Joan Crawford followed her big comeback in MILDRED PIERCE/’45 by getting miscast as a rich, neurotic society lady who mentors, then falls hard for, rising concert violinist John Garfield. The film was a hit. But she might as well have been back at her old studio, M-G-M, picking up Greta Garbo's leftovers, overcompensating as an actress, and showing dangerous intimations of mannerisms to come. What remains of the old Fannie Hurst novel is all in the first half-hour*, before Crawford appears. It charts the musical fortunes of a young tenement boy, Mom’s favored child. He grows up to be Garfield, clutching his violin as a ticket out. Enter Crawford & Co., her entourage of wealthy hangers-on; an older, passive husband; and musical connections that could jumpstart a career. Love?; it tears them apart and draws them together. Mother really does know best: that lady will always be bad news. The plot, apparently lifted from Clifford Odets’ unused script for the George Gershwin bio-pic RHAPSODY IN BLUE/’45, is turgid stuff, though fun turgid. Handsomely overwrought in Ernest Haller’s lensing and smartly paced considering there’s about 40 minutes of music tucked in, by director Jean Negulesco, working his way up from shorts & B-pics. And the music is stunningly realized, with 26-yr-old Isaac Stern on the violin.* (You can’t blame Franz Waxman, who put the score & excerpts together, for that tacky finale turning Wagner’s Liebestod from TRISTAN & ISOLDE into a concertante piece for violin, piano & orchestra. Yikes! Fortunately, amid all the angst, Oscar Levant is around, cracking-wise as Garfield’s truth-telling/piano-playing pal. And getting a chance to play more than his usual Gershwin specialities. What a speed demon at the keyboard! And just as fast with snappy putdowns, largely his own quips.
READ ALL ABOUT IT: Levant was just as cutting off-camera according to Jean Negulesco's auto-bio: ‘Levant to Crawford, who knitted constantly while rehearsing, eating, arguing, looking at rushes: ‘Do you knit when you fuck?’
DOUBLE-BILL: *The 1920 silent version, scripted by Frances Marion and beautifully directed by Frank Borzage, is closer to the novel. More straight MotherLove story, with mesmerizing tenement sections early on. (A severely mentally handicapped brother always sitting in the tiny living room is unforgettable.) Violin lessons in Europe; WWI; a hand injury; and a shortchanged last act with miraculous recovery & a final rendition of Dvorak’s Humoresque for a concert hall filled to the brim with immigrants. Heart-stopping stuff. Alas, no recommendable DVD even though superb elements are around.
CONTEST: *What famous NY’er now lives in Isaac Stern’s old CPW Manhattan digs? The correct answer wins a MAKSQUIBS Write-Up of your choice.
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