movietom-2
Joined Mar 2000
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movietom-2's rating
Finally, after many years of desiring a viewing, I had a chance to see this just before Halloween -- thanks to Turner Classic Movies (paired with the classic "M") -- and while I could echo previous comments lauding Lorre's performance and the many fine aspects of the film, there's one matter I don't believe anyone has addressed in this forum. And that is how "The Hands of Orlac" plays a recurrent role as a motif in one of the great novels of the 20th century, "Under the Volcano," by Malcolm Lowry. If you haven't read it, I recommend that you do. Then watch the fine 1984 film version of that novel by John Huston, starring Albert Finney. Let me also take this chance to applaud TCM's continuing use of the smooth, erudite Robert Osborne as host. Is there anyone better today at this role? Which makes me wonder: What ever has become of the equally adept Bob Dorian?
If you enjoyed Richard Farnsworth's great work here, you should check out another performance of his that didn't get much notice but also deserved an Oscar: 1982's "The Grey Fox," in which he plays an aging train robber facing with a changing frontier. A much underrated actor. And "The Straight Story" is an unfairly overlooked film that was much, much better than 1999's Best Picture winner, "American Beauty" (which is a fine film itself nonetheless).
To quote the Eliot poem from which (I assume) the title of this piffle is arrogantly pilfered:
"We are the hollow men/ headpiece stuffed with straw/ alas."
Well, maybe I'm paraphrasing. I can't recall the stanza exactly. But the sentiment fits exactly with this wasteland of filmmaking, and I use that last word loosely. What's really invisible here is any sense of craft!
"We are the hollow men/ headpiece stuffed with straw/ alas."
Well, maybe I'm paraphrasing. I can't recall the stanza exactly. But the sentiment fits exactly with this wasteland of filmmaking, and I use that last word loosely. What's really invisible here is any sense of craft!