Hey folks, Harry here... I'm in the middle of finishing my DVD column for the month of October (to appear later tonight) - but realized before getting some rest, that Janet Leigh was just announced as having passed away.
While PSYCHO is a great movie, I've always been annoyed that that was the movie that so many most knew her from. That bit of screaming to Herrmann, Hitch's camera and that blade. But PSYCHO isn't anywhere near my favorite Janet Leigh film.
My fave is Richard Fleischer's THE VIKINGS alongside Kirk Douglas and Tony Curtis and Ernest Borgnine (who just owns all in that flick!) She's so lovely, so beautiful. The scene where Borgnine gives her to his one-eyed son, and Kirk begins to bellow on his way to "TAKE" her... the fear, yet the resolute nature she has of not giving him what he wants. He wants to be clawed, resisted and he wants to fight her as much as to bed her. He sees her as his to be broken to his will, but she saps his will to mount. A fantastic scene.
My next fave Janet Leigh film also has a creepy "TAKE" scene. Janet played strong women in terrible situations, quite often in her career, but in TOUCH OF EVIL - she's a part of - given my soberness, given my mood, what on somedays I call Welles' best film. TOUCH OF EVIL is just wondrous. She plays the American wife, to her Mexican D.A. husband, played by famed Latino, Charlton Heston. I think his real name was Carlos Del Gato. From their initial scenes to that fateful motel with Dennis Weaver playing an unhinged scared as all hell manager type... Just great.
Then there's Anthony Mann's THE NAKED SPUR where Jimmy Stewart plays an open sore of a man with teeth and claws, determined to get what's his no matter who must pay. Janet plays a tomboyish gal that's caught up in the midst of his drama, but don't think for a second that buys her an ounce of sympathy. Stewart isn't seeing invisible rabbits or earning angels' their wings on this watch. He's a killer, one out of the civil war, one that expected to die, and comes back to nothing, but pain and desperation. Robert Ryan is great here too. Just an amazing film!
MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE (the real one) - Just one of the great films. What is Janet doing in this film? Is she on the level, is she on the hammer and sickle side? Along with so much of this film, the level of perceived reality by the characters, as well as the audience just swirls, and I love it. Fits PERFECTLY into the time the story was told from. That paranoia, well, it exists today, and the idea of people on our street, that we've known being the enemy that will kill people on command... well, this film is everybit as vital as the day it came out. Great work from Janet again!
George Pal's HOUDINI -- By no means a "greater" film than PSYCHO - I just happen to love it more. Tony Curtis' HOUDINI and her Beth may not be great characters or even closely resembling anything close to the reality of Harry Houdini. But I love George Pal's reimagining of the history and their love. It's sappy and filled with maple syrup, but damn if it isn't sweet, and I don't want Tony to go the way he goes... I mean, it ain't right. A great double feature for MILLION DOLLAR MERMAID btw. (another of my fave flicks.)
Then there is PRINCE VALIANT - God I love this silly wondrous movie. From the scenes of her trying to fend off the advances of Sterling Hayden's astonishingly great Sir Gawain.... and James Mason's equally great Sir Brack... To resisting then falling for this heathen viking played by Robert Wagner, known to the world as PRINCE VALIANT. I LOVE IT!!! I mean, you've got Victor McLaglen playing a viking named Boltar.... Isn't that all you need? OH - and for eye candy competition there was Debra Paget, but Debra... I love ya, but Henry Hathaway shot Janet Leigh's Princess Aleta to be the most lovely luminescent being this side of Lana Turner in THE THREE MUSKETEERS. I've seen this film countless times, a childhood fave that I've had on video since 1978. And on 16mm since 1995.
Then there is BYE BYE BIRDIE... now, that's totally Ann-Margret's film, but when EVERYTHING'S ROSIE cha cha cha... and she steals it. She's hilarious and wonderful in the film, and so gracious on screen.
PSYCHO is a great and an important and an iconic role for Janet Leigh, but at least in my household, she'll be remembered for quite a bit more... especially for Kathy Williams in Antonio Bay... God, I love THE FOG... She'll be missed.
