Fri 8 Oct 2010
A Movie Review by Walter Albert: THE SORROWS OF SATAN (1926).
Posted by Steve under Films: Drama/Romance , Reviews , Silent films[2] Comments
THE SORROWS OF SATAN. A Famous Players-Lasky Corporation production, distributed by Paramount, 1926. Adolphe Menjou, Ricardo Cortez, Lya De Putti, Carol Dempster, Ivan Lebedeff, Marcia Harris.
Screenplay by Forrest Halsey, based on the novel by Marie Corelli (1895). Directors of photography, Harry Fischbeck & Arthur De Titta; art director, Charles Kirk. Director: D. W. Griffith. Shown at Cinevent 42, Columbus OH, May 2010.
In this modern morality play, urbane Prince Lucio de Rimanez (Menjou) promises Geoffrey Tempest (Cortez), a struggling writer, great riches if he will surrender his soul. Tempest abandons his pregnant fiancee Mavis Claire (Dempster) and falls under the spell of the debauched Princess Olga Godovsky (Lya De Putti), whom he subsequently marries.
The Prince is, course, the Devil, and Tempest is the Faust who sells his soul not for youth or knowledge, but for worldly success. Menjou is impressive, both charming and sinister, and Dempster is touching as the abandoned Marguerite.
Lya de Putti, a Beardsley-like siren in a performance that seems molded on one of DeMille’s seductive vamps, captures the coldness of the often deceived searcher of forbidden pleasures and the almost desperate yearning for a pleasure that will prove more than fleeting.
The weak link in the casting is Cortez, who seems too much the self-absorbed matinee idol to convincingly portray the adoration for the guileless Dempster and the lustful pursuit and conquest of the worldly De Putti.
The film is greatly enhanced by the artful cinematography that is particularly effective in portraying the opulence of the world to which the Prince introduces Tempest. It may not have the power of Griffith’s use of the traditional materials of Victorian melodrama that he demonstrates in Way Down East, but it renews the time-worn themes of the Faustian tale with sensitivity and pictorial beauty.
October 9th, 2010 at 3:00 am
Corelli is forgotten now, but her books were hugely popular. Oxford Press reprinted this one back in the nineties as part of a series of important popular literature, but is still hard to find
This was one of Menjou’s great roles, and to some extent set the pattern of his screen persona. As for Cortez, never was a merely competent actor in more good movies. He’s still around as late as John Ford’s THE LAST HURRAH.
He never quite rid himself of that Valentino thing, but he was an interesting and ruthless Sam Spade in the first THE MALTESE FALCON, which would have a better reputation if not for the classic Huston version.
I’m assuming since you don’t mention it that this is a nice print, clean and sharp. It’s certainly a famous film for it’s look and style.
Sounds as if this would make a great double feature with the film of Maugham’s THE MAGICIAN for a classier that usual Halloween film fest.
October 11th, 2010 at 6:41 am
SORROWS has its moments, but some of the effects don’t come off, the pace falters, and the whole thing is sunk by Cortez, who simply isn’t up to this.