morrison-dylan-fan Finding the 2012 version of Bel Ami to be an interesting film,I took a look for other adaptations,and found one starring George Sanders. With my dad being a fan of Sanders,and Father's Day coming up,I decided to make Bel Ami's private affairs public.The plot-Paris 1880:Working at a low-paying job, Georges Duroy is thrilled to run into his old wartime friend Charles Forestier. Going for a meal,Duroy catches the eye of a lady called Rachel. Aware of his pal wanting to climb up the social ladder,Forestier advising Duroy that the best way to do that is to use his charm on women. Finding it easy to wrap the ladies round his little finger,Duroy begins only letting people know him at a skin-deep level.View on the film:Scrolling into the heart of every woman, George Sanders gives a delicious performance as Duroy,with Sanders laying out his devilish cad charms that embrace any woman who takes Duroy's fancy. Whilst he does pour out the charisma,Sanders subtly shows Duroy use it as a method to stay detached,as Duroy freezes any attempted made by others to form an emotional relationship with him. Joined by auteur film maker Hugo Hass as Monsieur Walter and Albert Bassermann giving the title some real upper crust class as Jacques Rival, Angela Lansbury gives a wonderful performance as Marelle,who views the lack of commitment from Duroy into the relationship in a widowed state.Reuniting with Sanders for the third and final time,auteur writer/director Albert Lewin & cinematographer Russell "Touch of Evil" Metty turn the streets of Paris into a ultra-stylised Art Deco paradise,where the luxury shops and mansions of Duroy are surrounded in Art Deco shade. Bringing Max Ernst and Salvador Dalí (whose work was sadly cut from the film) in to give a startling splash of colour,Lewin rains down deep focus shadows for a Melodrama final which eyes the affairs of Duroy.Needing to change the end for the Hays Code,the screenplay by Lewin (who made the film independent of the studios) fires a double sided ending where the Code get their morals,and the viewer gets a bullet of Film Noir pessimism. Loosely adapting Guy de Maupassant's book,Lewin brilliantly continues exploring his major theme of self- centred individuals whose self-imposed isolation causes their own destruction.Never allowing the viewer to get too close to Duroy,Lewin expresses in intelligently written dialogue the façade mask that Duroy makes,as the private affairs of Bel Ami are opened.

howardeisman The movie is is faithful to the novel for about 3/4 of its running time. A handsome, amoral rake cuts his way through the vain, naive, foppish,self centered denizens of Parisian society in the 1880s He is not that smart, but he is shrewd enough to get the money and affection he craves. We don't know where his appetites came from. De Maupassant created him primarily to show the appalling psychological weaknesses of French upper class society "Prety Boy", as he is called, wins and wins big.Well, the morals code of 1947 would not permit this. A scoundrel thriving is as bad was a naked woman on screen in the 1940s. You couldn't show it! Thus, the entire last section of this movie is made to comply with the code, and it plays out a story of how "Pretty Boy"'s primary victim thwarts his schemes and gets even. She gets even Big.While I am happy to see the rat get his, this ending undermines the main point of the novel. It also doesn't fit the first three quarters. Characters suddenly behave differently than they did previously with no description of how and why they changed.Still, it is a literate and intelligent movie. Not many of this kind of movie was made then, and even fewer are made today It is well played. George Sanders is the perfect cad. All the female actors do very well. Even since I first saw Ann Dvorak when I was six or seven, I have had a crush on her all these many decades, so it was good to see her.Well worth the time for intelligent viewers...and those seniors who love Ann Dvorak!!

Armand an adaptation. and a great cast. perfect choice for Georges Duroy character. a subtle, precise, impressive George Sanders in one of his magnificent roles. so, the key is not manner to adapted the novel of Maupassant but the art of each actor. because this movie is scene for a lot of stars. the story is old but the play is new. the novel is French and the science of details and nuances makes this American movie fruit of French cinema. the tale of Bel Ami is, in great measure, grace of Sanders and his partners, slice of Dorian Gray. it is not a masterpiece but it is a very interesting lesson. to define a world, to discover a book, to escape from Nick Ormerod last adaptation spell. a film as old yellow picture. good beginning to visit a world, to joy with drops of old fashion cinema style, to rediscover few crust of emotions and reflection to our small and bleak world.

som1950 Although hard to get into this film, with a protagonist who is very unlikable and who, for all his scheming, seems to be falling upward in the social hiearchy more than effectively manipulating those he seeks to use, the movie is worth watching in order to contemplate the young and beautiful Angela Lansbury and the older, wiser, but still beautiful Ann Dvorak. And for the climactic duel.(And some might find the couture sufficiently haute to be worth watching.)The score by the great French composer, one of Les Six, Darius Milhaud, is pedestrian. Milhaud is not responsible for the annoying song "Bel Ami" which recurs far too often during the seemingly interminable 112 minutes of the movie in the version I saw.