It Happened Tomorrow Directed by René Clair Written by Dudley Nichols and René Clair from multiple sources 1944/USA Arnold Pressburger Films
First viewing/Netflix rental
[box] “Before you leave, the fortune teller reminds you that the future is never set in stone.” ― Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus[/box]
I was sold on this movie before I watched it by its cast list. How can you really go wrong with Dick Powell, Linda Darnell, and Jack Oakie?
Larry Stevens (Powell) has just been promoted to reporter from his stint on the obituary desk at an evening newspaper. While he is celebrating with his pals in the newsroom they get to talking about time. An old-timer says that time is an illusion and that the future exists now. Stevens speculates about how great it would be to predict tomorrow’s news. The old-timer says he should be careful what he wishes for.
After they leave the office, the boys happen upon a nightclub where Cigolini (Oakie) is putting on a mind-reading act. His medium is the beautiful Sylvia (Darnell), who in real life happens to be his niece. Stevens immediately starts chatting her up despite the fact that she is supposedly in a trance. Late that night, the old man gives Stevens a newspaper.
Stevens doesn’t open his paper until breakfast when a friend borrows it to look at the want ads. It turns out that it is the paper that will be published that evening. The paper accurately predicts several events and Stevens parlays that into a raise and promotion. He spends his free time courting Sylvia and they are rapidly in love. But his newfound skill at prediction lands him in jail. The old guy keeps coming around with more papers, all the time issuing warnings. Finally, one bears a headline announcing Stevens’s own death in a shootout. I’ll stop here but it is worth noting that this is a comedy.
This is a fun little movie and Powell, Darnell and Oakie certainly do not disappoint. I think I like Darnell better every time I see her on screen. There’s something so down-to-earth and humorous under all that beauty.
It Happened Tomorrow was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Sound, Recording and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture.
Henry V Directed by Laurence Olivier Written by William Shakespeare 1944/UK Two Cities Films
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
#180 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
[box] Henry: Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;/ Or close the wall up with our English dead!/ In peace there’s nothing so becomes a man/ As modest stillness and humility:/ But when the blast of war blows in our ears,/ Then imitate the action of the tiger;/ Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,/ Disguise fair nature with hard-favoured rage;/ Then lend the eye a terrible aspect. [/box]
Laurence Olivier’s debut as a director made Shakespeare as stirring and accessible as it would have been on stage and threw in some very innovative cinema to boot.
The famous play’s plot deals with the efforts of King Henry V, now matured from the dissolute Prince Hal of Henry IV Parts I and II, to reclaim what he believes is his rightful title as King of France. He inspires an army to join him on his quest. On arrival, the French are not prepared for him, and offer some leeway after a siege. Later, they decide to fight and Henry’s vastly outnumbered army emerges victorious at the Battle of Agincourt. Historically, the decisive victory of English longbows over heavily armored French forces spelled the end of hand-to-hand combat as a method of warfare.
The film was intended as a morale-booster ahead of the Allied invasion of Continental Europe. First-time director Olivier, if constrained by his budget and wartime shortages, knew no limits in cinematic vocabulary. Each of the parts of the film has a distinct look. The play begins at the Globe theater, with the actors in theatrical costume and make-up and Olivier himself declaiming rather than speaking his lines. We move on to the court of France where the scenery and costumes were made to resemble illustrations in the medieval Book of Hours. The stirring battle sequences are realistic but still bathed in bright Technicolor. The whole is set to a brilliant score by William Walton.
A viewer’s reaction will probably be colored by his appreciation for the Shakespearean language. All is lifted intact from the play, although Olivier injects comedy where none was intended and also inserts a few bits from previous Shakespearean plays, notably the Henry IV plays. I love this movie for its visuals and for the battle scenes, which in the hands of actor Olivier are truly stirring. I especially like the part where an incognito Henry visits the common soldiers in their camp the night before the battle.
There is an excellent commentary on the Criterion DVD by film historian Bruce Eder, who is one of my favorite commentators, having done several of Criterion’s releases of British titles. My favorite of these is his commentary to The Lady Vanishes.
Laurence Olivier won an Honorary Academy Award for “outstanding achievement as actor, producer and director in bringing ‘Henry V’ to the screen.” The film was nominated for Best Picture; Best Actor; Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Color; and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture (William Walton).
Trailer – is this the longest trailer of all time?
The Woman Who Dared (Le ciel est á vou) Directed by Jean Gremillion Written by Charles Spaak and Albert Valentin 1944/France Les Films Raoul Ploquin
First viewing/Hulu Plus
[box] Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail their failure must be but a challenge to others. — Amelia Earhart [/box]
A certain aspect of this film really got on my nerves but it also has many other saving graces, principally some great acting.
There is a title card informing the audience that this is a true story.  As the movie starts, the Gauthier family is being forced to move its home and garage business because the community is putting up an airfield in its place.  Pierre Gauthier (Charles Vanel – Jo in The Wages of Fear) is a skilled mechanic.  He also has experience in working on planes from WWI.  His wife Therese (Madeleine Renaud) keeps the books and deals with the clients.  Daughter Jacqueline is a talented young piano student, her most prized possession is her piano.  The piano is destroyed during the move but her father promises her a new one if their business succeeds at its new location.  They have a young son also named Pierre. The other member of the household is Therese’s mother, a chronic complainer and naysayer.
The business does indeed thrive.  Very early on, Pierre works all night to repair the car of a gentleman who needs to get to an important meeting in the morning.  The man decides he must have Pierre to run his own chain of garages.  Pierre is not ready to move yet again but Therese leaves the family for a time to sell cars in the man’s showrooms.  While Therese is away, Pierre goes out daily to the airfield and flies.  Therese can never find Pierre at home when she calls and goes there to give him hell.  He promises he will never fly again if she will come home, which she does.  But soon she believes he is cheating on her with a plane and goes out to the airfield to catch him in the act.  It is not Pierre who is in the air but the President of the Air Club who basically dares Therese to go up with him.  After five hours in a plane, Therese is absolutely hooked.
In the meantime, Jacqueline gets a new piano and starts taking lessons again. Â Her teacher believes she should study at a music conservatory. Â Not only does Therese insist that her daughter study to be a pharmacy assistant but she stops the lessons and locks up the piano so she can’t play. Â I start getting very put out with Therese.
Therese and Pierre buy their own small plane and start flying together, winning many trophies at air shows. Â Soon this is not enough to satisfy them. Â Therese wants to start setting records. Â The men’s records are not within reach with their plane but the women’s records are. Â So Pierre and Therese deepen their friendship and their love by working together passionately to turn the plane into a record-beater. Â This turns into a bottomless money hole. Â When they are denied a loan by the town council, they decide to sell Jacqueline’s piano, over their daughter’s pleas, since “she isn’t using it anyway”. (Jacqueline has been sneaking over to the music teacher’s house to play.) Â I am now totally disgusted with Therese.
The Gauthier’s dreams are almost dashed when a glamorous aviatrix takes off to beat the current distance record.  But she does so only by a few miles and on the spur of the moment, after they have both decided to sell the plane, Therese takes off for parts unknown without a radio.  Then follows a protracted wait to see what became of her with everybody blaming Pierre for allowing her to fly at all.
To start with the part that bugged me. Â I hate injustice more than anything and the girl and her piano about killed me. Â She was obviously a gifted pianist with a dream. Â Her mother also has a dream but cannot appreciate one in her child. Â That would all have been OK if only there had been some resolution to the piano story. Â There was not. Â It is made a great deal of and then totally dropped in favor of the flying story.
Charles Vanel is a fabulous actor. Â No character could be farther from his Jo than Pierre, a good natured, loving, humble mechanic. Â You believe him completely and empathize completely. Â Renaud is also fantastic. Â I think what I liked best about this picture was its portrayal of true married love, something we get precious little of in movies. Â As can be seen from my protracted plot summary, I was caught up in the story the whole time. Â All in all, I can recommend it.
On set footage showing trompe l’oeil scenery – no subtitles
National Velvet Directed by Clarence Brown Written by Theodore Reeves and Helen Deutsch from a novel by Enid Bagnold 1944/USA Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
[box] Mrs. Brown: We’re alike. I, too, believe that everyone should have a chance at a breathtaking piece of folly once in his life. I was twenty when they said a woman couldn’t swim the Channel. You’re twelve; you think a horse of yours can win the Grand National. Your dream has come early; but remember, Velvet, it will have to last you all the rest of your life.[/box]
A quite enjoyable family entertainment about a girl who loves horses and a boy who helps make her dreams come true. Even a brace on her teeth could not mar the 12-year-old Elizabeth Taylor’s classic beauty.
Velvet Brown (Taylor) is the youngest daughter in an English farm family. Her father (Donald Crisp) is a butcher with a gruff manner but a soft heart. Her mother (Anne Revere) quietly wears the pants in the household however. Velvet is crazy about horses. She spots a spirited one and names him Pie. At about the same time, she meets Mi Taylor who seems to know a lot about horses but is now on the open road, the only inheritance left him by his father. Coincidentally, he is also in possession of his father’s address book which has the name of Velvet’s mother inside. Velvet brings him home for a meal and the father, while not quite trusting Mi, gives him a job as an assistant and a place to sleep.
Pie’s owner is unable to control the horse, which frequently escapes, leaping over any obstacles in his way. The owner raffles Pie off and after some suspense Velvet wins. She gets her heart set on entering Pie in the Grand National steeplechase race. Velvet’s mother, who swam the English Channel in her youth, encourages Velvet’s dreams. Mi helps Velvet to train Pie for the race. When they cannot find a jockey, Velvet takes matters in her own hands. With Angela Lansbury as Velvet’s boy-crazy older sister.
MGM makes a family movie with almost no schmalz! This is quite a down to earth bunch and the parents aren’t too prone to issuing forth homilies to their off-spring. Mickey Rooney is also at his best in a dramatic and conflicted part. Anne Revere is great as the mother that has more in common with her fanciful daughter than anyone would guess. Also, the ending is more interesting what one ordinarily would expect out of MGM. I had fond memories of when I saw it long ago on my family’s black-and-white TV set. It’s beautiful in color as well.
Anne Revere won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in National Velvet, which also won for Best Film Editing. The film was nominated in the categories of Best Director; Best Cinematography Color; and Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Color.
The Children Are Watching Us (“I bambini ci guardano”)
Directed by Vittorio De Sica
Written by Cesare Giulio Viola, Vittorio De Sica et al
1944/Italy
Invicta Film/Scalera Film S.p.a.
First viewing/Netflix rental
[box] I had a really good childhood up until I was nine, then a classic case of divorce really affected me. — Kurt Cobain [/box]
Vittorio De Sica makes a sad and beautiful film about how parents can never really hide anything from the children.
Prico is an adorable, sensitive six-year-old only child. By the time the story starts, it is clear all is not well in his family. Prico’s mother clearly loves him yet expects him to play happily while she is meeting her lover, Roberto, in the park. During this assignation, the lover gives the mother an ultimatum. She must decide today whether to leave her husband. She makes the wrong choice casting her husband into despair. He at first parks Prico with the mother’s sister and then with his own mother. Everybody Prico stays with is under the impression that he does not have ears and merrily proceeds to talk about their private business and that of his parents. Prico’s grandmother, for one, can hardly stand to have the boy around believing that he “takes after his mother”. Prico loves his mother and is so damaged by the experience that he becomes seriously ill with a fever. Mom comes home to care for him.
Dad takes her back, at first saying that it is only for the sake of the child. The lover continues to hound the mother. If only she would have gotten a temporary restraining order! He shows up at the house and Prico goes into hysterics.
Then Dad starts to try to make things right. He spends more than he can afford on a family vacation to a seaside resort. They all appear to have a terrific time though various men are surreptitiously eyeing the beautiful mother with lust. Dad must return to work leaving his wife and son behind. Sure enough, Roberto manages to locate mother and son. I will not reveal more except that it should be clear this story does not have a happy ending.
Vittorio De Sica clearly had a special gift for directing children. The performance of young Luciano de Ambrosis is heartbreaking. But this is more than just another melodrama. It, with Osessione and Roma, Cita Abierto is one of the seminal works of Italian Neo-Realism. Elegantly shot, this is a story that could actually have happened, and is probably happening somewhere every day. It is told with a kind of clear-eyed detachment that only makes it more moving. Highly recommended.
Going My Way Directed by Leo McCarey Written by Frank Butler and Frank Cavett; story by Leo McCarey 1944/USA Paramount Pictures
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
[box] Father Fitzgibbons: I’m sure that the way to say what I’d like to say will occur to me after you’ve gone.[/box]
While certainly not the best picture of 1944 (my own award will almost certainly go to Double Indemnity), this is a very enjoyable comedy with some catchy tunes.
Laid-back progressive Father Chuck O’Malley (Bing Crosby) has been assigned to St. Dominic’s parish to take over from the crusty old Father Fitzgibbon (Barry Fitzgerald) who has run the church for over 40 years. Fitzgibbon’s management has recently resulted in the parish being seriously in arrears on its mortgage. The lender (Gene Lockhart) is threatening foreclosure. Father Chuck tries to hide his mission from Fitzgibbon, with short-lived success. The two could not be more different.
But eventually Father Fitzgibbon comes to appreciate the new priest. Father O’Malley organizes the local gang into a church choir, sets a young girl who arrived to become a singer straight, and finds a generous sponsor in opera singer Genevieve Lindon (Risë Stevens). His songwriting prowess also brings in quite a few bucks. With Frank McHugh as O’Malley’s old high school buddy and a fellow priest.
The plot summary really does not do justice to the film. Crosby is always Crosby, i.e., appealing and to be fair so is Fitzgerald but Fitzgerald is such a lovable scene-stealer that we don’t care. There are many gentle laughs and some good music to be found here. I have yet to meet a Leo McCarey directed film that I didn’t like.
Going My Way won the Oscars for Best Picture; Best Actor (Crosby); Best Supporting Actor; Best Director; Best Writing, Original Story; Best Writing, Screenplay and Best Music, Original Song (“Swinging on a Star”). It was nominated in the categories of Best Actor (Fitzgerald); Best Cinematography, Black-and-White (Lionel Linden); and Best Film Editing. This was the first and last time that an actor was nominated twice for the same role. The Academy ruled out this possibility thereafter.
Ivan the Terrible, Part I (Ivan Groznyy) Directed by Sergei Eisenstein Written by Sergei Eisenstein 1944/USSR Mosfilm/TsOKS
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
#171 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
[box] Ivan: Two Romes have fallen. A third stands. There shall not be a fourth.[/box]
I have never quite been able to warm up to this gloriously shot but eccentrically acted classic.
The story starts with Ivan’s (Nikolai Cherkasov) coronation as Tsar of Moscovy. After the ceremony, Ivan announces his intention to rule Russia with an iron hand and to unify her under his leadership. To do this, will require taking power away from the many boyars who currently rule locally. Needless to say, this is not a popular idea with the boyars at court. They immediately begin plotting against him. Chief among the plotters is his ghastly aunt Efrosinia (Serafima Birman) who hopes to put her half-witted son Vladimir on the throne.
The coronation is followed by the wedding of Ivan and the steadfast Anastasia. One of Efrosinia’s main ploys is to get Ivan’s friend Kurbsky, who is in love with Anastasia, to put in for Vladimir. Kurbsky vacilates throughout the film.
At the coronation, emissaries from Kazan to the east arrive. They tell Ivan that he might just as well commit suicide as they are soon going to conquer Moscovy. Ivan decides the better course is to attack Kazan himself. Kurbsky proves to be an able general in this battle despite his continuing inclination to treachery. Ivan becomes ill on the road home and is near death at one point. His destiny saves him.
Ivan sets his sights west to the Baltics. He sees Russia as having a manifest destiny to govern lands that will give the country access to the Baltic Sea. He sends off Kurbsky to lead the war effort there. Efrosinia takes matters into her own hands by poisoning Anastasia. His wife’s death brings Ivan to his lowest ebb of all. As he is prostrate by her coffin, one of his loyal commoner supporters, acting as a kind of Greek chorus, starts rattling off the desertion and betrayal of one boyar after another. Ivan rallies. Instead of immediately waging war against the boyars however, Ivan decides to leave Moscow for a small village until Muscovites beg him to return. This they do in a glorious, singing mass procession over the snow.
I have seen this several times over the years and many of the shots remain etched in my memory. The settings are magnificent as is the Prokoviev score. The acting, on the other hand, is full of the kind of broad, overstated emotions reminiscent of the acting style used in silent films, but still more exaggerated. I find the style tremendously distancing. The action also drags at only a little over 90 minutes. Stalin was a huge fan of Ivan and of this particular film, which he commissioned, and Eisenstein received the Stalin Prize. Ivan the Terrible, Part II, featuring a mad Tsar Ivan, received a very different reception and was suppressed
The Fighting Sullivans (“The Sullivans”) Directed by Lloyd Bacon Written by Mary C. McCall Jr.; story by Edward Doherty and Jules Schermer 1944/USA Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
First viewing/Netflix rental
[box] Naval Officer at Boat Launching: Today, as we launch the destroyer, U.S.S. The Sullivans, the parents of the five Sullivan boys are here to share in the tribute to their sons, even as they shared their fighting spirit. As this ship slides down the ways, it carries with it a special armor all its own: The flaming and undaunted spirit that is the heritage of its name. The five Sullivan boys are gone; the U.S.S. The Sullivans carries on. May God bless and protect this ship. May her destiny be as glorious as the name she bears.[/box]
I liked this story of five brothers and their short lives far better than I expected to. Could Thomas Mitchell ever be bad? Not here, that’s for sure.
This is based on the true story of the Sullivan boys, all five of whom were famously killed when their cruiser sank during the naval battle of Guadalcanal. But that is only a tiny part of their story, which sees them growing up in a large Irish Catholic working-class family in Iowa.
The family is characterized by a lot of love and a Catholic value system. The pater familias is Thomas (Mitchell), a freight train router who lends a firm but humorous presence to their lives. Mother Alleta is more tender-hearted. The boys are best friends who tease one another relentlessly but always stick together in their adventures and in taking on anybody who wants to fight one of them. We follow lives from boyhood on.
Al is the youngest but the first to have a sweetheart, Mary Catherine (Anne Baxter) whom he meets in high school. After some missteps, they marry and have a baby. When Pearl Harbor is attacked, the unmarried brothers decide to enlist in the Navy. Al feels he must stay at home but Mary Catherine urges him to go and not separate the fighting team. The boys refuse to sign up unless they can serve together. The local draft board will not agree but a letter to the Navy Department sees that they are all assigned to the same ship.
The ending is of course heartrending, but perhaps even more so for the affection that has been built up for the entire family through the antics of the boys. This is actually a fun film to watch and not mawkish in the least. There is also very little to no speechifying until the very, very end when a cruiser is christened The Sullivans by the Navy. Recommended for those who like family stories.
The Sullivans was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Writing, Original Story.
Hollywood Canteen Directed by Delmer Daves Written by Delmer Daves 1944/USA Warner Bros.
First viewing/Homefront Collection DVD
[box] [after unintentionally scaring away a marine sergeant] Peter Lorre: [sadly] All I wanted to ask him is to join me in a cigarette!
Sydney Greenstreet: He didn’t trust us, Peter.
Peter Lorre: No… and we are such gentle people![/box]
Another wartime variety musical brought to us by the same folks at Warner Brothers that gave us Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943). A good opportunity to see a vast collection of the studio’s talent in one place but not one of the stronger of these things.
The wholesome, patriotic framing story and its dialogue could have come out of MGM. Cpl. Slim Green (Robert Hutton) hadn’t received a letter from his girl in weeks and had been dreaming of Joan Leslie at his outpost on New Guinea. Now he and Sgt. Noland (Dane Clark) have finished recuperating from their war wounds and are enjoying a bit of leave in Los Angeles before shipping out again to the front. The Hollywood Canteen gives Slim the opportunity to kiss Joan Leslie as Noland keeps striking out as a lothario. When Slim wins the millionth man contest, part of his prize is a weekend with Leslie and the plot just gets sappier and sappier.
But no one would watch these things for the plot! There are countless cameos by every star in Hollywood including Canteen founders Bette Davis and John Garfield, Barbara Stanwyck, Joan Crawford, Alan Hale, Ida Lupino and on and on. The music is not too memorable but it does give us a chance to see Joe E. Brown, Jack Benny, Eddie Cantor, Kitty Carlyle and a whole lot more do their thing.
Hollywood Canteen was nominated for Academy Awards in the categories of: Best Sound Recording; Best Music, Original Song (“Sweet Dreams Sweetheart”); and Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture.
Roy Rogers sings “Don’t Fence Me In” – I had no idea Trigger was quite that talented!
Mr. Skeffington Directed by Vincent Sherman Written by Julius J. Epstein and Philip K. Epstein from a story by Elizabeth von Armin 1944/USA Warner Bros.
First viewing/Netflix rental
[box] Fanny Skeffington: I find one should never look for admirers while at the same time one is falling to bits.[/box]
Claude Rains rises far beyond his material and co-star in this melodrama.
Fanny Trellis (Bette Davis) is the queen of all she surveys in her little corner of the world. Her great beauty has attracted countless beaus, all of whom are falling at her feet in adoration. Her brother Trippy is the only man in her life she loves, however. And Trippy is a drunkard and embezzler. He has also run through the orphans’ inheritance with his dissipated lifestyle.
How best to get around the man he embezzled from, Job Skeffington (Rains), than to add him to Fanny’s list of conquests. Even better is to marry the wealthy stockbroker, which Fanny proceeds to do in short order. The besotted Job is well aware that Fanny does not really love him but they initially get along well and he indulges her vanity and need for admirers. George runs off to Europe to fight with the French in disgust of his sisters alliance with a Jew.
The real problems start when Fanny gets pregnant with their daughter. She refuses to see Job or anyone for the duration of her pregnancy when she is less than her girlish best. Then she has next to no interest in young Fanny. Years pass and when she discovers that Job has been easing his loneliness with a succession of secretaries she divorces him. He makes her an overgenerous settlement of one half his wealth. But Fanny cannot remain the belle of the ball forever and disease comes along to spoil her good looks. Can it improve her character? With George Coulouris as a straight-talking psychiatrist.
Rains, as usual, is great in this movie. I thought the scene where the daughter pleads with him to take her with him was just marvelous. Davis, on the other hand, crosses the line into self-caricature and camp. There are moments when she looks like something out of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane. It is totally unbelievable that anything about her would captivate a dozen men. She goes even more over the top as the character ages.
A highlight of my viewing experience was the Vincent Sherman commentary. He continues where he left off in Old Acquaintance and we finally get the straight skinny on his affair with the volatile Davis.
Bette Davis was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for her performance in Mr. Skeffington and Claude Rains was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his.
I’ve been a classic movie fan for many years. My original mission was to see as many movies as I could get my hands on for every year from 1929 to 1970. I have completed that mission.
I then carried on with my chronological journey and and stopped midway through 1978. You can find my reviews of 1934-1978 films and “Top 10” lists for the 1929-1936 and 1944-77 films I saw here. For the past several months I have circled back to view the pre-Code films that were never reviewed here.
I’m a retired Foreign Service Officer living in Indio, California. When I’m not watching movies, I’m probably traveling, watching birds, knitting, or reading.
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