WEIRDLAND: "Jigsaw" Digitally Remastered, Franchot Tone reading F. Scott Fitzgerald

Saturday, December 27, 2014

"Jigsaw" Digitally Remastered, Franchot Tone reading F. Scott Fitzgerald

"Jigsaw" (1949) – Digitally Remastered: Actors: Franchot Tone, Jean Wallace, Doe Avedon, Henry Fonda, Marlene Dietrich, Burgess Meredith, John Garfield. Directors: Fletcher Markle. Studio: FilmRise. DVD Release Date: November 18, 2014 on Amazon

Trapped in the maze of a murderous racket, Academy Award-nominee Franchot Tone (Mutiny on the Bounty) stars in this film noir thriller as Howard Malloy, an assistant district attorney in New York City tasked with investigating a series of violent murders. He begins to suspect an extremist political group known as the Crusaders and as he digs deeper into the case with the help of a judge’s widow, he encounters a variety of peculiar characters – including a femme fatale nightclub singer and a powerful political boss – in his search for answers.

"Joan Crawford is doubtless the best example of the flapper, the girl you see at smart night clubs, gowned to the apex of sophistication, toying iced glasses with a remote, faintly bitter expression, dancing deliciously, laughing a great deal, with wide, hurtful eyes." -F. Scott Fitzgerald


The Great Gatsby Part 1 - Introduction, Chapter 1. F. Scott Fitzgerald's words read by the talented and intelligent Franchot Tone. Read their histories to see the tremendous parallels, which add a perceptible truth to the reading. Franchot Tone reads all these works beautifully and somehow, inexplicably improves upon them.


The Great Gatsby Part 2 - The Party, Chapter 3.

F. Scott Fitzgerald (Letter to his daughter Scottie, 1937): News about the picture [Three Comrades, 1938] - The cast is tentatively settled. Joan Crawford had her teeth in the lead for a while but was convinced it was a man's picture; and Loretta Young not being available, the decision rests at present on Margaret Sullavan.

Certainly she will be much better than Joan Crawford in the role. Spencer Tracy [replaced by Robert Young] and Robert Taylor will be reinforced by Franchot Tone at present writing.

Robert Taylor, Franchot Tone and Robert Young in "Three Comrades" (1938) directed by Frank Borzage and produced by Joseph L. Mankiewicz for MGM, with screenplay by F. Scott Fitzgerald

An old friend, Ted Paramore, has joined me on the picture in fixing up much of the movie construction, at which I am still a semi-amateur. Plans about Christmas depend on whether I will be held here for changes through shooting. I have a small apartment at Garden of Allah, but I have done nothing about the house situation, as there seems no chance of your mother coming out here at the present. -FSF

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