Our film for July is Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake, a 1942 adventure film directed by John Cromwell, starring Tyrone Power and Gene Tierney.  It was the last film with the tragic actress, Frances Farmer, before her legal problems and eventual commitments to psychiatric hospitals until 1950.  It also features a powerful performance by George Sanders.  However, this is a film to satisfy fans of Tyrone Power and, in this case, a very young Gene Tierney.

Tierney was just embarking on her film career when this was made… a distinguished career which eventually saw her nominated for Best Actress. Here, her skills are just developing… even so her fans, and I am one of them, will enjoy her in the role of Tyrone Power’s true love.  However critics never see things the way moviegoers do.  The New York Times critic wrote in his review, ” Miss Tierney, whose talent for acting is open to serious doubt, benefits considerably in this picture by the fact that she doesn’t have much to say; all she has to do is look voluptuous in some Hawaiian-print bathing suits — the fashionable thing, apparently, in eighteenth-century times.”

Here is a review by a contemporary film buff which I believe well summarizes the attraction of Son Of Fury for today’s audiences.

“This crisply told 18th century period costume film is set in England and the South Seas and moves along at a brisk pace. Most movies of Hollywood Golden Age are attractive. They share cleverly constructed plot and dialogue, high-standard direction and actors’ performances. Perhaps because of the charm of past times, as a rule the characters are very nice guys, even the villains, like in “Son of Fury”: who is really able to detest George Sanders? Yet sometimes a motive in the movie makes it outstanding. This is the case of “Son of Fury”. In fact it shows the materialization of the most romantic dream of our youth, even improving it: to live in Polynesia and… with Gene Tierney! Gene is the improvement to our own dream. Her capacity to be lovely is unbelievable: just the scene when she uses a fork like a comb would be worth seeing the movie. And what about her polynesian dance in grass-skirt? When Tyrone Power leaves the island to take his revenge in England, the audience is disappointed: we don’t see the point in leaving Paradise. The director seems to realize this feeling: in fact, Power’s come-back to England is more an act of justice than of revenge. Anyway, we feel relieved when he finally settles his business and returns to the island, to his friends, to her. And there she is, alone on the reef… What is more common in a movie than the final kiss? Yet this one has something special. In that instant, we all are Tyrone Power and she… she is Gene Tierney, what could be better?”

Son Of Fury screens on Friday, July 10th at Old City Hall at 7 PM.  Doors open at 6:30.

See you at the movies…
Paul Becker