studebaker62
Joined Apr 2006
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studebaker62's rating
English without Tears is a movie of surprising length, considering that its less than 90 minutes long. Perhaps it is so because the war was on in 1944 when it was released - but this is more a farce than comedy.
For such a short movie, there is a lot going on. There is the plot about the butler and one of the girls who professes her love for him. Then there is the plot about the English Instructor with whom the students cheat on their real instructor with. Then there is the farce element of mistaken manners, and confused situations.
There is even an S and M theme going on with how one of the characters treats another, and it serves as their own personal turn on.
Lillie Palmer is radiant and under used in this film. However the casting of frigid and rigid Penelope Dudley-Ward makes the heroine unsympathetic and engaging. Michael Wilding is wooden at ease and uncomfortable when he should be relaxed. It all simply doesn't work.
The most ironic line of all in the movie is "I do not understand jokes because I have no sense of humor" is said by a woman to her uniformed date at a dance, to which the gentleman retorts with "Then I will explain the joke to you".
Movies, like jokes aren't funny when they have to be explained either.
For such a short movie, there is a lot going on. There is the plot about the butler and one of the girls who professes her love for him. Then there is the plot about the English Instructor with whom the students cheat on their real instructor with. Then there is the farce element of mistaken manners, and confused situations.
There is even an S and M theme going on with how one of the characters treats another, and it serves as their own personal turn on.
Lillie Palmer is radiant and under used in this film. However the casting of frigid and rigid Penelope Dudley-Ward makes the heroine unsympathetic and engaging. Michael Wilding is wooden at ease and uncomfortable when he should be relaxed. It all simply doesn't work.
The most ironic line of all in the movie is "I do not understand jokes because I have no sense of humor" is said by a woman to her uniformed date at a dance, to which the gentleman retorts with "Then I will explain the joke to you".
Movies, like jokes aren't funny when they have to be explained either.
Call me a cynic, but I find many of the Hollywood films of the 1960s in which period pieces yielded their authenticity atmosphere to 1960s fashion and make-up almost unbearable because my mind is constant having to tell itself to suspend disbelief.
Movies about young stars, used and tossed aside by raw Hollywood types are a dime a dozen. This one never did stand out from crowd. The story is too melodramatric; was never remade for commercial TV or as a Lifetime movie of the week either.
As for the acting, I've always felt that Natalie Wood was born at the wrong time for talking pictures - she would have been bigger than Mary Pickford had she been born at the turn of the century. Her delivery and facial expressions would have worked much better in the Silents than in talkies like this one. Robert Redford at times seems ashamed to be his character, and in this movie.
As for the direction, Robert Mulligan also directed To Kill a Mockingbird. What happened to his style? The most laughable moment in this film is a fashion sequence of sorts, with Daisy Clover appearing in this little 1960s outfit complete with a cap of sorts. Didn't Mary Ann (Dawn Wells) on Gilligan's Island where a similar outfit when she appeared with Ginger and Mrs. Howell as part of the Honeybees? Note to any Hollywood types who are thinking of remaking this, don't.
Movies about young stars, used and tossed aside by raw Hollywood types are a dime a dozen. This one never did stand out from crowd. The story is too melodramatric; was never remade for commercial TV or as a Lifetime movie of the week either.
As for the acting, I've always felt that Natalie Wood was born at the wrong time for talking pictures - she would have been bigger than Mary Pickford had she been born at the turn of the century. Her delivery and facial expressions would have worked much better in the Silents than in talkies like this one. Robert Redford at times seems ashamed to be his character, and in this movie.
As for the direction, Robert Mulligan also directed To Kill a Mockingbird. What happened to his style? The most laughable moment in this film is a fashion sequence of sorts, with Daisy Clover appearing in this little 1960s outfit complete with a cap of sorts. Didn't Mary Ann (Dawn Wells) on Gilligan's Island where a similar outfit when she appeared with Ginger and Mrs. Howell as part of the Honeybees? Note to any Hollywood types who are thinking of remaking this, don't.