Movie review - "An American Romance" (1944) **

Such was King Vidor's prestige in 1944 that MGM let him spend $3 million on this dull epic without insisting on stars or conflict on the plot. I know he wanted Spencer Tracy but surely there was someone more interesting on the payroll rather than Brian Donlevy - who is not only dull but embarrassing at times as the migrant who moves to America and rises up the industrial ladder. His rise is very slow at first - he's dim, becomes obsessed with steel - and also lacking much interest. He romances a teacher (Ann Richards - formerly Shirley Ann Richards, Aussie actor), they fall in love pretty quick and although he's obsessed with work and they lose a son to the inevitable war, their marriage is pretty good. Then when he's middle aged he becomes rich making cars.

You wait for something to happen - infidelity, Donlevy to go drunk on power, his son to go off the rails, a daughter turning into a slut, divorce... something. But it doesn't. There's an exciting scene where Donlevy nearly falls in some malten liquid and some conflict in the last half hour when his son tries to unionise the workers (they are very polite about it but it's still striking to see some vague pro-union propaganda in an MGM film) but that's about it. Donlevy retires, gets bored, but luckily Pearl Harbour comes along and he has to go back to work... is that supposed to be interesting? Did MGM really think Joe Public would be so patriotic they'd want to see this?

The Power and the Glory covered similar territory but a lot more things happened - marriages busted off, Spencer Tracy went crazy, there was a suicide. None of that here. All we get is some indifferent acting, bad European accents, a flat cast (hardly anyone is in familiar in this - the guys who plays the sons are all dull ditto Donley's daughter), and lots and lots of shots of industrial production. Richards, so engaging and spritely in her Australian films, isn't very good here - but then she doesn't have a character to play. (Why does she like Donlevy? Doesn't she have an opinion about anything?)

This was apparently cut down greatly by the studio - half an hour lopped off. I shudder to think of the long version.