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Hey all,
I finally got around to watching Tora Tora Tora this evening. I know, I know, 35 years late, but I'm getting around to all of them as fast as I can. Great flick of course. Anyway, I'm watching the opening credits and ol' Joseph Cotten's name pops up and suddenly there he is playing Stimson. Coincidental to say the least because I have recently become very aware and intrigued by Cotten's discrete but important place in movie history.
When people talk of the Golden Era actors, you always hear of Wayne, Grant, Gable, Bogart, Stewart, Cagney, and Flynn. However, I recently came to the conclusion that Cotten, either wittingly or unwittingly, placed himself in a filmography that is not only prestigious, but in films that will forever be viewed and studied not only as classics, but filmmaking landmarks. He truly is the unsung hero of cinema. Here's just a sampling of his appearances off the top of my head - most of them of HIGH quality and very different from the norms of their times, ALL of them thought-provoking.
Citizen Kane
The Magnificent Ambersons
Shadow of a Doubt
Duel In the Sun
Gaslight
The Third Man
Niagara - (the only film where Marilyn Monroe wasn't a ditz)
Touch of Evil
Tora Tora Tora
Soylent Green
Cotten is like the Johnny Depp of his period. A penchant for working with a signature director (Cotten to Welles, Depp to Burton) and picking projects that aren't always mainstream or even necessarily marketable, but that provide opportunities for great performances in interesting roles.
The man, the myth, the legend, and in my personal Hall of Fame - COTTEN:
I finally got around to watching Tora Tora Tora this evening. I know, I know, 35 years late, but I'm getting around to all of them as fast as I can. Great flick of course. Anyway, I'm watching the opening credits and ol' Joseph Cotten's name pops up and suddenly there he is playing Stimson. Coincidental to say the least because I have recently become very aware and intrigued by Cotten's discrete but important place in movie history.
When people talk of the Golden Era actors, you always hear of Wayne, Grant, Gable, Bogart, Stewart, Cagney, and Flynn. However, I recently came to the conclusion that Cotten, either wittingly or unwittingly, placed himself in a filmography that is not only prestigious, but in films that will forever be viewed and studied not only as classics, but filmmaking landmarks. He truly is the unsung hero of cinema. Here's just a sampling of his appearances off the top of my head - most of them of HIGH quality and very different from the norms of their times, ALL of them thought-provoking.
Citizen Kane
The Magnificent Ambersons
Shadow of a Doubt
Duel In the Sun
Gaslight
The Third Man
Niagara - (the only film where Marilyn Monroe wasn't a ditz)
Touch of Evil
Tora Tora Tora
Soylent Green
Cotten is like the Johnny Depp of his period. A penchant for working with a signature director (Cotten to Welles, Depp to Burton) and picking projects that aren't always mainstream or even necessarily marketable, but that provide opportunities for great performances in interesting roles.
The man, the myth, the legend, and in my personal Hall of Fame - COTTEN:
They look like my favorites, Montey #2's!
