The Night of the Hunter (1955)

“Lord, you sure knew what you were doing when you brung me to this very cell at this very time. A man with ten thousand dollars hid somewhere, and a widder in the makin'.”

            The Night of the Hunter is one of the greatest made films of all time- this is not just my opinion you will hear this no matter where you read or hear about it. I do believe this is one of the greatest made films of all time I was stunned watching it. Classic films like The Night of the Hunter always make me question what happened to the quality movie making since that time.

            A man named Ben Harper has just robbed a bank of ten thousand dollars. He raced home before the police where his children are outside playing. He makes his son John and daughter Pearle swear never to tell anyone he has hidden the money inside Pearle’s doll. The police come and arrest Ben and he is eventually put on death row because he killed two people during the robbery.

            While in jail, Ben is cellmates with a “preacher” named Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum). Ben talks in his restless sleep about the money. Harry tries to be conscientious and asks Ben where he hid the money. Harry never does learn where the robber hid the money but once he is out of jail he quickly makes his way to Ben’s hometown, wife Willa (Shelley Winters), and children. Right away Harry begins his quest for the money but John is very tight lipped and keeps reminding his sister they made a promise to their father.

            In time Harry convinces Willa to marry him. She quickly becomes a religious fanatic trying to purge her soul. All he does is ask the children where the money is but they will never give it up. Harry is a killer he kills women he finds to be immoral and sexual. He feels he has a right to keep these women because God killed people in the Bible. He kills Willa because she heard him asking Pearle and John where the money is. She does not put up a fight when Harry kills her.

            Harry convinces the town  that Willa ran off but John knows better. He knows Harry is just after the money. John decides in order to survive and for the truth not to be revealed he and Pearle must runaway. It is not easy to get away. They manage to lock Harry in the basement but he gets out and chases them. John and Pearle run to a boat just in time before the fake preacher gets to them. They sail for days down river stopping only very quickly in places to sleep and get food from. Harry is following the river on horseback.

            One night after narrowly escaping from Harry’s sight, the boat drifts ashore near a house owned by a woman name Rachel Cooper (Lillian Gish). Rachel takes in children who have no place to go. She is very nice to Pearle and John but she does not push them for where they came from or why they are running away. She believes John when he says his parents are dead.

            Harry eventually finds them at Rachel’s but she immediately catches his phoniness and pulls a shot gun on him. All night Rachel stays on the porch with her gun. But Harry disappears after she gets distracted.

            This was Charles Laughton’s only film he ever directed. Laughton created a visually stunning and thrilling film that would have taken years for any other director to master. As a stage actor and director he knew how to work with light and how important it was for the story. The lighting and the deep cavernous, bare sets are thrilling they add so much suspense.

            Robert Mitchum as Harry Powell was creepy. He had that deep twang to his voice and with all his religious fanaticism babble. He was just creepy he was not scary just creepy. Harry was sinister and evil, even when he was not around his eerie presence can be felt.

            The story is mostly told through the eyes of John. Having the view of evil through the point of is very suspenseful and scary. You really do feel bad for John he is trying to protect something his father told him not to tell anyone about as well as protect his sister.

            This was the first time I have ever seen Lillian Gish in a film. I loved her character she was so good. I loved her toughness, right off the bat when she finds John and Pearle in the boat she starts ordering them out and smacks them with some kind of brush. I cannot wait to sit through her silent films now.

            So much has been said and written about The Night of the Hunter that if I were to post here it would just be copying and repeating. If you are very interested in the film read these posts from the excellent blog Film Noir of the Week.

            I liked The Night of the Hunter visually but story wise I was not too impressed. I appreciated the Biblical symbolism and all the repressed sexuality but there was something about it that I could not really get into. To me this is more of a visually incredible film.  

            If you call yourself a film fan in any sense you must see The Night of the Hunter. 

Woman in the Window (1944)

“We've decided she's our dream girl just from that picture.”

            We all have our dream guy or girl we first create in our mind from magazines, movies, TV shows or maybe just like in the case of Dr. Richard Wanley (Edward G. Robinson) in the film The Woman in the Window a picture in a shop window. This greatly entertaining Noir thriller tells the story of a man in his middle age fantasizing about a younger woman.

            Richard is a psychology professor whose family has gone away for the weekend without him. He and his two friends meet at a gentleman’s club every night for dinner and to unwind. Next to the club is a shop with a painting of a gorgeous woman. The three men agree in some ways that the woman is their dream girl. They discuss how they could never attract someone like that in their middle age.

            That night as Richard is walking home he stops in front of the shop window to stare at the painting. As he is looking at the painting he sees a reflection in the window. He thinks he is dreaming the woman reflected in the window is the woman (Joan Bennett) in the painting. When Richard turns around his dream woman is smiling back at him. She tells Richard that she comes by the painting when she is lonely and to see men’s reactions when they see her in person.

            They go out for drinks to a nightclub then walk back to her place and share a few more drinks. Out of nowhere a boyfriend of hers come tearing in, smacks her in the face knocking her to the ground, and runs to Richard and chokes him. Richard reaches his arm out for help and the woman comes over with a pair of scissors. Richard stabs the man killing him. He goes to call the police but he figures they do not know each other the whole murder can be cleaned up with no connection to either one of them.

            Richard suggests they move the body to somewhere in country. They have everything planned out. The woman tells him her name is Alice Reed just so that he knows her name but she does not know his and just so they see each other again he leaves his vest at her place. From the moment Richard and Alice decide to move the body out their plan starts to fall apart through a series of mistakes and evidence left behind. To top Richard’s feelings of paranoia and fear his one friend Frank Lalor is the District Attorney on the case of the man he murdered.

            The film moves along fantastically. But I will warn you about the ending: I liked it and saw it fit alright and it was a good twist, depending on where you read reviews not many people liked it. I will leave it up to you to decide.

          At times especially with the aspect of Richard and his friends thinking the painting of Alice as their dream girl reminded me too much of Laura. Richard was staring at the painting and falling in love with a women he may never know and so did Mark in Laura and they both met the woman they fantasized about eventually. Laura to me story wise and acting and direction wise is ten times better. Both films were released in November 1944. 

            The acting is nothing really to write home about. Edward G. Robinson is not an awful actor but to me he was definitely not one of the best. The only other time I have seen Joan Bennett in a film was Little Women from 1933 when she was blond. The other day I was watching something about thrillers and suspense films and in one segment the program talked about how she changed from being a blond who was delicate to a brunette who was the femme fatale. By Noir standards Bennett was a perfect Noir femme fatale one that a man dreamed about and went home with and covered up a murder for. She was beautiful there is not one bad shot of her throughout the whole film.

            Fritz Lang one of the masters of the thriller/suspense genre directed the film. I have yet to see Lang’s great films of the thirties which are considered his greatest but if this film is any indication of the style and the psychology of his other films, I cannot wait to see them.

            The Woman in the Window is a great Noir/thriller/suspense film. The great genius in the way the suspense comes from Richard and Alice making so many great mistakes out of fear and nervousness. The story is very good of a man dreaming of being with a younger woman but his dreams falling apart the more he tries to cover up the murder.

            Currently available on Youtube to view. 

Vanity Fair (1932)

Vanity Fair to me is a boring story and one that I have seen countless times in old films but the only differences is the ending is happy and the girl usually gets the rich man. This version of Vanity Fair is set in modern times… as in 1932 modern times.

            Myrna Loy in one of her early leading roles on a loan out to some other studio plays Becky Sharp. Becky has not had a very good life. She was orphaned when she was young and grew up in boarding schools. She has dreamed of marrying rich and living a wealthy care free life. Her friend Amelia’s family is rich and right away she tries to go after Amelia’s brother Joseph and her boyfriend. Amelia’s mother sees Becky putting the moves on and tells the girl she needs to leave to go to her governess position.

            Becky is a governess for an old man named Crawley. At this point in the story someone on youtube did not post the third part of the film so I have no clue what happened apparently she fell in love with the old man’s son Rawdon and the man kicked them out after he found out they were married. Now they do not have any money and Becky is left to whore herself out and become a kept woman to gain money, jewels and clothes.

            By the end of the film Becky is totally poor and the years showing on her face.

            What a crap story. I started watching Becky Sharp with Miriam Hopkins and could not take the story I stopped it (besides Hopkins was way too much she pissed me off so bad her acting was terrible!!!). The modern twist on the classic 1800s tale was a good idea it fit perfectly. Now if you follow this blog you know how much I adore Myrna Loy to no end and because I adore her unconditionally I had to sit through this. I hate to say it but Loy was not that good. Maybe she was not that great because the whole thing was not fantastic. At times she seemed too nice for the nasty, man eating woman she had to be but then at times all she had to do was give a lusty look and you can see her mind on the prowl and her real intentions. Alright, she did have one very good scene and that was at the very end when Becky looks at herself in the mirror at what she  has become, this is the excellent acting that Loy is known for. Loy’s Becky Sharp no doubt belongs to the pre-code era with her immoral ways and risqué clothing. 

            I just really want to know what MGM was thinking when they loaned Myrna Loy out to a low budget early talkie studio. Well at this time they did not really know what to do with her she was still the bad girl and the vamp.

            This version of Vanity Fair is very boring and very lackluster. Even Myrna Loy’s presence could not in any way help this film out.

            Only see this if you are a gigantic Myrna Loy nerd like me and only sit through it if you are dying because whoever uploaded it did not upload a part three so there is half the story missing.

 

Picture Snatcher (1933)

Yes folks another lovely pre-code!!! And this is my first James Cagney pre-code at that! I was looking through TCM’s schedule one day and all I had to see was the title Picture Snatcher and knew I had to see it no matter who was in it… I have a great passion for old photography especially fashion photography. The story sounded pretty interesting as well and it did not hurt that James Cagney and Ralph Bellamy were starring in the film.

            Cagney plays an ex-con named Danny Keane. When he is released from jail his old gangster pals want him to join them again but he decides he wants to go straight. He wants to become a photographer for the newspapers. His pals laugh at him but Danny is determined to find a job at what he likes.

            He goes to a newspaper with a bad reputation for printing gossip and “inappropriate” stories. The paper does not want to hire him but he says he can prove himself when a chance comes his way. A man who is head of the fire department is sitting in his burned out apartment. He found his wife and her lover’s body burned when he came home. He will not let any photographers or reporters in. Danny’s job is to try to get a picture of the place as well as a picture of the man and his wife. Danny gets to walk around the apartment by pretending he is an insurance man inspecting the place for a claim. He manages to get the picture and the newspaper is the only paper in town that has it.

            The next day the man comes in looking to kill Danny but he manages to evade him by sneaking into the women’s bathroom. While in there he meets Allison (Alice White) a reporter for the paper. He meets up with Allison at her place but then he sees his boss JR McLean (Bellamy) walking up to her place drunk and he gets out there quickly.

            A few journalism students come by the office. Danny takes it upon himself to show the students around when he sees that the group consists mainly of girls. He takes a real liking to one of the girls named Pat Nolan (Patricia Ellis). Her father just so happens to be Chief Nolan head of the police unit who put Danny behind bars. That does not matter to him because he is going straight. Unfortunately they get caught and Chief Nolan is none too happy. Later on the Chief is ok with the two dating only because JR told the chief that he was going to do a write up on him.

            One of the biggest news stories of the time is about a woman who is going to be executed for murdering her husband and his lover. She is to go to the electric chair. No one is supposed to take cameras into the execution but Danny being the daring man that he is brings a camera. Chief Nolan lets him through because he knows Danny will not do anything stupid… or so he thinks. Danny gets the picture by strapping the camera to his leg. Well the camera falls out and he is found out. Now all the reporters and the police are after him.

            Because of Danny taking the picture Chief Nolan has been demoted and he will not let the ex-con see his daughter. Danny is upset about what he did but along with JR finds a way to redeem himself and get the chief his job back.

            Picture Snatcher screams pre-code from beginning to end. When Danny meets Allison in the ladies room you know they totally do it as James Cagney walks away off camera with a big smile on his face. When Danny has to hide out after he takes the execution photograph he hides out with Allison and as she is changing he snaps a picture of her. There are many more fabulous pre-code scenes but those were my favorites and the ones that left me going wow.

            James Cagney is awesome he is now one of my favorite classic actors. He was so funny in so many scenes and his performance was just flawless. Danny was a good character he knew he had done wrong and wanted to go straight and be a good guy. The film aired on TCM as part of their Summer Under the Stars program when they had Ralph Bellamy as their star of the day. The more I see of Bellamy the less he is the bumbling guy who loses the girls. He was a very good versatile actor and handsome on top of it.

            Picture Snatcher is not an incredible, jaw dropping, one- of –the-best-films-ever-made films but it is enjoyable. The dialogue is snappy and quick and the story is fast paced but you never lose your way through it. James Cagney is very entertaining and makes the whole film. 

Dial M For Murder (1954)

“Smart, aren't you?”
“No, not really. I've just had time to think things out. Put myself in your position. That's why I know you're going to agree.”

            One of the many reasons I like Hitchcock’s films is because he always knew how to put together a great cast and he always had characters good or bad or sometimes both that the audience could sympathize with. Dial M For Murder is one of Hitchcock’s perfect films from the story and direction to lighting and casting.

            Tony Wendice (Ray Milland) is an ex-pro tennis player. He and his wife Margot (Grace Kelly) live in a small apartment in London. When we are first introduced to the couple they are happily sitting down to breakfast seeming to be the 1950s example of the perfect couple. Later that night we see all is not perfect with the couple as Margot is now in the arms of another man named Mark Halliday (Robert Cummings).

            Margot had met Mark the previous year when their affair first started. Mark is a mystery writer living in America so he and Margot correspond through letters. Margot is upset her purse had been stolen at a train station a few months previously along with a letter from Mark. The purse was recovered at a lost and found but the letter was gone. Ever since then she has received two blackmail letters to pay her otherwise they will show her husband the letter. Margot paid them but nothing has happened she has not gotten the letter back. Tony comes home and decides not to go out to the theater with them saying he has a lot of work to do.

            After Mark and Margot leave Tony phones a garage owner saying that he wants to speak to him in person about a car that is for sale. Before the man comes over Tony sets things up around the apartment suspiciously. Now as the audience we know that something hinky is going on. When the man named C.A. Swan comes over Tony sweet talks him a little and after a few minutes he lets Swan know that he has been following him and knows all his shady dealings. Tony’s explains that he followed Swan to blackmail him into killing his wife. Tony has found out about Margot cheating on him with Mark and now wants to kill her and he plans the perfect murder.

            The plan is set for the next night. While Tony is out with Mark at a party Swan is to come in and kill Margot when he hears the phone ring to bring his wife out of the bedroom. That night things do not go smoothly: Margot almost goes out, Tony’s watch stops, but the one thing that should have happened does not. When Swan attacks Margot she fights back and stabs Swan in the back killing him.

            Now Tony is all nervous and he frames the whole accident to make it look like Margot purposely killed Swan.

            The cast of Ray Milland, Grace Kelly, Robert Cummings, and John Williams as the police detective was perfection. Milland was one of the best villains/antagonists in Hitchcock’s films. He just had that evil, malicious, jealous, slick look about him that made him such a great bad guy. I am not a huge Grace Kelly fan I find her to be more of an icon and a cliché more than a great classic actress. But I did find her to be very good as Margot. This was her first film for Hitchcock and she was one of the director’s favorite leading ladies. There is one scene of her when she is being prosecuted (in a sense of the word) and put on trial where she looks, to me, so unbelievably pretty. She really is not the heroine of the film the main heroes, if they can be called that, are Mark and the Inspector who save her. She definitely pays for her sins of cheating. Robert Cummings is very good as the other man who accidentally stumbles into the real happenings of the crime. John Williams adds a little comic/suspense relief as the sympathetic Inspector Hubbard.

            With the characters of Tony, Margot, and Mark we feel sympathetic towards them even though they are all in the morally wrong. Tony is upset that his gorgeous young wife is cheating on him. Margot is cheating but she is the victim who was almost killed and then arrested for a murder she is supposed to have planned. Mark loves Margot and does anything he can to get her out even going to Tony to confess his love for her. I love how in pretty much all of Hitchcock’s films we are made to feel sympathetic to characters no matter how much they do not deserve it.

            Dial M For Murder is based off a stage play. Hitchcock excellently stayed true to the stage formula only moving out of the apartment set three times. He knew that the dialogue was the most important aspect of the story so he focuses more on the actors and the telling of their stories and ideas. His amazing camera work and use of colors and visual imagery keeps the one roomed setting from getting boring. To me the one roomed set and the claustrophobia it creates is what makes the film so suspenseful and tense.

            My favorite scene of the whole film is one that everyone has either seen a picture of or has seen it somewhere: as Margot is being attacked by Swan she reaches back for some sort of help. It is one of my favorite shots from a film. There is so much desperation on both of the characters and Hitchcock excellently filmed that.  Just the entire scene where Margot is being attacked was filmed and acted perfection .

            Another scene that I could not get over the way it was filmed was when Margot is alone with Mark in the apartment. They hear Tony coming in the door, they have been holding each other and we see them let go of each other and walk away in shadow. It is a bit difficult to explain you would have to see it but I loved it I thought it was awesome.

            Also as with all of Hitchcock’s films the score is top notch in helping to create suspense and drama. Famed composer and conductor Dimitri Tiomkin created a haunting, atmospheric score.

            Dial M For Murder is one of the Master of Suspense’s best films. Unfortunately this film often gets overlooked most likely due to the fact that Rear Window came out the same year and the actors besides Grace Kelly are not typical or recurring to Hitchcock films. I think this is one of his best casted films and one of his best all round films. It is one of the director’s most simple which is a nice break from all his chaotic films where the characters are all over the place.

            Dial M For Murder is a Hitchcock film not to be overlooked.

             

Haunted Honeymoon (1986)

“This is gonna be some wedding. A loony for a husband, and Peter Pan for his wife.”

            As soon as I see Gene Wilder in anything I know it is going to be a very funny and very entertaining movie. Haunted Honeymoon not only has Gene Wilder as one of the main stars Gilda Radner and Dom DeLuise also star in the movie. What comedy movie on earth can be funnier than a movie with these three?

            Wilder plays Larry Abbott a radio actor who is engaged to another radio actor named Vicki Pearle (Radner). The radio program tells mystery stories every week and is number one in the country. Ever since Larry got engaged to Vicki he has been going a little crazy (on top of already being neurotic before this). Whenever he hears a storm he stares into space and asks if his tie is straight. The radio sponsor and director are none too pleased with the way Larry is behaving they do not want his outbursts to ruin the show.

            A man walks in telling the sponsor and director that he is Larry’s uncle who happens to be a psychologist. He tells them that in order to cure Larry they need to scare his fear out of him. That weekend Larry and Vicki are to be married in his family’s old home and there with all the family the uncle wants to put his plans into action.

            The Gothic mansion is dark and ominous and as soon as Vicki and Larry arrive it begins to rain. As the other guests arrive they are either sinister or just nuts. Living in the house is Larry’s aunt Kate (DeLuise). She is an eccentric old lady who believes in werewolves and believes there is one running out the grounds. As the night goes on everyone begins to drive Larry crazy. Vicki was not in on the whole plan at first but she is eventually brought into it.

            Of all the things going on with Larry, no one realizes his cousin Francis has been murdered and that someone else has been murdered as well. Now there is a killer going after Larry because he is set to inherit money from Aunt Kate when no one else is.

            I cannot give too much away the movie is just so damn funny it would be a shame to give too much away.

            Gene Wilder is in one of his best roles. No one could do insane and crazy like he could. Not only is Wilder one of the main characters he also wrote and directed the film. The man was just awesome he could do everything. Gilda Radner never fails to be adorable and outrageously hysterical. She has some of my favorite scenes like when she first sees Pfister and she babbling and scared of him and when an old girlfriend of Larry’s keeps going after him she stops the women at Larry’s door, says beat it, and she struts back to her room. Dom DeLuise as a woman is one of the funniest things ever, no one could have played that role better male or female.

            Haunted Honeymoon is one of the best comedy movies ever. It is like most of Wilder’s films and his films with Mel Brooks I can watch them over and over again and know them by heart but I always laugh so hard. 

The Affairs of Susan (1945)

Richard Aiken is about to marry a woman name Susan Darell (Joan Fontaine). He has just recently proposed to her and wants to marry her right away. At Susan’s apartment he sees pictures of the three previous men in her life. She tells him she was married to one of them and almost married to the other two. Susan holds a party at her place where Richard meets Roger (George Brent), Mike, and Bill the men who once held a place in her heart. He gets nervous and wants to talk to the other men so he can see what went wrong with them so he will not make the same mistake. Each man’s view of Susan are completely different, she was a different woman with each men.

            Roger goes first since he was the first to know her and he is the only one who knows the real Susan. He was away before starting a play of Joan of Arc. He was getting away from an actress he could not stand when he came upon a house across the lake from him. The house belongs to Susan and her uncle. At first Roger thought she was singing and wearing plain clothes to attract his attention but it turns out she is very naïve and when asked if she ever wanted to be a star she really thought he meant being a star in the sky. While on a walk on the shore she speaks of Joan of Arc and Roger is really taken with the way she recited the story. He has her read the script and likes her rendition. Roger makes Susan the star of his show and married her. While her reviews are good the play fails. The play fails mostly because Susan is so honest and says that the play is not doing well. Roger becomes really upset with her because she cannot lie but finds her perfect for it and so perfect he feels she is that he cannot be with her anymore.

            Mike met Susan when Roger brought him into his office to talk about backing a play. Mike is a rich rancher from the Midwest so he has some money to spare. Susan sneaks into Roger’s office and when Mike sees her he is head over heels in love. Susan is no longer the shy and brutally honest woman Roger knew she is now a breezy wild woman who cannot help but tell a fib. Being the naïve one now Mike asks Susan to marry him but unfortunately Susan’s fibbing and sneaking around get her into trouble and he breaks off the engagement.

            Susan and Bill meet one day in the part. She is reading a new script and he sees her and sits with her. A couple comes by, start fighting and drag Bill and Susan into it. Susan grabs Bill and they run away before trouble starts. Bill is an intellect and an author and although Susan has no clue what he is talking about she likes him. Susan is now an intellect wearing smart clothes and glasses. She asks Roger and Mike to look over Bill’s latest book to make a play she can star in. They cannot believe how Susan has changed and neither one of them likes it. They try to rescue her one night but she gets back to Bill, gets him drunk, and tries to marry him but she feels bad and breaks things off with him.

            Upon hearing these stories he really cannot wait to take Susan away to marry her. Unfortunately Roger, Mike, and Bill see the error of their ways and now they want to try to win Susan back.

            So who does she end up with?

            Joan Fontaine takes a rare turn in comedy with this film. So often was she cast in moody dramas that it is wonderful seeing her in a comedy. Fontaine had a great comedic side that is unfortunately rarely seen all thanks to them not being out on DVD (well You Gotta Stay Happy is now available as an individual release) or shown on TV. I loved her as Susan the character’s different personalities allowed Fontaine to really stretch her acting. I liked seeing her get mad and flustered in some moments that to me was when she was her funniest. I do not what more I can say about her in this film, Joan Fontaine was just great the more I see of her comedies when I can find them the more I adore her as an actress.

            George Brent is so good. He can be so romantic and dramatic one minute then be flustered and crazy the next perfectly. I liked Roger the best just because, well he’s George Brent and his character knew the real Susan and knew how to play to her real personality.

            The Affairs of Susan is a really cute film. The story maybe silly and a little long but it is definitely worth seeing. Joan Fontaine shows why she was one of the best actresses of her time and that she could be more than the emotional damsel in distress and she is reason alone to sit through the film.

            The Affairs of Susan is currently available to view on Youtube. Watch it quick before it disappears!!