1940's Hall of Fame II

Ugh that sucks, I hate it when a review gets lost, right before posting it! If it makes you feel any better I was just about done with The Sea Wolf when I added the picture last and somehow lost the entire post I'm trying to be more careful with saving the review on my clipboard.

I'm half way thru Odd Man Out and everything is so sluggish including myself. The whole week is 35 Celsius degrees heat and an apparent temperature is 40 (104 F). They keep promising heavy precipitations but nothing. I should post some thoughts on Odd Man Out by this Sunday.

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so sorry ed, it happened to me once and since then i always write it in Word first and then just paste it to the thread

we have a saying at our house when we lose some artwork/writing, what have you. . . "It's one for the gods." A sacrifice to the Realm of Muse, as it were. And take a moment to vent and try to accept that, that wasn't THE one and The One is a-coming. Hopefully. lol

A 104F, Nestorio?!? UGH! That is hell.
Where I live it is VERY humid, so even when it rains, it doesn't really cool down, it seems makes it muggy.
But, still, 104. . . I'm sweating just THINKING about it lol

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Body and Soul



I didn't really care for the film too much to be honest. It seemed long and I didn't care for many of the characters. I thought that John Garfield overall did a good job but I didn't care for his chemistry with Lilli Palmer, who I admittedly didn't care for much at all. I'm actually a pretty big fan of other boxing movies, heck some boxing movies are among my favorite films. But call me crazy, I think the film lacked what is in it's title: soul. I just didn't care for what was going on enough to be too invested in the story. Things that happened should have hit me harder than they did but they didn't for some reason. Even the boxing ending scenes seemed a little too corny of an ending for me. Sorry to be the Debbie downer on this but it's not something I thoroughly enjoyed if I am to be honest about it. Bad? No. But quite Vanilla in a world where Mint Chocolate Chip reigns supreme.

I didn't think they had any chemistry at first but I thought it developed.

Day of Wrath



This one really did it for me. I often like dark tales for whatever reason and with the background of this film being about witches and witch trials it was right up my alley. I had seen one film from Dreyer previously in Ordet. I wasn't a huge fan of it but I did like his directing in it. His directing in this is even better and the way he weaved his story is fantastic. He makes us feel as if we are brought back in time and keeps us on our toes with the characters. You feel as if you are a part of this historical period while watching it. I personally thought the pace was fine. I really was impressed by the acting from pretty much everyone, but especially Anne played by Lisbeth Moving and also Herlofs Marte which was played by Anna Svierkier. Marte being accused and then eventually burned was such a good part of the movie. It sounds weird to say as in reality it was brutal but it really set the dark tone for the film. I kind of had a feeling that more witchery would follow and obviously that was the case. One could have felt the bond being weird between Anne and Martin but I grew past it as it was a film made in the 1600s and stuff like this assuredly popped up all the time. How powerful was it that Anne wished death on Absolon and it actually happened. Would it have been more powerful had she not admitted to murdering him? Possibly, but it made the themes of darkness continue. Also, the cinematography was excellent and the use of shadows gave the film a chilling vibe. I don't see how this wouldn't make the 40s list. Very solid nomination from Thursday!

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That was one of the most interesting aspects, that Anne seems to believe she is a witch. Which gave the film an adding extra dimension. Glad you liked it, so did I.

Citizen have you seen my nomination yet?

Nope, I'm saving the best for last I have one more nom to watch and it's yours...Ride the Pink Horse. I'm looking forward to it.

Had you in mind when I nominated it. I think you will dig it.

I dig most noirs, so I'm excited. Even the small budget noirs have their own kind of charm. You know I've never heard of it either, so this will be a first watch. I'll probably catch it within a week.

I'm going to try to post some thoughts on these movies, but these will probably be very short write-ups.


I Remember Mama (1948)

This is a nice movie, but maybe a bit too sweet. I like the way every member of the family sacrifices something to help the other members of the family, and maybe families were like that back then, but nowadays, I don't think many families would do that anymore, so it didn't feel very realistic to me. That didn't affect my enjoyment of the movie, but it was just something that I thought about each time someone sacrificed something they really wanted.

Another thing that wasn't very realistic was the way every bad thing that happened to them was so easily turned around into a good thing.



On the plus side, the acting was excellent. Irene Dunne was amazing, and I don't think there was a bad, or even mediocre performance by anyone. Also, I don't always like narration in movies, but it worked well in this movie. And I loved the ending.

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OPEN FLOOR.

His Girl Friday (1940)

I've seen three versions of this movie, (this movie, and both the 1931 and 1974 versions of The Front Page), and this is easily my favorite version of the three. The biggest difference between the three versions is that in this version Hildy is a woman, and that makes the movie much better because it adds another level to the relationship between Hildy and Walter.

This is a fast-paced movie, and if you turn away for just a second, you could miss something. Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell play off each other wonderfully, and while I love Cary Grant, I think Rosalind Russell easily steals the movie. She's brilliant in this, and she holds her own in a cast of almost entirely men, and outshines all of them.

The only thing that bugged me a little bit was that the murderer Earl Williams seemed like such a quiet, almost shy, person the first time we meet him, so it seemed kind of out of character for him to even try to escape, and unlikely that he would have gotten away with it.

The dialogue is terrific, and there were a couple of lines, (both spoken by Cary Grant), that were very clever, if you're paying attention.

When the mayor tells Walter that he's done, and he's going to jail, Grant replies "Listen, the last man that said that to me was Archie Leach, just a week before he cut his throat." (For those of you who don't know, Cary Grant's real name was Archibald Leach.)

When Walter is describing Hildy's fiancé, he says "He looks like that fellow in the movies, Ralph Bellamy." (Bruce was played by Ralph Bellamy in this movie.)

The ending was a bit predictable, but it works anyway. Great movie.

Double Indemnity (1944)

I've seen this movie several times before, and it's a great movie with a terrific cast, but it has a couple of minor issues that seem to bug me every time I watch the movie.

I still don't find it believable that Walter Neff falls in love with Phyllis so quickly. He pretty much just met her, and he's already willing to help her kill her husband? I would have liked to see a little bit more of them together before they start plotting his murder. (I think we discussed this at length in the first Noir HoF.)

And when they use a signal when Neff was hiding in the car, why would they use three horn honks that would just risk drawing attention to the car, when they could have just as easily used something quieter instead?

These minor issues don't really take much away from the movie, but I just thought they should have been done better. But this is still one of the best noir movies.

Odd Man Out (1947)

This movie was okay, but I never really got into it enough to really care what happened to Johnny, (James Mason), or any of the other characters. It was interesting to watch how different people reacted to him when they found out who he was, and realized that he was a fugitive, but it seemed to drag on a bit, and I kind of got bored with it after a while.

I wasn't really surprised by the way it ended, but I wouldn't have predicted that ending either.

Gentleman Jim (1942)

This was another movie that was just okay for me, but probably because I don't like boxing, so it never really held my interest. The other boxing movie in this HoF, (Body and Soul) seemed to be more about the characters than boxing itself, while this movie seemed to be more about boxing, and the way Corbett (Errol Flynn) changed the sport for the better.

I know that I haven't seen enough of Errol Flynn's movies, but from what I've seen, I prefer his swashbuckling movies to this movie. And I like Jack Carson, but I prefer most of his other movies that I've seen.

I didn't dislike this movie, but it just isn't my type of movie. And it's not just because it's about boxing, because I love the 1979 movie The Champ, but this movie just focuses too much on the boxing and not enough about the characters. I'm sure that boxing fans will get a lot more out of this movie than I did.

Beauty and the Beast (1946)

I've heard a lot of good things about this movie, so even though it's subtitled, I was still looking forward to seeing it. I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would, but I still prefer the 1991 animated movie.

At first, I thought I was watching the wrong movie because the mean step-sisters and step-mother made me think I was actually watching Cinderella, but after I restarted the movie and double-checked the credits, I knew that it was the right movie, even though it didn't feel like it.

Overall, the story was great, but again, there were some little things that bothered me. When they said that Belle was going to take her father's place in the Beast's castle, they made it sound like she was going there to die. Inside the castle, the hands holding candles and stuff was kind of creepy. I thought the idea that the horse knew where to go just by saying some magic words to it was kind of corny. And Belle falling in love with the Beast seemed to come out of nowhere. I would have liked to see a bit more of their romance to make it more believable.

I kind of have mixed feelings about the ending.

The Ghost and Mrs Muir (1947)

I love this movie, so I was thrilled to see it was nominated in this HoF. (It was on my shortlist of movies that I was considering nominating.) Gene Tierney and Rex Harrison were terrific in this movie.

The cottage and the scenery were beautiful, and it's easy to see why Lucy was so stubborn about wanting to live there. I love the way she stood up against the realtor who doesn't even want to show it to her. I love Rex Harrison as Captain Gregg. He's just the right blend of mean to the people he wants to get rid of, and nice to those he allows to stay. (Although it kind of bugs me that we can see his shadow throughout the movie.) And somehow, no matter how many times I watch this movie, I always seem to forget that Natalie Wood plays young Anna, but the minute I hear her voice, I always recognize it immediately.

As much as I love this movie, even this movie has a minor issue that bugs me.

But having said that, this is a wonderful movie, and I love the ending, when Anna comes back as an adult, and she and her mother talk about her childhood days.

Day of Wrath (1943)

This was probably my least favorite movie in this HoF, (although that probably won't surprise anyone who knows my taste in movies). I think I would have enjoyed it more if they left out the part about the witches, and just focused on the romance, (or lack of romance), between Anne, the pastor, and his son.

The witches part of the movie made the ending too predictable. I realize that Anne's mother being a witch who was saved by the pastor was the reason that she was with him, but I think I would have liked the movie more if they found a different reason for her to be with him. It just made the movie feel too religious or preachy for me.