by ·Comments Off on The Magnificent Ambersons (1942, Orson Welles)

2006:
More humorous and lighthearted than I’d expected, until the end when it all turns bad for everybody. Georgie is a spoiled kid who grows up and thinks he can marry a girl who doesn’t seem to like him much. Meanwhile, his dad dies and his mom’s ex tries to win her back, which would be extremely easy if not for meddling Georgie who spoils everything for them and for himself. Family fortunes are lost and family names are forgotten.

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Watched again in 2026…
Framing! Lighting! Blocking! Timing! Acting!

Joseph Cotten better in this than Kane, and Agnes Moorehead, who made a small impression in Kane, gets a meatier crazy role here. Shitty George was third billed in Sierra Madre, the mom is from silents, love interest Lucy (Cotton’s daughter) is “All About” Eve. After George’s mum dies, his uncle leaves and he finds out the family is broke after Aunt Moorehead put all her money into the headlight company. In the last few minutes he ditches a stable job because he needs immediate cash, and gets crippled in an offscreen car crash.

even in his youth / he was nothing / disgrace the family name

by ·Comments Off on Heaven Can Wait (1943, Ernst Lubitsch)

Not really a comedy like I’d thought, except for the parts with Grandpa in ’em.

Heaven Can Wait

Guy marries girl he likes, then when he dies, insists he deserves to go to hell but is wrong. I kinda don’t remember much already.

by ·Comments Off on Cat People (1942, Jacques Tourneur)

I don’t know much about Tourneur, don’t even know how to pronounce Tourneur, but every time I hear about this movie it’s a (producer) “Val Lewton movie”. So maybe Tourneur isn’t the auteur here. Don’t think I have to care about that. Neat movie, mostly worth watching for Simone Simon. Funny how I’ve recently seen two of her movies (la bete humaine, devil & daniel webster) and didn’t recognize her.

Good scene in a swimming pool, some good psychiatry (“what does one tell a husband? one tells him nothing”) and probably a pretty good (if predictable) ending. Not positive about that, cuz my tape cut off right as Simone entered the panther cage. Loved how she fell in “love” with our generic male hero in less than two days, and lovely the way he proposes to her. She’s trying to tell him about her dark past, and he cuts her off, “We’ll get married and you can tell your stories to our children”. Wow! Of course he’s actually in love with his co-worker, and who can blame him. Not sure about this being one of the greatest thrillers in history, but I enjoyed it.