What an incredible movie. The only thing that bugs me about this film was that it took me such a long time to see it. Sure, it's a 100% bonfire-laden melodrama, but who doesn't love a melodrama?
I read the book by Patrick Hamilton in conjunction with watching this film, and I certainly think it worked for me. The book is set in the 1930's in London and is reasonably different to the film. George has very little going for him at all in the novel - he is not a highly-skilled composer, just a drunkard who blacks out on a regular basis. Still, in conjunction, they inform and enhance each other.
Laird Cregar's performance is hypnotic. There is no doubt at all that he is a murderer, and yet you spend most of the film thinking 'You Poor Guy'. Watching this makes me want to go out and get every single one of his films and watch them back to back. I might end up overly tired and extremely grumpy but it would be worth it. He has more charisma in his little finger etc etc insert James Bond reference here.
Linda Darnell I find fascinating because she was only 22 years old. She came to Hollywood when she was about 14 - but they sent her back home again. She returned when she was 15, and they let her stay. She was playing Tyrone Power's wife by the time she was 16. Obviously since I am unable to draw on my own experience as a voluptuous teenager who was starring in Hollywood films at a very young age, I don't quite know what something like that must do to a person, but it's got to tarnish a person a bit, doesn't it?
Anyway. Watch the film. Check out the lighting, the score, the performances.
That Poor Guy.
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