True about Hitchcock's two wartime Universals. Hitch was a big noise when he made pictures for Selznick. Every big name critic reviewed them. Shadow Of A Doubt was at least taken seriously, and while it was widely known as a Hitchcock picture, it had the Selznick creds of not just Hitchcock but of Joseph Cotten, who was also a "prestige guy" at the time due to his Orson Welles connected in addition to his soon to be Selznick one. I think it's fair to say that Cotten's dour performance as the negative "lead" of this film ratcheted him up as a name player into something like major stardom (he already had Citizen Kane, in which he was far more likable, with Welles playing the monster part!). If Cotten had, for some strange reason, become a superstar, achieved an iconic Bogart level of celebrity, Shadow Of A Doubt might now be seen as his Petrified Forest. (okay, so much for speculation).
Even the less serious Saboteur was a true feather in the caps of many who contributed to its making, including even, yes, Priscilla Lane, who had a achieved, without becoming a major star, something of a "G.I. Favorite" status on the homefront (she was awfully pretty, eh?,--and as sexy seeming as she was wholesome,--egads--what more could a red-blooded American boy ask for?). Bob Cummings, like Ronald Reagan and Eddie Albert, was rising slowly but surely to A list status even as they seemed to be continually failing to fine that One Big Picture that would maken solid gold. (Reagan has some time in the sun, then drifted postwar, into television, as his superstardom would be achieved in another field of endeavor altogether; while Albert hit it bigger on the Broadway stage than in films, and he eventually achieved household name status when he moved to Green Acres.)
I'm running out of space here. Time to quit, given the time of day and all. By all means, EC, keep cool, too, and stay safe. I'm not about to stop wearing a mask any time soon. I urge you to do same.
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ecarle (14979)
3 years ago
True about Hitchcock's two wartime Universals. Hitch was a big noise when he made pictures for Selznick. Every big name critic reviewed them. Shadow Of A Doubt was at least taken seriously, and while it was widely known as a Hitchcock picture, it had the Selznick creds of not just Hitchcock but of Joseph Cotten, who was also a "prestige guy" at the time due to his Orson Welles connected in addition to his soon to be Selznick one.
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Yes...it is hard for me to gauge "from here," but it seems while Saboteur could not land "A level leads,
Shadow of a Doubt had Teresa Wright(fresh from Mrs. Miniver, yes?) and Cotton (my PC always spells his name with an O) had the Welles connection. Its interesting how Saboteur and Shadow of a Doubt rather contrast -- one an "action chase" picture(anticipating North by Northwest), the other a small town meets psycho meets psycho character study(anticipating Psycho.)
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ecarle (14979)
3 years ago
I think it's fair to say that Cotten's dour performance as the negative "lead" of this film
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"Negative lead" -- a great term for the great Hitchcock villains who sometimes got top billing and always got the audience's most rapt attention: Uncle Charlie(Cotton), Bruno Anthony(Robert Walker) Tony Wendice(Ray Milland -- versus poor Bob Cummings again!), Norman Bates(Anthony Perkins) and Bob Rusk(the little known Brit, Barry Foster.)
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ratcheted him up as a name player into something like major stardom (he already had Citizen Kane, in which he was far more likable, with Welles playing the monster part!). If Cotten had, for some strange reason, become a superstar, achieved an iconic Bogart level of celebrity, Shadow Of A Doubt might now be seen as his Petrified Forest. (okay, so much for speculation)
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Ah, speculation is good. BTW, evidently Selznick wanted Joseph Cotton for the lead in Notorious! THAT might have led to stardom.
But come the 50's, Cotten's handsome looks started to deteriorate -- in Niagara, as Marilyn Monroe's jilted, murderous husband, Cotten's eyes are baggy and his face seems rather wrinkled. He kept a good voice for decades, but the face "went."
He looks great in Shadow of a Doubt though -- a certain dark beauty.
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ecarle (14979)
3 years ago
Even the less serious Saboteur was a true feather in the caps of many who contributed to its making, including even, yes, Priscilla Lane, who had a achieved, without becoming a major star, something of a "G.I. Favorite" status on the homefront (she was awfully pretty, eh?,--and as sexy seeming as she was wholesome,--egads--what more could a red-blooded American boy ask for?).
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Priscilla Lane actually has top billing OVER Bob Cummings in Saboteur, which tells me she had some sort of higher stardom.
And yes, I found her extremely pretty in a very modern way, with one of those female faces you fall in love with(modernly, the late Kelly Preston had the same deal for me.)
In the scene near the end where Lane dangerously and all alone, tries to stall saboteur Frank Fry(Norman Lloyd) inside Lady Liberty's head....Lane is pretty damn sexy and seductive. The creepy Fry believes the come on for a bit, almost follows through ("...but I just don't have the time.")
I post this within two weeks of Norman Lloyd passing at 106. What a career! And how much of it as a Hitchcock confidante and employee. Something really clicked between the two.
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ecarle (14979)
3 years ago
Bob Cummings, like Ronald Reagan and Eddie Albert, was rising slowly but surely to A list status even as they seemed to be continually failing to fine that One Big Picture that would maken solid gold. (Reagan has some time in the sun, then drifted postwar, into television, as his superstardom would be achieved in another field of endeavor altogether; while Albert hit it bigger on the Broadway stage than in films, and he eventually achieved household name status when he moved to Green Acres.)
Cummings, Reagan and Albert remind us that certain men don't become leading men(though Reagan came the closest) but find their niche in any event. Cummings became a TV series comedy guy (and was nicely smarmy in such 60's movies as The Carpetbaggers and the Stagecoach remake.) Reagan...well.
Eddie Albert I love in the 70's in several movies and one TV episode where he turned his white-haired , solidly built, leonine-headed presence into villainy at various levels; Oscar-nominatd as the rich banker father out to stop a "schmuck"(Charles Grodin -- HE died this week) from marrying his beautiful daughter, in The Heartbreak Kid; and two great villains for Robert Aldrich, the sadistic football-loving warden in The Longest Yard (vs NFL prisoner Burt Reynolds); a truly sleazy rich lawyer who reminds cop Burt Reynolds(again) that they share the same woman -- the hooker(Catherine Deneuve) with whom Reynolds lives and tries to have a romance, but Albert just buys.
Oh, and Albert used his powerful presence and hidden sex appeal to play "General Patton as the killer" on a 1971 Columbo episode...all the while romancing a pretty witness to his crime(Suzanne Pleshette.)
Green Acres made Eddie Albert a TV star and familiar face, but his 70's villains will last, too.
Bye for now Telegonus.
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telegonus (727)
3 years ago
Indeed, EC: RIP, Norman Lloyd.
Yeah. I forgot about the billing, then you jogged my memory: a lot of male stars in the old days had (in many instances) their only slightly better known female co-stars top billed over them early in their careers: John Wayne was billed below Claire Trevor in Stagecoach and, soon after, Dark Command, the following year.
Humphrey Bogart, no newbie but new to stardom, and basically the leading character in the film, High Sierra, took second billing to Ida Lupino, who was Warners' bid to become the next Bette Davis (I suspect that it was Warners that lobbied for Priscilla Lane to lead in the credits for Saboteur,--in that one it really should have been Joel McCrea in the lead, and top billed--now HE could have been a Harrison Ford hero type--and indeed rather was earlier, in Hitchcock's Foreign Correspondent).
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