henrylbs

This film would seem to have very little to recommend it except for the sparkling energetic performance by Jeanette MacDonald. But that is enough. If you only remember MacDonald from the sometimes stultifying MGM musicals with Nelson Eddy, you are in for a surprise. Jeanette is alive and bright and rather seductive in the peignoirs, flimsy negligees and low cut gowns she wears and she no longer has the slightly zaftig European look that Lubitsch preferred at Paramount. She has a very natural sexiness that comes through even though the print I viewed on youtube is of very poor quality. I'm sure she was a turn-on for male viewers in 1930 which is what Fox wanted when they signed her. Remember this was the "pre-code" era which she as much as anyone else was responsible for (she was already tagged "the lingerie queen") so this is what audiences expected and this is what they got.

As a result of the Paramount musicals she previously appeared in, MacDonald was typed as singer so in this she is cast as an opera singer and opens the film singing "The Liebestod" from Wagner's "Tristan and Isolde" and later on she sings once more. But this not a musical; it is strictly light comedy held together by MacDonald. The plot can only be called ridiculous. She (inexplicably) falls in love with a burglar (Reginald Denny ) and convinces him to marry her but he agrees only on the condition that she will give up her career. Soon he tires of the arrangement and leaves her and (apparently) goes back to being a burglar while she resumes her career as an opera singer. But of course it is not over. It ends as viewers probably already imagined it will.

MacDonald did three films at Fox between her two stints at Paramount that preceded her eventual stardom at MGM. These three are largely forgotten now but were well received and were money makers at the time for Fox. It was the depth of the depression and all the studios but MGM were effectively bankrupt. Seen in this context, films like "Oh, for a Man" were what Fox needed, what MacDonald needed to prolong her career and what the country needed. And viewed today, it is surprisingly refreshing and shows what MacDonald was capable of.

George Jones was already a country music legend but heavy drinking was taking its' toll and he was on the way out unless he could do something about it. But there is no sign that he is about to do this or that he even cares what he is doing to himself until Tammy Wynette enters his life. Tammy was on the rise being only a year and a half in Nashville with three successful records to her credit. Tammy idolizes George or rather his music and finally is able to be hired as an opening singer for him. She is in love with him from the start but he is married and so is she with three kids of her own from a previous marriage and three inherited from her second husband. George falls in love with her and takes her away from her husband but their problems are just beginning and the biggest problem is that George is a self-destructive abusive drunk. I've only seen the first two episodes but it is pretty obvious how this is going to play out. Tammy is going to rise to the heights while George is probably going to sink to the depths and Tammy is going to hold onto him as long as she can but it will prove more than she can bare.

I know what happens later on and its' not pleasant. In fact, even episode two was hard to watch in places. So why do I think this is a 10 and plan to watch each episode multiple times as I have with the first two? First, it is extremely well written. It is very fast moving with each scene well thought out and placed. The scenes tell the story often without the need for dialog. George and Tammy are together and the scene cuts to her singing. He's singing and the scene cuts to her in the shower. She is singing "Stand By Your Man" and there are intercuts to George punching out Tammy's evil husband and retrieving the nude photographs he has been blackmailing her with. Second, the picture we get of the music industry in Nashville is revealing to say the least and the character development is sharp. Finally, the two main characters are terrific. Jessica Chastain as Tammy steals your heart as she stole George's and she is a heroine as she tries to rescue George from himself while putting up with his abuse. Of course she doesn't sound exactly like the real Tammy but to me she sings and performs the songs very well. George as played by Michael Shannon is probably a much stronger presence than was the real George Jones. He almost has to be in order to make the character palatable. The real George was 5-7 and quite ordinary looking while Shannon is 6-3, handsome and masculine. It is easy to see why Tammy, who was in love with his music, can also be in love with the man. And to me, Shannon not only sings like George, I think he sings the songs better than George. I love listening to him sing those great George Jones songs.

This is a long sad story about two people in a rut who work in a business populated by drunks, womanizers and con-men. And yet it is fascinating to watch. Highly recommended.

I've watched this movie many times over the years and although it seems like I know it by heart I always seem to watch it again and it always seems like the first time. And so this Christmas morning when I saw it was going to be on TV I dutifully viewed it again and for the rest of the day I will think about it as I always seem to do.

There are many aspects or levels on which to enjoy this movie. For me there is first the historical level...a glimpse of British colonial east Africa during the period of the story, 1913-31. There is the great landscape...wild and free and unexploited; the native peoples who are primitive and yet they exude a nobleness and simple grace and beauty like the land they inhabit; and then there are the colonials many of whom are living semi-degenerate life styles and who are there for no other reason then to exploit the place. One immediately makes the obvious comparison and draws their own conclusion about which group is the more to be admired.

And then there are the characters beginning with the immense Meryl Streep character, Karen Blixen, who is a European dropped into an impossible situation in Africa and then must spend the entire movie, a period of 18 years, trying to make the most of it. In doing so she endears herself to us by overcoming one incredible hardship after another as well as a failed marriage and an unfulfilled romance with the Redford character, Denys Finch-Hatton. We also enjoy the brilliant Streep performance with the Danish accent and all the wonderful mannerisms that make this another perfect Streep performance.

The Redford character Finch-Hatton is a British hunter/guide that Blixon gets to know after he saves her from a lion. He sort of floats in and out of the story and as somewhat underplayed by Redford (certainly in contrast with Streep's performance) he just seems to hang out; it is difficult to see what motivates him...it isn't money or women or love of country and he doesn't really even seem to love what he does. It is rather that he is like the country itself...he is just there in all his physical beauty. But he also has a sort of poetic, philosophical intellectualism about him that is what draws Blixen to him. And in the end he is as difficult to hold down as Africa itself and perhaps what happens to him and to Blixen's tenure in Africa and to British colonialism are wrapped up in Redford's character. It is all there until it is not there...nothing has really changed and life goes on.

There are several other wonderful characterizations including those of some of the native characters and there is the vast beauty of the land. The colonial incursion is already on the wane...there are efforts to exploit it like the Blixen farm but they like the lifestyle of the interlopers can't last. Only the land endures and the movie makes the most of the wonderful landscape. Some might say that this slows the action to a halt at times but this is as much about the land as it is about those trying to change and exploit it. In the end what you remember is that wonderful music and the great land of Africa. And you remember the wonderful writer, story-teller and heroine who overcomes all until she can't any longer. And to me Meryl Streep dominates this movie much as Blixen took control or her life in Africa so I'm not sure whether it is Streep or the real Blixen who is more to be admired.