{"id":41118,"date":"2018-10-09T08:47:31","date_gmt":"2018-10-09T15:47:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=41118"},"modified":"2021-06-15T23:52:37","modified_gmt":"2021-06-16T06:52:37","slug":"saxon-charm-the-1948","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=41118","title":{"rendered":"Saxon Charm, The (1948)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;The Saxon charm is always turned on full the next day.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Saxon-Charm-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Saxon-Charm-Poster-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-41120\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Saxon-Charm-Poster-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Saxon-Charm-Poster-85x128.jpg 85w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Saxon-Charm-Poster.jpg 313w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nA best-selling novelist (John Payne) eager to have his first play produced by a notoriously self-absorbed theatrical guru (Robert Montgomery) ignores misgivings from both his wife (Susan Hayward) and Montgomery&#8217;s loyal girlfriend (Audrey Totter), and finds himself struggling to maintain artistic autonomy over his own work.\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>Audrey Totter Films<\/li>\n<li>Has-Beens<\/li>\n<li>John Payne Films<\/li>\n<li>Robert Montgomery Films<\/li>\n<li>Susan Hayward Films<\/li>\n<li>Writers<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nIt&#8217;s difficult to find much to appreciate in this tale of a narcissistic theatrical producer whose &#8220;charm&#8221; lies exclusively in his facility with conning &#8212; and his ability to believe his own confabulations without hesitation. I could easily imagine George Sanders in the title role, though perhaps his droll affect wouldn&#8217;t adequately capture Matt Saxon&#8217;s frantic mania and baseless optimism. The moral of the story seems to be that one shouldn&#8217;t trust in gurus or mentors, instead relying on one&#8217;s own sense of artistic integrity and common sense &#8212; but the side story of Totter (very appealing despite it all) being given a lesson on nightclub singing seems to belie this, since she&#8217;s actually much more effective after Saxon&#8217;s input. Regardless, everything about this film represents such a dismal downward spiral that one wonders what the original novelist (Frederic Wakeman)&#8217;s point was: do returning veterans (like Payne) need to stop listening to their &#8220;elders&#8221; and simply get on with their own life choices? <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Saxon-Charm-Payne-Montgomery.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Saxon-Charm-Payne-Montgomery-1024x784.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"490\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-65430\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Saxon-Charm-Payne-Montgomery-1024x784.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Saxon-Charm-Payne-Montgomery-300x230.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Saxon-Charm-Payne-Montgomery-128x98.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Saxon-Charm-Payne-Montgomery-768x588.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Saxon-Charm-Payne-Montgomery-352x270.png 352w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Saxon-Charm-Payne-Montgomery.png 1351w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>So it seems. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Audrey Totter as Alma<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Saxon-Charm-Totter-1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Saxon-Charm-Totter-1-1024x777.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"486\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-65431\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Saxon-Charm-Totter-1-1024x777.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Saxon-Charm-Totter-1-300x228.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Saxon-Charm-Totter-1-128x97.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Saxon-Charm-Totter-1-768x582.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Saxon-Charm-Totter-1-356x270.png 356w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Saxon-Charm-Totter-1.png 1349w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/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=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0040759\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1948\/09\/30\/archives\/at-loews-criterion.html\">NY Times Original Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;The Saxon charm is always turned on full the next day.&#8221; Synopsis: A best-selling novelist (John Payne) eager to have his first play produced by a notoriously self-absorbed theatrical guru (Robert Montgomery) ignores misgivings from both his wife (Susan Hayward) and Montgomery&#8217;s loyal girlfriend (Audrey Totter), and finds himself struggling to maintain artistic autonomy over his own work. Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Audrey Totter Films Has-Beens John Payne Films Robert Montgomery Films Susan Hayward Films Writers Review: It&#8217;s difficult&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=41118\"> 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-41118","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\/41118","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=41118"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72974,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41118\/revisions\/72974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}