La belle écuyère

Attracted by the wonderful cast and early technicolor (apparently restored), I tuned into this vintage movie with great expectations. I was disappointed by the dull screenplay, slow and poorly connected scenes and general direction. But if you want to see the beautiful Dorothy Lamour and Linda Darnell, stappingly handsome Henry Fonda, all doing as much as they can with deficient direction and scripts, this is a film for you. The technicolor and visual clarity are excellent. But the story, despite its great potential, is told ploddingly and will probably let you down.

Refer to previous reviews for summaries of the plot itself.

Henry Fonda is adequate but really nothing more in this story of a 19th century love triangle. He is a young and naive erstwhile stable-lad who joins the travelling circus community and pretty immediately falls for "Albany" (Dorothy Lamour). She is feisty and determined - she is the fearless horseback rider after all. Things become more complicated for him, though, when he takes a shine to an elephant and hops big tops. That's when he encounters "Caroline" (Linda Darnell) - a familiar face from his youth and from here on in this film slips, effortlessly, into the realms of romantic melodrama - and becomes really all rather predictable. There are a few characterful contributions from John Carradine's rabble-rousing ("Bisbee") and Jane Darwell as his long suffering wife, but after a lively start that demonstrates some of the considerable skills on display for a very appreciative public, this all just drifts into mediocrity and though kills ninety minutes without difficulty, is all pretty wordy and unremarkable. The photography captures something of the excitement of the arena when it is given a chance by Henry King, Otherwise - Hmmm!

The great director Henry King comes up with a most charming and unpretentious film about a circus full of generally likable characters soon to be joined by a young Henry Fonda who is completely fascinated by lovely temptress Dorothy Lamour... only to see her depart and join another circus.

That is not all, either: Lamour is in love with another guy, and so it comes to pass that the pendant Fonda wanted to give her lands up with another beautiful female, Linda Darnell. Therein lies an interesting twist in that you feel that Fonda's first love is Lamour, and only living the hardships of live - especially circus life - and Lamour's experience tell him that Darnell owns his heart.

Superb scenes with a lion and an elephant, the circus' entry into town, Darnell learning horseriding with suspender cables, all part of lovely cinematography by Ernest Palmer. Top notch acting across the board, with Jane Darwell and Guy Kibbee a particular standout as the Huguenine couple.

Thoughtful script.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I have!

Made in 1940 in Technicolor on the Twentieth-Century Fox lot in Hollywood, this film suffers from uninspired direction by old reliable staff director Henry King, a man who could direct almost anything efficiently, but rarely with much flair or enthusiasm. The visual possibilities of the one-ring circus travelling from town to town in Upstate New York, ideal atmosphere for a movie, are hardly exploited by King. Co-star Dorothy Lamour as the bad girl bareback rider is attractive, but seems miscast as a seductress, although she tries. Linda Darnell, then a teenager, is lovely and appealing as the good girl, and has some good believable boy-girl moments with Henry Fonda, then under Fox contract. He made this film the same year as GRAPES OF WRATH, and a year before Sturges' THE LADY EVE. As always he is perfectly natural, ideally cast as the innocent American boy, shy, romantic, full of feelings he tries to hide. The perfect film actor.

TRIVIA: his Daughter Jane was three years old when this film was made.

Henry Fonda plays an "aw shucks" country boy who falls in love with Albany Yates (Dorothy Lamour) in the circus... before later marrying Caroline (Linda Darnell), who has also joined the circus.

The movie was okay, not great. I've enjoyed Fonda more in other roles (e.g. 12 Angry Men), and I've been appreciating Linda Darnell more as I see more movies that feature her, but here her role was weaker (or it was just a poorly written script). I liked the Technicolor and got a kick out of Jane Darwell's role as a feisty fat lady. In one scene she stands holding a rifle, making a man promise that he won't bother the circus team again. He does. She then hits him over the head with the rifle, knocking him out, then says, "Now I believe him!"

This is basically the price Henry Fonda had to pay to star in "Grapes of Wrath". He had to agree to be a contract player at Fox and he occasionally got stuck with this kind of role in this kind of film. But he did make the most of it like the trooper he was.