Meurtre à Hollywood

I saw Sunset, recently, during a middle-of-the-night channel surf that ended up on a cable channel running the film at about 4:00am. I had never seen the film before, but had always been interested because of the two leads, and the era in which the film is set (the late 1920s).

I enjoyed the film, quite a bit, actually. I thought the story was very good, and well written, and Garner and Willis made a great team. I especially enjoyed Willis' characterization of Tom Mix. He brought just the right amount of cowboy style to the silen movie hero. And, of course, Garner is always good. But he really excelled as Wyatt Earp.

I thought the premise was very original, and that the whole film was a lot of fun.

With one exception.

Why is the villain of this piece so obviously supposed to remind us of Charley Chaplin ? Alvy Alperin ? Formerly known as The Happy Hobo ? A clear reference to Chaplin, and his little tramp. And yet the character is an abuseive rapist, and murderer who beats his own wife to death.

Why Edwards chose to virtually villify one of the most talented and entertaining comedians of the silent era, who was also a fairly nice bloke in real life, if a bit of a womanizer, I do not know.

The other original characters in the film- that is character who are fictional, rather than historical, like Earp, and Mix, are very well-crafted, believable, and completely original. No single character seems to be a rip on any single individual in Hollywood at the time, except for Malcolm McDowall's Alperin.

As a fan of Chaplin, Normand, Arbuckle, and the great silent clowns I found this to be a strong defect in the overall film. I can definitely believe Tom Mix as a hero. But I simply cannot reconcile even a thinly renamed Chaplin with a bully and a rapist.

I wonder why Edwards didn't go the extra mile to make the Alperin character more original.

Aside from this point, which is a big one, really, the film is a lot of fun for fans of the period, and the leads.