Reviews

This classic John Ford masterpiece has been spoiled by bureaucratic incompentece.

Somebody in 20th Century-Fox has decided to remove the original Movietone soundtrack and replace it with an inappropriate score. it seems that for certain people, the original intentions of director John Ford were no good enough for today. Hence, the film was stripped of its sound... which means that we do not have the film as it was originally intended to be seen.

Even though in most parts of the world, as well here in the United States, most people saw the film in a silent version, the original soundtrack is a crucial element of the film and without it, the experience is incomplete.

A great film, but avoid the DVD until an authentic restored version with the original soundtrack becomes available.

If, as promised, this movie was restored then the results are simply horrible.

A company called National Film Museum gave this film to another company called Hypercube IIc, in New York to digitally restore the film.

But, instead of a intelligent restoration what this people did was to tint every scene to red, probably with Photoshop, with disastrous results.

Douglas M. Protsik music is as unremarkable as the bad restoration. His accompaniment does not enhance the images at all.

In all, the available print shown on TCM is unwatchable and I had to turn off the TV set.

When this film was originally released I had the chance to see it on the big screen. It did have a rather limited release; it didn't have support from a private television station and exhibitors didn't have much confidence in it. No stars are in this film, only people who usually play supporting roles in soap operas or in the theater.

But the results were first rate and eventually television made people aware of its worth. All of the actors are excellent and engaging. The black and white cinematography is terrific. The best Argentinean films were not photographed in color and this production is worthy of that tradition.

Francisco Canaro's famous waltz, "Corazón de oro", is used as the film theme with great success. Although written in 1928 (reworking his unsuccessful 1925 tango "París"), his music emerges naturally as it was intended to be used in this film. Director Pablo Trapero did a find job, reediting Canaro's 1951 recording.

The story of a nice guy whose youthful dreams were shattered and has to struggle with Argentina's crisis as well is still a very good movie.

This big failure is one of the worst and arrogant movies ever produced. People should realize that in Argentina the film was repudiated by both the audience and the public.

Tango produced much, much better movies.

Carlos Saura, Lalo Schiffrin and Vittorio Storaro made good films... but this is their worst. A superficial look at an Argentinean phenomenon. The whole story... there is no story: it is a superficial view of the Buenos Aires music produced by executives with a complete ignorance of the issue.

Frankly, this film should be shelved and never exhibited again.

This is a unique film in the history of Hollywood and the Argentinean film. The fact that it is also a lost film is also a painful frustration. For the first and only time, a Hollywood studio production was actually financed, supervised and produced by an Argentinean producer, Julián Ajuria.

In the USA, FBO Pictures (which was becoming RKO Radio Pictures), virtually dismissed it as a programmer, reediting it and it was exhibited without success at the beginning of the sound film revolution. But this film was specifically intended for Argentinean audiences and in South America this film became the most financially successful of all of the silent films ever released.

While it was on production, the film was dismissed as a Hollywoodized view of the Argentinean history. The perception changed once the press, historians and politicians were able to see the film before its release.

Director Albert Kelly was an unknown, and probably a traffic officer under the watchful eye of Julián Ajuria. A lot of money was put in the picture in terms of authentic historical reconstruction of the Argentina of 1810 and the camera-work by George Benoit (who directed "Juan sin ropa" in Buenos Aires nine years ago) and Nicholas Musuraca was unquestionably excellent.

It's premiere was quite an event and those who were able to see this film never forgot it and always wanted to see it again. The last time that this film was officially exhibited was in 1939, then it vanished.

That was a sad thing for a film that several institutions, not related to films, tried to preserve. Today, only stills and descriptions of certain scenes that were published by the contemporary papers have survived.

Francis X. Bushman, as Manuel Belgrano, probably gave a performance of a lifetime. The fact that this is a silent film was a major advantage since when later Argentinean producers attempted epic historical reconstructions failed for the most part. The absence of sound unquestionably helped when the actors have to deliver important speeches. Bushman managed to embody Manuel Belgrano to perfection even in the surviving stills.

By the time of its release in 1928 Francis X. Bushman was no longer an important star. Had this film survived he might be honored in Argentina.

The fact that "Una nueva y gloriosa nación" (a title lifted from the original version of the Argentinean National Anthem) is a big frustration. But its importance in the development and encouragement of the Argentinean film industry will never be denied.

This film should be available again.

This film has always been erroneously regarded as Argentina's first talking picture and the film that introduced the film industry model. But that it is simply not exactly true. By 1939 its production company, Argentina Sono Film, credit this film as the beginning of their success and the artistic triumph of three of its artists: Libertad Lamarque, Luis Sandrini and Pepe Arias. Domingo Di Núbila, in his mediocre "Historia del Cine Argentino", contributed to the false stories about this artistic and commercial failure.

Producer Atilio Mentasti and director L. J. Moglia Barth, however, did have an industrial vision for the Argentinean film. But what they didn't have at the time, in 1933, was experience. They had to learn the hard way how to make a success of their company. After this failure, their following film, "Dancing" was even a bigger failure. Their third film however, "Riachuelo" from was actually the landmark film for Argentina Sono Film and the one that saved this company from disaster.

In 1933 "¡Tango!" was an attempt to gather most of the popular singers and orchestras of the day in one single movie. But the production was spoiled by uncountable and obvious defects that frustrated the audiences. Worse, the artists suffered due to terrible camera work and equally horrendous sound recording technologies. In fact, the whole film looks extremely primitive, as it was produced ten years before, and actually did nothing for the artist involved in it.

It is a sad experience to watch great singers like Mercedes Simone, Azucena Maizani, Libertad Lamarque and Alberto Gómez perform some of their most famous songs that marred by a bad recording technology and an unglamorous cinematography that made them look uglier and older than in later, and much better, films.

MGM used to be known as "retake valley" between the 20s' and the 30s' because the studio used to res-hot and/or reedit their films until they were good enough in order to turn out a profit.

"Exit Smiling" is a rare case. The film probably flopped in 1926 simply because they probably did not change it at all. The major flaw of this production is its finale which is quite frustrating and out of tone, especially after Beatrice Lillie probed to be a delightful personality and you cared about her.

Its impressive that Irving Thalberg did not perceive what was wrong with this picture and was unable to made the necessary corrections to make it a success.

As it is, the film is quite a charming despite its ending. Linda Martínez score, for its TCM presentation, is very good.

For some reason, Cedric Gibbons art direction succeeds in the scenes that take place in Paris but notably fail when he has to deal with Argentina. The opening and closing scenes are so impressive that it is really a shame that MGM was so careless about how this film should look.

Written Vicente Blasco Ibáñez knew Argentina quite well and if most of the exteriors that take place there look like interiors. The villain as portrayed by Roy D'Arcy is ridiculous: he is ready to go to a carnival parade and does not remotely look menacing as probably Blasco Ibáñez described him on his book.

Even with those flaws, it is interesting to compare the story with the tangos that were composed in Argentina at the time.

Garbo's character is tragic figure and the men who would either die or kill for her are quite as pathetic as many people described in tangos.

With all of its flaws, this film is worth watching and perfectly reflect many clichés that were frequent in the Argentina of that time. The music score specially composed for TCM by Michael Picton was very good, although the results would have been much better adopting contemporary Argentinean folkloric music.

The alternate ending featured in DVD (obviously produced for Argentina unlike what Mark A. Vieira states on the audio commentary, since this films was probably one of the firsts that MGM distributed there) is more satisfying than the melodramatic finale of the original version.

I just watched this film on TCM, on its television premiere, and it was quite a chance to see this rarity. The Rex Beach story, as directed by James Cruze for Howard Hughes, is probably much more interesting that the actual film.

There are a some gaps in the continuity as the ending approaches. The Evelyn Brent character completely vanishes from the film and the murder of the husband is not solved. The way the Klu Klux Klan is presented with a complete display of incompetence: Thomas Meighan's character is brutally and unjustly tortured and in the end they left him go as if nothing has happened...

In the way the Klan is presented here it seems that in that town everybody lives under a tyrannical and authoritarian regime with no complaints!!! Robert Israel's score is good, even when he reuses music cues from other silent films he had previously scored and the restoration efforts were quite good. However, it would be nice that the effort would be place in much better films than this one.

While this Carlos Gardel short is lost, the complete soundtrack survives and thanks to it, and stills, we know how was the film.

Originally released along with Paramount's "Love Me Tonight", it is difficult to know why it didn't survive as the Rouben Mamoulian film did.

However, thanks to the elements we have we can still enjoy this Gardel rarity (the other been his lost scenes from "The Big Broadcast of 1936").

While it also features Imperio Argentina, this was a Gardel movie. A rather funny story of a famous singer in love with a lady that turns out to be a prostitute.

Been forced to listen it and not watch it, forces the imagination with marvelous results.

I am quite fortunate to have a copy of that soundtrack. (EMI has reissued the two songs performed by Gardel in the film: "Quiéreme" and "Recuerdo Malevo").

The teaming of Jackie Coogan and Max Davidson elevates this movie from a routine plot. Even though it is not an important production, it is quite enjoyable, well directed by Eddie Cline, and features a nice location cinematography in New York.

Linda Martínez score is excellent.

This is probably one of the worst films of all time. Bad in all departments, it is an insult to the audience that certain people praise this mistake.

There is nothing good to rescue from this piece of trash. In comparison, any film directed by Enrique Carreras is much better.

Even though, the only good thing featured in this disaster is the Mariano Mores theme "Tanguera", which was better recorded in 1955 by the Francini-Pontier orchestra for RCA Victor.

Carlos Gardel's own favorite film, "El día que me quieras", is one of the very best movies ever produced by a Hollywood studio. He did not live to see its success, but he was right. His genius as a composer, actor and singer emerges in this film that has never been out of circulation.

The video versions does not make any justice to this masterpiece since companies refuse to put money to get good prints (which do exist) for a good telecine.

Even in such poor conditions, the art of Carlos Gardel survives in this film and the soundtrack he recorded for both RCA Victor and EMI Odeon.

IDIOTS DELUXE (1945) is the last good Three Stooges short directed by Jules White before falling down into mediocrity. Considering the poor quality of all of White Stooges shorts after this one the credit for this one belongs to writer Elwood Ullman whose script is excellent. With no "poke in the eyes" jokes the two-reeler is effectively structured in flashback and features a lot of inspired gags and jokes. For once, Jules White does not milk the screenplay with protracted and unfunny gags. The version I have seen so far, in Argentina, is in Spanish; however, not even the poor dubbing can undermine the film qualities.