Random Thoughts

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:

Poster	Votes	Rating	Movie
	528	7.5	Shadows Over Chinatown
	208	7.2	Wanted for Murder
	1708	7.1	Anna and the King of Siam
	233	6.9	Smoky
	203	6.8	In Fast Company
	297	6.6	Two Smart People

This blog post is part of the Decade series.

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:

Poster	Votes	Rating	Movie
	14584	7.6	The Postman Always Rings Twice
	1812	7.6	Cluny Brown
	2181	7.4	A Stolen Life
	14208	7.4	The Stranger
	3090	7.2	The Dark Corner
	836	7.2	Dark Alibi
	4874	7.1	A Night in Casablanca
	1626	7.1	Somewhere in the Night
	4090	7.0	Dressed to Kill
	295	6.9	Bad Bascomb

This blog post is part of the Decade series.

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:

Poster	Votes	Rating	Movie
	5817	7.2	The Blue Dahlia
	584	7.1	The Green Years
	2632	7.0	Dragonwyck
	2692	6.9	Bedlam
	351	6.7	Two Sisters from Boston
	579	6.7	Devotion
	304	6.6	Mysterious Intruder
	256	6.5	The Falcon’s Alibi
	721	6.5	The Virginian
	2495	6.4	Make Mine Music

This blog post is part of the Decade series.

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:

Poster	Votes	Rating	Movie
	1721	7.8	To Each His Own
	675	7.1	The Captive Heart
	304	7.0	Two Years Before the Mast
	292	6.8	Sentimental Journey
	780	6.8	The Kid from Brooklyn
	380	6.8	Night Editor
	316	6.6	From This Day Forward
	442	6.5	Strange Impersonation
	478	6.3	House of Horrors
	247	5.3	Swing Parade of 1946

This blog post is part of the Decade series.

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:

Poster	Votes	Rating	Movie
	21302	7.8	Gilda
	6983	7.5	The Spiral Staircase
	974	7.4	Little Giant
	4027	7.0	Terror by Night
	1204	6.8	Deadline at Dawn
	926	6.7	The Diary of a Chambermaid
	345	6.6	Behind Green Lights
	337	5.8	The Bandit of Sherwood Forest
	283	4.9	The Flying Serpent

This blog post is part of the Decade series.