PURPLE NOON (1960). A fantastic thriller with an inscrutable English name. The original name Plein Soleil means Full Sun" in French. How does one get from that to the Purple Noon is anybodys guess. This movie was re-shot in 1999 and released with the name THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY, a much darker and scarier version featuring the prodigious talents of Matt Damon (as Ripley) and Jude Law (as the hapless but very conceited Dickie Greenleaf). The sharp and handsome Alain Delon plays Tom Ripley in the 1960 version. Ripley is sent to Rome to bring back to San Francisco the gadfly playboy Philip Greenleaf. Philips father will reward Tom with $5,000 if he can bring Philip back home. But Philip, a perfect picture of a spoiled playboy, has no intentions to go back to the States any time soon. He toys around both with Tom, from whom he doesnt even attempt to hide his sense of upper-class entitlement and superiority, and his girlfriend Marge. In the sunny happy-go-lucky opening sequences of the movie, Tom is content with playing the hapless fool to Philips smart-aleck in control. But when Tom realizes that Philip has written him off as an entity that counts and will cause him to lose the $5,000 that Philips father has promised, the movie turns darker. Tom kills the unsuspecting Philip on his sailboat when the two are alone, playing cards. After dumping Phillip's body, Tom returns to land and assumes Philips identity. Since he is an expert handwriting and document forger, Tom has no difficulty slipping into Phillips identity and scheming to win Marges graces. However, Philip does have friends and when his closest friend catches up to what Tom is doing, Tom ends up killing him and disposing his body as well. But the dragnet around Tom keeps getting tighter, with a few close calls along the way. The movie ends with a totally credible but jaw-dropping scene in which Toms crime surfaces in a way impossible to deny while the unsuspecting Tom is working on his tan at the beach, thinking he got away with everything. A must see thriller, especially for the way the story of two flirting and giggling playboys turns into a dark nightmare of murder and impersonation. But this original version does not even get close to the 1999 version in terms of the darker shade of evil that Matt Damon managed to infuse the Tom Ripley character with. --------------------------------------------------------- (Copyright 2005 Ugur Akinci) by Ugur Akinci, Ph.D.
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