Friday Links
Above, you’ll find the cover for Daredevil #16, published not so long ago in, well, 2012. (We’ve previously mentioned Daredevil, and his lawyer alter ego Matt Murdock, here and here, and we even interviewed Daredevil writer Mark Waid a year ago.). This is a pretty depressing cover. Although we’ve not yet read the issue (because it is so new), it appears that Murdock and his long time friend and law partner Foggy Nelson are parting ways. Murdock’s name is even crossed out on the firm’s front door. That’s not good. We knew that there were some tough times out there for the legal profession, but when Daredevil has to leave his law firm, it’s getting ridiculous!
Of course you know of Edward Herrmann, the character actor who played the evil head vampire in The Lost Boys. He’s played FDR on screen an few times, too. The Onion A.V. Club recently interviewed him as a part of its “Random Roles” series, and in so doing, they asked him about his role in The Paper Chase, the classic law school film. Here’s what he had to say:
Oh, that was fun. I was in New York, I got there in ’70, and it was basically my first proper movie. Besides, of course, that immortal performance in Lady Liberty. [Laughs.] We shot it up in Kleinburg, in Ontario, and there were two big soundstages, and they built that lecture hall on one of the stages. Next to it was a film that was being directed by a director I eventually worked with, a wonderful director named Dan Petrie, who did the Roosevelt films [Eleanor And Franklin], and he was doing one with Ben Gazzara and Yvette Mimieux and Ernest Borgnine [The Neptune Factor]. It was about submarines, and they go down and there are creatures that eat them and all of this stuff. It was science fiction. And, oh, God, I’d go over there during lunchtime, and I saw all of these sets, all of these aquarium tanks where they had versions of the characters made out of fish food so that the fish would eat them. And I thought, “Boy, this is a real movie! All we’re doing is talking!” [Laughs.]
But Anderson was fun. It was a bunch of great actors. Graham Beckel and Tim Bottoms. But John Houseman came up, and it was touching, because he was nervous as hell, and he kept blowing his lines. It was a little scene in the office, one of his first scenes, and I felt the need to be cordial… me, the old veteran, who had never made a proper movie. [Laughs.]
But it was very useful, because down the street there was a Bette Davis festival going on. And they were proper 35mm prints, and I saw for the first time, classic, top-of-the-line Warner Bros. ’30s sob-sister movies, and… I began to see, “What’s all this fuss about Bette Davis? She overacts, she’s got splinters in her teeth from eating the scenery. But who’s this guy George Brent? He’s wonderful… because he doesn’t do anything!” And it helped me in The Paper Chase, because James Bridges was directing, and he was really wonderful with us youngsters. With the study table, the camera would go around and pick up all of our close-ups and stuff, and I was acting my socks off. And he said, “Great, cut, print. That was wonderful, but… they can see that in the balcony, so can you just pull it back just a little bit?” So I did. “Great, cut, print. Okay, that was in the mezzanine.” We did it again. “Now we’re in the orchestra.” I brought it back and brought it back until I thought I wasn’t doing anything. But then I went to see George Brent, and I realized, “He’s not doing anything except for being he’s the guy he says he is.” And that was a real lesson in film acting.
By the way, we’re pleased to announce that Todd R. Davidson has joined our firm’s Greenville office as a partner. With 23 years of experience as a transactional attorney, Todd will be a great addition to our firm’s Business and Commercial Practice Group. We have not yet convinced him to join the blog, though. But we’re working on it!
