MovieChat Forums > Shane (1953) Discussion > Jean Arthur's silent film acting

Jean Arthur's silent film acting

posted 10 years ago by emuir-1
4 replies | jump to latest

I saw this film for the first time tonight and was turned off by the terrible overacting of the woman playing Marian. The hand wringing, fist clenching, hands up to her face, the only thing she didn't do was clutch her forehead in distress. I was shocked when I looked it up and found it was Jean Arthur, then I read further and her first few years were in silent films, and Shane being her last film, she seemed to have gone right back to the overly exaggerated posturing of the silents.

The other sore point was that the film was set in 1889, yet her dress and in particular her hairstyle, which looked like a mail order wig, were very definitely 1953, which threw the film off somewhat. I realize that frontier women did not wear corsets and bustles, but neither did they wear short sleeved shirts with button details on the cuffs.

The irritating Joey has been dealt with elsewhere on this forum so I won't get into that.

[–] bradford-1 10 years ago

Ms. Arthur was most likely working to the specifications of her director, George Stevens. You do realize that they'd worked together before (THE TALK OF THE TOWN & THE MORE THE MERRIER), so one might assume they were in sync on what her portrayal should entail. And do you consider yourself an expert on the wardrobes of frontier women?
"May I bone your kipper, Mademoiselle?"

[–] MyMovieTVRomance 10 years ago

Arthur is probably my favorite person in the movie, cause I just find her extremely charming in this film---extremely!

But, I do agree with you about the cloths and hair---esp. the hair---it did through things off a bit. And, while the hair do is not the worst I've ever seen on an actress, it was certainly not good.

Please excuse typos/funny wording; I use speech-recognition that doesn't always recognize!

[–] joeparkson 10 years ago

Jean Arthur looked very good. I never would have guessed she was 50.

Soy 'un hijo de la playa'

[–] don-lockwood 10 years ago

I think she looked nice and did a fine job with an emotional but thinly written character. I have to say that while this is one of the more entertaining westerns I've seen (not a fan of the genre), I thought it was merely good, not great. One of the greatest films of all time? I didn't see it, sorry. Brandon deWilde was excellent, as always, and he really carried it. I understand the sentimental value of the film, but I wasn't overwhelmed.