boblipton wrote:It's .... odd. It feels to me as if they were trying to do a von Sternberg film without von Sternberg, and the camerawork is odd. Plus they try for a sense of mutual obsession, like MOROCCO. but even though it should work, it feels as if Boleslavski doesn't take it at all seriously and the attempt to give screen time to others doesn't work. In many ways, it's like those 20th Century movies that Zanuck produced with big stars whose careers were on the downslide, like Arliss and Chevalier, often because of repetitious themes and story incidents.
You are asking about the '36 version, aren't you?
Bob
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The film makers certainly were NOT trying to make a Sternberg film without Sternberg. They could easily have hired him if they'd wished—Dietrich continually pushed for Boleskawski's replacement by Sternberg during filming—but Selznick refused. (He'd been out of sympathy with Sternberg's methods since his tenure at Paramount in 1932, as memos attest.)
For me there isn't a particle of the atmosphere in GARDEN that you get with Sternberg's films. There are many nice shots in GARDEN but they never add up to more than the sum of their parts.
There are, however, incidental peasures—Tilly Losch, for instance, who looks a good deal more fetching in this flick than does Dietrich with her strangely white and shiny complexion. There's a scene where she's dancing in a café and trying to get Charles Boyer to cough up a few centimes. She bends over backwards and WOW what a closeup. The words "money shot" sprang to mind. Hilariously, Selznick contrives to have a near identical upside-down close-up of Miss Losch in DUEL IN THE SUN ten years later.
Okay, class—compare and contrast. Papers due on my desk Monday morning.
This carries over from a recent post on the TCM forums where some guy claimed that TCM was working to help restore this long unseen Rex Ingram feature. Does this film exist in it's entirety or not? All I have is widely conflicting information. 
Any details would be sincerely appreciated. Thanks.
I knew that the film was on that 1997 Turner list of films available in 35 Millimeter for festivals. So Warner's has the print now? Is that correct? This doesn't tell us if TCM is actually working on the project though. Do the rights issues relate to the 1936 film with Charles Boyer and Marlene Dietrich made at Paramount, the novel, or what is the deal? Do you know?
Yes, I was asking about the 1936 movie. Although, If you have seen the 1927 Silent give us your impressions of that too. Thanks.