Motion Picture Review Digest (Jan-Dec 1936)

114 MOTION PICTURE REVIEW DIGEST REMBRANDT — Continued) photographed only from one angle. 'Kermesse Heroique' (which is about Holland a little earlier) leaves one with an impression of a whole fantastic town. Rembrandt's Amsterdam is only a cardboard Square. And this is typical of the film as a whole. It was a fine conception with most of the details well carried out. But, viewed as a whole, it is woefully thin and straggling." . „ i„ .. _i New statesmen & Nation p772 N 14 '36 "[It] is pictorially engrossing and filled with deft and subtle characterizations. In attempting to celebrate the life of one of the great artists of all time, it suffers from the same paucity of significant incident that characterizes nearly every attempt to dramatize creative genius. The man himself is placed before you and his idealogical and emotional experience is recreated in detail, but the thing that set him apart from his fellow men eludes the director and the camera. That 'Rembrandt' is infinitely superior to biographical photoplays of its kind is due to the superlatively fine acting of Charles Laughton." Howard Barnes + NY Herald Tribune p23 D 3 '36 "It is in its breaking away from Hollywood tradition, in its determination to paint a portrait rather than unfold another plot, that . . . [it] is unique. It has other virtues too, a stirring visual beauty, a fine historical sense and a memorable performance by Charles Laughton. Less melodramatic than his other roles, this portrait of a painter is surely his subtlest and perhaps his best. This very subtlety will undoubtedly keep it from being his most popular. 'Rembrandt' is designed for the carriage trade. . . But it is Charles Laughton about whom this picture revolves, as indeed it should. . . Mr. Laughton, with his unrivaled mastery of makeup, again looks quite unlike Charles Laughton, actor, and startlingly like Herr Van Rijn. His characterization mounts steadily in power, reaching its height perhaps in that fine scene where he realizes that even his pictures are no longer his own. 'Rembrandt' is certainly a film for every discriminating moviegoer." Eileen Creelman + + N Y Sun p39 D 3 '36 "Between the two of them, Charles Laughton and Alexander Korda have produced a great, and rich, and glowing motion picture in 'Rembrandt,' a picture signed all over with distinction, like one of the master's own canvases. . . 'Rembrandt' is as much Mr. Korda's greatest production to date, as it is, at once, the noblest subject and the best likeness — so far, at any rate — in Mr. Laughton' s inspired gallery of historical portraits. . . It is hard to say just what it is about 'Rembrandt' that most inspires one to raise these perhaps undignified cheers. One might list the film's courageous indifference to 'romance,' in the cheap Hollywood sense, its surprising, rather foreign awareness of the facts of life, and its resolute hewing to a line of individual integrity and character." B. R. C. + + N Y Times p31 D 3 '36 "Alexander Korda . . . gives us a distinguished and beautiful film that bears the unmistakable stamp of his genius. To the film reviewer who passes his time chronicling the merits or demerits of the countless motion pictures that pass his way, the beauty of 'Rembrandt' presents a peculiar hazard because adjectives like 'breath-taking', 'haunting,' and 'startling' are of small use. No matter how admirably they may have served their purpose in describing the grandeurs of other outstanding films that have come his way, they sound hackneyed when applied to 'Rembrandt.' For the beauty of the film is, in its use of light and dark, like nothing the screen has ever before achieved and is as difficult to describe in words as these qualities in one of Rembrandt's paintings or etchings. . . In the title role Charles Laughton does his most brilliant acting to date." William Boehnel + + N Y World-Telegram p33 D 3 '36 "Very respectable and worthy, indicating that Alexander Korda and his staff have studied their galleries well, is the Charles Laughton 'Rembrandt.' . . The accuracy is there throughout, and the tendency is to make a nice educational picture and instruct us in the life of a great man. Perhaps the picture isn't overwhelmingly exciting. . . Certainly 'Rembrandt' is for the serious student rather than for those nervous types who get spots in front of their eyes whenever they aren't entertained." John Mosher + New Yorker pl30 D 5 '36 "At the start it must be stated emphatically that the photography and the settings in 'Rembrandt' . . . are among the best which have been seen on the screen. . . Technically, then, [it] is an excellent film, but when one comes to the story, about which all this achievement has been spun, it is not easy to praise. . . In this picture the more real the settings become the less flesh and blood the life within them seems to have. . . The spark of vitality is missing and Charles Laughton' s emotion . . . raises little in one's breast but an academic interest. . . Nevertheless, Mr. Korda's effort is a sincere one and I hope it makes his company money." Mark Forrest -1 Sat R p640 N 14 '36 "Reverence and a good cameraman are not enough. Mr. Alexander Korda in his latest film has chosen the most difficult of all subjects, the life of an artist, and though he is indubitably on the side of Art with a capital A against the bourgeoisie ... he has not himself produced a film which one can treat as a work of art. There are some good scenes. . . But the film is ruined by lack of story and continuity: it has no drive. Like 'The Private Life of Henry the Eighth,' it is a series of unrelated tableaux. . . I have called the film reverent, but pompous, I fear, would be nearer the mark. Emotions are too obviously forced on us. . . 'Scenes From the Life of . . .' — that is how this picture should be described, and, in spite of Mr. Charles Laughton' s amazing virtuosity and Miss Elsa Lanchester's attractive Flemish impersonation (her refined voice, alas! betrays the charming ungainliness of her appearance), it is chiefly remarkable for the lesson it teaches: that no amount of money spent on expensive sets, no careful photography, will atone for the lack of a story 'line,' the continuity and drive of a well constructed plot." Graham Greene h Spec p905 N 20 '36 " 'Rembrandt' is, and will be for a long time, the epitome of biographical cinema. This is true for one commanding reason, and several secondary ones. First of all, Charles Laughton assumes, more authentically than any other screen actor we know, the characteristics of the person he is portraying. . . In this film there is a period recreated that encompassed one of the world's immortals; and the members of his household, no matter how small a role they play, are part of this background. . . It is a majestic portrait, this Rembrandt." + + Stage pl6 D '36 "Rembrandt by Laughton is almost identical in appearance with Rembrandt by Rembrandt. This excellence of make-up is surpassed only by the merit of the picture, which is one of the year's subtlest and finest. . . Playing his part with enormous gusto against handsome Dutch sets, Actor Laughton dominates 'Rembrandt' gives one of his finest performances at a dignified pace < which well befits the life of his noble, if somewhat ribald, model." + + Time p26 D 14 '36 Trade Paper Reviews "Alexander Korda's London Films enriches the screen with a feature comprising a series of exquisitely photographed still-life scenes highlighted with acting of the finest quality and directed with imagination and a knowledge of the life of one of the world's greatest painters. Korda's direction of Charles Laughton + + Exceptionally Good; + Good; -1 Fair; + Mediocre; Poor; Exceptionally Poor