Whether stationed abroad, entertaining the attentions of the troops, going to therapy, or committing MURDER, the films of 1944 truly believed women could play it all. I'm reminded that a frequent frustration of Old Hollywood fans is the dismissal of women’s roles at the time, despite there being so many varied, complex parts - in this lineup alone! As in:
Cry 'Havoc'
release: February
dir: Richard Thorpe
pr: Edwin H. Knopf
scr: Paul Osborn, from the play by Allan R. Kenward (produced on Broadway as Proof Thro' the Night)
cin: Karl Freund
When Joan Crawford was briefly attached to appear in this film, she dubbed it The Women Go To War - referencing her all-female 1939 hit, it's her elevator pitch for this all-female (well, almost) ensemble about Army and volunteer nurses in the Philippines. Every time I see this title, I'm shocked that it wasn't a nominee somewhere: the harrowing battle scenes weren't up for visual effects (though some of the footage may be from an earlier film, so that's forgivable), the detailed barracks set wasn't up for Art Direction-Set Decoration, and none of the female ensemble were up for, well, anything - not even leading lady Margaret Sullavan as the head nurse, an embattled leader with many secrets; not even Ann Sothern or Joan Blondell as streetwise broads with different approaches to barracks life. Bitter taste at the end, too. I liked it: it was genuine in its handling of the brutalities of war, recognizing that it's not just our boys over there - even raises some skepticism about the efficiency of evac efforts.
The Miracle of Morgan's Creek
release: February
nominations: Best Original Screenplay
dir/pr/scr: Preston Sturges
cin: John F. Seitz
Trudy Kockenlocker (Betty Hutton) does her part by partying with servicemen the night before they ship off to the War - leaving her married and pregnant with no memory of the man responsible; so, local nice guy Norval Jones (Eddie Bracken) chooses to do the honorable thing, with hilarious results. Great movie, funny about how the sincerity of wanting to be part of the war effort can be taken advantage of, but also how the soldiers going overseas are, really, youths who aren't necessarily considering the consequences of their actions. How'd he get away with it? Apparently written on the fly, Sturges reportedly wasn't sure what the Miracle of the title would be until the eleventh hour; personally, I think getting a watchable performance from Hutton is miracle enough, but the film does deliver on its promise. Works the heartstrings and the funny bone with equal expertise! Diana Lynn and William Demarest nearly steal the show as Trudy's sister and father, respectively.
None Shall Escape
release: February 3
nominations: Best Original Story
dir: Andre DeToth
pr: Samuel Bischoff
scr: Lester Cole, story by Alfred Neumann & Joseph Than
cin: Lee Garmes
How an embittered man, disillusioned and disfigured by WWI, embraces Nazi ideology to become his town's most menacing figure. He turns in his brother! He molests a little girl! He sends a man he grew up with to the gas chambers! A shrill anti-Nazi piece, which is fine in spirit but very superficial in execution, though it feels like an ancestor of future Nazisploitation grindhousers.
The Sullivans
release: February 3
nominations: Best Original Story
dir: Lloyd Bacon
pr: Sam Jaffe
scr: Mary C. McCall, Jr., story by Jules Schermer and Edward Doherty
cin: Lucien N. Andriot
Also known as The Fighting Sullivans, about a large Irish-American family and the path that takes all five sons into the Navy. It's a somewhat meandering, vignette-y thing, who raîson d'étre only becomes apparent in the final ten minutes. And it works, every single moment, from the courtship of local girl Anne Baxter to the oldest brother challenging dad Thomas Mitchell to a fistfight, every moment hits with the pain and joy of living life.
Lady in the Dark
release: February 9
nominations: Best Musical Score (Robert Emmett Dolan), Best Cinematography - Color, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration - Color (Hans Dreier / Raoul Pene Du Bois / Ray Moyer)
dir: Mitchell Leisen
pr: Richard Blumenthal / Buddy G. DeSylva
scr: Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, from the play by Moss Hart
cin: Ray Rennahan
Ginger Rogers as the editor-in-chief of a fashion magazine who is haunted by oddball dreams, butts heads with the handsome new marketing manager, and talks through it all in sessions with her psychoanalyst. The movie with everything: it's a topical melodrama (psychoanalysis will help you uncover and move past old traumas!), it's a romantic-comedy (Rogers and Ray Milland snipe at each other in a way that guarantees they'll wind up together), and it's a musical (yes, it just so happens Ms. Rogers' "dreams" manifest as splashy production numbers)! One dream sequence has her on trial in the middle of a circus, it's delightfully surreal.
The Bridge of San Luis Rey
release: February 11
nominations: Best Score (Dimitri Tiomkin)
dir: Rowland V. Lee
pr: Benedict Bogeaus / Rowland V. Lee
scr: Howard Estabrook, adaptation by Howard Estabrook and Herman Weissman, from the novel by Thornton Wilder
cin: John W. Boyle
In Peru, an old rope bridge collapses, sending five people to their deaths; we go back and meet some of these people and the decisions that led them to be on that bridge that fateful day. Lynn Bari plays the heroine, the real-life entertainer Micaela Villegas, who becomes a great success and mistress to the viceroy, played gamely by Louis Calhern. There are also twin brothers, one of whom is Micaela's actual love interest, but they are uninteresting. Walking away with the movie, very easily, is Nazimova as a bitter, scheming aristrocrat. Sets and costumes are fabulous, it's a surprise the former wasn't nominated and the shame the latter didn't get a category until 1947! Kind of dull, for me.
Charlie Chan in the Secret Service
release: February 14
dir: Phil Rosen
pr: James S. Burkett / Philip N. Krasne
scr: George Callahan, from characters created by Earl Derr Biggers
cin: Ira H. Morgan
Now we're back to WWII, with Charlie Chan investigating the murder of a government agent working on a new torpedo. Sidney Toler is Charlie once again, but this is the first of his Monogram Pictures run - Toler had actually bought the rights to the character after Fox ended its series, and would go on to portray Chan in 10 more films, including this one. The great thing about this entry is we get more of Charlie's family, including Number Three Son and Number Two Daughter; the iffy thing is this is the one that introduces taxi driver Birmingham Brown, who eventually becomes Chan's chauffeur, played by Mantan Moreland in a fashion that is not, shall we say, forward-thinking, but I do like Moreland's energy; the bad thing is there's too much going on to provide a satisfying mystery and solution. A disappointment.
Nine Girls
release: February 17
dir: Leigh Jason
pr: Burt Kelly
scr: Karen DeWolf and Connie Lee, adaptation by Al Martin, from the play by Wilfrid H. Pettitt
cin: James Van Trees
Sorority goes away for the weekend and the biggest bitch of them all is murdered! Whodunnit? Who cares! Does not meet the promise of the premise, Ann Harding's slumming it, bummer all around. Fun that it came out around the same time as Cry 'Havoc', shame it's not a better movie.
Up in Arms
release: February 17
nominations: Best Musical Score (Louis Forbes / Ray Heindorf), Best Original Song ("Now I Know")
dir: Elliott Nugent
pr: Samuel Goldwyn
scr: Don Hartman & Allen Boretz and Robert Pirosh, suggested by the character "The Nervous Wreck" by Owen Davis
cin: Ray Rennahan
Having appeared in a handful of shorts, Danny Kaye makes his feature film debut here as a hypochondriac who gets drafted alongside his best friend, both of them in love with the same girl. Annoying mostly, if I'm being quite honest, but there's no denying the spark Kaye has, and his "Theater Lobby Number" and "Melody in 4-F" are terrific routines for him, setting up a pattern to be repeated in subsequent films (basically, running monologues where Kaye takes on a persona and goes nuts for, like, five or six minutes).
The Uninvited
release: February 26
nominations: Best Cinematography - Black-and-White
dir: Lewis Allen
pr: Charles Brackett
scr: Dodie Smith and Frank Partos, from Uneasy Freehold by Dorothy Macardle
cin: Charles Lang, Jr.
Brother and sister buy a gorgeous cliffside mansion for a bargain - and, of course, it's haunted. Always question a bargain! Without question, the best film among all the ones we've discussed today. Candles that go sideways, flowers that suddenly whither, a ghostly apparition, echoing noises that sound like they appear simultaneously from downstairs and deep within, an unnerving Cornelia Otis Skinner...it's a genuinely unsettling ride. But it's not all chills, there are laughs to be had, convincingly crafted quips that neatly illustrate both the necessity of humor to break tension and establish the citified skepticism of Ray Milland and sister Ruth Hussey. The cinematography is gorgeous, atmospheric; the score is beautiful; the twists are not unpredictable, but that hardly matters, it's wonderful seeing the characters figure it all out - or even just spend time together! I could have watched this for another hour, I'm sure, but it knows exactly when to get out, nothing left hanging or undeveloped. Masterful!
Tomorrow, one of Spielberg’s favorite movies.
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