Charles Laughton - S & D...?

anyone seen Rembrandt? TCN tnite

TCM

'A method actor gives you a photograph. A traditional actor gives you an oil painting.'

on the forthcoming Eclipse box:

http://brightlightsfilm.blogspot.com/2009/02/oil-painters-of-world-unite.html

I've seen Ruggles before, but looking fwd to the weeklong NYC revival ... the Self-Styled Siren gives props:

http://mubi.com/notebook/posts/leo-mccareys-ruggles-of-red-gap

new retro kicks off with restored Jamaica Inn (the 'latest' Hitchcock I've never seen).

http://filmforum.org/series/charles-laughton-series

"Laughton had a stormy, complicated marriage to Elsa Lanchester that lasted from 1927 until his death in 1962. He was gay, and Laughton’s era was not, of course, hospitable to same-sex relationships, although the older he got, the more affairs he had, and the more frequently he would confide in people. (As he took a drive with Robert Mitchum during the filming of Night of the Hunter, Laughton confessed to his star that “there is a strong streak of homosexuality in me.” Mitchum’s priceless response: “No shit! Stop the car!”) Most good actors can suggest sexual undercurrents driving their characters, but Laughton treated desire, even in murderers like those in The Big Clock and Jamaica Inn, as an outgrowth of the mind, not merely a physical urge."

http://selfstyledsiren.blogspot.de/2015/02/charles-laughton-actor-as-artist.html

Knew he was gay but never got the slightest hint from roles of any interest in sex. Food though...

I'm kind of astonished at the existence of that submarine movie in the FF series where Tallulah Bankhead has to choose between him, Cary Grant and Gary Cooper.

he's much fun in Advise and Consent and Ruggles and I've no complaints about Captain Bligh.

..and he's still my image of Javert.

also his eye-rolling and trilling in Jamaica Inn is really something to see. Must've driven Hitchcock bananas.

I remember really liking him in The Suspect.

he was on Gore Vidal's checklist, it seems. :o

Tom May be crazy, Hobson's Choice is a great movie.

well

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJ5UIuAa0eM

And?

NPR played one of his Grammy Winning Spoken Word pieces on Thanksgiving while I was driving to my parents' house and I was so wrapped up in it I didn't realize I completely missed my exit and was driving wherever for a good half hour. That and Night of the Hunter (which I adore) are all I know of him, so it's probably time to look further.

I own this

http://s1041.photobucket.com/user/spin13/media/VINYLTHREE/2014-02-21080329_zpsa699b584.jpg.html

this

http://www.discogs.com/Elsa-Lanchester-Songs-For-A-Smoke-Filled-Room/release/3650127

"Remarks" by Charles

apparently he directed a couple sequences of his Maigret movie

http://www.tft.ucla.edu/mediascape/blog/?p=1725

^He's excellent in this, maybe best when he's listening to manic-depressive Franchot Tone shout at him that he'll never get the goods on him. (Tone and director Meredith were both big lefties, and both show up w/ Laughton in Advise & Consent of course.) The film itself is a bit traveloguey and has a few unfortunate musical stings, but 1949 Paris is something to see, and the Hitchcock-style chase on the Tower has nearly no process shots, nearly all in the sunlight with the actors and their stuntpeople.

(It's been restored by UCLA from the only existing materials -- prints, not good ones -- so watch on YT if you don't see it on the rep schedule.)

how's the YT print?

Recently read a version of the anecdote below in James Harvey's excellent book about movie acting, Watching Them Be, which includes a verygood chapter on Laughton (I think Harvey found it in the Simon Callow biography):

Laughton's worst fear materialized while directing Henry Fonda in the play The Caine Mutiny Court Martial (1954). Fonda, angry at the play's development and execution, lashed out at Laughton by sneering. "What do you know about men, you fat faggot?"

http://lareviewofbooks.org/review/present-accounted-james-harveys-watching

oh man -- I had no idea Harvey wrote a new book. Romantic Comedy in Hollywood and Movie Love in the 50s are among my favorite film books.

man, Ruggles of Red Gap is pretty much the bomb. CL is brilliantly reactive, and the supporting cast supplies everything he needs. Well-oiled McCarey, prob one of his 3 best comedies.