Word: laughton
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When her nagging at his refusal to "behave himself" in paint becomes insupportable, he replaces her with another housemaid, Hendrickje Stoffels (Elsa Lanchester, Mrs. Charles Laughton). Her gentle guidance gives him a new lease on happiness, brings back some measure of prosperity. But she is excommunicated for bearing his child. Before he can marry her, she dies, leaving him to a penniless, unkempt, disreputable, lonely old age which never dulls his inner merriment or distracts his joy in paint...
Playing his part with enormous gusto against handsome Dutch sets, Actor Laughton dominates Rembrandt, gives one of his finest performances at a dignified pace which well befits the life of his noble, if somewhat ribald, model. Best shot: Sonorous Painter Rembrandt rolling off a long, sensuous soliloquy defining Woman, while the mouths of stolid Dutchmen flap open and servant girls go glassy-eyed with dreams...
...shrew. He finds a few short years of peace and success with the adoring Hendrickje Stoffels, but her death leaves him friendless and penniless. Even in his last year the painter gets fun out of living, but he gives a cynical parting quip, "Vanity, vanity, all is vanity". Laughton is in top-rate form, dominating every minute of the lusty, strong picture...
Dignity, truthfulness, and care make the Korda-Laughton "Rembrandt" an outstandingly fine movie, one as strong and vivid as the central character. Stooping to neither thrill nor pathos the picture sweeps majestically over seventeenth century Holland, silhouetting the rugged simplicity of the painter by contrasts with petty people about him. Historical accuracy and first-rate camera work show that Hollywood on the Thames is learning the American tricks...
Most U. S. novel readers and cinemaddicts picture Vice-Admiral William Bligh, captain of H.M.S. Bounty, as a brave, cruel, stingy Briton who looked like Charles Laughton, lost his ship in a mutiny and steered a small open boat over 3,618 miles of unknown sea. But Bligh was a significant figure in the history of the British navy, with many distinctions besides his romantic misadventures...