I told you it was coming. Even though my DVD arrived a few weeks ago I didn't have the pleasure of viewing it until tonight. The film, "A Lady to Love" which was one of Vilma's final films left me with 2 impressions. The jist of the film was a beautiful woman is tricked into marrying a rich old Italian man who is madly in love with her; but fears she'll reject him so he sends a picture of his younger handsomer friend (who is like a son to him). Since she can not return to the city she still agrees to the marriage, has a fling with the one she really loves, then ends up with the old guy...and chaos ensues with has a lovely Hays tinted ending. The movie was cute enough but it made me WISH hardcore that Valentino had lived long enough to make it...he could have been the whiny old Italian man (played by Edward G Robinson) as well as the hot young thing. OH MY GOD...it probably would have bombed hardcore in its day but it would have made us Silent film lovers happy to this very moment. One can dream.
The other thing is that...FINALLY...the talkie myth is not a myth. Or at least in Vilma's case. Sure she probably had personal reasons for quitting pictures, and sure with the proper training she could have gone all Garbo. But on talkie #2 she still had an extremely heavy and hard to understand accent. Forget citing Karl Dane as an accent victim, Banky beats him by FAR. In Dane's case he had an accent, which occasionally made a word hard to understand but very very rarely. In Banky's case whole sentences flew by that I had no clue what she had just said. I also enjoyed her version of 'mail truck' which as you'll hear in the first clip sounds more like 'moaul trook'.
That being said to me it looks more like a Pickford misstep than an all out accent career suicide. The problem with Banky (especially in a movie like this) is she looks ''All American'' but she sounds all Russian. Had the roles been tweaked ala Garbo she woulda been just fine. And ala Garbo had her accent been tamed and toned I think again she would have gotten by. And even if both those failed she could have found a career easily in European films as her accent would have made much more sense in other tongues.
But much like Mary, I don't think Vilma knew what to make of talkies...at least judging by this one (which was amazing to view in and of itself!) To prove my point she doesn't have a line until 20 minutes in, yet we see her in two scenes and almost a full third before she speaks. That was something Mary would do. And much like Mary the picture begins to feel more natural as it progresses. But something tells me by this point Vilma didn't care. She lived until 1991 and refused to speak of her past career despite several offers and pleas. Whatever her reasons she must have been sure of them.
That all being said I really enjoy her. She's like a Russian Pickford (does Hungary count as Russia? If not she still is LIKE one): beautiful, great facial gestures, and a great actress to boot. Yes the accent is a little much, and yes I'm now horribly depressed knowing had Valentino lived another 7 years he could have made this film...however lets enjoy what we got!
First we see Lena (Vilma) getting out of her 'maoultrook'. The men fall over her:
Then we see Lena trying to seduce young hottie...who she thinks is the man who sent for her. Personally I love this scene. I also love the little bit at the beginning explaining why this Frisco girl has an accent and why this Italian boy doesn't.
Vilma's Talkie Career
This is extremely tricky sense several of her pictures from this period are lost. It is believed these are the talkies, however since some have not been viewed in 80 some years I'm skeptical.
*This is Heaven (1929)
*A Lady to Love (1930)
*Der Sehnsucht jeder Frau (German version of A Lady to Love, 1930)
*The Rebel (only the English version, 1932)
Of these 4 only her debut, "This is Heaven" is lost. However the remaining 3 have yet to be officially released on DVD or VHS. However a bootleg of the English version of "A Lady to Love" has been released. Click here to purchase.
Verdict: Talkie or Silent?
Sorry Vilma but this one is easy: SILENT. Greta was too beautiful for silents, and she was able to tone down her accent enough to make talkies work well for her. Vilma wasn't TOO beautiful but her beauty definitely is pitch perfect in silents, almost too surreal in a talkie. That being said I think she handled talkie acting just fine (minus the aforementioned pacing problems) but she had no place in English talkies. German, Russian, even maybe French...but not English. Interestingly enough Goldwyn refused to pay for her voice lessons and fired her when she requested such a thing. However it was an extremely thick and heavy accent...one wonders how long it would have taken for her to tone it down.
That being said I still love Vilma. And I'm quite tickled that unlike Nita or Theda we do indeed have a talkie of hers! Besides I kinda like her accent...hehe 'maoultrook'. Ah Vilma...you were wonderful!
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4 comments:
She's charming. She'd have been great playing snooty countesses in character parts, but something tells me she'd feel it was a comedown. (Her husband seems to have had no problems appearing in poverty row films)
Vilma Banky is best with Rudy Valentino. Rudy has the most on screen chemistry with her. She could play the girl next door, or the sophisticate. She has a natural acting style which you can relate to immediately. Great to hear her voice finally too.
Dear author, thanks for the interesting review, but that "all Russian" comment made me cringe. Please! When will you Americans finally realize that not all Eastern Europe is Russia, and generally get better at geography? Hungary has nothing to do with Russia, never was a part of it. As a matter of fact, Hungarians aren't related to any other Eastern European peoples, they aren't even Slavs, they are Finno-Ugric and very Westernized.
However, I must admit that Vilma's accent indeed sounds Slavic.... or German/Swedish. In fact, she reminds me of Oskar Homolka, if you know what I mean :) I can understand her, but her speaking voice is indeed very ear-stretching. And the problem is not only with the accent - her voice has some odd quality in general. It doesn't match her beautiful looks at all.... But all in all, there's still something funny and charming in it, and I definitely liked that "maoultrook" :)
Vilma was born in what was then known as the Austro-Hungarian Empire. I believe she was born in what is now Hungary...so maybe Eastern European would be more appropriate a term (hey I made sure to put a disclaimer saying I wasnt certain!)
As for the 'all Russian' comment it is a generalization...much like someone who grew up never hearing English might confuse the British and American differences. Again maybe 'all Eastern European' would have been more correct but the point is there without too much harm to the Russians and Hungarians :)
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