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Post by Allen Wiener on Dec 2, 2011 10:45:38 GMT -5
I find the real Bowie one of the most enigmatic figures in this whole story. Maybe that's why there's no really good bio of him. The man didn't leave much of a paper trail and seemed to cover his tracks. Or maybe he just didn't leave much behind. The best biographical material I've seen on him are in Jack Davis's "Three Roads to the Alamo" and Jack Edmondson's "Alamo Story."
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Post by Rich Curilla on Dec 3, 2011 0:47:43 GMT -5
Hayden was not the Bowie that was. Hayden was the Bowie we want him to be. Agreed. But in the late fifties, he was the best Bowie going, and we had no concept of the Bowie that was yet. BUT we paid attention from then on because of that interesting development -- that they weren't the same.
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Post by Rich Curilla on Dec 3, 2011 0:51:54 GMT -5
Allen, I think you are right on the money with this. Bowie is absolutely fascinating because we *can't* find out a lot about him. That's one of the things I like about Jason Patric's performance -- that there is a lot behind the surface of those looks, including the gentleness and warmth a few contemporaries said he had.
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Post by Rich Curilla on Dec 3, 2011 0:58:02 GMT -5
I like Hayden's Bowie partly because of the gentle wisdom he shows toward Consuela. In that regard, the slow, rather clumsily acted (by Hayden) "love" scenes are acceptable -- particularly due to Steiner's wonderful, lilting love theme.
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Post by Rich Curilla on Dec 3, 2011 1:00:23 GMT -5
But that script! "No matter what happens, a man and a woman has to be, otherwise a man is only half and a woman is nothing at all." MY GOD! I didn't like to hear it then -- as a kid! Imagine trying to float that line today.
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Post by Chuck T on Dec 3, 2011 10:30:04 GMT -5
Rich: I expect you right it would not go over well today. It was successful at one thing - you remembered it. "Here's looking at you kid"
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Post by Allen Wiener on Dec 3, 2011 12:12:38 GMT -5
I also thought Patric's performance was noteworthy. Again, script writers and actors are limited in how much info they have on the real Bowie to put into a film.
Off topic: I had not realized that Patric is Jackie Gleason's grandson. I can see something of a family resemblence, but Patric had no use for Gleason and has said the man had nothing to do with him.
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Post by Rich Curilla on Dec 3, 2011 19:09:46 GMT -5
Off topic: I had not realized that Patric is Jackie Gleason's grandson. "You're goin' ta da MOON, Santa Anna!"
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Post by Rich Curilla on Dec 3, 2011 19:18:15 GMT -5
I was on set only once when Jason was acting. The day John Lee filmed him riding up, dismounting and walking into the Veramendi Palace. They also shot the devastation scene in the Veramendi yard where he and Sam walk in. What particularly impressed me about him was how intense and alone he was before and during shooting the scenes and then how open and loose and friendly he became as soon as they wrapped him for the day. All knew to leave him alone before-hand -- that he was trying to maintain his Bowie character. A year later, at the premiere party, I talked with him for a few minutes and he was totally down to earth and friendly. I've only experienced that kind of actorial intensity once before in all my years at Alamo Village, and it was with Raul Julia as Santa Anna in 13 Days to Boredom. (Sorry. Guess I got off The Last Command. I'll shut up. ;D)
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Post by loucapitano on Dec 6, 2011 12:36:42 GMT -5
Don't overlook J. Carroll Nash as Santa Anna. Of course, he never knew Bowie personally, but their interplay in the movie saved a lot of time in the narrative. Hugh Marlow is not bad for Travis, at least his outfit was historically accurate early in the movie. How I wish the real Travis had written about crossing the line in the message Jeb takes to Houston. But why the heck did they film the scene in the rain? Also, I have a soft spot for Anna Maria Alberghetti. I saw her on stage in the West Side Story traveling company in 1961 and she was a wonderful Maria. She got to do some pretty good acting and overacting in the Last Command. Not bad for a nice Italian girl. Ditto on Hunnicutt, he was a perfect Crockett of legend. (Print the Legend - "John Ford")
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Post by Chuck T on Dec 6, 2011 14:38:37 GMT -5
Lou: Don't you mean Richard Carlson as Travis. I had the good fortune to meet Alberghetti during the pre-Broadway run of Carnival at the National Theater in DC. She was without doubt the most beautiful woman that I have ever laid eyes upon. She was about twenty five or six at the time, a few years after the eighteen year old Consuela
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Post by Rich Curilla on Dec 6, 2011 21:51:37 GMT -5
And, in The Last Command, the only actress who could actually turn crying into an aria!
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Post by loucapitano on Dec 7, 2011 18:12:12 GMT -5
Thanks Chuck -- of course it was Richard Carlson. Hugh Marlow was the mean boyfriend in "The Day the Earth Stood Still." Thanks for correcting my senior moment. I'm glad there are still a few Alberghetti fans.
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Post by Allen Wiener on Dec 7, 2011 20:53:54 GMT -5
I hate to say this, but guys like Richard Carlson and Hugh Marlow sometimes blended together. I think a friend of mine once asked me "If Richard Carlson isn't Hugh Marlow, then who the hell is he??" Or something like that. I think some beer had been consumed.
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Post by Rich Curilla on Dec 8, 2011 3:20:34 GMT -5
I think J. Carroll Naish is the most accurate Santa Anna to date, at least emotionally. I don't see S.A. as being bi-polar as Raoul Julia so excellently played him. I just see him as having a different attitude about his day job than his personal life. Much like the modern day business man who is a wonderful family man but ruthless in the workplace. Or the nice guy who is a monster when he's behind the wheel of a car. Santa Anna could turn the charm on and off at will and for results. That's what Naish did.
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