| Flesh and Fantasy | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Julien Duvivier |
| Written by | Ellis St. Joseph (Story segment 1) Oscar Wilde (Story segment 2) László Vadnay (Story segment 3) Ernest Pascal Samuel Hoffenstein |
| Starring | Edward G. Robinson Charles Boyer Barbara Stanwyck Betty Field |
| Music by | Alexandre Tansman |
| Cinematography | Stanley Cortez Paul Ivano |
| Editing by | Arthur Hilton |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
| Release date(s) | October 29, 1943 |
| Running time | 94 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Flesh and Fantasy is a 1943 American anthology film directed by Julien Duvivier, starring Edward G. Robinson, Charles Boyer and Barbara Stanwyck. The making of this film was inspired by the success of Duvivier's previous anthology film, the 1942 Tales of Manhattan.
Flesh and Fantasy tells three stories, unrelated but with a supernatural theme, by Ellis St. Joseph, Oscar Wilde,and László Vadnay. Tying together the three segments is a conversation about the occult between two clubmen, one played by humorist Robert Benchley.
Contents |
First segment
The setting is New Orleans. Plain and embittered Henrietta (Betty Field) secretly loves law student Michael (Robert Cummings). On Mardi Gras night, a mysterious stranger gives her a white mask of beauty that she must return at midnight. At a party, Michael falls in love with Henrietta but has yet to see her face under the mask. Henrietta encourages Michael to follow a better life although it may mean losing him forever. Henrietta removes the mask at midnight discovering she is now beautiful and that her old, selfish attitude was really the cause of her ugliness.
Second segment
This was based on Oscar Wilde's short story Lord Arthur Savile's Crime. A palmist named Podgers (Thomas Mitchell) is making uncannily accurate predictions at a party for the rich and bored. He tells skeptical lawyer Marshall Tyler (Edward G. Robinson) to avoid a certain street intersection on the way home. The palmist also acts as if he sees more in his hand but doesn’t admit it. Tyler eschews the advice and almost gets shot during a police chase at the intersection. Tyler goes to the palmist’s home. Under pressure, the palmist admits that he saw that Tyler is going to kill someone.
The notion obsesses Tyler, who decides that he must kill someone, anyone, just to get it over with. He comes close to killing two people but is unable to do so. He finally meets Podgers by accident on a bridge one night, and blaming Podgers for his problem, strangles him to death in a rage. Trying to escape, Tyler is hit by a car, which leads without a pause into the third segment of the film. The accident is witnessed by the Great Gaspar (Charles Boyer), a high-wire artist.
Third segment
High wire artist the Great Gaspar is haunted by dreams of falling, and in each dream of doom a certain woman (Barbara Stanwyck), he has never met, is there also. These dreams of death affect his performance as he backs down from the most dangerous stunt, jumping from one wire to another. Eventually he meets his dream girl, who has serious troubles to face up to. Gaspar later decides that he will not let his bad dreams negatively affect him and that his life is his own. He performs the stunt successfully, not knowing that the woman that he has now fallen in love with is about to be arrested by the police.
As originally filmed and edited, the feature began with a half-hour sequence concerning an escaped killer (Alan Curtis) who finds refuge with a farmer (Frank Craven) and his blind daughter (Gloria Jean). This sequence ended with a spectacular storm scene, staged by director Duvivier and photographer Paul Ivano, in which the enraged killer races after the blind girl. The forces of nature spare the girl but strike down the killer. The preview audience raved about this scene, but the studio removed it and shelved it. (The very end of the deleted scene survives in the final print: the killer's body washes up on shore.) To replace the missing footage, Universal connected the remaining three segments with new footage of humorist Robert Benchley. In 1944 Universal incorporated the Gloria Jean-Alan Curtis footage into a feature-length melodrama, Destiny; Reginald LeBorg directed the new scenes, and shared director credit with Duvivier.
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