Best Vincent Price Movie Evar
Mar. 3rd, 2005 09:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yendiOne of my all-time top-ten movies is coming out on DVD in less than two weeks!
Yes, I'm talking about Laura.
Yes, this was Price before he became "Vincent Price." No, it's not a horror flick. But it's still better than even Edward Scissorhands, The Abominable Dr. Phibes, House of Wax, or even The Fall of the House of Usher (and that's not to take anything away from those films, all of which are true classics).
Of course, I'm doing it a disservice by casting it as a Vincent Price movie. He was the supporting actor here, in one of his early breakthroughs.
The stars are the androgynously-named leads Gene Teirney (in the title role) and Dana Andrews (the detective hired to find out what happened to her). It's a film noir, probably the best one not starring Bogie or based on a James Cain novel, directed by Otto Preminger, who also directed one of my two favorite courtroom dramas.
Tierney gave her best performance ever in this movie -- she's just amazingly sexy, sultry, and somehow innocent all at the same time. She was never more hauntingly beautiful, and never more perfectly cast. Andrews was no slouch as the hard-boiled detective, either. And Clifton Webb (aka Mr. Belvedere back when that name didn't refer to a crappy '80s tv show) steals more than his fair share of scenes.
And then there's the score, by David Raskin, possibly one of the best ever to hit the big screen. You've heard this music, I guarantee it.
I'm not talking about the plot, because other than the fact that Andrews's detective character is called in to investigate the murder of Tierney's title character, I don't want to spoil anything (this is par for the course with any noir, of course). Suffice to say, the twists are wonderfully executed.
Get this movie. It's a true classic, and it's getting a great treatment on DVD, including commentaries, biographies, and a deleted scene.
Yes, I'm talking about Laura.
Yes, this was Price before he became "Vincent Price." No, it's not a horror flick. But it's still better than even Edward Scissorhands, The Abominable Dr. Phibes, House of Wax, or even The Fall of the House of Usher (and that's not to take anything away from those films, all of which are true classics).
Of course, I'm doing it a disservice by casting it as a Vincent Price movie. He was the supporting actor here, in one of his early breakthroughs.
The stars are the androgynously-named leads Gene Teirney (in the title role) and Dana Andrews (the detective hired to find out what happened to her). It's a film noir, probably the best one not starring Bogie or based on a James Cain novel, directed by Otto Preminger, who also directed one of my two favorite courtroom dramas.
Tierney gave her best performance ever in this movie -- she's just amazingly sexy, sultry, and somehow innocent all at the same time. She was never more hauntingly beautiful, and never more perfectly cast. Andrews was no slouch as the hard-boiled detective, either. And Clifton Webb (aka Mr. Belvedere back when that name didn't refer to a crappy '80s tv show) steals more than his fair share of scenes.
And then there's the score, by David Raskin, possibly one of the best ever to hit the big screen. You've heard this music, I guarantee it.
I'm not talking about the plot, because other than the fact that Andrews's detective character is called in to investigate the murder of Tierney's title character, I don't want to spoil anything (this is par for the course with any noir, of course). Suffice to say, the twists are wonderfully executed.
Get this movie. It's a true classic, and it's getting a great treatment on DVD, including commentaries, biographies, and a deleted scene.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2005-03-03 02:20 pm (UTC)Oh, wait, I remember the song. Kind of.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-03-03 03:06 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-03-03 03:35 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-03-03 03:43 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-03-03 04:23 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-03-03 05:52 pm (UTC)Will
(no subject)
Date: 2005-03-03 06:15 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-03-03 06:20 pm (UTC)(Oh, and you know that Christie's The Mirror Crack'd is based loosely on events from Gene Tierney's life, right?)
(no subject)
Date: 2005-03-03 06:20 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-03-03 06:21 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-03-03 06:21 pm (UTC)(I mean, I know who Spike Jones was, I just don't get the reference)
(no subject)
Date: 2005-03-03 08:45 pm (UTC)Boy on a Dolphin which also stars Alan Ladd and Sophia Loren. One of those type of films that if they honestly tried to make now would be miserable failures (case in point, the closest I think we've gotten is the Angelina Jolie film Beyond Borders).
I just caught this classic on the Fox Movie Channel. Which is basically ALL classics (okay, a lot of them aren't classic, but I've yet to see a film on there that wasn't worthy of good note in the history of film) in the very very large 20th Century FOX library.
Amazingly, like sooo many films, Boy on a Dolphin is not even on VHS! and copies of the David Devine book can go for upwards of $250!!!
(no subject)
Date: 2005-03-03 10:08 pm (UTC)info found here (http://www.ibras.dk/comedy/spike2.htm#Laura)
(no subject)
Date: 2005-03-04 02:05 am (UTC)And just because I likes ya - here, a theme song for the current White House -
Spike Jones - Cocktails for Two (http://www.half-baked-prods.com/mp3/SpikeJonesCocktailsForTwo.mp3)
Enjoy.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-03-04 06:17 pm (UTC)Unfortunately, FMC is a part of a $6 monthly bonus pack with our cable, and it's the only good channel in that pack.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-03-04 06:18 pm (UTC)