Cavalcade (1933)

• Review: * ½ (out of ****)
• Starring: Diana Wynyard, Clive Brook, Una O'Connor, Herbert Mundin, Beryl Mercer, Irene Browne, Tempe Pigott, Merle Tottenham, Frank Lawton, Ursula Jeans, Margaret Lindsay, John Warburton, Billy Bevan, Desmond Roberts, Dick Henderson Jr., Douglas Scott, Sheila MacGill, Bonita Granville
• Director: Frankl Lloyd
• Screenplay: Reginald Berkeley (Play: by Noel Coward)
• Length: 110 min.
• MPAA Rating: Unrated

History is filled with terrible events that mar the lives ofits denizens. Cavalcade explores themisfortune of a loving British couple who deserve no such life.

Lemony Snicket would have been proud of Cavalcade as it certainly could have been titled A Series of Unfortunate Events.Beginning in 1899, on the eve of British troop deployment to the Boer War, Jane(Diana Wynyard) and Robert Marryot (Clive Brook) share one last night together.The night was New Year’s Eve and their hopes and fears of that day are soon tobe revealed over the next 34 years.

Their lives are touched upon by the events of the death ofQueen Victoria,the sinking of the Titanic, the Great War and more. Cavalcade also shifts focus, much like the significantly laterBritish series Upstairs, Downstairs,to cover the impact of such events on the Marryots’ head servants Ellen (UnaO’Connor) and Alfred Bridges (Herbert Mundin).

The Bridges’ story never comes in contact with the Titanicmisery nor is it impacted much by the events of the Great War. However, theBridges’ daughter Fanny (Ursula Jeans) does intersect that story havingpotentially fallen in love with Marryot son Joe (Frank Lawton) who, after aleave of absence returns to the Great War only to discover that armistice hasbeen reached.

Cavalcade bearsmore resemblance to its titles definition meaning “any noteworthy series, as ofevents or activities” than it does to the term signifying “a procession ofpersons riding on horses, etc.” However, filmmaker Frank Lloyd doesn’t miss anopportunity to display hits knowledge of the word and uses, quiteunnecessarily, a cut title card scene with people riding by on horses. Thescene feels completely out of place despite its metaphorical connection to thestory as intended by playwright Noel Coward. This kind of stagy gimmicktypifies the rest of the film.

The performances aren’t astounding, their barely passableeven for those early days of filmmaking. Wynyard fails to provide her characterwith any manner of warmth. Instead, she resorts to the over exaggeratedmannerisms of the silent. Any time she’s faced with turmoil or heartbreak, sheflings her head to the side almost exactly to the same position askew of thecamera each time, to symbolize her attempts to keep a stiff upper lip. Theothers in the film are as most high school students with a play, barelymemorable.

O’Connor gives the only suitably interesting performance inthe film. Though the early parts of the film feature her as a shrill crybaby,it’s after she becomes an earned-wealth socialite that you realize her abilityto develop a character over time. Whereas Wynyard maintains the sameperformance throughout the film despite a series of great losses, O’Connorbrings her character to a new point in her life and shows the audience howlives can truly change.

The performances aren’t the only part of the film that seemsdated. Being seven years after the advent of sound, one might expect theunnecessary uses of “sound to entertain” eliminated for the most part from thescreen. Unfortunately, such a film Cavalcade isn’t. Three musical numbers exist in the film. Not a single one of themfurthers the plot in any significant way and it’s still patently obvious theintention.

Lloyd fails to keep Cavalcade a coherent work. A terrific example of such is the sequence depicting the GreatWar. The viewer is inundated with a barrage of spliced and double-exposedimages of death and destruction symbolizing the passage of time in the war. Thescene plays for several minutes despite becoming wearisome not long into thefirst minute. The tone and style doesn’t synch up with the rest of the pictureand seems yet another reason to simply pummel the audience with more sound andvisual style.

Cavalcade remainsone of the worst and least significant pictures in Academy Award history. If ithad not won the Best Picture award for 1932/33, the film would have faded intoobscurity.

-Wesley Lovell (October 17, 2006)