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Article: OBITUARY: Jack Finney
- Article from:
- The Independent (London, England)
- Article date:
- November 20, 1995
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1995 The Independent - London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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Half-way through Jack Finney's 1973 novel Marion's Wall the
hero Nick Cheyney is watching the original silent movie version of
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the scene in the cafe where
Valentino dances the tango with a smouldering Helena Domingues. All
at once Cheyney becomes Valentino, at one and the same time seeing
"himself" dance so brilliantly up on the screen while seeing, too,
the eye of the camera following his splendid, urgent movements. And
then - at what must have been a moment of pure triumph for
Valentino (the scene was shot in one superb take) - Cheyney, as
himself and as Valentino, is overwhelmed by a "hopeless yearning
for what might have been". For Cheyney is ...