Blueprint For Murder

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Blueprint For Murder
Topic Started: Jun 7 2009, 12:43 PM (265 Views)
panzer the great & terrible	Jun 7 2009, 12:43 PM Post #1
Mouth Breather Posts: 10,354 Group: Members Member #13 Joined: September 3, 2005	I hadn't seen an Andrew Stone movie in about 40 years so I tried this, and guess what? It's awful. Joseph Cotten is falling in love with Jeanne Crain even though a suspicion keeps nagging at him that she may have poisoned her little stepdaughter. Both headliners give weak performances -- Cotten wanders around looking pained, like he needs a laxative; Crain sleepwalks until she gets to her big scene and emotes all over the place. Then the climax takes place offscreen and the movie abruptly ends, which is surprising since the director wrote the picture and made it at Fox, so the money couldn't have run out. Maybe Zanuck got disgusted by the rushes and pulled the plug. I sure would have. One of the most unsatisfying "mysteries" I've seen. Zero stars. I don't usually review pictures I hate, but this is such a total bomb I thought I should warn you. Bevare! Recorded from TCM.
	We Wear Short Shorts Flying Purple People Eater


Chandu	Jun 8 2009, 07:34 AM Post #2
Knowledge Seeker and rascal at large Posts: 10,276 Group: Members Member #297 Joined: October 19, 2007	Thanks for the warning!
	Not plane, nor bird, nor even frog. It's just little ol' me...


The Batman	Jun 8 2009, 11:53 AM Post #3
Charter Member Posts: 5,570 Group: Members Member #17 Joined: September 4, 2005	I second that! Life is too short.



Frank Hale	Jun 8 2009, 02:55 PM Post #4
Balcony Gang, Foist Class Posts: 828 Group: Members Member #59 Joined: October 6, 2005	Well, I had this one in the DVD pile, so I took a look at it. It’s not really that bad. Routine Fox ‘B’ film of the period, cheaply made, dully directed, and resorting to voice-overs, but a good cast (Jean Peters, not Jeanne Crain, with Gary Merrill, always a favorite, and serial-favorite Carleton Young) and a more or less entertaining plot. Joseph Cotten did look rather constipated, but, sorry Mr. P, not a zero-star bomb. Although this is in the MGM Midnite Movies double-feature series, the movie got its own individual DVD disc, and I wonder if at one time it was intended for the Fox Film Noir series. It’s no better or worse than, say, Dangerous Crossing, which uses the same boat sets.



panzer the great & terrible	Jun 8 2009, 02:57 PM Post #5
Mouth Breather Posts: 10,354 Group: Members Member #13 Joined: September 3, 2005	You didn't find the ending unsatisfactory, Frank?
	We Wear Short Shorts Flying Purple People Eater


Frank Hale	Jun 8 2009, 03:14 PM Post #6
Balcony Gang, Foist Class Posts: 828 Group: Members Member #59 Joined: October 6, 2005	Oh, sure, it could have been handled better. I was actually sort of expecting Joseph Cotten to be the bad guy. (I guess I can say that since no one else is going to watch it!)



panzer the great & terrible	Jun 8 2009, 07:21 PM Post #7
Mouth Breather Posts: 10,354 Group: Members Member #13 Joined: September 3, 2005	I was hoping he would too; that way there would have been two suspects; but no such luck. Maybe a secret Kung Fu society did it? Dangerous Crossing is a good comparison. Though it also has that grey, lifeless feel so many Fox pictures have, at least there are times you wonder about the plot. Blueprint only proves that the only thing that possibly could have happened is indeed what happened, which breaks a sensible rule of storytelling. I feel that Blueprint's more a waste of time than Crossing -- but, ya know, I don't think any Fox pictures will get to the top of my pile anytime soon, except the ones before Zanuck, a dumb right winger with lousy taste. His black and white pictures were all grey, and his color pictures were garish. Speaking of which, I'm finding The Murnau/Borzage/Fox box an unexpected joy. What a great studio Fox was then! To get a sense of it, sample MGMs from the same period, when the "genius" Thalberg was at his zenith.
	We Wear Short Shorts Flying Purple People Eater


Chandu	Jun 9 2009, 08:59 AM Post #8
Knowledge Seeker and rascal at large Posts: 10,276 Group: Members Member #297 Joined: October 19, 2007	After reading Mr. P's take and thanking him for the warning about this film, I found myself with a case of insomnia early this AM and as luck would have it, FMC was airing this. I thought to myself, "Well if this thing's as bad as Panzer says it is, it ought to put me right back to sleep!", so I turned it on. I mostly listened to it rather than watching it as my purpose was getting back to sleep, but I found myself getting caught up in the plot and finally wound up watching the last part of it. With all due respect to Mr. P, while I certainly wouldn't have expected it to be nominated for any awards, I thought it was about what I'd expect for a B mystery and not as bad as he described it. That same thought about about Cotton possibly being the real villain crossed my mind too.
	Not plane, nor bird, nor even frog. It's just little ol' me...


panzer the great & terrible	Jun 9 2009, 10:04 AM Post #9
Mouth Breather Posts: 10,354 Group: Members Member #13 Joined: September 3, 2005	I calls 'em as I sees 'em, boys, and the last thing I expect is for anybody to agree with me.
	We Wear Short Shorts Flying Purple People Eater


Chandu	Jun 9 2009, 10:12 AM Post #10
Knowledge Seeker and rascal at large Posts: 10,276 Group: Members Member #297 Joined: October 19, 2007	I wouldn't have it any other way.
	Not plane, nor bird, nor even frog. It's just little ol' me...


Frank Hale	Jun 9 2009, 04:09 PM Post #11
Balcony Gang, Foist Class Posts: 828 Group: Members Member #59 Joined: October 6, 2005	I like Fox in general, but none of the studios was regularly knockin' 'em out of the park in 1953.



panzer the great & terrible	Jun 9 2009, 11:40 PM Post #12
Mouth Breather Posts: 10,354 Group: Members Member #13 Joined: September 3, 2005	Zanuck was really screwing up by 1953, and worse was to come. His nutty re-edits of films escalated until by the end of the Fifties he was releasing movies like Crack In the Mirror and Compulsion that were quite incoherent (though still with his trademark hushed soundtracks and grey tones). Then he ran off to Europe and became even daffier, buying European movies and cutting them to ribbons, and fruitlessly trying to make a star of his lady friend, Juliette Greco. A sad end to a once-dynamic (if not artistically satisfying) career. Zanuck was also an enthusiastic supporter of the blacklist, if you care about that. I'm curious, Frank: would you mind listing some Zanuck-era pictures that you like? I may have missed something, because I've avoided their product for decades, and of course these days the company is so absurdly right-wing that I can't take it seriously at all.
	We Wear Short Shorts Flying Purple People Eater


Frank Hale	Jun 10 2009, 02:56 PM Post #13
Balcony Gang, Foist Class Posts: 828 Group: Members Member #59 Joined: October 6, 2005	No way, you rascal! I know when I’m being sucker-punched! But I’ll offer you some general observations: 1) You seem to like films with strong, director-driven visions. I have a much greater tolerance for well-carpentered studio schlock. 2) I generally agree with the consensus that Zanuck was strong in the story and editing departments. Supposedly this was to compensate for a lack of major stars, but I think that’s just where Zanuck was at. It’s an approach that I like. A lot of Fox films are just plain thoughtful. Unquestionably Zanuck had some issues like the blacklist and his sex drive. DeMille, John Wayne, Ronald Reagan aren’t my role models either, but I can still appreciate their film work. 3) Fox had the second best music department after Warners. Alfred Newman was a talented man and Zanuck had the sense to give him his head. 4) Fox never sold off its back library to television like Warners and Paramount, but back in the early 60’s NBC ran Saturday Night at the Movies with seemingly every Fox film from the early 50’s. Halls of Montezuma, Red Skies of Montana, White Witch Doctor, Decision Before Dawn, Five Fingers, Niagara, Titanic, Sailor of the King, King of the Khyber Rifles, The Desert Rats, Diplomatic Courier, Kangaroo, The Day The Earth Stood Still, No Highway in the Sky, Stars and Stripes Forever…. I can’t help it! Maybe not great films but I have an awful lot of nostalgia.



panzer the great & terrible	Jun 10 2009, 10:07 PM Post #14
Mouth Breather Posts: 10,354 Group: Members Member #13 Joined: September 3, 2005	You listed Sailor of the King! Loved that when it came out. Niagara is kind of interesting too, in its nutty way. I like The Day the Earth Stood Still (is there anyone who doesn't?), and remember No Highway In the Sky fondly, though I saw it in a Florida hotel circa 1953 and haven't seen it since. I'll keep quiet about the rest. I was big on Fox in the early days of 'scope, but those movies don't held up well for me. For one thing, they don't fit my TV screen. It is indeed the directors that interest me, and Zanuck seems to have preferred the duller ones, with one huge exception -- he WAS the guy who hired Sam Fuller. Z. inherited Ford, so that doesn't count, but note that in preparing The Grapes of Wrath, he did all he could to infuriate and alienate Ford. They wound up with a flawed picture without a coherent point of view, and one that conspicuously displays Ford's more annoying mannerisms. I find it hard to watch. Looks like we're coming from two different places -- I don't have much sense of nostalgia. I find that when I re-watch most movies, they hit me differently as I age and change. Gentleman's Agreement, for example, which I once thought ever so noble, strikes me now as just plain nuts. The exceptions are kid movies like Robin Hood and The Thief of Bagdad that I simply put on like an old shoe. I suppose they make me feel what people call nostalgia, but on the other hand they don't make me think the past was a better place than the present. I don't think it's at all wise to think that way. I was leafing through a film book today and learned that the Studio with the most Best Picture Oscars is Columbia. Who'da thunk it? Agree with you about Alfred Newman. A good music department can cover up any number of rough spots. Edited by panzer the great & terrible, Jun 12 2009, 10:08 AM.
	We Wear Short Shorts Flying Purple People Eater


Frank Hale	Jun 11 2009, 10:57 AM Post #15
Balcony Gang, Foist Class Posts: 828 Group: Members Member #59 Joined: October 6, 2005	Sailor of the King is out on DVD if you’re interested. Fun, but it still seems like two totally different movies patched together. As an example of a “thoughtful” picture, I’ll toss in Twelve O’Clock High, which you’ve undoubtedly seen. It apparently has even been used in some management courses to teach motivational techniques. Good film, but I found that two viewing were enough. There’s altogether too much hand-wringing in Gentleman’s Agreement, Dorothy McGuire being a particular problem. However, let’s give Zanuck and the rest of them points for good intentions. The average cost of a Fox film in 1947 was $2,400,000. By 1952 films were going out for half that (which accounts for part of Blueprint’s problems). Five Fingers is probably the Fox entry I’d most like to see again. And if that Columbia Oscar factoid is true, the vast majority must be post-Cohn. I count only 5 through 1957.


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