The Power and the Glory

Paauline Kael--who made many claims, mostly unfounded, about the "true origins" of 'Citizen Kane'--was by no means the first to mention Sturges' script for 'The Power & the Glory' as a forerunner to Welles & Mankiewicz.

Jorge Luis Borges, in his 1941 review of 'Kane' in the periodical Sur, noticed the similarity in storytelling: "A kind of metaphysical detective story ... the investigation of a man's inner self, through the works he has wrought, the words he has spoken, the lives he has ruined. The same technique was used by Joseph Conrad in 'Chance' (1914) and in that beautiful film 'The Power & the Glory': a rhapsody of miscellaneous scenes without chronological order."

Of 'Kane' Borges also said: "In a story by Chesterton ... the hero observes that nothing is so frightening as a labyrinth with no center. This film is precisely that labyrinth." (Translation by Suzanne Jill Levine, from "An Overwhelming Film" in Borges, 'Selected Nonfictions,' Penguin 1999.) Famous remarks from a famous review, at least in the non-Anglo-Saxon world ... though Borges was critical of 'Kane' as well as complimentary.

During Spencer Tracy's period at Fox, he mostly played as rugged action adventure heroes in forgettable programmers. Very rarely did he get any parts that demonstrated his talents until San Francisco when he was with MGM. The Power And The Glory should have been the career changer that San Francisco later was.

This film is light years different than what he was doing at Fox Films and more typical of his MGM period. It tells the story in the same fashion that Citizen Kane later perfected of the life of a railroad tycoon after his demise. Instead of from many points of view, the film is only told from the point of view of Tracy's best friend as he recalls different points of Tracy's life out of chronological order, the friend being played by Ralph Morgan.

There is an important difference in subject matter as well. Charles Foster Kane is a kid born to wealth and privilege whereas Tracy's Tom Garner was a self made millionaire. Starting out as a track worker and encouraged by his first wife who was a school teacher, Tracy goes to school learns the engineering trade and begins acquiring stock.

But as the demands of acquiring and later maintaining a fortune draw from his time Tracy is less and less attentive to his wife Colleen Moore who becomes something of a harpy. They have a son in Phillip Trent who grows up spoiled rotten.

Later on Tracy marries the daughter of another railroad owner, the much younger Helen Vinson. She carries the ultimate seed of his downfall.

Although the subject matter is far from what he later would do as a director, Preston Sturges wrote the original screenplay for The Power And The Glory. As Sturges was a well read man he might have taken his inspiration in part from our 17th President. Andrew Johnson was a man who did not spend a day in school and what education he did receive came from his school teacher wife. The early years of Tracy and Moore play very much like Andrew Johnson and Eliza McCardle Johnson were supposed to be.

In the underplaying and subtle style that he practically took a copyright out on, Spencer Tracy carefully delineates a character at all stages of his adult life that holds your interest throughout. Colleen Moore does as well. It's a pity that The Power And The Glory was one of her last films, she made the transition from the silent screen apparently easy. But she retired young and wealthy and saw not the need to work. And even though she made a career of playing 'the other woman' Helen Vinson actually does get to marry Tracy as a second wife though in point of fact she is indeed the other woman.

The Power And The Glory proved that they were asleep at the switch at Fox. Tracy's performance should have led to greater roles for him. He would have to wait until he was at MGM for his real glory years.

When I first saw Colleen Moore it was in the excellent series about silent films called "Hollywood". There she was in 1980, her hair defiantly bobbed as it was in the Twenties, a sparkling, witty and charismatic elderly lady - the very definition of "presence". Then I saw her fabulous silent comedy work in films like "Ella Cinders" and "Orchids and Ermine". Then the disappointingly sombre talkie "The Scarlet Letter". And now here she is in "The Power and the Glory" giving a performance of staggering power, working expertly alongside one of the talking cinema's finest actors - Spencer Tracy.

I found the movie a little lack lustre story-wise, but Moore and Tracy give such brilliant performances that the story hardly seems to matter. Both actors age from youth to old age in the course of the film - and this is done mostly through acting alone with minimal make-up and hair changes. Moore is almost unrecognisable as the elderly wife, and the scene where she finds out her husband is seeing a younger woman is one of the most magnificently performed scenes I have ever seen. She does most of the scene without dialogue, which is where her silent acting experience gives her the edge, even over Tracy. Contrast this with her delightful comic playing in another silent sequence when she is a young woman and Tracy is struggling to propose to her. Astonishing! What this film reveals more than anything else is how shameful it is that Hollywood let this remarkable actress slip through its fingers and spend most of her life in retirement.

A real sudsy soap opera here as Spencer Tracy tackles the role of an illiterate until the age of 20. He marries the woman who teaches him and her ambition and his drive leads him to success.

Success but no happiness here. A n'eer-do-well son and a faltering marriage leads to disaster and tragedy. Tracy buys a railroad and succeeds only to be subjected to a disastrous rail strike and the death of 406 workers.

The film appeared at the beginning to be uneven but is rejuvenated thanks to the excellent use of flashbacks here.

A double separate suicide here. We know that riches can't buy happiness but this is a little too far fetched. Nonetheless, we have riveting performances by Tracy and Colleen Moore. Ms. Vinson, as the 2nd wife, is also quite effective.

A precursor to "Citizen Kane" in its analysis of the life of a just deceased tycoon, here reviewed by his faithful secretary in a series of interlocking flashbacks. In Spencer Tracy's 15th film he already looks middle-aged even in the scenes where he is meant to be young!

A little silent-screen type emoting is understandable given the vintage but this is a most enjoyable, well-written drama.