November 1944: The Children Are Watching Us












Oo. Those are purdy fonts.



Huh? An Italian movie from 1944?

Oh, it’s from the director of Bicycle Thieves, which is a wonderful movie. And this is pretty great, too.

According to this, it was filmed in 1942, before Italy started losing. There’s no mention of the war in this film, although we do see some soldiers in crowd scenes.

Throughout the movie, I was trying to puzzle out whether there’s some sort of ideological component being subtly pushed, but if so I’m not quite sure what it would be. Could be a Kinder, Kuche, Kirche thing… But in Italian. But it doesn’t really seem that way for most of the movie. The ending can definitely be taken that way.

This movie is brimming with emotion, but unusually for an Italian movie, most of them are conveyed subtly, by surreptitious looks and avoidances. The actors are really fabulous here.

The Children Are Watching Us. Vittorio De Sica. 1944.

Popular movies in November 1944 according to IMDB:

PosterVotesRatingMovie
157587.7Meet Me in St. Louis
3547.7Bowery Champs
42777.5Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo
37897.4The Thin Man Goes Home
9297.0Lost in a Harem
14017.0The Princess and the Pirate
2287.0And Now Tomorrow
2906.7Two Thousand Women
5746.6Dark Waters
4246.1Dead Man’s Eyes

This blog post is part of the Decade series.

October 1944: To Have and Have Not















After a couple of cheapies, this is a proper, expensive A movie. I mean, Bogart? Bacall? Howard Hawks? Hemingway? Doesn’t get more A than that.

The movie has been beautifully restored for this bluray release.

I must have seen this movie a few times before (who hasn’t?) because some of the scenes seem awfully familiar. But I did not remember that there were this much music in the movie. You can see the filmmakers trying to make another Casablanca, complete with hit theme music and all, and they almost make it.

I don’t think these people could make a movie that wasn’t pleasurable to watch, but I did find something to be annoyed with: That old coot just gets on my tits.

But it’s just not a good movie. The plot doesn’t go anywhere and nothing much of interest happens. It all rests on the performances. They are, admittedly, wonderful, but it still needs like a script.

To Have and Have Not. Howard Hawks. 1944.

Popular movies in October 1944 according to IMDB:

PosterVotesRatingMovie
330558.1Laura
243698.0To Have and Have Not
99657.8The Woman in the Window
52017.2Ministry of Fear
3277.2The Very Thought of You
10097.0Mrs. Parkington
2826.8An American Romance
2066.6Love Story
17336.6None But the Lonely Heart
7106.5The Conspirators

This blog post is part of the Decade series.

September 1944: Swing Hostess













Oh, another cheapie B-movie from PRC from that box set. The previous movie, Minstrel Man, wasn’t er good, but you never know…

This one seems more promising… for one, there’s no blackface. And the lead’s a better actor.

It’s a real movie, sort of: It’s not just an excuse to string a bunch of songs together. Not just. It’s that, too, but the plot is rather fun and lively.

And very nerdy, involving many convoluted shenanigans with electronic transmission, cutting platters, and related hi-jinx.

It’s swimming in charm and nonsense. Most amiable.

Swing Hostess. Sam Newfield. 1944.

Popular movies in September 1944 according to IMDB:

PosterVotesRatingMovie
560618.1Arsenic and Old Lace
21717.1Tall in the Saddle
2056.6The Impatient Years
2906.5Strangers in the Night
7446.4The Big Noise
5106.3Frenchman’s Creek
2946.2Crime by Night
2426.2Greenwich Village

This blog post is part of the Decade series.

August 1944: Minstrel Man

















This is another B movie from that DVD box set. The transfer is pretty good here — while some of these have been sourced from torrents, this looks like a straight from film to DVD transfer. Hm… it might have been done via high quality video tape… There’s some typical tape ghosting going on.

It was nominated for a couple of music-related Oscars, and the music is indeed pretty good.

There isn’t much of a story here. It’s basically just a filmed “minstrel show” (i.e., white performers in blackface) with some not-very-developed drama to pad the movie out some.

The singing’s OK, but the “minstrel” comedy bits are offensively boring. All the jokes seem to be basically “aren’t those black people stupid, eh?”

But it’s not… horribly bad? I was entertained. Perhaps the biggest problem is the lead, Benny Fields, who is as expressive as a two by four. And probably as smart.

Plenty of good supporting performances keep the movie somewhat afloat. For instance, Judy Clark is so effervescently bubbling that you have to see it to believe it.

Minstrel Man. Joseph H. Lewis. 1944.

Popular movies in August 1944 according to IMDB:

PosterVotesRatingMovie
33387.8Hail the Conquering Hero
29417.5The Pearl of Death
15977.5In Society
10487.0Black Magic
4906.8When Strangers Marry
7066.4Casanova Brown
3666.4The Doughgirls
7256.3The Great Moment
3826.2The Falcon in Mexico
2726.2Maisie Goes to Reno

This blog post is part of the Decade series.

July 1944: Summer Storm












Yay! Douglas Sirk! Mah favourite. I was a bit in the mood for a comedy after the last movie, but whatevs.

I’m such a fan that I apparently bought two copies:

Wow. This has Edward Everett Horton in a kinda-sorta serious role. I don’t think I’ve seen that before.

I mean, it’s Anton Chekhov (it’s The Shooting Party, which you’ve probably read), so there’s a limit to how serious it can be.

Unfortunately, this DVD isn’t particularly restored. The video looks fine, but the audio is awfully hissy. I can sometimes be difficult to pick out the witty Russian repartee.

I have to say that this seems like an extremely weird movie to make in 1944. It’s a very straightforward adaptation without any wartime allusions that I can see… I mean, it’s not that all movies during this period were “relevant” or anything, but this is supremely incongruous.

And it’s just so ordinary. I would not have guessed that this was Sirk if I didn’t know. I can’t really see anything much of interest here. It’s so cookie cutter.

Chekhov’s sensibilities don’t quite line up with Sirk’s. Sirk would be on Olga’s side, but Chekhov doesn’t really allow that.

Summer Storm. Douglas Sirk. 1944.

Popular movies in July 1944 according to IMDB:

PosterVotesRatingMovie
3327.9Block Busters
18167.4The Seventh Cross
10376.9Wilson
19386.9The Canterville Ghost
3036.9Summer Storm
10996.9Wing and a Prayer
3126.8Mr. Winkle Goes to War
2816.3The Hairy Ape
8786.2Dragon Seed
3536.2Step Lively

This blog post is part of the Decade series.