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Category: 1940s

Kiss of Death: Tommy Udo- “I won’t give you the peel off a grape.”

Kiss of Death: Tommy Udo- “I won’t give you the peel off a grape.”

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Released: August 1947 Directed by: Henry Hathaway Cast: Victor Mature, Brian Donlevy, Coleen Gray, Richard Widmark, Taylor Holmes, Howard Smith, Karl Malden, Anthony Ross, Robert Adler, Rollin Bauer, Harry Bellaver, and Mildred Dunnock as Mrs. Rizzo. Spoilers? You betcha! In Kiss of Death, it’s appropriate that we first meet Tommy Udo (Richard Widmark) in a New York City Courthouse holding cell. Muttering insults to the guards and befriending fellow cellmate Nick Bianco (Victor Mature). While Nick is tentative, Tommy sees…

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Captains of the Clouds: Hollywood Comes to Canada.

Captains of the Clouds: Hollywood Comes to Canada.

Released: February 1942 Directed by: Michael Curtiz Cast: James Cagney, Dennis Morgan, Brenda Marshall, Alan Hale, George Tobias, Reginald Gardiner, W.A.(Billy) Bishop, Reginald Denny, Russell Arms, Paul Cavanagh, and Clem Bevans as Sam ‘Store-Teeth’ Morrison. Being Canadian, I’m a little biased when it comes to Captains of the Clouds. Released in 1942, it is one of several Warner Brothers films produced during World War 2 that showcased the Allied contributions to the European war. Films like Edge of Darkness, Passage…

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Bicycle Thieves: So Simple, So Basic, So Completely Unattainable.

Bicycle Thieves: So Simple, So Basic, So Completely Unattainable.

Released: November 1948. Directed by: Vittorio De Sica Cast: Lamberto Maggiorani, Enzo Staiola, Lianella Carell, Elena Altieri, Gino Saltamerenda, Giulio Chiari, Vittorio Antonucci, Michele Sakara, Carlo Jachino as A Beggar. Few films are so simple, yet so profound, honest, emotional, and 76 years after its original release, so brutally relevant today. Bicycle Thieves is that movie. The story is simple, Antonio Ricci (LamBerto Maggiorani) is an unemployed man with a wife and two small children. Antonio gets a job, but…

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Christmas in July: It isn’t the Coffee, It’s the Bunk.

Christmas in July: It isn’t the Coffee, It’s the Bunk.

Released: October 1940 Directed by: Preston Sturges Cast: Dick Powell, Ellen Drew, Raymond Walburn, Alexander Carr, William Demarest, Ernest Truex, and Franklin Pangborn as Radio Announcer. We don’t really have slogan writing contests anymore. For the winner they can be life changing. About a million years ago Wilma Flintstone and Betty Ruble won a trip for two to Hollyrock for their winning slogan ‘Mamma Leone’s Meatballs Don’t Bounce.’ (and they don’t) for Mamma Leone’s Meatballs. Their win put a strain…

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Ministry of Fear: An Eccentric, Flawed Masterpiece.

Ministry of Fear: An Eccentric, Flawed Masterpiece.

Directed by: Fritz Lang Released: October 1944 Cast: Ray Milland, Marjorie Renolds, Carl Esmond, Hillary Brooke, Percy Waram, Dan Duryea, and Alan Napier as Dr. Forrester. Spoilers. There are a few. You could say Ministry of Fear is something of a flawed masterpiece. Simply put, Ministry of Fear is a wonderfully eccentric film where the climax can’t bear-up under the weight of the eccentricity. Just released from an insane asylum, Stephen Neale (Ray Milland) buys a train ticket to London….

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A Matter of Life and Death: Life and Death and So Much More.

A Matter of Life and Death: Life and Death and So Much More.

Released: December 1946 Directed by: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger Cast: David Niven, Kim Hunter, Roger Livesey, Marius Goring, Robert Coote, Kathleen Byron, Richard Attenborough, Abraham Sofaer, and Raymond Massey as Abraham Farlan. First time viewing. A Matter of Life and Death is a movie about love, but it also about so much more. Life and death to be sure. The afterlife without theology to gum up the works, but rather humanity as a whole needing to embrace and begin…

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Casablanca: Monsieur Rick, Signor Ugarte, and the Fine Art of World Building.

Casablanca: Monsieur Rick, Signor Ugarte, and the Fine Art of World Building.

Released: January 1943 Directed By: Michael Curtiz Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre. By the time we meet Richard Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) in the first act of Casablanca, two German couriers have been murdered and two valuable letters of transit have been stolen, Capt. Louis Renault (Claude Rains) has rounded up the usual suspects, Major Strasser (Conrad Veidt) of the Third Reich shows up ahead of the impending arrival of Victor…

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Buck Privates: ‘You’ll Be Caught in a Draft…of Laughter!’

Buck Privates: ‘You’ll Be Caught in a Draft…of Laughter!’

Released: January 1941 Dir.: Arthur Lubin Cast: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Lee Bowman, Alan Curtis, Jane Frazee, Nat Pendleton, The Andrews Sisters. Imagine a world where you and a pal could hangout on a street corner selling neckties for 10 cents apiece. Be chased by a cop, for illegally selling said neckties, hide from him by ducking into a movie theater and then accidentally enlisting in the army. Imagine a world where while waiting to be shipped off to boot…

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All Through the Night: ‘This is Broadway, Not Berlin!’

All Through the Night: ‘This is Broadway, Not Berlin!’

Released: 1942 Dir.: Vincent Sherman How can you not like a movie that pits Humphrey Bogart against Conrad Veidt? Better still, gangsters versus Nazis! All Through the Night has this, and more. Add William Demarest, Frank McHugh, Judith Anderson, Jackie Gleason, Phil Silvers, and the always awesome Peter Lorre, and you have a great night’s entertainment. Gloves Donahue (Humphrey Bogart) is a popular Broadway sporting figure and man about town, in other words a gambler. And when Gloves’ friend, and…

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Juke Girl: ‘Sure She’s Easy to Meet… but Try and Forget Her!’

Juke Girl: ‘Sure She’s Easy to Meet… but Try and Forget Her!’

Released: 1942 Dir.: Curtis Bernhardt I have a weakness for classic Warner Brothers films. There is nothing overly extraordinary about Juke Girl, it was just another picture on the production rooster, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a good film for your viewing pleasure. For an average run of the mill film, you still get caught up in its story, with a climax that can make your blood boil if you allow it to. By 1942, it’s the kind of…

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