A Grande Paixão

"The Great Flamarion" has an interesting setting and a good cast that give life to an otherwise routine story of love, deceit, and revenge. It is a pretty good movie, while quite obviously a low budget effort, and worth taking a look at.

The opening sequence is nicely done, and pulls the viewer in quickly. A stage variety show is interrupted by shots and screams, and soon a murder is discovered backstage. As the police question suspects, the actual murderer is seen crawling away, seriously wounded while committing the crime. The rest of the movie is then a long flashback, as told by the murderer. The rest of the film moves much more slowly, and does not match the first part, but it is pretty good.

The main performers are quite good - Erich von Stroheim as a magician fanatically devoted to his act, Mary Beth Hughes as his manipulative assistant, and Dan Duryea as Hughes's drunken husband. None of them are desirable characters, and so the audience cannot really form any sympathies, which does diminish the film's impact. But they are all convincing, and make the story seem interesting.

Overall, the positives outweigh the negatives, and this is certainly worth a look if you like older movies.

Von Stroheim is superbly cast as a stage sharpshooter who succumbs to the charms of his scheming assistant. Though some may not appreciate the actor's ramrod-spined, Teutonic demeanor, such bearing is useful in the portrayal of stoicism and all the pitfalls that it engenders. Von Stroheim's dearth of emotionality makes all the more credible his character's inability to discern the falseness of personalities, and there is a unique poignancy in watching him go through the paces of a festering realization of perfidy. The plot, however, is pedestrian and, related in flashback, all the more predictable. Von Stroheim mavens should appreciate the movie, though, as should devotees of Dan Duryea, who plays a hard-drinking, done-wrong hoofer.

A mild-mannered, melancholic and essentially decent man(Erich Von Stroheim) working as vaudeville star becomes romantically involved in a destructive affair with a predatory woman( the femme fatal Mary Beth Hughes).He falls fatally in love with his scheming and heartless assistant who's unhappy married to a drunk(Dan Duryea). But she leaves him, engaging with another.

This good production put all the force of the screen into a challenging drama of furious passions. It's a psychological , dark melodrama about pessimism, fatalism, duplicity and human passions.Love, hatred, killing revenge indeed figure strongly in this brightly seedy portraits. Wonderful performances all casting. Erich Von Stroheim makes an absolutely hypnotic acting as upright man subtly destroyed by a bad woman.The smouldering predatory Mary Beth Hughes as manipulating assistant who destroys them all around and Dan Duryea as alcoholic husband winning get another awesome acting. The well-designed atmosphere elaborately recreated in studios by cameraman James Brown is entirely convincing throughout. Stunning directing and compelling developed in agility by the great filmmaker Anthony Mann. He's an excellent expert in noir cinema(Strangers in the night, Raw deal, Tal target, T men, Railroad) and creator of Western masterpieces (Man from Laramie,Bend the river, Far country, Naked spur, Winchester 73). Rating: Better than average, well worth checking out.

Despite the title suggesting a comedy Erich von Stroheim actually plays the sort of role Emil Jannings played in the twenties. In the third of a quartet of quickies to pay his medical bills after a serious illness we actually see the famous neck being shaved with a cutthroat razor before going onstage to perform the act with firearms that makes the film worth watching.

It's good to see him share the screen with a young Dan Duryea a few months before the latter clashed with Edward G. Robinson in 'Scarlet Street' in this early film directed by Anthony Mann, which shows flashes of the promise he later fulfilled.

"The Great Flamarion" is an undiscovered little gem of a film from Rebublic that features von Stroheim as the title character, a cold and arrogant vaudeville performer who specializes in sharp shooting. He is assisted in his act by Connie and Al Wallace, a seemingly happy couple. When Connie professes her love for Flamarion and tells of her husband's abusive nature and hard-drinking, Flamarion eventually opens his heart to this femme-fatale, played to the hilt by Mary Beth Hughes, a most underrated actress, who toys with men in the tradition of film noir greats such as Joan Bennett in "Scarlet Street," Jane Greer in "Out of The Past," and Yvonne DeCarlo in "Criss Cross." When Connie suggests that Flamarion accidentally hit Al, portrayed by the always terrific Dan Duryea, during their gun skit, Flamarion's life changes forever. Anthony Mann's direction is taut and economic. The film, told through flashbacks, captures the desperation and loneliness of a man willing to do anything for love. Next to "Sunset Boulevard," this is one of von Stroheim's finest hours as an actor. He allows himself to show joy and vulnerability as he never has before on screen.