Tonight's film was called "Tender Is The Night" (1962), adapted from the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel of the same name. It was one of those big studio sagas from the era of Cinemascope, with many stars, much drama and a drawn out story. I have never read any Fitzgerald, nor had I previously seen any movies based on his books, but as "Tender" moved slowly through it's last hour, I was thinking "this must be like "The Great Gatsby" - i.e. all about wealthy people and their troubles, mostly having to do with drinking, marital problems, too much money and general ennui. I did not know the movie was based on Fitzgerald until I looked it up afterward, but Good Lordy Moses......
That could be my entire review right there, the final three words in the above paragraph.
Jason Robards and Jennifer Jones star as a well-to-do couple vacationing on the French Riviera. The year is 1928. They are staying in a villa on the beach. Down on the sand is a beautiful movie star, a young ingenue played by Jill St. John. Robards and Jones are planning a 4th of July party for all the Americans in the vicinity. Wife Jones suggests to her husband Robards that he invite St. John. She seems nice, though overly flirtatious, but Jones is trying to be solicitous to her husband, at whom St. John's eyes are directed.
The party happens, in full swing. Other Americans are there, expats and tourists alike. Jill St. John continues to flirt with Jason Robards, trying to make serious inroads. Wife Jennifer Jones understandably storms off into a secluded room, angry and broken hearted.
But then we learn something more about the couple. As Robards tracks her down in the large Mediterranean house, he finds her crouched down on the floor and offers her a tranquilizer and a glass of water. Then he speaks to her in calm, soothing tones. He wasn't responding to the flirts, he assures her. Everything is okay.
Then Jones asks him, "but am I okay"?, and the whole movie switches into Flashback Mode.
It turns out that Jason Robards is an up-and-coming psychiatrist, a profession that was burgeoning in the 1920s following Freud's breakthroughs a few decades earlier. Robards has been working at a famous clinic in Switzerland under the tutelage of an older shrink.
But the main thing, is that before Jennifer Jones was his wife, she was his patient at the clinic.
I haven't read Fitzgerald, but maybe he was like a gentrified version of Tennessee Williams (and I know that Fitzgerald came earlier), but anyway, it seems as if, in both authors' works, that hidden secrets lead to substance abuse in families both rich and poor. Usually those problems have to do with sexual abuse, just as we are seeing today.
In the movie, it is alluded to - in a few brief sentences of dialogue - that Jennifer Jones disorder was the result of her father. You can fill in the blanks. But her doctor Jason Robards cured her and eventually married her, only now he's got problems of his own, namely a drinking problem that threatens to derail his marriage.
I'll tell you no more of the long and involved plot. Miss Jones is the main reason to watch as she plays her borderline personality character with her eyes wide and nervous, deep and searching. Her hands gesture but she tries to keep control so as not to worry her husband, who she sees as a God who has cured her (a part of what is called "transference" in psychotherapy).
I found the movie in the Library database due to a Jennifer Jones search. She is one of my favorite actresses, and I thought I'd seen all her available movies, but then I found this one.
Unfortunately, I cannot recommend it wholeheartedly. The first 75 minutes build a solid plot and dramatic framework, where you don't know what is going to become of Jones' character. Is she going to be well or drown in madness? But then, in the second half of the movie, which drags on for almost two and a half hours, things bog down. Suddenly Jones has her bearings. Now it is Robards who is coming unhinged, not mentally but emotionally. He is pounding whiskey, but there is no explanation why, except for a vague suggestion that, with his wife cured, she doesn't need him anymore.
Maybe in the book it plays out well, but in the movie it plods. The first 70 minutes promises a tense and emotional psychological drama, but the final 75 minutes just goes on and on. Small plot diversions involving extra characters who probably meant something in the book but are non-sequitorial onscreen lengthen the film to the breaking point.
I was on the ropes by the two hour mark, and I still had 28 minutes to go.
I will note again as I have done recently about other movies, that "Tender Is The Night" wasn't terrible. In fact, a very good movie seemed to be in the works up to the mid-point. But they could have cut out a good 45 minutes, or 30 at the least, and they didn't.
It ran on and on and on, until I was not paying close attention to the words and just playing my acoustic instead. I always hold my guitar while watching a film. If it is riveting, no notes get played. But then the ratio descends from there. I can do two things at once, so don't get me wrong, I can play and watch at the same time.
But I never play at all if the movie has me in it's grip.
Tonight I played a lot.
I am gonna give "Tender Is The Night" a Single Thumb Up anyway, because it did have it's good points early on, and it did have Jennifer Jones.
But I think that if you are planning to watch the movie all the way through, you may need a psychiatrist when it's over, haha.
Note to directors : Good Lordy Moses, don't make movies longer than 90 minutes unless you can sustain them. Thank you.
See you in the morn. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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