The Card (1952)
This is an Alec Guinness movie top to bottom, which is probably misleading to people who don't know his best films like "The Man in the White Suit" the year before or "Kind Hearts and Coronets" or "The Lavender Hill Mob." This one is not a comic classic like those, but it is in fact in the same lineage (never mind that American detective master Eric Ambler wrote the screenplay).
For those familiar with British comic dramas like these, you'll know what to expect, and "The Card" is really filled with warmth, wry humor, absurdist twists, and lots of changes of course. If you don't know of this Guinness (et al) background you'll maybe recognize this as a precursor to the humor of Peter Sellers and (by extension in his films) Woody Allen (of all people). But another side to this makeshift analysis is the American screwball comedy of the 1930s and early 40s. In a way, that's where this has its roots. A unlikely love is bound to happen between the leading man and leading woman, but things continually get in the way. Until the end.
It's not a screwball however. It never gets quite that zany, or in fact quite that "good," if you happen to like the great screwballs. It's not that "The Card" is restrained, exactly, but it has an almost serious tone at moments, and the whole backdrop (of a man moving up through the ranks of a working class culture) is something of a normal course for heroes in regular dramas.
The name of the movie on its release is the best, because a card is someone who has some tricks up his sleeve, or who is wily at other people's expense (though light heartedly, for sure). The American release changed the name (for no good reason, I think) to "The Promotor," which implies either an impresario (perhaps a bit tongue in cheek) or someone who is playing the system for his own gain. And that's not really what Guinness's character is quite all about.
One of the odd things about Guinness is his particular style, which you might say is all his own. And which makes the movie its own. He's comic with always this softening of the edges. He smiles and is likable but never quite with genuine warmth. You might even suspect of him of being too much an actor, so that every emotion is a trained one. That works better in some of his other movies, where the director plays against that type. Here he is made to be a bit more of a standard leading man, and it falters just a hair.
You might also find the plot is not especially compelling. You won't really care what happens, partly because you already half know, and partly because the succession of events it sufficient enough, not for the end result but for the moments, each one. Still, there's nothing quite like this in American film, certainly not by 1952 (that I know of), so if you like this you might really be transported. Very well made, oddly sincere, and if not belly-laugh stuff, still warm and happy.
This is an Alec Guinness movie top to bottom, which is probably misleading to people who don't know his best films like "The Man in the White Suit" the year before or "Kind Hearts and Coronets" or "The Lavender Hill Mob." This one is not a comic classic like those, but it is in fact in the same lineage (never mind that American detective master Eric Ambler wrote the screenplay).
For those familiar with British comic dramas like these, you'll know what to expect, and "The Card" is really filled with warmth, wry humor, absurdist twists, and lots of changes of course. If you don't know of this Guinness (et al) background you'll maybe recognize this as a precursor to the humor of Peter Sellers and (by extension in his films) Woody Allen (of all people). But another side to this makeshift analysis is the American screwball comedy of the 1930s and early 40s. In a way, that's where this has its roots. A unlikely love is bound to happen between the leading man and leading woman, but things continually get in the way. Until the end.
It's not a screwball however. It never gets quite that zany, or in fact quite that "good," if you happen to like the great screwballs. It's not that "The Card" is restrained, exactly, but it has an almost serious tone at moments, and the whole backdrop (of a man moving up through the ranks of a working class culture) is something of a normal course for heroes in regular dramas.
The name of the movie on its release is the best, because a card is someone who has some tricks up his sleeve, or who is wily at other people's expense (though light heartedly, for sure). The American release changed the name (for no good reason, I think) to "The Promotor," which implies either an impresario (perhaps a bit tongue in cheek) or someone who is playing the system for his own gain. And that's not really what Guinness's character is quite all about.
One of the odd things about Guinness is his particular style, which you might say is all his own. And which makes the movie its own. He's comic with always this softening of the edges. He smiles and is likable but never quite with genuine warmth. You might even suspect of him of being too much an actor, so that every emotion is a trained one. That works better in some of his other movies, where the director plays against that type. Here he is made to be a bit more of a standard leading man, and it falters just a hair.
You might also find the plot is not especially compelling. You won't really care what happens, partly because you already half know, and partly because the succession of events it sufficient enough, not for the end result but for the moments, each one. Still, there's nothing quite like this in American film, certainly not by 1952 (that I know of), so if you like this you might really be transported. Very well made, oddly sincere, and if not belly-laugh stuff, still warm and happy.