Daily Archives: May 4, 2013

Mad Love
Directed by Karl Freund
1935/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Repeat viewing

[box] Doctor Gogol: [despairingly] I, a poor peasant, have conquered science! Why can’t I conquer love?[/box]

Brilliant surgeon Dr. Gogol (Peter Lorre) has become obsessed with love for grand guignol actress Yvonne Orlac (Frances Drake).  Her husband is great concert pianist Stephen Orlac (Colin Clive).  When Steven’s hands are mangled in a train wreck, Gogol attaches the hands of an executed knife-throwing murderer.  Maddened by Yvonne’s continuing rejection of him, Gogol then conceives an insane plan to get Stephen out of the way.

When this movie works, it works very well.  Peter Lorre is always interesting in this and sometimes simply brilliant.  The climactic scenes are unforgettable.  There is also some excellent expressionist camera work by Gregg Tolland.  The problem is, once again, that the film is bogged down by unnecessary comic relief by Ted Healy (ex of Ted Healy and his Stooges) as a reporter and May Beatty as the doctor’s drunken housekeeper.  Despite its flaws, this is well worth seeing just for Lorre’s performance in his U.S. screen debut.

Trailer

A Tale of Two Cities
Directed by Jack Conway
1935/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Repeat viewing

[box] Knitting woman (tricoteuse): [the guillotine strikes once more] I lost a stitch. Cursed Aristocrats![/box]

This is a fairly faithful adaptation of the Dickens novel.  The evil Marquis St. Evremonde (Basil Rathbone) denounced Dr. Manette and had him imprisoned without trial in the Bastille for 18 years.  Manette is finally freed through the efforts of the seditious De Farges and is reunited with his daughter Lucie.  Lucie and Manette travel by ship to England and meet Charles Darnay on the journey.  Darnay is the free-thinking nephew of the Marquis who has arranged that he be framed and arrested for treason upon arrival.  Darnay is a acquited through the efforts of barrister Stryver and his associate, the dissolute but clever Sidney Carton.  Carton and Darnay both fall in love with Lucie, while Lucie’s heart belongs to Darnay whom she marries.  A few years later after the French Revolution, Darnay is in danger of the guillotine due to his aristocratic ancestry and the ills done by the Marquis to a number of poor people.

1935 was quite the year for big-budget literary adaptations and this is a fine one.  It is rescued from an excess of sentiment (also present in the novel) by the fantastic performance of Ronald Colman as Sidney Carton.  His eyes are wonderfully expressive and he delivers his dialogue with just the right touch of irony.  Among the supporting players, I particularly like Basil Rathbone as the supercilious Marquis and Edna May Oliver as Lucie’s maid, Miss Pross.  Oliver has a really touching and funny scene near the end in which she defends the interests of her mistress.  MGM spared no expense on the settings or costumes.  Recommended.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJXrkhnn3BQ

Re-release trailer