Lizzie 1957
Posted by spheer2002 | Filed under Film, Films of the 1950's
Dont You Look at Me That Way!
the ‘three faces of Eve’ gene
Elizabeth (Eleanor Parker, ‘The Sound of Music”) Is Just your Average Girl, From your neighborhood, shes works a dull job, she has a boyfriend and lives with her aunt, and shes in her early twenties , The trouble with Young miss Bess is that’s she continues to have reoccurring headaches and slight cases of insomnia , often sleeping in her on set of clothes and waking up in other set .
Almost overnight he starts to receive threatening letters left in places she will only know where to look signed by a ”Lizzie” , a name she is apparently not familiar with in her day to day life .Her Mental condition starts to wither away rapidly and her Aunt (Joan Blondell,”Grease”,Nightmare Alley “)decides to take her to a Dr. Wright (Richard Boone) who after seeing her decides to put her under hypnosis . Unknown to all, Deep in her subconscious, Dr. Wright finds that Elizabeth carries three personalities around with her ,One is Elizabeth, the shy one that everyone knows,” Lizzie”, the wild ,tarty ,nymphonical , sociopath .And three ,Beth, the good asexual moral guardian that Elizabeth feels she should have been. Dr. Wright must find a way of exorcising the other two personality’s and help create a dominant personality to help rule ,
this ones ”VERY” camp, in a 1950’s sort of way (which we Love) and lets face it, between Joan Blondell and the three personalities of Parker ,someones gonna choke from trying to chew up all the furniture,
But on a serious note along with “three faces of Eve” strangely also released in 1957 and ‘Possessed” (1947) released a good ten years before one of the earliest films (aside from the Jekyll and Hyde franchise)that explores Multipal personality Disorders as a serious medical disorder.
Eleanor Parker , who is usually good at playing both side of the field, either self sacrificing wives (Above and Beyond 1952)or , people with twigs up their ass (”Scaramouche” , the baroness from ”The sound of Music” ) , or people who are bordering on a multiple Personality (See ”Woman in White” on this Blog), although considered to be in second place to Joanne Woowards portrayal in ‘Eve” its certainly worth a look ,its not a lesser film , it seems to fall in the shadow.
Tags: Madness, Multiple Personality, sickness
My Cousin Rachel 1952
Posted by spheer2002 | Filed under Film, Films of the 1950's
Remember Melanie From Gone with the Wind..?
Imagine her now with a potential streak for homocide! When Philip Ashley’s (Richard Burton “Cleopatra” before hitting the bottle and Liz)much-loved (and rich) cousin Ambrose dies, he is convinced that Ambrose was murdered by his new wife Rachel (Olivia De Haviland “Gone With The Wind)to inherit his wealth. But when he meets Rachel he falls in love with her,He starts to second guess himself and places Rachel in Pride of place in his Household. A cloud soon descends upon the Ashley estate and it soon seems that dear Cousin Rachel is not all she says she is,Is it just paranoia or she seriously trying to use Philip to get at the estate Ambrose left to him instead of to her And will she ‘really’ capable of cold calculated murder!
Originally slated for Greta Garbo,with George Cukor Directing , Garbo which she Ultimately Rejected, next in Line was Vivian Leigh, but for what ever reason, She wasnt able to commit to it either, Enter Olivia De Haviland,having not done a film for a couple of years after her oscar winning performance in ‘The heiress” and she does a brilliant job, You spend all of the movie racking you brains wither or not she is a genuine loving human being or she is indeed out to do ill, which is the greatest thing about this film, With a score by Franz Waxman who strangely did the score for another Famous Daphne du Maurier Novel ”Rebecca” (see Blog) which Ironically starred De Haviland’s real Life Sister Joan Fontiane, Like Rebecca This is a Gothic Noir Film, that plays against the wild plains of the windswept English countryside, which is not that far removed from Wuthering Heights.
Its a Beautiful mystery but do not at any point assume anything about Rachel or what she does. all you need to remember is what Richard Burton says in the beginning of the film
Murder Begets Murder
Tags: Based off Novel, Daphne du Maurier, Franz Waxman, Gothic, Movies Garbo Rejected, Mysterious Death, Richard Burton, sickness, Victorian Era
