Review of Destiny

A few months ago I saw a little-known, underrated anthology movie called "Flesh And Fantasy" - it was very different from most of Hollywood's output during the time it was made (the mid-1940s), probably because it was helmed by a French director, Julien Duvivier. Later I found out that an entire segment had been cut out of that movie, which made the events at the start of the next segment inexplicable. The 30-minute story that was cut was expanded into the hour-long "Destiny", and if you've seen "Flesh And Fantasy" you'll know pretty much exactly what was changed; the "nightmare sequence" near the end was probably not a nightmare at all in the original film - it was what actually happened. The "new" part of the film - the introduction - plays more a "Whistler" entry - it has the intriguing characters, the twists-of-fate, the same you-never-know-what-will-happen-next pull. The second part does eventually touch on the supernatural like "Flesh And Fantasy" does, but the uplifting ending completely alters the intentions of the original's creators. Basically what you get here are two separate movies pretending they are one, and almost - but not quite - succeeding in convincing you. The performances are all above average. **1/2 out of 4.