The Hearst and Davies Affair

I expected the worst and got a pretty good biopic. Yes, it's 1980s TV, it's cheap, and it's naive and romantic, but in relation to the Hearst and Davies phenomenon, it's actually a very tasteful and clever treatment. A lot of time is spent on the events of the 1910s, the Ziegfeld shows, and the time Marion made her first film Runaway, Romany. There is a lot of explanation of their relationship, of the social circumstances in which it seemed at first that Hearst would divorce when he finally gave up his political ambitions. The individual cases of their lives together, such as the death of Thomas Ince (The Cat's Meow) and Citizen Kane (RKO 281, Mank) are treated in separate films and are either hinted at here or not given space at all. On the other hand, we get the opportunity to explore Marion and Charlie Chaplin's friendship, and the making of When Knighthood Was in Flower, but the move to sound film and the later years are not as important. Virginia Madsen is good, very good even, and could surprisingly lean on very well-chosen masks and costumes that naturally illustrate the time and style that Marion was going through. (2020.10.25)