Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin (1952)

MOULIN ROUGE' IS TRES MACNIFIQUE Rates • • • generally; • • • • for art and class houses UA release 123 minutes Jose Ferrer, Colette Marchand, Suzanne Flon, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Katherine Kath, Claude NoUier, Muriel Smith, Georges Lannes, Walter Crisham, Mary Clare, Harold Gasket, Lee Montague, Jill Bennet, Maureen Swanson Directed by John Huston Here is Paris — the real, authentic Paris of the 80's, gaudy, bawdy, passionate. Here is romance and despair, wealth and squalor, drabness and color. Here are life and death — the life and death of Henri de ToulouseLautrec, the ugliest dwarf and the greatest Parisian painter of his day, whose heart was ruled by two women, both of whom he lost, one of them a street walker, the other a model. Here is a picture in the classic tradition, beautifully fashioned, wonderfully photographed in Technicolor, magnificently acted, with a heart-throb in every chord of its wild Parisian music. Here is the soul of that fabulous Paris cafe, the Moulin Rouge, and of its Can-Can girls, and here is the slime of the Montmartre gutter where most of its women were born and to which, sodden and diseased, they returned. Hert is an exploitation picture par excellence — a job which will slay the critics with its poignant realism and may dismay the censorious by the beauty of its earthiness. A class picture, to be sure, but one that has • POOR • • FAIR • • • GOOD • • • • TOPS all the elements of general popular appeal. A Romulus production, it has been directed by John Huston with a richness rarely found on the screen. It is as eagerly buoyant as a paper boat on a swollen millstream, throhhing and pulsating to every ripple. It recks of cognac, stinks of stale cigar haze. It is downbeat, but it is a film which deserves — and should get — capacity houses everywhere but in the oatlands. Jose Ferrer's portrayal of the great painter is outstanding. Colette Marchand, as the prostitute who breaks his heart, shares the honors witli him. Suzanne Flon, the only woman who really loves him, is excellent, and even the curvesome Zsa Zsa Gabor has the kind of flippant part which best suits her talents. There's not a discordant performance in the whole thing. STORY: Anthony Veiller's screenplay, based on a novel by Pierre La Mure, opens with Jose Ferrer at a table in the Moulin Rouge cafe sketching the Can-Can girls and swallowing brandy by the pint. The cafeowner, H-irold Gasket, promises him free liquor for .a month if he will draw a poster. Ferrer laughs away the suggestion. As he picks his way slowly homeward that night through the cobbled streets of Paris he dreams of his childhood with his titled parents in their magnificent chateau, of the fall which turned him from a healthy boy into a stunted monstrosity. His thoughts are interrupted by Colette, a streetwalker for whom the police are searching. He befriends her and a tcmpestous love affair develops — the first in the artist's life. He becomes obsessed with her, but discovering her unfaithfulness, puts her out of his life. He stops painting, and goes into a decline. When his willpower finally snaps and he goes searching for Colette, he discovers she has been living with him merely to support her lover. Stunned, Ferrer goes back to the Moulin Rouge and his friends Jill Bennct, I lie earthy barmaid, Katherine Kath, the dancer and Zsa Zsa Gabor, the fickle singer. Ferrer becomes world famous as an artist and the Moulin Rouge becomes the most fashionable rendezvous in Paris. Suzanne Flon, a model who takes pity on Ferrer, fails to pierce the armor of self-defense which the artist has thrown around himself after his loss of Colette. In the end she sends him a letter saying she is going to marry someone else. Ferrer goes into a drunken orgy. He tries to gas himself, but is won from the effort by the call of his palette and brushes. One night he collapses, falls downstairs and dies with the music of the Can-Can girls ringing in his"' ears. COULTER ' letters which he receives from John Sutton, his beloved foster father, young Richard Burton is led to believe that Sutton's wife, Olivia de Havilland, who is Burton's cousin, is trying to poison her husband. Burton goes to Italy to find Sutton is dead, but that he has left everything to Burton. Although Burton's guardian, Ronald Squire, is convinced that Sutton died of a brain tumor, Burton suspects Olivia on the basis of the letters. When she arrives in England, and visits him, his doubts are overcome, by her charm and gentleness and he falls deeply in love with her. Coming into possession of the estate on his 25th birthday, he signs over the entire estate to her, then asks her to marry him. When she refuses, he becomes infuriated and tries to kill her. She escapes to her room and he lapses into a fever. In the ensuing weeks, she nurses him back to health, but little bits of evidence convince him she is trying to poison him, just as he believed she did Sutton. A letter, however, indicates that she is innocent and he strives desperately to prevent her from walking over an unsafe foot bridge. He finds her broken body under the bridge and is forever left with the question: Was she a murderess or a madonna? BARN FILM BULLETIN December 2?, 1952 ' Pag* S MY COUSIN RACHEL' ALMOST ANOTHER REBECCA' Rates # • • generally; more where exploited """ — ""— "— ~~ ~~~ ~~~ whether a definite conclusion should have 20th Century-Fox 100 minutes Olivia de Havilland, Richard Burton, Audrey Dalton, Ronald Squire, George Dolenz, John Sutton, Tudor Owen, J. M. Kerrigan, Margaret Brewster, Alma Lawton Directed by Henry Koster Daphne du Maurier, author of "Rebecca", has supplied another fascinating story for the screen in "My Cousin Rachel," and Nunnally Johnson, as both producer and scenarist, has given it the treatment it deserves. Poured into the mold that made "Rebecca" a boxoftice winner as well as an artistic triumph, and deftly handled by director Henry Koster, "My Cousin Rachel" can boast two of the finest performances of the year in those delivered by the longabsent Olivia de Havilland and Richard Burton, principals in this tense drama of a woman who could be a saint or a murderess. It is this very indecision — and the only blemish on an otherwise splendid production —that lessens the impact of a picture that builds its audience to a high point^of emotion, then leaves it there. On the other hand, this factor may emerge as a blessing in disguise. It is sure to raise controversy as to been reached and the provocative ending should stir up plenty of word-of-mouth. On all other counts, the production is flawless. Koster's direction is beautifully paced, building the story's suspense almost imperceptibly as the events ebb and flow in a mounting tide, against a brooding background that reconstructs the Cornish scene in a fine and lavish detail. The photography is magnificent, heightening the mood of the film under Joseph La Shelle's lens wizardry. Highly reminiscent of "Rebecca," which it parallels in virtually every department, this should come close to the outstanding grosses registered by that eminent film. While Miss de Havilland's performance is another Oscar contender, Richard Burton's portrayal of her harried young lover is the top role in the film and overshadows even Miss de Havilland's artistry. The British star, noted for his stage performances in England, makes his American screen debut a most auspicious one in a brooding, emtionful portrayal of a man torn between love and suspicion. The supporting cast is par excellence, too, right down the line. STORY: The scene is laid in Cornwall, England, in the early 19th Century. In