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Laugh, Clown, Laugh (1928)
Double Ick Factor
Just watched this recently on TCM and my wife and I both had our jaws on the floor. It starts out very sweetly with Lon Chaney (Tito) and pal (Simon) as traveling circus clowns in Italy. Chaney discovers an abandoned little girl and decides to raise her as his own daughter, despite his partner's objections. To win Simon over, he names the girl "Simonetta."
Years later, Simonetta has grown into quite a beautiful young woman. After she gets dolled up to join the act as a tightrope walker, Chaney feels something stirring inside that makes him feel rather uncomfortable. It made us feel uncomfortable, too. Shades of Woody Allen! He's old and basically her father. Double ick factor.
More times passes and Chaney falls into depression due to his unrequited love for Simonetta. He's the clown who cannot laugh. And then she gets involved with someone else -- Luigi, a rich count who can't stop laughing. On the one hand, you want to feel for Chaney (he was quite likable in the beginning), but certainly not for his situation.
Chaney gives an excellent performance and speaks volumes with his his face alone. He's much more understated here than films made just a few years earlier, such as Phantom of the Opera. You also to see what he really looked like (at the beginning anyway -- his old age make-up is excellent). I certainly would have rated this film higher were it not for the double ick factor.
The ending, while semi-tragic, seems to be missing something. There is a lost reel and I'm wondering if that's where it went. There's no follow-up with Simonetta.
I Married an Angel (1942)
Painfully Weak (SPOILER)
I just finished reading a book on Anita Loos' work and the photo in TCM Magazine of MacDonald in her angel costume looked great (impressive wings), so I thought I'd watch this movie. I'd never heard of the film before, so I had no preconceived notions about it whatsoever. Thought it got off to a cute start with Eddy as the playboy and MacDonald as the secretary he doesn't know exists. The scene where she shows up at the costume party in her simple angel outfit with an uncooperative halo and wings that won't stay on was really endearing. I was even with the film when Eddy goes to sleep and imagines her as a real angel. But after a while it just started to fall apart for me. Eddy stays "asleep" for the entire rest of movie, so it's all a dream. Whatever happens from there on doesn't really matter, because he's just dreaming. The rest of it was pretty much plot less and pointless. I had to force myself to stick with it. And the final number where MacDonald goes from musical number to musical number in some mad hallucination was just plain freaky.
Had Eddy "woken" a sooner and the original story continued, or had he really married an angel, I think it would have been a lot more interesting. I wanted to see more of her real character.
There weren't really enough musical numbers to call it a musical. The first few songs were good, but the jitterbug number that MacDonald performs was like nails on a chalkboard. Completely wrong for her operatic voice. Even so, Eddy and MacDonald still manage to shine, showing what true stars they were.