Hand in Glove

oldhollywood:

Jane Greer in Out of the Past (1947, dir. Jacques Tourneur)
“Zzjjane, do you know what ahm-pahs-eeve mean?” [director Jacques Tourneur] asked the actress.
“Impassive? Yes.”
“No ‘big eyes’. No expressive. In the beginning you act like a nice girl. But then, after you kill the man you meet in the little house, you become a bad girl. Yes? First half, good girl. Second half, bad.”
“I get you,” she said. That was his direction, Greer recalled. “But I did throw in a few big eyes anyway. I couldn’t help myself.”
Tourneur also discussed with her his plan for the character’s wardrobe, something typical of his films’ subtle, insidious visual design. “At first you wear light colors. After you kill the man, darker colors. In the end, black.”
-excerpted from Lee Server’s Baby I Don’t Care

Sep 30

Jane Greer in Out of the Past (1947, dir. Jacques Tourneur)

“Zzjjane, do you know what ahm-pahs-eeve mean?” [director Jacques Tourneur] asked the actress.

“Impassive? Yes.”

“No ‘big eyes’. No expressive. In the beginning you act like a nice girl. But then, after you kill the man you meet in the little house, you become a bad girl. Yes? First half, good girl. Second half, bad.”

“I get you,” she said. That was his direction, Greer recalled. “But I did throw in a few big eyes anyway. I couldn’t help myself.”

Tourneur also discussed with her his plan for the character’s wardrobe, something typical of his films’ subtle, insidious visual design. “At first you wear light colors. After you kill the man, darker colors. In the end, black.”

-excerpted from Lee Server’s Baby I Don’t Care

Sep 30

oldhollywood:

Rita Hayworth & Orson Welles in publicity still for The Lady From Shanghai (1947, dir. Orson Welles)

Q. What was the Hollywood reaction generally to [The Lady From Shanghai]?

Welles: Friends avoided me. Whenever it was mentioned, people would clear their throats and change the subject very quickly out of consideration for my feelings. I only found out that it was considered a good picture when I got to Europe. The first nice thing I ever heard about it from an American was from Truman Capote. One night in Sicily, he quoted whole pages of dialogue word for word.

Q. I guess that’s called being ahead of your time.

Welles: It’s called being in trouble.

-excerpted from This Is Orson Welles