On Watching Angela Lansbury Die

[_Yoda]

Groundhog day is one of a handful of my favorite films. It's generally under-appreciated. That Goldberg article DCP links on it was terrible, though.

Angela Lansbury is an awfully odd actress to pick an irrational hatred of. Hugh Grant often plays a posh, slighly nebbish character that can make him annoying. I guess DiCaprio had that hole heartthrob thing years ago, but that feels dated and counterbalanced by the fact that he's an incredible actor. But whatever. Angela Lansbury though? What the hell is that?

Scratch -

It's very satisfying to see Lansbury's character killed in that film. It's because she plays a vicious monster on the cusp of victory. Her character really is a criticism of predecessors of people DCP is an unabashed fan of, so that struck me as an odd thing to highlight, but apparently it thrills him a bit to see Landsbury gunned down regardless.

I can get someone liking the fact that the villain in the film is killed off, but like you say, EA, the rather sadistic fixation on Lansbury is just strange. (Also, I agree that Groundhog Day is pretty great.)

Scratch--I have to admit, when I first saw the title of your thread, my first thought was, "Oh, no! Angela Landsbury died!"

I was quit releaved that wasn't the case. She is one of my favorite actresses! My husband actually got to see her not too long ago in a Broadway revival of "A Little Night Music". He said she was amazing.

I am not sure why DCP would throw daggers her way, but I have not read the article.

[_Blixa]

Maybe it's because she would not strap her pet to the roof of her car?

[_MrStakhanovite]

Whoops, wrong thread.

[_honorentheos]

Whoops, wrong thread.

Confess, was it the picture of a young Angela that distracted you?

I'm of a generation that will forever associate her with "Murder She Wrote". My parents and grandparents watched that show every Sunday night when I was young. Pictures like the one Blixa shared above suggest I have no idea who she was prior to this. I've seen the original Manchurian Candidate and her role came as a bit of a shock, really. Other than attributing it to the same emotional response EA cited above, I have no idea why DCP would express anything but horror at the idea of a dying Angela Lansbury.

On a side note, it seems gun culture and notions of vigilante justice are one of the ingredients simmering in the cauldron of American psyche looking ever closer to becoming a rolling boil. I see in DCP's post something that hints at that as well.

[_Doctor Scratch]

On a side note, it seems gun culture and notions of vigilante justice are one of the ingredients simmering in the cauldron of American psyche looking ever closer to becoming a rolling boil. I see in DCP's post something that hints at that as well.

Perhaps this helps to explain his "joke" about wanting to take me out with an assault rifle.

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_iBcXCu84w

I can't understand how anyone could delight in this woman getting shot. I mean... Yeahhhh... She's the Communist handler in this film, but she's hardly, uh, worthy of being someone through whom one feels a certain giddiness when she's dispatched.

She looks like an owl. And she sounds like one, too.

I don't understand Mr. Peterson's excitement vis a vis this woman's death.

- VRDRC

[_Blixa]

I'm of a generation that will forever associate her with "Murder She Wrote". My parents and grandparents watched that show every Sunday night when I was young. Pictures like the one Blixa shared above suggest I have no idea who she was prior to this. I've seen the original Manchurian Candidate and her role came as a bit of a shock, really. Other than attributing it to the same emotional response EA cited above, I have no idea why DCP would express anything but horror at the idea of a dying Angela Lansbury.

It's true she's become perhaps permanently associated with that long-running television show, but Lansbury has had an interesting career and life. She has two nice Oscar nominated performances in the '40's for Gaslight and The Portrait of Dorian Gray and also has had a long equally acclaimed career in the theater (for example she was in the original Broadway production of A Taste of Honey) and liz probably knows her from the original production of Sweeney Todd which showcased her abilities as a singer. Her long career has featured work in all genres and characters of all kinds. Her well known villainous role in The Manchurian Candidate is an interesting example of her abilities, she was after all only three years older than Laurence Harvey who played her son. I think the film reads now as high camp, but I suppose there are some who take the film's ludicrous politics seriously and revel in the misogynistic view of female power represented by Mrs. Iselin, whereas the rest of us see it as a near send-up of the pernicious 50's/60's fear of "Momism" (the film cut the novel's incestuous sex scenes, by the way).

[_Everybody Wang Chung]

Dr. Scratch,

Great and insightful post. Let's face it, in addition to FARMS/FAIR being extremely destructive to the Church, it has never been a very welcoming place for women LDS scholars.

I think the sexist attitudes of some of its members is probably one of the reasons why.

[_harmony]

It's true she's become perhaps permanently associated with that long-running television show, but Lansbury has had an interesting career and life. She has two nice Oscar nominated performances in the '40's for Gaslight and The Portrait of Dorian Gray and also has had a long equally acclaimed career in the theater (for example she was in the original Broadway production of A Taste of Honey) and liz probably knows her from the original production of Sweeney Todd which showcased her abilities as a singer. Her long career has featured work in all genres and characters of all kinds. Her well known villainous role in The Manchurian Candidate is an interesting example of her abilities, she was after all only three years older than Laurence Harvey who played her son. I think the film reads now as high camp, but I suppose there are some who take the film's ludicrous politics seriously and revel in the misogynistic view of female power represented by Mrs. Iselin, whereas the rest of us see it as a near send-up of the pernicious 50's/60's fear of "Momism" (the film cut the novel's incestuous sex scenes, by the way).

She worked for Disney too... Bednobs and Broomsticks, and Beauty and the Beast, just off the top of my head.

[_Yoda]

I'm of a generation that will forever associate her with "Murder She Wrote". My parents and grandparents watched that show every Sunday night when I was young. Pictures like the one Blixa shared above suggest I have no idea who she was prior to this. I've seen the original Manchurian Candidate and her role came as a bit of a shock, really. Other than attributing it to the same emotional response EA cited above, I have no idea why DCP would express anything but horror at the idea of a dying Angela Lansbury.

It's true she's become perhaps permanently associated with that long-running television show, but Lansbury has had an interesting career and life. She has two nice Oscar nominated performances in the '40's for Gaslight and The Portrait of Dorian Gray and also has had a long equally acclaimed career in the theater (for example she was in the original Broadway production of A Taste of Honey) and liz probably knows her from the original production of Sweeney Todd which showcased her abilities as a singer. Her long career has featured work in all genres and characters of all kinds. Her well known villainous role in The Manchurian Candidate is an interesting example of her abilities, she was after all only three years older than Laurence Harvey who played her son. I think the film reads now as high camp, but I suppose there are some who take the film's ludicrous politics seriously and revel in the misogynistic view of female power represented by Mrs. Iselin, whereas the rest of us see it as a near send-up of the pernicious 50's/60's fear of "Momism" (the film cut the novel's incestuous sex scenes, by the way).

Angela Landsbury will ALWAYS be THE Mrs. Lovett of "Sweeney Todd"!

If you have not seen that original Broadway production on DVD, it is a MUST. She is truly a First Lady of the Broadway stage. LOVE HER!!!