{"id":36129,"date":"2016-02-09T11:56:50","date_gmt":"2016-02-09T18:56:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=36129"},"modified":"2021-01-08T14:58:55","modified_gmt":"2021-01-08T21:58:55","slug":"light-that-failed-the-1939","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=36129","title":{"rendered":"Light That Failed, The (1939)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;Painting is seeing, then remembering better than you saw.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Light-That-Failed-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Light-That-Failed-Poster-217x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"217\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-36131\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Light-That-Failed-Poster-217x300.jpg 217w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Light-That-Failed-Poster-93x128.jpg 93w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Light-That-Failed-Poster.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 217px) 100vw, 217px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nA British painter and former Sudanese-war correspondent (Ronald Colman) pines after his childhood sweetheart (Muriel Angelus), who prefers to pursue her own painting career. Meanwhile, Colman&#8217;s eyesight &#8212; damaged during an attack while protecting a fellow soldier (Walter Huston) &#8212; begins to fail him, and he is determined to finish a key painting of a Cockney model (Ida Lupino) before he&#8217;s completely blind; but will Lupino&#8217;s anger at Colman for squelching her relationship with Huston get in the way of Colman&#8217;s final artistic accomplishment?\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Artists<\/li>\n<li>Blindness<\/li>\n<li>Historical Drama<\/li>\n<li>Ida Lupino Films<\/li>\n<li>Revenge<\/li>\n<li>Ronald Colman Films<\/li>\n<li>Walter Huston Films<\/li>\n<li>William Wellman Films<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nThere are quite a few &#8220;classic&#8221; (i.e., older) films that may remain beloved by a few, but by and large have passed their prime. Such is the case with this adaptation of Rudyard Kipling&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Light_that_Failed\">pro-British, pro-Colonialist, classist novel<\/a>, which will likely only appeal to fans of Kipling&#8217;s era-specific work. There simply isn&#8217;t much here to hold our interest, other than Lupino&#8217;s feisty portrayal as a woman of few means &#8212; a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gutenberg.org\/files\/2876\/2876-h\/2876-h.htm\">&#8220;dissolute little scarecrow, a gutter-snippet and nothing more&#8221;<\/a> &#8212; who sees an opportunity for betterment and latches onto it (though she&#8217;s essentially villainized for this attempt). It doesn&#8217;t help matters that Colman&#8217;s portrait of her &#8212; upon which the entire storyline hinges &#8212; seems like far from masterpiece material:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Light-That-Failed-Painting.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Light-That-Failed-Painting.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"512\" height=\"384\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-62320\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Light-That-Failed-Painting.png 512w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Light-That-Failed-Painting-300x225.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Light-That-Failed-Painting-128x96.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Light-That-Failed-Painting-360x270.png 360w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>which I suppose is a problem for any film centering on a pivotal piece of art (viz. <a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=34478\"><em>The Picture of Dorian Gray<\/em><\/a> &#8212; though that movie, despite its own flaws, is infinitely more nuanced and interesting). <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Ida Lupino as Bessie Broke<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Light-That-Failed-Lupino.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Light-That-Failed-Lupino.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"512\" height=\"384\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-36130\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Light-That-Failed-Lupino.png 512w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Light-That-Failed-Lupino-128x96.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Light-That-Failed-Lupino-300x225.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNo; feel free to skip this one. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0031572\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1939\/12\/25\/archives\/the-screen-in-review-the-light-that-failed-with-ronald-colman-is.html\">NY Times Original Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.tvguide.com\/movies\/the-light-that-failed\/review\/104276\/\">TV Guide Review<\/a>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Painting is seeing, then remembering better than you saw.&#8221; Synopsis: A British painter and former Sudanese-war correspondent (Ronald Colman) pines after his childhood sweetheart (Muriel Angelus), who prefers to pursue her own painting career. Meanwhile, Colman&#8217;s eyesight &#8212; damaged during an attack while protecting a fellow soldier (Walter Huston) &#8212; begins to fail him, and he is determined to finish a key painting of a Cockney model (Ida Lupino) before he&#8217;s completely blind; but will Lupino&#8217;s anger at Colman for&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=36129\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36129"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36129\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62321,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36129\/revisions\/62321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}