Finished watching Ride the Pink Horse this morn and heard Eddie Muller say maybe Robert Montgomery wasn't the best choice to portray Lucky Gagin. No no and again no. Montgomery is so very excellent in this role: quirky, off-center, out of place. Completely lost in Kafka's no-man's land.
And he's actually the prototype for the second best character in crime parody - Johnny Dangerously, as perfected by Michael Keaton. (Of course the greatest crime parody isn't Naked Gun, which is really good, it's Hot Fuzz, which is bar none the best movie ever.)
So, you think Keaton based his character on Robert Taylor from Johnny Eager - and so he did. Taylor was great in that role, by the way. But if'n y'look close, you'll see Keaton imitated Montgomery's Lucky Gagin so closely, he even physically resembles him as Johnny Dangerously. Is remarkable, no?
Now back to the movie - Pink Horse is great, amazing, worth the 30-day wait while that Oscar junk was on. And you think it's like taking the cure, like you don't really need yer Noir Alley. Wrong - is by far the best thing tv done. Not just the great shows but the way Muller talks about them, that's what's irreplaceable, unique, so very worth our valuable time.
And not to quibble with the maestro, but he overlooked the star of the show - Art Smith. His performance as Bill Retz, the very cool, aloof, and deeply concerned rep of our Uncle Sam is not only the key to the movie - Retz alone is worth the price of admission. The little old guy nobody'd ever notice is actually the man with all the power, and the moral clarity to use it wisely; a God-like figure indeed.
Now Wanda Hendrix is good...a bit odd (well, extremely odd) but that's what makes her character like none other. The cute kid who for no particular reason is the savior of the strange American who has no appeal to anyone except Pila and Pancho. This is a weird movie, a classic - noir at its gnarliest. Muller at the top of his game. Hats off meinen freunden!
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