As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
In discussing movies with Paul, I never know how my ventures take me on adventures as I like watching a movie, and looking up people in them and reading about their rolls, and somehow in a Lee Marvin movie, I ended up in another Lee Marvin movie called The Killers, and this is where this begins.
So in reading about The Killers, I learned there was the original in 1946 and a remake in 1964. What caught my attention was Ronald Reagan beats up a woman in the 64 version. Now I adore Ronald Reagan as President, but always thought his roles were a bit cliche and effeminate. So it interested me in Reagan beating up a woman in 1964 and hating the role.
I shopped around and got a deal for both movies online, and ordered them and was not looking forward to the 1946 version, as it started Burt Lancaster. I had seen enough of Lancaster in his later years to not be impressed, so we watched the 46 version for me which was dread.
In looking at this movie, I think Quenton Tarantino stole this for his dialogue movies and for Kill Bill. That is not a compliment as the 1946 version is superb. I have seen allot of world war era movies and I really dislike them as they are clumsy, but this one is riveting and of a story that keeps one coiled in the story.
I was impressed when I saw William Conrad as a bad man He is Frank Cannon from the 1970's television and the radio voice of Gunsmoke. Next up I noticed a man who looked familiar in Albert Dekker. I immediately figured out he was Harrigan in the Wild Bunch.
Then I became mesmerized by a woman I had seen in her later years, and was not that impressed. I did not respect her in she was the sex mate of that Frank Sinatra, getting tent time in Africa. I just could see nothing in her, and then she appeared in The Killers, in one of her first credited rolls. This would be Ava Gardner.
I was watching her on the bed in the scene and told TL, "She looks like a cat". Then in a following scene she literally moves her foot, like a cat flicking it's tail. She is completely seductive. I have no idea of the director told her to do this or she was just a natural, but I can see why she became an icon in Hollywood as this actress was interesting, mesmerizing her youth.
As the movie ended, I noticed Edmund O'Brien in the credits and could not figure out where the hell he was in this movie, as he was in the Wild Bunch too. Doing a search, that is when I had that moment in he was the lead actor in investigating this crime. Had no idea it was the same guy as he had changed some much in the roles.
I can see now why this movie has become a cult following and is one of Gardner's 10 best movies.
This brings us to the 1964 remake, which is a complete change in the director is the director of Dirty Harry starring Lee Marvin, and which focuses on the killers.
This was a made for NBC TV movie in a remake, but was too violent for television so went to theaters. I will predict that no one can match up to what Ava Gardner delivered in the original. Ronald Reagan though hauls ass in reprising a rather lackluster role of Albert Dekker. It always fascinates me how different directors see things and how different actors make a role that others did not a great deal with.
As I wrote that I had not yet viewed the 1964 version and I was impressed as Star Trek's Gene Coon wrote this. This story is completely different in focus in it focuses on the killers in Lee Marvin and Clu Gulager.
This film surprised me in I was expecting Lee Marvin to stomp all over it, but he did not. Marvin has outshown everyone he was filmed with, including John Wayne, and yet in this movie, he is overshadowed by Ronald Reagan who turns in his best performance. Gulager is superb and Norman Fell does a wonderful job.
The toss up is Angie Dickinson. She is not Ava Gardener as she set a waymark in her performance. I dod not know what the original Hemmingway short story was, but these movies the biggest heartless psychopathic cold blooded bitch is the femme fatale in a most troubling form.
Dickinson is very good in getting beat up. She gets beat up by Reagan, Gulager and Marvin. Is kind of an enjoyable sport that is entertaining with Dickinson as you do not mind it at all. I don't think you would get that reaction slapping Ava Gardener around. So Dickinson was cast perfectly, after all this was 1964 and she had bedded John Kennedy for the best 7 seconds of her life, is I think she put it.
I think the biggest shortcoming in these two movies is the featured characters in Edmund O'Brien and John Cassavetes who play the leads. In the original, Cassavetes is the Swede in boxer, Burt Lancaster who plays a more lovestruck victim, while Cassavetes is a race car driver as the noir changes. There is no Edmund O'Brien tracking down anyone from the insurance company, that role goes to Marvin and Gulager as the killers.
I guess the storyline of men being gullible to bad women is what Hemmingway wrote, but Lancaster did a better job in making you feel sorry for him.
It is interesting in these films how Ronald Reagan takes the lead in the Albert Dekker role which never comes center stage in the original.
For a few million bucks, I would love to do a 3rd go at this, in melding both movies to see what would come of it. It would take excellent casting and direction though as Ava Gardener and Ronald Reagan do set a standard in each of their films.
I can finish this with one thing, Ronald Reagan was not weak or effeminate in this role. He glares, he smirks, he is stone cold and all male in this movie. It is too bad he never was able to deliver this kind of performance in other movies as a heavy he was as good as Humphrey Bogart in delivery.
Nuff Said
agtG
