haroldg-2 Reviews

The Suspect (1944)

Top Laughton performance in excellent thriller

[7/10 · 1 July 2002]

Charles Laughton stars in director Robert Siodmak's excellent 1944 suspense thriller as a middle-aged shop manager in turn-of-the-century London who's driven to murder his shrewish wife when he falls in love with a beautiful young woman, and is then pursued by both a determined Scotland Yard detective and a blackmailing neighbor.

Laughton gives one of his most subtle, controlled performances as a basically good man who turns murderous when his nagging wife threatens to expose his "friendship" with beautiful Ella Raines. Miss Raines is very appealing as his heart's desire, and looks quite beautiful in the period costumes. Rosalind Ivan, who has a similar role as Edward G. Robinson's emasculating wife in Fritz Lang's 'Scarlet Street,' 1945, is excellent as the nagging wife. And Henry Daniell and Molly Lamont also offer top support as Laughton's no-account neighbor and his abused wife.

An excellent story of murder and blackmail that will appeal to fans of both Hitchcock-like thrillers and the marvelous Charles Laughton.

Cry 'Havoc' (1943)

A great cast of actresses.

[6/10 · 13 September 2001]

'Cry Havoc' is Richard Thorp's 1943 film about the courageous women Army nurses and volunteers on Bataan during WWII. The film suffers a bit from showing it's stage origins, but offers a terrific ensemble cast of actresses, all giving top-notch performances.

Margaret Sullavan is wonderful as Lt. Smith, an Army nurse secretly married against the rules to an officer on Bataan. She is suffering from malignant malaria, but refuses to leave Bataan for treatment, wanting to be near her husband, but also unwilling to desert the overworked nurses and volunteers. Sullavan was always great at suffering nobly on film (as in 'Three Comrades,' 1938), and again gives a beautiful, moving performance as the dedicated nurse, keeping both her marriage and illness to herself.

Ann Sothern and Joan Blondell share top billing with Sullavan and give terrific support as two of the volunteers. Blondell is funny as the former Vaudeville performer who entertains the other women with a demonstration of her old striptease act. And Ann Sothern, who was sooooooo beautiful, is marvelous as the tough, straight-talking waitress with her sights set on an Army officer, unaware he's Sullavan's husband.

The supporting cast includes Fay Bainter, Marsha Hunt, Ella Raines, Heather Angel and Connie Gilcrest, all excellent, and a bit by young Robert Mitchum as a dying soldier.

Not a classic WWII film, but recommended for fans of the actresses.

Out of the Fog (1941)

Excellent Warner Brothers drama

[7/10 · 11 September 2001]

'Out of the Fog' is director Anatole Litvak's excellent film version of the Irwin Shaw play, 'The Gentle People,' starring two of Warner Brothers greatest stars, John Garfield and Ida Lupino. Garfield plays a cruel, small-time racketeer who terrorizes two Brooklyn fishermen as the one's restless daughter (Lupino) falls in love with him. Both stars offer terrific performances, with Garfield especially good in a rare villainous role. Top honors, though, go to Thomas Mitchell and John Qualen, two of our very best character actors, who steal the film from the stars with their top-notch performances as the terrorized fishermen.

Highly recommended.

The Hard Way (1943)

Geat Lupino performance.

[6/10 · 13 August 2001]

Vincent Sherman's 1943 'The Hard Way' stars Ida Lupino as an ambitious, manipulative woman who pushes her younger sister into a musical theater career, stopping at nothing to get her sister to the top. Despite her strong central performance, the film is a disappointment. It would have worked a lot better if it had been a backstage Hollywood story, like the original 'A Star Is Born,' rather then set in the world of vaudeville and the musical theater. The musical numbers were simply at odds with the typically gritty Warner Brothers 1940's production values. The film looked very noirish, and all that singing and dancing just didn't fit into the atmosphere director Sherman created. The film can't seem to make up it's mind what it wants to be, much to it's detriment.

However, Ida Lupino is first rate as the domineering older sister, who's single-minded determination to push her kid sister to the top ruins several lives, including her own. She's a perfect Warner Brothers actress, with a forceful screen personality that dominates a film much like the way Davis and Crawford did. I would not have named her best actress of the year, as the New York Film Critics did. But she's very good.

Dennis Morgan and Jack Carson also do marvelous work as a song and dance team, and the terrific Gladys George has a sad, touching vignette as an aging musical performer on the downside of her once successful career. She nearly steals the film right out from under Lupino with her moving performance in the small but flashy role. And while Joan Leslie, as the younger sister, was pretty enough and a competent actress, she's no Judy Garland (or even June Allyson, for that matter). It's quite hard to believe that she would be proclaimed the sensation of the New York musical theater world. More believable casting in the important role would have helped the film immeasurably.

All in all, the film is worth seeing for fans of the Warner Brothers melodramas of the 1940's. But as a star vehicle for one of their top studio actresses, it's not in the same league with Crawford's 'Mildred Pierce,' Davis' 'Now, Voyager,' or Lupino's final Warners film, 'Deep Valley.'

For Heaven's Sake (1950)

Slight but enjoyable.

[5/10 · 13 July 2001]

FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE, George Seaton's 1950 heavenly comedy, is worth seeing mostly for the very funny performance of Clifton Webb. Webb is the whole show, playing an angel who comes to earth to help overly busy couple Robert Cummings and Joan Bennett have a baby.

Cummings and Bennett really have very little to do and are mostly wasted, though Joan Blondell has several funny scenes and is her usual breezy, likeable self.

Not a classic heavenly fantasy like HERE COMES MR. JORDAN or IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, but enjoyable and worth seeing for Webb's fine comic performance.

The Reckless Moment (1949)

Top notch suspense melodrama with excellent cast.

[10/10 · 13 July 2001]

'The Reckless Moment' is Max Ophuls' excellent 1949 suspense melodrama, starring James Mason as a blackmailer who falls in love with his desperate victim (Joan Bennett).

Ophuls direction is superb, with the suspense mounting in every scene as housewife Bennett, mistakenly believing her daughter has killed a man, disposes the body and tries desperately to hide the girl's involvement from the police and her family. Then Mason appears, demanding money for incriminating love letters he has which the daughter had written to the dead man. The plot thickens from there, with Bennett trying to shield her family from scandal as the blackmailer begins to admire and then love the devoted housewife and mother.

James Mason is always excellent in sinister roles, and his performance here is one of his best, though his character's motivation isn't quite clear. By his own admission, he's a loser who's never done a decent thing in his life, so why he suddenly develops a conscience is never fully explained.

But who wouldn't fall in love with beautiful Joan Bennett, giving the performance of her career as the desperate mother who's commonplace life is suddenly turned upside down by crime and blackmail. Ophuls, who the year before had guided Joan Fontaine through one of her greatest performances in 'Letter From an Unknown Woman,' drew from Bennett her most natural, believable performance. She's never been better.

Highly recommended for the outstanding direction and two great stars in peak form.

The Voice of the Turtle (1947)

Delightful wartime comedy.

[8/10 · 13 July 2001]

Irving Rapper's 1947 wartime comedy 'One For the Book,' is based on John Van Druten's Broadway play, 'The Voice of the Turtle.'

Eleanor Parker plays a young, struggling NY stage actress who's been disappointed with love, but agrees to go out with a soldier on leave (Ronald Reagan) after he's stood up by her friend (Eve Arden). They spend the weekend together and fall in love.

I don't think there was a prettier girl in all the movies then Eleanor Parker, who also had one of the loveliest speaking voices, so distinct and individual. On top of that, she's a marvelous screen actress, and this is one of her best early films, in Margaret Sullavan's famous stage role. (She even wears Sullavan's hairstyle with her trademark bangs.) Though she's usually at her best playing strong, domineering women, she's very charming in this entertaining romantic comedy.

Ronald Reagan, too, had one of his better film roles, and working with Parker brought out the best in him. With the exception of his dramatic role in 'Kings Row,' he's rarely this appealing, and his love scenes with lovely Eleanor are very romantic.

And Eve Arden is terrific as always as Parker's man-chasing friend.

A very bright, enjoyable romantic comedy, well directed and acted.

The Unfaithful (1947)

Fine remake of William Wyler's 'The Letter.'

[6/10 · 13 July 2001]

THE UNFAITHFUL (1947), is director Vincent Sherman's 1947 loose remake of the 1940 William Wyler/Bette Davis classic, THE LETTER.

Glamorous Ann Sheridan stars as a woman who kills an intruder in her home, and then tries to hide the fact that the man had once been her lover from her husband and the police. There's one problem; the dead man had been a sculptor, and his widow has possession of a bust he had sculpted which Sheridan had obviously modeled for.

Sheridan is excellent as the loving wife who, out of loneliness during her husbands tour of duty in WWII, gave into temptation and an adulterous affair, then with her attorney (Lew Ayers) makes a desperate effort to retrieve the incriminating object before her husband (Zachary Scott) finds out the truth.

Neither Ayers or Scott have ever set the screen on fire for me, and that holds true here as well. But they're both always competent actors, and they give fine support to Miss Sheridan's gutsy performance in one of her better Warner Brothers star vehicles.

Eve Arden also has several memorable scenes as a gossiping relative.

It's not the classic film that THE LETTER is, but still a well made and highly entertaining Hollywood drama worth seeing.

Summer Storm (1944)

Superb film version of Chekhov's 'The Shooting Party.'

[8/10 · 13 July 2001]

SUMMER STORM is Douglas Sirk's 1944 filming of Chekhov's 'The Shooting Party.' Why this literate, mature and well acted film isn't better known is a mystery to me.

Set in Russia just before the revolution, it stars dark and lovely young Linda Darnell as a peasant beauty who's quest for wealth and position leads to tragedy and death.

Linda Darnell has one of the best roles of her film career, and she's never been better then she is here. She gives a sensual and sexy performance as the vain and greedy girl who plays several lovers against each other in order get all she can out of each of them. I think Linda Darnell's beauty hardened rather early, and even by A LETTER TO THREE WIVES in 1949, she was already rather sharp and cold looking. But in 1944 and SUMMER STORM, she was still soft and lovely, and one of the most remarkably beautiful brunettes of the era.

George Sanders gives another fine performance, in a rather typical George Sanders part, as a snobbish, aristocratic judge who's obsession with the girl ruins his career and his engagement to lovely Anna Lee. His loves scenes with Darnell are quite frank and passionate for their day, and both stars are excellent together.

And Edward Everette Horton gives what has to be one of the best performances of his career, in a role quite unlike his usual, as a spoiled, lecherous Russian count.

A top notch adult drama in every way.

Nora Prentiss (1947)

Ann Sheridan as Nora Prentiss.

[5/10 · 29 June 2001]

'Nora Prentiss' is an old fashioned women's picture, directed by Warner Brothers' resident "women's director" Vincent Sherman, and starring Ann Sheridan.

Kent Smith plays a married, well respected San Francisco doctor who has an affair with nightclub singer Nora Prentiss (Sheridan), and then commits a crime in an effort to hide the affair from his wife (Rosemary DeCamp), leading to tragic consequences.

Not on the level of Warner Brothers lavishly produced Bette Davis vehicles earlier in the decade, 'Nora Prentiss' owes whatever interest it holds to Ann Sheridan's sincere performance. She has such a direct personality, so natural and real without any phoniness, you never doubt her convictions for a minute. And she gets to display her lovely singing voice in several musical numbers within the nightclub settings. She deserves better then she gets here, but rises about the quality of the material with her excellent performance.

Kent Smith is less effective as the doctor. Perhaps it's the role, but he's simply not very interesting. Rosemary DeCamp, usually cast in warm, sentimental roles, is quite good as the doctors cold, unloving wife. And Robert Alda is excellent as a nightclub owner in love with Nora Prentiss.

Recommended mostly for fans of Ann Sheridan and old fashioned "womens pictures."

A Millionaire for Christy (1951)

1930's style screwball comedy

[6/10 · 27 June 2001]

George Marshall's 1951 'A Millionaire For Christy' is an enjoyable, fast-paced 1930's style screwball comedy starring Fred MacMurray and Eleanor Parker.

Eleanor Parker is marvelous as a gold-digging secretary out to snag a rich husband. I'm so used to seeing her in demanding, heavy dramatic roles, so it's was a pleasure seeing her be light and funny and very appealing as the screwball heroine. And Fred MacMurray, always so underrated, is an old pro at comedy performances, having played this kind of role many times before opposite Carole Lombard, Claudette Colbert and others. His likeable masculinity is a perfect match for the beautiful and feminine Parker, and when the comedy slows down for their love scenes, they're very sexy and romantic together.

No classic, but an enjoyable comedy, especially for fans of the two underrated stars.

Twin Beds (1942)

Good cast in appealing comedy.

[5/10 · 25 June 2001]

'Twin Beds' (1942) starring George Brent and Joan Bennett is hardly a classic comedy in the league of 'The Awful Truth' or 'My Man Godfrey', but a pleasant enough marital mix-up comedy involving three newlywed couples living in one apartment building.

I was surprised at George Brent's performance. He's such a cold fish in all those Bette Davis movies (which is why Bette loved him.....he would just stand there while she acted rings around him), so I didn't expect him to make much of a comedy role. But he was quite amusing, even doing several slapstick bits very well.

Joan Bennett, I think, was at her loveliest in the early 40's, and she's very cute and appealing. Not generally thought of as a comedy actress, it's a shame she didn't get the chance more often in better films, because she handles herself well in the madcap situations, giving a fresh, sparkling performance.

Mischa Auer plays an eccentric Russian singer and pianist, a role quite similar to the one her played in the superior 'My Man Godfrey'. He pretty much steals the picture from all involved, although the supporting cast includes such well-seasoned professionals as Una Merkel, Glenda Farrell, Ernest Truex, Margaret Hamilton and Cecil Cunningham (best known as Irene Dunne's aunt in 'The Awful Truth').

I'd recommend it to anyone who's a fan of one of the stars, but it's pleasant enough that most everyone might enjoy it.

Me and My Gal (1932)

Snappy dialogue and charming performances.

[5/10 · 27 March 2001]

'Me and My Gal' is an entertaining romance/mystery/screwball comedy, featuring charming performances by Spencer Tracy and Joan Bennett, 18 years before they would pair again in the classic 'Father of the Bride.' Both stars are at their early best here, zinging wisecracks at each other at a frantic pace. Joan Bennett is the real surprise, shining in a role that would have been well suited for Myrna Loy or Claudette Colbert. Worthwhile for the two stars.