This being Thursday, it's time for another edition of Thursday Movie Picks, the blogathon run by Wandering Through the Shelves. This week's theme is verbal altercations, a theme that left me at first wondering how to tackle it, until I decided to go with a theme-within-a-theme of courtroom jousting. That made things a lot easier, although my first idea of using The Marrying Kind (set in divorce court) was out since I just mentioned that one last September. So I had to come up with three different movies:
Inherit the Wind (1960). Spencer Tracy and Fredric March get into it verbally over evolution in this thinly-disguised (but well-made) version of the Scopes Monkey Trial. Tracy defends the teacher (Dick York) against Tracy; Gene Kelly gets a rare non-dancing, non-singing role as an acerbic reporter reminiscent of H.L. Mencken.
Adam's Rib (1949). Spencer Tracy is the prosecutor this time, prosecuting a woman (Judy Holliday) who is accused of shooting her cheating husband in a fit of rage. (Judy Holliday being the star of The Marrying Kind, you can see why I wanted to connect that one to this one.) Making things very complicated is that Holliday's defense attorney is Katharine Hepburn, who is married to Tracy's prosecutor character. The two engage in lots of verbal jousting both inside and outside the courtroom.
The Paradine Case (1947). Gregory Peck is a barrister who is hired to defend Alida Valli in a trial where she stands accused of the murder of her husband. Peck begins to fall in love with Valli, much distressing both him and his wife (Ann Todd). The real verbal altercation here comes between Peck, and the valet of Valli's late husband (Louis Jourdan) when the valet takes the stand.
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3 comments:
Great way to go with the theme!
Inherit the Wind is one of my all-time favorite films and it fits so well! The dance that Tracy and March perform is so tight and observant. Love what Florence Eldridge does with Sarah, a part that if it isn't played well just vanishes into the woodwork.
Adam's Rib is one of the better of the Tracy/Hepburn pairings and both seem to be enjoying themselves. Judy Holliday is her usual scene stealer (and I love The Marrying Kind too!)
I didn't hate it but I found The Paradine Case something of a trial to sit through. The pacing was off and the leads were miscast. Alida Valli is okay but she seems tentative whereas Gregory Peck is just wrong both too young and too American. The original plan was for Olivier and Garbo to play those roles and it would have made much more sense.
I decided the easiest way to zero in on a set of verbal altercations was to do a theme within the theme using one performer. I turned to a master of the verbal tongue lashing-Miss Bette Davis! She was Oscar nominated for all three of these pictures.
The Little Foxes (1941)-At the turn of the 20th century in the deep South the Hubbard brothers and their sister Regina Giddins (Bette Davis) are rapacious jackals whose love of money overrides all things. The brothers steal bonds from Regina’s husband Horace, a good man who abhors their avarice, behind his back for a business deal he refused. When Horace and Regina discover her brothers plan to replace the value of what was taken and keep any profits for themselves Regina wants them arrested and all the profits. But the gravely ill Horace tells her he intends to let them do as they planned as a payback to her for all her meanness through the years of their marriage. It does not go well. They tear into each other, she telling him he resents her because he knows he’s dying and begrudges her having what she wants after he’s gone, he telling her he sees her and her family for the succubi they are. She turns to him and with deadly malice and says “I hope you die…I hope you die soon…I’ll be WAITing for you to die.”
The Star (1952)-Margaret Elliott (Bette) was once a big Oscar winning movie star but now she’s fallen on hard times and is working as a sales clerk in a department store. Recognized by two customers who disparage her behind her back Margaret confronts them in an epic takedown “Take a good look ladies so there’s no doubt! It IS Margaret Elliott and it IS a disgrace! Margaret Elliott waiting on a couple of old bags like you.” One of them tells her they’ll call the manager. “Call the manager” Margaret says “Call the president….call the fire department! I won’t be here. I’m going back where I belong! I AM Margaret Elliott and I intend to STAY Margaret Elliott!”
Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)-Jane Hudson (Bette) and her sister Blanche (Joan Crawford) were once great stars. Jane as a child in vaudeville and Blanche later in films by which point Jane had become a troublesome drunken has-been. It all comes crashing down when Blanche is crippled in a mysterious accident and now the sisters, estranged and bitter reside in Blanche’s fading mansion locked in a miserable existence. Almost their every conversation is a verbal conflict but as Jane’s grip on reality becomes ever more tenuous things escalate and when Blanche tells her she wouldn’t be able to do the awful things she does if Blanche wasn’t in a wheelchair Jane screams “But ya are Blanche! Ya are in that chair!”
I haven't seen any of your picks this week but I like Gregory Peck so The Paradine Case sounds like it might be for me.
I love Inherit The Wind and just re-watched it last Saturday. I love these 2 greats going at it. Funny anecdote, the 2 actors were real hams and always tried to upstage the other. When March acted in a scene in the courtroom, off camera, Tracy was picking his nose to put March off his game...Hahahaa. Adam's Rib is a great film paired with the 2 greats on and off screen Tracy and Hepburn. I love the scene when he is giving her a rubdown plus I love the scene with Spencer holding a gun on his wife and the lech next door. I still have to see the Paradine Case
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