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Post by topbilled on Jan 18, 2023 15:44:44 GMT
This neglected film is from 1936.
The ex- soon to be re- Mrs. Bradford
I suppose that if Jean Arthur hadn’t been under contract to Columbia and William Powell hadn’t been under contract to MGM, this winning duo would have been reunited for a series of follow-up films. Especially since it was a bonafide hit for RKO. But because they were both on loan out and also because Mr. Powell was about to appear in the second Thin Man movie at his home studio, it meant this picture would be a one-off.
Our leads have delightful chemistry though it’s probably accurate to say that Powell’s playing the main character. Dramatically speaking, he has more to do than Arthur does. Ironic, given her character is the one mentioned in the title.
She is both a help and a hindrance to his medical practice as well as his trying to clear himself when he’s suspected of murder. That’s part of the comedy and charm of the picture, but she’s a bit of an afterthought in some of the scenes– brought in to create chaos and a few chuckles, in case the proceedings become too grim.
They are surrounded by a talented cast of supporting players. These include second lead Robert Armstrong as a shady bookie; Eric Blore as a tried-and-true butler (what else); Ralph Morgan as a possible suspect; Frankie Darro as a jockey; and James Gleason. Mr. Gleason is on hand as the inspector…shades of his Inspector Piper role from RKO’s Hildegarde Withers series.
The murder mystery– who killed a jockey and why– is fairly convoluted yet satisfying as far as these things go. I did particularly like how clever the murderer was, since he used a unique murder weapon to commit the nefarious deed.
It’s a mostly enjoyable way to spend 80-ish minutes. Fortunately the leads keep the romantic scenes from descending into predictability. Arthur’s ex- soon to be re-Mrs. Bradford is annoying and would drive any guy to drink. I am sure Powell needed all those martinis when he went back to playing Nick Charles at MGM.
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Post by Fading Fast on Jan 18, 2023 16:36:38 GMT
⇧ I really enjoyed this one, too, and wish they had made a sequel, but you explained why they didn't
Powell basically played a version of his Thin Man character with three co-stars: Myrna Loy in the real Thin Man series, Jean Arthur here and with Ginger Rogers in The Star of Midnight. In that latter one, the chemistry between Powell and Rogers is excellent, but the script is not up to the Thin Man or The Ex-Mrs. Bradford standard.
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Post by jamesjazzguitar on Jan 18, 2023 17:50:10 GMT
I'm a big fan of The Ex-Mrs. Bradford, with Powell and Arthur two of my favorites. As mentioned, the film also has a good supporting cast playing the type of character they were known for.
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Post by topbilled on Jan 24, 2023 14:18:15 GMT
This neglected film is from 1945.
Guests of Kreiger
There may be a tendency to compare this remake to the original 1932 version THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME, also produced by RKO. I will refrain from doing that here, because Robert Wise’s version is a worthy effort deserving its own discussion. And despite some outtakes from the original– exterior jungle footage– it is a unique telling of Richard Connell’s 1924 short story.
Mostly it is a product meant to show how the grim horror of war, in the form of mad Nazism, can be thwarted and overcome. The villain is no longer a Russian, but a displaced German patriot. Expertly played by Edgar Barrier, he does not value human life. He hunts it for sport. The film is a study of the lunatic’s mind, a man who possesses the key that can destroy humanity.
A sense of paranoia began during the last part of the second world war and increased in the years that followed. The free world worried how architects of the Third Reich would try to evade justice and find ways to continue their reign of terror after Hitler’s death, at new outposts.
In this story German tyranny can be observed on an unnamed Caribbean island. We’re told the place was once inhabited by a now deceased pirate who built a large castle with bars on the windows. Herr Kreiger has taken over the estate, and he lures ships along the jagged reefs with lighting tricks. The vessels’ bottoms get caught on the reefs and become cut up. They overturn, and survivors if there are any, swim from the wreckage to the shores of the island and become Kreiger’s guests.
The beginning of our drama has a world-renowned hunter and author named Don Rainsford (John Loder) as the sole survivor of the latest shipwreck. He meets Ellen Trowbridge (Audrey Long) who was previously shipwrecked on the island with her brother Robert (Russell Wade). The Trowbridge siblings inform Rainsford that Kreiger is preventing them from leaving, even if he appears rather hospitable. They suspect a diabolical motive, and after searching a hidden room, discover the preserved remains of unlucky castaways.
Realizing they have to outsmart their host to stay alive, they quickly devise a plan to throw Kreiger and his men off-guard. But Kreiger is no fool and stymies their efforts. He kills Ellen’s brother during an outdoor chase scene that leads to a lagoon. As his henchman Carib (Noble Johnson) looks on, Kreiger takes sadistic pleasure in winning this game by shooting an arrow into Robert Trowbridge’s back, while Trowbridge is trying to swim to safety.
The strength of the story is not just its foreboding atmosphere, which Wise and his cinematographer J. Roy Hunt handle so effectively. Or in the suspense that comes from the protagonists attempting to escape. It is more in how Kreiger and Rainsford match wits, since both of them are skilled outdoorsmen. Both see the hunter and the hunted from their own experience. These vantage points shift dramatically at the end when Rainsford finally gets the upper hand.
One thing that amuses me about the story, as told on screen, is how the bloodthirsty villain commits savage acts then returns to the living room of his home to play soothing music on the piano. As if nothing violent or horrible has happened.
After his game with Rainsford seems to have played out, he sits down at the piano for another requiem. He thinks the big hunt is over. That he is once again alone in this world…until the next ship capsizes and he is joined by someone else.
But Rainsford is not done with him. Rainsford is back from the edge of a cliff and re-enters the house. He will kill Kreiger and his brand of evil this time. The door will not be left open for a sequel. Just another remake.
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RKO
Jan 24, 2023 14:42:34 GMT
Post by Fading Fast on Jan 24, 2023 14:42:34 GMT
⇧ Robert Wise is far and away my favorite "unsung" director. I haven't seen all his movies, but of the ten or so that I have seen, he gets the most that a director could out of their material. And he directs equally well in almost every genre. I'm so confident in his ability to deliver an interesting movie, that I will watch anything he's directed.
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Post by topbilled on Jan 24, 2023 14:56:36 GMT
When (if) you compare Robert Wise to someone like Alfred Hitchcock who stuck closely to the suspense genre/formula, a guy like Wise seems incredibly versatile.
However, there were several 'journeyman' directors like Wise that were able to work successfully across genres. He certainly wasn't the only one.
I think in those days (the 1940s) when you switched over to directing from editing like Wise did, you didn't turn down assignments...because you were grateful for the opportunity to direct. So you took anything and everything the studio (RKO) threw at you.
As a result, he learned to become quite adept at different modes of storytelling which benefited him enormously in later decades. In the 60s and 70s, he was able to capitalize on certain trends...since he had already cut his teeth on similar stories in B-film format back in the 1940s.
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Post by topbilled on Jan 30, 2023 4:14:36 GMT
This neglected film is from 1949.
Maigret a la Laughton
This film was restored not long ago by UCLA from a less than ideal surviving print. Shame on those who let only one print survive. But kudos to UCLA for caring enough to salvage it. What a gem, shot in Paris with an esteemed cast. Oh, and I should add, it was photographed in Ansco color.
Burgess Meredith, who also stars, is the director. He plays Joseph Huertin, a man accused of a murder he did not commit. There are a lot of running scenes and moments where Huertin climbs stairs or hops off the side of a bridge. Inspector Jules Maigret (Charles Laughton) pursues him across the city, investigating the case. Maigret is a well-known French detective who has learned the killing occurred while Huertin was robbing an old woman’s house. But he soon concludes Huertin is innocent of the crime– that he was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The man behind the murder is Bill Kirby (Robert Hutton) whose goal is to end up with his mistress (Jean Wallace). She sports a a hairstyle that makes her seem like a ’30s gangster moll. The real killer is a baddie named Johann Radek (Franchot Tone) that Kirby hired to do the deed. Radek is a crafty individual with his own agenda.
The characters wear the same clothes throughout the film. Very little attention is given to presenting them in any sort of way that would be considered glamorous. Basically, we have Hollywood stars in a very un-Hollywood-like movie.
Shots of the Eiffel Tower are impressive. No in-studio rear projection is used. The footage has all been recorded on location in Paris. There’s an interesting scene where Tone and Laughton dine at a restaurant on top of the Eiffel Tower. While the two are acting out a game of cat-and mouse, it also feels like two people who know each other rather well just having lunch. As if Burgess Meredith told them to sit down and eat, but at the same time get into character and improvise some dialogue. In this scene we learn Radek cannot be tied to the murder Maigret is investigating, and he delights in being able to stymie the police.
One reason Radek cannot be connected to the murder is because he seems to lack a motive. Bill Kirby is the one with the real motive. However, Maigret and his fellow officers continue to hound Radek in the hopes that the truth will be exposed. This causes Radek to try and implicate Kirby’s mistress in the crime. Gradually Maigret gathers enough evidence to link Radek to Kirby, and in a moment of panic, Radek starts running like Huertin did earlier in the movie. Radek scurries across a series of rooftops and down the side of an apartment building.
It all moves along expeditiously, and there are no dull stretches in this story. Eventually Maigret and his men catch up to Radek and capture him. Laughton’s role is a lot like the inspector he played in LES MISERABLES (1935). There’s the same sort of catch-me-if-you-can excitement going on between the hunter and the hunted.
In the final sequence Radek heads back to the Eiffel Tower. At this point Huertin is helping the police get Radek. Up the Tower they go. The actors seem to do most of their own stunts. I can imagine what the insurers thought, if there were any. Again, there are no in-studio process shots being used. The part where Huertin hooks on to Radek’s feet, and Radek shakes him loose (and Huertin falls) is a real nail-biter.
The ending has Inspector Maigret leave Radek dangling and going down the elevator with Huertin. Not sure if the production code in Hollywood would have allowed a police detective to let a man just hang and presumably fall to his death. The camera angles from Radek’s point of view are dizzying and truly Hitchcockian.
The movie ends, and the viewer realizes a few things about the main performers. Primarily that Tone excels at playing bad guys. Meredith excels at playing the meek needing justice. And Laughton excels at playing Laughton.
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Post by topbilled on Feb 4, 2023 3:35:40 GMT
This neglected film is from 1946.
Postwar spies and paranoia
As far as studio programmers go this one seems rather ordinary in spots. But I think it does have value as commentary about postwar life in America. It conveys a paranoia that would grip the country as soldiers returned home to resume their old lives.
Lawrence Tierney plays a war vet who is driving along the beach one day when he meets a pretty secretary (played by Anne Jeffreys). The secretary has been sent for a swim by her boss, a senator (Harry Harvey) who is in the middle of composing a list about German spies.
We are told in no uncertain terms that Germany has a history of regrouping after past wars and that defeated Germans won’t hesitate to do what it takes to rebuild their nation. Apparently the filmmakers feel as if the coast of Southern California is a hotbed for continued Nazi activity.
When Tierney gets locked out of his station wagon, he and his dog Bazooka head up to the manse to use the phone. However, the secretary he just met is not there and someone else is using her name. He is not at first aware that the real secretary and the real senator have been tied up in another room, and so has the senator’s chauffeur. The woman answering the door is a Nazi spy in cahoots with two other men, one of them now posing as the senator.
Tierney discovers where Jeffreys is hidden, unties her, and they end up on the run when one of the senator’s pals is murdered. Hoping to duck out of the way, while the trouble subsides, they check into a roadside motor court run by a kind old man (George Cleveland).
For a film about postwar spies and dangerous secrets, things would seem rather ominous. But director Phil Rosen does manage to inject some humor…particularly with Cleveland’s character and the dog. Soon the old man is helping the couple on the lam, since he believes in their story when nobody else seems willing to do that.
It all builds to a climactic fight scene in a shack along the ocean. Tierney is convincing as a rough and tumble dude. At one point his character is referred to as mentally deranged, implying he may have PTSD. Men like him fought in the war to preserve our nation’s freedoms. But their homecoming was not easy. A paranoia developed where Americans feared they were still not safe from foreign threats, even on their own soil.
This led into decades of cold war hysteria, and we see the beginnings of that in this film. Of course the couple will defeat their foes and tie the knot in a humble ceremony at the end. But will they ever stop looking over their shoulders?
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RKO
Feb 4, 2023 3:59:08 GMT
Post by Lucky Dan on Feb 4, 2023 3:59:08 GMT
This neglected film is from 1946.
Postwar spies and paranoia
As far as studio programmers go this one seems rather ordinary in spots. But I think it does have value as commentary about postwar life in America. It conveys a paranoia that would grip the country as soldiers returned home to resume their old lives ...
We are told in no uncertain terms that Germany has a history of regrouping after past wars and that defeated Germans won’t hesitate to do what it takes to rebuild their nation. Apparently the filmmakers feel as if the coast of Southern California is a hotbed for continued Nazi activity...
This led into decades of cold war hysteria, and we see the beginnings of that in this film.
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Post by topbilled on Feb 4, 2023 4:13:40 GMT
This neglected film is from 1946.
Postwar spies and paranoia
As far as studio programmers go this one seems rather ordinary in spots. But I think it does have value as commentary about postwar life in America. It conveys a paranoia that would grip the country as soldiers returned home to resume their old lives ...
We are told in no uncertain terms that Germany has a history of regrouping after past wars and that defeated Germans won’t hesitate to do what it takes to rebuild their nation. Apparently the filmmakers feel as if the coast of Southern California is a hotbed for continued Nazi activity...
This led into decades of cold war hysteria, and we see the beginnings of that in this film.
THE WHIP HAND is an anti-communist propaganda film that Hughes made at RKO and released in 1951. The plot involves a conspiracy in backwoods Wisconsin where the villains are literally from the Kremlin.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Whip_Hand |
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Post by Lucky Dan on Feb 4, 2023 4:35:06 GMT
I don't know this movie but it's telling, I think, that the villains - in a 1946 film - were Nazis... Did Hollywood ever produce an anti-Stalin movie? I can never think of one.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Whip_Hand
Wiki cites an interview with The Whip Hand actor Elliot Reid as the source for this statement:
In the original story the villains were escaped German Nazis involved in a plot to hide Adolf Hitler ... When Howard Hughes viewed the completed film in November 1950, he announced that Nazis were no longer villains, Communists were, and ordered portions of the film reshot.
Good ol Howard. He was right as a practical matter, too. Nazi villains in 1950 would have been way outdated. |
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Post by topbilled on Feb 9, 2023 14:44:12 GMT
This neglected film is from 1932.
Hildegarde and Oscar
Hildegarde Withers is the central figure in several delightful mysteries at RKO. PENGUIN POOL MURDER is the first of six films the studio made in this series. It introduces us to a persnickety schoolteacher turned amateur sleuth.
Although Edna May Oliver only appears in the first three movies, she is the one most associated with the role. Helen Broderick’s interpretation is just as enjoyable in the fourth picture, and so is ZaSu Pitts’ more comedic portrayal in the final two installments. Each one brings something unique to the character of Hildegarde Withers…but of course, Miss Oliver provides us with the most stylized performance, and she’s superb.
Hildegarde does not appear until after the 8-minute mark in PENGUIN POOL MURDER. It’s only a 65-minute film, so a considerable amount of time is taken to set up the murder. We learn a wealthy businessman has financial ties to the director of a city aquarium. There’s a bit of blackmail going on, and the businessman is killed. The culprit might have been his unfaithful wife (Mae Clarke) or one of her many lovers.
The murder occurs at the aquarium around the same time Miss Withers brings her class by on a field trip. She has a very memorable entrance, sticking out her trademark umbrella to trip a thief who has run off with a lady’s purse. Of course, while this is happening, they are unaware that a more serious crime (the murder) is occurring elsewhere inside the aquarium.
The kids are funny in this movie, and they represent different ethnic types that Miss Withers must deal with during the course of her work. But they’re a helpful bunch, especially when she has lost a hat pin that someone else found and used to stab the victim through the ear. In the course of helping Miss Withers find the hat pin, one boy sees the dead body floating in the penguin pool. It’s a very vivid sequence, startling to say the least. But it sets Miss Withers on course to solve the crime, after the children are sent home.
At this point we meet Inspector Oscar Piper (James Gleason) who will match wits with Hildegarde. His entrance is also memorable, arriving through a side door at the aquarium and instantly sizing up the situation. Initially he considers Hildegarde a suspect, but that is quickly ruled out. He considers her a hindrance to his investigation, until he realizes she has darn good instincts and can actually help solve the case. Of course, Inspector Piper will take credit for anything that she learns about the crime.
The actors get some good zingers in as the main characters try to figure each other out. At one point, Inspector Piper says Hildegarde Withers is someone who takes charge of everything, except her pupils. And her retorts are more along the lines of chiding the inspector for the way he conducts his job, then sarcastically encouraging him when he seems to be acting like a real policeman.
Most of the action in the first third of the picture takes place at the aquarium. We don’t see Hildegarde’s home until the second act. But it’s good that her domestic surroundings aren’t revealed to us right away. Otherwise, she might have come across softer and warmer than she does in the beginning. We need to know that this is a smart, no-nonsense gal who doesn’t let emotions get the best of her when she’s snooping for clues and tracking down a killer.
This is not to say Hildegarde doesn’t have her tender moments. In fact a recurring theme in RKO’s series is that she roots for the young couples involved in these cases, even if they seem mismatched and don’t end up together!
The story’s author, Stuart Palmer, based Hildegarde Withers on a spinster teacher who had taught him in high school. He went on to write over a dozen books about the Marple-esque woman. She is too busy in the stories to find time for romance. However, RKO did paste a happy ending on to PENGUIN POOL MURDER. The coda for this film, after the mystery is solved and the killer has been brought to justice, is for Hildegarde and Inspector Piper to get married.
The final scene has them rush off to find the nearest Justice of the Peace. But in the second film, no mention of their marriage is made; and they are back to being single and sparring with each other again on the next case. Though they have definitely become friends. Partners in crime. There’s no mystery about that.
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RKO
Feb 9, 2023 15:17:56 GMT
Post by Fading Fast on Feb 9, 2023 15:17:56 GMT
This neglected film is from 1932.
Hildegarde and Oscar
Hildegarde Withers is the central figure in several delightful mysteries at RKO. PENGUIN POOL MURDER is the first of six films the studio made in this series. It introduces us to a persnickety schoolteacher turned amateur sleuth.
Although Edna May Oliver only appears in the first three movies, she is the one most associated with the role. Helen Broderick’s interpretation is just as enjoyable in the fourth picture, and so is ZaSu Pitts’ more comedic portrayal in the final two installments. Each one brings something unique to the character of Hildegarde Withers…but of course, Miss Oliver provides us with the most stylized performance, and she’s superb.
Hildegarde does not appear until after the 8-minute mark in PENGUIN POOL MURDER. It’s only a 65-minute film, so a considerable amount of time is taken to set up the murder. We learn a wealthy businessman has financial ties to the director of a city aquarium. There’s a bit of blackmail going on, and the businessman is killed. The culprit might have been his unfaithful wife (Mae Clarke) or one of her many lovers.
The murder occurs at the aquarium around the same time Miss Withers brings her class by on a field trip. She has a very memorable entrance, sticking out her trademark umbrella to trip a thief who has run off with a lady’s purse. Of course, while this is happening, they are unaware that a more serious crime (the murder) is occurring elsewhere inside the aquarium.
The kids are funny in this movie, and they represent different ethnic types that Miss Withers must deal with during the course of her work. But they’re a helpful bunch, especially when she has lost a hat pin that someone else found and used to stab the victim through the ear. In the course of helping Miss Withers find the hat pin, one boy sees the dead body floating in the penguin pool. It’s a very vivid sequence, startling to say the least. But it sets Miss Withers on course to solve the crime, after the children are sent home.
At this point we meet Inspector Oscar Piper (James Gleason) who will match wits with Hildegarde. His entrance is also memorable, arriving through a side door at the aquarium and instantly sizing up the situation. Initially he considers Hildegarde a suspect, but that is quickly ruled out. He considers her a hindrance to his investigation, until he realizes she has darn good instincts and can actually help solve the case. Of course, Inspector Piper will take credit for anything that she learns about the crime.
The actors get some good zingers in as the main characters try to figure each other out. At one point, Inspector Piper says Hildegarde Withers is someone who takes charge of everything, except her pupils. And her retorts are more along the lines of chiding the inspector for the way he conducts his job, then sarcastically encouraging him when he seems to be acting like a real policeman.
Most of the action in the first third of the picture takes place at the aquarium. We don’t see Hildegarde’s home until the second act. But it’s good that her domestic surroundings aren’t revealed to us right away. Otherwise, she might have come across softer and warmer than she does in the beginning. We need to know that this is a smart, no-nonsense gal who doesn’t let emotions get the best of her when she’s snooping for clues and tracking down a killer.
This is not to say Hildegarde doesn’t have her tender moments. In fact a recurring theme in RKO’s series is that she roots for the young couples involved in these cases, even if they seem mismatched and don’t end up together!
The story’s author, Stuart Palmer, based Hildegarde Withers on a spinster teacher who had taught him in high school. He went on to write over a dozen books about the Marple-esque woman. She is too busy in the stories to find time for romance. However, RKO did paste a happy ending on to PENGUIN POOL MURDER. The coda for this film, after the mystery is solved and the killer has been brought to justice, is for Hildegarde and Inspector Piper to get married.
The final scene has them rush off to find the nearest Justice of the Peace. But in the second film, no mention of their marriage is made; and they are back to being single and sparring with each other again on the next case. Though they have definitely become friends. Partners in crime. There’s no mystery about that.
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Post by topbilled on Feb 9, 2023 15:27:43 GMT
Hildegarde and Oscar
Incidentally, there was an attempt to turn the franchise into a television show in the early 1970s. A TV movie pilot was made with Eve Arden, costarring with James Gregory. It did not get the green light for a weekly series, which is a shame, since Arden was perfectly cast as Hildegarde Withers. She had already played a sardonic teacher in Our Miss Brooks and would later play the principal in GREASE. |
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Post by topbilled on Feb 15, 2023 14:04:35 GMT
This neglected film is from 1944.
Her pal Wolf
Every major studio had its own child star during the 1940s. Fox had Shirley Temple…MGM had Margaret O’Brien…Republic had Twinkle Watts…and RKO had Sharyn Moffett. Little Miss Moffett came from a show biz family and had her first movie role, uncredited, at the age of 11 months.
MY PAL WOLF was her first starring role in a feature at the age of seven. This film was a hit and was the template for most of her other projects at the studio.
Like the other girl child stars, she was a combination of innocent and not-so-innocent. She worked opposite stern authority figures, and she was surrounded by plenty of other cute kids. Oh and there was usually a dog in the story.
The dog in this story is a German Shepherd that she calls Wolf. They become fast friends after she finds him in an old abandoned well that he’s fallen into. She climbs down into the well using a rope that snaps in half, and she’s stuck down there with him, with only some water. There’s a suspenseful scene where she helps the animal scale the rocky walls of the well. He’s able to reach the top and run for help.
In the next part, a neighbor couple and their kids are lifting her up to safety as Wolf proudly looks on. Moffett’s new no-nonsense governess (Jill Esmond) is also there, looking on.
One thing that makes this story more enjoyable than others of its type is Miss Esmond’s performance. She’s not mean as much as she’s proper, and she is perfectly professional in her exchanges with the girl and the dog.
Even better, she has a contentious battle in the home with the other employees. These include the cook (Una O’Connor) and a charming handyman (George Cleveland). There’s a hysterical scene where Esmond becomes their “boss” and forces them to wear proper uniforms.
Esmond blames the other adults for Moffett’s uncouth manners. She feels they coddle the child too much. More importantly, she does not feel Moffett should have a dog, it’s not dignified; she should have a kitten instead.
The heart of this tale is not really the governess or the pooch’s connection to the girl, or the other employed at the estate. It’s the girl’s nearly non-existent relationship with her parents (Leona Maricle and Bruce Edwards) who are often away overseeing their businesses. Their daughter’s time in the well is not even enough to bring them to their senses. It will take something more dramatic.
That something is the fact that Wolf, whom the family has adopted, is actually an army dog. He is part of the service’s K-9 division, trained to carry messages and medicine across battlefields. He is AWOL and is scheduled to go overseas. Of course, Moffett and her friends don’t want to see Wolf go away. He is taken to an army base.
They visit the animal one last time at the military compound, but Wolf digs his way out. So they take him to find the Secretary of War (Edward Fielding) to see if Wolf can be made exempt from military duty. There’s a poignant scene where Mr. Secretary explains to Moffett just how valuable Wolf is to the army. She realizes she has to let Wolf go off to Europe.
This is a film I enjoyed quite a lot. It brings the realities of adult fighting down to the level of a child. It explains difficult concepts in simple language that all children can understand. In the situation dramatized on screen, the girl becomes part of the war effort by sacrificing her beloved pet for the good of the country. In the final scene, the army brings her Wolf’s son which she will nurture and help grow strong like his father.
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