1h 25min | Drama, Musical | 7 March 1956 | Color, WS
Director: Nicholas Ray
Stars: Jane Russell, Cornel Wilde, Luther Adler.
Sylvia Lewis ... choreographer
Matt Mattox ... choreographer
Nothing in the Soundtracks. I don't remember songs per se, just gypsy music to which they dance. The way JR & CW's dancing is filmed, you can be sure the majority of the dancing is done by doubles. No mention of that in the cast list, which makes me speculate that the choreographers were the dancers, but MM is more slender than CW.
CW is not tricked by his brother, really. His brother did arrange the marriage without consulting him, but that wasn't so surprising. However, JR did some trickery of her own.
The story is boring, and the acting is flat. I'm a fan of JR & CW, but they had no humor to play, no knowing glances to throw. She's trying to make the marriage work within the gypsy culture (both are gypsies here), which is sexist yet not. The woman is supposed to earn money, rather like the lioness hunting. And she has equal rights to terminate the marriage. But the husband then gets to spend the money and abuse his wife. Violence is directed at anyone, using whips and belts. Thievery and cheating are the primary professions. It's an unsavory world.
There's nothing interesting about this. Because the dancing is done by doubles, the filming is horrible: too far away, or close up on feet. I just didn't care at the end whether JR & CW stayed together or not.
Columbia, dir. Ray; 5
