The Fox and the Lion
Dorothy McGuire does her impersonation of a mournful lion in THREE COINS IN THE FOUNTAIN. Beautiful/absurd conjunction via Jean Negulesco.
I’m told David Thomson has called Fox’s 50s output “the antithesis of cinema”. This movie, despite Cinemascope, attractive locations, big stars and a director who could be positively experimental at times, might seem to bear him out. It’s lovely but dull. The above is the only exciting image I could glean from it.
But I’m about to start on a project which should conclusively blow his argument out of the water. A video essay for THIS —
shadowplay 
August 14, 2019 at 1:19 pm
Well Sam’s a whole ‘nother story. His films are visually dynamic from stem to stern, perfectly welded to characters and situations full of drive. Nobody quite like him.
August 14, 2019 at 3:55 pm
Suitably inspired, Negulesco could make dynamic images the equal of anybody – crazy dutch tilts and swooping moves. Cinemascope seemed to flatten him.
Every line in Fuller’s films and every shot has the impact of a typewriter key slamming into a page in ECU.
August 14, 2019 at 4:14 pm
Nifty line there, Cairns
August 14, 2019 at 5:02 pm
From Fuller’s autobio:
“Director Jean Negulesco told me Cinemascope had changed the way he directed, and not for the better. It was like working in a theater, the camera as stationary as the audience. “
August 14, 2019 at 7:10 pm
So what are some experimental Negulesco’s I can watch as a primer?
August 14, 2019 at 10:06 pm
Fifties Fox had Gerd Oswald and Henry Hathaway and a bit of Kazan, not to mention the Ray of TRUE STORY OF JESSE JAMES. I’d cite Mankiewicz, but I suppose that counts as filmed theater.
August 14, 2019 at 11:16 pm
Mankiewicz is a lot more than filmed theatre, I think, and I can’t imagine Thomson dismissing him. Although his tastes (like everybody’s, really) are erratic.
I recall Negulsco contributing some crazy stuff to O. Henry’s Full House. And Humoresque?
August 15, 2019 at 3:58 am
I wouldn’t call it experimental, but Negulesco‘s THE MASK OF DIMITRIOS is smart and snappy. It’s a great Lorre and Greenstreet team-up, though it’s Steven Geray who gives the heart-breaking performance that really lifts it.
August 15, 2019 at 10:09 am
Yes, it’s maybe his best.
August 16, 2019 at 12:14 am
Where’s CHINA GATE in that Fox package??
August 16, 2019 at 2:06 am
Forever missing! I have a cruddy bootleg, but it always seems to be absent. 40 Guns isn’t strictly a wholly Fox production, either, but that’s quibbling because it’s a terrific film.