Anthony Adverse

Anthony Adverse is based off the novel by Hervey Allen about the trials of an orphan that only get more intense in his adulthood.  Before we can meet the little orphan Anthony, the details surrounding his unfortunate circumstances must be made clear.  The film begins as a young woman is leaving on her honeymoon with a much older, and conveniently injured husband, Marquis Don Luis (Claude Rains).  While his leg heals in a cast, she meets her young lover, a soldier, and they pledge to run away together before her husband’s leg has healed.  But time runs out, she watches her husband kill her lover in a sword fight and soon she dies in childbirth.  Rather than raise the lovechild on his own, the husband leaves the crying baby at a convent, and lies to his father-in-law, Mr. Bonnyfeather (Edmund Gwenn), saying that the child died as well.  The lines between good and evil are obviously drawn between Don Luis’s cold indifference and Mr. Bonnyfeather’s heartbreak.

The film moves forward ten years, showing us young Anthony (Billy Mauch) at the convent.  Since it is an all girls school, he is only allowed in a small part, surrounded by high walls.  The boy is obviously lonely, but thankful for Father Xavier (Henry O’Neill), who serves as the boy’s teacher and main parental figure.  The nuns seem to be the type that simply don’t like boys and say it’s high time Anthony leaves the convent and become an apprentice.  Father Xavier sets Anthony up to work for Mr. Bonnyfeather, who senses immediately that the boy is his lost grandson and gives him the last name Adverse.  His speech about the boy’s adversity is only slightly cheesy.

From here out is supposed to be the meat of the film.  Anthony grows to a smart, well-rounded young man (Fredric March) with eyes for the beautiful Angela (Olivia de Havilland).  Their life seems perfectly sweet and simple for only a moment, then Angela is taken away when her father wins the lottery.  Next thing we know, Anthony finds her singing in a show and they’ve secretly gotten married.  While Anthony is supposed to meet her, he’s detained by Bonnyfeather, who wants him to leave for Havana the next morning and Angela doesn’t get the message to sail with him.  Thus beings Anthony’s adventures sailing the world, becoming part of the slave trade and finding exotic women in the jungle.

Honestly, that whole chapter goes way too fast and seems like it should have more focus.  Once Anthony attempts to get his old life back in order in Europe, it seems to slow down to a decent pace again, but things are still convoluted with the Angela’s marital status and old villains trying to cheat Anthony out of Bonnyfeather’s will.

For me, the first half hour of the film was more exciting than the rest.  Forbidden love, a sword fight, murder and dumping babies off at the convent, it’s good and juicy.  Then everything turned very flat, rushed and boring.  Even when Anthony is traveling the world, conveniently running away from the possibility of loving his love, everything seems a bit watered down.  Perhaps because this is the part of the story where Anthony is supposed to have a positive life change that propels him back to Europe.  Unfortunately, it starts to feel like unstable mush and never lets us find more solid ground.

While I have complaints about the story and its pacing, many of the technical film aspects help made this film more enjoyable.  Anthony Adverse won the Oscar for Best Cinematography and Best Editing.   Visually, this film is lovely and can bring out the sense of adventure the story tends to lack.  While my heart wasn’t hanging on why Anthony was running through the jungle in the rain, my eyes were hooked and soaking it in.

“Those who are destined to live during times of war and social upheaval are victims of cruel fate, unable to find comfort in the past or peace in the present.  They are the spiritual orphans of the world.”

Smilin’ Through

Three and a half hours after the Academy Awards ceremony had ended, I was catching Smilin’ Through on TCM.  I’m not much of a night owl, by ten my eyes are usually drooping.  Being up in the middle of the night to watch a predictable 1930’s melodrama did not make me a happy camper, but I’m committed to this damn blog.  And I can’t justify paying for a DVR.

Anyway, Smilin’ Through is the story of Sir John Carteret (Leslie Howard), a man who has lived a solitary life since his beloved Mooney tragically died.  He likes to talk to her spirit in the garden.  A nice ghostly visual effect is used.  After thirty years of watching this, his friend Owen (O.P. Heggie) has finally found a way to give John something more to live for.  His five year old niece, Kathleen, has just become an orphan, losing both her parents at sea.  Though John is against it at first, he grows to love his newly adopted daughter

Kathleen grows up (now played by Norma Shearer) and looks just like Moonyeen, and as girls grow they will find suitors.  Things are going well with Willy (Ralph Forbes) until one stormy night, they seek shelter in an abandoned house and meet Kenneth Wayne (Fredric March).  Being a charismatic young man, Kenneth and Kathleen have an instant chemistry and later go on a makeshift date.  But when Kathleen comes home to tell John about Kenneth, the name brings heartbreak and he tells Kathleen the tragic story of Moonyeen’s death.

The flashback to John’s romance with Moonyeen is done very well.  The transitions are visually compelling.  Basically, the tragedy is told in the most melodramatic way that Moonyeen was being pursued by Kenneth’s father, Jeremy Wayne, and in his heartbroken rage, killed Moonyeen on her wedding day.  Right there in the church with John holding her.  It’s one of those wonderful, old-timey, drawn out death scenes with violins playing, topped off with a gang of weeping bridesmaids.

No matter how cheesy the story was told, Kathleen is moved to tears and understands John’s ill feelings toward the Wayne family.  But we know how young love is, though she tries at first, she can’t stay away from Kenneth.  That is, until he’s called off to war.

At three in the morning, I was making making absurd comments and laughing quietly to myself, trying not to wake my husband in the next room.  Throughout the course of this blog, I’ve seen enough forbidden love and romantic tragedies to sink a second Titanic.  Smilin’ Through (named after a song Moonyeen sings in the flashback for no real reason) is too melodramatic to be taken very seriously today, but the few visual effects and transitions are very nice work for the time period.  Even I can appreciate that in the middle of the night.

“I know someone who would be glad of what you have done tonight.”

Auntie Mame

When Mr. Dennis dies unexpectedly, his only son, young Patrick (Jan Handzlik), goes to New York to live with his only living relative, Auntie Mame (Rosalind Russell).  She’s a fun loving, free-spirited person with a big heart who lovingly welcomes her nephew into her home where she holds lavish cocktail parties with a variety of intriguing people.  Determined to give the boy a very liberal education, Mame signs Patrick up to join a school taught in the ancient Greek fashion- nude and co-ed.  But Dwight Babcock (Fred Clark) is the executor to the estate and in charge of seeing that Patrick’s education is to his late father’s liking and has Patrick sent to an all boys prep school.  Still, while Patrick is getting his conservative education, Mame’s outlook on enjoying life has had a positive affect on the boy and he enjoys holidays with his aunt.  As the years go on, this little family experiences up and downs, the beginning of the depression and many playful adventures.  Later, Patrick becomes engaged to a very conservative “top drawer” girl and wants his Auntie Mame to act normal around her family.  Thankfully, Mame’s got some fun tricks up her sleeve and hosts a dinner party they’ll never forget.

I personally love the way Mame handles exposing little Patrick to all these new ideas.  When he first arrives in the middle of a cocktail party, Mame brings her attention and love straight to her nephew, makes sure he’s fed (octopus and caviar) and proudly shows him off to all her friends.  While Mame is talking to her friends, Patrick asks what certain words mean, and rather than ignoring his query, she tells him to write down any words he doesn’t understand.  Later, his list consists of words like libido, inferiority complex, free love, and bathtub gin.  My, what racy subjects for a school boy!  But it’s not like Mame gives the boy blunt definitions, to some words she says, “You won’t need some of these words for months and months.”  As Patrick grows we see him expressing what Mame has exposed to him in positive ways.  One of my favorite details was when he comes home for a holiday, he brings a Picasso inspired painting of Santa.

The art direction of this film is very clever and centers around Mame’s home.  She loves to decorate and redecorate.  At the beginning of the film her home is filled with dragons and oriental things of bronze and red.  Then, everything is painted a calm blue with abstract art hanging.  My favorite was probably during the climatic dinner scene, with a ten foot high black and white sculpture in a coy pond an abstract mobile and couches that are controlled by decorative pulleys.  Mame embraces so many interesting styles and they’re all so colorful and inventive.

Though Auntie Mame is enjoyable and has a great message, I do think the plot zig-zags too much and the whole film goes on for too long.  These are my only complaints.

What Auntie Mame did for me, was make me remember that I had a wonderful upbringing while being exposed to many ideas that are considered racy to some.  Gasp!  A cooler of beer at a family birthday party?!  I have fond memories of being a small child sitting at a bar with my folks drinking a cherry coke, being introduced to people living alternative lifestyles and being encouraged to learn about different arts and cultures.  It wasn’t until my teens that I realized that some people are very sheltered from these ideas that I had always considered normal.  From the portrayal of the uppity Upton family in the film, I’d rather go on safari with Auntie Mame any day than have a daiquiri that replaces rum with honey.

“Live!  Life’s a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death!”

Slumdog Millionaire

Who would have ever imagined such a great film coming off the basis of a cheesy game show like Who Wants to be a Millionaire?  The story is about a modern day underdog about to go for the final question.  Since he’s an uneducated young man from the slums of Mumbai, it’s assumed he cheated.  But the film gives the audience a chance to decide on their own, and opens the film asking them How did he do it?  Our choices are a) He Cheated b) He was Lucky c) He’s a Genius and d) It is written.  We won’t know the answer until the end.

The men running the game show have already locked in their answer: a) He Cheated.  They brutally interrogate Jamal (Dev Patel), demanding to know how he got the answers.  As they look back at the tape, we see a chapter of Jamal’s life as it relates to how he knew the answer to each question.

We are taken back to Jamal’s childhood in the slums with his older brother Salim (Madhur Mittal).  These images of children running through the slums, flashes of color and light, drums beating faster than their bare feet and the camera moving as uninhibited as these children are amazing.  It’s a piece of film making that feels revolutionary and uplifting, even as these children are faced with some of the harshest conditions.

The film lets us easily understand Jamal’s life, something I wasn’t expecting given the global and social differences.  We see his crowded classroom, where there is not much learning.  We see the violence that leaves him and Salim orphaned.  We see him meet Latika (Freida Pinto), forge a bond with her at an early age and then have to leave her for survival.  The story is not told or explained to us, which is perfect because Jamal is a quiet young man, not the type to narrate much.  What is shown is to put the pieces together and it make perfect sense.

As the story grows closer to the present, we see that Jamal’s reason to go on the show is not for the money, but to reach out to Latika, who has fallen under circumstances that can’t allow them to be together.  I’d rather not spoil anymore of the wonderful plot.

One of the greatest things about this film, is that it leaves you energized, happy and wanting to dance along to the ending credits.  With Slumdog’s recent winning predecessors (No Country for Old Men, The Departed, Crash) feeling like gloomy downers, this is a great change of pace.  Rather than sticking a finger in the the wounds of our world, it’s like a fresh band-aid after a skinned knee.

But some people don’t like this film because of the harsh situations the children are seen in.  Even worse, some of the child actors were really from the slums of India and after filming went right back.  It’s a very sad reality, both on and off screen.  Nevertheless, I hope you see Slumdog Millionaire, for the spectacular narrative style of Danny Boyle, to believe that a story centered around a game show can be satisfying and to gain more global perspective for many children in India.

“If it wasn’t for Rama and Allah, I’d still have a mother.”