The Saxon Charm

Not the greatest film ever made but it holds due to the fine cast and the superb portrayal of a true scoundrel by Robert Montgomery. I was never much of a Montgomery fan but this was surely worth a nomination. Good story with an insight into the world of Broadway and what happens to naive folk who venture there.

Robert Montgomery was able to break out of the mold that Hollywood and MGM pushed him into in the early 1930s - he was usually playing weaklings and society bounders. While this kept him working, he did fight to get atypical parts like Danny in NIGHT MUST FALL, the paranoid industrialist in RAGE IN HEAVEN and Prince Florizel in TROUBLE FOR TWO that demonstrated range and acting ability (not completely successful - his mad industrialist is supposed to be British, and Montgomery just can't bring up an accent to match George Sanders - here his friend and victim). By 1941 he was branching out with films like THE DUKE OF CHICAGO and HERE COMES MR. JORDAN. Unfortunately World War II broke out, and Montgomery signed up. He was out of Hollywood for three years in the Pacific, and then returned. Immediately he shared acting honors with John Wayne in THEY WERE EXPENDABLE, and then he did something interesting again: He began to direct films. THE LADY IN THE LAKE (with his "I am a camera" approach) was the first film he directed, and it became a noir classic. RIDE THE PINK HORSE followed. Then came THE SAXON CHARM.

It was different from the other two films, for it does not deal with criminals or an underside of life that most of us avoid. Instead, THE SAXON CHARM dealt with the legitimate theater. Montgomery's Matt Saxon was a successful Broadway producer who did not stop at anything to get his way. As such, he represented many Broadway performers or writers or choreographers worst nightmares, for Broadway was full of people like Saxon. Years later David Merrick would have such a reputation - brilliant producer/absolute rat. In 1946/47 the person most people would have thought of was Jed Harris. Jed Harris should not be confused with George M. Cohan's partner Sam Harris (a nicer man from most accounts - portrayed by Richard Whorf in YANKEE DOODLE DANDY). Jed Harris was a first rate heel. If you read Katherine Hepburn's memoirs ME:STORIES OF MY LIFE, Harris was the producer of her famous Broadway flop THE LAKE. Today it is recalled because it is used by Hepburn in the movie STAGEDOOR, where we hear it's dialog, beginning with "The kallallillies are in bloom again..." In 1936 it was not a laughing matter to Hepburn, who found that Harris had botched the production out of malice towards her. She had to pay him a huge sum of money to get out of her contract on the play when he took it on the road. Harris also made an enemy of Laurence Olivier, whom got his revenge in a neat way. When making up his features for RICHARD III, Olivier made his evil king look like an exaggerated Jed Harris (and most of Broadway approved).

Matt Saxon is similarly selfish, ready to turn on everyone and anyone who does not do as he says. He wrecks the home life of his playwright (John Payne) to get a play according to his specifications. He demolishes the career of his girlfriend (Audrey Totter) with rumors, although she's able to continue without him. He even turns on Harry Von Zell when that harmless fellow just makes a mild comment of disagreement to him. In the end, he destroys almost everyone - even himself. Only at the last moment does he get a bit of advice that MAY save him.

THE SAXON CHARM is not a great film about the theater, but in showing a particular type that infests it's body politic it is an interesting film on the subject.

Other reviewers here have done a good job describing the plot and praising Montgomery's delightful performance as a scoundrel.

The other lead actors are cast unconventionally. Payne handles a realistic dramatic part very capably and believably. Hayward is very surprisingly convincing as a gentle, soft spoken wife -- showing only briefly, when appropriate, a bit of her usual strong, firey, agressive screen presence. Totter gives a fairly capable performance, though she seems miscast; her sometimes strange facial expressions and mannered body language better suited a character more edgy and dark than the one she's playing here.

I wonder how this cast ended up in this Universal International film. Payne, Hayward, Harry Morgan were all Fox contractees. Totter an MGM player. (Montgomery was freelancing by this time, and made several films released through Universal.)

At the height of his career at MGM Robert Montgomery was famous for those society playboys he was always cast as. But if he's remembered at all today it is for the oddball performances that were nothing like those playboy roles. Yellow Jack as a cavalry sergeant, Here Comes Mr. Jordan as a prizefighter, Night Covers All as a homicidal maniac or They Were Expendable as a PT boat skipper and others, these are what we remember Robert Montgomery for. Fitting right in there is The Saxon Charm made after his years with MGM were over. Montgomery is debonair but there's malice in that charm.

Anyone who knew anything about the theater knew that Montgomery was basing his character on Broadway producer Jed Harris. Harris was a theatrical genius with an ego the size of South America and the antics you see here are mild compared to the real deal. Harris was used also by John Barrymore in 20th Century and Warren William in Varsity Show as a model. But in those he was eccentric, here he's a first class heel who thinks he's the center of the world.

Based on his reputations novelist John Payne seeks out Montgomery to produce his play. But Montgomery has to have his own imprint on the work and he weaves Payne into his web. It breaks up Payne's marriage with Susan Hayward in the process. Of course not helping is the clumsy pass Montgomery makes at Hayward.

Best in the film and possibly a career role for her his nightclub singer Audrey Totter who is Montgomery's main squeeze. She's loyal to a fault until Montgomery does deliberate dirt in fact goes out of his way to do it to her. Montgomery is married to Heather Angel, but they have an arrangement that also doesn't end well.

The real Jed Harris probably could have sued. But I suspect he rather enjoyed his reputation as a heel and enjoyed The Saxon Charm just as you will.

As we watch this eponymous character throw his weight around, we are not exactly inundated with any charm (or steamed cabbage). He (Robert Montgomery) is a bully, a snob, and frankly rather an odious Broadway producer. He is introduced to "Eric" (John Payne) and his wife "Janet" (Susan Hayward) when he is told that there is a script to be had. Now "Eric" is a bit green with all of this, and is soon not only rewriting pretty much everything, but his marriage is struggling and he's even bankrolling his supposed impresario (and his long suffering factotum "Hermy" (Henry Morgan). What now ensues is a nicely presented tale of being hoist by your own petard. When people start to scent blood - they combine, connive and find effective ways of exacting their revenge on their erstwhile mentor. Montgomery is actually quite convincing here, but Payne never really did set the heather on fire and we simply don't see enough of Susan Hayward - whose character is not exactly strong, anyway. It's certainly a watchable and decently paced ninety minutes that shines a bit of a light on the Machiavellian theatrical tactics of producers and their rather selfish ways, it could just have been doing with a stronger antagonist for "Saxon".