John Huston

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Scharphedin2
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John Huston

#1 Post by Scharphedin2 » Sun Apr 08, 2007 10:17 am

John Huston (1906-1987)

Huston has no truck with theories of esthetics or
questions of style; his sharp directing is intuitive.
he has a coldly intelligent knowledge of how
much to leave free within the frame, and the born
artist's passion for the possibilities of his medium.
“In a given scene,” he says, “I have an idea what
‘should' happen, but I don't tell the actors. Instead
I tell them to go ahead and do it. Sometimes they
do it better. Sometimes they do something
accidentally which is effective and true. I jump on
the accident.
~ James Agee (from his column
in Time Magazine, 1948)

FILMOGRAPHY

The Maltese Falcon (1941) Warner Brothers (R1) – also included in The Bogart Collection, and in Humphrey Bogart: The Signature Collection, Vol. 2

In This Our Life (1942)

Winning Your Wings (short, 1942)

Across the Pacific (1942) Warner Brothers (R1) – also included in Humphrey Bogart: The Signature Collection, Vol. 2

Report from the Aleutians (1943) Brentwood (R1) – included in WWII Ultimate Collection / GoodTimes (R1)

The Battle of San Pietro (short, 1945) Image Entertainment (R1) – included in Treasures from American Film Archives / Brentwood (R1) – included in WWII Ultimate Collection

Let There Be Light (1946) Brentwood (R1) – included in WWII Ultimate Collection

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) Warner Brothers (R1) – also included in The Bogart Collection, and in Humphrey Bogart: The Signature Collection, Vol. 1

On Our Merry Way (uncredited, 1948) Kino (R1)

Key Largo (1948) Warner Brothers (R1) – also included in Bogie & Bacall: The Signature Collection / Warner Brothers (R2 UK)

We Were Strangers (1949) Columbia (R1)

The Asphalt Jungle (1950) Warner Brothers (R1) – also included in Film Noir Classic Collection, Vol. 1 / Warner Brothers (R2)

The Red Badge of Courage (1951) Warner Brothers (R1)

The African Queen (1951) Carlton (R2 UK) / IVC (R2 JP) / Manga Films (R2 ES) / Euro Video (R2 DE)

Moulin Rouge (1952) MGM (R1) / Manga Films (R2 ES)

Beat the Devil (1953) Alpha (R1) / Laserlight (R1)

Moby Dick (1956) MGM (R1) / Optimum Releasing (R2 UK)

Heaven Knows Mr. Allison (1957) 20th Century Fox (R1)

The Barbarian and the Geisha (1958) 20th Century Fox (R2 UK)

The Roots of Heaven (1958)

The Unforgiven (1960) MGM (R1) / MGM (R2 UK)

The Misfits (1961) MGM (R1) / MGM (R2 UK)

Freud (1962)

The List of Adrian Messenger (1963)

The Night of the Iguana (1964) Warner Brothers (R1) – also included in Tennessee Williams Film Collection

The Bible: In the Beginning… (1966) 20th Century Fox (R1) / 20th Century Fox (R2 UK)

Casino Royale (1967) MGM (R1) – also included in Peter Sellers : Movie Legends Collection, tbr 22nd May, 2007 / MGM (R2 UK)

Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967) Warner Brothers (R1) – also included in The Marlon Brando Collection

Sinful Davey (1969)

A Walk with Love and Death (1969) VellaVision (R2 ES)

The Kremlin Letter (1970)

Fat City (1972) Columbia (R1)

The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972) Warner Brothers (R1)

The MacKintosh Man (1973) Warner Brothers (R1) – also included in The Paul Newman Collection

The Man Who Would Be King (1975) Warner Brothers (R1) / Columbia (R2 UK)

Independence (1976)

Wise Blood (1979)

Phobia (1980)

Victory (Escape to Victory) (1981) Warner Brothers (R1) / Warner Brothers (R2 UK)

Annie (1982) Sony (R1)

Under the Volcano (1984) – Criterion (R1)

Prizzi's Honor (1985) MGM (R1) / Prism Leisure (R2 UK)

The Dead (1987) Network (R1) / Manga Films (R2 UK) / Aventi (R2 FR)


GENERAL DISCUSSION

The African Queen

Color Cinematography – includes discussion on the photography of Huston's Reflections in a Golden Eye and Moulin Rouge


RECOMMENDED WEB RESOURCES

allmovie

Classic Movies – tribute to John Huston

Dark City – Huston and film noir

Obituary – from The New York Times


FILMS

Christmas DVDs – includes discussion of Huston's The Dead


DVD

The Dead (1987, John Huston) anamorphic R4 DVD?

Criterion Newsletter – announcement of upcoming Under the Volcano release from Criterion


BOOKS/ARTICLES

An Open Book by John Huston (Alfred Knopf, 1980)

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John Hodson
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#2 Post by John Hodson » Sat Dec 08, 2007 12:09 pm

Am I right in thinking that Criterion's rumoured release of The Dead has been officially denied? I'm sure I read something about it, but now I can't seem to locate the reference.

There needs to be a better transfer of the film than the so-so R2 Network release.

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Cinephrenic
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#3 Post by Cinephrenic » Sat Dec 08, 2007 3:27 pm

Am I right in thinking that Criterion's rumoured release of The Dead has been officially denied? I'm sure I read something about it, but now I can't seem to locate the reference.
The Dead was listed among several titles a member had asked Criterion. However, they said they'd hope to release several of the titles listed. This was not the case, however. :cry:

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#4 Post by myrnaloyisdope » Fri Oct 17, 2008 10:45 pm

I finally got around to watching my copy of The Misfits last night, and what struck me most was how profoundly sad it was. The melancholy of the lead performances worked perfectly in conjunction with the stark desert landscape.

I've never seen such a heartbreaking performance by Clark Gable as Gay, usually his persona is so knowing and self-assured, but here that persona is subverted, as he goes from a man who simply lives life as he feels, to someone haunted both by the loss of his family, and by a world that has changed. His drunken breakdown is absolutely devastating.

I suppose each of the leads is driven by similar sense of loss, I mean Marilyn Monroe's Roslyn is newly divorced, throughout the film her innocence and idealism are constantly being challenged by the often brutal practicality of the men around her. Eli Wallach's Guido is haunted by the death of his wife, and the death of his ambition, which is represented through his changing jobs, and his unfinished house. Montgomery Clift's Pierce is estranged from his family, his land, and I would argue his rodeo career which is nearing its end.

These are all broken and lost people, who despite their protestations that about the ease and beauty of their lives, have no idea who they are, or what they are doing. Roslyn might be the closest to understanding herself, but her connection and concern for animals and people are constantly challenged and undermined by the harsh reality of the land and her friends.

I found it interesting that the only scenes of outward joy occur when the characters are drinking. The paddle-ball scene, the celebration after the rodeo, the initial impromptu gathering at Guido's house. But all these scenes are quite brief as well, and the post-rodeo celebration ends with Gay's terrifying breakdown.

The performances and the screenplay convey the sense of loss quite powerfully, and I think Huston's direction aids in this as well. The black & white photography is beautiful but stark, while his framing and composition are simple but effective. I really liked how Huston paced the film, letting scenes linger, and using close-ups, and letting the actor's faces and body language convey meaning above and beyond their dialogue. Also Huston's direction of the final sequence where they go "mustanging" is superb action directing, building tension, and capturing realism, and making Clark Gable look manly til the very end.

I think the sense of melancholy was heightened for me somewhat do to extratextual interpretation. I mean it's hard to look at this film without thinking of the real-life fates of Gable, Clift, and Monroe. I mean Gable died 3 days after filming, Clift was dead within 5 years, and of course Monroe was dead a year later, with this being her final finished film. The fact that Clift and Monroe both had major substance abuse problems, and seem very much like tragic and disconnected figures gives their performances in the film an added realism.

Then of course you have Arthur Miller who wrote the play while getting a divorce from Monroe, writing the screenplay and working with Huston on the set with his ex-wife in the lead. In addition to that you have John Huston's own heavy drinking and gambling while working on the film. I mean the whole production seems like a perfect storm of sorrow, addiction, heartbreak, and human suffering, which had to have contributed to making such a sad film. Talk about suffering for you art, but thankfully we have a truly great film left behind.

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souvenir
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Re: John Huston

#5 Post by souvenir » Wed Aug 12, 2009 12:36 pm

DVD Empire has The Dead coming from Lionsgate on November 3rd. I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out to be 1.33:1.

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domino harvey
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Re: John Huston

#6 Post by domino harvey » Thu Apr 01, 2010 11:50 pm

So I'm marathoning some Biblical epics over Easter weekend and since I'm going in chronological order of events, Huston's the Bible... In the Beginning was up first. I wasn't expecting much but I really got into the somber groove of Huston's film. It's long but deliberate rather than slow, and I was surprised at how dark and lowkey the overall affair was (excepting Huston's own Noah, of course). I wouldn't say the film is overtly pessimistic or skeptical, but it does present many more of the lingering questions concerning God's wrath in the Old Testament than a fawning MOTW Biblical adaptation would. Huston's comparatively upbeat narration throughout is tonally removed from what his film shows as well, drawing the distinction between the expected sanitization and the literal transcription of the source material.

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Re: John Huston

#7 Post by Jaymole » Tue Apr 20, 2010 9:26 am

Of the few films I haven't seen yet that Huston directed, FREUD is the film I most want to see. Regretably, it is not on DVD. I am hoping that Cronenburg's film, A Dangerous Method, starring Viggo Mortensen as Freud may get it released.

If anyone has seen it, I would like to hear what you think about it. Thanks.

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Re: John Huston

#8 Post by domino harvey » Tue Apr 20, 2010 6:13 pm

It's about to play or just played at BAM

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Person
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Re: John Huston

#9 Post by Person » Wed Apr 21, 2010 3:45 pm

Huston's Freud is an amazing film, I feel. Clift and York both give superb performances. Douglas Slocombe's moody, Noirish cinematography and Huston's patient, steady hand make for engrossing viewing. I have a DVD-R from rare TV broadcast. I'm sure my version only runs 120 minutes, but the link to BAM says that their print is the original 140 minute cut. I have no idea what cut from Huston's version. Do his biographies mention anything?

Cronenberg's movie on Freud sounds interesting, I hope it gets made.

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swo17
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Re: John Huston

#10 Post by swo17 » Wed Aug 17, 2011 11:10 am

One of four directors to be memorialized by the USPS with a stamp, to be issued next year:

Image

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Peacock
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Re: John Huston

#11 Post by Peacock » Wed Aug 17, 2011 11:21 am

I presumed you would post links on each of the four director's pages, so I was kind of shocked to see Fulci as one of the latest 4 posts ;)

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swo17
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Re: John Huston

#12 Post by swo17 » Wed Aug 17, 2011 11:25 am

Ha, yeah Ford is a third one, which I posted a couple weeks ago. The fourth has not yet been announced. Anyone care to place any bets?

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matrixschmatrix
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Re: John Huston

#13 Post by matrixschmatrix » Wed Aug 17, 2011 11:40 am

Hawks?

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tojoed
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Re: John Huston

#14 Post by tojoed » Wed Aug 17, 2011 12:27 pm

Ida Lupino?

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jwd5275
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Re: John Huston

#15 Post by jwd5275 » Wed Aug 17, 2011 1:21 pm

Kazan?

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Murdoch
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Re: John Huston

#16 Post by Murdoch » Sat Aug 20, 2011 8:26 pm

My guess is DeMille.

Jonathan S
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Re: John Huston

#17 Post by Jonathan S » Sat Dec 24, 2011 3:59 am

Can anyone recommend an edition of Huston's Let There Be Light please? It's mentioned above as being in a "WWII Ultimate Collection" but there seem to be several collections with that title. It's available singly but from labels I don't know or distrust.

It is included in this collection but I'd need it to be region-free - does anyone know for sure? According to Amazon, that release has potential firmware issues too and my Blu-ray player is an early machine that has never been updated.

finally
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Re: John Huston

#18 Post by finally » Mon Dec 26, 2011 8:57 pm

If Moulin Rouge is to get a Blu-ray release, there is an audio commentary with Oswald Morris, Angela Allen and John Huston's secretary, Jeanie Sims, waiting to be used.

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domino harvey
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Re: John Huston

#19 Post by domino harvey » Mon Dec 26, 2011 9:21 pm

Let's hope it does get a Blu-ray-- one of the most gorgeous films ever to come out of the studio system, and that's saying something!

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antnield
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Re: John Huston

#20 Post by antnield » Sat May 05, 2012 8:21 am

The Digital Fix on the new UK disc of Freud.

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domino harvey
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Re: John Huston

#21 Post by domino harvey » Sun Aug 12, 2018 11:33 pm


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hearthesilence
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Re: John Huston

#22 Post by hearthesilence » Sat Jul 18, 2020 9:50 am

I've also been working my way through John Huston's films, and it's kind of a slog. I used to count him as one of my favorite Hollywood directors, right up there with Howard Hawks and John Ford, but I probably saw only a handful of their films, and most likely their most celebrated works. I've now explored much more (they all directed far more than 30 features), and with age and experience, I've grown to appreciate Hawks and Ford a lot more as well, especially Ford.

I'm still a fan of Huston's, and there's close to a dozen films that I truly like, but overall his work seems a little disappointing and somewhat frustrating. It's been said that Huston was a great man of the cinema, but not necessarily a great director, and to be honest, I can see this argument in some of the films I like best. The dialogue and acting is usually superb, and Huston deserves a fair share of credit for that, but he can seem unimaginative, clumsy or merely serviceable in the way he handles other elements of the same picture. The Maltese Falcon looks like a film that was superbly done in pre-production: the casting is truly inspired and all the physical elements are perfect. But every time I watch it, it feels very apparent that this is Huston's directorial debut, and not in a way that opens him up to make inspired and unconventional choices. Other, later favorites are technically more proficient, but they can feel like good translations of literary works rather than good interpretations.

Even if he isn't on par with Hawks or Ford, I don't want to underestimate his work either. Glenn Kenny was pretty dismissive of Huston before: "Delete Wise Blood, Fat City, Key Largo, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, and The Maltese Falcon from John Huston's filmography and you've got a career that's far less distinguished than Michael Curtiz's. There are more than a couple of so-called 'masters' or 'auteurs' who remain so only due to ignorance of their larger body of work." Elliott Stein wrote "a good deal of Huston’s work is forgettable. No director of his stature has turned out as many duds," and Stein's not wrong. But I can't get behind the idea of completely devaluing a director simply because their inconsistent prolificity has yielded a bounty of lesser work.

The Ramones' first four albums are great - taken together, that work is a landmark that grew exponentially by the end of the century. But virtually their entire legacy rests on the three or four years that produced that work. With ten albums studio over the following 17 years, they were lucky if they came up with a pair of timeless songs. They did manage to pull off one good album in Too Tough to Die), but just as those ten albums do little (maybe even nothing) to enhance their legacy, they don't detract from it either - I can still get behind the idea that they're one of the greatest, most important bands in rock history.

Now suppose Huston directed 12 feature films rather than 37: The Maltese Falcon, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Key Largo, The Asphalt Jungle, The African Queen, Beat the Devil, The Misfits, Fat City, The Man Who Would Be King, Wise Blood, The Dead, and Let There Be Light. To me, that would be a very impressive career, made all the more distinguished by some unsuccessful yet fascinating pictures of merit, and much more distinguished than Michael Curtiz's filmography (which to be clear isn't really shabby). Even with the shortcomings I've noted, altogether I find these twelve far more engaging than the Merchant-Ivory catalog (which often times don't even feel like good translations, much less good interpretations of their literary sources) and preferable to the collected works of perhaps a dozen other worthy 'auteurs.'

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Re: John Huston

#23 Post by domino harvey » Sat Jul 18, 2020 10:35 am

It would be helpful to hear which specific films you found disappointing. If I was to pull twelve films to represent Huston at his best, there would be very little overlap with your selection

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hearthesilence
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Re: John Huston

#24 Post by hearthesilence » Sat Jul 18, 2020 11:37 am

I know you're a big fan of Moulin Rouge, so I imagine that would be the first one to revisit based on your preferences, but regardless I saw it years ago and it didn't do much for me. Gorgeous eye-candy - if they ever screen an IB Tech print, I'll go - but it just felt empty. Moby Dick wasn't a disaster - I loved Welles's part and I was also taken by the desaturated palette that William Friedkin disastrously applied to his re-issue of The French Connection - but it really felt like a hopeless cause with too much lost to make the endeavor worthwhile. Under the Volcano was massively disappointing because it had the makings of a great performance from Albert Finney, potentially his best, but as the film went on, it too felt emptier and emptier. (In retrospect, I wonder if there's a recurring problem where he often swings for the fences but doesn't know how to follow through?) Prizzi's Honor was kind of awful - from what I can tell, the mainstream press loved it, and it was showered with Oscar nominations, but I thought it was thoroughly bad and basically unfunny (except for that final shot of Angelica Huston's reaction when she's on the phone). Jack Nicholson was especially disappointing - he can be hilarious in so many ways but not this way. The Night of the Iguana, Reflections in a Golden Eye, The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean for wasting Paul Newman's charm and The Mackintosh Man which I remember barely staying awake for as it felt like a complete waste altogether... I may have seen his segment of Casino Royale (I didn't see the whole film) and I've seen a part of Annie, but neither seemed worth watching in full. To be honest with you, I was not that big of a fan of Key Largo which seems to be one of his most beloved works, but I included it for Edward G. Robinson. If I boiled it down more, my favorites roughly in order of preference would be: The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The Man Who Would Be King, Fat City, Wise Blood, The Asphalt Jungle, The Maltese Falcon, maybe The African Queen, maybe The Dead (the final few scenes are marvelous).
Last edited by hearthesilence on Sat Jul 18, 2020 11:46 am, edited 1 time in total.

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domino harvey
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Re: John Huston

#25 Post by domino harvey » Sat Jul 18, 2020 11:43 am

I don’t think Key Largo is that great either but would similarly still include it for Robinson’s perf, his best and the one that should have garnered him the Oscar nom that eluded him his entire career. I’d throw in some titles you may not have seen and highly recommend— Red Badge of Courage and We Were Strangers, for starters— in addition to some titles from this second set (Moulin Rouge obv, Night of the Iguana) and would agree with your negative appraisal of some of these second set as well

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