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Daily Archives: August 18, 2014

Now, Voyager (1942)

Posted on August 18, 2014 | 3 comments

Now, Voyager
Directed by Irving Rapper
Written by Casey Robinson from the novel by Olive Higgins Prouty
1942/USA
Warner Bros
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
#160 of 1001 Films You Must See Before You Die

[box] Dr. Jasquith: I thought you said you came here to have a nervous breakdown.

Charlotte: About that, I’ve decided not to have one.[/box]

If Bette Davis had only ended up with Claude Rains, I might have been able to get behind this picture. Then again, maybe not …

Charlotte Vale (Davis) was a “late” and unwanted child. She is totally dominated by her demanding mother (Gladys Cooper) who is driving the sensitive old maid straight into a nervous breakdown. Charlotte’s kind sister-in-law brings in Dr. Jasquith (Rains) to the rescue. In an uncharacteristic act of kindness, mother allows Charlotte to go with him to a sanitarium.

Jasquith is a miracle worker and the sister-in-law sends Charlotte off to stretch her wings on a South American cruise. She gradually blossoms and falls in love with the unhappily married Jerry (Paul Heinreid). Jerry cannot leave his invalid wife or his unhappy, unwanted younger daughter and they agree to part forever. Jerry continues to torment Charlotte with camillia corsages however.

Jerry’s love (from afar) gives Charlotte the courage to stand up to her mother and to develop a social life of her own. His unexpected reappearance causes her to break her engagement to a scion of Boston society greatly angering her mother. But the glory of an impossible love will see dear Charlotte through.

I am immune to the charms of Paul Heinreid. Added to that are strong elements of dubious Freudian psychology and womanly self-sacrifice that drive me crazy. While I realize that it was demanded by the Hayes Code, the ending is the nail in the coffin for me. All the acting is rather good (my favorite by far is Rains) and the production values are top-notch. Steiner’s repetitively saccharine love theme does nothing for me. Sorry to be a downer about this much-loved melodrama.

Now, Voyager won the Academy Award for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture (Max Steiner). Bette Davis and Gladys Cooper were nominated for their performances in the film.

Trailer – cinematography by Sol Polito

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Posted in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, 1942

To Be or Not to Be (1942)

Posted on August 18, 2014 | 4 comments

To Be or Not to Be
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch
Written by Edwin Justus Mayer from an original story by Melchior Lengyel
1942/USA
Romaine Film Corporation
Repeat viewing/Streaming on Hulu Plus
#161 of 1001 Films You Must See Before You Die

[box] Maria Tura: It’s becoming ridiculous the way you grab attention. Whenever I start to tell a story, you finish it. If I go on a diet, you lose the weight. If I have a cold, you cough. And if we should ever have a baby, I’m not so sure I’d be the mother.

Josef Tura: I’m satisfied to be the father.[/box]

This satire of the Nazi occupation of Poland has become much funnier with age.

Josef (Jack Benny) and Maria (Carole Lombard) Tura star as Hamlet and Ophelia in a Warsaw production of Macbeth. Their company is also preparing a play about Nazism. A young Polish pilot (Robert Stack) has fallen hard for Maria. They start having trysts in her dressing room nightly as Josef starts Hamlet’s famous soliloquy, causing the pilot to walk out on him each time he hears the words “to be or not to be”. The final performance of the play is on the night the Nazis invade Poland. The pilot escapes to England where he begins flying for the RAF.

Segue to 1941 and “Professor Siletski” visits Polish fliers and confesses that he is going to Warsaw on a secret mission for the British. He collects the names and addresses of all of their friends and family at home. When the pilot gives him Maria’s name, the professor has never heard of her. He correctly guesses that Siletski is a Nazi spy. He flies to Warsaw to try to stop Siletski before he gives the names to the Gestapo.

Siletski gets there first. The rest of the movie is devoted to the hilarious efforts of the actors to fool the Nazis and save the day while posing in the costumes from their aborted play. With Felix Bressart and Lionel Atwill as members of the troupe and Sig Ruman as a Gestapo colonel.

This film has definitely got the Lubitsch touch and a high percentage of great comic zingers. There is some pathos, too. Unfortunately, in the aftermath of Lombard’s tragic death (this was her last film) and American entry into the war in Europe, audiences didn’t find it too funny at the time. Lombard and the supporting cast are always wonderful. Jack Benny showed a surprising range as a comic actor.

To Be or Not to Be was nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture (Werner R. Heymann).