Hold Back the Dawn (Mitchell Leisen, 1941)Olivia De Havilland! Olivia De Havilland! Olivia De Havilland! Obviously, her performance and her performance alone makes the picture, though Charles Boyer handles a complex character with a sly ease rarely seen on celluloid. It is DeHavilland who, much like her sister Joan Fontaine, can handle silent character beats like a bird can flap its wings; it's second nature to these girls to just completely own their characters even when they aren't doing anything in particular. I totally bought DeHavilland as this totally innocent ingenue who comes into the "love" life of Boyer's character who has meticulously planned to use her in his effort to cross the American border and become a citizen. Wilder and Brackett use their reverse narrative style seen later in
Double Indemnity that allows Boyer's character to simultaneously regret and retell his actions in ensnaring the unlucky girl in his trap and, by doing so, ensnaring his own heart into the trap unwittingly as well. We get a lot of insight into the mind of those universal bastards we know now these days as "players", yet we are given hope as the redemptive power of love is shown once the two go off on their post marital honeymoon which bears similarities to that of
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans or even last year's
Certified Copy as the couple are both playing ever evolving roles against each other in order to either repulse or propel themselves closer to each other. It's a game where only one side knows the rules! Minor quibbles would focus on the subplot that loosely ties the theme of the film about a Russian couple who want their baby born in America. It's a throwaway detail that could of been removed or have been made into its own film, sadly it was absorbed into this one, shortening the amount of lovely time we get with Boyer and DeHavilland. As previously stated, it's only a minor problem, it doesn't ruin the film for me.
No Man of Her Own (Mitchell Leisen, 1950)If there was ever a movie that was almost completely ruined by a final minute, deus-ex-machina style plot twist, this would be the biggest and best example. Through a series of mishaps that claim the lives of a married expectant couple, Stanwyck plays a woman who is believed to be the pregnant wife of said married couple because Stanwyck's character herself is pregnant out of wedlock. She goes along with the role and is accepted into her "late husbands" family since the husband was on his way to introduce his new wife to his family, yet slowly but surely her past comes to haunt her in more ways than one. Is John Lund related to Ryan O'Neal? I did a double take and checked several times to see how old O'Neal actually was, because they look remarkably the same. The film itself is expertly crafted. A running motif in the movie is the sound of a train passing (the accident that claimed the lives of the couple occurred on the train) so when she throws the letter in the fire place that reveals who she really is, we hear the train sound in the distance as the paper hits the fire. A third act situation also requires use of the train to dispose of guilt. Stanwyck is in fine form here who does anything she can to preserve her and her son's well being. The smallest of details are under microscope here. The movie is squirm-in-your-chair heart pounding and dark as night film noir. Now if only the ending reflected the unnerving mood that was held throughout...