El gran Flamarion

Von Stroheim is superbly cast as a stage sharpshooter who succumbs to the charms of his scheming assistant. Though some may not appreciate the actor's ramrod-spined, Teutonic demeanor, such bearing is useful in the portrayal of stoicism and all the pitfalls that it engenders. Von Stroheim's dearth of emotionality makes all the more credible his character's inability to discern the falseness of personalities, and there is a unique poignancy in watching him go through the paces of a festering realization of perfidy. The plot, however, is pedestrian and, related in flashback, all the more predictable. Von Stroheim mavens should appreciate the movie, though, as should devotees of Dan Duryea, who plays a hard-drinking, done-wrong hoofer.

"The Great Flamarion" has an interesting setting and a good cast that give life to an otherwise routine story of love, deceit, and revenge. It is a pretty good movie, while quite obviously a low budget effort, and worth taking a look at.

The opening sequence is nicely done, and pulls the viewer in quickly. A stage variety show is interrupted by shots and screams, and soon a murder is discovered backstage. As the police question suspects, the actual murderer is seen crawling away, seriously wounded while committing the crime. The rest of the movie is then a long flashback, as told by the murderer. The rest of the film moves much more slowly, and does not match the first part, but it is pretty good.

The main performers are quite good - Erich von Stroheim as a magician fanatically devoted to his act, Mary Beth Hughes as his manipulative assistant, and Dan Duryea as Hughes's drunken husband. None of them are desirable characters, and so the audience cannot really form any sympathies, which does diminish the film's impact. But they are all convincing, and make the story seem interesting.

Overall, the positives outweigh the negatives, and this is certainly worth a look if you like older movies.

This is a decent little movie with a really nasty woman. She is really quite beautiful, and in the Blue Angel tradition, makes a man twice her age and not all that attractive, fall for her. There's no fool like an old fool and you don't mess with Von Stroheim. I wasn't aware that the great actor/director made some pretty weak films over the years. This one survives pretty well. Von Stroheim plays Flamarion, a trick shot artist, who is in great demand. He gets into the business of an alcoholic and his cheating wife. She uses him, changes him, and then he wants revenge. The story is told by Flamarion as another vaudeville performer holds him in his arms as he dies. It is told in flashback. I have to admit knowing that things had no possibility of working out, yet because of the interesting nature of the characters, particularly the young woman (who is beautiful, even by modern standards). Those of us who have had those yearnings to be young again and have a second chance can easily sympathize as this man makes mistake after mistake; loving too much; trusting too much. I was fairly impressed by the movie.

A mild-mannered, melancholic and essentially decent man(Erich Von Stroheim) working as vaudeville star becomes romantically involved in a destructive affair with a predatory woman( the femme fatal Mary Beth Hughes).He falls fatally in love with his scheming and heartless assistant who's unhappy married to a drunk(Dan Duryea). But she leaves him, engaging with another.

This good production put all the force of the screen into a challenging drama of furious passions. It's a psychological , dark melodrama about pessimism, fatalism, duplicity and human passions.Love, hatred, killing revenge indeed figure strongly in this brightly seedy portraits. Wonderful performances all casting. Erich Von Stroheim makes an absolutely hypnotic acting as upright man subtly destroyed by a bad woman.The smouldering predatory Mary Beth Hughes as manipulating assistant who destroys them all around and Dan Duryea as alcoholic husband winning get another awesome acting. The well-designed atmosphere elaborately recreated in studios by cameraman James Brown is entirely convincing throughout. Stunning directing and compelling developed in agility by the great filmmaker Anthony Mann. He's an excellent expert in noir cinema(Strangers in the night, Raw deal, Tal target, T men, Railroad) and creator of Western masterpieces (Man from Laramie,Bend the river, Far country, Naked spur, Winchester 73). Rating: Better than average, well worth checking out.

The Great Flamarion is directed by Anthony Mann and collectively written by Anne Wigton, Heinz Herald, Richard Weil and Vicki Baum. It stars Erich von Stroheim, Mary Beth Hughes, Dan Duryea, Stephen Barclay, Lester Allen and Esther Howard. Music is by Alexander Laszlo and cinematography by James S. Brown Jr.

Back stage of a vaudeville show and a woman is killed, the perpetrator of the crime escapes up into the rafters. Soon he falls to the ground, and cradled by one of the stage employees, he tells a story of lust, deceit, murder and broken hearts...

Though it falls into a familiar subset of film noir that encompasses the obsessive dupe, reference Criss Cross, The Killers, Scarlet Street et al, Anthony Mann's film has a most interesting structure. Story is essentially told from the mouth of a dying man, his guilt set in stone, we spin to flashbacks and narration as The Great Flamarion (Stroheim) himself clues us in to the dangers of not following your brain, but what's in your underwear.

Flamarion, wonderfully essayed by the acid faced Stroheim, is a sharp-shooter on the vaudeville circuit. Once burned in love years previously, he now lives only for his work and he's friendless, miserable and intolerable to work for. His two assistants are husband and wife team Connie (Hughes) and Al (Duryea) Wallace, he's a drunk and she's out for what she can get, and what she wants at this moment in time spells trouble for Flamarion and Al. So begins a treacherous tale as a once wise and closed off man falls hook, line and sinker for a pair of shapely legs young enough to be propping up his daughter.

Connie Wallace (Hughes excellent) is one of the classic femme fatales, she's not just duping one man, not even two, her capacities for feathering her own nest are enormous. Watching her break down Flamarion's walls is pitch black stuff, as is Flamarion's pitiful descent into becoming a broken man, while Duryea's (another in his long line of great film noir losers) Al roams the edges of the frame as a pitiful drunk stumbling towards doom. The dialogue may not always catch the mood right, but as a story, performed and written, it's clinical noir.

Out of Republic Studios, there's obviously budget restrictions, but Mann was a shrewd director in noir circles and crafts a tight and crafty picture. It's never overtly expressionistic but the all round effect garnered by the lighting techniques pumps the haunting like tale with atmosphere. There's also a gentle pulse of sexual politics in the narrative, and saucy suggestion as well, with the director asking us to peek under the curtain to spy a world of horny sad-sacks and dangerous females.

It's not front line Mann or as good as Scarlet Street (released after The Great Flamarion), but it is a little noir gem. With top performances, pitch black plotting and a message that tells us to never take our eye off the ball, it's very much recommended to the film noir faithful. 8/10