Tom Noonan, as Francis Dollarhyde, in the Michael Mann cult classic “Manhunter.” How I lived through the “sort of” pilot for CSI, and learned to love a disturbed serial killer.
Funny… it was very hard writing about this. As if I carry some terrible burden. It’s morbid, and ghastly, and I was a part of it. When Tom Noonan became Francis Dollarhyde, the sheer energy needed to twist his psyche, skewed the life forces of all those around him, and no one was closer than I was. I was a part of his “becoming.” And for months on end, I was a twisted part of a psychopathic mind. God help me.
Tom… or should I say Francis, was nuts. He scribbled his notes on yards of toilet paper, and refused to see any of his fellow cast members until it was time to “go in to them.” He instructed me to address him only as “Francis.” Tom Noonan was in a state of becoming… just like his character Francis Dollarhyde, and I was an accomplice.
More to come…
Wow! That’s interesting. I really enjoyed the film as of course in retrospect it has spawned a number of others. I really liked how they worked the actress in to the scenes, the blind woman in the darkroom. A lot of careers seem to have started in the film. I have worked a bit in Rollei close-range photogrammetry a number of years ago, which is used for forensic investigation though me, in archaeology recording. A documented camera and lens and specialized software allow a number of photos to be combined on a digitizing tablet, with those little “crosses” you sometimes see in space photos, the film actually held against the glass in the camera, digital today, and any anomalies and spherical stretching is computer (80386 + 80387 then) removed so that one might measure inside the photo(s) and record 3D dimensions for dxf files. The British were last I heard using it for some traffic accident investigations. The Canadians (Andrew Lane) of Prometric Technologies that taught it to me still in German development, used it in “as-built” drawings of standing historic structures, First Nation petroglyph recording and were trying to sell it the US FBI (blood-spatter studies, air crashes, etc.) some of which has been replaced by Lidar, the laser scanners, one used on the WTC-9/11 site in the air to map that disaster. While they were showing us near Cold Spring, NY, Avianca Flight 52, due to a language problem, crashed into Cove Neck, Long Island after running out of fuel in January 1990.
Interesting, the National Park Service site at St. Paul’s Church in Westchester, NY, partly inside NYC, was were they have a small “Freedom of the Press” site commemorating the election on the green that led to the trial of John Peter Zenger and his acquittal, having the second printing press in the colony. The church has the “sister” bell of the Liberty Bell. A small monument, a “swivel gun” is on Governors Island for Zenger’s arrival from the German Palatine as a boy of 10. William Blake is is honored in the “Freedom of the Press” site which, in one of the “Hannibal Lector” films, “Red Dragon” (2002) the “Tooth Fairy” consumes an original drawing of, if I recall, which is also a tattoo on his person.
George! Great to hear from you!
Talk about interesting! Your note is a real education! If I remember correctly, in the novel “Red Dragon,” Dollarhyde does indeed eat William Blake’s “The Great Red Dragon, and the Woman Clothed in the Rays of the Sun.” Which of course is the painting Dollarhyde’s tatoo is based on:
http://www.freebase.com/view/en/the_great_red_dragon_and_the_woman_clothed_in_the_sun
By the way, the saga of the tatoo (which never appears in the movie) is a good one. I’ll fill that in later.
I’ll be adding more to the story of the making of Manhunter soon. It was a wild ride. Hope to hear more from you George! – Old friend Doug
Years ago, a friend in Buffalo, NY at the residential College of Visual and Performing Arts within the University where I attended, had a friend who had some of the first color photographs of some of William Blake paintings, her acquaintence was working on a book of William Blakes’s works. They were very interesting, but I imagine the originals much more impressive. Her husband was/is a child-abuse caseworker and photographer.
You’ve got to love American method actors.
I do believe Tom had a guest appearance on CSI as a magician if memory serves.
Yeah, always liked that film (for a psychological thriller), and cool (I think) that you got to work on it dude. Still, I hear ya about that stuff gettin’ in your head. Always wondered how some actors are able to go there and then walk away afterward.
My Mom was a psychoanalyst for many years, working with patients with deep-seated schizophrenia (often quite violent in behavior), and she would say to even get to them you had to put one foot into their world. This is the reason she eventually got out of psych, as it was messing with her own head too much, spending all that time the skewed world(s) inside their heads.
PLL,
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