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Jack's Conversations With Ullman, Lloyd, and Grady

posted 9 months ago by roger1 (2374)
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Within all the good visuals and meanings of The Shining, I've always been partial to the writing, acting, and PACING (slow but interesting) of Jack Torrance's (aka Jack Nicholson's) three talks with three men -- only one of whom is real.

In a movie where Jack doesn't have much connection with the wimpy wife (Shelly Duvall) he married(she's a nice gal, but his handsome, macho, bullying loser self is a clear mismatch for her), its how he talks to the MEN..and how Kubrick presents those conversations, that are perhaps the most entertaining dialogue scenes in the movie.

ONE: ULLMAN, THE HOTEL MANAGER

Played by Barry Nelson, a surprising bit of casting because Nelson had been a staple of TV in the 50's and 60's -- episodic TV, game show guest player -- but was rather "out of date" in 1980. His looks -- freckled, boyish, a bit "squashed" -- had always kept him playing rather untrustworthy, borderline sleazy characters, and in this film..we find during the interview that we don't much trust EITHER the hotel manager who is conducting the interview OR the overly smiling, overly cheerful, overly solicitious Jack(but then, haven't we ALL been there in interviews, on either side.)

I like how Kubrick establishes the "slow but interesting" pace of his entire movie with this scene. Basically, we get a FULL interview, start to finish, small talk to offered job, with some interesting material in between as Ullman eventually just has to bring up how...an earlier caretaker murdered his entire female family(wife, twin daughters) with an axe.

People used to forget that there's another guy in the room during the interview, but a documentary("Room 237") made sure to include him. Still, the main event is Ullman and Jack, two smarms trying to outfox each other. I do like how Ullman tells his assistant that "for once I agree" with the "home office in Denver" on Jack being the man for the job. (Why? I wonder...does Ullman suspect that Jack will do just fine with the isolation?)

TWO: LLOYD THE BARTENDER

Played by Joe Turkel, a veteran of two black-and-white Kubrick films of the 50s: The Killing and Paths of Glory. (I could have sworn he was a soldier in Dr. Strangelove, too -- but he's not billed there.) Turkel given here, I think, the most memorable role of his career. The Shining was a commercial hit with a big star(Jack Nicholson) , a horror draw(Stephen King) and wide audiences. I think they "dug" Turkel's carefully modulated performance and cadaverous face and stoic manner. He's a bartender who says all the right, friendly things -- but he's not all that friendly, really. Like all good bar customers everywhere, Jack Torrance fills in the blanks and gives his server more cheer than the server can give back.

Lloyd's every response to Jack is concilatory and deferential, he sometimes offers the faintest of smiles; we VALUE the friendship extended by Lloyd to Jack --the place is otherwise deserted of "friends" -- and if Lloyd is not real , well -- so what? Jack thinks he's real, and compliments him as "the best bartender from Timbuktu to Portland, Maine. Or Portland, Oregon, for that matter."

And face it, the name "Lloyd the bartender" just has a certain zing to it coming from Jack Nicholson's wacked out line readings.

Everything is just fine and dandy about Lloyd's barside manner, except for one comment that mixes gift with warning: "Your money's no good here."

What I love most about the bar scenes with Lloyd the Bartender -- other than how the empty bar and ballroom fill with imaginary people -- is how Jack gets to enjoy the pleasures of drinking an alcoholic beverage when -- the drink is IMAGINARY. It can't really be given Jack relaxation, taste, or pleasure at all -- except in his mind.

And this: Jack elects to confess to Lloyd --because why not? -- the terrible "past crime" of his "accidentally" wracking his young son's arm on a grab til he broke it. "A momentary loss of muscular coordination..I mean , a few extra footpounds of energy, per second, per second....AND IT WAS THREE GODDAMN YEAR AGO!"

So...its not all good times,with Lloyd the Bartender.

CONT

[–] roger1 (2374) 9 months ago

GRADY THE BUTLER

Saving the best for last, perhaps -- and he does show up last of the three.

We're mesmerized, as Jack walks away from Lloyd in their final scene together, by all the party people(circa 1920 something) in the room and Jack -- in jeans and sloppy shirt, adrift among the tuxedoed/gowned crowd -- is bumped into by a butler who spills drinks all over him. Its the butler does the spilling and -- in a more formalized and British manner ("Jeevesy, my boy" Jack calls him) apolgizes immensely and implores Jack to come with him to the large, elegant bathroom where he can wash the stains off Jack's shirt.

That bathroom is a classic Kubrick room, photographed in a classic Kubrick way: with the two men in the center of the frame and at the apex of perspective. Its a red and white room...red dominating. And Kubrick keeps playing with the space of the room and the rules of photographing two men together -- he "flips the camera" and reverses the position of the men with each changed angle.

As with the long interview with Ullman -- and perhaps less as the two dialogues with Lloyd the Bartender -- this discussion between Jack and Grady(once Jack LEARNS that the man's name is Grady, the conversation changes rapidly)...Kubrick takes his own, long, SWEET time to let the two men talk.

Nicholson does his ham thing here -- to great comic effect. Reacting to the butler's name -- "Grady, you say..." Raising his eyebrows in the Jack Nicholson tradition. Saying things with a strained, squeaky twang at odds with the butler's always precise, always Veddy British diction.

Whereas Lloyd the Bartender was played by an actor from Kubrick's distant past(the 50s), Grady the Butler is a veteran of more recent Kubrick works at that time -- 2001, A Clockwork Orange...Barry Lyndon most recently. Phillip Stone.

CONT

[–] roger1 (2374) 9 months ago

And where Stone takes Grady's dialogue is sending The Shining in the direction it is ultimately meant to go: as an emissary of the hotel itself, to suggest, cajole and eventually direct Jack to take action against his wife and son. After all, Grady intones, when his children disobeyed, "I corrected them," and when his wife tried to interfere, "I corrected her too."

So Jack is set on course to " correct" his family, to "give them a talking to," and Grady moves to the big one: "I feel you will have to deal with this in the harshest possible way, Mr. Torrance." To which Jack replies: "There's nothing I look forward to with greater pleasure, Mr. Grady."

Grady also gets the most profound line in the movie, in response to Jack:

"You've always been the caretaker. I should know, sir. I've always been here."

CONT

[–] roger1 (2374) 9 months ago

For a movie about three people alone in a house(Jack, his wife and their son), The Shining actually has three great dialogue scenes for Jack with OTHER people -- "man to man," exquisitely paced, ever growing in menace.

Sometimes when I put The Shining in for a look, I find myself looking forward to Ullman, Lloyd and Grady, most of all..