Well Deserved Praise

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

It is not only a funny movie, but it allows a great amount of joy for anyone who watches it.

I have always liked George Sanders, so I was quite interested in seeing this film. Well, I waded through it, and I was ultimately glad I did, but it isn't a film I would like to watch again. I found it VERY slow.Sanders' character is described by one of the other characters as an "unmitigated cad", and that sums it up pretty well. He constantly plays women as if they are chess pieces to help him rise into the society in which he wants to live. One by one he drops the women. And in the end, the theft of a title (name) is his downfall. Only then does he really know whom he really loved.George Sanders seemed a little bit too laid back in this film, at least to me. As I said earlier, I really like Sanders, but this is not one of his best performances. On the other hand, this is an interesting performance by Angela Lansbury, as one of the women he wrongs. I'm sort of used to seeing her as a very strong willed character, and here she is quite subtle in her performance; I really liked it. Ann Dvorak is excellent here. Warren William, very ill when this film was made, was not that good here. I was particularly interested to see Albert Bassermann. Basserman was interesting in Alfred Hitchcock's "Foreign Correspondent", and I've always enjoyed seeing him since seeing that flick. Basserman was a German actor, but I always found him interesting on screen. Marie Wilson -- better known as "My Friend Irma" seemed very out of place in this film.I'm glad I watched this film...but I won't be watching it a second time. If you're a real fan of George Sanders of Angela Lansbury, you might enjoy this. If not...well, I see many of our other reviewers liked this film very much. You'll have to decide.

Albert Lewin's reputation rests almost entirely on two films, "The Picture of Dorian Gray" and "Pandora and the Flying Dutchman" but his masterpiece must surely be the little known and little seen "The Private Affairs of Bel Ami" from the novel by Guy De Maupassant. It is, of course, a very witty portrait of a cad, beautifully played by George Sanders, but it is also a film of considerable psychological depth and one of the most adult and intelligent American pictures of the forties with not a trace of the camp usually associated with the director.Rather we get an incisive picture of a period and that rarefied milieu of high Parisian society, beautifully written by Lewin and superbly played by everyone. In particular Angela Lansbury is outstanding as the one woman Sanders might actually have feelings for. It's a great performance that should have made Lansbury a major Hollywood player rather than simply the great character actress she became. Even the usually wooden Warren William excels here. If any film cries out for a restoration it is this one.

"The Private Affairs of Bel Ami" is one of the most unusual films to come out of Hollywood during the Golden Age of Hollywood (1920-1950). An adaptation of a Guy de Maupassant work, "Bel Ami" honestly and bitingly portrays an "homme fatale", a man who uses sex to gain social, economic, and political power. This is the only film, to my knowledge, that portrays such a phenomenon that in real life has been much more common than is commonly held.George Sanders was never better than as Georges DuRoy. His playing displays the numbing of feelings, desperation of a life of poverty and low social rank, and misogyny that propel him to do what he does. No film character in the Golden Age of Hollywood was as blatantly hateful of women as Georges DuRoy. Witness the scenes with Sanders and Marie Wilson!The female characters display a moderness in attitudes, relationships with men, and an awareness of their roles in their relationships with Georges DuRoy that is startling not just for 1880, but for 1947, when the film was released. Only French and some Italian films of the 1960's have equalled that frankness by female characters of what their place is in the lives of men.Ann Dvorak carries much of the film gracefully and with a strong, frank portrayal of a woman much like Georges DuRoy and unapologetic about it. This is definitely Dvorak's finest and the showiest role of her career. Unfortunately, it did not propel her to major stardom and she retired from acting only three years after filming "The Private Affairs of Bel Ami".Angela Lansbury proved here in this early film of her career what a fine character actress she is. Her portrayal of Clothilde could've been pathetic. Instead, Clothilde emerges as well-rounded character who is never tiresome to watch.Marie Wilson never got a dramatic part like the one in this film as a Folies Bergere dancer. She only proves the point that behind every great comedienne lies a fine dramatic actress. She truly evokes a character, not the dumb blonde comedy relief that was her stock-in-trade.A surprising number of top character actors in this film! The film's look and score are very noirish. That only highlights the modernity of the characters in the film, much like 2000's "Moulin Rouge".The movie looks and plays like an RKO-Radio film noir of the mid-'40's.Cool concept. The startling use of color for the one scene in which it is used only adds to the uniqueness of this film's acting and look.The only drawback is the use of decidedly obvious painted backdrops. They only highlight the low budget that was obviously involved in making the film. Too bad, while the rest of the sets appear well-lighted and -appointed. An arresting film! Definitely worthy of critical and popular reevaluation!

Although hard to get into this film, with a protagonist who is very unlikable and who, for all his scheming, seems to be falling upward in the social hiearchy more than effectively manipulating those he seeks to use, the movie is worth watching in order to contemplate the young and beautiful Angela Lansbury and the older, wiser, but still beautiful Ann Dvorak. And for the climactic duel.(And some might find the couture sufficiently haute to be worth watching.)The score by the great French composer, one of Les Six, Darius Milhaud, is pedestrian. Milhaud is not responsible for the annoying song "Bel Ami" which recurs far too often during the seemingly interminable 112 minutes of the movie in the version I saw.