Category Archives: 1940

‘Northwest Passage’ — Book 1, Roger’s Rangers
Directed by King Vidor
Written by Lawrence Stallings and Talbot Jennings from a novel by Kenneth Roberts
1940/USA
Loew’s/Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
First viewing/Streaming on Amazon Instant Video

[box] Maj. Robert Rogers: Now w’re under orders to wipe out this town, so see that you kill every fighting Indian – kill ’em quick and kill ’em dead, and for Heaven’s sake, don’t kill any of our own Indians and don’t kill any of the white captives. Our own Indians will have white crosses on their backs, so keep your eyes open. Don’t make any mistakes.[/box]

This is well-made and Spencer Tracy is excellent as usual but ultimately it was not for me.

The setting is on the frontier of colonial America.  Langdon Towne (Robert Young) is an outspoken would-be painter who gets on the wrong side of the powers that be.  ‘Hunk’ Marriner (Walter Brennan) is his sidekick and also in trouble for speaking his mind.  The two need to leave town quick and are finagled by Maj. Robert Rogers (Spencer Tracy) into joining up with his company of Indian fighters in the French and Indian Wars.

The rest of the story covers the adventures of Rogers’ Rangers in combat and as they slowly starve on the long road back to civilization.  At the very end of the movie, Rogers is tasked to take his men on an exploratory mission to look for the Northwest Passage.  That is the only time it comes up in the film.  With Ruth Hussey as Langdon’s sweetheart.

I’m just not too keen on this “glorious battle” manly sort of war story.  ‘Northwest Passage’ is also firmly in the “Indians are savages” camp which doesn’t help.

The film was nominated for an Academy Award in the category of Best Color Cinematography.

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The Stars Look Down 
Directed by Carol Reed
Written by J.B. Williams, A.J. Cronin, and A. Coppel from the book by A. J. Cronin
1940/UK
Grand National Pictures/Grafton Films
First viewing/Streaming on Amazon Prime Instant Video

[box] Robert Fenwick: On the other side of that coal seam is a million tons of flood water ready to rush right down on top of us.

Richard Barras: You don’t think I’d take a chance in floodin’ me own mine, do you, Fenwick?

Robert Fenwick: Well, show us the plans of them old workings, then![/box]

This is an excellent, if dark, drama with outstanding performances by its leads.

The story largely takes place in a North England coal mining village.  Robert Fenwick is an outspoken miner who brings the men out on strike, over opposition by the union, when the mine owner insists they mine a seam Fenwick believes is at risk of flooding.  Robert’s son Davey (Michael Redgrave) has received a scholarship and wants to use his education to better the lot of the men.  During the course of the strike, the starving men loot a butcher shop, Robert gets thrown in jail, and Davey’s friend young reprobate Joe Gowan (Emlyn Williams) robs the till and sets off for the high life in town.

Joe has been romancing his landlord’s daughter Jenny (Margaret Lockwood), along with a number of other girls.  To make him jealous, Jenny takes up with Davey.  When Joe skips town, Jenny uses her considerable powers to sweet talk Davey into marrying her, compromising his education.  Davey is forced to try to continue it, while supporting her, back in the village.  Nothing goes right and then tragedy strikes.

This is a precursor of those “kitchen sink” British dramas that are filled with shrewish unfulfilled housewives.  And yet, like those films, it is deeply moving.  Redgrave and Lockwood play serious characters very far from their usual urbane selves and give wonderful performances.  I had not seen Emlyn Williams (better known as the author of The Corn Is Green) before.  He is wonderful as the despicable Joe.  Recommended.

The Stars Look Down was named one of the top 10 films of its year by the National Board of Review.

I notice that the full movie is currently available on YouTube.

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The Ghost Breakers
Directed by George Marshall
Written by Walter de Leon based on a play by Paul Dickey and Charles W. Goddard
1940/USA
Paramount Pictures
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Larry Lawrence: [the power goes out in the storm] Basil Rathbone must be having a party.[/box]

I am somewhat immune to his charms but this is really one of Bob Hope’s funnier films.

Mary Carter (Paulette Goddard) has inherited a reportedly cursed and haunted mansion on an island off the coast of Cuba.  Before she can even set sail to visit the property, she receives many warnings and threats with regard to the place.  Radio announcer Larry Lawrence (Hope) gets dragged in via a complicated gangster sub-plot, falls for Mary, and rallies to her assistance with the reluctant aid of his African-American factotum Alex (Willie Best).  The two battle ghosts, zombies, and all-too-human opponents on the island.  With Paul Lukas as a suspicious real estate agent, Anthony Quinn as twins, Richard Carlson as a friend of Mary’s, and Noble Johnson as the zombie.

It is hard to believe there was a time in which the mere color of someone’s skin was thought to be hilarious.  That is the basis of several of the quips here. If you can overlook the lapses into crude stereotyping, the movie is otherwise an entertaining romp. Goddard and Hope are good together.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xZMQ2-XQvI

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Broadway Melody of 1940
Directed by Norman Taurog
Written by Leon Gordon and George Oppenheimer from an original story by Jack McGowan and Dore Schary
1940/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
First viewing/Streaming on Amazon Instant Video

[box] When they begin the beguine/ it brings back the sound of music so tender/ it brings back a night of tropical splendor/ it brings back a memory of green — “Begin the Beguine”, lyrics by Cole Porter[/box]

There is some really splendid dancing in Fred Astaire’s only pairing with tapper extraordinaire Eleanor Powell.

Johnny Brett (Astaire) and King Shaw (George Murphy) are a small-time dance team in New York.  One day Broadway producer Bob Casey (Frank Morgan) spots the pair and decides Johnny is just the dancer to be Clare Bennett’s (Powell) leading man in her new show.  However, there is a classic Hollywood misunderstanding and the call comes to King instead.  Even though Johnny has long loved Clare from afar, he supports King’s good luck 100%, even contributing some dance moves to him.  But King has a bit of an alcohol problem and newly swelled head and Johnny’s friendship is tested to the max.  .

Astaire and Powell are fantastic together and their numbers are really something to see.  Murphy also excels, keeping up with both of them step for step as needed.  Powell, while very pleasant, is no Rogers in the acting department, though, and the script lacks the luster of the Astaire-Rogers classics.

Clip Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell tapping to “Begin the Beguine”

Abe Lincoln in Illinois
Directed by John Cromwell
Written by Robert E. Sherwood based on his play
1940/USA
Max Gordon Plays & Pictures Corporation/RKO Radio Pictures
First viewing/Streaming on Amazon Instant Video

[box] Aide to Stephen Douglas: You don’t mean to say you’re afraid of Abe Lincoln. Why, the country doesn’t know him! Stephen Douglas: Maybe the country doesn’t… but I do.[/box]

I love Raymond Massey’s portrayal of Lincoln.  But does it make up for all the overacting by the other players?

The story covers Abraham Lincoln’s life from his arrival in New Salem, Illinois and ill-starred romance with Ann Rutledge, through his time as a lawyer, local politician and legislator, ending with the night he is elected President.  Some special emphasis is given to his tortured courtship and married life with Mary Todd (Ruth Gordon in her screen debut).  With Gene Lockhart as Stephen Douglas.

I found Massey 100% believable as Lincoln.  When he is not making a speech he is perfectly natural and so likable.  When he is orating, he is a bit overblown and larger than life but I thought this is just how Lincoln himself would have been on the campaign trail. Unfortunately, a biography of Lincoln is always in danger of tipping over into hagiography and this movie succumbs to that fate.  All the other players are way too earnest for words. I had been looking forward to seeing a young Ruth Gordon but sadly I found her very stiff. Of course, her character is written as very stiff and unlikable.  I don’t know enough about the truth to know whether the film was unfair to Todd.  Certainly, she had a tough life.

Raymond Massey was nominated by the Academy as Best Actor as was James Wong Howe for his Black and White Cinematography.

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Night Train to Munich
Directed by Carol Reed
Written by Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder from a story by Gordon Wellesley
1940/UK
Twentieth Century Productions Ltd.
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Charters: I bought a copy of Mein Kampf. Occurred to me it might shed a spot of light on all this… how d’ye do. Ever read it?

Caldicott: Never had the time.

Charters: I understand they give a copy to all the bridal couples over here.

Caldicott: Oh, I don’t think it’s that sort of book, old man.[/box]

This was written by the screenwriters on The Lady Vanishes and is in the same vein with comedy-tinged suspense, mainly on a train.  I liked it.

The story takes place during the year prior to the outbreak of WWII and on the day Britain declared war on Germany.  Axel Bomasch is a Czech scientist who has invented a superior form of armor-plating.  The authorities are determined to keep this out of the hands of the Germans and arrange to spirit him away to England on the day Czechoslovakia is invaded.  His daughter Anna (Margaret Lockwood) is arrested and imprisoned in a concentration camp before she can join her father.  She escapes the camp with Karl Marsen (Paul Heinreid) and the two proceed to England and begin to search for him.

The search takes Anna to a seaside resort where she meets secret agent Gus Bennett (Rex Harrison) and is reunited with her father.  But the Nazis are in hot pursuit and spirit father and daughter back to Germany.  Bennett, in the disguise of an SS officer, makes a desperate last minute bid at rescuing them and saving the formula for the good guys. With Basil Radford and Naughton Wayne as the prototypical British cricket fans and clueless tourists Chalders and Caldicott.

This is good fun and well worth seeing.  It has some of the most obvious matte paintings ever but this only added to the atmosphere in my opinion.

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All This, and Heaven Too
Directed by Anatole Litvak
Written by Casey Robinson based on a story by Rachel Field
1940/USA
Warner Bros.
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Henriette Deluzy-Desportes: Happiness isn’t a little cake which we can cut up to fill our appetites.[/box]

Warner Brother’s polished and well-acted answer to Gone with the Wind was not really for me.

Some cruel girls find out their new French teacher’s secret and she sets them straight by telling the sad story of her past.  Segue to extended flashback.  The teacher, Henriette Deluzy-Desportes (Bette Davis), returned to her native France from England and despite being warned off by the old gardener (Harry Davenport) seeks employment as governess to the four children of a Duke (Charles Boyer) and his wife (Barbara O’Neill).

The children immediately fall in love with Henriette.  However, it soon becomes clear that the wife is hysterical, unbalanced, and pathologically jealous.  Her clinging ways have alienated the Duke who becomes attracted to Henriette.  Henriette, while lonely and attracted herself, will have none of it however.  The wife begins to persecute the governess and eventually pushes the Duke right over the edge.    With Motagu Love as the Duchess’s father and June Lockhart and Virginia Weidler as two of her daughters.

This is based on a scandal that rocked France in the 1840’s and is the true story of the novelist’s aunt.  I unfortunately found it overly long and not too gripping.  It does give Bette Davis the opportunity to show her softer side and Barbara O’Neill really earned her Oscar nomination as the harridan of a Duchess.  You could see how such a woman could drive her husband to desperation!  The production is lavish.  If this kind of romance appeals, do not let my comments dissuade you.  I am apparently in the minority.  The IMDb user rating is 7.7/10.

All This, and Heaven Too was nominated for Academy Awards in the catagories of Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress (O’Niell), and Best Black and White Cinematography (Ernest Haller).

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I Love You Again
Directed by W.S. Van Dyke
Written by Charles Lederer et al based on the novel by Octavus Roy Cohen
1940/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] George Carey: [reacting to Kay’s beauty] Boy! Eighteen days alone on a boat is certainly a long time to be alone on a boat for eighteen days![/box]

William Powell and Myrna Loy are as captivating as ever and Powell has the opportunity to do some fairly amusing physical comedy.

Larry Wilson (Powell) is a tee-totaling stuffed shirt and civic booster who bores the pants off everyone including his wife Kay (Loy), who wants divorce.  He gets a knock on the head while rescuing a drunk Doc Ryan (Frank McHugh) from falling overboard.  The blow cures the amnesia Wilson has been experiencing for nine years.  It turns out he is really high-living con artist George Cary and he has no memory of his life as Wilson.  He discovers Wilson has a large bank account and beautiful wife and that the people of Wilson’s home town are greedy and gullible and heads there to work a con.  While he is at it, he tries to win back Kay with his new-found personality.  With Edmund Lowe as another con artist.

This was a clever, if somewhat confusing, premise.  Although it isn’t where I would turn first for a dose of Powell and Loy, there are some pretty funny bits.

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My Favorite Wife
Directed by Garson Kanin
Written by Bella Spewak, Sam Spewak, and Leo McCarey
1940/USA
RKO Radio Pictures
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Nick Arden: Something’s come up. My wife.[/box]

If William Powell and Myrna Loy had the best chemistry in classic Hollywood, Cary Grant and Irene Dunne were not far behind.  This screwball comedy produced by Leo McCarey who directed 1937’s sublime The Awful Truth delivers the laughs beautifully.

As the story begins lawyer Nick (Grant) seeks to have a judge (Granville Bates) declare his wife – who has been missing, presumed drowned for seven years – declared legally dead so that he can marry Bianca (Gail Patrick).  Naturally, immediately after the wedding long-lost Ellen (Dunne) shows up at home to introduce herself to the children.  When her mother-in-law tells her about the wedding, Ellen rushes to the honeymoon hotel.  Nick is thrilled to see her but afraid to tell his new wife the news.  Misunderstandings and hilarity abound.  With Randolph Scott as the Adonis who was stranded on the desert island with Ellen.

This is a ton of fun and not to be missed by anyone who loved this couple in The Awful Truth.  The scenes with the judge are genius.

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