Functioning as a sort of bridge between the cheerful macabre of 1944's Arsenic & Old Lace and the droll 1949 Ealing classic Kind Hearts & Coronets, sits Charles Chaplin's acclaimed 1947 black comedy Monsieur Verdoux. But it's an uncomfortable one, and Chaplin proves unable to stay metaphorically seated for any amount of time.
The film depicts an out-of-work banker's unique way of obtaining income to support his wife & child: he fraudulently marries wealthy widows, and murders them. The film is maddeningly episodic in that, once he finds a few widows that compromise his plans (most notably by continually coming into contact with one another), the film just sort of bounces back and forth between the bland and forgettable Marie Grosnay (Isobel Elsom) and the spectacularly annoying Annabella Bonheur (Martha Raye). The film never truly achieves anything resembling an interest level until its final reels, which are at least sort of intriguing (making a satirical query of why when men order wars that kill hundreds of thousands, they are heroes, but one man kills a small amount, he is severely punished. The sequence is a jarring switch in tone from the previous 90 minutes, but at least it's interesting.
The other problem is that his character, and thus, the film, has no bite to it. Where Arsenic was all about the clash of overplaying and underplaying, and Kind Hearts made me cackle malicious, Verdoux is very matter-of-fact and workmanlike, completely to its detriment. Just because the acts are ho-hum to its character should not mean they are to its audience.
And that's the problem with the film as a whole, it never gets up enough energy and invention to distinguish it from similar, contemporary, and above all far BETTER films. From its comedy to its macabre to its romance to its setpieces, everything feels overly familiar, and done with less verve, and ultimately, less interest.
{Grade: 5/10 (C) / #13 (of 13) of 1947}
The film depicts an out-of-work banker's unique way of obtaining income to support his wife & child: he fraudulently marries wealthy widows, and murders them. The film is maddeningly episodic in that, once he finds a few widows that compromise his plans (most notably by continually coming into contact with one another), the film just sort of bounces back and forth between the bland and forgettable Marie Grosnay (Isobel Elsom) and the spectacularly annoying Annabella Bonheur (Martha Raye). The film never truly achieves anything resembling an interest level until its final reels, which are at least sort of intriguing (making a satirical query of why when men order wars that kill hundreds of thousands, they are heroes, but one man kills a small amount, he is severely punished. The sequence is a jarring switch in tone from the previous 90 minutes, but at least it's interesting.
The other problem is that his character, and thus, the film, has no bite to it. Where Arsenic was all about the clash of overplaying and underplaying, and Kind Hearts made me cackle malicious, Verdoux is very matter-of-fact and workmanlike, completely to its detriment. Just because the acts are ho-hum to its character should not mean they are to its audience.
And that's the problem with the film as a whole, it never gets up enough energy and invention to distinguish it from similar, contemporary, and above all far BETTER films. From its comedy to its macabre to its romance to its setpieces, everything feels overly familiar, and done with less verve, and ultimately, less interest.
{Grade: 5/10 (C) / #13 (of 13) of 1947}