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Synopsis:
When Prince Hamlet of Denmark (Laurence Olivier) returns home to Elsinore, he is distressed to learn that his recently widowed mother (Eileen Herlie) has married his father’s brother (Basil Sydney), and becomes even more agitated when his dead father’s ghost appears and explains how he was murdered by Sydney. Lashing out in grief and anger, Hamlet feigns to be mad, and spurns his would-be lover, Ophelia (Jean Simmons), whose father Polonius (Felix Aylmer) and brother Laertes (Terence Morgan) are understandably upset by this turn in events.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

• Anthony Quayle Films
• Grown Children
• Jean Simmons Films
• Laurence Olivier Films
• Peter Cushing Films
• Play Adaptations
• Revenge
• Royalty and Nobility
• Shakespeare

Review:
Peary doesn’t discuss Laurence Olivier’s Oscar-winning adaptation of Shakespeare’s play of the same name in his GFTFF, but he does comment on it in his Alternate Oscars, where he writes:

“What true movie fan wouldn’t prefer watching John Huston’s The Treasure of the Sierra Madre for the hundredth time to squirming through [this film]? But prestige-minded Academy members were blinded by the imposing specter of Shakespeare, Olivier, and a British cast that dressed in royal garb and didn’t trip over difficult lines.”

He concedes, “Hamlet isn’t without merits, of course — not with Olivier himself in the lead.” But he argues that “Olivier’s direction isn’t imaginative, he pretty much ignores the other actors, his visuals have little thematic relevance (it isn’t enough just to move the camera), and much of the production looks no better than a kinescope of some fifties American television drama.” Ouch! I disagree with each of these points. Olivier’s direction and visuals (aided by DP Desmond Dickinson) are highly atmospheric and innovative throughout:

… and the supporting actors all do a fine job:

Numerous scenes are quite haunting, including Hamlet seeing his father’s ghost:

… and the discovery of the jester Yorick’s skull:

(Complaints have been made over Olivier casting a woman 11 years younger than him as his mother in the film, but this age difference isn’t all that noticeable; we simply believe Queen Gertrude was a young-ish mother, and Hamlet may have aged a bit prematurely due to stress.)

Peary further asserts that “until Hamlet’s swordfight with Laertes:

… the picture drags,” and he notes that while “Olivier deleted almost two hours from the play,” “it still seems too long.” I’ll agree the film feels long at points, but it’s hard to determine how Olivier could have made too many more cuts given how much flack he already received over removing the supporting characters of Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and Fortinbras, as well as a couple of key soliloquies. We see just enough here to get the strong gist of the tragic storyline, and are treated to the cast’s expressive handling of the dialogue throughout.

Finally, Peary argues this film “doesn’t equal either [Olivier’s] earlier Henry V or his later Richard III.” I haven’t seen Richard III recently enough to comment, but I prefer this over Henry V, which is visually innovative but lack’s Hamlet’s narrative depth and inherent interest. This adaptation remains well worth a look.

Notable Performances, Qualities, and Moments:

• Laurence Olivier as Hamlet
  
• Highly atmospheric cinematography and sets
  
  

Must See?
Yes, as a still-powerful, Oscar-winning adaptation.

Categories

• Historically Relevant
• Important Director
• Oscar Winner or Nominee

Links:

• IMDb entry
• TCM Article
• Criterion Essay

Synopsis:
A Lithuanian refugee (Ingrid Bergman) marries an Italian fisherman (Mario Vitale) as a way to stay in the country, but is instantly miserable when they move to Vitale’s home island of Stromboli, where citizens are highly moralistic and an active volcano threatens daily life.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

• Ingrid Bergman Films
• Italian Films
• Marital Problems
• Newlyweds
• Roberto Rossellini Films

Review:
Roberto Rosellini’s first film made with his soon-to-be-wife Ingrid Bergman was this neo-realist tale of a beautiful refugee who grabs opportunities when they arise — including accepting a marriage proposal from a man she can barely communicate with, simply because no other options are available:

It’s impossible to see this marriage-of-convenience going in a positive direction — though surprisingly enough, Vitale is a mostly decent guy who simply wants to live a quiet life with Bergman on his island, and it’s Bergman who reveals herself to be a classist prig:

When she tells Vitale, “I’m different. I’m very different from you. I belong to another class” (and maintains he’ll never earn enough money to deserve her), we struggle to maintain our compassion for her plight. Sure, it’s ridiculous to see local villagers criticizing Bergman for being so artistic and independent, but this is their home town, after all — she’s the newcomer.

The bulk of the film consists of Bergman simply wandering the island and trying to pass the days, including accompanying her husband and other men on an energetic fishing trip:

… and appealing to a kind local priest (Renzo Cesana) for help, confessing her “sinful” past and even seeming to awkwardly come on to him at one point.

Clearly, there isn’t much room for anything to happen in this loosely improvised storyline other than for Bergman and Vitale to acknowledge they’re not compatible — but getting Bergman off the island turns out to be an insurmountable challenge, given lack of funds and the presence of a pesky active volcano.

It was interesting reading the following anecdote in TCM’s article:

The actual filming of Stromboli on a primitive island [in the Tyrrhenian Sea] with no modern conveniences proved to be a physically exhausting experience for Bergman and her co-workers. It was also frustrating for an actress used to working with Hollywood professionals. Now she was acting with amateurs who rarely knew their lines or when to deliver them. “So to solve it,” Bergman wrote in her autobiography, “Roberto attached a string to one of their big toes inside their shoes. Then he stood there, holding this bunch of strings, and first he’d pull that string and one man spoke, and then he’d pull another string and another man spoke. I didn’t have a string on my toe, so I didn’t know when I was supposed to speak. And this was realistic filmmaking! The dialogue was never ready, or there never was any dialogue. I thought I was going crazy.”

Poor Bergman — and yet, she invited herself into the situation by writing a fan letter to Rossellini and offering her acting services to him. The rest, as film lovers know, is cinematic and romantic history, with the couple making three children and five more films together — including Voyage to Italy (1954).

Notable Performances, Qualities, and Moments:

• Ingrid Bergman as Karen
  
• Fine neo-realist cinematography
  

Must See?
No; you can skip this one unless you’re curious. Listed as a film with Historical Importance in the back of Peary’s book.

Links:

• IMDb entry
• TCM Article
• DVD Savant Review
• NY Times Original Review

Synopsis:
When an RAF pilot (David Niven) in a burning plane calls a ground operator (Kim Hunter) to inform her he’ll be jumping to his death, the two fall instantly in love. Meanwhile, up in heaven, Niven’s dead co-pilot (Robert Coote) asks the main attendant (Kathleen Byron) about Niven’s absence, and when Byron determines that an error has occurred, she sends an angel (Marius Goring) down to Earth to retrieve him. However, Niven — alive but with headaches — has no intention of leaving Hunter, who has enlisted the help of a surgeon (Roger Livesey) in determining why Niven has been “hallucinating” visits from Goring.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

• Airplanes and Pilots
• Courtroom Drama
• David Niven Films
• Death and Dying
• Fantasy
• Kim Hunter Films
• Life After Death
• Michael Powell Films
• Raymond Massey Films
• Roger Livesey Films
• Romance

Review:
Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s follow-up to I Know Where I’m Going! (1945) was this beautifully filmed fantasy-romance about the liminality of life and death, paying homage to the many brave RAF pilots who lost their lives during World War II.

The idea of a pilot-in-crisis being able to reach a beautiful operator on the ground and connect with her romantically:

… then survive a fall without a parachute:

… plays into the ultimate fantasy so many must have held about their sons, brothers, and partners during the war: they’re only missing, not deceased; they will reconnect with their loved ones; they can fight back against death. It’s a lovely wishful vision, richly portrayed here through Jack Cardiff’s lush cinematography (Technicolor on Earth, b&w for heaven):

… Alfred Junge’s other-worldly sets:

… and a storyline that repeatedly goes in unexpected directions. We wonder — what role will Livesey’s motorcycle-riding neurosurgeon play in the drama?

Will effete Goring be successful in his ploys to bring Niven over to the heavenly side?

What function will Raymond Massey play in the “courtroom” proceedings — and why does it seem like the storyline has suddenly become a referendum on British-American relations?

While I’m not a huge fan of the final “movement” of this cinematic symphony (i.e., the heavenly courtroom scenes), this doesn’t really matter given that it’s the visuals and sentiments that count the most, and those are on ample display throughout. This unique film should be seen by all film fanatics as a fine example of creative, romantic expression at its most liberated.

Notable Performances, Qualities, and Moments:

• Jack Cardiff’s stunning cinematography
  
  
• Alfred Junge’s sets
  
  

Must See?
Yes, as a unique outing by master directors.

Categories

• Important Director

(Listed in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die)

Links:

• IMDb entry
• NY Times Original Review
• Moria Review
• DVD Savant Review
• Spinning Image Review
• TCM Article

Synopsis:
During Italy’s year of liberation from German occupation, Americans interact with citizens across a variety of settings.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

• Episodic Films
• Italian Films
• Roberto Rossellini Films
• Soldiers
• World War II

Review:
Roberto Rossellini’s follow-up to Open City (1945) was this episodic tale of Italian-American collaboration across the nation, moving from south to north. Each episode is differently dark, with brief moments of respite but an overall fidelity to the harsh reality of Italians’ (and American soldiers’) existence during this time. In the first sequence (“Sicily”), a teenage girl (Carmela Sazio) agrees to accompany an American reconnaissance group as they navigate past a German minefield to local seaside caves; along the way, she is left with a non-Italian-speaking G.I. named Joe (Robert Van Loon), and the two tentatively connect, word by word, before tragedy strikes:

In the second episode (“Naples”), a Black G.I. (Dots Johnson) befriends an orphaned street urchin (Alfonsino Pasca):

… and at first is disturbed to have his shoes stolen, but then learns how truly poverty-stricken Pasca is. In Episode 3 (“Rome”), a prostitute (Maria Michi) — the same actress playing the drug-addicted femme fatale in Open City — solicits a date with a passing G.I. (Gar Moore), only to find he is morbidly fixated on how much things have changed for the worse since the city was liberated six months earlier.

The fourth episode (“Florence”) brings us to the frontlines of street violence, as an American nurse (Harriet Medin) and an Italian partisan (Renzo Avanzo) risk their lives to cross the Arno River so Medin can learn the fate of her lover, and Avanzo can check on his wife and child.

Episode five (“Bologna”) seems at first to offer some literal respite from the war, as a trio of American chaplains (William Tubbs, Newell Jones, and Elmer Feldman) are allowed to stay in a Roman Catholic monastery — but the monks react with genuine dismay when they learn that only Tubbs is Catholic (Jones is Protestant and Feldman is Jewish).

Finally, Episode 6 (“Po Delta”) brings us back to straight-up wartime aggression, as American O.S.S. members fight alongside Italian partisans in the delta.

Rossellini’s neo-realist approach throughout each episode of this film brings with it numerous moments of heart-wrenching grief and insight.

SPOILERS AHEAD

Sazio experiences a brutal, misunderstood end:

Johnson learns that his own impoverished background as a Black American doesn’t compare to the squalor Pasca and his community are currently living through:

Moore doesn’t realize that the woman soliciting him is actually the same girl he fell in love with months earlier, and skips out on a reunion:

Medin and Avanzo can barely make it across a city without being killed; monks hold such engrained prejudices against non-Catholics that we can easily see how intolerance persists across Europe; and a young child cries with anguish in the night when his parents are brutally killed.

Obviously, none of this is light-hearted or easy to get through — but one finishes Paisan with gratitude for its harsh authenticity (we see the bitter “truth” here), and a sense of hope that things will at least start to get better by the end of the war.

Notable Performances, Qualities, and Moments:

• Excellent use of authentic settings across Italy
  
  

Must See?
Yes, for its historical significance, and as a powerful neo-realist movie. Listed as a film with Historical Importance and a Personal Recommendation in the back of Peary’s book.

Categories

• Historically Relevant

(Listed in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die)

Links:

• IMDb entry
• TCM Article
• NY Times Original Review
• Q Network Review
• Criterion Essay

Synopsis:
After escaping from prison, a career criminal (George Sanders) and his accomplice (Akim Tamiroff) pose for a painting of Saint George and his dragon, then begin new lives with help from Tamiroff’s uncle (Vladimir Sokoloff). Sanders steals a ruby garter from a beautiful singer (Carole Landis), then later meets a wealthy marquise (Alma Kruger) who invites them to her chateau, where her granddaughter (Signe Hasso) recognizes him as the man in the Saint George painting and falls in love with him. Meanwhile, Landis — who has married an ineffectual police chief (Gene Lockhart) — meets up with Sanders (now the new police chief) once again, and is determined to get payback for her stolen garter.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

• Akim Tamiroff Films
• Black Comedy
• Douglas Sirk Films
• George Sanders Films
• Historical Drama
• Mistaken or Hidden Identities
• Revenge
• Signe Hasso Films
• Thieves and Criminals

Review:
Before beginning his string of lush Technicolor “women’s pictures” for Universal Pictures, Douglas Sirk made this dark comedy based on the real-life adventures of French criminal-turned-memoirist Eugène François Vidocq. Sanders is perfectly cast as (what else?) a droll cad who coolly woos women while carrying out well-executed crimes and working his way up in the world (below he’s seen by the gravestone of the man whose identity he steals):

Flirtatious Landis (just a couple of years before her untimely death) is his perfect counterpart:

… and steals the movie in later scenes, as both her vengeance and her obsession with hats take full form.

Less effective is Hasso as a reverent young woman who falls in love with the saintly painting of Sanders, then goes silent each time she sees him in real life:

For some reason her silence is appealing to Sanders, and a love triangle of sorts is thus set in motion, all while Tamiroff and his extended criminal family are busily plotting (with Sanders) to carry out the ultimate heist:

The storyline is mostly light-hearted, with plenty of mistaken identity kerfuffle (and a pet monkey!), but it turns fairly dark by the end:

Fans of Sirk’s work will likely be curious to check this film out, but it’s not must-see viewing.

Notable Performances, Qualities, and Moments:

• Carole Landis as Loretta
  
• Fine cinematography (by Eugene Shuftan)
  
  
• Ellis St. Joseph’s often witty script: “Sometimes the chains of matrimony are so heavy that they have to be carried by three.”

Must See?
No, though Sirk fans will probably want to check it out. Listed as a Sleeper and a Personal Recommendation in the back of Peary’s book.

Links:

• IMDb entry
• Spinning Image Review
• Bright Lights Film Review

Synopsis:
A German concentration camp survivor (Hildegard Knef) arriving back at her ruined apartment encounters a traumatized military surgeon (Ernst Wilhelm Borchert) who has been living there, and the two decide to share the space. Meanwhile, Borchert is unsure how to act when he encounters his former captain (Arno Paulsen): will he seek vengeance, or move forward into a career of healing and hope?

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

• Doctors and Nurses
• German Films
• Survival

Review:
This German film is notable for being the first in a genre known as Trümmerfilm (or “rubble films) — that is, movies set within the detritus of bombed out cities after the end of World War II, and focusing on survivors’ experiences. Aesthetically speaking, such films are inherently dramatic:

… and this one is made even more so through the use of highly atmospheric cinematography:

While some have criticized the appearance of healthy-looking Knef as a supposed concentration camp survivor:

… it’s easy enough to forgive this given the unrelenting bleakness she’s surrounded by, and the fact that her character is meant to symbolize hope.

Indeed, the entire film should be viewed less as a realistic tale, and more as a meditation on the various coping mechanisms of German survivors. As the film opens, we see an elderly optometrist (Robert Forsch) in Knef’s apartment building assisting a young woman whose glasses need soldering:

When Knef comments to him, “You are still working here as if nothing had happened!” he shares with her his “good fortune” in being a hoarder:

“This is all I was able to rescue out of the rubble down in the cellar. People always used to laugh. I hoarded things for ages. Now all this old junk I kept over the years is my start to a new life.”

For Forsch, maintaining a daily work schedule is what keeps him sane and hopeful:

“I have a lot of work to do…. If [my son] is still alive, he will return home one day. The house will be ready and waiting for him. His father will await him.”

Next we see Knef interacting with drunken Borchert; sensing his pain, she convinces him it’s fine to share the space for awhile:

She focuses on busily cleaning her apartment and getting back to her art:

… while Borchert escapes once again into drink and women:

Although his skills as a doctor are vitally needed, Borchert is too traumatized to pick his career back up (“I can no longer bear to hear the moans of people in torment.”) Soon Borchert runs into his former captain (Paulsen), who is living a happy, stable family life, seemingly not at all concerned about the deaths he was responsible for just before the end of the war:

Borchert feels differently about this than Paulsen — but when he has a random encounter with a very sick young girl while out walking amongst the rubble, his perspective changes once again:

Yes, it’s all melodramatic — but the heightened narrative makes sense within the context of the surreal post-conflict landscape these individuals are inhabiting; and the final showdown offers some sense of the future “truth and reconciliation” that would necessarily begin to occur in Germany.

Notable Performances, Qualities, and Moments:

• Highly atmospheric cinematography
  

Must See?
Yes, for its historical relevance, and as a fine little film. Listed as a film with Historical Importance and a Sleeper in the back of Peary’s book.

Categories

• Historically Relevant

Links:

• IMDb entry
• DVD Savant Review
• Chicago Reader Capsule Review

Synopsis:
In England during the early years of World War II, a new fighter pilot (John Mills) is assigned to work under a veteran flight lieutenant (Michael Redgrave) who marries his sweetheart (Rosamund John) and has a child. Meanwhile, Mills falls for a pretty young woman (Renee Asherson) living with her strict aunt (Joyce Carey), and over the years various American pilots — including a young father named Johnny (Douglass Montgomery) — are sent to join the RAF in their efforts.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

• Airplanes and Pilots
• John Mills Films
• Michael Redgrave Films
• Military
• Trevor Howard Films
• World War II

Review:
Playwright Terence Rattigan wrote the screenplay for this British tribute to WWII flyers, who repeatedly risked their lives to engage in dangerous but essential work while juggling decisions related to romance, marriage, and kids:

Saying more about specific storylines would give away spoilers, so I’ll avoid doing that; suffice it to say that the realities of sacrifice aren’t sugar-coated here, and we see individuals managing complicated emotions.

Meanwhile, much fun is had with cultural and linguistic differences between the Brits and the Yanks (who nonetheless quickly learn to get along):

Interestingly, despite its very specific topic and setting, there are parallels between this wartime flick (shortened and released as Johnny in the Clouds in the U.S.) and Rattigan’s later Separate Tables (1958), given that both take place at least partly in a rooming house/hotel. In The Way to the Stars, Rosamund John plays the role of the “efficient hotel manager” (inhabited by Oscar-winning Wendy Hiller in Separate Tables):

… and Renee Asherson — last seen as Princess Kate in Laurence Olivier’s Henry V (1944) — plays a shy young woman (Deborah Kerr’s equivalent in Separate Tables) living under the thumb of an overly protective caretaker:

Note: Watch for Trevor Howard in his first credited screen role:

… and 15-year-old Jean Simmons in a brief bit as a singer in a club:

Notable Performances, Qualities, and Moments:

• Fine performances by Redgrave and Mills
  

Must See?
No, but it’s worth a look by those interested in films of this period. Listed as a film with Historical Importance in the back of Peary’s book.

Links:

• IMDb entry
• NY Times Original Review
• DVD Savant Review
• TCM Article (spoilers alert)