Just TERRIBLE--a template for what not to do with Davis for her entire career. Obviously rushed into production to capitalize on the zest Bette brought to "Of Human Bondage" (and winning her her first Oscar as compensation for the slight the year before), this is a hodgepodge of bad writing and bad acting. The fact that she couldn't see it for the stinker it was only means that she was desperate for the opportunity to break the mold and play bad girls. This movie ties itself into absolute knots in order to redeem her for its final moments, but that is only the most egregious of its many, many flaws. Let's see—the wooden Franchot Tone, the wooden dialog (the invented quotations from the "scripts" that "Joyce Heath" is playing are truly absurd), and the fact that the script is so threadbare that there is a lift of the most famous Davis dialog from "Of Human Bondage". Compare "You cad, you dirty swine! I never cared for you, not once! I was always makin' a fool of ya! Ya bored me stiff; I hated ya! It made me SICK when I had to let ya kiss me. I only did it because ya begged me, ya hounded me and drove me crazy! And after ya kissed me, I always used to wipe my mouth! WIPE MY MOUTH!", to this from "Dangerous": "I shouldn't laugh at you, should I? But I can't HELP it. You were so awkward that I almost laughed in your face at first. And then it made me SICK to think that anyone could be stupid enough to be taken in by old tricks. I thought you might at least be amusing, but you turned out to be dull, and stupid and so afraid. Well you needn't be. I won't hurt your Sunday school romance or your oh so nice career. HURT me? Get out of here before you give me hysterics!". Fortunately, better material and far better directors (bless you, William Wyler), waited for her around the corner. Its only redeeming feature is that one can tell that the studio was twisting itself into a pretzel to create a role for a brand new, as-yet-undefined talent, and a brand new, as-yet-undefined female character. The character was womanly, smart, multi-faceted, flawed, unpredictable, kicked at boundaries and took no prisoners. The woman who embodied her was the great Bette Davis.
Reviews
4 Reviews
Michael
(II) (2011)
Yikes
31 July 2013
First let's say it, "Yikes". This is a minutely-observed, low-keyed, dispassionate movie about the domestic life of a pedophile and the little boy he keeps captive in his basement. (Again, "Yikes"). But it is certainly not without wit, and a kind of wry "fly on the wall" style that keeps one engaged even though the proceedings are kept on a low boil intentionally. (Thank God). The phrase "the banality of evil", comes to mind constantly, and I think it is not entirely coincidental that this is an Austrian film. The lack of histrionics, however, does not mean that the film lacks drama. Certainly not
in fact it does create , at times, an almost unbearable tension. It has been compared many times to Haneke's "Funny Games", but in fact I find it far more subversive than that, as the Haneke film depends very much on a Brechtian "alienation" effect, whereby the filmmaker lets his audience know that he is intentionally manipulating them. "Michael" provides no easy "outs", and is, to my mind, a far more disturbing, compelling exercise. Truly a shocker, and extraordinarily well-done. Bravo. (But it is not for the timid).
Body & Soul
(1993– )
Non-habit forming
13 September 2012
Boy, what a surprise this was. Who would have thought that a PBS Masterpiece production with one of the most celebrated of international leading ladies could be such a STINKER. Hackneyed and tedious almost from the get-go, and I stayed with it well past the get-go (in fact, 2 whole hours before I decided to get-going). I mean, one should have been prepared, I suppose, for something wonky when one is asked to accept Kristin Scott Thomas as a contemporary cloistered nun. Was it the (merely hinted it) Lesbian angle in the convent? Was it Thomas's anguished reaction when she stumbles upon a couple bonking in a shed? Was it the prune-faced nun who assaults her upon her return to the convent with the words "God doesn't want you here"? Was it the hunky young factory foreman with whom she allies herself when she decides to save the family textile mill? Now don't misunderstand, it's not that I actually want these questions answered
I was just wondering which WAS it that finally made me give up on this piece of overcooked tripe.
I Am a Camera
(1955)
Leave this version in the closet.
12 July 2012
Of all the versions of this tale, this is by far the least notable. Who knew this story could be so DARNED CUTE
starting with the appallingly chirpy Ms. Harris. Of course, any trace of the gayness and decadence of 30's Berlin has been edited out, but in fact, any trace of the atmosphere whatsoever has been edited out. (The only vestigial evidence which remains is Shelly Winter's rather terrible German accent). This lapse is unutterably sad, considering the sexuality of Isherwood, Van Druten , even leading man Laurence Harvey. "I Am a Camera" is so bad, that it's a wonder that the story survived it. In fact, though, there was some service rendered to the original story "Sally Bowles". Some of the embellishments made it into the stage version of "Cabaret" where they then were transmuted with great style and depth into the superb film version. Also, Harris's virtually accent-less Sally Bowles proved that the nationality of the heroine was completely irrelevant, paving the way for Liza Minnelli to own the role. It is a shame that Van Druten's gayness found full flower only in his coded "Bell, Book and Candle". Knowing how cleverly he managed that, however, one feels he could have found some way to be truer to the spirit of Isherwood and his source material.
Tell Your Friends