davidgsheehan-1 Reviews

The Member of the Wedding (1952)

A perfect film in every department.

[10/10 · 20 May 2004]

Harry Cohn loathed this film -what greater recommendation could there be? In fact Columbia had no idea what to do with this masterpiece -just read the publicity department's tag-line (A Girl Becomes a Woman in the Middle of a Kiss !)and see their original poster with a mature woman with a Louise Brooks hair style fending off the drunken soldier who in the movie attempts to kiss 12 year old Frankie when she runs away. Stanley Kramer makes up for every lousy movie he directed (i.e. his complete oeuvre) by PRODUCING this masterpiece. It is director Fred Zinneman's favorites of all his films -and no wonder! It doesn't put a foot wrong. It has two of the most remarkable female performances put on celluloid; Julie Harris (in her late twenties as a twelve year old trying to understand and come to terms with her feelings of alienation "(she) was a member of nothing in the World.....and she was afraid") and Ethel Waters as Berenice, only too aware of the reasons for her sense of aloneness, settling her need to love on two white children and a black youth,all three of whom she loses. There are three main characters in this Kitchen Piece. It would be wrong to ignore the contribution of a child actor of genius: Brandon de Wilde as Frankie's grave little cousin John Henry West.It is impossible to imagine a more perfect cast to bring this most difficult of novels and play to the screen. It looks as if this movie is at last available on video( in the States at least ) I already have a copy taped from the Box. For me it is the ONE essential film to own -when a DVD is available I shall be first in the queue to buy it- surely a CD of Alex North's beautiful score cannot be far behind!

This film is the litmus by which I judge the taste of all new acquaintances -if they haven't watched it with a shock of recognition and don't connect with Carson McCuller's genius and profound humanity, then I don't want to be a member of any club they might belong to!!

A Double Life (1947)

Cukor Noir; Betsy runs of with film with 2min "bit"

[30 April 2004]

Cukor and the Kanins made some great films in the late forties especially "The Marrying Kind", a sort of remake, if only in theme, of Vidor's "The Crowd". This isn't in that league, but is well worth looking at, even if you aren't a Cukor completist-(I don't think he ever made an uninteresting film-he even prevented the MGM Romeo&Juliet from being a total disaster).Coleman's Oscar is a career award and he is never less than watchable his Othello is almost as ludicrous as Olivier's-but without the misconceived genius. Kraner's lighting and Rosza's score are, unsurprisingly, first class, and there is terrific support from Edmund O'Brien and a young Shelley Winters. But the knockout turn comes from Betsy Blair as an over-eager auditionee,who runs through the gamut of emotions in 20seconds flat! Bardem cast her in "Calle Mayor" not because of her recent triumph in "Marty" but because he remembered her in this tiny cameo.O.K.so it's no masterpiece but Hollywood films of the period often had little gems like this embedded in them.