Daisy Miller
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Movie Reviews of Daisy Miller
Movie Review: Best Henry James on film
Summary: 5 Stars
Peter Bogdanovich's 1974 adaptation of Henry James's novella doesn't follow standard period-picture protocol. Though faithful to its source, "Daisy Miller" has an old-fashioned Hollywood feel, showing the influence of Howard Hawks and Orson Welles.
As the hapless Daisy, Cybil Shepherd delivers her dialogue in a snappy style reminiscent of classic screwball comedy. Barry Brown, Eileen Brennan, Cloris Leachman and especially Mildred Natwick shine in supporting roles. Since the story deals with Americans abroad, you won't hear many British accents in the cast. Their absence may prove disconcerting to some viewers.
Extras are few but choice. Bogdanovich provides a brief interview explaining the film's genesis, as well an audio commentary that focuses on its ties to his earlier Oscar-winner "The Last Picture Show."
Movie Review: Daisy Miller is a masterpiece.
Summary: 5 Stars
This is one of the greatest film made by Peter Bogdanovich. Daisy Miller is a profond, deep and sad movie. Made in the style of George Cukor. Better than the novel written by Henry James. There are so wonderfull scenes in that movie, like when Daisy Miller sings "When You and I Where Young Maggie". The cast is perfect, Cybill Shepherd, Eileen Breenan, Mildred Natwick, George Morfogen and the great Barry Brown. Daisy Miller is perfect, an incredible masterpiece. Peter Bogdanovich is one of a greatest filmmaker.Movie Review: Daisy Miller
Summary: 4 Stars
Based on a short story by Henry James, about an expatriate American living in Europe. Daisy Miller, her mother, and her little brother. All incurable chatterboxes. Their "liberated behavior," according to the cover, "scandalize the Victorian high society of 1878." Ooooo-kay...
Actually, the short story was quite probably very good. The wit, the banter, the skewering of stuffy European aristocracy. In the tradition of Jane Austen, William Makepeace Thackeray and Oscar Wilde, and I'm too lazy to see who did it first.
The movie is an accurate portrayal of the story, and a costumed period film that, according to the interview with Peter Bogdanovich, was ahead of its time that way. I believe him. I also think that such a story is damn hard to remain faithful to, and I'm impressed with the effort. Bogdanovich is himself an American of European upbringing, which helped him do the story justice.
I have one complaint. Daisy Miller was refreshingly honest and innocent. Fair enough. But I think Cybil Shepherd played it a bit too 20th century America and not enough 19th century America. I'd call her annoying. But it doesn't hurt the film as much as you might think it would.
Her costar, Barry Brown in the role of Frederick Winterborne, was flawless. In the film, he didn't know if he was American or European, and he never figured out Daisy. The tension between those two was done well. In real life, Brown read obits between takes and wound up killing himself. Sheez.
Bogdanovich brought most of his other cast members from THE LAST PICTURE SHOW, which I bashed mercilessly in an earlier issue of this rag. They did a damn fine job here, though, and I was glad to see it.
The boy was played by Jerry McMurtry, son of Larry McMurtry, author of THE LAST PICTURE SHOW. Guess what? I love this evil child, and I never say that about child actors. Keep an eye on this dude.
(Oops! 1974 movie. He might be dead by now.)
Movie Review: A Good Film but Not a Masterpiece
Summary: 4 Stars
It seems people either love this film or hate it. I stand, somewhat in the middle. The movie is an adaptation of Henry James' 1878 novella of the same name. James had a great idea for his novella. The plot sets Daisy Miller, an unconventional young American against the norms of Victorian era society. Is she an innocent free spirit or a woman on the road to social ruin and scandal--or both?
The movie was filmed in the beautiful locations James mentions in the story. The director, Peter Bogdanovich, did an excellent job in setting the scenes. The cinematography is excellent. Cybill Shepherd is lovely and the acting is generally superior.
The problem with this film is that, as the movie progressed, I began to wonder what Frederick Winterbourne, the point of view character in the novella, saw in Daisy. Why would he continue to pursue Daisy as she sent him mixed signals and flirted with every young man who crossed her path? Henry James wrote Daisy as a not particularly bright girl but, in the movie, Cybill Shepherd plays her as an airhead chatterbox.
For fans of period movies this is one you will want to see but will probably not often watch.
Kyle Pratt
Movie Review: More career suicide note than movie
Summary: 2 Stars
Every so often a film commits suicide before your very eyes. You've heard the rumors of course, but when you see it start you don't quite believe it - after all, the film looks beautiful, the opening sequence is quietly wonderful and, if the leading man is a little stiff and mannered, a lot of that can be put down to the rigors and regulations of polite century in 19th century Europe. And then Cybill Shepard strides across the screen with all the poise of a bartender about to break up a fight in a Deadwood saloon and your heart starts to sink. Then she opens her mouth and you can feel the noose tightening around the film's neck. And as she continues it's not long before it's kicked away the stool and is swinging gasping for breath, choking horribly for the remaining 80 minutes... Daisy Miller may well be a character who is out of her place in old moneyed society, but even Henry James never intended her to be this out of place: if Shepherd were wearing a cheerleader's outfit, jumping on a trampoline and singing "Yay Mickey/You're so fine/You're so fine you blow my mind" she couldn't be more wrong as she effortlessly mangles her long stretches of dialogue with an ingenuous lack of awareness of just how horribly bad her performance is.
Admittedly it's hard to think of just who could have played the part in 1974 - a young Katherine Hepburn could have done it in her sleep, but she was far from young then - but even if there had been an obvious candidate they wouldn't have stood a chance thanks to Peter Bogdanovich's famous career-destroying infatuation with Shepherd that completely blinds him to how much damage she does to what is already a very slight and all too fragile piece. The framing is often exquisite, but it's almost like watching Da Vinci slap a Groucho moustache and glasses on the Mona Lisa. Rather than a beguiling siren whose unguarded charm blinds the jaded hero to her true nature as he walks a mental tightrope between what he wishes her to be and what society thinks she is, we get an irritating nag who won't shut up for a second as she races through her lines and who would make any halfway sane human being run for the hills as fast as their feet will carry them without a second thought.
On one level it's easy to see why this could have worked - a story about Americans playing at being Europeans and of failing to understand not just the rules of acceptable behavior but also the true nature of other people can be seen as mirroring Bogdanovich's situation as he plays Visconti with his new girlfriend. But the script at times feels more like a transcription than an adaptation, never gaining an inner life that could perhaps have mitigated its lack of a soul. Barry Brown's one note performance doesn't help matters. The lack of real connection between the leads could be forgiven if we could at least see through Winterborn's eyes and share his dilemma, but we're kept at arm's length. Only Mildred Natwick and a superb cast against type Eileen Brennan really shine, although Cloris Leachman's interpretation of Mrs Miller as Gracie Allen has a bizarre fascination. A cold film made with a passion its director never communicates to an audience, this was a career killer in 1974 and it feels no better today.
Bogdanovich still believes in the film, although his commentary and introduction on this DVD often seem to highlight how little he understood his material or what he was really capturing on film.