An American Tragedy

Amerikkalainen murhenäytelmä / En amerikansk tragedi. US (c) 1931 Paramount. P+D: Josef von Sternberg. SC: Samuel Hoffenstein - based on the novel by Theodore Dreiser (1925). DP: Lee Garmes. Starring: Phillips Holmes (Clyde Griffiths), Sylvia Sidney (Roberta /Bert/ Alden), Frances Dee (Sondra Finchley). 95 min. E-subtitles in Italian. Print: UCLA. Viewed at Arlecchino, Bologna, 1 July 2008. - I had seen this film previously on TV only, and it was very moving to experience it on the big screen. The print bears the marks of the Paramount tragedy. The UCLA print has been lovingly prepared but looks at least partly like a 16mm blowup. - Sternberg made the film with great feeling and commitment against the grain, as Dreiser is a naturalist and Sternberg an anti-naturalist. - The coldness of the performance of Phillips Holmes may have distanced audiences. Montgomery Clift was more successful in making the tragic protagonist both emotionally engaging and terrible in his calculation.