Flesh and Fantasy (1943)

An anthology of three loosely connected occult tales, with ironic and romantic twists.

Director:

Julien Duvivier

Writers:

Ellis St. Joseph (story), Oscar Wilde (story),

Stars:

Edward G. Robinson, Charles Boyer, Barbara Stanwyck

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Edward G. Robinson	...	Marshall Tyler (Episode 2)
Charles Boyer	...	Paul Gaspar (Episode 3)
Barbara Stanwyck	...	Joan Stanley (Episode 3)
Betty Field	...	Henrietta (Episode 1)
Robert Cummings	...	Michael (Episode 1)
Thomas Mitchell	...	Septimus Podgers (Episode 2)
Charles Winninger	...	King Lamarr (Episode 3)
Anna Lee	...	Rowena (Episode 2)
Dame May Whitty	...	Lady Pamela Hardwick (Episode 2)
C. Aubrey Smith	...	Dean of Norwalk (Episode 2)
Robert Benchley	...	Doakes (Framing Story)
Edgar Barrier	...	Stranger in Mask Shop (Episode 1)
David Hoffman	...	Davis (Framing Story)

Storyline

Two clubmen discuss the occult, introducing three weird tales: 1) Plain, bitter Henrietta secretly loves law student Michael. Then on Mardi Gras night, a mysterious stranger gives her a mask of beauty that she must return at midnight. 2) At a party, palmist Podgers makes uncannily accurate predictions, later telling skeptic Marshal Tyler that he will murder someone. The notion obsesses Tyler, with ironic consequences. 3) High wire artist Gaspar dreams of falling, then loses his nerve. He recognizes Joan from his dreams, and falls for her. Will any of his dreams, involving Joan and disaster, come true?

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Plot Keywords:

occult | mask | anthology | episodic structure | chocolate | 

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Genres:

Drama | Fantasy | Romance

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

29 October 1943 (USA)

Also Known As:

Six Destinies

Filming Locations:

Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

94 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

A fourth story was filmed but was cut from the final print; it was to open the film and the discovery of the drowned body was to link it to the mask story. The cut footage was expanded into a feature film, 1944's DESTINY.

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Connections

Referenced in Suspicion: Lord Arthur Savile's Crime (1958)

User Reviews

Flesh Is the Spur

Flesh and Fantasy is a rare forties Hollywood attempt at an art film, and while I cannot say it's wholly successful, it's a good try. Directed by the highly esteemed French director Julian Duvivier and produced by the highly esteemed French actor Charles Boyer, it consists of three stories of the supernatural, told to Robert Benchley, in a framing device, in what appears to be a men's club.

The first tale concerns a homely girl who is turned beautiful by the power of a mask sold to her by a strange little shopkeeper. It's a slight, lovely fable, well-acted by Betty Field and Bob Cummings. In the second story we find Edward G. Robinson in London, where a fortune teller reveals to him a fate he tries vainly to escape. The third segment, despite the presence of Charles Boyer and Barbara Stanwyck, is rather mediocre, and concerns predictions in a circus setting. Of these three tales the middle one, an adaptation of an Oscar Wilde story, is by far the best; it is also visually the most appealing.

Duvivier brings a Gallic gentility to the film, and his compositions are excellent and always fastidious. One gathers that the movie must have been a labor of love for producer Charles Boyer. All the actors are in top form, and the picture does not at all feel like a product of the Universal studio of this period.

Flesh and Fantasy is one of several wartime movies that dealt with the issues of death and fate, which were obviously hanging heavier than unusual on peoples' minds in those days. Off the top of my head I can think of Here Comes Mr. Jordan, I Married a Witch, A Guy Named Joe, Between Two Worlds, The Uninvited and The Picture Of Dorian Gray. Death, rather than dying, was a feature of most such films, which as a rule steered clear of anything grisly, which is to say reminiscent of battlefields. Flesh and Fantasy is quite good at this. With its soft chairs, cobbled streets and a convincing London bridge thrown in for good measure, it makes facing up to one's fate feel as comfortable and delicious a proposition as attending a masquerade ball.