Eye-popping TechniColor, backlot studio artifice, campy fabulist adventure, just the ticket for unlikely Hollywood film star Maria Montez. Half a dozen films with aquatic consort Jon Hall during the war years, and, if you were lucky, Sabu as sidekick, besting villains, inane plots & strapless everything. This one tops of the divinely silly lot, with Montez kidnaped by Lon Chaney Jr. on her wedding day and taken to the island of her birth where younger identical twin sister is the despotic ruler. You’ll guess the rest of the plot, but not the decor; the nightclub floor show passing as ritual cobra dance (backup chorus-line in blue); fire-breathing mountain; a dozen more near death experiences for all three. And with stylish director Robert Siodmak calling the shots*, unexpectedly specific setups that almost make sense of the nonsensical plot & island logistics, serving up the shortest running time of the series. A plus because while you wouldn’t want to miss it (especially in HD), you may also find that one is quite enough.
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: *More than other directors in these films, Siodmak emphasizes music over adventure, as if Montez were a beautiful Carmen Miranda whose run at 20th/Fox mirrored these in color saturation & brief popularity.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: Hard to imagine serious, issue-oriented Richard Brooks co-scripted. Even harder to imagine calm, sophisticated French actor Jean-Pierre Aumont married to Montez.
No comments:
Post a Comment