The Best Years of Our Lives

An elder Army sergeant (Frederic March), a bombardier (Dana Andrews), and a sailor (Harold Russell, a real life veteran and Oscar winner for the role), who lost his hands in a bombing and now is fairly functional with metal hooks, return from their tour at war's end and find their families, jobs, and themselves almost unrecognizable as they struggle to cope with their return. William Wyler's The Best Years of Our Lives is overlong and at times mannered, but extremely touching and well realized with tremendous acting by all involved, also including Myrna Loy and Teresa Wright playing March's wife and daughter, respectively.

*** 1/2 out of ****.

How to Steal a Million

The daughter of an art forger (Audrey Hepburn) resolves to steal her father's product, a replica statue of Cellini's Venus on display at a renowned Paris gallery, in order to protect his reputation when he fears analysis will out him as a fraud. To achieve her goal, she enlists the help of police detective posing as a burglar (Peter O'Toole) who can't help but fall for his lovely target. William Wyler's How to Steal a Million is an incredulous and uninspired romantic comedy invigorated by the aid of its charismatic stars and an entertaining heist sequence.
** 1/2 out of ****

The Letter

In the stultifying heat, outside of her husband's Malayan rubber plantation home, a woman (Bette Davis) guns down her lover in a fit of blind rage. As the blood leaves her eyes and the wheels start turning in her ever conniving mind, she begins to calculate her tearful defense, taking in her considerate husband (Herbert Marshall) and just about everyone else in the community except for her lawyer (James Stephenson) who grows wary of her all too convenient story, the title epistle figuring most prominently into his suspicions. The Letter is a dark and moody, taut little picture,  amazingly crafted by William Wyler and featuring a superbly wicked performance from Davis who gets great support from Marshall and Stephenson.

Wuthering Heights (1939 and 2012)

On the harsh and windy British Moorlands, a magnanimous estate keeper takes in a disheveled orphan who, as a stable boy, becomes the target of his son's sadism and the apple of his daughter's eye who, as time goes by, is compelled to bury these intensely intimate feelings. Wikipedia shows there have been no less than fifteen adaptations of Emily Bronte's novel (which I have yet to read), the most famous of which is William Wyler's 1939 version featuring Laurence Olivier, Merle Oberon, and David Niven, and most recently Andrea Arnold attempted to give the classic a shot in the arm with a gritty update. Watching Wyler's revered film again, I found it to be stodgy with Oberon an overwrought Cathy, Olivier only seeming comfortable when playing the civilized Heathcliffe, and Gregg Toland's Oscar winning cinematography being a highlight. Arnold's version also contains beautiful photography but her film is plodding, incohesive, and never successfully draws the viewer into the powerful story.

Funny Girl

Fanny Brice, star of the Ziegfeld Follies, walks into the theater hosting her latest act and, taking a seat in the audience before the performance, reminisces on her life from her humble beginnings in a Manhattan slum, to her meteoric rise to vaudevillian success, along with her tumultuous relationship with charming gambler Nick Arnstein. Barbara Streisand reprised her stage role in this epic length, technicolor musical which garnered her an Academy Award (which she shared with Kate Hepburn) and launched her to international stardom. For such a long movie (nearly tipping three hours) there is not a whole lot going on in terms of plot but Streisand is completely endearing, making the trip worthwhile. William Wyler's acute direction also enhances the slight  production as does Omar Sharif's presence as Streisand's on again off again beau. 

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 Little Foxes

Three members of the crafty and unscrupulous Hubbard family intend to buy a cotton mill in the turn of the century south. With the two brothers having their shares secured, they now rely on their sister Regina to obtain the final $75,000 from her estranged husband. This leads them down a trail of lies, blackmail, theft, and deceit up until the harrowing, depraved climax. Screenwriter Lillian Hellman based her play of a morally corrupt Southern aristocratic family on personal experiences growing up with her own family. Directed by William Wyler, it is a biting and extremely dark portrait of greed and corruption. Although it drags slightly during earlier stretches of the film, the wrap-up is both distressing and grabbing. In a fine cast of veteran actors, Bette Davis stands atop them in an incredible and malevolent performance. "The Little Foxes" is a shockingly caustic tale and highly relevant in today's climate of corporate greed.