A film
review by Andrew Wickliffe for thestopbutton.com on Sept. 1, 2017.
The Seventh Sin has three problems. The first is the
third act; it’s too rushed. Given the constraints of the film production – a
shot-in-Hollywood production about a cholera outbreak in a rural Chinese town –
there’s not so much to be done about it. The film has a limited cast,
especially once the action moves from Hong Kong to that town, and the roles are
restrictive. The second problem is Miklós
Rózsa’s music. It’s occasionally perfectly good melodramatic stuff, but
Rózsa also has a lot what he must have considered Chinese themes. Regardless of
their origin, they come off as trite or condescending and completely alien to
the film’s narrative. They’re as patiently false as the rear screen projection
shots, only without the actors there to get the scenes through.
The third
problem is the big one. It keeps The
Seventh Sin down, even when everything else is working (though, obviously,
not much of Rózsa’s score). Leading man
Bill Travers is awful. He’s mediocre
at the start, seemingly unable to fully handle the part of a vindictive
cuckold, but once he actually has some character development to essay, Travers
butchers it even worse.
Now on to
the good. Lead Eleanor Parker. She
starts the film desperately unhappy, floundering, angry, and completely
transforms through her experiences. The
Seventh Sin is front-loaded. The most dramatic story stuff is at the
beginning, when dull Travers learns Parker’s having an affair with charming Jean-Pierre Aumont. By the time Travers
drags Parker to the cholera outbreak, there’s not much drama left. They’re both
resigned and burned out. Parker’s already gone through one entire dramatic arc
with the character and then she has to build another one, only without any
outside incitement. Despite Travers singlehandedly turning the tide of the
cholera epidemic, The Seventh Sin is all
about how Parker experiences it and how that experience changes her. And a lot
of her experience is just sitting around miserable.
Sometimes
she does have George Sanders,
playing an Englishman who’s settled in the town to occasionally run an import
and export business, but mostly to get drunk and snoop into people’s personal
lives. He finds a kindred spirit in Parker and much of the second act involve
his attempts to discover her secrets and then what to do with those
discoveries.
All of
Parker’s development comes in these quietly composed wide shots; she’s often
alone in them, negotiating her place in space. When someone else comes into the
shot – specifically Travers – it’s an intrusion. The subdued tension explodes.
Parker argues magnificently in the film. The script never really gives Sanders
a chance to keep up, which seems a missed opportunity (but not once the
narrative plays out). At the beginning of the film, Travers actually does hold
his ground for a moment or two but he quickly gets lost. It’s impossible to
imagine how The Seventh Sin would’ve
turned out with a better performance in his role.
While Ronald Neame gets the sole directing credit,
Vincente Minnelli directed much of
it – most of it? And given that Neame left because he (incredibly and stupidly)
disliked Parker’s performance, maybe Minnelli was responsible for all the great
direction of Parker.
Besides
Parker and Sanders (who plays a soulful drunk just like he’s a soulful drunk),
Aumont is pretty good. Françoise Rosay
is excellent as a Mother Superior who gives Parker quite a bit of advice; it’s
mostly from a humanistic standpoint, not a religiously influenced one, which
makes the scenes particularly effective.
Good black
and white photography from Ray June.
He does a lot better with the matte paintings than with the rear screen
projection.
Karl Tunberg’s script holds strong for almost the
entire film, until the third act rush. That last minute stumble is mostly
Tunberg’s fault, but Minnelli or Neame could’ve tried to do something to save
it. The finale manages to have Parker in every second but lose the character’s
depth. Her personal journey becomes perfunctory, which is a big problem given
it’s the entire picture. And most of the picture is quite good. Except Travers.
Travers is terrible. [Wickliffe’s rating: *** out of 4 stars]
Labels:
drama, Eleanor Parker, tragedy
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