Rose Hobart

This is one of 50 films from the DVD collection "Treasures from American Film Archives (2000)". It is perhaps the strangest film as I have no idea why the film maker decided to string together all these clips of the actress Rose Hobart and then use a blue filter on them. Was he some sort of obsessed maniac or was this meant as an art film? And whose decision was it to include the bizarre and rather intense musical score? Was the original film maker or the folks at the film archive or the people who compiled the films for the collection? All I know is that the film was awfully weird and not one that the average person would enjoy. Plus, many of the clips are in very rough shape--making viewing a less than pleasurable experience.

This short film, (apparently made by cannibalizing George Melford's East of Borneo, also featuring Linda Randolph) hand tinted the used film stock red, or variations of red, pink, crimson, etc, has hilarious and serious moments throughout, and anticipates the editing and visual effects that Kenneth Anger and Chris Marker use later. While I am tempted to think that this film could be a sexy, campy, kitschy love letter to and about the films of Maya Deren, her work is a decade later, so Cornell must have come up with these "themes" and visuals himself. Quite an achievement. See it if you can and if anything by Anger, Marker, Brackhage and other avante garde film makers appeals to you, you may find this fascinating. Melford, by the way, made quite a name for himself with his 1921 film, The Sheik, starring Valentino, and his spanish language version of Dracula, from the same year as the Lugosi/Browning version, is actually supposed to be better! So Cornell was drawing from a "known" and interesting source.

Rose Hobart (1936)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Actress Rose Hobart isn't that well remembered today even though genre fans might know her from roles in such films as DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (March), TOWER OF London, THE MAD GHOUL and THE SOUL OF A MONSTER. This short here is without a doubt one of the strangest you're likely to see as I'm not certain if it's an obsessed fan just showing his love for the actress or perhaps it's some art film that certain film snobs would see as a masterpiece and ground-breaking piece of work. Hobart's 1931 film EAST OF BORNEO is cut down to 19-minutes and we have a blue tint put over the image. What we basically get is an avant garde film where director Joseph Cornell takes footage from the film and re-imagines it by editing it in a different order and showing the sound film in a silent speed with Brazilian music. Sound weird? Well, it's pretty much is. I can appreciate what the director was going for but at the same time I can't say I was overly entertained by it. I think the director certainly did a good job with the editing, which was certainly the best thing. I'm sure the film would probably get better on repeat viewings to where one could really study the edits and see exactly what the director was going for. In the liner notes it's said people weren't too fond of the movie when it was released and that's probably the same reception it would get today. However, many consider it a masterpiece so you can be the judge!

An odd, dreamlike film cobbled together from bits and pieces of a 30s jungle-set melodrama (EAST OF BORNEO, I think) featuring the title actress. Like collage boxes that Cornell was famous for, it has a strangely haunting, yet elusive quality. Cornell strips away the original film's plot and dialogue, turning it into a fever-dream of hothouse exoticism, making even its obviously fake sets seem beautiful and mysterious.

Footage selected from 'East of Borneo' and other films is arranged and edited so as to highlight actress Rose Hobart.

Joseph Cornell cut and re-edited the Universal film "East of Borneo" (1931) into one of America's most famous surrealist short films. Cornell was fascinated by the star of East of Borneo, an actress named Rose Hobart, and named his short film after her. The piece consists of snippets from East of Borneo combined with shots from a documentary film of an eclipse.

Salvador Dalí was in the audience, but halfway through the film, he knocked over the projector in a rage. "My idea for a film is exactly that, and I was going to propose it to someone who would pay to have it made," he said. "I never wrote it down or told anyone, but it is as if he had stolen it." Other versions of Dalí's accusation tend to the more poetic: "He stole it from my subconscious!" or even "He stole my dreams!" The Dali incident is interesting because when you think surreal, you think Dali or Bunuel, so this seems oddly appropriate. Even stranger is that this is now the way Rose Hobart is remembered. She had a long career, was a SAG official, wrote an autobiography... but if you look her up, you'll instead find this film. An odd tribute from an obsessed fan is her legacy.