Don't get me wrong: I'm well aware that TPF is a classic flick, but the artificial scenery seen in the background of the outdoor set is rather bothersome to me.
Just wish they'd have filmed it on location - perhaps in the California desert.
Even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream
I wouldn't really mind the crummy stage setup if it wasn't for all that talk about the mystery of the desert, sunsets, sand storms, and starry skies...I mean wtf your listening to this stuff but when you look at it...ugh...
Still excellent movie though.
Yeah - that dated poetic stuff gets corny - but the California desert would have passed for Arizona, WTF?
Even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream
That's the way films were then, and nobody cared. It's all fake, anyway, so why do we need to be better convinced? There's a certain beauty to those closed set atmospheres of '30s films.
"Sometimes you have to take the bull by the tail, and face the truth" - G. Marx
My sentiments exactly, Freddy. The artifice works for me. As another poster mentioned, the air of unreality lends the film a dream-like quality it wouldn't have had it been made "realistically" (real cafe, real desert, etc.). It works like a charm for me. Director Archie Mayo handled it all nicely, and is now sadly forgotten. He was on a roll at Warners for a few years, then switched studios, made some flops, and his career never recovered.
shareThat's the way films were then, and nobody cared. It's all fake, anyway, so why do we need to be better convinced? There's a certain beauty to those closed set atmospheres of '30s films.
I was struck by the same feeling watching this film, but I realized that I was watching a "play on film," so to speak, translating the stage play into cinema with slightly more freedom of movement. Also, I think you're supposed to begin feeling claustrophobic when boxed in with these desperate characters in that extreme situation.
shareI quite liked it... it lent a dreamlike quality to everything. They certainly don't make them like that anymore, so I'm pleased they exist.
shareWhen sound came to film, almost all films were done of stages because they did not have the expertise to film on location, especially with dealing with outside noise. In this decade, films were shot very quickly.
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Strangely enough, the 1955 TV version did have a location shot. In the (filmed) opening scene, Henry Fonda is seen hitchhiking on what is obviously a real highway in a real desolate stretch of land. When he spies the diner, the "live" section begins and the rest of the program is more or less studio-bound.
May I bone your kipper, Mademoiselle?
Yes, it's obvious it's a stage back drop, but so what. I would have loved to have seen this played live on stage, and this gives a bit of a feel for that. The acting and story far out weighs a set backdrop.
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