How the Fallen have Fallen

One of the most relentlessly comedic films is John Ford's 1941 tragedy Tobacco Road. The story of a family of rigorously stupid hillbillies heavily piles absurdist jokes on top of a plainly grim reality. There's a kind of cynicism to how relentlessly it portrays the foolishness and moral decrepitude of its characters. Sometimes it's really funny and there's some surprisingly great stuntwork. But there's ultimately a kind of hollowness to the film I found unsatisfying.

Lester (Charley Grapewin) is the patriarch of a hillbilly family living in a shack so badly constructed it seems composed of angles from a German Expressionist film.

He's really the star but mostly Gene Tierney is centrally promoted, though her role is very small. She plays his beautiful daughter, Ellie May, whom he tries to marry off to Ward Bond's character. Bond's married to another of Lester's daughters, an unseen character named Pearl, but she's run off so no-one sees any problem with Bond marrying again.

Every scene sets up a problem and ends by surprising you by how stupidly Lester handles it. He needs a hundred dollars to pay rent on his land, as he's informed by a man from the bank. So he goes to the bank for a loan and laughs at his own foolishness when he finds the same man waiting for him there.

Lester couldn't be bothered to plough his land for seven years but prays to God, telling the All Mighty that if he doesn't receive help, he'll have to take matters into his own hands.

The end of the movie makes it clear there is no hope for these people often portrayed as comically selfish. Amid the mouldering ruins of a once powerful southern aristocracy, there may be some subliminal attempt to garner sympathy for these folks. If so, it's really subtle. Gene Tierney looks sensational in the movie, though.

What's the Pity, Precisely?

Among other the other problems it may cause, incest can spoil everyone's plans. John Ford's early 17th century play, 'Tis Pity She's a Whore, shows the far-reaching effects of a brother and sister's decision to enter a sexual relationship. Lacking the depth of insight found in Shakespeare, Ford's play is nonetheless a stimulating thought experiment, an illustration of the dangers inherent in reordering nature according to one's own will and whim.

I sought out this play because of a song on David Bowie's Blackstar, his final album, called "'Tis a Pity She was a Whore". Although the lyrics bear little resemblance to the story of the play, it seems the title was meant as a reference to it. The lyrics of another song on the Bowie album, "Sue (Or in a Season of Crime)" bear more resemblance to the play.

I watched a 1980 BBC production starring Cherie Lunghi as well as several actors I recognised from Doctor Who, including Tim Pigott-Smith from Masque of Mandragara, Bernard Archard who played Professor Scarman in The Pyramids of Mars, and Colin Douglas who played the lighthouse keeper from Horror of Fang Rock. For no reason in particular, the setting and costumes place the action in mid-19th century England. The play was originally set in Italy--it was common in English plays of the time to illustrate moral depravity by setting their action in Catholic countries, particularly Italy and Spain, where clergy, like the friar in Romeo and Juliet, can be shown ushering the protagonists to their destruction.

In her introduction to the play in the Norton English Renaissance Drama, Katharine Eisaman Maus draws direct comparisons between Romeo and Juliet and 'Tis Pity She's a Whore in discussing the lovers' rash disregard for their society's expectations. There's a Friar in this play, too, though he does not approve of Giovanni's (Kenneth Cranham) passion for his sister, Annabella (Lunghi), when Giovanni confesses to him.

Since Giovanni has shown no interest in other women, his father despairs of the family line's survival, both in terms of flesh and finance, as he finds himself in desperate financial straits. So he's trying to marry his daughter, Annabella, off to the wealthy nobleman, Soranzo (Anthony Bate). So the loss of Annabella's virginity is a grave matter indeed, in both senses of the word "grave".

Meanwhile, Soranzo is trying to extricate himself from entanglement with his former mistress, Hippolita (Alison Fiske). In this matter, and in the trouble that results when he discovers Annabella is pregnant by another man, he employs his murderous Spanish servant, Vasques (Pigott-Smith).

In contrast to the patriarchal expectations and machinations of society, Eisaman Maus concludes her introduction by saying that one feels "nostalgic for Giovanni's reckless disregard of social laws." I can't say I agree with that. In the name of love, he irrevocably ruins his sister's life. Her father may have been desperate but he specifically says he wouldn't force Annabella to marry anyone she didn't want to. Who knows what would have happened if Giovanni hadn't broached the subject of incest with her? She may have eventually found a suitable match. Maybe not someone she felt great passion for but someone with whom she could have lived in relative contentment. Eisaman Maus makes a point of how both Annabella and Giovanni are inexperienced so she can't be entirely faulted for interpreting her own feelings for Giovanni so disastrously. The title of the play, spoken by an authority figure at the end, is likely meant to show up the exceeding harshness to women of society's judgement of such things, but on the other hand, it is a pity that it was so easy for Giovanni to have sex with her. He was wrong to propose the relationship but she was also wrong to agree to it.

Looked at in the light of nature versus society, it's easier to see the connexion between the play and Bowie's song. He sings about a sexual relationship with a woman that can't be more because of some kind of "war". Since war is a construct dependent on abstract human conceptions of territory and citizenship, it is a contrary force to purely physical love, part of a set of abstract forces that run contrary to human instinct. If you look at the song as part of an album generally about Bowie being on the verge of death, it may be part of a lament, a recognition of his own fatigue, that he must, even at this final stage of his life, adhere to a society's expectations that run contrary to his instincts or desires.

The Discount Plough and Imported Stars

Happy Saint Patrick's Day, everyone, from where it starts early, Japan. I decided to watch an Irish movie last night and chose 1937's The Plough and the Stars. Really it's an American film though it has an almost entirely Irish cast and was directed by first generation Irish American John Ford. Based on an Irish play of the same name about the Easter Rising of 1916, Ford was unhappy with the finished product due to changes made by RKO to it. It has its good qualities, particularly from the supporting cast, but it's far from the best of Ford's career.

The studio mandated the inclusion of Hollywood stars in the leads. Preston Foster and Barbara Stanwyck play Jack and Nora Clitheroe. Jack's in the IRA and has just been promoted to a command position despite Nora's desire that he stay out of the fighting.

I love Barbara Stanwyck but this was not her finest hour by any stretch of the imagination. She spends the whole film on the same whiny note, begging her husband not to fight the British and complaining to everyone else that her husband's fighting the British.

Some of the supporting cast would go on to be Ford regulars, most notably Barry Fitzgerald whose amusing antics in the pub are definitely the highlight of the film.

The Plough and the Stars is available on The Criterion Channel.

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A syrup jam results in flooded cakes.
And yet, we never thought to break the fast.
For eating right we read for extra steaks.
Supplies exhausted, skies provide repast.
A thinning face revealed a working brain.
As time conspires now for twitching nose.
The little phantoms load a gun with grain.
The scattered seeds produce a picture pose.
Her latest int'rest seeks her only feet.
A tiny smudge of paint could change the house.
We built the palace steps of moss and peat.
The place exceeds the plans of dreaming mouse.
The screen in shades of green displayed the hills.
With hours, dimes, and sweat, we paid the bills.