Otto Preminger

[Ovader]

Adrian Martin on Twitter provided a link of this blog of Preminger's Noirs.

This blog specifically focuses on the films noirs of Otto Preminger.

LAURA, FALLEN ANGEL, WHIRLPOOL, WHERE THE SIDEWALK ENDS and ANGEL FACE will be presented in chronological order during the next weeks… and months. Entries will include script or sequence analysis, individual essays, lively “dialogues” between the two writers heading the project (Olivier Eyquem and Despina Veneti), and an assortment of documents (photos, screenshots, ads, links, etc. )

Friends of Film Noir, Enjoy!

[Props55]

Interesting that THE THIRTEENTH LETTER is still the odd man out in the "Preminger noir" canon. There must be a rights issue at play here (it's a French Canadian set remake of LE CORBEAU) and I've never been able to catch it in any venue. Can't recall it ever showing up in rep cinemas and it was never to my knowledge programmed on WTBS-Superstation 17 back in the Turner days or on the old American Movie Classics in the '90s. Has it ever been aired on Fox Movie Channel? I'm really curious to see Michael Rennie in the Pierre Fresney role and would love to compare the Montreal lensing with Hitch's I CONFESS as well as the overlay of Catholic guilt.

Anybody have any ideas or info? Paging Mr. Hare or Domino.

[domino harvey]

I bought my copy years ago via DVD-R from iOffer (in the days before belonging to a back channel site) and I don't remember the source of the rip but I'm pretty sure it looked better than what's up on That Site Which Shall Not Be Named. I think it's one of Preminger's weakest films, certainly of the noir cycle, but there's a nice virtuoso elaborate visual sequence set in a church that shows the master at play quite nicely

[Props55]

Thanks for the input (and eyestrain!) gents. The general consensus on this title seems to conform with Domino's take. And like you David I wonder how Preminger was able to work through the off limits thematic and narrative threads. This was likely the beginning of his active pursuit of controversial material (and Fox/Zanuck would still have been the go-to studio for such a project) and I'm betting the result prompted him to break out on his own that much sooner.

It's a pity there doesn't seem to be a decent source (even a used 16 non-theatrical would do) as I think this must have been his first realy foray into location shooting. Again, I'd love to see it in conjunction to I CONFESS. The points of comparison are so intrigueing.

[manicsounds]

Svet has included this German Concorde BD of The Cardinal in his top non US/UK for 2013. He also mentions it's from a restoration and gives it a big tick.

That was enough for me to order pronto. It is - I say this without the slightest hint of embarrassment - a favorite Preminger. I also noticed while ordering there is a German BD of Prem's last film, The Human Factor. This must be the same source as a 720p HDTV DL I have and I can safely say it too is excellent. For the curious it's also in correct AR of 1.66. This is a both maligned and unseen work which really needs revaluation. I think it's a major Preminger and perhaps surprisingly to some a very moving work.

dvdbeaver review, says it's very weak.
Colors do look pretty washed out.

[Stefan Andersson]

Torsten Kaiser, TLEFilms, Germany, supervised the Cardinal resto. He posted on the blu-ray.com forum:

THE CARDINAL has many, if not to say huge troubles stemming both from production/photochemical post production and condition of the existing materials. We did the very best we could with these elements in Picture and Sound.

For extensive info in English about the German resto of Cardinal, go here. Alternatively, go here.

At bottom of page, click on "To the restoration projects". New page opens. At bottom of this page, click on The Cardinal for technical info. Click on another title for info about that title (info about several other Preminger titles available, including enlightening info about screen ratio and framing of the Man With The Golden Arm. The first page about The Man With The Golden Arm includes a link to a separate page showing how the film has been framed and mis-framed for various TV and DVD purposes. You can find this link highlighted in the next to last line of the text on the first page).

More technical info, in German. Also includes technical info about The Man With The Golden Arm.

For more info about restoration, framing and mis-framing of The Man With The Golden Arm, scroll down for several posts by Torsten Kaiser.

[domino harvey]

Bunny Lake is Missing Blu looks great

Although the Lem Dobbs commentary sounds bonkers if this is accurate

Lem Dobbs, in some interesting sidebars to his commentary on Bunny Lake is Missing, goes even further, suggesting that Preminger's brusque, brutal attitude toward his actors actually resulted in, or at least contributed to, several deaths through the years, including Seberg herself, as well as Maggie McNamara and Dorothy Dandridge. That may be stretching things a bit, for while all three of these actresses did indeed commit suicide, they had all been beset with career difficulties that can't be entirely ascribed to Preminger.

[Roger Ryan]

During a 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY Q & A I attended two weeks ago, Keir Dullea remarked that Preminger was insufferable during the shooting of BUNNY LAKE and made everyone miserable. Working for Kubrick immediately after was very relaxed and fun by comparison.

[domino harvey]

Oh, Preminger was by all accounts a terrible asshole, I just very much doubt he led to anyone's suicide (well, maybe Dandridge)

[Gregory]

Are we expected to believe that Preminger made Seberg suffer so much during the production of her first two films that she got through the experience, went on to make 32 more films, and then, 20 years after Bonjour Tristesse, died of a drug overdose even partly because of Preminger? Quite a farfetched notion of delayed causation! If anyone deserves blame for what happened to Seberg's career and contributed to her intense personal troubles (I'll stop short of saying "led to her death") it's the FBI and the press.

[Minkin]

Perhaps Lem Dobbs is misremembering the pure evil side of Preminger.

[Drucker]

From Keir Dullea's AMA:

Q: First may I just say I love your work and as Bunny Lake is Missing is one of my favorites. So my question is what is your favorite memory from the film?

Very few good memories due to the fact that Otto Preminger was a horror to work for. If you ever saw a film called Stalag 17 you will see Otto Preminger playing the Nazi commandant of the prisoner of war camp. Perfect typecasting. However, I have to say, that the high point for me, and perhaps the only high point, was working with Laurence Olivier.

[jvdsq]

I love the film Laura. Waldo's lines are so memorable. Gene Tierney was beautiful and talented. She was the perfect actress for the part of Laura. The mood and atmosphere were just right. The mystery itself was quite unique. Lovely background music, too.

Where the Sidewalk Ends is an excellent and gritty film noir. I love how the film makes such effective use of shadows, side streets, and staircases.

Dana Andrews and Gene Tierney were great together in both films. Interesting that, in Laura, Gene Tierney had a much more important role than she did in Where the Sidewalk Ends.

I enjoyed Bunny Lake is Missing because I love the sorts of mysteries in which someone tries to find someone else who vanished, and no one believes that the vanished person really exists. Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes is another film which follows such a theme. Same goes for So Long at the Fair and Dangerous Crossing.

[TMDaines]

Anyone know whether Whirlpool premiered in 1949 or 1950 for sure? Used to be listed as 1949 on IMDB, but is now listed as 1950. The date given for justifying 1949 commonly online is 28th November 1949, but I can find no actual evidence of a premiere at that time or contemporary reviews.

It opened in New York and Los Angeles on 13th January 1950 and there is a New York Times review for the following day.

[Werewolf by Night]

According to Variety's review that ran on November 23, 1949, there was an industry/trade screening in New York on November 18. Boxoffice, another trade paper, ran a capsule review on December 3 listing the film as releasing "Jan. '50."

A Los Angeles Times article dated January 10, 1950 states that the film was scheduled to open "Friday" (which would have been January 13) at the Los Angeles, Chinese, Uptown, Fox Wilshire, and Loyola theaters.

[TMDaines]

The Talk on Wikipedia is quite interesting: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Whir ... 1950_film).

[TMDaines]

Film Daily Year Book 1950 pretty clearly shows this has being shown in 1949: https://archive.org/stream/filmdailyyea ... 9/mode/2up

In other news, the Internet Archive is amazing nowadays. Already spent an hour browsing old trade publications.

[TMDaines]

Also here is a review from Motion Picture Daily on 28th November 1949:

[domino harvey]

happily married

Are we sure they saw the movie?

[TMDaines]

By reading it, I wasn't certain for sure.

This is your #1 of the 40s Domino, so your world surely turns upside down if this is going to count for the 50s next time!

[domino harvey]

Like I needed another existential crisis in my life!

[knives]

Still stewing on it, but I at first found Junie Moon utterly ridiculous until looking up and finding out the ADA only came into effect in 1990. That's kind of insane and makes the film in its own bizarre way seem so much more forward looking that I think I like it more now.

[therewillbeblus]

I’ll wait until the Preminger list project to post something more in-depth in relation to auteurist stamp, but I thoroughly enjoyed Forever Amber against all expectations. It’s amusing to see how poorly modern critics dub the film, and how it's often unfavorably compared to Gone with the Wind, because Preminger takes the basic narrative structure, setting, color palette and other mise en scene optics of that tiresome epic, and squeezes out all the fat to eliminate the bore and accentuate passive details with optimal film language to infuse the milieu with thrills. This is, above all else, a very lean-feeling version of a bloated film. Rarely is there any meditation granted on a scene that causes slippage into disengagement, so even the less interesting conversations occur immersed in fluid camera movement, or in seamless editing transitions between multiple gorgeously-shot spaces. Per usual, Preminger’s rhythm is one of excitement, imbuing every scene, regardless of its inherent energy, with vibrancy to realise his auteurist power to make anything interesting. I couldn’t help but sit in shock while watching this, confused on why this material wasn’t oversaturating the style into repelling me away. Preminger was also apparently uninspired by the source material, and characteristically finds his own inspiration in the possibilities of the medium, and transforms the dull into the fun, like a rabbit out of his hat. It’s not a case where there’s gold to be found and it takes the right director to find it, but one where the meat is just okay, yet the right approach is to douse it in spices to make one too overwhelmed with flavors to tell the difference. The overstated bombastic score helps to balance the subtler expressions of technique to ignite involvement while making us keenly aware of what we’re watching with cheeky objectivity. I can't call this a great film, because it's still bogged down by the innate flaws of the theatrical script, some muted performances (mainly Wilde), and a lack of enthusiasm for the job itself, which was a contractual obligation, but Preminger does give it all he can and that's a lot better than I'd expect from anyone else, or than perhaps this film deserves.

[willoneill]

Does anyone know anything about the quality of Saint Joan in this set? I'm on a Joan of Arc kick lately and I really enjoyed Preminger's version when I saw it many years ago on TCM. But the WA dvd is out of print and this seems to be the best version I can track down.

[mizo]

I couldn't say right now, but I did just order a copy (intrigued because the product description suggests that Saint Joan might be presented in full frame, where the WA DVD was matted to widescreen) so if you can wait, I'll be able to let you know in a few weeks!