lonemagpie

Far from Connie’s greatest movie, but he stole the scenes he was in, by wisely playing against the script. At the same time, I didn’t find it as bad as I feared, on account of having a filthy mind.

Viewing the trailer before was enough to make me notice that it wasn’t a “digging under the wire” kind of POW escape movie, and it came over as sort of a proto-Mission Impossible in some places (how may episodes of that show involved a faked death to rescue somebody?)

Robert Taylor and Norma Shearer were wooden, Philip Dorn had some moments, but other than Connie, Bonita Granville was the one who made an impression, though her actual role seemed confused in the minds of writers and director.

It all felt like… I mean, there are a lot of problems (horrible clunky dialogue, wooden hero, ridiculous uniform inaccuracies, huge levels of coincidence, people switching sides suddenly and with no reason…) but it kept coming up with bits that you just know could have been fantastic if they’d just been slightly tweaked, refined, or - most frequently - actually explained on screen.

So, basically a mess with a couple of standout scene-stealers, that makes me actually want to read the book, because I suspect it will explain all the stuff like who Ursula is actually supposed to fuck up, and what’s wrong with the general…

I mean literally - I'd fallen asleep with music playing on my MP3 player, but by half past 8 this morning it had reached that radio version of A Woman's Face that I posted a link to a week or two back.

Which at least means I've now actually listened to it. Interesting experience. Being cut down to half an hour means it's very bitty. Connie's very charming, but makes Torsten's turn to villainy sound even more out of left field, especially since in this version of the piano scene he mentions having a rich uncle and Anna immediately goes "who gets his money?" which sort of implies she's corrupting him.

Speaking of Anna, Bette Davis is good in the role, and seems to actually be doing a softer version of Connie's accent. Whether this is a deliberate choice to convey their relationship, or just a convenience for getting a quick European accent for the role, is harder to tell.

The attic scene is there in shortened form, and the climax is *slightly* improved, but only a tiny bit. Oddly, Dr Regert seems to be cast older, more like a father figure though Anna still ends up marrying him.

Of course, being radio, Anna's scarring can be as subtle or excessive as the listener imagines, but I'd disagree with the line that Torsten is lying when he says he finds her beautiful. Lying when he implies he loves her, definitely.

Anyway, overall, not too bad an effort, considering how much had to be chopped.

http://oldhollywoodincolor.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/conrad-veidtr-42-04-19-113-a-womans-face.mp3 - A radio adaptation of the movie (Connie's own favourite) with Bette Davis taking over the Joan Crawford role.

Ahahaha! I've never even seen this movie. But I'll take the result cos there's a superior live-action version in the form of Conrad Veidt - though he *isn't* a villain, really. (No, he's not. Trust me on this.)

http://www.zimbio.com/quiz/Yj_54KBJSTd/Which+Disney+Villain+Are+You

Watching the Murder Rooms episode The White Knight Stratagem - in which Arthur Conan Doyle is the assistant to Joseph Bell (Ian Richardson) in solving crimes - and the episode’s second scene started with a guy reciting, in German, the code phrases that Captain Hardt (Conrad Veidt) has in The Spy In Black.

As Holmes/Connie connections, go that’s pretty thin, but I do find myself wondering if it’s a deliberate reference by the makers.

So, we’re starting to get some art done for A Study In Steampunk (whether this will appear in the book or just in publicity I’m not sure), such as this take on one of the Connie photo portraits I sent along as references. So this one’s done by the publisher himself, Adrian Middleton.

So, a bunch of us were transporting three coats for Conrad Veidt (Connie wasn't actually in the dream, by the way, we were just trying to deliver these coats to the theatre where he'd be needing them).

In Citizen Khan's car. (If you don't know that show, you're probably lucky)

From Birmingham to Bradford by way of at least one flooded spooky old house, and lots of juggling things around in rain-soaked car parks.

After which we had a message that Connie thought the show was his worst ever.

Even in my dreams I let everybody down sooner or later.

Well, I know where I'd want to be going if I was in London on Dr Who's anniversary weekend.

No, not the sold-out big DW cattlemarket - this!

http://www.cinemamuseum.org.uk/2013/conrad-veidt-under-the-red-robe/

Somebody should tell Snowgrouse.

Actually, doubtless she'll know already - I'm half surprised she's not the expert they've got introducing it, cos she should be.

For those unfamiliar with the guy I picture as Holmes... http://badassdigest.com/2013/07/09/meet-conrad-veidt-badass/

Urgh, so much politics I ought to shunt all that stuff to a separate blog.

So, a change of pace- Watching The Magic Sword, crappy movie with Basil Rathbone as the evil wizard, and thinking a) obviously Conrad Veidt from Thief Of Bagdad was unavailable (having been dead for 19 years) and b) shit, if Connie was still around in 1962 this is the sort of shit he might have got stuck in.

Basil deserved better...

Sadly I'm watching on TCM, not this MST3K version.