To understand why this film was made, you need to know that Wallace Beery was once a film star: Beery was a beefy, big actor who specialised in playing lovable lunks who got up to comic antics with character actors and cute kids; often there was a woman who wanted to marry him. He had the vibe of James Gandolfini - Robert Newton wasn't dissimilar. Anyway for a long time his act was very popular and he was often ranked in the top ten box office stars in the US and MGM originally developed this story as a vehicle for Beery.
It's an original story but I'd love to know where the writers got their inspiration - I have a theory it might be the tale of Digger Tovell, a French orphan adopted by diggers during WW1 who was smuggled to Australia and grew up to be a young man (tragically dying in a car accident). If it wasn't that exactly it probably was a similar real life tale.
This is about Jocko Wilson, an Aussie digger who at the end of the war decides to smuggle to Belgian orphans back to Australia and raise them as his own. Then the film leaps forward twenty years or so and the kids are grown up - the girl is sent to finishing school, the boy is a boxer.
The subsequent plot goes all over the shop, in a manner reminiscent of more than a few MGM star vehicles (Jean Harlow's later movies come to mind) with it's feel of a producer going "oh we should add this... and that... and I saw this movie last night and it was great and we should put that in as well."
The boy/man, called Nipper, participates in a big fight and wins but is injured; his winnings enable Jocko to buy a pub in the country... really Australia's north, thus enabling it to be bombed by the Japanese when the Pacific War starts; the girl and boy have hots for each other but can't do anything about it because they think they're related; an American journalist sniffs around the girl but her "brother" jealously punches him out; there are some Catholic Priests near the pub ("quick, Catholic priests are popular, put that in"); a barmaid abandoned by Jocko in France turns up to torment him; World War Two starts and Jocko tries to enlist but is too old and unhealthy, so joins the Land Army; then the Pacific War starts and the pub is turned into an orphanage (I think) which is bombed by Japanese and the Japanese crash and some pilots attack the orphanage ("quick Mrs Miniver had them fight off enemy pilots put that in") but luckily Jocko and Nipper turn up and help fight off the Japanese (along with their friend Ginger who machine guns one to death!); Nipper and the girl discover they're not blood relatives and hook up; Jocko gets a commission in the army thanks to the intervention of the former barmaid.
It's a complete mess really, with the film never settling on what it wants to be about. I felt the real focus should have been on Jocko smuggling the kids back into Australia - there's a movie in just that - but that was only the starting point. There's all this narrative, the big romance plot being yucky because most of the time Nipper and the girl believe they're related but still want to hump each other. I so didn't want them to get together.
Still it is a perfect role for Wallace Beery - ex boxer, brave, rowdy, tough, prone to brawling, irreverent, running away from a woman who wants to marry him (the Marie Dressler part), doing lots of schtick with kids and dodgy mates, gambling, running pubs, mugging.
The only problem is Charles Laughton plays the role. Now Laughton was a brilliant actor, and his Aussie accent attempt here isn't bad, and he makes a decent rogue. But he's never convincing as an ex boxer, or successful former soldier (I know Laughton was one in real life but he doesn't look like the tough two fisted hero described here). Throughout the whole movie he feels like a superb performer who is miscast.
Binnie Barnes isn't that much chop in a part which required a more obvious ham like Elsa Lanchester or Gracie Fields or Marjorie Main. Richard Carlson and Donna Reed are good though as the grown up version of Laughton's kids - Carlson had an engaging presence and Reed was always beautiful and likeable in her films. (I'm surprised they didn't cast Shilrey Ann Richards, then under contract at MGM.) Clyde Cook is Laughton's mate.
No one has a decent Aussie accent though people do try - mostly people sound cockney, though the priests are Irish. For Aussies this is fascinating because of it's depiction of Australia and Australians - most of the movie is set in Australia: Melbourne at first, where Jocko has a pub, then where Nipper fights his bout, then somewhere in north Australia. We get to see some pubs, a boxing venue, the country, lots of priests.
Dramatically it's a mess. There are lots of good actors and decent production values so it's easy to watch. Historically it's fascinating. (And you know something, at least Hollywood made a film set in Australia during the war - Australians hardly ever did).
(Side note - I think MGM were attracted making a movie set in Australia because Australia got bombed.)
No comments:
Post a Comment