I've already added this entry once, but it seems to have disappeared. (Thank you AOL!) I finally got around to seeing "The Departed" (2006) and may or may not return to it in due course. Suffice to say for the moment that much to my surprise I preferred it to the Hong Kong original (less confusing) and that, along with other film buffs, I am pleased that Martin Scorsese finally received an Oscar for it. It's just a shame that it is somewhat lesser Scorsese.
However since I normally gain most pleasure from revisiting semi-classic movies, I shall concentrate on the above charmer today. Based on a stage play by Edna Ferber and George S. Kaufman, it made so successful a transition to film that it was nominated for best picture and best director -- neither of which it won. The nominal leads were powerhouse actresses Katharine Hepburn and Ginger Rogers, but it was supporting player Andrea Leeds who received an Oscar nod. She didn't win either and retired from movies in 1940, and both she and her strong performance are little-remembered today.
The action takes place at a theatrical boarding house for would-be actresses and the young hopefuls spend their days trying to see producers and indulging in good-natured bitching. Amongst their number are early roles for Lucille Ball, Ann Miller, and Eve Arden and a latter-day role for character actress Constance Collier as a has-been ham and would-be coach. Leeds plays a talented actress who attracted attention in a role a year earlier, but she has been unable to get any work subsequently. Into the mix comes society heiress Hepburn who fancies being on the stage and she is in her youthful attractive and feisty mode. The part that Leeds covets is given to newcomer Hepburn when her father anonymously bankrolls the production, in the hope that she will fail and return home. And Hepburn is in fact bloody awful (good acting here) during rehearsals. Leeds kills herself in despair on the opening night.
The blase and cold producer who carelessly toys with the young actresses and callously ignores their problems is played by Adolphe Menjou, an actor I can never quite take seriously since he looks like a character out of a French farce; his butler is played by the incomparable Franklin Pangborn, who always brings a smile to my lips with even the smallest roles. Rogers also gives a strong performance as the wise-cracking chorine who begins an affair with Menjou, only to spite older diva Gail Patrick. She did a far better job here than in some of her later so-called dramatic roles.
As an ensemble piece, this movie has a lot to offer. It is not quite in the same category as "The Women" made two years on with its all female cast, but it is still exciting to find so many young and able actresses graced with a highly literate script.
2 comments:
Obviously the Departed departed.....
Leo & Jack Nicholson? Now that's enough reason to see it before you say anything else.....
Maybe I'd need a lazy Sunday by the fire with a mug of cocoa for the Stage door though. Stage plays make strange films, but you make it sound quite convincing.
Hi .... not seen this one but will if I get a chance . have recently watched the "300" it was marvellous !! In a grossly over violent blood letting sort of way !!
regards
Shaun
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