Lots of great (or intriguing) DVDs coming out this week: Pan’s Labyrinth, Army of Shadows, La Revue des Revues, something freaky called Woodenhead, and Darren Aronofsky’s baffling Fountain, which I walked out on because it was so incomprehensive. And stupid.
But today marks the 102nd birthday of the great Joseph Cheshire Cotten (thanks to Steve Monaco for the reminder). Cotten’s one of my favorite actors, and appeared in two of my favorite films: Citizen Kane and The Third Man, the last of which just recently received the Criterion treatment all over again. Cotten was a close pal of Orson Welles and had a significant role in the big boy’s Mercury Theatre–in fact, Joe was pressed into writing the screenplay for Journey Into Fear, some scenes of The Magnificent Ambersons (when Welles had vanished into Rio to film It’s All True), and was a go-between for Welles and RKO over the Ambersons mess (all of which is a long, long story for another day).
Cotten was a likeable onscreen personality, with nary a whit of sex appeal, but perfect in the role of The Third Man’s Holly Martins, the bumbling guy who can’t get the girl. Cotten was an everyman, but one with a terrific sense of humor, a biting wit, and whose frustrations bubbled just beneath that weary smile of his. He made his name in theater first (originally a critic), playing the Jimmy Stewart role in the original Broadway production of The Philadelphia Story. He starred in Hitchcock’s personal favorite of all his films, Shadow of a Doubt and his menace there is palpable. Other greats, many of which are available at your library or local video store, include The Farmer’s Daughter, Duel in the Sun, and Gaslight.
Oddly enough, Cotten also is present in the very opening of Kane, playing one of the reporters in the shadows–you can see him there, grinning, eager to be a part of that crazy production. Above all, he looked like a man who relished being in the movies, and giving us a solid night’s entertainment. Priceless.
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