June 1946: Anna and the King of Siam















Barbaric!

I don’t know… Irene Dunne is fun, of course. Rex Harrison as the king of Siam is… as you’d expect?

But there’s something kinda loathsome about this film. It gets generally positive reviews, but it’s… horrifying and dreary.

I really struggled to get through the last five hours of this horrid thing.

Anna and the King of Siam. John Cromwell. 1946.

Popular movies in June 1946 according to IMDB:

PosterVotesRatingMovie
5287.5Shadows Over Chinatown
2087.2Wanted for Murder
17087.1Anna and the King of Siam
2336.9Smoky
2036.8In Fast Company
2976.6Two Smart People

This blog post is part of the Decade series.

May 1946: The Postman Always Rings Twice











Wow! This just looks so… restored! It’s the crispest 40s movie I’ve seen. This 2K bluray isn’t even a Criterion release.

Oh, this is the one that was remade with Jessica Lange and Jack Nicholson, but I don’t think I’ve seen this version.

I can’t get over just how weird and abrupt this movie is. It’s fascinating; it’s like it’s written by somebody who doesn’t quite understand how movies work.

So weird.

The Postman Always Rings Twice. Tay Garnett. 1946.

Popular movies in May 1946 according to IMDB:

PosterVotesRatingMovie
145847.6The Postman Always Rings Twice
18127.6Cluny Brown
21817.4A Stolen Life
142087.4The Stranger
30907.2The Dark Corner
8367.2Dark Alibi
48747.1A Night in Casablanca
16267.1Somewhere in the Night
40907.0Dressed to Kill
2956.9Bad Bascomb

This blog post is part of the Decade series.

April 1946: The Blue Dahlia





















Oh, written by Raymond Chandler and with Veronica Lake and Alan Ladd. We’re out of B movie territory, finally.

Not that there’s anything wrong with B movies.

Wow! This is some kinda noir masterpiece! There’s just so much in here! Ladd’s semi-mute stoicicity (that’s a word). Lake’s dead-pan witty repartee. William Bendix simmering like some kind of natural force of violence and chaos. The rain. The cars. The bars.

It’s just kinda a little perfect thing.

A dizzying array of noir-ish twists and an ending I didn’t see coming.

It’s fabulous.

The Blue Dahlia. George Marshall. 1946.

Popular movies in April 1946 according to IMDB:

PosterVotesRatingMovie
58177.2The Blue Dahlia
5847.1The Green Years
26327.0Dragonwyck
26926.9Bedlam
3516.7Two Sisters from Boston
5796.7Devotion
3046.6Mysterious Intruder
2566.5The Falcon’s Alibi
7216.5The Virginian
24956.4Make Mine Music

This blog post is part of the Decade series.

March 1946: Strange Impersonation












Well, this is a strange little movie. Barely an hour long and filmed on cheap (but nice (with the least convincing lab set ever in the history of ever)) sound stages, but it seems to have some ambition.

It’s a B movie film noir/mystery thing, and is kinda unusual in that all the characters that do something are all women, leaving the menfolk mostly just to react (and not understand what’s going on).

It’s pretty good. Director Anthony Mann would go on to greater fame later…

Strange Impersonation. Anthony Mann. 1946.

Popular movies in March 1946 according to IMDB:

PosterVotesRatingMovie
17217.8To Each His Own
6757.1The Captive Heart
3047.0Two Years Before the Mast
2926.8Sentimental Journey
7806.8The Kid from Brooklyn
3806.8Night Editor
3166.6From This Day Forward
4426.5Strange Impersonation
4786.3House of Horrors
2475.3Swing Parade of 1946

This blog post is part of the Decade series.

February 1946: Breakfast in Hollywood













Perhaps I should have limited the number of movies from the 50 movie box set of (presumably public-domain) small-studio musical comedies for this blog series, but some of them have been unexpected gems. The vast majority are just vaudeville skits with some dialogue to fill in the gaps.

Just like the previous movie, this is about a variety/comedy/audience participation game show radio show. Must have been a craze around the time?

This is kinda amusing, but it’s basically a filmed version of the radio show.

The plot-ey bits turn rather abusive: It’s about a guy meeting a girl who doesn’t want to meet him, really, and via the usual complications the radio show host ends up having her arrested when she’s escaping Hollywood. It all ends happily with all the right people hooking up.

That bit’s kinda creepy.

Breakfast in Hollywood. Harold D. Schuster. 1946.

Popular movies in February 1946 according to IMDB:

PosterVotesRatingMovie
213027.8Gilda
69837.5The Spiral Staircase
9747.4Little Giant
40277.0Terror by Night
12046.8Deadline at Dawn
9266.7The Diary of a Chambermaid
3456.6Behind Green Lights
3375.8The Bandit of Sherwood Forest
2834.9The Flying Serpent

This blog post is part of the Decade series.