{"id":9911,"date":"2019-06-25T16:44:18","date_gmt":"2019-06-25T16:44:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=9911"},"modified":"2020-09-02T14:08:32","modified_gmt":"2020-09-02T14:08:32","slug":"sidney-lumet-on-high-comedy-and-great-acting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=9911","title":{"rendered":"Sidney Lumet on high comedy and great acting"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Ray Bennett<\/p>\n

LONDON \u2013 American filmmaker Sidney Lumet, who was born 95 years ago today and died in 2011, made a series of fine and gripping social dramas from the 1950s through the 1980s but he was a big fan of high comedy and the performers who could carry it off.<\/p>\n

He told me, \u201cI think there\u2019s a large underestimation of high-comedy. For years, they kept saying, oh, Cary Grant, he\u2019s charming but he can\u2019t act but, by Jesus, that\u2019s acting, let me tell you. It\u2019s very hard acting, it\u2019s wonderful acting. People equate seriousness with quality and that isn\u2019t so.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>He worked with Sean Connery on five pictures, two intense dramas \u2013 \u2018The Hill\u2019 (1965) and \u2018The Offence\u2019 (1973) \u2013 two capers \u2013 \u2018The Anderson Tapes\u2019 (1989) and \u2018Family Business\u2019 (1989) \u2013 and one high comedy, \u2018Murder on the Orient Express\u2019 (pictured left with Vanessa Redgrave). He had huge respect for the Scottish star’s talent: \u201cSean\u2019s Bond performances were just brilliant. Those are delightful movies and that\u2019s real work going on there, it\u2019s not by accident. If you\u2019ve seen Roger Moore as Bond, the wit has gone out of them completely.<\/p>\n

\u201cChristopher Reeve is a first-rate actor. Those \u2018Superman\u2019 performances are really witty. He knows what he\u2019s doing. That\u2019s an actor up there. He\u2019s wonderful in \u2018The Bostonians\u2019 (1984). The day after I saw \u2018King Kong\u2019 (1976), I asked to see Jessica Lange because I thought she was the most exciting young comedienne since Carol Lombard. John Malkovich in \u2018Places of the Heart\u2019 (1984). I think he\u2019s the most excting actor since Marlon Brando. I saw him in \u2018Death of a Salesman\u2019 in New York and he\u2019s a stunning actor, amazing to me. There\u2019s Tom Hulce in \u2018Animal House\u2019 (1978), right? But he\u2019s brilliant in \u2018Amadeus\u2019 (1984), wonderful. I think he\u2019s the best thing in it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Lumet was in Toronto in September 1984 to promote \u2018Garbo Talks\u2019 which he described as \u201ca piece of fluff\u201d about a man (Ron Silver) who tries to grant his garrulous and colourful New York mother her dying wish, which is to meet legendary silent film star Greta Garbo. The man\u2019s mother is played by Anne Bancroft (pictured above and top with Ron Silver), who earned a Golden Globe nomination for her performance. \u201cAnnie is very, very funny,\u201d Lumet told me. \u201cOf, course, she lives with it. She said one day, \u2018Look who I\u2019m married to [Mel Brooks]. She had never seen a Garbo film and when she took the part she went into the Metro screening room and screened every one. She came out starry eyed, just gaga.\u201d Bancroft died aged 86 in 2001.<\/p>\n

Lumet agreed that he was not known for comedy. \u201cI always felt it wasn\u2019t a narural talent to me,\u201d he said. \u201cbut it\u2019s something from a technique point of view that you can learn. I ruined a couple of pictures trying to learn \u2013 \u2018The Group\u2019 (Candice Bergen, Joan Hackett, 1966) and \u2018Bye Bye Braverman\u2019 (George Segal, Jessica Walter, 1968) \u2013 those are two pictures that I hurt seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n

When \u201cMurder on the Orient Express\u201d came along, he thought back to what he called \u201cthe best comedy play ever written\u201d \u2013 Oscar Wilde\u2019s \u201cThe Importance of Being Ernest\u201d. He said, \u201cI took it literally, right down to the pun in the title and Lady Bracknell and \u2018A handbag?\u2019. What is unimportant becomes the most important and what\u2019s terribly important, you throw away.\u201d<\/p>\n

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On \u201cOrient Express\u201d (with Albert Finney as Hercule Poirot, above), he spent hours working on the little things: \u201cWhether it would be a green mint or a white mint against a silver platter, all those kinds of details becoming increasingly important. That holds true for the acting, too, part of the comic style. How many comedies have we seen where that\u2019s the core of it going back to \u2018It Happened One Night\u2019 where it\u2019s not important that a girl is missing, what\u2019s important is whether or not she\u2019s a virgin at the end of the picture. That reversal of values meant a great deal to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said \u2018Network\u2019 (Peter Finch, William Holden, Faye Dunaway, 1976) would not have worked so well if he hadn\u2019t made \u2018Orient Express\u2019 ahead of it: \u2018I learned so much on the Poirot picture that the drama in \u2018Network\u2019 works awfully well because it\u2019s as funny as it is. \u2018Just Tell Me What You Want\u2019 (Ali MacGraw, Alan King, 1980) was a totally unsuccessful movie but it\u2019s a terrific film, a very funny film.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>He was pleased with his co-stars in \u2018Garbo Talks\u2019. He said he doubted that Ron Silver, who plays the son, would ever be a leading man (he didn’t and he died aged 62 in 2009) but \u201che\u2019s a tremendous actor, a big talent\u201d. Catherine Hicks (left), who plays a woman who befriends the son, had read for the role played by Charlotte Rampling in \u2018The Verdict\u2019, he said, \u201cShe\u2019s was wrong for that part but I was so impressed that I remembered her; she\u2019s an extraordinary comedienne.\u201d And Carrie Fisher, who plays the son\u2019s embittered wife? \u201cOh, she\u2019s wonderful. There she is, Princess Leia all the time and nobody remembers her in \u2018Shampoo\u2019 where she was marvellous!\u201d<\/p>\n

Lumet made three films with Henry Fonda \u2013 \u201c12 Angry Men\u2019 (1957, left), \u2018Stage Struck\u2019 (1958) and \u2018Fail Safe\u2019 (1964) \u2013 and two with Al Pacino \u2013 \u2018Serpico\u2019 (1973) and \u2018Dog Day Afternoon\u2019 (below) \u2013 and he swore by both actors. \u201cTheir training grounds were different but \"\"<\/a>they had one thing totally in common which is that you couldn\u2019t beat them into doing anything false. They don\u2019t know how. Fonda\u2019s generation was more disciplined. Fonda, just in terms of discipline, it was so total that if the script girl said, \u2018You had you cigarette in your right hand\u2019 and Fonda said, \u2018No, I had it in my left,\u2019 I would trust him and not the script girl. That comes out of making 60, 70 movies.\u201d<\/p>\n

He gravitated toward actors who were amusing, he said, like two of his stars in \u2018Long Day\u2019s Journey Into Night\u2019 ( 1962): \u201cKatharine Hepburn was very funny and Ralph Richardson was uproarious. Fonda was really rather dour and yet he had great humour in his acting.\u201d Stars were different today, he said: \u201cIf somebody like Garbo or Marlene Dietrich came along I think we\u2019d laugh them off the screen. We\u2019re not interested in that personal kind of acting. Those people just used their persona. I don\u2019t think we like that so much any more. It\u2019s not better or worse. Just different.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Sidney Lumet was nominated for the Academy Award for best director for \u201912 Angry Men\u2019 (1957), \u2018Dog Day Afternoon\u2019 (1975), \u2018Network\u2019 (1976) and \u2018The Verdict\u2019 (1982 and for best adapted screenply with Jay Presson Allen for \u2018Prince of the City\u2019 (1981). He received an honourary Oscar for lifetime achievement in 2005.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>His 1965 film \u2018The Hill\u2019 (left) was nominated as Best Film in the BAFTA Awards and also Best British Film, as was \u2018The Deadly Affair\u2019 (James Mason, 1968). He earned a best director nod at the British academy awards in 1974 for \u2018Serpico\u2019 and \u2018Murder on the Orient Express\u2019 (1974) plus \u2018Dog Day Afternoon\u2019 and \u2018Network\u2019.<\/p>\n

He directed Henry Fonda to a best actor award nomination in the Oscars for \u201912 Angry Men\u2019, Rod Steiger for \u2018The Pawnbroker\u2019 (1966), Al Pacino for the same award ib \u2018Serpico\u2019, Albert Finney in \u2018Murder on the Orient Express\u2019 and Richard Burton in \u2018Equus\u2019 (1978). Katharine Hepburn was nominated as best actress for \u2018Long Day\u2019s Journey into Night\u2019 (1963). Ingrid Bergman won the Academy and BAFTA awards as best supporting actress for \u2018Murder on the Orient Express and best supporting actor nods went to Chris Sarandon for \u2018Dog Day Afternoon\u2019, John Gielgud for \u2018Murder on the Orient Express\u2019 and Peter Firth for \u2018Equus\u2019. Gielgud won the BAFTA award for best supporting actor and Jenny Agutter won as best supporting actress for \u2018Equus\u2019 while Colin Blakely was nominated as best supporting actor for the same film.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ray Bennett LONDON \u2013 American filmmaker Sidney Lumet, who was born 95 years ago today and died in 2011, made a series of fine and gripping social dramas from the 1950s through the 1980s but he was a big … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6,1263,2257],"tags":[5030,5031,3987,5032,4418,5029],"class_list":["post-9911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film","category-interviews","category-memory-lane","category-recalling","tag-garbo-talks","tag-anne-bancroft","tag-cary-grant","tag-greta-garbo","tag-sean-connery","tag-sidney-lumet"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9911"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9911\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10075,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9911\/revisions\/10075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}