Having just been Oscared for his thin, wooden acting in The Bridge on the River Kwai (David Lean, 1957), Alec Guinness (best actor, Venice, Sant Jordi) gave a stupendous performance as unkempt, scurrilous, gravely-voiced Gulley Jimson, a painter (in the manner of Blake) whose poverty matches his seesawing megalomania and humility in the striking comedy […]
Daily Archives: November 19, 2009
“Believe me, it hurts being a Jew.” — Antoine, 40, lying in a hospital bed after being circumcised, part of the process of his conversion to Judaism It isn’t always clear what precisely “being Jewish” means. Lawyer Antoine wishes to convert because he is in love with Nina, who wants to marry somebody Jewish, even […]
Paul Muni claimed his signature role and gave his most brilliant performance as James Allen in Mervyn LeRoy’s hard-hitting I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, one of Warner Bros.’s 1930s social melodramas targeting U.S. injustice. This American Les misérables of the South chronicles Allen’s pilgrim’s progress as the jobless veteran is wrongly convicted […]
Dennis Grunes 