Film Review
In the decades before he helmed some of the all-time classics of
Hollywood (including
The Adventures of Robin Hood
(1938) and
Casablanca (1942)), Michael
Curtiz directed dozens of pretty nondescript films, many of which have,
rightly, been swallowed up by the mists of time.
Alias the Doctor is one of Curtiz's
early talkies which stands out, despite its unpromising subject matter
(a contrived melodrama of the worst kind), and deserves to preserved as
a good example of a great director developing his technique.
In his silent and early sound films, Michel Curtiz was greatly
influenced by German expressionism. The use of slanted camera
angles, enlarged shadows, silhouettes and so forth, so redolent of
1920s German cinema, pervades much of the work of Curtiz and fellow
European émigrés who arrived in Hollywood in the early
1930s. These stylistic touches, which suggest the ghost of
Fascism, would begin to permeate American cinema in the 1930s, reaching
their full expression as
film noir
in the 1940s and '50s.
Alias the Doctor would be easy
to overlook were it not for the imaginative way in which the film is
shot and edited. Aided by art director Anton Grot and
cinematographer Barney McGill, Curtiz takes a rather dull and
implausible melodrama and gives it psychological depth and emotional
realism through its visual presentation. The dialogue and
performances contribute very little. What makes the film so
compelling, and the story so poignant is the way in which camera and
the lighting tell the story.
Expressionism originally developed in German art as a reaction against
realism, to convey feeling and subjective experience rather than
portray a cold objective reality. This film shows how powerful
this same technique can be when applied to the art of cinema.
Indeed, it can be argued that no artistic medium is better suited to
the expressionistic form; cinema is the most dream-like of all the
arts, and expressionism is the language of dreams.
© James Travers 2009
The above content is owned by frenchfilms.org and must not be copied.
Next Michael Curtiz film:
Female (1933)
Film Synopsis
Martha Brenner is filled with pride when her son Stefan and adopted son
Karl leave their country home and go off to Munich to study
medicine. But whilst Karl is a brilliant student who
looks set to qualify with honours, his foster brother is a wastrel who
spends more time drinking than studying. One evening, Stefan
performs surgery on a girlfriend he injured whilst under the influence
of alcohol. When the girl dies from the botched operation, Karl
steps in and takes the blame. He spends three years in jail
whilst his foster brother graduates and begins a medical practice in
his home village. On his return home, Karl learns that his
brother has died through his heavy drinking. When a man is
grievously injured in a car accident, Karl has no choice but to
operate. The operation is a success and Karl is persuaded to
pursue a career as a surgeon, under his dead brother's name. Karl knows
that if his true identity were ever to be revealed, he will be arrested
and sent back to prison...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by frenchfilms.org and must not be copied.