'I Am Suzanne' is an astonishing film, one of the most original movies I've ever seen ... and yet it reminds me of several others. Director Rowland V. Lee and his co-scenarist Edwin Justus Mayer are both severely underrated; their careers are overdue for reappraisal, and this movie is a good place to start.
'I Am Suzanne' was apparently meant as a star vehicle for Lillian Harvey, an actress who seems highly artificial. Her accent is slightly too cut-glass, her performance (in this film, at least) too mannered. She is blonde and pretty, but not quite beautiful: her eyebrows have been plucked to within a millimetre of their lives, and her nose is slightly bulbous. The best performance in the film is by that excellent and underrated character actor Leslie Banks: he manages to invest some subtlety into a highly theatrical role which gives him legitimate reasons to chew the scenery.
'I Am Suzanne' has strong overtones of the later and better-known 'Lili', Edgar Ulmer's 'Bluebeard', 'Pinocchio', 'Laugh Clown Laugh', and also the weird semi-fantasy 'Zoo in Budapest' (starring Gene Raymond in a role similar to the one he plays here). The dream sequence in this movie reminds me of the trial scene in 'Alice in Wonderland' and also of 'Attack of the Puppet People' ... specifically, that science-fiction film's bizarre scene in which a woman, shrunk to doll size, is forced to co-star opposite a marionette in a puppet-show performance of 'Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde'.
CONTAINS SPOILERS. Suzanne is a beautiful young orphan who dances for coins in the street, and who is dominated by her Svengali-like guardian, who calls himself the Baron, It's clear that the Baron's interest in Suzanne is entirely exploitative: he makes money off her, and he lusts for her. The only implausible thing about this arrangement is that he hasn't tried to rape her yet.
Handsome young Tony (Raymond) is a puppet-master who becomes so enamoured of Suzanne's beauty that he asks her consent to make a marionette in her likeness, so that 'Suzanne' (the puppet, not the woman) can star in Tony's shows. There are several very impressive set-pieces, in which the marionettes perform enjoyable routines. The only flaw in these delightful sequences is that Tony is ostensibly manipulating the marionettes, yet it's clear that actor Gene Raymond is being 'doubled' by some experienced puppeteers. Comedic actress Florence Desmond, well known in England at this time for her deft impersonations of film actresses and celebrities, provides the voices for several of Tony's marionettes.
The Baron hopes to make more money off Suzanne: the woman, not the puppet... although Suzanne symbolically *is* a puppet under his domination: it's this sort of layered symbolism that makes this story so fascinating. The Baron bullies Suzanne into performing a tightrope act. She falls and injures herself. Now her dancing days are over, and she might not even walk again.
Lillian Harvey convincingly depicts Suzanne's confusion and immaturity, even though the actress is slightly too old for this 'Lill'-like role. She feels attracted to Tony ... yet she also feels jealousy towards the puppet-version of herself, as Tony seems to be more interested in the marionette Suzanne than in the real version. Eventually, she shoots the puppet version of herself! This prompts the film's most remarkable set piece, a nightmare sequence that reminded me of 'Puppet People'.
In her nightmare, Suzanne dreams that she has been put on trial for murder: the murder of her puppet-self! She finds herself in the dock at a Kafka-like trial, with a puppet jury, presided over by the King and Queen of Puppet Land! It would have been easy for this sequence to slide into absurdity, and I had a whole flotilla of wisecracks ready for the King and Queen of Puppet Land: Do they run a puppet government? Can they pull a few strings? If the marionettes find Suzanne guilty of murder, will they string her up? Remarkably, this film expertly maintains its balance between fantasy and reality, between imagination and delusion.
Is it possible to rate a movie 11 points out of 10? No? Then I'll have to rate 'I Am Suzanne' a lowly 10 points out of 10. Why didn't Lee and Mayer follow this triumph with another great film?
'I Am Suzanne' was apparently meant as a star vehicle for Lillian Harvey, an actress who seems highly artificial. Her accent is slightly too cut-glass, her performance (in this film, at least) too mannered. She is blonde and pretty, but not quite beautiful: her eyebrows have been plucked to within a millimetre of their lives, and her nose is slightly bulbous. The best performance in the film is by that excellent and underrated character actor Leslie Banks: he manages to invest some subtlety into a highly theatrical role which gives him legitimate reasons to chew the scenery.
'I Am Suzanne' has strong overtones of the later and better-known 'Lili', Edgar Ulmer's 'Bluebeard', 'Pinocchio', 'Laugh Clown Laugh', and also the weird semi-fantasy 'Zoo in Budapest' (starring Gene Raymond in a role similar to the one he plays here). The dream sequence in this movie reminds me of the trial scene in 'Alice in Wonderland' and also of 'Attack of the Puppet People' ... specifically, that science-fiction film's bizarre scene in which a woman, shrunk to doll size, is forced to co-star opposite a marionette in a puppet-show performance of 'Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde'.
CONTAINS SPOILERS. Suzanne is a beautiful young orphan who dances for coins in the street, and who is dominated by her Svengali-like guardian, who calls himself the Baron, It's clear that the Baron's interest in Suzanne is entirely exploitative: he makes money off her, and he lusts for her. The only implausible thing about this arrangement is that he hasn't tried to rape her yet.
Handsome young Tony (Raymond) is a puppet-master who becomes so enamoured of Suzanne's beauty that he asks her consent to make a marionette in her likeness, so that 'Suzanne' (the puppet, not the woman) can star in Tony's shows. There are several very impressive set-pieces, in which the marionettes perform enjoyable routines. The only flaw in these delightful sequences is that Tony is ostensibly manipulating the marionettes, yet it's clear that actor Gene Raymond is being 'doubled' by some experienced puppeteers. Comedic actress Florence Desmond, well known in England at this time for her deft impersonations of film actresses and celebrities, provides the voices for several of Tony's marionettes.
The Baron hopes to make more money off Suzanne: the woman, not the puppet... although Suzanne symbolically *is* a puppet under his domination: it's this sort of layered symbolism that makes this story so fascinating. The Baron bullies Suzanne into performing a tightrope act. She falls and injures herself. Now her dancing days are over, and she might not even walk again.
Lillian Harvey convincingly depicts Suzanne's confusion and immaturity, even though the actress is slightly too old for this 'Lill'-like role. She feels attracted to Tony ... yet she also feels jealousy towards the puppet-version of herself, as Tony seems to be more interested in the marionette Suzanne than in the real version. Eventually, she shoots the puppet version of herself! This prompts the film's most remarkable set piece, a nightmare sequence that reminded me of 'Puppet People'.
In her nightmare, Suzanne dreams that she has been put on trial for murder: the murder of her puppet-self! She finds herself in the dock at a Kafka-like trial, with a puppet jury, presided over by the King and Queen of Puppet Land! It would have been easy for this sequence to slide into absurdity, and I had a whole flotilla of wisecracks ready for the King and Queen of Puppet Land: Do they run a puppet government? Can they pull a few strings? If the marionettes find Suzanne guilty of murder, will they string her up? Remarkably, this film expertly maintains its balance between fantasy and reality, between imagination and delusion.
Is it possible to rate a movie 11 points out of 10? No? Then I'll have to rate 'I Am Suzanne' a lowly 10 points out of 10. Why didn't Lee and Mayer follow this triumph with another great film?