Billy Wilder is one of my favorite directors of the classic Hollywood era, and Humphrey Bogart is one of my favorite actors. I thought; how can a film featuring Humphrey Bogart, Audrey Hepburn, William Holden and Billy Wilder as the director not be anything else but great. Well, you might be surprised that it wasn’t that great, or maybe you are not surprised at all. Maybe when a film fills itself up too much with star power it is crushed under its own weight, or maybe the many egos just became too much for the production. Who knows?
The plot sort of relates to the Cinderella tale. The young Sabrina played by Hepburn lives in a huge mansion with her father who is the chauffer. She is in love with one of the family members who live there, the playboy type played by William Holden. His older brother, played by Bogart, is a cynical businessman. However, Sabrina cannot get the attention of the young playboy and is sent away by her father to become a Jedi knight, no wait; she is sent away by her father to become a cook in Paris. Two years go by at an alarming rate and she returns, now a proper gentleman of stature, sorry again; a proper lady. But all the narrative is for naught because I could tell how the film would end already in the first five minutes. This is one of the faults of watching too many movies, they can quickly become predictable, and this was indeed. Now that doesn’t mean all the while it wasn’t enjoying, because it quite was. There is a lot of humour in here, and that is quite good. I love Roman Holliday (William Wyler, 1953) and it was similar to this in many ways, however Sabrina falls a bit short. The chemistry between the three leads is also not too perfect; it works at times, but falls a bit flat. While Hepburn was great, the best actor was indeed John Williams, who played Sabrina’s father. He had an own sense of humour, and played greatly upon that. Bogey is also good, and takes a very different type of role than he usually does. Here he is not tough talking, but is quite weak, and not to good with the ladies, which lead to some funny scenes. William Holden, who I haven’t seen in too much, felt like he was a bit gone, and didn’t make a noticeable appearance.
What this film lacks compared to Roman Holiday or Billy Wilder’s other comedy masterpieces such as Some Like it Hot (1959) and The Apartment (1960) is that it isn’t particularly inventive. The jokes are good, some of the interaction between the actors is good, but on the whole the film feels slightly flat, particularly towards the end. Roman Holiday revoked much more in me and at the same time was funnier and sharper. Sabrina lacks an overall goal; it fumbles quite a bit at times. The film feels like it was hurried, not just in production but within itself as well. In my last review I complained about the film but still though Huston’s directing was great. Here though, I cannot say much about Billy Wilder’s directing. It’s okay, but lacks a bit subtlety that I usually find in his films. He also doesn’t feel as comfortable directing comedy here as he does later, and the film is far from as cynical as say Sunset Blvd. Although not being cynical is not a bad thing, it might have made this film more interesting, but as it stands it is a fairly straight forward comedy from classic Hollywood. The film lacks depth is what I feel is the main problem, and remains quite superficial.
I can understand why this was a hit in its day. It works on several levels, but looses its sight and falls flat a couple of times. I did enjoy it a bit, but the film didn’t leave me anything significant, and in the end I felt a bit down. A mediocre effort from Wilder, but Bogart and Hepburn do a good job.
No comments:
Post a Comment