Sometimes disregarding a film’s original title inspires far more poetic and inspiring alternatives. Centaurs of the desertJohn Ford’s great work, bears the title Seekers (Searchers). I think the Spanish name is much more suggestive. Infidelity is not always a bad thing. The same thing happens with The wicked and the beautifulteacher Vincente Minnelli.
Here, the literal translation has been discarded in order to use a much more attractive formula: Captives of evil. In reality, neither the Evil One is so evil nor the Beauty so innocent. The film, from 1952, when Hollywood was living in its golden era, obviously plays with the myth of Beauty and the Beast.
With the spectacular direction of Charles Schnee, who proved his great talent in 1948 Rio RojoHoward Hawks, Minnelli’s film is based on a short story by George Bradshaw, Tribute to Bad Manappeared in 1951 in the magazine Women’s home diary.
Began between April and June 1952 at the MGM studios and in natural settings such as the Beverly Hills Hotel or Lake Arrowhead, Captives of evil He was nominated for an Oscar six times and won five (script, department actress, art direction, photography and clothing). After watching the film more than five times, I did not encounter any sadness or imperfection.
Ex the quintessence of melodramabut without unnecessary overflow. It addresses all the great themes of the genre: self-destructive passions, despicable ambitions, terrible traits, impossible loves, romantic friendships, power struggles, moral dilemmas, tragedies that seem to be the result of inevitable fate.
The story takes place in 1958 in Hollywood and the center of the story is producer Jonathan Shields. Played by an intense Kirk Douglas and with the paradoxical charisma of actors who always seem to be interpreted the same way, Shields is the son of a ruthless producer whom anyone remembers with love and respect.
Entering a rainy and desolate morning, Jonathan will tend to pay for gathering a handful of assistants during the ceremony.
He’s not much better than his father. With praise from David O. Selznick, Irving Thalberg, Orson Welles, Val Lewton and Darryl F. Zanuck, Shields suffers from only one obsession: the dream of success and power. Your insatiable ambition will cause a deep inner emptiness.
During the filming of the films, Shields is a driven, perfectionist and hyperactive man, but by the end of the film, his enthusiasm turns to despair, frustration and frustration. You have to keep moving, working on the project, not wasting a minute.
In fact, unfettered activity seems like a nightmare. She is not capable of love, she does not know her boyfriend, she is not interested in having children. You don’t want to accumulate a lot of money.
The answer is just a tool for making a new movie. Worse, he seems to secretly crave it. In the existence of a single Cobra, I have heard of following a guide, overseeing the stage, visiting the editing room, searching for a new star, assisting a stranger. The result itself creates fleeting pleasure.
Your personality is not that of a luxury-hungry multi-millionaire, but that of someone who can’t bear to spend a few minutes alone. You contemplate a lover, you don’t correct his beauty, until there is an opportunity to use him on the stage. He is neither an artist nor a creator. Only the mind that no one can remain idle.
In addition to your arrogance and vanity, you have bad luck and insecurity. I try not to meet someone to live. Na soledad es decomunal, very similar del Caligula de Camus, but without a philosophy that justifies his actions. Just know that you like to indulge in the bar and mix with praise, ignoring the voice of conciencia, from which only external sentimentality.
No need to sell your soul to the devil. Simply, I want to forget her and live in the moment. The fear of living in an absurd world is what drives her to seek fame, but in the back of her mind is the thought of it. The glitz of Hollywood is just a fleeting dream in the middle of a storm.
Photo ‘Cautivos del mal’.
In the face of Shields’ nihilism, his former associates perform less a tragic act than the desafíos of life. Director Alfred Amiel (Barry Sullivan) and his wife Kay (Vanessa Brown) are a healthy couple without a hint of illness. Amiel is honest and hardworking. The only goal is to make good films.
In the beginning, Shields and Amiel worked back to back. Because they are required to make low-level films, they transform an average project into a work of great originality and creativity. In the panther movie there is a clear allusion to Panther woman (Cat People, 1942) by Jacques Tourneur, which brought eight thousand dollars with an estimate of 134,000.
Jonathan teaches Amiel how to present his own adaptation work La montaña lejanaa classic that no one would even dream of taking to the cinema. To consider these revès, Amiel will fulfill his dream of directing great films and you were rewarded with an Oscar.
Starring Lana Turner, the character Georgia Lorrison, born into a sinful relationship, was said to represent the sins of Diana Barrymore and Judy Garland, Minnelli’s ex-wife. Both actresses were addicted to alcoholism and the consumption of barbine.
After John Barrymore, Diana prematurely ended her irregular acting career due to her addictions, and in a life characterized by emotional flaws and evil idols, she committed suicide at the age of 38.
Judy Garland triumphed as an actress, but with her unstable and neurological personality, she died in 1947 from an accidental overdose of Seconal.
Alejada de su habitual papel de femme fatale, Lana Turner embodies a vulnerable, tormented and loving youth, but also with an absorbing and tough character. Loyal and with a good heart, he keeps Sammy, his old and shadowy agent, when he becomes a star.
Photo ‘Cautivos del mal’.
Shields saves her from a spiral of self-destruction, but pretends to be in love with her to gain the power of her talent. However, when Georgia suggests her ordination, he brutally undresses her and makes it clear that she will never be able to love anyone.
Shocked, Lorrison recklessly leads the flood, seeking death but saving himself from thousands. He is not an innocent soul, but a deeply addicted being who creates a suffocating lasso.
Love does not live as a simple request, but as a gesture of desperation. Shields was the man who kept her afloat, not the man with whom she could build a future of healthy adult plants.
Shields’ relationship with James Lee Bartlow (Dick Powell), a university professor in Virginia who publishes historical novels with a certain dose of eroticism, is no less stormy. Bartlow is married to Rosemary (Gloria Grahame), a frivolous and superficial woman who has to fall for the glitz of Hollywood when her husband starts working as a showman.
Jonathan uses Victor “Gaucho” Ribera (Gilbert Roland), an Errol Flynn-esque friend from nights out and frugal vacations, to play with James Lee’s Rosemary, who can make her whims and self-centeredness a hindrance at work.
The risk allows Bartlow to complete his surveillance of Shields in a field house near the lake, but as they drive to Hollywood, he learns on the radio that Gaucho and Rosemary have died in a plane crash during the return trip from Mexico.
James Lee belatedly discovers that Shields orchestrated his wife’s affair with the actor, but when the indiscretion is revealed, he punches her hard and breaks off the relationship with him. Rosemary’s loss does not stop Bartlow from continuing to write and win a Pulitzer.
The 1952 film’s theatrical exterior cart.
Two years later, a devastated Shields returns to executive producer Harry Pebbel (Walter Pidgeon) to call his old associates and propose a new project.
According to flashbacksThey all remember their life with Jonathan and unanimously decide to accept the offer, but before leaving the Pebbel dispatch, they pick up the phone in the lobby to hear Jonathan’s voice talking to executive producer Paris.
His gestures and expressions show more curiosity and nostalgia than I feel. It doesn’t seem impossible that you accept the desire to work with a man who has hurt you so much, but at the same time, I’ve been inspired by your career.
Kirk Douglas’ over-the-top acting, histrionic and hyperbolic, doesn’t caricature his character until he’s placed in it. the exact dosage of measurement that characterized classic Hollywood.
Gloria Grahame’s Oscar-winning work reflects the contrast between the glamor of the stars and the everyday lives of people today. Hollywood is a dream factory, but also human shredder. Captives of evil It is a perfect film with all the magic of the golden era of European classic cinema.
David Raskin’s soundtrack and Robert Surtees’ black and white photography (Ben Hur, William Wyler, 1959) bring elegance and emotion that the film excellent voice, great direction and stunning acting.
The intersecting lives of the characters seem to communicate something that Rilke suspected: art always requires harsh punishment. Beauty is not something heavenly until it is the fruit of a long journey through an unfathomable abyss.
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