The Private Affairs of Bel Ami (1947)
Country: US
Technical: bw/col 112m
Director: Albert Lewin
Cast: George Sanders, Ann Dvorak, Angela Lansbury, John Carradine
Synopsis:
The career of a scoundrel from the provinces, who forges a path through Parisian society of the 1880s via journalism, political manoeuvring and the seduction of women for advancement.
Review:
Maupassant's scabrous portrait of a society built around wealth and position which is justly fleeced by an amoral self-made man of obscure birth makes an unlikely choice for the 1940s - though as much might be said of Lewin's other films of the time. Hopelessly miscast in its central role, Sanders effectively plays a variation of his character in Dorian Gray, that of a cynical outsider; it does mean, however, that there is not a whiff of chemistry with any of his four lovers, or even token credibility in his protestations of love, for Sanders is always Sanders. Naturally, any suggestion of fornication is conveyed in the most euphemistic and indirect manner, and only elements of the production and mise-en-scène reveal an aesthetic sensibility at work here. Dvorak is fine, as is much of the supporting cast - save for the real de Cantel (Richard Fraser), who looks and sounds as if he has walked off a cowboy movie - but the quasi-redemptive finale is another betrayal.
Country: US
Technical: bw/col 112m
Director: Albert Lewin
Cast: George Sanders, Ann Dvorak, Angela Lansbury, John Carradine
Synopsis:
The career of a scoundrel from the provinces, who forges a path through Parisian society of the 1880s via journalism, political manoeuvring and the seduction of women for advancement.
Review:
Maupassant's scabrous portrait of a society built around wealth and position which is justly fleeced by an amoral self-made man of obscure birth makes an unlikely choice for the 1940s - though as much might be said of Lewin's other films of the time. Hopelessly miscast in its central role, Sanders effectively plays a variation of his character in Dorian Gray, that of a cynical outsider; it does mean, however, that there is not a whiff of chemistry with any of his four lovers, or even token credibility in his protestations of love, for Sanders is always Sanders. Naturally, any suggestion of fornication is conveyed in the most euphemistic and indirect manner, and only elements of the production and mise-en-scène reveal an aesthetic sensibility at work here. Dvorak is fine, as is much of the supporting cast - save for the real de Cantel (Richard Fraser), who looks and sounds as if he has walked off a cowboy movie - but the quasi-redemptive finale is another betrayal.
Country: US
Technical: bw/col 112m
Director: Albert Lewin
Cast: George Sanders, Ann Dvorak, Angela Lansbury, John Carradine
Synopsis:
The career of a scoundrel from the provinces, who forges a path through Parisian society of the 1880s via journalism, political manoeuvring and the seduction of women for advancement.
Review:
Maupassant's scabrous portrait of a society built around wealth and position which is justly fleeced by an amoral self-made man of obscure birth makes an unlikely choice for the 1940s - though as much might be said of Lewin's other films of the time. Hopelessly miscast in its central role, Sanders effectively plays a variation of his character in Dorian Gray, that of a cynical outsider; it does mean, however, that there is not a whiff of chemistry with any of his four lovers, or even token credibility in his protestations of love, for Sanders is always Sanders. Naturally, any suggestion of fornication is conveyed in the most euphemistic and indirect manner, and only elements of the production and mise-en-scène reveal an aesthetic sensibility at work here. Dvorak is fine, as is much of the supporting cast - save for the real de Cantel (Richard Fraser), who looks and sounds as if he has walked off a cowboy movie - but the quasi-redemptive finale is another betrayal.