Saturday, March 31, 2007
ZERO TIME
Today's film in the Zero Mostel Film Fest was Elia Kazan's
Here, Mostel plays it straight as a killer partnered with Jack Palance. They kill a guy over a gambling debt. The guy is off a ship and has pneumonic plague. So they have it too.
It sounds like a stretch but it is not. The film is very good and has great acting by Richard Widmark (an old flame), Paul Douglas, and Barbara Bel Geddes.
It rates at least a 4 out of Netflix5.
One of the amazing things is to see Mostel move in the final chase scenes. There are no stunt men or doubles. There is running, jumping, sliding, falling. He could always make the moves. Like a lot of fat men.
He and Palance (another maverick) are great together.
Another aside.
Kazan disgraced himself by naming names at the HUAC hearings.
Remember we saw The Front the other day?
Mostel and Bel Geddes were on the blacklist.
This film was made right before the naming. I don't know if they were on Kazan's list but it makes you wonder.
Decades later, when Kazan got a lifetime Oscar, some people remained seated or turned their backs on his acceptance speech. It was very controversial. He is still not forgiven by many in the business.
Mostel didn't work for a few years and then got back into the theater which was not as badly hit by the purge.
Ten years later he was a star in Something Happened on the Way to The Forum both on stage and in the film—that was in the festival too.
This is just another side of this man that makes him so interesting.
We have one more Mostel film to see but it has not arrived yet; Rhinoceros which is actually a filmed theater piece.
They had to send it from someplace in NY State. I guess we don't have much call for filmed theater out here. At least not starring Zero Mostel.
So we will be back to the NYTimes Best Films tomorrow. Then back to Zero.
Labels: blacklist, films, Zero Mostel
