Since you went away the days grow long
And soon I'll hear old winter's song
But I miss you most of all my darling
When autumn leaves start to fall
With the exception of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, I'd not seen many Joan Crawford movies. That didn't stop me however, from getting caught up in Jessica Lange's portrayal of the actress in Feud last year. In the series, 'Joan' references a few times the movie she just completed and how pleased she was with the results.
On set with Cliff Robertson, Crawford and director Robert Aldrich
That film was Autumn Leaves and I had been meaning to watch it for awhile. With a title like Autumn leaves, you envision a romance set in a beautiful small Northeastern town in the middle of October. Not even close....
The Here From Eternity moment
I'm not sure what month the movie was set in, but the location was California and there wasn't a falling Autumn leaf to be found. In researching the movie I learned the changed the title from The Way We Are to Autumn Leaves only to be able to use the Nat Sing Cole song in the film. The song is beautiful and the film is good, but the title makes little sense and has no real connection to anything in the film.
This was my first time seeing Cliff Robertson on film. I think I may have seen him on television when I was a kid as although he would have been much older than when he made this film, his friendly face looked familiar to me. That friendly face is exactly why Robertson was perfectly cast as Burt Hanson. Burt pursues Millie (Crawford) and they eventually fall in love and marry.
Burt however has 'issues' and certainly makes Millie pay for purchasing such a heavy type writer. Despite his issues, Robertson was incredibly appealing in the film, a little Tom Hanks like, but with a darker edge. In researching the handsome actor I didn't find any nudity, but he flashed a bit of skin here and there. I have downloaded Picnic and although I couldn't find The Big Show on-line, given my love of circus movies, ordered a copy from Amazon.
Gidget (1959)
Robertson (as the big Kahuna) with James Darren and Sandra Dee
The Big Show (1961)
Picnic (1956)
Robertson with Kim Novak and William Holden
No comments:
Post a Comment