Monthly Archives: October 2014

Hollywood continued to operate under war-time restrictions but movie attendance was never higher.  Film noir became well and truly entrenched in 1944, although nobody thought it was anything special at the time.    The so-called “Havilland decision,” ruled that that Warner Bros. had to release actress Olivia de Havilland after her seven-year contract term expired and could not add time to the term for periods the actress was on suspension.  The ruling proved to be of great benefit to the many actors who took a break from their film work to serve in the Armed Forces.  Barry Fitzgerald became the first – and only – actor to receive two Academy Award nominations, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor, for the same role in the same year – as St. Dominic’s stubborn, yet loveable old priest Father Fitzgibbon in Going My Way (1944). Swimmer Esther Williams starred in her first Technicolor aqua-musical in the MGM production of Bathing Beauty (1944).

The war dominated U.S. news in 1944 while the home fires burned.  The people decided not to change horses in the middle of the stream and Franklin D. Roosevelt was reelected to a fourth term in November.  On December 18, 1944, the Supreme Court of the United States unanimously declared that loyal citizens of the United States, regardless of cultural descent, could not be detained without cause, paving the way for the release of all internees in January 1945. Tennessee Williams’ play The Glass Menagerie debuted.  Bing Crosby’s “Swinging on a Star” was the number one hit single of the year and went on to win the Academy Award for Best Original Song.  The novel that won the Pulitzer Prize was Journey in the Dark by Martin Flavin.  Smokey the Bear started advising Americans that “Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires.”

Hard fighting lay ahead but the news from the front was mostly good. The Allies invaded France on D-Day, June 6, 1944, in the largest amphibious operation in history, and had liberated Paris by August 25.  General Douglas McArthur made good his promise to return to the Philippines when he waded ashore at Leyte on October 20.

 My working list of films for possible viewing can be found here.  I reviewed several of the 1944 films noir as part of Noir Months 2013 and 2014. They were:  ; ; ; ; and .

Montage of stills from films that won Academy Awards

Montage of stills from all films nominated for Academy Awards

I like to save some of the best for last..  Here again are the Academy Award Nominees for Best Short Feature, Cartoon, for 1943.  Enjoy!

Yankee Doodle Mouse – The winner!
Director: Joseph Barbera and William Hanna
Metro-Goldwyn Mayer

Tom and Jerry do battle with ordinary household items like lightbulbs, eggs, a cheese grater, … and dynamite!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zU5A8-aUFvA

The Dizzy Acrobat 
Walter Lantz Productions

Woody Woodpecker creates havoc at a circus.

Can be seen here (dubbed into Portuguese but give it a try, it’s mostly sight gags):

The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins
Directed by George Pal
Paramount Pictures

The Dr. Seuss story told with Puppetoons.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvT27WKBhQk

Greetings Bait
Directed by Friz Freleng
Warner Bros.

This looks like it would be pretty good but I can’t find a full-lenghth version.  I don’t get the connection with a draft notice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJKhSxr3dNk

Clip

Imagination
Directed by Bob Wickersham
Columbia Pictures Corporation/Screen Gems

A little girl’s ragdolls defeat a roly-poly masher in her imagination.

Reason and Emotion
Walt Disney Studios

Disney explains that, in war time, we all need to get our emotions under control.  An example is made of Nazi Germany where Hitler played on the people’s emotions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvp3zAPraF4

Cartoon follows introduction by Leonard Maltin

Holy Matrimony
Directed by John M. Stahl
Written by Nunnally Johnson from a play by Arnold Bennett
1943/USA
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
First viewing/20th Century Fox Film Archives DVD

[box] Single women have a dreadful propensity for being poor. Which is one very strong argument in favor of matrimony. — Jane Austen [/box]

I enjoyed this oft-made story about a reclusive artist who finds love when he poses as his own valet. I preferred His Double Life (1933), starring Roland Young and Lillian Gish, however.

Priam Farll (Monty Woolley) is a world-renowned artist who, scorning publicity, has lived in the most remote parts of the world with his faithful valet Henry Leek (Eric Blore) for 25 years.  He reluctantly returns to London to receive a knighthood.  Shortly after he arrives, Leek contracts pneumonia and dies.  The doctor assumes the man he treated was the painter and Farll does not disabuse him of that notion.  Farll plays along and even watches “his” funeral followed by a burial in Westminster Abbey from the organ loft.

Leek had been corresponding through a matrimonial bureau with Alice Chalice (Gracie Fields).  She locates the false Leek and they fall in love and marry.  Farll continues to paint for his own pleasure.  The jig could be up when Alice surreptitiously starts selling the paintings for a song.   With Laird Cregar as an art dealer, Una O’Connor as Leek’s estranged wife, and Franklin Pangborn as Farll’s cousin.

This film is amusing, if not laugh out loud funny, with some good performances.  I thought Monty Woolly was miscast.  The part requires someone that is reticent with people. Woolly’s painter likes nothing better than to boss them around.  Roland Young was perfect.  I can also imagine Charles Laughton in the part.

Holy Matrimony was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e59FS5eZNDc

Trailer