Daily Archives: September 24, 2016

Weddings and Babies
Directed by Morris Engel
Written by Morris Engel, Blanche Hanalis et al
1958/USA
Morris Engel Associates
First viewing/Amazon Prime

[box] I was married by a judge. I should have asked for a jury. — Groucho Marx [/box]

Love is a messy thing as Engel’s docu-drama illustrates so well.

Al is a professional photographer who specializes in wedding and babies but aspires to something more creative.  He has been going with Bea for the past three years.  She is more than ready to get married.  He says he will marry her “soon”, when he has saved up enough money.  “Soon” does not seem to imply anything in the immediate future.

Al spends his savings on an expensive camera and Bea starts crying more than previously.  When Al is unwilling to really care for his senile mother, Bea may have finally had it.

I would rank this right behind Little Fugitive among Engel’s films.  The evocative camerawork brilliantly captures the time, place and people of a slice of 1950’s New York City.  Sure, some of the sequences run on too long and the amateur acting is spotty.  The total effect is so raw and real that I was moved in the end.

Clip

A Tale of Two Cities
Directed by Ralph Thomas
Written by T.E.B Clarke from the novel by Charles Dickens
1958/UK
The Rank Organization
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] “‎And yet I have had the weakness, and have still the weakness, to wish you to know with what a sudden mastery you kindled me, heap of ashes that I am, into fire.” ― Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities[/box]

My love for Dirk Bogarde is well known and I thoroughly enjoyed his Sidney Carton as well as the rest of the acting in this faithful adaptation of the Dickens classic.

The two cities are Paris and London and the story takes place immediately before and during the French Revolution.  Dr. Manet has been imprisoned 18 years in the Bastille for treating some peasants that had been cruelly used by the Marquis St. Evremond (Christopher Lee).  He is finally released.  His daughter Lucy journeys to France to take him home.  During a coach  ride, she meets Charles Darnay and instantly falls in love.

Darnay is framed by the evil Barsad (Donald Pleasance) on a treason charge.  He is acquitted after his resemblance to the dissolute young lawyer Sidney Carton (Bogarde) is used to discredit eyewitness testimony.  Lucy Manet is called as a witness in the trial and it is undying love at first sight for Carton.  Her heart goes out to him but permanently belongs to Darnay.

I will dare to spoil a 150 year old classic and reveal that Darnay is actually the nephew of the evil Marquis and heir to the title.  When the Revolution comes, someone is waiting to take revenge on the Marquis and all his descendants, guilty or not.   With Cecil Parker as the banker Lorry and Leo McKern as a prosecutor.

Bogarde is perfection as the soulful rake Carton.  The rest of the production is of a very high standard.  The plot is chock full of all the usual improbable Dickens coincidences but they never bother me in the least.  Recommended.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwEXt9Nts44

Trailer