I loved acting, which was never about money, the fame. It was about a search for meaning. It was painful.”
-Kim Novak, The MacGuffin interview, 2004
“When I am given a new role in a horror film, I have a character to create just as much as if I were playing a straight part. Whether one thinks of films like Dracula as ‘hokum’ or not does not alter the fact; the horror actor must believe in his part. The player who portrays a film monster with his tongue in his cheek is doomed to fail.
In playing Dracula, I have to work myself up into believing that he is real, to ascribe to myself the motives and emotions that such a character would feel. For a time I become Dracula – not merely an actor playing at being a vampire. A good actor will ‘make’ a horror part. He will build up the character until it convinces him and he is carried away by it.
There is another reason why I do not mind being “typed” in eerie thrillers – with few exceptions, there are, among actors, only two types who matter at the box office. They are heroes and villains. The men who play these parts are the only ones whose names you will see in electric lights outside the theater. Obviously you will not find me competing with Clark Gable or Robert Montgomery! Therefore, I have gone to the other extreme in my search for success and public acclaim.“
-Bela Lugosi, Film Weekly, July 1935
![Stanley Kubrick & Malcolm McDowell on the set of A Clockwork Orange (1971, dir. Stanley Kubrick) (via) “Well, as you know, when Singing in the Rain came out, for generations of people, [Gene Kelly] swinging around that lamp post and slapping in that water, and singing…it’s one of the most euphoric moments we’ve ever seen on film. So when I had to come up with something for this sequence, which involved my character in a very brutal situation, that’s when he’s happiest. So Singing in the Rain just popped out. I just started singing it, and [Stanley] Kubrick bought the rights and we redid the whole thing and incorporated it. A footnote to that is that a year afterward, when the film had been out and it was a big hit, I was invited to come to Hollywood by Warner Brothers. I came out and it was very nice to meet everybody. I had never been to Hollywood before. And some guy who was my minder said, ‘Hey, there’s a party in Beverly Hills tonight, Malcolm. Do you want to go, there’s going to be lots of stars there?’ And I went, 'Yeah! I would love to!’ I was like a kid in a candy store. And we go and he said, 'Hey, you won’t believe this. Gene Kelly’s here. Would you like to meet him?’ And I went, 'Oh yeah!’ (laughs) So he had his back to me and he tapped him on the shoulder and said, 'Gene, I’d like to introduce you to Malcolm McDowell’ and he looked at me and…then turned around and walked off. But you know, I totally got it. I totally understood. I took his glorious moment and put a different spin on it. I guess I kind of ruined his moment in a way. But of course, it was an homage to him, because it was so amazing. And so indelible in me as a person, that I blurted it out and started singing it while filming the scene.” —Malcolm McDowell](http://www.seraphicpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/clockwork.jpg)
“Well, as you know, when Singing in the Rain came out, for generations of people, [Gene Kelly] swinging around that lamp post and slapping in that water, and singing…it’s one of the most euphoric moments we’ve ever seen on film. So when I had to come up with something for this sequence, which involved my character in a very brutal situation, that’s when he’s happiest. So Singing in the Rain just popped out. I just started singing it, and [Stanley] Kubrick bought the rights and we redid the whole thing and incorporated it.
A footnote to that is that a year afterward, when the film had been out and it was a big hit, I was invited to come to Hollywood by Warner Brothers. I came out and it was very nice to meet everybody. I had never been to Hollywood before. And some guy who was my minder said, ‘Hey, there’s a party in Beverly Hills tonight, Malcolm. Do you want to go, there’s going to be lots of stars there?’ And I went, ‘Yeah! I would love to!’ I was like a kid in a candy store. And we go and he said, ‘Hey, you won’t believe this. Gene Kelly’s here. Would you like to meet him?’ And I went, ‘Oh yeah!’ (laughs)
So he had his back to me and he tapped him on the shoulder and said, ‘Gene, I’d like to introduce you to Malcolm McDowell’ and he looked at me and…then turned around and walked off.
But you know, I totally got it. I totally understood. I took his glorious moment and put a different spin on it. I guess I kind of ruined his moment in a way. But of course, it was an homage to him, because it was so amazing. And so indelible in me as a person, that I blurted it out and started singing it while filming the scene.”
-Malcolm McDowell
For years I thought Kim Novak was the uncredited girl who danced with “Gaucho” in the movie, “The Bad and the Beautiful,” as an extra but I guess not. I have never seen the name of that starlet. I think Kim had a bit of a complex about being stocky and “Polish looking” and about being the replacement for Rita Hayworth. I always liked her better than Hayworth.
““The mixed reviews and poor box office for Vertigo lessened my self-confidence. I always have this feeling that I’m supposed to do something, to mean something. My sense of that started to weaken….”
When I read that my first thought was 50 years later we still remember Vertigo. Then I thought to be in that business you have to have a tough skin for critics and have an inner compass.
I went to college (USC) with Bella Lugosi’s son. He was a jock, either a swimmer or water polo player. Good looking kid.
It’s interesting to see the evolution of Vertigo from failure to the best movie Hitch ever made.
We walked out of a movie yesterday called “No Escape.” What a change in movies the past 40 years ! No plot. Nothing but loud noise and fantasy thrills.
Now (since last Friday), when I see a picture of Lauren Bacall, I think of her phone conversation with Shelley Winters 🙁
I love the color and composition of the Hopper paintings, but my goodness, they are cold.
Cold? Hmm. I don’t find them cold at all. Hopper is one of my favorite 20th century artists. He shows a straightforward view on reality. His paintings take a perspective on aspects of modern life. Sometimes a frozen moment of longing or regret. Other times a contrast of feelings in the same frame of time or place. And yet others show simple curves of pleasure amidst harsh lines of modern life.
Do you notice the drug store’s light amidst the dark and cold of the rest of the street corner inviting your respite despite the plainspoken purpose of its presence? The light of ordinary life in the corner night window with uncomfortable hot air evacuating from another window? Or the separation of mere feet and yet miles of great distance between the man reading the paper and the woman idly tapping a key in the drab room of their lives?
But, here’s another view: http://101bananas.com/art/hreview.html
I think I know what Kishke is referring to when he calls Hopper’s work cold. Hopper, in my opinion, was deeply influenced by the movies. His frequently off-kilter framing is striking and feels very noir. Whereas most artists present a subjective POV, Hopper opts for the third person of a movie camera. This can feel a bit distant, but I think it involves us in an overall narrative that is quite compelling. And of course, his deeply saturated colors feel very Technicolor.
Take the drugstore: The streets are empty. No people. In fact, nothing at all in the streets. No objects, no cars, no trash cans. The building across the street looks like a ruin. It’s a sterile vision.
The couple seen through a window: He is absorbed in his paper. She is turned away from him. They are disconnected. The door to the small room is closed. The table is empty. Their lives feel the same way — lonely, empty, constrained.
But the pictures are still beautiful to look at.
I have to side with Larry. I find the pallets are often dark, but not cold.
As always, great photos and engaging topics, Robert. I am usually familiar with your end-shot (RKO or Merry Melodies/Loonies Tunes), but I don’t recognize this one…
The Fin is from a random French movie.
Robert, you’ve done it again. The progression from Brancusi’s Pogani muted arrow nose to Nares’s snakey sharp nose, to Lugosi’s sinister attack nose was striking.
The 180-degree rotation of your red wall photo was nicely done and fits well within the other progressions & contrasts you show.
But the most interesting contrast for me was remembering the Malcolm McDowall & Gene Kelly scenes. I must be one of the few people who saw the initial X-rated release of “A Clockwork Orange”. It was an astounding film, only shown for a week or so, and then Kubrick pulled it, recut it, and released it as R about two weeks later, which I promptly went out and viewed. The R version was great but, I thought, weaker. The unrated version explained more. To my knowledge, no prints of the unrated version exist.
Interesting. It appears from Wikipedia that the original does exist.
In the United States, A Clockwork Orange was rated X in its original release. Later, Kubrick voluntarily replaced approximately 30 seconds of sexually explicit footage from two scenes with less explicit action for an R rating re-release in 1973. Current DVDs present the original edit (reclassified with an “R” rating), and only some of the early 1980s VHS editions are the edited version.[44][45]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Clockwork_Orange_%28film%29
Larry:
You’ve got a great eye and a great memory.
I also saw the X rated version of Clockwork because I saw the film the first day it was released. The film was and is quite shocking. I honestly don’t think the x-rated version is that much different than the later version. Just a few cuts of frontal nudity… I think.