Movie historical past is affected by films unappreciated of their time however reevaluated and rediscovered later — films like “It’s a Fantastic Life,” “Sorcerer,” and John Carpenter’s “The Factor,” all of which bombed on their preliminary launch however at the moment are virtually unanimously thought-about circumstances the place audiences and critics acquired it fallacious. However the reverse can be true — there are tons of of movies celebrated of their second however finally forgotten regardless of garnering awards consideration, and extensive audiences.
Two such films, “The Citadel” (1938) and “The Enchanted Cottage” (1945), are newly accessible on Blu-ray from Warner Archive and worthy of rediscovery — these are circumstances the place everybody had it proper the primary time round, just a few dated components in every however. That each movies have come to be seen as a bit creaky most likely has as a lot to do with the inferior house video transfers they’ve been subjected to previously as with every inherent faults — an issue Warner Archive‘s flawless new editions laudably appropriate.
Like many films that scoop up accolades of their second solely to have later generations of critics activate them, “The Citadel” is a social downside image. On this case, the issue is ethics within the medical career, as younger physician Andrew Manson (Robert Donat) strikes from idealism to disillusionment and again once more when confronted with ignorant sufferers who’re skeptical of his conclusions, financial hardship, and crooked colleagues.
Actor Donat deftly conveys Manson’s drastically shifting perspective, the movie meticulously calibrated by grasp director King Vidor — each Oscar-nominated for his or her efforts. The film was additionally nominated for Greatest Image (it misplaced to “You Can’t Take it With You,” whose director Frank Capra additionally took house a bald swordsman) and Greatest Screenplay for its clear and concise adaptation of A.J. Cronin’s novel by Ian Dalrymple, Frank Wead, and Elizabeth Hill (who would quickly grow to be Vidor’s third spouse).
All these honors have been justly bestowed upon “The Citadel,” mounted with a restrained sense of classicism that makes the film’s underlying rage all of the stronger. The movie’s indictment of the medical institution of the time is quite scathing, and a bit forward of its time within the risk-averse Hollywood of the Thirties — it feels just like the sort of factor Stanley Kramer would have completed 20 or 25 years later.
That Vidor not solely acquired away along with his controversial place however was lauded for it is perhaps as a result of the story was set in the UK quite than the US; the movie was a British co-production on which the one Individuals have been Vidor and actress Rosalind Russell, terrific right here because the physician’s love curiosity. (Her honest and understated efficiency comes as fairly a shock for modern viewers who know her primarily because the heroine of Howard Hawks’ snappy “His Lady Friday.”)
“The Citadel” was a kind of uncommon films like Oliver Stone’s “JFK” that really motivated concrete political motion; the shameful situations the movie and its supply novel depicted led to the creation of Britain’s Nationwide Well being Service in 1947. By way of “The Citadel” being thought-about a murals by later generations, nonetheless, this constructive social change was most likely extra of a hindrance than a assist — ever for the reason that French critics of Cahiers du Cinéma (appropriately) exalted the work of beforehand unheralded style filmmakers like Hawks, Sam Fuller, and Budd Boetticher, there’s been a pressure of criticism that appears at Vidor’s sort of earnest seriousness with a skeptical eye.
But “The Citadel” stays surprisingly entertaining and energetic, and comparatively timeless in its issues — the uninformed boobs who Manson finds himself bumping up towards, sadly, don’t really feel like they arrive from one other period. (The identical can’t be mentioned for a hysterical girl Manson treats, who the film, in certainly one of its few badly dated moments, suggests merely wants a person and youngsters to shake some sense into her.)
If “The Citadel” feels comparatively trendy in its attitudes and pleasures, the identical can’t actually be mentioned for “The Enchanted Cottage,” which is extra unintentionally hilarious in its weaknesses but reaches extra transcendent heights when it really works. An allegory in regards to the transformative energy of affection, “The Enchanted Cottage” is trite and simplistic when stripped all the way down to its core story components, but its emotional energy is appreciable because of director John Cromwell‘s supreme execution — this film is the final word demonstration of Roger Ebert’s perception {that a} film isn’t about what it’s about, however about how it’s about what it’s about.
The premise of “The Enchanted Cottage,” based mostly on a 1923 play by Arthur Wing Pinero that had already been tailored as a silent movie in 1924, is that two emotionally broken folks — a disfigured battle veteran (Robert Younger) and the homely caretaker of a seaside cottage (Dorothy McGuire) — come collectively in that cottage and discover themselves bodily altered by some sort of magical pressure. As they fall in love, the cottage makes the veteran good-looking and the caretaker stunning — or in order that they assume.
“The Enchanted Cottage” calls for a reasonably hefty suspension of disbelief from the viewer, significantly for the reason that notion that McGuire is bodily repellent is totally laughable — she doesn’t put on make-up or have her hair completed within the glamorous model of the Hollywood studio period, however that’s in regards to the extent of her “homeliness.” The film greater than meets the viewers midway, offering an abundance of genuinely shifting moments between the 2 lovers, generated virtually totally by Younger and McGuire’s delicate performances and Cromwell’s elegant model.
John Cromwell isn’t effectively remembered in the present day — he’s most likely higher identified amongst film buffs for being “Babe” farmer James Cromwell’s dad than for any of the 47 films he directed — however in his time, he was generally known as a sturdy craftsman who directed stars like Bette Davis (“Of Human Bondage”), Humphrey Bogart (“Lifeless Reckoning”), and Jennifer Jones (“Since You Went Away”) in handsomely mounted status photos, usually based mostly on established literary properties. That description actually doesn’t do Cromwell justice, although. At his greatest, he’s capable of tease outstanding emotional results out of even the stodgiest materials.
“The Enchanted Cottage” is a working example. Though the screenwriting pedigree is powerful — the script is attributed to “Cat Folks” scribe DeWitt Bodeen and Herman Mankiewicz of “Citizen Kane” fame — the film is considerably restricted by its antiquated attitudes and comical overreactions to McGuire’s plainness. (The “Cat Folks” connection is apt, provided that random males react to McGuire’s completely fine-looking face with horror suited to one thing you’d see in a Val Lewton suspense image.) But Cromwell turns even these shortcomings to his benefit in the case of the filmmaking, counting on intelligent cinematic means to promote the premise.
McGuire, for instance, eschews apparent prosthetics or props in favor of a subtler method for instance the distinction between how others see her and the way she is seen by the person who loves her. Cromwell had costume designer Eddie Stevenson create doubles of her wardrobe, in order that she would have garments that regarded nice for the scenes from Younger’s perspective and ill-fitting costumes for the others.
Cinematographer Ted Tetzlaff does his half too, lighting McGuire from under and with harsh shadows for a lot of the movie whereas giving her a delicate, luminous high quality in moments when Younger is falling for her, and there are lots of different areas the place “The Enchanted Cottage” creates poetic results by the sheer Hollywood craftsmanship on show. Whereas McGuire went with out prosthetics, for instance, Younger’s war-scarred face is expertly executed — practical and restrained, with element that holds as much as scrutiny even within the new Blu-ray’s razor-sharp imagery.
This all permits Cromwell to create a classy sense of alternating factors of view with out resorting to explicitly subjective perspective pictures; the camerawork is invisible within the classical Hollywood model, nevertheless it’s expressive and highly effective. The particular results work is excellent as effectively, with a mix of matte work and site work that vividly evokes a rural New England with out ever getting quite a lot of miles exterior of Santa Monica.
The seriousness with which everybody on the movie, from Cromwell and the actors on all the way down to the costume, digicam, and optical results departments, treats the fabric has a magical impact not not like that of the cottage on its inhabitants — it transforms one thing clunky into one thing stunning by sheer pressure of will and artistry. And it’s actually by no means regarded extra stunning at house than it does on the brand new Warner Archive Blu-ray, which maintains the label’s persistently excessive requirements for picture and sound high quality.
Not like “The Citadel,” “The Enchanted Cottage” didn’t get any love from the Academy, and the critiques have been combined, nevertheless it was an enormous hit with audiences, making a powerful sufficient impression that Carol Burnett might parody it a long time later with a TV skit known as “The Enchanted Hovel.” Seeing “The Enchanted Cottage” restored to its authentic luster, it’s straightforward to see why the film labored — 81 years later, it nonetheless does.
