Flame and the Flesh (1954) User Reviews

Rare and rather endearing Turner vehicle

[padraigodurcain · 6/10 · 25 September 2013]

Out of circulation for many years, this was the third and final of three films produced by Joe Pasternak for MGM under the auspices of Dore Schary intended to rescue the faltering career of the studios 40's glamour queen, Lana Turner. Intended as a facsimile of the type of European sex flicks glutting the stateside market and showcasing budding starlets like Loren and Mangano, and with Richard Brooks at the directorial helm for 'realistic' import and Technicolor shots of teaming Naples street scenes and interiors filmed in Londons Elstree Studios, the film ultimately failed in its attempt to engage critics, or, more importantly, the mass audience. It hardly looks any better today, though the musical score is pretty, and brunette Turners is playful and game as a Neapolitan trollop, while Carlos Thomson is wooden and ill fated Pier Angeli is simpering. This was an uncertain period in Turners sprawling, fifty year Star Career, and Schary was a notorious mishandler of MGM's contract stable. It's unusual to see Lana in this milieu and she's rather out of her element, though she gave interviews at the time which suggested she was enthusiastic about the change of pace, and considered the assignment "one of the rare opportunities where I get a chance to really act!" There is a nice extended opening credit sequence with tramp Turner trawling the busy slums, indeed one of Lana's classic 'walk' scenes in movies, but the action quickly becomes talky and set bound, confined to dingy apartments and cluttered nightclubs, occasionally springing to life when it returns to the brilliant outdoors and a dazzling beach scene. Not as bad though, as one might expect, and a lost treat for Turner compleatists.

Underrated Turner Vehicle That Is Hard To See

[lchadbou-326-26592 · 6/10 · 10 July 2014]

Flame And The Flesh, due to the literary rights of the French book it's based on, has not been available for years through official channels. Sometimes the serious cinephile has to be like an archaeologist, who looks at a pile of ancient ruins and can extrapolate what the building once was. In this case a dupey, washed out video doesn't compare to what an original Technicolor print would have offered. Nonetheless director Richard Brooks' fusing of the different elements that went into this melodramatic vehicle for Lana Turner is an impressive achievement that comes through. First element to single out is a series of four melodies composed by the underrated Nicholas Brodsky, who worked in early European sound films, then for British movies, before becoming a Hollywood tunesmith. Melodrama means drama with music, and the songs here are beautifully interwoven with the story, and stay in the memory. Next is the location photography of Naples and its surroundings, typical of the mid 50s American penchant for shooting in different parts of Europe. Turner herself was not a great actress and the writing (due to censorship) and her playing of a loose woman who gets around by picking up different men and then abandoning them, pale in comparison with the same characterization as played in the earlier, more explicit 1937 French version of the story, by the great Viviane Romance, who specialized in femmes fatales. Brooks, however, brings out some of her sexiness and bitchiness the way he would later famously do with Liz Taylor in "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof." The symbol of a caged bird in the apartment where Turner has shacked up, which she eventually releases as she is about to consummate her feelings for the singer (Carlos Thompson) is somewhat heavy handed, however. This man's attitude toward such a woman is complicated, and summed up when he tells her, "Why do I love you, when I don't like you?" The film ends a bit differently from the French one. The singer and his roommate (Bonar Colleano) both ditch Turner and drive off together into the night (It is suggested that there may be something more between them, or at least a "Casablanca" type friendship at the end.) Turner has a tempting set up with a rich restaurant owner (Erich Pohlmann) but instead walks off in a superb finale,into the blue seaside mist. We can only speculate what she will do next!

On a second viewing it deserves 4 out of 10

[jromanbaker · 8/10 · 1 May 2020]

I saw a fuzzy, terrible copy of this a while ago and it was so bad I imagined it hid better filming, better lighting, and a better image of Naples. I have seen it since ( a reasonably good French copy with French subs ) and I found it heavily studio bound, and the colour clearly seen in this copy to be just above average. I also saw Lana Turner's face at the end and the film. The expression on her face was compromised, and so is the film, and I sensed a pandering to the film studio for a ' redeemed ' woman ending. It is an ending that does not go with what went before, and that goes for Carlos Thompson's role as well. Was Richard Brooks the director partly to be blamed ? He did the same thing with ' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof ' with its triumphant resurgence of heterosexuality, and in the ending of ' Sweet Bird of Youth ' where of course Paul Newman is forced yet again to destroy the outcome of yet another Tennessee William's source material. Some claim Brook's helped changing censorship. Marginally perhaps. But to return to the' come on ' titled film of ' Flame and the Flesh '. The script a second time around is mediocre; the awful songs inflicted on us by Carlos Thompson seem endless, and Lana Turner is more provocative in the French copy than in the fuzzy one. I can imagine the stills outside the cinema, and X certificated in the UK they must have promised more than they delivered; an English speaking film that explored adult issues in similar fashion to European films. It did not. In fact it turned out to be a double X programme with a terrible Korean war piece of propaganda called ' Prisoner of War '. That was a trashy film, but I give ' Flame and the Flesh ' higher points for its one good performance: Bonar Colleano. who did his best with bad dialogue and who made you believe the inner suffering that Lana Turner inflicts upon him will endure. No compromises in his acting, and to return to Tennessee William's again he was apparently brilliant opposite Vivien Leigh in the London stage production of ' A Streetcar Named Desire '. Despite my criticisms the film should be found and restored.

a rare look at Lana

[mdenison57 · 8/10 · 30 May 2014]

All these things come pouring out at once..Pier Angeli and Marissa Pavan co-starred with Lana. Pavan in the 1956 ''Diane''. The two actress's were sisters. Are Lana's films as a body of work being preserved as they would have been had Lana lived a bit longer? The American film Institute should have a copy of all her films. Museum of Modern Art should have a copy of each of her films. Lana Turner should be able to be studied by all of the children that are two years old today.....when said children are surprised to see one of her films for the first time,,, and hear the soft velvet voice.

My copy of ''Flame and the Flesh'' is green/yellow in color, the sound is fair. With poor visual quality..I think it is a bit funny. Was intended to be funny. Richard Brooks. ''Cat on a hot tin Roof''. Same director,, and as ''Cat''can be funny at times. So might ''Flame and the Flesh'' if we could only see it.

Lana Turners work must be preserved as was Davis,Crawford,Taylor,Stanwyck,. The woman worked over thirty years and she was constantly working for over that period of time. I would love to say more about the film,,, but it seems to be lost. A 60 year old film no more, lost. ............. Lana Turner deserves better. Find and restore this film. Do it while her daughter is still alive and able to be a part of the celebration.