African American Drama
Classics
Crime & Criminals
Cult Classics
Family Life
Gay & Lesbian
General
Love & Romance
Military & War
Murder & Mayhem
Period Piece
Religion
Sports
Television
|
 |
The Battle Of The Sexes |
List Price: $24.99
Your Price: $22.49 |
 |
|
|
|
| Product Info |
Reviews |
Features:
Description:
D.W. Griffith is hardly known for his light touch or his sense of humor, but both of these hidden talents are evident in this sexy romantic comedy. Griffith shows a smooth, fluid style and a sophisticated hand in the story of a middle-aged family man entranced by a gold-digging jazz baby. Character actor Jean Hersholt (yes, the same one the Oscars named the Humanitarian Award for) is a frumpy, bespectacled middle class husband and an unassuming Wall Street bigwig wooed by blond floozy Phyllis Haver. He's got a family and she has a boyfriend (an oily gigolo described as "the wrong answer to a maiden's prayer"), but why should that stop a little after-hours fun? This being a Griffith film, the story winds up with a melodramatic climax, but he also displays a sly wit and the winking, thoroughly modern sensibility reminiscent of Ernst Lubitsch's cultured Continental touch. From the clever and elegant introductory scene to the carnivalesque treatment of a lover's tiff to the sentimental coda, Griffith's jazz age sex comedy is lovely, luscious, and more wry than you'd expect from the old man of Victorian melodrama. --Sean Axmaker
|
|
|
|
