Dark Red Roses (1929) User Reviews

You need hands

[malcolmgsw · 5/10 · 28 November 2011]

the first thing to be said is that the surviving print lasts 45 minutes whereas it was originally released at around 63minutes.the missing footage is most noticeable at the end of reel one where it is quite apparent that there is a substantial breach in the narrative.Stuart Rome plays a sculptor with a young family.At the time the film was made Rome was 44,looking more like 60,and the female lead 27.they look an ill suited pair.They have 2 young children who were siblings in real life.the boy is Jack Clayton who made his name as a director.The wife dotes on a cellist,and it appears that she is in love with him.She rejects her husbands accusations of infidelity.The rather insensitive wife invites the cellist to dinner so her husband can take an impression of his hands.When Rome and the cellist go into the studio Rome manacles the cellists hands so that he cannot move whilst the impression is taken.However with the cellist unable to move Rome draws a samurai sword and threatens to cut off his hands.He brings the sword down on the table hard missing the hands.he then gets the cellist to promise to never see his wife again.When Rome returns to the house he overhears his wife telling her mother that she really loves Rome.so the pair are reconciled.So rather a novel twist to a familiar story.the actors enunciate every word clearly and often very slowly.Even though the film is now only 45minutes long it does rather take a long time to get going.It is enlivened by a brief ballet featuring George Ballanchine