Relax! I did not finally snap and take out my whole family with a spatula or something.
I am a TCM addict. I admit it. I don't think it's a problem. I don't think I require an intervention. I have a secret love for Robert Osborne...his knowledge of movies (duh, I know it's scripted) is only surpassed by my other love, IMDB. I will turn the cable on to guide, surf to TCM and scroll through the next week or so, recording all of the classic movies that I want to see or re-see. In recent weeks/months, I've seen The Hustler, Cool Hand Luke, Sophie's Choice, Saturday Night Fever, Gaslight...just from TCM...this doesn't even count my Netflix selections. No commercials. No censored language. It may be the perfect television station!
Yesterday I watched In Cold Blood, starring Robert Blake and John Forsythe (who I recently watched in the my-Mom's-era tearjerker, Madame X with Lana Turner). I read the book by Truman Capote so long ago that it's not on my list of books read that I have been keeping since 1997. I recall that I heard that it was really the first "true crime" book...a completely new genre that has resulted in everything from incisive true crime writing to tabloid trash books that make it from event to bookshelves inside two weeks.
Now people know more about it because of the recent Capote movies. The basic story is that two ex-convicts decide to pull off a robbery where they have been told there is a safe with lots of money in it. They end up killing the family and walking away with about forty bucks. The book, and perhaps moreso the movie, delves into the minds of the killers. Purportedly, Capote became enmeshed with the killers, particularly Perry (Blake's character) to the point where it went well beyond journalistic propriety.
The movie was brilliant. Mr. Osborne forewarned me that the score was done by Quincy Jones...and what a score...certainly avant-garde for the time. It was Blake's performance that was mesmerizing. Blake was a child actor, with his credits going back to the age of 5. His younger days were spent in the Our Gang series of movies. He was also Baretta. He once won a Golden Globe for Baretta, but was not even nominated for his amazing performance as Perry in this film. Of course, the year was 1967 and the nominees were:
I think he just should have done the movie in 1966 when I'm sure he could have joined the ranks of Paul Scofield (A Man for All Seasons) and Alan Arkin (The Russians are Coming! The Russians are Coming!) or 1968 when he surely could have supplanted Alan Bates in The Fixer for an Oscar nod.
Looking at this movie from our current day, you will be amazed at how ahead of its time it was in terms of lighting and direction. The actual murders are not shown at the beginning of the movie, but are later told in retrospect by Perry. Some fantasy scenes that depict what is going on in Perry's mind are both seamless and chilling. The director purposely delved even more deeply into the killers' characters than the book did in order to evoke...not really empathy for the killers...but a psychological understanding of who they were and how they got to that point.
Oh...and a little IMDB tidbit...have I mentioned how much I LOVE IMDB?...the eyes on the movie poster are the eyes of the real killer, not the actor portraying him.
Brilliant...and best of all, free on TCM. Go for it.
Di
Ever since we got this DVRthing on Monday mornings when I would wait for my high school daughter to be ready to drive to school I would scan the schedules for the whole week to see what I wanted to record...moviewise. I did see the entire Andy Hardy series and some crazy English mystery movies. I used to watch the late show with my mom so I have also recorded some Bette DAvis and Joan Crawford offerings!
Posted by: R. Honey | March 09, 2009 at 12:04 PM