Three Movies

Sleep my love. 1948

You can see the story line of this one a mile away, even with your eyes closed. Poor Claudette Colbert wakes from a nights sleep on a train but she doesn’t remember how she got there and she also sees that she’s got a gun in her pocketbook. Claudette is very upset and goes a little bonkers running through the train’s corridors and who can blame her. She’s calmed down by the wonderful Queenie Smith (who will figure in the plot later on) a fellow passenger who gets her back to her lush and lavish three-story house on Sutton Place and her loving husband played by an oily and wooden Don Ameche. The plot as they say thins about this point and I was a bit surprised to see that Douglas Sirk directed this slick but inconsequential little femme jep from 1948. Claudette looks great and please don’t get me wrong there are some nice scenes here and there, (a Chinese wedding is especially fun) and there is some good back lot atmosphere, (a street scene beneath a make believe 3^rd ave. el is particularly nice). There are some good actors giving it their all including George Coulouris, Raymond Burr, Rita Johnson and that late 40’s long and tangy drink of sultry badness Hazel Brooks. Bob Cummings who is also present is his usual dull self.

The Secret Six 1931

Early M.G.M. pre-code quick gangster movie with Wallace Beery and in a surprise move Ralph Bellamy and Lewis Stone playing bad guys. Its nothing great but it does feature the very young Jean Harlow and Clark Gable in supporting roles just before they hit it big time and the film looks good with Expressionistic lighting and cinematography and some great Art Deco details. Harlow was still struggling with her acting here, she’s a little stiff and nervous but boy was she gorgeous, ditto for Clark Gable. Directed by George Hill who also made The Big House and Min and Bill before taking his own life in 1934 at the age of 39. This was Metro Goldwyn Mayer’s push to take advantage of the popular new gangster genre that was being led by Warners, and although its not a bad entry in the genre it doesn’t come near the impact of The Public Enemy or Little Caesar.

The Breaking Point 1950

I suppose this can be classified as a remake of To Have and Have Not, but I found it be more nihilistic and downbeat than the Howard Hawks 1944 version. The film is red hot and sad and in some ways even better than the Hawk‘s version. In this one we have John Garfield (who by the way is superb) playing Harry Morgan a down on his luck fisherman who uses his boat for fishing charters and has a wife and two kids to support. His friend and employee is played by the great Juano Hernandez and the use of a well defined sympathetic African American character in a Hollywood film was indeed quite rare during this time period. I’ve read that this casting was done because of Garfield’s instance that Hernandez be cast in this pivotal role and was  not the studios idea.  The short scene where his young son (played by Juano’s real life son) goes off to school with Garfield’s two little girls is both heartfelt and kind.  Garfield constantly being taken for rides cheated out of money and roped into some dangerous and shady deals mainly brokered by the sleazy dishonored and dishonest lawyer played with great depth and sweaty armpits by the always-good Wallace Ford. Into Garfield’s hard knock life comes easy does it party girl Patricia Neal who is a pleasure to watch and listen to. With her blonde hair do, she purrs and slinks after Garfield, but we know nothing is going to come of this.  Garfield has mousy and nagging Phyllis Thaxter waiting for him to come home from the sea, with dinner waiting on the table, and his two little girls all pigtails and annoyance also waiting for Pops to get off the boat. Filmed on location on Balboa Island & Newport Beach by the veteran cinematographer Ted McCord with strong direction by Michael Curtiz and a heartbreaking ending that is both unexpected but predictable .