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Conference bookie::movies

Title:	Movie Reviews and Discussion
Notice:	Please do DIR/TITLE before starting a new topic on a movie!
Moderator:	VAXCPU::michaudo.dec.com::tamara::eppes

Created:	Thu Jan 28 1993
Last Modified:	Thu Jun 05 1997
Last Successful Update:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:	1249
Total number of notes:	16012

521.0. "Marlene Dietrich" by 11578::MAXFIELD () Thu Apr 14 1994 16:34

    As requested, here's a note devoted to Marlene Dietrich.
    
    
    In topic 112, "Knight Withour Armour" was mentioned. This is
    a highly romatic movie set during the Russian Revolution. Dietrich
    plays an White Russian escaping from the Reds, Robert Donat (if memory
    serves me) is a journalist who helps her.
    
    My question for Helen (ni topic 112):  do you recall a scene
    where Dietrich and Donat are in a train compartment and meet
    a revolutionary (I think that's what he is, again, my memory
    isn't clear)? It's a small scene, maybe doesn't move the plot
    along, but the actor who played the revolutionary made a great
    impression on me. I've never been able to locate other films
    he may have been in, and don't recall his name. I'm just wondering
    if you remember the scene/actor, and if he made a similar impression
    on you. Another friend of mine who saw this felt the same about him,
    without any prodding from me.
    
    Richard

T.R	Title	User	Date	Lines
521.1	The romantic Russian...	GALVIA::HELSOM	`Fri Apr 15 1994 07:55`	21
	The nice little chap who fell in love with Dietrich? She and Robert Donat were pretending to be brother and sister. He killed himself so that they could get away when he found out they were lovers? I'm pretty sure the actor's name was in the credits when I saw the film on tv, as I looked for it, but I can't remember what it was. There were a lot of very good European stage actors in London in the mid- and late 1930s--I'll be interested to learn if the actor was good on stage and didn't do much film, or if he just hit the spot for this particular episode. I was very struck by the episode because it was so romantic. To me it seemed as if it could have come out a Russian novel (which I suppose was the point). IMO Feyder did an amazing job of making the basic plot premise, that everyone falls in love with Dietrich, interesting and not just a quick way out of every crisis. The funny thing to me is that while Dietrich certainly is beautiful in this film, Robert Donat is at least as interesting to watch in the same sort of way. But everybody in the film looks straight though him (except the romantic in the train, perhaps). It says a lot about what cinema is for looking at.... Helen
521.2		11578::MAXFIELD	`Fri Apr 15 1994 13:18`	4
	yes, that sounds right. I have it on tape, someday I'll re-watch and look for the actor's credit. Richard
521.3	John Clements	GALVIA::HELSOM	`Tue Apr 19 1994 07:44`	4
	Re: -1 The actor who plays the romantic Russian is John Clements. I couldn't find any biography in the bookstore.....
521.4		BEDAZL::MAXFIELD	`Tue Apr 19 1994 13:56`	3
	Thanks Helen, he didn't make enough movies! Richard
521.5	Maybe we should rename this note.....	GALVIA::HELSOM	`Mon Apr 25 1994 07:54`	24
	John Clements (1910-1988) was an English theatrical knight and "actor-manager" (according to Halliwell). He was the main character and eventual hero in Korda's The Four Feathers, and also appeared in Gandhi. He was in a fair number of other films--about the same number as Olivier (until he had to pay school fees) and Sir John, though fewer than Ralph Richardson, who is incidentally the cad in The Four Feathers. But presumably he concentrated on the stage because he preferred it. I'm mildly suprised from seeing Knight Without Armour that Clements is English (I have a tin ear for accents but had him down as east European or even echt Russin or Baltic). I suppose you wouldn't necessarily have thought Olivier was English in 1937, for the same sort of reasons--apparent sensitivity and general sexiness. FWIW, The Four Feathers is actually a similar caper to Knight Without Armour. An English public-schoolboy goes underground for love in both. I wouldn't be surprised if they weren't both based on novels by A.E.W. Mason. The main difference (apart from Technicolor) is the pukka English point of view of the Kordas (in contrast to Feyder's deep sympathy for the Russian setting of Knight), and the fact that the GURL in the Four Feathers is June Duprez, not Marlene Dietrich. Duprez is very beautiful, but the contrast with Dietrich highlights the fact that there is a lot more to looking at Dietrich. Helen