The Harry Potter book series, Twelfth Night by Shakespeare, and the books that we read in this year’s class are the only books that I’ve read in the past that have been made in to movies that I have seen.  The Harry Potter series, I will admit, I really enjoyed the movies, but I loved the books even more.  However, I don’t find myself wanting to talk about the books to people.  Even with people that I know have seen and read them as well as I have.  The other movies, Twelfth Night, The Glass Key, Portrait of Jennie, I really disliked the movies, but I found myself wanting to talk about them the most of them all.  Even with The Glass Key book, the interpretations, Yojimbo and Fistful of Dollars I really enjoyed but didn’t want to talk about them.  When I watched The Glass Key I felt really in-touch with the book.  I found myself wanting to talk about the book in relation with the movie, but was sad to find out that it was slim pickins outside of film class.  The same thing happened with Portrait of Jennie.  No one has heard of it, but when you mention that Alfred Hitchcock was involved in the making of it, and it had influence on Vertigo, its Vertigo people want to talk about instead.

So when deciding between which movie to talk about, I decided to go with The Glass Key because I enjoyed the book more than Portrait of Jennie. 

When I watched all of The Glass Key the first time through, I was thinking, What?  It was the ending that screwed me up the most, putting aside how deliciously cheesy the 40’s were.  The book was the ending that I wanted.  Paul Madvig was the bad guy; you wanted him to be upset at the end.  He was a mean guy and he didn’t deserve to be truly happy at the end.  Ned(Ed)
Beaumont was harder to think that way about, he wasn’t your normal hero.  He was a compulsive gambler, not a terrific friend, and was willing to steal your girlfriend and your wife from you.

Thinking that, compare him to the other people in the book.  Nick Varna/ Shad O’Rory: liar, cheat, murderer and it seemed like he was a bookie as well.  Jeff,
Varna’s henchman, all he did was beat the hell out of people.  He loved to “cuddle” assigning Ned Beaumont the nickname of “cuddles.  Though Jeff was an entertaining character to watch on screen and to read about, he was still a bad person and therefore he was no hero.  Paul Madvig is what many would just call an overall scumbag for his personality, his arrogance and his cockiness.  Taylor Henry was a gambler and ended up dead, and his father was the one that killed him.  The only person that you can really look at as a hero is Ned Beaumont because he is the private inspector; he’s the one that finds out who killed Taylor Henry.  He didn’t give up on his friend Paul Madvig, even when he admitted to the murder, he knew something fishy was going on with Madvig and he wasn’t going to give up on the case.  Ned Beaumont solves the murder and also gets the girl in the end, for no other reason than that he is the hero of the movie. 

The actors are what I want to talk to about the most.  Not so much the actual characters of the movie (the names), more so how the actors play the characters, interpreting how they complement each other so well.

With The Glass Key I really liked the actors; they seemed like the actors that were perfect for each part.  Alan Ladd plays that suave, smart aleck, bad boy that you can’t help but love.  Veronica Lake, whoo, she’s that sultry, temptress, that you can’t help but be hypnotized by her.  It seems like in every scene that she’s in; she is only there for you to fall in love with her.  She’s a man’s mans woman.  Brian Donnelly plays his role perfectly.  At times you really want to like Paul Madvig, you want to believe that he can be a good guy and start to be sincere, but he turns around and lets you down.  William Bendix as Jeff is probably my favorite actor in this movie.  He’s got facial expressions that John Belushi would be jealous of.  His scenes with Ladd, a bit homoerotic when you look at them, Bendix is able to play the role of dominatrix.  He just loves beating up on “Cuddles,” his homo-hetero punching doll. 

Like I said at the beginning of this essay, I really didn’t like the movie.  I liked the characters from the book. I also liked the actors and the way they played the characters, although I think the acting was at times uninspiring.

When you look at this movie one of the things that squeaks by is the facial expressions.  I commented a little bit back about William Bendix in connection with facial expressions. He just has a face that can light up a room.  The rest of the cast have tremendous facial expressions.  If you watched a lot of the scenes from this movie on mute you would be able to tell what was going on simply because of the facial expressions of the characters.  I’d like to focus on the scene in which Ned Beaumont comes by the Herny’s house on the night of
Taylor’s death.  The Henry family, excluding Taylor, is sitting at the dinner table with Paul Madvig telling stories about his past career decisions.  The scene to me doesn’t start until Ned/Ed Beaumont enters the house and there she is.  Ed and Janet see each other for the first time, and its love at first sight. 

Ed Beaumont enters the room, when Paul sees him; he rushes over with Janet wanting her to meet him.  Paul says “want you to meet Janet Henry, and (then to Janet) this is Ed Beaumont.”  There’s a close-up on Ed’s face and upper body as she first lays eyes on Janet, his face makes him look like he’s ready to die young.  He calmly says “How do you do?” barely opening up his mouth to say the words.  He looks as if he is tongue tied, but he doesn’t want to seem over anxious in front of Paul, who is smitten with Janet.  If you put the scene on slow-motion you can see them undressing each other with their eyes.  Paul Madvig stands in between them with a stupid smile on his face; he has no idea what he has done.  Bela Balasz wrote “The Close Up” in Film Theory and Criticism. In dealing with facial expressions and acting, I found the article very insightful.  Balasz writes “they [close-ups] show the faces of things and those expressions on them which are significant because they are reflected expressions of our own subconscious feeling” (315 Balasz)  I like that quote because I find it to be true when dealing with Janet and Ed when they look at each other for the first time.  The close-up is used to show the viewer’s want for them to be together already.  The director wanted the viewer to feel this way after he showed the eyes of the characters scanning each others bodies.   

Then there’s a cut to Janet’s face, her hair dancing in the light.  Her eyes are staring right into Ed’s as she says “So you’re Mr. Madvig’s assistant.”  Whoo! She’s on fire in this scene as she says this.  Her eyes perk up with her eyebrows and she smiles as she talks.  Smiling while you talk is one of those things that I’ve picked up on in my life.  If someone does that it’s a big signal of how happy someone is.  They can barely open their mouths wide enough to get out what they are trying to say.  I love the look onVeronica Lake’s face when she’s getting an eyeful of Alan Ladd.  The only words that I can think to describe
Lake’s eyes are penetrating.  They pierce through the screen, making you wish that they were looking at you.  You’re almost mad at Alan Ladd for knowing that it’s him she’s looking at.  Afterwards Madvig escorts the two future lovebirds into the living room.  The camera following in front of them, they never take their eyes off of each other, up and down they go scanning each other.  There’s no telling what they’re thinking, except that you think you have a pretty good idea.  Then, a few paces away its Mr. Henry that now is to meet Beaumont, but he can’t take his eyes off Janet, who is still staring blankly right on back.  Finally, he breaks eye contact with Janet, and gives some papers to Madvig.  The gentleman exchange brief words with each other, and Janet sees her hole to speak.  “Won’t you stay for coffee, Mr. Beaumont?”  Janet makes sure that Ed isn’t going anywhere except straight to the couch where she can keep an eye on him.  Its remarkable watching the scene for the millionth time, I keep picking up on little things that she does and what is so irresistible aboutVeronica Lake.  She says “Some coffee for Mr. Beaumont, and brandy?” as she says the second part directly to him.  It’s as though she wants everyone to leave so she can have him to herself right now.  It’s her eyelashes that got me this time.  The way she sort of flicks them at
Beaumont at the end of the sentence, it’s very flirty and seductive.         This whole scene revolves around Veronica Lake (Janet) and her face.  She does everything with her face, whether it is her talking or simply acting while other people are talking, she’s the center of attention.  The coffee arrives, and Janet can’t take her eyes of Ed, and Madvig busts in and wants to finish his story about his job at “The Observer” newspaper.  Madvig is telling the story, and it’s the first time that Janet pulls her eyes off of Ned, but she can’t pay attention when Ed is right next to her.  She keeps trying to be sly and sneak peeks over at Ed.  You can tell that she is desperately trying to pay attention to Paul because he’s speaking and it’s polite to pay attention, but she can’t, she’s too far gone in this situation. 

The scene ends with Ed Beaumont leaving the house, as Janet walks him to the door.  There the two are alone for the first time of the movie.  They exchange looks and small talk about Paul, and he closes the door to say good night.  She turns around, not quite facing the camera, but really giving the viewer and eyeful of smiles.  She wants Beaumont badly, and she isn’t going to stop at anything to get him. 

I’d also like to talk about Jeff (William Bendix) who in The Glass Key was my favorite character.  Though he played a bad person, who did nothing but beat up on the hero, he’s still the lovable oaf you can’t help but want to turn out OK in the end, but we all know who doesn’t. 

There are a few scenes I want to look at with Jeff and Ed in them, because in my mind they have the best on screen chemistry out of two people in the movie.  Some would say Ed and Janet and they do have a steamy on screen connection, but Jeff and Ed feel right together to me.

The first scene is one where Ed is passed out on the bed, beaten senseless, and Jeff and his buddy are playing cards at the table.  Jeff has just lost a hand, “That’s four bucks I owe ya” he says, but he’s now all smiles because he hears Ed moaning.  Ed moaning can only mean one thing to Jeff…another beating.  It’s very amusing the way Jeff talks to Ed.  As Ed gets closer to the door, while posing no threat to escape, Jeff looks at him and says “Now sweetheart, you know what I told you.”   He picks him up and takes him to the bed and it’s followed by “Look Sweetie-pie, you oughta lie down, you don’t feel so good.”  Jeff also calls him “baby” in this scene which is hilarious.  Jeff talks about how it’s ok because Ed likes the punishment.  In the book he calls him a “masacrist.”  Jeff makes me feel like Ed really does like it.  With all the words of affection, it sounds like they are a couple and are treating each other like they would on an everyday basis.  Except for the one problem that Ed is on the bed unconscious, and bleeding from most parts of his body.  He doesn’t give off many facial expressions in this scene, except ones of excruciating pain.  In the hospital, I found it odd that no one really asked Beaumont who did this to him, it seemed Madvig and Janet knew, but it doesn’t ever really come up.  Beaumont doesn’t incriminate Jeff, his “sweetheart.” 

Another big scene in which Jeff and Ed are in together is the bar scene towards the end of the movie.  The scene begins with an African American singer at a piano singing about a love she has lost, the camera pans out and there’s Jeff listening intently.  He walks over to the bar, looking to drown his loneliness in booze.  Beaumont enters the room, walking down a flight of stairs; “come back or you’ll break my heart” is the lyric that’s being sung as the camera moves in to Beaumont.  Jeff looks up to see Ed standing there at the top of the landing and his face lights up, “Well if it ain’t sock me again Beaumont.”  The two go up to a small room on top of the bar, where the two get ready to play some “handball.”  Jeff is wasted, he starts talking things out of left field, and he wants to give “Cuddles” a beating. 

Jeff and the other characters of The Glass Key have some marvelous facial expressions in this movie; I pray maybe one of you that read this blog goes back into the movie and takes a further look.

As I wrap up my final blog for this year I can’t help but to think about all the movies that I have seen that I wouldn’t have gotten to otherwise and consider it to be a very rewarding experience.

 I agreed with RoyaleWithCheese’s http://blogs.elsweb.org/royalewithcheese/2007/01/22/monumental-mix-up/ blog (sorry for some reason my insert hyperlink wasn’t working).  The movie though it was amusing at many times, it left you dissappointed a lot of the times.  Ned Beaumont becoming Ed Beaumont, I don’t think we will ever know or understand what made someone say, “You know, Ned is OK, but wouldn’t making his name Ed just make the movie 100 times better.”  I didn’t pick out the facial hair aspect as well as Royale did either.  But I do remember that in the book Ned Beaumont was supposed to be a somewhat dirty, unshaven man.  Another thing was that Ned was supposed to be a compulsive gambler asking people for money, but they made him look like a real straight shooter.  Another thing that I didn’t like about the book that the movie really emphasized was how much Ned liked Janet.  To me it didn’t seem like he was very interested in Janet in the book.  But then again it’s the movies and there has to be a love story element for people to want to see it.

 the book seems to be very suspenseful and very dark.  You never knew when Jennie was going to come back to Eben.  All of a sudden Eben would be talking about a meal he was eating, he’s walking up the stairs and Jennie was there.  She was gone for long periods of time, you wanted her to come back and have her and Eben happy together in the end but ofcourse it didn’t happen. Most of the book and the movie is very eerie, it’s a very dark context and spooky.  I woulnd’t say it was a ghost story as someone said in today’s class but it does have that sort of paranormal quality.  Is Jennie real? I wasn’t sure she was until she came back and she met Gus and he verified that she was real.  I was pretty sure that Eben had simply made Jennie up the whole time in his head.

The first scene was the Brooks birthday party scene in which a black and white scene follows Rodney through a corridor when the cheesy inspirational music begins to play, when Rodney enters the room people being to cheer, though you don’t hear it becuase the music is playing.  I feel like Morris wants the viewer to feel a part of the moment in this scene.  Making you wish that you were at the party having fun with friends and eating cake. I found it interesting that so many people in the class found themselves being manipulated into that theory, however I wasn’t.  I felt the scene somewhat inauthentic because of its overly cheesiness.  I felt like the scne was trying to hard to make you feel a part of it.  Though it was a nice scene, the fact that everyone was wearing the same shirt and the camera was just following him down the hallway on his was to a “surprise” birthday party just seems to simple to me.  But maybe that’s just me.

The second scene I fell for completely.  The shot at the very end with the gardener George Mendoca walking out in the rain with his hedge clippers on his way to clipping the bush shaped like an elephant.  I don’t really know why but that scene really just got me emotional because of how moving it really way.  It’s raining, he’s got an umbrella, and his hedge clippers and he just doesn’t care about it raining.  He could wait til the next day to clip it when the rain stops, but he made a promise to keep it kept neat and he isn’t going to go back on his word.  The dedicationis really moving.  Anyone else feel this way?

I held on to SJ for dear life, craving, needing him to see “I’m sick of the muthafucking snakes on this muthafucking plane” the one life for me saved the movie from being only herendous instead of “stab your eyes out before seeing it again” bad.

 I think that the severity of Beth’s acting in the 1949 version of LW, is so bad, that it makes the other actresses look just that much better.  Since June Allisoon was the best actor in the movie, people grabbed onto her as a way of saving the movie.