1946
Directed by Orson Welles
Although I didn't enjoy this film as much as The Magnificent Ambersons, this is actually entertaining. For one thing, it is a thriller and has a pretty interesting storyline. A Nazi war criminal is in hiding and it is up to Edward Robinson to crack the case before it is too late...DAH DAH DAH!
Orson Welles is a great actor, a talent that is often overlooked in favor of his amazing directing skills. Roger Ebert has stated that one of his favorite scenes in cinema is when Welles is standing in the doorway. All right, that may be going a bit overboard in my opinion, but it is still a great scene.
It always surprises me how versatile Orson Welles is whether he is doing a thriller, a comedy, or a biodrama, his directing and acting is always done artfully. Check it out; way more surprising than modern thrillers.
RATING: ****-
Interesting Facts:
Orson Welles stated this is the least favorite of his films.
One of the first movies to show images of concentration camps.
I always thought Welles looked like a pig. To think of him as a love interest, which he is the first half of the movie, is just weird.
ReplyDeleteYeah. Like when Jack Black was a romantic lead in the Holiday.
DeleteA lot to enjoy in this film, including the acting, the photography, the tension and the soundtrack. But not the screenplay which was silly on every level.
ReplyDeleteMost important though...
WHAT WAS GOING ON WITH THOSE GAMES OF DRAUGHTS IN THE DRUGSTORE??? (Or, 'checkers', as I believe you would have it in the US). Pieces were strewn across the board as if freshly tipped from the box, 'moving' consisted of picking a piece up and placing it randomly elsewhere on the board and they happily played with the same colour pieces rather than one colour each. The chess game in A Matter of Life and Death was a little badly done when she needlessly gave away her bishop, but this was just nonsense.
On another point, as we move from black and white towards mostly colour films, I wonder what filmmakers will use to simulate snow once they cannot just sprinkle sand all over the set?