Classic Concupiscent: John Payne

I have a confession to make, I have a bit of bias against watching old movies. I like to think I have eclectic tastes with cinema; I love foreign films, independent films, small character driven dramas. I tend to hate big budget special effect driven movies and prefer story over concept. That being said, earlier this year when Elizabeth Taylor died I sort of surprised myself when realized I had never really seen any of her movies start to finish. Seeing so many clips of her big movies over the years on television, I just felt like I had.

Sadly I have never seen Casablanca, Gone With The Wind and many other classics. Although it is one of my goals to rectify that in 2012, what I have seen is a lot of classic Hitchcock and the Christmas classics. For some reason this Christmas I saw a couple of movies I have seen countless times before through new eyes. Maybe it is that I am getting older, but this holiday season watching Dennis Morgan in Christmas in Connecticut and especially John Payne in Miracle on 34th Street were for the first time surprisingly arousing.

Maybe it is that finally I am at an age close to what the actors were when they shot the films. In the past, they were simply older dead actors, but...this year, as I sat with my family watching late Christmas Eve, they seemed very much alive. Not sure if it was the holiday, all the tweed, his overcoat, or Gailey's walk as he entered the courtroom, but Payne's portrayal of Frederick Gailey was incredibly sexy this holiday season... I never really focused on Payne's character but Gailey is both strong and manly as well as sweet and sensitive. I am not sure how it was perceived at the time, but seems quite modern for 1947. (BTW, shame on anyone associated with the 1994 version...some things are not to be touched!).