1h 40min | Adventure, Fantasy | October 1944 | Color
Director: William Dieterle
Stars: Ronald Colman, Marlene Dietrich, James Craig, Edward Arnold.
Janett Bate ... assistant dance director (uncredited)
Jack Cole ... dance director (uncredited)
Bootleg, pristine copy.
First DD credit for Jack Cole. If someone were to argue for this being classified as a Musical, I wouldn't oppose the suggestion. In addition to the large chorus of harem girls, followed by MD dancing very provocatively (where are the censors?) in her gold-painted legs, we get 2 songs from Marsinah.
I watched this because it is antecedent to the 1955 musical of which I'm very very fond (also choreographed by JCole). It has 4 antecedents itself: 1914 (short), 1920, 1930, 1931. And then a 1967 TV movie descendant.
I'm not sure of the Fantasy genre; aside from some badly executed special effects during a magic act, there is nothing that stretches beyond reality.
RC is delightful, very well suited for the king of beggars. EA is also apt for the Grand Vizier. MD is also perfect in her role, of course.
The young couple were both disappointing: each without much personality, and with not much to do. In '55, those characters are elevated to a nice plane, still behind the Haj and Lalume, but prominent. And to see that Marsinah's singing was dubbed makes me wonder why she was cast at all. Her mother married Jack Warner, and she appeared as the young wife in Casablanca ('42), but this is an MGM production.
Also in the cast, always welcome: Hugh Herbert, Florence Bates, and Harry Davenport. Bates is almost unrecognizable as the maid in Haj's house. You wouldn't think she had so much makeup and hair defining her in contemporary roles. But a scarf over her head, some moles on her face, and no closeups make her vanish onscreen. And she had mostly the same line over and over: "Bah!" and often turned her back to the camera. I wonder if that's how the role began, or if this was an editing result.
MGM, dir. Dieterle; 7+
