Double Indemnity

There are four things a film noir must be: dark, smokey, seducing and cynical.  To write a decent piece about Double Indemnity, one of the best examples of film noir, I feel the need to pull the shades closed, put on a fedora and let cigarette smoke waft around the room.  But I don’t smoke, and with my modern computer screen blazing at me, it’s hard to strike that dark mood anymore.  It’s as if all noir retired along with the typewriter.

In the film directed by Billy Wilder, Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) is an insurance salesman and when he visits the Dietrichson household about renewing their auto policy, he gets more than he expected.  Mrs. Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck) is at home, clad only in a towel on the second floor looking down to Neff in the entry way.  The attraction is instant and rather than shoo Neff away to come back when Mr. Dietrichson is around, she meets him downstairs and starts to ask questions about accident insurance.  Neff is no dope and can sense that Phyllis has murder on her mind.  Neff resists at first, but she pulls him in with lustful greed and together they concoct a plan to get Mr. Dietrichson accident insurance without him knowing and then stage a scene that looks like a train accident, because those pay double.  But Neff’s boss, Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson) can sense that something isn’t right and creeps closer and closer to figuring out that Neff was in cahoots with Phyllis the whole time.

What makes this story so compelling is how we feel that Neff could be any good man and Phyllis can be any woman who chooses to use her sexuality for evil.  Neff has many chances to back out, but he’s driven by greed and lust.  Because of his inside look at the insurance business, he gets overconfident and thinks he can outsmart the system.  Meanwhile Phyllis is the face that can launch a good man into a murderous fraud scheme and keep cold and calculating enough to take that blond wig seriously.  I still can’t look at a woman with dark eyebrows and perfectly molded blond hair without thinking of Double Indemnity, and I would never trust them.

One of my favorite moments in the film is the suspenseful scene where Keyes visits Neff’s apartment at the same time that Phyllis is due to arrive.  Keyes talks about how he’s sure she was working with a partner to kill her husband and stage his death, it’s only a matter of time until the two are found together.  Meanwhile, Phyllis is listening just behind the door.  The best part is how tense everything feels as Neff realizes Phyllis is behind the door and Keyes says,  “They may think it’s twice as safe because there’s two of them, but it isn’t twice as safe. It’s ten times twice as dangerous.”  The warning goes straight to the both of them.

Sadly, Double Indemnity did not win the award for best picture, but I can understand why.  In 1945 with war raging and people trying to keep positive back home, a film dark film about murder and scheming women just isn’t what the world needed to take top honors.  A film about murderous adulterers was already controversial, so it’s not surprising that it lost to Going My Way’s story of a heartwarming singing priest.  But today, Double Indemnity is the go-to film when studying film noir.  It’s upheld in the AFI’s top 100 as #29.  And personally, it takes a great weight off my shoulders to know that my husband has finally seen it.

“How could I have known that murder could sometimes smell like honeysuckle?”

Since You Went Away

Since You Went Away focuses on the Hilton family’s struggles after the man of the house has enlisted in the military for WWII.  The suburban family consists of the mother, Anne (Claudette Colbert), two teenage daughters, older Jane (Jennifer Jones), younger whinier Bridget (Shirley Temple) and a bulldog who seems to have his own bassoon theme music.  The ladies have a friendly black housemaid, Fedilia (Hattie McDaniel) and are regularly visited by their longtime friend Tony (Joseph Cotten), a naval officer.  The daughters want to do what they can to help in this time of war, so Bridget suggests renting out a room to an officer in need.  Jane, being seventeen full of girlish fantasies about older military men likes the idea, until old Colonel William G. Smollett (Monty Woolley) arrives as the new tenant.  He quickly becomes the cranky old man of the household.  When his grandson, Bill (Robert Walker), comes to visit to tell his grandfather that he’s in the army, we see a struggling relationship between grandfather and grandson.  Bill and Jane become friends and eventually fall in love, but as most WWII home front dramas do, they are pulled apart by war just as their love is at its fullest.  And to make sure the whole family is hurting, they are informed that Mr. Hilton is missing in action.

I’m sure back in 1944 this was a great film that touched the hearts of so many people living the struggles and tragedies these characters depict.  There’s a great sense of pride in the military men and the younger women back home are willing to do their part to help the war efforts.  Later in the film, Jane decides to put college off so she can help by being a nurse.  She’s willing to sacrifice some of her upper-middle class lifestyle to help those in need and it makes Anne question what she can do.  Surely she shouldn’t be like that snooty lady at church, Mrs. Hawkins (Agnes Moorehead), who acts like she is too good to help with any war aid or become a lady welder.

While this film is a great representation of the struggles and sacrifices families made, its sappy melodramatic style is very old and dated and may be very hard for today’s viewer to get into.  Honestly, it feels like an episode of Leave it to Beaver at times, only with teenage girls and they can make petty drama out of anything.  From Jane’s silly girl crush on Tony to Bridget’s fourteen going on nine demeanor, I could not take either of the daughters seriously.  And Bill becomes little more than the sweet, shy boy who uses words like gee and swell too much.

Many will recognize the iconic train departure scene, not because of this film, but because of it’s parody in Airplane!.  The parody does a great job playing off the dialogue and only replaces pillars with runway equipment.  It’s cheesy enough to be a perfect gag in one of the greatest spoofs ever.  If you can take the rest of the film seriously after that scene, you’re a stronger person than I am.

The film did win the Oscar for best music and I can see why.  There is a lot of music and it all goes with the scenes very well, it swells and wanes with the rising and falling dramatics perfectly.  It provides a great background for the trite small talk that we only need to half listen to.  Then it strikes up perfectly on cue with the dramatic slam of a door.  My absolute favorite moment was early in the film when Anne is to spend the first night with her husband gone.  She’s in her bed looking worried and suddenly with a swipe of the harp and a quick swell of music she hops across the room into her husbands twin bed and cries.

Off the top of my head, I can think of two films of the forties that focus on families dealing with WWII on the home front that are much better than Since You Went Away: The Human Comedy and Mrs. Miniver.  These films have both better quality acting and a more intriguing storyline.  Unless you really want to kick back for three hours with some melodramatics that teeter on the edge of extra-cheesy, skip this and go with one of the other two.

“Cry, darling.  Cry your heart out.”

Wilson (Missing)

Oh Wilson, where have you gone?  It seems you’re just one of those poor films of the forties who could win five Oscars, then be lost into obscurity and only available on VHS for much more than most are willing to pay.  What a shame, I don’t even own that sort of dinosaur machine anymore.  But I’ll keep looking for you, you poor lost Oscar winning film.

Going My Way

Going My Way is the prequel to The Bells of St. Mary’s, which I have already reviewed here.  From experience, I can say that it makes no difference if you see them in the correct order, in fact they were not even written in the order of their theatrical appearance.  However, if you enjoy one you will most likely enjoy them both.

Bing Crosby plays Father Chuck O’Malley, who once led a colorful lifestyle before becoming a priest, has just been assigned to take over at St. Dominic’s.  But the very conventional Father Fitzgibbon (Barry Fitzgerald) has been the head priest at St. Dominic’s for the past forty-five years, and O’Malley does not want to hurt the old man’s pride by taking that away from him.  So O’Malley finds ways to help by working on the church’s financial struggles and reforming the straggling gang of boys into a choir.  It becomes a very positive outlet for the boys who were once known for stealing turkeys.  Meanwhile, Fitzgibbon is still seen as the head of the church, but when he finds out that O’Malley was sent to replace him the news is heartbreaking and he runs away for a while.  Thankfully, when he returns, O’Malley is able to show him how he is still most important to the church and they work together.

A key scene in this film is when Father Fitzgibbon returns from his juvenile attempt to run away in the pouring rain.  The poor old man was actually brought home by a police officer that O’Malley recruited in his search, but Fitzgibbon asks the officer to let him go in alone.  Rather than look like a disobedient child, he wants to muster as much dignity as possible after such a foolish stunt.  He’s welcomed warmly by O’Malley with a sense of forgive and forget, no need to dwell too much on dopey stunts and the two bond over a drink to their mothers.

Barry Fitzgerald made Oscar history by being the first and only person to be nominated in both leading and supporting actor categories for the same role.  Crosby won in the lead category and Fitzgerald won for supporting actor, but because of the metal shortage during WWII he was given a plaster statuette that he accidentally beheaded while practicing his golf swing.  Since the Academy Awards of 1945 rules have been made that prevent an actor from being in multiple categories for the same performance.  Otherwise, we might have Christian Bale or young Hailee Steinfeld in the same situation today.

Both Going My Way and The Bells of St. Mary’s are wonderful films that brings ideas of faith alongside real world problems and modern people.  In the end, it’s only Father Fitzgibbon who ever lectures about the importance of going to church.  O’Malley has a broader view of enlightenment that can take place anywhere just by doing good things and encouraging that within others.  The film shows that everyone has their faults and that everyone can make a positive difference as well.  You don’t need to be Catholic or affiliate yourself with any religion to appreciate and understand the message of either film and I recommend both equaly.

“-You’ve been a bad boy who ran away from home.
–And you should go to church!”

Gaslight

Gaslight is a dramatic thriller fueled by mystery.  Paula (Ingrid Bergman) was raised by her loving aunt, until the night she was murdered.  She was found strangled by the fireplace and the fiend was never caught.  Years later, Paula marries Gregory (Charles Boyer) and the two decide that her aunt’s old house would be perfect for them.  But the house is full of old memories, both pleasant and disturbing.  Soon, it seems that Paula is losing things and becoming more and more forgetful.  And every night, when the gaslight mysteriously goes down, she hears footsteps.  Is she going mad or is she being driven to believe so?

Not long after Paula and Greg move in, we can make a few educated guesses that will prove positive in the end.  In some films, that would spoil everything, but not in Gaslight.  The way the moments of Paula’s moments of forgetfulness pile up and drive her mad are intriguing and devastating.  We’re rooting for the poor girl and we want her to know what we know, and that drives the suspense that pulls this film along so well.  What is left unknown to us is enough to keep us connected to poor Paula.

Gaslight was Angela Lansbury’s first film.  Or as my husband put it, “Isn’t that the lady from Murder She Wrote?”  She earned an Oscar nomination for her supporting role as Nancy, the snobby and rebellious housemaid who only makes Paula feel less at ease in  her home.  Between her flirtatious moments with Greg and only reinforcing Paula’s apprehension, this is a wonderful performance to start off Lansbury’s great career.

This was Bergman’s first Oscar win.  Her portrayal of Paula is so passionate and full of the right kinds of energy.  At times Paula is so frightened she can scare the viewers.  And we sympathize with her perfectly, she’s a caged animal afraid to leave her home and always being told that she’s sick.  It would drive anyone crazy and Bergman brings that idea out flawlessly.

Unfortunately, Gaslight is one of those tough films to catch.  It’s not available on Netflix and I was lucky to catch it on TCM last week.  But if you like mysteries, psychological dramas or the great Ingrid Bergman, Gaslight is a must see.

“Would you light the gas please?”