OTTO PREMINGER, S / D

Resaw Advise and Consent a few weeks ago: the first 90 minutes are just wonderful...then the hamhanded homo drama kicks in.

How would you prefer Kennedy-era studio films dealt with homosexuality?

With less handwringing and a better actor than Don Murray. I don't mind the gay bar scene.

Not bad, for a 23-second scene.

what'd you think of the movie overall?

Morbs could link you to my Slant review, I'm too lazy.

I think the way Preminger films the Senate chambers is as precise and fantastic as, I dunno, Bresson at his best.

Another thing I remember liking is that its purportedly central concern (i.e. Leffingwell) ends up repeatedly pushed to the back in favor of more prurient distractions. In other words, it IS politics.

apparently the Laughton character discovers Murray's body in the novel.

(I've read you being earnest without the pain, EH.)

It's certainly not as preachy a political drama as, say, Serling / Frankenheimer's Seven Days In May (which I remember liking). And it's a marvel of sophistication next to Charlie Wilson's War.

Alas, Patricia Neal is unable to intro In Harm's Way tomw night at Film Forum as planned. I will probably library-DVD it.

I never managed to make it this far into Skidoo:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xg463_skidoo-theme-song-carol-channing

(I've read you being earnest without the pain, EH.)

Yeah, I get good and weepy about John Waters.

oh, you!

Carol Channing is actually the only joyful element of Skidoo. In spite of her hard-to-watch strip scene.

Carol Channing is usually the only joyful element in anything she's in.

except Thoroughly Modern Millie.

I have avoided C.C. in most everything except her weekly appearances on PBS specials over the last 35 years singing "Diamonds" or "Hello Dolly!"

Her performance of "Diamonds" on "The Muppet Show" = best evah.

more preminger movies need to come out on dvd

Daisy Kenyon in a couple months.

Denby on Preminger. I haven't finished it.

Oy, Denby:

Preminger was perhaps too refined and modulated in his sophistication to achieve more than occasional greatness as a director. He doesn’t compare, for instance, with his fellow-émigrés Fritz Lang and Billy Wilder. It’s hard to think of a heartbreaking or truly exhilarating moment in his work. Yet, at his best, he raised civil discourse to the level of subtle entertainment: one can get caught up in the intricately choreographed give-and-take of “Advise and Consent” without caring whether the nominee gets confirmed or not

If AAC was just one of many "subtle entertainments," then isn't Preminger a great director?

I think "at his best" suggests there weren't "many." I don't know that O.P. has more than two great films.

Depends how academic we get: Laura, Fallen Angel, Anatomy of a Murder, maybe Advise & Consent as a near-great.

I've got The Cardinal in my queue.

"Can technical skill and craft, combined with worldliness and urbanity, and presented in a distinct style, rise to the level of art?"

UGH!!!!!!

I'm not yet a Hawks convert, but that argument is total idiocy

http://theband.hiof.no/band_pictures/levon_and_the_hawks_1964.html

aargh
http://theband.hiof.no/band_pictures/levon_and_the_hawks_1964.gif

I was this close to going to see Saint Joan last night but didn't make it and now I am regretting it.

i went to the screening of bunny lake w/ keir dullea. he did a funny impression of otto preminger (and confirmed once more that the man was a complete monster)

:o

A friend wd've gone if Carol Lynley had been there. He was scared shitless by Bunny as a kid.

i think denby is pretty much on the money, and i don't usually.

I didn't know that OP and Dorothy Dandridge were lovers, or I just forgot.

I remembered. They had a son, no?

Exodus is surprisingly sentimental and awkward, and about as long as this primary season.

Mort Sahl allegedly stood up at the Exodus premiere at the 3-hour mark and yelled "Otto, let my people go!"

joe, one Dullea monster story, plz!

Yeah, you gotta back these things up with anecdotes.

in bunny lake, made martita hunt do one scene over again about 40 times because she kept making the wrong gesture (the 40th take, she realized she was doing it again, paused halfway, and muttered "oh, FUCK it"). he also said the best day he had while filming BLIM was getting the phone call that he'd landed the main role in 2001

OP wouldn't raise his voice at olivier, tho

dullea's looking really good for his age, btw

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

Mistakenly thought Jane Darwell

Trying to fight off Rudy Vallee and Howard Hughes, just to name two.