The Best Menckenesque Character !
The Best Menckenesque Character !
Arthur Kennedy was great in Elmer Gantry while Gene Kelly was very good in Inherit the Wind . That both actors were Irish American goes without saying !
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moira finnie
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I think these Menckenesque characters must be fun to play for actors. Several who immediately came to mind are:
Joseph Wiseman, as one of the few literate people among the rebels in Viva Zapata is the ultimate cynic as agent provacateur.
Kirk Douglas as the reporter in Ace in the Hole has no respect for anyone or anything other than his own ambition, or does he?
Arthur Kennedy reprised his cynical reporter in Lawrence of Arabia (playing a character based on Lowell Thomas).
Of course, Cary Grant should be mentioned for the very amusing editor in His Girl Friday.
Robert Ryan played an acidic character as the newspaper editor of Montgomery Clift in Lonelyhearts.
Joseph Wiseman, as one of the few literate people among the rebels in Viva Zapata is the ultimate cynic as agent provacateur.
Kirk Douglas as the reporter in Ace in the Hole has no respect for anyone or anything other than his own ambition, or does he?
Arthur Kennedy reprised his cynical reporter in Lawrence of Arabia (playing a character based on Lowell Thomas).
Of course, Cary Grant should be mentioned for the very amusing editor in His Girl Friday.
Robert Ryan played an acidic character as the newspaper editor of Montgomery Clift in Lonelyhearts.
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moira finnie
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Hey Mel,
Lynn Overman is a good choice! He seemed to excel at playing the lazier journalist who seemed to get most of his tips by eavesdropping on more enterprising types, didn't he?
Last night's airing of Inherit the Wind on TCM should've reminded us of how well written a role and nimbly acted the most Menckenesque fictional reporter of them was in that movie. Playing a fictional version of the great malcontent Mencken, he seemed to really relish such phrases as "it is the duty of a newspaper to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable." The reporter and actor: Gene Kelly!
I've read that Kelly felt terribly inadequate sharing the screen with Tracy and March! I think it's a shame that he didn't do more drama, especially since I was impressed recently with his performance in a very early movie in his career, The Cross of Lorraine. Has anyone else seen this one?
I love the last exchange that the playwrights Robert Lee and Jerome Lawrence gave Henry Drummond(Spencer Tracy) with Hornbeck (Kelly):
Henry Drummond: You poor slob! You're all alone. When you go to your grave, there won't be anybody to pull the grass up over your head. Nobody to mourn you. Nobody to give a damn. You're all alone.
E. K. Hornbeck: You're wrong, Henry. You'll be there. You're the type. Who else would defend my right to be lonely?
Lynn Overman is a good choice! He seemed to excel at playing the lazier journalist who seemed to get most of his tips by eavesdropping on more enterprising types, didn't he?
Last night's airing of Inherit the Wind on TCM should've reminded us of how well written a role and nimbly acted the most Menckenesque fictional reporter of them was in that movie. Playing a fictional version of the great malcontent Mencken, he seemed to really relish such phrases as "it is the duty of a newspaper to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable." The reporter and actor: Gene Kelly!
I've read that Kelly felt terribly inadequate sharing the screen with Tracy and March! I think it's a shame that he didn't do more drama, especially since I was impressed recently with his performance in a very early movie in his career, The Cross of Lorraine. Has anyone else seen this one?
I love the last exchange that the playwrights Robert Lee and Jerome Lawrence gave Henry Drummond(Spencer Tracy) with Hornbeck (Kelly):
Henry Drummond: You poor slob! You're all alone. When you go to your grave, there won't be anybody to pull the grass up over your head. Nobody to mourn you. Nobody to give a damn. You're all alone.
E. K. Hornbeck: You're wrong, Henry. You'll be there. You're the type. Who else would defend my right to be lonely?
H L Mencken
Just remembered, Al Bridge, one of Preston Sturges' gang; Ex:
The Miracle of Morgan's Creek' ..... mel
The Miracle of Morgan's Creek' ..... mel