Dragon Seed
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List Price: $19.98
Features
• Black & White
• NTSC
In Theaters : August, 1944
Video Release : 01 September, 1998 |
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Dragon Seed Customer Reviews
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♥♥♥♥♥
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Hepburn, Huston, Moorehead and More
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June Allyson was pencilled in tentatively as the studio's choice for Jade, the young and rebellious daughter-in-law of a provincial Chinese family, until Joseph Pasternak was made aware of Katharine Hepburn's sudden interest in the property. As a newcomer to the studio, Allyson was foisted off into a lesser property, Two Girls and a Sailor, to allow Ms. Hepburn the chance to stretch her muscles once again. Pasternak would reward Allyson for her acquiescence by gradually building her and Van Johnson into a screen love team that eventually eclipsed (in terms of box office popularity) the older pairing of Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. Looking back on DRAGON SEED today, it is hard to imagine it with June Allyson's husky jocularity, but that is because we are used to Hepburn's New England angularity which makes her Asian makeup almost transparent. Most of the actors look (initially) bizarre, but we get used to them pretty quick. By the time the film is about thirty minutes on, we have forgotten the repellent and offensive makeup work, and we are concentrating on the story, and on the wonderful way Jack Conway had with actors. And oh, what a band of actors he has assembled here. Aline MacMahon did little memorable screen work, though she popped up in everything from GOLD DIGGERS of 1933 to DIAMOND HEAD, but was she ever better than here, playing essentially the O-LAN role from THE GOOD EARTH? Hurd Hatfield is splendid, evil with a human face, evil nearly decipherable. Agnes Moorehead is a good match for him, slimy and repellent, utterly self-obsessed and a liar. Conway stages the big scenes with the bad characters with relish, almost as though he enjoyed them more than the milk and water meekness of Turhan Bey, etc.
Pauline Kael used to recommend this film, freaky as it is, for one superbly directed setpiece that, she said, equalled the best of Hitchcock for downright sweating suspense. All those who have seen this film know which scene it is--and for those of you who are DRAGON SEED virgins, you're in for a treat. |
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