Film Review
By all accounts Serge Rubenstein was a nasty piece of work, a
ruthlessly corrupt financier who exploited and abused anyone who put
their trust in him, somehow amassing a fortune by exercising his
limitless guile and charm before someone took the law into their own
hands and murdered him.
Death
of a Scoundrel offers a fictionalised account of Rubenstein's
life that tries a little too hard to humanise the demonic criminal, its
writers apparently unwilling to concede for one moment that Rubenstein
was merely an evil man who was motivated purely by greed. A
companion piece to Edgar G. Ulmer's
Ruthless
(1948), which tells a virtually identical story, the film falls flat as
a credible biography but it serves admirably as a wry commentary on the
hollowness of the American dream.
Our interest in the plodding, overly repetitive narrative is sustained
almost entirely by the compelling central performance from George
Sanders, the actor best suited to play the villainous anti-hero.
Sanders had, over the past decade, made a career for himself by playing
cads of all persuasion, from cheating lovers to Nazi fanatics, always
managing to bring depth and colour to his character portrayals.
Sanders' performance in
Death of a
Scoundrel may not be his finest but it is one his most
entertaining as his part allows him to be both an outright bounder
and also a man inwardly conflicted by a guilty past he can never
escape. Compare the humorous scene in which Sanders' character
(Sabourin) feigns contrition in a desperate attempt to save his skin
with the one near the end of the film when he tries, in vain, to mend
his bridges with his estranged mother, a moment of heart-breaking
poignancy. This is only one of two films in which Sanders
appeared with his older brother Tom Conway - the other being
The Falcon's Brother (1942).
With George Sanders dominating virtually scene in the film, you can't
help wondering why the producers bothered throwing in such charismatic
actresses as Zsa Zsa Gabor and Yvonne De Carlo. Gabor may be as
radiant as ever but she is almost surplus to requirements, with De
Carlo taking whatever slivers of limelight Sanders neglects to steal
for himself. Competently directed by Charles Martin and
attractively photographed,
Death of
a Scoundrel is a highly satisfying entertainment that just
manages to avoid being sluggish, although its two hour run time seems
like an over-indulgence for such a slight and predictable story.
Still, it's an enjoyable mix of satire and melodrama - definitely a film that no George Sanders fan should miss.
© James Travers 2013
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Film Synopsis
Clementi Sabourin, a prominent businessman, is found dead at his home.
Bridget Kelly, probably the only person who understood him, relates
everything she knows about her dead employer to the police. The
story begins in Nazi occupied France, when Sabourin, a Czech refugee, betrayed his
brother to the police after discovering he had married the love of his
life, Zina. Sabourin leaves for America, where he hopes to make
his fortune through ruthless cunning. With a stolen cheque, he
invests 20,000 dollars in stock whose share price he knows is about to
skyrocket. Sure enough, Sabourin quickly pockets a huge sum of
money, and he uses this to set up his own company, fleecing investors
to make himself even richer. Along the way, he uses his charms to
seduce and manipulate women, ready to discard them when they cease to
be of value to him. Within no time, Sabourin finds he has an army
of enemies who are eager to see his downfall, but which of them fired
the bullet that killed him...?
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.