Category: 1940s

Three strangers, Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet, and Geraldine Fitzgerald, meet on the night of Chinese New Year and make a pact to share a sweepstakes ticket under the watchful eye of Kwan Yin. The three go their own ways, separately awaiting the result of their compact. I was looking forward to another pairing of Lorre and Greenstreet. The parts where any of the three conspirators are together in any form are quite compelling. The rest of the film drags quite a bit as each of the players’ stories unwind, the various predicaments they find themselves in and how winning the sweepstakes could help them achieve their goals.

During a heatwave in post-World War II Tokyo, homicide detective Toshiro Mifune has his pistol stolen while riding a crowded trolley. He spends the rest of the film roaming the city’s underbelly trying to locate it, distressed when he discovers it has been used in multiple murders. It’s an interesting film noir for its time and place. The dirt and stifling heat palpable as Mifune and his grizzled partner process the clues towards their unknown, desperate prey.    

Teenaged gangster Richard Attenborough murders the newspaper reporter he blames for killing one of his fellow gang members. To establish a different time of death, he sends out his gang to carry out the promotional stunt the reporter was supposed to complete. Several blunders results in Attenborough needing to seduce young waitress Carol Marsh and shake a suspicious Hermione Baddeley off his tail. Gangster films are generally dark, but this one is particularly bleak. Attenborough is convincingly ruthless in pursuing his goals, uncaring whether he leads his fellow gangsters to death or psychologically damaging a young girl. Though presumably about a real time in Brighton’s history, the beach setting makes for a strange juxtaposition between frivolous fun and indiscriminate murder.   

Orphaned during an Indian cholera epidemic, Margaret O’Brien is sent to Britain to live with her reclusive uncle Herbert Marshall and his ill-tempered, bedridden son Dean Stockwell. When she learns of the existence of a hidden garden from the brother of a housemaid, the secret creates a bond between the three children. I enjoy watching O’Brien and Stockwell’s childhood acting. They both have a very natural charm about them which is well met in their scenes together. I also love a well-timed black & white to color scene and the reveal of the no longer neglected garden is quite a flourishment. It makes for a rather lovely family friendly film.