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Post by galacticgirrrl on Mar 3, 2024 21:11:53 GMT
Thank you TB. I cannot believe the quality of that film - 7 days and that budget? Unreal. I am always thinking it takes just as much time and effort to light, film, wardrobe, write.....but why do so many films give me short shrift when I see what can be done with a wing and a prayer?
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Post by topbilled on Mar 3, 2024 21:20:15 GMT
Thank you TB. I cannot believe the quality of that film - 7 days and that budget? Unreal. I am always thinking it takes just as much time and effort to light, film, wardrobe, write.....but why do so many films give me short shrift when I see what can be done with a wing and a prayer? I think those rehearsals helped, since it does seem a cut above most poverty row output.
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Post by topbilled on Mar 4, 2024 3:41:38 GMT
From a review I wrote a few weeks ago:
The makers of WHEN STRANGERS MARRY go out of their way to lay on the red herrings. There are so many people pointing fingers, so many deliberate misdirections that after awhile, you do not fully believe what you are seeing. You know there has to be something else going on. Such a gimmicky approach does have the value of adding suspense to the main storyline, so you do keep watching to find out how things will eventually end up.
However, because the filmmakers are trying to keep the audience guessing whether or not Dean Jagger's character is the mysterious silk scarf murderer, there are a few items that remain unexplained. For example, why does he suddenly decide to skip out on his wife at one point early in the marriage? Initially, we are led to believe he’s guilty and is not necessarily running out on her, but running from the cops. But since he’s revealed not to be the culprit at the end, why would he have wanted to leave if he was truly innocent. Wouldn’t the guy rather stick around and defend himself?
Another thing that is not explained is why Robert Mitchum's character would even have wanted to kill anyone. He is outed as having bumped off a wealthy man in Philadelphia with a silk scarf, but the motive would have been for the money. Yet we are shown repeatedly that Mitchum is a very successful traveling salesman staying in one of the finest hotels in the country.
Would Mitchum's character actually have had a reason to off the victim? And if he did have a reason, why commit murder with a silk scarf? Why not just push the guy out a window or off the roof, like he tries to do later in the movie?
Some of what is dramatized doesn’t totally make sense. Since certain things remain unexplained, a viewer begins to think this poverty row classic might have withstood a bit more money in its budget to hire a script continuity person. Nevertheless, it’s still an engaging motion picture with occasionally humorous moments.
Dean Jagger and costar Kim Hunter turn in two very fine performances. There is some nice noir atmosphere occurring during the nighttime scenes that take place outdoors. Plus I did like the part where they are on the lam and duck into a jazz club frequented by black patrons. Their whiteness amusingly stands out, and it gives us some mid-1940s integration from a reverse perspective. The music and overall entertainment vibe is quite good in that scene.
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Post by Fading Fast on Mar 4, 2024 10:08:37 GMT
Like Topbilled posted above, the below is a review I wrote for his "Neglected Films" thread a few weeks back. Having now seen the movie again, the only thing I might change is I'd be a bit kinder to Kim Hunter's performance as the story is so poorly written, acting a bit sleepy was probably part of her way of explaining why her character went along with several things that were ridiculous.
When Strangers Marry from 1944 with Kim Hunter, Robert Mitchum, Dean Jagger and Neil Hamilton
While billed as a noir and with an interesting cast, When Strangers Marry is a low-budget effort that feels more like a The Twilight Zone or Alfred Hitchcock Present TV episode from a decade or so later than a full-length movie.
Kim Hunter plays a newlywed who comes to New York to meet her traveling salesman husband, but he doesn't show up on time. Instead, Hunter runs into an old beau from her midwest hometown, played by Robert Mitchum, who helps her search for her absent husband.
After reporting her husband as missing to the police, the husband, played by Dean Jagger, shows up, but acts mysteriously: he doesn't want to tell his new wife why he was late, what he was doing, nor does he want them to see other people. It's very much like the start of a The Twilight Zone or Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode.
Meanwhile, the police lieutenant, played by TV Batman's future Commissioner Gordon, Neil Hamilton, thinks Hunter's husband might be the "silk stocking murderer" who killed a man less than a week ago in Philadelphia for the ten grand the man was carrying.
From here, this short movie is, mainly, about watching a confused and Bambi-looking Hunter trying to believe her very-suspicious-acting new husband. At the same time, seemingly good-guy Mitchum tries to help her even as the police start to close in.
When Strangers Marry has some neat noir elements, but the story is a mess of holes with several awkward scenes and stilted dialogue. There's a twist at the end that explains some of the characters' behavior, but there are still plenty of inconsistencies in the story.
The value today in this one is seeing a young Robert Mitchum only a few years before his breakout to major stardom in much-better noirs. He's big and handsome here and the camera loves him, but he doesn't yet have the full confidence needed to own a scene - that was coming.
Kim Hunter is her usual somnambulant self. She is Deanna Durbin without Deana's wonderful Durbinness. Even Dean Jagger, a talented actor, struggles a bit with some of the script's worst dialogue, but it's fun to see this usually bald actor with a full head of Hollywood-provided hair.
And you can't help but enjoy seeing a middle-aged Neil Hamilton in a similar role here as a police lieutenant to the one that would make him famous two decades later.
When Strangers Marry is a mediocre, low-budget movie with a sloppy story that can only be enjoyed today because of its interesting young cast. It also helps if you are willing to think of it as the antecedent to those late-fifties TV shows that also had low-budgets and, sometimes, weak stories, but often engaging actors.
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Post by Andrea Doria on Mar 4, 2024 13:00:53 GMT
Many thanks to Topbilled and Fading Fast for the Monday morning reviews!
From Fading Fast: "The value today in this one is seeing a young Robert Mitchum only a few years before his breakout to major stardom in much-better noirs. He's big and handsome here and the camera loves him,"
It's my guess that the camera loved him so much it spliced in that Turkish bath scene just to show him off a little more.
I think the thing they should have spliced in was a scene from the quick courtship between Kim Hunter and Dean Jagger. Seeing just a tiny bit of endearing charm from him would have made Kim's unshakeable belief in him a little more believable for us.
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Post by Fading Fast on Mar 4, 2024 14:11:13 GMT
Many thanks to Topbilled and Fading Fast for the Monday morning reviews!
From Fading Fast: "The value today in this one is seeing a young Robert Mitchum only a few years before his breakout to major stardom in much-better noirs. He's big and handsome here and the camera loves him,"
It's my guess that the camera loved him so much it spliced in that Turkish bath scene just to show him off a little more.
I think the thing they should have spliced in was a scene from the quick courtship between Kim Hunter and Dean Jagger. Seeing just a tiny bit of endearing charm from him would have made Kim's unshakeable belief in him a little more believable for us. Those are smart thoughts.
The Turkish bath scene seemed to drop in out of nowhere, but your reason why makes sense.
You're also right that an early flashback to Hunter and Jagger's courtship/marriage would have helped us believe Hunter's willingness to endure all of Jagger's later neglect and weirdness toward her.
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Post by topbilled on Mar 4, 2024 14:15:08 GMT
Many thanks to Topbilled and Fading Fast for the Monday morning reviews!
From Fading Fast: "The value today in this one is seeing a young Robert Mitchum only a few years before his breakout to major stardom in much-better noirs. He's big and handsome here and the camera loves him,"
It's my guess that the camera loved him so much it spliced in that Turkish bath scene just to show him off a little more.
I think the thing they should have spliced in was a scene from the quick courtship between Kim Hunter and Dean Jagger. Seeing just a tiny bit of endearing charm from him would have made Kim's unshakeable belief in him a little more believable for us. I agree... a flashback of their courtship, when she met him at the diner back in Iowa or wherever she was from, would have helped flesh out the relationship...but I suppose this would have required the building of another set and they were on a tight budget.
One thing I did like about the film, which I didn't mention in my review, is how she suddenly goes along with her husband in the middle of the film. Like she takes a gigantic leap of faith in believing his story, though he hasn't really provided any substantial proof of his innocence. When she agrees to run off with him to Louisville, I wondered if she would 'go bad' and wreck her life, because she was investing her future in the wrong man if indeed he turned out to be the killer.
Some of these twists, meant to keep the viewer guessing, do up the ante in terms of tension and suspense.
Also, I thought the bartender would end up killed. It was refreshing that although he was in the story as a bit of a red herring, he didn't end up a victim.
Going back to Mitchum's character, I wonder if his motive in the killings was muted because of the production code. Maybe the original intention was for the rich old man to make a pass at him and for this to cause Mitchum's character to react violently and end up killing him.
If the film had a larger budget, and the production code had not been an issue, I think they might have expanded parts of the story.
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