I had never watched this "Best Picture of 1950" until a couple of years ago because it just looked like one of those 1950s melodramas (translation: soap operas) that I can't stand, and it starred an older Bette Davis, who was only appealing to me in her youth in the 1930s. However, after hearing and reading so many rave reviews of this, especially on the IMDb Classic Board, and the fact it was out on DVD, I decided to check it out.
I was glad I did. I liked it, thought it was entertaining and worth the 138-minute investment. I still didn't find it as good as advertised - at least for my tastes - but it was still a pretty involving story with good acting. How it could have been up for so many Academy Awards - 14, I believe - is beyond me, however.
Neverthess, it's main attribute, as advertised, is the dialog which sparkles with "intelligence," as the Liberal film critic-elitists like to refer to it. It's a "smart" comedy, they say from their ivory towers. Make no mistake: the dialog is good, but I've heard just as good from some film noirs and other movies. Movies put more of a premium on that sort of stuff back in the days before computerized special-effects and limited attention spans took over.
The best dialog came from George Sanders, playing a sharp-tongued theater critic. Davis was next, which is no surprise. Her career, thanks to her own real- life efforts to get good roles, was doted with characters that had good dialog. This role kept her Hollywood career going as it had been fading as she approached 40 years of age. She was beginning to look older than her years and many times that spelled "death" to an actress, but she was not the average actress.
The only character in the film I couldn't stand was "Eve," by Anne Baxter, not for her role but for the way she delivered her lines. Baxter didn't do this at first, but as the film went on she kept finishing sentence after sentence with a whisper. It was extremely annoying and affected. People don't talk like that!
Overall, for a film dominated by dialog for almost two hours and 20 minutes, it did a great job of holding one's interest. I only found one part that really lagged. It's a good movie - a well-crafted story - but putting in almost-mythical status as one of the greatest of all times, as some have, is a bit exaggerated.
I was glad I did. I liked it, thought it was entertaining and worth the 138-minute investment. I still didn't find it as good as advertised - at least for my tastes - but it was still a pretty involving story with good acting. How it could have been up for so many Academy Awards - 14, I believe - is beyond me, however.
Neverthess, it's main attribute, as advertised, is the dialog which sparkles with "intelligence," as the Liberal film critic-elitists like to refer to it. It's a "smart" comedy, they say from their ivory towers. Make no mistake: the dialog is good, but I've heard just as good from some film noirs and other movies. Movies put more of a premium on that sort of stuff back in the days before computerized special-effects and limited attention spans took over.
The best dialog came from George Sanders, playing a sharp-tongued theater critic. Davis was next, which is no surprise. Her career, thanks to her own real- life efforts to get good roles, was doted with characters that had good dialog. This role kept her Hollywood career going as it had been fading as she approached 40 years of age. She was beginning to look older than her years and many times that spelled "death" to an actress, but she was not the average actress.
The only character in the film I couldn't stand was "Eve," by Anne Baxter, not for her role but for the way she delivered her lines. Baxter didn't do this at first, but as the film went on she kept finishing sentence after sentence with a whisper. It was extremely annoying and affected. People don't talk like that!
Overall, for a film dominated by dialog for almost two hours and 20 minutes, it did a great job of holding one's interest. I only found one part that really lagged. It's a good movie - a well-crafted story - but putting in almost-mythical status as one of the greatest of all times, as some have, is a bit exaggerated.