The Silver Screen Oasis

An interesting appreciation by Greg Ferrara about Joseph Cotten on the Morlocks site tried to identify the qualities that made this actor, a unique, under-the-radar presence in so many brilliant American films, who embodied "The American Actor" for a time. Since Cotten is almost always in a film or two that is cherished by disparate people (Citizen Kane vs. Love Letters, for instance), perhaps he is worth evaluating here. Do you like Cotten or find him rather bland? Do you have a film with him that is especially dear to you?

Hope people will check in with their thoughts. Thanks.



Here's the Ferrara blog:
http://moviemorlocks.com/2013/09/01/the-american-actor/

Cotten candy...food for thought.

The Best Years of Our Lives, Love Letters, The Farmers Daughter are 3 of my favorites.

I have never thought of him as "bland", but as used in the article, I can see what the writer means; in many roles, he's a very believable "everyman". In the films I've enjoyed the most featuring Cotten he's pulled off desperate (Niagara) and creepy (Shadow of a Doubt) quite well.

"Shadow Of A Doubt" I think is the best I've seen of him. I've never thought him bland but serviceable. I don't mean that in a disparaging way either. I will confess though that he is not a particular favorite of mine.

Although I have not (yet) read his autobiography, from quotes I've read from Mr. Cotten (if accurate) it sounds as though he didn't take acting too seriously in terms of his own abilities, that it was more of a job to him, one he felt he could do successfully primarily because of his physical aspects. For example, from his IMDb page: "I was a so-called star because of my limitations and that was always the case. I couldn't do any accents. So I had to pretend. Luckily I was tall, had curly hair and a good voice. I only had to stamp my foot and I'd play the lead -- because I couldn't play character parts."

I don't find Cotten bland as an actor, although I do find he was sometimes cast to portray bland/weak characters. For example, in The Magnificent Ambersons, Eugene Morgan is a rather bland man, one with little strength of character. Ditto in Portrait of Jennie. They are men who are intelligent and capable, nice people, but are about as interesting as buttered toast. However, his Dr. Drew Bayliss in Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte has much more spice and texture.

Btw, a post above mentioned "The Best Years of Our Lives." Mr. Cotten was not in that film; the male leads were Fredric March and Dana Andrews.

Most of the Cotten films I've seen are the ones he made with AM. I should make an effort to see more of them.

He worked a lot on stage too, throughout the years, sometimes co-starring with his second wife Patricia Medina.

A preview of his autobiography, "Vanity Will Get You Somewhere" is available from Google Books.

he's a very believable "everyman".

He is, Lomm. I think that's the reason for your next observation.

In the films I've enjoyed the most featuring Cotten he's pulled off desperate (Niagara) and creepy (Shadow of a Doubt) quite well.

When the guy from the next cubicle commits atrocities, it's ten times scarier!

Cotton is not my favorite actor. But he's dependable. You know you're in good hands. I think he's at his finest when working with Mr. Welles. He's good in "Ambersons" as well as "Kane."

Not really a fan, but he is perfect in Shadow of a Doubt - Oscar worthy performance as Uncle Charlie.

I watched Shadow of a Doubt tonight. To me it was just okay, nothing special. Puzzling as to how/why this could have been Hitchcock's own favorite -- I think he made several films in the 1940s superior to this, such as Lifeboat, Spellbound, and Notorious. Cotten was okay, but I found this character again rather bland; although he had that murderous, amoral streak, most of the time it didn't show and he was just buttered toast again. Sigh. I'll try The Third Man tomorrow.

knitwit45 wrote:The Best Years of Our Lives, Love Letters, The Farmers Daughter are 3 of my favorites.

sorry, I meant Since You Went Away Those two movies are the best of the best movies of the war years. (and I hadn't had my 3rd cup of coffee yet)

Yes, I too like him in Since You Went Away -- he's got some jam on his toast in that one.

Shadow of a Doubt - is a great film and Joseph Cotton is an seasoned actor and not really a favorite of mine; and I just in some films like Niagara he's really somewhat difficult at first; and its took me several viewing of that movie to really understand his acting abilities. I have issues with him and I do consider Shadow of a Doubt is one of his finest work as an actor - but like Movieman said - he is not a favorite of mine because of Niagara when he was co-starring with Marilyn Monroe.

And, being hard of hearing - if his movies isn't closed captioned - I will not watch it because his voice is somewhat difficult to understand and he has tendencies to talk fast at certain moments of the film (any film will do) and that's makes it very difficult for me to understand him.

That's my 2 cents about Joseph Cotton.

I found that many actors just play themselves no matter the part ie John Wayne, etc. etc. etc.
But I tend to admire their acting abilities if they actually become the part.
I always thought that of Joseph Cotton. When I worked with him in Killer Is Loose I was
amazed at his personality. Don't know why but I thought he was a more serious type. Wrong. He was fun. He was
light hearted. He laughed easily. He was modest. He was considerate. He was an absolute delight to be around. So in my book he is a very fine actor as
he was so entirely different than most of the parts he played.

Always found Joe Cotten to be a reliable actor although at times he seemed to have a wax face.
I enjoyed him most in "Since You Went Away", "Shadow of a Doubt" (should have got his only Oscar nomination), "The Farmer's Daughter", "The Magnificent Ambersons", "Duel In the Sun", and "Niagara". He also had a distinct voice.