Monday, April 23, 2018

Edgar Allan Poe cameo in #TheLadyKillers




The Tom Hanks character recites Edgar Allan Poe's poem "To Helen" [with a snarky shmoop explanation here] in the film "The Ladykillers"






In case above video link breaks:





To Helen
Edgar Allan Poe, 1809 - 1849
 Helen, thy beauty is to me
    Like those Nicean barks of yore,
That gently, o’er a perfumed sea,
    The weary, way-worn wanderer bore
    To his own native shore.

On desperate seas long wont to roam,
    Thy hyacinth hair, thy classic face,
Thy Naiad airs have brought me home
    To the glory that was Greece.
And the grandeur that was Rome.

Lo! in yon brilliant window-niche
    How statue-like I see thee stand!
    The agate lamp within thy hand,
Ah! Psyche from the regions which
    Are Holy Land!


The song played at the beginning of this scene is Sam Cooke's "Any Day Now"




One of these mornings
I'm going away any day now
I'm going to Heaven to stay

I don't know how soon
Maybe, morning, night or noon
But I'm going to see the Father
And by his side to stand

There'll be no sorrow, no sadness
Just only complete gladness but any day
I know that I, know that I am going home

🎥 📝

Marva Munson: You are a reading fool, aren't you Mr. Dorr?

Dr. Golthwaite Higginson Dorr: Yes, I must confess, I often find myself more at home with these ancient volumes than I do in the hustle bustle of the modern world. To me, paradoxically, the literature of the so called "dead tongues" holds more currency than this morning's newspaper. In these books, in these volumes, there is the accumulated wisdom of mankind, which succors me when the day is long and the night lonely.

Mrs. Munson, Huh, the "wisdom of mankind" huh? What about the wisdom of the Lord? 

Dr. Dorr: Oh, yes, the Good Book, I have found reward in its pages.  But to me, there are other "good books" as well.
✂️---------------------------------------


The Hanks' character comparing Poe to the "Good Book" sounds very much like Chuck Todd pontificating that many Fridays can be good Fridays:


Perhaps both the Hanks' character and Chuck Todd are all plagiarizing Emily Litella (Gilda Radner) complaining about violins on television:



✂️---------------------------------------


Dr. Dorr: Heavy volumes of antiquity. freighted with the insights of man's glories.  And then, of course, I just love, love, love the works of Mr. Edgar Allan Poe.

Mrs. Munson: Oh, I knew who he was. Kind of spooky!

Dr. Dorr: No, ma;am, no! Not of this world, it's true. He, he lived in a dream, an ancient dream.  [Recites first stanza of "To Helen"]
 Helen, thy beauty is to me
    Like those Nicean barks of yore,
That gently, o’er a perfumed sea,
    The weary, way-worn wanderer bore
    To his own native shore.

Mrs. Munson: Who was Helen? Some kind of whore of Babylon?

Dr. Dorr: One doesn't know who Helen was but I picture her as being very very ... extremely ...  pale. Miss Munson, I have been trying to figure out some way of expressing my gratitude to you for taking in this "weary, way-worn wanderer." It's just a little old present . While, it's hardly anything at all.


Mrs. Aw, Mr. Dorr, you are a gallant man! 

✂️---------------------------------------

A fellow blogger also appreciates the aptly selected music for the film: Powell, Matt. “The Music of the Coen Brothers – Part II.” Humor in America, 25 Aug. 2016, humorinamerica.wordpress.com/2016/08/25/the-music-of-the-coen-brothers-part-ii/. but despairs that the soundtrack does not compensate for the "lazy writing"  and "poor [acting] performance" from the cast.


"Both 'Ladykillers' films rely heavily on slapstick, but the Coens’ remake falls prey to one-dimensional gags rather than the more playful and clever double crossings of the original."
I pointed out that #TheLadyKillers cigarette slapstick shtick was cribbed from #TheMajorAndTheMinor in a previous post



Posted by adagioforstrings at 5:47:00 PM
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