Suggestione

Robert Montgomery makes the film by his overwhelmingly impressive performance non-stop as an autocratic Broadway producer without any scruples at all - everyone collaborating with him become his victims, eventually ending up as suicides. It's a brilliant script above all, the dialog is intelligent and witty all the way in constant crossfire, making this more of a play than a film. Susan Hayward and Audrey Totter are the women who see him through and ultimately win over him, but not until he has lost everything. His character appears to have been a real phenomenon, the Broadway producer Jed Harris, who in the same way made his way by ruthlessly driving over everyone else and enslaving them in a leash of serfdom. John Payne is the sympathetic writer who gets caught up with him, a novelist who tries writing a play, and in their collaboration the producer's tragedy becomes visible - he could never write anything good himself, he only lived on finding others to write for him, and then he had to destroy them by over-editing their work. John Payne finally evades that ruin by the help of his wife, and the interesting thing is that his play, after being massively over-edited and flopped on Broadway, is then proved a success in its original version. So much for others trying to improve your creativity. Although Robert Montgomery makes an abominable character, the film is his, and his performance is as magnificent as the best of John Barrymore.

As my wife and I sat watching "The Saxon Charm", I could see my wife getting very frustrated with the film. After all, the lead in this film (Robert Montgomery) was a thoroughly despicable and awful person...and she obviously was hating him...hating him so much she wanted me to turn off the film. Well, needless to say, I convinced her to keep watching and we both are glad we stuck with this one...as it was terribly well written and acted.

Matt Saxon (Robert Montgomery) was apparently based on a real Broadway producer, Jed Harris, and that is a big strength of the film. This is because although Saxon's behaviors and manipulations were hard to believe, it made it easier to watch the film knowing that he was not some exaggerated and unreal character! And what a character...charming but also very manipulative, cruel, selfish and without any trace whatsoever of a conscience. As a retired therapist, he was an excellent portrait of an Antisocial Personality Disorder with Borderline traits. In other words...a hellishly awful person from top to bottom!!

So how does Saxon fit into the story? Well, a successful young writer (John Payne) has decided to try writing a play and Saxon has convinced him that he is willing to put on the play. But again and again, Saxon strings him along--having him write and re-write the play...and taking him away from his young wife (Susan Hayward) and effectively destroying the marriage. Why? Mostly because Saxon is like a cat...and he needs to mouse to torment to give his sick life meaning.

The bottom line is that this is really very well written and it's among Robert Montgomery's best performances. Not always pleasant...but very captivating!

Not the greatest film ever made but it holds due to the fine cast and the superb portrayal of a true scoundrel by Robert Montgomery. I was never much of a Montgomery fan but this was surely worth a nomination. Good story with an insight into the world of Broadway and what happens to naive folk who venture there.

For me, one of the best one-liners I've ever heard in a movie was in "The Saxon Charm". Robert Montgomery and company enter a German restaurant in New York City. They are seated at a very bad table. Montgomery insists on a change. Management demurs and won't budge. Montgomery throws a fit and commands his party to follow him out of the restaurant by hissing, "Let's quit this Fascist pest-hole!". I don't remember when I first saw the film, 40 years ago at least, but I've been using that line ever since. I believe, agreeing with an earlier comment, that it was based on David Merrick with Jed Harris being used as a beard; although the author of the comment uses a different turn-of- phrase. I think that the comparison was intended by Frederic Wakeman, who wrote the novel upon which the film was based, and Claude Binyon, it's screenwriter and director. An earlier novel by Wakeman, titled "The Hucksters", was made into the eponymous film starring Clark Gable and Deborah Kerr. His "missing years" were spent in Greece with his wife, Elli Lambeti, a brilliant actress and a great star.

As we watch this eponymous character throw his weight around, we are not exactly inundated with any charm (or steamed cabbage). He (Robert Montgomery) is a bully, a snob, and frankly rather an odious Broadway producer. He is introduced to "Eric" (John Payne) and his wife "Janet" (Susan Hayward) when he is told that there is a script to be had. Now "Eric" is a bit green with all of this, and is soon not only rewriting pretty much everything, but his marriage is struggling and he's even bankrolling his supposed impresario (and his long suffering factotum "Hermy" (Henry Morgan). What now ensues is a nicely presented tale of being hoist by your own petard. When people start to scent blood - they combine, connive and find effective ways of exacting their revenge on their erstwhile mentor. Montgomery is actually quite convincing here, but Payne never really did set the heather on fire and we simply don't see enough of Susan Hayward - whose character is not exactly strong, anyway. It's certainly a watchable and decently paced ninety minutes that shines a bit of a light on the Machiavellian theatrical tactics of producers and their rather selfish ways, it could just have been doing with a stronger antagonist for "Saxon".