BEFORE: OK, I covered lying in "The Invention of Lying", and stealing in "Stealing Harvard", so this film covers cheating. Not the adulterous kind (I covered that in February), more of cheating to profit or get ahead. And though more than 50 years separate this film from last night's, linking is easy - Jason Lee was in "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" with both Carrie Fisher AND Mark Hamill, who of course were in the "Star Wars" films with Alec Guinness.
THE PLOT: A distant poor relative of the Duke of D'Ascoyne plots to inherit the title by murdering the eight other heirs who stand ahead of him in the line of succession.
AFTER: This classic film from 1949 actually fit in with this week's films rather well. As in "Stealing Harvard", the lead character has questionable morals, and is motivated by money. As in "King Ralph", the film is concerned with the succession, and demise of, British royalty. And as in "Changeling", there's a series of brutal crimes - that were committed before modern forensic techniques...
The kicker here is that Alec Guinness plays all eight of the members of the D'Ascoyne family who stand between the main character and the dukedom that he believes he is entitled to. These characters range in age from 24 to 80 (or so) and one is even a woman! This really shows off his acting range, and use of different voices.
This becomes what the British call "black comedy" - while it's not laugh-out-loud funny, the situation is both ridiculous and tragic at the same time. You could compare it to more modern material like "Final Destination", or even "South Park" in its depiction of multiple deaths. But it's unfunny in a completely different way from last night's film, which was just plain stupid.
According to the IMDB, there was talk of remaking this film, with Will Smith as the lead, and Robin Williams taking the roles of the multiple family members. Though production plans never developed, it's interesting to imagine it.
Still, it's hard for me to get completely behind rooting for a main character who's so without morals, and eager to murder his family members. I'm not alone in this, as the film's ending had to be tweaked, since the U.S. Production Code didn't permit movies to depict people successfully profiting from their crimes.
I'll get back to Alec Guinness in a couple weeks - his birthday is coming up in April - but first my chain's going to take me through a week and a half of a genre that Mr. "Obi-Wan Kenobi" allegedly detested - sci-fi.
RATING: 5 out of 10 coffins
No comments:
Post a Comment