With a name like Jean Boucheron (or Pierre in the original play by Ivor Novello), the jewel thief could only be a Parisian womaniser—pretty much the definition of a male pin-up—and who else would be the guy to play him but Walbrook? Things happen like Boucheron acquiring a young and guileless ward who he may have kissed (René Ray), intense crotch grabbing fights, getting involved with socialite Zelia de Chaumomt (Ruth Chatterton), falling through floorboards, murder, the dooziest courtroom trial……
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Dangerous Moonlight 1941
A moody, melodramatic piece of British propaganda to coax the US to get their backsides into WWII during WWII… Richard Addinsell’s Warsaw Concerto soars in place of Rachmaninov* as Anton Walbrook’s dreamboat of a Polish pianist prodigy turned RAF, Stefan Radetzky has a 90 minute long flashback of falling in love with Sally Gray’s wobbly American accented New Yorker journalist, Carol Peters, performing and flying. At the helm was Brian Desmond Hurst; on costume, Cecil Beaton and the story churned…
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Gaslight 1940
Bella Mallen (Diana Wynward) is a seemingly naive, weak-minded woman from Exmouth, Devonshire—a detail I picked up on because the film focuses on her current, unhappy time in London with her sly, treacherous husband Paul (Anton Walbrook) who’s constantly trying to undermine her for real reasons like the fact he may very well be a conniving, murderous gem addict cough. There appears to be a subtle implication that Bella is simple, that she doesn’t know better about city life because…
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Bigger Than Life 1956
While Sirk was busy picking away the shiny veneer of American society—finding trouble in paradise—Ray deep dives into the picture perfect image of the 1950s American nuclear family and specifically the American man, buckling under conservative societal pressures. Mason plays an overworked school teacher/cab dispatcher in secret, who ends up addicted to cortisone (the 21st century viewer might just guffaw but okay). Taking the drug breaks the surface, exposing the ugliness underneath: the complacency of the period and how conservative…
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