writers_reign Julien Duvivier was not only one of the best Directors who ever came out of France but also one of the most versatile being more than adept in several genres. Try telling that to Hollywood: Having prevailed upon him to remake his masterpiece Un Carnet de bal as Lydia they next got him to follow it with Tales Of Manhattan and then yet another episodic piece Flesh and Fantasy. To dispense with pedantry first of all; it seems that one reviewer mistakenly attributed the second segment to Noel Coward when it was, of course, the work of Oscar Wilde; in correcting the initial reviewer the person who did so claimed erroneously that both Wilde and Coward were English and gay; only 50 per cent of that statement is true; Oscar Wilde was Irish, a native of Dublin, who settled in England. Stuff like this tends to distract from the film which, in this case, is as good as one might suppose with anything to which the name Duvivier is appended. There are three basic segments linked loosely by Robert Benchley anchored in a Gentlemen's Club more than likely located in Pall Mall. The first segment reunites Robert Cummings and Betty Field who had starred the year before in a similar multi-storied adaptation King's Row; Field plays the Ugly Duckling who convinces Cummings via a little sleight-of-hand that she is a Swan. The second segment finds Edward G. Robinson initially bemused then increasingly terrified by a palmist's prediction that he will commit murder whilst the final segment sees tightrope walker Charles Boyer dreaming of falling from the high wire watched by a Barbara Stanwyck he has yet to meet. None of the segments is especially original but the combination of stylish direction and fine acting lifts it out of the rut.

fedor8 The first story is overly sentimental and "character-rushed", with Betty Field who we are supposed to think is ugly(!), becoming beautiful after a "Twilight Zone"-like moral lesson. (I'm surprised they didn't serve us Vivien Leigh or de Havilland as the ugly woman.) The second story is the best and most original one, with a predictable ending but at least it remains interesting throughout. The blonde falling in love with Edward G. Robinson is as realistic as Betty Field being ugly.The third story: Boyer is quite sympathetic and Stanwick is good, but the story's ending isn't finite. Boyer's deliveries of lines like "I have been searching for you such a long time" and "You are the woman of my dream" are borderline funny because they epitomize the cliché of the smooth-talking Frenchman wooing a woman; Pepe Le Pew immediately came to mind (who must have been modeled after Boyer).

luciferjohnson A charming "anthology" motion picture, of the kind that was briefly popular in the 1940s. This one contains three stories, each of a supernatural bent. None really brilliant, but diverting.The second piece was the best. This was based on a story by Oscar Wilde (not Noel Coward, as incorrectly stated in another review). Edward G. Robinson plays a lawyer haunted by a prediction that he will murder someone, and the always-watchable Thomas Mitchell is the palm-reader.The first, with Robert Cummings and Betty Field in a story set in the Mardi Gras, is appealing in a naive way. The third segment, set in a circus, is the weakest. Charles Boyer an acrobat? No way.This movie suffers somewhat from some of the most unconvincing studio-bound "locations" I have ever seen. I know, this was the 1940s and all that, made in the middle of the war, but puh-lease!

dbdumonteil Even when he is far away from his native France,Julien Duvivier is among the best.He had already tackled the fantasy and horror genre which he broached in the thirties with such works as "le Golem" (1936) and his remake of Sjostrom's "la Charrette fantôme " (1939).But these two works do not compare favorably with his masterpieces such as "Un Carnet de Bal" "Pépé le Moko" (both from 1937)"la Belle Equipe" (1936) or "la Fin du Jour" (1939)."Un Carnet de Bal" was a movie made up of sketches ,although it featured the same female character all along the way."Flesh and fantasy" connects the links of the chain:it is a fantasy and horror movie made up of sketches .Here ,Duvivier creates a dreamlike atmosphere far better than his two thirties attempts:he conjures up pictures like a true magician -who was admired by both Ingmar Bergman and Orson Welles,even if the self-conscious nouvelle vague used to despise him,Like all his old colleagues.The three stories are adapted from Oscar Wilde:the first one recalls sometimes "the picture of Dorian Gray" ;the overture is mind-boggling :the drowned man by the river,the disturbing and almost frightening crowd whose masks create some kind of mardi gras nightmare. An ugly girl -with stunning use of lights- finds the beauty of the soul that is in everyone ,even in herself.The real meat lies in the second segment which features a sensational EG Robinson whose part predates Fritz Lang's "woman in the window" by one year.A fortune teller predicted a man that he would kill someone:it becomes a maleficent obsession,and Duvivier astonishingly cuts loose all the visual tricks at his command (mirrors,shop windows,spectacles ) and literally mesmerizes both Robinson and the audience.Very very langesque!Duvivier,whose pessimism easily equals the great German director's ,seems to believe that crime is a part of the human nature.(I remember actress Danielle Delorme saying :"when I asked Duvivier why my role in "voici le temps des assassins " (1956) was so evil and what could explain her satanic behavior,he simply answered "evil people are evil,period.")The second segment segues sharply into the third one which takes place in a circus.An acrobat star -Boyer- dreams that he falls from the wire while a woman in the audience (Stanwick) is watching,a woman he's never met before.On a boat he meets her afterwards and they fall in love.Another strange dream puzzles the hero who ,although disturbed and worried,wants to go for broke.Back in France ,Duvivier took the film made up of sketches to its absolute limits while mixing all his subplots in a seamless whole in "sous le ciel de Paris"(1952) The nouvelle vague tried this kind of "movie in segments" but they never surpassed Julien Duvivier,one of the Masters of the FRench cinema whose work ,both French and American is crying to be discovered.