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Highly Overrated But Still Good

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

I don't recall exactly when I became a fan, although Witness for the Prosecution must have had something to do with it, so now I catch whatever I can of this wonderful, towering actor.And, I was not disappointed with the Beachcombers, although the plot let me down, and I did not watch it all the way through.That being said, Charles Laughton is riveting as usual and dead-on as a stumble bum. I always wonder if modern-day actors can emulate the truly greats, and my answer is essentially no they cannot because, first, there aren't the scripts today, which greatly enhance an actor's performance and, second, it doesn't matter because, perhaps with the exception of Leonardo, D. Washington, D. Hoffman, and perhaps a few others, no actors today can tie on the bootstraps of the actors of yesteryear. Not considering the greats of the silent age (I'm thinking C. Chaplin, B. Keaton and H. Lloyd, all exceptional, and the many, fantastic character actors throughout cinema who added inestimable richness to many a movie, my personal favorites, and I know it's subjective, and I'm speaking of film presence including Charles Laughton, are: William Powell, Spencer Tracy, and Jack Lemmon. Heck, I'm not allowing myself to include Steve McQueen, one of my favorites because he is a notch below the above-mentioned, in my overly haughty assessment.P.S. I'm sure I'm leaving someone of the list, and, by the way, I notice the inherent sexism of my comments, but I chalk most of it up to contemporary society where woman are not afforded the stardom or roles of men. Again, an overly presumptuous statement.

Well, I admit being an insatiable Laughton buff …. Laughton was a genuine giant, like the Frenchmen Simon and Baur.Laughton, his cute wife, the '30s, a Maugham adaptation—this should be the 4th Laughton movie I am reviewing, and the 2nd Maugham adaptation (--South Seas, missionaries, religious intolerance vs. dissolute life …--). Mean, ugly, fat, playful—I'm just stating the obvious—Laughton was an English Simon—the same abundant talent …. Also obvious is the degree to which he enjoyed playing his colorful roles ….THE BEACHCOMBER is a pretty remarkable movie, snappy and fresh, and leisurely made; Elsa Lanchester was 36 in this flick, she had married Laughton in '29—that is, 9 yrs earlier, when she was 27. Daddy Wells had written short movies for this babe.Elsa Lanchester does an interesting performance, if in a role limited.THE BEACHCOMBER is also genuine cinema—exciting, it has gusto and fun. As subject, it is a satire against puritanism. In a Pacific island, a womanizing drunk is hell-raising and causing scandal to the community. He attracts the antipathy of a couple of religious missionaries who ask for his deportation. Sentenced for 3 months on Agor island, he becomes the ruler of an earthly heaven, a ruler spoiled by the merry natives. Maugham frankly considered the Christianity to be a plague, and praised the sensual involvement of the South Seas natives.One of the missionaries is a miss; the climate and circumstances do much to moisture and soften her senses. She falls in love with the drunk.

Charles Laughton was usually a forceful figure of power in one way or another: Javert the police agent in LES MISERABLES, Captain William Bligh of H.M.S. Bounty, Earl Janoth in THE BIG CLOCK, King Henry VIII, King Herod. But occasionally he is a struggling figure, like the would be composer/conductor in TALES OF MANHATTAN.Here he is "Ginger Ted" Wilson, a hard-drinking drifter in the south seas. Currently he is residing (it is the 1930s) in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). Life is not too bad - he cadges money and never pays it back. He also is a close drinking pal of the local magistrate (Robert Newton, in a relatively quiet - but early - role). However, Ginger Ted has made two enemies. Like Sadie Thompson in RAIN (also a story of Somerset Maugham - the author here), Ted angers the local missionary, Dr. Jones (Tyrone Guthrie) and his spinster sister Martha (Elsa Lanchester) by corrupting one of their female charges. When the local constable (an elderly man) is injured, the missionaries force Newton to reluctantly punish Ted.Ted is exiled to a small island, supposedly at hard labor. Then Martha ends up on the island too, and she begins to take an interest in Ted - with a view of reforming him. Ted discovers he likes the spinster, but he is uncertain about a permanent relationship. They return to the main island again, only to find that there is an epidemic in the hinterland. The magistrate asks Ted to try to convince the natives to use medicine the missionaries have. Ted and Martha go, and face the dangers of a hostile and deadly native population together. And ironically they find a curious connection in their family histories that make their romantic connection permanent as well.VESSEL OF WRATH (also known as THE BEACHCOMBER) is a nice little film comedy, and the first time (after the "Anne of Cleves" scenes of HENRY VIII and the love scenes in REMBRANT) that Laughton and Lanchester got together. They balance nicely in their scenes, playing off each other like...well like a married couple (like they were). The film is also interesting as one of the few where Sir Tyrone Guthrie (better remembered as a British drama director and producer) had an acting role. He has a comic moment too, when hearing that his sister has been stuck with the "lascivious" Ted on a desert island, he all but collapses in fear for her virtue. Newton is under tight control in his role, angry at his friend Ted for giving him so many headaches in the local community, but still missing Ted for the fun they have together (and also regretting the fact that he's left with the boring Guthrie as the only other intelligent westerner around!). The four leads do very nicely here - and Laughton has an opportunity to do a run through for his later similar beachcomber role (though a family man) in THE TUTTLES OF TAHITI.Newton would return to the story later on. In the early 1950s he and Glynis Johns played Ted and Martha in a remake of VESSEL OF WRATH.

Compared to Charles Laughton in Vessel of Wrath, Cary Grant in Father Goose and Humphrey Bogart in The African Queen look they stepped out from a Savile Row tailor. They don't know what to do with him over in the Dutch East Indies. He's a lazy, shiftless bum who won't work, won't pay his debts and is leading the natives that good Christian missionaries Elsa Lanchester and her brother Tyrone Guthrie are trying to convert into sober, hardworking Protestants.My guess is that Laughton is in the Dutch territories because he's been kicked out of British island possessions for exactly the same reasons. As it is he has a friend in the local magistrate Robert Newton. But Newton's patience is being tried. The British would say he'd gone native.He exiles Laughton after Laughton tried to disgrace one of Elsa Lanchester's pupils. But wouldn't you know it, fate casts Elsa right on the island that Laughton is exiled to, doing 'hard labor.' A few things happen and she decides maybe she should try to reform him as opposed to ostracism.Laughton and Lanchester give a couple of cute performances about some middle-aged people finding romance, of course anticipating The African Queen by 13 years. Lanchester has a much tougher reforming Laughton than Kate Hepburn did with Humphrey Bogart. Bogey may have been seedy, but he did own his own business.In a way this story is sort of Somerset Maugham's yin to the yang of Rain. Both stories are based in the tropics with missionaries as their leading characters, but this one is essentially comedic, although there are some serious events here like a typhoid out break, where Laughton proves invaluable in dealing with the natives.Charles and Elsa give us a grand show, don't miss it. Lanchester has a much tougher job