Good concept, poorly executed.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

WOW - this film is nothing like I imagined it to be. I've been watching some "dark crime" films lately and quite a number of them have 'cutesy' or somewhat comical moments in them - they are lightweight. This film is not like that - this one really is "dark crime" film -- and a damned good one! I'm pleasantly surprised.The acting in this film is extraordinary - a long ways from being cheesy. The story is good - heartbreaking. My heart bleeds for Flamarion what happened to him was sad, and talk about a cool character! This is a very serious crime drama in-spite of it being centered around the vaudeville circuit and 4 of it's members: Flamarion, Connie, Al, and Eddie.Definitely a recommended film.9/10

The Great Flamarion might be a poverty row knock-off of Scarlet Street, but it has much to offer to those fond of noirs and who like effective performances from unexpected sources. In Mexico City in 1936 at a second-string variety act theater, shots ring out in the middle of a clown act. The performers congregate back stage, the audience starts to panic and a clown tries to convince everyone to take their seats...that nothing has happened and everything is under control. We learn that a woman who was part of a bicycle act has been strangled and her husband is the chief suspect. But what were the gunshots for? Why did we see in the shadows a figure in a greatcoat and hat struggle to climb the stairs to the catwalk? Why has he hidden himself? We find out when everyone but the clown has left the theater. We learn that the man was The Great Flamarion (Erich Von Stroheim), an expert marksman, and this is his story...of a man brought low by his love of a heartless woman. Flamarion had a top-drawer variety act using two stooges and starring himself and his pistols. The audience would see a man and woman canoodling at a table when Flamarion would enter in formal dress. The man would hide, the woman would lift a glass of wine, and Flamarion would use his pistols to shatter the glass, light her match, shoot off a garter, and use bullets to take off the tiny ornaments on her hair comb. Then the man would come out of hiding and quickly weave back and forth among the light bulbs of a dressing table while Flamarion with split second timing would shoot out the bulbs, barely missing him. The audience would go wild. Flamarion himself is a stern, no-nonsense older man with a bull neck and a shaved head. He has no friends and practices ceaselessly with his pistols. The two stooges are man and wife, a former second-rate dance act. Connie Wallace (Mary Beth Hughes) is a conniving temptress who collects men like other women collect bracelet charms. She has a baby face with lips as plump and lush as the red wax lips you buy for Halloween. Her husband, Al Wallace (Dan Duryea), is chump change. He's a drunk, a jealous man whose many weaknesses include loving his wife. He won't divorce her and she has other plans. "Connie," he tells her, "no matter what you do you're the only dame for me. You're a bad habit I can't cure...even if I wanted to. Any guy who wouldn't fall for you is either a sucker or he's dead." It's not long before Connie breaks through Flamarion's reserve and finds a lonely man ripe for the picking. He believes Connie loves him...and he believes Connie when she says Al will never let her go. It's not long before Flamarion makes an error in his stage act and Al has a bullet in his heart. Then he learns that Connie has other ideas than marrying him. From then on we witness the downward trajectory of Flamarion as he realizes how he was used. He spends his money searching for Connie, who has disappeared. He even sells his pistols. By the time he learns that she might be in Mexico City and goes there, The Great Flamarion is just an unshaven, aging man in a rumpled, dirty suit. The only things he has in his pocket are a few dollars...and a pistol. The whole movie has a sad, hopeless, inevitable air about it, and so does the conclusion. As a noir, it's not bad. The story line is simple and is told in flashback. It goes from A to B to C. What makes it interesting are the performances. Mary Beth Hughes as Connie turns in a performance which is both sexy and heartless. Dan Duryea is excellent as a drunk mug way out of his depth with Connie. Duryea plays the drunk convincingly, but he also layers in the pity and the weakness. We don't like Al very much but we genuinely feel sorry for him. Erich Von Stroheim is the heart of the movie and he pulls it off. I suppose nowadays most people think of him only as one of Norma Desmond's former husbands who is now her butler. Von Stroheim always played the impassive Teuton. Even with the reserve he would bring to a part, he could hint at all kinds of submerged feelings. In The Great Flamarion, Von Stroheim has to show us a man who has improbably fallen in love and feels the joy of something he never expected. He's the grim, impassive Flamarion most of the time, but we also see his heart being torn apart by Connie, we see his smile of sheer happiness when he thinks she loves him. We even see Von Stroheim do a little dance of anticipation when he thinks she's going to meet him at a hotel in Chicago. The Great Flamarion is no Scarlet Street, but the theme is the same. It's well handled in this Republic Pictures programmer.

Early in his career, Erich Von Stroheim was well known for his temperament and excesses--so much so that his once celebrated career was practically in ruins by the 1940s. Because his star power had faded so, he was forced to act in a few relatively low budget films that were surprisingly good--much better than you'd expect. Part of this was due to Von Stroheim's acting, but it also was fortunate that he was paired with a young but very talented director (Anthony Mann). Because of his success with films like THE GREAT FLAMARION, Mann went on to direct many wonderful films and Von Stroheim had a mild resurgence in his prospects.The film begins with a murder at a theater in Mexico. A short time later, a badly wounded Von Stroheim is discovered by the lone person still in the theater and Von Stroheim tells his story about why he committed the murder. Since you know that the murder occurred, there isn't a lot of suspense about the whole thing, but the film did a wonderful job of making the viewer actually care about him and understand why he felt compelled to kill this particular woman. The sweet and lovely Connie, you learn, is one horrible lady and her character is exceptionally interesting and gritty--sort of like an evil Noir femme fatale. She is so compelling to watch that this helps to elevate the film well above the ordinary.Overall, a very entertaining film that nearly earns an 8. Fascinating character studies and a great script help make this one a keeper.

Anthony Mann was the right choice for bringing this adaptation of a Vicky Baum's story to the screen. Mr. Mann was an innovator whose presence on any movie heralded wonderful things. He doesn't disappoint in this story of love, betrayal and murder that is set among the vaudeville circuit of those years.We are introduced to the Great Flamirion, a man who is a sharp shooter, as he performs his act with the assistance of the Wallaces, a couple that move around the stage, as he shoots at different objects Connie and Al are holding. Flamirion is a relic of that circuit; he is a man of a certain age who has sworn off women from his life. Connie, the scheming half of the Wallaces, has another thing in mind.Connie insinuates herself to Flamirion because she can't take anymore of Al's drunkenness. Flamirion falls for this beautiful woman with a passion he didn't know he had in him. The end result is that Connie wants to get rid of her husband with the assistance of Flamarion. In the meantime, Connie falls in love with a younger man, Tony, who is part of a cycling act. When all of Connie's plans are executed, she disappears because as she tells Flamarion, they must lay low for a while. She decides to go home to Minnesota, but that's only an excuse to leave with Tony on a tour South of the border, where she is sure the old man will not find her. But as fate would have it, Flamirion finds her.Erich Von Stroheim, a distinguished director himself, plays Flamarion with panache. He captures the turmoil Flamarion feels when he is abandoned by the scheming Connie, in a great performance. Mary Beth Hughes is perfect as Connie. Dan Duryea plays the drunk Al Wallace with relish. Lester Allen appears as Tony.The film is enhanced by the wonderful camera work by James Brown, whose black and white photography reflects the rich life of the theater. Alexander Lazlo's musical score matches the action. Ultimately, the film works because the way Anthony Mann sets the action in so many interesting angles that is hard to take one's eyes for fear of missing something from what he put in the film.