The Cinema
" The Battle." At the Capitol Tins French talkie, directed by Nicolas Farkas, employs a mainly English cast to speak English dialogue in Japanese settings, with the Japanese hero played by a Frenchman, Charles Boyer. It is not a picture with much relation to real life, but it gains a certain distinction from its skilful production and its excellent acting.
The Marquis Yorisaka, a Japanese naval officer, is willing to sell his wife's honour in order to promote the victory of his country in a naval war against an unnamed enemy. His patriotic intrigues, however, are devoted merely to obtaining a confidential report on Japanese naval tactics which the British naval attache, Commander Fergan, is sending home to the Admiralty ; and it is never very clear why this document should he considered worth so much trouble. I have never seen a naval action so graphically ren- dered on the screen ; but it is too elaborate for the needs of the story, whose best sequences are already over before the fleet puts to sea.
The strength of the film is its treatment of the situations between the Marquis, his wife, and Commander Fergan. Merle Oberon, as the wife, has the subtle and difficult task of playing a Japanese woman who tries, at her husband's wish, to assume a western demeanour in order to attract the Commander. She is best, I think, when she is most Japanese ; her western moods are perhaps not quite Japanese enough. But this is a performance of unusual quality, which will confirm the swift reputation gained by Miss Oberon through her brief appearance as Anne Boleyn in The Private Life of Henry VIII.
Charles Boyer, too, makes the Marquis a convincing figure ; and there are passages in the dialogue—as when the Marquisa speaks of her childhood in a feudal castle—which contribute effectively to the Japanese atmosphere, with its curious mix- ture of delicate charm and ruthless nationalism.
One of the mysteries of film production is the frequent conjunction of brilliant photography and intelligent direction with far-fetched stories. This is an extreme instance.
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