[u]SUE[/u] [u]SUE[/u] [u]APPLEGATE [/u] wrote:Theresa, I also enjoy how you have expanded Movie Chat. Lovely!
Thank you Christy.
One of my favorite Sanders' cads appears in The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, and his portrayal made it so apparent that he was completely wrong for Mrs. Muir, and highlighted all the reasons that Captain Gregg was right for her. His smooth approach would unsettle just about any self-respecting woman who has not been acquainted with the seamier side of love, and the typical artist's approach to sealing a woman's undying devotion by painting her as only a man in love could render on canvas, camouflaged his seedier nature like so many tufts of billowing clouds on a sunshiny day in the arbor.
Oooh, I like how you wrote that. I've got a bunch of movies to re-visit with him in it; watching it from his perspective. Georgie will be on this Thursday morning doing what he does best...terrorizing a woman:
5:00 AM - WITNESS TO MURDER (1954)
A woman fights to convince the police that she witnessed a murder. Dir: Roy Rowland Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, George Sanders, Gary Merrill.
That story is pretty amazing, fernando! And it does fit the timeline and the place exactly. It makes me wonder if this was something that haunted him? It must have been galling to live with, and I can see someone spending all their life trying to obliterate it from memory, and failing. It makes me wonder if he embraced the character of the cad or of the man too shrewd to help others almost as a defense mechanism, if he thought of himself as a coward and told everyone he was, no one else could say it about him and make it hurt. Or perhaps he was as shallow and conceited as he portrayed himself as being, and he really did hold other human lives as cheap, a very unattractive prejudice. Somehow, I can't believe it of him, I always feel there's a scared man inside of him, but stranger things have happened.
I did watch Witness to Murder already. I coudn't resist. It's a rather calm thriller, the story is not much but the John Alton lighting is perfect and it's directed pretty snappily. Both Sanders and Stanwyck give their standard good performances, as does Gary Merrill, who I like enormously here. Sanders has more to do physically than emotionally, so we really are just watching him move around, but there is one scene that is chilling, where he speaks German and you see the evil inside him. I always like these moments, Sanders' flawless pronunciation when he reverts to different languages is inspiring, and somehow this moment lets out the real nature of his character.
Jackie, I agree. Somehow I want to agree with you about your Sanders psychology and find it difficult to believe about him, but as he was imbibing with fierce dedication at that time, he might have been too drunk to attempt even a dog-paddle.
But Fernando's tale of Sander's sin of omission is haunting. It would plague me forever if I had not done something to save another human being, but then again, I am trying to attribute the parameters of my conscience to someone I never even met. To realize that Sander's portrayals might actually reflect the cynical view that he often revealed in his screen personas is chilling. But that is an all-or-none, one-dimensional philosophy, and the human soul is multi-faceted.
Sue Sue Applegate wrote:the human soul is multi-faceted.
That's why I can't imagine he didn't have some remorse or maybe even tons of regret about it. We'll never know of course. I think it totally explains his ability in his acting to play those in between parts, not the put on character he played but the real acting he did. I think the most effective role he played in relation to this story was the one in This Land Is Mine, it's just a great piece of work, full of regret and shame.it's a performance that stays with you for a long time.
Once I was in a dangerous situation and tried to run. I couldn't. I had ice water in my veins. My legs simply wouldn't move. Fortunately, the threat turned out to be mere harassment, rather than violence. I wasn't harmed. Scared to death! But no damage.
Red, when faced with that ultimate moment when a call to action presents itself, none of us ever really know how we will react to a situation. All we can do is mentally prepare.
Jackie, if he was cognizant of what he did, it certainly coloured his performances, and affected his psyche on some level.
A Sanders movie I have never seen (or remember ever reading about), CAIRO (1963), is coming on TCM January 22nd at 2:15 a.m. George appears to have a significant role, if not the most important, but other than TCM's description calling it a "remake of The Asphalt Jungle" set in Egypt, I know nothing else. But it may be worth seeing.
How interesting! I've never heard of it, either. Do you suppose Georgie plays Louis Calhern? or Sam Jaffe? I can't imagine trying to remake Asphalt Jungle, it's such a perfect film, and each character has such sadness underneath. I would imagine it might work, but that underlying gasp of dying breath that the original characters all have would be missing.
I'm not expecting it to be nearly as good and cohesive a picture as Huston's, in fact I'm wondering if it will be more like a pastiche of the international heist and spy movies that were in high gear at that time.
If nothing else, I'm sure George will look marvelous in white linen suits (which is how I'm picturing him in the movie).
"There's only one thing that can kill the movies, and that's education." -- Will Rogers
You know, sometimes I like the B heist movies or remakes of more important films, there is less sturm and drang and they can be entertaining in their own way.
there is less sturm and drang and they can be entertaining in their own way.
That's why I like B features in general. There's an utter lack of pretense that's satisfying. It's direct storytelling, with no frills. No steak tonight. Just a big, fat hamburger!
I just watched the moon and sixpence again...i think i said this once before, it's a movie that gets better to me each viewing. i think it may have been sanders' best work, he's so curiously in tune with the fascinating character "charles strickland", especially at the end when all the usual Georgisms are dropped. though Gauguin was French-Peruvian and George is definitely anything but, he seems quite a kindred spirit.
"There's only one thing that can kill the movies, and that's education." -- Will Rogers
