It's remarkable just how entertaining this low-budget crime drama is considering its lack of twists, absence of any real mystery and minimal amounts of tension. Instead it makes its impact by delivering a story about murder, deception and betrayal in a way that's very straight forward and seemingly uninhibited by the relatively strict censorship rules that were in force at the time when the movie was made. Its focus on a diabolical femme fatale and the ways in which she uses sex as a force of evil is fun to watch and also highly effective in driving the narrative along. Adapted from a story called "Big Shot" by Vicki Baum, it's also evident that the writer must've had some fun in naming her characters as they include a con-artist called Connie, an alcoholic called Al and a professional cyclist called Wheeler.
The action begins in 1936 in a vaudeville hall in Mexico City where a comedian's act is interrupted by the sounds of a couple of gunshots and a woman's scream. The show is soon brought to a close and a performer called Eddie Wheeler (Stephen Barclay) is arrested for the murder of his wife Connie (Mary Beth Hughes). After everyone else has left the building and the comedian is left to collect up his props, a seriously injured man falls onto the stage from the rafters above and proceeds to tell his story to the bewildered Tony (Lester Allen) who recognises the story-teller as one of his fellow performers called "The Great Flamarion" (Erich von Stroheim). Even more surprisingly, the bullet-ridden Flamarion confesses that he actually strangled Connie to death and then describes the events that lead to the murder.
Over a year earlier, Flamarion, who was a highly skilled marksman, had been working on the Pittsburgh vaudeville circuit with his assistants, the beautiful Connie and her habitually drunk husband Al (Dan Duryea). Unknown to Flamarion, Connie was having an affair with a member of a bicycle act called Eddie and was also planning to get rid of Al with the assistance of her boss. She then carried out her plan by convincing the sceptical Flamarion that she was hopelessly in love with him and persuading him to "accidentally" kill Al during one of their performances. The besotted sharpshooter went ahead with the murder as planned and afterwards the Coroner's verdict was that Falmarion was blameless because Al was so drunk that his timing had been adversely affected.
Afterwards, when Flamarion expects to be able to get married to Connie, he reluctantly agrees when she suggests that they should let the dust settle for three months to avoid giving anyone any grounds for suspicion about what's happened. She says that she'll spend the time at her mother's place in Minnesota and agrees to meet up with Flamarion at "The Empire Hotel" in Chicago at an appointed date. She doesn't turn up, the Minnesota address doesn't exist and in reality, she has instead gone on to marry and work with Eddie Wheeler. The eventual realisation of all these things and his recognition that he's been so cynically manipulated, propels Flamarion into a rapid and devastating downward spiral that culminates in the deadly revenge that he took on Connie and the fate that he suffers soon after.
Importantly, Mary Beth Hughes is a knockout in her key role bringing tremendous vibrancy and sparkle to her character and consistently showing the thoughts that are going through this evil woman's head. Dan Duryea is superb as her husband who claims that he turned to drink because of her antics and despite this, prefers to stay with her. When Connie decided to seduce Flamarion into doing what she wanted, she took on a challenge because, he was a man who following a romance that had gone wrong many years earlier, had become a woman hater and a solitary guy who didn't smoke, drink or have any friends. Softening up this proud and bitter man was probably her greatest achievement even though, ironically this action also ultimately determined her fate. The wonderfully eccentric Erich von Stroheim's main achievement in his role is the ways in which he so convincingly portrays both sides of Flamarion's character and makes the changes he goes through appear to be perfectly plausible.
Whilst "The Great Flamarion" is no masterpiece or even a top rated film noir, it is nevertheless, highly entertaining and a lot of fun to watch.
The action begins in 1936 in a vaudeville hall in Mexico City where a comedian's act is interrupted by the sounds of a couple of gunshots and a woman's scream. The show is soon brought to a close and a performer called Eddie Wheeler (Stephen Barclay) is arrested for the murder of his wife Connie (Mary Beth Hughes). After everyone else has left the building and the comedian is left to collect up his props, a seriously injured man falls onto the stage from the rafters above and proceeds to tell his story to the bewildered Tony (Lester Allen) who recognises the story-teller as one of his fellow performers called "The Great Flamarion" (Erich von Stroheim). Even more surprisingly, the bullet-ridden Flamarion confesses that he actually strangled Connie to death and then describes the events that lead to the murder.
Over a year earlier, Flamarion, who was a highly skilled marksman, had been working on the Pittsburgh vaudeville circuit with his assistants, the beautiful Connie and her habitually drunk husband Al (Dan Duryea). Unknown to Flamarion, Connie was having an affair with a member of a bicycle act called Eddie and was also planning to get rid of Al with the assistance of her boss. She then carried out her plan by convincing the sceptical Flamarion that she was hopelessly in love with him and persuading him to "accidentally" kill Al during one of their performances. The besotted sharpshooter went ahead with the murder as planned and afterwards the Coroner's verdict was that Falmarion was blameless because Al was so drunk that his timing had been adversely affected.
Afterwards, when Flamarion expects to be able to get married to Connie, he reluctantly agrees when she suggests that they should let the dust settle for three months to avoid giving anyone any grounds for suspicion about what's happened. She says that she'll spend the time at her mother's place in Minnesota and agrees to meet up with Flamarion at "The Empire Hotel" in Chicago at an appointed date. She doesn't turn up, the Minnesota address doesn't exist and in reality, she has instead gone on to marry and work with Eddie Wheeler. The eventual realisation of all these things and his recognition that he's been so cynically manipulated, propels Flamarion into a rapid and devastating downward spiral that culminates in the deadly revenge that he took on Connie and the fate that he suffers soon after.
Importantly, Mary Beth Hughes is a knockout in her key role bringing tremendous vibrancy and sparkle to her character and consistently showing the thoughts that are going through this evil woman's head. Dan Duryea is superb as her husband who claims that he turned to drink because of her antics and despite this, prefers to stay with her. When Connie decided to seduce Flamarion into doing what she wanted, she took on a challenge because, he was a man who following a romance that had gone wrong many years earlier, had become a woman hater and a solitary guy who didn't smoke, drink or have any friends. Softening up this proud and bitter man was probably her greatest achievement even though, ironically this action also ultimately determined her fate. The wonderfully eccentric Erich von Stroheim's main achievement in his role is the ways in which he so convincingly portrays both sides of Flamarion's character and makes the changes he goes through appear to be perfectly plausible.
Whilst "The Great Flamarion" is no masterpiece or even a top rated film noir, it is nevertheless, highly entertaining and a lot of fun to watch.