Review of IMDb Top 250 films - The Red Shoes (1948)

I intend to conduct a review of the top 250 films on the IMDb database. At a rate of two per month this will still take forever as the list constantly changes. I don't claim to be a very knowledgeable or intellectual film critic but have tremendous confidence in my ability to discern good direction, script and acting, and to expose films which have enjoyed / endured an undeserved reputation in my perhaps arrogant opinion. There may be a few minor spoilers in my reviews.

The Red Shoes - Rating: 4 out of 6

This film looks good! Stylishly directed by Powell and Pressburger, the team behind the equally gorgeous Black Narcissus, it is arguably one of the most visually attractive films ever made. This film is a whole lot less melodramatic than Narcissus and makes much better (less heavy-handed) use of technicolor. Whereas the lipstick of Kathleen Bryan (Sister Ruth) stood out self-consciously in Narcissus, The Red Shoes looks stunning throughout, never even flirting with ostentatiousness. And whereas the tense script and intense performances mirrored the extreme climatic conditions of a convent high up in the Himalayas, P&P show their versatility in their follow-up film by infusing it with sheer joy and exuberance (not seen in Narcissus) while toning everything else down! This includes the actors' looks: markedly plain by leading actor standards, Marius Goring, Anton Walbrook and Moira Shearer do not compare with Deborah Kerr and David Farrar. Walbrook steals the show: a brooding, intensely charismatic presence, he acts superbly and his stern, subtle performance gives free reign to the wonderful overblown eccentrics which surround him, some of which are hilarious, and it is the scenes involving these characters which are more dramatic and more memorable than the love affair between Goring and Shearer's characters, which seems to be deliberately underplayed! This is an ensemble effort and the situations are so low-key that there is never any need to play to the camera. Whereas Narcissus would make wonderful theatre, this film has no theatrical qualities at all bar the theatrics of the eccentrics.

The loose, naturalistic flow of the film starts to become mildly irritating midway when we realise there is no real plot to speak of - although the colour / elegance / visual beauty keeps our attention from wondering, and the script's exuberance and witticisms as well as the excellent character acting add substance to the style. This was a time when men were gentlemen, women were ladies, and people were characters, and any educated, historically-aware and/or fun-loving person will surely sit through and like this film.

But a rating of 5 out of 6 is under most circumstances too generous for a film without an involving plot (Gosford Park is one notable exception); that and a regrettably poor ending means it gets a 4.