Ronald Paints His Masterpiece

Richard Heldar (Ronald Colman) returns from the Sudan with a scar from a head injury he received saving the life of his best friend Torp Torpenhow (Walter Huston) and images from his life in the military. Dick is a painter, and gains success back home translating those images into highly successful paintings. Torp, however, is disappointed that Dick's views idealize the war; Dick pragmatically points out that idealism sells. But then Dick gets an idea for a painting of a woman - a Melancholy, which he knows will be his masterpiece. Using a local street girl, Bessie Broke (Ida Lupino), as model, Dick works steadily on his canvas. But Dick is under time constraints - due to his injury, he is going blind, and only has a few months to work. The Light That Failed (1939) is our film this week.

This film is the third based on an 1891 novel by Rudyard Kipling. The first two, silent films from 1916 and 1923, ended differently than our film. Kipling's novel originally had a very dark ending. But, under pressure, Kipling gave it a happy one. It was this ending that was used by the silent films. Director William Wellman, however, was not going to go for the whitewashed version. He used the original story, with its grim, hopeless conclusion. Bear in mind that Wellman wanted to give his pre-code film Wild Boys of the Road a bleak ending, and was prevented from doing so by the studio. We wondered if perhaps the studio should have intervened again.

Mr. Colman, who is willing to make Richard a nasty individual when called to do so, was not Mr. Wellman's first choice - he wanted Gary Cooper for the role (AFI Catalog), following their work together in Beau Geste. Mr. Colman and Mr. Wellman did NOT get along. According to this TCM article, Mr. Colman wanted Vivien Leigh (who was in the midst of filming Gone with the Wind) for the role of Bessie. Wellman refused - he had auditioned Ms. Lupino and wanted her in the part. This resulted in some on-set verbal sparring (Ida Lupino: A Biography by William Donati) and Mr. Colman finishing the scene without incident.

Despite the fact that she was unwanted by Mr. Colman, Ida Lupino nearly steals the movie in her breakout role as Bessie. Bessie is a complex and interesting character, and Ms. Lupino makes the most of it. In her able hands, Bessie is both sympathetic and unlikable at the same time. Born in England to performers, Ms. Lupino began working in British films in 1931. After several years in Hollywood in which producers did not know what to do with her, Ms. Lupino became "the poor man's Bette Davis" (her description; LA Times) picking up serious parts Ms. Davis had rejected. Her work in our film resulted in her casting in They Drive By Night (1940), as the mentally unbalanced Lana Carlsen. In 1949, she directed her first film Not Wanted, when Elmer Clifton became ill and was unable to finish the project. She would continue acting and directing, in both film and television until 1978. Ms. Lupino married and divorced three times (to Louis Hayward, Collier Young, and Howard Duff. Her only child was the result of her marriage to Mr. Duff). One of my favorite imaginary images are the reported meetings of the Directors Guild of America; the meeting opened with the words "Gentlemen, and Miss Lupino" (San Francisco Chronicle). Ms. Lupino may not have been the first female director, but she surely paved the way for women directors today.

Muriel Angelus doesn't really impress as Maisie. Where we dearly want Maisie to be an independent career woman, she comes across as a petulant brat. She invites Dick to see her work. When he provides honest criticism - which she had asked of him - she pouts, all the while pointing out that when men have previously praised her work, they had different intentions in mind. Maisie claims to love Dick, but she seems inherently selfish. You begin to wonder what exactly Dick sees in her.

Walter Huston, who is always a pleasure to see in any film, makes Torp a layered character. It is he who finds Bessie, and while we're pretty sure he has ulterior motives in bringing her to his lodging, he ends up feeding her and letting her get some sleep. He is a support to Dick, as well as his sternest critic.

Attitudes towards disability have changed since Kipling's time, making this a difficult movie to watch. But with good performances, and an interesting discussion of art it is a worthwhile film. Just be prepared that you may not like the ending.