Marion Davies is a highly misunderstood and controversial actress. While "Citizen Kane" did unfairly vilify Marion Davies (as it pretty much described her alter ego as talentless), she was nevertheless NOT a brilliant actress--particularly in her later sound films like "Cain and Mabel" and "Operator 13"--films which just about every critic hated and fans avoided like the plague. Now she had some very good films (I love "Show People")--but there is still lots of contention about her talents as an actress. This controversy is pretty obvious when you examine the scores on Davies' films on IMDb. Even her worst films have ridiculously high scores--with a MUCH higher percentage of 10 ratings than even great films like "On the Waterfront" (26.9%), "Singing in the Rain" (33%), "The Artist" (22.9%), "The Godfather, Part II" (48.2%) and "Gone With the Wind" (34.8%)! In fact, one of the only Oscar-winner for Best Picture that had a higher percentage of 10s than 50% was "The Godfather"--yet many of Davies' films are scored higher! With these scores we would assume almost all of her films are simply best films ever. Some folks obviously feel that Davies has been unfairly forgotten and most likely have over-scored her films in some weird attempt to 'set the record straight'! Hopefully this film will set the record straight and put her films in some context--the great, the not so great and the bad.
Much of the first portion of the film is not about Marion's film career but about her life before films. When she met William Randolph Hearst, he had a strong desire to push her into films. It seemed like he needed her to become a star a lot more than she wanted to be one. Their living together and her numerous affairs following this were discussed in the biography rather matter-of-factly.
Marion's silent films mostly consisted of comedies. For the most part, these are by far the best films of her career. They were fun and hold up well today. However, while she was in her element here, Hearst wanted folks to take her more seriously and pushed her to broaden her appeal--and with very mixed results. He also pushed her into romantic roles later in life when she simply was too old to pull off these younger roles. In fact, Hearst's 'assistance' often hurt her career as much as it helped her. Yes, he financed her films and his newspapers gave the films glowing reviews, but after a while the public started to avoid her films and Davies dealt with this by drinking heavily. Mostly, this is evident in her later films--the talkies.
The final portion of the film is about her life after films. Her life with Hearst, his death, her later marriage to Horace Brown and her 'niece' were all discussed in the biography. It's mostly pretty melancholy--and a bit tough to watch. However, the overall film is quite nice--and pretty balanced even though the film didn't really discuss her flops--which gives a slightly skewed version of her career.
By the way a couple things about this DVD. First, it's nice to see the great Oscar-winning film historian Kevin Brownlow discussing his career. Considering what a brilliant man he is and how much of his life has been spent celebrating the greats of film, it adds much to support the notion that Marion is underrated as an actress. Second, one of Davies' best silents, "Quality Street" is included as a special feature on the disc.
Much of the first portion of the film is not about Marion's film career but about her life before films. When she met William Randolph Hearst, he had a strong desire to push her into films. It seemed like he needed her to become a star a lot more than she wanted to be one. Their living together and her numerous affairs following this were discussed in the biography rather matter-of-factly.
Marion's silent films mostly consisted of comedies. For the most part, these are by far the best films of her career. They were fun and hold up well today. However, while she was in her element here, Hearst wanted folks to take her more seriously and pushed her to broaden her appeal--and with very mixed results. He also pushed her into romantic roles later in life when she simply was too old to pull off these younger roles. In fact, Hearst's 'assistance' often hurt her career as much as it helped her. Yes, he financed her films and his newspapers gave the films glowing reviews, but after a while the public started to avoid her films and Davies dealt with this by drinking heavily. Mostly, this is evident in her later films--the talkies.
The final portion of the film is about her life after films. Her life with Hearst, his death, her later marriage to Horace Brown and her 'niece' were all discussed in the biography. It's mostly pretty melancholy--and a bit tough to watch. However, the overall film is quite nice--and pretty balanced even though the film didn't really discuss her flops--which gives a slightly skewed version of her career.
By the way a couple things about this DVD. First, it's nice to see the great Oscar-winning film historian Kevin Brownlow discussing his career. Considering what a brilliant man he is and how much of his life has been spent celebrating the greats of film, it adds much to support the notion that Marion is underrated as an actress. Second, one of Davies' best silents, "Quality Street" is included as a special feature on the disc.