I'm a huge Irene Dunne fan. How huge? Well, let's just say that l will put up with bathetic, enervating, patriotic swill like this and still feel, at the end of it, that Ms. Dunne is the best American film actress of the first half of the twentieth century.
Is there a more boring American film maker than Clarence Brown? No one comes readily to mind. The out and out schlockmeisters like Robson, Selander and Castle at least had the virtue of wishing to entertain us. Or scare us. Or make us laugh. Not ol Clarence. This well meaning but ponderous fellow's films are where laughs and action and dramatic tension not only go to die but to be strangled at birth. Even Stanley Kramer is more bearable. Hell, even Robert Z. Leonard is preferable!
So why a 6 instead of a 3 or a 4? Well, did I mention that I love Irene Dunne? And Clarence Brown shrewdly exhibits just enough taste so that his films are as decent as they are dull. C plus.
Is there a more boring American film maker than Clarence Brown? No one comes readily to mind. The out and out schlockmeisters like Robson, Selander and Castle at least had the virtue of wishing to entertain us. Or scare us. Or make us laugh. Not ol Clarence. This well meaning but ponderous fellow's films are where laughs and action and dramatic tension not only go to die but to be strangled at birth. Even Stanley Kramer is more bearable. Hell, even Robert Z. Leonard is preferable!
So why a 6 instead of a 3 or a 4? Well, did I mention that I love Irene Dunne? And Clarence Brown shrewdly exhibits just enough taste so that his films are as decent as they are dull. C plus.