July 1945. Berlin is divided between East and West, a situation that will remain in place until 1990. The Philippines are officially liberated. The Japanese begin peace negotiations, and the Potsdam Conference avers that there will be no negotiations, but rather unconditional surrender. And the first atomic bomb is successfully tested in New Mexico, ushering in the atomic age.
And at the cinemas, we were celebrating Christmas in July:
The Silver Fleet
release: July 1
dir: Vernon Campbell Sewell / Gordon Wellesley
pr: Michael Powell / Emeric Pressburger / Ralph Richardson
scr: Vernon Campbell Sewell / Gordon Wellesley, from the story “Remember Jan de Wit” by Emeric Pressburger
cin: Erwin Hillier
In occupied Holland, a shipyard owner forced to build for the Nazis secretly works as a saboteur. Apparently inspired by true events. Absolutely wonderful. Ralph Richardson is the lead, plays perfectly the upper-middle-class businessman who you’d never suspect of having more on the mind than the bottom line, but the pride in his country as his country is palpable. Three suspenseful sequences: the investigation of the conspirators, who’ve hidden arms in the stores of the grocer; a long party sequence that must be timed perfectly to distract the Nazis; and the actual hijacking of a submarine. Esmond Knight is the pompous villain who can’t believe any non-German would be cleverer than he, campy, terrific work. Makes you proud of resistance efforts around the globe.
Christmas in Connecticut
release: July 4
dir: Peter Godfrey
pr: William Jacobs
scr: Lionel Houser and Adele Comandini, story by Aileen Hamilton
cin: Carl E. Guthrie
A women's lifestyle writer who's been faking homemaking expertise for her articles is trapped when her unsuspecting publisher invites himself and a war hero to her “home” for a traditional Christmas dinner. It is a divine house, no denying that. The funny bone is tickled, the heartstrings are pulled, and Barbara Stanwyck once again has chemistry with everyone in the room. You believe in the romance and you don’t quite believe she’s getting away with all her misdirections - the bit with local babies, plural, being passed off as her own is a hoot - but that the right people don’t care anyhow; besides, she’s just as shocked. The best use of S.Z. Sakall I’ve ever seen.
The Affairs of Susan
release: July 8
nominations: Best Original Story
dir: William A. Seiter
pr: Hal B. Wallis
scr: Thomas Monroe & Laszlo Gorog and Richard Flournoy, original story by Monroe & Gorog
cin: David Abel
A soon-to-be-married man interviews his fiancée's three ex-beaus, each of whom knew a different version of her. Opens with the four men singing, "If you knew Susie, like I knew Susie / Oh, oh, oh, what a dame..." A fun spin on the POV sub-genre, with Joan Fontaine as the woman leaving broken hearts in her stead, each man convinced he knows the real her...while she's on a journey to discover herself and her desires. George Brent, the biggest star of the four, is, naturally, the one telegraphed to be most suitable to her temperament, and as a Brent agnostic, I found myself quite fond of him. Fontaine is once again hilarious and sexy in a role that demands both - she really was great when they let her dress nice and go outside bad husbands' manors. Delightful.
Story of G.I. Joe
release: July 13
nominations: Best Supporting Actor (Robert Mitchum), Best Screenplay, Best Score (Louis Applebaum / Ann Ronell), Best Original Song ("Linda")
dir: William A. Wellman
pr: Lester Cowan
scr: Leopold Atlas & Guy Endore & Philip Stevenson, from the books Brave Men and Here Is Your War by Ernie Pyle
cin: Russell Metty
Released barely three months after real-life war correspondent Ernie Pyle, whose observations and articles inspired the film, was killed in action. This is a story of army life: the fatigue, the hours of waiting, the mud and the sickness, the Christmases spent hungry in a cave, the rotation of soldiers to replace transferred and the wounded...and the dead. I see why this movie got brought up a lot when Saving Private Ryan was released, everything that movie does well, this one does even better. You get a sense not just of the inner strength it must take to push yourself every day to stay awake and keep fighting, but of how absolutely ridiculous it is that the world allows its "leaders" to put their people through these experiences. "The new kids...I know it ain't my fault that they get killed, but it makes me feel like a murderer," says Robert Mitchum's Captain Walker. He's terrific, as is Burgess Meredith as Ernie Pyle. Might be the best WWII film I've ever seen.
The Corn is Green
release: July 14
nominations: Best Supporting Actor (John Dall), Best Supporting Actress (Joan Lorring)
dir: Irving Rapper
pr: Jack Chertok
scr: Casey Robinson & Frank Cavett, from the play by Emlyn Williams
cin: Sol Polito
A teacher arrives to educate the youth and residents of a mining town, and sees great possibilities in one of her pupils. Playwright Emlyn Williams was apparently inspired by his own teacher and the influence she had on him. Reaches for complexity in its depiction of the relationship between educator and star pupil: not sexual, thank goodness, but more an elitism and recognition of one’s own power. I don’t necessarily think it’s consciously written that way, certainly the way it ends seems to suggest this is supposed to be more, “Wow! Educators! And how lonely they are!” than it is a complex portrait of a woman who can’t help play Pygmalion when she feels it’s deserving. But I did get that latter reading, and I think it’s there in Bette Davis’s performance, and I think there are also shadings in Joan Loring’s performance as the “bad girl” that further suggest how the teacher’s own biases regarding class and, possibly, gender doom someone in her own household to a life of pettiness. It at least presents Davis as very human, despite her severe facade. Chewy, worth a rewatch.
Hitchhike to Happiness
release: July 16
nominations: Best Score (Morton Scott)
dir: Joseph Santley
pr: Donald H. Brown
scr: Jack Townley, original story by Manuel Seff and Jerry Horwin
cin: Jack A. Marta
An LA-based radio star visits friends in her old New York haunts, who, because of her stage name, don't realize that she's now a star. Unlike most backstage musicals, doesn’t go for a wide variety of songs, illustrating how much rehearsal is repetition.
Anchors Aweigh
release: July 19
wins: Best Musical Score (George Stoloff)
nominations: Best Picture, Best Actor (Gene Kelly), Best Cinematography - Color, Best Original Song ("I Fall in Love Too Easily")
dir: George Sidney
pr: Joe Pasternak
scr: Isobel Lennart, suggested by a story by Natalie Marcin
cin: Charles P. Boyle / Robert H. Planck
Navy sailors on a pass meet and fall for a wannabe singer. This is the one where the movie stops so Gene Kelly (in his only nominated performance!!) can dance with Jerry the Mouse, and no one minds because it’s awesome. We'll discuss it more next week, when we get into the Best Picture nominees.
A Thousand and One Nights
release: July 20
nominations: Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration - Color (Stephen Goosson / Rudolph Sternad / Frank Tuttle), Best Special Effects (Lawrence W. Butler / Ray Bomba)
dir: Alfred E. Green
pr: Samuel Bischoff
scr: Wilfrid H. Pettitt & Richard English & Jack Henley, story by Wilfrid H. Pettitt, from the stories
cin: Ray Rennahan
Send-up of "exotic east" films has Aladdin finding a lamp with a genie...named Babs, who has a crush on him. Impressive effects and a callback to The Thief of Bagdad, with Rex Ingram playing a version of his giant character in that film, down to the costume and makeup. Painful jokes about Phil Silvers' character being "tuned in" to the future, allowing him to make anachronistic references and jokes - actually, you could say this whole film was a template for Disney's Aladdin, with Babs and Phil Silvers combined into Robin Williams' blue genie. Disney did it better, this one looks terrific but the jokes, oy vey.
Guest Wife
release: July 27
nominations: Best Score (Daniele Amfitheatrof)
dir: Sam Wood
pr: Bruce Manning
scr: John D. Klorer and Bruce Manning
cin: Joseph A. Valentine
For stupid reasons, a man convinces his wife to pose as his best friend's bride while on their second honeymoon. And I don’t mean to suggest that dismissively, the whole point is that the hubby is always letting his best friend interfere for stupid reasons, though I suspect it’s less about guys being bros than it is that these are otherwise straight men who are in love with each other and don’t realize it, can’t name it. Anyway, it’s great to see Claudette Colbert play the charade past the point of comfort for everyone, she and Don Ameche play great aggravation with enough spark that you start to wonder…will they? Shouldn’t they?
The Woman in Green
release: July 27
dir/pr: Roy William Neill
scr: Bertram Millhauser, from characters created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
cin: Virgil Miller
Seemingly random murders are connected by a group of hypnotists and spiritualists - but Holmes just has to figure out how. As you can see, some great shots, the hypnotism angle gives the filmmakers permission to play with more clever, surreal imagery. This was my first Rathbone-Bruce experience, I was probably in fifth grade, and was puzzled then as I am now by making a black-and-white film with a specific color as title and plot point.
Tomorrow, we touch on a few of my favorite movies from this year!
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