Re: Daniel Mann and A DREAM OF KINGS
Posted: September 4th, 2012, 7:38 pm
I wish I had been able to see A Dream of Kings before our cable company went through an "upgrade" erasing hours of DVR'ed films, but your tantalizing review and the presence of Irene Pappas in this movie do make me regret this technological glitch more, (okay, I probably won't be kicking myself for missing Tony in his tidy whiteys). I have the same confusing problem with Daniel Mann and the plethora of Manns running around Hollywood at the same time, but I can report that Judith (1966) and Lost in the Stars (1974), the musical version of Alan Paton's Cry, the Beloved Country are worthwhile films. Judith, based on a story by Lawrence Durrell and with a script by John Michael Hayes, is a particularly vivid memory since the story, set in the Middle East, featured Sophia Loren as a survivor of Dachau, with Peter Finch and Jack Hawkins as pivotal figures in her life as she becomes involved in a search for a Nazi fugitive. I haven't seen it in a decade or more, but Judith (along with About Mrs. Leslie) is available streaming on Netflix (or at least it was when I had to cut them loose recently). I think that Mann was a fairly sensitive director who could coax a performance out of his actors (particularly women), but perhaps he had a problem with pacing. His movies often start off intriguingly and can get bogged down in the details of the action or the emotions being explored. I like some movies when they are leisurely rather than slam-bang, but there's gotta be a balance.
Regarding Sam Levene--my mother used to interview actors who came through our area in touring plays when she worked at a radio station in the '60s and '70s. I remember that she came home from work one day shaking her head, and headed for the kitchen for a scotch to take the edge off her day. It seems that she had to interview Mr. Levene that day and she rather innocently but politely acknowledged his film career, as well as his Broadway roots (Mom had seen him in "Three Men on a Horse" on Broadway in the '30s). All of sudden, he wheeled on her and spouted off that no one, but no one cares about that "old sh*t" and that the life of an actor was nothing to praise. Things went downhill from there from what I gathered as a kid. So I'd like to think that Sam relished a meaty part in a small film around this time when he could channel some of that vitriol into creating an honest character whose saltiness still has some sting all this time later.
Mom figured he was just tired.
Btw, The Mountain Road has been on TCM a couple of times in the last few years. It has moments, and a very good cast, though I suspect that the script should have been revised and tightened up. Have you or anyone else ever seen Daniel Mann's Hot Spell (1958)? I have heard that it is well worth seeing for Shirley Booth, Anthony Quinn, and especially Eileen Heckart.
Regarding Sam Levene--my mother used to interview actors who came through our area in touring plays when she worked at a radio station in the '60s and '70s. I remember that she came home from work one day shaking her head, and headed for the kitchen for a scotch to take the edge off her day. It seems that she had to interview Mr. Levene that day and she rather innocently but politely acknowledged his film career, as well as his Broadway roots (Mom had seen him in "Three Men on a Horse" on Broadway in the '30s). All of sudden, he wheeled on her and spouted off that no one, but no one cares about that "old sh*t" and that the life of an actor was nothing to praise. Things went downhill from there from what I gathered as a kid. So I'd like to think that Sam relished a meaty part in a small film around this time when he could channel some of that vitriol into creating an honest character whose saltiness still has some sting all this time later.
Mom figured he was just tired.
Btw, The Mountain Road has been on TCM a couple of times in the last few years. It has moments, and a very good cast, though I suspect that the script should have been revised and tightened up. Have you or anyone else ever seen Daniel Mann's Hot Spell (1958)? I have heard that it is well worth seeing for Shirley Booth, Anthony Quinn, and especially Eileen Heckart.
It's crowded in there. Crowded with creative ideas, Quinn. 
