WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

[feaito]

Deborah Kerr is superb in "Tea and Sympathy" (1956), out of this world. I love this actress.

[JackFavell]

I think she is much better in it than in some of her more well received roles, like From Here to Eternity. I like her immensely here.

[feaito]

I agree Wendy she gives a complex, multilayered, subtle, sensitive performance. What a great portrayal!

[charliechaplinfan]

I brought a handful of films with me to France, one being History Was Made at Night, I loved this film the first time I watched it and thought unashamedly romantic, on second viewing I still love it, it's everything I remember it to be. In the realms of romantic movies it's at the top along with a few other Borzage films I could mention, some might think it over the top not me. Charles Boyer could make love to any woman on screen and be completely believable, Jean Arthur is his perfect girl, her voice, which I love is less up and down in this film and her performance the straightest I've seen having only seen her in screwball comedies and Only Angel Have Wings.

[JackFavell]

History is Made at Night is a movie I am longing to see - just for the voices alone. Swoon!

I find that the more I watch classic movies of the thirties and forties, the more I realize that casting seemed to be largely about vocal characterizations. In an era of radio, I guess this is not so far-fetched an idea.

Imagine Talk of the Town or Casablanca with other voice leads!!!! Or think of Ball of Fire without Henry Travers, Oskar Homolka, Richard Haydn, S. Z. Sakall, Tully Marshall, Aubrey Mathers, Leonid Kinskey and Allen Jenkins' voices. Not to mention Dana Andrews and Dan Duryea.

This is yet another reason why I am not happy with films today. They have no idea of rhythm or the pleasing qualities of two voices, evenly matched, but charmingly different.

[feaito]

"History is Made at Night" (1937) is easily one of the most unique films I have ever seen. It blends drama, disaster, adventure, comedy, romance...I must revisit it again sometime (I'm glad my VCR still works, because I have it on VHS). I wish it was released on DVD.

I wrote this back in 2003 when I first saw the film:

Upon knowing this movie featured Charles Boyer and, especially, Jean Arthur, I expected a light romantic comedy, but what I got was much more...

First of all, this is a powerful romantic film, directed by one of Hollywood's masters of Romance, Frank Borzage. Jean Arthur stars as Irene Veil, in a role different from the usual stuff we expect from her.... she portrays this character, sensitively, luminously, almost with an ethereal quality, but at the same time very humanly. She's simply terrific.

Charles Boyer, is great as Paul Dumond, a headwaiter who falls madly in love with her, and after watching him in this 1937 film, one understands why he became the continental lover per-se, the epitome of the romantic and sensitive hearthrob.

There's wonderful chemistry between the two leads, sadly they never worked together again.

The picture also features outstanding performances by Colin Clive (star of "Frankenstein" and "The Bride of Frankenstein"), who plays Bruce Veil, Arthur's megalomaniac husband, and Leo Carrillo, who impersonates wonderfully a Chef who's Boyer's best friend.

Apart from being a romantic film, this movie has very dramatic moments indeed, but at the same time has fine lightweit comic touches, here and there.

In all a great poetic & ultimately romantic melodrama, with comedy touches, featuring a very warm and credible love story, between two human beings, who meet by chance. Great!!!

[moira finnie]

I'm so glad that you had a chance to see History Is Made At Night, CCfan and Fernando.

I know many people don't like the changes in tone that occur throughout the movie, but that is fairly typical Borzage, shifting from domestic drama to full on romance to questioning why we are here on earth. (I love that about his movies). I think that this may be Jean Arthur's most delicate and open romantic performance. Charles Boyer brings something different out in her and the two of them have great chemistry. I wish that more people could see this movie, since it, Private Worlds, Tovarich, Back Street with Margaret Sullavan, Hold Back the Dawn, and Cluny Brown are the movies* that really make me understand why this actor was so popular as a leading man in the '30s and '40s--and none of the movies I've named are readily available on commercial DVD or even VHS in North America--much less shown on tv.

I particularly like the playful dialogue scene between Boyer and Arthur in the taxi and shortly after they arrive at the restaurant, just after meeting--when they finally introduce themselves!

I'm so glad that you enjoyed Colin Clive in this role since it was, I believe, his last. I thought Clive's character was such a tragic figure, consumed and destroyed by his need to control others. The actor played it unstintingly, never letting his character lose his drive throughout the movie or permitting the audience to feel pity for this tortured character, though that is exactly what I felt by the time of the end.

I also love Leo Carillo throughout this movie. He was such a delightful actor in just about everything and never fails to be entertaining. I particularly like him in this movie because he grounds Boyer, acting as a sounding board for him and as a catalyst Did you know that he came from one of the original families that settled California? I'm sure that our West Coast members know much more about him, (he left large land holdings to the state, which is now a state park near Malibu).

If anyone wants to see History Is Made at Night, it can be seen on youtube, beginning below:

[youtube][/youtube]

*I don't really care for Love Affair (1939), though I guess most people like it.

[JackFavell]

Oh gosh, it's on youtube! Thanks Moira.

I have not ever really liked Love Affair either, but it has grown on me over the last couple of years, thanks to Boyer. And to me, it is miles better than it's fifties counterpart in which I only like the villa.

[knitwit45]

Ah, Jackie, I knew we'd finally reach a sticking point...
I don't care for Love Affair, CB or no CB. Irene Dunne is just so brittle and shallow, I can't get past that. An Affair to Remember, on the other hand....wowsers. One of my all time most favorite movies. I get drippy eyed every time I hear the music....

[JackFavell]

Ugh.

I agree that Irene is brittle. She is not my favorite actress, but I have come to appreciate her over time. There are a couple of movies I even like her in, like I Remember Mama, Theodora Goes Wild, and Penny Serenade.

I like Deborah in this, I like Cary, I like the villa. I hate children singing, endless reprises of children singing, crippled teachers, and sappy endings. I guess the best I can say is the stars are good, and I wish I lived in a villa somewhere in Hollywood's version of France or Italy. I bet we can agree on that!

[mrsl]

.
Knitwit and Jack:

Where were you two a few months ago when I was saying exactly what you just said in your posts? I felt like the lonely orphan because everyone else thought Irene Dunne was so perfect but to me Deborah and Cary ARE Terry and Nicky. I will admit the color and the sets add to my love of this movie, but I think even in B&W I would adore it. The repartee between Cary and Deb as their characters is far more realistic than any of the previous, or following pairs. I always said that Warren Beatty had a nerve trying to play the same part as anything originated by Cary Grant. His 'charm' didn't hold a candle to Cary's. I painted a picture years ago, and I have re-done it over and over because I am lacking something in the original but cannot achieve it. I believe Leo McCarey knew he could get an all around better movie with different stars and convinced the studio to let him re-do his own movie.
.

[charliechaplinfan]

I think Charles Boyer is a very good actor but can't see him bringing the men into the cinemas unless they were accompanying their women folk.

I'd love to see those films you've talked about Moira, I have Tovarich but the others just aren't easy to get hold of. When I return from holiday I will start a thread on Charles Boyer, I don't think we've had one. I know Wendy has pictures for a thread I love Liliom, Mayerling and Madame De too. He worked with some of the most talented women in Hollywood too, many of whom got Oscar nominations when they played opposite him.

When it comes to Love Affair versus An Affair to Remember I prefer the later simply because I warm to Deborah Kerr more. When it comes to Cary Grant or Charles Boyer I can't chose between them.

[feaito]

I prefer "Love Affair" (1939) to "An Affair to Remember" (1956), which does not mean that I am also very fond of the remake and of Ms. Kerr and Cary Grant (of course), and I enjoy immensely Irene Dunne's performances. Her pairing with Cary Grant in "Penny Serenade" (1941) is one of the most beautiful I've seen on the screen. Such a perfect, touching film.

As for Charles Boyer I have not yet seen "Hold Back the Dawn" (1941) -I have it on tape somewhere- but I saw him in "Private Worlds" (1935), a very interesting movie which deals with the treatment of mental illness, in which Boyer, McCrea and Colbert play psychiatrists and Joan Bennett plays McCrea's wife and if I recall well she has a powerful scene in which she has a nervous breakdown...I think that along with "The Snake Pit" (1948) and "The Cobweb" (1955) -in which Boyer is also cast, it is one of the few films of Classic Hollywood that I have seen, that tackles the subject of mental insanity. I remember that Boyer and Colbert were very fine in it; Helen Vinson was also featured. "Back Street" (1941) is a beautifully acted tearjerker by the always luminous and talented Maggie Sullavan with Charles Boyer at the peak of his popularity and probably superior than the 1932 original film with Dunne and Boles and of course much, much better than the Susan Hayward remake.

Today I watched the Blu-ray edition of Polanski's "The Ninth Gate" (1999) -it's the 3rd or fourth time I watch the film- and I enjoyed it as if I had never seen it before. I know it's not one of Polanski's best and it hasn't the best reviews, but I can't helping loving the film and its mysterious subject matter -the search of a book written by the devil himself.

[JackFavell]

feaito - I'm with you. mrsl, I don't think I made it very clear, I still like Love Affair better. But I am simply not a fifties person. I am more of a thirties gal.

[feaito]

I'm a thirties guy too! My favorite decade. Then, a tie between the twenties and the forties. Then come the '50s.