Robert Newton, le cabotinage, etc.

J'ai écrit ce message pour le babillard du site consacré à ROBERT NEWTON. Je le reproduis ci-dessous parce que j'y mentionne Pauline Garon et Lowell Sherman (sur la photo, au centre).

I must watch Hatter's Castle again. The first time, I didn't notice Emlyn Williams was playing the rake like a screaming queen! He was elegant and foppish, a bit effeminate to modern eyes possibly, the typical rake in Victorian melodramas.

I think William's character was a charming sociopath. He used people like pawns for his own sake and drew all the advantages he could out of circumstances. He had no moral sense whatsoever and was a complete hedonist. Emlyn did infuse him with dark humor but I don't think he was campy, whether in the American or British meaning of the word.

Emlyn may not have been Charles Atlas, but it was obvious that poor Deborah was dealing with conflicting emotions during the seduction scene. James Mason was almost an impossible love at that point of the story and the poor girl was famished for any kind of affection. She was very naive, obviously, and didn't know anything about sex and couldn't understand the sensations stirring within her body. And she was nearly paralysed with the fear of her father's returning home early.

Even though her best instincts told her to know better about Emlyn, she kind of liked him and hoped for the best.

I'd say it's a fair melodrama. Very old fashioned. Bob and Emlyn took their cues from Victorian stock characters, but were both able to give compelling performances anyway.

I wouldn't say Brodie was Newton's finest hour onscreen. The best performance belonged to Deborah Kerr. As the typical Victorian virginal heroine, she gave a multi-layered, sensitive performance.

As for Newton often being a ham... All British actors love hamming it up from time to time. Laurence Oliver could be a glutton when it came to scenery chewing.

I love ham in a movie. It's colorful, it's entertaining. The greatest French actors are admired as much for their hammy performances as for their more subtle acting. A case in the point is Benoit Poelvoorde who won the French Oscar for Best Actor (Podium) with the most outré and outrageous comical seen performance in years.

When ham is done by a talented actor, it's almost always fun to watch. Not so when it's done by a hack formerly from the Saturday Night Live cast.

I do find some of Newton's performance obnoxious. All that eye rolling gets boring after a while. But he was one of the masters and being a succulent ham was only one of his many assets as an actor. He could also be very subtle and natural.

Actually, I thought Newton could be too hammy until I saw hammier actors in Hollywood pictures from the 30s and 40s. Supporting roles were often played like colorful caricatures back then. What was comic relief to Depression audiences is often only obnoxious and boring to me. A case in the point is Lowell Sherman's performance in the classic "What Price Hollywood" (1932). His performance was very much admired back in 1932 but it doesn't look very convincing to modern eyes. The movie is wonderful but Sherman's foppish hamming almost ruined it for me the first time I watched it. During the first part of the movie, his acting is on the emotional and comical level of a six year old Little Rascal. And he can't seem to decide whether he's in a talkie or a silent. His dainty pantomime is ludicrous. And his eye popping, gawd!!! However, when his character's career is destroyed by alcohol abuse, Sherman becomes natural and touching.

All of the actors I've studied for my websites can or could ham it up entertainingly. But they're (were) not always successful at it. David Warner, John Hurt, Robert Newton, Pierre Brasseur, Pauline Garon and Lowell Sherman all love(d) to go over the top. Someone who saw Pauline in "The Phantom Broadcast" said that she looked as if she wanted to jump out of the screen and into the arms of the audience. Lowell was delightful as the womanizing boulevardier in "Bachelor Apartment". Ultimately, a good piece of ham depends on the actor's talent and charisma, the role and a good director.

As for Susan's site turning the spotlight on Bobbie the pirate, visitors ought to remember that Newton is mostly remembered today for his pirate roles. Susan "baits" prospective visitors with Bobbie the pirate but she also gives them a chance to discover that Bobbie wasn't just a pirate in his acting career. It's thanks to people like Susan that Robert Newton will be fairly remembered as much more than a pirate by this and future generations.