Orson and Alfie?

[dmolson]

Sir Michael Caine regalled the press with some great stories -- he's one of the more reliable actors around today that can be tied back to the so-called 'Classic' era, ie pre-67...
He said that the greatest part he never did was one pitched to him by Orson Welles, a film adaptation of Ronald Harwood's play 'The Dresser' in the late 70s... He didn't elaborate on why he didn't jump at it, but it was eventually put to the screen by Oscar nominee Tom Courtney and Albert Finney (as 'Sir', the role OW would have taken on).
Caine, who is as big a fan of Hollywood as any actor around, also mentioned that his friendship with Alfred Hitchcock was one based on their similar roots. It was a short-lived one, however, as Hitchcock never talked to him after he turned down the role of 'The necktie Killer' in Frenzy.

[blunted by community]

hey! come to think of it, the neck tie killer in FRENZY could very believably be cast as michael caine's ugly brother!

FRENZY. pretty darn good movie though it does lack something, don't know what but something is lacking in it.

however, hitch did some bitching camera angles in this film. also there is something in the bogdanovich interview of hitch, about the stair case in FRENZY. if i remember right, the script called for a slow dolly back of the stair case, and hitch came up with building the stair case sideways on the floor so the camera cound film it while being dollied on the floor.

2 bogdanovich interview books worth reading:
WHO THE DEVIL MADE IT a 4-star book
PIECES OF TIME also a 4-star book

the bogdanovich booklet on ford is ok. i say booklet because it would fit in your pocket and not change the line of your pants.

[Harvey Chartrand]

I'm reading Patrick McGilligan's excellent new bio on ALFRED HITCHCOCK: A Life in Darkness and Light. According to McGilligan, Michael Caine didn't want to play a sex fiend in FRENZY, but he was also very busy with other projects, although you'd think he would have leaped at the opportunity to work with Hitchcock. I read somewhere that Hitchcock considered Caine for a starring role in THE SHORT NIGHT, the spy film he was working on in his final years. Hitch gave up on the project in late 1979, resigned to inactivity due to old age and poor health.

As for THE DRESSER, why would Welles choose such an uncinematic property? Hoping for that elusive hit, I suppose... the one that would give him the clout he needed to finally release DON QUIXOTE GOES TO THE MOON... I saw THE DRESSER 20 years ago. Terrible film. Don't think it broke any box-office records, either.