Pics of the Day: “The Killing” and “Paths of Glory” revisited

Posted by Marisa on March 7, 2014

Today, the fifteenth anniversary of the death of Stanley Kubrick, we pay tribute to him by revisiting the two films of his in which Timothy appears. First up is The Killing (1956), in which hipster sharpshooter Nikki Arcane assassinates a racehorse as part of an intricate racetrack robbery scheme.

Secondly, and finally, doomed French World War I soldier Pvt. Maurice Ferol is unjustly court-martialed for desertion in Paths of Glory (1957).

In an unpublished 2003 interview with Harvey Chartrand, Tim’s younger brother George sheds an interesting light on Tim’s relationship with Kubrick:

One day, Timmy was out in the backyard, brushing his horse, and I got a call from Stanley Kubrick, who was on the set of Spartacus. Timmy says, “You talk to him, George. Tell him I’ll be right there.” So I made small talk with Kubrick, figuring that Timmy was on his way from the backyard to take the phone call. I don’t know what the call was about, because Timmy wasn’t in Spartacus. Well, Timmy never got to the phone. He stayed out there, brushing his horse. I don’t know what that was all about. Timmy was a little erratic at times. I think if Timmy hadn’t been quite so extreme in some of his efforts to get publicity for himself, he would have been in other Kubrick pictures after Paths of Glory. (Carey was later considered for a small part in Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.)

We can only dream about the work Tim and Kubrick might have accomplished together in later years, and about further Kubrick projects had he lived longer to share his gifts with us. For now, let’s just be grateful these two eccentric storytelling geniuses got a chance to work together at all. We are the fortunate beneficiaries of their collaborations.

Quote of the Week

Posted by Marisa on March 10, 2013

Timmy always seemed to have a project going, but I guess that’s par for the course with creative personalities. I don’t recall the origins of The World’s Greatest Sinner. He wanted to combine religion and politics in a film and do something a little different about a self-made type of person who becomes a big celebrity. He had a production book. I wonder if it’s still around. It explains the plot in quite a lot of detail.

The World’s Greatest Sinner was 20 years ahead of its time. The religious aspect upset the studio heads. People who could have advanced the film were anxious, because they thought the public would condemn it as blasphemous, although I don’t think The World’s Greatest Sinner is irreligious, compared to films today. The character of Clarence Hilliard is redeemed in the end. And Timmy had such a shoestring budget to work with… that didn’t help.

Most of the film was shot in El Monte, California, where Timmy lived. One very amusing scene had Timmy standing on a pile of fertilizer as he was campaigning. He had a big guitar in his hand and he was running for office, talking to the crowds, making a political speech. And the camera pans down and we see that Timmy is standing on a great big pile of cow manure. (laughs) I thought that was a funny touch. That was very good!

I remember that day. Timmy was positioning all the people. They were just local people who were acting in the scene. Timmy had a few professional actors working on the picture with him, like the guy who played his campaign manager (James Farley) and Gil Barreto (who played Clarence’s disciple). I don’t think anybody other than Timmy had any significant credits, though. The World’s Greatest Sinner was all improvised. I don’t remember Timmy ever working from a script.

I went to a few screenings of The World’s Greatest Sinner. I saw the film in Manhattan. Timmy brought it to New York and showed it in several screening rooms, trying to get some film companies interested. But they were all turned off and scared by the religious aspect. But The World’s Greatest Sinner does conclude with a miracle, a church scene where Clarence Hilliard begs forgiveness. He has remorse for the type of person he was and seeks redemption. The problem was with the blasphemous stuff that came before. Not too many people could handle that. It was too ahead of its time.

– Interview with Timothy’s brother George Carey by Harvey F. Chartrand, unpublished Filmfax article, 2003

Quote of the Week

Posted by Marisa on October 7, 2012

Today we hear once again from Timothy’s younger brother George Carey, from the unpublished Filmax interview by Harvey F. Chartrand.

Timmy could be a very dominant personality. He always wanted his own way. He took charge, told the actor how he wanted the role to be played. I would say Timmy was a very strong type of director, fitting his personality. But he seemed to have a good relationship with the people who were acting for him and they seemed to be very happy to be doing the acting. Timmy was definitely very charismatic. He was unique.

Not everybody liked his style. Timmy did a remarkable job with his career, considering. He was very independent, but I don’t think you can be too independent out there, if you want to keep working. Then he ran into other dominant personalities, directors who didn’t like his individual style. He had a number of people who liked his style very much. But there were some who didn’t care much for it. Some of the more established stars didn’t like Timmy’s improvisational approach to scripted scenes. When Timmy was on film, you always knew it. And I don’t know if that was always appreciated. But there were a number of people in the business who seemed to like him and appreciated his unique flair. Other people found it a little irritating.

– Filmfax article (not published) by Harvey F. Chartrand, 2003

Quote of the Week

Posted by Marisa on April 22, 2012

This week we hear once again from Timothy’s younger brother George Carey. This is from an interview by Harvey Chartrand which was originally done for Filmfax magazine, but was never published.

“One day, Timmy was out in the backyard, brushing his horse, and I got a call from Stanley Kubrick, who was on the set of Spartacus. Timmy says, ‘You talk to him, George. Tell him I’ll be right there.’ So I made small talk with Kubrick, figuring that Timmy was on his way from the backyard to take the phone call. I don’t know what the call was about, because Timmy wasn’t in Spartacus. Well, Timmy never got to the phone. He stayed out there, brushing his horse. I don’t know what that was all about. Timmy was a little erratic at times. I think if Timmy hadn’t been quite so extreme in some of his efforts to get publicity for himself, he would have been in other Kubrick pictures after Paths of Glory.”

– Filmfax article (not published) by Harvey Chartrand, 2003

Quote of the Week

Posted by Marisa on October 23, 2011

Our quote for this week is once again not by Timothy, but about him. It’s from an unpublished interview with his younger brother, George Carey:

Timmy’s big mistake of all time was not taking the part of Luca Brasi in The Godfather. He had the part, no question about it, but then decided he didn’t want to get involved. I was taking calls from Paramount and Francis Ford Coppola definitely wanted Timmy in the film as Luca Brasi. Basically, Timmy was replaced (by Lenny Montana, a former wrestler). That part was Timmy’s. All he had to say was he wanted it. But – that was Timmy. He passed that up and it was a big mistake. One of Hollywood’s top agents (Walter Kohner) personally told me that if Timmy would only cooperate by playing the game, he could be one of the big stars. He told me this personally right in his office. He was Timmy’s agent for a while, and it’s really remarkable, when you think of it, that Timmy had this guy as his agent. I think Timmy’s biggest problem was that he had hostility with certain directors. Maybe they thought his acting methods were too outlandish. Once the cameras were rolling, Timmy might do a scene in a totally different way than it was rehearsed. Sometimes, the directors retaliated by taking his name off the credits.

– Filmfax article (not published) by Harvey Chartrand, 2003

Quote of the Week

Posted by Marisa on October 9, 2011

These two fellas wrote an article about me, David Newman and Robert Benton. These are the fellas that wrote the exciting picture Bonnie and Clyde. Much to my surprise, my brother called me up from New York back in 1965 and said, ‘Tim, you’re in Esquire.’ I said, ‘You’re kidding, what do they want me in Esquire for?’ Anyway, there’s a picture of John Wayne and a picture of myself, and the caption above it was ‘The Old Sentimentality vs. the New Sentimentality.’ Under John Wayne’s picture they had ‘Old Sentimentality’ and under mine they had ‘New Sentimentality.’ And they said ‘It happens that an actor,’ and they said a bit actor too, which I didn’t like. Anyway, they said that ‘Tim Carey is our new underground celebrity.’ They said I was dirty, now, they said I was uncouth. (laughs)

– Promotional radio interview for Head with Dick Strout for the “Hollywood Report,” 1968 (pic from the Psychotronic interview)