Greta-Garbo
Joined Sep 2001
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Greta-Garbo's rating
It's a shame this movie is so hard to get your hands on in the US. I found it through a rare video dealer, and it was certainly worth it. This is, without a doubt, the best film made during the pre-code era, and the finest film of the 1930s. Masterful director Frank Borzage made wonderful films about the Depression, and with MAN'S CASTLE he created a fairy tale amidst the hardships of the era.
Loretta Young and Spencer Tracy have a wonderful chemistry between them, and they help make this movie a wonderful romance. Young's Trina is sweet and hopeful, while Tracy's Bill is gruff and closed-off. The dynamic between the character creates one of the most difficult, but in the end rewarding relationships on film.
MAN'S CASTLE is the most soft-focus pre-code film I've seen. Borzage uses the hazy and dreamy technique to turn the squatter's village where Bill and Trina live into a palace. The hardships of the Depression are never ignored, in fact they're integral to the film. But as Borzage crafts the film as a soft focus fairy tale, the love between the characters makes the situation seem less harsh. It makes the film warm and affectionate.
MAN'S CASTLE is the crowning achievement of the pre-code era. If only more people could see it.
Loretta Young and Spencer Tracy have a wonderful chemistry between them, and they help make this movie a wonderful romance. Young's Trina is sweet and hopeful, while Tracy's Bill is gruff and closed-off. The dynamic between the character creates one of the most difficult, but in the end rewarding relationships on film.
MAN'S CASTLE is the most soft-focus pre-code film I've seen. Borzage uses the hazy and dreamy technique to turn the squatter's village where Bill and Trina live into a palace. The hardships of the Depression are never ignored, in fact they're integral to the film. But as Borzage crafts the film as a soft focus fairy tale, the love between the characters makes the situation seem less harsh. It makes the film warm and affectionate.
MAN'S CASTLE is the crowning achievement of the pre-code era. If only more people could see it.
There's really no other word to describe this movie than horrible. Well, maybe irritating. Yeah, irritating is a very good word. Irritating and horrible. Not only was I more disappointed by this than any other movie I have ever seen, it's quite easily one of the worst movies ever made.
Dennis Barlowe (Robert Morse) is an English poet who has arrived in America to stay with his uncle Sir Francis (John Gielgud), who does something at a Hollywood studio, they don't really make it clear what. When he's fired, he kills himself, and Dennis is left to make the funeral arrangements at the ultra creepy funeral home Whispering Glades. There, he meets cosmetician Aimee Thanatogenous (Anjanette Comer) and becomes smitten. Aimee is interest and excited by Dennis, though she finds him to be ethically challenged. However, she's also smitten with the head embalmer, Mr. Joyboy (Rod Steiger), who is smitten right back.
The film is based on the scathing Evelyn Waugh novel of the same name, which is one of my favorite books of all time. But Waugh focused on the relationship, and the effects the commercialism of the funeral business had on it. The film is just a mess. When I saw on IMDb that it was over two hours, I wondered how they could get a movie that long out of a book that's only 163 pages long. They did that by adding a lot of pointless, confusing, peripheral story lines that are both incredibly silly and trivialize the real story. There simply isn't enough focus on the relationship, because of a really bizarre storyline that was added. The owner of Whispering Glades is in the middle for some apparently huge conspiracy to get rid of Whispering Glades and turn it into a retirement home. A lot of business is made of him, The Reverend, flying around ominously in a helicopter watching over all his little establishments. It's laughable, and it makes it so the film has no real focus.
Which brings me to the next problem. The film lacks focus on just about everything. It starts out as a satire on Hollywood, and then ditches that to becomes a satire on the funeral business, completely missing Waugh's point of blending the two and showing how disgustingly alike they are. Then the conspiracy side story starts out as some campy mystery about the man in the helicopter, and that's quickly thrown to the side to turn him into a sinister business man. None of the movie makes much sense.
And the characters are all wrong. A few changes wouldn't have been bad, but the changes that were made make the situations completely unbelievable. Dennis starts out as a bumbling, befuddled brit, but suddenly turns into a callous, almost mean, horndog. Aimee, instead of being very business like, is daffy and seems like a zealous catholic or something. And Mr. Joyboy. Yikes. Mild-mannered, quiet Mr. Joyboy was turned into something flamboyant and strange. And it's these things the hurt the primary love triangle the most. Dennis, while definitely arrogant, really had the best of intentions toward Aimee, but he was English, and she was American, and it was almost impossible for them clear up their social understandings. Instead, Dennis is just an incredibly horny young man, and it seems an awful lot like he wants to marry her just to get in her pants.
The film also makes Whispering Glade far too cultish, almost like a harem or something. I think Waugh's point here was completely misunderstood. He was trying to tie together Hollywood and the funeral business, so Whispering Glades, though efficient and business-like, had a very publicized, Hollywood feel to it. Not a creepy cult feel at all.
And just when you think things can't get worse, there's a weird orgy in the coffin room. The film puts a lot of things in there just to offend you. It's supposed to be a comedy, but I didn't laugh once.
The only reason it gets a 1 and not a 0 is because John Geilgud's brief appearance is fantastic, and though the character was written all wrong, Comer's performance as Aimee is enjoyable enough.
Dennis Barlowe (Robert Morse) is an English poet who has arrived in America to stay with his uncle Sir Francis (John Gielgud), who does something at a Hollywood studio, they don't really make it clear what. When he's fired, he kills himself, and Dennis is left to make the funeral arrangements at the ultra creepy funeral home Whispering Glades. There, he meets cosmetician Aimee Thanatogenous (Anjanette Comer) and becomes smitten. Aimee is interest and excited by Dennis, though she finds him to be ethically challenged. However, she's also smitten with the head embalmer, Mr. Joyboy (Rod Steiger), who is smitten right back.
The film is based on the scathing Evelyn Waugh novel of the same name, which is one of my favorite books of all time. But Waugh focused on the relationship, and the effects the commercialism of the funeral business had on it. The film is just a mess. When I saw on IMDb that it was over two hours, I wondered how they could get a movie that long out of a book that's only 163 pages long. They did that by adding a lot of pointless, confusing, peripheral story lines that are both incredibly silly and trivialize the real story. There simply isn't enough focus on the relationship, because of a really bizarre storyline that was added. The owner of Whispering Glades is in the middle for some apparently huge conspiracy to get rid of Whispering Glades and turn it into a retirement home. A lot of business is made of him, The Reverend, flying around ominously in a helicopter watching over all his little establishments. It's laughable, and it makes it so the film has no real focus.
Which brings me to the next problem. The film lacks focus on just about everything. It starts out as a satire on Hollywood, and then ditches that to becomes a satire on the funeral business, completely missing Waugh's point of blending the two and showing how disgustingly alike they are. Then the conspiracy side story starts out as some campy mystery about the man in the helicopter, and that's quickly thrown to the side to turn him into a sinister business man. None of the movie makes much sense.
And the characters are all wrong. A few changes wouldn't have been bad, but the changes that were made make the situations completely unbelievable. Dennis starts out as a bumbling, befuddled brit, but suddenly turns into a callous, almost mean, horndog. Aimee, instead of being very business like, is daffy and seems like a zealous catholic or something. And Mr. Joyboy. Yikes. Mild-mannered, quiet Mr. Joyboy was turned into something flamboyant and strange. And it's these things the hurt the primary love triangle the most. Dennis, while definitely arrogant, really had the best of intentions toward Aimee, but he was English, and she was American, and it was almost impossible for them clear up their social understandings. Instead, Dennis is just an incredibly horny young man, and it seems an awful lot like he wants to marry her just to get in her pants.
The film also makes Whispering Glade far too cultish, almost like a harem or something. I think Waugh's point here was completely misunderstood. He was trying to tie together Hollywood and the funeral business, so Whispering Glades, though efficient and business-like, had a very publicized, Hollywood feel to it. Not a creepy cult feel at all.
And just when you think things can't get worse, there's a weird orgy in the coffin room. The film puts a lot of things in there just to offend you. It's supposed to be a comedy, but I didn't laugh once.
The only reason it gets a 1 and not a 0 is because John Geilgud's brief appearance is fantastic, and though the character was written all wrong, Comer's performance as Aimee is enjoyable enough.
Sometimes, changes to novels when they're made into films are not only necessary, but a good thing. However, in the case of Northanger Abbey, it's a very, very bad thing. Not only is the story itself ripped to shreds, but the satire is almost completely absent from the film, and it's mixture of romance and intrigue doesn't even touch upon the biting commentary that Austen put into her work. It fails to be amusing or satirical at all, and instead turns the character's fascination with her fantasy world into mostly a drama.
This affects the romance as well. It's meandering and aimless. Chemistry and interest are never established. The reasons Tilney is attracted to Catherine are completely absent from the film, leaving the audience to wonder what it is he sees in her at all.
Hopefully some day soon, we'll get a more faithful version if Austen's satire.
This affects the romance as well. It's meandering and aimless. Chemistry and interest are never established. The reasons Tilney is attracted to Catherine are completely absent from the film, leaving the audience to wonder what it is he sees in her at all.
Hopefully some day soon, we'll get a more faithful version if Austen's satire.