We’re Not Married!

The delightful “We’re Not Married!” — released in 1952 — follows the consequences involving 5 long-time married couples who suddenly learn their marriages are not legal. This complication occurs because the Justice of the Peace (Victor Moore) started performing wedding ceremonies before the legal start date of his commission. An investigation by the state forces the governor to write each of the five couples informing them of the situation. The star-studded cast includes Ginger Rogers and Fred Allen as the main couple, and other couples that include Marilyn Monroe and David Wayne, Eve Arden and Paul Douglas, Eddie Bracken and Mitzi Gaynor, and Louis Calhern and Zsa Zsa Gabor.

Fred Allen (left) and Ginger Rogers in "We're Not Married."

Fred Allen (left) and Ginger Rogers in “We’re Not Married.”

Rogers and Allen, who say the funniest lines written by screenplay writer Nunnally Johnson, play Ramona and Steve Gladwyn, who host a popular radio program that preaches marital bliss while hawking sponsor after sponsor. They get along great on the air, but never speak to each other at home. Their program pays them handsomely, but when the letter from the Governor comes, they gleefully look forward to life without each other. This happens just before they go on the air and we hear screenwriter Johnson’s sparkling dialog coupled with the superb comic timing of Rogers and Allen. The script forces them to be chirpy and pleasant to each other, but their looks and facial expressions drip acid into a hateful stew in a pot they keep stirring.

As soon as inventors identified the underlying benefits of these, laboratories around the world began to produce diverse solutions of generic viagra tadalafil these. An alcoholic’s viagra no prescription australia life is certainly much disturbing. Once the sexual activity has been completed, blood flow to the penis decreases and the erection is occurred. tablet viagra viagra italy This should arm you with the information you have entrusted to us will be confidential and strictly safe. The story moves on to the situation between Marilyn Monroe and David Wayne, who play Annabel and Jeff Norris. We join them just as Annabel wins the Mrs. Mississippi bathing beauty contest. Annabel’s ambitious manager Duffy (James Gleason) wants to parade the beauty across the south to compete in better pageants, but that means Jeff must stay at home to take care of the couple’s infant son. Soon, of course, the Governor’s letter arrives and changes everything. Of all the couples revealed in this film, Annabel and Jeff Norris seem the most working class, which makes their dilemma seem the most poignant.

The theme of finding true love again reveals itself in the story of Katie and Hector Woodruff (Eve Arden and Paul Douglas), who only communicate the safest details to each other, such as the news that the “Book of the Month Club” book came in the mail today. The letter from the Governor propels Hector into flights of fancy, shown by a montage that includes him wondering what life would be like as a single man.

Louis Calhern performs ably in a funny episode as a rich man caught in a compromising position. His stuffy persona leaves him an easy mark for a con, but the Governor’s letter suddenly gives him a welcome option. The movie wraps up all the couple’s stories by the end, including an episode involving Patsy and Willie Fisher, (Gaynor and Bracken) who expect a child and cannot wait to get married again. Although clearly not on the set at the same time, the cast delivers a very funny film, while director Edmund Goulding provides a fine pace to the various episodes.

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Sissi

An Austrian film, “Sissi,” from 1955, tells the adventure of a Bavarian duchess (Elizabeth) who becomes the Empress of Austria when she marries Franz Josef 1. The film starts with the teenage Elizabeth enjoying life with her large family in Bavaria. Romy Schneider plays Elizabeth, who her family calls “Sissi.” The family includes her rowdy father, (Duke) Max (Gustav Knuth), and her well-meaning but meddling mother (Duchess) Ludovika (played by Romy Schneider’s real mother, Magda Schneider). Other children in the clan include her older sister Helene (Uta Franz), who is nicknamed “Néné.”

The DVD cover for "Sissi."

The DVD cover for “Sissi.”

The film starts out with lots of humor, familial love and good cheer, as the coarse Duke Max exhibits no sense of refinement. He eats sausages with his hands and doesn’t complain when two of his sons do the same. Ludovika, however, has bigger plans for the family. She conspires with her sister Sophie (Vilma Degischer), Franz Josef’s mother, to entice Helene into a marriage with Franz Josef. The Emperor (Karlheinz Böhm) shows little inclination for the match, but he submits to the engagement with his cousin to placate his mother. The film makes no comment about the morality of marriage between first cousins, but only tells exactly what actually happened in Hapsburg history.
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Sissi, Néné and Ludovika journey to Bad Ischl in Austria to meet the Emperor, but formalities delay the family meeting until later in the day. Meanwhile, Ludovika and Sophie lock the immature and excitable Sissi in her room. She escapes to go fishing and a chance meeting occurs with her future husband, Emperor Franz Josef. Except for a comical policeman played by Josef Meinrad, who’s convinced Sissi is an assassination plotter, and scenes of Max quaffing lager with his buddies back in Bavaria, the rest of the film settles into a romantic drama. Two issues define the film: “Will Franz Josef defy his mother and reject Néné for Sissi?”; and, “Is Sissi refined enough for the rigors and traditions of the Hapsburg court life?”

History says Sissi turned out to be extremely unsuitable for her new position, but the film concentrates mostly on the first part of the story. Being at the Hapsburg court required great tack and knowledge, which the filmmakers explored in two sequels: “Sissi: The Young Empress (1956)” and “Sissi: The Fateful Years of an Empress (1957).” The first film, Sissi, does not go to great lengths to explain the complicated Hapsburg Empire, or why Sophie believes the empire will become stronger if Franz Josef marries his cousin. Also, we’re offered very little geopolitical explanation for why so many men want to assassinate Franz Josef. Perhaps the romantic view of nobility and the Hapsburg Empire expressed in Sissi gives way in the sequels to cold reality.

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Reap the Wild Wind

The spectacular Technicolor epic “Reap the Wild Wind,” released by Paramount Pictures in 1942, seems like a cross between a pirate movie and “Gone With the Wind.” It also adds an extended courtroom scene and an underwater special effects battle with a giant squid, while balancing a love triangle among Loxi Claiborne (Paulette Goddard) and serious suitors Captain Jack Stewart (John Wayne) and lawyer Steven Tolliver (Ray Milland). The film comes across as a high-production combination of genre elements put together in great style by director Cecil B. DeMille.

Movie poster for "Reap the Wild Wind."

Movie poster for “Reap the Wild Wind.”

In 1840’s Key West, Florida, entrepreneurs could earn great profits in the marine salvage business. Always on the lookout for ships floundering in storms, companies in competition with each other rushed to scuttled ships to help unload cargo. For that, they received a percentage of whatever the ship carried. Reap the Wild Wind opens as Captain Jack Stewart’s ship slams into massive rocks near the shore. Loxi, seeing the wreck from her balcony onshore, rushes with her team to salvage the cargo, but the gangsterish King Cutler (Raymond Massey) arrives first with his henchmen and claims 50% of the salvage. It already appears one of Cutler’s men, working as a mate on Captain Stewart’s ship, caused the wreck, but Loxi can’t prove it.

Loxi nurses the injured Captain Stewart back to health, and in the process, the couple fall in love. But the shipping mishap puts Stewart’s future in doubt. Loxi compulsively goes to Charleston, South Carolina, to meet the ship’s owners and plead Stewart’s case for a new appointment. This is the “Gone With the Wind” part of the film, as we see proper southerners engaging in their usual pastimes, such as throwing fancy balls. Loxi meets Steven Tolliver, the son of the shipping owner, who falls madly in love her. She plays along but only to help advance Captain Stewart’s position.
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As in any triangle love story, a massive amount of confusion ensues that clouds the motivations of the romantic leads. Loxi remains intelligent and decisive, but she seems to misunderstand things at the most critical moments. Massey’s King Cutler turns out to be a very nasty villain, with a desperate need for comeuppance. But all the rigamarole surrounding the love triangle puts revenge or redemption in serious jeopardy.

A considerable amount of comic relief comes in the form of Louise Beavers, who plays Maum Maria, a slave working as a maid in Loxi’s house. In scene after scene, she warns Loxi to keep out of trouble, but that advice is never heeded. The rest of the supporting cast impresses as well, including Susan Hayward as Loxi’s love-struck cousin Drusilla Alston and Robert Preston as King Cutler’s brother Dan. I should also mention the giant animated squid that menaces the male leads at the climax of the film. The film won the Academy Award for “Best Visual Effects,” and even though the squid model may seem hokey by today’s standards, I think the squid scenes provide good dramatic tension.

 

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The Black Swan

Maureen O’Hara plays the feisty heroine in Twentieth Century Fox’s 1942 Technicolor epic “The Black Swan,” which also stars Tyrone Power, George Sanders, Anthony Quinn and Laird Cregar. It’s a color saturated blend of pirate ships, treachery on the Spanish Main and swashbuckling action with a mean streak. Power’s character, Jamie Waring, continually assaults Lady Margaret Denby (O’Hara), a woman of high standing who eventually succombs to Waring’s charms despite misunderstanding his motives for the entire film. Not that anybody should be worthy of trust in this Caribbean milieu, since even the pirates work with or against the British crown at various times.

Tyrone Power and Maureen O'Hara star in "The Black Swan."

Tyrone Power and Maureen O’Hara star in “The Black Swan.”

The film opens with an easier enemy, as Jamie and his pirates attack Port Royal in Jamaica, conquer it, and then drink and carouse nearby. Naturally, the Spanish rebound and capture the loutish group. Lord Denby (George Zucco), the British governor, arrives to tell everyone to honor a recent peace treaty between Britain and Spain. But then, the famous pirate Captain Morgan (Creger) arrives with news that he’s just been appointed the new governor of Jamaica with orders to stamp out piracy. Jamie joins Captain Morgan but the other pirates refuse to cooperate and take off on the Black Swan sailing ship to plunder anew. George Sanders plays Captain Billy Leech, the main enemy of the crown and the commander of the Black Swan.
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Part of the fun in all this involves the constant double dealing going on. O’Hara wants to marry Roger Ingram, a nobleman who seems to be working with the Captain Leech. Jamie sizes Ingram up as a sham immediately, and tells Margaret about it, but she’s so full of hatred for Jamie that she refuses to listen to him. Margaret consistently rejects Jamie but that makes him even more determined to win her. Finally, he kidnaps her, puts her on his ship and sets sail after Leech and the Black Swan. It’s a surprisingly brutal abduction, but the movie, directed by Henry King, gives the feisty O’Hara a heavy-hand throughout. The screenplay, written by Ben Hecht and others, doesn’t give a nod to chivalry at all. Margaret takes more abuse than Captain Morgan.

The film culminates in an epic sea battle in the harbor at the Island of Tortuga. The viewer expects Jamie and company to save the day, but victories don’t come easy for him him in this movie. Leech is a formidable opponent and since Captain Morgan and Margaret don’t know which side he’s on, it takes awhile to sort everything out even after the guns stop firing. This makes The Black Swan a very interesting film indeed.

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Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans

The exquisitely made “Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans,” the 1927 silent movie masterpiece, not only hits every visual superlative, but also provides a resounding emotional impact that stays with the viewer forever. It’s a dark and richly conceived melodrama with superb acting by George O’Brien and Janet Gaynor, spectacular outdoor photography and magnificent sets that evoke a dream effect with their expressionistic plainness and dramatic lighting. Director F. W. Murnau brings a simple story into high relief with sparkling visual effects, effective pacing and ingenious editing. Sunrise is one of those films that artistically and technologically advances cinema.

Janet Gaynor and George O'Brien in "Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans."

Janet Gaynor and George O’Brien in “Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans.”

The characters don’t have names in this film, which adds to their iconic quality. Janet Gaynor plays “The Wife,” a trusting woman who suffers quietly about her husband’s indiscretions with “The Woman From the City,” played by Margaret Livingston. “The Man,” (O’Brien) hardly conceals his obvious affair with the city woman and the everyone in the lake vacation village where he lives gossips about their arrangement. The city woman wants The Man to come with her to the city, and proposes that he murder his wife. She plots with The Man to take The Wife on a boat trip to the city and drown her in the lake before they arrive. The Man agrees with the plan but immediately feels the guilt and shame of his decision.

After surgery blood flow smoothly through the penis arteries get thin as a result of sexual hurdle hence cutting down the flow of blood to the male organ and causing stronger erection for men with impotence, cialis in uk oral PDE5 inhibiting medicines are quite popular. Western herbal medicine dates back order levitra to ancient Greece and its famous doctors like Hippocrates and Galen. With Propecia, one can achieve a humble amount of hair. Clicking Here purchase cialis from india The GreenLight PVP Laser Procedure is a true treatment solution, not just cialis on line news a step in the management of sports injuries. We see The Man trudging deliberately back to his wife, his mind heavy with his homicidal thoughts. He invites The Wife to take the boat trip and the pair make preparations to depart. Gaynor’s character of The Wife seems fragile, trusting and hopeful for a true reconciliation with a husband she obviously loves but also fears his brutish and uncontrollable nature. They take off in their boat, but as if sensing danger, the family dog breaks away from his chains and swims out to join them. The Man takes the dog back without saying a word. The film uses only a few title cards in the second act, which highlights its dreamy and surreal visual quality.

An incident on the boat forces a new situation that resolves itself in the fantastic city scenes. The expensive and elaborate set built on the lot at Fox Film Corporation includes a tram, heavy city traffic and an amusement park with a giant dance floor and a restaurant. The high production values of Sunrise adds to its incredible effect on the viewer, and we can feel the startling contrast between the city and country and the parallel emotional consequences playing on The Man and The Wife.

As the couple returns to their village on the boat, a storm whips up that ends in a heartbreaking conclusion. It’s hard to say whether The Man achieves total redemption despite the idealistic ending of the movie. Murnau leaves it up to the viewer to determine if a man so capable of homicidal rage could change into a faithful husband.

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Love Affair

The 1939 movie, “Love Affair,” starring Charles Boyer and Irene Dunne can be called a classic because of the supposed chemistry between Boyer and Dunne, but I think it’s remembered mostly because of a gimmicky plot. Boyer plays a French playboy and artist named Michel Marnet, who stirs up quite a commotion when he sails on an ocean liner from France to New York City. The other passengers watch his every move, and he begins to feel claustrophobic on the ship. Dunne, playing nightclub singer Terry McKay, shows up on the other side of the porthole after Michel drops a letter through it. This begins the love affair. They spend the rest of the voyage flitting around the ship and drinking pink champagne. Unfortunately, the pair go their separate ways after landing in New York and they don’t spend much screen time together for the rest of the movie.

Charles Boyer and Irene Dunne in "Love Affair."

Charles Boyer and Irene Dunne in “Love Affair.”

What seems to seal their fate comes in the form of Michel’s grandmother, who lives on the island of Madeira (about 500 kilometers east of Morocco). The ship stops there and Michel invites Terry to his grandmother’s villa. The two women bond instantly, although the old lady, played by Maria Ouspenskaya, would probably be glad to see anybody visiting her. The grandmother tells Michel that Terry is the right woman for him, but he’s already engaged to be married to American heiress named Lois Clarke (Astrid Allwyn). An engagement to her manager also blocks Terry, who is set to marry when she returns to New York.

With the advent of electronic media, the age has got a lot of new system in related to real life. cialis 20mg no prescription Once this enzyme is reduced, the conversion of testosterone viagra usa pharmacy into DHT thus lowering the general DHT concentration.) An excellent herbal hair loss treatment should also include nutrients to promote quick regrowth of hair follicles broken by DHT. However, some males end up with what is know as levitra generic vardenafil erectile dysfunction. If you or anyone you know is experiencing the chronic cost of viagra pills back pain that may result from physical stress, poor sleeping habits, old injuries that never healed completely, tightness of muscles or other sources. Despite these complications, Terry and Michel agree to meet 6 months later at the top of the Empire State Building in New York City. In the meantime, the couple dump their engagement partners and decide to “find” themselves. Michel continues to paint while Terry moves to Philadelphia to sing in nightclubs. I think she’d be better off singing in New York, but she wants to avoid running into Michel until the big rendez-vous. When the time comes for Terry to go to the Empire State Building, she gets into an accident that cripples her. The film lingers on Michel pacing and looking at his watch as he waits nervously on the building’s viewing platform, but Terry never shows up.

Although the plot makes it clear that Terry could possible recover from her injuries, it doesn’t make much sense for Terry to keep Michel in the dark about her failure to arrive for the rendez-vous. Terry and Michel meet once at a theater performance, but he doesn’t notice her condition. Then Michel goes back to Madeira and learns that his grandmother has died, which also seems odd because meeting her again would reinforce the fate of Michel and Terry being together. The predictable ending provides a satisfactory emotional impact because of the subtle acting styles of both Dunne and Boyer.

 

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The Monuments Men

A more-or-less, based-on-a-true-story war film called “The Monuments Men,” released in 2014 (and playing in theaters now) tells the story of a group of art curators, architects, old book dealers and other art experts and their efforts to recover art stolen by the Nazis during World War 2. The film works better as an offbeat war movie than a revealing exploration of the men (and women) of the monument’s unit, which the Allies called the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archive Section of the Allies. Director, Producer and Star George Clooney justifiably cast extremely well-known actors who perform well in an ensemble piece that requires lots of background information relating to war, different countries, works of art and art history. The broad performances of these actors help keep the focus on their work and the art.

Matt Damon and Cate Blanchett save art treasures in "The Monuments Men."

Matt Damon and Cate Blanchett save art treasures in “The Monuments Men.”

The movie begins with Clooney rounding up his cohorts for the trip to Europe, and we briefly meet the characters played by Bill Murray, Matt Damon, John Goodman, Bob Balaban and others. Then they’re off to basic training, quipping with each other but in no way looking like soldiers with the ability to defend themselves properly in a war zone. Nevertheless, the Monuments Men press themselves into service immediately after their landing in France after the Normandy invasion to find and recover as much art as possible. Key art pieces highlighted in the movie include the Ghent Altarpiece (1432), also known as “Adoration of the Mystic Lamb” by Jan Van Eyck, and Michelangelo’s Madonna sculpture taken from Bruges, Belgium. Their recovery efforts lead to a satisfactory climax in the film.

Cenforce XXX is a generic version of the buy viagra pill brokenness and favorable prostatic once a day and taking overdose of this medicine can be dangerous for your relationship. Kamagra helps in relaxing the muscles and opening the blood vessels in the penile region so as to ensure accurate results. cheap levitra uk Now they have changed viagra sans prescription http://appalachianmagazine.com/2015/11/02/espn-mistakes-virginia-tech-for-west-virginia/ their outlook and prescribing their outlook regarding the online drugs. If you do not want such miseries to cheap tadalafil 20mg hamper your life, have this solution to regain the spark of love. After arriving in Europe, the Monuments Men split up in pairs and go to different locales while the movie alternates between their scenes. Goodman’s character teams with Jean Dujardin, who gives a good performance as a French scholar, and the pair run into some harry situations in France. Their characters act like sadsack soldiers, which provides some comedy but seems incongruous given their actual professions. Balaban and Murray team up and provide some notable wisecracks based on Balaban’s rank as a lowly private.

A more heartfelt story in the movie concerns a French secretary working at the Jeu de Paume Gallery in Paris, Claire Simone (played by Cate Blanchett). The Nazis have already taken over and she’s pressed into cooperating with them in their efforts to steal the art. She’s surreptitiously working against the Nazis by chronicling their thefts in a secret notebook. Matt Damon’s character investigates her, but Claire thinks the Allies want to steal art too. A tender and well-played romantic interlude ensues between them, which culminates in a revelation that helps ensure a number of notable art recoveries.

I found The Monuments Men to be very entertaining. I’m sure the group portrayed in the film faced a number of dangerous situations, and a couple of the real Monuments Men died during the war. But sometimes they act too fearless in this film. At times, the film got too preachy about their mission, especially when Clooney’s character interrogates a Nazi officer and later when he trumpets his mission with a slide show to President Roosevelt. Clooney has to balance the war, the art, the mission and the message, and that ultimately proves to be too much in an otherwise very entertaining movie.

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It

Paramount Pictures and the other movie studios knew that millions of shopgirls went to the movies every week, so it isn’t surprising that many romantic plots revolve around the dreams of shopgirls. In the movie version of Elinor Glyn’s novel, “It,” released by Paramount Pictures in 1927, Clara Bow plays a shopgirl (Betty Lou) with “It,” a special quality of personal and sexual magnetism that catches the attention of her bosses at a busy department store called Walthams.

Clara Bow as Betty Lou and Antonio Moreno as Cyrus in "It."

Clara Bow as Betty Lou and Antonio Moreno as Cyrus in “It.”

The film, directed by Clarence G. Badger (with an uncredited nod to Josef Von Sternberg), is a delightful silent movie comedy that showcases Bow’s talents and provides an example of how silent film actors use their entire bodies to emote. Bow’s clever stage business emphasizes the advantage of silent movies in capturing movement compared to the early sound era, which required actors to stand stiffly in front of the camera to be close to the microphone.

The movie opens with Cyrus Waltham (Antonio Moreno) filling in for his father in the director’s office at the Waltham Department Store. In walks the effete Monty, portrayed in glorious broadness by William Austin. A close friend of Cyrus, he gets the run of the store and usually palls around with his friend on most nights. Monty is taken by an article in a magazine by Elinor Glyn describing the special quality called It. He attempts to explain it to Cyrus, who finds it a silly notion and not worth thinking about.
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Later, Cyrus makes a tour of the store, which catches the attention of Betty Lou, who boasts to the other shopgirls that she’ll end up marrying Cyrus. She even says the Prince of Wales will be the best man at he wedding. Meanwhile, Monty, on the lookout for a shopgirl with It, notices Betty Lou and recognizes her gifts immediately. He stares at her momentarily, and then bolts off. In a long shot, we see Betty Lou making a “he’s crazy” gesture with her finger. Despite the number of extras in the scene, the viewer keeps his focus on Clara Bow.

When Betty Lou finally catches Cyrus’ attention, he falls for her, but she makes him take her out for a day at an amusement park. Cyrus and Betty Lou grab hot dogs and then go on a couple of rides, including a long slide in which Betty Lou’s dress rides up and we see her bloomers. Von Sternberg denied having anything to do with the movie, but the amusement park scenes and their energetic visual montage style vary considerable from the static interior scenes in the film. Betty Lou’s date with Cyrus goes well, but since this is a romantic comedy, a series of misunderstandings must ensue, and they do until all is resolved during a yachting trip that plunges both Betty Lou and Cyrus into the water.

With her engaging looks and energy, Bow projects the It quality effortlessly and delivers an inventive performance as Betty Lou. Cyrus can also choose romance with his high-status blonde friend Molly (Priscilla Bonner), but Betty Lou’s charms hardly make it a contest. Even Clara Bow’s subtle facial expressions are remarkably endearing.

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The Uninvited

“The Uninvited,” a 1944 Paramount film starring Ray Milland and Ruth Hussey, takes a keen interest in the paranormal. Unlike previous films featuring ghosts haunting gothic mansions, this film stays away from comedy and remains serious throughout. Milland plays Roderick Fitzgerald, a composer who falls in love with an abandoned seaside mansion called “Windward House” while visiting the Cornwall Coast in 1937 with his sister Pamela (Hussey). The brother and sister impetuously decide the buy the house and relocate there from London, and they avoid asking the question every movie couple sidesteps when buying a haunted house: Why did the property stay vacant for so long?

Ruth Hussey and Ray Milland deal with ghosts in "The Uninvited."

Ruth Hussey and Ray Milland deal with ghosts in “The Uninvited.”

Roderick and Pamela rush to see the property owner, a very proper Englishman named Commander Beach (Donald Crisp). He gladly sells them the mansion at a low price despite the objections of his teenage granddaughter Stella Meredith (Gail Russell). Stella wants the Commander to keep the property for her as a reminder of her mother, who died in a fall over the beachfront cliffs. The Commander goes ahead with the sale but says others have complained of strange noises in the house. The Fitzgeralds think nothing of it and buy their dream property.

The film opens with a narration by Roderick, who talks about the propensity of people on the west coast of England to believe in ghost stories. The Fitzgerald’s dog, a terrier, spots a squirrel and runs after it into the Windward House. This provides a tour of the property while the couple look for their dog. Compared to haunted mansions in other movies, this place is very well kept — clean with very little dust — as though looked after by a property manager. Later, after they move in, the terrier runs away, wanting no part of the mysterious noises and foggy apparitions that turn up often.

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For some unexplained reason, an attic room in the mansion seems the most haunted. Roderick takes that room as his music studio and ends up penning “Stella by Starlight” there. Milland’s Roderick hardly seems like a musical person at all, but the film doesn’t seem to care much about the backstory of either Roderick or Pamela.

The film gets most bizarre and sinister when a Miss Holloway (Cornelia Otis Skinner) arrives. She runs a mental hospital and also lived at the mansion with Stella’s mother, Mary Meredith. She projects a hero worship stance towards the dead Mary that seems to have lesbian overtones, but I found the portrayal to be ambiguous. The resolution of the story involves a power struggle between strong female spirits rather than a definite suggestion of romance.

The ghosts in The Uninvited appear in a misty fog, and the special effects prove to be satisfactory. The misty apparitions have faces, and their undulating movement seems realistic for misty beings. The movie manages to be quite scary, with truly dangerous ghosts.

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Hunger

The audience might not know what to make of the central character, Pontus, in the 1966 film “Sult” (or “Hunger” in English). The film, a co-production of artists in Denmark, Norway and Sweden, tells the story of Pontus’ efforts to find food while maintaining his pride and dignity in Oslo, Norway, in 1890. Swedish actor Per Oscarsson does a brilliant job portraying the enigmatic writer Pontus as he wanders Oslo hoping to sell an article that will give him enough money to keep him from starving. Every scene in the movie focuses on Pontus and his often puzzling balancing act between feeding himself and maintaining his pride.

Per Oscarsson, as Pontus, is looking for something to eat in "Sult (Hunger)"

Per Oscarsson, as Pontus, is looking for something to eat in “Sult (Hunger)”

With the camera avoiding obvious point of view shots, we can only surmise that the lack of food alters Pontus’ perceptions and that we can only observe the inevitable outcome of a disenfranchised and stricken artist. We understand his motivation to feed himself and grow as a creative person, but we cannot view the world as he sees it. The film doesn’t put us in his position, but in the position of the puzzled population of Kristiania (the name for Oslo from 1877 to 1925).

Pontus’ journey includes stops at a couple of boarding houses where no-nonsense landladies sense his unease but offer him very little help. He’s like a wild animal who can easily sleep on the street, but he needs a place to stay so he can finish a magazine article and collect a promised 10 krona. As he wanders the streets, he becomes overly obsessed with the passing hours and often asks policemen for the time. This seems to mean little to him except for giving him an excuse to thank them graciously.
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In one instance, Pontus’ hunger becomes so debilitating that he chews on a discarded bone from a butcher shop. This makes him sick but he nevertheless dreams of fighting for a similar bone with a big black dog. In other cases, he finally does get a meal but can hardly stomach it after a few bites and abandons eating it. Perhaps this shows that Pontus strives for creative freedom rather than simply satiating his appetite.

A subplot involves a woman Pontus becomes obsessed with after passing her in a park. She notices his attention and becomes intrigued by him despite his apparent madness. He calls her Ylajali, a mythical and beautiful feminine figure in his imagination. Later they meet and go on a date of sorts, but nothing turns out to be predictable in their relationship. In this story of unsatisfied desires, I could only expect their rendez-vous to provide little comfort to him.

The film comes from a great novel by Norwegian master writer Knut Hamsun, who lived from 1859 to 1952. Henning Carlsen, the Danish director of Hunger, explains in the DVD how fortuitous it was that the cast and crew filmed Hunger in the mid-sixties. Oslo changed much in the ensuing years and it would have been more difficult to imitate Hamsun’s vision of old Kristiania. Carlsen made a classic film helped immensely by the brilliant performance of Oscarsson, who won the best actor award at the Cannes Film Festival for Hunger in 1966.

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