By Jack Lyons, Theatre and Film Critic Member American Theater Critics Association (ATCA) Member Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (ATAS)

TCM is the gift that keeps on giving when it comes to movie fan loyalty and their classic favorites; especially when TCM’s “31 days of Oscars” program is screened nightly, one month ahead, to prepare the viewers for Hollywood’s annual Oscar bash, and the awarding of the best in filmmaking during the previous year.

English live theatre productions of Shakespeare’s plays for the stage have been nonpareil over the last 75 years.  It’s been baked into the British DNA for centuries. Very few performers could match the skill and talent of the man who made the English classics come alive for American audiences.   The brilliant British stage and film actor Laurence Olivier turned Shakespeare’s iambic pentameter speech and dialogue into scenes that both English and American audiences have come to embrace with increased clarity and understanding.  

American movie studios and stories of the 1930’s and 40’s generally wrote scripts and stories targeting American audiences.   The British cinema rarely produced films for American audiences.  They believed English comedies and dramas wouldn’t find their intended audience because of the differences in our language and culture.

Their shortsightedness allowed the wits and wags of the day to agree and credit George Bernard Shaw with the apocryphal biting quip; “Britain and America are two nations and people separated by a common language.”  Even English Prime Minister Winston Churchill, a pretty fair writer himself, got to weigh-in concerning the English vs. the Americans quips.  After all, his mother Jennie Jerome was American-born in Brooklyn New York, making Churchill an Anglo-American.  He was awarded honorary American citizenship in 1963 by the Congress; the only such honor ever awarded to a foreigner.

All those cultural differences, however, came to a screeching halt, at least for me, when the formidable English writing, producing, and directing team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger; a duo of gifted  moviemakers debuted their flawless 1948 movie gem “The Red Shoes” in London.

Set amid the world of modern ballet, the psychological romantic film wonderfully explores the beauty and discipline of the ballet world, one of the oldest of the art forms which they imbued with technical aspects that only the movie camera provides and captures:  Sweeping vistas, huge casts, unique camera angles, powerful close ups, interior dialogue, flash forward sequences, along with the magic that the editing process delivers in keeping film stories moving  forward, was a game-changing bonus for world cinema.

I would even venture further saying that the success of the “The Red Shoes” helped pave the way, two years later, for the 1950 dramatic non-musical Oscar winning film “All About Eve”;  a bitingly, authentic, blistering, dramedy play, and one of the best movies ever written about the stage and Broadway .  

“The Red Shoes” deftly written and directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger are the responsible parties for its solid casting and plethora of creative directorial touches which turned this masterful, poignant film of love and loss into an international movie classic.

There would be no “Red Shoes” movie, however, without the sublime acting talents of Anton Walbrook as the charismatic, arrogant, curt and demanding ballet Impresario Boris Lermontov, who could also charrm his benefactors when required.  The film is loosely based on the life of Sergei Diaghilev founder of Ballets Russes of Monte Carlo.  Stories about Diaghilev and his martinet treatment of demanding loyalty and obedience from his dancers and ballerinas are legion even among his friends and associates.  

 I cannot, however, think of another actor to play the role of Boris Lermontov as perfectly as Anton  Walbrook did.  His polished, nuanced and riveting performance elevates the ballet movie genre to a new level of excellences.  It was a real shame and pity that Walbrook wasn’t nominated for a Best Actor Oscar in 1948. He certainly deserved it.

Young, beautiful, Scottish ballerina Moira Shearer, who was just twenty-one when she was chosen to play Victoria Page, the uber-talented, dedicated and committed young dancer becomes a sensational overnight star in the world of ballet thanks to Julian Craster, a promising young English composer’s, new ballet called “The Red Shoes”.  

Marius Goring might appear to be a tad too old in playing brash, young, gifted, English composer Julian Craster who falls deeply in love with Vicky Page; then marrying her, incurrs the wrath of Lermontov for ‘stealing’ her away from her destiny of “becoming the greatest dancer who ever lived only if she remains with Lermontov. Their sin in Lermontov’s world is the placing of one’s human interests and emotions above the interests of the ballet.  That act is an unforgivable betrayal in the eyes of Lermontov and results in Vicky being fired from the company as punishment. 

 The film story owes its origins to Hans Christian Andersen’s somewhat dark fairy-tale of a young girl who sees and buys a pair of red ballet shoes from a sly shoemaker who knows the deadly secret that whomever wears the ballet shoes will die from continuous dancing and exhaustion because the shoes once slipped on cannot be removed.  Only upon the death of the wearer can the spell of the red shoes be broken.  Just as in real life, celluloid choices also have life altering consequences to consider as well.

The supporting cast is filled with terrific character actors who know their way around a movie set as well as a ballet stage.  Australian actor/choreographer Robert Helpmann, as Ivan Bolesla, created the 17 minute astonishing ballet sequences danced by Shearer and himself, and at times, with the full company.  The dance of the red shoes sequences are stunningly choreographed by Leonide Massine as Ballet Master Gricha Ljubov, who also portrays the shoemaker in the ballet scenes.  

Beloved character actor Albert Bassermann, as Costume and Set designer Sergei, and Esmond Knight as Livy, the Music Director and Orchestra Conductor bring authenticity and experience  to their performances. The vivid lush technicolor-filmed photography is lovingly created by award winning master cinematographer Jack Cardiff.  American film director Richard Fleischer who directed Kirk Douglas in the “Vikings” said “Jack is not only creative, he’s very fast and very good – two qualities that are absolutely necessary for a cameraman to possess.”

As a side bar, it is interesting to note the similarities in the character portrayal of Lermontov as directed by real life director Powell.  Both are strong and opinionated men who are used to having their own way.

During the filming and editing process, co-director Emeric Pressburger questioned Powell on the efficacy of using the footage as shot in the film sequence where Vicky is seen running down the back-stage steps area just prior to making her initial stage entrance where we see she is already wearing her red ballet shoes as posed by Pressburger to Powell in their debate issue was shrugged off by Powell, who later wrote in his diary, that in the Coda section of the script.  “I am a director, and a storyteller, and I knew she must (wear the shoes despite the anachronism) I didn’t try to explain it.  I just did it.”

Which to me underscores the mind-set of Powell, and by extension, the mind-set of Lermontov. There was a lot of Lermontov in Michael Powell’s DNA.  Tyrants come in different forms and the real problem in dealing with them is, they also make such wonderful and fabulous motion pictures.

TCM –TV films are free to view and are some of the finest motion pictures ever made. To enjoy “the Red Shoes” and a ton of other quality motion pictures keep checking your local TV listings for “The Red Shoes” screening dates and times for viewing.  You won’t be disappointed. It’s a Masterpiece !