Escape Me Never

Romantic quadrangle involving two brothers, one a burgeoning ballet composer; a willful heiress; and a waif. Is it a comedy? Director Paul Czinner is notorious for total uncertainty, and you can go for long stretches here not sure whether you're supposed to laugh or weep or what. The roguish brother encounters the heiress as she bends over to rub a plant: "I don't know when I've seen a nicer aspidistra." Is that meant to be funny? You tell me, but it couldn't be delivered or reacted to more stiffly. One's patience with the film will almost surely hinge on one's tolerance for the waif--it's the director's wife Bergner, she of the butchy blond bob and white culottes, the Peter Pan-like gamin quality and Zorbaesque life philosophy. Her Oscar nomination undoubtedly resulted from how she plays the humiliation when her composer husband rudely pushes her off the stage, too busy to hear about her baby's illness. Bergner is quite affecting there, and also thereafter. But overall, unless one has a taste for the curdled, elfin world-weariness she demonstrates for most of the running time, this picture will pretty much be "interest me never."

I had never heard of "Escape Me Never" before I happened to read about it in a list of movies from 1935. I had also never heard of the director or any of the cast members. By the end, I couldn't tell what the purpose was. I don't know whether it was supposed to be a romanticization of old-money gentry or a typical rom-com. Either way, it didn't do anything for me. There's a reason why it didn't win its Oscar nomination. Very dated movie.

PS: Penelope Dudley-Ward's daughter Tracy Reed played Ms. Foreign Affairs in "Dr. Strangelove".

Cinema-going really is a subjective thing, and as such very vulnerable to preconceptions: the excitement of a picture that is better than one had assumed can vastly overwhelm the faint disappointment left by a renowned film finally experienced in person, even when the objective quality of the two is similar. Perhaps some of my most enjoyable moments have come courtesy of movies of which very little was expected, or which were a completely unknown quantity -- there is nothing like stumbling upon classics for oneself, rather than hearing them lauded to the skies until nothing could ever live up to that expectation...

To be honest, "Escape Me Never" is no such classic, and if I'd been given to expect great things I should no doubt have been frustrated and annoyed. But since the only thing I knew about it was that the remake flopped for Errol Flynn, I went to see it out of curiosity alone and ended up rather enjoying myself.

This version is undoubtedly a vehicle for Elisabeth Bergner, who is considerably more successful on screen here as Gemma, the mercurial waif of uncertain nationality, than as Rosalind in her subsequent "As You Like It" with Laurence Olivier. Her heavily-accented English is less incongruous in this context, and while Gemma shares a number of her Rosalind's more exasperating mannerisms, here they get on the other characters' nerves as much as they do on those of the audience. Ironically, the result is that the heroine is much easier to bear with.

The film benefits from some gorgeously-shot location scenes on the Continent, thanks to German cameraman Sepp Allgeier, which form a memorable contrast with the claustrophobic London interiors. It also has a good score, although the actual ballet music is unremarkable -- it's sadly tempting to concur with the prima ballerina who pronounces in favour of inserting twenty bars of Tchaikovsky, and this sequence is no rival to the achievement of "The Red Shoes".

The story has some surprising twists as well, and gains points in my book by avoiding the obvious ending. The main problem for me was that the principal characters tend to come across as so unsympathetic, and behave at various arbitrary junctures in ways that seem to be dictated only by the requirements of the plot. Fenella, who initially seems cast as our heroine, is a selfish spoilt bitch, Caryl, the 'good' brother, comes across most of the time as a stuffy prig, Sebastian's affections seem to switch conveniently on and off like a tap, and Gemma's chirpiness can be extremely wearing. However, provided you don't expect to find the characters lovable as such -- and can stomach a couple of scenes of implausible manipulation by the script -- the film is actually pretty decent entertainment.

Miss Bergner manages to develop some genuinely unexpected depths in the initially carefree Gemma, and next to her Sebastian is the other most interesting character. Much of the time he is an unashamed cad who is only really interested in a girl when she is apparently unavailable, but he does gain some maturity, and he and Gemma deal clear-eyed together as the two true Bohemians of the quartet. Having seen this film one can understand why Warner Brothers picked up on this role as a potential leading part for Errol Flynn to widen his dramatic career -- and it's not on the face of it an unsuitable choice.

Ironically, in a film where the plot summaries tend to consist of a single sentence accusing Sebastian of neglecting Gemma's child in favour of his music, I feel that this is the one misdemeanour of which the character is really not culpable: it is Gemma who rejects his hospital advice, and then expects him somehow to understand what she wants in the middle of a rehearsal crisis when -- for inexplicable plot reasons -- she is struck dumb before giving him any useful information. Sebastian treats her unreasonably in many ways, but I really don't feel that this episode is one of them.

It is fun to note Hugh Griffith playing Caryl as what is basically a rehearsal for his upright and naive dupe role in "The Wicked Lady" -- it took me a long time to work out why he seemed so familiar!

The characters are fairly cardboard, but I did in the end come to care about what would be the outcome. And while the logic behind the characters' actions at certain times may seem arbitrary, the actual script is generally pretty good on the unspoken subtext of scenes. I suspect that your tolerance for this picture will probably depend ultimately on your tolerance for Elisabeth Bergner: her particular brand of whimsy will either irk or enchant. I can't say for my part that I was entirely enchanted -- but I do feel that she successfully carries the film, which I would not earlier have predicted.

Elizabeth Bergner is one of those actresses whom you either love or hate,i being in the latter camp.It is difficult to concentrate on one of her films because she is always doing something,like twiddling her hands,playing with an ashtray or just making a face.Here she plays an unlikely character in an unlikely manner in a film full on unlikeable people going through an unremarkable plot.It is little surprise that her film career came to a grinding halt in the early forties.Compare it with the career of Marlene Dietrich who became a screen icon,whose memory and films have not faded with the years.I could watch shanghai Express again tomorrow,but never again could I inflict upon myself a viewing of this thirties load of tripe.