adrianovasconcelos

Sadly, I know very little about Director John Auer, having only watched one of his films, CITY THAT NEVER SLEEPS - which I liked, and was a far better opus than I, JANE DOE.

From the start, I, JANE DOE struck me as a Girls United versus womanizing male narrative. First, you have Ruth Hussey and pal Benay Venuta praising the former's faithless hubby, John Carroll, on his good looks. This kind of praise promptly had my suspicious brain ticking that Venuta had designs on her pal's male. Needless to say, I was dead wrong. Venuta stayed loyal, Carroll was the one who careened off the marriage's narrow path big time and ended up shot dead.

Upshot: Vera Ralston stoically resists identifying herself, apparently producing some Portuguese ID, but her real nationality eventually turns out to be French (why this bureaucratic foreign nationality intrigue beats me, as Ralston speaks faultless American English). Her stoicism makes for such thoroughly wooden acting that the legal establishment had no option but name her as Jane Doe, a classification usually reserved for the deceased. Those legal shenanigans aside, baffling that US authorities failed to arrive at her proper name, especially in a case of murder, where you certainly want the culprit properly fingered and punished. (Think of it: one unidentified Jane Doe executed on the electric chair. Who really was the executed person? That would sure go down in history as a major justice cockup, to put it mildly)

Then Carroll's grieving wife, Ruth Hussey - a former lawyer - decides to resume her legal career and defend Jane Doe, who finally identifies herself in court as Mrs Steven Curtis. Wait a minute: that is Ruth Hussey's name too! Ah, so that's it: despicably egregious bigamist Carroll married the two girls who now unite to save the second Mrs Curtis from the electric chair. Hussey at least manages some credible acting in a film where acting is generally substandard.

I doubt that any US court, even in 1948, would function as this court did, so one needs to suspend one's disbelief to preposterous wishful thinking proportions, which does not bode well for Lawrence Kimble's obviously deceitful screenplay.

Cinematography by Reggie Lanning is strictly OK, still better than the film's pervasive mediocrity.

I doubt I will rewatch I, JANE DOE. 5/10.

Director John Guillermin rose to some fame with films like DEATH ON THE NILE, GUNS AT BATASI and TOWN ON TRIAL, but by 1958 he was still at the start of his career - and it is a good effort, too.

To that end, he received uncredited assitance from TV director Dan Cohen, and he had an A cast at his disposal, with Stewart Granger still a drawing card although entering his career sunset, the same applying to lovely Donna Reed as the de rigueur American box office bait in an English production. An aging but ever devious, scheming and classy British accent, fluid-voiced George Sanders steals the show as Mr Carliss (I detected a tinge of the upcoming THE JUNGLE BOOK's memorable Shere Khan Tiger in Sanders' diction).

Michael Shillo, as Police Chief Simon adds quality to the acting, as does stunningly beautiful Gianna Maria Canale as the actress married to Carliss, with whom flick producer Max Poulton (Granger) has had an affair, and that indiscretion is now coming home to roost, causing assorted marital and other problems, police chases, and last minute rescues, all against a background of high society partying in the French Riviera.

Despite some holes, the screenplay by J Latimer held my attention, and I found cinematography and editing by Wilkie Cooper and Gerry Hambling top notch.

I am not sure that I believe all the plans minutiously put into place by Carliss, let alone that they would really lead to perfect murder, but I gave logic a little break, and ended up enjoying it - very much! 7/10.

Although I rate John Ford one of the best of all US directors, I find his films either outright masterpieces like STAGECOACH, MY DARLING CLEMENTINE, HURRICANE, SHE WORE A YELLOW RIBBON, THE SEARCHERS, or outright forgettable like THE HORSE SOLDIERS, WHEN WILLIE COMES MARCHING HOME, WHAT PRICE GLORY.

So, when in the days of DVD I came across GIDEON'S DAY, which in the US carried the title of GIDEON OF THE SCOTLAND YARD, I was surprised to learn that Ford - of Irish background - had directed it, and that in addition to being about the very British Scotland Yard, it had no known US actors, I felt intrigued.

Add to that Jack Hawkins, a most quality-consistent Brit actor with a superb diction, and I just had to purchase and watch it. Which I did very gladly, finding it as British as any British film prior to the "kitchen sink" period, and not far behind Ford's best work, with Hawkins' performance a real treat.

Michael Trubshawe, as Gideon's unflinchingly faithful and attentive assistant, Sgt Golightly; Anna Lee as his supportive, classy wife; Anna Massey as his lovely teenage daughter; Derek Bond, as the allegedly corrupt copper, all deliver brilliantly albeit in much smaller roles, and all carry comic moments that give the film its anchor of subtle humor.

Exquisite color cinematography by Charles Lawton and Freddie Young, seamless editing by Ray Poulton.

Terrific screenplay and crisp dialogue by T E B Clarke, off the original novel by John Creasey, writing under the pseudonym of JJ Marric.

If you are a John Ford fan, see this rare foray into the copper vs criminal world, rendered even rarer and odder by the fact that Ford shows such a knowing and sympathetic approach to Scotland Yard, in spite of his Irish background. 8/10.