In my post about Leo McCarey I talked about his improvisational method of filmmaking and how " he would let actors do things in the finished film that would be outtakes from any other movie." I just thought I'd post a very brief example of that, a short bit from An Affair to Remember that's at least an ad-lib and possibly a mistake. Deborah Kerr claimed that it was a mistake, and McCarey left it in anyway.
A director like McCarey, who came up through the Hal Roach studio, would more than likely be a little more open to improvisation/deviation from the script than one without that type of comedy-related background, and the clip plays out in the way a conversation would actually go, if the person talking thought the other person did say something (a not-infrequent occurance in real life).
ReplyDeleteI'm only paraphrasing because I don't remember where I got this quote, but Jean Renoir commented that Leo McCarey understood people better than any other film director.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if McCarey's Ruggles of Red Gap is considered underrated or not, but I certainly don't hear it being discussed too often. Easily one of my favorite comedies of all time.
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