It's superficially easy to 'read' this 1941 entry centering on greed as a metaphor for the Teutonic hunger/greed for power but I'll leave that to the academic pseuds. This is simply a brilliant filmic interpretation of a classic play - Ben Johnson was writing out of London around the same time as Shakespeare - and features a director, Maurice Tourneur and two leading players, Harry Baur and Louis Jouvet, at the top of their games. For good measure there's also strong support from Fernand Ledoux and a great time is had by all. Tourneur switches effortlessly from crowd scenes to duos and trios and Armand Thirard's camera-work is exemplary which may explain why Tourneur took him to Continental that same year. This is a nine out of ten going away.
Review of Volpone
