Saturday, August 7, 2010

Judgement From Contra O'Reilly

You'd figure that, in a movie ("Judgement at Nuremburg") which also included Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Judy Garland, Richard Widmark, Marlene Dietrich, and Montgomery Clift, a relative newcomer such as Maxamilian Schell, could have easily gotten overlooked. Needless to say, he wasn't.........................................................................................................Instead, Schell, in what could easily be called one of the top ten performances of the 20th Century, was totally mesmerizing (and, yes, he won the frigging Oscar as well). I cite (for instance) that scene in which he broke down Clift's feeble-minded character in the court-room. That, folks, is as good a movie scene as ANY. A close second would clearly have to be the one in which he tries to silence Burt Lancaster's guilt-ridden defendant - eventually getting the judge (Tracy) to temporarily halt the proceedings.......................................................................................................And trust me, folks, it does in fact go on and on and on. If, I'm saying, you haven't had the chance to see this classic performance (or even if you haven't seen it in a while), please, do yourself a favor and do so.

4 comments:

Oso said...

Haven't seen it in quite awhile, but you're right. Overshadowing performance among a cast of the industry's best.

Commander Zaius said...

I'll try and buy the DVD, I need a good movie to watch.

Joe "Truth 101" Kelly said...

MOntgomery Clift always played feeble minded wienies. But he did it better than anyone.

We had real actors and actresses back then. Now there may only be at most half a dozen Hollywood thespians that qualify.

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

I have to tell you. It was definitely one of the better 3 hours I've spent lately......Agreed, Truth. I especially liked Clift in "The Misfits".