Film Sullivan's Travels. Go Down Moses

Subject: Film Sullivan's Travels. Go Down Moses
From: marty D
Date: 05 Jan 02 - 11:49 PM

This isn't a cheap way of getting one more 'Oh Brother' thread on the record. I just watched the movie 'Sullivan's Travels' where the director wants to make a film called 'Oh Brother'. Found it entertaining and fun, and I really enjoyed the Black choir's singing of Go Down Moses. What REALLY got my attention though was Veronica Lake. Absolutely gorgeous and what a voice. I'd heard about this film for quite a while, anyone else seen it? Any opinions?

marty

Subject: RE: Film Sullivan's Travels. Go Down Moses
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 05 Jan 02 - 11:55 PM

Yeah, it's a real delight. I taped it once, and then left it behind somewhere... just bought it on eBay and am looking forward to watching it again in a couple of days. I was surprised by Veronica Lake, too... that she had a flair for comedy..

Jerry

Subject: RE: Film Sullivan's Travels. Go Down Moses
From: marty D
Date: 06 Jan 02 - 12:01 AM

She had a flair allright Jerry. I'm still in shock. I wonder if the Black Preacher who led 'Moses' was legit or an actor who could preach and sing. Anyway he was GOOD.

marty

Subject: RE: Film Sullivan's Travels. Go Down Moses
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 06 Jan 02 - 12:19 AM

Enjoy Veronica in that film, you won't find many more performances from her. She had a hard life and that was about the peak for her.

Subject: RE: Film Sullivan's Travels. Go Down Moses
From: RoyH (Burl)
Date: 06 Jan 02 - 06:32 AM

Veronica Lake was one of my (pre)-teenage crushes, along with the incomparable Gene Tierney. I love the film 'Sullivan's Travels'especially the scene where Veronica is steeling herself to jump from a moving boxcar.Really funny! Veronica was an underrated actress in my opinion. She certainly had a flair for comedy, but was mostly required to be the glamour girl and look 'sultry', as they used to say. Over here women in munitions factories were banned from having V.Lake hairstyles for fear of being caught in the machinery. I'm sad to hear that she had a hard life. In what way? Stilly River Sage, perhaps you could tell me. I guess that might be thread creep, but you could pm me. Thanks for the memory. Burl.

Subject: RE: Film Sullivan's Travels. Go Down Moses
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 06 Jan 02 - 01:29 PM

Hi Burl...screw thread creep, I'll tell ya 'bout her hard life. The beautiful Veronica ended up as a New York Barmaid in the 1960s. She died of hepatitis at the age of 51. Her career just seems to have sputtered out.

Yeah, Marty. I agree. Pretty good little flick. It was on here too. Rather uneven editing (quick edits from different angles supposedly from the same take, but where the actors' expressions don't match up) but I thought Joel MacRae was excellent. Did he become a 'cowboy star' after or before this film?

My guess is that the "preacher" was't an actor.

Rick

Subject: RE: Film Sullivan's Travels. Go Down Moses
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 06 Jan 02 - 10:19 PM

Rick,

Are you using "barmaid" euphemistically? She was arrested a number of times for prostitution. I'll see if I can't dig out the particulars. It's very sad.

MD

Subject: RE: Film Sullivan's Travels. Go Down Moses
From: M.Ted
Date: 06 Jan 02 - 10:23 PM

Preston Sturges was one of the greatest directors ever, but because he did comedy, he doesn't get the "serious" attention that some lesser lights get--he was a triple threat, writer, director, and producer, and most of his films are jewels(Christmas in July and The Miracle of Morgan's Creek, The Palm Beach Story, to name a few)-Veronica Lake was at her peak as the sultry blonde in "The Glass Key", and was also super in "I Married a Witch"(from which "Bewitched" was lifted), but was perhaps her best as a bitter nurse in "So Proudly We Hail!"--

The preacher was an actor, Jess Lee Brooks, with more than 20 films to his credit, who also worked on stage--don't know much more than that--

Subject: RE: Film Sullivan's Travels. Go Down Moses
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 06 Jan 02 - 11:00 PM

Somewhere around here I have a link to an excellent source of biographical information on actors. I can't find that URL (or my membership information) so here's a brief description from a site here.

. . .Following World War II, her career ebbed due to a variety of circumstances, including marriage and motherhood, excessive drinking, and poor career choices. Her second husband was famed director Andre De Toth. After she and De Toth parted company in 1952, Lake made her way to New York in order to work in early television and the legitimate stage. However, her goals didn't pan out, and by 1960, Lake had fallen on hard times and was working as a waitress. In the early 1960s, she attempted a comeback, which was somewhat successful, and wrote an autobiography. Her last film is the shockingly low-budget horror flick Flesh Feast (filmed 1967; released 1970) which she starred in and financed. (This film is extremely hard to find today, but was released on video in the early 1980s.) After several more failed marriages and years of alcohol abuse, the once gorgeous actress died in 1973 at the age of 53.

I don't want to make her case out worse than it was, but I'm certain that those "hard times" included prostitution. She was a unfortunately the classic "sex object."

MD

Subject: RE: Film Sullivan's Travels. Go Down Moses
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 06 Jan 02 - 11:44 PM

Lord Gawd...Poor Veronica. I had a sneaking feeling that the bio I read was being euphemistic. Hope she was at least a high class call girl, but somehow I doubt it. Anybody have any other sources for her story?

Oh well, she could have ended up as a folk musician.

Rick