Prestige (1932)

Calificación de los usuarios:

6.0/10   

Director:

Tay Garnett

Escritores:

Harry Hervey (story)
Tay Garnett (adaptation) ...

Fecha de Lanzamiento:

22 enero 1932 (USA)

Género:

Aventura | Drama

Plot Keywords:

Colonial Era | Marriage | Separation | Jungle | Elephant

Comentarios de los usuarios:

"Tracking" through the jungle

Reparto

Ann Harding	...	Therese Du Flos Verlaine
Adolphe Menjou	...	Capt. Remy Baudoin
Melvyn Douglas	...	Lt. / Capt. Andre Verlaine
Ian Maclaren	...	Col. Du Flos (as Ian MacLaren)
Guy Bates Post	...	Major
Rollo Lloyd	...	Capt. Emil de Fontenac
Clarence Muse	...	Nham, Verlaine's Servant
Tetsu Komai	...	Sergeant

También conocida como:

Prestigio (Spain) [es]

Duración:

71 min

País:

USA

Idioma:

Inglés

Color:

Negro y Blanco

Relación de Aspecto:

1.37 : 1

Sonido:

Mono (RCA Photophone System)

Clasificación:

USA:Passed

Locaciones de Filmación:

Venice, Florida, USA

Compañía:

RKO Pathé Pictures

Trivialidades:

Melvyn Douglas was borrowed from Samuel Goldwyn to replace the originally cast Robert Williams (V) who had died of a ruptured appendix.

Citas:

Therese Du Flos Verlaine: [as Therese prepares to leave for French Indochina, she says goodbye to her father, the Colonel] Aren't you going to let me forget just for five minutes that I'm a soldier's daughter?
Col. Du Flos: From now on, you'll have to remember it more than ever. You're going out to marry André, but that is not enough. You'll live in a place where it is impossible to live; you'll make your home where no home can be. Have you sufficient strength for that?
Therese Du Flos Verlaine: I hope so, sir.
Col. Du Flos: I believe you have, but so has the jungle. Don't let it engulf you. Don't let it break André. Take to him your race for a wedding gift, the prestige of the White man. That means everything you stand for, and it is the only weapon you two will have--prestige--but it is enough to preserve you. Now--wasn't that a pretty speech?
[...]

Banda de Sonido:

La Marseillaise

"Tracking" through the jungle

This is RKO's entry in the "White Man's Grave" genre. Being an Ann Harding (queen of the women's picture) vehicle, it lacks the ineffable luridness of most early Hollywood jungle melodramas (White Woman, Red Dust, Panama Flo, etc.). Instead, it generally takes the high road in delineating a French colonial officer's descent into despondency and alcoholism in a sweaty Southeast Asian outpost. Enough politically-incorrect dialog and flouting of accepted morals does creep into the picture to place it in the pre-code realm, but much less than one might expect.

Although long-forgotten, the film definitely has many points to recommend it. The ever-reliable Hollywood helmsman Tay Garnett here evinces a startling obsession with keeping the camera moving -- it's just one complex tracking shot after another, with several long pans thrown in. When the camera does remain static, it's often to emphasize a dramatic moment, and quite effectively so.

Also, long before the infusion of liberal ideals into Hollywood's view of third-world relations, this picture's take is surprisingly modern. The protagonists learn their lesson in dignity from a remarkably loyal and noble native servant (played by the great thespian Clarence Muse). At the same time, the clearly delineated incompatibility between the French and the natives shows the futility of the "white man's burden" philosophy.