Good evening and welcome to the Golden Years of Hollywood.
I'm very pleased about our program tonight.
Two films based on stories by Ernest Hemingway, The Snows of Kilimanjaro and The Killers.
And incidentally, Ernest Hemingway said that The Killers was the only film that he liked of those based on his own writings.
Even finding it superior to The Macomb affair and For Whom the Bell Tolls and Under My Skin.
See The Killers. It's astonishingly good and you'll love it.
And I think you'll love The Snows of Kilimanjaro.
Recently I read and commented about a statement.
I think it came from Don Fabin, one of the most interesting people I've ever encountered on the subject of communications.
And he said that some people, and that includes commentators, reviewers, self-styled critics,
have frames of mind which persist in seeing only the common place in the familia.
If you see only the common place in the familia, you're missing out on the great moments in movies, believe me.
A case in point is The Snows of Kilimanjaro.
This film is packed with symbols and metaphors, with ideas, things to stir you, to provoke you, to unsettle you.
It's also a down-good story. You haven't even got to look at all of those things if you don't want to.
But be fresh and alert for The Snows of Kilimanjaro and you'll find it's a very exciting and stimulating experience.
Casey Robinson wrote the screenplay.
If you're familiar with Hemingway's story, then you could well ask, how can you make a film of that?
But I believe that for 99% of the film, we have something that has a certain Hemingway appeal and style about it.
When Ernest Hemingway saw the film, he said, I sold Fox a simple story, not my complete works.
This movie has something from nearly every story that I ever wrote in it.
Actually, Casey Robinson, in expanding the short story, in filling in the gaps intentionally omitted by Ernest Hemingway,
drew material from The Sun Also Rises, For Whom the Bell Tolls and A Farewell to Arms, at least.
And you'll notice in this film something rather interesting, that the film continues two stories at the same time.
One is the story that begins the film in Africa near Kilimanjaro.
And every time we come from the flashbacks to the movie's present tense,
that story has advanced a little, dramatically, emotionally and in other ways.
Gregory Peck is the leading male actor in the film. It's one of his best parts.
He loved this film, he told me so, and he loved working with Henry King, a director whose style I, too, admire.
The women are very interesting, and here they are. First of all, Susan Haywood, who plays the wife.
This character, played so beautifully by Susan Haywood, is actually based on Hemingway's second wife, Pauline.
It's a very interesting part for her. Once again, if you only see the commonplace in the familiar, you'll miss the highs and the lows.
Secondly, Ava Gardner. She was recommended for this part by Ernest Hemingway himself.
He was very fond of Ava Gardner, and he loved her work in The Killers, which I'm presenting after this tonight.
As Cynthia, she is superb, and some of the music in the scenes in which she appears, music composed by Bernard Herrmann, is really beautiful.
His score is a major element in this film's success.
The third woman, a woman who is something of a killer, is played by Hildegard Neff, one of her earliest appearances in an American-made film.
Of course, she went through a great deal of trouble later in life. She wrote two volumes of autobiography,
and she's also a singer of great renown in Europe. I love her work, too.
She's seen with Leo G. Carroll in that scene. He is one of two English character players that I like in the film.
Leo G. Carroll and the second one is on the left-hand side of your screen, Torrin Thatcher.
Such style. There's something about that man that makes him fascinating to watch and to listen to.
The Snows of Kilimanjaro has the most stunning opening reel or two.
I'm not diminishing the rest of the film. I think the film has tremendous dramatic power.
I hope you enjoy it. But remember, you'll enjoy it more if you don't just find the commonplace in the familiar.
Think of those words. And now, The Snows of Kilimanjaro.
I love The Killers. As a matter of fact, until tonight, I've had to forcibly stop myself from watching it over and over again.
I think it's absolutely magnificent. You may feel the same way.
The score by Nicholas Rocha, direction by Robert Seod Mack, the brilliant black and white camera work,
and of course, the screenplay written by Anthony Viola and John Huston.
John Huston is not mentioned on the credits because he was under contract to Warner Brothers at the time,
and this would be rather a problem for him if he hadn't been mentioned.
The script's very good, although some commentators who appreciate the works of Ernest Hemingway say that this film,
and I quote, Robert Seod Mack and Anthony Viola changed many important details of the story and disregarded its meaning.
I wonder what you'll think. Are you aware that The Killers is actually one of the Nick Adams stories
for a start, and Nick Adams is really a very minor element in what you're about to see on the screen.
Let's look at some of the people in The Killers, beginning with Burt Lancaster and Ava Gardner.
This movie made Ava a star. She deserved it. She's quite exceptional.
She sings a song with lyrics by Jack Brooks and music by Nicholas Rocha.
Love those few minutes on the screen, but the characterization, I can't say anything about it to you
because I'll be spilling the beans, and I don't want to do that.
As for Burt Lancaster, he was introduced to moviegoers with this film,
although he made Desert Fury before it was released after it,
and this remark was passed by someone very perceptive about Burt Lancaster.
Burt Lancaster was introduced to the world as a cornered animal,
too stunned, or maybe just too accepting, to use his considerable strength to fend off the hunters.
It's an image that remained attached to him for quite some time.
That image remained with Burt Lancaster on the screen at least until From Here to Eternity,
but he and Ava Gardner together are quite sensational, and maybe not for the reasons you'd expect.
In our next shot from The Killers, we see someone else very important in the film,
Edmund O'Brien, who plays the investigator, who wants to find out why.
Good performance from him, and he was better known than either Burt Lancaster or Ava Gardner
when this film was made at Universal around about 46.
And now, some other people of great interest.
Sam Levine, who made a big hit on Broadway a few years later in the major role,
I think he played Nathan Detroit in the musical Guys and Dolls with Robert Aldrin and Vivian Blaine.
The other actor at the table there is a veteran actor of many years in the film business, John Miljan.
I'm sure you know the face, now you know the name.
Our next shot features some other familiar faces, one of the meanest faces ever on the screen,
can you see it on the far left?
Jack Lambert, what an actor, what a face.
There's Geoff Corey there on the right-hand side of the screen,
and in the rear, one of the most devious characterizations ever perpetrated
by one of the finest of character players, Albert Decker.
But two or three more to go that I'd like to point out to you.
The Killers themselves, perfectly characterized by two actors who became very well known as the years went by.
Charles McGraw and William Conrad watched them closely in the first ten minutes of the film.
And finally, I mentioned to you that this was originally a Nick Adams story,
and Nick Adams is played in the opening reel by Phil Brown.
With this film, Miklas Trosha became identified as much with film noir
as he had been with oriental films and fantasies and psychological thrillers.
It's a great score, one of many wonderful elements in a film that, as I say,
I had to stop myself from looking at it over and over again.
There really was not that kind of time.
I hope you'll now enjoy The Killers.
Is that an interesting film?
Ava Gardner is just so terrific.
You've seen two of the faces of Ava Gardner tonight.
She was, in her prime, a most extraordinary screen personality.
She was a star, but she was also a very fine actress who, when used properly, was unbeatable.
I love her tonight. I really do, in The Killers and in The Snows of Kilimanjaro.
And now I'm not trying to diminish the contributions of anyone else in these films, but she's very good.
I had this picture on the wall at the end of Snows of Kilimanjaro.
Have you seen it before?
It's quite readily available around Australia, framed just as I have it now.
And why have I got it tonight? I'll tell you why.
It is a reproduction of a painting by Edward Hopper.
And that painting, called Nighthawks, was inspired by The Killers.
There's also what I call the corrupted version of Nighthawks available,
which has Humphrey Bogart, Marilyn Monroe, James Dean and Elvis Presley.
But this is the one that I prefer.
And it's readily available all around Australia, wherever you can buy framed pictures.
Nighthawks by Edward Hopper, inspired by Ernest Hemingway's The Killers.
I think it's a terrific picture. I love it.
I find it absolutely quite haunting, as a matter of fact.
Now, two things that have nothing to do with The Killers, but I must mention both.
Well, one of them does have a reference.
You've been hearing music tonight, on and off, from this wonderful new CD,
Veres Sarabande.
And I got my copy from Ava and Susan's in Sydney, one of the best record stores in Australia,
the best, I think, for film and theatre music.
Hollywood legend, Nicholas Rocha.
It includes music of El Cid, The Story of Three Loves,
and not the 23rd variation of Ian Paganini.
Quo Vadis, The Lost Weekend, Plymouth Adventure, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes,
Ben Hur, The Strange Love of Martha Ivers,
which we played right at the beginning of the film,
King of Kings, which you're hearing now,
and Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid, the Steve Martin film.
That's a wonderful CD. I can't stop playing that.
So what was playing that was seeing The Killers over and over again.
I don't know, quite frankly, whether I'm coming or going.
But there it is. Hollywood legend, Nicholas Rocha.
Composed by him, conducted by Elmer Bernstein with the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra.
Wonderful.
And I'll have some more exciting news about soundtrack music very soon.
As soon as I've got definite dates, I'll be telling you.
And also a record that's coming out that will please everybody who loves the golden news of Hollywood.
Another thing. Have you seen it?
I read about it and had to get myself a copy.
It's published by Macmillan in Australia.
A double life.
Short stories by Louisa May Alcott.
Most famous, of course, for Little Women.
Yes, she made her living by writing thrillers.
And these short stories are absolutely fascinating.
A double life, which also happens to be the title of another universal movie with Ronald Coleman,
which is also film noir and has a score, yes, you get it.