Carmen (1915)

In 1915 two productions of Carmen were underway at the same time, and a third was finished by the end of the year. Cecil B. DeMille's production was started first, but William Fox wanted to compete with the project and brought in up and coming Raoul Walsh to direct a spare no expense adaptation. Walsh's version is believed to be lost, so people pretty much have to rely upon DeMille's as the definitive. It's a shame too because DeMille's Carmen is powerfully weak. Geraldine Farrar plays the title role and lord have mercy she's almost unwatchable. Farrar was brought to star in the film because she had played the role on the stage. So perhaps her singing chops could carry Bizet's opera, but her looks are so far from carrying this film its laughable today. Matter of fact I'd say all but one woman (the overweight factory supervisor) are more attractive than her, and almost all of them are younger. So if you want your Carmen middle aged and hideously ugly then DeMille's adaptation might be right up your alley, for the rest of us, well at least the film would be made again, and again, and again, and well it'll probably be made a few dozen more times before everyone's through with it.

The film is relatively concise and incorporates segments of the opera in its soundtrack (as apparently its original screening did). The performances aren't bad but well they aren't good either being a rather theatrical adaptation of a staged opera. The highlight of the film (for me anyways) comes between Carmen and a much more attractive woman fighting at work. DeMille the circus entertainer runs wild here with the two clawing at each other relentlessly with clothes being torn and hell it'll certainly compete with any current "professional" female wrestlers. Don Jose (Wallace Reid) has a rather well staged sword fight that might seem long, but well people need action and that's what they get. The theatrical ending is somewhat banal and handled with far too much attention drawn to it. In fact most of this film is rather dismissable. Much more impressive is Charlie Chaplin's nearly shot for shot parody of it.