Film Review
The Tarnished Angels is
arguably the bleakest and most personal of Douglas Sirk's great
Hollywood melodramas. Based on William Faulkner's
semi-autobiographical novel
Pylon,
it fully embraces the central Sirkian themes of identity, individuality
and failure and has many striking similarities with the director's
earlier
Written on the Wind
(1956). Sirk had wanted to make the film in the 1930s when he was
working at UFA but his proposal was flatly rejected at the time.
Even though producer Albert Zugsmith was keen to make an adaptation of
Faulkner's novel, the bosses at Universal didn't have sufficient faith
in the project to stump up the money for it to be made in colour, so it
was shot in black-and-white CinemaScope. This actually helps the
film, the stark, almost
film noir-style
monochrome photography emphasising the depression era gloom and lending
an aura of hopeless fatalism that is reminiscent of 1930s French poetic
realism. In contrast to Sirk's lurid colour films, which can
appear distractingly stylised and over-burdened with symbolism, this
film has a simplicity and hard-edged realism that bolster its dramatic impact,
making the story much more compelling and poignant.
Whilst the screenplay may have a few niggling imperfections, the principal characters
are well-drawn and convincingly portrayed by Robert Stack, Dorothy
Malone and Rock Hudson, who, interestingly, had all starred in
Written on the Wind.
These three protagonists are the kind that recur in Sirk's films,
flawed individualists who appear incapable of making anything of their
lives. Each is an outsider who is doomed never to find success
and happiness, each depends on something harmful and insubstantial to
make life endurable. Enigmatically, Sirk described the film as a
study in the heroism of failure.
The Tarnished Angels is a
pessimistic yet truthful film, riddled with irony of the cruellest kind
and yet also darkly humorous and poetic (carrying a resonance of T.S.
Eliot's
The Wasteland, the
epic poem that inspired Faulkner in the writing of his
novel). It helps that Sirk shows far greater restraint here
than in many of his other films. The performances are more
introspective, the camerawork far less intrusive. All this helps
to give the film much greater emotional realism, in contrast to the
somewhat contrived sentimentality of Sirk's preceding melodramas.
Although it was ill-received by many critics when it was first
released,
The Tarnished Angels
is now considered one of Sirk's most important films. Sirk
himself considered this to be his finest work.
© James Travers 2009
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Next Douglas Sirk film:
Imitation of Life (1959)
Film Synopsis
During the Great Depression, Roger Shumann earns a modest living as a
barnstorming flier at provincial air shows across America, with his
wife Laverne performing daring parachute stunts. Shumann, an ace
fighter pilot in WWI, is worshipped by his nine-year-old son, Jack, but
has an uneasy relationship with Jiggs, his mechanic and best
friend. When the troupe comes to New Orleans, reporter Burke
Devlin is fascinated by the Shumanns and their hobo way of life,
although he disapproves of the off-hand way in which Shumann treats his
wife and son. In an air race contest, Shumann collides with
another pilot and crash-lands his plane. Despite this close brush
with death, Shumann insists on re-entering the tournament the next day
and asks the wealthy businessman Matt Ord to lend him another
plane. Ord at first refuses but yields when Devlin tells him that
the positive publicity will outweigh the risk. Jiggs insists that
the plane is too dangerous to fly but Shumann will not be
deterred. He tells Laverne that this will be his last
competition. He is right...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.