while trying to save Ava.

(...a film I've only ever watched once, and that being inside Grauman's Chinese equipped with "Sensurround" back when it was first released)

[CinemaInternational]

CHARLTON HESTON as Mexican?

1960's The Unforgiven had Audrey Hepburn as a Native American....

[Swithin]

Not the Wolf Man:

[Dargo]

Not the Wolf Man:

Oh that's right! Had forgotten Creighton there co-starred in that short-lived 1950's television series 'Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans" playing the character Chingachgook.

(...good one here, Swithin)

[Swithin]

Not the Wolf Man:

Oh that's right! Had forgotten Creighton there co-starred in that short-lived 1950's television series 'Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans" playing the character Chingachgook.

(...good one here, Swithin)

One of my favorite shows as a little kid. I loved James Fenimore Cooper in all his various adaptations. We learned a lot about him in grade school, since he was sort of a local boy. My favorite of the novels is The Deerslayer. which is set around Otsego Lake in upstate New York. I went to a wedding there a few years ago (in Cooperstown), after which my family took a boat ride around the beautiful lake. Unfortunately the town has all this baseball stuff in it, though I guess it helps pay the bills. But it's so much more than that.

[Allhallowsday]

CHARLTON HESTON as Mexican?

1960's The Unforgiven had Audrey Hepburn as a Native American....

I mentioned HESTON because there was conversation about TOUCH OF EVIL. I'm also one of those who does not care for it and my first turnoff was the red face baloney.

[Allhallowsday]

...
Thanks, Rich!

I had especially forgotten that Chuck buys the farm in 'Earthquake' and while trying to save Ava.

(...a film I've only ever watched once, and that being inside Grauman's Chinese equipped with "Sensurround" back when it was first released)

My story is exactly the same except the theater was in NJ.

[Allhallowsday]

CHARLTON HESTON as Mexican?

1960's The Unforgiven had Audrey Hepburn as a Native American....

Yeah, I get it. I never liked any of the red face or yellow face or tan face baloney, like ALEC GUINNESS as Japanese. That tendency seems to have died off.

[Dargo]

...
Thanks, Rich!

I had especially forgotten that Chuck buys the farm in 'Earthquake' and while trying to save Ava.

(...a film I've only ever watched once, and that being inside Grauman's Chinese equipped with "Sensurround" back when it was first released)

My story is exactly the same except the theater was in NJ.

HEY! That wouldn't have been Gutman's Mongolian Theater in Passaic, would IT?!

(...I've heard it could rival Grauman's in Hollywood for splendor, but that its concession stand never stocked enough Jujubes)

[norfious]

I just watched "Tea and Sympathy" and I think it is interesting how many of the reviews of the film state that the plot revolved around homosexuality. Perhaps the original play did, and perhaps I am just projecting, but I got the impression that the character Tom in the film was demisexual or asexual. Those identities probably weren't well understood back when the film was made, though.

The film did a good job at showing that "different" does not mean "bad," especially since Tom was, in my opinion, the only likable character in the entire film. All the other men, with the exception of Al to some degree, were inconsiderate, judgemental, and sexist. Who would want to be "normal" if that's what was considered "normal?"

The character of Laura was quite creepy. I know she was trying to help Tom and felt sorry for him, but the ending was, in my opinion, completely inappropriate. I guess Tom was technically an adult at 18, but Laura was way too old and Tom way too young for her to go after him in that way. Yikes.

I also really disliked the fact that after Laura was with Tom, he was magically "better." Like he needed to have that experience to be considered acceptable as a person.