THE MAN WHO PLAYED GOD
La oculta providencia
John G. Adolfi, 1932.
imdb Wikipedia
Director: John G. Adolfi
Productores: Jack L. Warner, Darryl F. Zanuck
Guión: Julien Josephson, Maude T. Howell, basado en la obra The Silent Voice, de Jules Eckert Goodman
Fotografía: James Van Trees, en blanco y negro.
Montaje: William Holmes
Dirección artística: Jack Okey
Música: Leo F. Forbstein
Intérpretes: George Arliss (Montgomery Royale), Violet Heming (Mildred Miller), Bette Davis (Grace Blair), Louise Closser Hale (Florence Royale), Donald Cook (Harold Van Adam).
Género: drama
Duración: 80 minutos.
Sinopsis
A musician, Montgomery Royale (played by George Arliss) gives a private performance for a visiting monarch, and is injured when a bomb is detonated in an attempt to assassinate the monarch. Deafened by the blast and with his music career ruined as a result, Royale returns to New York City with his sister (Louise Closser Hale), a close friend Mildred (Violet Heming) and his fiancee Grace(Bette Davis).
After considering suicide his discovers that he can lip-read and spends time watching people walking in Central Park. As he learns of people's problems he tries to help them by arranging for gifts to be sent to them anonymously. He becomes absorbed in his game of "playing God" but his actions are without sincerity. He witnesses a conversation between Grace and a young man (Donald Cook) and realizes that Grace has fallen in love with this man. She tells him she must end the romance so that she can tend to Royale, and Royale is moved by the generosity of her sacrifice. He confronts her and ends their engagement, allowing her to follow her heart.
Royale continues to act as a philanthropist, but his attitude is changed and his motives become altruistic. He draws closer to Mildred and the film ends with a suggestion of romance developing between the two.
Una crítica de la época en el New York Times
[quote]Movie Review
The Man Who Played God (1932)
February 11, 1932
George Arliss Gives Another Masterful Portrayal as a Deaf Musician Who Eavesdrops on Distressed Persons.; The Deaf Pianist.
By MORDAUNT HALL.
Published: February 11, 1932
George Arliss turns to another old favorite in his latest picture, "The Man Who Played God," which was offered last night at the Warner Theatre before an enthusiastic audience. It is a charmingly poetic idea that has received tasteful and reverend attention from John Adolfi the director. Mr. Arliss delivers another of-his effective and meticulous portrayals as a celebrated pianist named Montgomery Royale, who is afflicted with deafness and subsequently finds joy in eavesdropping on distressed souls in Central Park by reading their lips through powerful field glasses as they talk to each other.
It is a neatly conceived story as it comes to the screen, with effervescent cheer in the introductory sequences, then a period of melancholy, and finally episodes of thankfulness and happiness. It was no wonder that this first night audience, after watching and listening in silence throughout the production, were stirred to applaud as Royale sat at a church organ and played "Onward Christian Soldiers."
This beguiling tale was written years ago by Gouverneur Morris and it was dramatized by Jules Eckert Goodman. A good deal has been added to it in transforming it into a film and while it seems a little lethargic at times, it has such a genuinely gentle and appealing touch that one would not wish it to be told any faster.
There are the glimpses of Paris, with Mr. Royale suffering from too much adulation from those who enjoy his piano playing. Grace, a young girl, is infatuated with this elderly musician and she watches his nimble fingers through her field glass as he plays. He discourages Grace from loving him, but she worships music and therefore adores this master of the piano.
In a beautifully staged series of scenes Royale is beheld ready to play before a kingôwhich king is not stated. This monarch is delayed, and Royale decides that the concert must start. He plays and receives an ovation, and after the concert is over and Royale is holding a reception in a private room, in comes the king. He had been held up by a breakdown of his automobile. Through dark shadows one appreciates that something alarming is going to happen, and immediately after Royale sits at the piano to play especially for the king a bomb is thrown through the window of the room. Apparently nobody is hurt, but the shock of the explosion destroys the musician's hearing. He is dumfounded by the sudden stillness and there is an affecting glimpse when, after a valiant attempt to play again, he arises from the piano and realizes that he is deaf.
The once jolly Royale becomes sour and gloomy. He will not play another note and he returns to New York filled with bitterness against God. He countermands the order for an organ he was going to give to a church in memory of his mother and he smashes a violin. He even thinks of suicide, but he is stayed from this by his faithful servant, Battle, acted by Ivan Simpson. Royale keeps to his apartment, but one day an expert on lip-reading comes to him and the pianist turns out to be an apt pupil. As soon as Royale learns to understand what persons are saying he becomes more cheerful and then one day he chances to observe Grace's field glasses on a window seat.
He looks down into Central Park and reads the lips of a young man who has been told that he has consumption and must go away. The girl with him is willing to sell herself to her employer to raise the money to help cure the man she loves. Royale hurries Battle out after the couple, and just after they have finished praying Royale's servant appears with an envelope and they read the note it contains. It asks for their address so that the writer can send the money needed to make them happy.
Royale mocks God even at this stage, saying that he is himself answering their prayers. But subsequent events change his demeanor. He does not confine himself to aiding grown-ups, but also sends toys to poor little children, and during one scene Royale and Battle are perceived having a rollicking time while trying out and packing the presents.
Besides Mr. Arliss's masterful acting, there is an excellent performance by Violet Heming, who appears as Royale's sincere and sympathetic friend. Bette Davis, who plays Grace, often speaks too rapidly for the microphone. Mr. Simpson and Louise Closser Hale do splendidly in their respective rôles.
It was a pity that the print screened last night was often extremely noisy in the first stages. The undertones sounded as though a thunderstorm were going on in the distance.
Prior to the presentation of "The Man Who Played God," there was shown a special film called "Washington, the Man and the Capitol."[/quote]
Y más información en la página gringa de TCM
[quote]Bette Davis's film career had been rather lackluster since her debut in 1931, and she was ready to pack it in and return East when she got an unexpected offer to appear with the distinguished actor George Arliss in his next film, The Man Who Played God (1932). According to Davis, she almost blew it by refusing to believe the person on the other end of the phone line was Arliss himself, asking her to come in to speak with him about the part. Luckily, however, she was eventually convinced, kept the appointment, and made her first film at Warner Brothers, the studio that would be her home for the next 17 years and the breeding ground for both her finest work and her reputation for strong-willed, often difficult behavior.
The story, based on the play The Silent Voice, concerned a brilliant concert pianist who is deafened when a would-be assassin throws a bomb into a European palace where the musician is performing for royalty. Depressed over this sudden end to his career, the musician is brought back from a suicide attempt by his loyal fiancée and the discovery that he can read lips. He soon turns this skill into a philanthropic pastime, helping complete strangers, before performing one last act of kindness toward his young fiancée.
Arliss was already rather old for the role when he made the movie the first time ten years earlier as a silent. And that impression wasn't helped any in this remake by his odd and decidedly non-matinee idol looks and his insistence (despite efforts by Warners make-up artist Perc Westmore) on using the pale foundation and dark lip rouge he had worn in his years on the stage. But at this time, no one was willing to argue with Mr. Arliss. Although his appeal is mystifying to us today and his acting style very outdated and over-the-top, in the early sound years, George Arliss was considered a 'Great Actor,' especially by a studio seeking to add some prestige to its output of low-budget programmers and fast-action gangster films and musicals.
Arliss won an Academy Award in his first sound film as the British prime minister in Disraeli (1929), another picture he had made as a silent in 1921. Apparently, he was right in believing if his public had enjoyed him in some of his best-known silent roles, they would be delighted to hear him perform them anew through the miracle of sound. The same year as his Oscar® for Disraeli, he was also nominated for The Green Goddess (1930), yet another earlier role of his in 1923, and the only instance in Academy history of an actor competing against himself in the same category.
Easy as it may be today to poke fun at this once successful star, not an ugly word was ever spoken about him by Bette Davis. She credited Arliss not only with providing her first big break in films but with showing her the tricks of concentration and character development (and, one suspects, the fearlessness to go over the top) that she would refine over the course of her long career. The New York Times may have dismissed her performance as his young fiancée with the criticism that she "often speaks too rapidly for the microphone," but she earned the highest praise and respect from her veteran co-star, who cast her again in The Working Man (1933).
In his 1940 autobiography, Arliss raved about the "deep and vivid creation" Davis contributed to The Man Who Played God. "She startled me because quite unexpectedly I got from her a flash that illuminated mere words and inspired them with passion and emotion. This is the kind of light that cannot be hidden under a bushel, and I am not in the least surprised that Bette Davis is now the most important star on the screen."
One other noteworthy aspect of The Man Who Played God is its innovative use of sound, not surprising since the movie is about hearing and was made by the studio that pioneered talking pictures. In sequences where the deaf musician is reading lips and the character he's "listening" to turns away from him, the sound department erased the dialogue from the sound track so that the audience is only getting those words the Arliss character is getting through reading lips.
Among the smaller roles be on the lookout for future gossip columnist Hedda Hopper as Alice Chittendon and future star Ray Milland in an uncredited bit as Eddie.
In addition to Arliss's two versions of The Man Who Played God, the film was made before under the original play title The Silent Voice (1915) and refashioned as a vehicle for Liberace, Sincerely Yours (1955).
by Rob Nixon [/quote]
Bueno, el primer papel protagonista de Bette Davis, gracias a George Arliss, y, claro, al extraordinario talento de la actriz. Arliss, actor de la vieja escuela, rodó a los inicios del sonoro 10 películas exclusivamente en la Warner, con cierto éxito de público, lo que le permitió contar con cierta libertad relativa a la hora de interpretar, elegir los papeles y a sus acompañantes. En este caso, como también en The Working Man (Adolfi, 1933), elige bien: a Bette Davis.
La copia que os presento la encontré en el emule, se trata de un SATRip de la TCM con subtítulos incrustados en francés. Previamente había traído The Working Man. Ahora no se trata de una comedia, sino que el tono es más lúgubre, pero, sin embargo, mantiene la espectativa de que estamos viviendo buenos momentos a pesar de la angustia.
Me estoy encargando de la traducción.
1932. The Man Who Played God (John G.Adolfi).Geoge Arliss,Bette Davis.SatRip VOstF.avi 
Subtítulos en esp.descarga directa
The Man Who Played God.esp..srt
Saúdos,
La oculta providencia
John G. Adolfi, 1932.
imdb Wikipedia
Director: John G. Adolfi
Productores: Jack L. Warner, Darryl F. Zanuck
Guión: Julien Josephson, Maude T. Howell, basado en la obra The Silent Voice, de Jules Eckert Goodman
Fotografía: James Van Trees, en blanco y negro.
Montaje: William Holmes
Dirección artística: Jack Okey
Música: Leo F. Forbstein
Intérpretes: George Arliss (Montgomery Royale), Violet Heming (Mildred Miller), Bette Davis (Grace Blair), Louise Closser Hale (Florence Royale), Donald Cook (Harold Van Adam).
Género: drama
Duración: 80 minutos.
Sinopsis
A musician, Montgomery Royale (played by George Arliss) gives a private performance for a visiting monarch, and is injured when a bomb is detonated in an attempt to assassinate the monarch. Deafened by the blast and with his music career ruined as a result, Royale returns to New York City with his sister (Louise Closser Hale), a close friend Mildred (Violet Heming) and his fiancee Grace(Bette Davis).
After considering suicide his discovers that he can lip-read and spends time watching people walking in Central Park. As he learns of people's problems he tries to help them by arranging for gifts to be sent to them anonymously. He becomes absorbed in his game of "playing God" but his actions are without sincerity. He witnesses a conversation between Grace and a young man (Donald Cook) and realizes that Grace has fallen in love with this man. She tells him she must end the romance so that she can tend to Royale, and Royale is moved by the generosity of her sacrifice. He confronts her and ends their engagement, allowing her to follow her heart.
Royale continues to act as a philanthropist, but his attitude is changed and his motives become altruistic. He draws closer to Mildred and the film ends with a suggestion of romance developing between the two.
Una crítica de la época en el New York Times
[quote]Movie Review
The Man Who Played God (1932)
February 11, 1932
George Arliss Gives Another Masterful Portrayal as a Deaf Musician Who Eavesdrops on Distressed Persons.; The Deaf Pianist.
By MORDAUNT HALL.
Published: February 11, 1932
George Arliss turns to another old favorite in his latest picture, "The Man Who Played God," which was offered last night at the Warner Theatre before an enthusiastic audience. It is a charmingly poetic idea that has received tasteful and reverend attention from John Adolfi the director. Mr. Arliss delivers another of-his effective and meticulous portrayals as a celebrated pianist named Montgomery Royale, who is afflicted with deafness and subsequently finds joy in eavesdropping on distressed souls in Central Park by reading their lips through powerful field glasses as they talk to each other.
It is a neatly conceived story as it comes to the screen, with effervescent cheer in the introductory sequences, then a period of melancholy, and finally episodes of thankfulness and happiness. It was no wonder that this first night audience, after watching and listening in silence throughout the production, were stirred to applaud as Royale sat at a church organ and played "Onward Christian Soldiers."
This beguiling tale was written years ago by Gouverneur Morris and it was dramatized by Jules Eckert Goodman. A good deal has been added to it in transforming it into a film and while it seems a little lethargic at times, it has such a genuinely gentle and appealing touch that one would not wish it to be told any faster.
There are the glimpses of Paris, with Mr. Royale suffering from too much adulation from those who enjoy his piano playing. Grace, a young girl, is infatuated with this elderly musician and she watches his nimble fingers through her field glass as he plays. He discourages Grace from loving him, but she worships music and therefore adores this master of the piano.
In a beautifully staged series of scenes Royale is beheld ready to play before a kingôwhich king is not stated. This monarch is delayed, and Royale decides that the concert must start. He plays and receives an ovation, and after the concert is over and Royale is holding a reception in a private room, in comes the king. He had been held up by a breakdown of his automobile. Through dark shadows one appreciates that something alarming is going to happen, and immediately after Royale sits at the piano to play especially for the king a bomb is thrown through the window of the room. Apparently nobody is hurt, but the shock of the explosion destroys the musician's hearing. He is dumfounded by the sudden stillness and there is an affecting glimpse when, after a valiant attempt to play again, he arises from the piano and realizes that he is deaf.
The once jolly Royale becomes sour and gloomy. He will not play another note and he returns to New York filled with bitterness against God. He countermands the order for an organ he was going to give to a church in memory of his mother and he smashes a violin. He even thinks of suicide, but he is stayed from this by his faithful servant, Battle, acted by Ivan Simpson. Royale keeps to his apartment, but one day an expert on lip-reading comes to him and the pianist turns out to be an apt pupil. As soon as Royale learns to understand what persons are saying he becomes more cheerful and then one day he chances to observe Grace's field glasses on a window seat.
He looks down into Central Park and reads the lips of a young man who has been told that he has consumption and must go away. The girl with him is willing to sell herself to her employer to raise the money to help cure the man she loves. Royale hurries Battle out after the couple, and just after they have finished praying Royale's servant appears with an envelope and they read the note it contains. It asks for their address so that the writer can send the money needed to make them happy.
Royale mocks God even at this stage, saying that he is himself answering their prayers. But subsequent events change his demeanor. He does not confine himself to aiding grown-ups, but also sends toys to poor little children, and during one scene Royale and Battle are perceived having a rollicking time while trying out and packing the presents.
Besides Mr. Arliss's masterful acting, there is an excellent performance by Violet Heming, who appears as Royale's sincere and sympathetic friend. Bette Davis, who plays Grace, often speaks too rapidly for the microphone. Mr. Simpson and Louise Closser Hale do splendidly in their respective rôles.
It was a pity that the print screened last night was often extremely noisy in the first stages. The undertones sounded as though a thunderstorm were going on in the distance.
Prior to the presentation of "The Man Who Played God," there was shown a special film called "Washington, the Man and the Capitol."[/quote]
Y más información en la página gringa de TCM
[quote]Bette Davis's film career had been rather lackluster since her debut in 1931, and she was ready to pack it in and return East when she got an unexpected offer to appear with the distinguished actor George Arliss in his next film, The Man Who Played God (1932). According to Davis, she almost blew it by refusing to believe the person on the other end of the phone line was Arliss himself, asking her to come in to speak with him about the part. Luckily, however, she was eventually convinced, kept the appointment, and made her first film at Warner Brothers, the studio that would be her home for the next 17 years and the breeding ground for both her finest work and her reputation for strong-willed, often difficult behavior.
The story, based on the play The Silent Voice, concerned a brilliant concert pianist who is deafened when a would-be assassin throws a bomb into a European palace where the musician is performing for royalty. Depressed over this sudden end to his career, the musician is brought back from a suicide attempt by his loyal fiancée and the discovery that he can read lips. He soon turns this skill into a philanthropic pastime, helping complete strangers, before performing one last act of kindness toward his young fiancée.
Arliss was already rather old for the role when he made the movie the first time ten years earlier as a silent. And that impression wasn't helped any in this remake by his odd and decidedly non-matinee idol looks and his insistence (despite efforts by Warners make-up artist Perc Westmore) on using the pale foundation and dark lip rouge he had worn in his years on the stage. But at this time, no one was willing to argue with Mr. Arliss. Although his appeal is mystifying to us today and his acting style very outdated and over-the-top, in the early sound years, George Arliss was considered a 'Great Actor,' especially by a studio seeking to add some prestige to its output of low-budget programmers and fast-action gangster films and musicals.
Arliss won an Academy Award in his first sound film as the British prime minister in Disraeli (1929), another picture he had made as a silent in 1921. Apparently, he was right in believing if his public had enjoyed him in some of his best-known silent roles, they would be delighted to hear him perform them anew through the miracle of sound. The same year as his Oscar® for Disraeli, he was also nominated for The Green Goddess (1930), yet another earlier role of his in 1923, and the only instance in Academy history of an actor competing against himself in the same category.
Easy as it may be today to poke fun at this once successful star, not an ugly word was ever spoken about him by Bette Davis. She credited Arliss not only with providing her first big break in films but with showing her the tricks of concentration and character development (and, one suspects, the fearlessness to go over the top) that she would refine over the course of her long career. The New York Times may have dismissed her performance as his young fiancée with the criticism that she "often speaks too rapidly for the microphone," but she earned the highest praise and respect from her veteran co-star, who cast her again in The Working Man (1933).
In his 1940 autobiography, Arliss raved about the "deep and vivid creation" Davis contributed to The Man Who Played God. "She startled me because quite unexpectedly I got from her a flash that illuminated mere words and inspired them with passion and emotion. This is the kind of light that cannot be hidden under a bushel, and I am not in the least surprised that Bette Davis is now the most important star on the screen."
One other noteworthy aspect of The Man Who Played God is its innovative use of sound, not surprising since the movie is about hearing and was made by the studio that pioneered talking pictures. In sequences where the deaf musician is reading lips and the character he's "listening" to turns away from him, the sound department erased the dialogue from the sound track so that the audience is only getting those words the Arliss character is getting through reading lips.
Among the smaller roles be on the lookout for future gossip columnist Hedda Hopper as Alice Chittendon and future star Ray Milland in an uncredited bit as Eddie.
In addition to Arliss's two versions of The Man Who Played God, the film was made before under the original play title The Silent Voice (1915) and refashioned as a vehicle for Liberace, Sincerely Yours (1955).
by Rob Nixon [/quote]
Bueno, el primer papel protagonista de Bette Davis, gracias a George Arliss, y, claro, al extraordinario talento de la actriz. Arliss, actor de la vieja escuela, rodó a los inicios del sonoro 10 películas exclusivamente en la Warner, con cierto éxito de público, lo que le permitió contar con cierta libertad relativa a la hora de interpretar, elegir los papeles y a sus acompañantes. En este caso, como también en The Working Man (Adolfi, 1933), elige bien: a Bette Davis.
La copia que os presento la encontré en el emule, se trata de un SATRip de la TCM con subtítulos incrustados en francés. Previamente había traído The Working Man. Ahora no se trata de una comedia, sino que el tono es más lúgubre, pero, sin embargo, mantiene la espectativa de que estamos viviendo buenos momentos a pesar de la angustia.
Me estoy encargando de la traducción.
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The Man Who Played God.esp..srt Saúdos,