Flesh and Fantasy
Encyclopedia
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
.
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.
) 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.
Anthology film
An anthology film is a feature film consisting of several different short films, often tied together by only a single theme, premise, or brief interlocking event . Sometimes each one is directed by a different director...
directed by Julien Duvivier
Julien Duvivier
Julien Duvivier was a French film director. He was prominent in French cinema in the years 1930-1960...
, starring Edward G. Robinson
Edward G. Robinson
Edward G. Robinson was a Romanian-born American actor. A popular star during Hollywood's Golden Age, he is best remembered for his roles as gangsters, such as Rico in his star-making film Little Caesar and as Rocco in Key Largo...
, Charles Boyer
Charles Boyer
Charles Boyer was a French actor who appeared in more than 80 films between 1920 and 1976. After receiving an education in drama, Boyer started on the stage, but he found success in movies during the 1930s. His memorable performances were among the era's most highly praised romantic dramas,...
and Barbara Stanwyck
Barbara Stanwyck
Barbara Stanwyck was an American actress. She was a film and television star, known during her 60-year career as a consummate and versatile professional with a strong screen presence, and a favorite of directors including Cecil B. DeMille, Fritz Lang and Frank Capra...
. The making of this film was inspired by the success of Duvivier's previous anthology film, the 1942 Tales of Manhattan
Tales of Manhattan
Tales of Manhattan is a 1942 American anthology film directed by Julien Duvivier. Thirteen writers, including Ben Hecht, Alan Campbell, Ferenc Molnár, Samuel Hoffenstein, and Donald Ogden Stewart worked on the six stories in this film.-Cast:...
.
Flesh and Fantasy tells three stories, unrelated but with a supernatural theme, by Ellis St. Joseph, Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
,and László Vadnay. Tying together the three segments is a conversation about the occult between two clubmen, one played by humorist Robert Benchley
Robert Benchley
Robert Charles Benchley was an American humorist best known for his work as a newspaper columnist and film actor...
.
Plot
First segmentThe setting is New Orleans. Plain and embittered Henrietta (Betty Field
Betty Field
Betty Field was an American film and stage actress. Through her father, she was a direct descendant of the Pilgrims John Alden and Priscilla Mullins....
) secretly loves law student Michael (Robert Cummings
Robert Cummings
Charles Clarence Robert Orville Cummings , mostly known professionally as Robert Cummings but sometimes as Bob Cummings, was an American film and television actor....
). On Mardi Gras
Mardi Gras
The terms "Mardi Gras" , "Mardi Gras season", and "Carnival season", in English, refer to events of the Carnival celebrations, beginning on or after Epiphany and culminating on the day before Ash Wednesday...
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
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
's short story Lord Arthur Savile's Crime
Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories
Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories is a collection of short semi-comic mystery stories that were written by Oscar Wilde and published in 1891. It includes:*Lord Arthur Savile's Crime*The Canterville Ghost*The Sphinx Without a Secret...
. A palmist named Podgers (Thomas Mitchell
Thomas Mitchell (actor)
Thomas Mitchell was an American actor, playwright and screenwriter. Among his most famous roles in a long career are those of Gerald O'Hara, the father of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind, the drunken Doc Boone in John Ford's Stagecoach, and Uncle Billy in It's a Wonderful Life...
) is making uncannily accurate predictions at a party for the rich and bored. He tells skeptical lawyer Marshall Tyler (Edward G. Robinson
Edward G. Robinson
Edward G. Robinson was a Romanian-born American actor. A popular star during Hollywood's Golden Age, he is best remembered for his roles as gangsters, such as Rico in his star-making film Little Caesar and as Rocco in Key Largo...
) 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.
Deleted segment
As originally filmed and edited, the feature began with a half-hour sequence concerning an escaped killer (Alan CurtisAlan Curtis (American actor)
Alan Curtis was an American film actor appearing in over 50 films.Born Harry Ueberroth in Chicago, Illinois, he began his career as a model before becoming an actor, appearing in local newspaper ads. His looks did not go unnoticed in Hollywood...
) who finds refuge with a farmer (Frank Craven
Frank Craven
Frank Craven was an American stage and film actor, playwright, and screenwriter, best known for originating the role of the Stage Manager in Thornton Wilder's Our Town....
) and his blind daughter (Gloria Jean
Gloria Jean
Gloria Jean is an American singer and actress who starred or co-starred in 26 feature films between 1939 and 1959. She also made radio, television, stage, and nightclub appearances.-Career:...
). This sequence ended with a spectacular storm scene, staged by director Duvivier and photographer Paul Ivano
Paul Ivano
Paul Ivano, A.S.C. , was a cinematographer, whose career stretched from 1920 into the late 1960s. He began in 1918 as a photographer with the U.S. Army in his native France. In 1947 he was the cameraman who made the first aerial helicopter shots for an American feature film in Nicholas Ray's film...
, 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.
Cast
- Edward G. RobinsonEdward G. RobinsonEdward G. Robinson was a Romanian-born American actor. A popular star during Hollywood's Golden Age, he is best remembered for his roles as gangsters, such as Rico in his star-making film Little Caesar and as Rocco in Key Largo...
as Marshall Tyler - Charles BoyerCharles BoyerCharles Boyer was a French actor who appeared in more than 80 films between 1920 and 1976. After receiving an education in drama, Boyer started on the stage, but he found success in movies during the 1930s. His memorable performances were among the era's most highly praised romantic dramas,...
as Paul Gaspar - Barbara StanwyckBarbara StanwyckBarbara Stanwyck was an American actress. She was a film and television star, known during her 60-year career as a consummate and versatile professional with a strong screen presence, and a favorite of directors including Cecil B. DeMille, Fritz Lang and Frank Capra...
as Joan Stanley - Betty FieldBetty FieldBetty Field was an American film and stage actress. Through her father, she was a direct descendant of the Pilgrims John Alden and Priscilla Mullins....
as Henrietta - Robert CummingsRobert CummingsCharles Clarence Robert Orville Cummings , mostly known professionally as Robert Cummings but sometimes as Bob Cummings, was an American film and television actor....
as Michael - Thomas MitchellThomas Mitchell (actor)Thomas Mitchell was an American actor, playwright and screenwriter. Among his most famous roles in a long career are those of Gerald O'Hara, the father of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind, the drunken Doc Boone in John Ford's Stagecoach, and Uncle Billy in It's a Wonderful Life...
as Septimus Podgers - Robert BenchleyRobert BenchleyRobert Charles Benchley was an American humorist best known for his work as a newspaper columnist and film actor...
as Doakes