Robert Ryan, Woman on the Beach, Jean Renoir, 1947
In the absence of much original blog content (busy, busy week, filled with outside concerns), I thought I’d commend you to the excellent piece my friend Kent Jones has contributed to MUBI’s Daily Notebook, tied in to New York’s Film Forum’s superb Ryan retrospective. In the piece, Kent notes a couple of regrettable omissions, including the above-glimpsed Renoir maudit; I myself kind of wish for the inclusion of Flying Leathernecks, not a particularly great film, I know, but fascinating for the contrast of performing styles—Ryan goes up against John Wayne in that one, and not to push any false dichotomy themes here, there is a real friction at work. In any event, there are rarities that more than make up for the omissions, including a Boetticher double feature that I’m gonna miss if I spend too much more time on this post.
Glenn, sorry for using this platform to plug something but since you brough it up, for you or anyone interested in reading about THE FLYING LEATHERNECKS, I wrote it up a year ago:
http://www.cinemaviewfinder.com/2010/08/flying-leathernecks-1951-and-rays.html
And I’m sure it will come up again in my upcoming Nick Ray blogathon.
Jacques Rivette’s a big fan of “Woman On the Beach.” And if you’ve seen it you’ll know why. Once many years back I went to see it at the Museum of Modern Art, and Joan Bennett was there. She wasn’t intorudcued as a “special guest” or anything. I doubt the staff knew she was in the audience. She just wanted to see it again herself.
As for Robert Ryan my absolute favorite is “On Dangerous Ground.”
If I were in NYC, I’d be all over that Boetticher double feature – haven’t seen either before.
It’s always nice to see another appreciation of INFERNO. One night about 2 a.m., my girlfriend and I were getting ready for bed, when INFERNO popped up on AMC. Though it hadn’t really been that long since we’d last seen it, we had to watch again, even with the blasted commercials. There was no question of recording it – we didn’t want to wait. Would love to see it in 3D sometime.
CAUGHT is in my Netflix Instant queue; looking forward to seeing that one again. Other streaming Ryan titles: THE BOY WITH GREEN HAIR, ALASKA SEAS, ABOUT MRS. LESLIE, HOUSE OF BAMBOO, ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW and THE DIRTY DOZEN.
Kent’s piece is all good but one paragraph in particular is a motherfucker.
Love Ryan’s entrance in “House Of Bamboo.” And for some reason in my mind he somehow looks way younger in that film than in “Bad Day At Black Rock” which came out the same year.
I wonder how often he and Sterling Hayden were up for the same parts. They easily could’ve (should’ve) played brothers in a movie. (I think I’m repeating myself with this post.)
INFERNO is truly a treat in 3D.
Robert Ryan is my favorite movie star, and I kind of regret that I’ve already seen every single film in Bruce’s series.
My favorite Ryan performance is still CAUGHT. The dark places his character goes to in that movie is still chilling.
BILLY BUDD is the ultimate Ryan performance, I think. Ustinov is content to set it up as a straightforward light vs. dark Christ allegory, and then Ryan adds so much ambiguity to Claggart that he throws the movie totally out of whack (in a good way).
Sadly, Horizon’s West bit the dust. I guess you can’t have it all. To add to the list of Ryan masterpieces not in this series: Anthony Mann’s MEN IN WAR.
And MEN IN WAR is amazing on the big screen (not that the Film Forum has one of those, but I digress). Saw it on 35mm in film skool, then screened it again a few days later from an AMC recording (yes, I’m that old) to write about it, and was shocked at how much was lost. I still remember the sweat and the beard stubble on Ryan’s face in one of Mann’s profile close-ups.
Was fortunate to see MEN IN WAR at Lincoln Center a few years ago. Apart from its use of screen space (I would pair it with DUCK AMUCK as two films whose protagonists are at war with the mise en scene*), its quiet-quiet-loud soundscape is also amazing, maddening. The opening, so quiet and sleepy, interrupted by a shout (“LIEUTENANT!!” if I recall), knocked out the Walter Reade audience as if they were at an early test screening of PARANORMAL ACTIVITY. And, as those of you who’ve seen the film know, the screws just kept on tightening. What a film.
* In solidarity with those who will not be correctified on the use of dashes and “grave accents.”
I caught MEN IN WAR in a beautiful print at MoMA a few years ago and was totally caught off-guard by it. It’s strange the film isn’t more lauded and discussed. I would rank it as one of Mann’s greatest works (which is something I don’t toss around lightly), and certainly one of the best American films on war ever made.
Somehow it has less than a quarter as many votes on IMDb as my least favorite of Mann’s films, horrendously dull THE GLENN MILLER STORY.
Anyone seen Michael Winner’s LAWMAN? Truly one of Ryan’s most underrated (and brilliant) performances.
cadavra: I keep passing up LAWMAN on Encore Westerns because I assume it’s not in OAR. But I see there’s a DVD, so maybe I’ll have to check that out.
Sterling Hayden always looked like he just swallowed a rancid egg. Robert Ryan looked like he just swallowed Sterling Hayden.