Douglas Sirk

Finished the 1934 Imitation of Life (“I want my quack-quack,” indeed); then started up the Sirk version and watched through the Christmas scene before turning in for the night. This movie just vibrates on an incredible frequency… there’s nothing like it.

Think I finally need to watch Summer Storm.

I’ve been watching Imitation in chunks… due in part to time constraints, but also to “savor” it yet purposefully dilute its impact, in a way. Certain scenes are almost overwhelming to me, even after multiple past viewings. I’m not generally affected by films, on that kind of an emotional level. This one’s a masterpiece, though, and it seems to become more powerful as I get older.

OTM. There’s some clunkiness with the nominal leads which needs to be put in perspective, the same way the romantic leads in Marx Brothers movies need to be ignored, and sometimes one has to overcome any kind of initial resistance to the message and being preached to, but man does it pack a punch.

still need to read that book, Born to Be Hurt.

Just thinking about the scene when Juanita Moore brings the snowboots to school and young Sarah Jane slides under her desk in mortification might make me well up a bit.

xp Huh, I’ve never heard of that book… just looked it up.

Have you ever read Movie Love in the Fifties? I read it years ago, and loved it. I don’t really know anything about the guy, but his passion and analysis are wonderful. (He also has a very good, though somewhat different, book about 1930s romantic comedies.)

That book is kind of famous but I haven’t read. Took the other one out of the library recently but didn’t really have enough time to dig into it

It's a marvelous book; it's rare that I agree with every one of a critic's insights like I do Harvey's about IOL.

The 1934 version is good in its own way. Colbert is well-cast.

Think I finally need to watch Summer Storm.

James – I watched this over the weekend (knew nothing about it). Have you seen it yet?

No

I remark that it is still available on TUBI though.

George Sanders and Linda Darnell though. I liked them in Forever Amber and Hangover Square. And Edward Everett Horton!

It is indeed on Tubi, and worth watching. Very good script and performances… It’s “literary”-feeling (based on a Chekhov novel), but in a way that works. Darnell is really something… first time I’ve seen her, I think.

Buncha Sirks on Prime rn: Heaven Allows; Magnificent Obsession; Written On The Wind; Tarnished Angels; A Scandal In Paris; and Lured.

ooh written on the wind is on there now!? yay!

no dice: wrriten on the wind doesn’t come up on my search >:(

You have to search that one by title, it just got added last night and doesn't show up under a Sirk search.

I should give Heaven and Mag Obsession another shot… neither was a favorite, but probably time to revisit.

i did search by title! it’s not on Prime that i can find currently

That's weird. It's showing up for me on a title search five slots downscreen (between the rentable A Summer Place and the streamable Pal Joey) on my laptop with a VHS cover for some reason.

wotw came up on prime for me when i searched by the title, i'm in the us. one of my fave sirks

grr stupid prime

ah found it

third time was a charm

Imitation of Life and There's Always Tomorrow coming to Prime in August!

Cool!

I probably won't follow through on this, but what fun it would be to run an "Asshole Kids from Douglas Sirk Films" button poll.

I've got:

--The sons from All That Heaven Allows & There's Always Tomorrow (conveniently played by the same actor)
--The daughter in All That Heaven Allows
--Susan Koener in Imitation of Life
--The daughter in Magnificent Obsession
--Stack & Malone in Written On The Wind

Most of them end up coming to Jesus, or at the very least end up meeting Him.

the son & daughter from All That Heaven Allows are all-time assholes, i want to fight them every time i watch the movie

XP My pick would be the son from ATHA, for the whole "Mom, you're not going to sell the house (to go live with Rock" ---> "Mom, we're selling the house (since Rock is safely out of the picture)" narrative arc.

when that fkn piece of shit son buys her a goddamn tv set and doesnt come home for christmas i’m googling his college to send a hit squad to his dorm room

THE NERVE OF THESE FUCKIN KIDS

very very into the getting furious at ppl in Douglas Sirk movies movement

also Rock Hudson’s cool besties who catch lobsters & have key parties w the local townfolk? so down

the son & daughter from All That Heaven Allows are all-time assholes, i want to fight them every time i watch the movie

― werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl),

all-time villains. I want to defenestrate the son and ensure he falls in hot tar.

when that fkn piece of shit son buys her a goddamn tv set and doesnt come home for christmas i’m googling his college to send a hit squad to his dorm room

forgot about this but now I'm pissed off all over again!

Stack & Malone in Written On The Wind

I think it was Robin Wood who suggested that these two become sympathetic figures as the movie goes on, and Hudson and Bacall are seen as self-righteous scolds.

also Rock Hudson’s cool besties who catch lobsters & have key parties w the local townfolk? so down

― werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Sunday, September 29, 2024 4:25 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

seriously, been on the lookout for this crew irl ever since i saw the movie

you know who else i've wanted irl since i saw the film all that heaven allows dir douglas sirk (1955)?

rock hudson

I think it was Robin Wood who suggested that these two become sympathetic figures as the movie goes on, and Hudson and Bacall are seen as self-righteous scolds.

― Halfway there but for you,

Yep. David Thomson too.

I think it was Robin Wood who suggested that these two become sympathetic figures as the movie goes on, and Hudson and Bacall are seen as self-righteous scolds.

― Halfway there but for you,

Yep. David Thomson too.

Well, the term is relative. The daughter in Magnificent Obsession redeems herself by the halfway point of her film too.

I didn’t realize or remember, until Sirk mentioned it in that interview, that James Dean had an early role in a film of his… Has Anybody Seen My Gal?

― Wooly Bully (2005 Remaster) (morrisp), Sunday, January 7, 2024 1:54 PM (nine months ago) bookmarkflaglink

Kino put out a Blu this year that I picked up in their most recent sale and screened this afternoon. It's the most subdued '50s musical, modest little production numbers spread out in a confectioner's choice satire of pre-Depression small town (pre-suburban) mores. The jerk son from ATHA & TAT plays a nice guy! An endearing deep cut, and yeah, James Dean has bit role that he totally owns. Kid was going places.

Comp of his German films coming up from Eureka.

Saw that, very tempted

It’s interesting to me that All That Heaven Allows was so influential; whenever I watch it, I find it somewhat difficult to engage with. Even the “forbidden love” plot feels so thin, bc Hudson’s character isn’t really anybody. If anything, I guess the movie feels most about Wyman’s character taking control of her own life, and the romance story feels like a fairly rickety mechanism to express that theme.

It is a little funny how Hudson seems like the least outdoorsy outdoorsman ever… that never-been-worn jacket, lol (just found this interesting web page on his wardrobe).

To put it another way, the film feels to me like a somewhat rote contrivance – as opposed to the hugely creative, audacious, and deeply involving contrivance of something like Written on the Wind.

Had the very same reaction at a screening of it last year. The Hudson character in the first part of the film simply isn't believable. The reformed version of him is believable, but that's as you say a contrivance. (I initially read "rote contrivance" as "role contrivance" and I guess both are accurate).

whereas it's slowly become my friend, in part because the domestic scenario -- the tensions between Wyman and her awful, awful kids -- convinces me. Wyman deserves credit for its believability.

*become my favorite lol

Hudson is totally unbrlievable yes but I don't see why a wish fulfillment fantasy dreamboat in a melodrama should be realistic!