Waste of time

Pretty Good

As Good As It Gets

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

You know you're in for an epic and one of M.G.M's most opulent productions when you begin with an overture, (it even precedes the lion's roar), and before you have time to say The Palace of Versailles, a thousand extras are flooding the screen and a teenage Marie Antoinette, (played by the 36 year old Norma Shearer), is being wed to Robert Morley's Dauphin. The fact that Shearer gets away with it shows what a good actress she could be and the fact that Robert Morley holds his own against the assembled company shows what a better actor he was.Unfortunately Miss Shearer was only good up to a point. She seemed to have two acting styles, 'giddy and gay' (in the old fashioned sense of the word) and 'tremulous and tragic' and she was slightly better at giddy and gay. As the film progresses, and she's apt to lose her head, she reverts to the kind of acting that went out of fashion around 1910. As for the film itself, it's pretty terrible. It may have been expensive and gorgeously designed but it's badly written and the director, W.S. Van Dyke, seems to have forgotten when to say 'cut'. Scenes go on and on long after they have made their point and an otherwise decent cast is wasted.A somewhat dashing Tyrone Power may be cast as the romantic lead but he's hardly in the picture. John Barrymore, who plays the old king, must have been strapped for cash; Gladys George as his mistress, Mme Du Barry, is lively if out of place. The previous year's Oscar winner for Best Supporting Actor, Joseph Schildkraut makes an excellent foppish villain, mincing around as if he should be Queen in the early part of the film before scrubbing off his make-up so he can blend in with the mob, (rough trade, all), later on. Worst of all, that appalling child actor Scotty Beckett is cast as Shearer's son, the young Dauphin. I kept praying Mademoiselle Guillotine would fall on his little neck from the outset.As for historical accuracy, let's just say the main facts of the case are there in school-book fashion. I don't recall hearing Marie say 'Let them eat cake' at any point but then with Shearer in the role she had to be made to look as sympathetic as possible. In the end it's Morley's picture; he gives it a touch of class all the fancy sets and costumes never could and he should have won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in 1938.

The camera frames such wonderful images that the viewer would be excused for seeing the first half of this film as merely superficial, but it is a wonderful portrayal of a young woman with dreams and aspirations who finds herself in circumstances that thwart her every desire and intention. The film opens with news that Marie of Austria (Norma Shearer) is to be wed to the French Dauphin, heir to the crown. When she meets Louis (Robert Morley), he is a backward, anti-social recluse. She is received by the French court as an interloper and an inconsequential nuisance. Her enthusiasm for life carries her through her trials in court and she eventually triumphs in spirit, if not in the realities of her life.The film's second half tells the dramatic story of the French revolution, when "the people"--a senseless mob--overturn the monarchy."Marie Antoinette" is blessed with the eye of an artful director, beautiful costumes, an intelligent script, and striking performances, especially by Norma Shearer and Robert Morley.Tyrone Power portrays Count Axel de Fersen of Sweden--a much smaller role, but the anchor to the film's love story. Still, this is a tragic story despite its triumphs. History demands that Marie pay for her sins, though they be sins of inheritance or sins of statecraft.One can only imagine what the film might have been if it had been filmed in color; that is its only shortcoming. Still, its a heartbreaking story of love and the machinations of history, as seen through the eyes of a beautiful woman.

If there is a real-life equivalent to the fictional "Dueling Cavalier" in "Singin' in the Rain", this is it. The film, laboring under the weight of massive sets, elaborate costumes, and W.S. Van Dyke's dull direction, is a sort of soap-opera retelling of the life of Marie Antoinette, with the Queen of MGM, Norma Shearer, as the fictional Queen of France. When she receives news of her engagement, she giggles and exclaims, "Just think! I'll be the Queen of France!" Shearer's co-star, Tyrone Power, is stuck with a starched-collar hero with a penchant for self-sacrifice. If you can accept that Tyrone Power is a Swedish ambassador, then maybe the film won't seem as ridiculous to you as it did to me. He's fine, underplaying somewhat, and the rest of the cast is also very good, particularly Joseph Schildkraut as a scheming cousin of the King, Robert Morley, who turns in the film's other memorable supporting performance. John Barrymore, as the dying King, is only suitable, and looks so bloated and slack-skinned that he resembles his brother 10 years later. It's not hard to believe he's dying.Dramatically, the story lacks enough impetus to really carry us through a 2 and a half hour running time. Shearer's performance and star quality are not enough to compensate, not by a long shot. But the worst thing about this movie is its political naiveté -- the revolution is never even remotely explained, and the film is extremely apologetic towards the handsome nobility. Meanwhile, the people who take part in the revolution are depicted like some kind of 19th Century newspaper cartoon anarchist. They all have unkempt hair, ragged clothing, dark splotches of charcoal on their faces, and they're all uniformly bestial in their behavior. They are like angry children, and the royal family are portrayed as loving parents who can no longer control their charges.Basically, it's fair to say the film reflects the fascist attitudes of the people who made it. It's shocking to see Donald Ogden Stewart's name as the screenwriter, because he was known in later years for his anti-fascist activities (and was blacklisted for his efforts). It's possible that he thought of the film as satire. One can never know, I suppose, but one could hope.

One hundred and fifty-seven minutes of lavish romance, intrigue, and politics, dished up by MGM's superb spectacle factory. There's an "entre act" and everything.The problem, for me anyway, is that the thing is so exquisitely dull. The first half -- before the entre act, that is -- is a kind of late 18th-century soap opera. Norma Shearer is the young Austrian bride of the future king of France, Louis XVI, played by Robert Morley as impotent and inept but not unkind. When Shearer learns of this arranged marriage, she positively kvells. "Oh, just think of it! I'll be the Queen of France!" Things don't turn out all that well for her, though. (Do they ever, in these genre movies?) She's resented as a foreigner and barbarian at the French court, especially by the waspish Madame DuBarry, the consort of Morley's grandfather, the current king. Such gossip you never heard. And then there's Morley's apparent indifference to her. ("I like to be alone.") What's a girl to do? She drowns her sorrows in wine and flings with lovers in seriatim. This is nice work, if you can get it. You get to indulge yourself in every sensory modality known to man or beast -- AND you get the sympathy of the audience too, because they know you're just being flighty out of a desperate loneliness.The second half turns a little darker, but then, as they say, it's always darkest just before it turns completely black. By this time Morley has come around enough to give Shearer two children, from whom she is of course eventually separated, giving the audience a reason for still more tears. Let's see. I checked the spoiler box so I guess I can give away the ending: Marie Antoinette gets her head lopped off.Kids, I hope I didn't ruin it for you but, see, this is the French Revolution and revolutionaries tend not to be very kind. All through history, it seems that some merciless dictator, like a king, mistreats his subjects until they depose him. Then they show that, unlike him, they are full of New-Testatment-mercy by slaughtering the deposed ruler, his family, and anybody who was ever associated with him. (Fidel Castro worked his way down to mailmen.) At that, the peasants are treated in this movie with the contempt the writers think they deserve. What an uncouth bunch! Shearer explains the unrest to her children this way: We didn't do anything, but they're ignorant and unhappy and must take it out on somebody. In this movie, nobody ever says "Let 'em eat cake." Most of the cast overact, but this is understandable because it's common to the period. I don't know what "charisma" is supposed to mean these days. It was originally used to describe the quality of someone who was blessed by God and exuded a magnetism that was religious in its properties. Now, the word is slung around loosely to describe rock stars. Whatever it is, and however it's measured, I don't think Norma Shearer has any. Joseph Schildkraut, effete and painted like a mannequin, gives the best performance. Robert Morley seems to have only one note on his instrument. In a relatively minor role as Shearer's one true love, Tyrone Power has a part that is familiar to devotees of these kinds of movies. The woman is haunted by demons, surrounded by knaves, impostors, ninnies, and exploiters -- and this is the only man who will return from time to time to rescue her from some folly or to reassure her with his understanding and candor. (Cf., Paul Newman in "I'll Cry Tomorrow" or Sam Shepherd in "Frances".) This must have been an eye opener in 1938. Today it seems stale and bound by conventions common to genre films. Anyone who wants a more balanced and adult point of view should see Ronald Coleman in "A Tale of Two Cities." It would be a far, far better thing to do. It will jerk almost as many tears but it will challenge you too.