The Douglas Sirk Project

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The Douglas Sirk Project; my growing distate for a sacred cow
Topic Started: Oct 17 2009, 01:34 PM (65 Views)
panzer the great & terrible	Oct 17 2009, 01:34 PM Post #1
Mouth Breather Posts: 10,354 Group: Members Member #13 Joined: September 3, 2005	OK, I said I was going to watch some Sirk pictures and try for an objective view. LURED was the first on my list: a neat though unremarkable Universal A from the Forties, it stars Lucille Ball and George Sanders, both of 'em poorly used, and is most notable for a wild performance by Boris Karloff as a total nutcase. Not a career maker for the director, but not a bad movie either. HAS ANYBODY SEEN MY GAL is a sort of ripoff of Meet Me In St. Louis, set in the Roaring Twenties and starring Charles Coburn as a millionaire who talks his way in as a roomer in the house of his former girlfriend's daughter, and then secretly gives the family a million bucks, as people do in movies. Then the Douglas Sirk "satire" sets in. It seems that we Americans are such fools for money that a little bit of it makes us act like total fools, especially the womenfolk. So they act like total fools for a while, then they lose the money, and a potentially sweet little period piece has been totally ruined for no good reason except that the director feels superior to the people who pay his salary. Oh, and the teenage daughter marries an impossibly young Rock Hudson instead of the rich guy her mother prefers. It's hard to see how any producer was dumb enough to give this thing the green light -- it's neither fish, flesh or fowl, but it's damn unpleasant. One of this director's worst, and that's saying something. Not a decent directoral touch to be found. Edited by panzer the great & terrible, Oct 17 2009, 01:39 PM.
	We Wear Short Shorts Flying Purple People Eater


mort bakaprevski	Oct 17 2009, 01:59 PM Post #2
Soony Roony! Posts: 1,433 Group: Members Member #73 Joined: January 1, 2006	panzer the great & terrible Oct 17 2009, 01:34 PM OK, I said I was going to watch some Sirk pictures and try for an objective view. Gee, Panzer, this is the first I was aware of these masochistic tendencies of yours. Small point, but LURED wasn't Universal. It was Hunt Stromberg & distributed by United Artists.
	“You’ve got to take the bitter with the sour.”


Chandu	Oct 17 2009, 03:31 PM Post #3
Knowledge Seeker and rascal at large Posts: 10,276 Group: Members Member #297 Joined: October 19, 2007	panzer the great & terrible Oct 17 2009, 01:34 PM HAS ANYBODY SEEN MY GAL is a sort of ripoff of Meet Me In St. Louis, set in the Roaring Twenties and starring Charles Coburn as a millionaire who talks his way in as a roomer in the house of his former girlfriend's daughter, and then secretly gives the family a million bucks, as people do in movies. Then the Douglas Sirk "satire" sets in. It seems that we Americans are such fools for money that a little bit of it makes us act like total fools, especially the womenfolk. So they act like total fools for a while, then they lose the money, and a potentially sweet little period piece has been totally ruined for no good reason except that the director feels superior to the people who pay his salary. I've read enough accounts of people who have won the lottery and ended up worse off than they were before, to believe this may be a true story.
	Not plane, nor bird, nor even frog. It's just little ol' me...


panzer the great & terrible	Oct 17 2009, 10:39 PM Post #4
Mouth Breather Posts: 10,354 Group: Members Member #13 Joined: September 3, 2005	ALL I DESIRE: now be truthful, would you go to a movie with a title like that? But, big surprise, it's far and away the best Sirk movie i've seen. Ya see, Barbara Stanwyck used to be married to Richard Carlson and they had two daughters and a son -- but the thing was there was this other dude she used to do the nasty with, and finally she just got out of Dodge, and, incidentally, became an actress. Well. Her daughter has the lead in the school play and writes to ask her to attend, and she does, and I will reveal no more. It's a sweet little flick and there isn't the usual anti-Amercan bullhockey we get from Sierck. I give it about 3 1/2 stars out of five, maybe 4. Because Carlson was there, I kept expecting a monster, which helped me to concentrate. Again, though, there is no evidence of directoral brilliance. None whatever. Mort: there are people I respect who believe Sirk is a decent director and I want to learn why they think so. Surely you can understand. Is there really that wide a gulf between me and the gay folks?
	We Wear Short Shorts Flying Purple People Eater


Frank Hale	Oct 18 2009, 01:44 PM Post #5
Balcony Gang, Foist Class Posts: 828 Group: Members Member #59 Joined: October 6, 2005	Douglas Sirk never made the slightest impression on me. However, he appears, by having been somewhat retro, to be a mirror in which people with agendas see themselves. I see from Wikipedia that he has been claimed by Marxists, feminists, “gays”, Roger Ebert, and the Cahiers du Cinéma crowd. I assume we’ll read it here if you find a good one.



panzer the great & terrible	Oct 18 2009, 05:20 PM Post #6
Mouth Breather Posts: 10,354 Group: Members Member #13 Joined: September 3, 2005	Oh, you will, but I'm not too hopeful. It's growing on me that Sirk was basically anti-American middle class like a snobbish headwaiter, and I find that offensive because a.) I happen to be a bougie, and b.) he doesn't seem to know the people he's satirizing. His characters act like Germans, even black characters. Going by what I've seen so far, he was an unobservant man and the USA was wasted on him. After all, the USA took him in when he was running from the Nazis, and gave him a cool job, so what did he have to be so sour about? The execs at Universal? We can only wonder. Anyway, here I am about to take the plunge into his weepies. I am very afraid, naturally.
	We Wear Short Shorts Flying Purple People Eater


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