creightonhale

This obscure and not-very-good film can be viewed on the website Rarefilms for anyone who would like to check it off their list of films nominated for Academy Awards that they need to see. The screenplay is below mediocre and the acting, barely acceptable. The nominated song is forgettable by Sammy Fain and Paul Francis Webster]. An Oscar curio for sure and fits into that category of films most are surprised garnered any kind of nomination (i.e., The Stepmother (with another forgettable song by Fain and Webster), Ben, Thank God It's Friday (which won), The Little Ark, and Birds Do It, Bees Do It, among others.)

TCM presented a beautiful print of Ernst Lubitsch's Egyptian epic THE LOVES OF PHAROAH (1922). Released by Paramount in the US, the film was Lubitsch's last feature in his home country of Germany before setting up camp in Hollywood. (That's another story all together.) The "Lubitsch Touch" in his historically-based epics, such as CARMEN, MADAME DUBARRY, SUMURUN, or ANNA BOLEYN, is the director's ability to present us with the overwhelming sight of the plight of the crowd and then gradually direct our attention to a personal drama taking place within the epic sweep of time and destiny. (He does so more genuinely than DeMille, who seemed to have imitated this approach.) Then, of course,there are the sexual situations, the uncontrollable attractions, and the inevitable rejections that determine the fates of the characters, a theme continued into the director's sophisticated comedies and, later, witty musicals that followed this film. LOVES OF PHAROAH has stunning visual moments both large and small: the crowds working, revolting, being manipulated by rulers to the turning of Emil Jannings to a wall and dropping an outstretched hand, showing his reluctant realization of the futility of his affections. The film is deliberately paced but never draggy. Though there are moments of regret (the depiction of the Ethiopians is particularly stereotyped and inconsistent), this foray into Arabian exotica is a dramatic improvement over the stilted presentations seen in SUMURUN from a couple of years before. With THE LOVES OF PHAROAH, Lubitsch reaches the apex of his epic years (though THE PATRIOT may have reached greater heights, though we'll never know until a print is found).

Teddy Roosevelt was, and still is, my favorite president. As a freshman in college, this was the first film I was assigned to review for my college paper. But that was 1978. I haven't seen it since. I do recall being enlightened about Roosevelt and entertained by the film. Whitmore, who had received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor in 1975 for a similar turn as Harry Truman in GIVE 'EM HELL HARRY, if I remember correctly, goes beyond the familiar and well-essayed mannerisms (the toothy smile, the confident stride) and gets to the heart of Teddy. His mourning the loss of his son still remains vivid in my memory. I think, however, it would be difficult to find this film. For that matter, no one will probably ever read this review.