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Post by Fading Fast on Oct 23, 2023 3:17:09 GMT
Ivy from 1947 with Joan Fontaine, Richard Ney, Cedric Hardwicke, Patric Knowles, Lucille Watson, Herbert Marshall and Sara Allgood
In Ivy, Joan Fontane is outstanding playing against type as a Victorian-era femme fatale with too many men and not enough money. Her character's passive aggressive menace is some of her best work. Unfortunately, an average script keeps Ivy from being a great movie.
Despite the script's mediocrity, director Sam Wood still made an engaging Victorian Era noir that smartly leverages its strong cast, large budget, quirky but effective score and lavish "periodish" sets and costumes, all shot in beautiful black and white.
Fontaine plays the wife of a kind man, played by Richard Ney, struggling to support them in the upper-class lifestyle they were used to, but which he can no longer afford. He's accepting of their situation; Fontaine, pretty and coveted by other men, is not.
She already has a lover, a doctor played by Patrick Knowles, but he wants her to get a divorce, something she knows her husband won't consider, so she is looking elsewhere. Elsewhere turns out to be an older, very rich gentleman played by Herbert Marshall.
Owing to the Motion Picture Production Code, the between-the-sheets stuff is ellided, but it seems that Fontaine would be happy being Marshall mistress (as long as it came with a big and regular check), but he won't sleep with a married woman, so she's got a problem.
Poor Joan, all she wants to do is have an affair and get paid. Is that so much to ask? Most men are happy to sleep with a woman and not have to marry her, but Fontaine keeps running into the honorable ones. So what is little Joanie to do?
It's a big leap, but Fontaine is an ambitious woman and Knowles, being a doctor, has a big bottle of poison just sitting there, so it's goodbye hubby. Innocent looking Fontaine, proves to have quite a devious mind, as she not only offs Ney, she sets Knowles up to take the fall.
The heart of the movie from here is Fontaine trying to keep all the pieces of her scheme in place as the placid but persistent, intuitive and smart Scotland Yard inspector, wonderfully played by Cedric Hardwicke, quietly but relentlessly keeps investigating.
It's a standard "wife murders poor husband to marry rich one" story, with the twist of the wife having an old lover around to pin the crime on. There's a trial, much angst and plenty of opportunity for Fontaine to think on her feet, but in 1947, crime in movies can't pay.
Unfortunately, however, the writer and director are way too obvious in showing us, early on, the clue that will undo Fontaine. So while the movie is still entertaining to see, most of the mystery is taken out of the story near the beginning.
It's also hard to believe that Fontaine, who has shown herself to be incredibly smart, cunning and forward thinking, would have been so careless with an obviously damning piece of evidence, but a plot has its needs.
Fontaine, though, not the plot, is the focus in this one. She's so darn pretty and tiny that you're stunned when she coldly plans and carries out a murder. You're further stunned when she shows the tenacity and ruthlessness to let another person hang for her crime.
She plays her character like a cute kitten with the heart of a jaguar. She even physically moves like a cat at times, calmly backing up as she gets ready to pounce or simpering before telling a deadly lie. It's a performance you will remember.
It's aided by an atypical score that includes a haunting harpsichord leitmotif that plays when Fontaine's character is thinking about her next devious move. It has a somewhat playful lilt, but used here, it contributes to the feeling that Fontaine is, possibly, insane.
Ney, Knowles and Marshall, all pros, are fine as the men in Fontaine's orbit, but it is the aforementioned Hardwicke who brings the real counterpoint to Fontaine's surprisingly indominable will.
Lucile Watson as Knowles' much-smarter-than-he mother is, as always, outstanding in another picture made under the Code with strong women. Sara Allgood’s performance also deserves mention as Knowles' loyal-to-a-fault housekeeper.
Had Ivy’s script been less of a copycat and had it hid its telling clue with more confidence in its audience, it would be a better picture. But with Fontaine's bravura performance, its talented supporting cast and a wonderful Victorian noir vibe, it's still a quite-engaging movie.
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Post by Andrea Doria on Oct 23, 2023 13:15:06 GMT
LOL "Poor Joan, all she wants to do is have an affair and get paid. Is that so much to ask?" Great review as always, Fading Fast. It makes me want to watch it all over again.
I always thought I liked Olivia de Havilland best in the great sister competition, but Joan was so good in this I might have to change my mind.
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Post by Fading Fast on Oct 23, 2023 13:44:13 GMT
LOL "Poor Joan, all she wants to do is have an affair and get paid. Is that so much to ask?" Great review as always, Fading Fast. It makes me want to watch it all over again. I always thought I liked Olivia de Havilland best in the great sister competition, but Joan was so good in this I might have to change my mind. Thank you, it was a fun one to write as the movie was so good.
While I think, and of course it's just an opinion, Joan is the prettier of the two, I used to think de Havilland was the better actress, but over the years, I've come to no longer feel that way. They are both incredibly talented actresses. I don't rank one above the other anymore, but Joan is still the cuter of the two.
For some reason, our Sunday Live! movies have had more (only?) Joan movies. I have a Bette Davis month planned that has a movie where de Havilland has a big role, so at some point, we'll start to bring some sister balance to our Sunday viewing, anyway.
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Post by topbilled on Oct 23, 2023 15:08:24 GMT
Oh Ivy have you no shame?
Yesterday was only my second viewing of IVY. The first time was when TCM first broadcast it back in January 2016. One thing I remember from the initial broadcast was that I felt some of the sets were too tiny and there was a claustrophobic feel to some of the scenes. I was eager to re-watch IVY to see if I still felt that way...and I do...
I think the flat occupied by villainess Ivy Lexton (Joan Fontaine) and her husband Jervis (Richard Ney), where she poisons him, is a very small set. Yes, we know they still have debts, but he has a good job at that point, and I see them having a more spacious home.
It seemed as if director Sam Wood and his crew of filmmakers were limited in terms of space on the soundstage at Universal. As if they didn't have enough room to construct all the main sets, and in this case, to properly build the interiors of the Lexton home where the film's most dramatic action occurs. As a result, there are a lot of medium shots, instead of long shots, to conceal the fact that it isn't a full set. Because of this, there is less fluidity than there might otherwise have been, because the actors and the camera are restricted in their movements.
In particular there's a moment when we see Ivy in bed, when the inspector shows up. The frame is cropped down from medium shots to mostly close-ups. Why don't we see Ivy pacing around, throwing a change of clothes on and going to answer the door? I know this sounds like nitpicking, but the obvious limitation of the Lexton set takes me out of the story. I'd expect a restricted set in a modest TV production, not with an 'A' budget motion picture.
Let's go on to some of the positives...the film makes good use of its cast, especially the gifted character actors. Rosalind Ivan is exceptional as the obedient but nervous maid. Lucile Watson fluctuates between loving mother and angry protectress who wants to ensure her son isn't hanged. Cedric Hardwicke is perfect as the undeterred detective. And Herbert Marshall is sublime as a rich man who will not marry the title character. I do think the film suffers a bit when Marshall is off screen. He is not present at all during the build-up to the murder and the immediate investigation. In fact, he does not reappear until the end, when Ivy is made to realize the futility of her efforts.
One story point that I feel is missing is the release of the lover, played by Patric Knowles. We know he won't be hanged after Ivy's guilt is confirmed. But the ending focuses on her demise, and it would have been nice if there had been a quick shot of him being released from prison...maybe going to see Ivy and possibly witnessing her fall. Because the script makes such a point of Knowles being freed, the audience is cheated not actually seeing him get out of prison.
The costuming is exquisite. Joan Fontaine is at her peak, physically, and looks pretty much in this film as she does in her next one, LETTER FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN. Sister Olivia de Havilland was the producers' first choice for the role of Ivy, but Miss de Havilland got cold feet and backed out at the last minute, which led the producers to offer the role to Miss Fontaine instead. The reason for de Havilland's hesitancy? She was afraid of playing another bad girl character, since she'd just done that a year earlier in THE DARK MIRROR. Apparently, she changed her mind a few years later, when she chose to play the morally ambiguous title role in MY COUSIN RACHEL.
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Post by jamesjazzguitar on Oct 23, 2023 19:41:36 GMT
Lilian Fontaine, Joan Fontaine & Richard Ney between takes on the set.
Was mom in any other films with one of her two daughters?
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Post by topbilled on Oct 23, 2023 21:19:37 GMT
Lilian Fontaine, Joan Fontaine & Richard Ney between takes on the set.
Was mom in any other films with one of her two daughters? Yes, she had a minor role in THE BIGAMIST (1953) which also starred daughter Joan, but I am not sure if they had scenes together. She did not appear in any films with daughter Olivia.
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Post by Andrea Doria on Oct 24, 2023 15:05:05 GMT
They are so interesting, I read a lot about both sisters yesterday. I knew Olivia lived to the age of 104 but hadn't realized that Joan also lived to a very old age of 96. What did Lilian feed those girls? I was not surprised to see that their parents divorced when they were young. I don't think I've read a biography of a classic film actress who didn't come from a broken home. In the beauty contest between the two, I always have to choose Olivia because in some photos my father took of mother back in the 40's she looks almost exactly like her. Like this one above particularly, but, I admit, Olivia's face can also look a little too round sometimes, while Joan is practically perfect... except... for her slightly off center mouth which can cause her smile to look a little sly at times. Perfect for Ivy!
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Post by Fading Fast on Oct 24, 2023 15:39:28 GMT
They are so interesting, I read a lot about both sisters yesterday. I knew Olivia lived to the age of 104 but hadn't realized that Joan also lived to a very old age of 96. What did Lilian feed those girls? I was not surprised to see that their parents divorced when they were young. I don't think I've read a biography of a classic film actress who didn't come from a broken home. In the beauty contest between the two, I always have to choose Olivia because in some photos my father took of mother back in the 40's she looks almost exactly like her. Like this one above particularly, but, I admit, Olivia's face can also look a little too round sometimes, while Joan is practically perfect... except... for her slightly off center mouth which can cause her smile to look a little sly at times. Perfect for Ivy! If possible, it would be wonderful to see one of those pictures of your mother from the '40s.
I have a friend who is an actuary in the insurance industry and he says that small-boned women who don't gain weight as they get old often live well into their hundreds. Or as a cynical insurance guy, he says, "Those small old ladies live for ever. They're great to write life insurance policies on as you have decades before you'll ever have to pay off."
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Post by Andrea Doria on Oct 24, 2023 19:39:56 GMT
LOL Your friend.
I would love to post my old pictures on the internet, but I've never figured out how to do it and I think it's probably better that I don't learn.
I didn't know how to post images from Google until I was taught how on this board and look what happened! Now I'm randomly posting gigantic pictures that I don't know how to shrink!
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Post by Fading Fast on Oct 24, 2023 19:54:54 GMT
LOL Your friend. I would love to post my old pictures on the internet, but I've never figured out how to do it and I think it's probably better that I don't learn. I didn't know how to post images from Google until I was taught how on this board and look what happened! Now I'm randomly posting gigantic pictures that I don't know how to shrink! LOL. Ever since he said that to me many years ago, I've paid attention to the older people in my and my friends' families and there is something to it - don't bet against the bird-like little old ladies.
Re the pictures, I don't think it's you as I don't think there is a way to shrink images from Google for this site. Other forums let you post from your downloads, so you can download, edit for size, etc., and then post, but I haven't found a way to do that on this site.
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Post by topbilled on Oct 30, 2023 14:29:31 GMT
Thought I'd mention that IVY is currently streaming on the Criterion Channel.
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