{"id":7715,"date":"2014-02-24T00:11:46","date_gmt":"2014-02-24T05:11:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=7715"},"modified":"2014-03-05T18:33:42","modified_gmt":"2014-03-05T23:33:42","slug":"br-beloved-infidel-1959","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=7715","title":{"rendered":"BR: Beloved Infidel (1959)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Return to: <\/strong>Home <\/a>\/\u00a0Blu-ray, DVD, Film Reviews<\/a> \/ <\/em>B<\/a><\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>Film: Very Good \/ BR Transfer: Excellent \/ BR Extras: Good<\/p>\n

Label: Twilight Time \/ Region: All \/\u00a0Released: December 11, 2012<\/p>\n

Genre: Drama \/ Biography<\/p>\n

Synopsis: Melodramatic chronicle of Sheilah Graham’s relationship with great American author F. Scott Fitzgerald.<\/p>\n

Special Features:<\/p>\n

Isolated stereo music track \/ 8-page colour booklet with liner notes by film historian Julie Kirgo \/ Theatrical Trailer \/ Limited to 3000 copies \/ Available exclusively from Screen Archives Entertainment<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Review:<\/p>\n

Had famed American novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald died young in the present day, there\u2019s no doubt a tell-all book, if not a TV movie about his relationship with gossip columnist Sheilah Graham, would\u2019ve been produced and released within a year or two after his death.<\/p>\n

Graham\u2019s 1958 memoir, Beloved Infidel: The Education of a Woman<\/strong>, was published a good 18 years after the feted novelist\u2019s death \u2013 a sign, perhaps, of a love affair Graham was able to revisit in print after much hesitation, if not launch a new writing career as the era of powerful gossip columnists was coming to an end. Graham eventually produced several book-length works, but the film certainly couldn\u2019t have harmed her career, and Graham later revised her perspective on Fitzgerald in a 1976 book, The Real F. Scott Fitzgerald, Thirty-Five Years Later<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Being a Jerry Wald production, this 1959 film version is a glossy extravaganza, and although Beloved<\/strong> shares some similarities with Wald\u2019s A Star is Born<\/a><\/strong> (1954) \u2013 both films deal with a woman struggling with an alcoholic partner in a self-destructive relationship \u2013 it\u2019s neither a musical nor a multi-character tale. The setting and outcome for each tragic male figure \u2013 dying in the industry town after being branded outmoded, difficult, and irrelevant \u2013 are identical, but Beloved<\/strong> is a much more intimate saga; a \u2018true-life\u2019 (through a Hollywood lens) spanning a brief 3 & \u00bd years.<\/p>\n

Director Henry King (Love is a Many-Splendored Thing<\/a><\/strong>, The Song of Bernadette<\/a><\/strong>) and writer Sy Bartlett (The Big Country<\/strong>, 13 Rue Madeleine<\/a><\/strong>) kept the drama fixed on the couple\u2019s difficult relationship \u2013 Fitzgerald struggling to maintain employment as a screenwriter as Graham\u2019s career and influence blossomed \u2013 and ease in the ugliness of alcoholism which almost destroys their love.<\/p>\n

What makes Fitzgerald such a compelling figure is watching the literary icon flounder as he attempts to learn and perfect a type of writing that demands a unique skill set for plot, dialogue, and visual acumen; and just as he manages to sober up and funnel his ill experiences into a fresh project \u2013 the unfinished, posthumously published The Love of the Last Tycoon<\/strong> \u2013 he drops dead of a heart attack.<\/p>\n

Beloved<\/strong> has its share of steeped and contrived melodrama \u2013 a beach scene where Graham swims, frolics on the sand, and is all giddy with love is a blatant montage made to sell the vocal single of Franz Waxman and Paul Francis Webster\u2019s syrupy theme song \u2013 but Gregory Peck and Deborah Kerr have such amazing dynamic screen chemistry: they ably guide us through the mush puddles, and make the ill-fated relationship especially compelling when Fitzgerald begins boozing after dismissal from a much-needed studio gig.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a nasty cabin quarrel escalating from emotional to physical abuse which is unusually frank for the era.\u00a0 (More surreal is the way the material, geared to shock and portray booze as an easily accessible poison in the film proper, is warped into a silly lover\u2019s quarrel in Fox\u2019 original trailer. It\u2019s an appalling abuse of the film\u2019s most pivotal scene.)<\/p>\n

Peck captures the torment of a discarded talent quite skillfully, and Kerr manages to pull off Graham\u2019s position of a commoner who reinvented herself as an upper-class Brit with Royal connections to better gain a rich salary with the best industry papers. The actress\u2019 sole weak scene is due to bad writing, and convention: Graham, firmly established as a strong figure in Kerr\u2019s early scenes, suddenly breaks into tears after Fitzgerald pushes for more details of her past history. The sexist inference is while women may seem to be strong, deep down they\u2019re still emotionally delicate creatures.<\/p>\n

The theme song\u2019s ludicrous lyrics (which build rhapsodically towards a declaration of \u2018a beloved infidel\u2019) wrap up the film\u2019s final scene, but Waxman\u2019s score offers a compelling blend of period songs, theme variations, and some devastating dramatic cues when Graham discovers Fitzgerald crumpled in her living room, and runs into the street for help. Waxman applies some heavy bass notes which carry on as Graham suddenly finds herself alone in the house, confused by the silence that\u2019s replaced the bustle of onlookers, police, and ambulance paramedics who examined and efficiently wrapped up the dead novelist. It\u2019s a great scene that captures the various states of shock, from trauma to the solemnity of processing the impossible.<\/p>\n

Twilight Time\u2019s Blu-ray sports a sharp HD transfer \u2013 the dynamic screen couple are hypnotic to watch whenever they\u2019re dancing, embracing, and adoring eye contact \u2013 plus an isolated stereo track of Waxman\u2019s score. Julie Kirgo\u2019s essay provides needed context for a glossy rendering of a very complex pair of lovers, and she notes how producer Wald\u2019s prodding hastened Graham\u2019s completion of her memoirs so there could be a big Hollywood production; and how Graham later exploited her relationship with Fitzgerald in subsequent books.<\/p>\n

Although Hollywood did adapt several of Fitzgerald\u2019s works into films, including a 1926 version of The Great Gatsby<\/strong>, the studios didn\u2019t revisit his material until after his death, with Gatsby<\/strong> making it to the big screen again in 1949, plus a series of live teleplays in the fifties. There\u2019s also The Last Time I Saw Paris<\/strong> (1954), the Henry King directed Tender is the Night <\/strong>(1962), Gatsby<\/strong> again in 1974, and The Last Tycoon<\/strong> (1976).<\/p>\n

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\u00a9 2014 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

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External References<\/em>:<\/p>\n

IMDB <\/a>— Soundtrack Album<\/a> — Composer Filmography<\/a><\/p>\n

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Vendor Search Links:<\/em><\/p>\n

Amazon.ca<\/a>\"\" \"\" —<\/span> Amazon.com<\/a>\"\" \"\" —<\/span> Amazon.co.uk<\/a>\"\" \"\"—New movie releases on iTunes<\/a>\"\"
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Return to<\/strong>:\u00a0Home <\/a>\/\u00a0Blu-ray, DVD, Film Reviews<\/a> <\/em>\/\u00a0B<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Had famed American novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald died young in the present day, there\u2019s no doubt a tell-all book, if not a TV movie about his relationship with gossip columnist Sheilah Graham, would\u2019ve been produced and released within a year or two after his death…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[18],"tags":[2541,1713,377,2543,2053,1541,2542],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-20r","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7715"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7715"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7715\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7781,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7715\/revisions\/7781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}