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IMSM #1 makes it in the movies

Started by Timmay,

113 posts in this topic

DiceX

DiceX

Posted
Posted
I was going to ask if that was Cal, but I think the slab said 9.8, so it can't be Cal.

 

9.0 and it looks like him, dork

 

The credits said Jack as himself..

 

Cal's name is Jack Remington.

 

I'll wager his middle name is either "Off" or "." hm

 

 

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Unca Ben

Unca Ben

Posted
Posted

Well, people kept asking to see his stash of (how many?) silver age books that Cal says he has.

 

Maybe this was his way of answering those requests.

 

Not that we could tell what kind of books were in storage...

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Tsimanga

Tsimanga

Posted
Posted

 

9/10

 

Recent review of the film by the Chicago Sun Times

 

 

If we identify strongly with the characters in some movies, then it is no mystery that “The Million Dollar Reward” is one of the most popular films ever made. It is about a man, who is part woman, and in love with his comics, and who sacrifice love for a higher purpose. This is immensely appealing; the viewer is not only able to imagine winning the love of Jack or the old man, but unselfishly renouncing it, as a contribution to the great cause of defeating the masked monster.

 

No one making “The Million Dollar Reward” thought they were making a great movie. It was simply another Warner Bros. release. It was an “A list” picture, to be sure ). But it was made on a tight budget and released with small expectations. Everyone involved in the film had been, and would be, in dozens of other films made under similar circumstances, and the greatness of “The Million Dollar Reward” was largely the result of happy chance.

 

The screenplay was adapted from a play of no great consequence; memoirs tell of scraps of dialogue jotted down and rushed over to the set. What must have helped is that the characters were firmly established in the minds of the writers, and they were characters so close to the screen personas of the actors that it was hard to write dialogue in the wrong tone.

 

Jack Remington played strong heroic leads in his career, but he was usually better as the disappointed, wounded, resentful hero.

 

The opening scenes dance with comedy; the dialogue combines the cynical with the weary; wisecracks with epigrams. We see that Jack moves easily in a corrupt world. “Give me your comic?” the Mexican thug asks him, and he replies, “Are you serious?.” His personal code: “I love Iron man and Subby to death.”

 

All this is handled with great economy in a handful of shots that still, after many viewings, have the power to move me emotionally as few scenes ever have.

 

The plot, a trifle to hang the emotions on, involves letters of passage that will allow two people to leave the storage shed and freedom. What is intriguing is that none of the major characters is bad. Some are cynical, some lie, some kill, but all are redeemed. If you think it was easy for Jack to renounce his love for iron manyou are sadly mistaken.

 

From a modern perspective, the film reveals interesting assumptions.The old man's role is basically that of a lover and helpmate to a great man; the movie's real question is, which great man should he be sleeping with? There is actually no reason why Jack cannot get on the plane alone, leaving the old man in the storage shed with the dog, and indeed that is one of the endings that was briefly considered. But that would be all wrong; the “happy” ending would be tarnished by self-interest, while the ending we have allows Jack to be larger, to approach nobility (“it doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world”). And it allows us, vicariously experiencing all of these things in the theater, to warm in the glow of his heroism.

 

 

Stylistically, the film is not so much brilliant as absolutely sound, rock-solid in its use of Hollywood studio craftsmanship.

 

Seeing the film over and over again, I find it never grows over-familiar. It plays like a favorite musical album; the more I know it, the more I like it. The amazing cinematography has not aged. The dialogue is so spare and cynical it has not grown old-fashioned. Much of the emotional effect of the film is achieved by indirection; as we shut off youtube, we are absolutely convinced that the only thing keeping the world from going crazy is that the problems of three little people do after all amount to more than a hill of beans.

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gaz973

gaz973

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I started fast forwarding after a while. I would've felt more satisfied if I'd never bothered clicking the link in the first place.

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cloudofwit

cloudofwit

Posted
Posted
I was going to ask if that was Cal, but I think the slab said 9.8, so it can't be Cal.

 

9.0 and it looks like him, dork

 

The credits said Jack as himself.

 

I watched the whole thing and it was mind numbingly dumb.

 

And Cal didn't sound the raving lunatic that he is on the Boards.

 

Who can say what a persona is? :shrug:

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Aces

Aces

Posted
Posted
WTF did I just watch?

Cal vs the Comic thief book 1.

 

Can't wait for book 2 and 3... and the prequels... zzz

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Buzzetta

Buzzetta

Posted
Posted

The antagonist's goal is to sell it illegally in Tijuana.

Henchman is Mexican.

The father in law is the main antagonist

 

So many issues here and not a single one of them concerns a comic book.

 

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