Tag Archives: charles laughton

re-write the book

Posted on June 21, 2012 by Dave

More often than not, film versions of popular novels tend to give rise to unfavorable comparisons; the former pulling the literary qualities into the realm of the never-never land of American movies, the Democratic little guy and gal based on … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema/Visual/Audio, Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion | Tagged Betty White, charles laughton, Dalton Trumbo, Henry Fonda, Howard Taubman, Loring Mandel, Madame Pickwick, madame pickwick art blog, Otto Preminge Advise and Consent, otto preminger, Wendell Mayes | Leave a comment

not by the book

Posted on June 21, 2012 by Dave

Throw the book away. Should movies be judged on their own merits and not on the books from which they often give cinematic form to, and nver mind where the original ideas came from? A classic example is form the … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Allen Drury Advise and Consent, charles laughton, Henry Fonda, Howard Taubman, Loring Mandel, Madame Pickwick, madame pickwick art blog, otto preminger, Peter Bogdanovich, Wendell Mayes | Leave a comment

the loser

Posted on May 24, 2012 by Dave

M. Licinius Crassus. Loser. This Roman general took fifty thousand disciplined, well-equipped troops, marched them into an Oriental desert, and then made every military mistake possible. The result was unprecedented disaster. Maybe a case of rising to the level of … Continue reading →

Posted in Art History/Antiquity/Anthropology, Cinema/Visual/Audio, Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion | Tagged Alexis de Tocqueville, Anthony Mann, charles laughton, General Westmoreland, King Artavasdes, King Artavasdes Armenia, Madame Pickwick, madame pickwick art blog, Marcus Licinius Crassus, Plutarch, Pompey, Roman battle at Carrhae, Spartacus, Spartacus t.v. series, Stanley Kubrick Spartacus, Surena Parthians, The Parthians, Thomas Cole, Thomas Cole Hudson River School, victory of Sulla | Leave a comment

too long in exile: worn out welcome

Posted on October 1, 2011 by Dave

Brecht in exile. He wrote movie scripts and tried to sell them but, except for his scenario for Hangmen Also Die, Brecht sold nothing. He seems to have persistently missed the fact that a great many of the ideas he … Continue reading →