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Monday, April 6, 2020

MAN ON A TIGHTROPE (1953)

Tainted by rumors of communist sympathies even after ‘naming names’ for HUAC during the WitchHunt days of the Hollywood BlackList, director Elia Kazan was pressed by his boss at 20th/Fox, Darryl F. Zanuck, into making this Soviet bashing True Tall Tale about a little Czech circus fleeing to freedom in the West. Started with misgivings, with its blunt characterizations & odd staccato rhythm, it certainly doesn’t feel like a Kazan pic. Shot in Germany with a local crew, it was largely set up and partially directed by producer Gerd Oswald. Yet Kazan found himself mentally liberated*, appreciating the experience even while noting uneven results. Fredric March as the level-headed circus owner and Adolphe Menjou as the Soviet rep who sees too clearly to pass ‘Party Line’ litmus tests, give the two standout perfs. Everyone else seems to be waiting around for a windy epiphany from prestige scripter Robert Sherwood, pretty worn out in one of his last credits. (Gloria Grahame & Terry Moore as March’s wife & daughter get the worst of it.) It’s one of those films that doesn’t quite work, perhaps because the story is too on the nose for its own good, but that you root for.

DOUBLE-BILL: *Kazan’s great film decade followed: ON THE WATERFRONT; EAST OF EDEN; BABY DOLL; FACE IN THE CROWD; WILD RIVER; AMERICA AMERICA . . . then total collapse.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: Stanley Kubrick’s PATHS OF GLORY/’57 found cinematographer Georg Krause here (he works much better under Kubrick), as well as Adolphe Menjou who repeated his characterization (but works no better).

READ ALL ABOUT IT: Kazan’s auto-bio, modestly entitled A LIFE, is a bloated affair, but short & sharp on this film.

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