From: Jim M
Category: Amis
Date: 7/19/99
Time: 12:29:51 PM
Remote Name: 195.11.50.204
Aha, Jezzaroona! Stephen's right. Very intuitive. I am indeed an 'Anglo'. I'm sat right here in leafy west London, not a stone's throw from the stomping ground of Keith Talent.
Stephen, though, your intuition stops there. John Hurt as Sambo? Relaying live from the Green Room? Stephen, in case you'd forgotten, Sambo is dead. Yes, the inimitable Billy Wilder pulled off that narration-from-beyond-the-grave stunt (or rather narration-from-the-bottom-of-the-swimming-pool stunt) to marvellous effect in 'Sunset Boulevard', but I can't quite see it working in 'London Fields'. Apparently Wilder originally wanted to kick off 'SB' with Joe Gillis's body being wheeled into the mortuary, and then, after hours, his corpse was going to start relaying the story to all the other corpses in there. Thank God he went subtle instead. On the other hand, that coulda said something really profound about Hollywood. Oh well, not really relevant to this.
Best,
Jim