Thursday, August 1, 2013

Cavalcade (1933)

Director: Frank Lloyd                                   Writer: Reginald Berkeley
Music: Louis De Francesco                          Cinematography: Ernest Palmer
Starring: Diana Wynyard, Clive Brook, Una O’Connor and Herbert Mundin

A confusing look at British society on the eve of the twentieth century, Cavalcade chronicles the trials and triumphs of a typical upper-class family at the end of the reign of Queen Victoria. While attempting to be a multi-generational look at one family, the film never really goes anywhere. Clive Brook plays the head of the Marryot family, dutifully going off to fight in the Boer War. Going along with him is his butler, Herbert Mundin. Both of them are leaving their wives and children, Diana Wynyard as Mrs. Marryot and Una O’Connor as the wife of Mundin. Unlike the first Boer War that lasted only a few months, the second was a more protracted affair and the women had legitimate fears that their husbands might not return. Both men of course come home and life goes on, chronicling the important events of the next thirty years, the death of Victoria, the sinking of the Titanic, the First World War and the effect these events have on the two families.

Diana Wynyard is fairly interesting, even mired in a stereotypically weak role as the wife and mother. A British actress who was better known for her stage work, her most effective film performance came in the British version of Gaslight from 1940. Clive Brook began his film career during the silent era and by the end of World War II he had virtually retired. He played Sherlock Holmes in a couple of pre-Rathbone films and Marlene Dietrich’s Shanghai Express, but this role is just as weak as Wynyard’s. By far the most interesting roles in the film are the supporting parts played by well-known character actors. Una O’Connor is most famous for her appearances in James Whale’s horror films that he directed at Universal, while Herbert Mundin is familiar from the Errol Flynn films at Warner Brothers. In fact, the two would play opposite each other as love interests again in The Adventures of Robin Hood from 1938. Billy Bevan also puts in an appearance in the second half.

It’s difficult to understand exactly why this film won the Academy Award for best picture of 1933. There were plenty of other films nominated that year that were far more entertaining. It certainly wasn’t the direction, as Frank Lloyd’s static camera is maddeningly still through most of the picture. And yet he won an Oscar as well for directing the film. It’s a head-scratcher. Even the subject matter seems far more relevant to British audiences than American. There are some musical numbers but they are painfully recreated to be true to the era and absolutely tedious compared to something like 42nd Street from the same year. The film was very popular when it was released and received good reviews, but it can hardly be said to hold up today. Cavalcade is certainly one of the least entertaining Academy Award winners in history and while marginally interesting as an historical piece it has little else to offer modern audiences.

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