Film History is full of films that are not appreciated in its time but re -discovered later – films such as “It’s a wonderful life“Wizard“And John Carpenters”The thing“Everything that bombed at its first edition but now is almost unanimously considered cases where audience and critics made it wrong. But the reverse is also true – there are hundreds of films celebrated at their moment but eventually forgotten even though she received awards and wide audience.
Two such films, ”Citadel“(1938) and”The enchanted cottage“(1945), are recently available on Blu-ray from Warner Archive And worthy to rediscover – these are cases where everyone was right the first time, some dated elements in each despite. The fact that both films have come to be seen as a bit cuddly probably has as much to do with the subordinate home video transfers they have been exposed to before as with all inherent errors – a problem Warner ArchiveS faultless new editions are commendably correct.
Like many films that acquire awards in their moment just to have later generations of critics turn on them, “The Citadel” is a social problem picture. In this case, the problem is ethics in the medical profession, as the young physician Andrew Manson (Robert Donat) moves from idealism to disillusionment and back again when facing ignorant patients who are skeptical of his conclusions, financial difficulties and crooked colleagues.
Actor Donat skillfully conveys Manson’s drastically varying perspective, the film was carefully calibrated by Master Director King Vidor -Ships Oscar-nominated for their efforts. The movie was also nominated for the best picture (the lost to “You can’t take it with you”, whose director Frank Capra also took home a bald sword man) and best script for its clear and brief adaptation of AJ Cronin’s novel by Ian Dalrymeple, Frank Wead and Elizabeth Hill (who would soon become Vidor’s third wife.
All of these awards were awarded fairly “Citadellet”, mounted with a restrained sense of classisism that makes the film’s underlying rage the more potent. The film’s charges against the medical establishment of the time is quite scary, and a little ahead of its time in the RiskAverse Hollywood in the 1930s-it feels like the type of Stanley Kramer would have done 20 or 25 years later.
The Vidor not only came away with its controversial position but was praised for it may be because the story was put in the UK rather than the United States; The film was a British co -production on which the only Americans were Vidor and actress Rosalind Russell, fantastic here as the doctor’s love interest. (Her sincere and discrete performance is a surprise for contemporary viewers who mainly know her as the heroine of Howard Hawks stylish “His girl Friday.”)
“The Citadel” was one of the rare films like Oliver Stones “JFK“That actually motivated concrete political action; the shameful conditions the movie and its source novel depicted led to the creation of britain’s national health service in 1947. In term of“ the citadel ”Being Consided a work of art by art by Later generations, howver Hindrance Than A Help – ever since the French Critics of Cahiers du Cinéma (Correctly) Exalted the Work of Preious Unheralded Genre Filmmakers Like Hawks, Sam Fuller and Budd Beticher, it has been a stress of criticism that looks at the type of serious seriousness.
Still, the “Citadel” remains surprisingly entertaining and energetic and relatively timeless in its concern – the uninformed breasts that Manson is located against, unfortunately, do not feel that they come from another era. (The same cannot be said to a hysterical woman Manson Treat, as the movie, in one of its few poorly dated moments, suggests that simply need a man and child to shake some reason in her.)
If the “Citadel” feels relatively modern in their attitudes and entertainment, the same cannot be really said for “The Enchanted Cottage”, which is more unintentionally funny in its weaknesses but still reaches more transcendent heights when it works. An allegory about the transformative power of love, “The Enchanted Cottage” is trite and simplified when it is removed to its nuclear historical elements, but its emotional power is significant thanks to the director John CromwellS Supreme Execution – This movie is the ultimate demonstration of Roger Ebert’s belief that a movie is not about what it is about, but about how It’s about what it’s all about.
The prerequisite for “The Enchanted Cottage”, based on a 1923 game by Arthur Wing Pinero, which had already been adapted as a silent movie in 1924, is that two emotionally injured people – a disfigured war veteran (Robert Young) and the secret caretaker in a cone in the sea (Dorothy McGui When they fall in love, the cottage makes the veteran handsome and the caretaker beautiful – or they think.
“The Enchanted Cottage” requires a fairly substantial suspension of distrust from the viewer, especially since the notion that McGuire is physically dismissive – she does not wear makeup or has the hair made in the glamorous style of the Hollywood studio, but it is about the extent of her “homeliness.” The film meets more than the audience halfway and gives an abundance of truly moving moments between the two lovers, which are almost entirely generated by Young and McGuire’s sensitive performances and Cromwell’s elegant style.
John Cromwell isn’t well renamed today – He’s Probly Better Known Among Movie Buffs for Being “Babe” Farmer James Cromwell’s Dad Than For Any of the 47 Movies He Directed – But In His Time, He Was Known as a Sturdy (” Humphrey Bogart (“Dead Reckoning”), and Jennifer Jones (“SINCE YOU WENT AWAY”) in Handsomely Mounted Prestige images, often based on established literary qualities. However, that description really does not make Cromwell Justice. At his best, he can tease remarkable emotional effects of even the stood -going material.
“The Enchanted Cottage” is an example. Although the script statute board is strong – the script is attributed to the “Cat People” writer Dewitt Boateen and Herman Mankiewicz from “Citizen Kane” famous – the film is somewhat limited by its outdated attitudes and comic overreactions to McGuire’s simplicity. (The connection “Cat People” is appropriate, given that random men react to McGuire’s very nice face that fits something you would see on a choice Lewton tension.) But Cromwell even turns these shortcomings to his advantage when it comes to filmmaking and relying on smart cinematic means to sell the premise.
McGuire, for example, avoids obvious dentures or props in favor of a subtle strategy to illustrate the difference between how others see her and how she is seen by the man who loves her. Cromwell had costume designer Eddie Stevenson to create doubles of her wardrobe, so she would have clothes that looked good for the scenes from Young’s perspective and poorly suitable costumes for the others.
Kinematographer Ted Tetzlaff also does his role, McGuire illuminates from below and with hard shadows too much of the film while she gives her a soft, brilliant quality in the moment when young people fall for her, and there are many other areas where “The Enchanted Cottage” creates poetic effects through the pure Hollywood craft on the display. While McGuire went without prostheses, for example, Young’s war-scary face is raised expertly and restrained, with details that hold up for review even in the new Blu-Ray razors.
Everything allows Cromwell to create a sophisticated sense of varying views without explicitly absorbing subjective point of view shot; The camera is invisible in the classic Hollywood style, but it is expressive and powerful. The work of the special effects is also outstanding, with a combination of carpet paintings and site work that lives alive a countryside in New England without ever getting more than a few miles outside Santa Monica.
The seriousness that everyone in the film, from Cromwell and the actors is down to suit, camera and optical effects, treats the material a magical effect that is not unlike the cottage on its inhabitants – it turns something clumsy into something beautiful by pure power of will and artistry. And it has really never seen more beautiful at home than it does on the new Warner Archive Blu-ray, which maintains the consequently high standards of the label for image and sound quality.
Unlike “The Citadel”, “The Enchanted Cottage” did not receive any love from the academy, and the reviews were mixed, but it was a big hit with the audience, which made a sufficiently strong impression that Carol Burnett could parody it decades later with a TV shit called “The Enchanted Hovel.” Seeing “The Enchanted Cottage” was restored to its original luster, it’s easy to see why the movie worked – 81 years later still.
