An intriguing movie, more for what it could have been rather than for what it is.
"Flesh and Fantasy" is made up of three loosely connected segments – from stories by three different authors. They unfold as tales of the supernatural told by Davis (David Hoffman) to 'humourist' Robert Benchley in a series of linking sequences.
The first story is set in New Orleans during Mardi Gras. A plain young woman, Henrietta (Betty Field) receives a beautiful white mask from a stranger. After she attracts a young man, Michael (Robert Cummings), she performs an unselfish act, revealing her inner beauty to him without the aid of the mask. This sequence has a dreamlike quality – the artificiality of the studio sets actually gives it a sense of otherworldliness.
The second segment takes place in a moody night-time London. When Marshall Tyler (Edward G Robinson) is told by clairvoyant (Thomas Mitchell) that he will murder someone, he becomes so anxious waiting for it to happen that he attempts to kill two people at random before confronting the clairvoyant again.
The third segment has the least connection to the supernatural. A high wire artist, Paul Gaspar (Charles Boyer), loses his nerve performing a dangerous feat, When he dreams about a strange woman (Barbara Stanwyck) with distinctive earrings, he meets her on board a ship bound for New York. He falls in love and his confidence returns, but an unexpected problem separates them again.
Although the three segments have a definite style, the whole thing is let down by the linking sequences starring Robert Benchley. These seem totally out of character with the carefully crafted stories directed by Julien Duvivier. It's almost as though they are by another hand altogether. They actually make light of the segments we have just seen, and Benchley's brand of humour hasn't really travelled all that well over the decades.
When I sought more information about the movie, I found that a fourth segment – much darker in tone – had been filmed, but apparently the studio scrapped it and then added the Benchley touch.
Each segment was designed to flow into the next, and although Duvivier turned the deleted segment into another film called "Destiny", "Flesh and Fantasy" would have had an entirely different mood.
Back in the day, studios seemed to feel that films with a supernatural theme needed a lot of explaining, and anthology films often had linking sequences. It was almost as though they didn't think audiences would understand a film that was too abstract. So Duvivier's intriguing, moody film got hit with the mundane stick.
The result is still interesting, and the opportunity has long gone for the film to be restored to the original vision, but it's an intriguing thought nonetheless.
"Flesh and Fantasy" is made up of three loosely connected segments – from stories by three different authors. They unfold as tales of the supernatural told by Davis (David Hoffman) to 'humourist' Robert Benchley in a series of linking sequences.
The first story is set in New Orleans during Mardi Gras. A plain young woman, Henrietta (Betty Field) receives a beautiful white mask from a stranger. After she attracts a young man, Michael (Robert Cummings), she performs an unselfish act, revealing her inner beauty to him without the aid of the mask. This sequence has a dreamlike quality – the artificiality of the studio sets actually gives it a sense of otherworldliness.
The second segment takes place in a moody night-time London. When Marshall Tyler (Edward G Robinson) is told by clairvoyant (Thomas Mitchell) that he will murder someone, he becomes so anxious waiting for it to happen that he attempts to kill two people at random before confronting the clairvoyant again.
The third segment has the least connection to the supernatural. A high wire artist, Paul Gaspar (Charles Boyer), loses his nerve performing a dangerous feat, When he dreams about a strange woman (Barbara Stanwyck) with distinctive earrings, he meets her on board a ship bound for New York. He falls in love and his confidence returns, but an unexpected problem separates them again.
Although the three segments have a definite style, the whole thing is let down by the linking sequences starring Robert Benchley. These seem totally out of character with the carefully crafted stories directed by Julien Duvivier. It's almost as though they are by another hand altogether. They actually make light of the segments we have just seen, and Benchley's brand of humour hasn't really travelled all that well over the decades.
When I sought more information about the movie, I found that a fourth segment – much darker in tone – had been filmed, but apparently the studio scrapped it and then added the Benchley touch.
Each segment was designed to flow into the next, and although Duvivier turned the deleted segment into another film called "Destiny", "Flesh and Fantasy" would have had an entirely different mood.
Back in the day, studios seemed to feel that films with a supernatural theme needed a lot of explaining, and anthology films often had linking sequences. It was almost as though they didn't think audiences would understand a film that was too abstract. So Duvivier's intriguing, moody film got hit with the mundane stick.
The result is still interesting, and the opportunity has long gone for the film to be restored to the original vision, but it's an intriguing thought nonetheless.