The Razor's Edge (1946)

An adventuresome young man goes off to find himself and loses his socialite fiancée in the process. [imdb]

Nominated for 4 Oscars:

Best Picture
Best Supporting Actor: Clifton Webb
Best Supporting Actress: Anne Baxter (WINNER)
Best Art Direction, Black-and-White

I was mostly provoked by two things into seeing this film. The first one: my incresing curiosity regarding Anne Baxter's Oscar winning performance, because I've recently praised her great acting in All About Eve. The second one: Andrew's lack of hesitation when declaring Anne Baxter as one his favorite actresses and Bette Davis not. :P But this... oh, boy, it's soooo wrong!

There is something so hilarious (and mind this is NOT a comedy) about Tyrone Power going up a mountain in India to discover himself, stearing at a cardboard mountain, talking with the wise Indian guy (who happens to have a perfect English accent) and in the end becoming a very efficient faith healer... I barely helped from cracking up. RIDICULOUS! :))) just like most of the film.

Because it really goes nowhere. What was the writer thinking? What was the director doing? How could THIS get nominated for Best Picture?! The story has no highlight in 2 hours and 20 minutes. Few decent parts are due to sparks of acting coming from supporting cast, because otherwise it's a boring, pointless (!!!) film.

Anne Baxter is good, but not when you'd expect her to. I've read of quote of hers saying this is the only good performance she's ever deliver. But she's clearly wrong, as this is not half as good as her All About Eve highlights. She HAS a good scene, a very good one, shared with Gene Tierney before Sophie starts drinking again; but too often I could notice the lack of experience. Not a bad win though, especially as I'm not familiar with the competition.

Clifton Webb is very appropriate for the role and it's a worthy nomination, that could've easily tricked Oscar into a win, especially with the showy ending and all. No point in mentioning much about Tyrone's stuffed performance, but I would say that Gene Tierney gets an AWFUL character, but some pretty good acting moments. She is effective, natural, but the screenplay kills any chance for greatness. Other than that, the film seemed like a mess to me, the most disoriented film I've seen lately.

My rating for the film: 3.5/10. Enjoyable for all the wrong reasons (involuntary humor).