Cat People/The Curse of the Cat People

In the hands of director Val Lewton, Cat People is an extremely well made, atmospheric, and even scary RKO B-Picture with a plot detailing a Serbian immigrant who morphs into a cat whenever overcome with envy. The film feels dated, containing unintentionally amusing plot elements and virtually no story to speak of but still worth seeing for its tense shock sequences. It was followed up a few years later by Curse of the Cat People, a pointless, forced, and barely related sequel that still manages to maintain a strong visual sense.

Cat People: *** out of ****

Curse of the Cat People: ** out of ****

To Be or Not to Be

A grandstanding actor (Jack Benny) and his gorgeous wife (Carole Lombard) head an acting troupe in Warsaw and have just staged a play lampooning Hitler when the Nazis invade in 1939. Quickly they take up with the resistance by way of an RAF pilot (Robert Stack) (who just so happens to have the hots for Lombard and who keeps rudely excusing himself during Benny's key title soliloquy) and become mired in a complex and dangerous scheme to rout out a German spy. To Be or Not to Be is an uproariously funny and ingeniously plotted wartime comedy from master writer/director Ernst Lubitsch. Benny and Lombard are simply marvelous and Felix Bressart steals the show as a frustrated ensemble player just itching for the opportunity to perform another famous Shakespeare speech.

Now, Voyager

A homely woman (Bette Davis), controlled by her mother (Gladys Cooper) and desperate not to become an old maid, has a nervous breakdown and is placed in the care of an understanding psychiatrist (Claude Rains) who helps to build her self-confidence. A new woman, she begins an affair with an unhappily married businessman (Paul Henreid) whose daughter is undergoing a similar dilemma while attempting not to fall back into old, unhealthy patterns. Now, Voyager, whose title is taken from Walt Whitman's poem "The Untold Want", is an overlong soaper with not much to offer in terms of plot, but is made worthwhile both by the performances of Davis and especially Rains.

The Magnificent Ambersons

In a wealthy Indianapolis community, in an age of progress circa 1900, sits the once prestigious and now fading Amberson mansion. One of its residents, the beautiful Isabel (Dolores Costello), once welcomed the affections of Eugene (Joseph Cotton) but ended the engagement following a public humiliation and went on to marry a lifeless bore and gave her her only child, the pompous, irascible George (Tim Holt). When Eugene returns many years later, widowed and as a successful automaker, George takes a liking to his daughter Lucy (Anne Baxter), but becomes enraged when he learns of Eugene's and his mother's past kinship. Orson Welles' chose to adapt Booth Tarkington's novel (which Welles suspected was modeled after himself and other members of his family) for his sophomore directorial outing and, even in spite of the infamous studio butchering, is still a worthy follow-up to "Citizen Kane." The photography, editing, and storytelling modes are unique and innovative and the performances are excellent, especially Cotton as the bemused and noble suitor, Costello as the sweet and best heiress, Holt as a spoiled no-account, and Agnes Moorehead as his jealous, spinster aunt.

......One of Our Aircraft Is Missing

After an RAF bomber is shot down over Nazi occupied Holland, a team of six fighter pilots relies on the charity of the Dutch freedom fighting underground as they make their way to the North Sea for their escape back to Britain. "......One of Our Aircraft Is Missing" is one of the early of films of the lengthy collaboration between Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, known collectively as The Archers, and one of several they made to assist the Allied war effort during WWII. The film is wonderfully written, with much patriotic verve, and painstakingly made, but it does feel somewhat rushed, as surely it must have been to serve its purpose at the time. The mumbled Britspeak is also very difficult to understand. Of its cast, you can glimpse a young Peter Ustinov as a priest and Googie Withers delivers an excellent speech as a Dutch resistance member. A better example of a similar film can be seen in "49th Parallel," the Archers' previous work which details a band of marooned Nazis who are also confronted by the goodness and resilience of the people they encounter as they maraud their way through Canada to a then neutral United States. 

Holiday Inn

The crooning half (Bing Crosby) of a popular, town song-and-dance becomes fed up when his partner/rival-in-love once (Fred Astaire) once again steals his girl (Virginia Dale). Deciding to finally act on his less than ambitious dreams, he purchases land on a rural Connecticut spread and opens a country resort that offers entertainment only on the calendar holidays throughout the year. Wouldn't you know it if his old pal doesn't come horning in on the action, and his latest star (Marjorie Reynolds)! "Holiday Inn" features some terrific Irving Berlin songs (including the annual hit "White Christmas" which later became a quasi sequel with Crosby and Danny Kaye) and dance numbers all draped upon a plot (from Berlin's story, which was nominated for an Oscar!) that would be generous to call threadbare, and is probably even magnanimous in calling it a plot. Crosby and Astaire, though again contributing enjoyable numbers, seem to be phoning it in and looking amused about the effortless paychecks they received for this less than light affair.

The Glass Key

A shady politician (Brian Donleavy) errantly backs a candidate (Moroni Olsen), solely to land in the arms of his knockout daughter (Veronica Lake). When a rival politico (Joseph Calleia) murders the candidate's son and pins it on the boss, it is up to his top adherent (Alan Ladd) to set matters right, while falling in love with the platinum blonde. "The Glass Key" is a terse and effective noir adapted from Dashiell Hammett's crime novel. Alan Ladd, probably the most unheralded tough guy from Hollywood's Golden Age, delivers a completely compelling performance as the icy cool enforcer (a climatic scene where he descends a staircase to confront some baddies is absolutely riveting). William Bendix, who also played another memorable psychotic in Ladd's "The Blue Dahlia", is terrifying here as an off-kilter goon. "The Glass Key" is an effective, to the point crime story that, thanks largely to Ladd and Bendix, packs a considerable punch.

Mrs. Miniver

When war breaks out in England, the middle class Minivers do everything they can to aid the struggle: Patriarch Clem (Walter Pidgeon) joins a local naval squad assisting in the Dunkirk evacuation, his son Vin (Richard Ney) enlists in the RAF, all the while the indomitable Mrs. (Greer Garson) maintains matters at home, putting on a strong face while worrying about her loved ones, participating in flower shows, and even outsmarting the occasional Nazi who has invaded her home. William Wyler's "Mrs. Miniver" is rousing propaganda for the highest form, so great that it lead to Oscar wins for Picture, Director, Actress, Supporting Actress (Theresa Wright, delightful), Screenplay, and Cinematography as well as Winston Churchill's famous praise that it had done more for the Allied cause that a "flotilla of battleships." Wyler's film is wonderfully directed in crisp, clear black and white, and whose sentiment never seems phony or forced. Garson is luminous and credible in the leading role and Pidgeon brings great earnestness to his role. Though how accurate the film really was about its middle class subjects, it helped bring out the best of the British people for a conflict that was arduous, interminable and fought with courage and grace, both on the battlefields and on the home front.

note: "Downton Abbey", a series which I am becoming increasingly disenchanted with, creator Julian Fellowes directly lifted the crucial rose contest sequence from this film.

The Male Animal

On the night of the big game against rival Michigan, the board of trustees at Midwestern University get wind that a professor will read a controversial writing by condemned anarchist Bartolomeo Vanzetti at his next class. With the loss of his job hanging over his head and the return of his wife's ex-flame for the big game, the professor goes into crisis mode while trying to maintain his moral integrity and keep his personal life in order. "The Male Animal" is a delightful comedy directed by Elliot Nugent from his stage play which he cowrote with Columbus native and fellow Ohioan James Thurber, made all the more enjoyable for Buckeye State natives as it is clearly set at Ohio State University. Penned for the screen by "Casablanca" penning sibilings Julius J. and Philip G. Epstein along with Stephen Morehouse Avery, is at once a hilarious comedy of errors and a sharp indictment of bullying. Henry Fonda sparkles in the lead role as the enervated professor who must stand up for wife Olivia de Havilland against the boisterous Jack Carson and for his job against the browbeating Eugene Pallette, all of whom are excellent in their respective roles. "The Male Animal" is the best kind of entertainment, one which provide laughs while simultaneously being a pointed treatise on a topical issue.

Woman of the Year

When a sports reporter hears that his internationally respected female colleague has denounced America's obsession with sports, especially in the trying times of war, he goes on the offensive attacking the journalist by praising the usefulness of sports in the time of crisis. As their feud continues, the editor of their newspaper brings the rivals in to make nice and, wouldn't you know it, the two immediately fall in love. Now the two must adjust to the other's wildly different schedules in the hopes of creating a loving marriage. "Woman of the Year" was the first teaming of off screen partners Spencer Tracey and Katharine Hepburn, and the result is a highly entertaining screwball comedy with the two stars in top form. Director George Stevens lends his master hand in several very humorous comedy situations including one where Kate adopts a Greek refugee without informing her husband and a concluding one where she attempts to make breakfast for the first time in her life as a form of amends. Although "Woman of the Year" is terribly funny, I wonder how it stood then and stands now for feminists. The film, like many of the other Tracey/Hepburn vehicles (although it is occasionally reversed), results in Hepburn getting too far up on her high horse and Tracey putting her back in her place. Despite these dated mores, "Woman of the Year" is an entertaining picture and a fine start to a cherished partnership.

Casablanca

For the many who attempt to escape the tyranny of WWII Europe, the last stop of their arduous journey is the Moroccan town of Casablanca where scores of refugees wait and wait for safe passage to Lisbon and then the new world. There many spend their time at Rick's, a cafe run by a hard bitten American expatriate who sticks his neck out for no one, until a freedom fighter and his wife, Rick's ex-flame walk into his gin joint and makes him realize that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans. Of all the great films that consistently top purportless lists ("Citizen Kane", "The Godfather", etc.), "Casablanca" is the most cherished and the finest of the American films because of its mass appeal traversing multiple genres, its durability over the years (and through attempts to contaminate it i.e. colorize), and for its downright effectiveness and profundity. Director Michael Curtiz, from a quintessential script by Howard Koch and brothers Philip and Julius Epstein, has fashioned a film as memorable and quotable as any that is just as grabbing the fifteenth time you've watched it as it does the first. Humphrey Bogart is at his cynical best and Ingrid Bergman is transcendentally beautiful and affecting. The supporting cast headed by Claude Rains as the happily corruptible French police captain is the finest ever assembled as well, rounded out by the shifty Peter Lorre, the rotund Sydney Greenstreet, and the inimitable Dooley Wilson as Sam the piano player. "Casablanca" is a wonderment of the cinema and every revisit is a renewal of a beautiful friendship.

Yankee Doodle Dandy

"Yankee Doodle Dandy" is a biopic covering the life of patriotic song and dance man George M. Cohan. After his latest play "I'd Rather Be Right" where he portrays FDR, the president himself summons him to the Oval Office where Cohan takes him through his life starting as a brazen lad performing the circuit with his mother, father, and sister to his partnership with producer and friend Sam Harris to his Broadway triumphs and his marriage with his lovely wife Mary. From the instant James Cagney appears on screen, he grabs the viewer and never lets go. Playing against type, Cagney is a revelation in a Academy Award winning performance as he taps and sings his way with gusto through Cohan's life. Directed by Michael Curtiz, an auteur who doesn't get enough credit when you think about his resume ("Casablanca", "The Adventures of Robin Hood"), the film is a wonderful blend of lavish stage productions, including great songs such as "Over There", "Harrigan", and the title tune, as well as personal segments from Cohan's life. Walter Huston, as his father, Joan Leslie as his wife Mary, and Richard Whorf as Sam provide fine support as well. Cagney was an actor of incredible presence who captured the screen unlike any other performer. "Yankee Doodle Dandy" is a wonderful tribute to both his skills as a performer and the life of George M. Cohan.