Fanny (1961)

I hang my head in shame and declare that I'd never heard of this story before in any of its incarnations. I came across the dvd in a bargain bin and am delighted that I did - a real jewel. Take a handsome brooding young man, and dangle before him a pretty girl whom he's known all his life. Add a rough and ready father and a charming old love rival and you have a good mixture. I thought this was the best thing I'd seen Maurice Chevalier in, and possibly Leslie Caron too. I don't think I've seen Horst Buscholz before - possibly would have remembered! - but he's good even if he overdoes the sulky brooding bit. I thoroughly enjoyed the 'hat trick' and the rascals who performed it. Charles Boyer can do no wrong and even a young Lionel Jeffries. Amazing cast. A thoroughly enjoyable, well-rounded piece of entertainment and for what it is worth, I think taking songs out of it gave it greater credibility and depth.

Like the DVD description claims, "One of the screen's great love stories, set to an unforgettable (Harold Rome) soundtrack in seductive Marseilles, will touch your heart with its charm, humor and timeless themes of young passion and yearning. Starring Leslie Caron at her most beautiful and French cinema icons Charles Boyer and Maurice Chevalier, this 'Academy Award'-nominated gem of filmmaking directed by Joshua Logan tells the story of a young man (Horst Buchholz) torn between his dream of an adventurous life at sea and staying behind with the girl he loves." This is a condensed version of the Marcel Pagnol trilogy of French films from the 1930s, namely "Marius" (1931), "Fanny" (1932), and "Cesar" (1936), which Joshua Logan breathed new life into as the Broadway hit "Fanny" (1954) starring Florence Henderson. Mr. Logan dropped the stage musical's sing-a-longs, and brought his "Fanny" to the big screen. Thanks to exquisite location photography by Jack Cardiff, this is an excellent film. The four leads do very well in portraying the range of human interpersonal relations that made the original films so memorable.It was startling to hear film expert and TCM host Ben Mankiewicz reveal that this version was now "widely considered the best" of several Pagnol adaptations. That is big news in filmdom. I still believe the original 1930s films are far more majestic in scope. However, with this cast and crew, Logan could have attempted a more sweeping saga. Portraying love and loyalty, Ms. Caron is beautiful and excellent throughout. The veterans, Mr. Chevalier and Mr. Boyer, do what good actors do when a rare good role presents itself late in a career; they are a French treat.Most surprisingly effective is Mr. Buchholz - but after all, France and Germany are close. Buchholz would be considered the film's traditional leading man. Yet, the US "Academy Awards" nominated Boyer in the "Best Actor" category, while the "Golden Globe" nominators considered Chevalier to be the film's dramatic leading man. "Fanny" won a scattering of high critical honors, performing best in the annual "Film Daily" top fives, with high marks for the film (#4 for the year), Logan (#2 director), Caron (#4 "Best Actress"), and Boyer (#4 in the "Supporting Actor" category).******* Fanny (6/28/61) Joshua Logan ~ Leslie Caron, Horst Buchholz, Maurice Chevalier, Charles Boyer

One of the essential pleasures of the film is its soundtrack of Harold Rome's beautiful melodies from the Broadway show, Fanny. The title theme, the song Fanny, is especially haunting, and played throughout the film.Unfortunately, there is no movie soundtrack CD (Grrrrrrrr!), only a Broadway cast album (yes, a phonograph record) from the 1954 stage production. I keep searching to find the song recorded somewhere, by someone (anyone), but just keep coming up empty. What a genuine pity that this beautiful piece of music seems to have been lost in time and we can only hear it sporadically in this film.Fanny contains my favorite performance my Maurice Chevalier as Panisse, the lovestruck older gentleman who marries the pregnant Fanny (Leslie Caron), whose young lover (Horst Bucholtz) has run off to be with his first true love, the sea. If you've seen The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, you'll know the story (based on the same source material). But, since this is after all a Hollywood production, the ending has an upbeat twist.Romantic love stories such as this were often filmed in epic style back in the day (a style resurrected by James Cameron for "Titanic", complete with theme music that played in your head for weeks). Sadly, it's a genre that's never made a solid comeback . . . though I fervently wish it would. Sigh . . .

Ending a decade-long string of gamine roles that started with her propitious debut as Gene Kelly's unattainable object of desire in Vincente Minnelli's "An American in Paris", Leslie Caron plays the title role, a poor 18-year-old Marseilles girl who helps her fortune-hunting mother sell fish on their boat stall on the waterfront. Even though she was thirty in real life, Caron is genuinely affecting in conveying the character's youthful vigor and romantic yearning. Directed by Joshua Logan ("Picnic") in his familiar overwrought manner, the time-spanning 1961 drama is really an intimate story that suffers somewhat from overly deliberate pacing and excessive length (it's 134 minutes long). Offsetting those flaws some lighthearted comic touches mainly in the first half, a sterling cast, and Jack Cardiff's ("Black Narcissus") vibrant, often painterly cinematography which brings a lustrous glow to the seaside setting.Adapted by Julius J. Epstein ("Casablanca") from Marcel Pagnol's famous Gallic trilogy, the story revolves around Fanny's pining for her lifelong love, Marius, the hot-tempered son of waterfront café owner Cesar. While he obviously loves Fanny, Marius has a greater passion to escape his humdrum life to become a seaman. He gets his golden opportunity when a scientific research vessel docks in Marseilles, and he can sign on for a five-year hitch. On the night before he leaves and with Fanny's mother away, they share a night of unbridled passion. Truly conflicted about his feelings for her, Marius leaves but only after Fanny tells him that she will marry the sixtyish Panisse, a lonely sailmaker who constantly locks horns with Cesar. The rest of the soap opera plot plays out the way you would think and eventually skips a decade to find that choices made are not as final as they seem.The movie is simply beautiful to look at, and even though Logan and Cardiff tend to rely on extreme close-ups for dramatic emphasis, the story is engaging. Despite the fact that she is playing a teenager for most of the film, Caron shows how she has truly evolved as an actress since her plucked-from-obscurity MGM debut. Fresh from his memorable role as a Mexican gunman in "The Magnificent Seven", German actor Horst Buchholz smolders appropriately as Marius although his character inevitably becomes more unsympathetic as the story unfolds. The scene stealers are Charles Boyer as Cesar and Maurice Chevalier as Panisse, both peaking in late-career roles that suit their distinctive personalities. This was the least known to me of the five 1961 Best Picture nominees (the others were "The Guns of Navarone", "The Hustler", "Judgment at Nuremberg" and the runaway winner, "West Side Story") – but is a Gallic-flavored gem well worth viewing now that it has been released on DVD. The 2008 package only includes as an extra a long trailer featuring Chevalier and Boyer and a separate CD of the film's soundtrack penned by Broadway composer Harold Rome.