Movie Review: Billy The Kid (1941)

Genre: Western  

Director: David Miller  

Starring: Robert Taylor, Brian Donlevy, Gene Lockhart, Ian Hunter  
Running Time: 94 minutes  

Synopsis: Notorious gunslinger William "Billy the Kid" Bonney (Robert Taylor) is hired by evil cattle baron Hickey (Gene Lockhart), who is locked in a dispute with rival cattle owner Keating (Ian Hunter). Billy gets re-acquainted with childhood friend Jim Sherwood (Brian Donlevy), now working for Keating, and switches sides. Keating believes in law and order and tries to convince Billy to abandon his outlaw methods, but with Hickey intent on stirring up trouble, avoiding violence will not be easy.

What Works Well: The Monument Valley backdrops provide a scenic setting, the script is packed with sharp dialogue, and director David Miller keeps the action moving briskly. Billy's exposure to the potential joys of peaceful domesticity is handled with sensitivity, and enough is revealed about his background (he was still a child when he sought revenge on the men who got away with murdering his father) to explain his disillusionment with the rules. Gene Lockhart (the self-satisfied slimeball Hickey) and Ian Hunter (the empathetic mentor Keating) offer robust support at either end of the ethical spectrum.

What Does Not Work As Well: The plot is only loosely based on facts. The real Billy died at 21, and Robert Taylor at 30 (and looking older) cannot convey the audacity of youth. Studio-bound close-ups are awkwardly (and frequently) inserted into the exterior shots.

Key Quote:

Billy: I got a horse and the west is wide.

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Movie Review: Quo Vadis (1951)

Genre: Historical Epic

Director: Mervyn LeRoy

Starring: Robert Taylor, Deborah Kerr, Peter Ustinov, Leo Genn

Running Time: 171 minutes

Synopsis: In Rome circa 62 AD, victorious military commander Marcus Vinicius (Robert Taylor) returns from a successful campaign to find Emperor Nero (Peter Ustinov) increasingly unstable. Marcus falls in love with the initially reluctant hostage Lygia (Deborah Kerr), and she introduces him to Christian teachings being spread by disciples Paul (Abraham Sofaer) and Peter (Finlay Currie). Marcus' Uncle Petronius (Leo Genn) is within Nero's inner circle, but the Emperor's second wife Poppaea (Patricia Laffan) also exerts influence. When Nero burns Rome for artistic inspiration and then blames the Christians, Marcus and Lygia are caught in the violent consequences.

What Works Well: Massive crowd scenes, lavish sets and costumes, an ambitious scope encompassing Christianity's early days, strong-willed characters, an ardent romance, and a mammoth running time combine to create a grand spectacle. Director Mervyn LeRoy demonstrates agility and control over all the narrative threads and achieves some legendary highlights: the burning of Rome features impressive destruction and large-scale panic, while the scenes of Christians being fed to the lions and burned at the cross are potent and painful. Towering over all the dramatic sprawl is Peter Ustinov's performance as a ridiculous, pathetic, and unforgettable Nero.

What Does Not Work As Well: The opening hour is slow, some of the speechifying is self-consciously solemn, and Robert Taylor only rarely finds the necessary tones.

Conclusion: A fine feast of Hollywoodized history. 



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Movie Review: Waterloo Bridge (1940)

A romantic wartime drama, Waterloo Bridge is a classic tale of love found and lost under exceptionally strenuous social circumstances.

It's the start of World War Two in London, and army colonel Roy Cronin (Robert Taylor) is about to travel to France. He pauses on the Waterloo Bridge to recall his romance with Myra Lester (Vivien Leigh), back from his younger days as a Captain in World War One. Roy and Myra met on the bridge during a German bombing raid, and made a dash together to an underground shelter. She was a ballet dancer, he was on a brief leave from the front. After a whirlwind couple of days, they commit to each other, but he is shipped back to the trenches before they can get married.

With Roy gone, Myra and her friend Kitty (Virginia Field) fall on hard times after quitting the ballet school and their domineering dance teacher Madame Olga Kirowa (Maria Ouspenskaya). An introductory meeting between Myra and Roy's mother Lady Margaret Cronin (Lucile Watson) goes horribly wrong when Myra is shaken to her core by a mistaken newspaper report that Roy has been killed in action. Myra and Kitty do what they must to survive, before Myra's world is rocked again by Roy's return.

Directed by Mervyn LeRoy, Waterloo Bridge adapts the Robert E. Sherwood play with emphasis on the mystical qualities of a love meant to be, and the broader forces of both unintended and deliberate interference. With practiced poignancy, the film tackles issues of separation, perceived and real snobbery, class divides, the grim prospects of women left with no support during war, prostitution (without quite mentioning the profession) and the clash between foundational lies and seemingly indestructible love.

In crisp black and white, LeRoy creates a fragile but tender bond between the dashing army man and the innocent and orphaned ballet dancer. While all looks ideal, the first part of the story hints at problems dormant below the surface. Roy is from a family of upper Scottish nobility, while Myra has already been buffeted by life and carries a surprisingly fatalistic outlook. Their love is true, but his commitment to the army and her lack of a family are fissures in the foundation.

The second half allows the cracks to spread and undermine the magic of romance. The chasm between tainted ex-ballerina and blue blood aristocracy is not an easy one to straddle, and before much is known about Myra, most of Roy's circle of family and friends are gossiping that she is not worthy, even as she dances among them. Myra does have allies in the form of Lady Margaret and The Duke (C. Aubrey Smith), but ultimately the most perilous threat comes from internal demons, always lurking and given a boost by war's cruelty.

Fresh off her world wide stardom as Scarlett O'Hara Vivien Leigh is luminous as Myra, and brings an unusual depth to the role. Behind the eyes of the innocent young dancer is a gathering darkness, and Leigh perfectly captures the dilemma of a woman falling into a love that must be impossible. Robert Taylor is steady as Roy Cronin, finding the bulletproof confidence and pushiness of a soldier eager to fast-forward life.

A time of war shuffles the social deck. Myra and Roy only met on Waterloo Bridge because of the chaos of an air raid. But the same conflict will mean their happiness is threatened, and two lovers will need to battle against overwhelming odds to maintain what they found on the bridge.

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Movie Review: Camille (1936)

A turgid, slow-moving melodramatic romance, Camille has aged quite badly, but nevertheless features a dominant Greta Garbo performance.

It's Paris in the 1870s, and rich men cavort with mistresses at the city's swank theatres and parties. Marguerite Gautier (Garbo), also known as Dame Camille, is one of the desirable courtesans, known as fun-loving, free-spending and frequently sick. The modest and passionate Armand Duval (Robert Taylor) falls madly in love with Marguerite, and although she does develop feelings for him, his modest wealth means that he probably cannot afford to sustain her. The stiff Baron de Varville (Henry Daniell) is rich beyond imagination and desires Marguerite as a prize, but she feels nothing for him.

Torn between a man who loves her and a man with money, Marguerite decides to spend the summer with Armand at his modest cottage, and the two fall deeply in love. But Armand's father Monsieur Duval (Lionel Barrymore) intervenes, disrupting their plans and forcing Marguerite to reassess her choices.

An adaptation of the Alexandre Dumas (fils) story La Dame aux Camélias, Camille is heavy on lavish gowns, grand settings, and decadent gatherings where the rich, famous and frivolous gather to drink, gossip, and waste away their lives in the pursuit of shallow pleasure.

But the film is weighed down by an awkward script that features scene after scene -- after scene -- of Marguerite, Armand and the Baron talking, and talking, and talking, about love and commitment (or lack thereof). Director George Cukor does his best, and for the most part this means keeping his cameras trained on Garbo, giving her plenty of close-ups that she exploits to perfection. But the movie all but stands still, and with none of the characters all too likeable or rounded-out in any way beyond their emotional entanglements, there is precious little else to celebrate.

There are a few secondary characters that attempt, usually quite unsuccessfully, to inject noisy comic relief, but the next scene is almost always yet another long-winded two-person conversation about living, loving and dying. Camille slowly but surely withers away, long before all the maudlinism finally comes to a merciful end.

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