Reviewed by JONATHAN LEWIS:
GYPSY WILDCAT. Common Footage, 1944. Maria Montez, Jon Corridor, Peter Coe, Nigel Bruce, Leo Carrillo, Gale Sondergaard, Douglass Dumbrille. Screenplay: James Hogan, Gene Lewis, and James M. Cain. Director: Roy William Neill.
Filmed in lush Technicolor, Roy William Neill’s Gypsy Wildcat stars Maria Montez and Jon Corridor in a enjoyable escapist journey film. Montez, because the Gypsy woman Carla, captivates the viewers together with her magnificence and appeal. Jon Corridor, as Michael, gives the story with a male love curiosity for our unique main girl.
By way of plot, Gypsy Wildcat could finally not add as much as all that a lot. Falsely accused of murdering Rely Orso, Michael (Corridor) shacks up with a Gypsy caravan. On his path is the mischievous Baron Tovar (Douglass Dumbrille) who seeks to not solely seize Michael, however to marry Carla and steal her royal birthright. It’s Robin Hood, Errol Flynn kind of fare and nothing that requires an excessive amount of thought.
What struck me essentially the most was how completely saturated in coloration the film turned out to be. Whether or not it’s a Gypsy pageant initially of the movie or a choreographed combat sequence, coloration schemes play an important position in bringing this movie to life. It makes for a extremely pleasurable viewing expertise. Which, in fact, was the entire level of this manufacturing.
Whereas the ending is each means too abrupt and predictable, a lot of the storyline is seamless and works fairly nicely. Of notice, hardboiled author James M. Cain is certainly one of three writers credited with the screenplay. However don’t let that idiot you. The fabric right here is lighthearted and never even remotely noir.
A last phrase. It’s lengthy been my rivalry that Roy William Neill stays one of the crucial underappreciated administrators of his period. Very similar to The Black Room, which I reviewed right here a decade in the past, Gypsy Wildcat punches nicely above its weight, due to a director who took the subject material severely.
