Sunday, September 28, 2008

Vintage Trailer of the Week 14

Probably my two favourite Paul Newman films are "Hombre" and "Cool Hand Luke", but there are no embeddable trailers for either on Youtube. I always preferred him as a Movie Star, at ease with himself, effortlessly cool and beautiful, than as an Actor, trying too hard to be James Dean or Marlon Brando. He was a Great Movie Star, so commanding, magnetic and charismatic, and he appeared to relax and improve with age. I have a real soft spot for the genre films he made in the 60s and 70s - "The Mackintosh Man", "The Life & times of Judge Roy Bean", "Torn Curtain" etc. And perhaps most especially the two "Harper" movies, adaptations of Ross MacDonald's superb Lew Archer books, the first a glossy L.A. Noir of the type riffed on by "The Big Lebowski", the second ("The Drowning Pool" (1975)) set in a sultry, vivid Deep South. Newman seems to be having a fine time in both, taking none of it seriously, allowing his innate likeableness to shine through:

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4 Comments:

Blogger Monsterwork said...

It looks like Batman.

10:51 pm  
Blogger David N said...

The movie has a more serious feel than the trailer suggests. Cynical and not as camp..

11:34 pm  
Blogger Monsterwork said...

Dernernernenrnernernernernernerner.
Batman.

9:26 am  
Blogger Monsieur Le Capuchin said...

Much better than (60s) Batman in just three and a half minutes, and a great line to end on "Girls go for Harper, Harper goes for girls".

Doesn't seem to be available so you could add both Harpers to my 12.

5:06 pm  

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