This album will focus on
Dabbs'
many appearances in film. I must confess I've seen little of his
many, many movies, so we can explore this together. As I find
something, I'll add it. And it will be fitting as perhaps a
tribute to this man's remarkable talents, when I discuss his last major
motion picture, "The Green Mile".
“It!
Terror From Beyond Space” (1958)
I
found this gem of a movie
the other day. I’m not being
sarcastic, really. At first when you watch it, you wonder, how it
ever made it anywhere, but the film has a lot going for it! Okay,
I’m being prejudice - it has Dabbs going for it among other
things. But again with little dialoge, Dabbs uses his eyes and
body to tell what he is really saying and feeling. I think he
was better than the leads, to be honest.
The
premise of the film, made
in 1958, is set in the future to
1973. It starts on the planet Mars as a rescue missing for the
Captain of a doomed mission - unfortunately for the Captain, he’s being
brought back to earth on a court-marshal and the claim he murdered his
crew to survive. He maintains his innocence and claims something
killed his crew...
Unbeknownst
to the crew, an
alien climbed aboard while one of them was
tossing junk (okay, if I were the alien, I’d even try and find out who
was throwing crap out on my planet...)
Here
we see some of the crew
debating whether the Captain did murder
his crew or not. Dabbs’ character, Eric Royce, suggests that he
either is innocent of this or has gone mad to cover up the truth, but
admits
that the Captain seemed unfazed.
Shortly
there after, one of
the expendable crew men heard strange
noises and goes to investigate -no, don’t do it! Really!
Don’t do it!! Opps, too late. The alien gets him.
When he is called, and doesn’t answer, the rest of the crew go looking
- this is the beginning the tension which builds.
Once
they realize there is an
alien aboard, it is Eric who suggests
that the creature was a survivor from some disease, war or something
and has turned to barbarism to survive.
And
it seems to me, that
Eric and his wife are the only ones
thinking! The other female doctor is caught between two love
interests, and the other men are just there...
Mary
discovers that
the alien is taking all water and other fluids from the
bodies. A point of concern!
A
few more members of the crew
are killed or maimed before Eric comes up with a plan to literally
sneak up behind it. Two men the get into their space suits and
walk down the side of the ship to a hatch below the floor the alien is
on.
Well,
this effort had little
effect, and all crew members move to the highest point of the space
ship in an effort to live.
It
was Eric, again with
another
crew member, that figures out that the alien will not live with out air
so they order every one into their space suit and empty the oxygen from
the ship killing the creature.
Yeah,
a lot more happens, but
it’s the parts with Dabbs that really counts! And the best part
his character lives!!
I
also understand, that the
movie was a success and that it’s overall premise was lifted to make
the movie Alien!
"The Green Mile" (1999)
In 1999, Dabbs accepted the role of the elder Paul Edgecomb, or the
older version of Tom Hanks, in Stephen King's "The Green
Mile". Dabbs was 82 when he took this role on and I believe that
I read somewhere that he wasn’t well for the initial
filming so the production happened without him and his
sections happened later when he was well - a great testament to his
talent and the producer who wanted him in the film.
The story is simple and yet complex: the is of a story of a
prison guard in charge of death row - in this case the "Green Mile" so
named for the colour of the floor which “was the colour of faded limes,
" Paul tells his lady friend Elaine.
However, the story isn't complete without the viewer's willingness to
travel back in time and forward again.
You see, the story starts with Dabbs’ character, Paul, in a seniors
home, where we begin to sift through his past. He wakes like
every other day in the home and greets his friends in the halls and
finally we see him wink - a Dabbs wink, to his lady friend in the
cafeteria.
With his daily questions and usual answer, he’s off for his walk. We
assume it’s a usual thing, until he reaches an abandoned shack - we
aren’t allowed to see into the building, just yet.
Again, Dabbs’ acting pulls us effortlessly along, and we now want to
know what is in the shack - but we can’t not until much later in the
movie.
It is only back at the seniors’ home that we find that Paul has a deep
dark secret. As he and Elaine sit with others watching the
television, when a Fred Astaire movie pops up in the screen and the
song
“Cheek to Cheek” is sung. We see something happening to Paul, and
Dabbs masterfully conveys the mixture of emotions that he’s feeling so
well, that even I was crying!
This is where the movie begins to move back in time as Paul and Elaine
sit quietly and Paul says, “I guess sometimes the past just catches up
with you, whether you want it to or not. Silly.”
As Paul tells Elaine his story of being at the Green Mile and the year
of John Coffey, the story shifts back in time to 1935.
We don’t see Dabbs again until near the end of the movie, when we come
back to Paul and Elaine who are still sitting quietly talking. It
is then Paul asks Elaine if she was up to a walk. Together they
walk up the hill to the old shack and we can finally see Paul’s secret
- a little old, shaggy mouse, Mr. Jingles.
Full credits to Dabbs as he manages to get down to “mouse level” where
he feeds the little fellow. Paul continues his story from this
point and Elaine can’t believe her eyes, she says, “He infected you
with life?”Paul smiles, “That's as good a word as any. He infected us
both, didn't he, Mr. Jingles? With life. I'm a hundred and eight years
old, Elaine. I was forty-four the year that John Coffey walked the
Green Mile. You mustn't blame John," Paul smiles. "He couldn't
have known what happened to
him... he was just a force of nature," Paul paused and looked
Elaine in the eyes, "Oh I've lived to see some amazing
things Elly. Another century come to past, but I've... I've had to see
my friends and loved ones die off through the years... Hal and
Melinda... Brutus Howell... my wife... my boy. And you Elaine... you'll
die too, and my curse is knowing that I'll be there to see it. It's my
torment you see; it's my punishment, for letting John Coffey ride the
lightning - for killing a miracle of God. You'll be gone like all the
others. I'll have to stay. I'll die eventually, that I'm sure. I have
no illusions of immortality, but I will await your death... long before
death finds me. In truth, I wish for it already," Paul states with
sadness.
And again through his eyes and mannerisms Dabbs has us believing
everything he’s telling us.
Sadly, we see Paul, next at Elaine’s funeral and the heavy burden that
it sets upon Paul’s shoulders.
In the end, we see Paul back in his room, and in his bed,
wondering what lay ahead for him. He’s thinking about how long
Mr. Jingles has been alive and wonders his own mortality.
“We each owe a death - there are no exceptions - but sometimes, oh God,
the Green Mile seems so long.”
It is too bad, that Dabbs didn't get an Oscar nod for this role.
However, one can certainly say that he didn't stop here, by any
means. Although this would be his last major motion picture,
Dabbs continued his craft on the smaller screen, providing us with many
more enjoyable Dabbs moments through many television programs.