Film Review: The Princess Comes Across

"The Princess Comes Across"  *** (out of ****)

If I described "The Princess Comes Across" (1936) to you on paper it would sound quite good and show potential. For some reason the movie doesn't live up to its potential while still having its own charms.

The movie stars the wonderful comedic actress Carole Lombard (Mrs. Clark Gable) and the genial Fred MacMurray, teaming up once again after co-starring together in "Hands Across the Table" (1935). Naturally their presence alone elevates the movie because of their star power.

Among the movie's writers includes Frank Butler, who often wrote Bob Hope comedies; "Road to Morocco" (1942), "My Favorite Blonde" (1942) and "Never Say Die" (1939) and Mr. Butler's frequent co-writer Don Hartman, who co-wrote the same Bob Hope comedies as well as some Danny Kaye comedies; "Wonder Man" (1945) and "The Kid From Brooklyn" (1946).

And finally there is a wonderful cast of supporting characters played by familiar faces including William Frawley, George Barbier, Porter Hall, Sig Ruman, Mischa Auer and George Chandler.

Yet all of these things combined still doesn't make "The Princess Comes Across" a memorable comedy.

The story, based on a novel, "Death Cab" by Louis Lucien Rogger, has a tone problem for starters. We meet Princess Olga (Lombard), a Swedish princess on her way to America to star in a movie. The princess character is an obvious takeoff on Greta Garbo. All that's missing is the princess saying she wants to be alone. She boards a ship where she meets bandleader King Mantell (MacMurray). Mantell is smitten with her at once. Their "meet cute" involves Mantell reserving the ship's royal suite but asked to move to another room to make way for the princess. At first Mantell declines and protest but as soon as he sees the princess he is all but willing to accommodate.

We quickly learn the Olga is not really a princess. In fact, Olga isn't even her real name. She's Wanda Nash from Brooklyn. A struggling actress who got the idea to impersonate a princess that becomes an actress. The question is can she keep her identity from Mantell? Will Wanda and Mantell fall in love?

So far, so good. It is kind of a variation of the old story of a woman having to chose between fame and fortune or being with the poor man she loves. Nothing we haven't seen before but with two good movie stars in the leading roles it could work.

These opening scenes provide some laughs with jokes built around the difference in class between the princess and Mantell and his attempts to get her attention.

But then the movie becomes a murder mystery when a dead body is found in the princess' room and Mantell agrees to help dispose of the body. Eventually the two are suspects in the murder.

This is not necessarily a sign of trouble. There have been some good comedy / mystery movies. One starred Bob Hope, "The Great Lover" (1949). Another was with Abbott & Costello, "Who Done It?" (1942). The problem though becomes one of tone. The movie doesn't follow the normal movie conventions of the mystery genre, finding laughs in the formula but instead almost becomes a mystery story forgetting to provide big laughs, which is hard to believe with Butler and Hartman among the writers.

The movie doesn't establish a love affair between the two main characters either. There is never a moment when the audience sees the two of them slowly falling in love with each other. The movie wants to be part comedy, part romance and part mystery but can't juggle all three genres at once.

That is unfortunate because Carole Lombard and Fred MacMurray deserve better. While a comedy like "Hands Across the Table" wasn't great it at least utilized each actor's charm and likeability. "The Princess Comes Across" starts off well enough but deserts its characters not allowing more scenes to showcase their chemistry and easy going charm to make the romance aspect more believable.

Lombard, who was nominated once for an Academy Award, for her performance in "My Man Godfrey" (1936), was on her way to major stardom after "The Princess Comes Across". "Godfrey" was the next movie she starred in. From there she would star in "Nothing Scared" (1937), the wonderful Hitchcock comedy (!) "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" (1941) and her final movie the Ernst Lubitsch comedy "To Be or Not To Be" (1942). She would also co-star with MacMurray again on two more pictures including my favorite with them, "True Confession" (1937).

Watching "The Princess Comes Across" I wonder how much was edited. The movie is 77 minutes. Something was cut out of the picture. You also wonder if a better director would have made a difference. This time around William K. Howard sat in the director's chair. He directed William Powell in "Rendezvous" (1935) and Powell and Myrna Loy in "Evelyn Prentice" (1934). What could a Billy Wilder or Leo McCarey do with this material?

I can't call "The Princess Comes Across" a success but I can't quite call it a failure. Lombard and MacMurray are always fun to watch but the movie doesn't do enough with them. The tone is a bit off, not being able to properly combine comedy and mystery. There are no big laughs. As a Carole Lombard fan it is interesting to watch these early comedies with her just as her stardom was about to take off.

Film Review: The Villainess

"The Villainess"
*** (out of ****)

It begins with one of the most remarkable, bloody and violent first person POV sequences in recent memory. Men are seen running towards the camera being shot and in some cases cut with an ax. Blood squirts out and the walls of the hallway are red with their blood. "Our" hands reload a gun, in a way resembling a video game, as the camera fights to keep all the action in frame.

The movie, "The Villainess" (2017), was directed by Jung Byung-gil and come to us from South Korea. It is one more example of the "lady seeks revenge" genre a la "Kill Bill" (2003), "Lady Snowblood" (1973) and "The Bride Wore Black" (1968).

It also follows in the tradition of most South Korean movies in the amount of extreme violence shown on-screen. American audiences that have seen "Oldboy" (2003), one of the country's most famous imports, will be better prepared.

"The Villainess" refers to the lead female character, an assassin, Sook-hee (Kim Ok-bin). Her husband, Lee Jong-sang (Shin Ha-kyun), was murdered on the night of their wedding. The two had met after Sook-hee witnessed her father being killed when she was a child and vowed revenge. Jong-sang helped train her to reach that goal. With the two men she loved gone from her life, Sook-hee will avenge their death.

Premiering at the Cannes film festival earlier this year, "The Villainess" has a labyrinth plot structure switching between present day and flashbacks. In some situations the movie jumps ahead several years without warning. If this structure was meant to create a level of intrigue and suspense by withholding information to heighten our involvement, sometimes it creates confusion. Where exactly are we in the story?

To minimize the amount of blood shed, the movie's screenwriters developed a love story between Sook-hee and her neighbor, an undercover government agent, Jung Hyun-soo (Sung Joon). These scenes achieve an objective to humanize Sook-hee and create a more fully dimensional character, one which the audience may have an invested emotional interest in. To a small degree it works and gives the movie an opportunity to get some easy laughs.

As an actress however Kim Ok-bin seems better suited for the action sequence, emulating a sexy tough girl persona and is never really able to sell the emotional, dramatic moments to the degree originally intended. It isn't all the fault of acting, as some blame should be placed on the screenwriting as well. Still, for all the "heroics" of the character what we are left with is a rather cliche theme; a woman is always the victim of a man's cruelty.
 
But what does the audience walking into "The Villainess" expect? Does it delivery based on their expectations? At the end of the day the best moments in the movie are going to be the high octane action sequences. This is what is expected of the movie.

Some will argue about the amount of violence on-screen. Was it all necessary? This will be an ongoing debate between filmmakers and society. Do movies glorify violence?

"The Villainess" has good action sequences, good visuals and an engaging actress. Despite its violence and at times uneven script "The Villainess" is still a bloody good time and a wild ride.