Une femme marquée

Dorothy Malone does very fine work portraying Diana Barrymore, the daughter of alcoholic actor John Barrymore, a young woman with dreams of carving out her own niche in show business before succumbing to the same demons which dogged her father. The picture, however, is little more than a potboiler, co-written by director Art Napoleon with Jo Napoleon, from the book by Diana Barrymore and Gerold Frank. Errol Flynn is solid as John Barrymore, and there's a sweet supporting performance from Martin Milner as a family friend (Milner's final scene, revealing a bald head, is especially good). Still, this movie about the movies seems lackluster and naive, not to mention under-produced. For buffs, a somewhat enjoyable wallow with a quiet, even pace, and Malone manages to be sympathetic on the road to ruin without becoming a nuisance. **1/2 from ****

But then that is par for the course for biopics of the 50s. Diana Barrymore was a tragic figure, she was ignored by her parents, actor John Barrymore and author Michael Strange, and she did make lots of bad choices over the years. However, so much is incorrect in this film. I don't know exactly how Diana Barrymore started drinking, but in the film, after her father dies and she feels guilty for not having being there, she literally picks up a bottle of her dad's liquor and starts chugging after a lifetime on lemonade. She is shown as having what appears to be a perfectly fine first husband with a good job who is age appropriate when in fact husband number one was a fellow actor almost 20 years her senior during their marriage when she was in her early 20s. Husbands number two and three are pretty much on course, especially husband number two who was a tennis player simply out to exploit Diana for the Barrymore millions.

Errol Flynn gives a fine performance as John Barrymore and life sadly imitates art here as Flynn would die within the year at least partly from his own lifestyle. You really feel sometimes you are looking right at Barrymore, from Flynn's carriage to just his appearance. Flynn actually knew Barrymore, so he did have actual memories from which to draw on in his performance.

Another point - the film makes it look like Diana is John Barrymore's only child - she wasn't - and that Diana's mother was the love of his life the others just being "images on a screen". Given the short time they were married I doubt that too. In fact, Diana was with her dad when he died. Actually, while his legs were bloated stiff from kidney failure and he was lying in a hospital bed, John Barrymore was begging his daughter to go out and find prostitutes for him and bring them back to the hospital!

I'd watch this because the overall tragic stories of John and Diana Barrymore are true and the acting is great, but the devil is in the details. Strangely enough this showed up on TCM's Father's Day programming. I guess, for a change, they were trying to balance the "good dad" movies with the "bad dad" films.

It's a little tough to rate this film, and as I try to drill down into that feeling, I think it's because it seems a little less than fully honest in its portrayal of Diana Barrymore, despite some of the depths we see her sink to, and the humiliations she endures. It also seems like a much more interesting biographical movie would have been one based on her carousing father, the great actor John Barrymore.

Over the first half of the movie, we see John (Jack) Barrymore played by Errol Flynn, and he alone makes the film worth seeing. It's such a poignant role, portraying his real life friend's decline from alcoholism in his later years, while Flynn himself was suffering from the same thing, and would die just one year later at 50. We see him still craving the attention of a star, wishing he had behaved better with his daughter, and sneaking bottles of alcohol by hiding them in the knight's armor he has in his depressing and barren old mansion. He's also an angry and violent drunk. The call where he tries to connect with Diana's mother (Michael Strange, played by Neva Patterson) is touching, as is the scene where Diana eventually leaves him.

To some extent, Dorothy Malone is thus overshadowed. Early on she looks and acts far too old to play a teenager (she was 34, and Patterson, playing her mother, was 38). She comes across as simply in need of parental affection, which was undoubtedly true, but a little too squeaky clean, for example, only beginning to drink when her father dies. It is also a little odd that we're not even made aware that America was at war when she started her film career, though perhaps that is true to this person's life and just how insulated she was.

Malone's performance and the character come to life in the second half of the film, and there are some pretty sad moments. We see her flirting at a lavish party in her home while her first husband is on location shooting a film, then sleeping with one of the guests and getting caught when he returns. We see her second husband, an amateur tennis star, hitting tennis balls at her during an argument. She lives in a tawdry apartment with her third husband, with the power cut off because they haven't paid the bill, and while a neon sign flashes incessantly outside their window in the night, he throws a drink in her face. Later as her career has fizzled and she's spiraling, she gets up on stage in a cheap joint after a stripper performs, to do impressions to a jeering crowd.

It would be easy to not feel sorry for someone who was given so much of an opportunity in life but threw it away, but that's too harsh. I think it's important to understand why a person has turned out a certain way and to empathize, but at the same time, there is accountability, and here, probably because the tale was told by Diana herself, the scale seems tipped too much away from the latter. We do see her in self-destructive acts such as not showing up to finish a film, driving drunk, and arriving in a small town to act in a play hammered and face down on the floor in her train compartment, so it's not completely sugar-coated, however, the film seems to be saying that if only her parents or these men in her life had treated her better, she wouldn't have had the trouble she did.

The rosy hued tone of the end seems suspiciously syrupy, and of course, as Diana would die just two years later at 38, there is a certain bitter irony in it. It's as if the autobiography and resulting movie had the veneer of an actor, always looking to act. Regardless, there is enough in the film to make it worthwhile - Errol Flynn in the first half, Dorothy Malone in the second half, and this look into the sad endings to the lives of John and Diana Barrymore.

Flynn is very touching, and Malone is marvelous. Martin Milner and Efrem Zimbalist are sympathetic. But I have got to say something about Ray Danton, as a professional tennis player and sexual opportunist. As the guy who gets the married Malone into bed within minutes of meeting her, and persuades her to divorce her husband and marry him just about as fast, Danton is utterly convincing. It's one of the most flat-out sexy male performances I've ever seen. Actually, there are two that spring to mind, both in not particularly famous movies, and the other one is Ben Gazzara in "A Rage to Live." I just have to give a shout-out to Danton. He died a few years ago (only 61!), but his hot stuff lives on.

Flynn was released from his Warner contract in 1953, he returned in 1958 to play his dear friend John Barrymore in this autobiographical film. Due to legal complications at the time the resulting script was intentionally vague.

I enjoy this film because of Errol Flynns' sympathetic and moving performance of a charming rogue at war with himself.

A moody drama The film concentrates on Barrymores' daughter and her need for love in life.The film was based on her book. Dorothy Malone is wonderful in that role. It also is done well in black and white. The vague script means alot is missed, we only glimpse the complex characters.

The film is worth watching for Malones' performance and Flynns' sympathetic turn in a rare dramatic part.

(On a lighter note, while he knew John Barrymore well he didn't look at all like 'the great profile', so Flynn was assisted by makeup and given Mr Barrymores' distinctive Nose.)