Three compositions from "Youngblood Hawke," by Delmer Daves, Charles Lawton, Jr., and Leo K. Kuter, 1964

 

 

With James Franciscus, Suzanne Pleshette, and Geneviève Page. Daves directed, Lawton shot, Kuter was the art director.

Comments

[David Ehrenstein]

"Do they call you 'Youngy' or 'Bloody'?"

[warren oates]

The stills look so Antonioni-esque that I can't imagine this film being scored by that master of musical unsubtlety Max Steiner. So does it hold together as a whole film or is it just interesting to you visually? I liked Daves' BROKEN ARROW and 3:10 TO YUMA and I'm looking forward to the coming Blu-ray of THE RED HOUSE, which I have not yet seen.

[LexG]

NEAL COHEN POWER

[Evelyn Roak]

As that third still shows, there are remarkable shots of faces and bodies throughout Daves' films, capturing their presence, physicality and separation and connection from/to others. Watching 3:10 To Yuma years ago parts of the early-ish bar scene feel more like moments from a Philippe Garrel film than anything else.

[The Siren]

WOW. Despite your anguished updates on Twitter I must say you are making the Longest Movie in the History of Cinema look glorious here.

[James Keepnews]

Unless my summers as a teenage messenger in NYC wrought more long-term memory damage than the inarguable effect it had on the short-term variety, that cavernous, dark marble van der Rohe-esque lobby is no less than the one at 200 Park Ave., now the MetLife Building but at the time this film was shot it was the Pan Am Building. Amirite?

[Alex]

I watched the Archive DVD a couple of weekends ago and it is a beautiful thing. Very entertaining movie with good acting. Also early on some stunning shots of 60's Manhattan. Interesting creative(or financial?) choice to shot widescreen B & W-why not color? I throughly recommend the archive disk.

[PaulJBis]

There were more than a few B/W widescreen movies back in that period, right? Pretty much every Billy Wilder film, for example ("The apartment", "Kiss me stupid", "The fortune cookie"...).

[Peter Labuza]

The first one looks like a black and white outtake from "Playtime."

[Oliver_C]

Didn't the contemporaneous Japanese (and Kurosawa's 1958-65 films in particular) pretty much make black-and-white 'Scope their own?

[jbryant]

It does seem a bit unusual that it was in B&W, since Daves was coming off a rather long string of color films. In fact, the vast majority of his films from BROKEN ARROW on were in color (exceptions: RETURN OF THE TEXAM, 3:10 TO YUMA and KINGS GO FORTH).

I think I've mentioned this before at Dave Kehr's site, but my two earliest moviegoing experiences are of Delmer Daves films -- SPENCER'S MOUNTAIN and SUSAN SLADE. Both traumatized me (grandpa-meets-falling-tree in the former; baby-meets-cigarette-lighter in the latter).

[Glenn Kenny]

I haven't had a chance to respond as I've been out today, but...Siren, yeah, that's kinda the damnedest thing. I'm a pretty solid Daves man, and I fully appreciate the special feature of the film that our friend Tom Carson elaborates on (here: http://www.gq.com/entertainment/movies-and-tv/201202/tom-carson-favorite-worst-movie-flop ), but yeah, this just did not have the suck-you-in momentum of the likes of, say, "Parrish." The ridiculous miscasting of poor Ms. Page is but one of the probable problems. However, the visuals ARE pretty special, and exemplify that sort of added value that good Hollywood product could provide the viewer absent any other meaningful virtues. You don't see the above sort of shots in any contemporary American potboiler, no sir.

[Oliver_C]

"The first one looks like a black and white outtake from 'Playtime'."

Also, is anyone else maybe kinda sorta perhaps seeing a black-walled, high-ceilinged version of the space station from '2001'?

[Shawn Stone]

It's nice to look at, there's Pleshette, and Edward Andrews' plummy disquisitions on "the stag" are delightful.

[Betttencourt]

Maybe it's because I've loved Woody Allen's MANHATTAN ever since I saw it at age 17, and Gordon Willis's work on that film still astounds me, I've always loved the combination of B&W and the widescreen. (I wonder if anyone's used that awesome combo for a horror film since THE INNOCENTS and THE HAUNTING.)

And having recently seen Tati's PLAYTIME on the big screen, it's also the first thing I thought of when I saw the image at the top of the post.

Those three shots do make the film look wonderful. On the other hand, it does star James Franciscus, doesn't it? (nothing against Franciscus, mind you -- I was a big fan of LONGSTREET in my youth and still love THE VALLEY OF GWANGI, but he's one of those actors whose career seems to have been reduced to a footnote at best).

[Peter Nellhaus]

My introduction to Daves, seen on the big screen in a double feature with "Fail Safe". I guess I should shell out for the Archives DVD one of these days.