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Post by topbilled on Feb 27, 2024 19:35:47 GMT
Join us on Sunday when we start a month of women-in-peril melodramas.
In all five selections, a naive and trusting wife has married for love...but eventually comes to realize that her husband may not share the same feelings in return.
Our first title, WHEN STRANGERS MARRY (1944), is considered one of the best B-noir films of the 1940s. Produced at "poverty row" studio Monogram, it stars Kim Hunter-- on a loan out-- as the new bride who finds out there is more to her marriage than meets the eye. Dean Jagger plays the husband. In a supporting role (but later top billed in the re-release print after he became a star) is young Robert "Bob" Mitchum. He is cast as a friend of Hunter's who may have his own secrets.
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Post by topbilled on Feb 28, 2024 16:13:09 GMT
WHEN STRANGERS MARRY was re-titled BETRAYED when it was re-released with Mitchum billed first.
A restored copy of the re-release print is currently available for streaming on the Criterion Channel.
If you do not have a subscription to the Criterion Channel, it can also be found here:
ok.ru/video/7190051359435
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Post by topbilled on Feb 29, 2024 8:14:30 GMT
From TCM's article:
Many of those involved in this film had bigger credits to come in their still-budding careers, but by sheer talent and creativity they elevated this little B picture for Monogram Pictures into something special. In fact, B movie historian Don Miller wrote WHEN STRANGERS MARRY is "unquestionably the finest B film made."
The project started with producers Frank, Maurice, and Herman King, of King Brothers Productions. The men were former bootleggers and vending machine purveyors, and they were colorful, cigar-chomping personalities. At this point, they'd made seven movies for PRC and Monogram, and for their next one they reached out to Columbia's Harry Cohn to borrow director William Castle, who had just impressed Hollywood with his creativity on THE WHISTLER (1944).
Castle was introduced to screenwriter Philip Yordan, who would later make his mark as one of the top Western writers in Hollywood. But at this point in early 1944, Yordan had just three B movies to his credit. He and Castle worked on the story, adding elements they thought could work effectively for a low-budget quickie, and wound up with a simple but promising yarn of a woman (Kim Hunter) arriving in New York from a small town to meet her new husband, whom she gradually suspects may be a killer.
The Kings loved the script and told Castle he had seven days to shoot it on a budget of $50,000. If he succeeded, they would pay him a bonus of $1000. Along with Hunter, they cast Dean Jagger in the lead, and 27-year-old Robert Mitchum, who had been playing bit parts for the past year or so including a small role in JOHNNY DOESN'T LIVE HERE ANYMORE (1944).
Because of the limited shooting time, Castle rounded up the cast for a week of rehearsals. Kim Hunter later said Castle asked the cast if they would be willing to do this for free, "'and you can't tell the King Brothers.' And we all said, 'Oh God yes, we'd love to rehearse.'" They met secretly in Castle's small apartment and worked out all the sequences in advance. "Thank God we had rehearsals," Hunter said, "because when we did go over to Monogram to start shooting there was no time to think. You moved from scene to scene. But Bill Castle was marvelous, and because of those days in [his] apartment we knew what we were doing."
Hunter added that the King brothers tried to intimidate Robert Mitchum into signing a multiyear contract, which he refused to do. According to Hunter, during the week of filming, Mitchum would "be sitting down, waiting for his next scene or something, and suddenly he would be surrounded by chaps he swore had guns, and they were trying to talk him into signing. I know Bob was very glad when the film was over, because he was still alive! And believe me, we were all eager to get out of there, but Bob in particular was relieved." Mitchum soon signed a contract with RKO.
Castle drew inspiration from Alfred Hitchcock as well as producer Val Lewton's current low-budget chillers, and he succeeded in creating an effective New York City atmosphere entirely on studio sets. "I wanted the film to express the melancholia of being troubled and lonely in a strange city," Castle recounted. "Using dull, flat gray light throughout I managed to make the film stark and unrelenting, projecting the story as an actuality rather than something being enacted for a camera or audience. The terror was accentuated by the use of irritating sounds and quick cuts of grotesque and surprising images. But the miracle was that I managed to finish it in seven days, for $50,000. I got my $1,000 bonus."
WHEN STRANGERS MARRY wrapped in early August 1944, and was released two weeks later. It drew the admiration of Orson Welles, who offered to make a movie with Castle, and rave reviews from just about everyone else. James Agee wrote in Time magazine: "I have seldom, for years now, seen one hour so energetically and sensibly used in a film." The trade paper Variety deemed the film a "taut psychological thriller about a murderer and a manhunt full of suspense and excitement. A superior sort of whodunit...the film has smart, fresh handling throughout, in scripting, direction and especially photography."
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Post by Andrea Doria on Feb 29, 2024 23:43:17 GMT
Sounds like a great month of movies coming! "When Strangers Marry" sounds really good.
Kim Hunter always seems so wholesome and nice, I'm worried for her already.
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Post by Fading Fast on Feb 29, 2024 23:51:36 GMT
Sounds like a great month of movies coming! "When Strangers Marry" sounds really good.
Kim Hunter always seems so wholesome and nice, I'm worried for her already.
She does appear that way, but if she could survive marriage to Brando in "A Streetcar Named Desire," she's plenty tough.
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Post by topbilled on Mar 1, 2024 14:00:37 GMT
From the AFI database:
The working title of this film was I MARRIED A STRANGER. The film was reissued in 1949 under the title BETRAYED.
According to a news item in Hollywood Reporter, Paul Kelly was originally to have played the male lead (that instead went to Dean Jagger).
WHEN STRANGERS MARRY was one of the first films in which Robert Mitchum portrayed a menacing character, a type of role that he became known for in later films like CAPE FEAR.
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Post by BunnyWhit on Mar 1, 2024 16:28:31 GMT
I find I'm always a little surprised every time I see Kim Hunter. I think she was not what Hollywood saw as a "classic" beauty, but she certainly was lovely in her own right. She also was a versatile and fine actress. I'm looking forward to seeing her on Sunday. (My favorite film with her is A Matter of Life and Death (1946) with David Niven.)
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Post by topbilled on Mar 2, 2024 13:41:46 GMT
Maybe Kim Hunter was smarter than the average young starlet...she seems to radiate intelligence on screen more than anything else. In my view, that's a strong selling point!
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Post by BunnyWhit on Mar 2, 2024 14:54:01 GMT
Maybe Kim Hunter was smarter than the average young starlet...she seems to radiate intelligence on screen more than anything else. In my view, that's a strong selling point! You're absolutely right! I'd never thought of it that way before.....must be why I like her so!
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Post by galacticgirrrl on Mar 3, 2024 19:07:35 GMT
A restored copy of the re-release print is currently available for streaming on the Criterion Channel.
Thank you for that tip. Greatly appreciated. Not sure I can stream and post at the same time but I'm going to give it my all.
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Post by Fading Fast on Mar 3, 2024 19:21:11 GMT
The Continuing Adventures of Fawn and Me
Fawn: I'd consider going into our family business, but I want a corner office."
Me: "We don't have a family business."
Fawn: "Why not, Leslie Howard's father did in last week's movie?"
Me: "Well, that was a movie and that's not us."
Fawn: "I'm just saying, if we had a large, profitable business, I wouldn't be opposed to running it."
Me: "Good to know. So if I somehow manage to start a business and turn it into a thriving concern, you'd be willing to take it over."
Fawn: "Yup. I'm just noting, I wouldn't be obstinate like Howard was. Although, I'd want to sow some wild oats first."
Me: "You do know what that means?"
Fawn: "It means have some fun, right?"
Me: "Well, more specifically, for boys it means, umm, uh, er, getting to know several women, uh, intimately."
Fawn: "Well, I'm a bit shy, but if you make the proper introductions, I could try to become friendly, but you'd have to be there the whole time."
Me: "Apparently, you're not familiar with the colloquial use of the term 'intimately'."
Fawn: "It means being a good friend, right? I think I could do that; we could all be intimate together."
Me: "Stop! I'll tell you what, you can run the business, we don't have, if we ever get one, even without sowing any wild oats."
Fawn: "I still want a corner office."
Me: "Fine, let's just watch the movie."
Fawn: "Can I have a large-screen TV in my office?"
Me: "Shhh, the picture’s starting."
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Post by Andrea Doria on Mar 3, 2024 19:53:48 GMT
LOL I once got to the movies early so I wouldn't miss the cartoons, now it's so I have time to enjoy "The Continuing Adventures of Fawn and Me."
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Post by Andrea Doria on Mar 3, 2024 19:58:15 GMT
Dick Elliot! Better known to some of us as Mayberry's Mayor Pike.My picture didn't show up.
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Post by topbilled on Mar 3, 2024 19:59:03 GMT
Hi all...welcome to today's film...yay.
Pressing play.
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Post by topbilled on Mar 3, 2024 19:59:50 GMT
The musical score is by Dimitri Tiomkin.
The film is directed by William Castle.
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