Better than today's
Added 10/15/2009
No matter how overdramatic, the acting blew me away. I had forgotten there were such good actors.
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sticks in the heart of 50's hollywood
Added 4/11/2009
excellent!five stars or more Rod Steiger is a souless monster, and most likely ruffle some feathers of real studio heads of that period he is so evil that its a fatting desert! and hedda hopper witch like character is to die for and Wendell corey performance is a knockout! it can too much at times but so what it was the fifties.
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Campy but substantial.
Added 8/14/2008
Ok, ok, I know, this movie is campy, "over the top." But, still, it's a damn good movie.
It's serious, well-acted and other than the fact that he's a rat because sang to HUAC you've got to admit the screenwriter, Clifford Odets, does know how to write.
Note to any would-be Rich Little-wannabee ---- This is the movie to see if you want to perfect the definitive Rod Steiger impersonation. ("Ho-ho ho-ho! If you don't start reacting out there in the auidence, I'm gonna machine gun everyone of you. And-I'm-not-kidding. Oh-but-I-am-kidding Ho-ho-ho!")
The production values are not great. The direction is choppy. The style, as noted, is campy and and over-the-top. But give me 10 of these movies for 10,000 of today's so-called "blockbusters."
More of a filmed "Playhouse 90" production than a movie, see it, you won't be disappointed. ... Or else: ho-ho-ho, I'll machine gun every one of you.
1 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Added 7/9/2007
Who ever thought that Jack Palance could ever deliver an emotionally wrought performance at this stage in his career? He does just that. He gives such a performance that it is just heartbreaking to watch him. Jack Palance had more range than he was ever given credit for having. This is a brutally well scripted realistic film directed by Robert Aldrich. Wendell Corey also gives a rationally based, cold and detached, but curiously humane performance driven by the system and in too deep for his own good but his conscience reminds him that he really should know better. Perhaps all the characters actually do know better and know that there truly is no way out.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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The Realist, the Philistine and the Idealist....You figure it out.
Added 6/13/2007
There is very much room for debate on The Big Knife. The casting of Palance and Steiger, good 'ol whinny Winters, the stage-related lack of locales, etc., etc. Each of these can be parsed to illuminate why the film works or doesn't. In a way that's a sign of a good film, one that has made bold choices, and risks it's essential qualities.
I liked it. The thing that stood out for me though, was the seeming-multiple-endings. About three times I felt an ending, only to have another character enter, another scene. This may be Odets the writer, or Aldrich the director.
In any case I loved Palance. I am a fan of his, and in a lead, a somewhat straight lead, his casting is inspired. I felt he was emotionally resonant, quickly rising and falling with the clipped Odets' poetics. I watched it last night on TCM, and Robert Osborne remarked in the opening that this was a film about "weird people, Hollywood types" (paraphrase). I think that poorly sells the story, limiting it's scope and personality. Palance as Charlie Castle is a wreck because of his life in Hollywood, sure, but he isn't weird for it. His close relationships with his trainer/masseur and his publicist, among others, highlights his isolation and need for loving contact. Which makes Ida Lupino, as his possibly-leaving wife Marion, and her dilemma such a good parallel to Charlie's wanting to leave Hollywood.
And Rod Steiger....Over the top? Yes. But it a beautiful thing to watch. I love his commanding physical presence, his melodramatic crying, his hand-wringing. It may be scene-chewing and distracting to some, but again, it works within the story and the character. His psychological make up is so apparent, especially when he fears Castle will strike him, how he crosses his arms and tucks in.
Ida Lupino, who looks like she could be Stockard Channing's mother, was strong and poised despite her rancorous life, and I appreciated her for it. Her character was winning because of the strength she debated having to exert. Again, a Hollywood consequence.
Character actors, one and all, Smiley, Connie, Shelley Winter's wonkie Dixie, Hank (who could be Grey Davis' father), Nat (his slapping of Stanley Hoff's glass was awesome) , they all embody the inherent lack of stability in Hollywood.
The message is clear, and the execution (pardon the pun), was dramatic and interesting.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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Better than today's
Added 10/15/2009
No matter how overdramatic, the acting blew me away. I had forgotten there were such good actors.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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sticks in the heart of 50's hollywood
Added 4/11/2009
excellent!five stars or more Rod Steiger is a souless monster, and most likely ruffle some feathers of real studio heads of that period he is so evil that its a fatting desert! and hedda hopper witch like character is to die for and Wendell corey performance is a knockout! it can too much at times but so what it was the fifties.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
Campy but substantial.
Added 8/14/2008
Ok, ok, I know, this movie is campy, "over the top." But, still, it's a damn good movie.
It's serious, well-acted and other than the fact that he's a rat because sang to HUAC you've got to admit the screenwriter, Clifford Odets, does know how to write.
Note to any would-be Rich Little-wannabee ---- This is the movie to see if you want to perfect the definitive Rod Steiger impersonation. ("Ho-ho ho-ho! If you don't start reacting out there in the auidence, I'm gonna machine gun everyone of you. And-I'm-not-kidding. Oh-but-I-am-kidding Ho-ho-ho!")
The production values are not great. The direction is choppy. The style, as noted, is campy and and over-the-top. But give me 10 of these movies for 10,000 of today's so-called "blockbusters."
More of a filmed "Playhouse 90" production than a movie, see it, you won't be disappointed. ... Or else: ho-ho-ho, I'll machine gun every one of you.
1 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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