Movie Review: The Prisoner Of Zenda (1937)

A swashbuckling adventure, The Prisoner Of Zenda is a breezy story of palace intrigue, conspiracy, romance, and one wild coincidence.

British aristocrat Rudolf Rassendyll (Ronald Colman) arrives in an unnamed small eastern european country for a fishing vacation. He carries an uncanny resemblance to king-to-be Rudolf V (also Colman), who is about to be coronated the next day. The future king and his loyal assistants Colonel Zapt (C. Aubrey Smith) and Captain Fritz von Tarlenheim (David Niven) spend the evening drinking with Rassendyll.

Unfortunately, Rudolf V consumes a wine bottle spiked with a sleeping drug, courtesy of his evil brother Duke Michael (Raymond Massey) and co-conspirator Rupert of Hentzau (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.). Michael will ascend to the throne if Rudolf misses his coronation, with a bonus prize of marrying Princess Flavia (Madeleine Carroll), who is promised to whoever becomes king. Antoinette de Mauban (Mary Astor) truly loves Michael, and is therefore in danger of losing her man.

With Rudolf V incapacitated, Colonel Zapt thinks quickly and convinces doppelganger Rassendyll to show up at the coronation, disrupting Michael's plot. Rudolf V is captured and imprisoned by Hentzau, and Rassendyll now has to pretend to be King. He starts to fall in love with Flavia and is thrust into a ruthless battle for the crown.

The adaptation of the classic Anthony Hope novel is given lush, high-quality treatment in this David O. Selznick production. As a story The Prisoner Of Zelda may operate best at an almost childlike level of thrills and wonder, but the movie just powers ahead, fully committed to the absurd tale of an Englishman asked to fool an entire foreign nation and getting away with it for much longer than makes sense.

With eager pacing, director John Cromwell somehow packs the multiple characters, twisted agendas, numerous double-crosses, and convoluted but internally logical events into just the 101 minutes. The actors help by appearing resplendent in their outfits, the men convincing as they partake in a joust for dominance, the ladies leaning heavily towards theatricality and heavy breathing. The impressive set designs, featuring hundreds of extras, create a bountiful ambience. A few athletic sword and dagger battles add punctuation marks.

The stellar cast is deep in talent, and Colman is in fine form playing dual roles and overcoming a few incidents of clunky editing when Rassendyll and Rudolf V appear together. Surprisingly C. Aubrey Smith overshadows almost everyone else as Colonel Zapt, a wily veteran patriotic officer with a singular mission to protect the throne's reputation.

Slicing its way through any scrutiny of rationality, The Prisoner Of Zenda is an exuberant escape to exotic exploits.



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Movie Review: Gunga Din (1939)

A military adventure epic, Gunga Din enjoys breathtaking scope and ambition, combined with a lighthearted tone and traditional themes of friendship and military honour.

It's the 1880s in India, and the British India Army in the Northwest Frontier is encountering organized attacks. Sergeants MacChesney (Victor McLaglen), Cutter (Cary Grant), and Ballantine (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.) are a close-knit hell-raising trio, and are dispatched in command of a small contingent to repair telegraph lines in the village Tantrapur. They are forced into defensive action to repel an attack by Thuggees, a blood-thirsty military cult enjoying a resurgence.

Ballantine is close to leaving the military and wants to marry his sweetheart Emmy (Joan Fontaine). But the veteran MacChesney and treasure-seeking jokester Cutter conspire to keep him on duty. Meanwhile Cutter spots loyal water carrier Gunga Din (Sam Jaffe) emulating British troop procedures and pining to be taken seriously as a soldier, with a particular fondness for the bugle. The three sergeants are again sent to Tantrapur, this time at the head of a much bigger force to flush out the Thuggees. But the enemy is well-prepared, and the British are lured to a gold-embossed temple for a showdown.

Enjoying a mammoth budget and high production values, Gunga Din goes searching for expansive adventure in exotic lands (or at least the best studio sets money can buy). Produced by RKO Pictures and directed by George Stevens, the film is written for the screen by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur and inspired by a Rudyard Kipling poem (a Kipling character makes a small appearance at the end of the film as a reporter).

The result is a rousing story of enterprising soldiers loving life in the brotherhood of the army, with bloodthirsty action mingling with episodes played purely for laughs. The humour is understandably dated and the scenes setting up the jokes seem to take forever, notably antics related to using elephant medication to spike a bowl of punch.

But all is forgotten and forgiven when the action kicks into high gear, and Stevens orchestrates two breathtaking and prolonged combat scenes, drawing on the colourfully dubious history of the Thuggee cult. First the small British contingent is attacked by the Thuggees and has to improvise a defence. The second action set-piece is the climax and starts with a trap, imprisonment and torture before breaking into an impressive all-out battle between multiple large armies.

In the interludes between the business of combat, Hecht and MacArthur have fun with tense travel exploits across hazards including a rickety bridge. The film salutes the ingenuity of British soldiers but also wields the double-edged sword of local water carrier Gunga Din entranced by the foreign army and proving his worth by playing a crucial role in battle. The humble local and loyal servant is instrumental in the White Saviors' quest to tame the land, for better or for worse.

McLaglen, Grant and Fairbanks share decent chemistry and pull off the raucous friends routine where arguments, fisticuffs and pranks are just as likely as acts of valour. They are less than convincing as soldiers of any sort, but with the military combat scenes staged on a broad canvas, they don't need to be. Joan Fontaine gets a couple of scenes as the token fiancée, here reduced to a symbol of naggy disruptiveness, but is otherwise wasted. Montagu Love is the gruff base commander Colonel Weed, and Robert Coote is the pantomime frenemy as the stuffy and unpopular Sergeant Higginbotham.

Well staged and infinitely enthusiastic, Gunga Din defines cheeky escapism.

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Movie Review: The Life Of Jimmy Dolan (1933)

A potent social drama, The Life Of Jimmy Dolan (also known as The Kid's Last Fight) combines boxing and romance with a fast-paced story of redemption.

Handsome boxer Jimmy Dolan (Douglas Fairbanks Jr) wins the world title, and to appease his sponsors falsely claims to the adoring media that he lives a wholesome life. In reality, he is a jaded cynic and believes that all his friends are pursuing their self-interest. When reporter Charles Magee (George Meeker) threatens to expose Jimmy's real habits of boozing and womanizing, Jimmy kills him with one punch. A subsequent fiery car crash claims the life of Jimmy's sleazy manager Doc (Lyle Talbot) and girlfriend Goldie (Shirley Grey), and Doc's burnt body is mistaken for Jimmy.

The boxer assumes the new identity of Jack Dougherty, leaves New York City and disappear into a new life on the run. Only semi-retired police detective Phlaxer (Guy Kibbee) suspects that Jimmy is still alive. The boxer makes his way to Salt Lake City area, where he stumbles onto a rural farm run by Peggy (Loretta Young) and her Auntie (Aline MacMahon), who look after a group of sick children. They extend their hospitality to Jimmy, and soon he starts to fall in love with Peggy. But Phlaxer will not give up his quest for justice.

Directed by Archie Mayo, The Life Of Jimmy Dolan is a hard-hitting 88 minutes. A simple story of one man discovering that life could be about more than just narcissism and conceit, the drama lands all the right punches with just enough force. The freedom afforded by the pre-Hays Code era allows Jimmy to embark on his post-murder journey without a predetermined outcome, and Mayo hustles the moral dilemmas and romance along with laudable efficiency. Mayo also finds reasons to introduce some good outdoor action, including a wild car chase.

The film does offer up an extraordinarily sharp contrast between Jimmy's sordid boxer life and the wholesome farm run by Peggy and Auntie, the pure simple folks caring for sick children offering a too-perfect antidote to the poison in Jimmy's soul. But within these limitations Mayo constructs plenty of jagged emotional conflicts, with Jimmy fighting both against his past and his present as a man living a lie under a fake identity while falling in love with a girl who could be his salvation.

The film gives some of the secondary characters good depth, with the detective Phlaxer enjoying his own opportunity to make up for past aberrations. Late in the story the fates of Phlaxer and Jimmy intertwine, and second chances become a corollary to atonement. Even the relatively minor and short role of Goldie is presented with a conflict between loyalty and the pursuit of quick riches during desperate times.

Douglas Fairbanks Jr. is functional if a bit fluffy for a boxing champion. The supporting cast includes Edward Arnold as another detective, Mickey Rooney and Anne Shirley as two of the kids on the ranch, and a young John Wayne as a boxer uncertain about climbing into the ring with a notorious bruiser.

The Life Of Jimmy Dolan is an unexpected pleasure, a drama with both edge and heart.

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Movie Review: Little Caesar (1931)

The story of the spectacular rise and hasty fall of a vicious criminal, Little Caesar was one of the most influential early gangster movies and retains considerable power today. It catapulted Edward G. Robinson into stardom and helped to establish the template for the the tough talking, ruthless screen villain.

Common criminals and friends Caesar "Rico" Bandello (Robinson) and Joe Massara (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.) are on diverging career paths. Massara wants to give up the life of crime and become a dancer, while Rico is brutal, ambitious and wants be a major crime boss. They move to Chicago, where Massara settles down with dance partner Olga (Glenda Farrell) and starts to build a career in the performing world. Rico joins the the gang of Sam Vettori, and makes a name for himself by gunning down crime commissioner Alvin McClure, a shooting witnessed by Massara.

Rico's bravado and quick trigger finger launch him up the gang world ladder, and he draws the attention of the police and particularly Sergeant Flaherty. When Massara insists that he wants nothing more to do with a life of crime, Rico decides to kill him, afraid that Massara can link him to the McClure shooting. But Rico cannot bring himself to shoot his old friend, and this starts his downfall, which is even quicker and more comprehensive than his meteoric rise.

Arriving during the transitional era from silent to talking movies, Little Caesar retains a few full screen text boards to help move the action along. But it is otherwise a remarkably modern film, tautly scripted, sharply edited and well acted. Clocking in at just 79 minutes, director Mervyn LeRoy cuts out all distractions and keeps a tight focus on Rico. Edward G. Robinson quickly perfects the permanent sour scowl and sharp tongue that would define his screen persona, a man who will fearlessly obliterate any obstacle until destiny confronts him with an appropriately powerful opposing emotional force.

Few actors could have matched Robinson for intensity and magnetic screen presence, and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. is comparatively bland as Massara, a character who points the way to a better future built on redemption, while Rico is only interested in the shortcuts of life that can be afforded with the barrel of a gun. Glenda Farrell is markedly influential as Olga, and it is she who injects Massara with the backbone to stand up to Rico, a early model for assertive women movie characters.

"Mother of mercy, is this the end of Rico?" is the deservedly famous last line of Little Caesar. Rico's story was always going to end badly, but Little Caesar was one of the key starting points for the modern era of film-making.

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