Re: RARA-AVIS: A few 1940-1950's hard boiled movies recently

Dave (birdlives@earthlink.net)
Wed, 30 Sep 1998 10:38:53 -0700 An interesting footnote to "Murder My Sweet," which probably everybody
knows, is that Adrian Scott, who produced, and Eddie Dmytryk, who directed,
were two of the original "Hollywood Ten." They both went to jail, and Scott
died a broken man. Dmytryk was the ONLY member of the Ten who eventually
"talked" to HUAC, naming names. (BTW, so did Kazan and Budd Schulberg.)
He's still alive. However, he will always be notorious and disliked for
this.

With "Kiss Me Deadly," I remember thinking how trashy it was, the first time
I saw it. Yet it's stood up better to repeated viewings, to my mind -- the
ultimate "Atomic" picture. (And those head credits, yeah!) There's also a
"new" version that recently surfaced, with the "real" ending -- actually one
shot of Mike and Velda escaping the inferno at the end. Whether this
constitutes a drastic rereading of the picture, I'm not sure.

Dave

Mark Sullivan wrote:

> Enrique,
> Murder My Sweet is great, my favorite Marlowe (Chandler's too, for that
> matter).
>
> I'm curious, however, about why you found Kiss Me Deadly unsatisfying.
> I really like that movie quite a bit. You are definitely right, it is
> not your usual Hammer, this one is something of a cad, using Velda to
> sucker husbands into compromising pictures, while he seduces the wives,
> depending upon who the client is in the particular divorce case. I
> really loved the cynicism of the film, plus the "modern" gadgets, such
> as his reel-to-reel answering machine, that now look so outdated.
>
> In its messing with an established character, it reminds me of Altman's
> Long Goodbye. The first time I saw it, I was infuriated by the
> liberties it took with Marlowe. I set my preconceptions aside, though,
> and saw it again. On its own terms, it was very satisfying. Leigh
> Brackett updated the PI story brilliantly, holding Marlowe's 40s code up
> against 70s reality.
>
> Anyway, I'm curious what you found missing in Kiss Me Deadly.
>
> Mark
>
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