Lady In The Lake

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039545/

The gimic was that you are suppose to play detective in this film noir as kind of an alter ego of Philip Marlowe who's portrayed by Robert Montgomery. I haven't seen it for years but I remember it's a rather fun movie trying to pick up the clues.

As to the banana and an apple, cops have their choices of what fruit they eat. If he were in "Beverly Hills Cop," he'd jam it up a car exhaust.

thanks lightwizard, i saw this imdb write-up. i'm going to see if i can find any theory books on it.

I don't know if you'll find much on the film -- it may be mentioned in some filmmaking textbooks as a failed experiment.

how do you know it failed? is that your opinion?

I have read and cannot immediately come up with the text that this was actually an early attempt at interaction with the audience in a movie (years ahead of computer interaction). It's box office was dissapointing for the studio and obviously, it didn't start any trends (at least not for some forty odd years with PC games!)

Here's an interesting review:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2001/04/11/lady_in_the_lake_review.shtml

thanks for posting the link. but, the trouble i have with this kind of critisism is it's humorless. i mean, the movie was hilarious, so overdramtized, so campy. i imagine, in post-world war 2 america audiences were not particularly interested in something so dark and cynical.

from what i've read about the years after the war, economic growth and renewal of hope were high. this film completely goes against the grain of the boom of suburbia and family, the abundance of rebuilding and the true sense of patriotism that flourished at the time.

sure, love prevailed in the end, but it was damaged love. the gold-diggng editor falls for the diick after her plan to lure her married wealthy boss into a divorce.

as for the technique, it was way ahead of its time, not very reassuring for an audience that wanted to reinforce victory over ill-forces.

It may appear campy and hilarious today but I'm sure at the time they were dead serious. As far as cynical and dark movies, after the war was the true heydey of film noir. It was during the war that the complexion of Hollywood was rosey and optimistic especially in the sanitized war movies.
The technique of cinematic storytelling may have been ahead of its time but it fell flat as a pancake and now is viewed as a cinematic oddity. The last time I tried to sit through it, I think I remember being bored and turned it off. Too many really good film noir in film history to consider this one anymore than a studio marketing flop.

i admit, lightwizard, watching the film in 2004 has a certain historical appeal to me-- i liked looking at the clothes, the overacting, which was really some pretty bad acting... it just made me laugh, seeing the camera galking at the oversexed secretary, the pudgy cop eatng the banana, and all the other oddities of it.

i wasn't bored by it, but i didn't opt to watch it a second time either.

To be honest, that was the second time for me and I quickly remembered the outcome. The technique was a bit too tricky to bring off with cinematic integrity. The acting is dated.

Thanks to you guys I had to go back and read Lady, for the fifth time!

Ah, now there's a thought -- the book! Any of them are good reading but that particular one is worth rereading unlike the movie. They could make a great modern film if it were done like "Chinatown," besides "Double Indemnity" my favorite film noir.

You're darn tootin- I re read Chandler all the time

the only book turned to a movie that was successful to me was "one flew over the cukoo's nest." interesting, lightwizard, while watching lady, i had a hard time following the plot, but had a feeling that lloyld nolan, the evil cop had a hand in it.

i've made a note of "double indeminity".

IMO The Maltese Falcon is a better movie than the book.

Another Bogart film noir masterpiece is "The Big Sleep." Also add to those above, "Out of the Past," (the original, not the lukewarm remake), "The Postman Always Rings Twice" (ditto, one of Jack Nichlson's few embarassments), "Body Heat" (a modern film noir with sex scenes to steam up you windows), "Touch of Evil" (Orson Welles' incredible anthithesis of film noir), "The Third Man," and many others. Certainly all leagues above "Lady of the Lake." I wish Ridley Scott would again return to the genre as in "Someone to Watch Over Me" and perhaps direct a new version of "Lady of the Lake."

I was about to post something like "women lying in ponds handing out swords is no decent system of government", but then I realized it would be off-topic (mostly).

So, never mind. :wink:

i've seen "body heat", which was really good. kathleen turner plays her best as pure evil. and the original "postman", but that was a while ago-- i think i was totally overtaken by lana turners hair and her personal story to follow the plot too closely. if i recall correctly, turner was pretty shameless herself. again, i'm writing down your suggestions.

Lana was surely sexually prolific! Her romance with Stompanato of course ended in tragedy and would be a contender for the trial of the century except for number 1, the OJ trial.