Prestige

The mostly B director, who made a lot of exotic back-lot adventures (his amusing memoir is called "Light Up Your Torches and Pull Up Your Tights"), is blessed with the most mobile camera 1931 could offer in this impressively atmospheric melodrama, set mainly in an Indochine penal colony, where bride Ann Harding has come to help commanding officer Melvyn Douglas. Garnett and his DP roam all over the place, with some tracking shots that are quite amazing for their time--one, taking Harding and Adolphe Menjou from a hotel lobby to a train station, lasts a couple of minutes and takes in every word of dialog, and is perfectly framed. Some of the tracking isn't to any particular purpose, but it's a lesson in how versatile the sound camera had gotten in just two years (compare this to anything from 1929). The premise is offensively racist and may have raised some eyebrows even in its day: As Harding's stiff-upper-lip father tells her, in so many words, she and Douglas are fighting for the white man's prestige and dignity, by proving their ability to lord it over all other races. But if you can put up with that, you get a sweaty, compelling little picture with some show-stopping set pieces. Harding is, as always, womanly and unforced, with an innate calm, and Douglas, replacing Robert Williams, who died unexpectedly, convincingly goes through some awful mood swings. It's very well and innovatively shot on what may be an RKO back lot but sure looks like the real thing. The climax strains credibility, and Garnett pushes harder for atmosphere than he absolutely has to, but it's interesting throughout and quite different from much of the assembly-line studio product of the day.

Melvyn Douglas and Ann Harding star in this odd little outing. I say odd because it's supposed to take place mostly in Vietnam at Lao Bảo Prison. But, it makes you wonder why some of the 'natives' are black---such as Clarence Muse! I wonder if folks back in the 1930s had no conception of what Southeast Asians looked like or if the studio was just being extremely sloppy. The film is also odd because it was filmed about 20 minutes from my house--in Venice, Florida. Considering all the palm trees, it probably was a pretty good substitute for going overseas for the filming.

The film begins in France. A commandant of an overseas French penal colony is being court martialed and Douglas is one of the judges. Ironically, after finding this man derelict in his duties, Douglas himself is sent on a similar assignment to run a prison along the Mekong River. This means his fiancée will have to eventually join him--and Harding's character arrives more than a year later. By then, her sweetie has degenerated significantly--showing serious signs of mental illness and alcoholism. Apparently he is NOT adjusting well to this life. What's next? See the film.

"Prestige" suffers mostly because the acting is a bit too florid--with Douglas showing a lot of googly eyes and looking pretty goofy. In addition, you are expected to like the French but can't help but see them as interlopers--and the characters aren't all that likable either. And, oddly, despite the crazed performance, the film is often a bit dull. Not a terrible movie---but also not a particularly good one, either.

I think what one reviewer said is true - people in North America in those days had not a clue what Vietnamese looked like, as many in the penal colony shown in "Prestige" are black.

This film has to do with colonialism, and the power or prestige, if you will, of the white man. It was filmed in Florida; somehow Hollywood often made you believe their sets or U.S. locations were Europe or the Tropics or the jungle.

Prestige is not in great shape and some of it was difficult to understand. Melvyn Douglas is a French officer in the army, assigned to oversee a penal colony in Indochina.

Capt. Andre Verlaine (Douglas) is engaged to marry the lovely Therese Du Flos (Ann Harding), but when he finds out where he's going, the marriage is put off. She has another man interested -- Remy (Adolphe Menjou). After a while, though, Therese talks her father (Ian McLaren), a Colonel, into letting her join Andre.

Unfortunately for her, Andre is a bit like Jack Nicholson in The Shining. He gets where he's going and turns into a whack job almost immediately. When Therese arrives, he's passed out on the floor from booze. He's been driven crazy by the heat, the bugs, the humidity, and the isolation.

He and Therese marry and he makes an attempt at straightening himself out, and Therese tries to adapt to the country. Meanwhile, Andre is trying to get a transfer.

When Remy arrives and informs Andre that he has to stay at the post indefinitely, he snaps and becomes jealous of Remy and Therese, believing she wants to be with him.

Tay Garnett, who directed, was trying out some new camera work in this film, doing tracking shots and using a lot of dolly shots. Originally in films, the camera couldn't be moved - I think many directors were experimenting with this new freedom.

I did see some criticism of the acting. Let me say it was very 1930s. Melvin Douglas had many mood changes, and they were very dramatic ones No matter what his instinct told him -- and I feel he was one of the greatest actors ever -- the style in those days was way, way over the top as compared to now.

If he came off as unstable and almost like a multiple personality, it's because, let's face it, the character probably was just that. Not a well man by any stretch. Douglas had so few opportunities to do anything with a range in it until his older years, it was kind of nice to see him do this.

Odd movie, depressing in spots, its point of view strange, but it's a good study of what colonialism was like.

This 1931 film held my interest for about 30 minutes into the film which was filmed on location in Venice, Florida instead of a Indochinese jungle location. Lt./Capt. Andre Verlaine, (Melvyn Douglas) intends to marry a woman he is very much in love with and is given news that he is going to be assigned to a penal colony and there is no place for a woman to live. The woman is Therese Du Flos Verlaine, (Ann Harding) who is very upset about this assignment by the British Army. However, Capt. Remy Boudoin, (Adolphe Menjou) is very interested in Therese and is the man sending Andre to this penal colony to separate him from his love and seek her attention for himself. This story drags on with lots of boozing by Andre and he begins to lose respect from his fellow soldiers who are all natives. If you like Ann Harding and Melvyn Douglas, this is the film for you.

This is RKO's entry in the "White Man's Grave" genre. Being an Ann Harding (queen of the women's picture) vehicle, it lacks the ineffable luridness of most early Hollywood jungle melodramas (White Woman, Red Dust, Panama Flo, etc.). Instead, it generally takes the high road in delineating a French colonial officer's descent into despondency and alcoholism in a sweaty Southeast Asian outpost. Enough politically-incorrect dialog and flouting of accepted morals does creep into the picture to place it in the pre-code realm, but much less than one might expect.

Although long-forgotten, the film definitely has many points to recommend it. The ever-reliable Hollywood helmsman Tay Garnett here evinces a startling obsession with keeping the camera moving -- it's just one complex tracking shot after another, with several long pans thrown in. When the camera does remain static, it's often to emphasize a dramatic moment, and quite effectively so.

Also, long before the infusion of liberal ideals into Hollywood's view of third-world relations, this picture's take is surprisingly modern. The protagonists learn their lesson in dignity from a remarkably loyal and noble native servant (played by the great thespian Clarence Muse). At the same time, the clearly delineated incompatibility between the French and the natives shows the futility of the "white man's burden" philosophy.