1949 WILL HOT RANK AS A “VINTAGE YEAR” FOR FILMS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27277, 31 December 1949, Page 6

1949 WILL HOT RANK AS A “VINTAGE YEAR ” FOR FILMS

By Jaxon

It Is unlikely that 1949 will ever go down in film history as a “vintage year.” The overall standard of the Eroducts of Hollywood and Elstree has een dismally low. although local film enthusiasts have had some measure of relief in that distribution delays have brought to the city theatres many older films, together with a fair proportion of fine Continental releases.

It has been a year of distress for the industry—Hollywood being hard hit by the British financial regulations and harassed by the success of imported products, and the British studios being brought to the point of collapse by stringent taxation combined with the effects of earlier over-optimism. The film industry generally has continued to be hampered by its worship of that non-existent entity, the average audience. The success of high-quality films from the Continent and from Britain, especially when they have been screened in “ intimate ” theatres, has, however, shown the value of the “quality market” and there is every reason to believe that a percentage of the work from the American studios (and more of the British output) will be directed toward an adult audience and an' adult mentality.

In immediate retrospect, the discriminating film patron would seem to have had slim pickings in the local cinemas during the past year, but a careful search of the year’s programmes has shown that there has been a reasonably consistent sprinkling of currants in the dough. The list does not include the many fine films shown by the Dunedin Film Society.

January started off well with the fine British version of “ Oliver Twist ” which included a particularly noteworthy performance' by a youngster named John Howard Davis. A tightening up of the child labour laws in Britain may, however, interfere with similar casting plans in future. “ Forever Amber” proved to be a pallid courtesan after she had incurred the displeasure of the Hay’s Office and other watchdogs of the industry’s screen morals, and the same applied in some measure to John van Druten's romantic comedy, “The Voice of the Turtle.” The month also included a new Disney whimsy, “Fun and Fancy Free.”

February was a lean month, with the late great Raimu providing an amusing ' Gallic concoction, “ The Welldigger’s Daughter.” “The Treasure of Sierra Madre” was one of the year’s better “ action ” pictures, and the cycle of nostalgic glances at the family scrapbook received a notable recruit with “I Remember Mama.”

March was also at a discount, although it did produce two of the hard hitting series of semi-documentaries which have become popular among the lower-budget items on the American studios’ agendas. They were “TMan,” and “The Street With No Name.” A “ pixillated ” little British comedy called “ Miranda ” asked too much from the imaginations of the majority of its audiences, but it was infinitely preferable entertainment to the dreary and mis-cast “Anna Karenina.” Hollywood wasted a great deal of high-priced talent on this turgid second attempt to tackle Tolstoi. “Anthony Adverse,” a reissue from more spacious days, rounded off the month.

April saw lavish film musicals hit their low-water mark with an atrocious item named “ The Pirate ” which was only redeemed by Gene Kelly’s dancing. It saw, too, another waste of talent as Bergman and Boyer tried to make something of Remarque’s “The Arch of Triumph.” A straight transfer of the popular opera “The Barber of Seville” from the stage to the screen was an interesting offering, and “Key Largo” had solid moments of drama. May had two light-weight specialities with “ Spring in Park Lane ” and the Ken Murray all-bird film, “Bill and Coo.” Its only serious offering was the genuinely moving Lazar Weschler production, “The Search,” one of the really fine films of 1949. June saw the start of one of the year’s longest runs as “ The Red Shoes” settled in to assured popularity. It was the film in which Moira Shearer made her debut and it would seem probable that the screen will endeavour to entice this charming young ballerina back to the medium in which she can gain wider audiences and, presumably, more lucrative financial returns. “The Guinea Pig” was a surprisingly good minor British production, and it was screened in conjunction with the official film on the Dunedin centennial celebrations. July was another “ two films month.” Terence Rattigan’s “The Winslow Boy” lived up to its lavish advance publicity and the only motion picture of merit with which it had to contend locally was the screen expansion of the short radio “thriller,” “Sorry, Wrong Number.” August was one of the year s most rewarding months, with an excellent British drama, “The Fallen Idol” heading the list. “ The Baker’s Wife was another delightful morsel from the French studios, and comedy tastes were further catered for by a reissue of “ Storm in h Teacup ” and by one of the surprise successes of the year, an unpretentious but genuinely witty American production entitled A Letter to Three Wives.” The month ended well with the release of a film of heroic stature and subject, Scott of the Antarctic.” . , September saw the controversial drama, “The Snake Pit,” the religious drama from France, “Monsieur Vincent,” and the star : studded “On Our Merrv Wav.” It also saw new versions of two popular stories —“ The Three Musketeers ” and a lachrymose rendering of “Little Women.” October found the local screen at its lowest ebb, brightened only by “ Mr Belvedere Goes to College.” This obvious attempt to provide a sequel to the eminently successful “ Sitting Pretty” lost ground on two scores—the American college setting was alien to local audiences and the initial impact of the acidulous Clifton Webb was gone. ' The technicolor adventure, “The Blue Lagoon,” would probably have been better if sunk without trace in its title. November saw the general release of the ponderous tribute to the people of the French theatre, “ Les Enfants du Paradis,” a crowded, slow-moving panorama with much of genuine merit. The reissue of “A Night at the Opera brought a welcome return of the Marx Brothers. There was another Italian opera set on the screen, “ La Traviata ”; Jane Wyman’s Academy Awardwinning performance in “Johnny

Belinda”; the disappointing Alfred Hitchcock production, “ Rope ”; and, lastly, “ London Belongs to Me.” December had an offering of distinction in “ Quartet,” a group of four of Somerset Maugham’s short stories brought to the screen. “A Song is Born ” —a remake of “A Ball of Fire ” Danny Kaye back, but not to the comic heights of Walter Mitty. The turn of the year sees an interesting reversion to successful trends of yesteryear. “ The Berkeleys of Broadway” brings back Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, one of the screen’s most popular teams; . “Maytime in Mayfair” returns Anna Neagle to the froth and bubble of a musical comedy world; and “Mr Joseph Young of Africa ” is a direct descendant of “King Kong.” It is curious that they should all have arrived for the start of the year, for there is no doubt that the cinema industry is looking toward past successes for clues to future policy. Elaborate costume dramas and interior settings add heavy expense to the already staggering production costs. The insidious star system has left the American studios with a collection of elderly “names” and few people of any stature to replace them, beside which imported films have shown that success can come as easily from genuine merit as from lavish casting. The film industry started about 50 years ago with nonentities playing in “sagebrush sagas.” The half century seems to have brought the circle to its full turn, and there is every likelihood that the coming year every likelihood that the coming year will see a reversion to semidocumentaries set in authentic and outdoor locales and played by film “unknowns.” The screen’s “ New Look will follow clothing trends and be curiously reminiscent of the “ Old Look or 50 years ago. It is unlikely that it will be any the worse for the change.