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Monday, March 6, 2023

A PÁL UTCAI FIÚK / THE BOYS OF PAUL STREET (1968)

Ferenc Molnár’s classic pre-WWI novel on rival Budapest boy gangs (one teen/one tween), once a classroom staple in Eastern Europe (like GERMINAL in France or HUCKLEBERRY FINN in the States), with half a dozen silent to mini-series adaptations, was probably best served by Frank Borzage in Hollywood’s NO GREATER GLORY/’34 (updated to the Depression Era*) and in this Oscar nom’d period telling from Hungary’s Zoltán Fábri.  The story remains largely the same, a YA fable for grown-ups that's also a blistering allegory for the upcoming Great War.  Fighting over rights to a vacant warehouse lot to use as an exclusive playground, the boys’ quasi-military maneuvers and corporal punishments for oath-breakers is both parody and deadly serious business.  The earlier version leans on sentiment while this homegrown remake fixes on Molnar’s comic/ironic tone thru triumph & tragedy, giving an expansive view of the loyalties and cruelties of youth.  If only the cast & style didn’t have that late-‘60s Disney house-style look.  Everything too clean, too cute, too Teen Beat magazine, with freshly washed cobblestones in the street and tousled locks on the boys.  Fortunately, Molnar’s storyline overrides a lot, and halfway thru, during a ‘capture the flag’ raid in enemy territory, his unique mixture of heartless & heartbreaking starts to come across in devastating fashion.

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK:  *Here's a link to Borzage’s equally fine version mentioned above.   https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2020/02/no-greater-glory-1934.html

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