Review: The Magic Bow

Stewart Granger (and his not terribly flattering wig) stars as Italian violinist Nicolo Paganini who falls for wealthy woman Phyllis Calvert and earns the ire of foppish soldier Dennis Price. Jean Kent plays aspiring singer Antonia Bianchi, whilst Cecil Parker plays Paganini’s manager and friend, and Felix Aylmer appears briefly as a composer who offers Paganini a Stradivarius if he can play a supposedly near-impossible piece on the spot.

 

A very serious, imperious-looking Stewart Granger is actually rather good as Italian violinist Paganini in this solid 1946 biopic from director Bernard Knowles (more known to me as a cinematographer on several early Hitchcock films like “The 39 Steps” and “Sabotage”). Critics didn’t take favourably to this one, but I rather like it. I don’t believe a moment of it to be remotely true of course, but if taken as more of a Stewart Granger film than an accurate biopic, it does the job just nicely. Yes it’s a bit silly that Stewart’s Paganini gets challenged to a duel at one point and the scene is rather dopey (this is pre-swashbuckling Granger, and he’s playing a bloody violinist!). However, I think this one’s a bit underrated on the whole.

 

Stewart is solid in the lead, Phyllis Calvert is lovely, Jean Kent has a good role, and Cecil Parker gives one of his best-ever performances. I would’ve liked larger roles for Felix Aylmer and a foppish Dennis Price, but otherwise I have few complaints if any.

 

An entertaining romantic costume drama with a really solid cast and an enjoyable, if not likely very fact-based story. It’s no “Song of Love”, but this one’s underrated, and a must for Stewart Granger fans. The screenplay is by Roland Pertwee (“The Ghoul” with Boris Karloff and Ernest Thesiger) and Norman Ginsbury (who mostly wrote for TV and the stage), from a novel by Manuel Komroff.

 

Rating: B-

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Hellraiser (2022)

Recovering junkie Odessa A’zion accompanies scuzzy boyfriend Drew Starkey on a break-in where all they find is a weird puzzle box. A’zion later opens the box and after some weird shit happens, A’zion and Starkey figure it might be a good idea to learn more about this messed up trinket. Goran Visnjic plays a millionaire who possessed the box before our protagonist nicked it.   Is there any point in remaking/rebooting “Hellraiser” when the 1987 adaptation of Clive Barker’s original text was written and directed by Barker himself? And is considered a horror classic? On evidence here, absolutely not. Directed by David Bruckner ( “The Signal” ) and scripted by Ben Collins ( “The Night House” ) and Luke Piotrowski (ditto) this is an entirely tedious affair. I took a long time to get on board with the 1987 “Hellraiser” , I have to admit. It was wildly imaginative and original, like a nightmare transplanted on to film. However, the characters were stone cold and left me similarly chil...
Read more

Review: Cinderella (1950)

The story of poor young Cinderella (voiced by Ilene Woods), treated as a servant by her nasty stepmother (voiced by Eleanor Audley), and dismissed by her thoroughly rotten, ugly stepsisters. Her only friends are a group of mice, who are forever being menaced by a cat named Lucifer (or as I call him, Grumpy Cheshire Cat). The King (hoping to find a wife for his charming son) is throwing a ball and every available young woman is invited to attend, and Cinderella is most excited to go. However, her stepmother and stepsisters do all they can to prevent this from happening. But with help from the mice and one fairy godmother (voiced by Verna Felton) later, and Cinderella looks set to attend the ball. You know the rest, folks.   Lovely 1950 Disney animated movie from directors Clyde Geronimi ( “Peter Pan” , “Lady and the Tramp” ), Wilfred Jackson ( “Fantasia” , “Alice in Wonderland” , “Peter Pan” ) & Hamilton Luske ( “Pinocchio” , “Fantasia” , “Peter Pan” ), that is a bit t...
Read more

Review: Jinnah

The story of Mohammed Ali Jinnah (Sir Christopher Lee) the politically moderate founder of Pakistan. A Muslim lawyer, Jinnah fought to form a separate nation from India for the Muslim minority, whilst Mahatma Gandhi (Sam Dastor) wished for India to stay united and proposed Jinnah as the new PM as a compromise. James Fox plays British viceroy Lord Mountbatten, Indira Varma plays Jinnah’s wife, and veteran bit player Vernon Dobtcheff plays a British dignitary.   Although Christopher Lee’s title performance received some critical notice and the actor himself was very proud of the work, this modestly budgeted 1998 biopic from director Jamil Dehlavi ( “Immaculate Conception” with Melissa Leo) and co-writer Farrukh Dhondy ( “Red Mercury” with Stockard Channing and Ron Silver) was largely ignored at the time and still very little-known today. Part of that is probably due to the poor marketing of the film, and difficulty in finding a distributor. It’s hard to get people to talk abo...
Read more