There's just so much good to see in this film that it's a pity the editor let it go on for so long, overstaying its welcome. So many scenes could have been cut without loss of dramatic coherence or art. Surely the song and dance sequences, especially the early vaudevillian performances, are priceless and they belong in the picture. But the entire frame story was useless, with the unnecessary documentarian footage in the style of Woody Allen's Zelig. But in Zelig (or Citizen Kane) it made sense; here it comes across, as does the frame story, as pretentious and tedious. I'm convinced this movie would have been a huge success if properly edited and without the pretentious frame story and the faux newsreels. It seems pointless to me to pretend to make a bio and a musical at the same time. It's either one or the other. If I want to read a bio of Lawrence, I'll go to the library or view a straight documentary. Art should be selective. Also, it's incomprehensible with all the useless material that Lawrence's work on The King and I was excluded. One theory I have is that the R&H franchise was too costly (the songs would have cost too much). Also R&H, like Disney, tend to be possessive of their material, as the estate currently is. After all, along with the Disney franchise, the R&H franchise is one of the greatest of the 20th century. This is all speculation. It's also puzzling, since the studio went for the bio angle that Lawrence's final days and death were omitted. What the film obviously lacks is narrative drive. It had everything else.
As for the portrayal of Noel Coward, I was not impressed at all. To me at least the actor didn't capture the spirit of Coward at all and his witticisms fell flat; some were almost embarrassing such as the line about Andrews making a good exit after she walks out the door and drops in a faint. A line like that may have sounded witty decades ago, or maybe with the proper delivery, but to me it sounded forced.
Also missing, to me, is the performance of the fine title song by Van Heusen and Cahn. Of course it was sung, as a manner of speaking, but not in the film narrative. Here again trying to be too accurate biographically weakened the film. It would have made a fine episode to hear Andrews belt out the song, at least as one blue-eyed singer did in his own recording of it.
It's ironic that this film was so poorly edited since Robert Wise began his career as an editor (as did David Lean and a few other directors). Of course editing is more than a mechanical act. Almost as with hip hop, the editor has to maintain a flow that seems inevitable. Thus simply snipping scenes did not work when the film was re-released.
Edgar Allan Poe wrote a rather controversial essay, I believe as part of the Philosophy of Composition, where he claims that a long poem is a contradiction since one cannot maintain poetic form at great length. Whether that's true of literature or not is another issue; but I've always preferred the neat 90 minute movie to longer movies, giving us, as it were, too much of a good thing. As the saying goes, leave the audience wanting more.
As for the portrayal of Noel Coward, I was not impressed at all. To me at least the actor didn't capture the spirit of Coward at all and his witticisms fell flat; some were almost embarrassing such as the line about Andrews making a good exit after she walks out the door and drops in a faint. A line like that may have sounded witty decades ago, or maybe with the proper delivery, but to me it sounded forced.
Also missing, to me, is the performance of the fine title song by Van Heusen and Cahn. Of course it was sung, as a manner of speaking, but not in the film narrative. Here again trying to be too accurate biographically weakened the film. It would have made a fine episode to hear Andrews belt out the song, at least as one blue-eyed singer did in his own recording of it.
It's ironic that this film was so poorly edited since Robert Wise began his career as an editor (as did David Lean and a few other directors). Of course editing is more than a mechanical act. Almost as with hip hop, the editor has to maintain a flow that seems inevitable. Thus simply snipping scenes did not work when the film was re-released.
Edgar Allan Poe wrote a rather controversial essay, I believe as part of the Philosophy of Composition, where he claims that a long poem is a contradiction since one cannot maintain poetic form at great length. Whether that's true of literature or not is another issue; but I've always preferred the neat 90 minute movie to longer movies, giving us, as it were, too much of a good thing. As the saying goes, leave the audience wanting more.