The Silver Screen Oasis

Ma cher moira, I'm very excited about November 30th, felicitations! Can't wait to see you and the Jean Gabin film. How brilliant it will all be!

Thanks again, everyone. This surreal experience keeps getting better in unexpected ways. One thing I can tell you: everyone I met at TCM really was as great to me as visitors to the film festivals and other events have mentioned many times in the past. From the kindness extended by Jeff Stafford, who asked me to do this, to the young lady who did my makeup (she was really good, since she seemed to erase that scared rabbit look I normally have). I just wish I could remember the lady's name.

Robert Osborne, (he's so tall) was very patient and as well-mannered as everyone says. Sean Cameron, who oversees the whole magilla of shooting the intros and outros that RO shoots in bunches, even allowed me to wander around the set touching all the stuff and searching out a lamp I've always coveted on the RO set. I'll try to put together a coherent account for you over the weekend. Thanks again.

Ooh, no one ever mentioned that RO is TALL...... Silly me, I probably would faint dead away...how EVER did you manage to be coherent????
Really looking forward to your account, and your 5 minutes of fame with Mr.O. sigh

Moira:

How did you arrive at choosing your film?

Moira, I'm so happy for you and what a great movie to chose. I'd love to hear all about it.

Any chance for the international contributors to this site to get to see your segment Moira? Perhaps someone has the know how to load it on to our pages, I'd love to see our other members segements too, if possible

movieman1957 wrote:Moira: How did you arrive at choosing your film?

I have always liked Jean Gabin, but when I saw him play "Max the Liar" in Touchez Pas Au Grisbi, I realized that this was a philosophical gangster movie that took the genre in a different direction, commenting on the passage of time, the depth of loyalties, and the waning power of the world's glitzier amusements as a person matures--all of which are illustrated without acknowledging things in an obvious way. These issues are not spelled out in dialogue so much but in the leading man's subtle facial expressions and body language. Gabin, in his '50s when he made this movie, resembles a bored, impeccably groomed tom cat who's spent his life in an alley he calls his own. There is some narration by him in my favorite scene when he is alone at night in his apartment that reveal his inner life, which also leaks out in a few pointed remarks he makes, and the moments when he expends his energy out of necessity, according to his own values.

Much of the dialogue is quietly amusing with Gabin's character commenting tersely on the people and the world around him. There is almost no acknowledgement of the police as a force in in every day life of these guys. Their criminal activities are almost nil (though a load of gold stolen from Orly is only peripheral to the action, trying to get rid of it in order to maintain a balance in life becomes problematical). That's pretty typical of director Jacques Becker's movies in general, though this one helped to kick off a long string of French noirs that were different from the American originals and not an echo of them (there are those who believe there would be no Riffifi (1955) Bob le Flambeur (1956) or Le Cercle Rouge (1970) without Touchez Pas...".

There is quite a lot of sudden physical action near the end, but the matter-of-fact way that Gabin's minor gangster goes about his daily activities is the real show. He realizes that more of life is behind him rather than ahead, and acknowledges that with a shrug and a calm approach as he tries to protect his (rather dim) right hand man, realizes the changing nature of the underworld, and his own small ambition for the future. No grandiose "Scarface-like" scenes occur. As a matter of fact it is probably the quietest gangster movie I've ever seen, though that makes the bursts of violence more dramatic. Btw, it isn't emphasized, but Gabin's character appears to have or had some kind of liaison with every female in the movie, which might be part of the reason he wants out. His deepest feelings are not for most of these babes either. This movie was a very big hit in France and the rest of the world when it was released, leading to a big comeback for Jean Gabin, whose postwar films had not been very successful and whose style was often undervalued by the nouvelle vague critics in his own country.

Other familiar actors at the very beginning of their career who are featured in this movie are a very young Jeanne Moreau and Lino Ventura (who had been a wrestler up until then).

charliechaplinfan wrote:Moira, I'm so happy for you and what a great movie to chose. I'd love to hear all about it.

Any chance for the international contributors to this site to get to see your segment Moira? Perhaps someone has the know how to load it on to our pages, I'd love to see our other members segements too, if possible

I will try to see if I can work on this for you if and when they become available on the TCM site. I am really interested in the other choices made for this too, all of which I enjoyed when I last saw them some time ago.

Congratulations, Moira! How wonderful. Hope you have fun.

Jean Gabin is a great actor, he has a great ecomony when playing, a reservedness but powerful, I'm not sure he has his equivalent in american cinema but his breadth and ability to play blue collar as well as white collar workers reminds me of Spencer Tracy.

Looking forward to seeing you, and your pick for the evening. I've never seen the movie. Very happy and excited for you.

Thanks, Mike, Alison and Jacqueline. I have been overwhelmed with the many well-wishes everyone has extended. It should be quite a variety-packed evening on TCM.

Congratulations, Moira! You can be sure that I will be watching your TV debut on TCM with Robert O.
Isn't he a genuine gent? One of the best.
Although I've never seen the film you chose, I'll have my bag of popcorn in hand to enjoy it.
I'll also be looking forward to "Dracula's Daughter" which is a great Universal horror film.
Can't wait, my friend.
P.S. You look like Lucy!

Thanks, Joe.

So far I am apparently "vying with" Maureen O'Hara, Deborah Kerr, Agnes Moorehead and Lucille Ball. Okay, gang. Time for that semi-annual checkup with the optometrist. But thank you anyway. The red hair (with many streaks of gray shot through it) is the ONLY thing similar to those mighty talents.

So I shouldn't say Piper Laurie??

...And speaking of mighty talents, I doubt any of those ladies could hold a candle to your writing.

I am still shaking my head ... and I'm very happy for you Moira! ... This is an once in a lifetime opportunity for you and I am looking forward to that. Man, I would move mountains if I can do a review on any of the Hayworth's movies. Moira ... Congratulations again!