OVP: The Power and the Prize (1956)

Film: The Power and the Prize (1956)

Stars: Robert Taylor, Elisabeth Muller, Burl Ives, Mary Astor, Cedric Hardwicke, Charles Coburn

Director: Henry Koster

Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Costume Design)

Snap Judgment Ranking: 1/5 stars

I frequently talk about how the worst movies are films that are clearly going to age poorly because of content.  Hairstyles and slang and visual effects will all shift and move, but the reality is that you can handle these changes because they come across as retro.  No, the bigger issue is when social mores and half-truths about human nature mar the film...that's when you get into trouble from an historical standpoint (it's why something like Boyhood will be seen decades from now as a triumph while The Imitation Game will be as relevant as a 1950's issue film).

(Spoilers Ahead) This is the case with Henry Koster's The Power and the Prize, one of the Oscar-nominated directors lesser-known works.  The film is about Cliff Barton (Taylor), a man up-and-coming in the world of business who goes to London to cook a crooked business deal to help out his future uncle-in-law (played with a frank villainy by Burl Ives).  While in London he manages to fall for a refugee named Miriam (Muller).

The film unfolds in an extremely traditional fashion, with people reacting poorly to Muller, who is essentially a madame (though the film goes to painstakingly clumsy lengths to try and prove her specific virtues), and many trying to break up their impending marriage, as well as watching as Burl Ives tries to throw Cliff under the bus in a mustache-twirling turn that eventually results in him nearly killing himself with stress (his wife, high-strung Mary Astor, may give the film's only decent performance, though I may have been distracted by the wonderfully haughty histrionics), and to Taylor and Muller getting their romantic moment-in-the-sun.

The film is bad on so many different levels, I don't really know where to begin, so let's start with the acting since I've already invited that into the picture.  Ives and Astor at least are overacting in their roles, which is less than I can say for Robert Taylor, who is about as bland as I've ever seen him (Taylor, for those who aren't super familiar, had screen charisma out the hilt with earlier roles in films like Johnny Eager and my beloved Waterloo Bridge).  Here it's almost like you're watching a different actor (his physical appearance did change pretty dramatically as he got older), as he's too staid and too unconvincing in his complete shift in adoration for Miriam.

Taylor's not the worst part of the film, though-that would be poor Elisabeth Muller.  I'll forgive her a bit for English not being her first language (she was Swiss-born), but my god this is terrible, terrible acting.  Really one of the worst performances I've seen in a while.  It's almost as if she read the script notes such as angrily and adoringly and had to remember to do them onscreen, with her shifts in speaking and personality so abrupt.  There's really no reason why she loves Cliff, and there's no reason other than her beauty that he loves her-this is partially due to Taylor's lack of interest in his performance, but it's also because Muller simply cannot convey any sort of strength or personality into her Miriam.

The script itself is appallingly simple and noble.  The movie has few shades of grey for a film that really is trying hard to give them to the audience.  We're treated to people stating that Miriam shouldn't be judged by her past, but then they go through arduous pages of script to try and make her look like a chaste prostitute, and we get no such consideration for Burl Ives, who may be a villain but he's a common-sense, practical villain that thirty years later would look more like the norm in films about business (hell, he might even be the hero in the age of Jordan Belfort as a leading man).

The movie's sole Oscar nomination was for Helen Rose's costume work, but I have to say I felt underwhelmed.  There's no real personality here, and it really just looks like she spent an afternoon shopping at Bloomingdale's rather than adding personality to go with the characters onscreen.  Rose was a costuming god at the Oscars (ten nominations and two wins), so this feels less like it was earned and more like a filler nomination (this is a warning as to why filler nominations are a terrible idea-it gives tripe like this the Oscar-nominated tag for no good reason).

Those are my thoughts on this dull, pointless movie-what are yours (if you're fool enough to have seen it)?  Are you as shocked as I that Robert Taylor lacks so much charisma?  How did Elisabeth Muller have a career as an actor?  And where do Helen Rose's designs stack against other films of this year?  Share your thoughts in the comments!