Category Archives: 1946

The Cat Creeps
Directed by Earle C. Kenton
Written by Edward Devin and Jerry Warner
1946/UK
Universal Studios
IMDb page
First viewing/Criterion Channel

If cats could talk, they wouldn’t. – Nan Porter

I’ve vowed to get back to watching a movie a day again after a long time of distraction during the move into my new house.

I started slow with earliest movie in the “Cat Movie Collection” now on the Criterion Channel, “The Cat Creeps” (1946). It’s a Universal B movie with very little to recommend it. Sort of a failed attempt at combining mild horror with a mystery and a bunch of lame romcon banter. The only bright spot was Noah Beery Jr. who I always like.

False advertising

Undercurrent
Directed by Vincente Minnelli
Written by Thelma Strabel and Edward Chodorov
1946/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Ann Hamilton: If I relax, I’ll drop dead.[/box]

Imagine a universe where Robert Mitchum and Katharine Hepburn appear together in a film noir directed by Vincente Minnelli.  Sound intriguing?  Unfortunately, all the money, gloss, and star power at MGM’s disposal could not save the train wreck of the story that surrounds this effort.

Confirmed spinster Ann Hamilton (Katharine Hepburn) changes her mind when dashing inventor Alan Garroway (Robert Taylor) comes calling on her scientist father (Edmund Gwenn) and the two soon marry.  Ann is practically giddy with love for the handsome Alan and he responds by dressing her to wow his society friends.  Before too long, some cracks begin to appear in Alan’s facade, however.  He appears to be pathologically jealous of his long-lost brother Michael.  When Ann and Alan visit Alan’s old home in Virginia, Ann has plenty of innocent questions about the family.  He reacts to all of these with cold fury at her “prying”.  She also catches him in a lie about his mother.

Ann being Ann, she cannot resist playing detective.  When Alan leaves her on her own in San Francisco she looks up one of his old friends (Jayne Meadows).  The woman believes that Michael may be dead.  Then Ann pays a visit to Alan’s California ranch and starts pumping the caretaker (Robert Mitchum) for info.  This infuriates Alan to the extent that Ann begins to believe the woman’s story and eventually to fear for her own life.

There is nothing wrong with this movie that a better story and script could not fix. The movie took much too long to get where it was going and I found the Hepburn character’s motivation simply incredible.  The movie also could not quite figure out where it stood on Alan, playing more on Taylor’s good looks than his menace until the final minutes.  This was billed as a film noir in The Film Noir Guide but it would better be described as a romance/thriller/melodrama, unfortunately lacking in thrills for this viewer.

Trailer (spoiler)

The Girl I Loved (“Waga koi seshi otome”)
Directed by Keisuke Kinoshita
Written by Keisuke Kinoshita
1946/Japan
Shôchiku Eiga
First viewing/Hulu Plus

[box] A young black bull said hello to a cute cow/ He couldn’t say anything after that/ That’s why it’s spring in the pasture/ It’s always spring in the pasture (from a folk song used throughout the film)[/box]

It seems I have been soldiering through too many movies that drag lately. Although this simple story spends minutes at a time on scenery and faces, I was captivated the entire time. Shows what a bit of poetry can do.

Baby girl Yoshiko is found abandoned, wrapped in her mother’s dancing dress, by a kindly Japanese ranching family. We watch Yoshiko grow up in montage, always accompanied by her attentive older “brother” Jingo.  Yoshiko grows into womanhood while Jingo is off at war for five years.  When he returns, Jingo’s feeling are more than brotherly and everyone is expecting a match.  But as he works up the courage to propose, Yoshiko is working up her own courage to ask his blessing on her marriage to a lame intellectual evacuee in town.

One of the many charms of this film is its glimpse into rural Japan immediately following World War II.  The life is still traditional in many ways and we see a folk festival along with many scenes of work with cattle and horses – all beautifully shot.  The scene in which the two rivals gain understanding through their war experiences is very moving.  Although there is little action or suspense, I cared so much about the characters that I was with them all the way.

Shock
Directed by Alfred L. Werker
Written by Eugene Ling and Martin Berkeley; story by Albert DeMond
1946/USA
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Lt. Paul Stewart: Well, if you give Janet this insulin, how certain can you be it’ll help her?[/box]

This is really pretty bad but this noirish shocker might appeal for its interesting premise and Vincent Price’s hammy but fun performance.

Janet Stewart (Anabel Shaw) arrives at a San Francisco hotel for a reunion with her released POW husband, whom she had long thought dead.  She is overcome with anxiety when it is early in the morning and he has not yet arrived.  Then she overhears a loud argument between the couple in the room next door and sees the man beat his wife to death with a candlestick.  By the time her husband finally arrives the next day, poor Janet is catatonic with shock.

Lt. Stewart calls the house doctor, who refers him to a noted psychiatrist resident in the hotel.  This is the smooth-talking Dr. Richard Cross (Price).  Dr. Cross rapidly assesses the situation and recommends that Janet be taken immediately to his country sanitorium for peace, quiet and treatment.  It develops that the good doctor and his sexy nurse Elaine Jordan (Lynn Bari) have ample reason to ensure Janet does not recover too quickly … or ever.

Anabel Shaw’s is not the only over-the-top performance in a film that milks each situation for maximum melodrama.  That does not prevent the movie from having a certain fascination for lovers of B cinema and/or Vincent Price.

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Cloak and Dagger
Directed by Fritz Lang
Written by Albert Maltz and Ring Lardner Jr.; original story by Boris Ingster and John Larkin
1946/USA
Warner Bros./United States Pictures
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] I was never a spy. I was with the OSS organization. We had a number of women, but we were all office help. — Julia Child [/box]

This is not one of Lang’s more memorable films but it still looks awfully good.

The Office of Strategic Services (wartime forerunner of the CIA) recruits nuclear physicist Prof. Alvah Jesper (Gary Cooper), known as “Jess”, to contact a scientist friend of his in Switzerland and bring her back to the U.S.  The scientist should be up on the latest on German progress toward developing an atom bomb.  But the Germans kill the woman before Jess can complete his mission.

Jess decides the next best thing is to go to Italy and look up an old associate, Dr. Poldi (Vladimir Sokoloff) who is also working on bomb development.  He is met by a group of Italian resistance fighters, including the world-weary Gina (Lilli Palmer).  Naturally, Jess and Gina immediately fall in love despite her professions of toughness.  It turns out Poldi is being kept on a short leash by the Nazis who have his beloved daughter in their power.  The resistance must rescue the daughter before Poldi will agree to cooperate.

This movie would have been better if there had been more espionage and less doomed romance.  It’s OK for what it is anyway and the images are striking.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRQInTIvgF4

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Angel on My Shoulder
Directed by Archie Mayo
Written by Harry Segall and Roland Kibbee
1946/USA
Charles R. Rogers Productions
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Shoveler: There ain’t no bottom in this joint.[/box]

This fantasy is poorly paced but the performances are quite good.

Eddie Kagle (Paul Muni) gets out of jail and into the car of his right hand man Smiley.  After a pleasant conversation, Smiley lets Eddie have it with his own gun.  It’s straight to Hell with the gangster.

He soon gets an audience with Nick (Claude Rains), the head man.  Nick knows that each person has his exact double and Eddie happens to be the look-alike of righteous Judge Frederick Parker, a candidate for Governor.  Nick tempts Eddie with the opportunity to get revenge on Smiley if he will occupy Parker’s body and destroy the man’s reputation.

Eddie’s personality does not change in the least after he takes over Parker’s body and Parker’s fiancee Barbara (Anne Baxter) has the feeling the old stick-in-the-mud may be going insane.  But Nick is sorely disappointed.  A couple of mishaps leave Parker looking better than ever.  Then Nick gets religion and finds love.

Claude Rains is the reason to see this movie.  He is absolutely delicious as the Devil.  It is also a lot of fun to see Muni in a nod to his Tony Montana roots.  Unfortunately, the story quickly becomes predictable and then it just sort of plods along.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oz3A_bJslLo

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