MGM threw the family jewels at this film with a huge budget for its time
and you can see it in every luxurious beautifully lit frame. This had been
the last film that Irving Thalberg had given the green light to before he
passed away at the age of 37. It was for his wife, Norma Shearer. She was
already a big star but this was to be her ultimate triumph. An epic film
that is gorgeous with spectacular costumes by Adrian for hundreds of extras,
ornate ball rooms and décor, large dancing scenes, sparkling jewels,
wigs that seemed like multi-layered cakes, powdered men and beautiful women.
It is like a soufflé, but one that was over baked and exploded in
the oven leaving it nearly undigestible and yet nearly a work of art. There
is so much about this film that is pure craftsmanship. Adrian spent months
studying the fashions of the times and replicating them to the tiniest button.
The dress that Marie-Antoinette wears at her wedding weighed over 100 pounds.
The styles at the time for the aristocracy were those gowns that came out
like airplane wings at the hips that could easily hide an inconvenient lover
if need be or an army of midgets. Sitting in a chair must have been an art
form.
But overriding all this beauty and spectacle is a performance from Shearer
that is like Godzilla tromping through a city destroying all in its path.
Her histrionics are magnificent and also smothering as she bounces from one
emotional scene to the next doing everything she can to say this is my film
- everyone else just fuck off. The way she is lit perfectly like a religious
icon in every scene, her glistening eyes, the fabulous wigs, dressed like
every moment is a Kodak moment. At 36 playing a 14 year old like she is in
need of an Adderall fix or later as a giddy party girl flirting coquettishly
with every thing in pants or as a woman finally in the throes of love. Every
scene is overwrought in emotion. One scene particular stood out to me. She
spots her lover down some steps - has not seen him for a whole day - sighs
- throws out her hands - another few steps and repeats this - another few
steps repeats this - every gesture as phony as a three dollar bill.
On one level it is simply awful, insufferable potentially bringing on a brain
inducing coma; on another it is fascinating to watch a style of acting that
has simply disappeared. Nobody emotes like that any more. Any actress would
be embarrassed to do so. From a 21st century perspective she is a giant well
adorned ham but back then the audience ate this film up. The ardent love
scenes - all talk - between her and the Comte Fersen - played by Tyrone Power,
who was considered the handsomest man alive but not yet a star and lent by
Fox - are so hyperbolically corny that I was worried my couch might laugh
- but again back then this was pure romance. Hard to imagine that among its
many writers were F. Scott Fitzgerald, Robert Sherwood and Donald Ogden Stewart
(Philadelphia Story, An Affair to Remember) who later was blacklisted for
his politics when he should have been blacklisted for this dialogue which
was his specialty.
At 150 minutes - with an interval - it felt at times like a death march.
Yet I kept watching just because they don't make big fat bloviated self-important
star movies like this any more. It could only have been made in the Studio
Age. It is directed by W.S. Van Dyke which strikes me as a strange choice
- he is a fine director but generally of small films. He directed all the
Thin Man films and tons of films that fall into the B category. For such
a big film you would think they could have brought someone more experienced
on board. He lets it go on much too long - at 120 minutes this would have
been more palatable - and it over ran in cost so much even before filming
began that they had to drop their idea of doing it in Technicolor which may
have been really sumptuous and grand.
It begins with Marie at 14 (Shearer had been a teenager along with Leslie
Howard in Romeo and Juliet in her previous film) receiving the news that
she is going to marry and not only that but to someday be the Queen of France.
The Queen of France! Yippee! The Queen of France! Yahoo! As she jumps around
like a teenager who just found out that boy in the class likes her. In France
she meets Louis XIV (John Barrymore) and then turns to see her betrothed
Louis - and her face does a swan dive. No wonder. He is played by Robert
Morley like a man-child, unable to converse, uninterested in marriage or
sex and an all-around dweeb. It is actually though a lovely performance -
as underplayed as Shearer over plays. So after four years of assumed no sex,
there are no children, no heir and so the King wants to send her back to
Austria Fed Ex. So she goes out that night in tears but comes back euphoric.
Because she meets Von Fersen and falls in love and who wouldn't with his
words "I have loved you always. Since you were a child" Err we just met.
"I know what you played with as a child, the locks of your hair, what you
smiled at, when you went the bathroom" Ok, this is getting creepy. "When
I came to Paris I hoped just for a glance of you and here I am kissing you".
Stalker alert. Call 911. But she goes for it like a bee to honey - also the
fact that he is the only man in court who doesn't powder his face and wear
a ghastly wig might help - only to find out on her return that the damn King
has died and she is Queen! Ok, now I can screw all the mean girls. In particular,
Madame Du Barry.
And then it gets better. Louis gets his jolly up and she delivers a few children
- in front of the entire Royal hanger-ons - in a very peculiar scene. The
peasants begin throwing rocks at them, yelling nasty things like why is this
movie all about you. What about us. She asks Louis "why do they hate us so
much. We are just little people. We would be so much happier in a small cottage."
Which in fact may have been true at that point. He never really wanted the
responsibility of Kingship and she had given up her party days and spent
much of her time in a small castle with her girl friends and children dressed
like common folks. After this it follows the history that we are all familiar
with - the affair of the necklace, the increasing hatred of the people, the
imprisonment, the attempt to escape when Fersen returns and the slice of
the blade to the cheers of the crowd. Me too because the movie was over.
I admit that Shearer has never appealed to me - I don't find myself avoiding
her films like I do those of Joan Crawford - just that most of her films
are a bit stodgy and I don't like her enough to sit through them. This one
won't change that. But she was nicknamed the First Lady of MGM at the time.
She got any role she wanted. That is because she had married Thalberg in
1927 who was running the studio under Louis B Mayer. Thalberg was already
showing symptoms of his sickness and Crawford said "She only married him
because he runs the studio and she knows he won't live long". Shearer was
already a top actress from the Silent Era but this put her over the top.
She got many prestigious roles - always the star - always dignified in them
- beautifully made up and dressed - sexy but never trashy - glamorous but
distant. A huge star but how many of us can name more than a few of her roles?
This, The Women, Romeo and Juliet and hmmmm. She retired in 1942 at the age
of forty - her type of films already feeling passé.
Damn, this review feels almost as long as the movie. I apologize, it
just got away from me. Bonus points to anyone who got through it.
