Old Movies Redux
Any reader of this blog knows I like old movies (and I'm not talking about the '90s). I'm talking '30s, '40s, '50s, even '20s, preferably black and white. Color movies of those periods are way too technicolor and almost make me nauseous with the intensity of the color, although I will watch some of them.
Why do I like them? They were a lot more subtle, for one thing. A couple having sex is implied with a small gesture, not a lot of nudity and bumping and groaning. Since the point of the sex is simply that they had it, we don't have to be privy to the technicalities. They usually told a story more simply, without a lot of side issues and scenery and unnecessary characters. The women were incredibly beautiful, and they wore great clothes (reason enough for me, as I think I am a fashion designer at heart). The lines are great. Who can do better than "Round up the usual suspects?" in Casablanca. Or Bette Davis in All About Eve, "Fashion your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy night." And black and white allows amazing things with light and shadow and helps the viewer focus on the story and actors.
By the way, I was telling my husband the other day that a few years back I had to get black and white photographs of myself and some other people. I was told then that it was more expensive to get black and white than color. Odd, isn't it?
However, there are things that bother me about the old movies. Black people are talked to rudely, and women get slapped around sometimes (although a few I would slap myself). In fact, Black people are relegated almost entirely to servitude roles, until maybe the '50s, or to humorous roles. Even so, they often put the white people in their places. Eddie Rochester is a good example. He is quite funny, and he knows how to deal with Jack Benny, but he still is portrayed as a stereotypical Black person. Reference You Can't Take it With You, where his only concern is whether he can get "relief" (welfare).
And of course, everyone drinks and smokes constantly. I think that was obviously a form of product placement, a way to get the movie watchers to do the same, perhaps paid for by the tobacco and liquor industries. Nobody could drink and smoke that much and look so good.
I am usually more enthralled by the beautiful women in these old movies than the men. As for men, I really like Joel McCrea. He's about it; of yes, and Jimmy Stewart. Gary Cooper was just a stick, Clark Gable says all his lines the same, Cary Grant is funny but shallow, John Wayne was an icon but not an actor, and a lot of the men were creeps toward women anyway. As for the women--Bette Davis, Barbara Stanwyck (Bette Davis just slightly better as an actress) and Grace Kelley, Ingrid Bergman, Olivia DeHavilland, Vivien Leigh, Greer Garson, Ava Gardner, Rita Hayworth, Heddy Lamar (not sure who is the more beautiful, but I think Ava is winning right now). And of course many more. Rosalind Russell is fun to watch, as are Patricia Neal, Donna Reed, Angela Lansbury, Irene Dunn, and Teresa Wright. Joan Newman, too. (Can't think of her stage name) One I can't abide is Joan Crawford. She gives me the creeps, except for in Mildred Pierce.
As I said, I'm on an Ava Gardner kick now. Not only was she stunningly beautiful, but she was a marvelous actress. And she was someone who had to be an actress just to be an actress, since she came from such a downtrodden existence and brought turmoil into her own life by her choices in men (I mean, who could have a normal relationship with Frank Sinatra or Howard Hughes?) My favorite performances of hers are in The Night of the Iguana, where she gets to be what she is, a trashy Southern girl, and Showboat, where she has to pass as a part-Black woman. Although I like the '30s version of Showboat, the '50s version with Ava Gardner makes me cry at the end. Ava embodies all that minorities went through in building what came to be the American dream--for whites. You just have to watch it to get it.
She also has a great line in The Barefoot Contessa. "I have never met an American whose idea of the American dream is not his own dream." But Mankeiwicz wrote that screenplay, and he wrote some great lines.
But actors are just that, actors. Many, if not most, have "issues." We project ourselves onto them, just as the image is projected onto the screen.
Why do I like them? They were a lot more subtle, for one thing. A couple having sex is implied with a small gesture, not a lot of nudity and bumping and groaning. Since the point of the sex is simply that they had it, we don't have to be privy to the technicalities. They usually told a story more simply, without a lot of side issues and scenery and unnecessary characters. The women were incredibly beautiful, and they wore great clothes (reason enough for me, as I think I am a fashion designer at heart). The lines are great. Who can do better than "Round up the usual suspects?" in Casablanca. Or Bette Davis in All About Eve, "Fashion your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy night." And black and white allows amazing things with light and shadow and helps the viewer focus on the story and actors.
By the way, I was telling my husband the other day that a few years back I had to get black and white photographs of myself and some other people. I was told then that it was more expensive to get black and white than color. Odd, isn't it?
However, there are things that bother me about the old movies. Black people are talked to rudely, and women get slapped around sometimes (although a few I would slap myself). In fact, Black people are relegated almost entirely to servitude roles, until maybe the '50s, or to humorous roles. Even so, they often put the white people in their places. Eddie Rochester is a good example. He is quite funny, and he knows how to deal with Jack Benny, but he still is portrayed as a stereotypical Black person. Reference You Can't Take it With You, where his only concern is whether he can get "relief" (welfare).
And of course, everyone drinks and smokes constantly. I think that was obviously a form of product placement, a way to get the movie watchers to do the same, perhaps paid for by the tobacco and liquor industries. Nobody could drink and smoke that much and look so good.
I am usually more enthralled by the beautiful women in these old movies than the men. As for men, I really like Joel McCrea. He's about it; of yes, and Jimmy Stewart. Gary Cooper was just a stick, Clark Gable says all his lines the same, Cary Grant is funny but shallow, John Wayne was an icon but not an actor, and a lot of the men were creeps toward women anyway. As for the women--Bette Davis, Barbara Stanwyck (Bette Davis just slightly better as an actress) and Grace Kelley, Ingrid Bergman, Olivia DeHavilland, Vivien Leigh, Greer Garson, Ava Gardner, Rita Hayworth, Heddy Lamar (not sure who is the more beautiful, but I think Ava is winning right now). And of course many more. Rosalind Russell is fun to watch, as are Patricia Neal, Donna Reed, Angela Lansbury, Irene Dunn, and Teresa Wright. Joan Newman, too. (Can't think of her stage name) One I can't abide is Joan Crawford. She gives me the creeps, except for in Mildred Pierce.
As I said, I'm on an Ava Gardner kick now. Not only was she stunningly beautiful, but she was a marvelous actress. And she was someone who had to be an actress just to be an actress, since she came from such a downtrodden existence and brought turmoil into her own life by her choices in men (I mean, who could have a normal relationship with Frank Sinatra or Howard Hughes?) My favorite performances of hers are in The Night of the Iguana, where she gets to be what she is, a trashy Southern girl, and Showboat, where she has to pass as a part-Black woman. Although I like the '30s version of Showboat, the '50s version with Ava Gardner makes me cry at the end. Ava embodies all that minorities went through in building what came to be the American dream--for whites. You just have to watch it to get it.
She also has a great line in The Barefoot Contessa. "I have never met an American whose idea of the American dream is not his own dream." But Mankeiwicz wrote that screenplay, and he wrote some great lines.
But actors are just that, actors. Many, if not most, have "issues." We project ourselves onto them, just as the image is projected onto the screen.
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