Tag Archives: Hollywood

Ty Candy: The Beauty of Tyrone Power

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In the film This Above All, Joan Fontaine’s character tells Tyrone Power’s character: “Oh, you’re rather good-looking, really. Nice sort of face. Nose a little on the fine side, mouth a little too big. One of your ears sticks out a little more than the other… did you know, your face is slightly lopsided?! [giggles]… but your eyes are good, nice deep brown.”

So, in celebration of those eyes, that fine nose and that nice sort of face: a Ty candy post (as bollyviewer commented, Tyrone Power’s name can be punned endlessly!)

To begin with, a shot from one of his earliest films, Suez (1938). He looks so wistful and downright beautiful here, very different from in his later films:

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The Mark of Zorro (1940)

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If there’s one film that’s quintessential Tyrone Power, it’s this one. The Mark of Zorro changed Tyrone Power from being just a pretty face to being a pretty face who could also do some very fancy stunts with a sword in hand. It made him a swashbuckling star, a stereotype that was to stick with him for a while, even though he tried to shake it off with roles like that in Nightmare Alley.
And what a film. What a rollicking, enjoyable, delightful film! I love every bit of it, and have been looking forward to sharing the joy with everybody ever since I first saw it, a few months back. So, without more ado, here goes.

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Blood and Sand (1941)

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Several months ago, I did a week-long special featuring Robert Mitchum. In the course of that week, I reviewed one of my favourite Mitchum films, Not as a Stranger. Watching Blood and Sand—a film Tyrone Power cited as among the favourites of those he’d worked in—I was struck by the similarities between the two films. Both are about ambitious men who don’t let anything get in their way of making it to the top, men who fall prey to a femme fatale despite being married, men who falter both in their professional and personal lives.
But Power’s Juan Gallardo is also different from Mitchum’s Lucas Marsh. And his story too is eventually different.

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Ten ‘Powerful’ Films

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I was in two minds about this list. Should it be a list of the ten best Tyrone Power films there are? As in ‘great’ films—the Nightmare Alley or This Above All category? Or should it be a list of ten films, even frivolous swashbuckling stuff in which all Power was required to do was romance a pretty heroine and wield a sword?
I decided on the middle path. These are ten films that starred Tyrone Power and are worth seeing—for whatever reason.

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Nightmare Alley (1947)

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Through much of his career, Tyrone Power bemoaned the fact that his ‘pretty face’ resulted in him being typecast—usually as the swashbuckling hero, sometimes as the dramatic hero, but always the basically good guy, even if he had his weak moments.
Which is why Nightmare Alley was the film of which Tyrone Power was most proud. He was a pretty face in most of the film (well, he couldn’t do much about that, could he?), but he also had more going for him: a very powerful, negative character that allowed Power to show that he could, despite that pretty face, act.

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The Vikings (1958)

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As I mentioned in a previous post, watching this film gave me a sense of déjà vu. There’s a lot about it that’s very reminiscent of classic Hindi cinema. The lost heir who can be identified by an amulet he wears; the long-lost brothers who don’t know they’re related and are at daggers drawn, partly because both love the same woman… fortunately, though, The Vikings is more than just a precursor to so many Hindi films. It’s also a very watchable film, with superb cinematography and a general air of having been made much, much later than it actually was.

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Wait Until Dark (1967)

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On a flight from Montreal to New York, Lisa (Samantha Jones) smuggles a doll that plays a catchy little tune and holds in its stuffed cloth body a very valuable cache of heroin…

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Salome (1953)

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Easter’s here once again, so a review of a film with a biblical theme seemed in order.

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Lifeboat (1944)

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The other day, just for kicks, I was trying to make a mental list of all the directors, 30’s-60’s, whose work I admire. Guru Dutt. Akira Kurosawa. Hrishikesh Mukherjee. Bimal Roy. Raj Khosla (usually). And, of course, the inimitable Alfred Hitchcock. That led to another realisation: I haven’t seen, or reviewed, a Hitchcock film in months. Therefore this, an unusual Hitchcock in that it’s not a suspense film. Instead, it’s a ‘journey’ film, set in a lifeboat bobbing about on the high seas during World War II.

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Desirée (1954)

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This Jean Simmons-Marlon Brando starrer should ideally have been reviewed last fortnight, as a tribute to the beautiful Jean, who passed away on January 22, 2010. But I was in Pondicherry, and the DVD was in Delhi. I’m back home now, and having watched Desirée all over again, am ready to say a final goodbye to Jean (can one ever do that for favourite stars one will continue to watch over and over again, long after they’re gone?)

RIP.

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