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Flesh and Fantasy is a rare forties Hollywood attempt at an art film, and while I cannot say it's wholly successful, it's a good try. Directed by the highly esteemed French director Julian Duvivier and produced by the highly esteemed French actor Charles Boyer, it consists of three stories of the supernatural, told to Robert Benchley, in a framing device, in what appears to be a men's club.

The first tale concerns a homely girl who is turned beautiful by the power of a mask sold to her by a strange little shopkeeper. It's a slight, lovely fable, well-acted by Betty Field and Bob Cummings. In the second story we find Edward G. Robinson in London, where a fortune teller reveals to him a fate he tries vainly to escape. The third segment, despite the presence of Charles Boyer and Barbara Stanwyck, is rather mediocre, and concerns predictions in a circus setting. Of these three tales the middle one, an adaptation of an Oscar Wilde story, is by far the best; it is also visually the most appealing.

Duvivier brings a Gallic gentility to the film, and his compositions are excellent and always fastidious. One gathers that the movie must have been a labor of love for producer Charles Boyer. All the actors are in top form, and the picture does not at all feel like a product of the Universal studio of this period.

Flesh and Fantasy is one of several wartime movies that dealt with the issues of death and fate, which were obviously hanging heavier than unusual on peoples' minds in those days. Off the top of my head I can think of Here Comes Mr. Jordan, I Married a Witch, A Guy Named Joe, Between Two Worlds, The Uninvited and The Picture Of Dorian Gray. Death, rather than dying, was a feature of most such films, which as a rule steered clear of anything grisly, which is to say reminiscent of battlefields. Flesh and Fantasy is quite good at this. With its soft chairs, cobbled streets and a convincing London bridge thrown in for good measure, it makes facing up to one's fate feel as comfortable and delicious a proposition as attending a masquerade ball.

A charming "anthology" motion picture, of the kind that was briefly popular in the 1940s. This one contains three stories, each of a supernatural bent. None really brilliant, but diverting.

The second piece was the best. This was based on a story by Oscar Wilde (not Noel Coward, as incorrectly stated in another review). Edward G. Robinson plays a lawyer haunted by a prediction that he will murder someone, and the always-watchable Thomas Mitchell is the palm-reader.

The first, with Robert Cummings and Betty Field in a story set in the Mardi Gras, is appealing in a naive way. The third segment, set in a circus, is the weakest. Charles Boyer an acrobat? No way.

This movie suffers somewhat from some of the most unconvincing studio-bound "locations" I have ever seen. I know, this was the 1940s and all that, made in the middle of the war, but puh-lease!

I finally obtained "Flesh and Fantasy" from someone who taped it off of television. What television, I don't know, since I have never seen it on TCM.

And God forbid that Universal should release it on DVD. Given that there are only 11 reviews, it doesn't appear that it's seen too often.

Charles Boyer coproduced this film, and one assumes that Julien Duvivier and he were friends, and he got Duvivier to direct. Good choice as he does an excellent job. Also, Duvivier had directed the successful anthology film, Tales of Manhattan.

The film begins with a discussion (by Robert Benchley and another man) about the truth of dreams, fortunetelling, superstition and the like.

Then three stories, ostensibly from a book, are told. The first is a story by Ellis St. Joseph, starring Robert Cummings and Betty Field, about a bitter, mean, ugly woman who dons a mask on Mardi Gras that makes her look beautiful.

The second story, Lord Arthur Savile's Crime, is by Oscar Wilde, about a fortuneteller (Thomas Mitchell) who tells a man (Edward G. Robinson) that he is going to commit a murder. The ending of this story was changed due to the Hays Code.

The third story, by Laszlo Vadnay, flows from the second one as The Great Gaspar (Charles Boyer) witnesses something at the end of the previous story.

Gaspar is a high wire artist who dreams that he falls, and in his dream, he sees a screaming woman (Barbara Stanwyck) who is wearing unusual earrings. He then meets her when the circus troupe is sailing abroad.

Each story explores some question: can fantasy become reality, can a prediction become a self-fulfilling prophecy, are dreams real warnings? Very entertaining, with good performances and direction, with three good stories.

And director Julien Duvivier. In the framing story, a nervous man (Robert Benchley) at a private club is told or reads through a series of tales meant to ease his discomfort. In the first tale, a homely woman (Betty Field) wears a magical mask during Mardi Gras to attract her long-sought lover (Robert Cummings). In the second tale, a man (Edward G. Robinson) has his fortune told by a palm reader (Thomas Mitchell), but he doesn't like what he hears. And in the third tale, a high-wire circus acrobat (Charles Boyer) has reoccurring dreams about a mysterious woman (Barbara Stanwyck) and his own demise. Also featuring Dame May Whitty, C. Aubrey Smith, Charles Winninger, Anna Lee, Edgar Barrier, David Hoffman, Eddie Acuff, Marjorie Lord, Peter Lawford, Ian Wolfe, Hank Worden, and Clarence Muse.

French director Duvivier worked in the U. S. during much of the war years. He had a hit in '42 with another anthology film, Tales of Manhattan over at Fox, so this follow-up seemed like a sure bet. He co-produced it with Boyer, which is ironic since the weakest segment to my mind was the last one which featured Boyer. The first segment had loads of atmosphere, and one can see how the blank mask worn by Field inspired the later Euro-horror classic Eyes Without a Face. The second segment, featuring Robinson and Mitchell, is the most like an episode of The Twilight Zone, and it also has excellent camerawork. The last segment isn't bad, but it seems to be the least inspired, and suffers a bit from dated effects work during the many high-wire scenes.

An interesting story concerns the original version of the film, which did not have the humorous framing story featuring Robert Benchley. Rather it began with another tale, this one focusing on a fugitive murderer (Alan Curtis) who runs into a farmer (Frank Craven) and his blind daughter (Gloria Jean). This segment ended with the killer dead and floating down a river. Preview audiences loved it, but for some reason it was removed from the film and the new framing device added. However, each story bleeds into the next, so even in the released version, the story with Field and Cummings begins with Mardi Gras celebrants finding the dead body of the killer from the deleted story in the river. Universal later used the removed footage, padding out the running time and changing the ending, ultimately releasing it as Destiny in 1944.

"Flesh and Fantasy" is an astonishing anthology film centered around the themes of destiny and free will. Given its high quality and status as a 1940s Universal production dealing in the supernatural, it beggars belief that it has gone largely unsung over the years.

The closest comparison I can think of is "Dead of Night", another great anthology that would come a few years later. The tone here is more literary and sophisticated, with each chapter bookended by comic segments featuring Robert Benchley of the Algonquin Round Table.

I was moved and utterly gripped by all three chapters. The cast is among the best assembled for a 1940s film, with Betty Field, Edward G. Robinson and Charles Boyer standing out for their compelling performances. No less than Dame Mae Whitty and C. Aubrey Smith are along to provide strong support.

The Robinson segment employs some striking visual effects that supplement Robinson's superb acting, resulting in an almost hysterical intensity at times. The Boyer circus chapter will particularly appeal to those who loved "Nightmare Alley": it shares the common question of man's ability to change his fate with that great movie.

I absolutely loved this picture and plan to revisit it again and again over the years.