Review: The Other Love
Ill concert
pianist Barbara Stanwyck is staying at David Niven’s secluded Swiss Sanatorium
and becomes romantically involved with high-living Richard Conte, despite Niven
developing deep feelings for her. Joan Lorring steals it in a lively role as
another patient. Gilbert Roland plays a sleazy croupier, in an inexplicable
cameo.
Unbelievable, and
terribly disappointing 1947 Andre De Toth (best known for the enjoyable 3-D
horror classic “House of Wax”)
romantic drama with a silly set-up, unconvincing behaviour, and more questions
being asked at the end than are answered.
I’ve never seen a
hospital like this before, nor a doctor who behaves as thoroughly unconvincingly
as Niven. And let’s face it, if you’re given the choice between suave and
ever-so likeable Niven and that Easter Island statue Conte, well, it ain’t
exactly the hardest decision in the world, is it? So we know exactly where it’s
headed, but sadly the actors (and the two leads sure are terrific ones,
usually) have not brought their A-game to make the predictability and
unconvincing elements a moot point. We don’t much care, since the actors don’t
seem to, either.
Most frustrating
of all, is that we never find out what’s wrong with Stanwyck. It was probably
tuberculosis, but I’ve only worked this out from online resources after I
watched the film, and modern viewers like me will probably not get the clues-
mountain air, Swiss sanatorium, that are indeed meant to signify TB. Call me Dr.
Stupid, but I only realised it now! Also, Stanwyck’s the healthiest-looking
dying woman in the history of cinema as I know it!. It was all I could think
about throughout this cheap, inconsequential soap opera that didn’t work for me
in any way at all. And just what the hell was Latin lover Roland doing in here?
Anyway, the score
by Miklos Rozsa (“Double Indemnity”,
“Spellbound”, “El Cid”, “Ben-Hur”) is
the highlight. Otherwise, you can skip this one.
Rating: C
Rather dismissive, this review. It is specifically mentioned that she has a punctured lung. Born in 1961, it's pretty obvious to an oldster like me that it's a TB clinic. Magic Mountain, anyone? The performances are great all round. And what about the superb cinematography by Victor Milner (who also lensed The Lady Eve)? Andre De Toth also made the noir classic Pitfall the following year.Sure, it's only a melodrama when all is said and done, and the ending is ambiguous at best, and what a waste of Gilbert Roland (though there may have been a longer cut) but the professionalism of all involved can't be faulted. Stanwyck fans will not be disappointed.
ReplyDeleteWell, unfortunately, THIS Stanwyck fan didn't much like it, hence my dismissiveness and disappointment. I also stated in the review that I was stupid for not getting the TB, but that doesn't explain the oddball hospital nor why the filmmakers didn't just come right out and call it TB. That seemed really odd to me, it's not like it was AIDS or something.
ReplyDeleteBut it was like it was AIDS or something. There was a terrible stigma to TB and tremendous fear. There was no medications, no guaranteed cure. It took years to get better, if you did. For a long time no one knew how it was spread. The reason the hospital seemed strange to you is because it wasn't a hospital. At a sanatarium the only thing they could do was make you rest all the time and try to get you to eat. And when I say rest I mean serious rest. No walking around at all. Patients were carried or wheeled everywhere. For years. Patients who entered when they were children often were adults by the time they left. Even in the 70's if you wanted to work in food service you had to get a TB test before you got the job.
ReplyDeleteYou make a lot of good points there, though I find it strange someone with TB would be in a sanitarium and not a hospital. Perhaps that was the practice of the day? Had no idea TB was still stigmatised in the 70s, that's interesting. When I think of TB, I'm usually thinking about Doc Holliday, lol.
DeleteI recommend reading "The Plague and I" by Betty McDonald, an autobiographical work about her time as a TB patient in a Seattle sanitorium.
ReplyDeleteRegarding this film, of course there's a whacking great subtext about the perils of the flesh and the path of virtue. This is why the attempted rape is in there. The name of the sanitorium even translates as 'Virgin mountain'.
This is good fun if you don't treat it as anything but a matinee romance--Someone asked what hunky Gilbert Roland was doing in his cameo as a horny croupier--I suspect he was earning some extra money for a few days work; Roland was no fool. Good points made above about the TB Sanitorium--when the film was made, even "cancer" was spoken of in hushed whispers, as so little was known about it, and even less about TB. No one mentioned what fun the film can be, with Stanwyck pounding the ivories with some Rozsa mini-concerto--and truth to tell--if you had to choose between hanging out in a chilly sanitarium with a repressed, somewhat prissy doctor or running off to Egypt to see the pyramids with hottie Richard Conte...well...what would you do?
ReplyDeleteWith regards to Roland, you're probably right about that. Nice earner, no doubt. It just seemed like strange casting to me, at least at the time I last saw it.
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