Strangers When We Meet Streaming
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Strangers When We Meet Streaming.
Movie Title: Strangers When We Meet Strangers When We Meet is available for streaming or downloading. |
“Strangers When We Meet” (1960) is simply a fine movie. In this reviewer’s understanding, the acting performances from every single member of this honorable cast are lustrous — from Kirk Douglas to Kim Novak to Ernie Kovacs to Walter Matthau. They are each unprejudiced perfect here. Also support an behold peeled for Sue Ane Langdon, who pops up in a brief cameo role.
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And I certainly don’t want to leave out Barbara Urge, who gives a knockout portrayal of Douglas’ wife. Rush’s final emotion-filled scenes in the film are literally worth a replay every time this movie is watched.
Walter Matthau’s role in the film is fairly dinky, but much. Walter is thoroughly frightening here as an aggressively-lecherous, scheming, and oversexed neighbor, who lives unprejudiced a few doors down from Douglas.
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Can you imagine that — Walter Matthau being deemed “gross”? Hardly seems good, does it? But, in this flick, it applies. “Strangers” was made at a time when the then-39-year-old Matthau was playing more serious roles in the movies, and before all of his top-notch funny parts. Four years after “Strangers”, Matthau played another rather unlikable character, in 1964’s “Fail-Safe”, which was yet another fair performance by the versatile actor.
It’s also kind of amusing to price (in an “in-joke” fashion) that Matthau’s character’s name in “Strangers” is “Felix”, which is a name that would be closely associated with Walter in the film “The Curious Couple” (1968), when Matthau’s “Oscar” played opposite Jack Lemmon’s “Felix”.
Douglas and Novak are “strangers when they meet” in the supermarket one day, and they seem to have a edifying chemistry on camouflage here. I found Kim’s “Maggie” in this movie very similar in “cool” and “sullen” style to her role two years earlier in Alfred Hitchcock’s classic yarn, “Vertigo”. Both of those Novak characters seem to be forever tormented by some inner demons that can never be fully exorcised. But by the destroy of “Strangers”, Maggie has shed a enormous deal of her inner pain, with the film ending in a bittersweet — but in my thought very fitting — fashion.
“Strangers When We Meet”, I assume I’m first-rate in assuming, is one of Kirk Douglas’ lesser-known efforts during the man’s astonishing cloak career — but its relative obscurity doesn’t form the movie any less much. Douglas is 100% believable in his role here as “Larry Coe”, an architect who’s tired of the drab cookie-cutter assignments that have been served up to him. He wants to obtain a house that’s different. And that’s objective what he does in the movie.
Throughout the film, we can actually discover Larry’s uniquely-designed, multi-level house bewitch shape, bit by bit. By the film’s final reel, the project is completed, and it’s a truly graceful home, in my understanding.
Larry Coe also has a roving survey for his quite fetching and alluring neighbor (Maggie) — and despite the fact that each of them is married with young children, Larry and Maggie earn their mutual attraction to each other too considerable to resist, and they initiate a cherish affair.
The screenplay for “Strangers” was written by Evan Hunter (based on his original) . The film was directed with colossal style and sure “TLC” by Richard Quine (who also doubled as the movie’s producer) .
The setting is California, circa 1960, and Mr. Quine’s profitable employ of his pleasing “CinemaScope” widescreen (2.35:1) framing comes through with flying colors on this DVD version of the film. The movie was shot in color and the cinematography for both the outdoor and indoor scenes is rich in knowing details, which this DVD from Columbia/Sony exhibits very nicely.
There’s a scene reach the extinguish of the movie that’s unprejudiced spectacular (from a photography and lighting standpoint), with a rainbow of colors on the conceal at once — this scene taking location in Larry’s just-finished hilltop home, with the light gleaming through various tinted panes of window glass in a diagram that’s impartial simply pretty.
This adult drama, which is replete with multiple cases of infidelity, could very easily (in my thought) have been a trusty “snooze-fest” (aka: a tedious 2-hour nightmare to have to sit through) . But, instead, it’s exactly the opposite — it comes across as new and alive and racy, all the plan through its entire length of 1 hour and 57 minutes.
Director/Producer Quine and screenwriter Hunter have made these characters compelling and interesting — and fair flat-out intriguing to observe. Quine and Hunter develop us care about these people on cover, from beginning to raze. And I’m guessing that this wasn’t an easy task, given the rather heavy and somber subject matter that the film deals with.
The “suburban” feel of the early 1960s comes across very strongly in the film as well. Each frame of the movie reflects the era in which it was made — and I don’t mean that in a negative plan whatsoever; to the contrary in fact. That “feeling” for the era is something I like very powerful here. The film began playing in movie houses on Wednesday, June 29th, 1960.
I was flabbergasted when I discovered this movie was actually available on the DVD format. It had been on my “Assume When Available” list for many moons; but slipped under my radar of modern releases when Columbia/Sony streeted this runt gem on February 22, 2005. To say the least, I was most joyful when I was finally able to depraved this one off of the “To-Get” list.
This single-disc, single-sided DVD gives us the film in its intended and new 2.35:1 Widescreen video format, and it offers up a dandy-looking Anamorphic (16×9 enhanced) transfer to boot. It honest looks sizable. …. The audio on the disc comes across handsome via a 2.0 Dolby Digital Mono soundtrack. Subtitles can be accessed in either English or Japanese.
The DVD comes packaged in an Amaray-type plastic Preserve Case. There’s no Scene Selection paper insert included in the box; but there is the normal Scene Index included on the disc itself (the film is divided up into a modest number of chapters, totalling 12) .
The DVD’s Menus are quiet and non-animated, with the Main Menu (and “Scene” Menu) sporting an irregular, albeit very picturesque, concept of the skyline of Unique York City. (That’s “weird” only because the movie is not situation in Modern York, and has nothing whatever to do with that city; the film is site entirely in California. And what makes the DVD Main Menu record of NYC even more curious is the fact that it depicts the World Trade Center as section of the Fresh York skyline; the WTC wasn’t completed until more than a decade after “Strangers” was made. Oh, well, it’s composed a nice-looking Menu photo nonetheless. A part of that same Fresh York skyline relate is also ancient for the DVD’s front cover; the packaging photo is cropped, however, and lacks the World Trade Center image.)
The only “Bonus” material on the DVD are three “Previews” (Trailers) . But, unfortunately, the modern theatrical trailer for “Strangers When We Meet” is not included.
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To Sum It Up………
“Strangers When We Meet” is highly recommended — both the film and this DVD. Anyone who is a fan of intelligently-written motion-picture dramas — or a fan of Kirk Douglas or the always-lovely Kim Novak — will have no choice but to care for “Strangers” (IMHO) .
If you haven’t done so already, steal “Strangers” for a plug in your DVD Player as soon as you can. It’s a 117-minute trot attend to 1960 — and it’s worth the time spent making the breeze.
After World War II movies became more frank in subject matter. This was in section due to the changing mores of the returning vets and the women they came home to. After the horrors of war things would never be the same for them or for Hollywood. The other factor was the tiresome demise over the 50’s of the studio system and the rise of television as a threat to the box office. The censors began to relax and allowed more adult themes to be presented on the gigantic camouflage. By the early 1960’s movies were well on there contrivance to growing up. Taboo subjects such as prostitution, homosexuality and adultery were now subjects Hollywood was now eagerly taking on.
One of the more racy and surprisingly un-judgmental of these films was the 1960 Colombia release, `Strangers When We Meet’. Produced by Kirk Douglas’ company Bryna Productions and Richard Quinn Productions and taken from the recent by Evan Hunter the film is a appealing sight into the suburban lives of a Los Angeles architect, his wife and the other woman in his life.
Kirk Douglas gives a stunning, understated performance as the architect Larry Coe. It is a stark disagreement to his sage Spartacus of the same year. At a foul roads in his life he is given the chance to produce the kind of house he always wanted to for upcoming novelist Ernie Kovaks while his company wants him to go on doing the same expressionless work they demand. He fights for his chance to consume the chance of a life time with the skill of a exquisite cloak actor.
As his wife, Barbara Race is outstanding in one of her finest moments on veil. She is cool and withholding yet needy of her husbands cherish. Her finest moments advance in her scenes with Douglas where they argue over their future and in her chilling confrontation with the lecherous Walter Matthau on a dusky rainy afternoon.
As Maggie Gault actress Kim Novak turns in a nuanced and deeply felt performance. She is a woman that men have been hunting down all her life. Her beauty is something that brings her only sorrow and despair though a string of meaningless affairs. Her husband seems to be the only man who has no interest in sleeping with her and though she does like him he drives her away embarrassed by her begin and unprejudiced desire for him. When Douglas says to her on their first meeting, “You’re not so comely.” it throws her and intrigues her. Throughout the affair she embarks on with Douglas she is quick-witted enough to know that this like all the others will ultimately lead nowhere. In the final frames of the film she is shown this very fact when faced with another leering man.
Kim Novak is so cold and remote at times that it seems the perfect fit for her, the role of Maggie. She is the kind of natural actress that when left alone with her instincts and the view of the camera she surprises the viewer with the gloomy emotions that live impartial beneath her pleasing features. One scene among many where she shines is when she is confronted with her past and has to affirm the truth to Douglas about it.
The cinematography is fabulous to scrutinize in the widescreen aspect of this DVD and shows the substantial talent of cinematographer, Charles Lang who also shot such classics as `Charade’ and “Some Like It Hot’ and the lovely “One-Eyed Jacks”.
The salvage by George Dunning is the perfect meeting of the romantic and dramatic. It stands along side his classic scores for “Bell, Book, and Candle”, “The World of Suzy Wong” and “Picnic.”
Jean Louis one of the top designers of costumes for actresses of the period turns in honest enough suburban glamour to hold the ladies in the cast looking astounding.
Director Richard Quinn pulls it all together with his usual style. He presents us with not only a genuine drama but also an intelligent see at the suburban life of Los Angeles in 1960. The locations are memorable, the glamorous dilapidated Romanoff’s restaurant, the lovely house that is built through the course of the film, and the elegant beach at Malibu where the lovers rendezvous. This film stands along with “Suzy Wong,” “Bell Book and Candle”, and “How to Assassinate Your Wife” as some of his best work. The film holds up after forty-five years as a current and timely inspect at the relationships between husbands and wives and lovers who are always “Strangers When We Meet.”
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