Category: 1944

Reel 91: Humphrey Bogart Joins the Resistance

Sean and I have wanted to cover CASABLANCA for a long time, but the tough part was finding a good film to pair it with. Finally Sean hit on the idea of pairing Humphrey Bogart with…himself!

In today’s episode we look at two films in which Bogart plays the very reluctant hero despite the fact that the bad guys are literally Nazis. Whoo! Good thing we learned our lesson from that bit of history, right? RIGHT??

Anyway, we do in fact open up with CASABLANCA, from 1942 and directed by Michael Curtiz. It’s worth noting that Hal Wallis acquired the rights to the stage play Everybody Comes to Rick’s only a few weeks after Pearl Harbor and the United States’ entry to World War Two, giving the entire thing an extra bit of poignancy.

From there we move to 1944, and Howard Hawks’ TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT. In this one, Bogart plays a charter fisherman in Martinique who is asked to use his boat to assist the French Resistance there. This is the one in which Bogie first meets Bacall, and fireworks ensue, both on-and off-screen. Also starring Walter Brennan and Hoagy Carmichael doing his Hoagy Carmichael thing.

COMING ATTRACTIONS:

Next time, we make our first foray into the silent era as we review the film INTOLERANCE (1916), directed by D.W. Griffith. Then we jump ahead to 1999 for Barry Levinson’s LIBERTY HEIGHTS. Both films were made specifically to respond to criticism of an earlier film of theirs. Join us, won’t you?

Reel 28: Miracle Movies

Merry Christmas to you! Assuming you celebrate, of course.

In this episode we’re looking at a pair of films that have a Christmas component to them, and which have the word “Miracle” in the title. We open up with Preston Sturges and his 1944 screwball comedy The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek, starring Betty Hutton and Eddie Bracken. Here’s a film that managed to slip a bunch of stuff past the censors, but don’t get your hopes too high; it’s still a family-friendly film.

From there we move on to a more traditionally-Christmas film, 1947’s Miracle on 34th Street, starring Edmund Gwenn and Maureen O’Hara. It was written and directed by George Seaton, with the story provided by Valentine Davies. Since its release it’s grown into a Christmas tradition for many families, and both Claude and Sean, as native New Yorkers, can appreciate the verisimilitude provided by so much of the location shooting and even many of the addresses we can see in the film. The house we see at the end is, in fact, quite close to the location purported to be the rest home where Kris Kringle lives. The only mystery about locations is…well, listen in and you’ll learn about that.

Finally, here’s a Christmas present for Claude, because it happens so seldomly on this show. Claude was RIGHT about Kris bopping Mr. Sawyer on the head with an umbrella. Let us all applaud while he does a Happy Dance.

COMING ATTRACTIONS:
In our first episode of 2022, we’re going to look at Bonnie and Clyde and The Graduate, both from 1967 and both representative of the New Wave in American films. Have a great holiday season until then!