Nonureva Really Surprised!

MusicChat It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Juana what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Shawn Spencer I watched this film based on the favorable reviews posted here. Do NOT repeat my mistake. The Great Flamarion is so slow -- it's 78 minutes felt like 2 hrs.The script was poor, the dialog flat, the plot predictable and the ending telegraphed from the first scene.I guess everybody else was wowed by the big name director (Anthony Mann) and the big name director turned actor (Erich Von Stroheim) and the sort of big name producer (William Wilder - brother of Billy Wilder). It just proves that you can't judge a book by its cover, nor a movie by its credits...

karen5778 If you love Erich von Stroheim and Dan Duryea, this early film by Anthony Mann is for you. Duryea and von Stroheim are both great at all the little things that come between the words and the dialogue is good, too, not surprising as one of the screenwriters, Heinz Herald, won an Oscar for "Dr. Erlich's magic bullet" and was nominated for "The Life of Emile Zola". The story is imaginative, the whole thing is pretty good. I have to write ten lines of review without any spoilers, which is hard for this movie, although the plot twists are not exactly unpredictable. It's really von Stroheim's movie, which you can't say very often.

bkoganbing Although Erich Von Stroheim is top billed in The Great Flamarion this film really belongs to Mary Beth Hughes who was the model for playing two timing dames that others took as the standard. She's at her worst when she does it to Von Stroheim. She's playing with fire because the cinematic Von Stroheim is not one to be trifled with.Von Stroheim plays the title role, he's a vaudeville headline with a trick sharp shooting act like Annie Oakley. Hughes and her alcoholic husband Dan Duryea, a former dance act work as Von Stroheim's stooges in the act with him throwing carefully timed shots. Duryea and Hughes are breaking up and Duryea won't give her a divorce. So Hughes plays up to Von Stroheim as eagerly as Barbara Stanwyck did with Fred MacMurray in Double Indemnity to get him involved in her deadly game. In fact there's a lot of resemblance between The Great Flamarion and the Billy Wilder classic.Von Stroheim is a pitiable character in the end, his fall and degradation is like a Greek tragedy. But Hughes who two timed Henry Fonda and married for money in The Oxbow Incident and is best known for that part is the one to watch her. This is one evil woman.This one is an undiscovered gem from Republic so discover it.

qbine3 "The Great Flamarion" is an undiscovered little gem of a film from Rebublic that features von Stroheim as the title character, a cold and arrogant vaudeville performer who specializes in sharp shooting. He is assisted in his act by Connie and Al Wallace, a seemingly happy couple. When Connie professes her love for Flamarion and tells of her husband's abusive nature and hard-drinking, Flamarion eventually opens his heart to this femme-fatale, played to the hilt by Mary Beth Hughes, a most underrated actress, who toys with men in the tradition of film noir greats such as Joan Bennett in "Scarlet Street," Jane Greer in "Out of The Past," and Yvonne DeCarlo in "Criss Cross." When Connie suggests that Flamarion accidentally hit Al, portrayed by the always terrific Dan Duryea, during their gun skit, Flamarion's life changes forever. Anthony Mann's direction is taut and economic. The film, told through flashbacks, captures the desperation and loneliness of a man willing to do anything for love. Next to "Sunset Boulevard," this is one of von Stroheim's finest hours as an actor. He allows himself to show joy and vulnerability as he never has before on screen.