Category Archives: Movie Reviews

It Happened on 5th Avenue
Directed by Roy Del Ruth
Written by Everett Freeman and Vick Knight; original story by Herbert Clyde Lewis and Frederick Stephani
1947/USA
Roy Del Ruth Productions
Repeat viewing/Netflix Rental

[box] Michael J. ‘Mike’ O’Connor: Remind me to nail up the board in the back fence. He’s coming through the front door next winter.[/box]

1947 was the year for Christmas movies and here is another one.  The many heartwarming messages in this one are probably best appreciated at Christmastime but the performances by some favorite actors from the 1930’s are good anytime.

Aloysius T. McKeever (Victor Moore) is a lovable tramp who has spent the last three winters holed up in the mansion of Michael J. O’Connor, second richest man in the world, while the family is vacationing in Virginia.  This winter he gets an unexpected number of fellow lodgers.  The first is Jim Bullock (Don DeFore) who has been evicted from his apartment so that the self-same O’Connor can raze the property for an office building.  Then O’Connor’s daughter Trudy (Gale Storm) shows up, having run away from finishing school.  She hides her identity in order to stay in the house with Jim, who she naturally falls for in a big way.  Then Jim offers places to some fellow GIs who are down on their luck.

Finally Michael T. himself (Charles Ruggles) turns up looking for Trudy.  She tells him of her love for Jim and persuades him to dress in rags in order to meet her intended.  O’Connor tries some dirty tricks to get Jim out of the picture but the only effect is to send Trudy running home for mother Mary (Ann Harding).  You guessed it – soon Mary is living in the house masquerading as a cook.

The rest of the film finds the fun in the situation while McKeever illustrates what “real riches” are to the wealthy and brings the estranged Mike and Mary together again.

It’s been awhile since I’ve caught up with Victor Moore, Charles Ruggles or Ann Harding and it is always a treat to see them do their stuff.  The romantic leads are only so-so.  This is a movie that would benefit from a dose of Christmas cheer to help the medicine go down but it’s not bad by any means.

It Happened on 5th Avenue was Oscar-nominated for Best Writing, Original Story.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjjdIYG5rBU

Clip – first few minutes

Life with Father
Directed by Michael Curtiz
Written by Donald Ogden Stewart from the play Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse based on a memoir by Clarence Day
1947/USA
Warner Bros.
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Miss Wiggins: Sir, before I can let any girl go from this establishment, I must know the character of the home in which she will be employed.

Father: Madam, *I* am the character of my home.[/box]

Dated sexual politics aside, this is an endearing domestic comedy with one of William Powell’s best performances.

Clarence Day Sr. (Powell) is a wealthy stockbroker.  The man is all bluster, insisting on running every aspect of his household on a business basis and terrorizing the staff.  His wife Vinnie (Irene Dunne) spends much of her time trying to smooth things for him.  But she definitely has figured out how to get her own way.  One of her methods to avoid arguments over her expenditures is through a kind of arithmetic that defies logic and leaves her husband helpless.  Others stratagems nclude tears and a kind of charming passive aggression.

The Days have four sons.  One day, Vinnie’s cousin (Zasu Pitts) comes to visit with a teenage protege Mary (Elizabeth Taylor).  Clarence Jr. (Jimmy Lydon) is knocked for a loop by the young beauty.  She likes him too but they soon discover that they go to different churches.  Mary is Methodist and the Days are Episcopalians.  Well, Vinnie and the children are faithful but Clarence is a very reluctant churchgoer who refuses to kneel.  It soon develops that Clarence Sr. has never been baptized.  Vinnie is horrified.  Much of the story is devoted to her plots to get the situation rectified.

Other episodes include Clarence Jr.’s inability to court Mary in his father’s old suit and the boys’ money making scheme to sell a rather dodgy patent medicine door-to-door.  With Edmund Gwenn as the local Episcopal priest.

My description does not make the movie sound as frothy and funny as it is.  The Life with Father plot is the prototype for several TV sitcoms of the 50’s and 60’s but the original far surpasses any of its successors in its execution.  Powell was never better than in this role, which is as far as could be imagined from the suave Nick Charles.  He and Dunne have fantastic chemistry.

The film is in the public domain and I have only ever seen in it in a faded print with iffy sound quality.  This deserves a restoration on a proper DVD.

Life with Father was nominated for Academy Awards in following categories:  Best Actor; Best Cinematography, Color; Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color; and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture.

Trailer

The October Man
Directed by Roy Ward Baker
Written by Eric Ambler based on a novel by Ambler
1947/UK
Two Cities Films
First viewing/Amazon Prime Instant Video

[box] People get really irritated by mental illness. — Maria Bamford [/box]

I’m glad I made the acquaintance of this unsung British film noir.

Jim Ackland (John Mills) is riding on a bus one rainy night entertaining the child (Juliet Mills) sitting next to him.  There is a horrific accident.  The girl is killed and Jim is left with a fractured skull and brain damage.  Jim spends a year in the hospital, recovering.  He has been unstable, even suicidal, and still blames himself for the death of his friends’ daughter. When he is released, the doctor warns him against making any major decisions or changes since there is still the chance of a relapse.

Jim goes back to work as a chemist.  His employer puts him up in a truly awful boarding house.  At first Jim keeps strictly to himself, which does not endear him to his fellow lodgers.  Molly (Kay Walsh), an outgoing young woman who is having an affair with a married man, is trying mightily to avoid the advances of creepy Mr. Peachy in the flat below.  She asks Jim into her room for a drink after he helps her mend a fuse.  Molly is a fan of astrology and dubs him the “October Man” on account of his birthday.

After several months of relative isolation, Jim finally accepts the invitation of a work colleague to go to a company dance and meet his sister Jenny (Joan Greenwood).  The attraction is immediate and they become an item.  Finally, Jim is out in the world with Jenny every night.

Then one night Molly comes into Jim’s room begging him for a loan of 30 pounds.  He writes her a check.  The next thing we know, she is lying strangled in the street with Jim’s check beside her.  Jim has no alibi for the time of the murder, having taken a walk after a date with Jenny. He was observed on the couple of occasions he and Molly were behind closed doors.  The other lodgers put that together with Jim’s mental and medical history and are soon blabbing all their speculations to the police.  Jim becomes the prime suspect.  Before long, he is wondering whether he could have actually committed the crime.  The rest of the film follows his efforts to find the killer and, more difficult, convince anybody to believe a thing he says.

This is well acted and beautifully shot.  The suspense comes less from the mystery than from concern for Jim’s fragile mental state.  I was engrossed throughout.  Recommended and currently available on YouTube or for free to Amazon Prime members.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQVyOb-4zGA

Clip – first ten minutes

Dark Passage
Directed by Delmer Daves
Written by Delmer Daves from a novel by David Goodis
1947/USA
Warner Brothers
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

[box]Vincent Parry: You know, it’s wonderful when guys like you lose out. Makes guys like me think maybe we got a chance in this world.[/box]

My reaction to this one was colored by my dislike of the “I am a camera” gimmick.  Once Humphrey Bogart shows his face things pick up.

Vincent Parry (Bogart) escapes San Quentin, where he has been incarcerated since being wrongfully convicted for murdering his wife.  He has to deck a guy who offers him a lift after the man asks too many questions.  Then Irene Jansen (Lauren Bacall) picks him up, having learned of his escape.  She followed his trial closely because the case reminded her of the wrongful conviction of her father.

A kindly taxi driver alerts Parry to a cut-rate plastic surgeon who gives people new faces on an outpatient basis (!!?).  The new face is to make Parry look significantly older than he is. Irene cares for him during his week-long recuperation.

Parry soon has to worry not only about finding his wife’s murderer but tracking down the killer of his closest friend while simultaneously fighting off the blackmailing driver he decked during his escape.  With Agnes Moorhead as a friend of the family.

The movie is shot from the Bogart character’s point of view for about the first third.  Then his face is covered in bandages for another good stretch.  Some might find the POV camerawork intriguing.  I find it extremely jarring and unconvincing.  I also had serious problems buying into most of the plot points.  But Bogart and Bacall’s chemistry is totally convincing and the movie might be worth seeing just to look at his face when he gazes at her.  My husband liked this movie much more than I did.

Trailer

Good News
Directed by Charles Walters
Written by Betty Comden and Adolph Green from a play by Buddy G. DeSylva et al
1947/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Repeat viewing/Amazon Instant

[box] The moon belongs to everyone/ The best things in life are free/ The stars belong to everyone/ They gleam there for you and for me – “The Best Things in Life Are Free”, lyrics by Lew Brown and Buddy G. DeSylva [/box]

This college musical has the highest IMDb user rating of any movie released in 1947. The reason why will forever be a mystery to me.

Tommy Marlow (Peter Lawford?!) is captain of Tait College’s football team and Big Man on Campus.  Not knowing that he is also heir to a pickle fortune, new girl in town Pat McClellan, a self-styled diva, spurns him for a wealthy drip.  Not used to being rejected, Tommy is naturally fixated on Pat.  Meanwhile plucky sorority sister Connie Lane (June Allyson), who is working her way through school,  is secretly in love with Tommy.  Tommy wants to improve his French to impress Pat so Connie tutors him.  Tommy slowly begins to see the light and asks Connie to the prom.

But the mischievous Babe alerts Pat to Tommy’s wealth and Tommy foolishly throws off Connie for Pat.  You can bet Tommy and Connie will be dancing together in the closing number.  With Mel Torme as one of the gang.

As far as I am concerned, the most interesting thing about this movie is Peter Lawford’s impeccable French accent.  He certainly doesn’t convince as a football player!  Otherwise, this just strikes me as completely sophomoric.  I don’t even like the songs that much. There are a few OK dance numbers.  I’ve seen this before and my reaction was exactly the same.  But there is no accounting for tastes….

Good News received an Oscar Nomination for Best Music, Original Song for “Pass That Peace Pipe” by Hugh Martin, Ralph Blane, and Roger Edens.

Trailer – If this appeals, you might love this movie

Born to Kill
Directed by Robert Wise
Written by Eva Greene and Richard Macaulay based on the novel by James Gunn
1947/USA
RKO Radio Pictures
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Marty Waterman: You can’t just go around killing people when the notion strikes you. It’s just not feasible.[/box]

Born to Kill is a real noir lovers noir. Everyone in it is either bad to the bone or a complete chump. A ton of fun.

The movie begins on the day Helen’s (Claire Trevor) Reno divorce comes through.  She has been living in a Reno boarding house run by boozy ex-glamor girl Mrs. Kraft (the fantastic Esther Howard).  The other tenant is Laury Palmer (Isabel Jewell).  The three ladies sit around and bitch about men.  That night Laury plans to step out on her new boyfriend, Sam, with her ex-boyfriend in order to make Sam jealous.  It turns out that Sam is Lawrence Tierney and this is a bad, bad move.

Helen is the one that discovers the bodies.  She thinks better of calling the police and immediately takes off for San Francisco by train.  Sam is leaving on the same train and it is lust at first sight.  In San Francisco, they talk about getting together later.

Helen is coming home  to the mansion in which she lives with her wealthy foster sister Georgia (Audrey Long).  She reunites with wealthy but square fiance Fred.  Before long, Sam comes calling and hears the wedding plans.  He sets about wooing Georgia in revenge.  The gullible heiress is swept off her feet.

In the meantime, Mrs. Kraft hires sleazy private detective Arnett (Walter Slezak) to track down Laury’s killer.  This is a bible-quoting cynic who runs his office from the borrowed phone of a diner and will do anything to make a buck.  He gets his lead by observing Sam’s best, possibly only, friend Marty (Elisha Cook, Jr.) hanging around key locations to make sure there is nothing to tie Sam to the crime.  Arnett sets off for San Francisco and starts asking questions while working as a dishwasher during Georgia’s wedding.

The wedding vows are still warming the lips of the happy couple when Sam walks in on Helen drowning her sorrows in champagne and after some snappy sparring they are kissing.  I will not spoil the trail of delicious double crosses, vengeance, and dirty fighting that make up the rest of the film

When one of the most sympathetic characters in the film is somebody that goes after an old lady with a knife, you know you are watching film noir.  I don’t know which is better, the dialogue or the acting.  Most of these folks are giving career best performances.  A real treat and recommended.

I watched both this and Kiss of Death with my husband.  He liked Kiss of Death better, saying it was more human.  He’s right, but I’d probably go with this one.  I don’t know what that says about me!

The DVD has a commentary by Eddie Muller and Robert Wise. Noir guru Muller ended up kind of baby sitting Tierney at screenings when the latter was in his 80’s. He had many priceless anecdotes.  My favorite was when he was at a screening where Wise was doing a Q&A and answering a bunch of auteur type questions about why he decided to this and that. Tierney kept muttering “It was all in the script.” Finally, he stands up and says “Who wrote the f%*#! script Bob?”  The actor was a piece of work and not too far from the tough guys he played, even at an advanced age.

Clip

Kiss of Death
Directed by Henry Hathaway
Written by Ben Hecht and Charles Lederer; story by Eleazar Lipsky
1947/USA
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

Tommy Udo: I wouldn’t give you the skin off a grape.

This one is famous as Richard Widmark’s film debut but is a satisfying film noir in all respects.

Nick Bianco (Victor Mature), an ex-con and born loser, is forced to work yet one more hold-up to buy his kids Christmas presents.  When he is the only one caught in a jewelry store heist, Assistant DA Louis D’Angelo (Brian Donlevy) offers him a deal to snitch on his fellow gang members but Nick refuses to talk.  He trusts the gang’s pledge to look after his family and get him out on parole.  After a couple of years in stir, Nick’s wife commits suicide and his children are sent to an orphanage. He is now more than willing to tell all.

D’Angelo arranges to arrest him for an old crime committed by the same gang and to pin the tag of squealer on gang leader Rizzo.  The gang quickly shows how it deals with rats when it puts grinning hit man Tommy Udo (Widmark) on the case.  He can’t locate Rizzo so he settles for pushing Rizzo’s wheelchair-bound mother down the stairs in one of the most memorable murders in cinema history.

Nick is released on parole and settles down to happy married life with his kids and their ex-babysitter (Coleen Gray).  Then D’Angelo makes another offer Nick cannot refuse.  He wants him to help set up Tommy Udo.  Nick, who had previously known Tommy in jail, befriends him and gets him to confess to another murder and its details while high. D’Angelo demands that Nick testify at Tommy’s trial.  Nick balks but D’Angelo assures him that the case is airtight.

Of course, Tommy is acquitted and Nick is now in fear for the lives of his entire family.  Nick gives up on D’Angelo’s assurances of police protection and takes matters into his own hands.

Richard Widmark reportedly based his portrayal of Tommy Udo on the improvisational style of jazz music.  However he did it, his maniacal laugh is unforgettable.  This is probably one of the most effective over-the-top performances of all time.  He was stuck with this kind of character for several films but later the world would know what a versatile actor he was.

Less acknowledged is Victor Mature’s superb performance in Kiss of Death.  His Nick is a complex blend of stoic fatalism, tenderness, and repressed rage and really carries the film. Cinematographer Norbert Brodine’s low-key lighting is also up there with the best in the genre.  Recommended.

Widmark was Oscar-nominated for Best Supporting Actor.  Kiss of Death was also nominated for Best Writing, Original Story.

Trailer

They Made Me a Fugitive (AKA “I Became a Criminal”)
Directed by Alberto Cavalcanti
Written by Noel Langley from a novel by Jackson Budd
1947/UK
A.R. Shipman Productions/Alliance Films Corporation
First viewing/Amazon Instant

This is a superior British film noir.

Clem Morgan (Trevor Howard) misses the adrenalin rush he got being an RAF pilot in the war.  In a drunken stupor, he decides it might be fun to join a black market gang. The outfit uses a funeral parlor as a cover and brings in the goods in caskets.  Its tough-as-nails leader Narcy (Griffin Jones) thinks Clem will give the gang some class.  He also thinks Clem’s fiancee is cute.

But on the very first outing, Clem discovers the caskets also hide drug trafficking, which he wants no part of.  He says he is quitting after that night’s job.  Narcy uses the opportunity to get Clem out of the way by framing him for the killing of a policeman.  Clem is convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison for manslaughter.

While in jail, Clem gets a visit from Narcy’s bitter ex-girlfriend Sally (Sally Gray).  She tells him Narcy has taken up with the fiancee and that she wants to help him clear his name. Clem does not take her up on her offer.  As soon as Sally gets home from the visit, Narcy and the boys beat her up.

Sally’s visit did awaken some will for revenge in Clem and he escapes.  The rest of the film follows Clem’s escape, reunion with Sally, and revenge attempts.  Narcy is definitely no pushover, though, and this is a truly dark and violent noir story.

I have loved every film I have seen that was directed by Alberto Cavalcanti.  I wonder that he is not better known.  This one was no exception and the director’s style shines through in every frame.  Howard is excellent and Jones makes one of the screen’s nastiest villains.

This is one of several British films focusing on social malaise immediately after the war. There is a strong sense that people who bore so much during the war were unable to accept continued privation after war’s end and started looking out for number one.  Recommended.

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

Clip – sturdy milk bottles they had back then!

The Bishop’s Wife
Directed by Henry Koster
Written by Robert E. Sherwood and Leonardo Bercovici from a novel by Robert Nathan
1947/USA
The Samuel Goldwyn Company
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Henry Brougham: I was praying for a cathedral.

Dudley: No, Henry. You were praying for guidance.[/box]

A magical Christmas movie viewed out of season.

Newly appointed Episcopal Bishop Henry Brougham (David Niven) is obsessed with building a new cathedral in his bishopric.  As such, he is totally immersed in fundraising. He is also grappling with a key donor (Gladys Cooper) whose idea of a cathedral is as one large monument to her deceased husband.  All these things mean Henry has been sorely neglecting his loving wife Julia (Loretta Young) and daughter Debby.

Julia misses their old life at the parish of St. Timothy’s and their real friends such as agnostic Professor Wutheridge (Monty Woolley).  But Henry’s stress levels are such that even Julia’s considerable charms cannot get him to participate in the Christmas holiday or to take a break even for meals.  It looks like their marriage is falling apart.  This and yet another setback cause Henry to send up a heartfelt prayer for help.

This is answered in the form of Dudley (Cary Grant), an angel without wings who signs on as Henry’s assistant.  But Dudley’s assistance mostly takes the form of giving Julia the attention and fun she craves.  He also captivates daughter Debby and housekeeper Mrs. Hamilton (Elsa Lanchester).  So Henry is none too pleased with Dudley’s work.  By the end, though, we discover that you can’t always get what you want but, often enough, you get what you need.

The schmalz level of this movie is high but if one is in the correct frame of mind it can be completely endearing.  It’s funny no one thought of casting Grant as an angel before this as he is perfect in every way – suave, handsome, romantic, and witty.   There is a scene when Grant ice skates with Loretta Young and in turn with James Gleason that is total movie magic.  Grant and Niven make excellent foils.

The Bishop’s Wife won the Oscar for Best Sound, Recording.  It was nominated in the categories of Best Picture; Best Director; Best Film Editing; and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture (Hugo Friedhofer).

The story was remade in 1996 as The Preacher’s Wife with Denzel Washington and Whitney Houston.

Trailer

Los tres García (1947)
Directed by Ismael Rodríguez
Written by Fernando Méndez, Carlos Orellana, and Ismael Rodríguez
1947/Mexico
Producciones Rodríguez Hermanos
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Ay, ay, ay, ay/ Canta y no llores/ Porque cantando se alegran/ Cielito lindo, los corazones

Ay, ay, ay, ay/ Sing and don’t cry/ Because singing gladdens/Pretty Little Heaven, the hearts — from “Cielito Lindo” [/box]

Pleasant musical comedy from the Golden Age of Mexican cinema with heartthrob Pedro Infante.

The three Garcia cousins couldn’t be more different.  One is a rich moneylender; another a womanizer; and the third a poor but proud rancher.  Their cigar-chomping grandma despairs of their ever getting along.  Even at her birthday celebration they fight.  Then their other cousin, a beautiful young blonde, comes to visit from the U.S. and the rivalry gets even worse as they compete for her love.  But the Garcias are as one when the evil Lopezes come to gun them down.

This movie is loaded with machismo and good singing and is a lot of fun.  Grandma is a tough matriarch and totally adorable all at the same time.  She is definitely the highlight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObDWtMQ93ws

Clip – Pedro Infante et al sing “Cielito Lindo”