Boo! Hiss!

[stoutfellow]

James Lileks is dead to me.

In his most recent Bleat, not only does he dismiss the brilliant Witness for the Prosecution as "[f]airly ordinary stuff", but he manages to pull a threefer by dissing Elsa Lanchester, Marlene Dietrich, and Charles Laughton in the same sentence. (He also misspells Lanchester's name and claims that the source material is an Agatha Christie novel, rather than - correctly - a short story.)

Charles Laughton (together, if you insist, "with his jowls") was the greatest ugly film actor in history. Dietrich's character, Lileks claims, was made "entirely of dry ice", despite the fact that her every action in the movie is emotionally driven. And how could anyone possibly consider Elsa Lanchester unlovable? Shame on you, Mr. Lileks!

Comments

[countrycousin.livejournal.com]

Hadn't seen his column before. It is well named.

Witness for the Prosecution is one of my favorites.

[carbonelle.livejournal.com]

Thank heavens, then for the puniness of my film-knowledge database: I do not doubt your judgement for a minute, but I would purely hate to have to die to the architectural snark!

"The plumbing appears to work: captial water pressure, just capital.

[stoutfellow.livejournal.com]

I was, as often, being hyperbolic (he said elliptically). If I were to dump columnists because I disagreed with them, Lileks would have been gone long since. I do find him amusing most of the time.

That said... dayum. WftP is one of my favorite movies, and Charles Laughton, jowls and all, is one of my favorite actors. Mutiny on the Bounty. The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Les Miserables. The Private Life of Henry VIII. Ruggles of Red Gap... He wasn't first-tier, but he was much better than most people (including, sadly, he himself) gave him credit for.

[carbonelle.livejournal.com]

I was, as often, being hyperbolic (he said elliptically)

I know, but sometimes it's more amusing to pretend otherwise.

In honor of Lilek's bone-headedness on this topic, I've ordered a copy from my library to watch!