SERVICE DE LUXE (1938)

Over at THE LAND OD CERPTS AND HONEY our friend Cerpts is recovering from the shock that I've actually seen SERVICE DE LUXE before him! Vincent Price's film debut has eluded me for as many years as I have been a fan of the great man. Directed by Rowland V.Lee who helmed such classics as TOWER OF LONDON and SON OF FRANKENSTEIN and showed with both a rather dark sense of humour. SERVICE DE LUXE is a lightweight screwball comedy which benefits from some wonderful ensemble playing from its cast which includes Constance Bennett, Charles Ruggles, Helen Broderick (pictured above with Price) and a scene stealing Misca Auer.Price is excellent as a young inventor trying to get finance for a revolutionary tractor and becoming unintentionally involved with his sponsor's daughter while preferring to devote his attentions to agency boss Bennett. Based on a story by Vera Caspary (who penned Price's 1944 classic LAURA) the film never really reaches the sublime heights of PHILADELPHIA STORY or BRINGING UP BABY but it is amiable entertainment and, of course, a must for Price fans. If you are inclined (are you listening Cerpts?) y0u can do what I did and watch the whole film on YouTube. Rating ***

ALL QUIET ON THE FILM FRONT...

I've been taking a little sabbatical from film viewing...not intentional but just the way things have worked out. Should be back to normal by next week. In the meantime here is (to me) a totally delightful scene from one of the Ingmar Bergman films that I am yet to see. The combination of Ingmar Bergman and Mozart in an intriguing one. Hopefully a copy of the complete film will come my way soon - it has been rather elusive so far. Opera is not to everybody's taste - but for friend Cerpts I can promise that these are not people arguing with each other in Italian....

The Big Parade 1925 (King Vidor)

All Quiet on the Western Front 1930 (Lewis Milestone)

JOUR SE LEVE (1939) and THE LONG NIGHT (1946)

Jour se leve

Marcel Carne's JOUR SE LEVE bridges the gap between the Poetic Realism movement and that of The Popular Front. The film starts with a murder and then; with the murderer cornered in his attic room, we see how fate has led to the crime. Carne is one of the great directors of cinema with a string of classic films to his name and with his epic drama LES ENFANTS DU PARADIS often being cited as one of the greatest films ever made. The great French actor Jean Gabin plays the man who is trapped by his love for a pretty girl despite the evidence of her fickleness and ultimate betrayal - her impressionable head being turned by the attentions of the toadlike but suave Valentin - a trainer of performing dogs (the irony is not lost on the attentive viewer) - while rejecting the more honest and genuine love of Valentin's ex-assistant (played by the wonderful Arletty). From the start of the affair we see Gabin's character being sucked into an inescapable web and few actors have ever been as capable as Gabin of expressing the world weariness of a man who knows where fate is leading him. If JOUR SE LEVE is a great film, Anatole Litvak's remake THE LONG NIGHT is certainly a very good film, even an excellent one, up to a point. That it fails to reach the heights of the French original is, I think, due more to Hollywood convention and censorship than any real fault of the film makers. THE LONG NIGHT has a lot going for it. Firstly it has one of Henry Fonda's career best performances - it is a detailed portrayal which is in many ways the equal to Gabin's in the original. Likewise Ann Dvorak is tremendous as the showgirl whose love is ultimately rejected. Where Litvak's film not only equals but actually surpasses the earlier film is in the casting of Vincent Price in the Valentin role (here he is called Maximilian). Where Berry was an almost comical dirty old man, Price is positively wolfish. THE LONG NIGHT gives the character more screen time than the first film so we see more of his seduction of the girl. This is probably because the Hollywood version needs to make her more of a victim of evil (to accomodate to changed ending) than the more fickle, rather dim girl of Carne's film. So where does THE LONG NIGHT finally go wrong? It is in the changed ending. I watched the films on consecutive nights and three quarters of the way through the American film I knew that Hollywood was not going to have the courage to follow the French lead. Giving the film a totally illogical upbeat ending (and it really doesn't make sense) robs the film of the tremendous final shot of the French film which Carne holds and holds to devastating effect. Hollywood just wasn't ready for that. Both films look terrific with Sol Polito's crisp black and white photography being a highlight of the American film and Alexander Trauner's sets (cleverly aped by Eugene lourie for THE LONG NIGHT) being standout in JOUR SE LEVE. The object of desire is played in Carne's film by the excellent Jacqueline Laurent and in the remake by Barbara Bel Geddes (who I find almost as intensely irritating as June Allyson) making her film debut. Ratings : JOUR SE LEVE ***** THE LONG NIGHT ****

The Long Night

RICHARD'S THINGS (1980)

I remember being rather impressed at the time that the great Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann was making a film in England. If I am right, this film, premiered on television in England. I know I watched it at the time but seeing it again nearly thirty years later revealed how little I recall about the plot. Liv plays a woman whose husband has a heart attack while on a business trip and subsequently dies. At the hospital she discovers that he had being travelling with his mistress (played by a very young Amanda Redman). She tracks the girl down with revenge in mind but finds herself being seduced both emotionally and physically. The film seems surprisingly dated now and, it has to be said, a bit pretentious. But it is quite watchable thanks to the performances. Liv Ullmann is hardly stretched by a role that she could have played in her sleep (let's face it, her eyelashes could act most other actresses off the screen!) and she is more than ably supported by Miss Redman as the bi-sexual lover. Tim Piggott-Smith is the reliable friend (tweedie clothes, pipe and beard were standard reliable accessories back then) who leads the adequate supporting cast. I quite enjoyed it even if I didn't really get to involved with the characters. Rating ***

CASTLE FREAK (1995)

I had been saving this for my Halloween viewing. Cerpts did a very positive review over in THE LAND OF CERPTS AND HONEY and I'm a big fan of the same director (Stuart Gordon)'s other Lovecraft adaption, DAGON (although to call this a Lovecraft adaption is ridiculous) but I was bitterly disappointed and quickly lost interest in the tiresome guilt ridden American family who inherit a castle in Italy. Of course there is something nasty in the dungeon. Cerpts put forward some interesting psychological points but if they held any water I'd totally past the point of caring. Lots of screams in the night and endless wandering down corridors and staircases. As with many modern horror films that lack a supernatural element this one resorts to some particularly nasty physical horror and a heavy helping of exceedingly unpleasant sexual violence. I lasted about an hour when I decided I could find something better to do. Rating *

FOR HALLOWEEN......

Some wonderfully phantasmagorical images from the 1922 classic HAXAN directed by Benjamin Christensen.