The stars (1962)

MALE AND FEMALE Charles Farrell and Janet Gaynor in Street Angel. The history of love teams is almost as long as that of the movies in America. The first of any importance was that of wooden Francis X. Bushman and Beverly Bayne, who, prior to World War I, kept their real-life marriage secret lest it destroy the illusions of their fans. They needn't have bothered, for the secret of the love team's success lies in the inevitability of its members coming together in the last reel. Inevitability is a subject not often discussed by motionpicture critics, who set great store by novelty. But the truth is that both the star system and the construction of the average film depend on giving people, if not what they want, then what they have been led, by experience, to expect. The excellent American film is one which works highly original variations within the stylization demanded by the half dozen or so time-tested genres that account for most of our production. How else can one explain the very real sense of disappointment one feels when, somehow, the wrong — that is to say, the novel — ending suddenly appears in the last reel? Only Alfred Hitchcock, who has assiduously cultivated the idea that his films will always have a surprise ending, and who therefore leads us into the theater expecting a trick, can get away with it. The presence of Colman and Banky, Farrell and Gaynor in a movie was an absolute guarantee that the movie would meet all preconceived notions of how a romance should end. The coming of sound cut off the Colman-Banky liaison just as it was about to become an institution. Hungarian-born Vilma Banky simply could not master the intricacies of English, and since she was happily married to Rod LaRocque, she went off to Europe and made a few films with him, after which the two settled down to a comfortable, easy-going 76 Ronald Colman and Vilma Banky in One Night of Love.