#sidney lanfield

[gatutor]

Sonja Henie-Tyrone Power "Thin ice" 1937, de Sidney Lanfield.

[ofimaginarybeings]

Station West (Sidney Lanfield, 1948)

Dick Powell and Jane Greer in Station West 

Cast: Dick Powell, Jane Greer, Agnes Moorehead, Tom Powers, Gordon Oliver, Steve Brodie, Guinn “Big Boy” Williams, Raymond Burr, Regis Toomey, Burl Ives. Screenplay: Frank Fenton, Winston Miller, based on a novel by Luke Short. Cinematography: Harry J. Wild. Art direction: Albert S. D'Agostino, Feild M. Gray. Film editing: Frederic Knudtson.  Music: Heinz Roemheld. 

Station West is an odd duck of a Western. Oh, there’s the usual stagecoach and saloon stuff, some gunplay, and a big fistfight. But it also has the kind of snappy dialogue you associate with film noir, and nobody is exactly what they seem. It’s also threaded through with songs performed by an uncredited Burl Ives, who plays a hotel owner who’s also a kind of Greek chorus, commenting on the action with his ballads. One of the refrains of his songs, “A man can’t grow old where there’s women and gold,” is sung often enough that we get the point. The women are played by Jane Greer and Agnes Moorehead, and they give no quarter. Greer is Charlene, known as Charlie, and she owns most of the business in the town, but not the gold mine, which belongs to Mrs. Caslon, played by Moorehead. And then a stranger named Haven (Dick Powell) comes to town. He’s really an undercover agent from military intelligence investigating the deaths of two soldiers who were guarding a shipment of gold from Mrs. Caslon’s mine that got hijacked. Powell’s character is a boots-and-sixguns variation on his Philip Marlowe in Murder, My Sweet (Edward Dmytryk, 1944), quick with a quip, catnip to the women, able to take a licking and keep on sleuthing. Somehow this mash-up of film noir and horse opera works. There’s nice camera work, too, from Harry J. Wild, who knows how to use shadows effectively.    

[gatutor]

Helen Westley-Constance Bennett "La estrella del Moulin Rouge" (Moulin Rouge) 1934, de Sidney Lanfield.

[gatutor]

Sonja Henie-Don Ameche "Una entre un millón" (One in a million) 1936, de Sidney Lanfield.

[gatutor]

Ricardo Cortez-Joan Blondell "Así es Broadway" (Broadway bad) 1933, de Sidney Lanfield.

[gatutor]

Helen Westley-Gavin Muir-Frances Dee "Half angel" 1936, de Sidney Lanfield.

[postersdecinema]

Nunca Serás Rico

EUA, 1941

Sidney Lanfield

6/10

Astaire Vai à Tropa

Em tempo de guerra Fred Astaire e Rita Hayworth levam o musical para o quartel, mas não para a guerra. Na verdade, tendo sido filmado em 1941, a América ainda assistia à guerra de longe, mas o facto de ter sido estreado em 1942, quando a guerra já era bem real e com milhares de vítimas entre os soldados norte-americanos, a ligeireza do filme já poderá não ter sido tão apreciada.

Estamos perante mais um filme em que apesar da dupla Astaire/Hayworth funcionar na perfeição, falta argumento, graça, glamour para que estes filmes sejam comparáveis aos grandes sucessos da década anterior, como Chapéu Alto ou a Alegre Divorciada. A culpa não é de Rita Hayworth, que tem tudo para ser um perfeito par de Fred Astaire, nestas comédias musicais, mas sim do tempo. A guerra mudou o mundo, o sentido de humor, o gosto do espetador, os valores de produção e a inspiração dos argumentistas.

Apesar de bem dançados e coreografados, de terem música dos grandes compositores americanos (neste caso Cole Porter), falta argumento, carisma, graça, espetáculo, glamour.

Nunca serás rico não é mais que uma pálida lembrança dos grandes músicais dos anos trinta. E é pena, porque poderia ser muito mais do que isso.

Astaire Goes to the Army

In wartime, Fred Astaire and Rita Hayworth take the musical to the barracks, but not to the war. In fact, having been filmed in 1941, America was still watching the war from afar, but the fact that it was released in 1942, when the war was already very real and with thousands of casualties among American soldiers, the film's lightheartedness may not have been as appreciated.

This is another film in which, although the Astaire/Hayworth pairing works perfectly, it lacks the script, grace, and glamour to make these films comparable to the great hits of the previous decade, such as "Top Hat" or "The Gay Divorcee." The fault lies not with Rita Hayworth, who has everything to be a perfect match for Fred Astaire in these musical comedies, but with the times. The war changed the world, the sense of humor, the taste of the audience, the production values, and the inspiration of the writers. Although well-danced and choreographed, and featuring music by the great American composers (in this case, Cole Porter), they lack script, charisma, grace, spectacle, or glamour.

"You'll Never Get Rich" is nothing more than a pale reminder of the great musicals of the 1930s. And that's a shame, because it could have been so much more.

[gatutor]

Cartel película "Una entre un millón" (One in a million) 1936, de Sidney Lanfield.