CHARLES BOYER

[Rita Hayworth]

I'd love to have seen a frisky comedy with Charles Boyer and Paulette Goddard. One of my favourite pictures is Cluny Brown with the delightful Jennifer Jones, I could watch it again and again and always with the same delight.

Same Here ... Cluny Brown ... seen it 3 times last year and I love this movie with the same delight as you CCFan!

[movieman1957]

Try "Tovarich" with Boyer and Claudette Colbert. (I'm sure it's been mentioned before.)

[charliechaplinfan]

I just love the scene where he's wearing the shirt Claudette has cut up for dusters, even in a snipped up shirt he looks dignified.

[JackFavell]

Ha! isn't that the truth?

I really love Tovarich, it's a big favorite. So is Cluny. What I like most about Tovarich is the way that Boyer flips so easily into drama at the end with Basil Rathbone. His dislike of the man is palpable.

[Rita Hayworth]

Try "Tovarich" with Boyer and Claudette Colbert. (I'm sure it's been mentioned before.)

It's has and its a masterpiece ... I love it.

[charliechaplinfan]

I haven't watched a Boyer picture in a whole month, it needs to be remedied

[JackFavell]

The best medicine.

[charliechaplinfan]

I watched The Magnificient Lie today, made in 1931 starring Ralph Bellamy and Ruth Chatterton. Boyer played a really oily character and had less hair in this role than in any of his later movies, still unmistakeably Boyer though, with the accent. At this point his english wasn't good although you wouldn't know from the film, his friend Francoise Rosay is in the cast playing her role to the hilt.

[JackFavell]

AAAAH!I found it on youtube and I can't watch it for another 2 or 3 days!

[CineMaven]

Oh wow! I am so SO glad you loved this movie! I just didn't know whether you would like it or not - the one thing that gave me hope was that you loved The Constant Nymph.

Aaaaaah "THE CONSTANT NYMPH." I can't say I'd watch that movie over and over and over again. But my first time seeing it I was profoundly shaken.

SPOILERS...ARE MADE AT NIGHT

I'm thinking that Jean fell for Colin Clive sort of like Barbara Bel Geddes fell for Robert Ryan in Caught. Here is a big rich powerful Howard Hughes-ish man, who is willing to throw money at you, will do anything to possess you, and I am quite sure such singular attention was flattering at first.

Good call. In "CAUGHT" we see what the inside of that type of marriage looks like. Not pretty. Be careful what you wish for girls.

Don't we all want a man who will do anything for us?

Yep. But in which of our fifty states IS that man? And may I have him delivered C.O.D.?

He WAS dapper, confident behind the desk, but I found something vulnerable in his character... I absolutely love the look on his face when he thinks the ship has gone down... and how he turns to go into that inner office to....well. you know. There is such self loathing in Clive's performance, I couldn't help but feel sorry for him. He would never know that kind of love that Irene and Paul would know, and it was his own fault.

You're a better fan than I am, Mahatma. I just couldn't abide Bruce. But I hope he sent his soul to a far far better place.

...Borzage handles the changeover at the very end so well, it's not trite. I believe this movie at every turn, thanks to Borzage's gentle transitions and the truth of his characters reactions. I stood there in front of the TV watching Paul trying to find Irene, Irene struggling to stay on the boat, the two talking quietly about nothing as the band played Nearer My God to Thee, and finally as they are suddenly rescued.... well, let me just say my face was a lot cleaner after the movie than at the beginning! I call it at least a 6 kleenex movie...

I agree...it is a six-kleenex movie. As I wrote earlier, after my supreme shock of seeing Bruce willing to scuttle the S.S.Minnow a la Titanic, to see Paul & Irene's struggle over the lifeboat was heart-wrenching. I burst into tears right then and there on the spot! I gotta tell ya, that surprised the heck out of me. And Boyer's intensity during that scene was palpable.

What I love about Boyer is how invested he is in his characters. When Paul is screaming at Irene to get on the lifeboat, he commits so totally, it's extremely romantic and moving. Oh golly! He's a wonder, isn't he? And I think this is why I come back to him over and over again, as my top romantic idol, because he's an actor first.... there is never NEVER a doubt that he will be not only believable, but fascinating to watch. He's incomparable - the most romantic, the most handsome, the most debonair, if that is called for, and the most...well.... deep. He's got this light touch, but underneath he's just ...deep. Ya know?

You and Allison both have expressive descriptions of the Boyer screen persona. And now...now I fear you have both pulled me away from my beloved fellow-Capricorn: CARY GRANT. Seeing Boyer here, reading what you guys wrote, I fear that Cary is but a beautiful mannequin now. Oh sure, pick me up and carry me out like he did Ingrid Bergman in "NOTORIOUS." But Grant doesn't seem as intense...as emotional. And believe me...I love Cary Grant. Okay Allison, is this a British male thing. Can you speak up for British men as opposed to French men???

I am really happy that you are going to investigate Jean Arthur, T. She's one of my favorites, I absolutely love her in Mr. Deeds, Easy Living, The Plainsman, The Whole Town's Talking, Mr. Smith, The More the Merrier, and The Devil and Miss Jones. Lately, what knocks my socks off is Arthur's figure! In this movie and The More the Merrier, she's just got a killer gorgeous figure, and yet, she's always playing these women who are shy, or straitlaced, or are career oriented. Frankly, I just like her way with a line the best of almost anyone, except maybe Myrna Loy or Vivien Leigh. Listening to her and Thomas Mitchell together is like listening to a symphony. More and more, I think vocal range is what draws me to actors and actresses - I think you clued me in to that, when you made a list of actors voices that you liked over at the other website.

You've mentioned a slew of movies there Wendy that I have seen. Well sort of. I wasn't seeing them with a full appreciation of Jean, so I'd have to see 'em again. I did this montage video years ago of women fighting in the movies...and I did use a clip from "THE PLAINSMAN" where I think Jean hits Cooper with a whip. I've got to check out the films I recorded that day they showed Arthur's movies.

T - Have you seen Hold Back the Dawn? Now really there is a picture you have to see, now that you've become a Boyer fan.

I saw it many many years ago.

She and Boyer in this movie are light, but Boyer brings out something very soft and subdued in Arthur, that I don't think she really ever achieved with anyone else. She's very lovely here, and I do believe it has to do with the man she's with.

Ha! Doesn't it always?

I would have loved to see him do more films with either Jean or Olivia, can you imagine the possibilities? I think they are both great actresses, but they each have a femininity that seems so soft and vulnerable with him.... he brings out the quieter side in some actresses I believe, the introspective and the giving. It's nice to see. It might have been nice to see him in another film with Paulette Goddard as well, I would love to see them in a frisky comedy.

Paulette Goddard is my girl. She can bring out anything in a man. I think she is a lot of fun.

[CineMaven]

Thank you both of you for your insights into one of my favourite movies of all time. I knew you'd end up a Jean Arthur convert Theresa, once you'd seen this movie (have you seen The More The Merrier?) and a fully fledged member of the Charles Boyer fan club.

Knew I'd be a convert? Ha! You knew more than me. You were surer of my conversion than I. Jean felt like an obligation to me; like someone I was s'posed to like as a classic film fan. But I've seen the light and can't wait to re-explore her. Yes, I have seen "THE MORE THE MERRIER" but I'll really have to revisit it and other films now that my eyes are open to Jean. I actually came away "...Merrier" being astonished by Charles Coburn who I enjoyed. See, I first saw him when I was really young in Bette Davis' "IN THIS OUR LIFE" and ran screaming when I saw his "uncle." (Ewwwwww!) Then I saw him in "KINGS ROW" and wanted to seal him in a tomb. But yes, I am an Arthurian convert (and enjoyed Coburn in "THE CONSTANT NYMPH").

I don't understand why he hasn't got a bigger reputation in the annals of movie history, instead he's a treasured favourite of those of us in the know.

I'm kind of okay with Boyer being our treasured favorite, shamefully admitting I have a selfish streak when it comes to movie stars. Sometimes I want to like who everybody likes and sometimes I want to keep folks to myself.

As a piece of film making HIMAN does not win any awards, the story line is choppy, it veers one way and another but Irene and Paul capture you straight away and you'd go anywhere they go just to make sure they end up together.

I hadn't found the storyline choppy. I thought Borzage shifted gears easily...logically...organically. I found the film flowed well. But I was captured by The Romance of the two leads. (I've been suggesting this movie to everyone as much as a person who has newly found temperance). I do love my "B" lurid fatalistic noir films, and I might seem like a closet romantic here on these Message Boards. But that'd not be a fully accurate self-portrait. For transparency sake, I am a card-carrying, Kleenex-using Romantic.

I have to confess the first time I saw this movie I had no idea where the film was going and I was dreading them going down with the ship and that being their ending. If I had to go down with a ship Paul/Boyer is the man I'd chose.

I'd have been shocked out of my wits if they had gone down with the ship. I think movies of the 30's and 40's had "happy endings" encoded in its celluloid DNA.

Paul is one of my favourite Boyer characters, he has all the Gallic charm along with a self assuredness, romantic nature, the kind of man who would guide a woman through life and love her just for the woman she is. Jean Arthur's characters always have something of the girl next door about them and I love that voice.

I love your description of Charles Boyer. < ( sigh! ) > He sounds dreamy.

Last year I read the biography of Jean Arthur, talking about the making of HIMAN someone on the set had said that the love scenes between the leads were so true and realistic that with any other stars you would have been sure that something was going on after hours but 'not Jean Arthur and certainly not with Charles Boyer' because both had no nonsense reputation who went home to their other halves every night. They were just brilliant actors.

It's heartening to read that Jean and Boyer went home to their respective spouses. Soooooooooooooooo, one CAN have a career in Hollywood and a rich private life. But I also can't believe that kissing Charles Boyer and hearing those words cooed in your ear, with a rich baritoned French accent, wouldn't give a girl pause...

Hold Back the Dawn she shrieks!!!! wowsa, what a film. That one is the one that turned me into a salivating Boyer fan.
He and Olivia De Haviland AND Paulette Goddard......WOWSA!!!!!!!

Salivating. Well THAT is a hearty recommendation.

[JackFavell]

But I also can't believe that kissing Charles Boyer and hearing those words cooed in your ear, with a rich baritoned French accent, wouldn't give a girl pause...

Might give a girl PAWS I think.

[CineMaven]

Might give a girl PAWS I think.

Woof! I mean, HA!

[charliechaplinfan]

I will speak up for British males, particularly Cary Grant because if one man was going to challenge Charles Boyer it would be Cary Grant but I couldn't possibly compare the performance they shared because Boyer was in the original, it was written for him and he starred in it when he was in his prime. It was one of Cary's later films and although he's very good, especially at the end when he realises (isn't that a lesson in screen acting and both men acquit themselves well) I have to hand that competition to Charles Boyer but is partly influenced because I thought Cary got too thin. Now look at Cary in the mid thirties to early fifties and there's no one to match him in the impact of his looks apart from Errol Flynn. The one thing Cary hasn't got is the English accent, which is another thing Errol Flynn has got going for him even though he's not English. In terms of longevity and maintaining his A-list credentials there's not a man to match Cary, in personal terms I'm not sure he was a contented man. Charles Boyer had personal and professional contentment until tragedy over took him.

English actors,we have Charlie Chaplin, can anyone better that? Well, I'm extremely biased. Chaplin and Grant have quite a lot in common in terms of childhood and growing up. Laurence Olivier, Ronald Colman, Robert Donat, all great.

Actors that I could watch in anything

Charles Boyer, Cary Grant, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, Errol Flynn. Two English, two dancers, one French man, one school girl crush that's never gone away, and two great silent comedy stars.

Who do I think is the best actor in my list? In general Charles Boyer but I don't think he could do the completely silly, I mean I don't see him bouncing around in a negligee or sitting with old ladies concentrating whilst knitting. Cary Grant's acting talent is that he makes it look so easy when in fact it can't be.

Peversely being English I like French actors, Boyer heads the list but I'm partial too to Jean Louis Trintignant,Maurice Chevalier, Alain Delon amongst quite a few others. None of them has an accent quite as seductive as Boyer's.

I like how excluse our Boyer club is, enough to be able to talk about him to our hearts content but he's our secret. I don't actually know how Jean Arthur didn't get carried away.

[JackFavell]

That was a lovely comparison, Alison! You make me realize how much I like Cary, and how skillful he was at pretty much anything. Think of Robert Donat (whom I love dearly) doing any Cary grant role... and then you realize how gifted Grant was.

I can see our Charles knitting though! I think about the most comedic I can remember seeing Boyer is in The Happy Time - I still love the scene where he tells his son that the bird he has just gotten for his birthday should be free to fly around the room, and that he knows he is well loved so he won't fly away - he opens the cage and the bird immediately flies out the window! A different kind of comedy, certainly than Grant's but Boyer is just grand nevertheless.

Maven, I haven't seen the Plainsman in years and years, but you make me want to watch it again. That's saying a whole lot since CBD is not my favorite director. I remember Jean as being more beautiful in that movie than any other I can think of, even in her Calamity Jane buckskins and all, plus I LOVE the dress she wears with the ripped sleeve, I like the fur trim on it. Amazing that I even remember such ridiculously girly stuff, but it's stuck in my brain for years.