OTTO PREMINGER, S / D

well, he was rebirthed by tasteful aliens.

Morbs, have you seen Where The Sidewalk Ends? Pretty good, even if Gene Tierney's a drip.

long ago, I think. Just got Fallen Angel from library.

I'm perversely tempted by that Otto/Milton Berle co-star thing next week.

the only twinbill i may get to the rest of the retro might be The Fan/ Forever Amber

I saw When The Sidewalk Ends once at random as the second half of a double during some noirfest years back and remember being pleasantly surprised.

I might could try to see that twinbill next Tuesday, Morbs.

Fallen Angel is deliciously put together, even if Alice Faye is kind of an annoying simp; her walk through the town w/ Dana Andrews, and her arrest in San Francisco, are one-take tours de force. Great scene of dirty ex-cop Charles Bickford working over sleazy suspect Bruce Cabot.

The first ten minutes (in that bar) are wonderful, aren't they?

I lover "BEER" on both sides of the front door too.

I've riffled through that new Otto bio; Dullea def not fond of OP... more from M Musto:

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/dailymusto/archives/2008/01/foster_hirsch_a.php

musto was also at the BL screening

yes, he gives rundown.

Otto wanted Dr. King to play a senator in Advise & Consent. Yes, MLK.

Destroy w/ extreme prejudice: Skidoo

I saw this when I was about 8 (no, not when it first came out), so I'd love to see it again

how was Forever Amber, ken?

joe, one Dullea monster story, plz!

Dullea and bio author Foster Hirsch were interviewed on WFMU a couple weeks ago. Listen to it at: http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/SE (it's the January 7 show)

Worth the listen

FYI to LA ILXors, there's a Preminger tribute starting now at the American Cinematheque: http://egyptiantheatre.com/archive1999/2008/Egyptian/Otto_Preminger_Films.htm

Ran across this today too...

"In Otto Preminger's luxurious Manhattan townhouse, Tim ran an LSD session for the famed director, then doing 'research' for a movie entitled _Skidoo_. As soon as the acid kicked in, Preminger went into
manic action. Turning on one television set after another, he had three going at once. 'His shiny, hairless head had turned into a space helmet and he was high as an orbiting com-sat as he dialed and tuned ever-changing realities, deliberately disrupting focus and color.' As Tim searched for a Ravi Shankar record to slow Preminger down, he had an epiphany. 'Watching Otto's acclerated brain in action jolted me out of the nostalgic-pastoral phase. At Millbrook we had been living in a time warp. Millbrook was a pleasant but repetitious feudal drill The next stage in evolution, my own at least, was going to involve information and communication. I resolved on the spot to move to Hollywood and learn how realities were produced and directed."

-p.318, _Timothy Leary: A Biography_, Rbt Greenfield (Leary quotes culled from "Emergence of the Drug Culture" from _Flashbacks_)

Morbius, The Fan was so-so, but Forever Amber was very good. Nice painterly Technicolor. Linda Darnell was well cast, and with the red hair she looked kind of like Drew Barrymore. George Sanders was excellent as King Charles II of England and had this great bit where his dogs would follow him everywhere and when he left a room he would say to them "Come, children."

ooh!

Just was leafing through Dark City Dames and for some reason there is a picture of Otto Preminger sitting with Marie Windsor with a caption that says something about the tyrannical director taking her under his wing.

"The tyrannical director proved to be a guardian angel to the young, struggling actress."

Never seen any Preminger, but Anatomy of Murder arrives in my mailbox tomorrow.

(And yes, it was the Denby article that did it.)

hey, Daisy Kenyon's out, pounce.

http://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/dvd_review.asp?ID=1302

I've been skipping around in the Hirsch book, what a trip and a half OP was...

I almost picked it up at the store last weekend. how's his crit?

his crit? better than his dish?

It's OK, he doesn't overpraise stuff that hasn't aged all that well (Man w/ Golden Arm). Quotes a lot of actors who say OP gave em virtually no direction.

Daisy Kenyon is excellent, excellent. Love how the Preminger renaissance is as much a Dana Andrews rediscovery.

and Andrews didn't want to do DK.

Maybe Crawford's most human performance? I dunno -- she seemed looser and, god, more IRONIC?

Joan was going thru menopause during the shoot; the temperature on the set was kept at 50 degrees F.

Yeah, I watched the "featurette." Your boy Hirsch does the commentary and hosts the featurette.

Also: is this the only instance in film of a feeble father-in-law?

the bio was returned today, I read about half.

yeah, the dad-in-law reallty rolled over for Dana. The child-abuse thing is kind of amazing.

a still newer bio, by Chris Fujiwara:

http://thephoenix.com/article_ektid61433.aspx

Oh yeah, I saw that in the bookstore a month or two ago and meant to post about it.

Watching Bunny Lake is Missing tonight. Any thoughts?

I seriously hope the audiences of 1944 realized that Vincent Price and Clifton Webb are playing insolent fags.

Of course. But you need EVIDENCE. You need eeeeeeeeeeeeevvvvvvvvvvidence!

P.S. Bunny Lake is Missing = masterpiece, one of his many. In some ways, it's the perfect Preminger gateway drug since his observational style doesn't mute the thriller aspects that rise to the surface only in subsequent viewings of Fallen Angel or Angel Face. And what he does with Noel Coward is a moral triumph. We are not worthy.

Did you dig it?

I don't think Such Good Friends gets mentioned anywhere here. I used to watch it on TV in the '70s, hoping I'd see Dyan...well, never mind about my bilious private life. Saw it for the first time in ages last year, part of a Preminger series at the Cinematheque. It was okay, barely.

Well, unsurprisingly, I love the shit out of it. Of his 1970s films, it's second only to his apocalyptic swansong The Human Factor. The ending of Such Good Friends offers one of cinema's great images of calm acceptance and mature focus, particularly felt after such a juicily off-kilter film.

I did like the ending, and almost mentioned it in my post--couldn't remember specifically how it ended, though.

Just remembered my favourite film joke ever, attributed to some famous director (forget who): "I passed Otto Preminger's house the other day--or should I say, 'a house by Otto Preminger'?"

Did you dig it?

Laura? Yeah! I own it -- one of my favorite films.

No, no, Bunny Lake is Missing

saw Otto in the Nilsson documentary, encased in a groovy blue hippie outfit on the set of Playboy After Dark as Harry sang.

I just started the Hirsch biography.

Should I bother with In Harm's Way? Not too stodgy?

I bought a remaindered copy of this a few weeks ago:

http://www.jonathanrosenbaum.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/ottopreminger-fujiwara.jpg

I read the Advise and Consent chapter while killing time before a movie. Based on that, I'd never make it through the whole book:

"Appropriately, the dialogue of Advise and Consent is filled with performatives. Senators say 'I move,' or 'I yield,' or 'I ask,' or 'I suggest,' or 'I release,' and their saying these things effectuates the things they say."

Making it the complete opposite of American Beauty, where Kevin Spacey says "Pass the asparagus" and everyone ignores him.

Am reading yet another recently published bio of the guy different from the ones you guys are reading.

j/k. But the guy does seem to have even more biographers than Nikola Tesla.

oh, In Harm's Way is a must, if only for what Kirk Douglas's character... does.

anyone rep for The Human Factor? Dave Kehr presiding over a screening in Brooklyn Monday. I remember hearing Otto being interviewed by Julian Schlossberg (onetime studio exec) on his WABC radio show "Movietalk" when OP was doing press for it.

ok, I guess it was WMCA or WOR (ABC was still a music station then)