GREEN DOLPHIN STREET: Blu-ray (MGM, 1947) Warner Archive

Well into the 1950’s, MGM had a great affinity for period costume melodrama. Part of the studio's enthusiasm for turning great literary masterworks into a living tableau on film had to do with L.B. Mayer's idea of maintaining Metro’s artistic prestige. In its prime, MGM was the Cartier of all Hollywood studios. More than that. It’s yearly investment in glossy productions ensured profits roughly equal to all the other majors combined. Under Mayer and Thalberg’s reign, Leo the lion roared supreme, and MGM, seemed impervious to any and all outside influences – like the Depression or WWII – that had crippled all but a handful of its competitors. But more to the point, ‘prestige’ was a way for Hollywood's Raja to hold his master craftsmen and artisans up to the rest of the world as a beacon of artistic integrity, while politely thumbing his nose at his competitors. Frankly, throughout the first two decades of the talkies, there was no serious opposition in Hollywood or elsewhere for this sort of consistently high-striving grandeur. MGM had a magic all its own. Its back lots, capturing the essence of virtually every European, American and Asian landscape known to man, were second to none, as was the studio's immense and ever-expanding roster of star talent. So, the costume epic, with its myriad of extras and gargantuan set pieces, was tailor-made for the MGM treatment.

But then, something happened…or rather…a lot of unforeseen circumstances conspired to slowly erode the empire’s indestructibility, eventually to break it right down to bedrock. First of the cataclysms, Thalberg death in 1936, cut down in his prime by a fatal heart attack. Mayer and Thalberg had not seen eye to eye artistically, but Mayer could not dispute Thalberg’s personally supervised pictures made more money for Metro and set a standard for perfection in the industry, that, so long as Thalberg remained in the V.P.’s seat, MGM was assured its sterling reputation. In the wake of Thalberg’s passing, Mayer assumed total control of the studio and ran it with an iron fist, shifting focus from the established performers cultivated under Thalberg’s aegis to concentrate on the youth market – not so much for its appeal, or even to capitalize on its fresh and invigorating wholesomeness, but rather, because Mayer could manage them under more stringent demands, and, for less money. For a while, Mayer did, in fact, steer his ship to its most profitable period. The 1940’s produced some of the studio’s most readily identifiable and best-loved ‘classics.’ But then, Mayer got sloppy. He fell out of love with his wife of long-standing, began courting an affluent socialite, and spent more time out of the executive office, indulging his other passion – breeding horserace thoroughbreds. In his absence, MGM gallantly carried on under Mayer’s aptly nicknamed ‘college of cardinals’ – a top-heavy producer-based system of production, churning out the magic on his behalf. Alas, at war’s end, audiences began to turn from Metro’s particular brand of glamor. Yet, even as the klieg lights dimmed all around him, Mayer seemed incapable of recognizing the real golden period was fast slipping away. And thus, Nicholas Schenk, the president of Loewe’s Incorporated, MGM’s holding company, demanded a change in upper management, an appointment of a new V.P, and finally, the deposition of Mayer. This all but sealed the fate of MGM and contributed to its rocky, rapid decline in both stature and output throughout the mid to late 1950’s.  

All of MGM's riches – and a bit of this advancing malaise - are evident in director, Victor Saville's production of Green Dolphin Street (1947), a lumbering would-be costume melodrama that, even in all its resplendence, tragically does not come together as it should. The film's chief weakness is its meandering screenplay by Samson Raphaelson (based on Elizabeth Goudge's sprawling novel) that spends far too much time developing the first third of the novel's pretext, before quickly scampering through a series of elephantine - but decidedly disjointed - vignettes (an earthquake, a flood, a cannibal attack, etc.). Casting is another insurmountable hurdle. Green Dolphin Street stars the studio’s resident ‘sweater girl’, Lana Turner as Marianne Patourel, the haughty young daughter of Sophie (Gladys Cooper) and Octavius (Edmund Gwenn). Sophie was once madly in love with Dr. Edmond Ozanne (Frank Morgan). But his youthful carousing soured their chances for a life together. Now, after a period of self-imposed exile, the good doctor has returned to the small French hamlet with his son, William (the painfully wooden and emotionally unappealing Richard Hart).

Marianne and her sister, Marguerite (Donna Reed) pay a call on the Ozannes. And although Marianne is quite captivated by William, she brazenly dismisses him, incurring his temporary wrath. One thing is for certain - Marguerite’s love for William at first sight, though completely unable to usurp or rival her sister's verbalization of these enterprising emotions. Marguerite allows Marianne (who is obtuse to her sister's passion) to pursue William. Marianne even convinces her father to finance William's career as a maritime officer in his Majesty's navy, then pushes William to accept his commission. William does as he is told, particularly after a tête-à-tête with Captain O'Hara (Reginald Owen) the commander of 'The Green Dolphin' - a sea-faring vessel that makes regular trips to New Zealand. Meanwhile, in another part of town, Timothy Haslam (Van Heflin) has his eye on Marianne for his own, even though he has already begun an affair with Corrine (Ramsay Ames). After Corrine's brother wounds Haslam in a knife fight, he is patched together by the sympathetic doctor and ushered onto the Green Dolphin to avoid incarceration for the brawl. William sails with his regiment to the Orient. But once on foreign soil he is quickly drugged by a Chinese coolie (Tetsu Komai) and his wicked daughter (Lila Leeds) who steals all his money before leaving him badly beaten on the docks. As William's ship has sailed without him, he is now considered a deserter to the Crown. He cannot return home. Nevertheless, Captain O'Hara comes to William's aid. O'Hara takes William to New Zealand where he becomes reacquainted with the exiled Haslam, now a successful trader, running a lucrative lumber mill. William and Haslam gradually become good friends and business partners. After a night of carousing, William inadvertently writes for Marianne's (not Marguerite) hand in marriage.

The defiant Marianne, thirsty for travel, excitement, and, William's companionship above all else, sails for New Zealand, leaving Marguerite heartbroken back in France. Confessing her love of Edmond to her husband and daughter, Sophie dies peacefully at home and a broken-hearted Octavius takes his own life. These are dark days for Marguerite, who finally comes to seek spiritual guidance from Mother Superior (Dame May Whitty) and the sisters of a nearby convent. In New Zealand, Marianne and William are married. Although Haslam is as ever in love with her, he keeps his emotions secret from William and Marianne. The couple has a daughter, Veronica (Gigi Perreau). During these years, William and Haslam's lumber mills thrive. But a devastating earthquake and catastrophic flood put a period to their venture. Retreating further inland, Haslam, William, Marianne and Veronica find themselves at the center of a tribal war that nearly costs them their lives. Haslam manages to finagle their release from captivity and certain death. Not long afterward, the friends migrate to a Dutch colony where they thrive as sheep farmers. Marianne diligently works to gain a pardon from the Royal Navy for William, then suggests it is time for all of them to go home. But the years have withered Haslam's desire to retire to France. He elects to stay behind. After bittersweet farewells, William and his family sail for France and move into Marianne's ancestral home. Unfortunately, Marianne discovers a letter William wrote a long time ago to Marguerite, professing his undying love for her. Believing her entire marriage has been a lie, Marianne falls into a dark and bitter depression, quelled when Marguerite confides in her, she no longer desires William for herself but has instead decided to become a nun.

Green Dolphin Street makes valiant strides and many attempts to become one of those key-lit and ultra-glossy grand spectacles L.B. Mayer so loved. But the story suffers from too much scenery and not enough business to keep the entire enterprise afloat. At 141-minutes, it does its best to condense Goudge's weighty novel into a manageable screenplay, yet fails to attend to the more poignant bits of business between characters that might have made this story of love and sacrifice live beyond the footlights. The script is only half the problem. The other is owed casting – or rather, miscasting. Although Green Dolphin Street's roster contains stellar performers more than worthy of their craft, each is an ill fit for the characters they play in this particular film. Lana Turner is an amiable sexpot, but far too brittle as the headstrong Marianne; too much vinegar in her veins to ever be believed as a woman of passion for anyone but herself. Her overly exaggerated mannerisms bury the strangely morose Richard Hart, whose performance is both mediocre and utterly void of any sort of romantic spark. Van Heflin and Donna Reed are cardboard cut-outs, characters so one-dimensionally vacuous and sparse they appear only as window-dressing, or to completely vanish into the background. Even with its shortcomings, Green Dolphin Street cannot be discounted altogether or written off as a glossy flop. It does have its pluses – chiefly, George J. Folsey's starkly surreal and uber-gorgeous cinematography and Cedric Gibbons/Malcolm Brown's first-rate production design. A. Arnold Gillespie's special effects are very impressive. His earthquake and flood sequences are realistic and utterly terrifying to behold. Bronislau Kaper's score does not particularly serve the intimacy of this story. If anything, Kaper’s corn is too over the top - incomprehensibly bloated with garish clashes of symbols and strings wildly plucked at even the slightest suggestion of a kiss or some grave tragedy looming on the horizon. Walter Plunkett's costumes are lavishly tailored, but tend to swamp their female protagonists under yards and yards of skirt, lace and crinolines. In the final analysis, Green Dolphin Street is a gargantuan undertaking that is unable to sustain its status as an epic. It's big and bold and given the MGM class 'A' treatment from top to bottom. But the results are more middling than mesmerizing.

Warner Archive unfurls Green Dolphin Street on Blu-ray. The remastered DVD was remarkably solid. But now, the Blu easily bests even that immense effort with a new 4K master from original elements. Contrast is improved, showing off the visual minutia in Folsey’s plush cinematography.  As before, the gray scale has been superbly rendered. The slight 'thick' characteristic that accompanies the matte work process shots and visual effects looks more integrated herein than it did on the DVD with the film’s natural grain structure faithfully reproduced. There is no edge enhancement or other digital anomalies. The audio is, of course, 2.0 DTS mono. And while competently rendered, it remains slightly tinny in dialogue, music and SFX. Dialogue is often soft, but audible, while Kaper's music cues suddenly explode at varying intervals with a bombast quite uncharacteristic for a film of this vintage. Hiss and pop have been eradicated. The only extra is a theatrical trailer. Bottom line: while Green Dolphin Street is hardly one of MGM’s best efforts, it nevertheless accurately represents L.B. Mayer’s driving ambitions to maintain a certain level of old-fashion integrity. Regrettably, this would be Mayer’s undoing, as audiences steadily chose to regard this sort of picture-making as passé. Dear ole Mayer – he just could not see the proverbial forest for its trees. 

FILM RATING (out of 5 - 5 being the best)

3

VIDEO/AUDIO

5+

EXTRAS

0