In 1946, low-rent Republic Studios lured Oscar-winning writer Ben Hecht with the offer of being able to produce and direct films. But while the studio gave Hecht creative liberty, it imprisoned him within its ridiculously low budget framework. For his first (and, it turned out, only) Republic offering, Hecht had $200,000 to spend.<\/p>\n
The resulting work, \u201cSpecter of the Rose,\u201d turned out to be one of the most bewildering features of Hollywood\u2019s Golden Age. Part-thriller, part-light comedy and part-ballet, the production was an emotionally bipolar experience. It also betrayed Hecht\u2019s\u00a0limitations as a filmmaker \u2013 cinematographer Lee Garmes shared co-director status, albeit with minimal prominence in the credits.<\/p>\n
\u201cSpecter of the Rose\u201d focused on the efforts of would-be impresario Max Poliakoff (played by Russian acting teacher and occasional thespian Michael Chekov) trying to pull together various dubious talents for a major ballet endeavor. Aging ex-ballerina Madame La Sylph (Judith Anderson) reluctantly agrees to get pulled into Poliakoff\u2019s scheme, which involve bringing the elusive ballet star Andre Sanine (Ivan Kirov) back to the stage. Sanine had been sidelined following the on-stage death of his wife, and in his grief he began proclaiming that he was responsible for her death. But the offer to star and choreograph a new production, coupled with his sudden infatuation for Haidi, one of Madame La Sylph\u2019s students (Viola Essen), brings Sanine back to performing.<\/p>\n
However, the endeavor is wrought with endless problems: Poliakoff runs up debts and resorts to outrageous lies to keep his creditors pacified while a degenerate poet (Lionel Stander) whose love for Haidi goes unrequited stalks the ballerina. Haida winds up marrying Sanine, but his mental health begins to fray after their wedding \u2013 and it appears that his distraught claims about being responsible for his wife\u2019s death had a ring of truth.<\/p>\n
\u201cSpecter of the Rose\u201d is notable for carrying some of the most pretentiously peculiar dialogue in the history of English-language cinema. Lines such as \u201cThe lunacy of great artists usually produces masterpieces, not murders\u201d and \u201cThe suffering of the masses is a minor phenomenon beside one man\u2019s tears\u201d and \u201cHug me with your eyes\u201d crash throughout the story, and it is hard to determine whether Hecht was trying to make an artistic statement or if he wrote the script while drunk.<\/p>\n
There is also the bizarre performance by Chekov \u2013 with his wavy hair, oversized boutonni\u00e8re and florid use of language (everyone is called \u201cdarling,\u201d regardless of gender), his Poliakoff vividly shredded the Production Code\u2019s taboo on obvious homosexual characters. The character\u2019s atrocious behavior \u2013 deliberate mistruths, unctuous flattery and silly threats \u2013 makes him maddening rather than amusing. Matching Chekov for sheer strangeness is Stander, the gravel-voiced character actor whose line readings of Hecht\u2019s overripe dialogue are so tortured that it feels like he is reciting his part phonetically.<\/p>\n
And as for the grand ballet that is promised for the first two-thirds of the film, the resulting production is such a Republic-caliber cheapjack offering that it feels like the screenplay\u2019s endless teasing of a masterwork was the ultimate bait-and-switch \u2013 especially since the title and a few dialogue references to the ballet \u201cLe Spectre de la Rose\u201d seem to suggest there would be a version of that masterwork on screen.<\/p>\n
Nonetheless, \u201cSpecter of the Rose\u201d keeps the viewer attention through Garmes\u2019 effective noir-style cinematography (which mostly hides the poverty of the budget) and a stunning performance by Ivanov, a Broadway chorus dancer making his film debut. His rugged physical presence and offbeat interpretation of the increasingly unhinged ballet star dominates the film \u2013 and even if Tamara Geva\u2019s choreography is less than stellar, Kirov\u2019s physicality and emotional interpretation of the work saves the day. (Sadly, this was his only film appearance.)<\/p>\n
And for all of its failings and weirdness, \u201cSpecter of the Rose\u201d ties up brilliantly for its startling climax, where Sanine\u2019s madness and sense of artistry duel over him. Without giving too much away, it can be said that this sequence\u00a0embodies an astonishing\u00a0mix of Garmes\u2019 visual style, Kirov\u2019s magnificent dramatic and physical talent and Hecht\u2019s audacity to ratchet up the bizarre to a level of intellectual horror. This leaves the viewer with a sense of \u201cwhat the hell was that?\u201d \u2013 but, also, a subsequent consideration of \u201cwow, that was really different!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In 1946, low-rent Republic Studios lured Oscar-winning writer Ben Hecht with the offer of being able to produce and direct films. But while the studio gave Hecht creative liberty, it imprisoned him within its ridiculously low budget framework. For his first (and, it turned out, only) Republic offering, Hecht had $200,000 to spend. The resulting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":21392,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1369],"tags":[123,1376,1374,1375,1087],"class_list":["post-21391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-retro-cinema","tag-ballet","tag-ben-hecht","tag-film-noir","tag-specter-of-the-rose","tag-thriller"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21391"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21391\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21395,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21391\/revisions\/21395"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}