I am writing this after watching only nine minutes of this film -- !! -- but I'm already so excited! What a fabulous storyteller is this Raoul Walsh, and he does it with such ease. The first nine minutes are a veritable compendium of storytelling technique: the cuts are fast (average shot length 3 seconds), and yet in the midst of it are efficient, meaningful re-framings, dolly shots, pans, etc. And the verve! Opening shot: standard Times Square at night, then another, then a third (I think), finally to medium shot of Wallace Ford striking a match on the ass of a chorus girl! -- on a poster; then: the chorus girl in question, on stage, doing her number. It's wise-ass, straightforward and charmingly naive all at once. OK, back to the movie!
...later, having watched the rest:
which turns out to be terrific. Walsh really thinks visually, and especially in terms of action: he RHYMES visually: there is an scene early on where Wallace Ford, escaping frantically from the police, tumbles head first into a window and to safety. Striking enough, but there is a strong payoff at the end: Ford, as lonely advance guard to his regiment, arrives at the besieged Chinese city where Anna Lee (his love and also John Mills's) is captive in the embassy -- and tumbles into the window. The fugitive and the hero perform the same action -- thus telling us that it's the same man, but made greater by circumstances. When Mills arrives at the head of the regiment, Lee is relieved as only a woman in love can be, kisses him: reaction shot: Ford, realizing; Ford then (within seconds) sacrifices himself. It's amazingly efficient, and yet not unfeeling. And the death scene, while brief, would not be unworthy of John M. Stahl (who would, no doubt, have slowed it down a good deal). Quite a picture. And if you're American you'll never see it. Fortunately, the French have a much greater interest in our patrimony than we have, and this is available (in a box set with "The Revolt of Mamie Stover") on Region 2 DVD, with a short appreciation by a French critic (laudatory and interesting, but in French only, no English subtitles). Well worth seeing! (though only 8 out of 10, since the "romance" aspect is -- until the excellent conclusion -- pretty routine).
...later, having watched the rest:
which turns out to be terrific. Walsh really thinks visually, and especially in terms of action: he RHYMES visually: there is an scene early on where Wallace Ford, escaping frantically from the police, tumbles head first into a window and to safety. Striking enough, but there is a strong payoff at the end: Ford, as lonely advance guard to his regiment, arrives at the besieged Chinese city where Anna Lee (his love and also John Mills's) is captive in the embassy -- and tumbles into the window. The fugitive and the hero perform the same action -- thus telling us that it's the same man, but made greater by circumstances. When Mills arrives at the head of the regiment, Lee is relieved as only a woman in love can be, kisses him: reaction shot: Ford, realizing; Ford then (within seconds) sacrifices himself. It's amazingly efficient, and yet not unfeeling. And the death scene, while brief, would not be unworthy of John M. Stahl (who would, no doubt, have slowed it down a good deal). Quite a picture. And if you're American you'll never see it. Fortunately, the French have a much greater interest in our patrimony than we have, and this is available (in a box set with "The Revolt of Mamie Stover") on Region 2 DVD, with a short appreciation by a French critic (laudatory and interesting, but in French only, no English subtitles). Well worth seeing! (though only 8 out of 10, since the "romance" aspect is -- until the excellent conclusion -- pretty routine).