The Illustrated London News film critic Alan Dent’s review of Technicolor epic El Cid came fourteen years after his much longer article about Odd Man Out and he seems more concerned with his lack of knowledge about Spanish literature and specifically about Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar aka El Cid.
Of the film itself, critic Dent has a little less to say about the film itself and its makers including Australian Director of Photography Robert Krasker, BSC but nonetheless he is awarding it high praise:
The film itself, made in Southern Spain with a cast, literally, of thousands has an overwhelming sweep and passion. The director is Anthony Mann, and the all-important director of photography, Robert Krasker.
By the year of El Cid‘s release, 1961, Robert Krasker’s mastery of colour and black-and-white, Academy format and wide-screen, of lighting and motion, had been more than well-established with a long roster of beautifully-shot films beginning with his Technicolor masterpiece (in the traditional sense of the word) Henry V for director Laurence Olivier.
This coming week I will be searching for more quotable quotes and citations attesting to the regard in which Robert Krasker and his work were held during his lifetime.
Links
- The Robert Krasker Project – Robert Krasker, BSC in ‘The Illustrated London News’, 8 March 1947, ‘The World of the Cinema: A Masterpiece’, review by Alan Dent of ‘Odd Man Out’ directed by Carol Reed
- Wikipedia – El Cid
- Wikipedia – El Cid (film)