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Post by BunnyWhit on Aug 18, 2024 1:11:12 GMT
Thank you for the Rebecca tour de force, AndreaDoria! I also have not seen the 1979 miniseries, but now I sure want to!
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Post by BunnyWhit on Aug 18, 2024 3:13:58 GMT
Apology for Murder (1945)
Director: Sam Newfield
Writer: Fred Myton
Starring: Hugh Beaumont, Ann Savage, Russell Hicks
Running Time: 67 mins
Sigmund Neufeld Productions
Reporter Kenny Blake (Hugh Beaumont) pays a visit to the wealthy businessman Harvey Kirkland (Russell Hicks) in the hopes of landing a scoop for his paper. He leaves without a story, but not without the interest of Toni Kirkland (Ann Savage), the beautiful young lady he met while in the office. After Kenny and the young girl do some heavy breathing together, she reveals that she is Kirkland's wife, not his daughter as Kenny had believed.
Kenny objects to Toni having hidden this truth from him, but it's too late -- he's already in love with her. She explains that she's so terribly unhappy in her marriage. Kirkland is controlling, and she can't take any more. She wants to be rid of him, but she knows she cannot leave the marriage because she will then lose all the money to which she feels entitled. Accidents happen all the time, Toni tells Kenny. "It's too bad you can't depend on an accident to happen when you need one," replies Kenny.
Oh, but you can. Obviously Toni steers Kenny into planning and executing Kirkland's murder. Kenny kills Kirkland while Toni looks on, then they stage an accident as a cover for their crime.
Later, when the newspaper editor assigns him to cover the story, Kenny knows the heat is on. He and Toni do their best to deflect and make the police believe that another innocent man was responsible for the murder. Though Toni had promised Kenny she loved him and together they could live happily on Kirkland's money, the relationship begins to crack under the strain of the investigation. Toni begins to romance her attorney, and Kenny is a witness when she tells this new stooge the same line. When he objects, Toni shoots Kenny. She runs to her new lover's arms, but by this time Kenny has the gun. When the other man comes for him, Kenny shoots. Then he shoots Toni when she tries to run.
Kenny, wounded and dying, makes his way to the newspaper office where he types out his confession before collapsing dead on the floor.
If you are thinking it sounds like a blatant rip off of Double Indemnity (1944), you are correct. Sigmund Neufeld Productions and Producers Releasing Corporation, a B-studio on poverty row, wanted to capitalize on the popularity Double Indemnity enjoyed the previous year. They were so intent on sharing in that interest that the original title for the film was Single Indemnity. Paramount obtained an injunction to bar PRC from releasing the picture under that name.
More than just the story is the same: Like MacMurray's character, Kenny always calls Toni "Baby"; the closeup on Toni's face when Kenny kills Kirkland is a less effectual version of Stanwyck's; the newspaper editor can never get his lighter to strike in the same way Edward G. Robinson's character can never find a match; Kenny, sweating and unable to use his arm due to the gunshot, types rather than dictates his confession; in the end, the editor lights a cigarette for Kenny and tells him he knew it all along but needed proof, just as Robinson's character does in Double Indemnity.
In its day, Apology for Murder was probably quite entertaining to audiences who had not seen Double Indemnity, but I cannot imagine that contemporary movie goers were any more keen on witnessing this type or robbery than I. That said, for me it was very entertaining to compare the performance of Hugh Beaumont, so well remembered as Ward Cleaver in Leave It to Beaver (1957-1963), and Fred MacMurray, equally well remembered for playing Steve Douglas in My Three Sons (1960-1972). Ain't it somethin' that these two beloved TV dads got their start in......murder.
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Post by Fading Fast on Aug 18, 2024 9:30:28 GMT
The Red Balloon from 1956, A French film
When a thirty-four-minute-long French movie short from 1956 with almost no dialogue that is, literally, about a boy and a balloon can not only hold your attention, but also have you thinking about childhood, tribalism, war, religion and other big issues of life, somebody did something right.
It's possible that writer and director Albert Lamorisse wasn't thinking about all that big stuff when he made The Red Balloon, a quixotic film that can simply be seen as a charming childhood fantasy tale about a big red, helium-filled balloon befriending a six-year-old boy.
Kids can certainly appreciate its fun anthropomorphism - what six-year-old boy wouldn't want a balloon with a lively personality to be his companion? - without worrying about all the philosophical metaphors swirling around.
The boy, Pascal, finds a balloon, which has a short string dangling from it, on his way to school one morning, only to slowly discover the balloon has a will of its own. Being six, he just accepts this, treating the balloon almost like a pet. It's a moment of childhood innocence brilliantly captured on film.
Pascal then learns the balloon's spirited personality as they do things together like play a version of hide and seek. Later, when his mother won't let the balloon stay in their apartment, he begins to understand the meaning of friendship as the balloon just waits for him outside.
There is something unbelievably sweet about seeing the balloon float around outside Pascal's window waiting for him to come out again. It's the same sweetness that makes the balloon only want to have Pascal hold it.
Pascal, though, sees - at school and, later, at church - that adults don't share his passion for having a balloon always with him. They often, especially those in a position of authority, become annoyed by it. Message received: adults have lost some or all of their childhood wonderment.
Things then get more challenging as other, slightly older boys become jealous of Pascal's balloon and try to steal or destroy it. It isn't hard to see the metaphors of greed, tribalism and even warfare come into play as the boys throw rocks or fire them from slingshots at the balloon.
When a mob of boys chase Pascal around the streets and narrow alleyways, it's hard today, and had to be harder in 1956 France, not to see a disquieting analogy to the rounding up of France's Jews in WWII.
There is, though, an amusing ending, which is wonderful for kids, but requires a little more suspension of disbelief for adults. Still, in a metaphor-rich movie, it's easy to stretch one or more to cover the picture's final whimsical flight of fancy.
All of this movie magic is enhanced by its on-location shooting in the Belleville and Ménilmontant neighborhoods of Paris.
In 1956, these neighborhoods looked like a rumpled version of a storybook postwar rural French town. You'll want to visit the town's boulangerie and just stroll around its cobblestone streets. Heck, everything is so cute French, you'll just want to buy a bicycle and move there.
Lamorisse, either through luck - his budget ran out - or an astute understanding of the limitations of a childhood fantasy to remain engaging for adults, ended his movie at just over a half hour and while you are still enchanted.
The many philosophical metaphors are interesting and helped the film win several awards, as adults need to sound smart when praising a children's picture, but simple charm is the movie's magic.
The Red Balloon is a quirky gem that defies conventional storytelling, proving that simplicity can be profoundly impactful. Watching The Red Balloon today, one simply can't help but be charmed by its timeless portrayal of childhood wonderment and innocence. |
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Post by christine on Aug 19, 2024 1:33:53 GMT
THE RED BALLOON 1956 is one of my favorites Fading Fast. Maybe it's because I taught for 34 years - but I think it has quite an effect on most. I loved your write up about it - as usual, you have such an eloquent way of expression!
Enjoyed reading your thoughts.
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Post by Fading Fast on Aug 20, 2024 10:08:46 GMT
THE RED BALLOON 1956 is one of my favorites Fading Fast. Maybe it's because I taught for 34 years - but I think it has quite an effect on most. I loved your write up about it - as usual, you have such an eloquent way of expression!
Enjoyed reading your thoughts. |
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Post by Fading Fast on Aug 20, 2024 10:12:12 GMT
Topkapi from 1964 with Melina Mercouri, Maximilian Schell, Peter Ustinov, Robert Morley, Gilles Ségal and Jess Hahn
The 1960s was a wonderful decade for both serious and lighthearted heist movies, with the quirky Topkapi, by noted French director Jules Dassin, a spirited blend of the two. While a bit slow out of the gate, once it kicks into gear as the heist approaches, Topkapi is pure entertainment.
Melina Mercouri and Maximilian Schell play lovers and the head of a smart, small band of professional thieves planning an audacious theft of a famous jewel-encrusted dagger from the Topkapi museum in Istanbul.
Mercouri is the big-idea person, while Schell is the methodical one. The other gang members, played by Robert Morley, Gilles Ségal and Jess Hahn, each bring a particular and important skill to the team, and then there is the one bumbling quasi gang member, played by Peter Ustinov.
Ustinov's character is a failing street hustler of tourists who is used as a dupe by the gang early on, but ends up staying with them. He stays, in part, because he's been recruited by the Turkish secret police to keep an eye on the gang, whom the police have mistaken for terrorists.
The Turkish secret police bungle things a lot, but by staying close to the gang – through Ustinov, they track the gang's movements – they add the necessary tension of potential exposure for the gang, even before they can pull off the heist.
Look for the carnival scene, one of the movie's funnier sequences, where a homoerotic (this is not a modern reinterpretation of what is happening) wrestling match has the secret police so distracted it allows the gang to shake their Turkish tails.
By now, a twist of fate has the gang also needing Ustinov to take part in the heist. They coax the overweight and hesitant Ustinov into doing so with a blend of sex, Mercouri seduces, and greed, Schell dangles a big payoff in front of Ustinov.
That's the setup that does little to capture the movie's magic: the personalities. Mercouri, who manages by force of will to convince everyone she's a sexy woman they want to sleep with, intelligently vamps the gang forward, driven by her all-consuming desire for jewels.
It is, as they say in showbiz, a performance. She's matched by Schell as the planning and execution guy who leads the gang with a serious business approach. He has great chemistry with Mercouri, who can egg him on to almost anything as long as sex is part of the bargain.
The personality frisson is taken to a higher level, though, by the unique relationship between Schell's exacting and demanding Swiss character and Ustinov's overweight and nervous Englishman character, a man who is a slipshod washout from that once-great empire.
Schell should despise Ustinov, a weak man who is the opposite of disciplined Schell, but he can't help liking easily frightened Ustinov. The best thing in this movie is watching confident Schell hold insecure Ustinov's hand throughout the heist. It's the movie's special sauce.
In the middle of the heist, anytime Ustinov is about to freeze, Schell is there to encourage him on, in a kind, older-brotherly way. Initially, you expect Schell to snap when Ustinov wimpers, but Schell never loses his patience. Their dynamic plays on in the background, but it is movie gold.
The heist itself, an all-aerial effort because the museum floors are wired for touch, is so nail-biting good that it's been riffed on many times since, most notably in the 1996 Mission Impossible movie.
Even movies like the outstanding 2015 The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and all the Guy Ritchie and Quentin Tarantino mob pictures somewhat echo the playful banter and sexual tension of Topkapi.
Director Dassin made one of the greatest film noir heist movies ever in 1955's Rififi. In Topkapi, he turns down the noir and turns up the playful spirit to make a fun heist movie in a decade chockablock with similar movies like How to Steal a Million and The Italian Job.
You don't watch Topkapi because it's believable; you watch it because it's enjoyable. Most surprisingly, you watch it to see serious Maximilian Schell genuinely like and coddle big, blubbery and skittish Peter Ustinov, in one of movieland's oddest and most amusing pairings.
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nickandnora34
Full Member
Just a grease spot on the L&N
Posts: 102
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Post by nickandnora34 on Aug 21, 2024 17:03:44 GMT
The Red Balloon from 1956, A French film
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Post by Fading Fast on Aug 21, 2024 17:21:48 GMT
The Red Balloon from 1956, A French film
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Post by Fading Fast on Aug 23, 2024 9:21:17 GMT
A Hatful of Rain from 1957 with Anthony Franciosa, Don Murray, Eva Marie Saint, Lloyd Nolan, Henry Silva and William Hickey
While England in the late 1950s and early 1960s was making its powerful "kitchen sink" dramas about the struggles of the working class, America had already started making similar movies a bit earlier, but lacking a catchy title, they get less attention from movie fans today.
A Hatful of Rain is a "kitchen sink" film done American style as we see a working class family in New York City all but fall apart owing to one family member's drug addiction, which eventually drags out every skeleton in the family's closet.
Don Murray plays a morphine addict, a habit he acquired in the Army recovering from wounds in Korea. His pregnant wife, played by Eva Marie Saint, doesn't know about his addiction, but his faithful brother, played by Anthony Franciosa, knows all too well about it.
The last piece of the family puzzle is the brothers' father, played by Lloyd Nolan, who lives in Florida. He, too, doesn't know anything about his favorite son's problem, but at the movie's opening, he shows up for an unannounced visit.
The movie looks at a few days of Murray's life as a drug addict, now reaching a crisis stage. This forces the family to face many of their problems, which includes the boys both resenting their father for not being there for them after their mother died when they were just infants.
The father, Nolan, a selfish braggart with a thin veneer of charm, resents that the boys don't worship him enough, even though they have good reason not to. Time and again, we see Nolan's pleasant facade quickly dissolve into an angry tirade when he doesn't get his way.
Saint, looking too blonde, pretty and clean, to have married into this mess of a family, thinks Murray is cheating on her as he never explains his long absences related to his drug addiction. Saint, pregnant, lonely and scared, also develops feelings for Franciosa, which are mutual.
Amidst all this family dysfunction bubbling just below the surface of normalcy the family attempts to maintain, is Murray's frightening drug dealer, "Mother," played by Henry Silva, and his two henchmen, one of whom is played with a sinister creepiness by William Hickey.
Look for the scene where a strung-out Murray begs "Mother" for a free fix, while Hickey - a fidgety and insignificant looking man - gleefully begs Silva to let him work Murray over with "the pipe" (a heavy piece of metal). One shivers knowing that there are soulless sociopaths like Hickey in the world.
A series of crises follow as Murray's addiction has Franciosa bankrupting himself to pay Murray's dealer off so that he won't harm his brother. Saint, meanwhile, considers leaving what she believes is her philandering husband.
Catalyzing all of this is Nolan, who walks through his family quietly throwing hand grenades about his sons letting him down. This becomes too much for the boys to take as Murray's addiction consumes him, while it also buffets Franciosa and Saint.
Director Fred Zinnemann captures all of this with a surprising realism for the era. While you don't see Murray shooting up, his addiction, withdrawal, despair and the lurking violent threat of his drug dealer are on full display, as is the crushing burden it places on the family.
Enough can't be said about the performances either, as Murray looks like Captain America with a drug addiction, which is part of the point. Franciosa gives one of his career-best performances as the not-favorite son who quietly and thanklessly tries to hold the family together.
Saint, too, deserves note. Like the angelic Mary Ure in the 1959 English kitchen sink drama Look Back in Anger, you wonder how Saint, an ethereal-looking, sensitive woman, ended up in this broken, angry and uncouth family. Yet she's there, and her performance is moving.
Filmed in black and white - the only way, back then, a movie like this should be - Zinnemann's on-location shooting captures New York City as the turn from 1950s sparkle to 1970s urban jungle was beginning. It's a better look at the city at that moment than most documentaries.
A Hatful of Rain, despite not receiving a lot of attention today, remains a poignant exploration of the complexities of addiction and the debilitating ripple effects it has on family and identity.
While it may not be easy to watch, its unflinching portrayal of these struggles ensures that it will resonate just as powerfully today as it did in 1957. |
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Post by Fading Fast on Aug 28, 2024 10:04:12 GMT
Lonelyhearts from 1958 with Montgomery Clift, Robert Ryan, Dolores Hart, Myrna Loy and Jean Stapleton
Depressing movies make an implicit bargain with the viewer: the story, the moral, the lesson, the artistry, or something - or all of them - will make this sad journey worth the effort. Lonelyhearts is a sad, depressing movie that falls short of upholding its end of the bargain.
That is a shame as it is a smartly written and well-acted picture with several powerful scenes, and characters you care about, but its dispiriting view of marriage is still a slog. It feels even less worth the journey today as few believe they have to stay in a truly failing marriage.
At the open, a young, sensitive and optimistic man, played by Montgomery Clift, gets a job at a newspaper run by a stern man, played by Robert Ryan. Ryan then spends the entire movie not running the paper, but tormenting his new employee along with his, Ryan's, long-suffering wife.
Ryan wraps his torment inside a veneer of philosophizing, but he really just wants to grind all the optimism and caring for others out of Clift.
He also wants to continue punishing his wife, played by Myrna Loy, for an affair she had ten years ago – an affair for which she has now spent ten years apologizing.
Ryan's evil-genius plan is to make Clift "Miss Lonelyhearts," the writer for the paper's "personal advice" column. Clift, who has a dark secret in his past he is hiding from even his nice, kind girlfriend, played by Dolores Hart, was not cut out to face human misery daily.
Everything comes together when Clift - at Ryan's mean-spirited goading - meets one of the letter writers, played by Maureen Stapleton. Clift, who sincerely wants to help all his readers and just accepts their stories as true, is then brutally manipulated by Stapleton.
Stapleton, who was deservedly nominated for an Oscar for her performance, is in a miserable marriage. She and her husband are at war - sometimes passive aggressively, sometimes physically - but Clift becomes a form of collateral damage; although, he isn't an innocent victim.
Poor Dolores Hart, a nice girl from a nice family, finds herself in the middle of a nasty, pointless Machiavellian contest as Clift cracks under the pressure, while Ryan turns the screws tighter. All you can think is, "isn't there a nice boy somewhere Hart could meet to get out of this hell?"
While there's a very late Hollywood ending tacked on, nobody is coming out of this movie feeling good. Audiences were smart enough to see past the last ninety seconds and to get the message: marriages can turn into long prison sentences for both spouses.
Ryan, in a powerful performance, is both a prisoner and jailer. You'll hate him, but you can't stop watching him torment his wife and Clift. Yet somehow, you also feel a bit sorry for him as it's clear he turned his hurt into a weapon that has consumed his humanity. It's acting at its best.
It's not Ryan's fault, but his character is a caricature, as few people could ever devote all their time to tormenting others emotionally to ensure that no one is happy. The man had a newspaper to run, after all. It's also a weakness of the movie, as it often makes it feel stagey and forced.
Loy, as Ryan's suffering wife, is excellent, too, here trying to close the wound that Ryan won't let heal. Loy understands you don't "out muscle" Ryan in a scene, so she underplays her part, which draws your attention to her as an oasis of calm amidst Ryan's nasty anger.
Clift, as Ryan's other antagonist, is too old for the role of a young innocent. Still, he touches you playing pretty much the same character he almost always plays - a man too sensitive for the cruel world we live in. Which leaves us with Ms. Hart, seemingly the only innocent person in the movie.
Hart, who would leave Hollywood in five years for life in a convent, shows she had the acting chops for a long career had she wanted it. Holding her own in scenes with Clift is no big deal - he's a generous actor - but Hart also holds her own with Ryan, which is no small achievement.
Director Vincent J. Donehue filmed his bleak tale in the only way possible, in black and white, as the sun never shines on any of these characters, except Hart's. He also kept the story moving along quickly, but knew when to slow a scene down for maximum effect.
That is also the problem, though, as the "maximum effect" is always someone crushing someone else's hopes, dreams, self esteem or simply that person's ability to struggle through another day.
In 1958, the country was very religious and divorce laws were difficult, so many did stay tramped in awful marriages. Today, when people can easily exit marriages through no-fault divorces and with little or no stigma, it's hard to even understand the suffering in Lonelyhearts.
If you are into movies for the pure talent of the actors and the raw human emotion a movie can capture, and you don't mind seeing demoralizing heartbreak, then Lonelyhearts is for you. But for most of us, the payoff - the message that marriages can be awful - isn't worth the suffering. |
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Post by Fading Fast on Aug 29, 2024 7:29:13 GMT
Lonelyhearts from 1958 with Montgomery Clift, Robert Ryan, Dolores Hart, Myrna Loy and Jean Stapleton
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Post by Fading Fast on Sept 4, 2024 9:30:59 GMT
Cottage to Let (also known as Bombsight Stolen) from 1942 with Leslie Banks, Alastair Sim, John Mills, George Cole, Carla Lehman, Michael Wilding and Catherine Lacey
Despite being back on their heels in 1941, the British still produced a number of high-quality wartime propaganda movies like Cottage to Let, where German and British spies, an inventor, an evacuee, a pretty nurse, and some off-beat Brits converge in a humorous, then nail-biting spy drama.
With a lot of characters and a lot of story, it gets a bit confusing but never boring, as the acting is first-rate, the restored black-and-white cinematography is incredibly crisp, and the directing by Anthony Asquith, channeling Hitchcock, keeps the scenes and story seamlessly moving along.
At a high level, it's the tale of a quirky but brilliant upper-class inventor, played by Leslie Banks, working at his Scottish estate because he's unwilling to work in a secure military facility. This creates an opportunity for German spies to steal his secrets and maybe even Banks himself.
Other than the estate having a "rule" that only Banks or his research assistant, played by Michael Wilding, can go into the lab, there is no security. This is a problem as Banks' flighty wife has strange people coming and going, especially since she rented out a cottage on the estate.
Presently at the cottage, there is a just-downed RAF pilot, played by John Mills, recovering from injuries; an odd short-term tenant, played by Alastair Sim; and a London evacuee teenage boy, played by George Cole, who ends up staying in the main house.
The British Government, desperate for Banks to finish his crucial new bombsight, understands the risks, so it sends in an undercover man, but it appears, so have the Germans – it's a quite crowded country estate, busy with several people incognito.
Kicking up the sexual vibe is Banks' pretty daughter, played by Carla Lehmann, acting as Mills' nurse. Both Wilding and Mills pursue her romantically, which could eventually see Lehmann pulled in opposite geopolitical directions. It's all slap-and-tickle fun until the Nazis get involved.
With that setup, the story is a blend of humor and spy intrigue as the chaos of the estate and Banks' nonchalant attitude toward security, plus the incredible talent of the cast create several humorous situations. Slowly, though, the movie gives way to being more of a spy drama.
Eventually, it has a Hitchcock-like climax with Nazi spies seeming to have the upper hand as their methodical evil wins the early rounds against British fair play and goodwill. Of course, though, the Brits prove resourceful when back on their heels. It is a propaganda movie, after all.
The acting talent is impressive. Banks is outstanding as the somewhat unaware brilliant inventor, but he is wonderfully humanized in his scenes with Cole, playing a cocky but good-hearted cockney kid who shares Bank's passion for Sherlock Holmes.
The two work so well together in their scenes where they try to channel Sherlock Holmes to solve problems or to get them out of jams that had the cinematic fates aligned, they could have become an acting team playing the same characters in a series of similar movies.
It is Sim, though, as happens often in movies he's in, who takes over the picture playing the, at first, irritating tenant and, then, maybe a German or perhaps an English spy. Sim's later scenes are an acting class as he owns each one of them with his quirky looks and outsized talent.
Mills, Wilding and Lehmann also show the deep acting bench tiny England had to call upon for its movie industry back then as the three create intriguing characters whom you care about. Catherine Lacey, too, deserves mention playing a ruthless German spy.
The British back then had a talent for making high-quality low-budget movies driven by smart stories, quality acting, skilled directing, and beautiful black-and-white cinematography. Green for Danger and Went the Day Well are just two more examples of many.
While Hollywood, at the same time, was putting out big-budget spectacles like Mrs. Miniver and Saboteur, both excellent movies, the British made equally effective movies, just on a smaller scale.
There is a style, a vibe, a feel, or some special British ingredient that all these movies have that makes them humorous yet serious war-time dramas. Also, they almost all have complex, engaging stories and characters you come to care deeply about.
Because of their impressive quality, most of these wartime propaganda movies, like Cottage to Let, have aged incredibly well.
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Post by topbilled on Sept 5, 2024 13:41:51 GMT
Good review, Fading Fast.
The actress who plays the flighty wife (Jeanne de Casalis) seemed to be channeling Alice Brady & Billie Burke.
One thing I enjoyed about the Leslie Banks - George Cole interactions is that I think Banks' character might have seen some of his earlier self in Cole. And perhaps we can surmise that Cole would grow up to be an inventor too.
Incidentally, Cole came from a sad background. He was orphaned as a baby and adopted by another couple, but his adoptive father died when he was a kid. It was his adoptive mother who pushed to get him into the film industry. And while making COTTAGE TO LET, his first feature, he became friends with Alastair Sim and was basically "adopted" by Sim and moved in with Sim's family. Sim functioned as his acting mentor for the next ten years, and Cole ended up having a long and distinguished career as a character actor, not unlike Sim.
I like how you used the phrase 'outsized talent' when describing Sim's work in this picture.
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Post by Fading Fast on Sept 5, 2024 14:44:10 GMT
Good review, Fading Fast.
The actress who plays the flighty wife (Jeanne de Casalis) seemed to be channeling Alice Brady & Billie Burke.
One thing I enjoyed about the Leslie Banks - George Cole interactions is that I think Banks' character might have seen some of his earlier self in Cole. And perhaps we can surmise that Cole would grow up to be an inventor too.
Incidentally, Cole came from a sad background. He was orphaned as a baby and adopted by another couple, but his adoptive father died when he was a kid. It was his adoptive mother who pushed to get him into the film industry. And while making COTTAGE TO LET, his first feature, he became friends with Alastair Sim and was basically "adopted" by Sim and moved in with Sim's family. Sim functioned as his acting mentor for the next ten years, and Cole ended up having a long and distinguished career as a character actor, not unlike Sim.
I like how you used the phrase 'outsized talent' when describing Sim's work in this picture.
Thank you also for introducing me to this film. I love the British movies from the '30s to the '50s (and even into the '60s). They did so much quality work with modest budgets.
In this one, in addition to the known names - Banks, Sim, etc. - I was very impressed with Carla Lehmann. Yes, she's pretty, but I thought she also had a lot of screen personality. I checked on IMDB and was disappointed to find she had only eleven credited movie appearances in her career. |
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