88% (2) The Great Dictator 125 min, Passed, [Comedy, Drama, War] [Charles Chaplin] [07 Mar 1941]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 85%, Rotten Tomatoes: 92%, External Reviews
Awards: Nominated for 5 Oscars. Another 6 wins & 1 nomination.
Actors: Charles Chaplin, Henry Daniell, Jack Oakie, Paulette Goddard, Reginald Gardiner
Writer: Charles Chaplin
External Links: Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English, Esperanto Country: USA
Plot: Twenty years after the end of WWI in which the nation of Tomainia was on the losing side, Adenoid Hynkel has risen to power as the ruthless dictator of the country. He believes in a pure Aryan state, and the decimation of the Jews. This situation is unknown to a simple Jewish-Tomainian barber who has since been hospitalized the result of a WWI battle. Upon his release, the barber, who had been suffering from memory loss about the war, is shown the new persecuted life of the Jews by many living in the Jewish ghetto, including a washerwoman named Hannah, with whom he begins a relationship. The barber is ultimately spared such persecution by Commander Schultz, who he saved in that WWI battle. The lives of all Jews in Tomainia are eventually spared with a policy shift by Hynkel himself, who is doing so for ulterior motives. But those motives include a want for world domination, starting with the invasion of neighboring Osterlich, which may be threatened by Benzino Napaloni, the dictator of neighboring Bacteria. Ultimately Schultz, who has turned traitor against Hynkel's regime, and the barber, may be able to join forces to take control of the situation, they using Schultz's inside knowledge of the workings of the regime and the barber's uncanny resemblance to one of those in power.
Rotten Tomatoes: "This is the story of the period between two world wars--an interim during which insanity cut loose, liberty took a nose dive, and humanity was kicked around somewhat." With this pithy opening title, Charles Chaplin begins his first all-talking feature film, The Great Dictator. During World War I, a Jewish barber (Chaplin) in the army of Tomania saves the life of high-ranking officer Schultz (Reginald Gardiner). While Schultz survives the conflict unscathed, the barber is stricken with amnesia and bundled off to a hospital. Twenty years pass: Tomania has been taken over by dictator Adenoid Hynkel (Chaplin again) and his stooges Garbitsch (Henry Daniell) and Herring (Billy Gilbert). Hynkel despises all Jews and regularly wreaks havoc on the Tomanian Jewish ghetto, where feisty Hannah (Paulette Goddard) lives. Meanwhile, the little barber escapes from the hospital and instinctively heads back to his cobweb-laden ghetto barber shop. Unaware of Hynkel's policy towards Jews (in fact, he's unaware of Hynkel), the barber gets into a slapstick confrontation with a gang of Aryan storm troopers. He is rescued by his old friend Schultz, now one of Hynkel's most loyal officers. Thanks to Schultz's protection, the ghetto receives a brief respite from Hynkel's persecution. The barber sets up shop again, developing a warm platonic relationship with the lovely Hannah. But things take a sorry turn when Hynkel, angered that a Jewish banker has refused to finance his impending war with Austerlitz, begins bearing down again on the Ghetto. Near the end of the film, when the dictator is expected to make another one of his hate-filled, war-mongering speeches, the barber steps up to the microphones...and Charles Chaplin drops character and becomes "himself," delivering an impassioned plea for peace, tolerance, and humanity. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
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84% (2) The Woman in Green 68 min, Approved, [Drama, Mystery] [Roy William Neill] [27 Jul 1945]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 69%, Rotten Tomatoes: 100%, External Reviews
Actors: Basil Rathbone, Henry Daniell, Hillary Brooke, Nigel Bruce
Writer: Bertram Millhauser (original screenplay), Arthur Conan Doyle (based on the characters created by)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: Holmes and Watson investigate a series of bizarre and apparently unconnected murders, and the death of a possible suspect. The trail leads to a society of hypnotists and a mysterious, glamoruos woman. The fiendish Dr Moriarty, though reported hanged in Montevideo, is belived to be involved.
Rotten Tomatoes: Based on Conan Doyle's The Adventure of the Empty House, this "Sherlock Holmes" entry finds Holmes (Basil Rathbone) and Dr. Watson (Nigel Bruce) trying to solve the case of the "Finger Murders". Several beautiful women have been found slain, all with their right forefingers severed from their hands. The police are prepared to write off the killings as the work of a madman, but Holmes deduces that there's a sane motive behind it all. Sure enough, the trail of evidence leads to Holmes' perennial nemesis Professor Moriarity (Henry Daniell), who is in league with lissome female criminal Lydia (Hillary Brooke). Though it isn't sporting to reveal Moriarity's nefarious scheme here, it can be noted that The Woman in Green comes to a nailbiting conclusion as a hypnotized Holmes wanders precariously along the ledge of a penthouse!
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78% (2) The Body Snatcher 77 min, Approved, [Horror, Thriller] [Robert Wise] [01 Oct 1945]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 74%, Rotten Tomatoes: 82%, External Reviews
Awards: 3 nominations.
Actors: Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, Edith Atwater, Henry Daniell
Writer: Robert Louis Stevenson (short story), Philip MacDonald (written for the screen by), Val Lewton (written for the screen by)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: In Edinburgh in 1831, Dr. Wolfe MacFarlane runs a medical school where Donald Fettes is a student. Fettes is interested in helping a young girl who has lost the use of her legs. He is certain that MacFarlane's surgical skills could be put to great use but he is reluctant to do so. The good Dr. MacFarlane has a secret that soon becomes all too obvious to young Fettes, who has only recently been promoted as his assistant: he has been paying a local cabbie, John Gray, to supply him with dead bodies for anatomical research. Gray constantly harasses MacFarlane and clearly has a hold over him dating to a famous trial many years before where Gray refused to identify the man for whom he was robbing graves. Fettes isn't aware of any of this but soon realizes exactly how Gray obtains the bodies they use in their anatomy classes.
Rotten Tomatoes: In this film, Henry Daniell stars as a brilliant 18th-century London surgeon. Daniell can only make his humanitarian medical advances by experimenting on cadavers, which is strictly illegal. Karloff plays a grave robber, providing corpses for Daniell's research. The low-born Karloff enjoys blackmailing the aristocratic Daniell into silence.
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74% (1) The Awful Truth 80 min, [Comedy] [Marshall Neilan] [10 Aug 1929]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 74%, External Reviews
Actors: Henry Daniell, Ina Claire, Paul Harvey, Theodore von Eltz
Writer: Horace Jackson, Arthur Richman (play)
External Links: Wikipedia IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: N/A
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70% (1) Sherlock Holmes in Washington 71 min, Approved, [Film-Noir, Mystery] [Roy William Neill] [30 Apr 1943]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 70%, External Reviews
Actors: Basil Rathbone, Henry Daniell, Marjorie Lord, Nigel Bruce
Writer: Bertram Millhauser (screenplay), Lynn Riggs (screenplay), Bertram Millhauser (original story), Arthur Conan Doyle (based on the characters created by)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: In World War II, a British secret agent carrying a vitally important document is kidnapped en route to Washington. The British government calls on Sherlock Holmes to recover it.
Rotten Tomatoes: In this film, an Allied spy smuggles a valuable piece of microfilm into the US. The film is hidden in a matchbook cover that passes through several hands. Brought to Washington from London to help locate the missing film, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson attempt to outsmart the Axis villains.
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67% (1) The Exile 95 min, APPROVED, [Adventure, Romance] [Max Ophüls] [17 Oct 1947]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 67%, External Reviews
Actors: Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Henry Daniell, Maria Montez, Rita Corday
Writer: Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Cosmo Hamilton (novel)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English, French Country: USA
Plot: Maria Montez was accorded top billing in this film by contractual agreement, although she is in the picture only long enough to take a bath in a tricky 17th century bathtub while sipping coffee with Charles Stuart and delivering dialogue in a barely-understandable French-accent. This is the second major film released within a short period with King Charles II as a primary character, and Charles here and Charles (George Sanders) in "Forever Amber" are two very varied approaches to the same character. This one takes place prior to the beginning of "Forever Amber" when Charles II and his followers are hiding out in Holland from Oliver Cromwell's puritan Round Heads. Being temporarily at liberty (or unemployed), Charles takes a day job at the farm/estate of Katie, and falls in love with her. Meanwhile he eludes his enemies by agility, enterprise and sword play, some of the latter performed while riding the blades of a Dutch windmill. He is summoned back to the throne and has to leave Katie and the tulips behind, returns to England, is replaced by George Sanders who pursues Amber St. Clair and forgets all about Katie. "The Exile" and "Forever Amber" should be viewed back-to-back for maximum-contrast enjoyment.
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