Four Frightened People (1934)
** (out of 4)
Claudette Colbert, Herbert Marshall, Mary Boland and William Gargan play the characters that the title refers to. The four escape a plague ridden boat only to wind up in the jungle where they must try to escape while battling not only each other but other items like wild animals and a lack of water. From what I've read this film was laughed off the screen in 1934 and it certainly doesn't fair much better when viewed today. I watched the edited 78-minute version, which I must say was the longest 78-minute movie I had ever seen. I couldn't wait for this thing to end so I'm really not sure I'd want to venture into the longer cut, which is apparently fifteen-minutes longer. I'm not sure where to start with this thing but it really seems like DeMille wanted some sort of epic but couldn't reach that goal. The film is quite a mess because I was never quite sure what was going on or why certain characters were acting the way they were. What really took me out of the film were the four characters who are all rather unlikeable so I had a hard time caring about which one lived or died. Even worse were some of the performances, which were quite bad and this includes Marshall. He's shouting is so over the top that I quickly grew tired of him and the character. Boland plays an annoying character and probably delivers the best performance as she is very annoying. Colbert is so hit-and-miss that it's hard to take her character too serious. Being one of the last pre-code films to be released, the movie does take on some sexuality with the most famous sequence being Colbert's semi-nude shower. It's funny how the film starts off showing her with too much clothes but then slowly taking them off to the nude scene, which then has her running around in leopard skin for the rest of the film. Another problem is that the film doesn't know if it wants to be an action/adventure type or a comedy because the thing is all over the map. With that said, the film does look incredibly good and realistic and features a rather nail-biting sequence with a cobra, which will probably make several viewers jump out of their seats. In the end this film comes off as a major disappointment considering the director and cast but the most shocking thing is how boring the movie is.
** (out of 4)
Claudette Colbert, Herbert Marshall, Mary Boland and William Gargan play the characters that the title refers to. The four escape a plague ridden boat only to wind up in the jungle where they must try to escape while battling not only each other but other items like wild animals and a lack of water. From what I've read this film was laughed off the screen in 1934 and it certainly doesn't fair much better when viewed today. I watched the edited 78-minute version, which I must say was the longest 78-minute movie I had ever seen. I couldn't wait for this thing to end so I'm really not sure I'd want to venture into the longer cut, which is apparently fifteen-minutes longer. I'm not sure where to start with this thing but it really seems like DeMille wanted some sort of epic but couldn't reach that goal. The film is quite a mess because I was never quite sure what was going on or why certain characters were acting the way they were. What really took me out of the film were the four characters who are all rather unlikeable so I had a hard time caring about which one lived or died. Even worse were some of the performances, which were quite bad and this includes Marshall. He's shouting is so over the top that I quickly grew tired of him and the character. Boland plays an annoying character and probably delivers the best performance as she is very annoying. Colbert is so hit-and-miss that it's hard to take her character too serious. Being one of the last pre-code films to be released, the movie does take on some sexuality with the most famous sequence being Colbert's semi-nude shower. It's funny how the film starts off showing her with too much clothes but then slowly taking them off to the nude scene, which then has her running around in leopard skin for the rest of the film. Another problem is that the film doesn't know if it wants to be an action/adventure type or a comedy because the thing is all over the map. With that said, the film does look incredibly good and realistic and features a rather nail-biting sequence with a cobra, which will probably make several viewers jump out of their seats. In the end this film comes off as a major disappointment considering the director and cast but the most shocking thing is how boring the movie is.