{"id":9154,"date":"2014-06-24T02:37:24","date_gmt":"2014-06-24T06:37:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=9154"},"modified":"2014-06-24T02:58:44","modified_gmt":"2014-06-24T06:58:44","slug":"tyrone-power-and-the-eddy-duchin-story-1956","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=9154","title":{"rendered":"Tyrone Power and The Eddy Duchin Story (1956)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"EddyDuchinStory_poster\"<\/a>

For once the ad pap is right – you *should* see The Eddy Duchin Story!<\/p><\/div>\n

When Elwy Yost<\/a> was hosting TVOnatrio\u2019s Saturday Night at the Movies<\/strong> and Magic Shadows<\/strong> (yeah, I\u2019m that<\/em> old), there was no shortage of Twentieth Century-Fox films from the 40s, 50s, and 60s, and it was on that network where I caught some of Tyrone Power\u2019s classic films.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m an unashamed fan of Fox\u2019 catalogue \u2013 be it the glossy CinemaScope productions, or classic dramas, noirs, and thrillers from the 40s \u2013 and I could easily rattle of names of their top stars, but perhaps the most charismatic was Power.<\/p>\n

Superficially, he was<\/em> a pretty boy \u2013 Power\u2019s striking looks and physique made him a natural for swashbucklers (The Black Swan<\/strong>), period adventures (Captain from Castile<\/a><\/strong>, The Mark of Zorro<\/a><\/strong> \u2013 the former still one of, if not the best Zorro film made), comedies (A Yank in the R.A.F.<\/a><\/strong>), and later dark dramas (Nightmare Alley<\/a><\/strong>, where he proved he could handle grim drama) \u2013 but he had a range and onscreen charisma which Fox rightly exploited to support their top star.<\/p>\n

His peak period was the forties \u2013 there\u2019s much to enjoy in his easy blend of comedy and drama, comedy and adventure \u2013 but it\u2019s clear that when he entered his final decade, the projects that lay before him weren\u2019t as grand. The Pony Soldier<\/a> <\/strong>(1952) feels like a B-movie that happens to headline an aging star, The Sun Also Rises<\/strong> (1957) has a strange aimless quality enhanced by the advanced wear & tear on stars Power and Errol Flynn, and although he was extremely successful as the central figure in Columbia Pictures\u2019 The Eddy Duchin Story<\/a><\/strong> (1956) \u2013 you can see how much Power had striven to mimic the pianist\u2019s style to the point where director George Sidney could confidently swish-pan and tilt-up in shots to make it clear Power was tickling the piano\u2019s ivories \u2013 it wasn\u2019t the kind of material that exploited Power\u2019s full talent.<\/p>\n

He was a fine Duchin \u2013 his performance is quite underrated, especially the subtle details which make the impact of Duchin\u2019s death at 41 so moving \u2013 but Power the actor really needed better scripts, offering the kind of roles and risk deserving of a mature actor. The lucky chance came in 1957 when Billy Wilder cast him as the male lead in Witness for the Prosecution<\/strong>, and yet a year later, Power would literally drop dead of a heart attack while filming the Biblical epic Solomon and Sheba<\/strong>, in a hot desert location.<\/p>\n

For Power to die at 44 was truly a loss, because good actors have the innate talent to survive long past their more flamboyant classics. Power should\u2019ve been able to achieve that through further projects like Witness<\/strong>, but fans can at least revel in the quantity and quality of his filmography, much of it for home studio Fox.<\/p>\n

Bogart, Gable, Brando, and Dean came from different generations of actors and Hollywood film history, and there\u2019s little doubt some stars will fade faster within a studio\u2019s deep back catalogue as newer generations of film fans seem to find less reference points in current films, industry overviews, and \u2018top films you should see\u2019 penned by pop culture hipsters and icons because the spotlight is slowly moving away from the 70s to the 80s, making anything older seem arcane and irrelevant.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s old, and there\u2019s really old<\/em>, and that regard may befall many stars of Power\u2019s generation, especially when their work falls out of circulation on hard media, and must compete on specialty cable channels with things less aged that are pegged as more sexy, risqu\u00e9, and visually kinetic.<\/p>\n

I hope I\u2019m wrong, but when the name Barrymore is dropped, most think of Drew, rather than the family tree which include striking John Barrymore, and character actor Lionel Barrymore (and sure, Ethel, too). With Power, things kind of end with Tyrone in spite of a few kids having brief film and TV careers. (Daughter Taryn appeared in\u00a0Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger<\/strong><\/a>, and son Tyrone Power, Jr. had a small role in\u00a0Cocoon<\/strong>.)<\/p>\n

As Eddy Duchin, Power proved how well he could transcend clich\u00e9d material, and as formulaic as the film may be, there are small moments which impress, and reveal the talent and affable persona of this overlooked star.<\/p>\n

Cheers,<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mark R. Hasan<\/strong>, Editor
\nBig Head Amusements<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Review of Twilight Time’s new Blu of The Eddy Duchin Story (1956) and some personal thoughts on Fox’ great star, Tyrone Power.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9158,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[2866,2562,2563,1600,1828],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/EddyDuchinStory_featured.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-2nE","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9154"}],"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=9154"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9154\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9167,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9154\/revisions\/9167"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}