The Usual Choices
Heaven Can Wait (Ernst Lubitsch)
I Walked with a Zombie (Jacques Tourneur)
The Life & Death of Colonel Blimp (Michael Powell)
The More the Merrier (George Stevens)
Shadow of a Doubt (Alfred Hitchcock)
But how about...
Air Force (Howard Hawks)
An exciting and procedurally-fascinated WWII film which is one of the best of the 1943 war-effort batch. An aircraft-lovers' movie, this follows a largely young crew of 9 airmen and how they are suddenly called into action on the day of the Pearl Harbour attack. In typical Hawks' style, the men jabber over each other, have a strict moral code, good senses of humour and duty and are just all-round nice fellas (they even have a dog). Overlong at 125 minutes, with some draggy quiet lapses (usually spent getting to know everybody's home lives), the fight scenes are brilliantly staged and edited and, most impressively from a 2018 perspective, the brutality of war is never glossed over...even the good guys engage in tit-for-tat viciousness. A strong ensemble performance (special nods to oldtimer Harry Carey and bundle-of-wrath John Garfield) carries it through the inevitable flag-waving propaganda stuff.
...and what about...
Hangmen Also Die (Fritz Lang)
A mysteriously undersung war movie which is a well-crafted, suspenseful drama and worthy of wider recognition (despite being disowned by its volatile director). Set in 1942 Czechoslovakia, it is about the immediate aftermath of the assassination of Nazi filth Reinhard Heydrich and the hunt for his executioner. Lumbered with a reduced acting pool to draw from due to the callup, the cast is headed by Brian Donlevy, Walter Brennan and Anna Lee...hardly an inspiring combo, but they do surprisingly well as three Czech citizens targeted by the ruthless manhunt. The Nazis are evil bastards all but are not minimised to mere nastiness...they are truly frightening monsters, and this elevates the heroism of the ordinary people who had the guts to defy them. This is one of the very few WWII films which clearly lays out the terror of occupation (and the vileness of collaboration), and does it with an emphasis on the need to liberate people's humanity as well as liberating their country. On a par with Fritz's Fury and You Only Live Once.
...not to mention...
The Ox-Bow Incident (William Wellman)
While this is a highly-regarded Western, it seldom turns up as company for The Searchers or The Wild Bunch on anybody's Top 10 list. And yet I class it as superior to both of those classics (and many equally-beknighted others). Right from the lightly-amusing intro to its quick-morph into lynch-mob horror, this movie wants to make one thing particularly clear: "Hanging is everybody's business who's around." As History has shown, the first act of a tyrant is to cheapen life and this movie communicates that truth via top-of-form craftsmanship: acting, script, lighting, framing, design...all are outstanding. (One gripe though: I could've done without Henry Fonda's closing letter-read...basically a rehash of Tom Joad's final speech in The Grapes of Wrath...totally superfluous...we got the message already). An allegorical companion piece to all the Why-We-Fight docos which were cranked out in the 40's, this is also a great example of Hollywood filmmaking at its most professional and impassioned. And well-cemented into my Top 10 Westerns list.
...and one personal unmentionable...
Keeper of the Flame (George Cukor)
This is a classic example of how an artistic supergroup (Spencer Tracy + Katharine Hepburn + George Cukor + writer Donald Ogden Stewart) can override their talents and produce utter dross. The story of a publicly-beloved man and how, after his death, it is discovered that he was really quite monstrous, this movie travels down the mystery route but is carrying one helluva load: political propaganda. Yep, we get lectured & warned about homegrown Fascism and how you can fool all of the people all of the time if you're rich and charming. While this I've-got-an-agenda drudge is usually compared to Citizen Kane in structure, it's more like a Gothic-Noir / Frank Capra hybrid...Rebecca Goes to Washington. From Kate's worst-ever performance (at no point is she bearable) to the entire soundstage shoot (the atmosphere seems to be airless), this is a substandard MGM production that Louis B Mayer was right to bellyache about.
PS The leftist politicking of KotF was later lambasted by Senator Joe McCarthy; now there was a movie fan who knew a lot about bullshit.
My Top 10 Films of 1943
 |
| "Velcome campers!" |
#02 A Shadow of a Doubt (Hitchcock)
#03 A Hangmen Also Die (Lang)
#04 A- I Walked with a Zombie (Tourneur)
#05 A- The Life & Death of Colonel Blimp (Powell)
#06 A- Air Force (Hawks)
#07 A- Five Graves to Cairo (Wilder)
#08 A- The More the Merrier (Stevens)
#09 B+ Cry 'Havoc' (Thorpe)
#10 B+ Sherlock Holmes Faces Death (Neill)
Overflow: More A-/B+ Films
#11 B+ The Ghost Ship (Robson)
#12 B+ Above Suspicion (Thorpe)
#13 B+ Holy Matrimony (Stahl)
#14 B+ Jane Eyre (Stevenson)
#15 B+ Lassie Come Home (Wilcox)
#16 B+ Heaven Can Wait (Lubitsch)
Sorry, They Didn't Make It...
> B The Human Comedy [its smalltown, wartime heart is in the right place but geez, it runneth over]
> B Watch on the Rhine [I applaud the message, but the film doesn't do any more than sternly deliver it]
> B The Leopard Man [terrific use of shadows and wind but it doesn't compensate for the acting]
> B Lady of Burlesque [whodunnit set amongst strippers who don't strip and the tamest of sleaze]
> B A Stranger in Town [idealistic Americana Corn which is lightly entertaining & mildly satisfying guff]
> B For Whom the Bell Tolls [well-acted Spanish Civil War movie where the romance overthrows the action]
> B The Man in Grey [entertaining British costume melodrama...if you like that sort of thing]
> B- The Hard Way [Ida's good, but how can I be expected to believe that Joan Leslie would conquer Broadway?]
> B- Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man [aka Alien vs Predator: The Original Idea]
> B- Sahara [handsomely-shot Desert Campaign film bogged down by the required moralising and propaganda]
> B- My Friend Flicka [a love story between boy & beast with lots of fresh air and oatmeal]
> B- Edge of Darkness [Norwegian WWII story of courage which hits you over the head more than it stirs your soul]
> B- Sherlock Holmes in Washington [#5 in the franchise and more WWII contribution than Holmesian sleuthing]
> C Journey Into Fear [a WWII espionage drama where everybody is boring, especially the hero]
> C It Ain't Hay [Abbott & Costello + a cutesy-pie kid + horse-racing + 3 lousy musical numbers]
> C Margin for Error [Milton Berle in an Otto Preminger-directed anti-Nazi drama??]
> C Captive Wild Woman [mad scientist film which asks the question: How daft can you get?]
> C Hitler's Children [aka I was a Teenage Nazi...and It Really Sucked]
> C The Song of Bernadette [I prefer the one that goes: God said to Abraham, "Kill me a son"]
> D Madame Curie [okay Mrs Miniver, so you found radium...now, where's my dinner?]
> D The Man from Down Under [trust me...this has absolutely nothing to do with Australia, okay cobber?]
> D Claudia [talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk smile through the tears talk talk talk talk talk]
> D Keeper of the Flame [A Personal Unmentionable]
"Ah!..Sweet Mystery of Life...": 1943 Films I Apparently Still Need to See
Bataan (Garnett); Behind the Rising Sun (Dmytryk); The Bells Go Down (Dearden); Cabin in the Sky (Minnelli); Calling Dr. Death (LeBorg); Candlelight in Algeria (King); The Constant Nymph (Goulding); The Crystal Ball (Rapper); Crazy House (Cline); The Cross of Lorraine (Garnett); Dangerous Blondes (Jason); The Dark Tower (Harlow); Dear Octopus (French); Destination Tokyo (Daves); Destroyer (Seiter); The Fallen Sparrow (Wallace); Flesh and Fantasy (Duvivier); Forever and a Day (Clair; et. al.); The Gang’s All Here (Berkeley); Guadalcanal Diary (Seiler); A Guy Named Joe (Fleming); Headline (Harlow); Hi Diddle Diddle (Stone); Hitler’s Madman (Sirk); A Lady Takes a Chance (Seiter); Lost Angel (Rowland); The Mad Ghoul (Hogan); The Meanest Man in the World (Lanfield); Millions Like Us (Launder); Mission to Moscow (Curtiz); The Moon is Down (Pichel); Mr Lucky (Potter); My Learned Friend (Dearden); Nine Men (Watt); The North Star (Milestone); Northern Pursuit (Walsh); No Time for Love (Leisen); Old Acquaintance (Sherman); Presenting Lily Mars (Taurog); Princess O’Rourke (Krasna); San Demetrio London (Frend); The Seventh Victim (Robson); The Shipbuilders (Baxter); Slightly Dangerous (Ruggles); So Proudly We Hail! (Sandrich); Son of Dracula (Siodmak); Stormy Weather (Stone); Thank Your Lucky Stars (Butler); This Land is Mine (Renoir); We Dive at Dawn (Asquith); What a Woman! (Cummings)
Best Performances of 1943
Jean Arthur in The More the Merrier
Ingrid Bergman in For Whom the Bell Tolls
Charles Coburn in The More the Merrier
Joseph Cotten in Shadow of a Doubt
Jennifer Jones in The Song of Bernadette
Paul Lukas in Watch on the Rhine
Katina Paxinou in For Whom the Bell Tolls
Mickey Rooney in The Human Comedy
But how about...
The ensemble cast of Cry 'Havoc'
An all-female cast in a WWII nursing drama (they are stationed on Bataan + most of the nurses are volunteers), where the characters are hesitantly brave but self-sacrificingly do their duties...a gender-switched version of Air-Force and a hundred other war-effort movies. With Ann Sothern in the secret lead role (wisecracking cynic who shapes up) and all the rest just a jump to the left of stereotypes, the group performance works well because of the desperate situation they are in...there is little time for Hollywood soap-operatics (well, maybe just a smidgeon). While the hospital is bombed a number of times, the beauty parlour and hair salon obviously remain unscathed, but at least the nurses do more than act as glamorous Nightingales to the wounded men. We see these women tough it out, observe their camaraderie grow as the bombs fall and dread their likely fate at the hands of the enemy. They are active participants in the fighting force.
...and what about...
Joel McCrea in The More the Merrier
While all the Oscar attention went to Jean Arthur (nomination) and Charles Coburn (win), I've always considered the true star of the movie to be Joel. One of the most reliable / surefire of Hollywood actors, Joel McCrea delivered one of the finest performances of his career in this Director George Stevens rom-com. While Charles twinkles and Jean goes large, Joel underplays the screwball stuff (the highlight of which is his demonstration of the virtues of a stationery satchel), hits the romance stuff with aplomb (he is fully in control and undeniably dreamy) and never tries to redirect the limelight away from his co-stars (even when doing a seal impersonation). The perfect leading man, a severely underrated & under-utilised actor, and, in this certified-classic comedy, as funny as a fart.
...not to mention...
Teresa Wright in Shadow of a Doubt
When you were young...was there someone who you looked up to, maybe even idolised, then later found out that they were not what you thought...flawed at best, monstrous at worst? (With me, it was Robert Baden-Powell...the big pig-sticker...hey, I was a complicated child). This portrayal is about that discovery: always-likeable Teresa adores her Uncle Charlie, and the young actress makes the journey from adolescent hero-worship, through vague doubt then nagging suspicion, to the confrontation with and the acceptance of the Horrible Truth...the beloved man is a murderer. Not many film roles call for such substantial character growth in only 108 minutes, from child to adult in a breath, but Teresa convinces us, beginning, middle and the end. It's easily her most impressive performance.
...and one personal unmentionable...
Lucile Watson in Watch on the Rhine
I am not a violent man. The last punch-up I engaged in was 1968 Primary School when some kid dropped my shorts during an assembly (we both got caned for it...the long, swift sword of Headmaster Justice). However, many years later, I was in a loungeroom while popular British TV comedy show Keeping Up Appearances was playing, and I could feel that old rage coming on. Patricia Routledge as Hyacinth Bucket was fingernails-down-the-blackboard stuff: banshee-loud, nagging, pretentious, overpowering, snobbish, oblivious to reality, supremely self-centred, firmly dug into habitual behaviours, aggressively opinionated and compassion-barren. Whilst many found her to be uproariously funny, I loathed the Bucket Woman and how she was put on monotonous replay, tortuously doing the same dumb shit while the rest of the cast reacted to her in the same dumb grovelling way.
Watching Lucile in WotR, much to my horror, I saw the same character-type at full gust, placed in a highly serious wartime drama. It took all my self-control to not throw my bowl of lamb curry at the TV screen. I kept waiting for her to tell me that her sister has a Mercedes, a swimming pool and [shudder] room for a pony. Abominable.
My 10 Favourite Performances of 1943
 |
| "Now...where's that splinter?" |
#02 Joel McCrea in The More the Merrier
#03 Teresa Wright in Shadow of a Doubt
#04 Charles Coburn in The More the Merrier
#05 Dana Andrews in The Ox-Bow Incident
#06 Joseph Cotten in Shadow of a Doubt
#07 Jackie "Butch" Jenkins in The Human Comedy
#08 The crew of the Mary Ann in Air Force
#09 Roddy McDowall in My Friend Flicka
#10 Peggy Ann Garner in Jane Eyre
Overflow: More List-Worthy Performances
#11 Ingrid Bergman in For Whom the Bell Tolls
#12 Jane Darwell in The Ox-Bow Incident
#13 Roger Livesey in The Life & Death of Colonel Blimp
#14 Ida Lupino in The Hard Way
#15 Mickey Rooney in The Human Comedy
#16 Patricia Collinge in Shadow of a Doubt
#17 Paul Lukas in Watch on the Rhine
#18 Judith Anderson in Edge of Darkness
Sorry, They Didn't Make It...
> Jean Arthur in The More the Merrier [the most hideous example of unbearably-grating crying in all of cinema]
> Katina Paxinou in For Whom the Bell Tolls [a very good Anna Magnani impersonation]
> Jennifer Jones in The Song of Bernadette [Jen was secretly a comedienne, so being pious was beneath her]
And so...onto the annual awards (with a nod of appreciation to Danny Peary)...
The Alternate Oscars for 1943 are:
FILM of the YEAR
GOLD: The Ox-Bow Incident (William Wellman)
SILVER: Shadow of a Doubt (Alfred Hitchcock)
BRONZE: Hangmen Also Die (Fritz Lang)
LEAD ACTOR: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Joel McCrea (The More the Merrier)
SILVER: Joseph Cotten (Shadow of a Doubt)
BRONZE: Roger Livesey (The Life & Death of Colonel Blimp)
LEAD ACTRESS: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Teresa Wright (Shadow of a Doubt)
SILVER: Ingrid Bergman (For Whom the Bell Tolls)
BRONZE: Ida Lupino (The Hard Way)
SUPPORTING ACTOR: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Charles Coburn (The More the Merrier)
SILVER: Dana Andrews (The Ox-Bow Incident)
BRONZE: Alexander Granach (Hangmen Also Die)
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Jane Darwell (The Ox-Bow Incident)
SILVER: Patricia Collinge (Shadow of a Doubt)
BRONZE: Judith Anderson (Edge of Darkness)
ENSEMBLE or PARTNERSHIP: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Margaret Sullavan & Ann Sothern & Joan Blondell & Fay Bainter & Marsha Hunt & Ella Raines & Frances Gifford & Diana Lewis & Heather Angel & Dorothy Morris & Connie Gilchrist & Fely Franquelli & Gloria Grafton (Cry 'Havoc')
SILVER: John Ridgely & Gig Young & Harry Carey & John Garfield & Arthur Kennedy & Charles Drake & George Tobias & Ward Wood & Ray Montgomery & James Brown (Air Force)
BRONZE: Monty Woolley & Gracie Fields (Holy Matrimony)
JUVENILE: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Jackie "Butch" Jenkins (The Human Comedy)
SILVER: Roddy McDowall (My Friend Flicka)
BRONZE: Peggy Ann Garner (Jane Eyre)
The Alternate Razzies for 1943 are:
CRAP FILM of the YEAR
Keeper of the Flame (George Cukor)
CRAP MALE PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
Bela Lugosi (Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man)
CRAP FEMALE PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
Lucile Watson (Watch on the Rhine)
