Charge of the Light Brigade (1936)
Michael Curtiz is a director with a beautiful sense of place, of interiors especially, and of night scenes. Sol Polito, the cinematographer, knows how to make even boring scenes visually rich, and is known for some first rate film noirs. And Olivia de Havilland, the lead woman in this historical drama, is an actress with extraordinary nuance to her psychological portrayals.
On that score, this is a really well made film, an achievement. But it is one that doesn't use any of its main contributors to their absolute best. What they give is quite amazing--the direction is fast and smart, the photography sharply seen and nuanced, and de Havilland gives a moving, if minor and intermittent, performance. The last of the main contributors is Errol Flynn, who is charming, and gives this action adventure movie some good action and adventure. In a way, he's the only one in his element.
Not that movies can be reduced to their parts this way. But I've been straining to see why this movie struggles, even with the best of credentials. The story itself might be partly to blame, or more exactly the way the historical aspects of this famous military tragedy were forced to fit a romance of de Havilland's character with two brothers in the military. The telling of this tale fails to do what Gone with the Wind did three years later, layering a moving personal fictional story into a great war.
Curtiz does make it solid, given the story line he has to work with. An impressive, ambitious movie, overall. The bright, sunlit battle scenes are kinetic, for sure, and the actual "charge" that gives the movie its name takes up only the last ten minutes of the movie. The rest is a lot of foreshadowing.
Michael Curtiz is a director with a beautiful sense of place, of interiors especially, and of night scenes. Sol Polito, the cinematographer, knows how to make even boring scenes visually rich, and is known for some first rate film noirs. And Olivia de Havilland, the lead woman in this historical drama, is an actress with extraordinary nuance to her psychological portrayals.
On that score, this is a really well made film, an achievement. But it is one that doesn't use any of its main contributors to their absolute best. What they give is quite amazing--the direction is fast and smart, the photography sharply seen and nuanced, and de Havilland gives a moving, if minor and intermittent, performance. The last of the main contributors is Errol Flynn, who is charming, and gives this action adventure movie some good action and adventure. In a way, he's the only one in his element.
Not that movies can be reduced to their parts this way. But I've been straining to see why this movie struggles, even with the best of credentials. The story itself might be partly to blame, or more exactly the way the historical aspects of this famous military tragedy were forced to fit a romance of de Havilland's character with two brothers in the military. The telling of this tale fails to do what Gone with the Wind did three years later, layering a moving personal fictional story into a great war.
Curtiz does make it solid, given the story line he has to work with. An impressive, ambitious movie, overall. The bright, sunlit battle scenes are kinetic, for sure, and the actual "charge" that gives the movie its name takes up only the last ten minutes of the movie. The rest is a lot of foreshadowing.