"DEVIL AND THE DEEP" (1932) ReviewI am not one of those movie lovers who seemed to limit my selection of films to one particular genre or period in filmaking. Nor do I regard films from one particular era to be superior to another. I either enjoy an individual film or I do not. Recently, I watched the 1932 melodrama called "DEVIL AND THE DEEP". The movie featured the screen debut of Charles Laughton as a submarine commander who expresses jealousy toward any man who pays attention to his long suffering wife. It also starred Tallulah Bankhead as the long suffering wife and the commander’s new executive officer, who harbors feelings for the wife. The movie begins with Commander Charles Sturm harboring jealous suspicions of a romance between his wife Diana and Lieutenant Jaeckel, a young officer aboard his submarine. Sturm's suspicions are baseless, since Jaeckel's only interest in Diana is to offer her friendship. But Sturm has him transferred with a mark on his record. After Sturm indulges in a fit of jealous rage, Diana hits the streets of a North African port city during a festival and encounters another officer, who turns out to be Lieutenant Sempter, Jaeckel's replacement. Without bothering to tell Sempter her true identity, Diana drifts into a one night stand with him. The following day, Sempter pays a call to his new commander and discovers that the latter's wife is the same woman with whom he had a sexual tryst. Worse, Sturm immediately becomes aware that the pair knows each other . . . and plot revenge against them.I have only been able to find a mere handful of reviews for the movie, including one written by The New York Times reviewer Mordaunt Hall. I was surprised by the reviews I had written. Or perhaps I should have just tolerated it. After all, everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion about any work of art. The thing is . . . I do not agree with those reviews I have read. Well . . . I did come across one review that came close to how I felt. In my opinion, "DEVIL AND THE DEEP" is a piece of shit. I believe it is truly awful and one of the worst movies I have seen from the Pre-Code era. Before I dump any further negative adjectives in this review, I will reveal what I liked about "DEVIL AND THE DEEP". I liked Charles Lang's cinematography, which contributed a great deal to the movie's slightly exotic atmosphere. This was especially apparent in the street scene in which Diana and Sempter first met. Bernard Herzbrun's art direction also added to the film's look. I also found Travis Benton's costume designs for Tallulah Bankhead very attractive . . . especially her evening gowns. The movie benefited from one last virtue - namely Cary Grant's performance. The Bristol-born actor first arrived in Hollywood in 1931. He made his first eight films in the year 1932. "DEVIL AND THE DEEP" proved to be his fifth film. Fortunately, he managed to give a natural, yet subtle performance as the young naval officer determined to befriend Diana Sturm, before his character is permanently shuffled off screen. But Cary Grant, Travis Benton, Charles Land and Bernard Herzbrun were not able to save this film for me. "DEVIL AND THE DEEP" was based upon Maurice Larrouy's novel, "Sirenes et Tritons". In the hands of a first-rate screenwriter and director, it could have been an interesting character drama. Unfortunately, Paramount Studios put this film into the hands of screenwriter Benn Levy and director Marion Gering, the movie proved to be melodramatic drivel. One of the problems with "DEVIL AND THE DEEP" was the writing. The movie never indicated for which country Commander Sturm and Lieutenants Sempter and Jaeckel served. One could assumed they all served the Royal Navy, but due to the mixture of accents - including a French one belonging to a crewman standing guard on the quay - I am at a loss. And is it really possible for the commanding officer's wife to board his ship without his knowledge or permission? I find that hard to believe . . . even for 1932. And how on earth did Sturm find out about the Arab street vendor who sold a bottle of perfume to Diana, while she was with Sempter? I am also at a loss as to why Diana had failed to tell anyone - including her husband and the naval review court - that she had conducted her brief affair with Sempter without revealing her identity to him? The worst aspect of this story proved to be the final action sequence in which Commander Sturm finally seeks revenge against Diana and Sempter. It was bad enough that Diana managed to board her husband's submarine without permission or an invitation. But Sturm's revenge involved sabotaging the submarine in order to kill Diana, Sempter, the crew and himself. The whole sequence was one of the most idiotic action scenes I have viewed on a movie or television screen. If such a scene had ended in modern-day film, the director would have been laughed out of the movie industry. It was so incredibly stupid. The other aspect of "DEVIL AND THE DEEP" that I found hard to swallow were the performances of the leading cast members. Cary Grant was lucky. He was able to escape in time to preserve his performance. On the other hand, Tallulah Bankhead, Gary Cooper and Charles Laughton were not so lucky. Cooper's portrayal of Lieutenant Sempter veered between natural and wooden acting. Bankhead's performance veered between natural and hammy acting that included excessive mannerisms that would have made Bette Davis embarrassed. And Laughton was simply all over the map. I have never been subjected to such hammy acting in my life. There were moments it seemed as if he had forgotten that he was acting in front of a camera, instead of on the stage. Now, these are three actors who managed to give excellent performances over the years. What happened in this film? I blame director Marion Gering, who seemed incapable of handling his cast or bringing out the best in them. I suspect that Cary Grant was able to make his escape before Gering could ruin his performance.What else can I say about "DEVIL AND THE DEEP"? Nothing . . . really. What else is there to say? I disliked it. Intensely. It proved to be one of the worst movies from the 1930s I have ever seen. Director Marion Gering and screenwriter Benn W. Levy took a first-rate cast and a potentially good story and generally made a mess from it. Pity.
Below are my top ten favorite movies directed by the winning director, William Wellman:
TEN FAVORITE WILLIAM WELLMAN MOVIES
1. "Beau Geste" (1939) - Gary Cooper, Ray Milland and Robert Preston starred in this exciting adaptation of P.C. Wren's 1924 novel about three British brothers who join the French Foreign Legion to stave off a potential family scandal.
2. "Westward the Women" (1951) - Robert Taylor starred in this unusual Western about a wagonmaster hired to guide a wagon train of marriageable women to a region in 1850s California. Denise Durcel, Henry Nakumara and John McIntire co-starred.
3. "A Star Is Born" (1937) - Janet Gaynor and Fredric March starred in this award winning drama about a rising Hollywood actress and her marriage to a fading movie star. Wellman won the Best Writing (Original Story) Oscar for this movie.
4. "Safe in Hell" (1931) - Dorothy Mackaill starred in this fascinating tale about a New Orleans prostitute who struggles to survive and avoid the law, while dealing with an array of men out to exploit her.
5. "Wild Boys of the Road" (1933) - This highly acclaimed adaptation of Daniel Ahern's novel, "Desperate Youth", told the story about a group of teenagers forced to become hobos during the Great Depression. Frankie Darro, Edwin Phillips and Dorothy Coonan (Wellman's fourth and final wife) starred.
6. "Nothing Sacred" (1937) - Carole Lombard and Fredric March starred in this biting comedy about a young woman erroneously diagnosed with radiation poisoning and a newspaper reporter pretending that she really is dying for the sake of money and a series of articles.
7. "Night Nurse" (1931) - Barbara Stanwyck starred in this neat crime thriller about a young nurse who enlists the help of a petty criminal to foil a sinister plot to murder two children from a wealthy family. Ben Lyon, Joan Blondell and Clark Gable co-starred.
8. "Heroes For Sale" (1933) - Richard Barthelmess starred in this poignant tale about a World War I veteran who suffers a series of personal mishaps from the post-war period to the Great Depression. Loretta Young and Aline MacMahon co-starred.
9. "The Public Enemy" (1931) - James Cagney became a star portraying a young Chicago hoodlum who becomes a successful bootlegger via a bloody mob war. Edward Woods, Jean Harlow and Joan Blondell co-starred.
10. "The High and the Mighty" (1954) - John Wayne starred in this tense disaster movie, an adaptation of Ernest K. Gann's 1953 novel, about a commercial airplane that develops engine trouble during a trans-Pacific flight. Robert Stack, Claire Trevor and Larraine Day co-starred.
"MOROCCO" (1930) ReviewAs a long time movie buff, I have read a great deal about Hollywood's Pre-Code Era, a brief period in which the film industry barely made an effort to enforce its Production Code, which forbade any open portrayal of controversial topics like sexual innuendos, prostitution, and excessive violence. Among the movies discussed during this period were the seven films that served as a collaboration between director Josef von Sternberg and actress Marlene Dietrich. The second film that the pair made together (and their first in Hollywood) was "MOROCCO", the 1930 adaptation of "Amy Jolly", Benno Vigny's 1927 novel. The movie, which also starred Gary Cooper and Adolphe Menjou is basically a melodramatic love story between Amy Brown, a cabaret singer, and an American-born Legionnaire named Tom Brown, who fall in love during the Rif War (also known as the Second Second Moroccan War), which was fought during the first half of the 1920s. Their potential romance is threatened by his womanizing and a wealthy Frenchman named Kennington La Bessière, who develops an interest in Amy. Also complicating Amy and Tom's potential love life is the latter's past affair with his commanding officer's wife, which has attracted the jealous attention of the officer, one Adjutant Caesar."MOROCCO" is not the first Dietrich-von Sternberg collaboration I have seen. And I am not going to pretend that it was their best film together. Because it was not. Once you strip away the iconic Dietrich moments during one of her cabaret act, the steamy chemistry between Dietrich and Cooper, and the exotic Moroccan setting; it is basically a somewhat lurid melodrama. I did not find the dialogue written by screenwriter Jules Furthman particularly scintillating. It was a miracle that both Cooper and Menjou were barely able to rise above some of the stiff dialogue. Poor Dietrich did not fare as well, due to "MOROCCO" being her first English-speaking movie. It was easy to see that the actress had to phonetically delivered her dialogue. The songs she had performed in the movie were not only unmemorable, but not very good . . . if I must be frank. And the action surrounding a particular battle scene in which the jealous Adjutant Caesar tries to kill Tom Brown came off as a bit uninspiring. But "MOROCCO" had its virtues. One, I was very impressed with Lee Garmes' cinematography for the movie. Between his soft-focus photography, Hans Dreier's art design and Elizabeth McGreary's production work; Yuma, Arizona made an excellent stand-in for Morocco. Two, the movie may have been a borderline turgid melodrama, but I must admit that I found the relationship between Amy Jolly and Tom Brown rather interesting. It seemed pretty obvious that both had been romantically damaged in the past and resorted to different means to deal with their pain. Amy resorted to projecting a cool and disdainful facade to any man who might express interest in her. And Tom resorted to womanizing - an act that nearly got him in trouble with Adjutant Caesar. And yet, no matter how they tried, the pair seemed unable to overcome their deep interest in each other. This was apparent when Cooper uttered what became for me, the movie's best line:"I've told women about everything a man can say. I'm going to tell you something I've never told a woman before: I wish I'd met you ten years ago."Dietrich's silent reaction to his words pretty much confirmed that Amy shared Tom's feelings. However, there were other aspects of "MOROCCO" that I found very interesting. Many have commented on that moment in the film in which Dietrich's Amy Jolly kissed a woman during her cabaret act. With the actress in a tuxedo and top hat and a playful expression on her face, I must admit that I found the moment very memorable myself. What I found equally memorable was the moment in which she tossed a flower at Cooper, who immediately tucked it behind his ear before regarding her with deep attraction. Cooper must have been very comfortable with his masculinity in order to shoot that particular scene. Although I was not that impressed by the battle scene featuring the Legionnaires and the Moroccans, I must admit that I found Caesar's final moment on screen hard to forget. But if there is one scene that will always stick with me is that last scene with Amy joining a group of camp followers, marching across the desert in the wake of Tom and the other Legionnaires in his regiment. That scene of a bare-footed Amy with the other camp followers, with the desert sand blowing and the wind emitting from the soundtrack, is something I do not think I will ever forget. I thought it was a very classic ending to a somewhat classic film."MOROCCO" featured some solid performances from the supporting cast. I was especially impressed by Ullrich Haupt as Adjutant Caesar, Eve Southern as Madame Caesar, Francis McDonald as Sergeant Tatoche and Juliette Compton as Anna Dolores. As for the leads . . . Adolphe Menjou gave a charming and charismatic performance as the wealthy Kennington La Bessière. However, there were times when I found it hard to believe that his La Bessière was so infatuated with Amy. He simply did not seem that passionate toward her . . . at least to me. I think Gary Cooper fared somewhat better as the womanizing Legionnaire Tom Brown. Despite his portrayal of Tom's attitude toward Amy and other women, I feel that Cooper was a little more successful in conveying his character's true feeling for Amy. As I had stated earlier, I believe that Marlene Dietrich's lack of experience with the English language and phonetically delivery of her dialogue led her to come off as a bit stiff in some of her scenes. I am amazed that she managed to earn an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. Although she more than managed to rise to the occasion in scenes that either did not require dialogue from her or when her character performed on the stage.But you know what? Despite its flaws - and it had plenty, I rather enjoyed "MOROCCO" very much. It never tried to pretend to be more than it was - merely a romantic melodrama in an exotic setting. Despite the movie's turgid nature, I thought Josef von Sternberg did an excellent job in maintaining my interest in the story with a well-balanced pacing. The movie also featured some interesting and complex characters that were performed not only by a solid supporting cast, but also three charismatic leads who would continue to forge successful careers - namely Gary Cooper, Marlene Dietrich and Adolphe Menjou.
