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Lady Of The Tropics

1939, Movie, NR, 92 mins

Lady Of The Tropics: Review

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Taylor took some time off from making LADY OF THE TROPICS to marry Barbara Stanwyck. He would have been wise to stay on his honeymoon for a year, but they made him come back and finish this turkey. There's no question that Lamarr (whom Louis B. Mayer named after silent star Barbara La Marr, considering the surname more mellifluous than the name she had in Europe, Kiesler) had one of the most beautiful faces in pictures, but no one ever accused her of being a great actress. She fails to register dramatically again, here as an Indochinese half-caste with whom Taylor falls in love. Taylor is on holiday aboard a yacht when he meets Lamarr and he is soon crazy about her. He jumps ship, leaving his fiancee and her family sputtering, and stays in Saigon to marry Lamarr. The lovers enlist Schildkraut, a wealthy Eurasian, to help them get her a passport so she can go to America. Schildkraut can do it, but he also pines for Lamarr and deliberately stalls the procedure. The couple soon runs out of money and Taylor can't find any work. Lamarr says she'll sleep with Schildkraut if he helps Taylor get a job and secures a passport for her. Schildkraut agrees and ships Taylor off to a rubber plantation in the jungle. Lamarr never does give herself to Schildkraut but does go out one night with him to the local opera. When Taylor returns to the city, he thinks that he's been cuckolded and wants to kill Schildkraut. Lamarr gets there first, however, shooting Schildkraut and then herself. Taylor arrives and finds her dying, with the elusive passport in her hand. This was a surprisingly flat script from the typewriter of Ben Hecht. Occasionally, some flashes of his wit and originality show through, but one has the feeling that he did this one strictly for the money. Although this was technically Lamarr's third Hollywood film, it was only the second one released. Work had been suspended on I TAKE THIS WOMAN, which was then re-shot, released in 1940, and waggishly dubbed "I Re-Take This Woman" because of the extensive extra shooting involved. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Black-and-White Cinematography. One song, "Each Time You Say Goodbye, I Die a Little," sounds very much like the first lines of Cole Porter's hit "Every Time You Say Goodbye." leave a comment
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Lady Of The Tropics
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