In brief, April 2008 (part 2) |
And very briefly — I’m awfully behind (maybe too much 30s Hollywood too quickly — going back to Renoir & Duvivier presently):
Top Hat 1935, MARK SANDRICH — I enjoyed this as much as Gay Divorcee, but it’s almost a remake in story and characters; just switch out Alice Brady for Helen Broderick (a lateral move; both are hilarious) and let it roll. Oh yes, add Eric Blore too, doing the same gay manservant thing as in It’s Love I’m After — a great niche, I think, and he’s quickly becoming a favorite character actor. Actually, all the support steals the show from Fred & Ging, save for the marvelous dance numbers.
The Old Maid 1939, EDMUND GOULDING — Limp Wharton adaptation & old south society tale; Bette Davis gets knocked up (coming home without one sausage curl out of place) and her socially superior cousin Miriam Hopkins all but makes the girl her own. Hopkins, so lovably daffy in Lubitsch comedies, does the same vague, wide-eyed thing here to quite bizarre effect. Davis is dependably awesome but this doesn’t trump her work in Dark Victory that year. Some would class this as a weeper on a level with Stella Dallas but it didn’t get me so entirely.
La Bandera 1935, JULIEN DUVIVIER — Awful print and translation, but enough Duvivier/Gabin wild mastery shone through to say I’m very much looking forward to a proper rewatch. Provisional rating; fans of Pepe le moko should hunt down a good copy of this precursor.
Water Lilies [Naissance des pieuvres] 2007, CELINE SCIAMMA — Amazing debut feature, one of the most pure and honest films I have seen about adolescence and “sexual awakening.”
Housewife 1934, ALFRED E GREEN — Unbelievably lame script can’t be saved by good performances all around and Green’s straightforward direction; I don’t demand realism in all characters, but this kind of unfailing good-naturedness is stomach turning and the understanding of the “housewife,” advertising exec, and career woman/other woman is out of a ten-year-old’s worldview. If it weren’t so dull it would likely be offensive, too, but I won’t bother on that level.
The Other Love 1947, ANDRE DE TOTH — Remarque adaptation that starts off strong, with a sense of foreboding and mystery, and descends (as so many of these melodramas do) into love-conquers-all bathos so accomplished as to undermine everything interesting that came before it… Stanwyck tries hard as a pianist with a serious lung condition who, after being confined in a sanitarium for weeks, discovers a lust for life which she pursues at her peril; Niven is shockingly charmless as the doctor and, unaccountably, lover who knows best.
The Golden Arrow 1936, ALFRED E GREEN — Intermittently funny standard-issue romantic comedy of class clashes ends, on the other hand, on a high note after a giddy race to the finish. Green doesn’t seem as adept at comedy and for the first time I have to admit I was annoyed by Davis (usual neurotics not as well-modulated to comedy as in the later It’s Love I’m After), but eventually the whole thing won me over. George Brent, lifeless beefcake that he is, wears a funny bathing suit as a highlight (screencaps to follow).
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