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Post by Violet on Oct 20, 2012 23:44:37 GMT
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Post by woofy on Oct 21, 2012 17:37:47 GMT
When he made this appearance in 1960, Peter was a year younger than I am presently. But he seems so old. The drugs had really savaged him by this time. |
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Post by Violet on Jan 25, 2013 2:17:59 GMT
When he made this appearance in 1960, Peter was a year younger than I am presently. But he seems so old. The drugs had really savaged him by this time. I know he wasn't well at this point but IMHO I don't think Peter looks too bad here. I actually think his appearance around 1940 was more concerning, when he was so slight. His clothes were just hanging off him in You'll find out and Stranger on the third floor. It's probably just me though, I tend to associate thinness with illness due to bad experiences, but I think he just looks cuddly here. And I love a man who enjoys his food.  |
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Post by meerschwein on Jan 30, 2013 15:36:12 GMT
It took me a while to figure out that poor Alexander is supposed to have multiple sclerosis. Of course that's part of his characterization, but it is always shocking to see him give one of these late-life low energy performances when you're familiar with that nonstop crazy diamond from the 1930s and 1940s.
It's funny to see some of these TV shows from the 1950s and 1960s in which they're obviously aiming for classic Hollywood nostalgia. This one seems to be a mashup between "Maltese Falcon" and "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre." It's not bad but of course I don't like to see him get deaded. :<
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Post by Mrs Vindecco on Jan 31, 2013 10:33:40 GMT
I decided to watch this for the first time this morning. I have seen that it was available before, but I never watched it because I knew that Wagon Train is a very well established series (like Gilligan's Island, it one of those classic pieces of American TV that are constantly referenced in films) and I thought there would be too many established characters with subplots and I would have no idea what was going on. I am now glad I did give it a chance as Peter is obviously the central figure in this story.
I agree Meerschwein and Woofy, he does seem much older here. The puckish spark from his youth seems to have been replaced with wariness and while I appreciate that is essential to the Alexander Portlass character, it seems that most of his TV appearances are like this. I am not someone that dismisses all Peter's later work and laments too much about Hollywood misused him but in some of TV appearances I can understand why people think that.
I also agree with Violet, yes Peter got bigger as he aged and in those last five years he looks unhealthy, but he does look alarmingly skinny. I am not sure how fast he dropped the weight because right up to 1939, in films like "Strange Cargo" and "Island of Doomed Men" he still looks meaty. Then with "Stranger" and especially "You'll Find Out", he's super skinny, his face changes shape and his cheeks are sunken. I have theory, but it could be rubbish, that the weight loss might have something to do with his dental work. I don't know how dentists work back then and how many of Peter's teeth were removed, but I wonder if his sunken cheeks were caused by the removal of his back teeth. I know actresses (Dietrich famously) tried to preserve their cheek bones by getting the back teeth out. It's just a theory, but this coupled with the fact he was trying to lose weight and was trying to control his drug habit, might explain the great weight loss of 1940.
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Jun 25, 2013 23:15:10 GMT
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