
http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/369654/Dear-Heart-Original-Trailer-.html
THE BARRETTS OF WIMPOLE STREET (1934; Sidney Franklin)
Some actors were just born to play heavies. They do it in such a way as to almost make you uncomfortable as they are just walls of pure evil. Charles Laughton can be one of those actors. The great thing about him though is that he has a certain charm about him to that allows him to feel slyly human at the same time which really grounds him in the movies he is in. He's not a mustache twirler, he's a real dude. The opening of this movie features a scene where a group of youngsters are rallying about a sickly girl (Laughton's daughter) and carrying on a bit in a fun way (singing and dancing and so forth). Enter Laughton who puts a gigantic kabash on said proceedings. Talk about a dude that can bring a room down (even the dog hides in his bed when Laughton enters). Laughton bursts forth with an speech about his displeasure at and lays out his tyrannical self-righteousness in short order. He rules his home with an iron fist and any that question him will be me with the most laser-focused parental disapproval one can possibly imagine. Everything in the Barrett home must run through him. His daughters will not have gentlemen callers, and marriage is simply out of the question. Fredric March has other ideas though. He's a poet that Laughton's daughter (Norma Shearer) has been corresponding with who has fallen in love with her (via her letters, books and poems). He is a free spirit and impetuously invites himself over to the Barrett house whilst Laughton is out of town. When the two meet, sparks fly of course so the stage is setter for bitter conflict. How on earth can March get by Laughton? It's gonna get messy. Thankfully, Laughton is only in about 1/2 the movie and the other half has lots of scenes of Fredric March and Norma Shearer talking pretty to each other. It may be mushy for some, but I enjoy that stuff when it's conveyed by fine actors such as these.
Whenever I watch a 'dysfunctional family' epic like this I always end up thinking of Wes Anderson's film THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS. I wonder if this was a film he and co-writer Owen Wilson might have checked out when working on that movie. I know THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS was certainly a huge influence on that film, but it seems to me that a film like this could have come into the mix at some point. This film, like Scorsese's AGE OF INNOCENCE is that period piece that deals with propriety and how rigid it once was. Propriety has thankfully loosened up a bit these days, or relations between men and women would be a damn sight more difficult than they already can be. I can't imagine having to jump through the hoops of proper etiquette and courting procedures that these folks have to go through. It robs the whole process of spontaneity and the impetuosity of burgeoning romance. Therein lies the conflict of course and it does make for good drama. When you as a viewer can see that two people SHOULD be together but there is something blocking that union, you naturally want to get that blockage out of the way. Well, Charles Laughton isn't your average blockage. As blockages go, he's the frickin' Hoover Dam. Ain't nothing getting through that. Have ya seen ISLAND OF LOST SOULS? Look what the dude can do to people! Here he is limited in that he is no experimental scientist/surgeon, but he is nonetheless a brick wall that is not to be trifled with. It all comes back to dramatic construction though for me. A good bad guy, one that you hate with every fiber of your being, can make for great movies. And Laughton is one of the best bad guys ever.
3 comments:
Just discovered your blog -- wonderful! I watched "The Barretts of Wimpole Street" just the other morning and liked it a lot, especially the creepy insinuations that Papa Barrett was more than a little fond of his eldest daughter. Ewww! Obviously tamed down for the movies, and possibly not exactly true to history, Laughton's sexually repressed father is almost pitiable but then cinches his freakiness by wanting to put his runaway daughter's sweet dog to death. Truly a creep and though we know that Barrett and Browning do get together, we're not exactly sure that she will be able to stand up to Laughton. Great movie and thank goodness that most of us don't live in households where these kind of attitudes still prevail!
Thanks for reading Lisa! Hope there's more here (lots of movie lists and other old film reviews) that you might enjoy!
Indeed, Laughton wins the 'uber-creep' award for BARRETTS. He's just fantastic. So vile.
PS - if you're on twitter at all you should follow me there:
https://twitter.com/bobfreelander
I will look you up there! It's amazing that as perfect as Laughton was in this movie, I completely love him as the unfortunate Quasimodo in "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" where he is incomparable for exactly the opposite set of personality traits as Mr. Barrett -- who actually probably have enjoyed being stripped and whipped, come to think of it! :-)
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