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

#226 Post by therewillbeblus » Tue Jul 02, 2019 10:09 am

NABOB OF NOWHERE wrote:
Tue Jul 02, 2019 2:54 am
nitin wrote:
Tue Jul 02, 2019 2:49 am
Therewillbeblus have you seen either of The Earrings of Madame De or La Signora De Tutti? Would be curious to know if your observations for those two are in line with your observations for Caught and Letter From an Unknown Woman.
And please add Sans Lendemain to that list for some super-saturated emotion.
I haven't seen La Signora De Tutti or Sans Lendemain, so I'll definitely try to track them down, though my library doesn't seem to carry them!

I recently rewatched The Earrings of Madame De... and definitely connected more with that film- I would even go so far as to say I loved it- though still with other details outweighing a vicarious alignment with Madame De herself (for example the way the transitional objects hold meaning dependent not on the nature of those objects but on the subjective signifiers placed onto them, the feeling of being trapped in and/or helpless to access love, etc.). However, that doesn't mean that I don't get emotional reactions from these films, but that they are of a different kind where I find accessing the characters as a surrogate difficult but instead apply their circumstances to myself or social dynamics as I see them broadly. I went on a bit of a run, rewatching Lola Montès, which I went from disliking last time to loving this time (again for universal themes, of how we judge/are judged based on extraneous details that don't sum up a person, something more significant than ever in our current climate), as well as La Ronde and Le Plaisir (both entertaining, especially the former with a nothing-short-of lovely bedroom speech halfway through, and the latter falling a bit flat other than the middle sequence, though the first ten minutes of that middle story where the men all congregate aimlessly when the brothel closes are ten of the best minutes I've seen in a film, for what it's worth). The issue for me is less that I can't enjoy these films, as I do all of them, but that I feel like there's some barrier channeling my enjoyment into areas of respect for form and style, as well as emotional responses that occur with a glass wall still present between me and the characters and stemming from a cognitive understanding of themes that then spark my own emotional experiences based on that order of application, if that makes any sense.

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Re: The 1940s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#227 Post by therewillbeblus » Thu Jul 04, 2019 2:24 am

The Pirate: I was afraid of how I’d feel about this celebrated genre entry with Garland as a lead but thankfully Kelly more than makes up for her lackluster presence and steals the show, with a louder, funnier personality than he typically exhibits. The way Kelly throws his dancing partners down in a mix of aggressive and gentle flamboyant symbiotic dance in his first scene is one of the better character introductions I’ve seen in a musical. The humor here is derived primarily from Kelly’s intentionally hammy perf as a hammy character and plays much differently than the following year’s On the Town which was more rooted in well-timed, stacked gags (in comedy, this is Twentieth Century to the latter’s Bringing Up Baby/Playtime hybrid- a silly comparison perhaps, but it feels right). There are a few great musical numbers bursting with energy, and everyone is clearly having a blast from the cast to crew. Still, the comedy is what sells this most for me (as much as I prefer On the Town as a musical, I prefer Twentieth Century to Baby or any Tati, if that’s any indication to how this may strike my funny bone), and I’d probably rank this higher on a comedy list than a musical one. Unfortunately this aspect loses its steam as the film leans heavily on story in the last third, eliminating many opportunities for comedic moments and exposing this as the film’s strong leg. For the 40s list I’m not sure where it’ll land all components considered, but it’s got too much going for it to leave off.

The Locket: This film lives and dies not by its layered mystery of a story, but by the ambiguity of the performance of the person whose intentions are the source of said mystery. Laraine Day is excellent here, and while I went in looking for more suave 40s Mitchum, she makes this movie far stronger than he could simply because of her range which can carry the weight of all the chips placed on her to sell the ideas at play. Otherwise, I’m sorry to say, this doesn’t stand with the other great noirs of the 40s, but it’s much better than it deserves to be and Brahm and his crew help by injecting some excellent shadowy lighting and non-formulaic camera movements and unique angles (that claustrophobic shot from within the veil!) that stick out against others in the already stylized genre. For a film that does so much right, it unfortunately is not very memorable taken as a whole, because these flourishes and a strong performance can’t make up for a contrived mystery that essentially reveals its one-dimensional purpose and intentions from the very start as a “is she or isn’t she a femme fatale?!” coin flip, destined to end with a shrug. Without any other worthy characters or arcs to grab onto there’s no space to channel the energy I wanted to give back to a film buzzing with false prospects of charisma.

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Re: The 1940s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#228 Post by Rayon Vert » Sat Jul 06, 2019 11:47 pm

The Stranger (Welles 1946). Edward G. Robinson’s part here isn’t a stand-out one but he still turns it into something memorable. Welles and Young are stellar as well. This is a very good screenplay to begin with, with the shadow of the Holocaust giving it extra depth, but of course the confident and distinctive direction brings it to another level. The stylization is recognizably and delightfully Wellesian, with plenty of low angle shots, big close ups and adventurous long shots, and the emblematic mixture of documentary realism and Gothic expressionism.


Went the Day Well? (Cavalcanti 1942).
Yet more surreptitious Nazis. Light, near-humorous moments are intertwined skillfully with some harrowing moments. Always a fun film, with a great ensemble of characters/actors and plenty of wonderful exterior scenes that help play up the fanciful and odd juxtaposition between the bucolic English village and the ghastliness of war.


I Know Where I’m Going! (P&P 1945).
Visually and thematically this is very much a cousin to A Canterbury Tale. There’s something almost Lawrentian in the motif of modernism vs. a more rooted, nature-inspired, mystical sense of life. A charming film, with a real cinematic imagination and attention to detail at play. Hard to decide which of the two I prefer.


Humoresque (Negulesco 1946). Terrific film that I liked even more the second time around. The melo doesn’t go over the top until the very end, and even then it feels earned. The screenplay is very solid to begin with – for instance, the dialogue between Paul and his musical accompanist Sid about the realities of trying to make it as a musician is very astute. Really there’s never a bad note (no pun intended) throughout the film. The movie is very good even before the tortuous romantic narrative starts at least a full third of the way through, beginning with the depiction of the young musician’s origins. Crawford gives a really intelligent performance, and all the actors are good, including or especially Oscar Levant as Sid. Nice style on the part of the director too, including the several clever visual-visual and audio-visual matching shots. I could see this being a Criterion release one day.


This week I also revisited Leave Her to Heaven, The Southerner and Les Visiteurs du soir, but I’ve written those up elsewhere. And that mostly wraps up my revisits for this project, apart from the eight or so left that, hopefully through blu upgrades, I’ll sprinkle among the new viewings. Excited to start on the discoveries now!

---

The Mortal Storm (Borzage 1940).
What’s most interesting here is the subject for the time in which the film was made: a community in southern Germany coming apart in terrible division as Hitler seizes power in 1933, with Sullavan and Stewart as two of the resistors to the charms of Nazi ideology. An engrossing story and plot (even if a little predictable), and definitely one of the director’s better films. But it wasn’t a revelation as its reputation led me to expect it to be – the acting was perfectly competent but maybe not oustanding (?) -, and the sets and backdrops occasionally left a little to be desired. The really bad print used on the Warner Archive dvd surely doesn’t help in this respect though.

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Re: The 1940s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#229 Post by dustybooks » Sun Jul 07, 2019 2:56 am

I Know Where I'm Going! is the sort of film I liked very much in the moment but that has grown immeasurably in my estimation because its mood has lingered and hasn't entirely left my brain ever since that one single viewing. I don't know how P&P did it -- there seems to be so much contained in their works from this period, no matter how basically simple their plots may be, all lit up with sheer emotional conviction. I read Rumer Godden's novel Black Narcissus last year and liked it very much but was amazed at how much sheer life the film added to it.

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Re: The 1940s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#230 Post by therewillbeblus » Mon Jul 08, 2019 9:20 pm

Rounding off some unseen 40s musicals, Meet Me in St. Louis is a beautiful looking film with a color palette, set design, and general vibe that effectively transports one into the era and social context of these characters. A rather strangely involving musical, a genre that normally emits Brechtian distancing methods by design that weren’t as apparent with this one. Other than this detail I didn’t find as much to love here as others have, but look forward to revisiting it for the musical redux list in a few years with fresh eyes.

Cabin in the Sky was amusing at times with good songs but I found it difficult to ignore the exaggerated racial stereotypes, which stunted a lot of potentially charming and humorous moments. Still I can admire many qualities that are well-executed, specifically the chemistry of the actors playing satanic characters and comedic timing really do work, but in the end this fell flat for me, for better or worse.

Good News fared much better, with brilliantly staged and joyful numbers, taking place in high school full of all the authentic emotions and dynamics at play in this setting, both of its time and timeless. I was just as invested in the drama of love and social politics as I was the musical aspects. Expertly directed with charming characters and a story and style that flowed evenly, all made for a terrific musical and a terrific film.

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Re: The 1940s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#231 Post by Rayon Vert » Fri Jul 12, 2019 11:47 pm

Force of Evil (Polonsky 1948). Like denti alligator upthread, I thought this was fine but it didn’t hit me like Body and Soul did. Maybe my expectations were a bit too high coming off hearing Scorsese speak so well of it for years. It’s definitely an intelligent film, with nothing remotely formulaic about it, but maybe in the end it felt a bit too cerebral for me (despite the occasional intensity in the acting) - on an emotional level the brothers’ relationship not evoking as much as it should. The score definitely has something unique to it, getting operatic in that climactic scene with Leo and the accountant. The film reaches its peak moments in the last reels, including those very evocative shots of Joe dwarfed in the city, and the moral transformation he undergoes. That memorable ending definitely left me with the desire to watch this again some time.


Mother Wore Tights (W. Lang 1947). I’m picking up the Betty Grable musicals from (quite a while ago) here. Not much narrative-wise here: Betty becomes Dan Dailey’s vaudeville partner, and they have kids and mostly embarrass them. Hard to see why this was such a successful film. Production- and length-wise, it’s definitely one of the more ambitious entries and it’s never awful, but there’s nothing to particularly distinguish it either. I can’t see why it won an award for the music, as the songs struck me on the whole as unmemorable. The numbers themselves are the typical vaudeville-musical stage performances – pretty Technicolor colors, lightly enjoyable in moments (Kokomo, Indiana) but nothing striking either. Grable is starting to age and looks fittingly matronly for the part.


Dragonwyck (Mankiewicz 1946). I’m surprised this has the relatively low score it has on IMDB. Not all that original in terms of the story and plot perhaps, but for the genre it’s exceedingly well-made. Extremely enjoyable acting, mood and cinematography. There’s also a very attractive elegance in the way the film is performed and shot from the beginning to the end. I only have good things to say about this.


The Bribe (Leonard 1949). Robert Taylor plays a federal cop investigating a racket on an island off Central America, and is tempted to sell himself out for Ava Gardner. Have to agree with domino’s dismissal of this one in the film noir thread. Price and Laughton as villains make it a bit interesting, and there are some adequate scenes here and there, like the tuna fishing set-up bit, but even beyond the lack of any style/mood or original story elements, it just mostly falls somewhat flat. Taylor’s stiffness is a big contributor, but even as I was trying to imagine someone like Bogart in his place, I concluded the dully written material, especially involving the romantic/moral dilemma intrigue, would not make this anywhere near first-rate.


Impact (Lubin 1949). This independent B noir easily outperforms the MGM A-lister. This was mentioned higher up as both a good public domain and Ella Raines noir. Brian Donlevy plays a successful business man who lays low after escaping his wife trying to have him murdered by her lover. That lurid plot start kicks off the film in high gear but then it gently goes into a quaint, equally appealing, lovely interlude when our protagonist hides out in a small Idaho town and meets up with Raines as a service station owner. The third act brings in some compelling plot twists that ratchet the energy back up. The location shooting in both Frisco and Idaho help make this a modest but definite winner.

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Re: The 1940s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#232 Post by domino harvey » Fri Jul 12, 2019 11:55 pm

Impact is one I've been crowing about forever-- I think it was orphaned in the Noir list both times, if you can believe it! I think it's the best of the small town noirs. The Bribe is awful, nothing else needs to be said about it. I think Dragonwyck's low score comes from fans of Vincent Price's later horror work who don't know what to do with this one's tone and narrative. I never got the cult of Force of Evil either (doesn't zedz consider it THE best film to ever come out of Hollywood??) but I'm looking forward to revisiting the Arrow deluxe release eventually. Haven't seen Mother Wore Tights yet, but my Grable returns have been all over the map so who knows how it would go

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Re: The 1940s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#233 Post by Rayon Vert » Sat Jul 13, 2019 12:10 am

domino harvey wrote:
Fri Jul 12, 2019 11:55 pm
I think Dragonwyck's low score comes from fans of Vincent Price's later horror work who don't know what to do with this one's tone and narrative.
You know, I thought it might be something odd like that. Otherwise I can't see the reason.

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Re: The 1940s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#234 Post by domino harvey » Sat Jul 13, 2019 6:40 pm

I haven't watched this yet, but learning Broderick Crawford was once billed as "Brod" made my day

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Re: The 1940s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#235 Post by ando » Sat Jul 13, 2019 6:52 pm

domino harvey wrote:
Sat Jul 13, 2019 6:40 pm
I haven't watched this yet, but learning Broderick Crawford was once billed as "Brod" made my day

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On APrimeVideo, too. Thanks.

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Re: The 1940s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#236 Post by therewillbeblus » Sat Jul 13, 2019 7:13 pm

Two strangulations on one cover? Sold.

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Re: The 1940s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#237 Post by Michael Kerpan » Sun Jul 14, 2019 1:03 pm

Brod crawford?

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Re: The 1940s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#238 Post by therewillbeblus » Mon Jul 15, 2019 1:13 am

The Reckless Moment

I’ve been transparent on this forum about my struggle with accessing Ophüls’s emotional involvement with his characters, finding more success directing my efforts toward involvement with subjective projections with their predicaments, and while I love some of his 50s works more than this (for perhaps different reasons than others do), this film worked with this method of viewership due to its nature in structure. The noir plot and engagement with the characters within said structure needs to work only by involving us with emotion by way of observing a predicament that’s unrelatable at face value, but by breaking involvement down to broader notions of these situations caused by our loyalty to family and other institutional systems that include the presence of other people is relatable and only needs to be available here to ourselves as outlets for our projections. Ophüls flaunts his mastery over camera as usual and crafts a beautifully looking film, that falls more on the side of melodrama vs. traditional noir (although melodrama is what noirs really are after all, this film’s really basks in it), with the dynamic between Mason and Bennett forming organically in a very short time.

Mason plays the part and delivers his dialogue with the perfect tones to elicit the greyness of moral relativism in the noir male without allowing us to choose a side the way another less charming actor might accidentally fail on these lines. It’s the time spent with Bennett on the process of trying to get a loan, though, that is the highlight of the film. This segment feels like the scenes that probably often wind up on the cutting room floor in most action-focused noir genre pictures of the studio era, but feel absolutely vital here to capture the essence of the mood in this tale. We are trapped in the predicament with our heroine and I felt her anxiety moreso in this seemingly banal process than I have for the anxiety of many noir heroes in more aggressively ‘dangerous' situations. This is a hat tip to real life and these are the problems and the anxieties that we know and can relate to, even without relating to the plot itself. As Bennett runs out of options, going from place to place, and encountering roadblocks everywhere, I felt the world closing in and a surging powerlessness over the systematic forces that I and everyone else can relate to acting as invisible barriers to achieving any hope toward safety. When moments that should provide relief and safety do present themselves, socially institutionalized and deep-rooted personal morals cloud the psychologies and disrupt this relief as well. This is a true noir with all its trappings, discomfort, disillusionment, and existential anxiety of the genre- but no apathy! This is not a pessimistic film, and it remains alive and fighting because its characters are survivors, willing to engage in gritty moral sacrifices to reach their morally valuable ends but not without drive, purpose, and love. With some time to reflect, I think this is one of Ophüls’s best films, and at the very least one of his most successful realizations of his ambitions, even if they’re on a smaller scale than his more famous, some of them better, films.

Dragonwyck
Rayon Vert wrote:
Fri Jul 12, 2019 11:47 pm
Dragonwyck (Mankiewicz 1946). I’m surprised this has the relatively low score it has on IMDB. Not all that original in terms of the story and plot perhaps, but for the genre it’s exceedingly well-made. Extremely enjoyable acting, mood and cinematography. There’s also a very attractive elegance in the way the film is performed and shot from the beginning to the end. I only have good things to say about this.
I agree with all of this (how marvelous to see Mank utilize his expertise in technique in his first feature as director, having seemingly developed this mastery overnight) and will only add that I was surprised in parts by how excellent the script was here. There are scenes in Dragonwyck that dig into not only an exposition on class differences but the rationality or psychology in deep, complex ways. There is a terrific scene, for example, where Price and Tierney engage in an argument on views of the disabled and poor, with Price taking the moral model (handicaps are the result of god’s will because the subject sinned), and Tierney rejecting such a model (god’s will but not interventionist due to any action of the subject). The way this is dissected is elegant and fascinating, and all the more powerful because the moral model is what a majority of the population felt not only in the time period of the story but when the film was released! The way Price’s insecurities and rigidity are also considered is intelligent and doesn’t feed the audience too much, while making its point with peripheral dialogue and style-infused moodiness. I may need to watch it again before lists are due as this is sure to be one that shows more when watched with new eyes admiring the details and not thinking about story.

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Re: The 1940s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#239 Post by therewillbeblus » Fri Jul 19, 2019 11:13 pm

I’m not sure how deep I’ll get into revisiting Sturges for this project after Sullivan’s Travels and Christmas in July, two films that I always liked quite a bit, left me amused but not as taken with their charms or humor this time. This may be due to knowing most of the gags that caught me off guard the first time, or perhaps my tastes have changed. For what it’s worth, The Lady Eve continues to grow in my esteem and will surely make my list. But all pale in comparison to Sturges’s best film:

Hail the Conquering Hero only gets better upon each compulsive revisit. After seeing it again for the nth time, it’s still hard to describe why I love the film so much, but I’ll give it a shot. It’s warm, funny, smart, and the character actors are at their best. William Demarest gives his career-best performance and steals every scene he’s in, playing off Eddie Bracken’s anxious innocent perfectly, with gusto when Bracken is at his most helpless. When acting, writing, and directing are all at their peak I suppose it’s hard not to be overwhelmed in experiencing the magic of film at work. Sturges knows exactly when speed up the pace and deliver witty lines with rapid fire dialogue and visual gags (sometimes stacked so closely we can barely breathe between laughs, like when Demarest starts embellishing Bracken’s war stories as he is struggling to cope already with the rapid fire snowballing of spotlight thrown on him, having just declared: “I wish I was dead!”), and he exercises just as much skill in his knowledge of when to slow things down to reveal the kindest of hearts at the core of this film, a range that is impressive to say the least. The use of lavishly choreographed setpieces and long takes are easy to miss and seem effortless in design despite their complexity, as does everything that populates Sturges’s mise-en-scène.

An area that I’ve only recently come to understand as a key to the film’s success is that it has probably the most effective use of facial expressions in a sound film that I’ve seen. For such a dialogue-filled outrageous romp, the faces do just as much work as the airtight script. From Bracken’s constricted, tightened facial discomfort at the homecoming to his open, floppy-faced bafflement at the church scene to his relaxed surrendering face signifying a cathartic sense of humility at the end; and anger, real apathy, fake apathy, and everything in between and throughout, it's a wonderful and exhausting physical performance. This is true for all the actors and not only in the obvious flashy ways one would expect. Ella Raines at first seems like she adds little by comparison to the others, but her subtle insecurities and melancholic mood in the background while our eyes are expected to be on Bracken in the homecoming scene (as well as most scenes with louder performances on screen, to be fair) is a perfect display of authentic complexity of the human experience. As is the way her lips and eyes slightly flourish around or when talking about Bracken, lighting up in love the way people actually show this, not obvious without looking but impossible to misinterpret once you do, giving him all of her attention whether he’s in the room or not. Her character is subtle by design and these idiosyncrasies are easy to overlook, but they indicate a much more impressive performance than Raines gets credit for and also serves as further evidence that Sturges populates every frame of this film with effort, skill, and a distinct vision, humanizing everyone and bringing all elements on celluloid to life, even when it seems at ease.

There is comedy, yes, but there is pathos too woven throughout the tale as well as ethos in the spirit of humanity rather than culture, for while the film boldly satirizes jingoism and hero worship it celebrates the belief in broader universal morals and inherent goodness in people. This is a film with ridiculously exaggerated performances revolving around a ridiculous situation, and yet there is something so honest about even the most wild expressions and lines here. An honest film about dishonesty; not with others as the surface-level plot functions, but within ourselves, and how to work through the aches and pains to achieve the capacity for authenticity in the form of self-actualization, which the film presents (it hardly needs to argue) as the truth of what courage really is at its core. I admit with embarrassment that this used to be lower-tier Sturges for me when I first saw it a long time ago, but more than any other of his films this really requires complete undivided attention to access all it has to offer, and if given that the sum of these parts are revealed as not only his masterpiece, but one of the best films ever made.

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Re: The 1940s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#240 Post by Rayon Vert » Sun Jul 21, 2019 12:12 am

That Lady in Ermine (Lubitsch & Preminger 1948). This feels less like Lubitsch (albeit for 8 days only) making a Grable musical than Grable starring in a Lubitsch film, specifically one of his earlier Ruritanian musical comedies, in lieu of MacDonald. This isn’t awful but just generally lacking. It’s hard to say if it would have been that much better if Lubitsch actually directed the whole thing because the script isn’t that hot, even though it seems to try with a lot of fanciful invention going on. Grable is fine but Fairbanks has no charm and there’s no chemistry between them.


Somewhere in the Night (Mankiewicz 1946). George Taylor (John Hodiak) wakes up amnesiac in a hospital after the war, only to discover himself embroiled in a crime mystery as he tries to figure out who he is. There is something metaphorically potent about that start and knives’ write-up earlier in the thread mainly riffed on that. I felt that subtext didn’t meet its match in terms of the surface of the film, though. The movie starts strongly as we follow Taylor get his bearings and meet the principals, but once that’s done at some point I felt the plot’s single-minded focus on discovering the mystery of a certain key individual became a little dull, with not enough in the characters themselves or the style of the film itself to make it more than a merely adequate but ultimately inessential Fox noir.


Flight Command (Borzage 1940). Robert Taylor is a gung-ho, top gun rookie joining up with an elite squadron in San Diego and having a hard time fitting in. It’s a little corny at times, but on the whole this was an enjoyable, well-made film, with the action sequences achieving suspense, and the drama engaging. Even though the way it ends up being handled is part of the film’s corn, the fact that a near-romance develops between Taylor and Ruth Hussey as the commander’s wife takes you back. Taylor is well-suited to the role and does one of his better acting jobs here. It’s not a war film, but as an aviation actioner it reminded me of Hawks’ Air Force, but I thought this one was actually the better film. So really, overall, that’s three winners from the director in the same year.


The Sea Hawk (Curtiz 1940). Resuming the swashbucklers started in the 30s project, which always hold potentially the promise of being pleasurable movie experiences. Flynn is here a privateer working for the Queen to prevent the Spanish Armada. The intended parallels with contemporary developments in Europe are made obvious right at the start with Philip II projecting Spain to rule the entire globe. With a very similar cast and crew, this is indeed a bit like “Robin Hood on the ocean” like FrauBlucher put it in another thread. I felt there was a slight drop in quality just when we get to the sepia-colored sequence in Panama, perhaps not the most inspired decision, but then from the slave galley sequence to the end it’s just one terrific scene after another, with a gorgeous black-and-white photography that makes beautiful use of shadows. Strong performances from the likes of Flynn and Rains, but a special nod goes to Flora Robson’s wonderfully smart portrayal of Elizabeth.


My Learned Friend (Dearden & Hay 1943). A Will Hay comedy for Ealing in which Hay and his collaborator Claude Hulbert are barristers who are themselves targets for murder. This is really broad, mostly slapstick comedy. This seems to be a beloved film of Hay fans but apart from the seedy pub sequence that featured moments of humorous, well-choreographed zaniness, this was mostly too tediously obvious for me.

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Re: The 1940s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#241 Post by therewillbeblus » Sun Jul 21, 2019 2:31 am

More revisits:

The Strange Love of Martha Ivers: This has always been a favorite off-beat noir that claws on the insides by showing characters spiritually rotting away with age, or else on the verge but not too far gone to be saved. There’s a lot to love here, because amidst the shadows cast over our characters from the disease of time lost are lovely moments, for each of these people are completely consumed with ‘longing’ that paints them all as multidimensional, not fully good or bad but at their cores lonely and scared people just wanting affection, love, and happiness, bearing their weaknesses just enough to feel real and let us in on their complexities. The mood shifts work because of the actors’ understanding of their characters, so when it seems drastic instead of rolling our eyes we know this is a defense mechanism, a part of this person emerging as a reaction to fear, rejection, and pain.

Adding Lizabeth Scott to the story was a risk, that seemingly adds little except for a few setpieces and a longer runtime (this is a long noir!) but her character is absolutely necessary because she represents the latter category I described above: the people who have made mistakes, and still make mistakes in the film out of fear, but are not beyond saving. Positioning her and Van Heflin (she on parole, he a gambler) against Douglas and Stanwyck drive home this theme and the other two reveal their broken pieces clearly when positioned next to those whose destinies have not yet reached a dead end. Yet nothing is more devastating than when Stanwyck, for all the harm she’s caused, confesses her misery and her desires safely, drawing more empathy than anyone else (except maybe Douglas, the other character with the most blood on his hands!) because who hasn’t experienced regret, rejection, feeling stuck and struggled to cope with its acceptance? Any film that can evoke this much empathy for the femme fatale and weakling alcoholic vs the two protagonists is doing something interesting, unique, and daring, and this film earns major points for fleshing out all it presents and embracing moral relativism to the point where the typically amoral characters are perhaps the ones for which we feel the most compassion.

Laura: A lot has already been said about this noir classic. Of course Preminger paints his canvas of a film with mastery over all elements, and it plays just as well as the first time, for even with the knowledge of the ending, there is supreme entertainment in the journey. I haven’t read the novel but this is one of those few ‘mystery’ films that feel like a book, with fleshed out characters acting, moving through spaces and delivering lines with enough ambivalence to make us think it could be any of them, regardless of physical evidence. This is the power of the screen. Preminger’s camera is always on point and while he reminds me of Hawks as having a kind of invisible style, few are such masters of camera movement, framing and capturing the most significant moments in the most perfect way imaginable.

The Spiral Staircase: This should be a double feature with Night of the Hunter for the early pre-Polanski masterworks of psychological horror. To me this is Siodmak’s best film, compulsively watchable, thrilling, and investing on a level of character, story, and plot. The photography and pacing is was really sets the bar though, as well as the inclusion of beautiful scenes (Helen looking at herself in the full body mirror, smiling and seeing herself in high esteem for what feels like the first time) juxtaposed with the horror of the killer’s eye watching her, then back to the beauty. This film feels like it wrote the book on the genre, and if it didn’t it certainly took that book and made it better.

Stray Dog: Arguably the best “buddy cop” movie, and understandably so since many have pointed to it as the initial entry into the subgenre, with plenty of noir and police-procedural elements overshadowing this categorical assignment. Mifune and Shimura have excellent chemistry, not just between one another but with all the other actors they encounter, with Shimura’s presence particularly striking in its reserved wisdom with doses of pathos against Mifune’s young, intense novice. What really sells this, though, is the engrossing story with plenty of exciting twists, turns, and setpieces, and Kurosawa’s use of mise-en-scène effectively transports the viewer into the story. The most consistent example of this is that, much like Do the Right Thing, we feel the strength of the heat wave as if side by side with the characters, watching them vigorously sweat, wave their fans, break down and lose tempers under the beating sun, as if we were right there with them.

The noir plot effectively provides many seedy hidden cultures of criminals, and watching our detectives move through them is exhilarating, with some minor characters exhibiting bizarre behavior that could be part of a horror film out of context (and within context, descending into unknown spaces and disrupting our sense of cultural competency is quite a scary experience even for our ‘heroic’ policemen). The high stakes are always felt throughout the narrative, and we find ease in reason to care about the mission and our protagonists. This isn’t a ‘good guys vs. bad guys’ story in celebrating the protectors of the state vs. its enemies for nationalist reasons, but one where Mifune makes a mistake by losing his gun (or allowing it to be taken), emasculating himself, and the rest of the film is spent trying to get it back and retrieve his manhood, the bolt holding all of his self-worth together, while unknown assailants use it to hurt or kill others. Despite the obviously Japanese-specific cultural norms emphasizing the effects of shame, losing face, the ease of losing one’s masculinity, and loyalty to one’s profession forged with identity, there are universal humanistic principles at play here that make the entire film relatable. The sense of ‘responsibility,’ significant for most viewers in both individually existential and social realms, is omnipresent, and we have as much stake in this mission as the police, suspended against the uncontrollable nature of time, and the unknown forces who may be using this weapon to bear more weight on our hero’s, and our collective, conscious. Kurosawa’s camera compulsively details suspects, increasing movement to focus on clues as the film continues, as if to match Mifune’s desperation, obsession, and skill, as he remains in the field and models his veteran partner’s habits while simultaneously exhausting his energy. In the end, we feel how tired everyone is, and as the showdown ends, laying in the grass, crying and screaming, that exasperation, the final depletion of all will power to hold onto social norms, masculine ideals, ideologies of purpose, mission, duty, is all expressed vividly in one of the most strikingly real depictions of ‘surrender’ on screen; humble, stripped, and beaten, even if arguably having ‘won’ in the aims of the mission.

While I consider myself a Kurosawa fan, my mileage varies considerably within his filmography, though this is close to the top, and while I prefer High and Low overall as a film, this utilizes the detective mystery design to concoct the more purely fun film of the two, and possibly within his entire canon.

I also revisited Ivan the Terrible, still find it impressive on many fronts and yet it doesn’t move me the way it does to many others here, which is a pity. Maybe one day I’ll see a restored print in a theatre and finally see what others do, but god knows I’ve rented this enough times from the library and come out cold to keep trying this way. Sadly, This Gun for Hire becomes less interesting on each viewing. What starts off as dirty, mean fun and effective use of form quickly deteriorates into serviceable blunder with forced development of Ladd’s sensitive side that goes against his established stone-faced-killer personality, delivering a backstory monologue and all. I’m still interested to revisit the other two Arrow Lake/Ladd noirs to see how they hold up, but there surely won’t be room for any of them in the final tally.


New:

Hangover Square: There’s a lot to like here, and you can’t get a more disillusioned anti-hero than someone who isn’t oriented to time, place, and person! Watching our protagonist struggle helplessly, perspective unhinged due to his amnesiac disorder, takes the noir trope and twists it, then keeps twisting disrupting any sense of groundedness in creating a character unpredictable on so many levels that he is even to himself. Brahm knows how to shoot a film, and while this isn’t as stylistically bold as The Locket, his talents don’t need to be flashy to be noticed. The performances and lighting are perfect blends of innocent and blown out bright to corrupted and shadowy, fluctuating accordingly to character mood and the levels of orientation to reality of our protagonist. Overall it’s lean and straightforward but leaves a curious vibe that tickles in places most noirs don’t, and I suppose this is why I like this film most of all, because it feels unique.

Ivy: Wood creates a beautifully looking and eerie visual palette of glamour in this period film that serves as an ironic background for the narcissistic aims of the character and seediness of the story. Fontaine sets her sights on status and fortune and men’s lives are trivial in their value unless they contribute to her vision. The beginning of the film is the best part, where Fontaine visits a fortune teller, her eyes lighting up as she hears only what she wants to hear and fails to give attention to the clear nervousness in the delivery, a warning sign of things to come. It’s fitting that we are introduced to this notion of fate at the start, for regardless of whether there is any intervention from a magical variable, Fontaine seals her fate with her attitude and narrow perspective. Even as the film begins to get stale towards the end, she remains committed to believing she did nothing wrong. The film accesses an original angle on the examination of the personality traits of the femme fatale. By making her the central character and capturing plenty of odd reactions to events, we get a thorough exploration of narcissism, solipsism, and histrionics at work. I wish the film lived up to that first scene, but the first half is quite great and the second isn’t bad, just not as interesting as it would be to keep Fontaine front and center to give this distinctive examination more room to breathe.

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dustybooks
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Re: The 1940s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#242 Post by dustybooks » Sun Jul 21, 2019 10:29 am

I love what you wrote about Stray Dog; I love Kurosawa but, like you, his forays into this brand of entertainment are outliers in his filmography for me in the best way (High and Low being my favorite of his films).

Part I of Ivan the Terrible doesn’t do that much for me, though I admire it, but I’m very much on board when Part II switches to color and goes totally off the rails.

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Re: The 1940s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#243 Post by therewillbeblus » Sun Jul 21, 2019 7:59 pm

I’m with you on High and Low and Ivan succeeding in its last act (I love the manipulation in foiling the execution plot that leads to the final scene). I think my biggest problem with the film is that Ivan is somewhat of a blank figure from the start already rigidly fixated on his ideals. I don’t really find the process of him ‘descending into madness’ interesting as a result (I don’t notice any real development except that he becomes more animated, confident, and wiser, rather than insane), but Einstein’s vision is beautiful and the building of schemes in the plot is quite exciting.

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knives
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Re: The 1940s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#244 Post by knives » Mon Jul 22, 2019 11:51 am

Good News (Dir. Walters)
College musicals are one of the lamest and worst genres out there. Thus imagine my relief when it turned out this film leans into that in order to pose a contrast between the square plot and the hip music. Some of the numbers here on just a purely musical level are so enjoyable that I was left in elevated spirits in just the right way to accept this losers' world for the bowl of sweetness it is. This is an excellent example of music working in concert with the narrative to provide a better film than either could achieve on their own.

A Night in Casablanca (dir. Mayo)
While it corrects itself in the end this movie seems to have forgotten who headlines it at first. This overly plotty mess is a pretty clear call for retirement that the brothers would somewhat follow afterward. The brothers, especially Chico, look ancient and aren't as chaotically active as before. They're still quite funny with Harpo in particular getting some heavy laughs, but this mostly serves as a post that it was time to start doing other things.

Lillian Russell (dir. Cummings)
This is a perfectly adequate entertainment with some fun performances from a handful of character actors like Edward Arnold and Warren William. Mixed in with some great '90s tunes this could have been a super enjoyable film if not for a pair of flaws. The worst of them is the overall laziness. We artlessly skirt from plot to plot with conflict ending in a shrug. If this was a real musical showcase then the poor plotting could be somewhat forgiven, but there's barely any music in this musical. The other one that only because of the first is a serious issue is the weird antifeminist strain to the movie. It even has a character heroically give an antisuffragate monologue. All of Russell's decisions are decided by the men in her life and whenever a woman wants to get something done it ends in disaster.

Dive Bomber (dir. Curtiz)
Fred MacMurray continues to be a jerk in what is otherwise a fun if overlong movie. The main story of Errol Flynn trying to find a cure for aerial sickness after a guilty conscious strikes is very good and shows a real stretch of talent for him. With it's San Diego, in part, setting and peace time concerns this plays like an adult Top Gun as our lead tries to balance professional concerns with a more playboy personality. The movie comes with two problems. First it just about solves all of its problems 75 minutes in giving a lot of filler before providing some necessary excitement at the end. The other problem is that all of the stuff not involving Flynn flops on its face in a movie that is anyway too long by half. There's a dumb comedy subplot about a sailor avoiding his wife and MacMurray's plot of hating Flynn just sort of disappears and reappears as the movie gets bored making his character an annoying and irrational boob.

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Re: The 1940s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#245 Post by therewillbeblus » Tue Jul 23, 2019 12:01 am

La Belle et la Bête: I didn’t like this the first time, so I was completely unprepared to be won over by this film after hesitantly deciding to give it another go. I’m a fan of Cocteau’s work, especially Orpheus, but this film always eluded me in its praise until now. I can’t say I’m a converted devotee to its level of status held by many, however this has so many eccentric cinematic tricks up its sleeve on a purely visual level, between the costumes, set design, camerawork, makeup, lighting, and effects that it practically becomes the cap on the potential of this aspect of the art form. It’s like a dream captured on film.

The Song of Bernadette: I always liked this presentation on the power of belief, a religious film to be sure but more importantly a spiritual one. Regardless of whether or not you believe the story, the emphasis is on Bernadette’s serenity in her experience. She believes, and the subjectivity of one’s belief is enough to catapult that person into a calming surrender that transcends objectivity as we see it. Much has been discussed in recent years about the power of belief and the effects on people, their will power, and the strength it gives (or allows them to give themselves), and this film is a great ‘exhibit A’ of this idea. I love how the apparition is filmed entirely from Bernadette’s perspective, highlighting her subjectivity, the film refusing to be objective in any of the spiritual moments where characters are alone in prayer or deep in thought, but entirely willing to capture the objectivity of the world outside of these scenes, in ‘reality’ where characters judge, doubt, and engage in conflict as people do outside of moments alone with only oneself and god, whatever that may be. It’s an intelligent and subtle filmmaking choice, but in reflection the most necessary element for success and any other directional decision would cause the film to fold in on itself. Thankfully this doesn’t, and Bernadette effectively becomes a shining light that feels like a threat to all those who don’t have that access to god. Humility is a central theme, and many characters demonstrate their own spiritual instability through projection of anger via doubt, a refusal to engage in acceptance, while Bernadette can and does ‘accept,’ the ultimate currency of true spiritual fitness. An excellent film that stands on its own as one of the best in an often problematically limited genre.

Hellzapoppin’: How have I never heard of this? I believe this may be the wackiest thing I’ve ever seen. A musical adaptation that is actually a deranged screwball comedy unhinged as it ventures into fantastical terrority, and can pull it off because it's so self-reflexive, reaching new depths of meta-surrealism. This is a film that’s aware it’s a film, the characters sometimes know they’re in a film, they sometimes talk back to break the fourth wall with characters watching them who are also in the film watching a film who also sometimes break the fourth wall with us who are also watching a film, there are references to other films, and things that can only happen in film are handled both nonchalantly and in your face, sometimes within the same two seconds (no exaggeration on time). An exhausting description for an exhausting experience. Basically it’s a film that has its own rules but is so zany that these rules are continuously flexed, broken, glued together to create a new device that resembles a rule before then becoming invisible, a dime disappearing behind our ear and the magicians on (and behind?) the screen laughing away. ‘Unpredictable’ only begins to describe the madness at play, and I confess that I have absolutely zero idea what transpired in the narrative, if anything did at all. So many gags are stuffed into 80 minutes, all barely seconds long, that just by being a human and blinking at normal rates you’ll miss several guaranteed. It’s as if someone took Bringing Up Baby, decided to cut story, character development, and all the gags longer than 3 seconds, and then fast-forward through the pieces left over and presented it as a finished film. The jokes don’t all work and I probably shouldn’t have even bothered to compare it to the king of screwball, for its nowhere near as good as that film (the comparison was solely for the volume of successive jokes thrown at its audience). Still, while this may be a thin movie it’s so clever and audacious, and yes frequently funny, that I’m throwing in the towel and recommending it to anyone who thinks it has a chance to work for them. Even if you don’t like it, it’s worth seeing for the experience alone.

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Roger Ryan
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Re: The 1940s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#246 Post by Roger Ryan » Tue Jul 23, 2019 10:36 am

therewillbeblus wrote:
Tue Jul 23, 2019 12:01 am
...Hellzapoppin’: How have I never heard of this?..
Based on a hugely popular Broadway production, the film eliminates the gags that could only work in a live setting and substitutes ones that could only be done on film. In the late 70s, I saw a stage revue at the Knott's Berry Farm amusement park (in southern California) that was a very successful attempt at reviving Hellzapoppin' (under another name). One running gag, which I believe was borrowed directly from the 1938 stage production, involved a page carrying a potted plant who, repeatedly, interrupted the show by walking up and down the aisles calling out "Delivery for Mrs. Miller!". Each time he appeared, the potted plant would grow larger. The pay-off came after the show was over: prominently installed in the theater lobby, as the audience was leaving, was a large tree; perched on one of its limbs was the page, now calling out even more desperately for "Mrs. Miller"!

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ando
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Re: The 1940s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#247 Post by ando » Tue Jul 23, 2019 5:59 pm

knives wrote:
Mon Jun 17, 2019 5:18 pm
Blues in the Night (dir. Litvak)
At times this is a warm, arty look at the simple act of staying united. It's gorgeously photographed with a handful of nice touches such as an acknowledgement of Jazz as black music or a quick nightmare montage. Unfortunately Rossen's script mixes these high moments with stuff that all sort of green and square as a box. The movie eventually falls into some Yoko Ono nonsense that just isn't as interesting as where we started. The movie does provide the opportunity for some nice performances from people I associate more as directors though like Whorf and Elia Kazan.
Thanks. I'll give this one a go mostly for the appearance (so I've read) of Jimmy Lunceford's band (famed, at the time, for having a band that swung better than Basie's).

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Re: The 1940s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#248 Post by therewillbeblus » Tue Jul 23, 2019 10:58 pm

The Chase: Bleeding darkness into every crevice of this noir is an inspired choice, and introducing a narrative and vulnerable central performance that captures the deterioration of mental health cracking in a postwar setting should make this work better than it does. I enjoyed this a lot the first time I saw it, and while I didn’t care much for the fake-out twist in either viewing the flaws that stuck out this time are in its ending. Any tension or interest fizzles out in the last “real” act making much of what was shown before it ring pointless. I wish it ended before the twist, or at least before the last ten minutes, for what we get as a finale feels like a TV movie and isn’t earned by the offbeat peculiarities that exist before it. I know this is a forum favorite but I can’t help but feel cheated as we fade to black.

Jour de fête: Tati’s first full feature is a strange beast. Like all his work there’s charm in the seemingly aimless and playful visualizations of characters occupying and interacting within their designated zones of deceptively free space, but this is less consistently humorous as he finds his footing to enact entertaining setpieces that beget effective gags. Still, there’s a lot to admire and it’s a pleasant watch, especially Tati’s experimentation with sound design, which would soon become one of his favorite and most expertly utilized cinematic tools in the more accomplished films to come.

The Set-Up: This is one of, if not the best boxing movie. The sleaze and grit in these characters drips off the screen and their emotions are embroidered on their faces in each frame like a painting or a statue of stone. The sense of space and environment Wise provides is gifted with detail and it takes more skill than it seems to turn this kind of story into a noir, but it’s there. Ryan is phenomenal but so is everyone and everything about this movie. It may be a ‘small’ picture, but it’s overflowing in any given area from style to script to performance with dominating force. A story about an old athlete up against a dead concept (‘take the dive for the mob’) couldn’t feel more young and alive. This is the Wise film I return to most frequently, and it never falters in my esteem no matter how many revisits. If anything I find new reasons to love it each time.

Late Spring: Ozu isn’t one of my filmmaker gods, but this is one of his best films (Good Morning is far and away my favorite, an unpopular opinion I realize). Enough has been written about its generational shifts and the way Ozu captures the beauty in the banality of life, but this is one of his most effective demonstrations of his talents. There is a magical, music-like beat to the zen meditation on each moment, holding and embracing it for the perfect length to show a range of restrained emotions and then moving on, unbinding the static and presenting the flow of time. As this time passes moments are gone, and life evolves with each of these moments in succession, toward nothing grand except the next moment, and so on and so forth. In this way it’s as true a film has come to demonstrate the way the dimension of time acts through life, as a series of moments that are briefly tangible and ultimately fleeting.

Raw Deal: Mann made a string of lean, mean noirs in the 40s and I’m not sure if this is his best, but it’s probably his meanest. Full of characters that are as difficult to like as to sympathize with, Mann still manages to keep me invested and suspended every time I watch this, which is good enough for me to call it a success. Still, it’s not one that leaves a bright enough mark amongst the many noirs to choose from for the list.

The Fan: The one newbie of this round and it didn’t disappoint. Between this and Whirlpool, Preminger had quite a year and his form is probably at its most impressive in both films. Subtly funny, endearing, and mysterious, this is a romantic drama of the nostalgic variety, a genre that tends to affect me deeply when done well. This one is done very well, and deserving of all praise thrown its way.

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

#249 Post by Rayon Vert » Tue Jul 23, 2019 11:20 pm

Therewillbeblus - wow, are you watching films around the clock now? You're making me jealous! :D

Good job with the write-ups, seriously.

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Re: The 1940s List: Discussion and Suggestions

#250 Post by therewillbeblus » Tue Jul 23, 2019 11:42 pm

Haha thanks, I’ve had a lot of downtime having just moved and finally settled in, but also some write-ups are from films watched over the past weekend or sitting in google docs waiting (not these last ones necessarily but, for example, there’s a 40s Hitchcock one from the last couple weeks that’s good to go once I finally get around to revisiting Rope) so no I’m not watching around the clock but won’t doubt my viewing habits have become a bit excessive! You definitely prompt me to see quite a few each week I wouldn’t have otherwise with your own write-ups, so thanks for that! Which reminds me; I’ve gotta prioritize The Mortal Storm and Impact soon.

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