Anatole Litvak

[moira finnie]

Great idea, King! Here's what I wrote about four years ago in another thread on the SSO about just two favorites from this talented and interesting director. Since writing this both films have become available on DVD:


First up is City for Conquest (1940) which features James Cagney and an impossibly young Arthur Kennedy as city lads whose struggles for fame, fortune and artistic expression are earned largely through Mr. Cagney's fisticuffs in the ring. Never mind that it costs Jimmy the Martyr his youth, his health, and his girl, (a never more fetching Ann Sheridan). It's tough when ya bruddah wants to be George Gershwin, but maybe it was all worth it, ya know? This pip is on tonight, Nov. 12th at 9:45PM ET. It will also be repeated on Jan. 3rd, 2008 at 9:15AM ET.

According to Mr. Cagney's bios, the film was originally much more hard-hitting about the social issues of the inner city, but the Robert Rossen script from an Aben Kandel novel was eviscerated by the Brothers Warner for, ahem, commercial reasons, (they wimped out). James Wong Howe's beautifully lit cinematography enhances this movie every step of the way as wellThe soaring Max Steiner music is a lively pastiche of Debussy meets Gershwin, and good actors breathe considerable life into the fast-moving proceedings.
Donald Crisp as a sterling fight manager who could've taught ethics at Harvard Law School is a treat, as is Anthony Quinn as a scum-bucket dancer who leads poor Annie astray with dreams of fame, a delightful Lee Patrick is swell as a heart of gold chorine and not to be missed is Elia Kazan as a likable hoodlum with honor in one of his few screen roles. If you're not misting up at the last scene, better check your pulse.


Blues in the Night (1941) is sometimes considered a precursor to film noir, and features a large cast with some particularly vividly drawn characters, a fatalistic mood, and moments of unexpected tenderness. Director Litvak again uses Elia Kazan as one of a ragtag band of musicians. Litvak blends the elements of a road movie such as Wellman's Wild Boys of the Road (1933), with the plot of a musical focusing on an attempt by jazz musicians to scrape by in a harsh, venal world while remaining true to their muse. Some great patches of music, mostly courtesy of Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer, are very effective, and this part of the story is especially fine when Priscilla Lane, as the wife of n'er do well musician with flair, Jack Carson, sings "This Time the Dream's on Me". The rest of the cast is highlighted by a dynamite performance from a short-fused, would-be user Lloyd Nolan, a wonderful part for Wallace Ford as a sad loser, and a rather demented turn by a very intense Betty Field as a destructive female. Billy Halop, Howard Da Silva and Richard Whorf round out the large cast. The cinematography by Ernest Haller is exceptional, and the montages courtesy of Don Siegel are worth seeing, especially during a hallucinatory sequence experienced by Richard Whorf that surely influenced several later, more polished noirs. It may not be a near masterpiece, but the energy and commitment of the actors to the material does dazzle.

[JackFavell]

Blues in the Night totally impressed me. I thought the cast was fantastic, and Litvak's delving into darker territory really paid off. A much better movie than I was expecting, with Wallace Ford and Whorf really standing out for me.

I have seen a lot of Litvak this year, I find I like more of his films than those of directors who get more hype. He is great at creating a sustained mood of melancholy or even doom, using light and shadow to good effect (and on a budget), and making you feel a sense of time and place. I'd say his greatest strength is his ability to make mood transitions, which add to the depth of his films, especially the comedies, immensely. There is almost always a moment in his films where my stomach sinks, realizing that our hero or heroine is trapped, sometimes from something within them. My favorites are:

Mayerling

Blues in the Night

Out of the Fog

Tovarich

The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse

All This and Heaven, Too (minus the prologue and happy ending)

Anastasia

Goodbye Again (this one lands on my list surprisingly, because for some reason I always watch it. The ending is quite good, long before The Graduate left us with a squirmy uncomfortable ending)

Movies on my list to see are:

The Journey (Miss G's review made me want to see it)

The Sisters (got it recorded thanks to Moira)

The Long Night (this is the first classic film my husband got into, and I'd like to revisit it)

Castle on the Hudson (I saw it years ago and would love to see it again)

Flight into Darkness (a french film made right before Mayerling that sounds intriguing)

[MissGoddess]

I'm so glad you started this thread, kingrat. Coincidentally, I watched The Journey again last night...that makes four times in little over a week. I'm sick.

I still have not seen The Amazing Dr Clitterhouse, Blues in the Night and a few others. I'll eventually get to them because of the director, since until now I really wasn't drawn to them. All the glowing praise for Blues in the Night intrigues me.

As for my favorite, The Journey, I tend to lump it with Goodbye, Again and Anastasia (to a lesser degree) for the Euro-centricity and the themes of impossible love. Touching on what Wendy said about Litvak's ability to create a mood and sense of place, I will say from my own limited impressions, I think Goodbye, Again captures the mood of living in Paris better than most English language movies about the city. It portrays the somewhat sad aspect that can lie under all the gaiety and beauty, the carewornness of a fading beauty, always trying to renew herself. Ingrid Bergman was never better or more vulnerable as one of several characters played by actresses of "a certain age" during the late fifties into the sixties. Brave roles that required taking head-on the fears of a woman as she ages. Yves Montand, my favorite French actor after Boyer, is perfect as Ingrid's long-time amant who runs from commitment and his own fears about getting old (by running after youth via a series of flings with what he disparagingly calls "Maisies"). The third point in the triangle is young Anthony Perkins, whose youthful infatuation with Ingrid is as impossible as her own longing for permanence with Montand. Litvak shows his greatest depth in capturing these impossible longings and people trapped by forces beyond their control, whether inner or outer circumstances. The Journey, All This and Heaven, Too, The Long Night and Anastasia all exploit this kind of human turmoil and this makes them all accessible to a wide audicence, for even though they are European in setting, we all can relate to wanting something impossible...or trying to get out of something inescapable.

Wendy, I hope you like The Journey. It's my favorite Brynner performance.

[MissGoddess]

I wanted to add that in another coincidence, yesterday I looked up what I could on Litvak's biography, which is sketchy to say the least. I was hoping for a book out there on him, but my quick search turned up nothing. Perhaps others can fill me in for I would like to read more about him.

The Journey seems to me a most personal film for Litvak, now that I know he was born in the Ukraine, migrated to Germany, then when the Third Reich ascended, moved again France and England and eventually the States. So he knew about displacement, to put it mildly, and about the force of events on individual human lives, of which The Journey is suffused. The film's male lead, Yul Brynner, is associated with Litvak by his starring roles in two of his films and he was also often on the set Goodbye, Again, hovering over his lover at the time, Ingrid Bergman, and I sense that the two men probably were quite sympatico. Litvak, something of a man without a country and Brynner a "citizen of the world" if not by force of circumstance, then by choice and temperment.

Jason Robards, Jr's character "Paul Kedes aka Fleming" is a Hungarian masquerading as an Austrian-born English citizen in order to escape the Soviet occupation after being tortured by them for his activities. Fleming reminds me of Henry Fonda's "Joe Adams" from The Long Night, as a man of conviction broken down by the crushing weight of outside forces. In Joe we see the man go from strength to near-madness, whereas when we meet Fleming he is already a broken man, suffering physical pain that seems to mirror the unimaginable torment going on his mind as he's forced to leave his world behind and to passively watch others continue fighting and dying. It's in characters like these that I feel the personal touch of the director.

The director pictured below, was born in Kiev, Ukraine, and is subtly referenced in the person of David Kossof, who plays a gentle, rather defeated Jewish professor among the little group in The Journey. His passport reveals to the Major (Brynner) he was born in Kiev.

[JackFavell]

That was lovely, and so well put, Goddess, I think you and I are both drawn to European directors and themes. Although he was born in Ukraine, Litvak over and over again shows a very European style and soudade (thank you Feaito), not to mention setting many of his films in Europe, among nobility or even royalty. I think you are right about Brynner standing in for Litvak, just as Boyer might have in the earlier pictures. Both have soul.

I totally agree about Goodbye Again, I think this is what brings me back and back to it. Ingrid's performances at this time used to frighten me, and so I stayed away from them, but now, I find her brave beyond belief... the Rossellini films and others in the fifties have become my favorites.

[charliechaplinfan]

I'm glad you've started a thread on Anatole Litvak, I've recently realised how much I enjoy his films, having seen two or three and then finding myself looking for more movies by him. I plan to watch Anastasia soon, a film I've never seen. I'm going to have to look out for Goodbye Again, it's not a film I know. The films of his I've seen and enjoyed, with my personal favorite at the top, one of my favorite French movies

Mayerling
All This and Heaven too
Tovarich
The Sisters
The Long Night
Sorry Wrong Number
The Snake Pit
Out of the Fog

I don't think anyone has mentioned Sorry Wrong Number, a film I've only seen once, brimming with suspense with a great perfromance from Barbara Stanwyck and Burt Lancaster.

[JackFavell]

I haven't seen that one or The Snake Pit in years, so I didn't mention them. Maybe it's time to revisit.

[charliechaplinfan]

I saw Goodbye Again last night, watched primarily because of Ingrid, who I'm beginning to love more and more and Anatole Litvak who's films are an ecletic mix of subjects and always good. I'm not sure what makes him tick, it's impossible to tell from his films. Goodbye Again for me just shows how comfortably he makes films in other countries, his Mayerling being one of my favorites and then twenty years later he comes back to Paris, using some wonderful location shots and his nightclub scenes and use of jazz make his film feel very contemprorary. Ingrid had the mixture of beauty and serenity but imparted such an air of vulnerability. Yves Montand as Roger, who obviously did not know what side his bread was buttered on, picking up his Maisie's and being dissatisfied and guilty about his liaisons but not too guilty as he let Paula/Ingrid know about them (Yves Montand who was first known to me because of Let's Make Love, who didn't come across as all, it took me to discover some of his French movies to discover this performer with the veritable twinkle in his eye) Anthony Perkins, here I struggle, I can see a fine actor and I've seen him in other films but is he always slightly persecuted or insecure? He's great in this part, I can't imagine any one else who could have played the part so well. It has a female's point of view, which bemuses me somewhat coming from Litvak who, when being discussed in biographies etc doesn't come across as having a feminine intution. Just one more question, do you think Paula is any happier at the end?

[Vecchiolarry]

Hi Alison,

If you see "Goodbye Again" watch out for Jessie Royce Landis as Anthony Perkins mother. She's always a delight and can steal a scene with no effort whatsoever!!!

Also, "Anastasia" has a scene where Ann Spaulding, George Hamilton's mother, walks past the camera in a huge pink flamingo cape. You just see the side and back of her very quickly.
Ann, who was a great friend of my grandmother, became an extra in the concert scene and purposefully bought that expensive cape, thinking she would be filmed coming out of a doorway and slowly walking past the camera - face and front filmed and then her walking away from the camera.
And, she was; and was very pleased with herself and the whole scene.
But, when the film premiered, she was only seen walking away and was livid with Litvak, personally calling him a 'big turd' - only she didn't use the word "turd" but - well you know!!!

Anyway, don't miss her big moment!!

Larry

[JackFavell]

That story is a riot, Larry! I am definitely going to keep my eyes open for the scene with Ann Spaulding. I agree about Jessie Royce Landis - she is a treat in every movie I have ever seen her in. She's one of my favorite actresses. I love her voice and bearing.

As for Goodbye Again, Alison, I think Paula is happier for the time being, her hope is built up by his behavior and promises. But the story is left open ended - much like The Graduate years later. We are left with an uncomfortable feeling - that nothing has really changed on his part, or not for long anyway, he's like the cat that ate the canary - he's already sliding into complacency and old ways at the end - he's gotten away with it. Only Paula is changed, she has won a small victory, made her choice, but I think she is really only deluding herself. I think you can see a slight doubt in her face at the very end, but I haven't seen it for some time, so I might be mistaken.

[charliechaplinfan]

I thought that too, maybe she is happier married to him, at least he'll be coming home to her most nights which is more than he seemed to grant her before. Perhaps he has learned a lesson, or at least part of one, he may still be having his cake and eating it but hopefully not quite so frequently or as blantantly, when he weighed the balance it was Paula he wanted not all the Maisy's.

Your stories are so funny Lary. Joyce Royce Landis, how could I not have mentioned her performance, she's such a scene stealer. I have Anastasia earmarked for watching, I'll look out for that scene.

[JackFavell]

It occurs to me that I haven't seen Anastasia for a very long time - I'd like to watch it in the next few weeks. One of the main pleasures of the movie (outside of watching the gorgeous Yul Brynner and Ingrid Bergman get to know and change one another), are the performances of Martita Hunt and Akim Tamiroff.

[knitwit45]

I saw Anastasia many MANY moons ago when it was in theaters and didn't really understand all the nuances of the relationship between Yul Brynner and Ingrid Bergman. I came late to the Martita Hunt fan club, didn't realize she was in this. (I SAID many moons...) I loved her in The Unsinkable Molly Brown. Thanks, Jacks, I will be looking for it now.

[JackFavell]

She's just wonderfully gossipy and silly in Anastasia, she MADE this role totally come alive - her Baroness is sex-driven, romantic, idiotic and wise all at the same time.