The 1940s List: Discussion and Suggestions (Decade Project Vol. 4)

An ongoing project to survey the best films of individual decades, genres, and filmmakers.
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therewillbeblus
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Re: The 1940s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#301 Post by therewillbeblus » Mon Aug 12, 2019 10:32 pm

Casablanca: Another film I used to think more of, but no longer hold in as high esteem as the general public. Curtiz moves his camera with his signature push-ins to frame every movement meticulously, down to sleight-of-hand touches to settle in on characters as they do everything, even sitting in a chair. It might seem simple but the smooth dance between the camera and its subjects is without a false step and adds a coat of ease for the viewer to engage with this film. Unfortunately, this may be the best part of the movie, which becomes less exciting in plot every revisit. Lines are delivered in a manner that force character development and a comprehensive assessment of historical behavior a bit too conspicuously. Claude Raines steals scenes as a moral relativist who is as charming as he is dangerous, offsetting Bogart’s self-proclaimed moral relativist who is neither of those things, nor the moderate he claims to be in spirit. The rest of the cast isn’t bad, and as a romance the chemistry works better in the present than the past, but that depiction of sitting with the pain of the ‘too late’ complex doesn’t affect me as strongly as it once did. The political aspects of the film lead to more complicated implications than they let on, and including this variable to bring the consequences of smaller romance to larger causes that are felt and significant helps the film become more meaningful and interesting. However, even this element feels rather dated, and what was likely emotionally striking in 1942 during WWII feels invalidating and inaccurate today. The line: “the problems of three people don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world” is the most notable example, especially if one believes in subjective meaning as the only truth we know.

The Gang’s All Here: A well-staged musical with some interesting choices in technique and set design to complement its impressive choreography and songs. Cute interplay between characters can result in moments of sweetness, laughs, or fall flat depending on the situation. In the end there were a lot of parts to like, but strung together as a whole not enough to love.

She Wore a Yellow Ribbon: Ford provides one of his more colorful and lightweight depictions of how humanity can comfortably exist within the doctrines of socially normative roles and values. Ford’s optimism of romance and duty fitting together like a hand in a glove is something I’ll buy into for a couple of hours. He sells it well too, with the choice to present scenes within clearly artificial sets alongside ones with very real mountains in the background, a pronounced clash that’s quite soothing in the reassurance of this as a fantasy and an invitation to step safely into its climate. Even the lowkey anti-climax fits right in with the film’s rhythm. Overall not exceptional, but worth watching and considering in the context of Ford’s oeuvre.

I Walked with a Zombie: From the haunting and romantic initial voiceover dialogue, this feels like a novel in structure and execution. Lewton and friends paint a detailed setting populated with characters written and introduced into the story with just enough information to be interested and just enough removed to be suspicious and curious. The small scale environment serves the plot well, detailing a tight-knit community and allowing us to feel a part of this place. Presenting the contesting groups within this area by adding the colonization piece is a reminder of the imperialist effects on cultures and vice versa. Is this karmic retribution, or something else? All I know is that significance lies in the consequences that come when that which we don’t understand lives among us and inside of us, whether these effects are metaphors for internal conflict, fantastical external expressions of this turmoil, or just a good old fashioned ghost story. This is definitely one of the better Lewton horrors even if I don’t consider it the masterpiece many do.

The Bank Dick: Always amusing is Fields doing lightweight slapstick comedy that comes alive in its subtleties compared to his contemporaries with overt behaviors and louder gags. One must find an interest in his alcoholic fatuous buffoon for the material to work, and I’ll admit that while I enjoy the films, the impact of Fields’ persona varies depending on my mood. The eye into family dynamics is great as usual, but the presentations of Fields handling ego-induced false heroism, popularity, and responsibility are what make this one special and one of his best.

Whirlpool: I’ve seen this film more than most film noirs, and my initial viewing was oddly not as a recommendation from this board but from many years ago when I was going through noirs on my own. It’s always stuck with me and continues to impress as a psychological examination of the invisibility and powerlessness experienced by women as a result of the sexist social mores and rigidly defined gender roles in the nuclear family unit of the era. Gene Tierney is trapped in every sense of the word in this film, and to distract us from her pain and resilience we get a suave Jose Ferrer manipulating everything in the film from Tierney, other important characters, random party guests, evidence, and well, most elements of the plot. He uses psychology himself, including the most physically and metaphorically paralyzing technique of hypnosis to fulfill Tierney’s socially-assigned prophecy as a powerless woman.

Aside from this thematic aspect, the film is simply a delight as pure easy entertainment. Preminger is at the top of his game here in how he utilizes technique and precision to craft an engaging story with minimally obvious but incredibly accomplished, elegant camerawork. The finale in particular is one I often rewind a few times each revisit. Some may read it as anticlimactic, but not only is the action framed so flawlessly by Preminger’s eye, Tierney’s subtle choice to revert against her coerced destiny disrupts the established dynamic and laws of sexual politics, to the degree that it can only end in death. That it also exposes the facade of the power imbalance with a weak male sendoff is aggressive in its implications and arresting in its boldness. Domino, I’d love to know how you use this to teach your class, as I’m sure I’m missing much value in its setup and first-act execution. This may or may not crack my top 10, but I know something is working when after all these years I still find it in my library queue every few months, as if I’ve been hypnotized and happen to click the ‘reserve’ button under the spell of Korvo, Preminger, or simply the movie itself.
Last edited by therewillbeblus on Mon Aug 12, 2019 10:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: The 1940s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#302 Post by nitin » Mon Aug 12, 2019 10:42 pm

I have always struggled with She Wore a Yellow Ribbon beyond its spectacular cinematography. It’s probably the most indulgent Ford in respect of his glamorisation of cavalry life and bonds and drunken comedy brawl antics. I will try it again in a little while but neither of the last two occasions has really done much for me.

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Re: The 1940s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#303 Post by knives » Mon Aug 12, 2019 10:51 pm

Humorously, or not, I've had the opposite relation to Casablanca. At first it was mildly amusing to me, but over the years and viewings it has gotten more impressive to me.

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Re: The 1940s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#304 Post by Michael Kerpan » Mon Aug 12, 2019 11:42 pm

I liked Casablanca for decades, but each time I watched it (after the first few times), I liked it less and less. There are still parts I remember fondly, but I suspect I won't ever feel any need to see it again. (Ironically, it was when I finally got a good-looking bluray version that its charms more or less evaporated).

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Re: The 1940s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#305 Post by movielocke » Tue Aug 13, 2019 12:38 pm

I also like Casablanca more each time I see it, rewatching it for the earlier best picture project really made me appreciate how incredible it is at every level, particularly Bogarts performance.

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Re: The 1940s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#306 Post by domino harvey » Tue Aug 13, 2019 12:55 pm

therewillbeblus wrote:
Mon Aug 12, 2019 10:32 pm
Whirlpool [...] Domino, I’d love to know how you use this to teach your class, as I’m sure I’m missing much value in its setup and first-act execution.
I use the first fifteen minutes or so (up through the lunch with Ferrer where he tears up the check) in intro to film courses to teach both the basics of film language and mise-en-scene, which ends up taking us a couple hours to work backwards and forwards through. I initially picked Whirlpool mostly because it's a film I knew well that I rightly assumed my students had never seen beforehand, but now I've used it so many times that it's just second nature to lean in on the muscle memory of breaking it apart into its minutiae of functions and components. Using just these few minutes, we are able to go through and hit 101 markers of editing, blocking, art direction, lighting, "house style," (and so on) and how the film gives the viewer information that we may not be consciously registering because watching movies is so intuitive and built-in to our own abilities. Preminger is of course a director who can only be understood and appreciated once one grasps his control of mise-en-scene, and yet this is the hardest thing to "teach" anyone to recognize, especially viewers just starting out in viewing films with a critical/close lens. But this means his works lend themselves to this kind of close study usage

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Re: The 1940s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#307 Post by Rayon Vert » Tue Aug 13, 2019 2:46 pm

I'm with knives and movielocke on Casablanca FWIW, and with blus and nitin on Ribbon. But if I'm counting correctly I should have 5 other Fords on this list, one less than Hitch.

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Re: The 1940s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#308 Post by domino harvey » Tue Aug 13, 2019 2:54 pm

Only one Ford on my list. Five is a medical issue and you should consult a physician

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Re: The 1940s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#309 Post by Rayon Vert » Tue Aug 13, 2019 3:45 pm

Doc Holliday maybe, or one of those nurses in They Were Expendable?

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Re: The 1940s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#310 Post by domino harvey » Tue Aug 13, 2019 3:55 pm

Just don’t tell John Wayne in the Horse Soldiers!

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Re: The 1940s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#311 Post by swo17 » Tue Aug 13, 2019 4:00 pm

Rayon Vert wrote:
Tue Aug 13, 2019 2:46 pm
if I'm counting correctly I should have 5 other Fords
If I'm interpreting this correctly I assume he just means Tobacco Road five times, so nothing to worry about, domino

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Re: The 1940s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#312 Post by movielocke » Tue Aug 13, 2019 4:12 pm

I’ve only not seen the fugitive from the ford forties features, but I think there’s about seven or eight films in that output that could garner votes, my list will probably have four, how green was my valley, my darling clementine, grapes of wrath, and they were expendable.

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Re: The 1940s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#313 Post by therewillbeblus » Tue Aug 13, 2019 4:29 pm

I may wind up without a single Ford on my list, for which I surely must seek medical help.

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Re: The 1940s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#314 Post by domino harvey » Tue Aug 13, 2019 4:35 pm

Just take two Wylers and drink plenty of fluids

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Re: The 1940s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#315 Post by therewillbeblus » Tue Aug 13, 2019 4:48 pm

I'll have three or four Wylers so does that mean I'm cured?

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Re: The 1940s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#316 Post by domino harvey » Tue Aug 13, 2019 4:50 pm

You'll need to fortify your system with Wyler now and well into the next decade, because Kramer hits hard when you get into your fifties

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Re: The 1940s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#317 Post by knives » Wed Aug 14, 2019 12:03 pm

Tortilla Flat (dir. Fleming)
I'm empathetic to this being offensive to people given how stupid all of the characters and how sexist those characters' POVs are. I'm not sure if there's anything beyond the cinematography to honestly recommend. Yet I enjoyed this on at least a base level where it was enjoyable to hang around this horrible people as they abused each other. One frustrating part of Frank Morgan's big scene which hits an emotional note that does not work for the film at all and converts the movie in a way that lessens it by showing consequence. Consequence is something Tortilla Flat cannot handle and what turns it into another Tobacco Road.

They Came to Blow Up America (dir. Ludwig)
With a title like that how could I not immediately run to this fun, George Sanders thriller? The most surprising thing is that the film mostly lives up to that fun title and manages to even have a few unique ideas that race by in this lean 70 minute puncher. The most interesting part is the first act where we deal with the complicated feelings of an American family with a Nazi in the fold. There's such truth of feeling to the portrait that it feels far more real then the rest of this pulled from the headlines voodoo. It feels so real that it made me connect it to the news of the day imagining this is how the families of kids who run off to join ISIS feel. There's a certain relevance to today that makes me wish that the film stayed on that course. Instead it jumps into some espionage nonsense where Sanders sees if he can bone Anna Sten and defeat the Nazis all in one hour. That's an okay plot with a lot of fun to be had, but the film tricked me into thinking it was going to be great for ten minutes.

Lady Be Good (dir. McLeod)
Between Freed and Berkeley in the credits you know what you're getting. The only surprise is that they don't allow Powell, who's actually a supporting player here, to show off her dancing skills for much of the film despite that being her key strength. The film is a domestic semi-drama with a fun opening that gives it some spice before it falls into the rut of genre. While probably no one's favorite musical it's still an entertaining enough one. Plus Ann Sothern makes everything at worst worthwhile.

Given that there's not much to say about the film in particular I'll just bring up something that's been on my mind with these Freed musicals that is very prominent here. Obviously a lot of talent major and minor has come out of the unit, but what's most interesting to me is the focus on African American artists. Not only were there a small number of all black musicals such as Cabin in the Sky, but also a number of small numbers featuring black artists in the mainstream pictures. Because of stupid racism these artists had to be stuck in in a way that could be cut out. Still, in that case it could have been easier not to hire such artists that wouldn't force multiple versions on the market which must have cost a little extra to the studio. Why the insistence then on including such artists? Could it have just been a case of admiration for musical talent or could it have been something more? I'd love to hear from those more in the know.

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Re: The 1940s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#318 Post by therewillbeblus » Wed Aug 14, 2019 10:56 pm

The Bicycle Thieves: The success of this proclaimed Italian neorealist ‘masterpiece’ is in its confident restraint of action to set the social and economic struggles while developing multidimensional characters through mannerisms and brief interactions that spark empathy in the idiosyncrasies as much as in the desperation in plot arcs. The film swings away from a potential allegory of the Book of Job in its sentimentality and roots in quasi-reality. The people that populate the frame are vivid recollections of familiar faces that exist in the backdrop of our peripheries, though here they emerge from the shadows to bare themselves with burning emotional intensity that links us all in the commonalities of the human condition. Pride, shame, fear, love, and the sacrifice of values for the preservation of the self and those we love, among other processes, interact against the friction of systemic barriers to provide a tragedy that is oddly effective because of its commitment to honesty compared to manipulative tactics of the average melodrama. There aren’t many faults to find in this movie, but I hardly find it deserving of its hyperbolic status. It’s a great picture, but far from the best film ever, or of the 40s.


Revisiting Rossellini’s War Trilogy reminded me of his talent at using the neorealist eye toward a subliminal emphasis on significantly small details that are striking in both their whimsical and authentic qualities. Framing minute actions within larger set pieces elicits a sense of the real and the imaginary by forging the image with technical tools in a jarring yet elegant style. How does one evoke a docudrama and spiritual poem simultaneously? Rossellini would of course continue this trend, delving more spiritually in my personal favorite The Flowers of St. Francis but still with a sense of reality in certain scenes such as the interaction with the leper that need no hammering technique to wake the viewer to the world’s truths.

The trilogy is hard to rank itself because the order of the films flow in a perfect rhythm to create a collective whole, beginning with Rome, Open City’s beginning, immediately establishing moods that tow the line between an exciting, tense thriller and a dramatic piece of historical fiction. Much has been written about the midway setpiece and it’s just as riveting every time I see it, but there are countless moments in this film, often in small interactions between characters, that are equally as powerful in what they are not as in what they are. For example, in her first scene, Pina shrugs off the policeman’s questions nonchalantly with an apathetic expression and apparent low stress level, only to reveal her suppressed passion and vigor once inside the house.

What this actually reveals is the habits of deception that have become so ingrained in common people as a form of self-preservation, the untrained who have trained themselves to act as spies, and hints at the stress brewing underneath always, trapping the people so that they can be free. Creating this multifaceted examination of wartime Europe in the form of one complete story with many characters as its players is essential in establishing the milieu with which Rossellini is working.

This leads to Paisan, perhaps the best of the trilogy but it’s allowed to be so with the flexibility given by its bookends. Each of the six stories is unique in depicting a given purpose, often focusing on the aspect of communication as a bridge or barrier to connection, yielding a spectrum of accessibility from contact to isolation. Between this and The Flowers of St. Francis, Rossellini proves to be a master storyteller not only in small details but in small doses, a format that amplifies those details and leaves the viewer to connect the dots without a comprehensive narrative to connect them for us.

Everybody has their own subjective favorite chapters and mine always seem to shift (though the third is such a convincing exposition of moral relativity in its disruption of socially normative conventions of the 40s to levels that are bold for genuineness not manipulation, meshing pathos with romantic longing and truth, that it’s hard to beat it). The range of opinions are credited to the restrained genius of Rossellini, leaving us with a wealth of information just vague enough to strike emotions for personal reasons depending on the day, time of life, or subtle details uncovered in that specific viewing. In allowing the audience space for interpretation, Rossellini risks the symptoms of his designs losing or gaining meaning based off of audience participation, a gesture of respect and appreciation that few filmmakers offer so openly.

Germany, Year Zero is a more micro-systemic tragedy that aptly ends the trilogy. After beginning with an expansive and populated atmosphere that focuses on grand ideologies clashing and the resulting conflict (macro), and moving into a fractured film told in pieces that don’t form a consistent entity but rather an idea, with communication and language barriers influencing groups and consequences for those groups (mezzo/micro), here we return to one narrative but a restrictive and claustrophobic vision of a family (micro) suffocating on hopelessness to the point of nihilistic surrender. The funneling of the fluids of life (spiritually and war, serenity and pain, love and hate) throughout these stories and systems within have drained until only resin of despair remains, overtaking the sun for the boy in the final act of the final film, darkness overcoming what’s left of the finite will power he has to carry on.

This is not a film devoid of spirituality (no Rossellini film is), but it is one that presents a small world where spirituality is clouded by the stressors and trappings of reality, a process that leads to the offerings of nihilism we experience. ‘Cynical’ and ‘realist’ are often confused for one another, but I don’t believe Rossellini bought into either idea completely. Rather this is his strongest departure towards pessimism, an experiment to present one perspective on events, by refusing to provide the spiritual component he clearly values. Spirituality is therefore always present in its omission, an intangible force we are seeking throughout just like the innocent boy who is our protagonist, omnipresent in its noticeable absence. It’s a dangerous mission, a challenging watch and likely just as challenging a film to make, stewing in the mud long enough to give insight into this state of things that we all want to run from and not embrace. This includes Rossellini, who embraces it anyways, a brave venture for an eclectic thinker to walk to the edge and look over into darkness because the sight is a piece of truth that’s too important to ignore.

Slowly dissolving the systems onscreen to match the narrative, Rossellini transitions from a whole picture to fragments to isolation, all encompassing ostracization. It’s a brutal path, but not without beautiful moments. Regardless of the note it ends on, and just because Rossellini believes the effects of war are harmful at catastrophic levels, does not also indicate that he believes life is devoid of the joy underneath the horror. He just chose to focus mostly on that horror here, probably because even though he didn’t want to, in his soul it felt right, necessary, inevitable; a spiritual obligation.

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Re: The 1940s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#319 Post by therewillbeblus » Sat Aug 17, 2019 6:39 pm

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Red River

I used to think this was one of the most overrated westerns and middling Hawks. How wrong I was. More of a melodrama about man’s assignment of activity into a singleminded goal, too familiar to be Faustian and delicately gleaning the reaction of what happens when one vision encounters the variable of another man, splitting its unidimensional focus in two across a prism between solipsism and social connection. Individualism vs collectivism battle throughout this film, both embodying the American Dream, whether regarding capitalist business ventures and masculine goals or the ideological apparatuses of family and friendship, a band of winners forming a society with law, order, and nationalism that’s impossible to achieve alone. As per typical Hawks, this is not a ‘battle’ in the conventional filmic sense. The director is the reigning expert on how to shift various moods with ease so that they don’t fight for screen time, but complement one another, seamlessly transitioning or coexisting in layers like a five course meal served on the same plate.

This film has one of his better uses of tonal change, providing brief and unexpected scenes of harshness including but not limited to violence, as well as those of compassion and lighthearted playfulness. The juxtapositions are jarring but only softly. We experience the shifts and the auras cast over us like the grey skies in the film, but not with doom, for even in the darkest of moments there is cinematic energy that thrills before the temperature drops to a comfortable warmth. This is an adventure film where the adventure lies not as much in physical distance traversed as in another kind of exploration.

There is the adventure of the ‘internal’ as Wayne balances moral weight or allows the acidity of greed to deteriorate personal value systems. Then there is ‘external’ social adventure, in the short distance between two men sitting a horse’s length away, with eyes, voices, and postures exploring the other man, the self, and the space between; sizing up oneself and the subject of one’s scope. Is he target or ally, enemy or friend? Can he be both, and depending on one’s doctrine or mindset, mustn’t he be both? The ending used to bother me, but if taken as the surrender of bitter narcissistic individualism in expanding peripheries to the truth that Wayne is not the most important man on the planet, it works. The joke of life comes when the heavy facades of subjective value rationalized by egocentricity are exposed to the self. Camaraderie is the ideal for Hawks, a society man, and nothing is more meaningful than likeminded men finding social value in commonalities of virtue. Sharing a win together is better than achieving anything alone.

I understand why people don’t like the ending. It suggests an abruptly optimistic cap towards Hawks’ worldview and requires a leap of faith. This may not be my schema but that doesn’t mean part of me doesn’t admire it, or at least want it. I watch many movies, including Hawks’ output, to take a vacation into this worldview for two hours, and part of this process is that promise of the final win, the comfort of social connection that comes much easier in the movies.

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Re: The 1940s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#320 Post by Rayon Vert » Sun Aug 18, 2019 2:30 pm

The Spanish Main (Borzage 1945). A rare Technicolor film for RKO. This takes place in a similar place and time as The Black Swan visited. A Dutch captain ends up imprisoned by the tyrannical governor of Cartagena just for having gotten shipwrecked there, but ends up escaping and establishing himself as the pirate Barracuda who will steal the governor’s bride to be. She is Maureen O’Hara, also from that earlier Fox movie. Unfortunately the lead is the completely charmless Paul Henreid. But really he’s just a reflection of how lifeless and dull this whole by-the-numbers, styleless buckler is. This one was genuinely a chore to get through! It also looks completely plain and sometimes bordering on ugly. O’Hara’s talents are wasted. To avoid.


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Falbalas (Becker 1945). A very different film from Goupi. Set among the world of Parisian couture, this is strictly dramatic but starting on a light tone befitting the setting. The designer Philippe has a flippant relationship with women and love until he meets the fiancée of his best friend, and things turn progressively more serious and darker. A real theme of dreams clashing with reality is at play here, and the result is a simple but beautiful film. And in response to senseabove, no the French dvd has no subtitles, not even native ones.


The Clock (Minnelli 1945). This seems to be an esteemed enough film but I really wasn’t crazy about it. It’s fresh enough for a while, with all its cuteness as the couple meet at the station and end up piling date upon date in that same day together, up through the museum part or thereabouts, but after that you can guess where it’s going and the material just gets too corny and isn’t well written enough to overcome that. And that’s despite Garland and what she brings to it, who is always interesting to watch.


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One of Our Aircraft Is Missing (P & P 1942). This definitely makes a worthy companion to 49th Parallel. There is a symmetry with the previous film since we’re now following a team of British airmen escaping the Germans, after their plane has gone down in the Netherlands. Same mixture here of drama, thriller and occasional humorous touches. Not to mention the meeting and being helped by the Dutch, which is an occasion to foreground an encounter with an “other” in a somewhat similar way as the Hutterite community episode in the preceding film. Pamela Brown, who later played Catriona in I Know Where I’m Going!, gives a stand-out turn here as one of the two Dutch women critical in helping the Brits. Solid actors, script and production again - quite enjoyable.


A Letter to Three Wives (Mankiewicz 1949). I wasn’t enthralled by this one in part because this type of very dialogue-driven comdram only goes so far for me and the overall effect wasn’t what it should have been. At the same time, though, I was definitely struck and slowly drawn more and more into the film by the intelligence and adultness of the material and its treatment. It’s interesting that in all three marriages there’s a certain class/social background power dynamic at play, and the episodes involving Rita and Lora Mae’s respective alliances were the most interesting because we get to study those relationships’ workings in some detail. Watching the actors skillfully seek their teeth into this material was really part of the draw here. (I could have done without the not-so-funny, lazily-written jokey Thelma Ritter side moments, but that too added to the class “conflict” aspect.)


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Yolanda and the Thief (Minnelli 1945). Maybe it’s because my expectations coming into this were so low, but I found myself liking it (to some degree) despite my rational reservations. Yes it’s artificial and occasionally garish at times (but then apparently Minnelli was trying to replicate Ludwig Bemelmans’ illustrations – who co-wrote the story the film is based on –, I don’t know if that explains anything), the numbers aren’t necessarily memorable even when it comes to the dancing, it’s a little slow and lacking in verve in general, but something about the extra lightness, artificiality and airiness of its story, rhythm and look got to me. Knives said Bremer doesn’t convey any intelligence but that just seems to add to the whole required featheriness of the whole thing. Therefore I can understand that this gets some cult film love. That long “surrealist” sequence anticipates The Red Shoes ballet a bit with its striking backgrounds, but actually that was a lower point for me and I thought the film worked better in its non-musical moments.

(I had previously seen one Minnelli film as part of a Katharine Hepburn dvd set, which was 1946’s Undercurrent. Here were my viewing notes: A schizoid film featuring Katharine Hepburn that starts off like one of her typical romantic comedies and ends up a mystery that climaxes in nearly Hitchcockian terms. As theatrical as things become, that’s actually when the film’s stronger points come out, but it ends up being much too long of a film with a lack of satisfying continuity. Meanwhile Hepburn and a young Mitchum are fine, but for most of it Robert Taylor is pretty two-dimensional, until he does a good job in the maniacal ending. )


Manon (Clouzot 1949). The story of Manon Lescault is transposed to the recent war, at the time of the Liberation, starting with Desgrieux rescuing Manon as she’s accused by French villagers of sleeping with the Nazis, and ending boarding with Jewish survivors heading to the promised land. Coming immediately after Quai des Orfèvres, it’s hard to tell it’s from the same director since the drop in overall quality is so important. The original material does feature two characters going from passionate love to hatred and back again, but this is pitched at such an accerated level that right from the start they come off as unbelievable caricatures. The surprisingly amateurish acting (or maybe it’s a combination with how it’s scripted, like that split second when suddenly they “love” each other) keeps you at a distance and I never cared about either of them once they became a couple. Half way through I just wanted the film to end. There’s a surprisingly harsh and cynical scene towards the end, even for Clouzot, that shook me out of my stupor, but it wasn’t enough to alter the feeling of having been through a bad B noir.


Too Late for Tears (Haskin 1949). Champion, The Window and now this one – every ’49 noir I’m seeing has Arthur Kennedy in it! This was really good. Not a noir in which you get emotionally involved, but just entertained as hell. Plot- and screenplay-wise it’s just really strong, with the unsatisfied housewife Liz Scott character just surprising you with every action she takes, almost superhuman in a (psychopathic) way, and driving everything and everyone, even dominating Duryea’s usual tough guy persona, altering him into a more interesting character than is usually the case. I don’t think the last third is quite as strong as what came before, once our protagonists get suspected, but the whole thing is quite a ride.


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Captain from Castile (King 1947). By length alone (2h21) it enters the epic range, but it meets the criteria in most ways as well. In 1518 Spain Tyrone Power is a nobleman who has to escape his country once his family become victims of the Inquisition, and he heads off to join Cortez as he’s about to start his expedition among the Aztecs. This King-and-Power-at-Fox swashbuckler is the polar opposite of The Black Swan: gravely serious and realistic in tone throughout. This was an extremely lengthy and expensive production, with all location shooting done in Mexico, when possible among the original historical sites for the Cortez segments, and it shows on the screen. With a sumptuously sweeping score from Newman, and on the strength of that more serious tone, an imperfect but engaging-enough narrative, pleasing actors like Romero, Cobb and a young Jean Peters in her debut bringing freshness to the romantic lead, and especially those terrific (Technicolor of course) vistas and the stunning beauty that frequently comes across the TT blu ray, this was a definite winner for me in the genre. It sometimes felt a bit out of its era, a bit more modern than the typical 40s adventure films - all that’s missing is the Scope!


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The Picture of Dorian Gray (Lewin 1945). Like knives, I barely remembered the book, only the premise of the portrait and the protagonist remaining youthful (and a few classic Wilde witticisms), so the events of the film had their full, sometimes shocking impact on me. I was also delighted with this. Every time the narrative would come to a certain stage, I was surprised that it kept going to other, satisfaction-adding places and levels. I didn’t have a problem with Hatfield – he seemed perfect for the role, and the complete coldness his character develops at some point threatens to overtake the whole film. Same reaction to knives, as a very minor criticism, about the score coming on very loud and inappropriately on-the-nose a few times, and sometimes a few beats too late as well. But really the whole thing was delightful – Sanders of course playing his usual cynical decadent self but never more so than here, Lansbury as a nice mixture of the working class girl from Gaslight but with a potent sweetness to her. The sets (especially of the Mayfair apartment) and the way the camera moves and frames is also a continuous aesthetic delight. A contender for my list.

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movielocke
Joined: Fri Jan 18, 2008 12:44 am

The 1940s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#321 Post by movielocke » Sun Aug 18, 2019 3:01 pm

I’m the opposite, I remember the book Dorian gray pretty well from high school but barely remember the film at all (watched on my own a year or two later), if I were to guess, I “watched” it but dozed through several sections, but didn’t care because I knew what was happening from the book:-p definitely one I ought to rewatch ( I did the same think through joe Wright’s pride and prejudice, really need to give that one another shake as well.)

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knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: The 1940s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#322 Post by knives » Sun Aug 18, 2019 3:54 pm

This is a good time to put in another rejoiner on Bel Ami by the same crew. It's perhaps even better in some ways.

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Rayon Vert
Green is the Rayest Color
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Re: The 1940s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#323 Post by Rayon Vert » Sun Aug 18, 2019 4:15 pm

Anyone seen The Moon and Sixpence by Lewin (and Sanders) also? Apparently it also selectively uses color shots.

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knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: The 1940s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#324 Post by knives » Sun Aug 18, 2019 4:21 pm

I've been looking for a legal copy, but haven't. I would be excited to see it as their partnership so far has brought out the best in both.

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Rayon Vert
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Re: The 1940s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#325 Post by Rayon Vert » Sun Aug 18, 2019 4:29 pm

The VCI dvd that is available apparently does not include the color shots.

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