The Silver Screen Oasis

Hi,

Continuing on with Mr. Arkadin's suggestion that we discuss May 14th TCM movies:

"The Killing"...
I've never seen this movie before and since I love Marie Windsor, and I'm taking next week to sit on my ass for 7 days (I'm too pooped to move), I'll watch it...
Love Sterling Haydon too...

Larry

Ms Windsor is a delight in her wickedness. Seeing her in her lingerie is VERY NICE also.

Hi Larry, The Killing is an interesting film. Elisha Cook Jr., Windsor, and Hayden do a great job here. The only flaw I find in the movie is the annoying voiceover that makes me feel like I'm being paged in a department store. Other than that, it's a great film.

Mr. Arkadin wrote:
"The only flaw I find in the movie is the annoying voiceover that makes me feel like I'm being paged in a department store."

So many people point to that voice-over as an inherent weakness in THE KILLING. In a certain sense they are right, but only because Kubrick chose to write it in a clunky manner which, on the surface, seems to be a parody of the type of thing heard on DRAGNET (which, at the time THE KILLING was made, was still a popular TV program). If Kubrick had allowed Jim Thompson, the brilliant crime novelist who wrote the incredibly memorable dialogue in THE KILLING, pen the narration as well, it no doubt would have been less jarring. Thompson, incidentally, had to sue Kubrick in order to have his writing credit established on screen--a nasty and shameful bit of business that haunts an otherwise fantastic film.
It's also worth noting that without the aforementioned voice-over, THE KILLING would be totally confusing (possibly incoherent even) due to the eliptical cutting style Kubrick chose for the film. Watch it again with this in mind and you'll probably see what I mean. This is one film that certainly warrants repeat viewings!

As I mentioned on another thread, I did like this movie, but I still think the caper, as executed, was so full of holes as to make one totally surprised it worked at all. As the heist progressed, and Hayden, all 6'5" of him, walked around in plain sight, I kept thinking "Oh, come ON now!!"

And the psycho in the parking lot. Could he have been more noticeable and memorable to witnesses? The mission was doomed to failure, if only because of its perpetrators glaring incompetence. I'm afraid that in the end, I felt no sympathy for them.

I like parts of "The Killing," but it doesn't hold together as a whole for me. Gad, I may even like "The Asphalt Jungle" better.

Still, I like Ted DeCorscia, who just seems to exude an atmosphere of sleaziness, although for th elife of me I can't see what he does that is so essential to the heist.

My favorite line might be the one that starts the fight at the bar: "How about some service, you fat Irish pig?"

While it wasn't as much of a character study as say "The Killers" I do like the film. I also like caper films. I think you can guess what's going to happen at the Airport the minute you see the women and her pampered Dog. Starts off great but seems to run out of steam at the climax, with the 2 cops walking towards the camera it was like Ok, thats enough, lets end it...But you gotta love Timothy Carey ,who Kubrick used in Path of Glory. Carey has a real strange film presence , he excelled at playing psychotic and crazy,doomed characters.

vallo

vallo wrote:While it wasn't as much of a character study as say "The Killers" I do like the film. I also like caper films. I think you can guess what's going to happen at the Airport the minute you see the women and her pampered Dog. Starts off great but seems to run out of steam at the climax, with the 2 cops walking towards the camera it was like Ok, thats enough, lets end it...But you gotta love Timothy Carey ,who Kubrick used in Path of Glory. Carey has a real strange film presence , he excelled at playing psychotic and crazy,doomed characters.


vallo

Agree wholeheartedly. Carey was so weird and so amazing - every time I see him in a movie I say "Huh???" but I can't take my eyes off him. He's sort of analgous to a cinematic Tiny Tim. Carey was in a lot of movies, always the hit man, the lunatic, the dangerous character. He produced and directed one of his own, called "The World's Greatest Sinner." I still haven't seen it, but I'd love to. Anyone familiar with it?

Those who are interested may want to take a look at his bio on IMDb - it's rather lengthy, but here's an excerpt:

Has a uniquely twisted screen presence that many great directors tried, and often failed, to harness. He was the only man Elia Kazan ever physically attacked on the set. Marlon Brando cast him in One-Eyed Jacks (1961) and ended up, in desperation and frustration, stabbing him with a pen. When John Cassavetes came to his house for the first time, Carey made him wear a bulky, padded suit and then turned his attack dog loose on him. Despite this odd happening, Cassevetes later declared that Carey had the "brilliance of Eisenstein."

What a distinction -- the only man Elia Kazan ever physically attacked on the set. Born Timothy Agoglia, he was from Brooklyn. Where else?

With a name like Timothy Carey I was afraid that he was Irish, who are known the world over for the mild mannerness and total lack of ill temperment

ken123 wrote:With a name like Timothy Carey I was afraid that he was Irish, who are known the world over for the mild mannerness and total lack of ill temperment

Well, Ken, since Carey was from Brooklyn, it's not at all out of the realm of possibility that he wore many ethnic hats. I know I do. But I am very sorry to say that to my knowledge I have no Irish heritage, except for being an old-time New Yorker, and for having for a time gone to school in an Irish neighborhood, where I was Irish by association, thanks to the kindness of my classmates. (I was the only brunette in the class!)

All New Yorkers are civil and kind, don't you know, but we can't deny our roots, nor do we want to. I'm always telling people who go too far "Hey, don't get my Italian up!"

In the Chicago neighborhood that I grew up in, North Austin, it was almost entirely Irish and Italian, with a few " others ".