Lola Montès [Fall of Lola Montes; Sins of Lola Montes] (1955)

RATING:	40%
FORMAT:	DVD

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Martine CAROL is rather wooden here – her beauty notwithstanding - and not much of a patch on an actress like Danielle DARRIEUX, the latter of whom would have been far better in the part. This fact fatally undermines the story of a woman who possesses too much passion for just the one man; preferring, instead, to sow her wild oats wherever she may find them.

And yet, CAROL’s relative talentlessness is a fundamental part of the story of a woman who is only famous for being famous. And it is as a critique of the essential emptiness of the world of celebrity for its own sake that this film scores at all.

However, this movie is not a very meaningful analysis of the sexual hypocrisy of a culture that claims sexual pleasure and the resultant quest for personal fulfillment and happiness should, in some unknown way, be viewed as scandalous.

This film is also a classic example of a movie that would have benefited from being shot in something less pompous than Cinemascope – a format that does not allow proper close-ups. The bold experiment of altering the frame size, at certain intervals, to make this cumbersome format appear more intimate is a good one, but still cannot overcome the high production-values getting in the way of the emotional drama, rather than supporting it.

An impressively empty and broken-backed spectacle that even the really good actors employed here (Anton WALBROOK, Oskar WERNER &, especially, Peter USTINOV in excellent form) can never make whole.

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