The spectacle maker 19344/30/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() Big Band, Jazz & Swing Short Subject Collection. Warner Archive offer a number of excellent collections, including Our Gang and Joe McDoakes but three that I especially commend are Classical Musical Shorts from the Dream Factory, Vitaphone Cavalcade of Musical Comedy, and Warner Bros. Others will no doubt find it all pretty tedious. But, considering it's all pretty dull, who really cares?! This film is best seen by cinephiles and serious film historians. The acting is at times god-awful and the story comes off almost like a nicely produced high school pageant! the only thing I will add is that the summary on IMDb is not quite correct (the initial person to come to the spectacle maker was NOT the man in black but one dressed in gold). The Technicolor is a bazillion times nicer! As for the story, it's a schmaltzy tale about a spectacle maker who is given assignments to make magical lenses that show only beauty and later one that shows only truth. In fact, this DVD has a Cinecolor short as well-and the difference is staggering. Unlike the earlier Two-Color Technicolor and the competing Cinecolor, this early Technicolor film has a fuller spectrum of colors-making it REALISTIC compared to previous color films (which tended to look very green and orange). This is a film you watch less for the content and acting than for the amazing advancement it demonstrates-true full-color. Turner Entertainment has been packaging their classic Warner Brothers and MGM films this way-making them nice values for the home viewers. This is one of several shorts from 1934 and produced by MGM that accompany the DVD for "Treasure Island". The literary works of these three authors have been treated well by Hollywood, so perhaps it's not too late to hope that more of Harris' prodigious writing output will find its way to the screen someday. ![]() Perhaps by setting this story in 17th Century Germany, Farrow was referencing an inside joke as well as utilizing a beautiful standing set on the MGM lot, one that would be subsequently redressed for "A Tale of Two Cities," "Marie Antoinette," and "The Three Musketeers." A subsequent film based on Harris' work is the 1958 Jack Lemmon Western "Cowboy," predicated on early parts of "My Life and Loves" which were ultimately extracted from the memoir and published separately as "My Reminisces as a Cowboy." It's unfortunate that because of "My Life and Loves" infamous notoriety, many of Harris' other works have been largely ignored, including two books on Shakespeare and biographies on two of Harris' friends, fellow Irishmen Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw although his Wilde biography served as the basis for a 1960 film with Robert Morley about the author's sensational libel trial. For example, Harris emigrated to the United States and mentions having witnessed the Chicago Fire although records prove he could not have been there at the time (October 1871). Why did Farrow choose to adapt what was clearly an adult story in that fashion? First, Harris' greatest legacy rests with his notorious and sexually explicit memoir, "My Life and Loves." When Farrow adapted "The Magic Glasses" in 1934, memories of Harris' salacious autobiography were still fresh in the public mind (he died in 1931), and the director needed a setting that would distance him from the libidinous eroticism of "My Life and Loves." Harris has often been accused of engaging in a literary form of "Munchausen Syndrome." Baron Munchausen is synonymous with tall tales, and there are those who accuse Harris of compulsively fabricating material to such an extent that he ultimately believed them to be true. As translated by John Farrow in 1934, it appears to be an attempt at child's parable or fairy tale on the nature of beauty, truth, good, and evil set in 17th Century Germany replete with gorgeous three-strip Glorious Technicolor and music. Set in Edwardian England, his original story "The Magic Glasses" from his short story collection "Unpath'd Waters" is a metaphorical musing on the nature of aesthetics written for adults. "The Spectacle Maker" is one of only three films I'm aware of that were based on the work of Irish-born writer Frank Harris. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |