Nobody Lives Forever/Three Strangers

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MissGoddess
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Re: Nobody Lives Forever/Three Strangers

Post by MissGoddess »

Nobody Lives Forever is actually one of my favorite John Garfield movies. I find him immensely more likable as Nick than just about any other character he ever played---even though he's a con-man. I have a soft spot for stories about rather uptight women who fall for wise guys, and this one satisfied that sillyness for me. Walter Brennan is good and I really liked Coulouris' villain because he plays him as a guy who's been knocked out of where he thinks he belongs: on top. Couloris makes it seem so terribly personal, this downfall, conveying that it offends his whole worldview that someone like Nick should suddenly be issuing him orders. Coulouris injects a subtle snobbery and intellectual superiority that ripples underneath with desperation. Whenever I see or read about him it's THIS role that I think of first and always will associate him with, oddly enouogh.

I love the scene at St. Juan Capistrano, I think it really makes you believe these two could care about each other, different as they are. They both needed to get away from a wordly setting to appreaciate it.

The other George, Tobias, is on hand as Nick's grifter pal who parasites off his friend and hates to see his meal ticket fall in love and monkey up the works. That George sure worked like nobody's business. He turns up in so many films, playing so many different types of men. My favorite, however, may be his tiny but wildly funny Russian embassy beaurocrat in NINOTCHKA. "No visa."

Nobody Lives Forever
is definitely not a great film, but one I enjoy watching again and again.
"There's only one thing that can kill the movies, and that's education."
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moira finnie
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Re: Nobody Lives Forever/Three Strangers

Post by moira finnie »

I loved Nobody Lives Forever, particularly that beautiful scene at San Juan Capistrano as the two of them float through the garden toward the church in a dreamlike state, not wanting to speak and break the spell between them.

My favorite Garfield film is hard to choose. It might be his role as the haunted Spanish Civil War vet in The Fallen Sparrow or the lost boy redeemed by Priscilla Lane's love in the totally cornball Dust Be My Destiny, which is redeemed for me by that edge of anger he brings to the sometimes soft screenplay. Or maybe I'd have to pick Body and Soul, when he asks the guy threatening him, "Whaddya gonna do? Kill me? Everybody dies." as he walks away from the bright, guilty world he'd fallen into, out into a reality that includes Lili Palmer and his self-respect. I know most people would never pick these, but this is between me and John Garfield. :wink:
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Re: Nobody Lives Forever/Three Strangers

Post by MikeBSG »

I really like "Three Strangers." It is odd to see Lorre in such a sympathetic part.

Both "Three Strangers" and "Nightmare Alley" strike me as the kind of stories that would make good "Twilight Zone" episodes.
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