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Reviews
Sensations of 1945 (1944)
misstatement in previous Comment
On Oct. 4 2004, an interesting Comment by "John5th" contained a serious slip of the pen in the following sentence: "... we see a huge production number called Circus In The Sky featuring Sammy Kaye and his band and a host of circus acts all at the top of a skyscraper." Clearly, John5th intended to write "WOODY HERMAN" (who stars -- even sings! -- in several musical numbers in this film, and is prominently mentioned in the opening credits, along with Cab Calloway). And NOT Sammy Kaye (who doesn't appear at all, and isn't mentioned in the credits). If John5th is still reading this Commentary, I feel sure he'd make the correction himself. I tried 2 ways to contact John5th, but got no reply; he may have gone on to other interests. -- Prof Steven P Hill, Cinema Studies, University of Illinois.
Stjenka Rasin (1936)
Previous comment needs correction
The previous comment seems to refer to a totally DIFFERENT film, apparently the 1938 SOVIET Russian, very modern musical comedy "Volga-Volga," directed by Grigori Aleksandrov and starring his wife Lyubov Orlova as "Strelka" (not "Stalka" or some other distorted name). Whereas this film, "Stjenka Rasin" ["Stenka Razin" is the more familiar transliteration to English] was a FASCIST German film about an 17th-century uprising of peasants against the Tsarist Russian establishment. Razin, the leader of the uprising, died in 1671, during the reign of Tsar Aleksei Mikhailovich (father of Peter the Great). "Stjenka Rasin" featured German actors and was directed by an anti-Soviet émigré Alexandre Volkoff. Thus two totally different subjects, two totally different films. -- Prof Steven P Hill, Russian and Cinema, University of Illinois.
The Dark Corner (1946)
Patterned on Dick Powell; great brief scene
Mark Stevens a couple years earlier had played a sweet-voiced singer (small role in "Rhapsody in Blue," 1943-45). So when Fox Studio in '46 cast Stevens (4th in name order) as the hard-boiled private detective, they probably hoped Dame Fortune would smile on Stevens the way she did on Dick Powell (former sweet-voiced singer) when he was cast against type as the hard-boiled private detective in "Murder My Sweet" (RKO '44). Not to speak of minor actor Alan Ladd, who had been cast (only 4th in order) as the hard-boiled anti-hero in "This Gun for Hire" (Para. '42) -- and became a super-star overnight. Evidently the 3d time was not the charm, and Mark Stevens didn't strike it rich, the way Dick Powell and Alan Ladd had done... Speaking more positively, I would like to credit what to me is one of the best scenes in the film, combining high drama with plausible psychology. Detective Stevens, totally desperate to find the true culprit before the police catch him, tries a shot in the dark. He visits the "Cascara Gallery," with which he's totally unfamiliar (he's never been there). Awaiting gallery owner Clifton Webb in the latter's office, Stevens encounters a young woman (Cathy Downs), unknown to him, who turns out to be Webb's wife. From this point on, the desperate Stevens must improvise (think on his feet), trying to get the truth out of Downs. With believable uncertainty and hesitation (plus audience suspense), he does improvise, in a way that is dramatically quite satisfying. It's as if director Hathaway went back to the film pioneer D. W. Griffith (celebrated for "photographing thought"), and did the same thing in this one brief scene. Watch this part of "Dark Corner" and judge for yourself. -- Steven P Hill, Cinema Studies, University of Illinois.
Murder! (1930)
Rare coincidence in casting
A curious little coincidence is that an established actress with the real name of Norah BARING was cast in the role of the chief suspect, who has the fictional name of Diana BARING. The original novel, "Enter Sir John," by Dane & Simpson (publ. 1928) already called the chief suspect "Martella Baring" 2 years before the film "Murder" was made, so this was not a case like many Roy Rogers and Gene Autry B-westerns, where the scripts (& characters' names) were written after the fact to fit the actors (Rogers, Autry) who'd already been hired. Nor is this a case like "Anne of Green Gables" (US, 1934), where the lead actress Dawn Paris (Dawn O'Day) underwent a legal name change after the fact, so that her new "real name" ("Anne Shirley") would coincide with the name of the character she plays in the film. In some odd way "Murder!" is reminiscent of "Burn, Hollywood, Burn" (US, 1997), in which the traditional (fictional) director's name "Allen Smithee" results in great confusion when a real director (played by Eric Idle) turns up with the real name of Allen Smithee. (According to the fictional script of "Burn" by Joe Eszterhas.) -- Prof Steven P Hill, Cinema Studies, University of Illinois.