The Power and the Glory (1933)

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Movie
German title The Power and the Glory
Original title The Power and the Glory
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1933
length 76 minutes
Rod
Director William K. Howard
script Preston Sturges
production Jesse L. Lasky for Fox Film Corporation
music Peter Brunelli , Louis De Francesco , John Stepan Zamecnik
camera James Wong Howe
cut Paul Weatherwax
occupation

The Power and the Glory is an American feature film starring Spencer Tracy and Colleen Moore and directed by William K. Howard based on a 1933 screenplay by Preston Sturges . In 2014, the film was inducted into the National Film Registry .

action

The film, a gloomy psychological study, tells in chronologically disordered flashbacks the story of a man who comes to great fortune but suffers a devastating loss of illusion in his personal life.

The film begins with the description of the funeral of Tom Garner, the widely hated president of a railway company, whom only his secretary Henry - who is also the film's narrator - remembers with sympathy. Garner's egoism suffered in particular from his wife Sally, a former teacher who taught the illiterate to read and write. She goes to work for him so that he can study and learn all about railways. Garner, who works for a railroad company, progresses in his career and eventually becomes president of the company. Although he has a son with Sally, he begins a relationship with the daughter of his business partner. When he wants to divorce Sally, she kills herself. Garner marries Eve, his lover. His son starts a relationship with the stepmother; when he discovers that the child who supposedly arises from this relationship is not his, he too commits suicide.

Production and reception

Production history

The film is based on a script by Preston Sturges . He sold the story, which he claims was based on actual events in the life of his second wife, to Jesse L. Lasky on a percentage of the box office's earnings . Such a percentage share of the screenwriter in the profits had not occurred before and the circumstance was emphasized accordingly by the columnists of the time.

In several interviews, Sturges said that he was influenced by his wife about the unusual narrative structure, which does not tell the story in chronological order of events. He wrote the script on the basis of their events, which were also not always described in the correct chronological order, and added new aspects according to their presentation. However, numerous writers were already using this narrative technique at that time, and several film critics drew parallels to the works of Joseph Conrad .

The studio was well aware of the innovation of the approach and consequently advertised the flick with the reference that The Power and the Glory was

the first major experiment in screen dramatics. Wanting to do something new, Sturges decided to go beyond the most modern pattern of literature and this brought him to the conclusion that while a story might be possessed of a beginning, a climax and an ending, there was no great need in presenting them in that order.

A new term, narratage , was even coined to describe the narrative technique, which was new for the viewing habits of the time, according to which a third party, as an observer and commentator of the event, drives and describes the plot. That same year, the now little-known film The Sin of Nora Moran also took such an approach.

For the female lead, Irene Dunne was initially intended, who since 1930 had established herself as a popular actress for long-suffering women who indulge in endless humiliations out of love for a man. In the end, former silent film star Colleen Moore took on the role of Sally. Moore tried more or less in vain to organize a comeback in film since 1932. She was initially under contract with MGM , but the studio was unable to find a suitable script for Moore's talents. In the end, the actress was loaned to Fox Film Corporation for the role and her contract with MGM was terminated shortly thereafter.

The Power and the Glory was also the first film Spencer Tracy made with Jesse L. Lasky, a producer who had recently worked as a top executive for Paramount Pictures . Lasky admired Tracy as a performer and initially wanted to use him in a movie called Helldorado . Since Tracy didn't show up on the shooting date, Lasky had to replace him with Richard Arlen , but gave him a second chance and offered him a role in The Power and the Glory .

Lasky was taken with this film project because Preston Sturges had made an extraordinarily original screenplay for the time. Lasky planned to film the script at great expense and followed - which was unusual at the time - the text of the script in detail. Tracy had his doubts whether he would be up to the role. He should personify a man from youth to old age. This was his most demanding role to date. Lasky and director Howard were then extremely moved by his acting performance, especially because Tracy managed to portray this not exactly likeable character as a believable and unfortunate person.

Reviews

In the magazine Hollywood Citizen-News was found:

I think it came very close to being one of the best talking pictures ever made in America.

Spencer Tracy received special praise in Nation magazine . According to the critic, he gives:

one of the fullest characterizations ever achieved on screen.

The Hollywood Reporter , a respected industry newspaper at the time, commented on the narrative:

A mixture of dramatic action and recited narrative, the result has much in common with the earliest Greek plays, in which the leader of the chorus had much the same function as the narrator in the film. But 'narratage,' as the Fox Company has dubbed the method, has a closer parallel in the variety of novel technique perfected long ago by Henry James and illustrated in its more popular mutations in the fiction of Joseph Conrad.

Variety also expressed appreciation for the novel method:

All these flashbacks are skillfully introduced. It's never mechanical or creakily artificial. The assembly is smooth and natural. The camera illusions with the soft fade-outs visibly command the mind's eye to what Morgan is telling to his wife.

Theatrical release

The Power and the Glory premiered in the United States on October 6, 1933. While the reviews were friendly, the film was received less enthusiastically overall than the producers had hoped. He ended up grossing just over $ 563,323.

The film was long thought to be lost and then incomplete, but a 35 mm copy was restored at the University of California at Los Angeles around 2004 . The restored film premiered on April 1, 2005 at the New York Film Forum. The film has never been shown in Germany.

effect

Due to its unusual narrative structure, the film has been compared to Orson Welles ' masterpiece Citizen Kane , which also tells its story in chronologically disordered flashbacks.

literature

  • Romano Tozzi: Spencer Tracy , New York: Pyramid Publications, 1973. ISBN 0-515-03246-8 ; German edition: Spencer Tracy. His films - his life . Heyne, Munich 1990, ISBN 3-453-86009-8

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Susan King: 25 titles added to National Film Registry , Los Angeles Times online, December 17, 2014, accessed December 18, 2014