Responding to dire news in the first months of WWII, Hollywood stuck with largely upbeat stories; recruitment-friendly uplift larded with patriotism, sentiment & comic trimmings. (Improved war reports brought in a darker tone.) An attitude which helps explain this Navy Saga ‘Lite’ (ad copy ‘The Mightiest Naval Drama Of All Time!’ a con), but can’t explain why it’s so perfectly dreadful. Similar wartime pep-talks @ Warners (Bogart or Flynn); 20th/Fox (Tyrone Power); or Paramount (Fred MacMurray), also period pieces, still work to some extent*, but M-G-M hasn’t got the sensibility for caustic charm. Especially with studio vet Robert Z. Leonard directing at something like half-speed. Every missed joke, character turn or action set piece, dying on screen s-l-o-w-l-y. Robert Taylor, finishing a few films before joining up for real, is the entitled junior officer chosen as 'second' by Lieut. Brian Donlevy on his WWI ‘junker’ destroyer. With Charles Laughton getting nothing to do as Rear Admiral; Walter Brennan sentimentalizing about a lifetime on the ship; and Chill Wills to serenade a passel of tykes plucked out of a drifting lifeboat. (That’s the comic angle.) The old ship comes thru in the final reel, taking out a ‘Jap’ battleship and saving the fleet in sub-par Oscar nominated action footage before everyone gets a medal at the fade. Bail out before then.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: What a miserable credit for writer Herman J. Mankiewicz a year after CITIZEN KANE.
WATCH THIS, NOT THAT: *Prove the point as MacMurray & Flynn mix it up in DIVE BOMBER/’41. Nothing special (other than TechniColor and seeing Paramount come to Warners), yet easily beating this M-G-M dud. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2008/05/dive-bomber-1941.html
No comments:
Post a Comment