Kiss Me Deadly

Oscar Noir: Week Thirteen

A Double Life

Monday, August 16, 2010

We had a lot of traffic in Beverly Hills today, due to President Obama being in town for a fundraising dinner.  Liz, Linda and I still made it in time, although Linda had to park hella far.  They were nice enough to postpone the beginning of the show for the latecomers.  One of the women in front of me irritated me with her bitchiness toward her friend and toward the reason for the traffic.  I don't know how her friend puts up with her, but I guess that's true friendship.  I was originally going to be unavailable for this showing, but thank goodness I was able to shift the schedule around, because I certainly didn't want to miss the last installment of Captain Marvel or miss seeing the person introducing the feature film.

In order to stall for time, we watched "So You Want To Be A Detective" (1948), which will also be showing at the encore presentation of "The Maltese Falcon".   This short stars George O'Hanlon as Joe McDoakes, who daydreams about being a detective on a murder case.  It was kind of reminiscent of the Daffy Duck cartoon from a couple of weeks ago.

Short:  "Adventures of Captain Marvel, Chapter Twelve: Captain Marvel's Secret" (1941)

The Scorpion sees Billy turn into Captain Marvel, and kidnaps everybody.  He threatens Billy to transform or he'll kill Betty with the special Scorpion lenses, now all in his possession.  The Scorpion is unmasked to be the board member whose butler tried to prevent the lens from being stolen.  Billy turns into Captain Marvel and saves Betty, and the Scorpion is killed by his own weapon.  Then the scorpion lens contraption is thrown into the lava. As soon as this is done, Captain Marvel transforms back to Billy, as the scorpion no longer needs to be guarded.  That was a fun series to watch, especially all of the old-fashioned special effects, like the doll flying through the air.  I practically giggled every time the words "white infidel" were used.  The people saying that seemed to have the same complexion as the ones they were criticizing.  The family of Billy's portrayer, Frank Coghlan, Jr., was in the audience tonight, as was Louise Currie, of course.

Cartoon:  "Bad Luck Blackie" (1949)

In this cartoon, a bulldog is tormenting a kitten, so a black cat offers to help out the kitten by crossing the dog's path whenever the kitten blows a whistle, so that stuff falls onto the dog's head.  I've seen this cartoon several times, and enjoy it every time.  I love that hoarse little snicker that the dog does, provided by Tex Avery himself.

Feature:  "A Double Life" (1948), screenplay by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin, directed by George Cukor, music by Miklos Rozsa, and starring Ronald Colman, Signe Hasso and Edmund O'Brien

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  The film was introduced by one of the screenwriters of my favorite movie, "Shakespeare in Love" -- Marc Norman.  I think he had to park somewhere near Linda in order to get to the theatre somewhat on time.  This was a good choice for an introduction, since the play is about an actor who portrays Shakespeare's Othello.
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  I read in the program:  "Hairstyles by Carmen Dirigo", and read it as "Carmen SanDiego".  Obsessed much, Sher? ;)
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  Former Academy President Fay Kanin plays a bit part as the actress whom is trying to get Othello's attention after he kills Desdemona.
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  Ronald Colman is excellent in his role as the actor who can't really separate his stage emotions from real life.  I guess it makes sense, then, that he won the Oscar for this role.
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  I might act like Othello, too, if I was playing the part for 2 years.
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  I don't think that I would agree to play Desdemona if my ex-husband was notorious for losing himself in his parts.  I don't care if he still loved me or not.
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  I think that I loved all of Brita's off-stage outfits.  Nice!
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  I did not like Brita's Desdemona wig, though.
• Interesting to see Shelley Winters in her prime, and she has great lines as the dame that Anthony John encounters.
• Hmmm...killing someone with a kiss.  Is that like killing someone with kindness?
• "Put out the light...and then put out the light."  This is my favorite line from the play, and I freaked out a little bit when it was being said off-stage.  I wanted to yell, "DON'T DO IT!!!"  I don't think that I was the only one in the audience that wanted to yell that.

I think I need to watch "Shakespeare in Love" again soon.  I was tempted to talk to Mr. Norman, but I didn't have my copy of the script with me, and I didn't know what to say to him without it.  Not that I would have used the words in the script or anything.

Next Noir:  "Kiss of Death"