jeffhaller

Starts out rather standard with an extremely sexy and slutt.y Shelley. Just too many coincidents happen and I was ready to give up. The plot is so overstufffed and I expected it to end with Powell waking up from a terrifying dream. When I thought of it like this, I started to realize how well made it is Powell had a sense of class unlike any other. Winters role is essential but she disappears after her first great scenes. It is sort of noir in the Powell keeps getting in deeper and deeper. The plot is very convoluted and there is no way the action could take place in such a limited time. The ending suggests that it was a comedy and they have fooled us.

I avoided this for years. It came on today and I gave it a chance. It is wonderful. Just look at that cast. No one can make you forget Peter Lorre who created the role. But David Wayne's own creative approach is brilliant. He was always thought of as a comedian; he proves here he could do anything. The German version horrified me as a young person. As an adult, this version is pretty intense but plays more like a 1950s American noir. San Francisco is always a great movie backdrop (all those stairs). And that wonderful black and white photography that in shadows is richer than any Technicolor epic. Great surprise.

What Fun! It starts out as a sort o WW1 "Best Years of Our Lives," but the three guys (there is also an important fourth) end up as buddies asking for dimes. Prohibition comes along and two of our leads become.hoodlums, the other maintains a law practuce he had even before the war. The depression comes along and once again, lives are changed. This is a terrific screenplay., Moments look like "The Godfather," or better, the other way around. Performances are really something. Priscilla Lane and Jeffrey Lynn play their usual ingenues. Frank McHugh, always so darn loveable has an ending no one would anticipate, the expression on his face is haunting. Bogart is prepping for big stardom and shows he has the metal. Cagney always found that vulnerability that keeps these tough guy roles so fresh. This time he is the most moral of the gangsters. But this movie belongs to Gladys George. She is in charge and her last moments are unbelievably moving. A movie filled with endless irony.