Random Thoughts

Quite a few of these late-40s DVDs have been from Olive Films, a company I was previously unaware existed. Is this a new iteration of one of the older quality-minded DVD companies? Like… uhm… Eureka? Artificial Eye? Curzon? Tartan? I know that some of those have gone under and been resurrected under other names…

All the Olive movies look great. They aren’t super-restored or anything (you can definitely see the film grain and the wear of the film stock), but that just adds charm. The discs look really sharp and cool.

But there’s not a lot extra features: At most, just the ad for the movie in question.

Anyway!

This is a Max Ophüls movie, so big, big drama, expertly shot. The first half hour of this film feels really special: We get an excellent portrait of a woman navigating her possibilities.

But when she marries, the movie loses interest. The husband is so awful that the scenes become a chore to watch. But then it gets interesting again. I really like Barbara Bel Geddes understated performance.

Contemporary reviewers didn’t much like it:

Handsome production values have been wasted on a complicated, unpleasant story that is a curious hodge-podge of romance and psychological melodrama … It is an odd picture, impressive in many respects and ‘corny’ in others, but on the whole too contrived and implausible.

That’s true. And there are parts of the ending I rolled my eyes at, but this is a pretty solid movie.

Caught. Max Ophüls. 1949.

Popular movies in February 1949 according to IMDB:

Poster	Votes	Rating	Movie
	269	7.7	Salón México
	573	7.4	Down to the Sea in Ships
	1518	6.9	I Shot Jesse James
	2320	6.9	Knock on Any Door
	422	6.8	The History of Mr. Polly
	1154	6.7	The Bribe
	293	6.6	Flaxy Martin
	437	6.5	Cover Up
	276	6.0	John Loves Mary
	360	5.9	Tarzan’s Magic Fountain

This blog post is part of the Decade series.

*gasp* Nineteen fortynine! I just have 12 more movies to go for this blog project!

This is pretty good. We get presented with three women’s lives, possibly at a pivotal point for any of them, and it’s pretty interesting. But mainly I’m wondering whether Ingmar Bergman saw this movie and then thought, hmm, I can do this a lot better. And then did.

Because this pales in comparison with that movie, of course.

Still: It’s a solid movie. It’s mainly let down by the performances; and mainly the performances of the men. I don’t really buy any of them as real characters.

The disc includes the radio play (that the movie’s based on?), and it’s a lot funnier than the movie. The movie goes for pathos, while the radio play goes for slapstick. It’s fun!

A Letter To Three Wives. Joseph L. Mankiewicz. 1949.

Popular movies in January 1949 according to IMDB:

Poster	Votes	Rating	Movie
	6538	7.9	A Letter to Three Wives
	1552	7.7	The Passionate Friends
	5293	7.6	Criss Cross
	3206	7.5	Act of Violence
	504	6.9	The Accused
	245	6.8	The Sun Comes Up
	817	6.6	Shockproof
	1019	6.1	A Woman’s Secret

This blog post is part of the Decade series.

Hm… that’s a very familiar name? Oh, yeah, that’s what I thought: Orson Welles did a movie with a similar name.

This is definitely not that one.

It’s John Garfield playing a mobster(ish) lawyer. It’s about the intricacies of running a numbers game. Basically everybody in this movie are crooks.

I don’t know. I didn’t connect with this movie at all. It’s just not very interesting.

I do like the cluttered, dirty look of the interiors. It’s either very thoughtfully done or it’s filmed on a perfect location.

Force of Evil. Abraham Polonsky. 1948.

Popular movies in December 1948 according to IMDB:

Poster	Votes	Rating	Movie
	4817	7.8	Portrait of Jennie
	3230	7.5	Yellow Sky
	4366	7.4	Force of Evil
	1557	7.3	Command Decision
	715	7.3	Enchantment
	2203	7.0	Adventures of Don Juan
	243	6.9	The Feathered Serpent
	2905	6.9	The Paleface
	930	6.8	Mexican Hayride
	626	6.8	Jungle Jim

This blog post is part of the Decade series.

Oops! I was supposed to watch this before the previous movie, but I got confused because the first copy of this DVD arrived broken and I had to get another one in and then etc.

But here it is! June Bride!

Bette Davis! And… people…

I didn’t think Davis did that many comedies, but this is at least the third funny movie I’ve seen her in during this blog series.

Ooh! Mary Wickes is in this! Mah favourite.

I guess this could easily have been a Katharine Hepburn/Cary Grant movie. It’s fun and easy on the brain. It’s so… welcoming? You know how this is going to turn out, and there’s a ton of jokes and stuff on the way there, and it’s just a perfect little movie.

The only slight problem is that Robert Montgomery isn’t quite Cary Grant. Bette Davis isn’t Katharine Hepburn, either, but she’s Bette Davis instead, which is even better!

This is just about perfect. I laughed a lot (out loud) and the rest of the time it’s exceedingly amiable. But there’s just something about it that makes it not be “Bringing Up Baby”. But it’s almost there. Almost. What spoils it is the anti-woman-as-boss subtext (and text).

But… it’s so much fun.

June Bride. Bretaigne Windust. 1948.

Popular movies in October 1948 according to IMDB:

Poster	Votes	Rating	Movie
	575	7.5	Quartet
	665	7.3	Apartment for Peggy
	1145	7.3	June Bride
	1103	7.2	Moonrise
	4660	7.2	The Three Musketeers
	759	7.1	Night Has a Thousand Eyes
	1621	7.1	A Song Is Born
	631	6.9	Kiss the Blood Off My Hands
	482	6.8	You Gotta Stay Happy
	463	6.1	Inner Sanctum

This blog post is part of the Decade series.

He’s on the down low here.

It feels like forever since I saw the previous movie. But it’s been only… two weeks? Last weekend was Copenhagen.

Oh wow! This is written, directed and produced by Preston Sturges, the director I wasn’t aware of before doing this blog series, but who’s become a new favourite after Christmas in July and Sullivan’s Travels and The Great McGinty! How weird that I picked out four of his movies when I started buying for this blog series. I did choose movies based on popularity, so I guess that his movies were extremely popular at the time, and I just somehow didn’t know…

Unfortunately, it looks like his directorial career was just 13 movies long, so including this movie, I’ve seen about one third of it. I’ll have to get the other movies later…

But! Me am excite!

This starts off delightfully. Rex Harrison is beyond perfection here, and there’s so many enjoyable little scenes here, like the orchestra rehearsal (I always love those bits) with the enthusiastic percussionist.

But… then we get to middle part of the movie, where Harrison imagines several ways to confront his wife about her supposed infidelity. I see what Sturges was going for, really: A fun explorations of various possible scenarios. It’s very writerly. But the possibilities aren’t that entertaining. Sturges is great a comedy telent, but the insistence of Harrison being the only one with any agency in this section makes you go “eeeh?”

That bit is more interesting than entertaining.

But then Sturges makes it all up to us with the hilarious prolonged (which seems like it’s filmed in one genius one long shot) scene where Harrison is searching the apt! I laughed until I cried.

This is a very funny movie, but it’s not perfect. I’m definitely going to see the rest of his films at some point.

And Terry Jones talks for fifteen minutes as one of the extras on the DVD.

And the half hour with Sandy Sturges is fascinating.

Well done, Criterion. *slow clap*

Unfaithfully Yours. Preston Sturges. 1948.

Popular movies in November 1948 according to IMDB:

Poster	Votes	Rating	Movie
	5121	7.7	The Snake Pit
	3725	7.7	Unfaithfully Yours
	3283	7.2	He Walked by Night
	6400	7.2	3 Godfathers
	936	7.2	So Dear to My Heart
	1187	7.0	Scott of the Antarctic
	1507	6.9	Blood on the Moon
	407	6.9	An Act of Murder
	1980	6.8	The Boy with Green Hair
	514	6.7	That Wonderful Urge

This blog post is part of the Decade series.