But of course, I want my Georgie to be dastardly. And when he turns the spigot on full blast, he unleashes the torrent, in my favorite role, as Addison DeWitt in "ALL ABOUT EVE." (( Sigh! )) He used a mighty scalpel in that one. Oh yeah...there WILL be blood. And you know I've got to talk more about that performance.
it seems George was the lead in the weeds of the alternate universe of any movie he did. And a lot of times, the alternate universe is a realm more interesting than where the hero dwells. Holy cow...you've made me now question whether the heroes are only MacGuffins to George Sanders' roles.
Gosh, you write so beautifully! AND you've made a great point here. In watching your wonderful MovieCHat, what strikes me most is what Lindsey said, and Mark kind of elaborated on while you guided: That
Addison is pulling the strings, he's the hero in his own mind, and ours,actually, the writer of this little tawdry story. He narrates the picture, after all. He knows all the sidestepping, the conniving that goes on between the characters. As a critic and writer, he is outside the realm of the living, there is something detached about him, looking down on everyone. He's Joe Mank's stand in, perhaps. This gives him enormous power outside the script and within it - Addison simply doesn't care about the people he writes about or manipulates, they are simply characters in his script to be maneuvered at his will. This is what gives the movie it's most pleasurable reflexive quality, the image within the image, etc. and on and on.
Addison creates and destroys stars, godlike. However, I agree with your statement earlier here, that there is the flash of the vulnerable boy in that moment when he slaps Eve telling her never to laugh at him. It makes him human, and I think without that scene, I wouldn't like this movie so much. Eve has been out-Eved by Addison, and he is reminding her that he doesn't buy her "act". "You're too short for that gesture" - he doesn't lap up that stuff, and he WILL tell her when she's wrong, brutally, but she must pay for her lessons. What Eve never figured on was that there might be someone like her, someone who counted every favor and every step up on someone else's back, and added it to the bill. She didn't have had to pay for all the damage she did to Margo and Karen and Bill and Lloyd, they weren't the types to tot up figures, they just wanted to get the divorce from Eve over with. Addison, well, he wasn't the type to let his knowledge go without the requisite gratuity. He sees through her and them all so plainly.... he has that discerning critic's edge, plus he doesn't lead with his emotions, he's colder and harder than any of the 'actors' in our piece (that includes Lloyd, Karen and Bill, as well as Margo). He's dead inside, we think...perhaps just has a flicker left....I think that somewhere under that hard facade is someone you just don't want to mess with, a volcano of emotion that would put those other rampant emotions and petty grievances to shame, were it ever to come out in anything other than witty bon mots, or poison pen reviews. Unleash the torrent!
I'm not as familiar with all the films on your and others' lists as I should be. I'm now very curious about Alison's choice:
My favourite George film is "VOYAGE TO ITALY", an absolute nightmare for him but he rather sheds the dear boy persona of Rebecca and other films and becomes a husband in a decaying marriage with Ingrid Bergman, it's a fine film and one that needs to be revisited.
Playing a normal guy? Okay. I like the movie trivia of Sanders appearing in a film with Ingrid Bergman years before, too.
Voyage to Italy is just brilliant, it leaves you with more questions than answers, but it feels true. I didn't like him in this one for most of the picture, like many of his films, but at the end, he becomes enormously appealing.
I'm also curious of April's choice of:
THE STRANGE WOMAN, one of George's straight romantic leads and very effective opposite siren Hedy Lamaar.
I'd be curious to see if Hedy raises her game opposite George's accomplished actor; and I also want to see him play against type: play the purely straight lead.
I think you would absolutely LOVE
The Strange Woman. It's so much fun, and I love how Hedy runs rings around everyone in the picture.
"LURED" - He has such a light tough in this crime drama with Lucille Ball. I think he could go caviar-to-caviar with the likes of Melvyn Douglas or Cary Grant, but in his own Continental way. Maybe it's the voice that adds the weight. But I remember being pleasantly surprised by him in this. He was likeable and Lucy and Georgie were well-matched.
I love Lured, for obvious reasons, both George and Joe are in it. George very easily settled back in these leading-man-saves-the-day type roles. My favorites are the above movie,
Foreign Correspondent,
The Lodger and
Hangover Square. Plus the Saint and Falcon movies. There is always the feeling that he didn't take himself quite so seriously, and this is the delicious part to me of George as a hero.
"THE STRANGE AFFAIR OF UNCLE HARRY" - He is absolutely believable to me as a repressed man who just needs the love of a good woman...who is
not his sister
![Shocked :shock:](./images/smilies/icon_eek.gif)
to bring him out of his shell. Weak, a bit timid. I didn't question him at all in this role. He can turn the spigot off or on.
And this is it, he CAN turn it on or off. It's so surprising. For all his posturing as a cynic, he can let himself go as an actor and really steep himself in the part, feel those emotions he's playing, let out the scary parts of his personality as well as the soft ones. I get the idea that there was a deeply serious actor under that facade, looking for a chance to come out, and terrified that he would be asked to do so.