The Big Sleep; or: Films that don't make any sense; or: Howard Hawks: classic or dud?

I like Arthur, so I now think that part of my negative reaction towards the film might have something to do with the way in which it is set up, in the first 20 minutes or so, to be her story. Thomson claims that it is through her eyes that the viewer is allowed into the world of these guys, but Hawks is inconsistent in his employment of her character, dropping her whenever his attention drifts elsewhere. I would have liked more clash between her sunny, though perhaps idealistic, worldview and the gritty realm that Grant and co. inhabit, but that seems to be what the movie is about only, like, 20% of the time.

Part of the tension is that any other actress would have revealed the weakness you describe. You think Hepburn, Stanwyck, or Dunne would have allowed themselves to get sidelined?

Feel sorry for Jean Arthur in some of her later films, such as Shane and A Foreign Affair, liked her in Only Angels Have Wings but haven't seen in three decades so need to revisit.

She's good in Easy Living (script by Preston Sturges), The More the Merrier, and a few others. She was never a favorite of mine -- playing for cutes.

rather than a hardworking director just trying to put together an entertaining film from a script he'd been given to shoot.

I don't think this is remotely accurate, btw. From quite early on Hawks was able to choose certain kinds of material and/or shape what he was given into something very personal and idiosyncratic; for a large part of his career he acted as his own producer. By temperament, he was far too lordly, cold, steel-willed etc to be an underling for long. The repetition in Hawks' work, across different genres, with different writers and actors, of certain stock situations and certain ways of ppl relating to each other and expressing (or not) their feelings isn't just some happy accident of the studio system.

Arthur is super in A Foreign Affair

Hawks also rewrote most of his films uncredited.

Arthur is super in /A Foreign Affair/

they are the yin and yang of it

“Word has reached me that you are having fun on the set. This must stop.”
is my alltime favourite. (From Jack Warner to Howard Hawks when making The Big Sleep.)

— Fredrik Gustafsson (@fredrikonfilm) March 20, 2018

ha, love it

Koresky examines the queerness of Blondes

https://www.filmcomment.com/blog/queer-now-1953/

does Rio Bravo benefit from knowledge of Hawks' body of work like Liberty Valance or is it less a valedictory piece since HH worked in so many genres? watched I Was a Male War Bride last night, masterpiece

Not really. It's Hawks presenting his version of how High Noon <should> have gone, so you might want to check that out for reference.

id watch a couple of his earlier westerns, at least Red River

I've seen in order of preference-

I Was a Male War Bride
Red River
Bringing Up Baby
The Big Sleep
Only Angels Have Wings
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
Twentieth Century
To Have and Have Not
His Girl Friday

strange. "His Girl Friday" sounds so promising but when friends & I saw it recently, it was unbearable. surprising, counter-intuitive performance by Cary Grant, obviously misdirected in this role. & Rosalind Russell grating. & script ridiculous. (otherwise, a "classic"!) https://t.co/YfmRLnlSom

— Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates) March 13, 2020

Wow, wrong

no wronger film opinion possible.

dave kehr retweeted this and said "blocked"

Think she used to be good, at least back in the days when Martin Skidmore walked the earth, but yeah.

JCO is someone who probably just shouldn't tweet, i've seen so many ppl repost incredibly bad takes from her

I always enjoy His Girl Friday, but I guess that's one of the many reasons I've never opened a Twitter account: blocking someone because they disagree with you about a film makes no sense to me at all. (Even though I agree with Kael's contention that it would be difficult to have a relationship with someone--a real-life relationship--if you disagree about films all the time.)

As when people here announce that they're FP'ing someone for a bad take or failed joke, announcing that you're blocking someone on twitter is a way of making fun of the poster; the system does not autopost the word "blocked" if you use it.

fp'd

His Girl Fp'd

So you are saying maybe I shouldn’t sign up for that Master Class of hers that I keep seeing on YouTube?

final season of bojack horseman has an extended his girl friday parody

Boy, Ball of Fire sucks, eh? Lethargic, almost geriatric. Not one of the seven encyclopedists is funny. Coop looks sexy on occasion but is otherwise out of his element. Stanwyck played this character with a better script and direction in The Lady Eve, where Charles Coburn is as amusing as seven men and Fonda plays a better dork.

I didn’t mind it last time I saw it, I certainly like the part with Gene Krupa - and Roy Eldridge for a few seconds, depending on which print you see- but I remembering before feeling the same way as you describe, and remember Paul Schrader saying something similar.

as far as sexxxx appeal Dana Andrews >>>>> Coop

Can't speak to that, but I'll take your word for it.

Paul Schrader made his statement at this event: https://www.nytimes.com/1993/02/20/movies/the-auteur-theory-of-film-holy-or-just-full-of-holes.html