Ray Milland
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Two Short Observations Starring Ray Milland
From X--The Man With X-Ray Eyes, (1964)
"What do you see?"
"The city...as if it were unborn...rising into the sky
with fingers of metal...limbs without flesh...girders without stone...signs hanging without support...wires dipping and swaying without poles...a city unborn...flesh dissolved in an acid of light...a city of the dead..."
His eyes black and discolored, bulging like eightballs out of his head.
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And proof positive of the Auteur theory. The dialogue from Panic in Year Zero (1962), a post apocalyptic romp with lots of great radio dial imagery (even the Southern California landscape looks like a long radio dial as the mushroom cloud billows from behind it) directed by and starring Ray Milland.
"Rick, get in the trailer. Grab the gun. Shoot when I say so. Get behind that rock. Stay in the cave."
That's about it, as pure an emblem of direction spilling out in front of the camera hasn't been seen since Renoir directed himself in The Rules of the Game. Frankie Avalon running around with a shotgun, looking harried and confused.
posted by Greg Purcell @ 1:31 PM,
