Monthly Archives: November 2014

Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo
Directed by Mervyn LeRoy
Written by Dalton Trumbo based on the book by Ted W. Lawson and Robert Consodine
1944/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Lt. Ted Lawson: And out there is Japan. My mother had a Jap gardener once. He seemed like a nice little guy.

Lt. Bob Gray: You know I don’t hate Japs yet. It’s a funny thing. I don’t like them, but I don’t hate them.

Lt. Ted Lawson: I guess, I don’t either. You get kind of mixed up.[/box]

This story of the 1942 Doolittle Raid bombing over Tokyo made for appropriate Veteran’s Day viewing but is hardly distinguishable from other combat pictures of the war years.  It doesn’t help that Air Force (1943) covered the same ground.

The plot is drawn from the factual account of the mission by one of its pilots.  Lt. Col. James Doolittle (Spencer Tracy) advocates bombing the Japanese home islands early in 1942, long before an invasion could even be contemplated, in order to bolster U.S. morale and divert Japanese fighters back to Japan.  He calls for volunteers for the ultrasecret mission.  Among these is newlywed pilot Ted Lawson (Van Johnson).  His faithful, adoring wife Ellen (Phyllis Thaxter) is expecting their first baby.  The first part of the story details the rigorous training of the crews Stateside for the specialized flying required by the dodgy logistics for the raid.

We get some pretty spectacular but brief footage of the raid.  The story then continues in China where Lawson and his crew are severely injured when their bomber crashes on the coast en route to safe haven in the interior.  Kindly Chinese attempt to care for the men with the few resources at their disposal.  With Robert Walker as the bombardier on Lawson’s crew and Robert Mitchum in a small role as another flyer.

The scenario has become routine to me by now.  At least they didn’t kill off Walker shortly after he pulled out his sweetheart’s picture!  Thaxter’s acting talents are wasted in the vapid romance during the first half of the film.  I thought part in China was more interesting.  Don’t watch this just to see Tracy as he has a relatively small role.  The protagonist is definitely Johnson.

Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo won the Oscar for Best Effects, Special Effects.  It was also nominated for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White (Robert Surtees and Harold Rossen).

Trailer

Arsenic and Old Lace
Directed by Frank Capra
Written by Julius J. Epstein and Philip G. Epstein from the play by Joseph Kesselring
1944/USA
Warner Bros.
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Abby Brewster: Now, Mortimer, you know all about it and just forget about it. I do think that Aunt Martha and I have the right to our own little secrets.[/box]

I hate to say it but Cary Grant is way too frenetic for my tastes in this wacky comedy.  The supporting players are superb, however, and all in all its a good time.

Mortimer Brewster (Grant) is a drama critic and has also written a couple of books ranting against marriage.  So it’s slightly embarrassing when he falls in love with the girl (Priscilla Lane) who lives next door to the two maiden aunts who raised him, Martha (Jean Adair) and Abby (Josephine Hull).  His Uncle Teddy (John Alexander) lives with the sisters and believes himself to be Teddy Roosevelt, frequently charging up “San Juan Hill” (the stairs), trumpet in hand, yelling “Charge!”  It’s a kooky family, but harmless, except for the insane psychopath Jonathan who left home years before.  Martha and Abby are sweet old ladies, known for their good works, and the favorites of the cops who walk the beat in their neighborhood.

Mortimer gets married on Halloween and returns home for a brief celebration.  Then all hell breaks loose.  He discovers a body in the window seat and learns that his aunts have been providing a service to elderly lonely hearts, a sort of mercy killing without any premonitions of death to mar the proceedings.  While Mortimer is coping with this new information, brother Jonathan (Raymond Massey) suddenly reappears with a body of his own to dispose of.  He also plans to use the basement for some repair work by drunken plastic surgeon Dr. Einstein (Peter Lorre), who botched his previous effort at disguising Jonathan’s face by making him look quite a lot like Frankenstein’s monster.  It gets zanier and zanier after that.  With Jack Carson as a policeman who writes bad plays on the side and Edward Everett Horton as the owner of an asylum.

Many in the cast were veterans of the long-running Broadway play and have their parts down cold.  I particularly like Massey and Lorre.  Lorre should have done more comedy.  His timing is great.  Grant overdoes it quite a lot I think, to an almost hysterical level.  I wonder that Capra didn’t calm him down but maybe this was what the director was looking for.

The movie was actually shot in late 1941 and early 1942 before Capra started his work with the Signal Corps.  Warners was contractually obligated to withhold release until the Broadway plan ended its run.  The producers of the play also refused to release Boris Karloff, who played Jonathan on stage, to work on the film.  I would have given anything to see Karloff in the part.

Trailer