HOLLYWOOD GOLD:
Famous
Films of the Forties & Fifties
John Howard Reid
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Copyright (c) 2011 by John Howard Reid
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HOLLYWOOD CLASSICS 9
2011
Other Books in the “Hollywood Classics” series:
1. New Light on Movie Bests
2. “B” Movies, Bad Movies, Good Movies
3. Award-Winning Films of the 1930s
4. Movie Westerns: Hollywood Films the Wild, Wild West
5. Memorable Films of the Forties
6. Popular Pictures of the Hollywood 1940s
7. Your Colossal Main Feature Plus Full Support Program
8. Hollywood’s Miracles of Entertainment
9. Hollywood Gold: Famous Films of the Forties & Fifties
10. Hollywood “B” Movies: A Treasury of Spills, Chills & Thrills
11. Movies Magnificent: 150 Must-See Cinema Classics
12. These Great Movies Won No Hollywood Awards
13. Movie Mystery & Suspense
14. America’s Best, Britain’s Finest
15. Films Famous, Fanciful, Frolicsome and Fantastic
16. Hollywood Movie Musicals
17. “Hollywood Classics” Index Books 1-16
18. More Movie Musicals
19. Success in the Cinema
20. Best Western Movies
21. Great Cinema Detectives
22. Great Hollywood Westerns
23. Science-Fiction & Fantasy Cinema
24. Hollywood’s Classic Comedies
25. Hollywood Classics Title Index to All Movies Reviewed in Books 1-24
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Additional Movie Books by John Howard Reid
CinemaScope One: Stupendous in
’Scope
CinemaScope Two: 20th
Century-Fox
CinemaScope 3: Hollywood Takes the Plunge
Mystery, Suspense, Film Noir and Detective Movies on DVD: A Guide to the Best in Cinema Thrills
British Movie Entertainments on VHS and DVD
WESTERNS: A Guide to the Best (and Worst) Western Movies on DVD
Musicals on DVD
Silent Films & Early Talkies on DVD
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Table of Contents
A
Adventures of Mark Twain (1944)
Arms and the Woman (see Mr Winkle Goes to War)
B
Bachelor Girls (see Bachelor’s Daughters)
Bad Sister (see White Unicorn)
Beautiful But Dangerous (see She Couldn’t Say No)
Betrayed (see When Strangers Marry)
C
D
F
the Fugitive (see Night of the Fire)
G
H
High Fury (see White Cradle Inn)
Hour of Glory (see Small Back Room)
I
I Married a Nazi (see Man I Married)
It’s Turned Out Nice Again (see Turned Out Nice Again)
J
K
L
Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948)
M
Main Street to Broadway (1953)
Marriage Is a Private Affair (1944)
Married But Single (see This Thing Called Love)
N
O
On the Night of the Fire (1940)
Our Vines Have Tender Grapes (1945)
P
Polly Fulton (see B.F.’s Daughter)
Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)
R
S
Salute to Courage (see Nazi Agent)
Sherlock Holmes and the Scarlet Claw (see Scarlet Claw)
Some Call It Murder (see I’ll Sell My Life)
T
Those Endearing Young Charms (1945)
Too Dangerous to Love (see Perfect Strangers)
Twilight in the Sierras (1950)
Two Sisters from Boston (1946)
U
V
W
Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950)
White Captive (see White Savage)
World and His Wife (see State of the Union)
Y
You Were Never Lovelier (1942)
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Edmond O’Brien (Jimmy Stevens), Wanda Hendrix (Jean Madison), Rudy Vallee (Pettigrew), Johnny Sands (Eddie), Steve Brodie (Mike), Richard Erdman (Ollie), Hillary Brooke (Mrs Pettigrew), Richard Lane (the fight promoter), Garry Owen (the private eye), Fred Essler (the store-keeper).
Director: ALBERT S. ROGELL. Original screenplay: Sidney Salkow, John O’Dea. Photography: Stanley Cortez. Film editor: William Ziegler. Art director: Van Nest Polglase. Set decorator: Robert Priestley. Wardrobe: Elmer Ellsworth. Make-up: Abe Habermann. Music director: Edward J. Kay. Songs: “Everything That’s Wonderful” and “Once Over Lightly” by Al Stewart and Earl Rose. Production manager: Herman E. Webber. Assistant director: James Paisley. Sound recording: John Carter. Western Electric Sound System. Executive producers: Albert S. Rogell, Jack M. Warner. Producer: Albert S. Rogell. Co-producer: Edward Lewis.
Copyright 4 August 1950 by Roxbury Productions, Inc. Released through United Artists. New York opening at the Palace: 12 October 1950. U.S. release: 4 August 1950. U.K. release: 9 April 1951. Australian release: 13 July 1951. Running times: 87 minutes (USA), 80 minutes (UK), 65 minutes (Aust).
SYNOPSIS: An extremely diminutive but aggressively meddling young woman innocently tries to wreck the lives of four ex-combat servicemen.
VIEWER’S GUIDE: Okay for all.
COMMENT: By independent standards this movie has good production values, including smart sets and lustrous photography, smooth direction and silky film editing. The cast is very capable too. The trouble is the script. Although it offers some promising ideas, it tends to fall between two stools: Too talky but insufficiently witty for a comedy of manners; too clumsy and insufficiently fast-paced for slapstick, though it does have a couple of frantic episodes. The most effective episode has O’Brien slowly beaten up in a prize ring in which Rogell and O’Brien successfully bring off an extremely difficult balancing act. It’s funny but it’s horrifying. All our sympathy is with O’Brien, but we can’t help laughing at him. This sequence alone makes The Admiral Was a Lady worth watching.
If O’Brien seems over-boorish in the early stages of the film, put up with him. His character develops. Unfortunately the other players are stuck with more pasteboard figures. Wanda Hendrix is doubly unfortunate. Not only is she an unsympathetic, over-talkative, meddling little fool, but she stays stupid for the whole film. Her devotion to the mysterious Henry seems ill-balanced. The other players have little to do, including Rudy Vallee. We keep waiting for him to come back, but when he does, he doesn’t fulfill our expectations.
OTHER VIEWS: Saddled with a script that obviously thinks it’s much funnier than it actually is, The Admiral Was a Lady offers moderate entertainment at best. Rudy Vallee is wasted in a thankless role. Of course it would all be improved a good deal by cutting. I wonder what the U.K. and Australian prints are like?
— G.A.
Agreeable minor comedy with a quite substantial idea. Ex-Wave Hendrix discovers that a group of veterans, headed by O’Brien have found an elaborate way of living without working. The scenes where they bounce between the labor exchange, the bank, and the dealer with the loud speaker truck that is their transport, are quite inventive and funny. The final revelation of the insecurity that all this carefree stuff covers gives the action a bite. Cast and presentation are good, without being remarkable.
— B.P.
There are two songs, entitled “Everything That’s Wonderful” and “Once Over Lightly”, that are quite pleasant. I agree with everything that Mr Pattison says about this film, though he might have mentioned some of the caressingly beautiful close-ups of Miss Hendrix achieved by photographer Stanley Cortez. Also, it came as a considerable shock when looking up this film to notice it was made in 1950 as I would have thought it was contemporary 1946 or at the latest, 1947. Instead it was made in 1950, when the social situation it so pungently describes no longer existed — that’s one way of taking the bite out of its “message”! What a low-down, typically Hollywood box-office pandering trick!
— C.F.
ROGELL, ALBERT S.: Producer and director, born Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 21 August 1901; camera man; cutter; titler; author. Has been associated with First National, Universal, FBO and Tiffany. Went to Hollywood, 1917, as assistant to George Loane Tucker, producer of The Miracle Man. In 1925 joined Universal for two years, directed 16 pictures; then to First National and directed Shepherd of the Hills, Aloha, Mamba, Tiffany Tip Off.
Pictures include: Magnificent Rogue, Earl Carroll Sketchbook, Heaven Only Knows, Song of India, Northwest Stampede, Admiral Was a Lady, Shadow of Fear.
TV: Ford Theatre, 20th Century Hour, Broken Arrow, etc.
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Fredric March (Samuel Clemens), Alexis Smith (Olivia Langdon), Donald Crisp (J. B. Pond), Alan Hale (Steve Gills), C. Aubrey Smith (Oxford chancellor), John Carradine (Bret Harte), William Henry (Charles Langdon), Robert Barrat (Horace E. Bixby), Walter Hampden (Jervis Langdon), Joyce Reynolds (Clara Clemens), Whitford Kane (Joe Goodwin), Percy Kilbride (Billings), Nana Bryant (Mrs Langdon), Dickie Jones (Sam Clemens at age 15), Kay Johnson (Jane Clemens), Jackie Brown (Sam Clemens at age 12), Eugene Holland (Huck Finn), Michael Miller (Tom Sawyer), Joseph Crehan (promoter), Cliff Saum (prospector), Harry Tyler (assistant editor), Roland Drew (editor), Douglas Wood (William Dean Howells), Willie Best (George), Burr Caruth (Oliver W. Holmes), Harry Hilliard (John G. Whittier), Brandon Hurst (Ralph W. Emerson), Davison Clark (Henry W. Longfellow), Monte Blue (captain), Paul Newlan (boss deck hand), Ernest Whitman (stoker), Emmett Smith (repeater), Pat O’Malley (captain’s mate), Chester Conklin (judge), George Lessey (Henry H. Rogers), Dorothy Vaughan (Kate Leary), Gloria Ann Crawford (Susie as a child), Lynne Baggett (Susie), Carol Joyce Coombs (Clara as a child), Charlene Salerno (Jean as a child), Joyce Tucker (Jean), Charles Waldron (Dr Quintard), Paul Scardon (Rudyard Kipling), Russell Gleason (Orion Clemens), Thurston Hall (politician), Creighton Hale (man with mule), Leo White (barber), Stuart Holmes (man), Francis Pierlot (inventor), Frank Wilcox (Judge Clemens), Joan Winfield, Leah Baird (women), and Dennis Donnelly, Hooper Atchley, Victor Kilian, Harry Woods, Willie Fung, Frank Reicher, John “Skins” Miller.
Director: IRVING RAPPER. Screenplay: Alan LeMay. Additional dialogue: Harry Chandlee. Adapted by Alan LeMay and Harold M. Sherman from biographical material based on works owned or controlled by the Mark Twain Company and from the stage play Mark Twain by Harold M. Sherman. Photography: Sol Polito. Film editor: Ralph Dawson. Art director: John Hughes. Set decorator: Fred MacLean. Costumes: Orry-Kelly. Make-up: Perc Westmore. Technical advisors: Dwight Franklin (character designer) and Dick Lemen (Mississippi River sequences). Montages: Don Siegel, James Leicester. Special effects directed by Lawrence Butler, photographed by Edwin Linden. Music composed by Max Steiner, arranged by Bernard Kaun, directed by Leo F. Forbstein. Dialogue director: Herschel Daugherty. Sound recording: Robert B. Lee. RCA Sound System. Associate producer: Julius Evans. Producer: Jesse L. Lasky.
Copyright 13 May 1944 by Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. New York opening at the Hollywood: 3 May 1944. U.S. release: 6 May 1944. Australian release: 10 January 1946 (sic). 11, 928 feet. 132 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: The life and careers of Samuel Langhorne Clemens from his birth in Florida, Mo., on 30 November 1835 to his death in Elmira, N.Y., on 21 April 1910.
NOTES: Nominated for prestigious Hollywood awards for Art Direction (black and white) (lost to Gaslight); Music Scoring of a Drama or Comedy (lost to Steiner’s own Since You Went Away); Special Effects for which oddly neither Butler nor Linden were nominated. Instead the nominees were Paul Detlefsen and John Crouse for the photography, Nathan Levinson for the sound. (Lost to Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo).
VIEWER’S GUIDE: Suitable for all.
COMMENT: Produced on a remarkably lavish scale, this long film traces Twain’s career from his birth in 1835 to his death in 1910. This is not the usual reverent, inaccurate Hollywood hodgepodge. The lively, witty script deals first with Twain's boyhood in the Mississippi of Tom Sawyer. The 12-year-old Clemens is well played by Jackie Brown. After glimpsing Twain as an apprentice printer to his brother Orion (played by Russell Gleason), we are plunged into an exciting section dealing with Twain's experiences as a river pilot, based on “Life on the Mississippi”. After this, Twain turns to prospecting with Alan Hale and we are introduced to the celebrated jumping frog. I always imagined this incident would defy screen adaptation, but the writers and the director have not only succeeded in doing the impossible, they have turned it into sparkling entertainment. Later, Twain goes on lecture tours and, as they are presented in this film, it is not difficult to imagine why Twain was so popular. He was the Bob Hope of his era — save that he wrote his own material and his jokes are still so fresh they have present-day audiences convulsed with laughter. Of course, a great deal of the film's success is due to the splendid playing of Fredric March and the very able supporting cast. The sets are most impressive, ranging from the plush gambling saloon of the “Queen of Dixie” to an accurate reproduction of the Great Hall at Sydney University, and the number of extras is phenomenal. Max Steiner's music score is very effective, particularly in the riverboat-in-the-fog sequence where it is quite out of character with the composer's usual approach — and all the better for the innovation! The fine photography is the work of Sol Polito.
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Gail Russell (Eileen), Claire Trevor (Cynthia), Ann Dvorak (Terry), Adolphe Menjou (Moody), Billie Burke (Molly), Jane Wyatt (Marta), Eugene List (Schuyler Johnson), Damian O’Flynn (Miller), John Whitney (Bruce Farrington), Russell Hicks (Dillon), Earle Hodgins (Dr Johnson), Madge Crane (Mrs Johnson), Bill Kennedy (Stapp), Richard Hageman (Johnson), Igor Diega (dancer), Clayton Moore (Bill Cotter), Henry Hull (seafarer), Syd Saylor (real estate agent).
Director: ANDREW L. STONE. Original screenplay: Andrew L. Stone. Additional dialogue: Frederick Jackson. Photography: Theodor Sparkuhl. Film editor: Duncan Mansfield. Song, “Where’s My Heart” (Dvorak) by Fred Spielman (music), Kermit Goell (lyrics). “Twilight Song” by Jack Lawrence, Irving Drutman. Music director: Heinz Roemheld. Music conducted by David Chudnow. Art director: Rudi Feld. Wardrobe supervisor: Maria O. Donovan. Costumes for Gail Russell designed by Sophie. Costumes for the other principal players supplied by Saks 5th Avenue. Pianos supplied by Steinway. Production manager: Bernard McEveety. Assistant director: Aaron Rosenberg. Assistant to producer: Don McElwaine. Sound technician: Max Hutchinson. Western Electric Sound System. Producer: Andrew L. Stone.
Copyright 6 September 1946 by Andrew Stone Enterprises. Released through United Artists. New York opening at the Gotham: 5 October 1946. U.S. release: 6 September 1946. No general U.K. release date. Australian release: 27 March 1947. 8,150 feet. 90 minutes.
U.K. release title: BACHELOR GIRLS.
NOTES: Sparkuhl’s last film before retirement.
SYNOPSIS: In this variant on Three Blind Mice, four girls decide to trap rich husbands by renting a luxury house on Long Island.
VIEWER’S GUIDE: Suitable for all.
COMMENT: After an appealingly disarming trick opening, this film settles down along more conventional How To Marry a Millionaire lines with the added bonus of not only an extra girl and suitor, plus a pop and mother as well. True, Billie Burke tends to over-act in her usual style as the ex-movie star mother, but Menjou is an absolute howl as the dapper but stingy floorwalker whom the girls inveigle into helping out. Music lovers will enjoy the presence of Eugene List (an odd-looking guy certainly, but he can handle dialogue with surprising assurance), a well-known concert pianist in his day, though his selections are none too well recorded. Still, this is his only movie.
Gail Russell looks winning in the top spot, whilst Miss Trevor does confidently by what we may term the Lauren Bacall role. Other players are likewise excellent. And isn’t that Henry Hull as the yacht owner?
Writer/director Stone keeps the film pacing along merrily, with major assistance from Sparkuhl’s bright photography and Feld’s attractive sets. An independent film-maker, Stone nearly always managed to give his films remarkably glossy production values — often by shooting on real locations. This one is no exception.
OTHER VIEWS: A versatile film-maker, Stone was adept at both drama and comedy. Here we find him in pre-Fun on a Weekend mode. This movie starts off in grand style with a snip of Billie Burke from The Education of Elizabeth (1920). Though the pace slows down a mite in the obligatory exposition scene, sparks fly once Menjou really gets into bombastic, cost-cutting stride. Beautifully photographed and charmingly costumed, Gail Russell makes an expressive lead.
— G.A.
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Van Johnson (Dr Red Adams), Lionel Barrymore (Dr Leonard Gillespie), Marilyn Maxwell (Ruth Edley), Gloria DeHaven (Edna), Keenan Wynn (Tobey), Keye Luke (Dr Lee Wong How), Alma Kruger (Molly Byrd), Tom Trout (Eddie Smith), Walter Kingsford (Dr Edwin Carew), Marie Blake (Sallie), Nell Craig (Nurse Parker), Shirley Patterson (Nurse Thorsen), Edna Holland (Nurse Morgan), Ralph Brooke (Dr Norman), Lorraine Miller (Marion), Eddie Acuff (orderly), Leon Ames (dissatisfied patient), Henry O’Neill (Goff), Fred Toones (orderly).
Director: WILLIS GOLDBECK. Screenplay: Harry Ruskin. Based on the characters created by Max Brand (pseudonym of Frederick Faust). Photography: Harold Rosson. Art directors: Cedric Gibbons and Edward Carfagno. Set decorations: Edwin B. Willis and Ralph S. Hurst. Film editor: Adrienne Fazan. Music score: David Snell. Dance direction: Jeanette Bate. Costume design: Irene. Associate costume designer: Marion Herwood Keyes. Assistant director: Alfred Raboch. Sound recording: Douglas Shearer. Producer: Carey Wilson. Presented by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Copyright 19 December 1944 by Loew’s Inc. U.S. release: March 1945. U.K. release: 21 May 1945. New York opening at Loew’s Criterion: 28 March 1945. Australian release: 2 August 1945. 7,265 feet. 80 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Wealthy debutante sets her cap at up-and-coming doctor.
VIEWER’S GUIDE: Okay for all.
COMMENT: The 14th and second-last of M-G-M’s Dr Kildare series. In this one, Dr Johnson cures Miss DeHaven of neuresthenic self-starvation, but unfortunately he also attends upon the hospital’s switchboard operator, Marie Blake. While Miss DeHaven is pleasantly photogenic, Miss Blake is considerably less so. Still, Miss DeHaven sings “I’m In the Mood For Love” and Marilyn Maxwell agreeably makes up the other woman of the title. Dr Barrymore hams up his hokey dialogue with his usual skill and has us almost believing in him a quarter of the time. As for the direction of this drivel, the most that could be said is that it maintains the barest minimum of competence.
Incidentally, this is the 15th of the 16-picture Kildare series. It’s also number 14 of the 15 M-G-M entries. See Young Dr Kildare in this book for a complete rundown of the entire series.
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John Garfield (Tom Prior), Paul Henreid (Henry Berger), Sydney Greenstreet (Thompson, examiner), Eleanor Parker (Ann Berger), Edmund Gwenn (Scrubby, the steward), George Tobias (Pete Musick), George Coulouris (Lingley), Faye Emerson (Maxine), Sara Allgood (Mrs Midget), Dennis King (Reverend William Duke), Isobel Elsom (Mrs Cliveden-Banks), Gilbert Emery (Cliveden-Banks), Lester Matthews (despatcher), Pat O’Moore (clerk).
Director: EDWARD A. BLATT. Screenplay: Daniel Fuchs. Based on the 1923 stage play Outward Bound by Sutton Vane. Photography: Carl Guthrie. Film editor: Rudi Fehr. Music composed by Erich Wolfgang Korngold and directed by Leo F. Forbstein. Art director: Hugh Reticker. Dialogue director: Frederick de Cordova. Set decorations: Jack McConaghy. Assistant director: Elmer Decker. Gowns: Leah Rhodes. Make-up: Perc Westmore. Sound recording: Clare A. Riggs. Producer: Mark Hellinger.
Copyright 20 May 1944 by Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. U.S. release: 20 May 1944. New York opening at the Strand: 5 May 1944. Australian release: 6 December 1945. 10,255 feet. 114 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Several people are killed in a London air raid as they are going to a ship taking them to safety. The ship becomes their transport to heaven or hell. Aboard are Tom Prior, a derelict newsman, Maxine, a faded showgirl, Cliveden-Banks and his society snob wife, American merchant seaman Pete Musick, and Reverend William Duke. Also among them are Mrs Midget, a meek little housekeeper, and Lingley, the arrogant head of Lingley, Ltd. Austrian pianist Henry and his wife Ann almost miss the ship. Scrubby, the ship’s steward, tells them that they alone know they are dead.
NOTES: Outward Bound was originally filmed under that title in 1930. It starred Leslie Howard, Douglas Fairbanks Jr, Helen Chandler and Alison Skipworth and was directed by Robert Milton from an adaptation by J. Grubb Alexander.
VIEWER’S GUIDE: Unsuitable for younger children.
COMMENT: Poor old Edward A. Blatt is here saddled with yet another of Warner’s ambitious yet dated remakes, with the cast struggling against impossible lines and corny situations. The sets are impressive. The opening reel with its fluid camerawork and fast-paced film editing gets the film off to a good start and Paul Henreid cast in a Casablanca-type role holds considerable promise, none of which is realised once the script leads into the original Outward Bound material.
OTHER VIEWS: In attempting to bring Vane’s spirit world up to date, Daniel Fuchs has merely obscured its persuasive simplicity with topical references and dialogue that is either pompous or pedestrian. The cast is left pretty much at loose ends by Edward Blatt’s direction and the revised material at hand.
— Newsweek.
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Phyllis Thaxter (Joan Alris Ellis), Edmund Gwenn (Dr Bergson), Henry H. Daniels, Jr (Bob Arnold), Addison Richards (John Ellis), Francis Pierlot (Dr George Wilton), Sharon McManus (little girl in zoo), Gladys Blake (Glenda), Will Wright (Mr Herkheimer), Horace [Stephen] McNally (Eric Russell), Oscar O’Shea (Captain O’Malley), Minor Watson (Governor), Virginia Brissac (Governor’s wife), Audrey Totter’s voice (Karen).
Written for the screen and directed by ARCH OBOLER from his radio play Alter Ego. Photography: Charles Salerno. Film editor: Harry Komer. Music score: Bronislau Kaper. Art directors: Cedric Gibbons and Malcolm Brown. Set decorations: Edwin B. Willis and Mac Alper. Assistant director: Julian Silberstein. Sound: Douglas Shearer. Associate producer: Herbert Moulton. Producer: Jerry Bresler. Presented by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Copyright 19 June 1945 by Loew’s Inc. An M-G-M picture. New York opening at Loew’s Criterion: 16 August 1945. Australian release: 13 June 1946. 7 reels. 5,944 feet. 66 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: A girl has a dual personality — one of them homicidal.
VIEWER’S GUIDE: Unsuitable for children.
COMMENT: The first film directed by radio producer and dramatist Arch Oboler. Occasionally, visuals are used to help the story, but mostly you can close your eyes and follow it perfectly. As a girl with split personality, Phyllis Thaxter is very inadequate. The rest of the cast is competent, but nothing more. However, the story moves at a reasonable pace and offers passable entertainment.
OTHER VIEWS: Radio writer and sometime film-maker Arch Oboler here wheels in a sort of Two Faces of Eve of the mid-forties. There is some attempt to delineate the problems of the girl who does not comprehend her personality split and Horace/Steve McNally makes a go of a minor part, but the little dignity the rather grim production has worked up collapses in the finale where fatherly analyst-witchdoctor Edmund Gwenn saves the heroine from the hot seat by sorting out the inner selves in double exposure. All this is ticked out with dialogue of the standard of “That’s what I want — SIGNIFICANT PAUSE — to be safe!”
Interesting as one of the movie psychology cycle, but little more.
— B.P.
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Bette Davis (Rosa Moline), Joseph Cotten (Dr Lewis Moline), David Brian (Neil Latimer), Ruth Roman (Carol), Minor Watson (Moose), Dona Drake (Jenny), Regis Toomey (Sorren), Sara Selby (Mildred), Mary Servoss (Mrs Wetch), Frances Charles (Miss Elliott), and Harry Tyler, Ralph Littlefield, Creighton Hale, Joel Allen, Ann Doran.
Director: KING VIDOR. Screenplay: Lenore Coffee. Based on the 1948 novel by Stuart Engstrand. Photography: Robert Burks. Film editor: Rudi Fehr. Music score: Max Steiner. Music orchestrations: Murray Cutter. Art director: Robert Haas. Set decorations: William Kuehl. Special effects directed by William McGann and photographed by Edwin DuPar. Camera operator: Bill Schurr. Production manager: Eric Stacey. Assistant director: Al Alleborn. Script supervisor: Rita Michaels. Hair styles: Ruby Felker. Make-up supervisor: Perc Westmore. Make-up man: Al Greenway. Grip: Harold Noyes. Costumes: Edith Head. Gaffer: Charles Bannon. Still photographs: Eugene Richee. Sound recording: Charles Lang. Producer: Henry Blanke.
Copyright 18 November 1949 by Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. U.S. release: 22 October 1949. New York opening at the Strand: 21 October 1949. Australian release: 27 April 1951. 8,640 feet. 96 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Girl’s dull husband (he’s the doctor in a small town) does not help her greedy disposition.
NOTES: Davis’ last film as a contract star for Warner Bros.
Steiner was nominated for an Academy Award for his score in the Drama/Comedy category, losing to Aaron Copland’s The Heiress.
VIEWER’S GUIDE: Unsuitable for children.
COMMENT: There is much to enjoy in this high-blown melodrama despite its wild implausibility and Miss Davis's incredible theatrics in what is virtually a cruel and incisive self-parody. To see Miss Davis as a sultry femme fatale requires a considerable suspension of belief which her garish make-up and ripe mannerisms do nothing to lessen. Still, Miss Davis, for all her faults, is infinitely preferable to Joseph Cotten whose screen personality here is even more woebegone and tiresomely philosophic than usual. The support cast is better: Ruth Roman makes good capital out of her couple of brief appearances, Minor Watson has an unusually meaty role and Dona Drake registers strongly as a slatternly maid. The script has some bizarre touches which Vidor directs with style and relish, particularly the off-beat, storybook-style opening and the elaborate crane shot at the conclusion. Max Steiner's music score consists almost entirely of variations on Fred Fisher's “Chicago” and is quite effective. The photography, especially the location work, is superb. Production values are lavish.
OTHER VIEWS: Davis told Arkadin in Britain's Sight and Sound magazine in 1965 that Beyond the Forest was a “terrible movie”:
“It didn't have to be; primarily it was terrible because I was too old for the part. I mean, I don't think you can believe for a moment that, if I, as Rosa Moline, was so determined to get to Chicago, I wouldn't just have upped and gone years ago. I told them they should have put Virginia Mayo in the part — she would have been great. It was all a great pity, because the book is very good and could have made a marvellous movie. The husband, for instance, is supposed to look like Eugene Pallette and be an absolute monster. So what do they do? They cast Joseph Cotten, who is so attractive and kind — why should any wife want to get away from him?”
Director King Vidor (who had just finished The Fountainhead with Gary Cooper and Patricia Neal) sought to shoot the exteriors in a locale similar to Wisconsin. Location man Kenneth Cox was dispatched to the Pacific North-west to hunt for location sites that would pass for Wisconsin. Twenty-six hundred miles and eight days later he returned to the studio with photographs and ideas about how the film should be shot. He had visited some forty towns and lakes as far north as Eugene, Oregon. Later Vidor, a studio cameraman, and Cox left for Lake Tahoe, where, by touring the lake in a motorboat, they finally found the perfect hunting lodge, the property of Mrs John Drum.
“We picked for the town of Loyalton a hamlet about seventy miles from Tahoe for the town scenes,” Cox told Lowell E. Redelings in a 24 October interview in The Hollywood Citizen News.
— John Howard Reid writing as George Addison.
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Barbara Stanwyck (Polly Fulton), Charles Coburn (B.F. Fulton), Van Heflin (Thomas W. Brett), Richard Hart (Robert S. Tasmin III), Keenan Wynn (Martin Delwyn Ainsley), Margaret Lindsay (“Apples” Sandler), Spring Byington (Gladys Fulton), Marshall Thompson (sailor), Barbara Laage (Eugenia Taris), Thomas E. Breen (Major Isaac Riley), Fred Nurney (Jan), Edwin Cooper (General Waldron), Tom Fadden (Holmquist), Davison Clark (doorman), Anne O’Neal (receptionist), Hal K. Dawson (Frederick X. Gibson), Laura Treadwell (Emily Lovelace), Bill Harbach (co-pilot), David Newell (captain), Mary Jo Ellis, Lisa Kirby, Josette Deegan (girls), Florence Wix, Major Sam Harris (wedding guests), Pierre Watkin (Joe Stewart), Mickey Martin, Gene Coogan, Jack Stenlino, Joe Recht (soldiers), Addison Richards.
Director: ROBERT Z. LEONARD. Screenplay: Luther Davis. Based on the 1946 novel by John P. Marquand. Photography: Joseph Ruttenberg. Camera operator: Herbert Fischer. Art directors: Cedric Gibbons, Daniel B. Cathcart. Set decorations: Edwin B. Willis, Jack D. Moore. Film editor: George White. Music composed by Bronislau Kaper and directed by Charles Previn. Special effects: Warren Newcombe. Montage: Peter Ballbusch. Production manager: Edward Woehler. Assistant director: Bert Glazer. Script supervisor: Tess Primock. Hair styles: Sydney Guilaroff. Make-up: Jack Dawn. Costumes: Irene. Grip: Leo Monlon. Still photos: Eddie Hubbell. Sound: Douglas Shearer, Charles E. Wallace. Producer: Edwin H. Knopf.
An M-G-M Picture, copyright 13 February 1948 by Loew’s Inc. U.S. release: April 1948. U.K. release: 24 January 1949. New York opening at Loew’s State: 24 March 1948. Australian release: 1 July 1948. 10,046 feet. 111 minutes.
U.K. release title: POLLY FULTON.
SYNOPSIS: Tycoon’s daughter seeks to dominate her husband.
NOTES: Irene was nominated for an Academy Award for Black & White Costume Design, losing to Roger Furse’s Hamlet.
The full 111-minute version was released only in Australia. Elsewhere the movie was cut by three or four minutes. Needless to say, the full-length movie has never been aired, not even by Australian TV. In fact it was shortened to a mere 73 minutes when last broadcast in the 1970s.
VIEWER’S GUIDE: Okay for all.
COMMENT: Even in its 73-minute version, this is a very mediocre offering. The idea of the impecunious husband treating his rich father-in-law like dirt is a nice turnabout, but as scripted, played and directed here, it is no more effective than a damp squib. The film has been made with M-G-M's customary surface gloss but this serves only to point up the more the superficiality of the situations and the stock motivations of the characters.
Richard Hart goes through his part like a sleepwalker while Margaret Lindsay seems determined to melt into the background so that none of her fans will notice her. The only interesting feature of the film is the appearance of Barbara Laage making her film debut as a blind and rather plain-looking refugee — a far cry from the glamorous parts she was later to enjoy!
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Van Johnson (David Maldon), Elizabeth Taylor (Mary Belney), Percy Waram (John Belney), Fay Holden (Martha Belney), Leon Ames (Carl Bellcap) Edgar Buchanan (Uncle Fred Mahoney), Selena Royle (Kate Mahoney), Rosemary DeCamp (Claire Bellcap), Philip Ahn (Dr Lee), Gene Lockhart (Charles Parkford), Gordon Richards (Williams), Matt Moore (Rumlie), Pierre Watkin (Samuel C. Lang), Russell Hicks (Steve Hughes), Tristram Coffin (man standing beside Johnson at birthday), Kathleen Lockhart (Mrs Parkford).
Written, produced and directed by NORMAN KRASNA. Photography: George Folsey. Film editor: Fredrick Y. Smith. Art directors: Cedric Gibbons and Paul Groesse. Set decorations: Edwin B. Willis and Henry W. Grace. Music composed and directed by Adolph Deutsch. Special effects: Warren Newcombe. Camera operator: Robert Bronner. Costumes: Helen Rose. Hair styles: Sydney Guilaroff, Lorraine Roberson. Make-up: Jack Dawn. Script supervisor: Mollie Kent. Gaffer: Fenton Hamilton. Still photographer: J. Frank Shugrue. Production manager: Bill Kaplan. Assistant director: Marvin Stuart. Sound: Douglas Shearer, Ralph Pender. An M-G-M picture.
Copyright 13 March 1950 (in notice: 1949) by Loew's Inc. U.S. release: 26 May 1950. U.K. release 4 September 1950. New York opening at the Capitol: 25 May 1950. Australian release: 7 July 1950. 7,390 feet. 82 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: As a result of a wartime accident (he nearly drowned in brandy stored in the wine cellar of a monastery), young lawyer David Maldon (Van Johnson) is allergic to alcohol. The merest whiff makes him intoxicated. Mary Belney (Elizabeth Taylor), his boss's daughter, helps him to conquer his odd problem and sees him overcome some career problems brought on by his lofty idealism.
NOTES: Anna Q. Nilsson can be glimpsed, seated between Pierre Watkin and Gene Lockhart in the nightclub sequence.
VIEWER’S GUIDE: Suitable for all.
COMMENT: A comedy of manners with wit and occasional slapstick sugar-coating a trenchant attack on legal ethics. The characters are completely believable with Van Johnson and Leon Ames giving fine, sensitive performances and engaging character studies by Percy Waram and Gene Lockhart. The supporting cast is top-notch and production values are first-class. Krasna's direction is unobtrusive and concentrates attention on his script — a method that can be commended when the script is as interesting and diverting as this one.
OTHER VIEWS: Norman Krasna has brewed a curious, cloudy mixture of farce, sociology and romance in The Big Hangover. He has directed it as though he expected the script and the stars to carry the ball on a team that cannot quite decide which goal to head for. Part clowning and part lesson, it is a disunified and hesitant piece of work. Elizabeth Taylor hovers on the edges of this comedy, dressed up like a mannequin. She has merely to appear interested or affectionate, while Johnson, on the comic side of things, is clean-cut and plaintive. There are a few laughs here, though the picture tends to repeat the same pieces of business.
— Otis L. Guernsey, Jr in New York Herald Tribune.
In The Big Hangover we have another lawyer, this one played by Van Johnson. He has an allergy to alcohol in even the smallest doses, coupled with a desire to do good. He also loves a lady who dabbles in psychoanalysis. The lady is played by Elizabeth Taylor. Miss Taylor is beautiful and cannot act. This puts her one up on Mr Johnson.
— The New Yorker.
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Wallace Beery (Big Jack Horner), Richard Conte (Dr Alexander Meade), Marjorie Main (Flapjack Kate), Edward Arnold (Mayor Mahoney), Vanessa Brown (Patricia Mahoney), Clinton Sundberg (C. Petronius Smith), Charles Dingle (Mathias Taylor), Clem Bevans (Saltick Joe), Jack Lambert (Bud Valentine), Will Wright (Will Farnsworth), William “Bill” Phillips (Toddy), Syd Saylor (Pokey), Vince Barnett (Tom Speed), Trevor Bardette (John Oakea), Andy Clyde (Putt Cleghorn), Edith Evanson (Widow Simpson), Tom Fadden (Sheriff Summers), Robert B. Williams (Jed), Eddie Dunn (coachman), Francis McDonald (prisoner), Minerva Urecal (Mrs Summers), Ann Doran (Sarah), Hank Bell (driver), Dick Alexander, Lynn Farr, Jimmy Martin, Lane Bradford, Casey McGregor, Cactus Mack, Carl Sepulveda, Bill Dix, Bob Filmer, Fred Gilman (bandits), Jim Pierce (man in buggy), Helen Dickson (woman in buggy), Carol Henry, Frank McCarroll, Hollis Bane, Frank McGrath (posse members).
Director: RICHARD THORPE. Screenplay: Gene Fowler, Marvin Borowsky, Otto Van Eyss. Story: Robert Thoeren. Suggested by the 1937 book Doctors on Horseback: Pioneers of American Medicine by James Thomas Flexner. Photography: Robert Surtees. Film editor: George Boemler. Music: Herbert Stothart. Supervising art director: Cedric Gibbons. Camera operator: A. Lindsley Lane. Associate art director: Randall Duell. Set decorations: Edwin B. Willis, Hugh Hunt. Music directed by Andre Previn. Production manager: Al Shenberg. Assistant director: Al Jennings. Script supervisor: John Banse. Hair styles: Sydney Guilaroff. Make-up: Jack Dawn. Grip: Albert Hunter. Costumes: Valles. Still photographs: S.C. Manatt. Sound: Douglas Shearer, John A. Williams. Western Electric Sound System. Producer: Gottfried Reinhardt.
Copyright 24 February 1949 by Loew’s Inc. An M-G-M picture. U.S. release: April 1949. U.K. release: 6 March 1950. New York opening at the Gotham: 21 May 1949. Australian release: 25 August 1949. 7,750 feet. 86 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Big Jack and his outlaw gang save a young doctor from a hanging party.
NOTES: Wallace Beery’s final fling. He died of a heart attack in his Hollywood home on the night of 15 April 1949.
Seventh pairing of Beery with Marjorie Main. Their ill feeling was mutual. She always complained he never spoke his lines as written, whilst he retorted that she could never remember hers. “She’s blown her lines already 13 times on this one take,” Beery complained to a reporter. “If I have to make another picture with her, so help me I’ll have a heart attack!”
VIEWER’S GUIDE: Unsuitable for children.
COMMENT: A promising script ruined by Richard Thorpe’s typically lackluster direction. In his last film performance, Beery is allowed to act in a somewhat more hammy fashion than usual. The support cast, with the exception of Marjorie Main and Syd Saylor (of all people!), is not particularly strong. The best feature of the film is Robert Surtees’ fine photography.
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Wayne Morris (Chris Thorgenson), Lois Maxwell (Karen Long), Gordon MacRae (Johnny Grant), Mary Stuart (Midge Parker), Eddie Dunn (Ed Hardy), Marc Logan (Milo Brown), Charles March (Sam Bancroft), Anthony Warde (Con), Jimmy Ames (Angel), Eddie Dunn (Hardy), Cliff Clark (bartender), Fred Kelsey (Jake), Douglas Kennedy (football announcer).
Director: SHERRY SHOURDS. Screenplay: Bernard Girard. Based on a story The Holy Terror by George Carleton Brown. Photography: Carl Guthrie. Dialogue director: John Maxwell. Special effects directed by William McGann, photographed by H.F. Koenekamp. Film editor: Frank Magee. Camera operator: Lou Jennings. Technical advisor: Clair B. Gahagen. Art director: Charles H. Clarke. Set decorations: William Wallace. Music composed by William Lava, orchestrated by Charles Maxwell, directed by Leo F. Forbstein. Production manager: Don Page. Script supervisor: Rita Michaels. Hair styles: Tillie Starriett. Make-up: Perc Westmore. Grip: Herschel Brown. Still photos: Fred Morgan. Sound technician: Charles Lang. RCA Sound System. Producer: Saul Elkins.
Copyright 19 June 1948 by Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. U.S. release: 26 June 1948. U.K. release: 23 August 1948. No New York opening. Never theatrically released in Australia. 80 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: A boxer is framed for murder and hides out with a newly-appointed clergyman (a former football star) in a small town.
VIEWER’S GUIDE: Suitable for ministers of religion and their families.
COMMENT: A distinctly minor “B” melodrama. It opens unpromisingly with some mouldy and uninteresting stock football footage. Things perk up a bit during MacRae's boxing match which is quite convincingly staged; but so far as action is concerned, that is “the big punch” of the title. As might be expected, the promised action climax fails to materialize (we are fobbed off with a short, if slightly destructive, fistic encounter between the sub-hero and the deputy villain instead!). Needless to say, the film is fleshed out with plenty of talk and yaketty-yak, including a couple of sermons!
The photographer and director sometimes use deep focus compositions effectively and we like the dissolve from Warde’s pistol into a train engine, but otherwise production credits are undistinguished and routine. The church interior is an attractive set, but the others are rather tatty.
The acting is nothing to write home about, though the girls certainly have an edge over the boys (they are attractively costumed too). Neither Morris nor MacRae are convincing as the clergyman and the boxer, respectively (though admittedly they are hampered by some corny dialogue). Best performance in the film comes from Jimmy Ames as “Angel”.
Production values are well below average for a Warner Brothers’ “B”.
OTHER VIEWS: The only film directed by one-time Warner’s assistant director Sherry Shourds, this is a depressingly trite story about the minister who helps the prize fighter get straightened out. The acting, direction, screenplay and photography all lack any real inspiration. In fact, the quality the film so significantly lacks is that of the title — punch!
— E.V.D.
The Director: Sherry Shourds was an assistant director who worked with Curtiz on at least 16 films (marked *). Shourds was assistant director on all the following: 1935: Captain Blood *, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. 1937: The Great Garrick. 1938: Four’s A Crowd *, Four Daughters *, Angels With Dirty Faces *. 1939: Dodge City *, Daughters Courageous *, Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex *, Four Wives *. 1940: Virginia City *. 1941: Dive Bomber *. 1942: Now, Voyager. 1943: Edge of Darkness. 1947: Possessed. 1948: Winter Meeting, June Bride. 1949: The Lady Takes A Sailor *. 1950: Bright Leaf *, The Breaking Point *. 1951: Jim Thorpe — All American *, Force Of Arms. 1952: The Story Of Will Rogers *. 1966: An American Dream, Chamber of Horrors. 1968: Chubasco. (Shourds was unit manager on these last two films).
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Humphrey Bogart (Duke Berne), Irene Manning (Lorna Fleming), Richard Travis (George Anderson), Susan Peters (Ruth Carter), Stanley Ridges (Martin Fleming), Minor Watson (Warden Booth), Chick Chandler (Dancer), Joseph Downing (Frenchy), Howard da Silva (Sandor), Murray Alper (Quinto), Roland Drew (Faye), John Ridgely (Tim), Joseph King (Toohey), Virginia Brissac (Mrs Booth), William Edmunds (Sarto), Virginia Sale (Mrs Miggs), Ken Christy (Kat), Wallace Scott (Rusty), John F. Hamilton (4th judge), James Flavin (detective with Mrs Miggs), Charles Halton (3rd judge), Ralph Dunn (Slocum, warder in work-shed), Ray Teal (motorcycle cop).
Directed by LEWIS SEILER. Original screenplay by Bertram Millhauser, Abem Finkel, and Daniel Fuchs. Director of photography: Sid Hickox. Music by Adolph Deutsch. Film editor: Jack Killifer. Dialogue director: Harold Winston. Assistant director: Art Lueker. Art director: John Hughes. Gowns by Milo Anderson. Make-up artist: Perc Westmore. Sound recorder: Stanley Jones. Orchestrations by Jerome Moross. Music director: Leo F. Forbstein. RCA Sound System. Producer: Walter MacEwen. A Warner Bros.—First National Picture.
Copyright 13 June 1942 by Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. New York opening at the Strand: 17 July 1942. U.S. release: 13 June 1942. Australian release: 2 May 1946 (sic). 7,592 feet. 84 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Duke Berne, former big shot but now a three-time loser, fears returning to crime because a fourth conviction will mean a life sentence.
NOTES: Bogart started the 40s decade in fine style with High Sierra (1941). His next film The Wagons Roll at Night was only a slight letdown from this peak, but The Maltese Falcon not only re-established his high, but gave him a super-star lustre which continued through All Through the Night (1942), The Big Shot, Across the Pacific, and Casablanca (1943).
VIEWER’S GUIDE: Adults.
COMMENT: It is hard to believe that Lewis Seiler directed all this film, remembering the very routine handling he delivered in his other Bogart vehicles: Crime School, King of the Underworld, You Can’t Get Away With Murder and It All Came True. Most likely he took over the direction from some more inventive director and made a game attempt to follow to some degree the film’s original remarkable visual style — e.g. the opening scenes of the flashback, a low angle camera tracking with Bogart through the seedy streets, the mood of depression and desperation set by the narration re-inforced by the moody lighting photography with its shadows and great blocks of black. There are odd snips of the original director’s conception throughout, Bogart’s face framed by doorways and curtains, a spotlight picking out the dancer on the stage, devices which are used both atmospherically and symbolically (Bogart is “framed” and the dancer is killed in a spotlight). Then there’s the obvious one of the cigarette being stamped out before the end title. And there is a remarkable, brief-but-nightmarish montage routine with Bogie sent to prison a four-time loser, the judges rapping out the sentence and the high gates closing. There’s an effective use of mirrors in a couple of key scenes, and the action spots are excitingly staged and edited. But mostly the film is directed in Seiler’s usual routine and unremarkable style — but it does have some great performances. The script has a couple of flaws. The dialogue tends to be cliched (in fact some of it could be transposed without change into one of those joke books on How To Write Dialogue For the Movies) but in the lips of such wonderful players as Bogie, Irene Manning (looking very attractive here in lighting and costumes), Stanley Ridges (perfect as the criminal mastermind attorney double-dealer), Chick Chandler (giving the performance of his career as the charming, talented but ruthless dancer), Joseph Downing (a ruthless thug to end all ruthless thugs) and others we love every word of it. The support cast is first-rate with Howard da Silva effective in a small role as Downing’s running-mate, Murray Alper ditto as an unwilling stoolie, John Ridgely in a two-line bit as an eager but blind cop, Joseph King as the biding-his-time prosecutor, William Edmunds as the “No trouble in here please, Duke” sleazy cafe proprietor, Virginia Sale as a screamer and Ralph Dunn as the always-standing-around prison guard. Richard Travis is okay as the eager-beaver George though he has some sooky lines to say which he does not manage over well; and while Susan Peters has only a small part as his lady-love, she makes her court-room breakdown fairly convincing.
The plot is improbable, but we don’t mind that so much as the fact that with the film three-quarters over, the scriptwriters try to insert a little cosy domesticity and comic relief, which they do very badly and ineptly and quite jarring the mood of the rest of the film. A little deft re-editing could completely eliminate these objectionable scenes and improve the film enormously.
There are a couple of obvious stock snips, but production values are otherwise high.
OTHER VIEWS: Bogart in a tailor-made role, expertly fitted by the screenwriters. Just before the climax, the story sags slightly, but elsewhere it is wholly engaging. Superb photography by Sid Hickox and some seat-grabbing action footage directed by Seiler. Jack Killifer’s film editing is highly commendable.
— G.A.
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Rod Cameron (Johnny Tremaine), Adrian Booth (Molly Bannister), Walter Brennan (Pop Courteen), Forrest Tucker (Sheriff Henry McIntyre), Jack Holt (Marshal Walter Greenside), Jim Davis (Mick Courteen), James Brown (Bud Courteen), Guinn “Big Boy” Williams (Art Benson), Jack Lambert (Luke Courteen), Will Wright (Martin Treadwell), David Williams (Todd Bannister), Harry V. Cheshire (Calvin Willis), Hal Taliaferro (Dave Watts), Herbert Rawlinson (storekeeper), Stanley Andrews (Winslow), Charlita (Chiquita).
Director: JOSEPH KANE. Screenplay: Thames Williams. Story: Norman S. Hall. Photographed in Trucolor by Jack Marta. Film editor: Arthur Roberts. Art director: Frank Arrigo. Set decorators: John McCarthy Jr, Charles Thompson. Costumes: Adele Palmer. Make-up: Bob Mark. Hair styles: Peggy Gray. Special effects: Howard Lydecker, Theodore Lydecker. Optical effects: Consolidated Film Industries. Music composed by Nathan Scott, orchestrated by Stanley Wilson. Sound recording: T.C. Carman, Howard Wilson. RCA Sound System. Associate producer: Joseph Kane. Executive producer: Herbert J. Yates.
Copyright 17 August 1949 by Republic Pictures Corp. New York opening at the Palace: 6 October 1949. U.S. release: 15 August 1949. U.K. release through Associated British-Pathé. Australian release through 20th Century-Fox: 27 October 1950. 8,376 feet. 93 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: The makers of this film landed themselves in something of a quandary. When the film was all ready for release, someone in Republic's publicity department pointed out that the title meant nothing. There was not a single reference to brimstone, in any shape or allegorical form throughout the entire movie. A Foreword was hastily added in which the early settlers were commended for fighting Indians, drought — and outlaws like “Brimstone” Courteen. In the movie, though, he is called Pop Courteen, a title that masks a viciously vengeful rancher who together with his three sons is waging a secret war against the community in general, homesteaders in particular.
VIEWER'S GUIDE: An emphasis on violence makes this film unsuitable for children.
COMMENT: I don’t know why Adrian Booth gets such prominent billing here. Her role is so small, you would expect to find her name well down the cast list. But then Jack Holt’s part is so fleeting, he’s hardly in the movie at all.
Two players have the lion’s share of the action: Rod Cameron, an indifferent performer, but rugged enough to acquit himself honorably in the action scenes (with the help of a stunt double, of course); and Walter Brennan, who is the real star of the film. You can’t always rely on Brennan. True, he’s given some engrossingly charismatic portraits in the past, but some directors seem to have been afraid of him and unable to keep him under control. Occasionally Brennan has hammed it up to a really obnoxious degree (though in the actor’s defense it must be said that in many of these cases the script was so weak many players would feel the only way to strengthen the part was by over-indulging in scene-chewing “acting” and hammy mannerisms). But here in Brimstone he is not only perfectly cast, but perfectly controlled. It’s a good meaty part, and though Walter plays it to the hilt, he doesn’t overplay it, or project it on the one monotonously menacing note. He shades the role well. He can temper open hostility and incredibly mean-spirited viciousness with sly cunning, subterfuge and even a seemingly transparent if rough yet rascally charm. Yes, Brennan has a great role. He plays it superbly.
Oddly, the next most impressive performance is handed out by Hal Taliaferro. A long-time western star, under the name Wally Wales, Taliaferro must have played hundreds of miniscule roles in the 1940s. His name often appears towards the bottom of cast lists, but it is usually very difficult to pick him out in the crowd. Here for once, he has a comparatively sizable role. Although he makes an extremely late entrance, he provides an extra ingredient in the climax, agreeably complicating the shoot-out and adding a few nice touches to the suspense.
Jack Lambert contributes his usual strong characterization as a surly but none-too-bright offspring, Guinn “Big Boy” Williams turns in a bit of slightly forced comic relief, while Forrest Tucker adequately holds down a none-too-large but unusual role as an opportunistic sheriff.
Production values are unusually good by Republic standards (even if they are helped out by some blue tinted stock and matching main footage in the introductory episode), with locations near Sacramento, a fair bit of action, and above all, as said, Walter Brennan’s riveting performance.
OTHER VIEWS: Indifferent direction and somewhat flat color photography helped out by a fairly entertaining, plot-twisting script and a stand-out portrait by Walter Brennan as an irredeemably mean badman.
— G.A.
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Michele Morgan (Lorna), Robert Cummings (Chuck Scott), Steve Cochran (Eddie Roman), Lloyd Corrigan (Emmerick Johnson), Jack Holt (Commander Davidson), Don Wilson (Fats), Alexis Minotis (Acosta), Nina Koschetz (Madame Chin), Peter Lorre (Gino), Yolanda Lacca (Midnight), James Westerfield (Job), Jimmy Ames (the killer), Shirley O’Hara (manicurist).
Director: ARTHUR RIPLEY. Screenplay: Philip Yordan; from the novel The Black Path of Fear by Cornell Woolrich. Director of photography: Franz F. Planer. Special photographic effects: Ray O. Binger. Sound: Corson Jowett. Music score: Michel Michelet. Music director: Heinz Roemheld. Music supervision: David Chudnow. Art director: Robert Usher. Set decoration: Victor A. Gangelin. Costumes: Bill Edwards; Peter Tuesday for Michele Morgan. Make-up: Don Cash. Hairstyles: Marjorie Lund. Production manager: Joe Popkin. Assistant director: Jack Voglin. Film editor: Edward Mann. Producer: Seymour Nebenzal (Nero Productions). Associate producer: Eugene Frenke.
Copyright 22 November 1946 by Nero Pictures, Inc. Released through United Artists. New York opening at the Globe: 16 November 1946. U.S. release: 22 November 1946. U.K. release: 10 March 1947. Australian release: 13 November 1947. 7,862 feet. 87 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Chuck Scott, a veteran down on his luck, becomes chauffeur for wealthy Miami businessman Eddie Roman as a reward for returning his lost wallet intact. Roman lives extravagantly with his wife, Lorna, and his aide, Gino, who is his only confidant. Chuck learns that Roman is cruel and not altogether a legitimate businessman when he has Gino eliminate a business rival, Emmerick Johnson. Lorna is unhappy and asks Chuck to help her escape to Havana. He agrees, and they plan to leave the next evening. That afternoon Chuck suffers a recurrence of malarial fever and lies down on his bed to rest. He dreams that after arriving in Havana with Lorna, she is stabbed to death and he is quickly arrested for murder.
VIEWER’S GUIDE: Adults.
COMMENT: This remarkable film noir fully deserves its cult reputation as one of the most bizarre yet pictorially stylish thrillers to emerge from Hollywood in the 1940s. For once, all we critics are unanimous.
OTHER VIEWS: The Phantom Lady excepted, The Chase is the best cinematic equivalent of the dark, oppressive atmosphere that characterizes most of Woolrich’s best fiction. He is certainly the most expressionistic if not the most skilled of the Black Mask school. Director Ripley has something of a cult following, but he has not made another picture quite like The Chase. Its fine pictorial quality reflects the rich visual texture of Woolrich’s prose, expertly photographed by Franz Planer, a graduate from the classic period of German cinema.
— Bob Porfirio in Film Noir.
With the names of Robert Cummings, Peter Lorre and Michele Morgan to attract a substantial opening attendance, Seymour Nebenzal's accounting of the melodramatic adventures of a veteran suffering from shock promises to build business as it runs and word of its special characteristics filter through the community. These include, in ample measure, suspense of a kind not often accomplished, plus just about the right portion of mystery. It’s a trim job, expertly written by Philip Yordan and powerfully directed by Arthur D. Ripley...
There’s a dream switch in the narrative at mid-picture which makes it a little confusing for a time, but then the audience is let in on the fact that the chauffeur is a shock case, and has been dreaming a dream inside of a dream, but the whole tangle untangles in a satisfactory manner ultimately, a plenitude of violence having taken place the while.
— Motion Picture Herald.
Following Black Angel, Peter Lorre appeared in The Chase, which was coincidentally based on Cornell Woolrich’s own follow-up in the Black series, The Black Path of Fear (1944 — an expanded version of his 1942 short story “Havana Night”). Lorre’s character, referred to in the film only as Gino, had a more detailed background in the novel. His name was Bruno Giordano, but he had anglicized his surname to Jordan and was described as follows: “His eyes looked at you steady enough, but something had been left out of them. Either it had died out behind them, or else it had never been born in them in the first place. I wouldn’t know what to call it; I’m not good at these things. Even dogs have it in their eyes; he didn’t. Soul, I guess... Something about him gave me the creeps.” Another line that conjures up visions of Lorre’s performance reads, “His drawl was slow and indifferent, and he acted half asleep on his feet.”
— The Films of Peter Lorre by Stephen D. Youngkin, James Bigwood and Raymond G. Cabana Jr.
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Alan Ladd (Ed Adams), Donna Reed (Rosita Jean d’Ur/Ellen Rainer), June Havoc (Leona), Irene Hervey (Belle Dorset), Arthur Kennedy (Tommy Ditman), Berry Kroeger (Solly Wellman), Harold Vermilyea (Anstruder), Shepperd Strudwick (Blacky Franchot), John Beal (Paul Jean d’Ur), Tom Powers (Howard), Gavin Muir (G.G. Temple), Dave Willock (Pig), Paul Lees (Bat), Howard Freeman (Hotspur Shaner), Margaret Field (Minerva), Harry Antrim (Gribbe), Roy Roberts (Jerry Cavanaugh), Marietta Canty (Hazel), Celia Lovsky (Mrs Schleffler), Ottola Nesmith (Sister John), Jack Overman (Lou Horan), Clarence Straight (Nelson), Dick Keene (Spingler), Leona Roberts (Maggie), Carole Mathews (secretary), Gordon Carveth (Marty), Laura Elliott (Marcia), Paul Bryar, Jack Gargan (bartenders), Douglas Carter (waiter), Phyllis Kennedy (maid), Donald Wilmot (copy boy), Jerry James, Eric Alden, Bill Meader, Charley Cooley, Hal Rand, Ralph Montgomery, Lyle Moraine, Douglas Spencer (reporters), Frances Sanford (telephone operator), Marie Blake (operator), Joane and Robert Rexer (specialty act), Joe Whitehead (actor), Dulce Daye (woman), Helen Chapman (girl), Julia Faye (nurse), Pat Lane (assistant undertaker), Harry Cheshire (minister), Arthur Space (Peterson), Jack Roberts, George Magrill (handlers), Jim Davies (second), Ralph Peters (taxi driver), Michael Brandon (reporter).
Director: LEWIS ALLEN. Screenplay: Warren Duff; from the 1943 novel One Woman by Tiffany Thayer. Director of photography: John F. Seitz. Process photography: Farciot Edouart. Sound: Harold Lewis, Gene Garvin. Music score: Victor Young. Art directors: Hans Dreier, Franz Bachelin. Set decoration: Sam Comer, Ross Dowd. Costumes: Mary Kay Dodson. Make-up: Wally Westmore, Hal Lierley. Hairstyles: Elaine Ramsey. Production managers: C. Mick, J. Cottrell. Assistant director: Alvin Ganzer. Script supervisors: Charles Morton, Gene Buck, Jr. Film editor: LeRoy Stone. Producer: Robert Fellows (Paramount).