REMBRANDT (1936)

One of the better artist bio-pics of the period (it’s a low bar), this posh Alexander Korda pic gets an unusually effective Holland-specific look from Vincent Korda’s not-quite realistic production design (clubby interiors, forced-perspective streetscapes), an imagined 17th century Amsterdam captured in ‘Northern Light’ by cinematographer Georges Perinal. Nothing else quite lives up to it, but the basic story of the great painter, opening with the death of beloved wife Saskia when his rep was at its peak, then thru his financially difficult second act, much helped by loyal son Titus and housemaid/lover Hendrickje, becomes quite moving in spite of a script with many missing pieces and Alex Korda’s typically uninflected direction. He largely gets away with this highlights-from-a-life approach thanks to a very good cast with Charles Laughton memorable in restraint and a remarkably pleasing, naturalistic Elsa Lancaster, Laughton’s much put-upon real-life wife, as the bewitchingly clever Hendrickje. They must have been going thru a particularly happy interlude in their personal lives, their affection contagious on a film that's more than the sum of its parts.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: That’s stage goddess Gertrude Lawrence (the subject of Julie Andrews/Robert Wise’s intriguing musical misfire, STAR/’68) in a rare screen appearance as Rembrandt’s scourge of a housekeeper, a role largely at odds with her sophisticated, fun-loving, modern stage persona in thinking-man’s social comedies and adventurous musicals. No looker, Lawrence could hardly hold pitch, yet for three decades the toast of London and B’way, introducing more standards by the likes of Gershwin, Porter, Weill, Coward, Rodgers & Hammerstein than anyone besides Astaire, Crosby & Merman.

DOUBLE-BILL: A financial disappointment, any troubles making REMBRANDT paled in comparison to the next Korda/Laughton venture, Robert Graves’ I, CLAUDIUS, Josef von Sternberg directing. A jinxed production from the start, Korda was only too glad to pull the plug when co-star Merle Oberon’s involvement in a car accident offered a chance to claim a financially tidy insurance settlement. See the remnants and get the whole story in THE EPIC THAT NEVER WAS/’65.