Movie review - "Frances" (1982) **

 Key teammembers  behind Elephant Man - the writers, the producer, Mel Brooks - try another biopic, and it should be great (Frances Farmer) and there are elements of greatness (the performances of Jessica Lange and Kim Stanley) but it's boring. And annoying. And darkly lit.

The Sam Shepherd character is annoying - not real and he kept popping up to say things. It's never clear why Farmer is collapsing just that she has a bad time and has a bit of a mouth on her.

I think the filmmakers didn't "get" her. So they do "nightmarish" scenes - Frances cracking up, going nuts in the shower, being lobotomised. How is it her parents' fault?

Comes alive during the Clifford Odets bit. 

 

Movie review - "Son of Fury" (1942) ***

Adaptation of a best seller, crafted into a star vehicle for Tyrone Power. He's very handsome and dashing and all that. Fox made sure this was a hit - dependable Phil Dunne did the script, John Cromwell directed, George Sanders offered support, there's decent production value Gene Tierney is a native girl and Frances Farmer the fake love interest.

Dunne does a solid job - there's three acts and a prologue, with Roddy McDowall excellent as young Tyrone. The piece has a theme, too - the injustice of laws that so favour the nobility. Act two is an idyllic life in Tahiti with Power romancing Tierney - I really liked how he was allowed to go back with her at the end, she didn't even have to turn out to be white or anything. I liked McDowall for not wrecking Henry Davenport's life by running off.

George Sanders does his Sanders thing well. In the opening scene he takes his shirt off for a boxing match - the most physical role Sanders ever played? No hiding those man boobs. It's not that satisfying Power grows up to beat up old Sanders - I mean, he is pretty old.

John Carradine livens things up as Power's friend. Frances Farmer was good value too as the fake love interest - she actually seems interested in what she's acting.

Movie review - "Ebb Tide" (1937) **

Henry Hathaway was meant to direct this but he was delayed on Souls at Sea which is a shame because he would have brought some much needed vigour. James Hogan doesn't do a very good job.

The basic story is very strong - it's based on a novel by Robert Louis Stevenson. But it badly lacks excitement and pace. There's a storm sequence but it's not very well done. The one effective moment is when the three main guys arrive on the island and meet Lloyd Nolan. The climax is forgettable the action undercooked.

Oscar Homolka is extremely irritating in his first Hollywood movie - I wonder why producers were so keen on him? Ray Milland is fine in a whatever part. Barry Fitzgerald is solid. Frances Farmer seems bored in her role - I get she was unhappy in Hollywood but I get the sense she's phoning it in a bit here. It's not a great role (her character is mostly a nag, she's mostly there to hang off Milland's arm) but she could have done better.

The one actor who really nails it is Lloyd Nolan, who is strong and creepy as the deranged island ruler. But the film isn't up to him.

Movie review - "South of Pago Pago" (1940) ***

Silly, fun South Sea movie which gave an early role for Jon Hall after his Hurricane stardom. There's also a choice lead role for Frances Farmer, who had previously been in another South Seas tale - Ebb Tide. This is a little reminiscent of that and also The  Hurricane and Come and Get It with Farmer. As in that latter film Farmer is a saloon gal who falls in with some shady types - Victor McLaglen and Douglas Dumbrille. They go to an island to steal pearls and Farmer romances the local chief's son, Hall.

In a way this is quite progressive movie - Frances is clearly sexually experienced, she marries Hall and they have sex. Of course she's got to be punished for her misdeeds and gets shot but is heroic. The natives are initially fooled by the visitors but then they turn on them - kill them off, sometimes brutally, and leave a warning sign against any foreigners.

The film loses pace in the middle when it's a lot of Farmer and Hall hanging around but picks up at the end. It probably needed a subplot in to help out - McLaglen and Dumbrille feel wasted. Maybe a love triangle?

Movie review - "Come and Get It" (1936) ***

Howard Hawks didn't always collaborate peacefully with Sam Goldwyn (to put it bluntly) but there's a lot of fun to be had in this adaptation of Edna Ferber's novel, especially in the first third, with spectacular photography of the logging industry (trees crashing down, things being blown up, snow capped mountains, etc), fun and games with Edward Arnold and Walter Brennan palling around in a saloon with Frances Farmer. But then Arnold goes off to marry a rich man's daughter, we jump forward twenty or so years and the action slows down. You can see what's going to happen (Farmer's daughter will fall for Arnold's son Joel McCrea) so you're just watching it all play out.

Arnold wasn't a typical movie hero, being very large and imposing - indeed, he only enjoyed a few years as a leading man before being shunted off to character parts - but he's effective here. He has drive and passion - you can buy that sassy Farmer would be interested in him. Farmer is great in the double role, especially as the singer - tough, sexy, lonesome, longing, etc. Joel McCrea impresses as Arnold's son - I aways remembered the "hey dad I've invented this thing it's called a paper cup" scene. There are nice scenes between Arnold and his daughter, Andrea Leeds (who reminded me of Olivia de Havilland). She marries some handsome lunk, Frank Shields, who they might have been experimenting as a star in waiting - I googled him, he was a tennis player. He acts like one. Walter Brennan is effective in his role as a very dim friend (he never seems to realise Arnold wants to bang his daughter).

William Wyler reshot lots of this after Sam Goldwyn expressed disapproval with the cut. There are some "Hawksian bits" e.g. early banter between Joel McCrea and Frances Farmer over making candy - which might have been directed by Wyler. Some of the soft lighting close ups of Farmer towards the end feel very Wyler.

Radio review – Lux – “Come and Get It” (1937) ***

Fun adaptation of the Howard Hawks film – I remember the first act of the film more vividly than the second and third, with it’s timber footage and fine old brawls in taverns involving Edward Arnold, Frances Farmer and Walter Brennan (the two guys re-appear with Anne Shirley standing in for Farmer). But actually on radio the second half holds up still pretty good too – I forgot the moving character of Arnold’s wife, who he married for money, and what a bitch the Farmer/Shirley daughter character became. The story deals with one of the great archetype themes – the regret that you married the wrong person. De Mille gives the Edward Arnold life story at the beginning - I had no idea he had such a tough up-bringing.

Radio review – Lux#136 – “British Agent” (1936) **

Errol Flynn steps into the shoes of Leslie Howard in this adaptation of the 1934 thriller about life of a British agent during the Russian Revolution. It’s interesting to hear Errol in a role he didn’t essay on the screen; the main flaw of this isn’t his fault – it’s about a person who doesn’t really do much apart from sit around during the Revolution, and when he does do something (try to stop Russia quitting the war, kill Lenin) he fails. We’re used to Errol kicking more arse than this.

But it is interesting, especially the take on Russia – and Frances Farmer plays the Russian commie agent who falls for him. Her performance is mostly an accent, but Frances Farmer and Errol Flynn together is easily interesting enough to carry it through the hour.

In the chat at the end Flynn talks about his injury in the Spanish Civil War and Farmer talk about going back to the stage. De Mille also announces the death of Jean Harlow.