I watched this movie a number of years ago. It was very suspenseful, keeping me guessing what could possibly happen next. The ending was also pretty awesome. I may have to watch it again. Thank you Tony!
Tom -- watch it again and keep an eye out for the old chess player at the trading post, Finlay Currie. He's become one of our favorite actors of all time. To give you a clue: he's the wise and kindly old Balthasar in Ben-Hur; he's Saint Peter in Quo Vadis; but he's the convict Abel Magwitch in Great Expectations, and the utterly oddball and impressive Mr. Shunderson in People Will Talk. In that last film, his long revelation of his past, before the board that's been convened to judge his friend the doctor (Cary Grant), is one of the most unusual and understated but moving scenes I've ever seen in any film -- and gently comical too. When he says to Hume Cronyn, Grant's enemy, after everybody else has left, "You're a little man," it's absolutely crushing...
Hello Dr. Esolen. I hope you and Debra are enjoying your vacation north of the border. That movie certainly has “an all-star cast”. Raymond Massey played great heroes and villains as well. I think he “owned” the role of John Brown, just as Ralph Bellamy and Edward Hermann owned the role of Franklin Roosevelt. Massey played the abolitionist in two films: Santa Fe Trail in 1942, and (in a more subdued interpretation of Brown) in Seven Angry Men in 1955. And Massey played the villain in Reap The Wild Wind, also from 1942. All the best.
Raymond Massey also made for a very sinister Jonathan Brewster in “Arsenic and Old Lace”. His daughter, Anna Massey, is a reliably enjoyable actress in her many British film and television roles.
And he was brilliant as the severe and upright father in East of Eden -- such a brilliant cast, with Jo Van Fleet stealing the terrible scene at the bordello...
I think that might have been Massey’s best role as Adam Trask. I think “severe” and “upright” are two good adjectives to describe his character. I also believe James Dean gave his best performance in this movie; it was far better than his roles in “Giant” or “Rebel Without A Cause.”
I am embarrassed to confess that I shall have to see this for the first time – thanks, again.
At the risk of going from the sublime to the ridiculous, I have recently watched the innovative 1953 science fiction film The Beast from 20, 000 Fathoms, wherein an early scene takes place in Nova Scotia. After an atomic blast frees a prehistoric beast from the arctic ice, it instinctively heads toward its ancestral breeding grounds in New York City. Making its way down the Atlantic seaboard, the monster pauses for a couple of pit stops, destroying a fishing vessel on the Grand Banks near Newfoundland and toppling a light house off the coast of Maine. Oddly, the script has a newspaper account of the boating incident reporting from “St. Pierre, Nova Scotia,” but this seems to be an inaccuracy in the screenplay, as there doesn’t appear to be an actual St. Pierre anywhere precisely in the province.
The movie itself is notable for being the first of the atomic age giant-monster-on-the-loose flicks, actually produced a year prior to the original Godzilla film in Japan. Based in part on a Ray Bradbury short story “The Fog Horn,” it also was the first feature film in which the legendary Ray Harryhausen was solely in charge of the special effects.
Thanks for the interesting article. It's a Powell/Pressburger film I haven't seen. Of course how Canadian can English blokes be, actually. I'm afraid that for me Canadian means John Candy and the SCTV guys. And for movies it's Denys Arcand. I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on "Jesus of Montreal," for example, a special favorite of mine.
I watched this movie a number of years ago. It was very suspenseful, keeping me guessing what could possibly happen next. The ending was also pretty awesome. I may have to watch it again. Thank you Tony!
Tom -- watch it again and keep an eye out for the old chess player at the trading post, Finlay Currie. He's become one of our favorite actors of all time. To give you a clue: he's the wise and kindly old Balthasar in Ben-Hur; he's Saint Peter in Quo Vadis; but he's the convict Abel Magwitch in Great Expectations, and the utterly oddball and impressive Mr. Shunderson in People Will Talk. In that last film, his long revelation of his past, before the board that's been convened to judge his friend the doctor (Cary Grant), is one of the most unusual and understated but moving scenes I've ever seen in any film -- and gently comical too. When he says to Hume Cronyn, Grant's enemy, after everybody else has left, "You're a little man," it's absolutely crushing...
Hello Dr. Esolen. I hope you and Debra are enjoying your vacation north of the border. That movie certainly has “an all-star cast”. Raymond Massey played great heroes and villains as well. I think he “owned” the role of John Brown, just as Ralph Bellamy and Edward Hermann owned the role of Franklin Roosevelt. Massey played the abolitionist in two films: Santa Fe Trail in 1942, and (in a more subdued interpretation of Brown) in Seven Angry Men in 1955. And Massey played the villain in Reap The Wild Wind, also from 1942. All the best.
Raymond Massey also made for a very sinister Jonathan Brewster in “Arsenic and Old Lace”. His daughter, Anna Massey, is a reliably enjoyable actress in her many British film and television roles.
And he was brilliant as the severe and upright father in East of Eden -- such a brilliant cast, with Jo Van Fleet stealing the terrible scene at the bordello...
I think that might have been Massey’s best role as Adam Trask. I think “severe” and “upright” are two good adjectives to describe his character. I also believe James Dean gave his best performance in this movie; it was far better than his roles in “Giant” or “Rebel Without A Cause.”
I am embarrassed to confess that I shall have to see this for the first time – thanks, again.
At the risk of going from the sublime to the ridiculous, I have recently watched the innovative 1953 science fiction film The Beast from 20, 000 Fathoms, wherein an early scene takes place in Nova Scotia. After an atomic blast frees a prehistoric beast from the arctic ice, it instinctively heads toward its ancestral breeding grounds in New York City. Making its way down the Atlantic seaboard, the monster pauses for a couple of pit stops, destroying a fishing vessel on the Grand Banks near Newfoundland and toppling a light house off the coast of Maine. Oddly, the script has a newspaper account of the boating incident reporting from “St. Pierre, Nova Scotia,” but this seems to be an inaccuracy in the screenplay, as there doesn’t appear to be an actual St. Pierre anywhere precisely in the province.
The movie itself is notable for being the first of the atomic age giant-monster-on-the-loose flicks, actually produced a year prior to the original Godzilla film in Japan. Based in part on a Ray Bradbury short story “The Fog Horn,” it also was the first feature film in which the legendary Ray Harryhausen was solely in charge of the special effects.
Thanks for the interesting article. It's a Powell/Pressburger film I haven't seen. Of course how Canadian can English blokes be, actually. I'm afraid that for me Canadian means John Candy and the SCTV guys. And for movies it's Denys Arcand. I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on "Jesus of Montreal," for example, a special favorite of mine.