Movie Review: 21 Days (1940)

A drama about guilt and luck with bits of romance and courtroom intrigue thrown in, 21 Days (also known as 21 Days Together) never finds a consistent tone and quickly fades.

In London, respected solicitor Keith Durrant (Leslie Banks) is about to be appointed a high court judge. His penniless brother Larry (Laurence Olivier) returns from an overseas trip and reconnects with his lover Wanda (Vivien Leigh). To their surprise her long-estranged foreign husband Henry appears and demands money. A scuffle ensues between the two men and Henry is killed.

Larry dumps the body under an archway but confesses all to Keith, who tries to help his brother cover up the incident not to harm his own career prospects. Based on circumstantial evidence the police arrest homeless drifter and former priest John Evan for Henry's murder. Despite Keith urging them to leave the country, Larry and Wanda stay in England and enjoy three weeks together as they await the trial's outcome, Larry struggling with his conscience and debating whether or not to confess.

Filmed in 1937 and shelved for being sub-par, 21 Days was released in 1940 after Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier became international stars in Gone With The Wind and Wuthering Heights respectively. 21 Days should have stayed on the shelf. This is a botched and almost amateurish drama resembling early talkie efforts, director Basil Dean unable to steer in any one coherent direction. 

None of the plot elements survive even the most cursory scrutiny. The story foundations are sketchy, as the trigger incident is a case of self-defence by Larry, and yet no one bothers to ever mention that factoid. What follows is a downward and wayward spiral of Larry and Wanda either being apart or being together, either planning to leave the country or planning to stay, and Larry either planning to confess or not, but only depending on whether the innocent accused man is convicted or not.

And even at just the 72 minutes, the film runs out of ideas. Amidst plenty of supposedly profound but repetitive and ultimately dumbfounding talk about 21 days, three months, three years or thirty years representing a lifetime together, the final third culminates in a gharrish run-the-clock-down journey to the fairgrounds, somehow Larry and Wanda concluding that cheap carnival games are the best way to evolve their romance.

Here Leigh is confined to a stock good-hearted woman caught in bad events, while the film's one shining light is a solid Olivier performance capturing a conflicted perpetual loser. Or maybe he was just grumpy trapped in an unmitigable production.



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Movie Review: Fire Over England (1937)

A historical drama, Fire Over England is a robust combination of espionage and romance set against a drumbeat of impending war.

It's the late 1500s and tensions are rising between England under Queen Elizabeth (Flora Robson) and Spain under King Philip II (Raymond Massey). Spain has a dominant armada, but pesky British raids increase the likelihood of full-scale conflict. Englishman adventurer Michael Ingolby (Laurence Olivier) gets caught on the losing side of a naval skirmish and is held by the Spanish. He is allowed to escape because of his father's connections, but not before starting a romance with Elena (Tamara Desni), a member of Philip's court.

Michael returns to England and his true love Cynthia (Vivien Leigh), one of the Queen's attendants. Elizabeth is surrounded by schemers and struggling with loneliness and advancing age, and resents the youth and vitality of Cynthia and Michael. But after traitor Hillary Vane (James Mason) disappears, the Queen recruits Michael to infiltrate Philip's court on a dangerous mission to identify those plotting against her.

A British production directed by William K. Howard and co-produced by Alexander Korda, the screen adaptation of the 1936 A. E. W. Mason novel is a grand yet controlled historical adventure. The film mixes history with palace intrigue and adds pinches of swashbuckling action into a lively 92 minutes. 

Fire Over England started the real-life romance (later leading to marriage) between Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh, and is also one of the performances that helped Leigh land the coveted Scarlett O'Hara role in Gone With The Wind. But aside from incidental significance, the film is also a well-crafted costume drama with plenty to enjoy.

The few naval warfare action scenes are more graceless than good, but once on firm ground Howard makes good use of impressive sets to recreate the competing courts of Elizabeth and Philip, with all the surrounding pomp, circumstance and hangers-on. And the script by Clemence Dane and Sergei Nolbandov maintains a reasonably good handle on the numerous characters and agendas swirling around the monarchs.

Despite the brisk pace, the film pauses for several moments of astute reflection with the Queen as she ponders her legacy with the passage of time and within the continuously shifting political realities. Flora Robson is a domineering Queen Elizabeth, and her scenes mixing wistfulness, barely contained jealousy and sly empathy are a joy. Olivier is a dashing and athletic protagonist, with evident sparks between him and the coquettish Leigh. And in relatively few scenes, Raymond Massey makes a keen impression as a hands-on King Philip, intimidating with sheer presence and sharp intellect.

Michael's uncanny ability to repeatedly outsmart and escape the Spaniards is of course well beyond far-fetched, but Fire Over England generates enough sustained heat to navigate the choppy waters.



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Movie Review: Dark Journey (1937)

A World War One spy adventure, Dark Journey offers intriguing nuggets but is hampered by shallow characters and unintelligible execution.

In the spring of 1918, Stockholm-based high-end fashion store owner and Swiss national Madeleine Goddard (Vivien Leigh) undertakes a risky journey to Paris. In flashback, her activities are revealed. Working secretly for French intelligence, she pretends to be a German spy in neutral Sweden, feeding the Germans military intelligence hidden in code woven into the fabric of clothes imported from Paris.

At a fancy nightclub Madeleine meets and falls in love with German playboy aristocrat and retired veteran Baron Karl Von Marwitz (Conrad Veidt), causing concern about her loyalties. With the level of mistrust rising, Madeleine finds her life endangered and has to attempt a daring escape.

Despite a radiant Vivien Leigh portraying the protagonist as a confident businesswoman and crafty spy, Dark Journey is close to being inept. Director Victor Saville displays no understanding of what it takes to introduce characters and build tension. Scenes come and go at random, interchangeable agents from various countries show up without context and bounce off each other to no effect. The supporting cast is underwhelming, and with everyone speaking in English accents and no uniforms in sight, it is often difficult to even discern which team anyone is on.

The romance elements are eroded by the very visible twenty years of age difference between Leigh and Veidt, and for a clearly capable woman, Madeleine's attraction to a man introduced as a sleazy lothario is beyond puzzling.

Some of the locations are eye-catching, including the glitzy Stockholm nightclub and Madeleine's swish store. But the clumsiness continues when the film moves to the brief action scenes. Saville throws in one in-the-trenches clip for the sake of filming a single explosion. And the interceptions-at-sea sequences are repetitive for a 77 minute movie, with an overkill climax representing clever deception but also what must be the most complex mission ever conceived to help one spy escape.

Dark Journey features one smart woman surrounded by foolishness all around the camera.



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The Movies Of Vivien Leigh

All movies starring Vivien Leigh and reviewed on the Ace Black Movie Blog are linked below:

Fire Over England (1937)

Dark Journey (1937)

Gone With The Wind (1939)

21 Days (1940)

Waterloo Bridge (1940)

A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)

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The Movie Star Index is here.

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: Gone With The Wind (1939)

One of the all-time grand epics, Gone With The Wind is a key milestone marking the beginning of modern cinema. The adventures of a headstrong southern belle before, during, and after the Civil War are given a luxurious treatment that has withstood the test of time with remarkable ease.

With the winds of war looming, Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh) is blossoming into womanhood on the Tara plantation in rural Georgia. Combining beauty with an intractable will to get what she wants, Scarlett uses her womanly charms to make every man weak in the knees. Yet she is rejected by the one man she truly loves, the reserved Ashley Wilkes (Leslie Howard). At a grand barbecue and banquet event, Scarlett meets Rhett Butler (Clark Gable), a successful maverick businessman and a lone voice in warning that the North will have an advantage in the upcoming war thanks to a stronger industrial base. Rhett sees in Scarlett the same qualities of rebellion and determination that he possesses, but she wants nothing to do with him. Ashley decides to marry the genuine and nearly angelic Melanie Hamilton (Olivia de Havilland).

Scarlett: All I know is that I love you! And you don't love Melanie!
Ashley: She's like me, Scarlett. She's part of my blood and we understand each other.
Scarlett: But you love me!
Ashley: How could I help loving you — you who have all the passion for life that I lack? But that kind of love isn't enough to make a successful marriage for two people who are as different as we are.

In an act of impetuous revenge, Scarlett marries Melanie's brother Charles, a man she barely knows. War erupts; Charles enlists but dies of pneumonia, leaving Scarlett a young widow. She visits Atlanta and reconnects with Rhett, now getting rich by smuggling war supplies. She is still not interested in him, her heart set on Ashley, who is serving in the Confederate Army. With Atlanta beginning to come under attack, Ashley asks Scarlett to look after the pregnant Melanie. She does so under horrific conditions, as Atlanta is sacked by the Union and burned to the ground. With Rhett's help Scarlett and Melanie find their way back to a destroyed Tara, where Scarlett will have to start from nothing to try and rebuild her life.

Based on Margaret Mitchell's 1936 best seller, Gone With The Wind clocks in at close to four hours, but never loses momentum. The second half may not carry the emotional punch of the exceptional opening two hours, but the story of Scarlett O'Hara and her ever tumultuous relationship with Rhett Butler builds remarkable power, and the destiny shaped by her decisions demands to be revealed.

Gone With The Wind was the vision of independent producer David O. Selznick. He purchased the rights to the book and assembled the cast, borrowing Clark Gable from MGM in a deal that gave MGM distribution rights. Selznick also launched a high-publicity search for an actress to play Scarlett, and eventually settled on the little known Englishwoman Vivien Leigh. Gable and Leigh would forever be associated with Rhett and Scarlett, and their performances give the film its primary thrust as two strong willed characters charting a passionate course in life, destined to deal with each other but rarely in full harmony. Every scene with both Rhett and Scarlett on the screen simply crackles with love-hate intensity, two souls too alike to find serenity, but also unable to navigate life without each other.

Scarlett: But you are a blockade runner.
Rhett: For profit, and profit only.
Scarlett: Are you tryin' to tell me you don't believe in the cause?
Rhett: I believe in Rhett Butler. He's the only cause I know. The rest doesn't mean much to me.

Leigh's performance is particularly affecting, especially in the first half of the film. She brings to Leigh a threatening sensuality combined with on-call coquettishness, Leigh's eyes alternating between batting flirtatiously at a line-up of suitors, and penetrating straight to their essence to measure their ability to serve her ambitions. She is also quite stunning in a morning-after scene, turning Rhett's domination into her own contented pleasure, casting doubt on who actually commanded the night.

Gable's screen persona of rebel with a personal cause allows Rhett to instantaneously dissect Scarlett's spirit while simultaneously falling in love with her. Gable's Rhett is gruff, resourceful and rich, a powerful combination and the only one capable of wrestling Scarlett into submission, should she ever allow it.

Leslie Howard and Olivia de Havilland provide capable support, but Ashley is too bland and Melanie too good to contribute anything other than background staidness compared to the Scarlett and Rhett show.

Selznick spared no cost in producing Gone With The Wind for almost $4 million, an astronomical amount for the era and possibly the most expensive film made up to that time. The film is packed with memorable visual moments, including Scarlett and her dad at Tara, the burning of Atlanta, the train station bursting with injured soldiers, the harrowing journey back to Tara, and Scarlett grasping her home soil and vowing to never be poor again. Max Steiner's mammoth orchestral score, highlighted by the gallant Tara's theme, adds to the timeless quality of the experience.

Scarlett: As God is my witness, as God is my witness they're not going to lick me. I'm going to live through this and when it's all over, I'll never be hungry again. No, nor any of my folk. If I have to lie, steal, cheat or kill. As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again!

Director Victor Fleming (with help from uncredited co-directors George Cukor and Sam Wood) astutely hides any stage set constraints, and gives Gone With The Wind an expansive ambiance. He plays with lush colours, lighting, silhouettes, shades and shadows, not to mention gorgeous costumes to create a rich visual experience, opening the door for what the movies can achieve as a full sensory experience. The internal shots benefit from exalted mansions representing Tara, the adjacent Twelve Oaks, and other locales visited or owned by Rhett and Scarlett on their intertwined journeys.

The glory of the south may have been defeated, Gone With The Wind of a devastating war. But the story of Scarlett O'Hara lives on, thanks to an unequalled cinematic achievement.

Scarlett: Rhett! Rhett, where are you going?
Rhett: I'm going to Charleston, back where I belong.
Scarlett: Please, please take me with you!
Rhett: No, I'm through with everything here. I want peace. I want to see if somewhere there isn't something left in life of charm and grace. Do you know what I'm talking about?
Scarlett: No! I only know that I love you.
Rhett: That's your misfortune. 
Scarlett: Oh, Rhett! Rhett! Rhett, Rhett! Rhett, Rhett... Rhett, if you go, where shall I go? What shall I do?
Rhett: Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.

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Movie Review: A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)

Class warfare, love, lust, longing, prostitution, mental illness and rape: A Streetcar Named Desire crams a bucketful of drama into an incendiary two hours of fascinating entertainment.

Blanche DuBois (Vivien Leigh) travels to New Orleans to visit her sister Stella (Kim Hunter), who is married to Stanley Kowalski (Marlon Brando). Blanche and Stella are from rich southern heritage, but Stanley is a rough and tumble Polish immigrant, and the Kowalskis live in a cramped, cluttered  apartment in a noisy part of town. Nevertheless, Stella and Stanley make room for Blanche, who puts on airs of superiority and haughtiness that immediately set her on a collision course with the no-nonsense Stanley.

It does not take the brutish but sharp Stanley long to unmask Blanche's faults and insecurities, despite her pretend snobbishness. She is a desperate almost-alcoholic, a woman on the run from her history, her misery and maybe more. Meanwhile, Blanche starts a relationship with the lonely Harold (Karl Malden), one of Stanley's co-workers and poker buddies. Harold is initially easy prey for Blanche's charms, and his infatuation threatens the friendship with Stanley. But it is the marriage between Stanley and Stella that is most at risk, and Blanche's prolonged stay in New Orleans starts to shake the foundation of their love.

Tennessee Williams and Oscar Saul adapted Williams' play for the screen, and Elia Kazan directs with an eye to creating an ever-simmering pot of red sauce punctuated by shocking outbursts from Brando as Stanley Kowalski. His performance is intensity in a pressurized bottle.

Whether expressing his anguished love for Stella or exploding in the face of Blanche, Stanley is raw manhood made all the more fascinating by the speed and certainty with which he climbs down from his paroxysms. Stanley "clearing" his side of the dinner table and then asking if he should help clear the rest is shocking cinematic excellence. In only his second film appearance, Brando was nominated for the Best Actor Academy Award, but lost to Humphrey Bogart's Charlie Allnut in The African Queen.

Vivien Leigh is equally brilliant as the sadly pathetic Blanche, a woman able to fool a few of people part of the time. With fading looks, lost landholdings, dead former lovers and other hidden unsavoury scraps dominating her fate, Leigh finds the desperation in a woman clutching at any remaining thin streams of light that could illuminate a better future, and finding in Harold one last possible path to salvation.

Blanche's theatrical act of supremacy is diametrically opposite to Stanley's pride in his animalistic instincts, and throwing the two together in a small apartment is no different than lighting a short fuse on a stick of dynamite.

Cinematographer Harry Stradling creates dark and claustrophobic settings all around Blanche as the world closes in on her and her options narrow. Whatever space she has left is often invaded by Stanley's brooding presence, ready to puncture her despairing self-delusion.

A Streetcar Names Desire ends with shattered illusions and lives left in tatters, the Kowalski apartment witness to a scene of unforgettable emotional wreckage. Not all desires can be satisfied, and even when they are, the outcome can often be unexpectedly devastating.

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