The Magnificent Ambersons

The Ambersons live a life of almost royal opulence

Orson Welles, 1942, bw (9.2*)
Welles' first film after Citizen Kane was his adaptation of the Booth Tarkington novel about the decline of an aristocratic midwestern American family, one who prized traditional values and their own social position above change, tolerance, and open-mindedness.

Joseph Cotten plays a family friend, a builder of early motor cars, often criticized by the Amberson patriarch as smoky, noisy nuisances, and something "that will never replace the horse". As a modernist, and someone from the wrong side of the tracks, he is never totally accepted as an equal to the Ambersons. Dolores Costello is an Amberson who admires Cotten and his ingenuity, and who falls in love with him, and of course has to defend him and progress in the family debates. Terrific Oscar-winning actress Anne Baxter plays his daughter, but doesn't have a lot of acting to do here (check her out in The Razor's Edge and All About Eve).

Agnes Moorehead shines as a slightly psychotic member of the Amberson clan, who keep to themselves enough that their huge Victorian mansion becomes more like a prison or asylum as they rarely mingle with the masses of their town. Tim Holt is an Ambersons' son and heir who seems to worry more about what people think than anything else.

The film is a little dark and moody, yet remains one of the enduring cinema portraits of turn-of-the-century American life and values, and a searing critique of those who perpetuate class differences to the point of prejudice. Cinematographer Stanley Cortez must be given some credit for the beautifully classic black-and-white look of the film.

Welles did not play a part in this film, preferring to remain behind the scenes. Author Tarkington was a family friend of Welles' growing up, so this is an author whose work and intent he knew personally. It's said that the studio butchered his final cut, yet it remains a classic American film, almost as revered as Citizen Kane, and certainly one of the finest adaptations from literature put on film. Nominated for four Oscars, including Cortez' cinematography, Moorehead's performance, best picture, and the terrific art direction, but it won none.

Anne Baxter and Joseph Cotten ride in his own invention

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Now, Voyager

Irving Rapper, 1942, bw (9.0*)
One of the best Bette Davis films, this is an uncompromising adult story that was all too rare in Hollywood's heyday of crowd-pleasing happy films with pat stories.

Davis has a domineering mom that drives her to a sanitarium. There she finds a kindred spirit, the daughter of her therapist (Claude Rains) who moves in with her after they recover and leave. She takes an ocean voyage on which she falls in love with a married man, Paul Henreid. I can't say more without spoiling the story and plot, but suffice to say that Davis had the best discretion of any actress for choosing which scripts were best for herself - she turned down Gone With the Wind after filming Jezebel the year before.

If not for the astounding All About Eve (1950), this would be my favorite Davis film. Ironically, the film's release was held up while waiting for the symphonic Max Steiner (Gone With the Wind) score, which Davis felt would "walk all over the actor's lines" and hurt her chance for another Oscar. She was right of course, the music is entirely unnecessary and detracts rather than enhances.

This is a must-see for fans of Davis and intelligent classic films without a formulaic storyline.

Quote: I didn't want to be born. You didn't want me to be born. It's been a calamity on both sides.
Quote2: Oh Jerry, don't let's ask for the moon. We have the stars.

Note: The daughter of Claude Rains, in a recent TCM interview, said that Davis always loved Rains, would often show up at his house during troubled marriages, once spending six weeks, but he would never commit to her. Women were attracted by his self-confidence, not to mention his incredible talent.

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The Major and the Minor

Billy Wilder, 1942, bw (7.6*)

This pleasant pastry is master director Billy Wilder's first as a director after several successful screenplays, with Ninotchka probably the best known. In the screwball tradition pioneered by Ernst Lubitsch, whom Wilder knew and admired, Hawks, Capra and others, this preposterous story has a thirty-something Ginger Rogers try to pass as 12-yr old Susan "Susu" Applegate in order to get a half-fare train ticket back home to Iowa from New York. On the train, she hides from the conductor in the sleeper berth of military major Ray Milland, who is not really a comic actor, on his way to a military academy though he'd rather be somewhere close to the impending war.

This plot is the perfect sitcom idea, even though it borders on tipping the prurience scale as Milland lets what he thinks is a 12 year old girl sleep in his cabin and hang out with him for several days, in spite of his fiance's suspicions that all is not as it seems. Of course, everyone falls for Ginger, including the 400 cadets at the academy, and of course Ginger slowly falls for Milland and is of course jealous of his fiance.

Not Wilder's best, and perhaps squeaky-voiced and petite Jean Arthur would have been a better choice for this role, but still a classic screwball comedy and one worth seeing. It's obvious that Wilder wanted to please the studio and audiences in his first film as director. He would, of course, soon shock the film world with the radical classics Double Idemnity, Sunset Boulevard, and Stalag 17 - and would make better comedies in Sabrina and Some Like It Hot, but this film is still a must for Wilder, Rogers, and screwball comedy fans alike.

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Mrs. Miniver

William Wyler, 1942, bw (8.2*)
Best Picture (AA)
This was the first William Wyler film to win best picture after a slew of nominations. He would eventually be nominated for director 13 times, with 12 best picture nominations, by far the most for one director. Mrs. Miniver is a beautiful woman, played by Greer Garson, in a beautiful film about a small coastal town in England at the onset of World War II. Garson won best actress for this, the middle of five straight nominations. She was only 33 but played the mother of a now adult son, and became the top box-office draw because of this role.

We see the pastoral village setting in the beginning as the town is getting ready for an annual garden festival with awards eagerly sought by the locals for the best rose, the best crysanthemum, and down the line. When the war starts, we see how the entire town responds. Mr. Miniver is played by Oscar®-nominee (actor) Walter Pidgeon in perhaps his finest performance, and he reeks gentility and proper British mettle in doing the right thing for king and country, so he becomes a member of the civilian guard, eventually taking his boat to Dunkirk. His son, now 18, joins the army and pilot school, as England is under attack from the air almost daily. His young bride, Teresa Wright, won a best supporting Oscar®. We get to see the early part of the war from the point of view of civilians, and the effect on them, we don’t spend time with soldiers at the battle front. That seems to be Wyler’s point as a filmmaker: war affects innocent civilians as well as brave soldiers – all are changed, no one can simply hope for it all to pass.

Wyler's The Best Years of Our Lives, the Best Picture of 1946, did this brilliantly and cynically, and remains my favorite anti-war film. Mrs. Miniver was filmed as the war began, and showed a pro-war propagandistic tone, as a scene with a downed German pilot made it clear that they were bent on destruction and had to be met with the same kind of determined force in return. Seven Oscars®, including actress, director, screenplay, and picture.

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The Pride of the Yankees

Dir: Sam Wood, 1942 (8.8*)
Follows the true story of Lou Gehrig, played by Gary Cooper, who took over for an injured first baseman once for the Yankees then played in 2,130 consecutive games, becoming known as "Iron Man". His era was that of Babe Ruth and Joe Dimaggio both, the most productive in Yankee history. Of course, if you don’t know the story I won’t spoil it here, but suffice to say that this is one of the best sports films in history because it transcends sports, and is also one of the few films guys will admit to crying at! 10 Oscar noms including Picture and Actor, one Oscar (Editing).

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Casablanca

Dir: Michael Curtiz, 1942, bw (10*)

Best Picture (AA)

AFI and Time Mag Top 100

Even though a soapy melodrama, Casablanca is the best of that type that you'll find, as it transcends that genre by blending film noir style, anti-Nazi politics, and suspense and intrigue into what is basically a non-sentimental love story. Humphrey Bogart runs an American style bar called "Rick's Cafe Americaine" in Morocco, and in walks Ingrid Bergman and her husband, Jewish resistance fighter Paul Henreid, wanted by the Nazis. What follows is a combination rekindled lovers and escaping fugitive story that is still popular to this day, to the point of being parodied in many films (best is Woody Allen's "Play It Again, Sam", a line which was never spoken in this movie regarding the song "As Tears Go By"). Dooley Wilson steals scenes as Sam, the piano player, Claude Rains as well as Louis, a sympathetic French officer, and Peter Lorre is typically weaselly as a scared criminal. Everyone's favorite romance. 3 Oscars

Quote: Of all the gin joints in the world, why did she have to walk into mine. (Bogart)

Quote2: The problems of two measley people don't amount to a hill of beans in this world. (Bogart)

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