Strange Woman (1946)

“The lips of a strange woman drip honey, and her mouth is smoother than oil... But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword!”

            In life you may have heard to never trust beautiful people. I guess in a way it could be true because the world, especially here in the U.S of A, worships the beautiful and wants everything about them. I guess you should not trust beautiful people because they could seduce others into doing things for them and manipulate others. The 1946 film Strange Woman deals with a woman from the late 1800s who was one such type of beautiful person that no one should ever have trusted.

            Ever since Jenny Heger (Hedy Lemarr) was young she could always get her way. As a girl she told her drunken father that she would become rich and wear nice clothes. When she is older Jenny likes to flirt with all the men who come in to work in the town lumber mill. Her father is still an awful drunk and beats her one night. He collapses and Jenny runs to her neighbor Isaiah Poster’s house for safety. Isaiah and two other men discuss what they are going to do with Jenny. They cannot just release her onto the town her reputation is not good enough for everyone’s charity. They decide that Jenny will marry Isaiah even though he has a young son Jenny’s age.

            Isaiah’s son Ephraim comes home from school. He does not trust himself with Jenny and for good reason since she is gorgeous. Of course Jenny is not happy being married to an old man and immediately begins to work her seductiveness on Ephraim. Isaiah comes close to dying when he comes down with a bad fever. When it is announced that Isaiah will be ok Jenny just nervously laughs. Isaiah becomes angry with his wife and son. He knows Jenny is not happy being married to him.

            Because I paid such awesome attention to this film somehow Ephraim makes the small canoe he and his father some of the lumber workers tip over and Isaiah drowns. And I am not sure if Jenny was in it on it or not but she becomes an uber bitch and blames him when he comes home after the “accident”.

            It is not long until Jenny has her claws into John Evered (George Sanders), Isaiah’s foreman. They do love each other and are happy together until Jenny hears a sermon at church about beautiful women and them being evil. Jenny takes that sermon to heart and it goes to head. She kind of goes a little nuts and confesses to John that she and Ephraim had worked to kill Isaiah.

            Eventually Jenny goes a little nuts and dies after driving her carriage a little too fast and hitting a rock and the carriage goes over a cliff side.

            I was not too crazy about Strange Woman. Hedy Lemarr and George Sanders were great but the story and their characters were not good. I was bored with the story almost right from the beginning which never bodes well with how I perceive the rest of the film (plus, I have ADHD and if something does not grab a hold of my attention quickly it spells disaster). I think Strange Woman as a Film Noir is interesting because it is set in the 1800s and not the present time of the 1940s. Jenny Heger was definitely a femme fatale with the way she used her seduction and how she used men to her advantage. I am not too familiar with Hedy Lemarr’s filmography so I am not sure if she was ever in any other Noirs, if she was not I would have really liked to have seen her as a traditional 1940s femme fatale. I must confess I have wanted to watch Strange Woman because of the poster. It was drawn in the surrealist style and I thought it would be a screw-with-your-mind type film and I was sorely let down.

            I will only say to watch Strange Woman if you really like Film Noirs or if you like Hedy Lemarr otherwise skip it. 

All About Eve (1950)

“Nothing is forever in the theater.”

            Have you ever thought what lengths you would go to meet your favorite actor/actress/celebrity? Hopefully you are not a creepy stalker who knows absolutely everything about them and follows them all over the place. I am a fan girl over several actors and actresses but I would never dream of going to extraordinary lengths to meet them. I have been to comic conventions (met Kristen Bell!) and book signings (met Tina Fey! And meeting Mamrie Hart in May!) and that is the only length I will go to. I will pay to go to signings and comic conventions or if the chance came about to get backstage passes for musicians if I have the cash.

            Many fans dream of meeting their favorite celebrities after a show or behind the scenes of a movie, becoming friends with them, and then somehow becoming famous through their celebrity friend. The 1950 film All About Eve takes that dream and gives it a good twist.

            The film begins at an award ceremony for the theater. Theater critic Addison DeWitt (George Sanders) begins his narration by introducing the characters in the story that will be told. He is telling his story as an old stage actor goes on talking before introducing the star of the night Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter).

            Eve’s assent into the New York theater elite the day she met Karen Richards (Celeste Holm) outside a theater after a show. Karen is friends with the show’s star Margot Channing (Bette Davis) whom Eve idolizes. Eve has been to every single performance and she likes the plays by the playwright Lloyd Richards, Karen’s husband. Margot puts on a fake act and is nothing but nice to her fan.  Margot asks Eve her life’s story. Eve tells them that she was from a poor farm out in Wisconsin, she moved to Milwaukee to work in a beer plant, she married a soldier who died, and she stayed out in San Diego where she had gone to see her husband before she knew he died.

            Margot takes Eve on as a friend and assistant. She tells her boyfriend Bill that she feels protective of Eve. After a show one night Eve comes to take Margot’s costume to the costume master. Margot realizes that was not a good idea because the costume master would be upset, when she opens the door she sees Eve with the costume in her hand looking at herself in a mirror.

             Over time Eve begins to show her true colors. She is a conniving, scheming woman who wants nothing more than to be an actress on the stage. She climbed and scratched her over Margot, Karen, Bill, and Lloyd to get the leading role in Lloyd’s new play. She sided with Addison who is as greasy and conniving himself but he is the only who sees Eve for who she really is.

            In the end Eve gets a taste of her own medicine with a fan of hers waiting in her room to meet her.

            The story made me think how Eve meeting Margot and becoming so close to her the way she did would most likely never happen today. I kept thinking if Eve were around today she would be that fan that sees Margot at all the conventions and signings and writes fan fiction based off her theater characters and people in her personal life. If Margot made films and was in TV shows Eve would be that one fan that has seen all of Margot’s filmography and make gif sets out of them. (I swear to you I am not a thirteen year old fan girl who makes gif sets and writes fan fiction… I am worse I am twenty-seven and fan girl over certain things like I am a thirteen year old! Tumblr is my best friend and I have recently become addicted to twitter [follow me: @cinethusiast].I do draw the absolute line at fan fiction, making gif sets, and feeling the need to know every detail about a celebrity. I fan girl over their final products such as films or music)

            All About Eve is a film I had been meaning to see for a while after hearing how it is one of the greatest films of all time and Bette Davis was great. I did not hype it up I have learned not to do so in my several years of being a film fanatic and writing this blog. Even though I did not hype All About Eve up I felt let down. I only felt let down by the acting I really did not like the acting at all. Davis was alright I like her but she just always seems to overact. George Sanders is usually plays interesting characters in his films and here as Addison DeWitt he was just alright because the character was dull. Ann Baxter was decent just not to the point where she should have been nominated for an Academy Award for the role. Celeste Holm I will say was great I have yet to see her in a bad role. Marilyn Monroe shows up for a time as a young woman who wants to become an actress. She was very good. As soon as she comes on screen she commands your attention among the older actors not just because of her looks there was just something there in her that made you pay attention. I can see why All About Eve is considered one of the greatest films ever made because Joseph L. Mankiewicz wrote an amazing screenplay and his direction is beautiful. Other than the writing and the direction I could not get into the film. Despite my feelings I will say that All About Eve is worth seeing at least once just to say you have seen it if you really like film.

 

Journey to Italy (1954)

“Are you sure you know when I'm happy?”

“No, ever since we left on this trip I'm not so sure. I realised for the first time that we... we're like strangers.”

“That's right. After eight years of marriage, it seems like we don't know anything about each other.”

“At home everything seemed so perfect, but now that we're away, alone...

Yes, it's a strange discovery to make.”

            Journey to Italy is the first Roberto Rossellini film I have seen. I had always wanted to see a Rossellini film especially his films with Ingrid Bergman. From all that I have heard of Rossellini about being one of the greatest directors ever I figured I could not go wrong with whatever film of his I chose to see first. From the moment Journey to Italy started I could see why Rossellini is given such acclaim.

            Katherine and Alex Joyce (Ingrid Bergman and George Sanders) are traveling to Italy from London to sell a villa she has inherited from her uncle. Katherine brings up that this is the first time in their eight years of marriage that they will be truly alone together. She also says that since the beginning of the trip they have been like two strangers. Alex replies that in the eight years they have been married they barely know each other. That night they stay at a hotel in Naples. Alex sees a group of friends and he and Katherine have dinner with them. Katherine notices the whole night Alex talks to one of the women in a flirtatious manner. The next morning she comments on him flirting but he tells her not to be jealous.

            They drive down to the villa for a few days. Katherine and Alex are shown around the villa by a young man who had befriended her uncle. The gorgeous scenery of Pompeii and Capri immediately takes hold of Katherine. After lunch Alex finds Katherine resting lazily in a chair on the balcony. She tells him when she was younger there was a man named Charles who loved her and used to write poetry for her. The way Katherine tells her story it sounds to Alex as if she is still in love with him and becomes a bit jealous. The next morning Katherine tells her husband that she is going to a museum and he meanly asks if she will be meeting up with her poet lover and he replies that maybe she is (she does not she really does just go to a museum). At the museum the guide keeps pointing out objects that relate to Katherine’s current situation with Alex. The look of uneasiness and distress is all over her face.

            The couple is invited to a party at a duke’s apartment. Katherine is seated with a group of gentlemen. She has a good time speaking to them. Alex sees her laughing with them from across the room and once again becomes jealous. When they get back to the villa Alex says it would be better for them if they got a divorce since they no longer love each other. Katherine agrees but not wholeheartedly. Alex tells her he is going down to Capri to visit his friends for a few days.

            While Alex is away Katherine realizes she does love him. Alex even figures the same about Katherine. He arrives back to Naples by ferry in the afternoon but he does not return to the villa right away. Katherine waits for him to come back all night. When he does return to the villa he does not even check on her. Katherine calls out to him saying she was in a deep sleep and did not know if it was he who was in the bathroom. The next day her uncle’s young friend insists they come to Pompeii with him where he has been part of an archaeological dig of the city. They arrive in time to see two archaeologists pour plaster into a pocket of earth where bodies have been found. The archaeologists have uncovered a couple who died together when Vesuvius exploded. Katherine becomes upset thinking of her marriage and how it has fallen apart.

            Driving back to the villa from Pompeii, Alex says that he will fly back to London to begin divorce proceedings. They are stopped when they reach the center of the city as a parade goes by. They get out of the car to watch since it will be some time before the car moves. The crowd moves and pulls Katherine away from Alex. She cries for him to come and save her before she becomes lost. Alex pulls her out of the crowd and when they are in each other’s arms they admit their pride has gotten in the way and they do love one another.

            My summary of the film is not good at all. Trust me when I say the story is excellent.

            To some the story of an older English couple whose marriage is falling apart may sound boring. What makes this story so much different than others like it is that it has no melodramatic moments. Katherine acts like a woman who I still in love with her husband but she does not get all dramatic and pleading. Alex acts like man full of pride but not once does he show if he tortured or not.  

            Ingrid Bergman and George Sanders were perfect together. Both of them were fantastic actors and I think because of that they had so much chemistry together (but as I always say Ingrid Bergman was so amazing she could have had chemistry with a stick). What I loved about them in this film is that all the emotions were on their faces never in their words. Never once did either of them voice aloud how they were feeling to each other when deep down they were struggling with their feelings. Their emotions were on their faces when they were not with each other making their scenes together a bit tense.

            In a review of the film someone brought up the point that the scenery and the atmosphere of Naples becomes a third character. Looking back on the film and the story the reviewer is correct. Right from the beginning of the film Katherine comments how their change of scenery has made them feel like strangers and throughout the story wherever they go their surroundings affects their moods and thoughts acting like a conscious.

            Roberto Rossellini made a visually stunning film. I loved every scene he filmed of the people and streets of Naples. Ingrid Bergman was made to be filmed in Rossellini’s style. She looked stunning in every scene. Her acting was perfect for the way Rossellini made these characters seem so real. The scene that makes the whole film worth watching is at the end when Alex and Katherine are in Pompeii. At this moment with his camera Rossellini captured a flood of emotion. He captured not only Katherine’s fragile emotion of love and loss but also of ours. We feel terrible seeing what we imagine to be a young couple who died in love with each other.

            I enjoyed every minutes of Journey to Italy. I enjoyed Rossellini’s direction and the acting by Ingrid Bergman and George Sanders. What I loved the most were the gorgeous scenes of Naples. I highly recommend seeing Journey to Italy. Hulu has it available to stream. Unfortunately it is not available on DVD in the United States.

 

Rage in Heaven (1941)

Rage in Heaven is one of those classic films that to me had potential to be a well known psychological drama from the early 1940s but only came this close because of one issue. The issue happens to be, unfortunately, Robert Montgomery’s acting. There is not much mystery to the plot it is just interesting to see how Montgomery’s character unravels and brings people along with him and purposely does so.

            Friends Philip Monrell (Robert Montgomery) and Ward Andrews (George Sanders) meet each other for the first time in ages at a hotel in London. Philip invites Ward back to his family home in the country. When the men arrive they are met by Philip’s mother’s new secretary Stella Bergan (Ingrid Bergman). Stella is very pretty and both men are immediately taken with her. The next day she goes out horseback riding with Ward. It is clear that he is in love with her but she says that she does not plan to stay long with Mrs. Monrell she is young and wants to see the world. On the way back Ward finds a kitten in the woods and gives it to Stella.

            When Ward returns back to work in Scotland and Philip makes his move. He confides in Stella that he is nervous about having to run his family’s steel mill and that while he was in Paris he became afraid and went under Ward’s name because Ward is a brave confident person. Insecure he asks Stella that if he were asking as Ward if she loves him and she says that she loves him as Philip. His jealousy is so deep that he kills the cat so he will have no reminder of his friend. 

            Sometime later Philip and Stella get married. Everything seems to go well until Philip begins to become jealous of his friend. He thinks Stella only thinks about Ward and is unhappy being married to him. Stella tells Philip over and over again that she loves him she married him not Ward. Also Philip acts very peculiar at the steel mill- all day he does nothing but work on his crossword puzzle then when Stella comes he has the other board members come into his office and he is unkind to them leaving one of the men who had been with the company for thirty years to resign.

            One night Philip invites Ward over for dinner without telling Stella. He did this purposely to see her reaction when she sees Ward. Philip offers Ward a job as engineer in the mill and Ward accepts. Behind all this Philip has a plan to catch them in whatever act he thinks his wife and friend are doing together. Philip says that he has to go away for a few days leaving Stella and Ward alone together. Ward questions Stella about Philip he knows that something is wrong with his friend. Stella vehemently denies there is anything wrong but the next day she confesses she feels like Philip is trying to kill her love. Ward takes Stella out for dinner at a hotel he used to frequent. Philip walks in and sees them at dinner together.

            A riot occurs at the steel mill causing Philip to become nervous and sick. After he recuperates Ward lets him know that a man died after he fell into molten metal. You can see the light go off in Philip’s head when he hears this. He has Ward take him over to the mill where the molten metal is poured. He plans to kill Ward and almost does but he is still not right and the plan fails. Ward noticed what Philip was trying to do and quits his job.

            Stella begins to fear for herself and for Philip. She now sees what is happening to her husband. One night he puts his hands around her neck as if to choke her. Stella runs to her room, lays in her bed to make as if she is asleep until Philip goes to his room then when all is quiet she quickly packs a few things and runs for her life. Stella goes to London where Ward is. Philip calls at the hotel looking for his wife but Ward tells him that there is no way Stella is going back to him. Ward says that he was offered a job in Dublin and has to be there in the morning when Philip asks him to come to the house so they can talk. Philip convinces Ward to stop by since the house is along the way. Ward does not know that Philip got him the job in Dublin and what his former best friend has in store for him.

            Philip’s plan for Ward works perfectly. Ward is put into jail for something he did not do. Stella feels helpless she can do nothing to help Ward until a doctor from France comes to her. The doctor tells her that two years ago Philip had been in a psychiatric until under the name of Andrews but he escaped. The doctor says that Philip had some disturbing issues that he was the type of man to write his actions down. Luckily Philip kept journals. Stella and the doctor find Philip’s last journal in time to save Ward.

            So this is a suspense story and it really is I liked it I felt tense watching the events unfold. But as I said at the beginning Robert Montgomery did not give a very good performance. He was flat line reading his part. You can totally tell he did not put any effort whatsoever into his role. It is a shame because the character needed some emotion and feeling behind it and Montgomery did none of that whatsoever. Also his performance is a shame because Ingrid Bergman was excellent and so was George Sanders. Both actors made up for Montgomery really. Bergman was still new to Hollywood she had yet to become a superstar. The woman was just so ridiculously talented. I am so used to Sanders playing the slimy bad guy that seeing him as the good guy was surprising but very nice to see. The more I see Sanders the more I like him and see his range.

            I must/have to talk about Ingrid Bergman’s costumes in the film. MGM’s most famous costume designer Adrian made Bergman’s clothes. Ingrid Bergman looked incredible I think this is her best costumed film. In her other films the costumes seem to accentuate how tall and broad she was but in Adrian’s dresses she looked incredible, the clothes looked like they were fitted for her just right she did not look big or broad at all. Adrian was a brilliant and outrageously talented designer and after seeing his dresses for this film I can see why Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, and so many other actresses at MGM only wanted to wear Adrian gowns; he made them look so good.

            Rage in Heaven is not a terribly bad film. I really liked it. I just wish Robert Montgomery had put some effort into his role. I do not know why he did not like making this film but unfortunately it shows and takes away from the film a little. Unfortunately, I do believe it is his performance that keeps this film from being better known and that is not fair to Ingrid Bergman and George Sanders since they were great. Besides Montgomery Rage in Heaven has a good story that does keep you in suspense.