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Reviews
Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948)
Cary Grant's Master Class
There's something both amusing and deeply annoying about the way all of the critics -- and I'm being as generous as possible with the term -- dismiss this comic gem as just another chance to watch Cary Grant coast on a collection of his signature mannerisms without the need to do anything as serious as act. What a crock! Watching Grant during the first fifteen minutes of this delightful film is like sitting in on a master class in comedy. Cary Grant's comic timing, his unmatched subtlety in reading a line or simply snapping out a single word like Buddy Rich effortlessly firing rimshots, his acrobatic skill juggling props, his Buddhist concentration when another actor is setting him up for yet one more hilarious line reading -- these are the gifts of one of the screen's most gifted and creative actors. The dialogue by Norman Panama and Melvin Frank may not be Shaw or Wilde, but it's clever and well-paced and, most significantly, ideally constructed to give Cary Grant and his very special co-stars Myrna Loy and Melvin Douglas the opportunity to show just exactly how great ensemble comic acting is supposed to work. They often talk about certain male ballet dancers as perfect partners, but here it's Myrna Loy who demonstrates what movie partnering can achieve. It's no wonder audiences loved her when she was working alongside actors like Bill Powell and Cary Grant; by being better than you expected her to be, she made them better, which is what a great partner is supposed to do. And Melvin Douglas' wry and often hilariously understated line readings are a perfect complement to Loy and Grant. "Mister Blandings Builds His Dream House" is not the greatest comedy ever filmed, nor is it even the greatest Cary Grant performance, and perhaps critics (again I'm being generous with that overused word) aren't far off in characterizing the film as a fairly formulaic postwar Hollywood comedy. Perhaps. But, I would still put this film on the syllabus of any class in film acting and I would make damn sure drama students watched it very, very attentively.
Commissaire Magellan (2009)
Midsomer Murders en Français
If you're a fan of Midsomer Murders, but also like your mysteries to have a decidedly Gallic twist, then Magellan is absolutely for you. The plots are convoluted, the suspects are plentiful, and the dogged Inspector is invariably going to get his man (or woman). But, what sets Magellan apart from what the French would call its British homologue is its edginess, its willingness to discover dark little corners in the psyches of even its most sympathetic characters, even Inspector Magellan himself. There's a focus on the actual crime investigation itself that sometimes gets blurred in Midsomer Murders; unlike its British cousin, Magellan's narratives are sharper, more detailed, and easier to take seriously. None of the casualness that sometimes makes Midsomer Murders seem like an excuse to meander through the sometimes incomprehensible (to a foreigner) personality quirks of the British provincial elite. There's real police business being done here, and Simon Magellan, despite his Colomboesque sartorial disarray and his exasperation with his often uncomfortable role as a 21st century divorced father desperately trying to do the right thing by his precocious teenaged daughters, really is a highly respected and insightful cop. His characteristically French aura of ironic detachment barely conceals a good and decent man who clearly understands what makes people tick and uses that understanding to tease out ingenious solutions to the tangled mysteries he encounters (references to Simenon's Maigret would be appropriate at this point). Yes, the mythical Northern town of Saignac appears to account for just about all of the murders recorded in France in any given month, but that's what we love about formulaic, locked room mysteries like this -- they tell us that the world may seem perennially out of joint, but that with local heroes like Tom Barnaby in England and Simon Magellan in France, everything will turn out more or less alright.
North by Northwest (1959)
Goof
When Cary Grant escapes from the Rapid City hospital, he takes a cab directly to Van Damm's house, even though he has no way of knowing where the house is located.
The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir (2018)
Felt let down - a sentimentalized treatment of a wonderfully satirical and trenchant nove
I don't wish to write a lengthy review, but I would like to register my disappointment with the film translation of Romain Puertolas' hilarious and insightful depiction of the world of outsiders and refugees. Puertolas himself is listed as principal screenwriter, so I assume he's fine with the finished product; but, if you have the opportunity, read the novel and you'll see what I mean. The basic plot remains, but not much else. This could have been a wicked and provocative movie, instead of the kind of thing that might have starred Danny Kaye or Bob Hope back in the day. Yes, it's sort of amusing, and the principal leads have charm and screen presence to burn, but if you read French, Romain Puertolas' book will frequently have you laughing out loud.