EAST SIDE, WEST SIDE (MGM 1949) Warner Home Video


Based on the scintillating novel by Marcia Davenport, Mervyn LeRoy’s East Side, West Side (1949) is a potent melodrama that takes a rather frank and unvarnished look at marital infidelity and the fallout incurred in the name of keeping up appearances. Interesting to consider this an MGM picture – as its premise is likely something, then reigning studio raja, L.B. Mayer would not have approved, even if the morally high-minded Mayer (at least where his pictures were concerned) was, by then, off and promoting his own affair with socialite, Lorena Danker, who had become his second wife in 1948. Nevertheless, LeRoy’s participation on East Side, West Side ensured a two-fold responsibility was upheld; first, that the picture would remain a ‘glamorous affair’ – of the uber-polish and ultra-sheen for which Metro was best known, and second, that the more insidiously adult portions of the story will be given that antiseptic white-wash, so as to make even their corrupting acts appear gently forgivable at a glance. And who could resist, when the stars on tap were as lovely and accomplished as Barbara Stanwyck and Ava Gardner? Indeed, interesting here to pause a moment and consider Gardner as the movie’s accomplished sexpot. Barely a decade earlier, she was a nobody with a Southern drawl, visiting her sister, Beatrice in New York when Beatrice’s husband, Larry Tarr, a professional photographer, took her portrait, displaying it in the window of his studio on 5th Ave. From here, so the legend goes, Loews’ legal clerk, Barnard Duhan became smitten and, after some finagling, set up Gardner for an interview at MGM's New York offices. Mayer’s initial response to her screen test was “She can't sing. She can't act. She can't talk. She's terrific!”
Until East Side, West Side, Gardner’s greatest performance had not been for MGM, which chose instead to squander her in a decade's worth of disposable bit parts. But she lit the screen afire in Mark Hellinger’s indie-produced smash, The Killers (1946) oozing absolute sex appeal as Kitty Collins. It was all the prodding Mayer needed to begin to cultivate a ‘persona’ for Gardner – that of the reckless, but desirable vixen, luring men to their doom. In her private life, the actress was also something of a train wreck, having already wed (in 1942) and divorced (in 1943) MGM contract player, Mickey Rooney. Her second marriage to band leader, Artie Shaw was as short-lived (1945-46), and by 1949, Gardner was already well into her affair with Frank Sinatra that would culminate in her third and final trip to the altar in 1951. As a matter of record, that union lasted until 1957, despite being tumultuous from the outset.
Isobel Lennart’s screenplay for East Side, West Side is a largely pedestrian affair. The story begins on New York’s fashionable east end with married couple, Jessie (Barbara Stanwyck) and Brandon Bourne (James Mason) enjoying a ritual Thursday night feast at Jessie’s mother, Nora Kernan’s (Gail Sondergaard) apartment. The gathering seems idyllic and quaint enough. However, as the couple departs for their own home – Nora has her suspicions all is not entirely well. You see, Brandon was having a rather torrid romance with viper/mantrap, Isabel Lorrison (Ava Gardner) – an affair for which Jessie forgave him. However, Isabel is back in town, and meaner, hotter and more sensually tempting than ever before. She lures Brandon away from Jessie at every chance, flaunting her wealth and womanly attributes while arrogantly confident she will win over Brandon in the end. Not that it matters either way to Isabel, who is currently seeing New York thug in a three-piece, Alec Dawning (Douglas Kennedy), much to the chagrin of his other playmate, Felice Backett (Beverly Michaels). In the meantime, Jessie has befriended former cop turned man of the people, Mark Dwyer (Van Heflin), on leave from his job in Italy. Dwyer’s girlfriend, Rosa Senta (Cyd Charisse) has been nursing a school girl’s crush and keeping her home fires burning for Mark over the last two-years in the hopes he will feel the same toward her upon his return to America. Instead, Mark quickly develops a yen for Jessie. In the end, rather predictably, all of the natural relationships are restored; Brandon, going back to his grateful wife, and Dwyer, rejoining Rosa.
East Side, West Side may not be a fantastic movie, but it does hold together rather nicely, with Miklós Rózsa’s plush score the epitome of urbanite sophistication, and, Charles Rosher’s gorgeous B&W cinematography making a fantasy-scape from MGM’s uber-glamorous reincarnations of Manhattan. The great mystery and skill of LeRoy’s direction is how it manages to effortlessly shift from a seemingly conventional soap opera about six lives inexplicably and unpredictably intertwined, into a full-blooded pseudo-noir after Isabel’s body is discovered, strangled to death inside her apartment – a plot twist I did not see coming. On the surface, LeRoy’s direction is straight-forward. He keeps the pace moving, inserting comedic bits of business to break up the murky monotony involving these more sinister plot twists. And the entire cast is superb. Mason, in particular, gives a brilliant read of the ‘weak/troubled’ and utterly flawed, though handsome enough man about town. This would become something of his stock and trade during the 1950’s – most notably as Norman Maine in A Star Is Born (1954). There is a queer maternal conviction in Stanwyck’s performance as it shifts atmospherically from doting/dutiful wife to a woman who has had enough of both her own life and the man who only pretends to occupy it with her.
Warner Home Video’s DVD is adequately rendered with minor flaws worth noting. Edge enhancement plagues the main title and end credits. Age-related artifacts are present throughout and, at times, heavier than expected. On the whole the gray scale has been impeccably rendered. Film grain looks very indigenous to its source. And a considerable amount of fine detail evidently shines through. Blacks are solid and deep; whites, nearly pristine. On several occasions image quality falters – the image becoming more softly focused and with lower than anticipated contrast levels. On the whole, however, this transfer will surely not disappoint. The audio is Dolby Digital 1.0 mono and adequately represented. Extras include a radio broadcast, several short subjects and the film’s original theatrical trailer. Recommended.
FILM RATING (out of 5 - 5 being the best)
4
VIDEO/AUDIO
3.5
EXTRAS
1

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