Sun 16 Sep 2018
A Movie Review by Jonathan Lewis: THE 7th DAWN (1964).
Posted by Steve under Films: Drama/Romance , Reviews[4] Comments
THE 7th DAWN. United Artists, US/UK, 1964. William Holden, Susannah York, Capucine, Tetsurô Tanba, Michael Goodliffe, Allan Cuthbertson. Director: Lewis Gilbert.
There’s a scene in the latter part of The 7th Dawn in which William Holden, along with two traveling companions, slog their way through the humid Malay jungle in a near futile attempt to reach the city before a prisoner they hope to save is hanged. As they swing their machetes to and fro, hoping to take down trees and brush that obstruct their path, you just sense how trapped these characters feel. Most of all, you feel the slowness of it all, the overpowering sense of how little time seems to be elapsing despite their valiant effort.
Call me overly critical, but that’s essentially how I felt watching this turgid cinematic adaptation of Australian novelist Michael Keon’s The Durian Tree (1960). Although filmed on location in Malaysia, which admittedly does provide the viewer with some captivating scenery, the film never really makes a solid case for itself. William Holden is the star. He portrays Ferris, an American rubber plantation owner caught up in the power machinations of both sides during the Malay Emergency. He is a one-note character, a committed bachelor and political maverick, loyal to no side but compelled, like so many other characters in novels and movies before and since, to live in exotic non-Western locales.
When the British detain his long time mistress Dhana (Capucine) for terrorist activities, he’s forced to make decisions that will impact not just his own life and fortune, but also the future of Malaysia and its people as they seek independence from British rule. He soon is forced to reckon his own desire to stay aloof from politics with the knowledge that Ng (Tetsurô Tanb), a comrade in arms from from the Second World War and the fight against the Japanese occupation, is leading the violent, pro-Soviet insurgency against the British. Added to the mix is an unlikely – and frankly unconvincing – platonic May-December romance between Ferris (Holden) and Candace Trumpey (Susannah York), the daughter of the newly appointed British Resident in Malaysia.
For a movie that appears to have been promoted as both an adventure film and as a romance, The 7th Dawn is a shockingly dull motion picture. While there are a few somewhat exciting moments scattered throughout the film, none of them, save an overwrought scene in which British soldiers torch an insurgent village, are particularly memorable. And that one was cheap, clearly designed to pull the heartstrings of theater audiences and to build a moral equivalency between the British and the Malay communists.
Perhaps that’s part of what made watching this movie such a slog. When all is said and done, you just don’t feel particularly keen on either the British or the Malay insurgents. Why make a movie with a plot that continually raises the stakes and gives the audience no one to truly root for?
September 16th, 2018 at 1:20 pm
You are not too tough on this. Dead on.
September 16th, 2018 at 4:42 pm
I can’t concur, no. “Overly critical” is the only statement I found dead-on in the above review.
It’s a very well-written review of course, but it didn’t jibe at all with my experience of the flick. If no one minds, I’d like to state why.
Not that I am a staunch or exuberant fan of this movie; I don’t have any particular yen for it; nor any axe-to-grind. But I did enjoy it even on a standard, curved, average television approximately 27″ or 33″ at the time. It still finds favor in my memory. I have no qualms labeling this movie fine, late-night, “Late Show” fare.
There’s a lot of reasons I like the picture. For example, it was directed by veteran James Bond director Lewis Gilbert. Need anything else be said? But if yes, then how about Freddie Young, cinematographer? My gosh. I’d watch any film with either of these names in the production credits; both of them together is a bounty.
Thirdly, the film stars Bill Holden –another talent who I’d watch in just about anything. I’d watch him simply sitting in a chair with a cigarette. In this flick, he looks confident and fit and healthy; and he also seems very comfortable in the exotic locale.
This fits in with his love of travel in Africa and Asia. The flick was made during that interval after ‘Kwai’ when his pictures were maybe not-so-spectacular but when his personal life grew in satisfaction. During assignments like this one, He became inspired by ideas like wildlife conservation. Thus –for me–its rewarding to see him in a movie he probably enjoyed making and in a location he probably enjoyed finding himself in.
If my impression of all this is false, there’s still the wonderful photography of Freddie Young (which does much to recall ‘Kwai’, by the way my favorite movie of all time). So, seeing Holden swinging a machete again, in a gorgeous SE Asian jungle: yes, I’ll take it anytime.
In terms of action, there’s a pretty thrilling scene where an angry turbo-prop fighter of some kind, is strafing the cast from above…plenty exciting enough for me. That sequence and the overall ‘race-against-time’ was more than enough to offset any sense that the narration was ‘slogging’.
But what I haven’t mentioned so far at all is the fine performance of the actress Capucine. After all, the movie is really much more about her character than Holden’s.
Now, I wasn’t familiar with this foreign star at the time I saw the movie and I appreciated the introduction to her. Can anyone say she doesn’t do a good job? I thought she fairly glowed. (The above review leaves out any mention of her at all; why?)
For me, it might have been that the character she plays is a strong, intellectual and spiritual female who sacrifices herself for her values. All of this impressed me –in terms of the writing –but its simply her casting which also seemed very apt. She delivered a memorable and moving characterization, as far as I’m concerned; and is the element which has stayed with me the longest. What a peach of a role for any actress to be handed.
Finally, Susannah York? Always a treat. No, I didn’t myself, find anything ‘off-kilter’ about the chemistry of York and Holden together. Holden looked great in this film and in real life (I seem to recall) he was shacking up with someone younger than York was at the time–Stefanie Powers, I believe. I suppose this kind of thing is always up to one’s own tastes. But unless there was something specific I failed to notice, I’ll insist that it did not mar the film for me.
I guess that’s all I have to say about the movie but I hope it provides enough valid counterpoint. Thank you.
September 16th, 2018 at 7:35 pm
The temptation to review resume’s s always there, and for most of us. I like Lewis Gilbert, Holden, Capucine and Susannah York, but The 7th dawn is considered a flat out bomb by all our historic tools. Critical opinion at the time of release, box office receipts, and our own taste, eyes and ears. If anything I love it because it makes hash out of the auteur crowd, as in looking for little consistent references related to other more successful work. AS in damn the torpedoes and throw Jean Luc Godard a Gitanes.
September 16th, 2018 at 8:31 pm
Fine score, brilliant cinematography, fine stars, some literacy and political savvy, but damn “turgid” nails it. The books isn’t an action epic, but has suspense and a Conradian sense of adventure and romance in exotic and well realized locations, but the film, while lush in looks, just plows along as if the humidity got to the script.
Whatever else you might say of Gilbert’s Bond films or his adaptation of Harold Robbins THE ADVENTURERS they weren’t slow or dull, but this one has metaphorical chains on its feet. I’m not sure if it is because Gilbert overburdens the film with the whole Vietnam political tropes of the times, doesn’t understand that romance means more than long looks at each other, and seems to think bursts of gunfire and explosions are enough to make an adventure film.
My impression of this one then and now was that everyone involved, save likely William Holden who knew better, thought this an “important” film, and treated it that way, a good way to kill any movie.