6.8 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
In 1936, the witty columnist Sheilah Graham meets the decadent writer F. Scott Fitzgerald, and they immediately fall in love, but their relationship is affected by his drinking problem.
Starring: Gregory Peck, Deborah Kerr, Eddie Albert, Philip Ober, Herbert RudleyRomance | 100% |
Drama | 73% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.35:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 4.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
Music: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
English SDH
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 2.0 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 1.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
Most actors, especially established stars, yearn for roles that allow them to stretch their performance muscles and play against type. Most big stars who attained their status in the heyday of the studio system often found themselves stifled by typecasting, especially if they enjoyed overwhelming success in any given role. Studio executives weren’t about to risk placing an established property in something unexpected, and if the paying public had shown their approval by lining up at the box office for, say, Tyrone Power as a swashbuckling hero, then Tyrone Power as a swashbuckling hero is exactly what the public would be offered. Over and over. Many of the most pointed disputes in the Golden Era of Hollywood had the subtext of actors trying to break out of this predetermined mold. Power himself in fact attempted to play against type in the 1946 film version of W. Somerset Maugham’s The Razor’s Edge, delivering a surprisingly nuanced performance in a difficult role. (Intrestingly, Maugham’s Of Human Bondage in its first film adaptation provided a defining role for Bette Davis early in her career.) Another legendary writer with a first initial followed by a middle and surname, one F. Scott Fitzgerald, had his own battles with “type casting” in Hollywood. After having been arguably the most popular writer in the world (or at least America) in the 1920s, Fitzgerald descended into an alcoholic haze from which he never really fully recovered. Hollywood attempted to squeeze what it could out of the once profligate author, but Fitzgerald’s days in Los Angeles were neither very productive nor very successful. Fitzgerald’s Hollywood years became yet another object lesson in playing against type when Gregory Peck was cast to play the author in the 1959 film version of Sheilah Graham’s memoir Beloved Infidel. Peck is so indelibly imprinted on the general public consciousness as Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird that it’s sometimes hard to remember some of the darker, less heroic roles that Peck tackled at various times, notably Duel in the Sun. But there was such an innate decency emanating from Peck that even when the actor did play less morally upright characters something seemed slightly out of place, and that’s certainly the case with Beloved Infidel. Peck’s unease in his role is matched, perhaps relatively less noticeably, by Deborah Kerr as Sheilah Graham, one of the great provocateurs of her time (rather like Dorothy Parker), and Kerr, like Peck playing against type, doesn’t quite seem to know what to make of her character. That leaves two iconic performers flailing about in a pretty sudsy melodrama that is, to put it mildly, a rather depressing look at a doomed love affair between two mismatched souls.
Beloved Infidel is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Twilight Time with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. For whatever reasons, the Fox titles Twilight Time licenses sometimes don't seem to have quite the pop that the label's Columbia titles do, and that's the case here as well. While the image is generally very sharp and well defined, this transfer also shows rather persistent ringing, especially in some of the beachside scenes where the characters walk in front of brighter backgrounds. The elements are in generally excellent shape, with only the expected very minor age related wear and tear visible. Colors, while accurate and well saturated, seem to be ever so slightly faded. Some of the stock footage is noticeably grainier and is less pristine condition than the bulk of the film. (I'm not sure if the pan across the harbor under the opening credits is stock footage or not, but the camera operator was extremely unsteady—have your Dramamine ready, perhaps appropriate given the shipside setting.)
Beloved Infidel features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 4.0 mix that is rather conservative in terms of any real consistent use of the rear channels but which does nicely separate things across the front of the soundstage. Dialogue is very cleanly and clearly presented, and Franz Waxman's score, which does populate all four channels rather well, sounds fantastic and full bodied. Dynamic range is fairly limited, aside from a couple of outbursts later in the film.
Beloved Infidel is a big, glossy entertainment, but that's it chief problem. There was no real reason for a 1959 film to be this scrubbed clean of any grit and grime, despite its supposedly elegant Hollywood setting. Peck and Kerr are just fatally miscast in this film, and even with the always reliable Henry King at the helm, things kind of flounder uncontrollably with the result playing like some kind of high-falutin' soap opera. Lovers of Franz Waxman may well want to get this disc due to the luscious isolated score, but the film itself is a largely wasted effort.
1954
1937
2010
Warner Archive Collection
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1931
1995
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1949
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1937
2004
Warner Archive Collection
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