Berkeley Square & I'll
Never Forget You
Berkeley Square (1933) - 7.5
Director: Frank Lloyd
I sort of have a screen love hate relationship with Leslie Howard. His style
of acting doesn't exist anymore. He was so restrained - delicate - refined
- allowed the quiet moments around him to sink in - underplayed every scene,
could be absolutely commanding at times without raising his voice. His humor
was droll and only the smallest wry smile would cross his mouth. Very English.
Roland Young, Ronald Colman, Michael Redgrave, Michael Wilding all came from
the same school. Less is more. And in some films it was perfect, in others
not so much. When he had an A personality male actor along side him, he sort
of disappeared. In Gone with the Wind Gable blows him away. In The Petrified
Forest he plays this dreamy type full of flowery speeches and when Bogart
shows up as the tough talking Duke Mantee he completely dominates the screen.
As he was meant to. Howard was the much bigger actor at the time but had
refused to do the film unless they hired Bogart who had been in the theatrical
production with Howard. Bogart never forgot and named his daughter after
him. But in films like The Scarlet Pimpernel, Pimpernel Smith and Stand-In
(again with Bogart but in a very different role) Howard is perfect. Brilliant
really. And his role in this film fits him like a glove.
He first played the role on Broadway in 1929 and was a natural selection
when Fox got the rights to it. It was remade in 1951 with Tyrone Power. I
am curious to see how they change it - Power is just such a different kind
of actor. It is a romantic fantasy that doesn't really make any sense to
my logical side but after a while I just stopped worrying about that. There
are some really excellent scenes and recreation of London in the 1780's.
I loved the scene when a party is being thrown and as men enter the house
they stop at a table, bow their heads, have a device put over their faces
and the servant re-powders their wig. Howard is terrific as is Heather Angel
who is probably best remembered for her recurring role in the Bulldog Drummond
films and as one of the sisters in Pride and Prejudice.
The play was apparently based on an unfinished novel by Henry James - so
perhaps he can be blamed for the lack of sense but I expect James wasn't
concerned about that but just used it as a writing device to go into themes
he wanted to. In modern times Howard as Peter Standish has come over from
America to inherit an old house on Berkeley Square. He loves the old house
and discovers a diary written by a Peter Standish some 150 years in the past.
And a portrait of him is on the wall that looks exactly as the living Standish.
He is sick of modern life and wishes he could go back in time. In some mysterious
way he does and he replaces the real Standish just as he is about to enter
the house - where a mother and her two daughters are living and are expecting
Peter Standish.
Standish is to marry the older daughter (Valerie Taylor) and he immediately
proposes to her. But he also realizes that he can't change history - because
- well we all know that is one of the rules of time travel. But everything
goes wrong. It turns out he hates the past - the dirt, the lack of people's
cleanliness, the diseases, the poverty. He also starts using modern terms
and seeming to know the future which scares people. But the worst thing is
that he falls in love with the wrong sister. And her with him. She seems
to understand that he comes from another time and in one scene she looks
into his eyes and sees the future. A terrifying scene of war, speed and violence
- men in gas masks marching. A world she wants nothing to do with. As the
film goes along it picks up emotional baggage and is quite effective.
The film had been considered lost but they found it in the 1970s - cleaned
it up and now a decent copy is up on YouTube. In black and white.
I'll Never Forget You (1951) - 6.5
Director: Roy Ward Baker
Aka - House on the Square
This is based on the same source as Berkeley Square that starred Leslie Howard
from 1933. This one stars Tyrone Power, a very different type of actor. Power
had risen to stardom like a rocket. Fox saw in him an actor that could appeal
to both women and men. His first credited role was in Girl's Dormitory in
1936 - that film quickly propelled him into his first starring role in the
same year, Lloyds of London, and from there his career exploded as he became
a matinee idol in a series of heroic roles from Zorro to Jesse James. Then
in 1943 he went off to war for three years - not in a PR role but in the
middle of the fighting. When he returned to Hollywood in 1946 he was a different
man. His marriage to the actress Annabella began to crumble and he told Fox
that he no longer wanted to be a matinee idol but wanted to take on serious
roles. He got a few - the terrific The Razor's Edge and then a film noir
he wanted, Nightmare Alley - but Fox wanted the old romantic Tyrone Power
and supplied him with those. He was not happy and that seems clear in this
romantic fantasy. Power is surly and grim throughout, like an actor having
to play a role that he hated - going through the motions, speaking the written
dialogue but with no spirit, no dash.
Which effects the film obviously. It is a love story and he seems miserable.
To a large degree it follows the same path as Berkeley Square though with
some interesting differences. It has much higher production values and shows
many more scenes of London in the late 1700's. It makes it a little more
clear how he is transported to the past though it still makes no sense. Also
that the person in the past is transported to the future - which might have
been an interesting film as well. And two other differences that stuck out
to me. In Berkeley Square, when his love in the past looks into his eyes
and sees the world he came from it is all a horror of war but when she does
in this one she sees the wonders of the modern world - skyscrapers, ships
without sails and airplanes. And the ending is different - I am not sure
which I like better - one being more of a Hollywood ending than the other.
They both work on an emotional level though.
The lead actress in this one is Ann Blyth. I have never seen her in Mildred
Pierce because Joan Crawford gives me the heebie-jeebies. And looking at
her filmography only one other film. But she is stunning in this - of small
stature but a remarkable facial bone structure that is beautiful slightly
impish but off-kilter at the same time. Cheekbones that dare you to look
away. She eats her role up which had to be hard playing against a wall of
indifference. The camera loves her too with close-up after close-up of her
radiant face and lustrous eyes. Overall, I prefer Berkeley Square simply
for Leslie Howard's performance over Power's. Howard plays it as if he is
in a fog of confusion, indecision, love and fascination while Power is a
bit of a jerk being rude to everyone in the present or past - other than
his love. This one feels like a vehicle specifically made for Power - it
starts off in black and white but goes to color when he goes into the past
- and they try to make him look glamorous with his outfits - while with Howard
it was just a role that he fit into, nothing forced. Michael Rennie has a
small but important role as Howard's co-worker in the modern day.
The theme of going into the past always interests me - but here it is presented
differently than usual. Power's character is horrified by what he sees. I
didn't expect this he says. People are shocked and mock the fact that he
takes a bath every day. He also knows exactly what day all these people will
die - they are on one level alive but also dead to him. As is the case with
all the actors in these old films we watch - alive on the screen but dead
for decades. Infinitely sad.
