Random Thoughts

Oh, wow! I know this storyline!

I’ve been listening to old Norwegian radio dramas while walking the last year, and there was a 50s serial about an invalid woman overhearing a murder plot on a crossed line on the telephone, and then trying to do something about it — all over the phone.

So the story has basically one single setting: A woman, in a bed, talking on the phone. And they made this into a movie?

Me am intrigue!

I am unfamiliar with the director, Anatole Litvak, but one of the ways he solves the problems is to use a constantly roving camera that haunts the other rooms of the house, giving us background.

But the other ways they’ve making this more movie-like aren’t as interesting. They’ve added a bunch of flashbacks and expansions to the plot. Well, basically changing the entire plot, I think? Or… was the Norwegian version extremely condensed? I don’t know!

They lose most of the tension with all the flashbacks.

Barbara Stanwyck is wonderful in bed. I mean, acting wise.

Oh, wow::

Lucille Fletcher’s play originally aired on the Suspense radio program on May 25, 1943, essentially a one-woman show with Agnes Moorehead as Mrs. Stevenson. The play was reprised seven times, each starring Moorehead. The final broadcast was on February 14, 1960.

I’d love to listen to any of those versions.

Sorry, Wrong Number. Anatole Litvak. 1948.

Popular movies in September 1948 according to IMDB:

Poster	Votes	Rating	Movie
	3323	7.8	Johnny Belinda
	4868	7.6	Macbeth
	7583	7.5	Sorry, Wrong Number
	1608	7.3	Road House
	274	7.2	Dédée d’Anvers
	1439	7.2	Cry of the City
	1486	7.0	Rachel and the Stranger
	1207	7.0	Louisiana Story
	584	6.9	The Luck of the Irish
	659	6.7	Station West

This blog post is part of the Decade series.

Huh! The previous movie was also an Eagle-Lion thing. How odd I’ve bought two of these in sequence.

At least this had been restored properly; the Amazing Mr. X looked horrible.

This is noir, though, and is told from the viewpoint of a bunch of small-time (wannabe) gangsters. I don’t think I’ve seen a movie quite like this before. It makes a lot of unusual (for its time) aesthetic choices, as in not using a score to tell the viewers how to feel all the time.

It feels fresh and unsettling.

Back in those days, they felt they had to make criminal protagonists somewhat more palatable by having the people who are after them be even worse people, and they use that for great effect here. We forget that he’s a ruthless killer for minutes at a time!

These days, of course, they’ll just have TV series starring the worst psychopaths and people will totally root for them anyway.

The plot is preposterous and all the more fun for that. But there’s a twist is signalled so thoroughly that when it comes to actually do the fatal mistake, it’s a bit “Paul, pleez.”

Joan Bennett is wonderfully cynical.

It’s almost a perfect little gem of a movie.

The Scar. Steve Sekely. 1948.

Popular movies in August 1948 according to IMDB:

Poster	Votes	Rating	Movie
	427	8.1	Los tres huastecos
	99735	8.0	Rope
	831	7.8	The Winslow Boy
	22264	7.8	Red River
	5844	7.8	The Fallen Idol
	4504	7.6	They Live by Night
	1654	7.2	Pitfall
	954	7.1	L’amore
	409	7.0	Four Faces West
	656	7.0	Julia Misbehaves

This blog post is part of the Decade series.

Wow, this is a bad DVD transfer. Looks like it’s been sourced from VHS via an NTSC broadcast.

But never mind. This is fun! It’s a horror movie, sort of. Or perhaps thriller? It’s kinda thrilling, anyway.

Being able to see what was going on would perhaps have been even better, but it works anyway.

That crow!

At the end of the day, it’s an entertaining piece of fluff. I’m not sure what it’s at the start of the day, though.

The Amazing Mr. X. Bernard Vorhaus. 1948.

Popular movies in July 1948 according to IMDB:

Poster	Votes	Rating	Movie
	20996	8.3	The Red Shoes
	29728	7.9	Key Largo
	689	7.1	Superman
	646	6.8	The Velvet Touch
	488	6.7	Coroner Creek
	832	6.6	A Date with Judy
	1007	6.5	The Amazing Mr. X
	535	6.3	Return of the Bad Men
	554	6.1	Blonde Ice
	758	5.5	The Babe Ruth Story

This blog post is part of the Decade series.

I can see! In colour!

Based on the name I thought this was going to be a cheap B movie, but instead it’s an Irving Berlin extravaganza! With Fred Astaire and Judy Garland!

But like I guessed by the “parade” name, this is basically a bunch of songs and dances and skits with some nonsensical plot to tie it all loosely together.

Which is fine by me!

It’s odd watching Astaire in colour and in 2K. He looks so… highly resoluted. (That’s a word.) For the first five minutes I was going “is that really Fred? Is it really? Is it?”

But then he started dancing.

:

It was the most financially successful picture for both Garland and Astaire as well as the highest-grossing musical of the year.

But I can see why. This is effortlessly funny. It’s a kind of Eliza Doolittle thing, really, and Judy Garland is hilarious here. And she hoofs it impressively.

The Ann Miller tap scene tops everything, though. Amazeballs.

Easter Parade. Charles Walters. 1948.

Popular movies in June 1948 according to IMDB:

Poster	Votes	Rating	Movie
	8962	7.8	Oliver Twist
	6681	7.5	Easter Parade
	4995	7.4	A Foreign Affair
	1968	7.1	The Street with No Name
	1284	7.0	Romance on the High Seas
	272	6.7	Canon City
	243	6.3	Green Grass of Wyoming

This blog post is part of the Decade series.

Directed by Laurence Olivier, this is pretty spiffy. Lots of weird little touches.

It’s not filmed theatre at all — it’s all movie.

I didn’t recognise Olivier at all. Perhaps I’ve just seen him in much later movies? Or is it just the blond(e)ness? He’s fabulous here, anyway.

We’ve all seen Hamlet way too many times, right? But this version seems so fresh. Despite my expectations, I found myself riveted. I think this may well be the best version I’ve seen?

Yes.

Even if it doesn’t include Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. It feels very compact, even if it’s two and a half hours. And that means that it’s all psychodrama and doesn’t have all the funny and or political bits.

Oh, huh. It won all the Oscars that year, which I didn’t expect, either.

But even so, it’s great. The only major misstep is the casting of Horatio. He’s just an oafish non-entity here. And it’s a bit weird that Hamlet’s mother is obviously much younger than Hamlet is, but they make it work.

Did Olivier want to play Hamlet as he was really a lunatic instead of playing at being one? This version seems to be open to that interpretation… Especially when you mix the incestuous bits with his mother in.

Hamlet. Laurence Olivier. 1948.

Popular movies in May 1948 according to IMDB:

Poster	Votes	Rating	Movie
	12250	7.8	Hamlet
	2758	7.4	Raw Deal
	406	7.1	The Fuller Brush Man
	3410	7.1	The Pirate
	662	6.9	Miranda
	2180	6.8	Berlin Express
	874	6.6	The Woman in White
	783	6.6	Silver River
	851	6.5	The Time of Your Life
	3366	6.5	Melody Time

This blog post is part of the Decade series.