—Louise Brooks, Lulu in Hollywood, Photo by Eugene Robert Richee, 1928.
—Jimmy Stewart interviewed by Peter Bogdanovich
Photo by Ted Allan, 1938
…Mothers with children ran from me in the street. Terrible letters came to me. Letters came from strange people; people who I never believed lived in the world; depraved and disturbed minds, thinking they saw in me the perfect companion, a fellow psychopathic. A success can be too great, I tell you.”
-Peter Lorre, on his role in the classic 1931 German movie, M, directed by Fritz Lang.
“Never have I felt so close to a character as I felt to Bonnie. She was a yearning, edgy, ambitious southern girl who wanted to get out of wherever she was. I knew everything about wanting to get out, and getting out doesn’t come easy. But with Bonnie there was real tragic irony. She got out only to see that she was heading nowhere and the end was death.
There was a real kind of fierceness I’d seen in Bonnie that I recognized in myself as well. You look at photos of her and see it in her eyes, the set of her jaw. It takes fierceness in life to get ahead. I already knew that. Bonnie was Tennessee Williams, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof time. She knew the only way to get what she wanted was through her own sheer force of will. She was driven by her own desire. I know that territory – you do whatever it takes. She wanted to be something special, something out of the ordinary.”
“I like to do pictures about poor, bewildered people. That’s what we all are.”
—Lupino, 1947
![Ben Chapman relaxes between takes on the set of Creature from the Black Lagoon, 1954. “The reason they didn’t credit me in the movie, and this is crazy, is the studio wanted to give the impression, the illusion, that it was a real creature. If you see the original Frankenstein, Boris [Karloff] doesn’t get credit. It’s a question mark in the credit. I looked at the studio and asked if they thought the people were that stupid, and they said, ‘You’d be surprised what people believe’”](http://www.seraphicpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/creature.jpg)
“The reason they didn’t credit me in the movie, and this is crazy, is the studio wanted to give the impression, the illusion, that it was a real creature. If you see the original Frankenstein, Boris [Karloff] doesn’t get credit. It’s a question mark in the credit. I looked at the studio and asked if they thought the people were that stupid, and they said, ‘You’d be surprised what people believe’”
What a shame that doesn’t show the full Hopper painting, a contrasting vision of the meeting of old and new along with the effort of survival. Here’s a link for those interested: http://www.edwardhopper.net/gas.jsp
I have seen a very few movies where the actors act “realistically” — they talk and move the way ordinary people do in real situations. All seem to have been panned by critics for their wooden acting.
One very curious example is 2001: A Space Odyssey. I’d speculate Kubrick deliberately had the actors perform as much like ordinary people in real situations as possible, as a contrast with the futurism of the surroundings. And, yes, one of the criticisms of 2001 is that the acting was wooden, that only the malfunctioning computer lent any real human interest.
‘You’d be surprised what people believe’
We’ve certainly had evidence of that the past seven years.
Another wonderful Friday post, Robert.
I love the Edward Hopper painting and yet I am strangely drawn to the Joan Mitchell abstract. There is something about the colors…
I think Jimmy Stewart was on to something. “All this acting.” Even the news is “spin” now. Reality, like common sense and truth, are now antiquated concepts in the mainstream.
I love the Hedy Lamar photo. Her pose, her dress and especially the bench. Excellent eye by the photographer.
I hope you and the entire Avrech family have a wonderful and blessed weekend.
My daughter is meeting with a delegation from Israel today and discussing women’s education. They contacted her through the State Department because she is working for and with primarily religious women and helping them reach their potential without sacrificing either their religion or their uniqueness as women. Most importantly, it is a mixed delegation of both Jews and Arabs (meeting with a Mormon girl). I don’t know who, “that classified, dad.”
I suspect these beacons of hope are more numerous than we know.
How to kiss a girl? Indeed. And after the gum, make sure that you have a consent agreement available…
And – hey! The Creature from the Black Lagoon looks exactly like the monster model I made!
Oy… of course my dear mother, she should live many good years; threw out (or gave away), at some point in time, all of my monster models that I so painstakingly put together. Yesterday’s junk would be happily displayed today… Sigh…
Peter Lorre is a byword. He’s even a song lyric:
On a morning from a Bogart movie
In a country where they turn back time
You go strolling through the crowd like Peter Lorre
Contemplating a crime
Al Stewart – The Year Of The Cat
Anyhow, I like the way he worded his lament:
“Letters came from strange people; people who I never believed lived in the world;”
Wonderful turn of phrase.
Peter Lorre struck a nerve in me.
““My trouble is that I try to cover a part entirely. When you do there’s the danger that…..”, others will feel and think that is who you are.
We do things…sometimes for effect… To make a point, but sometimes others will mistake that “performance” for you… even oneself.