I feel sorry for Henry King as he is in so many ways a good director, and yet not given enough praise for it. He knew how to get performances out of the actors he worked with, and to mention only two; Jeanne Crain never better than in ' Margie ' and David Wayne superbly moving in ' Wait till the Sun Shines Nellie. ' In ' Tender is the Night ' he gets a hardened, bitter performance out of Joan Fontaine, the soft edges gone from many previous films, and her role in ' Rebecca ' comes instantly to mind. As for the film itself it is a fairly faithful adaptation from the Scott Fitzgerald masterpiece of a novel. I think he bit off more than he could chew with the subject matter of the weak overwhelming the strong, and Jennifer Jones does not quite match up to the neurosis of the character, and as for Jason Robards I found him miscast. A bit like Fitzgerald's ' The Great Gatsby ' it is perhaps impossible to get ' right ' castings as we all have a Gatsby of our own in mind, and the same applies to Dick Diver in ' Tender is the Night. ' Only one scene comes vividly alive and that is when Jennifer Jones has a breakdown that she cannot understand, and Robards as her husband cannot help much either. The failure of his help, and her feeding off his so-called strength eventually takes its toll, and no spoilers the ending just fizzled out. In my opinion the film could have been better in black and white so the hard edges showed more, and more attention should have been payed in conveying the 1920's. Widescreen again in my opinion not needed, and just dancing the ' Charleston ' is not enough. Tom Ewell as a hanger on also not at his best. And yet despite these criticisms the film is well worth seeing. King does manage to convey overwhelming failure and sorrow and as a director he was good at that. A brave film at the end of his career.
Review of Tender Is the Night
