--- Channing <
filmtroll@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> Of course many of these endings fly in the face
of
> logic or
> believability, but usually the ending is so
clever
> you don't care.
>
Being a Cornell Woolrich fan is like having a friend who
comes to the party, gets drunk, eats spaghetti with his
fingers, hits on every warm body and breaks a lamp before
collapsing into a coma on the sofa on top of everybody's
coats.
Yet, there's a deep and undeniable connection and you know
your life would be less without the guy. Woolrich does things
in his writing that would be a wall-banger in any other
writer's hands. When the guy is paying attention, he produces
some brilliant and ambitious work (Waltz into Darkness, for
one) and that's what makes wandering through his faulty work
worthwhile.
My favorite "Woolrich was there first" moment came at the end
of Jean Luc Godard's Detective. An off-hand explanation at
the end of a long and rambling film. The explanation came
from a Woolrich story -- although as you point out, he may
not have been the originator
-- and while it was a revelation in the story, it was almost
a disappointment to the character in the film. Nice trick to
play on an old trick.
William
Essays and Ramblings
<http://www.williamahearn.com>
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