All the Brothers Were Valiant (1953)

Calificación de los usuarios:

6.2/10   

Director:

Richard Thorpe

Escritores:

Harry Brown (writer)
Ben Ames Williams (novel)

Fecha de Lanzamiento:

13 noviembre 1953 (USA)

Género:

Aventura | Drama | Romance

Frase comercial:

MGM's Great Technicolor Romance!

Plot:

Sea-faring saga of two brothers (Robert Taylor, Stewart Granger) and the woman they both love. Set against South Pacific islands...

Plot Keywords:

Remake | Beautiful Woman | Based On Novel

Premios:

Nominated for Oscar.

Comentarios de los usuarios:

Turgid Whaling Drama of Limited Interest

Reparto

Robert Taylor	...	Joel Shore
Stewart Granger	...	Mark Shore
Ann Blyth	...	Priscilla 'Pris' Holt
Betta St. John	...	Native Girl
Keenan Wynn	...	Silva
James Whitmore	...	Fetcher
Kurt Kasznar	...	Quint
Lewis Stone	...	Captain Holt
Robert Burton	...	Asa Worthen
Peter Whitney	...	James Finch, First Mate
John Lupton	...	Dick Morrell, Third Mate
Jonathan Cott	...	Carter
Mitchell Lewis	...	Cook
James Bell	...	Aaron Burnham
Leo Gordon	...	Peter How

También conocida como:

Todos los hermanos eran valientes (Spain) [es]

Duración:

95 min | USA:101 min (original release)

País:

USA

Idioma:

Inglés

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Relación de Aspecto:

1.37 : 1

Sonido:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Clasificación:

Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved (PCA #16392) | Australia:PG

Compañía:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Conexiones de Película:

Version of Across to Singapore (1928)

Turgid Whaling Drama of Limited Interest

Robert Taylor and Stewart Granger star in this dark tale about brothers feuding over just about everything while on an 1850s whaling adventure. The film is enjoyable not for the story, which is melodramatic, but the locales, which offer a good look at old-time whaling.

Both brothers are whaling ship Captains. Granger plays Mark Shore, lost and presumed dead during an earlier whaling trip. Taylor is Joel Shore, who not only has been named Captain of the same ship from which Mark disappeared, but also has taken Mark's supposed widow, played by Ann Blyth, as his own wife. Uh oh, Mark better be really dead.... When Mark inevitably is found by Joel's ship in the South Seas (what a coincidence!), all sorts of issues and complications arise.

One could enjoy this film as a psychological study of brothers who never resolved their childhood issues and now are repeating them on a larger stage. The brothers manifest this by flinging insults at each other concerning who is bringing more shame to the mighty Shore name. Personally, I don't think either of them brings much credit to it, and the entire issue is silly. In fact, I found the film's exclusive focus on the Shores and their problems with each other since toilet training to be elitist and stultifying. The tale could have been so much better with a broader focus. The brothers' tedious infighting about who is more ethical and brave is profitless mental masturbation.

The heart of the tale is the effect of greed on otherwise rational people. While "lost," Mark happened on some pearls worth a fortune, but then lost them, but he knows exactly where they are and he wants them back. (He also happened upon a lovely native girl, played marvelously by Betta St. John, who saved his life at least twice, but she is shrugged off so casually that she isn't even given a name. I suppose it wouldn't matter to anyone in the film anyway, since it doesn't end with "Shore.") Joel doesn't want to go and retrieve the pearls, since he actually takes his whaling job seriously. Yes, there is brotherly conflict! This all plays out in a very dull, dreary way that some may find interesting, but I sure didn't.

Blyth works at stealing the picture, and does a good job early, but once Mark shows up, she starts fading into the background and ultimately practically disappears. Which is a shame, because she is radiant and deserved a better character. Even she is infected by greed for the pearls, but this only leads to yet more hand-wringing over who is the more worthy Shore. Taylor is wooden and stoic, and he drags the picture down with his deadly monotone and lifeless line readings. He looks sedated when energy is in order. The only intense scenes involve Granger's flashbacks, in which he falls in with some very dangerous men who lead him to the pearls on a very pretty South Seas island. I also found the views of old New Bedford to be very evocative.

Some might find the (one) whaling scene in the picture interesting, but then again, you might find scenes of a whale being cut up like sausage to be a total turn off. The scenes disgusted me. Times have changed, you will never see anything like that in a current Hollywood film. The whaling ship itself does not look real (among other things, it is way too clean and unworn), and there are odd lighting artifacts that detract from the realism. The drama is weak, and the climax completely lame and trite. The brothers supposedly are playing out rivalries from childhood, but those rivalries are merely given lip service here and there (and they keep using the same phrase about taking toys away from one another, which sounds wacky coming out of the mouths of grown men).

Granger valiantly tries to swash-buckle through the film, but rarely manages it. The title is meant to have multiple meanings, which, like much else in the script, is an unnecessary complication with a fuzzy implication. Recommended for fans of the stars only.