Conference bookie::movies

175.0. "Peter Ibbetson" by DSSDEV::RUST () Thu May 06 1993 11:11

    Here's another little oddity courtesy of AMC. Every time I'd heard this
    movie mentioned before, its vaguely-Scandinavian-sounding title made me
    think it was some Bergmanesque thing, so I was very much surprised to
    see the 'Guide blurb describing it as a "fantasy-romance" - and
    starring Gary Cooper, yet, in a role originally slated for Fredric
    March. (!)

    Well, it's a fantasy, all right, and a romance, and fairly dark, too,
    but more than a little stagey (not surprising, as it's based on a play)
    and overly simplistic. The premise is that a pair of childhood
    sweethearts (we know they're sweethearts because they tease and annoy
    the heck out of each other) are torn apart by unfeeling adults, and
    grow up feeling incomplete and alone. Will they meet again? [Of
    course.] Will they live happily ever after? Wellll....
    
    The major plot twist is a fine one, though exceedingly bleak, but the
    story doesn't explore that aspect of it much:
    
    [Spoiler warning]
    
    
    The sweethearts, now grown, do meet again - but she has married a
    wealthy nobleman, who takes exception to his wife's being in love with
    another man. He's planning to shoot them both when Cooper hurls a chair
    at him. Ah, that solid English craftsmanship! The chair kills him dead.
    But, alas, the judge and jury aren't swayed by tales of "he shot first"
    when the "he" has a title AND is the lawful spouse, so poor Mr. Cooper
    is sentenced to life in prison. So much for young love, eh?
    
    Better still, the prison is a Dickensian model of brutality, and
    Cooper's only been there a short while before he is savagely beaten by
    guards, leaving him broken, crippled, and on the brink of death.
    
    So, like, how are we supposed to get a romance out of this situation?
    Why, simple! The two lovers have a "dreamland" connection - they've
    shared dreams before, and now she appears to him in their dreams and
    leads him back to their childhood stomping grounds. And there they go
    every night, to re-live the old romps and games, while in their waking
    hours she lives alone in her ducal estate and he lies, chained and
    broken, in his cell...
    
    The concept itself is rather sweet, but I'm afraid this bit tends to
    drag on, and after a while it suggests a nightmarish quality to me -
    even the happiest of circumstances can pall if repeated constantly and
    at length, and there's no indication given here that the lovers change
    or grow in any fashion. [Or maybe I'm getting jaded in my
    late-summer-to-autumnal years; the idea that lovers could capture those
    fleeting moments of peak romance and hold on to them forever does have
    some appeal.] And the denouement comes with little or no suspense,
    missing a chance to jerk a few tears. Ah, well.
    
    -b

An odd film. I've always agreed with people who feel that Cooper was miscast.
He wanted to do the film because it's such a different role than what he was
used to doing. But then I'm not sure even a more "sensitive" type could have
pulled this off. The last part of the film is a little hard to take.


Randy

    Yeah, I've never been fond of Cooper's acting style.  It's wooden to
    say the least, and while he could do the awkward American guy roles well,
    he wasn't great at anything else.  One of his best (but not well known)
    roles, I think, is in a film in which he co-stars with Frederick March
    and Miriam Hopkins, in which he plays an American painter in Paris. 
    He actually pulls off a lot of understated comedy with his awkward
    boyishness.  ("Designing Woman", maybe?  Can't remember the title).
    
    -Rob

    "Design for Living".  One of my favorite Cooper roles, and March and
    Hopkins (not to mention Edward Everett Horton) are just great. 
    
    It was based on a Noel Coward play which was basically propaganda for
    menages a trois.  People who know the original complain that the movie
    version dropped too much of the smut, but I think it comes across just
    fine...
    
    Ray

And while we're off the subject...  _Designing Woman_ (.2) starred Lauren
Becall and Gregory Peck and was directed by Vincente Minnelli.


I agree that Cooper's wooden acting style gave him a rather limited range
of appropiate roles. But when the role and actor did match did match he
was superb, i.e. _High Noon_.


Randy