No movies yesterday, which is fine, because we went out to B-Dubs for my "birthday" dinner. Per usual, we gorged and still brought some home. Then, because of work and a glut of food, I did nothing but lounge around and read. I finished The Abstinence Teacher, a work from the author of the mediocre Election (the movie was better) and the better Little Children (though the movie was still better than the novel).
I'm going to open up this particular movie review with a little-known fact about myself: I really love the actor Fredric March. My opinion is that for a two-time Oscar winner, he doesn't get discussed enough among the pantheon of great acting. Now, up to this point, my opinion of his ability is based on the 2.5 movies I'd seen him in: Anna Karenina, the good Inherit the Wind, and the first half of The Best Years of Our Lives (a movie I was really enjoying before I had to turn it off and still haven't gotten back to...10 years later. LOL. This will be one of the 365). And, I don't mind saying, had I been living at the time, I would certainly have found him among the dreamiest of actors (though he's not exceptional looking). As it is, I have a bit of a crush on him. It's cool that he was cute 79 years ago, right?
As for the movie, it's a good thing someone as capable as March was in it, playing both parts, because he saved it from being an overwrought, melodramatic schlockfest. Also, director Rouben Mamoulian's use of POV shots, especially at the beginning of the movie, certainly seem avant garde, and, far from distracting the viewer, enhance his/her perspective. He also uses diagonals to show simultaneous scenes (think Pillow Talk, but diagonal), but does it in a way that we can appreciate the juxtaposition instead of write it off as cheesy and unnecessary.
We are treated to a very distinct Jekyll and Hyde: Jekyll (pronounced jee'-cull) is consumed by both science (and his idea that the soul can be split into two parts: the good side and the bad side) and his love for his fiancée, Muriel (who is just awful, but I digress). He has a pleasant disposition, and March imbues the character with soft smiles to accentuate the sumptuous and highfalutin dialogue the character is given. At one point, he sits on a park bench to watch a bird singing. Aww. But when the bird is mauled by a cat, Hyde emerges. This is the first time we see that Jekyll is not capable of controlling this alter ego and that it doesn't require his consuming a potion to transmogrify anymore. This, as you can imagine, leads to complication.
Hyde, on the other hand, is truly a brute. The first scene in which we witness him, he follows a pretty guttersnipe to a bar and proceeds to trip and beat his server with a cane. He then calls the woman over and thus begins her servitude to him. He beats and whips her and veritably destroys her emotionally, reading her mind and telling her her own thoughts (the devil's work, it is) and asserting his hold over her. These performances are truly the great parts of the movie. Thank goodness Mamoulian recognizes this and revolves the movie around his Oscar-winning performance, and thus saves it from intense mediocrity.
Score: 8.5/10
I love Fredric March, too! You HAVE to finish The Best Years of Our Lives. It is such a phenomenal movie.
ReplyDeleteI'd also like to recommend Middle of the Night. March plays a middle-aged man who falls in love with a woman who's half his age (Kim Novak). It's not a favorite of mine, but if you love March, I think you'll enjoy it. I think he's fantastic in that movie.
I love this blog idea. I might give it a try one of these years!