The word melodrama conjures images of sensational plots featuring exciting events, rooted in strong emotions with exaggerated characters. The Hollywood figure most associated with melodrama was the German film director Douglas Sirk (1897-1987), who emigrated to the U.S. in 1937. His best-known films were made for Universal from 1952-59, and his most famous "dramas of swollen emotions" (Sirk's expression) were "Magnificent Obsession," "All That Heaven Allows," "Written on the Wind" and "Imitation of Life." These pictures are remembered for their stunning Technicolor production designs, larger-than-life feelings, use of camouflaged sarcasm, and veiled attacks on 1950s conservatism. Perceived as over-the-top, they've been popular with LGBTQ audiences, who see them as high camp. They often starred publicly closeted Rock Hudson (known as a homosexual in the gay community), which only added to their queer appeal. Sirk's films were commercially successful but critically derided as clich� and titillating, because they often dealt with women and domestic issues. It wasn't until the early 1970s that scholars began reappraising his oeuvre, now celebrating him as a visual ironist auteur.
After the huge success of "Written on the Wind," which recounted the shenanigans of a rich, scandalous oil-tycoon family, Sirk was able to reassemble the same cast (Hudson, Dorothy Malone, Robert Stack) to realize one of his dream projects, a movie based on William Faulkner's 1935 novel "Pylon," centered on the exploits of his barnstorming pilot brother. Faulkner later claimed "The Tarnished Angels" (1957), released on Blu-ray by Kino Lorber, was the best film version of any of his books. Still, the film was lambasted for its overblown plot. Although filmed in Cinemascope, it was made in black-and-white to evoke a more realistic Depression America, not with Sirk's bold, stylistic use of Technicolor. But the film is now recognized as one of Sirk's masterworks, and Sirk's favorite of all his movies.
It's set in seedy New Orleans during Mardi Gras in 1932. The alcoholic, disillusioned Times-Picayune reporter Burke Devlin (Hudson), searching for a riveting human interest story, stumbles upon a family of "gypsy" daredevil pilots and their mechanic, who travel to air shows cross-country, risking their lives. Roger Schumann (Stack) is a former decorated WWI fighter pilot addicted to flying but financially desperate, reduced to entering dangerous pylon races, along with his beautiful blond bombshell, sad-eyed parachutist wife, LaVerne (Malone), their son Jack, 9, and devoted mechanic Jiggs (Jack Carson). LaVerne fled her Iowa home after seeing a Liberty Bond poster of Roger, falling in love with him. He has neglected her, rarely expressing any feeling for her except jealousy, leaving LaVerne with incredible longing. Jiggs is also in love with her, and admires Roger's courage. There's a hint of a possible menage-a-trois, questioning the identity of Jack's biological father. In a flashback, Schumann and Jiggs roll a die, determining who will marry the pregnant LaVerne.
Infiltrating this seething melodrama, Burke allows the Schumanns to stay at his apartment, talking all night with LaVerne in a way she's never been able to do with Roger. Burke falls in love with her. The following day a pylon race between Roger and another young surly pilot, Frank Burnham (teen heartthrob Troy Donohue), results in Roger crashing and destroying his plane, and Burnham dying. Desperate to win the next day's race prize money, Roger convinces a skeptical Jiggs to repair an old rickety plane owned by his rival wealthy business magnate, Matt Ord (Robert Middleton). He sends LaVerne to seduce Ord to secure the plane, but Burke intervenes, appealing to Ord's business sense to allow Roger to commandeer the plane. What happens at that race and its devastating aftermath concludes the film.
All these lost-soul characters are tarnished, chasing unattainable dreams, exposing their inner conflicted torment. The Mardi Gras symbolism and use of grotesque masks hide the fear beneath the bravery and delusion each lonely character must endure in the face of disaster and death. They're all alienated from the world, cynical survivors, living a lie in heartbreaking resignation, unable to communicate their anguish and need for love.
The acting is top-notch, Hudson the most impressive. Almost 35 years after his tabloid death (first celebrity to die of AIDS), we can now appreciate his skill as a naturalistic, committed actor. Hudson wanted to play Burke as disheveled and downtrodden. Although the studio wouldn't allow their star to look the part, he still managed to convey Burke's desperation. His crucial speech to his editor, justifying time spent covering the Schumann story, is almost verbatim Faulkner, far from realistic dialogue, but authentic in its emotional tenderness hiding inner turbulence. Hudson was Sirk's muse. He provided Hudson with his best 50s movie roles. "Tarnished" is compelling, with cinematographer Irving Glassberg's expressionistic use of high angles and mirrors. It deserves critical reconsideration and raves.