1937 - A DAMSEL IN DISTRESS, odd Fred Astaire musical

Filmed during Fred Astaire's run of musicals at RKO during the 1930's,  A Damsel in Distress is one oddball film.  Usually in these RKO musicals Fred Astaire was teamed with Ginger Rogers.  Unfortunately the box office performance of the Astaire/Rogers series was starting to diminish.  The studio got it into their head that Astaire needed to be separated from Ginger Rogers and picked as his romantic lead Joan Fontaine a performer who couldn't sing or dance which was kind of a problem for a musical.

The story has Astaire as a musical comedy star performing in London where he falls in love with snooty Lady Alyce Marshmorton played by Fontaine who is very pretty but struggles to act.  Frankly the story in this film is really a big nothing even for a film like this.

  

What this film has going for it are some excellent musical numbers.  Astaire's dancing partners are none other than George Burns and his wife/partner Gracie Allen a couple of performers who started out in vaudeville and whose careers ran all the way to the dawn of television.  They were seasoned comedians who were actually fairly credible dancers while performing with Astaire.

 

The songs were by George and Ira Gershwin, the director was George Stevens.  The story may be weak but this is a top grade production with excellent numbers particularity a dance with Astaire, Burns and Allen using whisk brooms of all things and an amazing sequence in a fun house set.

The film was written by, P.G. Wodehouse, Ernest Pagano and S.K. Laauren, the running time is 98 minutes.

1939 - GUNGA DIN, one of Hollywood's best adventure films.

This is director George Steven's really coming into his own as a filmmaker with this adventure film set in India during British rule.  The film has an outstanding cast with Victor McLaglen an actor usually associated with John Ford films playing Sgt MacChesney.  Douglas Fairbanks Jr is Sgt. Thomas Ballantine and Cary Grant is Sgt. Archibald Cutter.  Grant's casting is interesting in that he is actually playing himself for a change, a cockney Archibald Leech (his real name).  

The film was originally supposed to be directed by Howard Hawks but Stevens was brought in because it was felt Hawks was to slow a director, little did they know.  The methodical Stevens took his time, reworked the screenplay adding jokes from his silent film days (Stevens had worked with Laurel and Hardy) and opening up the action.

The result was a one of kind action/adventure film with lots of clever comedy bits added in throughout the film.  Even today the film is still influential.  Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom used the Thuggee murder cult from this film as their chief bad guys and the Star Wars film, The Last Jedi was apparently greatly influenced by Gunga Din as well.  If the film has any issues it's probably the patronizing attitude the film as to the Indian people.

 

 The film was written by Joel Sayre, Fred Guiol, Charles MacArthur and Ben Hecht.  The running time is 117 minutes.

1953 - SHANE, on Blu Ray

George Steven's extremely well made western looks great on this Blu Ray presentation.  The film was shot in standard format.  However Paramount wanted it printed in the Vista Vision format so they hacked the top and the bottom of the frames when they printed it to get it that widescreen look.

However this Blu Ray release is in the original standard format and it looks great.  The scenic values shooting with the Grand Tetons in the background are very impressive.

Stevens was known as a meticulous director who would shot take after take after take in order to get what he wanted.  He would drive the production costs of a film up and at the same time drive a budget conscious studio crazy.

However the end results can't be denied this is an impressive film.

118 minutes.

1965 - THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD, the life of Christ filmed on a massive scale.

George Steven's worked years on this film about Christ, only to see it rejected by the public and damned by the critics as boring.  With the exception of Max Von Sydow as Christ who was virtually an unknown actor to American audiences, he cast well known Hollywood performers in most of the other roles.  This caused the critics to further complain that these actors distracted from the story.

A big problem with The Greatest Story Ever Told is George Steven's approach to the life of Christ.  Steven's was an old fashioned liberal who decide to tell the story from an Anglo/Western viewpoint.  The cast is all white people and Arizona locations were used instead of the actual settings in Palestine where Jesus lived. It's the conventional depiction of Christ that most Europeans and Americans were fed in Sunday school.

Stevens took a writing credit along with James Lee Barrett a writer who was somewhat of a professional Hollywood hack.  The screenplay is an uneasy mix of political drama focusing on the Roman suppression of Judea, intrigue in the court of Herod and a greatest hits of Jesus compendium. 

If The Greatest Story Ever Told has significant flaws in the story telling,  it still has a lot of very good things going for it.  The film is just extremely well made.  It was shot in 70 millimeter and was carefully composed and lighted, it a stunning looking film.  The film also a number of very impressive scenes in it, including the raising of Lazarus and the encounter with John the Baptist.  The Arizona locations may not have been the Middle East, but they do look spectacular especially in the widescreen format.

OK John Wayne was a mistake.

Today the criticism of the cast seems kind of pointless since most people watching the film wouldn't know who these actors are anymore.  Max Von Sydow is very good as Christ and he works very hard to bring some life to the ponderous and frankly mighty trite dialog that he has to deliver. 

To make a film about a person who is considered a religious leader to millions of people around the world is a fairly daunting task.  To attempt to avoid the usual Hollywood epic hokum is even more daunting.  The Greatest Story Ever Told is a sincere effort at a portrayal of Christ. 

An impressionistic and visually beautiful looking film with an expressive score from Alfred Newman, The Greatest Story Ever Told is hardly the cinematic disaster that is has become labeled as.

197 minutes.