UNHOLY LOVE

Joyce Compton and Lyle Talbot

UNHOLY LOVE (1932). Director: Albert Ray. 

Sheila (Joyce Compton of Dark Alibi) meets a young doctor named Jerry Gregory (Lyle Talbot) when he ministers to her dying father, a gardener. It isn't long before the couple are married, a distressing notion to Jerry's father, Daniel (H. B. Warner of Kidnapped), who has to give the bad news to the woman Jerry's practically engaged to, Jane (Lila Lee), and her mother (Kathlyn Williams). However Jane is a compassionate adult woman who is nice to Sheila whereas others from society shun her. Sheila shows her true colors when she doesn't resist the romantic entreaties of oily writer Alex Stockmar (Ivan Lebedeff of The Mystery of Mr. Wong) and the two embark upon an affair. Meanwhile Sheila's debts are increasing, Alex might be losing interest in her, and her foolish husband hasn't a clue -- but daddy does. 

Unholy Love is a very loose, Americanized version of Flaubert's Madame Bovary, and it is more of a curiosity than anything else, although it holds the attention. H. B. Warner offers the best performance as the wise and understanding father, with Lila Lee and Lebedeff offering fine support. The biggest problem I have with Joyce Compton is that she looks and sounds a bit too much like a slightly prettier version of Una Merkel (!) to make a convincing sexpot. Lyle Talbot, billed as "Lysle" Talbot, is pretty much the same rather dull fellow as ever. Jason Robards Sr. plays a sleazy character who also has his eyes on Sheila. 

Verdict: Read the excellent original or watch the 1949 version with Jennifer Jones instead. **1/2

DISAPPOINTING NEWER MOVIE: THE POWER OF THE DOG

Benedict Cumberbatch

THE POWER OF THE DOG (2021). Director: Jane Campion. NOTE: This review gives away important plot points.

In 1925 Montana two brothers, Phil (Benedict Cumberbatch) and George (Jesse Plemons), live together in a big house and work a ranch. Phil is a charismatic macho type who often belittles his shyer, nicer brother as "Fatso." Phil is furious when George marries a widow named Rose (Kirsten Dunst), moving her in, and even more furious when her "sissy" 16-year-old son Peter (Kodi Smit-McPhee) comes home from school. As Rose becomes drunk every day due to the tension, Phil hopes that George will throw her out. Phil tries to bond with Peter, ostensibly to turn him against his mother. Pretending to befriend Phil, Peter manages to get Phil to let down his guard and become aware of his true feelings towards the boy. But Peter has his own plans that may be even more sinister ... 

The Power of the Dog is based on a novel by Thomas Savage, a closet queen who married a woman, had three children, and came out to his daughter as gay very late in life. Let me make it clear from the first that studies of pathetic closet cases written by pathetic closet cases are among my least favorite sub-genres. I also get mighty tired of people thinking there's something profound in exploring that not-so-new stereotype of repressed homosexual men who overcompensate with hyper-masculinity. Right off the top of my head I can think of several movies with this theme, with American Beauty and The Other Side of the Wind coming immediately to mind and there are a great many others. In 1967 when the novel was published this may have been unique (but probably wasn't) but today it's nothing but a cliche. Why Jane Campion (or anyone else) felt compelled to make a movie out of this old and old-fashioned novel is beyond me. It's another modern-day movie like Tar and others that presents distinctly negative homosexual characters. And am I wrong in suggesting that movies about gay men should perhaps be made by gay men, and gay studies made by people who are actually gay? 

Jesse Plemons and Kirstin Dunst

But let's get to the film itself. The performances from the entire cast are quite good, and the movie boasts often stunning cinematography by Ari Wegner. (Johnny Greenwood's score, which has been charitably described as "minimalist," is terrible.) While Jane Campion may have won an undeserved Oscar for directing the film, I can't believe that a more gifted or at least a different director couldn't have made a film that was more compelling and entertaining. I don't think the film is well-directed at all and it eventually becomes so tedious that it nearly made it onto my list of "Films I Couldn't Quite Finish." (I have friends who never did finish it.)  I've often said that (supposed) subtlety can be awfully over-rated, but much of this movie is about as subtle as a sledgehammer: Phil whipping a horse's head in lieu of Rose; Phil practically having an orgasm over a hanky once handled by his youthful hero, crush and possible sex partner with the silly name of "Bronco Henry." 

Kodi Smith-McPhee

Frankly I think many viewers will be left with a feeling of "is that all there is?" Even if they have read the novel and understand the ending -- the "sissy" boy cleverly murders the butch closet case and would-be molester -- they may still feel cheated by the film's mediocrity and its essentially reactionary tone. I mean, are these the kind of gay protagonists we need in films in the 21st century? Yes, the allegedly progressive will say that Phil's problem isn't his homosexuality but his repression of and attitude towards same, but you've still got a portrait of a nasty faggot, a bitchy boy-lover, an utter stereotype despite his machismo, who gets murdered. How "progressive" is that? It's as if Savage and Campion were saying that even masculine gay men are nothing but big bitches who go after boys and apparently despise women. Why has the so-called liberal establishment in Hollywood embraced this film? (Do I have to ask? Being homosexual is still considered a negative.) 

One final note: my dear friend Larry Quirk was in Thomas Savage's writing class at Suffolk university. Larry told me that he handed in a story of a boy with an unrequited crush on another boy who hopes that they can consummate their relationship. Savage read the story and told Larry he would have preferred to see the protagonist triumphing over his "affliction" -- his homosexuality. Trying to do just that in real life, Savage got married and stayed in the closet, seeing men in secret, for decades. Writers like Savage can only see gay men through their very limited and self-hating perspective, which means that I don't find their work very relevant in this day and age. And I wish no one else did either. People can read and study books like this for their historical value, of course, but making major Hollywood movies out of them is another matter. 

Verdict: Impressive cinematography, some good acting, little else. **. 

AFFAIR IN MONTE CARLO

Merle Oberon

AFFAIR IN MONTE CARLO  (1952). Director: Victor Saville.

Novelist Robert Stirling (Leo Genn of Personal Affair) tells a group of casual friends and tourists the story of a woman he knew, Linda Venning (Merle Oberon of The Price of Fear), who fell in frantic love with an unnamed young man (Richard Todd of The Hasty Heart) who loses all of his money in the casino. Linda is afraid that he is going to commit suicide and tries to help him. Although his personality is such that is hard at first to imagine why she is drawn to him despite his attractiveness, something about him eventually wins her over, even after he confesses that he bankrolled his trip by "borrowing" a necklace from an aunt. The two have an idyllic day together, but then comes the time when Linda must decide if she is going to pursue this relationship or not. But will she be able to live with her decision?

Star-crossed lovers: Todd and Oberon

Based on a novel by Stefan Zweig (as was Letter from an Unknown Woman), Affair in Monte Carlo is a lovely little picture that boasts a wonderful and sensitive performance from Oberon, an interesting musical score by Robert Gill and Philip Green, and an unexpected and satisfying conclusion. Stirling is convinced that Linda was genuinely in love with the young gambler, and not just infatuated, but the feelings can be equally mesmeric in either case. Genn is good; Todd effective if not as good as Oberon. IMDB lists the film as being 75 minutes long but the only print I can find -- on Amazon Prime and on youtube -- is ten minutes shorter, and there is an obvious gap when Oberon seems done with Todd but then there's an abrupt cut to a scene when they seem perfectly at ease with each other in a carriage.

Richard Todd

In any case, Affair in Monte Carlo is a pleasant surprise. It examines those quick but intense relationships that spring up unexpectedly and mean something to the participants even though they don't know each other very well. It also delves into those situations in which people want to dive head first into a romantic relationship even while realizing that it's probably a terrible mistake to do so. And then there's the bittersweet - sometimes awful -- knowledge of the ultimate fate of someone that you once even thought, however crazy, that you might spend your life with.

Verdict: For romantic souls only. ***. 

INDECENT / VANITY FAIR

Myrna Loy as Becky Sharp

INDECENT (aka Vanity Fair/1932). Director: Chester M. Franklin.

"I do hope I'm going to give satisfaction." -- Becky.

Becky Sharp (Myrna Loy), who has beauty and brains but no money, gets a taste of the good life when she is taken in by her wealthy friend, Amelia (Barbara Kent). Amelia's brother Joseph (Billy Bevan) has a yen for Becky, but while she almost tricks him into marriage, he manages to get out of the trap. Becoming a governess for Sir Pitt Crawley (Lionel Belmore), Becky is caught between the lustful advances of Sir Pitt and the more refined passes of Crawley's son, Rawdon (Conway Tearle), whom she marries. But things don't go smoothly for the couple after Rawdon is disinherited by his jealous father. And things get worse after that ...

Billy Bevan and Myrna Loy

Indecent is a credible, updated version of Thackeray's "Vanity Fair" which revises things due to the change in locale and time period -- there are no references to Napoleon or Waterloo in this version -- but remains fairly faithful to the basic events and spirit of the story. Although not as bombastic as Miriam Hopkins in the later Becky Sharp, Loy gives a very good performance in this, and she has a host of talented if lesser-known co-stars. There is some inventive camera work in the film, which is not that slow-moving, and the finale, with Loy facing her older self in the mirror, is quite grim.

Verdict: Entertaining pre-code drama. ***.

BECKY SHARP

Miriam Hopkins and Frances Dee

BECKY SHARP (1935). Director: Rouben Mamoulian.

Becky Sharp (Mariam Hopkins), a charity case in a finishing school, goes off with her wealthy friend Amelia (Frances Dee of I Walked with a Zombie) where she hopes to become affianced to Amelia's portly brother, Joseph (Nigel Bruce). Things don't go quite the way Becky expected, but she advances in society due to her looks, her aggressiveness, and many compliant men, including the Marquis of Sheyne (Cedric Hardwicke) and her husband, Rawdon Crawley (Alan Mowbray), whom she seems to love sincerely. But Becky's scheming may eventually undo her ...

Miriam Hopkins and Alan Mowbray

This version of Thackeray's Vanity Fair, filmed in early Technicolor, is amusing and engaging. Hopkins demonstrates true star quality, although her performance is at times overwrought and overly theatrical, yet she always plays with undeniable passion. It's hard to see Alan Mowbray [Dante], better known as a comic foil than anything else, as a romantic figure, but he is as good as ever, as is Hardwicke. Frances Dee is fine as Amelia, even though her character is allowed no real fireworks even when she thinks her husband is carrying on with Becky. Nigel Bruce offers one of his best portrayals as Joseph, and Alison Skipworth is a riot as Rawdon Crawley's peppery Aunt Julia. Billie Burke has a small role, and Mrs. Leslie Carter is lost in a crowd with no lines. (Five years later Hopkius would play Carter in Lady with Red Hair.) An exciting sequence takes place at a ball when Napoleon arrives at the nearby village of Waterloo.

Verdict: An arresting if uneven performance by Hopkins in an absorbing, fast-paced adaptation of a classic novel. ***. 

THE LOST WEEKEND

Belly up to the bar, boys! Ray Milland

THE LOST WEEKEND (1945). Director: Billy Wilder.

Feeling himself a failure as a writer, and living off his brother, Wick (Phillip Terry of Hold That Kiss), Don Birnam (Ray Milland) has become, in his brother's words, a "hopeless drunk" His girlfriend of three years, Helen (Jane Wyman of Johnny Belinda), refuses to give up on Don, and does her best to help him. But even when he winds up in an alcoholic ward and later gets the DT's and has scary visions, he still won't stop drinking. Will Helen be able to get through to him, to get him to let his better self come through, or is he doomed?

The Lost Weekend is based on the autobiographical novel by Charles Jackson. Although Jackson married and had children, late in life he identified as bisexual and moved in with a male lover. This aspect of his life, and the fact that self-hatred over his homosexuality added to his distress and undoubtedly contributed to his drinking, is, of course, completely unexplored in this 1940's movie. The only thing that is mildly homoerotic in the picture is an obnoxious male nurse, Bim (well-played by Frank Faylen), in the alcoholic ward. Jackson wrote other works after Lost Weekend, but none were ever as successful as his first, and, although the movie intimates that Birnam will overcome his addictions, that was, sadly, not the case in real life. In 1968 he committed suicide.

Phillip Terry, Jane Wyman, Ray Milland

Still, The Lost Weekend is a memorable film with some first-class performances. Ray Milland, who is generally excellent, won the Best Actor Oscar. (The film also won for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay [Wilder and Charles Brackett] and Best Cinematography [John F. Seitz of the silent Four Horseman of the Apocalypse].) Phillip Terry, one of Joan Crawford's cast-off husbands, had a rare opportunity in a "A" picture and delivers a solid job in probably his most memorable role. Jane Wyman is as sympathetic and adept as ever. Howard Da Silva scores as the bartender, Nat, as do Doris Dowling as the barfly Gloria and Mary Young as Birnam's landlady, Mrs. Deveridge.

An interesting aspect of the picture is that, as played by Milland, Birnam often seems arrogant about his drinking and his life, as if the world owes him a living. In a sequence when Birnam steals a woman's purse in a restaurant, he seems to smirk as if he's gotten away with something, as opposed to his being ashamed and humiliated by his actions. This suggests that Birnam has character failings that have little to do with his drinking.

Jane Wyman

The film has some notable sequences, such as when Birnam sits at a performance of La Traviata, and the opera's famous brindisi (or drinking song) sequence only reminds him of the bottle of hootch he left in his jacket at the coat check and he has to leave to get a drink. Then there's his desperate run from pawn shop to pawn shop so he can get money for his typewriter only to learn that all the shops are closed for the Jewish holiday.

As good as the film is, it now has a kind of dated aspect to it. All you have to do is look at one of the episodes of Dr. Phil where he has desperate family members bringing an alcoholic and drug-addicted person on the show for a last chance at help, to realize that a person rarely just decides to stop drinking. The film is sanitized -- what seems horrifying about the debased, pathetic lives of drunks in this film is nothing compared to the reality. As good as Milland is, he rarely looks or acts like a really hard-core drunk despite the DT's and all the rest. As noted, the photography is first-class, as is Miklos Rosza's score, although the music the composer uses to denote, so to speak, "Demon Rum," is a little over the top and sounds like something out of a science fiction movie.

Verdict: The Lost Weekend must still be remembered as probably the first movie to depict alcoholics not as comical drunks but as tormented and addicted individuals. *** 

RANDOM HARVEST

When will he remember? Greer Garson and Ronald Colman

RANDOM HARVEST (1942). Director: Mervyn LeRoy.

Towards the end of WWI, an amnesiac and shell-shocked soldier named "John Smith" (Ronald Colman) is institutionalized in a small British town, but he escapes during the melee when the end of the war is announced. He meets up with a sympathetic music hall entertainer named Paula (Greer Garson), and the two eventually fall in love, get married, and have a child. But when "Smithy" goes to Liverpool for a job interview, he is struck by a taxi and his memory comes back -- he is really a wealthy man named Charles Rainier. Unfortunately, he goes back to his old life with absolutely no recollection of his wife and baby. Will Paula ever be reunited with the man she loves?

Greer Garson 

Random Harvest is based on a novel by James Hilton, and in some ways its story is just as absurd as anything in Lost Horizon. (It's not surprising the movie was spoofed on The Carol Burnett Show. For one thing, the notion that a blow to the head can both cause and cure amnesia is utterly ludicrous.) I haven't read the novel, so I'm not going to blame Hilton for any deficiencies in the screenplay, which he didn't write, but the structure of the film had to be changed from the book. In the novel the true identity of the woman Rainier marries when his memory is restored comes as a surprise.  But before I get to that, I'll examine the film itself and what it offers the viewer.

Susan Peters and Ronald Colman

Random Harvest is essentially a well-produced (MGM) soap opera with fine photography by Joseph Rutternberg, an effective score by Herbert Stothart,  and an excellent cast. Garson is splendid throughout, and Colman, although basically too old for the part, is also first-class. They are matched by Susan Peters [The Sign of the Ram] as Kitty, a young woman who falls for Charles and nearly gets him to the altar. Peters is especially great in a sequence when she looks at Charles, realizes his mind is elsewhere, and that marrying him would be a mistake for both of them. Una O'Connor, Arthur Shields, Arthur Space. Elisabeth Risdon, Reginald Owen, Alan Napier, and Philip Dorn, among others, enrich the supporting cast.

Ronald Colman

SPOILER ALERT: Stop reading if you haven't seen the picture. Random House must be taken with a grain of salt. It works beautifully on an emotional level, and has a moving conclusion, but the fact is that it is so contrived as to be nearly comical. After "Smithy" disappears, Paula tracks him down and begins to work for him under an assumed name. Years go by. Not only does he not recognize her, but he never develops any particular feelings for her. He eventually marries Paula, more as a "merger," as he puts it, than a romantic gesture, because he needs a "good wife." Three years go by during which Paula becomes the perfect hostess and loving wife, yet Charles still doesn't recognize her and still never develops any special feelings for her. Now this begs the question: since Paula is the same person she always was and has the same qualities that drew Charles to her in the first place, why on earth doesn't he fall in love with her all over again? One can argue that it was circumstances that made the difference, but come on! It isn't until he finally remembers her that he realizes he's in love with her. Or does he? (Thank goodness they avoided the cliche of him being hit on the head again.)

Verdict: Well, if you can just suspend disbelief Random Harvest has its rewards. For romantic souls only! ***. 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

Peter Lorre and Edward Arnold

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT (1935). Director: Josef von Sternberg.

"You said you'd show me some of your blundering police methods, and you certainly have!" -- Roderick to Inspector Porfiry.

Roderick (Peter Lorre) is a poor but talented writer on criminal psychology who is months behind in his rent. He is forced to bring some of his possessions to a pawnbroker, Leona (Mrs. Patrick Campbell), a loathsome old lady who insults her clients and offers them little money for their items. Roderick hatches a scheme to get the money he needs, but things go wrong almost from the start. Now Roderick has to deal not only with Inspector Porfiry (Edward Arnold of Lillian Russell), who admires Roderick but comes to suspect him, but with his own conscience. One could argue that the movie is a cinematic "cliff's notes" version of Dostoevsky's famous 1866 novel, but the story and its implications and ironic aspects remain powerful. Lorre gives a great performance, nearly matched by Arnold, and there is also fine work from Marian Marsh [Svengali] as Sonya, whom Roderick has fallen in love with; Tala Birell [The Frozen Ghost] as Roderick's sister, Antonya, who is willing to make any sacrifice for him; Campbell as the old lady and murder victim; Gene Lockhart as Antonya's much-older suitor; Douglass Dumbrille as another man who is in love with the sister; and especially Elisabeth Risdon as Roderick's mother, who gets at least one very strong scene when she finds out the truth about what her beloved son has done. One problem with the movie is that our modern-day knowledge of criminology might cause us to look less sympathetically at Roderick. Nowadays we might even see Dostoevsky's anti-hero as a borderline narcissist and even a sociopath -- his crimes are even worse in the book than they are in the film -- and his "conscience" could simply be worry over being caught, thereby proving him not to be quite as superior as he thought.

Mrs. Patrick Campbell originated the role of Eliza Doolittle in Shaw's Pygmailion on the stage.  She was perhaps most famous for her oft-quoted line: "It doesn't matter what you do in the bedroom as long as you don't do it in the street and frighten the horses." More of a theater person than a film personality, she had only six movie credits, of which Crime and Punishment was the last. She did not enjoy working with von Sternberg, possibly because  he (appropriately) made her look horrible on camera.

Verdict:  Some very raw and powerful acting in this. ***. 

LOLITA

Sue Lyon and James Mason

LOLITA (1962). Director: Stanley Kubrick.

"Shut your mouth, you horrible little psychopath!"


Professor Humbert Humbert (James Mason) takes a room with widowed landlady Charlotte Haze (Shelley Winters of The Chapman Report) because he's smitten with Charlotte's teenage daughter, the "nymphet" Lolita (Sue Lyon of The Night of the Iguana). Marrying Charlotte seems like the only way for Humbert to get to the true object of his affection, but he has more than one rival: television personality Clare Quilty (Peter Sellers); and young Dick (Gary Cockrell). Will Humbert's obsession with Lolita be his undoing? I haven't read Vladimir Nabokov's novel since college, but it seems to me that this is a very watered-down version of the book -- Lolita was much younger for one thing -- while basically staying more or less true to its intentions (Nabokov himself wrote the screenplay). Mason, as usual, offers another excellent performance, and in fact is superior to the rather cheesy material. 16-year-old Sue Lyon. who was introduced in this picture, is fine and never seems intimidated by the great Mason. Shelley Winters does a nice job as Charlotte, whom we're clearly not meant to feel much sympathy for. The novel was entertaining and very well-written, but not every book should be filmed. This just comes off as lurid and trashy and its entertainment value runs out early on. Peter Sellers plays a strange character but plays it well.  Sue Lyon was a talented actress but aside from her first two credits her career was relatively undistinguished [The Astral Factor], although she did have several interesting if short-lived marriages. Remade in 1997 with Jeremy Irons as Humbert Humbert.

Verdict: Mason saves the picture but probably should have turned it down, although it did get a lot of attention upon its release. **.

CAROL

Lovers: Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara

CAROL (2015). Director: Todd Haynes.

"What use am I to her, to us, if I'm going against my own grain?"

In the 1950s Carol Aird (Cate Blanchett) is in the process of divorcing her husband, Harge (Kyle Chandler), when she spots Therese Belivet (Rooney Mara) behind the counter of a department store -- and vice versa. Despite differences in age and class, the two embark upon a friendship and then into a full-fledged sexual and romantic affair. Trouble arrives when Harge decides to sue for sole custody of their adorable daughter, Rindy (Sadie Helm), on charges of aberrant morality. In desperation Carol sends Therese out of her life, but will they ever be able to renew their relationship? Carol is based on "The Price of Salt" by Patricia Highsmith (better known for her thrillers such as Strangers on a Train), perhaps the only lesbian novel that has a positive ending for the two ladies. The climax milks the suspense as we wonder if Rooney can get over the hurt and abandonment she felt and embrace a new life with Carol. The acting in this is good, although Blanchett at first seems too affected and even predatory, but Mara is perfect at delineating her character's hesitation, desire, and acceptance of her sexuality. Kyle Chandler scores as the discarded husband, as does Sarah Paulson as Carol's friend and ex-lover, Abby. and there are notable turns from Trent Rowland as Therese's boyfriend, Jack, Cory Michael Smith as a deceptively nerdy private eye, and John Magaro and Jake Lacey as Therese's friends and co-workers. Carol is handsomely produced, and has a sensitive, if occasionally overly sombre, musical score by Carter Burwell [Mildred Pierce], as well as superior production design (Judy Becker) and photography (Edward Lachman). [The screenplay is  by Phyllis Nagy who sports an almost comically out-dated butch haircut as if she were living in the fifties.] Rooney played a rather negative lesbian/bi character in Side Effects.

Verdict: While this has been riotously over-praised in some quarters, it is a well-acted and worthwhile movie that scrupulously avoids dumb stereotyping. ***.

THE FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE (1921)

Rudolph Valentino

THE FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE (1921 silent film). Director: Rex Ingram. Tinted edition.

Madariaga (Pomeroy Cannon) is a lusty and very wealthy rancher and entrepreneur in Argentina who has two daughters. One of them has three sons by a German husband, Karl (Alan Hale), while the other is a Frenchman, Marcelo (Josef Swickard), who was a deserter. Madariaga has a special fondness for his grandson, Julio (Rudolph Valentino), Marcelo's spoiled and womanizing son. After the death of his grandfather, Julio moves to Paris with the rest of his family while Karl takes his own family back to Germany. Julio embarks upon an affair with a married woman named Marguerite (Alice Terry), whose much older husband is Laurier (John St. Polis of Mr. Wong, Detective), but her feelings for her lover change when her husband goes off to war. Argentinian, Julio is determined to stay neutral while WW1 rages around him, and his father finds his country estate ravaged by Germans, including his own nephew and a crude Lt. Colonel (Wallace Beery) who tries to rape a maid. By their actions, both Marcelo and Julio eventually find redemption. Based on a best-selling 1919 novel by Vicente Blasco Ibanez, Four Horsemen is a strong and absorbing, fast-paced film beautifully directed by Ingram and with fine photography by John F. Seitz. Strong characterizations and dramatic presentation make this an excellent picture even without Carl Davis' rich and excellent modern score, but the music -- with themes by Liszt -- adds immeasurably to its impact. There are perhaps too many shots of the phantom horsemen riding across the skies, as well as shots of the fire-breathing dragon-like "beast," and the Christ figure at the end is a little much, but this also has many powerful sequences. (One that sticks in the mind is two crying children clinging to their dead mother in the rubble.) Alice Terry and the older actors are all quite good, while Valentino [Beyond the Rocks] gets across his initially superficial character without raising a sweat. This is a sweeping historical epic that is not for one minute dull. Remade in 1962. Alan Hale [Stella Dallas] was the father of Alan Hale Jr. of Gilligan's Island infamy.

Verdict: A silent masterpiece. ****.

THE FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE (1962)

Glenn Ford and Ingrid Thulin with backdrop of Notre Dame

THE FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE (1962). Director: Vincente Minelli.

This remake of the silent film of the same title has been updated to WW Two. Argentinian Madriaga (Lee J. Cobb) is dispatched with rather quickly, and most of the story takes place in Paris, where an initially superficial Julio Desnoyers (Glenn Ford) has an affair with the married Marguerite Laurier (Ingrid Thulin of The Silence). Julio's father Marcelo (Charles Boyer) had deserted Army service years before and begs his son to fight the Nazis, unaware that Julio has already joined the resistance. This leads to the movie turning into a ersatz spy picture that has Julio going off on a suicide mission and a final confrontation with his cousin Heinrich (Karl Boehm of Sissi). Other characters include Julio's sister Chi Chi (Yvette Mimieux of Light in the Piazza) who joins the resistance much sooner; Marguerite's husband, Etinne (Paul Henreid); and Heinrich's father, Karl (Paul Lukas). It's amazing that adding all the excitement and peril of WW Two, plus technicolor and CinemaScope, has not resulted in a better movie than the original, but a far worse one. A middle-aged Glenn Ford is horribly miscast -- Minelli wanted a more appropriate Alain Delon but MGM nixed it -- and his love affair with Marguerite never for a minute seems passionate or believable. Scenes that should crackle with tension and drama are frittered away by Minelli's lacklustre direction. Not a single actor ever gets a close up, further distancing us from the characters, and Andre Previn's musical score can best be described as insipid. Milton R. Krasner's cinematography is a plus, but the sweeping vistas do little to pull us into the story. Other changes from the silent version include more wartime interaction between the two families -- one French, the other German -- and Etienne is not blinded. A bizarre sequence has Marguerite telling her husband she's leaving him for Julio the exact instant after he shows up, shattered by being tortured, after months away -- what perfect timing! Badly written and poorly made despite all the technological advances, this is a colossal bore. Of the cast, only Charles Boyer makes much of an impression. Like the silent version, this also has shots of phantom horsemen floating through the skies, and this time it seems even hokier.

Verdict: Stick with the original. ** out of 4.

"FRANKIE" AND FRIENDS

Boris Karloff as Frankenstein

"FRANKIE" AND FRIENDS.

Great Old Movies has already posted reviews of the classic Universal Frankenstein films, as well as many of the Peter Cushing verions  -- just type "Frankenstein" in the search bar above for them all to come up --  but this week we look at some later films about Frankenstein's monster. First there is a review of Mary Shelley's original novel -- a really great and faithful film adaptation has yet to be made of it -- then reviews of a later Peter Cushing/ Frankenstein entry; a flick with Robert De Niro playing the monster; Roger Corman's Frankenstein Unbound; and others. Mary Shelley could not possibly have known that her creation would explode into all aspects of popular culture -- indeed she might have been horrified!

THE LOST MOMENT

Robert Cummings and Susan Hayward

THE LOST MOMENT (1947). Director: Martin Gabel.

"It's only being with people that makes one lonely."

Publisher Lewis Venable (Robert Cummings) comes to Venice hoping to obtain letters written by the late poet Jeffrey Ashton to the now-aged Julianna Borderau (Agnes Moorehead). Lewis pretends to be an author seeking an atmospheric place to write his novel, and pays an exorbitant fee for rooms in the manor owned by Julianna, who lives with her niece, Tina (Susan Hayward). Both women seem to be keeping secrets regarding Ashton, who simply disappeared many years ago. The Lost Moment sort of uses the basic framework for Henry James' novella "The Ashton Papers," but is turned into an unconvincing psychological mystery with an expected resolution. Cummings [Saboteur] is okay, but not well-cast, and Hayward [I'll Cry Tomorrow] is better as a woman undergoing an identity crisis, while an unrecognizable Moorehead [Dark Passage] certainly scores as the crone-like Julianna. Joan Lorring, Minerva Urecal and Eduardo Ciannelli offer flavorful supporting performances.

Verdict: This dies a slow death long before the conclusion. **.