There are a couple of options open should you come across anyone who tries to sell you the idea that the impact movies have on culture is negligible. You could think to yourself that this person is mistaken or misguided, and leave it at that. Alternatively, you can attempt to set them straight. Now language and culture are inseparable, their relationship being essentially symbiotic. So, when the movies give us words that become part of everyday language, that ought to bolster the idea of cinema’s cultural significance. Every classic movie fan, and film noir aficionados in particular, will be aware of Gaslight. The story, derived originally from a play, was filmed twice and the concept underpinning it has become a staple of countless psychological thrillers. In a broader cultural sense, the term gaslighting has entered the language and refers to manipulating others to the point where they start to question to their own judgement, perception and ultimately their sanity. All of which brings me to Sleep, My Love (1948), an undeniably stylish entry in this sub-genre.
Alison Courtland (Claudette Colbert) is a wealthy woman from an elegant, patrician background. She’s not the type of person one would normally think of as likely to awaken in the dead of night aboard a train speeding towards an unknown destination. Nevertheless, that’s the first view we get of her, panicked, frantic and screaming blue murder in confusion. Her husband (Don Ameche), concerned to find her missing and nursing an apparent gunshot wound to his arm, has called in the police. It seems that this isn’t the first time the lady in question has disappeared but no harm has been done and she’s soon on a flight back home to New York. On the way she makes the acquaintance of another well-to-do type, Bruce Elcott (Robert Cummings) who is just home from China. I don’t believe I’m revealing too much here if I get right to the point and say that Alison is being maneuvered into an increasingly vulnerable position by her smooth but calculating husband. This becomes clear quite early on, and I feel it constitutes maybe the biggest weakness of the picture. To my mind, the writing gives away too much too soon. It’s not merely a question of the viewer being deprived of surprises, but rather the fact that this “lay it all before you” approach robs the movie of much of its suspense and accompanying tension. While these are not the only elements in movies of this type, they are important and effectively negating them at an early stage means that viewers are left with little more than a sense of curiosity over how the hero will eventually triumph.
That’s not to say there is no tension or suspense in the movie; individual sequences such as the drug-induced suicide attempt are very well executed. This is where the skill of the director comes into play. Douglas Sirk, along with cinematographer Joseph Valentine, draws full value from the interior of the Courtland home, the staircase featuring prominently. As seen above, it’s essentially pinning Claudette Colbert in place with the shadows cast by the balustrade creating bars to imprison her in her own home, the weight of her own noble heritage bearing down on her and precluding, as though it were an affront to good taste, any consideration that her husband might be plotting against her. This noir imagery is sprinkled throughout the movie, Venetian blinds often replacing the vertical lines with horizontal ones but the impression of individuals trapped by circumstance remains.
The visuals, as one might expect, are among the greatest strengths of the picture. Sirk’s films are always good to look at, and of course mise en scene is a term often used whenever his name comes up; he goes in for a lot of sharply tilted angles here, from those vulnerable shots from below to the more remote ones gazing down with a cynical detachment. These altered perspectives are very much to the fore in the studio of Vernay (George Coulouris). Overlooking the sidewalk and street, here the crooked photographer makes his plans for his partnership with Courtland and his model Daphne (Hazel Brooks) perches higher still on her pedestal and mulls an entirely different partnership. This is all nicely set up to highlight her disdainful superiority, and she quite literally spends the whole movie looking down on everyone.
Claudette Colbert got top billing and she was still a major star at the time. It’s her show really, and she is fine as the increasingly rattled woman who can’t seem to convince anyone she’s not hallucinating. There’s a little sequence around the halfway point where she attends a wedding of a Chinese couple in the company of Cummings and she comes across well here – unaffected and openly appreciative of the opportunity to mingle among a different crowd to her usual acquaintances. It’s beautifully played as she rambles on about how different we all are and her simple take on what makes some people happy and others unhappy, a common feature of Sirk’s films. She gets across the sweetness of her character naturally and even her slight tipsiness by the end of the evening is quite credible – I’ve lost count of the number of actors who overcook it when asked to portray drunkenness on screen.
Robert Cummings is an actor who divides opinion and I’ve heard more than a few people say they find him a poor lead in general. However, I’ve never had any issues with him – I liked him in his movies for Hitchcock (Saboteur & Dial M for Murder) and I think Anthony Mann coaxed a solid performance from him in The Black Book. Frankly, I think his charm is a neat contrast to the polished insincerity and moral weakness of Ameche. Hazel Brooks is a striking presence – physically stunning, sexy and insolent, she is visibly contemptuous or everybody and everything around her. Yet her performance has an odd feel to it, her delivery of her lines sounding stiff and forced to me. Coulouris is an engaging villain, a strange combination of suave and clumsy, menacing and simultaneously the butt of Brooks’ barbs. In minor roles Keye Luke is entertaining as Cummings’ pal and Raymond Burr is welcome but underused as a skeptical detective.
Olive Films in the US released a very attractive edition of Sleep, My Love some years ago on both Blu-ray and DVD. The movie looks clean and sharp and Sirk’s visual style is highlighted most effectively. The script, on the other hand, is just OK. The gaslighting theme will be a familiar one to many viewers and I would have preferred it if a little more ambiguity had been injected, or at least a little more information had been held back, in order to build some added suspense. As it stands, the audience is forever a step or two ahead of the characters, which I’m not convinced is the best approach to take. On the whole, however, I have a positive feeling about the movie. It’s not perhaps full-on Sirk but there is plenty of greed and thwarted desire, with characters living out lives that barely hint at the reality simmering below the surface. This alongside the visuals and a handful of attractive performances are enough to overcome other deficiencies in the script for this viewer.
Riding the High Country 
Haven’t seen this one for a while and agree with your assessment. Poor Claudette suffering so much.
Wonder what it would have been like if positions were reversed and it had been the wife doing the gaslighting!
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It would need a very different cast. Even so, I’m not fully convinced that type of reversal works. There’s something extraordinarily contrived about such attempts and the chances are you would end up with some Fatal Attraction style business.
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Colin
Interesting write-up on a film I still need to see. Had a copy for years, but every time it got to the top of the to watch pile, I would shuffle it back to the bottom. Just something about the title puts me off. I always thought that George Coulouris was a quite capable player when used as a villain. I caught him in “Assignment in Brittany” 1943 a couple of weeks ago, and he played a perfect swine of a Nazi officer. The next time SLEEP, MY LOVE pops up, I’ll give it spin.
Gord
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As a rule, I like these “woman in peril” dramas and this has a superb cast and a world class director to recommend it. I’d say you should definitely watch it when you next get the chance.
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Like you, I did find this a bit underwhelming. I have a TV recording of it from way back when so will dig it out. I always assumed that the early plot reveal, which I agree is misjudged, was so that audiences would enjoy suffering along with Colbert with the minimum of confusion 😉
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Leaving aside the reveal, there is still plenty of good stuff in there. I don’t want to give the impression that I’m down on the movie overall, it’s just that I feel a lot of tension is drained away too soon. Of course this really only applies to first time viewers anyway. Which reminds me, and you kind make the point here, that one gripe I sometimes have had with films noir is the excessively complex, even tortuous plots where it’s all I can do to work out exactly what is going on. More than once that has led to my missing some other enjoyable aspects of movies, aspects which only came to my attention on a subsequent viewing when I had the plot more or less straight in my mind and was thus able to take them in. So there may actually be something to be said for an early reveal.
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Sometimes, the atmosphere is all I need, and Sleep, My Love answers the call. I appreciated your sticking up for Bob Cummings. Saboteur, especially, works well with Cummings in the lead.
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Oh yes, atmosphere that has a style and is carefully crafted is a big draw for me too. I also agree on Saboteur, one of Hitchcock’s movies that gets less attention. I do think much of that comes down to the fact the leads are seen as “lighter” than in some of his other movies but I feel they are fine in their parts and Cummings had an amiable quality that works just fine for me.
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This bally old lockdown is keeping you less busy, Colin, and this is working very much in our favour as we get so much more of you, old Fruit! No complaints from me!
“SLEEP MY LOVE” is a film I enjoy without feeling that ‘oh, yes, can’t wait to see that again’. The leads are all fine though though none are on my personal list. I probably need to see it again to remind myself about what is being discussed.
I believe Hitch was rather dismissive of “SABOTEUR” as one of his lesser works. While that last fact is true, it happens to be very much a personal Hitch favourite of mine – full of continueing suspense and wonderful (and so memorable) set pieces.
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I can’t recall what I read about Hitchcock’s opinion of Saboteur but he obviously liked Cummings well enough to use him again in Dial M for Murder. I’m a fan of that movie, it’s a kind of halfway house between The 39 Steps and North By Northwest.
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I actually really liked this movie a lot. It’s a while since I’ve seen it but I’m looking at an ancient review of mine to jog the memory.
I have a thing for the sub-genre of women in peril movies. Always works for me. Douglas Sirk was always good at making “women’s pictures” and melodramas – not to say he was the King of them – but I was surprised that he showed a real affinity for Noir aesthetics. (He also directed Lured). Mirrors, windows and staircases almost take on a life of their own in the film.
About Robert Cummings, he may not have been Hollywood’s most charismatic actor ever, but he had a low-key charm that really worked here. His all-American nice guy persona allowed him to woo married women on screen and not lose the audience’s sympathy. Incidentally he got away with that in several movies.
I thought Hazel Brooks was fantastic as Ameche’s new squeeze. Her lingerie-clad entrance is unbelievable, Morticia Addams may have taken a few cues from her. Until Brooks shows up the audience believes Ameche to be the homme fatale, but Brooks’s appearance quickly revises this impression. She’s the driving force behind the whole plot.
To my amazement, Don Ameche is the weak link in this film. He is incredibly stiff and wooden from start to finish, and has nothing of Charles Boyer’s creepy menace which dominated Gaslight. It is hard to understand why Colbert married Ameche in the first place.
Colbert and Ameche had so much more chemistry in Midnight.
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Yes, there have been some cracking entries in that “woman in peril” sub-genre.
Re Sirk: Actually, I think there are a good few films noir that tilt into melodrama territory, so perhaps it shouldn’t be all that surprising?
Hazel Brooks is unquestionably stunning in the movie, and I too feel that first entrance, and that whole scene in fact, is something else.
I didn’t spend a lot of time talking about Ameche here but just to say I also thought he was pretty mediocre in this. Maybe the writing, the fact we basically know he’s a wrong ‘un from early on, is part of the problem? Whatever the reason, he displays no charm whatsoever, which weakens the part considerably.
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I forgot, just watched Confirm or Deny (1941), an early WW2 movie with Ameche and Joan Bennett. It’s very good and I’m mentioning it because here we can see that Ameche possessed a lot of charm, if he wanted to.
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I’ve never seen that movie although I wouldn’t mind doing so – it appears that Fritz Lang started on it but was replaced.
Anyway, Ameche was indeed capable of more than the kind of cool facade he presented in Sleep, My Love.
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(I should just wait with hitting the post button, sorry)
Yes, there’s quite a few Noirs that veer into Melodrama territory, or vice versa. A few I can think of are Caught, No Man of Her Own (a favorite of mine), Leave Her to Heaven, Whirlpool.
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I like No Man of Her Own as well, and mean to write it up here at some point – hopefully not too far into the future. It’s a good adaptation of a good Woolrich novel.
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I prefer Sleep, My Love in every way to Gaslight; same story but sexless. This one has it all, and Hazel Brooks, both performance and part, hammers it all home. I was always surprised that Ameche is billed third rather than immediately following Colbert, but ….in any case, I love his performance. Is this wife in peril stuff a sub-genre? Nearly so. This thing is the most thrilling, and has the greatest sense of danger, despite anyone and everyone knowing nothing can possible happen to Claudette Colbert. Just to move on, I thought Dial M For Murder the most entertaining, a kind of nasty comedy, and the worst Matilda Shouted Fire produced as Midnight Lace in typical Ross Hunter taste — which means thumbs down. Couldn’t Rex have succeeded? He’s a clever guy. Kill her and spare us this overdressed middle-class tedium,
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Personally, I can’t really take much positive away from Ameche’s work here. He’s too detached throughout for me and he seem to behave far too suspiciously. For me, his best bit in this one was the business with the chocolate that he wanted to convince Colbert was harmless. Otherwise though, I found him curiously flat.
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Ameche probably took his lead from the genius behind this project, Little Mary, who was the go-to person, and at that time still had a significant block of stock in UA, the outfit she formed with Doug, Sr. Charlie and D. W. Griffith. My guess is, no one said no to her; that would happen, but only years later after her personal decline.
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I’ve never really looked into the dynamics of United Artists. It was a studio that seemed to have different arrangements for every picture, at least that’s the impression I’ve had of it.
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UA was not a studio with contract personnel although it did have multi-picture distribution agreements with various producers. It is exactly as the name implies — United Artists, three actor-producers and one director who left early the deal early on.
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Yeah, that’s more or less overall structure I understood was in place.
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All
Off topic question if I may. Are there any Edmond O’Brien fans among you good folks? I’m doing an article on O’Brien and was wondering if others besides myself enjoy his work. Thanks
Gordon
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I certainly like O’Brien’s work and I think a number of other visitors here share that fondness. I featured a couple of his movies last year and I remember a bit of chat on his other films arising out of that, particularly here.
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Big fan . Love DOA, The Hitchhiker, The Bigamist, Seven Days in May. Solid actor.
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I do enjoy his work in Noir but I don’t think he was a good fit for Westerns at all. Maybe I’m alone in thinking that. I haven’t seen Silver City, but I’ve seen Cow Country, Denver and Rio Grande and Warpath. I like them all but the entire time I was thinking he should have been replaced as leading man in them.
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I can understand that. O’Brien did tend to have a more modern, urban aura, if that makes any kind of sense. Having said that, I believe his appearances in later (I’m thinking 1960s here mostly) westerns, for Ford and Peckinpah in particular, are some of his best.
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Yes, that’s true. By that time he was beyond his leading man days, turning in good performances as character actor, for lack of a better word.
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I’m not sure he was ever a natural leading man. He was definitely a highly effective and talented protagonist in his time, but that’s not necessarily the same thing.
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If you want a fat little drunk, O’Brien is perfect.
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Well I wouldn’t know anything about that. But I do know I enjoyed plenty of his performances in a range of movies.
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Isn’t that essentially the part he played in all of his later films, although in The Barefoot Contessa he was just fat and perspiring. Got him an Academy Award.
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I thought he was fine in The Barefoot Contessa and gave a performance that was worth the win, not least as he was up against some big hitters from On the Waterfront.
I feel his work on Rio Conchos, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Seven Days in May & The Wild Bunch is all solid and varied.
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Yes, of course.
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I loved the young Edmund O’Brien in his first film, the 1939 version of “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”. Of course, he was superb in his Oscar-winning performance as Oscar Muldoon in “The Barefoot Contessa”. He was great in “D.O.A”, “White Heat”, and the “Man Who Shot Liberty Valance”. His roles were eclectic – he would play Casca (“But, for mine own part, it was Greek to me”) in 1953’s “Julius Caesar” and three years later Fats Muldoon in “The Girl Can’t Help It”. And late in his career he played had the opportunity to chew it up as Sykes in “The Wild Bunch”. I’ve read that he filmed several scenes as Jackson Bentley in “Lawrence of Arabia” but suffered a heart attack and was replaced by Arthur Kennedy. I am definitely a big fan of O’Brien.
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And the breadth and range of his work can be seen in that brief paragraph alone, Frank.
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Thanks, Colin
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Over time I have become quite a fan of Edmond O’Brien, mainly, I admit, for his crime dramas and ‘noirs’ but in those he is superb, I think. I agree with the feelings expressed above about him in westerns though I thought he was really good in “COW COUNTRY”.
But….. “D.O.A.”, “THE HITCHHIKER”, “SHIELD FOR MURDER”, “BETWEEN MIDNIGHT AND DAWN”, “TWO OF A KIND” and lots more, he was really excellent.
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I still haven’t caught up with Cow Country, even though it’s been mentioned to me lots of times now!
Agreed on the other movies mentioned though.
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Btw, Gang, I think the relatively recent (Lockdown era) chat on here about what films we have watched has been fun, interesting and actually very helpful. So, with that thought in mind, I hope Colin will indulge me:::-
In the past couple of days I have watched 1) “RETURN OF THE BADMEN” (1948) which, for me, is up in the top bracket of Scott’s westerns. As history it is complete tosh of course but as an entertaining western it scores big-time. Robert Ryan has rarely played nastier, the pacing is just right, George Hayes always makes me laugh and Scott was Scott at his best.
2) “REMEMBER THE NIGHT” (1940) a drama starring Stanwyck and MacMurray at their most appealing and a screenplay by Preston Sturges (he did not direct) that is both witty and charming. Tugs at the heartstrings.
3) “RETREAT, HELL” (1952) Korean war film with Frank Lovejoy and Richard Carlson and a particularly good one that avoids cliches and concentrates partly on the feelings of the marines and the effects on them.
Thoughts, comments and other suggestions please!
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Indeed, recent times have brought me more recommendations than I’m often capable of handling.
Retreat, Hell is new to me and I like the sound of it. I only became aware of Remember the Night a few years ago and I concur that it is wonderful – Stanwyck and MacMurray are typically a good pairing of course. I have to say it’s not exactly a seasonal choice, Jerry.
The last movie I saw was actually in an outdoor cinema here in Athens – those are now open again – and it was the recent Knives Out. I thought it was very clever and funny and a real love letter to Golden Age detective stories such as those of Agatha Christie, John Dickson Carr and Ellery Queen. I give it a big thumbs up.
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Retreat, Hell. First-class. I saw it in 1952 mainly for Lamont Johnson in support. Bought the blu ray as soon as it hit the market.
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Barry
Lamont Johnson, now there is a name I have not heard in a while. I saw his last big screen film SPACEHUNTER: ADVENTURES IN THE FORBIDDEN ZONE. It was one of the last films shown at the last Drive-in here before it closed. Also liked his CATTLE ANNIE AND LITTLE BRITCHES and A GUNFIGHT with Kirk Douglas. I must admit I do not know anything about his numerous tv movies.
Gord
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Jerry
I like RETREAT, HELL quite a lot. There are some good Korean War films out there.
Gord
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Jerry
Seen the first and last but never caught REMEMBER THE NIGHT 1940. On the list it shall go. The last few day I have taken in HOTEL BERLIN 1945 and another Tim Holt and Richard Martin programmer, WESTERN HERITAGE. Good quickie fare, I’m starting to get a taste for these Holt dusters.
Gord
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RETREAT, HELL! – One of the best Korean war movies I’ve ever seen right up there with PORK CHOP HILL. Lovejoy and Carlson were excellent, but the role of Sergeant Novak played by Ned (Nedrick) Young impressed me the most. His stabilizing and stoic unwavering demeanor articulated through his facial expressions, without necessarily the use of dialogue, of the situational awareness of what was going down and how it was affecting those around him was delivered with sensitivity.
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Regarding Ned Young playing the role of Sergeant Novak. I kept seeing shades of Humphrey Bogart. Anyone else get that feeling?
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I have no problems with Robert Cummings and liked him in “Saboteur” and in “Reign of Terror”. For some odd reason, I’ve only watched bits of “Dial M for Murder”. I enjoyed the contrast between the desperate seediness of George Coulouris’ studio and the toney atmosphere of Colbert’s inherited homestead. However, Coulouris and Ameche defile the house with their bankrupt, evil characters which leads Cummings to say in the film’s last line “In a little while, we’ll be out of this house forever”. While recognizing its imperfections, I enjoyed “Sleep, My Love”.
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Not at all a bad way of looking at it. There are clear imperfections but the film is never fatally undermined by them.
The movie does impart that sense of entrapment for Colbert, fueled of course by the plotting of Ameche and Coulouris. It comes across on the visuals – the shadows as bars, the “jungle” conservatory which has an impenetrable look and so on.
You really ought to make an effort to see Dial M for Murder in its entirety. Although it may not represent the best of Hitchcock, it’s clever and involving, and somehow satisfying.
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All
Many thanks to everyone for all your comments to my Edmond O’Brien query.
Gordon
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Remembered Edmond O’Brien as an alcoholic brother of Virginia Mayo in the exciting The Big Land with Alan Ladd and directed by Gordon Douglas. The film is slightly reminiscent of Shane. Best regards.
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All
Your films for the weekend are?
Mine include.
MY FAVORITE YEAR 1982 Love this Peter O’Toole comedy
MYSTERIOUS ISLAND 1961 The film Cy Endfield made before ZULU. Fun Jules Verne film.
SMOKY 1946 Fred MacMurray
RIDING THE WIND 1941 Tim Holt
Gord
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I’m in the mood for a western, I think, and something from U-I has appeal…
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Well I have already watched a couple of rarities so far – an early film directed by Anthony Mann, “STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT” (1944), for Republic Studios. No big names in it (Virginia Grey is the best-known) but one can easily see that this director knew his craft already.
The other film was THE GREAT K&A TRAIN ROBBERY”(1926) starring the great Tom Mix and horse Tony and filmed on location in Colorado at the Royal Gorge and surrounding area. Full of action and stunts the film really MOVED.
Whatever this U.I. western is you decide to watch, Colin, will we be fortunate enough for a review to sneak in to proceedings? Hint hint…….
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Maybe, Jerry. I’ll see how how I feel when I get to it.
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Strangers in the Night is really good. It’s obvious it was made by a director who already knew his craft. That ending however is a little bit Ed Wood-y. But I don’t hold it against the movie.
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Gord
I shall be very interested to know what you think of “SMOKY” when you have seen it.
Jerry
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Jerry……Scott here.
I liked all the ranching stuff.
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Hi Scott,
Yes, I too enjoy watching the ranching stuff. One of the reasons I so enjoy “THE VIRGINIAN” TV series is that it centres around life on a working ranch.
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Hi Jerry……regarding the ‘ranching stuff’. lol. One thing that left an imprint on my mind was trying to figure out what era this was representing. It wasn’t until I finally saw a motor vehicle I determined it wasn’t of the era of typical western films we are accustomed to seeing. The movie itself was filmed from 12 July thru 25 September 1945 and held back release until June of 1946 coinciding with the majority of servicemen having returned home from WW2. Therefore, I concluded the movie’s beginning events were slightly set back in time, thus framed from early 1943 to ending in September 1945 in order to sequence in Smoky’s 2-year rodeo adventure. As a side note, because of my inquisitive nature I watched the movie for a second time……..and is usually the case for me I enjoyed it even more.
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Jerry, all
SMOKY was a nice bit of family type entertainment. A real nice film to look at that left a person with a smile at the end.
I also took in RIDING THE WIND 1941 with Tim Holt to finish my FILMS FOR THE WEEKEND. Effective little programmer.
Gord
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So far of my FILMS FOR THE WEEKEND, I have watched MY FAVORITE YEAR 1982 with Peter O’Toole Love it!
MYSTERIOUS ISLAND 1961 Jules Verne story directed by Cy Endfield. Lots of great Ray Harryhausen stop motion effects for fans.
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R.I.P. Earl Cameron –
Born
Earlston J. Cameron
8 August 1917
Pembroke, Bermuda
Died
3 July 2020 (aged 102)
Kenilworth, Warwickshire, England
Occupation
Actor
Years active
1951–2013
We have lost a fine actor and man. Rest in Peace
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Yes indeed. His was a long life and an interesting career. I recall him mainly from Pool of London and Sapphire.
RIP
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I just happened to watch Sapphire yesterday. (It took many weeks to get here from the UK after some on RTHC had recommended it). It is a fine film and Earl Cameron shone in it, conveying a clear sense of dignity and strength. In a strong cast, the other one who especially appealed was Yvonne Mitchell: the lady could act!
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Steve, I’m glad your parcel arrived finally and that it was worth the wait. “SAPPHIRE” is a fine movie and I would definitely recommend “POOL OF LONDON” for more fine work from Earl Cameron, if you haven’t seen it.
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Jerry- I’ll go looking for POOL OF LONDON now. I wish very much there was a good source of classic movies based in Australia as delivery times from the UK and US are understandably very long now. One of the pleasures of SAPPHIRE Was the many street scenes as a window into the way people lived and got her around 60 years ago. I was surprised by how many very old vehicles were in the shots.
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Steve, I think then you would like “POOL OF LONDON” as it has many London locations – around the docks obviously but also in the City Of London where I spent my working life. It all takes me back as I was around as a kid 60 years ago (creak, creak). As for the old vehicles, all motor production ceased in the UK in 1939 and was not resumed (and then slowly) until 1946. Result was that many pre-war cars were on British roads up into the 60s, until the MOT test was introduced.
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Hi, Jerry – didn’t know that about car manufacturing shutting down for such a long period: that would explain what I noticed. I was the proud owner of a 20 year old Austin A40 as my first car.
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Generally, Basil Dearden’s films are recommended viewing, especially those made in collaboration with Michael Relph.
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I agree, Colin, the names of Relph and Dearden on a film usually turn me onto it.
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Superb films, both.
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R.I.P. Ennio Morricone 1928-2020
Italian composer, Ennio Morricone, who created the coyote-howl theme for the iconic Spaghetti Western, “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” and the soundtracks for such classic movies as “The Untouchables,” “The Thing”, “Two Mules for Sister Sara”, “For a Few Dollars More” and countless others has died. He was 91.
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More sad new. Very much the sound of the spaghetti western. As much as he’ll be remembered for those passionate, primal and quirky pieces that get most attention, he should also be celebrated for his quieter and more introspective themes for Once Upon a Time in the West and A Fistful of Dynamite, along with the wistful Buona Fortuna, Jack.
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Morricone’s soundtrack from “The Mission” stands out for me from among his prolific output. R.I.P.
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So much variety in his work, isn’t there? A big part of the sound of cinema over the last half century.
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Yes, Morricone was a remarkable talent. About “The Mission”, Morricone said he had only wept twice in his life and the first time was when he watched “The Mission”. “[He ]finally received a second Oscar nomination for The Mission. Morricone’s original score lost out to Herbie Hancock’s coolly arranged jazz on Bertrand Tavernier’s “Round Midnight”. It was considered as a surprising win and a controversial one, given that much of the music in the film was pre-existing. Morricone stated the following during a 2001 interview with The Guardian: ‘I definitely felt that I should have won for The Mission. Especially when you consider that the Oscar-winner that year was “Round Midnight”, which was not an original score. It had a very good arrangement by Herbie Hancock, but it used existing pieces. So there could be no comparison with The Mission. There was a theft!'” (Wikipedia entry for Ennio Morricone).
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Well, I suppose all that can be said is that it’s not the first, nor the last, time the Academy made a poor call.
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it is an election and that the fellow who did not win resents the result does not by any definition make ita poor call. On the other hand, who cares, other than those with a horse in the race.
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True enough, but I definitely believe there have been some bad calls: 1953 Best Picture The Greatest Show on Earth wins out over High Noon & The Quiet Man.
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Absolutely.
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How can one forget Once Upon a Time in the West.
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Great movie on a scale of epic proportions. Never forget that showdown between Fonda and Bronson. I can never get enough of that film clip……..sheesh!!!
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I always liked his “Guns for San Sebastian” music.
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