Emaisie39

Now this is a great film. You have got to see it. At first I thought it would be another talky British import that got over-nominated by the Oscars. Boy was I wrong. A riveting tale based on a novel very loosely based on the Mary Lou Leturno scandal, it pulls you in and never lets go. Dench and Blanchett are brilliant as the so-called friend and the wayward adulteress who loses her mind when she falls inlove with her sexy 15 year old self-absorbed student. Dench is incredible and perhaps should have gotten the Oscar over Helen Mirren. Cate is superb as the woman who becomes the victim of her own insecurities and the advances of a teenage lothario. Marvelous direction, cinematography and musical score. Bill Nighly is excellent as Cate's bewildered husband and Andrew Simpson is unforgettable as the brat who along with Dame Judi brings Cate's character to her knees. A must. This should have been a blockbuster but of course U.S. audiences could not be pulled in without car crashes and male bonding.

Highly mediocre musical is a botched filmization of Ethel Merman's Broadway smash. In this one, the marvelous Ann Sothern at the peak of her pin-up girl beauty almost saves the film with another delightful performance. Glossy MGM production values and a game cast including Dan Dailey, Red Skelton, Virginia O'Brien and the lovely Lena Horne give it their all. Story is very thin but this was still a huge hit at the time. Probably because Miss Sothern was then one of MGM's top box-office draws at the time. Sothern's "Lady Be Good"(MGM,1941) is a far superior film with a charming script and an Oscar-winning song but was somehow less popular than "Panama Hattie." WHo knows why some films make a fortune and others tank....

I just saw this on TCM and was so surprised at how gripping it was. Loosely based on Somerset Maugham's "The Letter" that was a major early talkie hit for Jeanne Eagels at Paramount and then remade into a the William Wyler-Bette Davis-Warner Brothers classic of 1940, this version pulls you in and gives Ann Sheridan one of her finest roles. Lew Ayres, Zachary Scott, Eve Arden and Marta Miltrovich are all outstanding as well. Top notch Jerry Wald production includes excellent Max Steiner score, superb Ernest Haller cinematography, and a very good script. Outstanding direction by Vincent Sherman allows Sheridan to shine in her central role as a woman who kills a supposed stranger in self-defense and then watches her life implode around her. The ending is the only letdown. Definitely a must for fans of the "Oomph Girl" at her Warner Brothers peak.