 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Posted: |
Jan 17, 2017 - 1:04 PM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Howard L
(Member)
|
Look forward to your dissertation. But looking with more anticipation to the screening in a few hours.
Indeed, it was what I expected from a T. Williams work: Southern setting; Maturity/Coming-of-age, sexual and otherwise; Religion a/k/a God as a weapon employed by the righteous and self-righteous; Effects, for better or worse, of the older generation upon the younger; Devastation.
Oh and "clean white suits." Sebastian Venable, anyone?
This has a 1961 marking and it was not hard to be reminded of Splendor In The Grass of the same year. The Williams play, however, preceded the Inge on Broadway. Nevertheless, the films make good companion pieces.
"They say the pyrotechnic display is going to be brilliant." This line was pure allegorical set-up.
"I'm more afraid of your soul than you are of my body." This line a sum-up.
""All of us are in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars!" This quote deliciously wicked irony.
The credit "Based on..." signaled to me that once again changes to the playwright's original intentions occurred from stage to screen. To that end, I expected something of an upbeat ending. Heh, didn't happen. 'Twas more like a surprise switcheroo, bridged by the character of "Nelly." Perhaps more on that later.
My attention was held the entire viewing. My only experience with Geraldine Page prior to this had been the glorious The Trip To Bountiful and an about-face supporting role in The Pope Of Greenwich Village. Das eet. It's not like I'm not aware of her career, just have never caught the other biggies. Point being that her Alma captivated me, could not help but be reminded of F. Murray Abraham's Best Actress announcement and his genuflection when Miss Page approached the podium. She was Oscar worthy all right in TTTB and I thought she was that good here as well. Almost like seeing "Mrs. Watts" in younger days!
Laurence Harvey was fine. At times he sounded like Orson Welles with maybe a touch of Paul Frees, I dunno. The jury is still out, I guess, as to whether I can see him as the son of John McIntyre in both character and portrayer. But gotta love Rita Moreno doing the dance of the seven veils routine. 
Una Merkel in look and character mirrored Jo Van Fleet's same in East Of Eden with regard to the married-to-the-preacher/Preacher (and undoubtedly sexually repressed) type. It was obviously hard not to think of that film, too. That's not a knock. Her mood swings [add Streetcar into the mix for this and other aspects] and those of Alma and Johnny were mighty powerful and powerful moments for this viewer.
I was very impressed with this picture. Am going to hold off researching professional critical responses until finishing with my non-professional own.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Nice enough review Howard, but did you happen to notice the music at all ??
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
Jan 19, 2017 - 9:16 AM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Howard L
(Member)
|
There's a place for Andy Hardy movies in anyone's lifetime. Who wouldn't want to inhabit that world.
When viewed in the prism of 40s family friendly fare, SAS is about as heretical as it could get. No cardboard cutouts here. Oh, Alma is the girl-next-door and all with the prim and proper appearance requisite to a preacher's daughter. And she teaches music to boot! She is also complex, lonesome, self-aware and at war with herself and her parents, particularly Mother who holds Alma hostage. At times Alma acts like Mother, whose mood can turn viciously on a dime.
The war within herself is brought out by a growing dependence on "sleeping pills." Insomnia may be the effect but stirrings of passion is the underlying cause. And they must be quelled.
Both she and the boy-next-door are trapped and torn between two worlds. For him, the calling of his doctor father is but a profession and secondary to his debauched leanings; for her, the calling of her father noble and admirable. And her cross to bear. As such she reflects both parents. Was Mother driven to manic depressive klepto swings out of repression because sex feelings are dirty? Mother's big mouth humiliated and shamed Alma and threatened her romance with the boy next door. Is Alma becoming Ma?
It appeared so when Alma called Johnny's father in Ohio. It benefited Johnny in the long term. What she did was the best thing for him even if he didn't know it. But she also sabotaged her chances of true love with the only one she wanted. And she didn't know it.
Irony. Mood swings. Oh did Johnny too suffer from those. The unkindest cut was his father's death bed condemnation. And yet it led to transformation! I'm not going to overlook the stabbing incident. It too was a wake-up call and a contributing factor. But sometimes severe reproach is taken as a challenge, as in oh-yeah-I'll-show-him. It becomes not a killer but an effective motivator.
Alma and Johnny cheated each other of happiness both individually and as a prospective couple. When she is characterized as "having gotten over the crisis" it is to devastating consequence. For him, however, it is to redemption and a sense of purpose. Balance between the carnal and spiritual. Funny how motivation of both extremes--godly or condemnatory--sometimes leads to wholly opposite intended outcomes.
Brother. Andy Hardy movie turned inside out on its head.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
Jan 24, 2017 - 1:45 PM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Howard L
(Member)
|
Hey everybody out there in FSMLand, this am one great CD! Is anybody there? Does anybody care?? Does anybody see what I see (and hear)???
We've talked about albums that all you have to do is read the track titles, listen, and damn if the composer isn't telling a story. Maestro Bernstein is a master storyteller. TKAM alone puts him in that instant Hall of Fame and SAS keeps him there. OK the latter came before the former yeah I know but that's m'point, SAS has got to be one of the finest and least heard works of this master storyteller.
Oh man do I love talking about the scoring of a film and then the soundtrack when both are worth a damn. Right from the get-go with Prologue I practically shouted he's doing it again, telling a story! So let's come and go back and forth and do it justice:
SAS opened with a prologue with kids dressed up in Halloween accoutrements romping around in early evening. A little piano flourish underneath brought a huge grin. I knew what I was in for. I fell in love with Elmer Bernstein's score right then and there.
Guess I wasn't kidding. Listening to Prologue on its own forces me to add there are elements of mystery and something ominous i.e. danger ahead.
There followed the opening credits. The music was tender followed by dramatic. Echoes of To Kill A Mockingbird to come. In fact, it is a marvelous precursor to his magnum opus. Piano, oboe, lower strings--they're all there.
Prelude to my ears has a wisp of The Great Escape too at the beginning. Pretty sure it underscored the prison camp. Not to mention TKAM's Radley house. It's a rather Herrmannesque sound that requires one to see & hear clips to catch m'drift. Or daft. Anyway, there follows something that has the feel (sound) of a journey ahead.
Oh there's a little bit of the comical too: Rosa the vamp (sex!) is underscored by something fluttery akin to Jem telling the tale of Boo Radley.
Spot-on HL. Radley all the way. But add sultry and slinky to Rosa Enters and that's the story.
Almost. John Comes Home Changed/Decision/Hat Snatcher positively makes me want to see the film again. Here the Rosa theme is interpolated but it has an added twist that to me made it sound "Rosa" from Alma's point of view. And oh that twisted theme for Mother!
...Mother Winemiller is treated with a waltz that like her is slightly off-kilter.
That is an understatement. Mother's Waltz instantly brought to mind Herrmann's The Miser's Waltz because both captured something sinister. But Bernstein's waltz? Off-kilter, twisted, sinister...and perverted. And hideous when he sneaks it into Alma's Dilemma. You can almost see Salieri celebrating the crazy at the end of Amadeus if you'll permit a cinematic metaphor. Let's just sum things up and say this theme for Mother may be the music that intrigues me the most. It may be Bernstein at his most creative.
Oh and Alma's Dilemma starts with a Sarde'-like symphonic feel that develops into an ambiance that brings to my mind a favorable comparison to Waxman's approach to Come Back Little Sheba. And that makes sense in that both are stage-to-screen adaptations dealing with women protagonists trapped in difficult romances. Anyway, there's a beautiful oboe passage near the track's end that I must go back to because of a nagging ear association that says oh does this have a familiar ring.
Those little piano ruffles underscore mystery... as the track A Stranger in the House further attests.
The addition of harp made the intimate scenes in the doctor's office among my favorites.
When that harp struck John's Patient...well, what I said before is confirmed. I'll only add this cue connoted a gothic atmosphere. In retrospect, it makes sense. Throw in something like The Secret Garden feel for good measure.
Herrmann...Waxman...Kaper. Mentor-like influences on EB? Maybe. For sure, they and he made great film music. And I have eight more tracks to go!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
