#9 - Lady in the Lake
I generally enjoy film noir, and it doesn't get much more noirish than Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe. This hard bitten private eye has been played by many actors, most famously by Humphrey Bogart in The Big Sleep. I'm willing to bet that none of those interpretations are quite as strange as Lady in the Lake.
Robert Montgomery played Marlowe, and was also made his directorial debut. Montgomery had achieved a degree of fame and fortune in romantic roles in the 1930s, but after World War II he realized that as he got older he'd have to find new roles to continue his career. He jumped at the chance to play Marlowe, and somehow convinced MGM to let him direct one of their most valuable properties; at the time Chandler was massively popular so the rights to his 1943 novel were very pricey. Despite having won Oscars for screenplays, Chandler didn't do this one.
How did Montgomery convince MGM to let him direct? He told them he was going to film in a style never previously seen, and he kept his word. That style today is called 1st-person-shooter mode. Aside from the framing story and a few brief glances in mirrors, Marlowe never appears on screen. Instead the camera is always looking right where he is looking. The other actors speak directly to the camera.
Now, on the face of it making the entire film from Marlowe's vantage isn't a terrible idea. MGM advertised it as a revolutionary new filming style, a claim in part justified by the equipment they had to put together so that they could make the shots work while moving the camera all about the room in time with Marlowe's steps. The problem is that it doesn't actually add much to the story. Indeed, we spend a lot of time looking at doorknobs and other things that don't add much to the story because clearly Marlowe has to look at them to move through buildings. This gets boring really quickly. The net results is similar to the way that 1950s 3D movies always throw something right at the character to make the crowd 'feel the 3D'.
The story is not Chandler's best stuff and is reasonably predictable to noir fans who know how these things work, but this isn't the fatal flaw. The real problem is the filming style. It's just distracting, and soon led to boredom. I quickly found myself wishing that they'd played it straight instead of messing around with 'revolutionary' styles. I suspect that if they'd done that it would have been a more than serviceable film. Chandler was reputed not be impressed by it, although he did happily cash the check.
Lady in the Lake features Audrey Totter as the female lead and was introduced by a local expert on her work. I am indebted to him for much of the background detail about the film.
How Much Fun I Had in the Theater, 2013
Rank. Order - Name. Date; Theater.
Robert Montgomery played Marlowe, and was also made his directorial debut. Montgomery had achieved a degree of fame and fortune in romantic roles in the 1930s, but after World War II he realized that as he got older he'd have to find new roles to continue his career. He jumped at the chance to play Marlowe, and somehow convinced MGM to let him direct one of their most valuable properties; at the time Chandler was massively popular so the rights to his 1943 novel were very pricey. Despite having won Oscars for screenplays, Chandler didn't do this one.
How did Montgomery convince MGM to let him direct? He told them he was going to film in a style never previously seen, and he kept his word. That style today is called 1st-person-shooter mode. Aside from the framing story and a few brief glances in mirrors, Marlowe never appears on screen. Instead the camera is always looking right where he is looking. The other actors speak directly to the camera.
Now, on the face of it making the entire film from Marlowe's vantage isn't a terrible idea. MGM advertised it as a revolutionary new filming style, a claim in part justified by the equipment they had to put together so that they could make the shots work while moving the camera all about the room in time with Marlowe's steps. The problem is that it doesn't actually add much to the story. Indeed, we spend a lot of time looking at doorknobs and other things that don't add much to the story because clearly Marlowe has to look at them to move through buildings. This gets boring really quickly. The net results is similar to the way that 1950s 3D movies always throw something right at the character to make the crowd 'feel the 3D'.
The story is not Chandler's best stuff and is reasonably predictable to noir fans who know how these things work, but this isn't the fatal flaw. The real problem is the filming style. It's just distracting, and soon led to boredom. I quickly found myself wishing that they'd played it straight instead of messing around with 'revolutionary' styles. I suspect that if they'd done that it would have been a more than serviceable film. Chandler was reputed not be impressed by it, although he did happily cash the check.
Lady in the Lake features Audrey Totter as the female lead and was introduced by a local expert on her work. I am indebted to him for much of the background detail about the film.
How Much Fun I Had in the Theater, 2013
Rank. Order - Name. Date; Theater.
- #6 - Harvey. Sunday, January 27; Capitol Theater.
- #4 - True Romance. Sunday, January 20; Cleveland Cinematheque.
--- Above this Line, Awesomeness --- - #2 - Lincoln. Tuesday, January 8; Westlake Regal
- #5 - Django. Tuesday, January 22; Capitol Theater (Cleveland Cinematheque production)
- #8 - The Mercenary. Friday, February 8; Cleveland Cinematheque.
- #1 - The Well-Digger's Daughter. Sunday, January 6; Cleveland Cinematheque.
--- Below This Line, I Was Bored --- - #9 - Lady in the Lake. Saturday, February 9; Cleveland Cinematheque.
- #7 - Only Yesterday. Sunday, January 27; Cleveland Cinematheque.
- #3 - 8 1/2. Sunday, January 13; Cleveland Cinematheque.