Poll

What's your favorite film by William Wyler?

Hell's Heroes
0 (0%)
Counsellor at Law
0 (0%)
The Good Fairy
0 (0%)
These Three
0 (0%)
Dodsworth
0 (0%)
Dead End
0 (0%)
Jezebel
1 (3.2%)
Wuthering Heights
0 (0%)
The Westerner
0 (0%)
The Letter
0 (0%)
The Little Foxes
1 (3.2%)
Mrs. Miniver
0 (0%)
The Best Years of Our Lives
8 (25.8%)
The Heiress
2 (6.5%)
Detective Story
0 (0%)
Carrie
0 (0%)
Roman Holiday
8 (25.8%)
The Desperate Hours
0 (0%)
Friendly Persuasion
0 (0%)
The Big Country
1 (3.2%)
Ben-Hur
2 (6.5%)
The Children's Hour
0 (0%)
The Collector
2 (6.5%)
How to Steal a Million
0 (0%)
Funny Girl
1 (3.2%)
haven't seen any
4 (12.9%)
don't like any
1 (3.2%)

Total Members Voted: 31

Author Topic: Wyler, William  (Read 10445 times)

Paul Phoenix

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Re: Wyler, William
« Reply #30 on: March 30, 2016, 02:43:16 PM »
Carrie

I'm going to guess you're thinking of Brian De Palma's Carrie.

All these movie titles are going to be the death of me.
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pixote

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Re: Wyler, William
« Reply #31 on: September 14, 2016, 07:05:12 PM »


















































The Love Trap  (William Wyler, 1929)

There's half a really fine movie here and half a very blah movie. There's also half a silent film and half a sound film. There's no correlation between those two pairs; the silent and sound sections both have their great moments. It's interesting that the style of the film doesn't change at all between the two halves. Aside from some silent film-style pratfalls early on, you can almost imagine that they meant to record sound for the first half but there was a malfunction, so they just threw in some intertitles.

Even more interesting is how so much of the style I associate with Wyler is already on display in 1929. I've always loved his use of depth in the frame — the way he stages shots in both the foreground and background simultaneously, letting the two planes of visuals inform each other. Many of the screenshots above highlight Wyler's distinctly cinematic, three-dimsensional depth, and The Love Trap is a much better film for it.

I wasn't previously familiar with Laura La Plante (having yet to see The Cat and the Canary). There's a delightful pluckiness to her screen presence that reminds me of another actress — but I haven't been able to figure out who that is. Maybe Lucille Ball? I'm surprised La Plante didn't develop into the sly, wise-cracking sidekick type (like Ruth Hussey or someone similar) as sound films took over.

Norman Trevor should have been a great character actor in the sound era, too — taking roles away from Lewis Stone. It's a shame he died just months after The Love Trap was released. You should recognize the actor in this screenshot as someone who did in fact continue to make an impact decades later. It's teevee's Commissioner Gordon! He's just okay here.

The sound recording process at the time doesn't do favor to any of the performances, but it's a cool experience to spend forty minutes watching actors perform before finally hearing what they sound like. It's the blind auditions from The Voice, but inverted. There was definitely an adjustment period, as I was like, "Oh, that's what you sound like?! Hmm." It lets you experience a taste of the anxiety studios, actors, and audiences all must have experienced during those transitional years.

The story is enjoyably pre-Code, but also troubling in its gender relations. LaPlante basically marries one overly handsy lothario simply because he's less rapey than another overly handsy lecher. Or so it seems at first. But the dubious setup makes it all the more satisfying when LaPlante turns the tables in the end. I was borderline throughout about whether I could recommend this film, but the smile-inducing final scene really clinched it.

Grade: B-

Up next: Hell's Heroes

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pixote

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Re: Wyler, William
« Reply #32 on: November 12, 2016, 10:06:00 PM »












Hell's Heroes  (William Wyler, 1929)

Wyler's first full sound film is typical of such efforts, with technological concerns seeming to have overshadowed most other directorial concerns. Very little of the promise displayed in The Love Trap is on display in Hell's Heroes, and without the title card I'd be hard-pressed to identity it as a Wyler film.

Peter Kyne's 1913 novel The Three Godfathers had been filmed at least three times prior to Hell's Heroes (once by John Ford) and has been adapted more than a few times since (once by John Ford). Yet somehow this is my first full exposure to the story of three amoral bank robbers who can't turn their backs on an abandoned newborn. It's a nice, simple tale, with easy and appealing plot points, but the treatment here is too hampered by the film's lack of rhythm. At times it's almost like the actors are leaving room for applause breaks between every line of dialogue. Cool to see Charles Bickford near the start of his career, though.

The cinematography lacks the precision that I've come to expect in a Wyler film. I'm curious to see how long into the sound era it takes him to return to strong visual sense he displayed at the end of the silent era.

Grade: C

Up next: A House Divided

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« Last Edit: January 10, 2017, 06:53:34 PM by pixote »
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chardy999

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Re: Director's Best: William Wyler
« Reply #33 on: December 14, 2016, 06:14:37 AM »
Roman Holiday
The Best Years of Our Lives


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DarkeningHumour

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Re: Wyler, William
« Reply #34 on: December 14, 2016, 06:29:02 AM »
Don't start with Ben-Hur. Just saying.
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Re: Wyler, William
« Reply #35 on: December 15, 2016, 01:37:38 AM »
Don't start with Ben-Hur. Just saying.
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chardy999

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Re: Wyler, William
« Reply #36 on: December 15, 2016, 06:00:35 AM »
Don't start with Ben-Hur. Just saying.
Ben-Hur, 30°

Why would I ever watch Ben-Hur? I can't even get to Lawrence of Arabia, so that basically eliminates any "epic."
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DarkeningHumour

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Re: Wyler, William
« Reply #37 on: December 15, 2016, 12:32:43 PM »
Between watching both or neither I'd say watch both.
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DarkeningHumour

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Re: Wyler, William
« Reply #38 on: January 02, 2017, 09:14:49 AM »
Roman Holiday
How to Steal a Million
Wuthering Heights
Ben-Hur

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pixote

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Re: Wyler, William
« Reply #39 on: January 10, 2017, 07:22:06 PM »


A House Divided  (William Wyler, 1931)

In my review of Hell's Heroes above, I wrote, "I'm curious to see how long into the sound era it takes him to return to strong visual sense he displayed at the end of the silent era." A House Divided put an immediate end to my curiosity, showing Wyler back in fine form.

1931 is one of my favorite years of cinema, as demonstrated with visuals here. There's just such a joy to watching these filmmakers (not just directors but everyone involved in film production) really figure out how to make talking pictures — but at a time before the visual storytelling sensibilities of silent movies has been too forgotten. A House Divided fits perfectly into that narrative. Wyler's growth as a director of sound films from Hell's Heroes (1929) to this picture in 1931 is remarkable, and at times A House Divided even feels like it's helping to shape the style that would define Hollywood films of the whole decade and beyond.

The film opens and closes with two dialogue-free sequences that are among the film's best, both of which make fine use of the soundtrack. There's very little score here. Ambient sounds create the backdrop for this melodrama — melodrama that borders on horror. Walter Huston plays a through-and-through bastard named Seth Law, who, after the death of his wife, gets a new wife from a mail-order bride catalog. He doesn't want a life partner so much as he wants a maid that will be tied to her service through the bonds of matrimony. He sends for a workhorse of a woman, but it's young and dainty Helen Chandler who arrives in her place. She seems a better match for Law's son Matt (Douglass Montgomery), but the marriage proceeds as planned. The screenshot above is from right after the wedding, after Seth tells his son, "Matt, meet your new ma." It's a great moment that encapsulates all the lovely sexual and familial tension in this brisk little film.

This is a Universal Pictures movie, and as I alluded to earlier, it wouldn't feel out of place as part of a triple feature with Frankenstein and Dracula (the latter of which also features Chandler). There's something horrific about the patriarch Huston portrays here, even before he crawls menacingly across the floor like Lon Chaney. The storm-at-sea finale is wonderfully dark and over-the-top and features some damn cool special effects; and the ending made me say, "omg! Wait, what?!" which is always awesome.

It's a good movie. Don't let anyone tell you differently.

Grade: B

Up next: Tom Brown of Culver

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