Monday 29 May 2023

Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1957 John Huston & co-scr)

..with John Mahin. Huston called Mitchum 'an actor of the calibre of Olivier, Burton and Brando'. It's a great script, making you involved and caring for Mitchum's marine and Deborah Kerr's nun - they got on famously and are both great. Like when Mitchum's waiting at the cave entrance with his knife out, looking seriously intent. (Kerr and the screenplay were Oscar nominated, whereas BAFTA nominated Mitchum for Best Foreign Actor).

It's also beautifully shot by Oswald Morris in CinemaScope (Arthur Ibbestson operating) in Tobago, and a typically interesting score from Georges Auric (notice the way it ends, for example, not a great big flourish like you'd expect) when it isn't silence. Lots of good long silent sequences, like Hitchcock's 'pure cinema'. Don't know why we hadn't watched it in such a long time. In fact subsequently I had real trouble in remembering the title... maybe that's why.


20th Century Fox.

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