Sat 2 Jan 2010
A Movie Review by Walter Albert: FLAME OF CALCUTTA (1953).
Posted by Steve under Action Adventure movies , Reviews[3] Comments
FLAME OF CALCUTTA. Columbia, 1953. Denise Darcel, Patric Knowles, Paul Cavanagh, George Keymas, Joseph Mell, Ted Thorpe, Gregory Gaye, Leonard Penn. Director: Seymour Friedman. Shown at Cinecon 45, Hollywood CA, September 2009.
This technicolor feature, recently restored, was chosen to represent the screen career of Denise Darcel, the first of the weekend’s guest stars, and had not been viewed by any of the committee prior to the evening’s showing.
The “Flame” (Darcel) is the leader of a group of rebels fighting to restore the legitimate monarch to the throne usurped by a villainous Prince (George Keymas). Patric Knowles is a British captain who is sympathetic to the Flame’s cause (and is also her lover) but, because of his country’s neutrality, can’t openly support the rebels’ cause.
Anyone who thinks that sound “legitimized” film as an art medium would probably want to reconsider that position after a viewing of this film. At its conclusion, someone sitting behind me muttered “What a stinker!”, an opinion that many in the audience probably shared.
I couldn’t find any record of appearances by Darcel in French films. She appears to have been performing in Paris shortly after the end of the second world war as a cabaret singer when she was brought to Hollywood, where her first film was Battleground.
Over the next decade she appeared in a relatively small number of films, ranging from Tarzan and the Slave Girl to such major studio productions as Westward the Women, Dangerous When Wet, and Vera Cruz.
Her last film was Seven Women from Hell (1961), and the remainder of her career consisted of numerous TV appearances (most often on variety and comedy shows appearing as herself), and a stage production of Sondheim’s Follies.
It’s unfortunate that her Hollywood career was represented by this clinker. I was later able, thanks to Netflix, to watch Vera Cruz and Dangerous When Wet, either one of which would have been a more suitable choice to honor her. She was, however, enormously pleased to be invited, and was a gracious, if often incomprehensible interviewee.
January 2nd, 2010 at 7:51 pm
These films were a popular sub genre, which often mostly seemed to exist to showcase a few dancing girls in skimpy costumes and the judicious use of stock footage, but they lingered into the early sixties before finally dying out. Haven’t seen this one, but you know not to expect too much when solid second lead Patric Knowles is the leading man — especially at this stage of his career.
The ones I want to see are the legendary SIREN OF ATLANTIS with Maria Montez, Jean-Pierre Aumont, and Dennis O’Keefe (based on Pierre Benoit’s ATLANTIDA) and SALOME WHERE SHE DANCED with Yvonne de Carlo (her character based loosely on the real life Lola Montez), Rod Cameron, and Walter Slezak. Both films are noted bombs, but sound like great fun for all that. Of SALOME, critic James Agee once said it was either the worst movie or the best movie ever made, depending on whether or not the laughs were intentional.
January 4th, 2010 at 12:23 pm
I saw “Salome Where She Danced” on its original release and recall that I enjoyed it, but it certainly didn’t make it into the pantheon of films I remember with particular pleasure. I think I was more impressed by the color than anything else in the film. Who knows what I would have thought of “Flame” if I had seen it on its original release.
January 5th, 2010 at 12:55 am
Agee was being satirical no doubt as the plot of SALOME is part western and part Zendaesque intrigue involving Montez infamous romance with Ludwig of Bavaria, and replete with Abner Bieberman as a Chinese. Still, both it and SIRENS OF ATLANTIS are notable stinkers worth seeing.