Fazil

A chance meeting between Fazil, an Arab prince, and Fabienne, a Parisian showgirl, leads to an unlikely marriage. But what Fabienne thought would be the life of a pampered princess is instead roughing it out on the desert sands. She turns her nose up at Fazil and leaves him. Deciding he is too good for just one woman, Fazil starts building up a harem while on the rebound. Learning of this, Fabienne heads back to the desert to knock some sense into her estranged husband, but this time a rescue party follows her from Paris - one that might cause this lover's quarrel to have a most unexpected outcome.

Having just signed a one-year, three-picture deal with Fox, Howard Hawks was assigned by the studio to adapt the play L'Insoumise by Pierre Frondaie. Working with screenwriter Seton Miller, destined to be a longtime Hawks collaborator, the film was given the name Fazil after the main character, though the pair could not quite decide if it was a drama or a comedy. In one of the movie's many incongruities, the Arab prince is played by all-American hunk Charles Farrell, who was usually paired with Janet Gaynor at this time in films such as 7th Heaven (1927), Street Angel (1928), and Lucky Star (1929). During the television era he was famous for playing Gale Storm's father in the popular sitcom My Little Margie (1952-1955). Norwegian actress Greta Nissen was chosen as his leading lady, not Gaynor, this time around. Nissen is most famous for a role she didn't play: after Fazil, Howard Hughes cast her as the love interest in Hell's Angels (eventually released in 1930 after a long gestation), but halfway through production talking pictures became a phenomenon. Hughes thought Nissen's thick Norwegian accent would sound preposterous to audiences, so the role was recast with Jean Harlow, and she became the big screen's living, breathing personification of blonde pulchritude, rather than Ms. Nissen, who thereafter fell into obscurity. Fazil went over budget, causing Hawks to have a falling out with Fox executive Sol Wutzel and eventually leave the studio (this may be why, even though the film was finished in August 1927, it was not released until June 1928.) Despite the legendary director later telling Peter Bogdanovich that "I'm not very fond of the picture", Fazil has plenty to recommend it, with an exotic texture not to be found in any other Hawks film. This Alpha Video edition features the synchronized Movietone musical score arranged by Samuel "Roxy" Rothafel and directed by Ernö Rapée. (1928)

Upplagd i sortimentet: 28 december, 2024