Two Oscars in a row wasn't a curse for the legendary Luise Rainer, but a few missteps in her post-Oscar career did do her in as far as film was concerned. The most blatantly obvious is this pre-Civil War Southern drama that points out that not every actress was capable of pulling off the impossible. While Rainer does escape having egg on her face here, at times her performance is overly bombastic and even slightly obnoxious.
Rainer is Frou-Frou, a Louisiana Plantation born aristocrat brought up in post-Revolutionary War France, returning as an adult (or child/woman), causing chaos in her wake. She seems to be a gay, vibrant young lady, but it is obvious that she is an immature, selfish girl trapped inside a woman's body. When the man (Melvyn Douglas) her American raised sister (Barbara O'Neill) loves proposes to her, mistakenly finding her fascinating, she accepts immediately, jilting another lover (Robert Young) and settling in as mistress of his plantation and mother of his son.
As time goes by, it is obvious that she is too incapable of taking charge of the estate and raising her son properly, so Douglas brings O'Neill in to help her. Jealousy arises, tossing Rainer and Young back together, and in typical Southern legend fashion, leading to a tragic conclusion.
Certainly lavish in the typical MGM fashion, this is fascinating to watch for both its flamboyance and its failures. Rainer at times makes her character seem to be a full adult (true in the case of people like her who suffer from Arrested Development), but she's playing a mostly unsympathetic character who can't help who she is. Douglas and Young suffer in being overshadowed by Rainer's blatant miscasting, while O'Neill is perhaps far too noble-Olivia de Havilland to Rainer's Bette Davis, or perhaps Bette Davis to Rainer's Miriam Hopkins.
It should be observed that the impression this film gives towards the slave characters is perhaps its greatest flaw. Every black character, while not a stereotypical "singing, dancing darkie", seems content in the role of being a slave. Rainer's servant (played by Theresa Harris) is a no-named black girl nick-named "Pick" (short for pickaninny of course!) who causes a ton of trouble with gossip against O'Neill towards her mistress. The white characters are shown to treat them usually kindly, but when the slaves misbehave, all of a sudden threatening to whip them or sell them off. If you see the film from this angle, you might re- consider the way the O'Haras were presented in dealing with their own slaves (and how loyal those slaves were to them) in "Gone With the Wind" and how other slave owners were depicted in the classic Hollywood films.
Of the supporting cast, Alma Kruger stands out as Young's regal mother, proud but horrified over the scandal. Zoe Atkins, the famed playwright, provided an interesting but probably doomed screenplay, directed by Richard Thorpe with much style but lacking in substance. Certainly watchable and fascinating, you won't get through it without shaking your head and wonder what was in the creator's minds to make them think that this could work. Rainer here truly reminds me of some interesting failures that Meryl Streep made during her heavily accented acting period.
Rainer is Frou-Frou, a Louisiana Plantation born aristocrat brought up in post-Revolutionary War France, returning as an adult (or child/woman), causing chaos in her wake. She seems to be a gay, vibrant young lady, but it is obvious that she is an immature, selfish girl trapped inside a woman's body. When the man (Melvyn Douglas) her American raised sister (Barbara O'Neill) loves proposes to her, mistakenly finding her fascinating, she accepts immediately, jilting another lover (Robert Young) and settling in as mistress of his plantation and mother of his son.
As time goes by, it is obvious that she is too incapable of taking charge of the estate and raising her son properly, so Douglas brings O'Neill in to help her. Jealousy arises, tossing Rainer and Young back together, and in typical Southern legend fashion, leading to a tragic conclusion.
Certainly lavish in the typical MGM fashion, this is fascinating to watch for both its flamboyance and its failures. Rainer at times makes her character seem to be a full adult (true in the case of people like her who suffer from Arrested Development), but she's playing a mostly unsympathetic character who can't help who she is. Douglas and Young suffer in being overshadowed by Rainer's blatant miscasting, while O'Neill is perhaps far too noble-Olivia de Havilland to Rainer's Bette Davis, or perhaps Bette Davis to Rainer's Miriam Hopkins.
It should be observed that the impression this film gives towards the slave characters is perhaps its greatest flaw. Every black character, while not a stereotypical "singing, dancing darkie", seems content in the role of being a slave. Rainer's servant (played by Theresa Harris) is a no-named black girl nick-named "Pick" (short for pickaninny of course!) who causes a ton of trouble with gossip against O'Neill towards her mistress. The white characters are shown to treat them usually kindly, but when the slaves misbehave, all of a sudden threatening to whip them or sell them off. If you see the film from this angle, you might re- consider the way the O'Haras were presented in dealing with their own slaves (and how loyal those slaves were to them) in "Gone With the Wind" and how other slave owners were depicted in the classic Hollywood films.
Of the supporting cast, Alma Kruger stands out as Young's regal mother, proud but horrified over the scandal. Zoe Atkins, the famed playwright, provided an interesting but probably doomed screenplay, directed by Richard Thorpe with much style but lacking in substance. Certainly watchable and fascinating, you won't get through it without shaking your head and wonder what was in the creator's minds to make them think that this could work. Rainer here truly reminds me of some interesting failures that Meryl Streep made during her heavily accented acting period.