Well…the IMDB lists another film with the same title from 1934. Anybody see that one?
Back to the newer one: I thought it was quite nicely done. Have not read the work it was based on, but I think I will. It never seemed to play in wide release, though. I can’t see why, since it was exactly the type of film you’d expect to see during the last four months of the year, AKA the Oscar Corridor.
I liked Naomi Watts and Edward Norton in it very much, as well as Toby Jones and the fellow playing the colonel.
Question, with a bit of spacing to push the spoiler down:
Why didn’t Walter and Kitty get inoculated? I know he was pissed at her and why, but when you go into an area stricken with cholera, inoculation should be (at least it would be to me) the first priority.
Also, is it possible that he inoculated her but not himself, which might explain why things turned out the way they did?
Not bad, in an overblown bigbudget melodrama kinda way, but the Greta Garbo version is WAY better.
Oh and, Myrna Loy made a movie with essentially the same plot, only the doctor was “native,” returning home with a medical degree–1939’s The Rains Came–which is probably the best of the three.
I don’t remember the logic given for the couple not getting inoculated but I enjoyed the film and also wondered why it didn’t get more notice.
My one criticism was the inclusion of the scene in which Norton’s character cuts himself on the broken glass beaker. This seemed to telegraph too explicitly that he was doomed to catch the disease. I think this scene was unnecessary as it wouldn’t have stretched credibilty for him to have gotten infected without a depiction of a risky event.
I loved it, and was also shocked that it didn’t get the recognition it deserved at this years Oscras (fucked-up spelling to thwart the stinking, goat-felching, sue-happy, dickwad AMPASSS*), especially the magnificent score.
I love old movies, and Garbo and Loy are wonderful, but I’d rather see Naomi Watts, Edward Norton, and the spectacular current day color cinematography on the big screen.
AMPASSS is suing oscarwatch.com because they obviously don’t like people watching the oscras