Columnists
Entries from June 2021
“A
COMEDY OF ERRORSâ€
By
Raymond Benson
Alastair
Sim was a national treasure in Great Britain, a comic actor who never failed to
make one smile or outright guffaw. His Scrooge (1951, aka A Christmas
Carol) proved that he could also take a serious turn as well. This reviewer
likens him to an early sort of John Cleese—an irreverent player who could do
irony, surrealism, farce, wicked delight, and pure outrageousness within the
confines of a somewhat realistic human being of a character.
As
the star of The Green Man (1956), Sim plays an assassin named Harry
Hawkins. Yes, that’s right, Alastair Sim is a mad bomber who takes it
upon himself to get rid of the pompous blowhards in Britain, whether they be
boring politicians or unctuous professors. He even has a Peter Lorre-like
assistant, McKechnie (John Chandos), who is willing to obey Harry, even when it
comes to the murder of the innocent.
Add
the very funny George Cole into the mix to confound Harry’s latest plot to blow
up Sir Gregory Upshott (Raymond Huntley), and you have the makings of a classic.
Harry
has romanced Upshott’s spinster secretary, Marigold (Avril Angers), so that he
can learn the politician’s movements, but Marigold gets wise to Harry. When she
arrives at Harry’s home, McKechnie has switched the name of the house with the
empty one next door, and that’s where Marigold meets her end.
But
wait! Ann Vincent (Jill Adams) and her husband, Reginald Willoughby-Cruft
(Colin Gordon) are about to move into the murder house. Determined vacuum
salesman William Blake (Cole) also mistakes the house for the address of his
appointment with Harry’s housekeeper next door. Thus, William and Ann discover
the murder and take it upon themselves to stop Harry’s scheme. Did we mention
that the uproarious Terry-Thomas (as “Charles Boughtflowerâ€) also appears to further
stir the proceedings?
Of
course, it’s much more crazily complicated than that, with numerous mistaken
identities and locations, characters being in the wrong place at the wrong
time, and plans going awry. It’s all hilariously funny. In short, The Green
Man is British farce at its finest.
The
movie is superbly written by the brilliant team of Frank Launder and Sidney
Gilliat (The Lady Vanishes, The Belles of St. Trinian’s). A
formidable outfit by this time in British cinema, they also produced the
picture. It is directed by cameraman Robert Day in his debut (word on the
street is that Basil Dearden had an uncredited hand in it).
Kino
Lorber’s new Blu-ray presentation looks marvelous in a 4K restoration from the
original camera negative. It comes with an audio commentary by film historian
David Del Valle, and it also sports the theatrical trailer for this and other
Kino Lorber releases.
Highly
recommended, The Green Man will color a grin upon your face and keep it
there.
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By Raymond Benson
The witty, controversial, and
fabulous actress/comedienne Mae West displays her jewelry to the coat check
girl. “Goodness, what beautiful diamonds!†the girl exclaims. Mae West coolly
replies in her sultry, New York-accented signature voice, “Goodness had nothing
to do with it, dearie.â€
The line was also the title
of West’s memoir, published in 1959, and is one of her many memorable
utterances, along with “Come up and see me sometime.†(However, the first time
this one is spoken, in She Done Him Wrong, she actually says, “Why don’t
you come up sometime and see me?â€)
Kino Lorber has just released
in restored, high-definition presentations every Mae West film made between
1932-1940—the Paramount years, plus one with Universal. This review will cover
the first four out of nine titles, with the remaining five to come in a later
“Part Two.â€
Hollywood knew that Mae West
would be trouble (but a possible box office winner) before she was invited to
the west coast to star in films. She had made her name in New York vaudeville
as a bawdy, talented, sexy, and very funny lady. West could sing and deliver
one-liners with the best of them; she wasn’t so much a dancer, but she did have
the ability to sashay with aplomb. West transitioned to Broadway, writing and
starring in her own shows to great success. One, though, the 1926 play entitled
Sex, got her into hot water with the morality police and she was
arrested for indecency charges. West quickly bounced back, having garnered even
more publicity because of the raid, and became more popular than ever. That’s
when Hollywood, namely the more adventurous Paramount Pictures, came calling.
Paramount tended to push the
envelope in the pre-Code days with violent gangster pictures, sex comedies, and
the early movies by the anarchic, surreal Marx Brothers. Mae West fit in quite
well at Paramount, where she quickly took control of her screen career. What is
truly remarkable is that West was 39 when she made her first picture. For a
Hollywood studio to introduce any actress at that age was unheard of,
before and probably since.
All of West’s movies follow a
formula established by the second one, which was such a success that it saved
Paramount from bankruptcy. Usually there are crime hijinks going on involving
former and current boyfriends. West acquires a flirtatious love-hate
relationship with the wealthy leading man. All the men try to hoodwink West and
each other, and she does some sneaky trickery to foil their plots. At the end
West always ends up with the leading man, even after it seemed that they were kaput.
Oh, and there are some musical numbers thrown in for good measure.
Herewith are the first four
titles released on Blu-ray by Kino Lorber, all of which look spectacularly
“new†and blemish-free.
Night After Night (1932) is really a melodrama/gangster flick starring
George Raft and Constance Cummings. Mae West appears in a supporting role as
Maudie Triplett, but she steals the movie. In fact, Raft in later years is
known to have said, “She stole everything but the cameras!†Joe Anton (Raft) is
the owner of a speakeasy (it was still Prohibition at the time), and he must
handle conflicting love affairs and competition from rival mobsters. Maudie is
a former girlfriend (now just a friend) who comes to the club for a good time.
Her scenes with Mabel Jellyman (Alison Skipworth), the matronly woman who is
teaching Joe how to speak “properly†and develop more high-class manners, are
worth the price of admission—almost. The picture is all right, but without
West’s debut, Night After Night would likely have dropped into
obscurity. The Blu-ray comes with an audio commentary by film historians Alexandra
Heller-Nicholas and Josh Nelson, plus the theatrical trailer.
She Done Him Wrong (1933) has the distinction of being the shortest movie
(66 minutes) ever to be nominated for the Best Picture Oscar (it lost to Cavalcade).
It also features young Cary Grant as the leading man, just a few months after
he appeared with Marlene Dietrich in Blonde Venus (1932). Since both
movies were in production around the same time, West and Dietrich publicly
feuded over “who discovered Cary Grant first.†She Done Him Wrong is a
comedy-gangster piece and is without a doubt the quintessential Mae West motion
picture—the pre-Code suggestiveness in her dialogue and actions was cause for
alarm for the Puritanical-minded in the country, paving the way for the Hays
Office to initiate the Production Code on July 1, 1934. West is Lady Lou, a
risqué singer in an 1890s Bowery saloon (New York City), where the owner and
sometimes boyfriend, Gus (Noah Beery Jr.), is also running a prostitution ring
(heavily implied) and counterfeit money operation. Captain Cummings (Grant) is
an FBI man masquerading as the director of the mission next door. While he’s
investigating the crimes undercover, Cummings and Lou become attracted to each
other. For a movie that’s just a little over an hour, the plot is seriously
complex! Nevertheless, it’s grand entertainment—it’s West at her best. The
Blu-ray disk comes with two audio commentaries—one by film historian David Del
Valle, and the other by film historian Kat Ellinger. There is also an
introduction from Turner Classic Movies by Robert Osborne, as well as a vintage
Walter Lantz cartoon starring Pooch the Pup, “She Done Him Right,†that borrows
heavily from the style and tone of the Fleischers’ Betty Boop cartoons. The
theatrical trailers and other West trailers round out the package.
I’m No Angel (1933) is still ensconced in sassy, sexy pre-Code
sensibilities. It was West’s most financially successful picture, coming after
the previous hit. Cary Grant co-stars once again. This time, West is Tira, a hootchy-cootchy
singer/dancer in a circus sideshow, but she also doubles as a lion tamer (!).
In one sequence she puts her head in the mouth of a lion (obviously done with
rear-screen projection, but there are scenes in which West is in the cage with
real lions and pets one). The sideshow impresario, Big Bill Barton (Edward
Arnold) is a crook, Tira’s beau Slick (Ralf Harolde) is just as bad, and Tira
wants to break away from the show and be on her own. She succeeds, goes to New
York, and meets the cousin of a rich beau, Jack Clayton (Grant), who is trying
to keep his relative away from Tira. They fall in love instead, of course. Look
for future Oscar winner Hattie McDaniel in an uncredited role as a maid. Mae
West was known for insisting on parts being given to African American actresses
and actors. Unfortunately, in those days, the only roles for black performers
in Hollywood were as maids, butlers, train conductors, and Tarzan natives. I’m
No Angel is second in ranking only to She Done Him Wrong, with Mae
West in top form in a very entertaining picture. The Blu-ray comes with an
audio commentary by film historian Samm Deighan, plus the theatrical trailer.
Belle of the Nineties (1934) was originally supposed to be titled It
Ain’t No Sin, but the Production Code went into effect just as production
finished. The censors forced West to revise some dialogue and change the title.
It’s a shame, for the remainder of West’s films in the 1930s, while still
entertaining, were sadly neutered of their frank boldness and—let’s face it—the
daring and evocative innuendos that made Mae West movies something to see. In
this one, she plays Ruby, a singer in the 1890s (again), this time in St.
Louis. Her boyfriend, boxer Tiger Kid (Roger Pryor) finds that he has rivals in
wealthier, “classier†men (who are all crooks, though). She moves to New
Orleans for a better position, only to become embroiled in fight fixing
shenanigans. Belle is a tangible step down from the previous two
pictures. While directed by comedy stalwart Leo McCarey (Duck Soup, The
Awful Truth, and later, Going My Way), Belle sort of plods
along and doesn’t produce the expected belly laughs. It does, however,
introduce the jazz standard, “My Old Flame,†sung by West and accompanied by
Duke Ellington and his band on screen. The Blu-ray comes with an audio
commentary by film historian Samm Deighan, plus the theatrical trailer.
Certainly a boon for film
history lovers and aficionados of 1930s Hollywood, these new Kino Lorber
Blu-ray releases are terrific. Cinema Retro will review the remaining
five Mae West titles—including one co-starring W. C. Fields—in a coming piece.
To be continued!
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CLICK HERE TO ORDER “I’M NO ANGEL†FROM AMAZON
CLICK HERE TO ORDER “BELLE OF THE NINETIES†FROM AMAZON
BY ERNIE MAGNOTTA
"If a movie makes you
happy, for whatever reason, then it's a good movie."
Big E
*******WARNING:
REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS*******
Giant bug movies have always been a favorite
of mine; Tarantula, Black Scorpion, The
Deadly Mantis, Earth vs. The Spider, etc. The best of them all has to be Them!, the 1954 classic about atomic
testing causing ants to mutate to gigantic proportions. It was the first and
best of the 1950s cycle of big bug movies.
In the 1970s, bugs and just about every other
form of nature, struck back against irresponsible humans who were poisoning the
planet in a plethora of nature-runs-amok films such as Frogs, Kingdom of the Spiders, Squirm, etc. They may not have been
gigantic like they were in the 50s, but they were just as deadly. However, Mr.
B.I.G. himself, Bert I. Gordon, the man responsible for entertaining, 1950s
giant creature classics like The Amazing
Colossal Man, Beginning of the End, Village of the Giants and the
aforementioned Earth vs. The Spider, had
already brought back giant wasps and worms in 1976's Food of the Gods, and felt
that 1977 was the time to bring back the best giant insects of them all: the
ants. Using the great H.G. Wells's popular short story as his inspiration, Empire of the Ants was born.
The movie begins when a canister of toxic
waste, which was dumped and supposed to sink into the ocean, washes up on shore
and leaks its toxic sludge into a neighboring ant hole.
Nearby, con woman Marilyn Fryser (Joan
Collins) and her lover/partner Charlie (Edward Power) attempt to sell some
worthless land called Dreamland Shores to a large group of potential buyers
including nice guy Joe (John David Carson), middle-aged Margaret (Jacqueline
Scott), beautiful Coreen (Pamela Susan Shoop), two-timing Larry (Robert Pine)
and his poor wife Christine (Brooke Palance).
As the group surveys the land, a few members
break off on their own. Cautious Margaret, while flirting with boat driver Dan
(Robert Lansing), asks him if he thinks the land is a good investment; Larry
gets Coreen alone, puts the moves on her and gets a knee to the groin for his
trouble, and Coreen eventually hits it off with Joe. All the while, the ants
silently watch them.
The entire group is gathered and taken on a
leisurely tour of the area. The tour doesn't last long though as the dead body
of one of Marilyn's crew (Tom Ford) is found. Joe and Coreen volunteer to check
things out and find the remains of a married couple (Jack Kosslyn and Ilse
Earl) that were originally part of the group. To their horror, they also find a
horde of giant ants and all hell breaks loose as the intelligent insects attack
and destroy Dan's boat. With no way off the island, the terrified group starts
a campfire in order to keep the ants away.
The next morning, a storm begins and the rain
puts out the fire. The group frantically decides to make a run for it with the
ants hot on their tail. An elderly couple (Harry Holcombe and Irene Tedrow),
who can't keep up, hides out in an old shack. Christine falls, sprains her
ankle and is killed by the ants, and, while helping a tangled Marilyn escape
from a tree branch, Charlie also meets his demise. As the rain stops, the
elderly couple, thinking that i's safe, emerges from the shack only to find an
army of ants waiting for them. The remaining group members stumble upon a
rowboat and slowly take off down the river. The ants attack again, turning the
boat over and killing Larry.
The group realizes that the ants are leading
them toward a specific destination upstream and, as they continue to move
along, they come across an old couple (Tom Fadden and Florence McGee) who
contact the sheriff (Albert Salmi) for them. The sheriff drives them into town,
but the relieved survivors soon realize that something still isn't right. They
can't seem to find a working phone and everyone in the small town acts very suspiciously.
The group decides to hotwire a car, but while
trying to escape, they're captured by the authorities and taken to the local
sugar refinery. While there, they discover that the queen ant is using her
pheromones to control every human being in the town and forcing them to feed
the giant ants. Marilyn is the first to come under the queen's control, but
when they try to control Dan, the clever boat captain burns the queen with a
road flare he took from the abandoned car. Dan escapes with Margaret, Joe and
Coreen, but Marilyn, who snaps out of her trance too late, is killed by the out
of control queen.
Knowing that if the gigantic ants aren't
stopped they will multiply and eventually take over the world, Joe drives a
leaking fuel truck into the refinery and blows the insects to kingdom come. As
the entire place goes up in flames, Joe, Coreen, Dan and Margaret reach a
speedboat and drive off to safety.
Continue reading "BIG E'S BAD MOVIES THAT HURT SO GOOD! TONIGHT'S FEATURE: "EMPIRE OF THE ANTS" (1977) STARRING JOAN COLLINS"
MISSISSIPPI BLUES
By
Raymond Benson
Robert
Altman’s 1974 crime drama, Thieves Like
Us, when viewed today, seems to
be a cross between Bonnie and Clyde (which
preceded Thieves) and O Brother, Where Art
Thou? (which appeared twenty-six years later). It’s the Depression-era
story, based on the novel by Edward Anderson, of a trio of escaped convicts who
go on a bank-robbing spree. But it’s also a love story between one of the
thieves, Bowie (played by a young Keith Carradine), and a country girl, Keechie
(portrayed by a young Shelley Duvall), and this is the aspect of Altman’s film
that truly shines. The novel was also the source inspiration for Nicholas Ray’s
1949 film noir, They Live By Night,
starring Farley Granger and Cathy O’Donnell. As much as I like 1940s and 50s
film noir, for my money, Altman’s is the better version.
Altman,
who had a decidedly hit-and-miss career over six decades, was on a roll in the
early seventies. Thieves Like Us is
indeed one of his hits—from a critical standpoint—although it didn’t
necessarily do bang-up box office. Filmed on location in Mississippi, Altman
and his production team managed to find authentic 1930s settings, lending a
you-are-there feel to the period piece. More importantly, Altman chose not to
use a traditional musical score but instead relied on vintage radio programs to
fill out the ambiance. That part was a stroke of genius.
The
director also often utilized a stock company of actors, many of whom appeared
in multiple pictures. In this case, besides Carradine and Duvall—who are
terrific in their roles—there is John Schuck and Bert Remsen as the other two
thieves, and Tom Skerritt as a shady service station owner. Louise Fletcher, in
a pre-Cuckoo’s Nest performance, is
effective as Remsen’s sister-in-law, who aides and abets the criminals until
she has a change of heart.
But
the picture belongs to Carradine and Duvall, whose love scenes are intimate,
honest, and endearing. Their characters are extremely likable and exude an
innocence that is a counterpoint to the violence depicted in the rest of the
picture. The fact that these two relatively unknown actors (at the time) were
cast as leads attests to the New Hollywood attitude of allowing auteurs do their thing. It’s too bad
that the studios clamped down on risk-taking after the 70s.
Kino
Lorber’s Blu-ray has A high-definition transfer of the film—which looks fine—and the theatrical trailer and a commentary by
Altman himself as extras. The location scenery—especially the muddy roads, the
rain, and the back-country hills and shacks, are strikingly beautiful, thanks
to Jean Boffety’s soft cinematography.
One
of the better “lovers on the run†pictures, Thieves
Like Us is worth grabbing.
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RETRO-ACTIVE: THE BEST FROM THE CINEMA RETRO ARCHIVES
BY TODD GARBARINI
When
I was a teenager, the Boy Scout troop that I was a member of consisted of
nearly 25 scouts. We had a few older scouts whom the rest of the younger scouts
looked up to, and during our weekend camping trips the seniors made every
effort to scare the beejezus out of us youngsters with ludicrous tales of
ghosts or killers hiding out in the woods. These stories were often woven
around a campfire in the late hours of the evening when we were all seemingly
vulnerable. During the summer of 1980, Sean Cunningham’s Friday the 13th was doing well at the box office, so I was already
aware of these “murderers in the woodsâ€-themed films. This didn’t make it any
easier for us to go on camping trips! The
success of Friday the 13th gave birth
to countless carbon copies of young adults-being-stalked-in-the-woods films.
One such outing is the late Joe Gianonne’s Madman,
a film released in January 1982 by Jensen Farley pictures, a distribution
company responsible for other horror outings including Richard Ciupka’s Curtains (1983). The schematic premise of Madman is so basic and so bereft of suspense (at least by today’s
standards) that I hate to say anything negative about the film, simply because
the cast and crew involved in the making of it and showcased in the
behind-the-scenes extras are just such nice people! The film probably works great for young kids
who have never seen a horror film and are unfamiliar with all the extended
silences and dramatic “stings†that have become clichés that populate the
second half of the film. Madman opens at a campsite with a scene
that appears more silly than sinister. T.P. (Tony Fish) sports a ridiculous belt buckle with his initials on it
and does his best to scare a group of young campers and staff members with a
song about being killed in the woods. One of the leaders of the camp, Max (the late Carl Fredericks), talks
about some nut-job named Madman Marz who supposedly roams the wilderness
waiting for someone to yell out his name so he can wreak havoc on them.
Naturally, this only compels one dope in the group to yell out his name and
make fun of him, challenging Madman Marz to come get everyone prior to an
evening of illicit sex. How Madman eats
and survives the wilderness is never addressed. T.P. has the hots for Betsey
(Gaylen Ross of 1978’s Dawn of the Dead,
inexplicably cast here with the name of Alexis Dubin) and makes no bones about
it in a silly hot tub scene set to yet another song. The rest of the cast are a group of newbies
who are set up for slaughter but their personalities never reach the
likeability factor that Laurie, Linda and Annie reached in Halloween (1978).
There
is a fair amount of gore spilled in this film and by the end you sort of feel
glad that it’s all over. Madman Marz
could be considered the cinematic brethren of Andrew Garth in Tom DeSimone’s far
more entertaining Hell Night (1981) who
creeps around Garth Manor, or even Victor Crwley in Adam Green’s Hatchet movies. Hell
Night was the first film that Frank Darabont worked on (he’s not a fan of
it!) and it truly deserves a Blu-ray release.
What sets this new Madman DVD/Blu-ray combo set apart is Vinegar Syndrome’s wealth of
extras that appear on both formats:
- - The
film boasts two separate running commentaries that run through the entire 90-minute
running time. They feature comments from director Joe Giannone, producer Gary
Sales and actors Paul Ehlers and Tony Fish.
- - There
is an intro in HD that runs just under one minute as producer Gary Sales talks
before the Blu-ray presentation.
- - Madman: Alive at 35 runs 21 minutes, is shot in HD and
features producer Gary Sales and actors Tom Candela and Paul Ehlers who discuss
the making of the film.
- - The Early Career of Gary Sales is an interview with producer Gary Sales.
Shot in HD, it runs 14 min. and 15 seconds in length, but Mr. Sales speaks with
a great deal of energy and explains that he went to film school with director Armand Mastroianni who,
at that time, had directed He Knows
You’re Alone (1980), a clear Halloween
(1978) rip-off. So, despite the sort
running time, he includes a wealth of info. It seemed like everyone was
making these types of horror films at the time, and Madman is loosely based upon the legend of Cropsey, who became famous in Staten Island,
NY. Mr. Sales also explains how he got his start in the industry by working on
a sex film in New York in 1973 entitled It
Happened in Hollywood. If you were looking to break into the film industry
in the early 1970’s, one way to do it was through the adult film industry. It
was here that he met Wes Craven who edited Hollywood,
as well as Peter Locke. Wes Craven and Peter Locke would go on to make The Hills Have Eyes in 1977, so
networking and making contacts are everything. What makes this
documentary/interview so fascinating is that we are given a first-hand account
by the producer as to what it took for him to not only get into the film
industry, but to get the ball rolling on Madman.
It wasn't like it is today, where somebody can make a film on a cell phone or
an iPad and simply upload it to someone.
- - The Legend Still Lives is from 2011, which is strange as Code
Red had just released a 30th anniversary edition DVD at the
time. Shot in SD, it runs an
unbelievable 91 minutes (longer than the movie!) and gives you just about all
you would want to know about the film. Cast
and crew and other experts in the field of horror talk about the film and, in a
maneuver that would make Sean Clark happy, we are taken to the filming
location, only to find that most of the buildings that appeared in the film
have been torn down many years ago.
- - There
is a stills & artwork gallery that runs over seven minutes and provides newspaper
ads and reviews.
- - Music Inspired by Madman runs just over 13 minutes and consists
of submissions of music by fans. This
film has quite a following!
- - In Memoriam runs almost six minutes and discusses
the passing of both Joe Giannone the director Carl Fredericks.
- - Rounding
out the extras are brief discussions with Mr. Sales and Mr. Ehlers at a horror
film convention; TV spots, and the theatrical trailer.
I would recommend this to not only fans
of the film, but to fans of the genre who want an insight into filmmaking in
general, and what it took to get a film like this made in the
1970’s/1980’s.
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“TOMORROW’S
NEWS TODAY!â€
By
Raymond Benson
One
wonders if Bond villain Elliot Carver (Tomorrow Never Dies, 1997) ever
saw the 1944 comedy-fantasy, It Happened Tomorrow. Carver’s evil plot
involved making bad news happen so that his newspapers could scoop the
headlines before other media outlets even learned about the events. “Tomorrow’s
News Today!†was his slogan.
In
the fanciful and entertaining It Happened Tomorrow, a newspaper man receives
tomorrow’s news today, allowing him to write the piece and get it ready to go
to the presses before the incident occurs.
French
filmmaker René Clair had come to Hollywood in the early
1940s after working for a time in the U.K. He made a handful of pictures for
different studios, namely I Married a Witch (1942) and And Then There
Were None (1945). In-between those notable titles came It Happened
Tomorrow, which was based on an unproduced screenplay by Hugh Wedlock and
Howard Snyder, as well as a stage play, The Jest of Haha Laba,†by Lord
Dunsany. A new script, by Clair and Dudley Nichols, with additional dialogue by
Helene Fraenkel, ensued, and the picture was greenlit by producer Arnold
Pressburger. The resulting delightful film was a modest success in the USA and
did extremely well overseas.
Journalist
Larry Stevens (Dick Powell) is astounded when kindly “Pop†Benson (John
Philliber), an older employee at the newspaper, gives him a copy of tomorrow’s
edition before it has gone to press. A frontpage article with Stevens’ by-line
concerns a robbery at an opera theater. Figuring that he has nothing to lose,
Stevens asks Sylvia Smith (Linda Darnell) on a date to the opera. Sylvia is
half of a mind-reading act with her Uncle Oscar (Jack Oakie), but even she
admits that it’s a lot of hooey. Sure enough, though, the robbery occurs,
Stevens writes it up—and Police Inspector Mulrooney (Edgar Kennedy) suspects
that Lawrence was in on the crime. As time moves forward, Stevens receives even
more future editions of the newspaper, so he continues to pursue the stories
before they happen. Eventually, of course, he is unable to explain to his boss,
the police, and even his girlfriend how this is possible. When a headline predicts
Larry’s own death, things become complicated!
This
whimsical, cautionary tale is well directed and cleverly written. Cinema buffs
might liken it to the works of Frank Capra (who had originally been attached to
the project) or Preston Sturges. Dick Powell carries the picture with
confidence and humor. The actor was just beginning to transition out of
musical-comedy roles into more serious ones (Murder, My Sweet was
released the same year). While Powell displays his good-natured comic talent in
It Happened Tomorrow, there are hints of the pathos and thoughtfulness
to come. Jack Oakie is always hilarious, as is Edgar Kennedy. Linda Darnell is
easy on the eyes, to be sure, but her role is perhaps the only underwritten
aspect of the movie. Still, there are plenty of laughs and a potent message to
boot.
The
Cohen Media Group has issued a marvelous Blu-ray restoration from a 4K scan. It
looks wonderful, despite a few instances of artifacts and scratches. There are
optional subtitles for the hearing impaired, plus the theatrical trailer. Alas,
there are no supplements.
It
Happened Tomorrow should
appeal to fans of fun, time-bending fare such as Groundhog Day.
Recommended.
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