88% (2) The Lady Vanishes 96 min, Not Rated, [Mystery, Thriller] [Alfred Hitchcock] [01 Nov 1938]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 79%, Rotten Tomatoes: 98%, External Reviews
Awards: 1 win & 1 nomination.
Actors: Margaret Lockwood, May Whitty, Michael Redgrave, Paul Lukas
Writer: Ethel Lina White (based upon the story by: "The Wheel Spins"), Sidney Gilliat (screen play), Frank Launder (screen play)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Website Language: English, German, French, Italian Country: UK
Plot: Passengers on a scheduled train out of the mountainous European country of Mandrika are delayed by a day due to an avalanche, and thus get up close and personal with each other out of necessity in the only and what becomes an overcrowded inn in the area. Once the train departs, the one person who it is uncertain is on the train is a middle aged English governess named Miss Froy. Iris Henderson, who was vacationing in Mandrika with girlfriends before heading back to England to get married, is certain that Miss Froy was on the train as they were in the same compartment and they had tea together in the dining car, but all those people who can corroborate her story don't seem to want to do so. Iris' thoughts are easily dismissed as a possible concussion as Iris was hit over the head just before boarding the train. Iris will take anyone's help in finding Miss Froy, even that of an Englishman named Gilbert, a musicologist with whom she had a not so pleasant encounter at the inn the evening before. As Iris and Gilbert go on their quest throughout the train, they believe there is a conspiracy among many of the passengers against the validity of there being a Miss Froy. But if there is a conspiracy, Iris and Gilbert still have to find Miss Froy and find out why anyone would want to kidnap a middle aged English governess.
Rotten Tomatoes: Miss Froy disappears on her return train trip from a vacation in the Balkans. However, Iris Henderson is the only person, on a train filled with suspicious and unsavory characters, who can attest that Miss Froy was ever on that trip.
Scroll To: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% [ / 6]
85% (2) My Name Is Julia Ross 65 min, Not Rated, [Crime, Drama, Film-Noir, Mystery, Thriller] [Joseph H. Lewis] [27 Nov 1945]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 71%, Rotten Tomatoes: 100%, External Reviews
Actors: George Macready, May Whitty, Nina Foch, Roland Varno
Writer: Muriel Roy Bolton (screenplay), Anthony Gilbert (novel)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: Julia Ross secures employment, through a rather nosy employment agency, with a wealthy widow, Mrs. Hughes, and goes to live at her house. 2 days later, she awakens - in a different house, in different clothes, and with a new identity. She's told she is the daughter-in-law of Mrs. Hughes, and has suffered a nervous breakdown. I'd Julia really 'Julia', or, is it true, that she's lost all memory of who she is?
Rotten Tomatoes: My Name Is Julia Ross is the first film noir made by Joseph H. Lewis. Though made on a low-budget, the film contains a nice brooding atmosphere and some innovative camera work to tell the tightly woven story of Julia Ross, an unemployed woman who in desperation takes a job as the personal secretary to a socially prominent matron. On her first day, she meets the woman's son. Though his face is terribly scarred, he seems a charming fellow as he shows her around the mansion and into her room. Later he brings her supper. She eats and falls into a deep sleep. When she groggily reawakens, the woman finds herself in a completely different house wearing new clothing. To make matters worse, everyone assumes she is the wife of her boss's son. The son also tells her that they are married and that she has just been released from a mental asylum. She tries to leave, but finds the outside of the mansion surrounded by thick, high walls and locked with an immovable iron gate. Laura is occasionally allowed to visit it town and one day manages to surreptitiously slip a letter to her boy friend begging for help in the mail. Back in the mansion, she learns that the family are planning to murder her and make it look like suicide to cover up the fact that the son killed his real wife.
Scroll To: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% [ / 6]
84% (2) Mrs. Miniver 134 min, Not Rated, [Drama, Romance, War] [William Wyler] [01 Dec 1942]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 76%, Rotten Tomatoes: 92%, External Reviews
Awards: Won 6 Oscars. Another 4 wins & 7 nominations.
Actors: Greer Garson, May Whitty, Teresa Wright, Walter Pidgeon
Writer: Arthur Wimperis (screenplay), George Froeschel (screenplay), James Hilton (screenplay), Claudine West (screenplay), Jan Struther (based on the book by)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English, German Country: USA
Plot: The Minivers, an English "middle-class" family experience life in the first months of World War II. While dodging bombs, the Minivers' son courts Lady Beldon's granddaughter. A rose is named after Mrs. Miniver and entered in the competition against Lady Beldon's rose.
Rotten Tomatoes: As Academy Award-winning films go, Mrs. Miniver has not weathered the years all that well. This prettified, idealized view of the upper-class British home front during World War II sometimes seems over-calculated and contrived when seen today. In particular, Greer Garson's Oscar-winning performance in the title role often comes off as artificial, especially when she nobly tends her rose garden while her stalwart husband (Walter Pidgeon) participates in the evacuation at Dunkirk. However, even if the film has lost a good portion of its ability to move and inspire audiences, it is easy to see why it was so popular in 1942-and why Winston Churchill was moved to comment that its propaganda value was worth a dozen battleships. Everyone in the audience-even English audiences, closer to the events depicted in the film than American filmgoers-liked to believe that he or she was capable of behaving with as much grace under pressure as the Miniver family. The film's setpieces-the Minivers huddling in their bomb shelter during a Luftwaffe attack, Mrs. Miniver confronting a downed Nazi paratrooper in her kitchen, an annual flower show being staged despite the exigencies of bombing raids, cleric Henry Wilcoxon's climactic call to arms from the pulpit of his ruined church-are masterfully staged and acted, allowing one to ever so briefly forget that this is, after all, slick propagandizing. In addition to Best Picture and Best Actress, Mrs. Miniver garnered Oscars for best supporting actress (Teresa Wright), best director (William Wyler), best script (Arthur Wimperis, George Froschel, James Hilton, Claudine West), best cinematography (Joseph Ruttenberg) and best producer (Sidney Franklin). Sidebar: Richard Ney, who plays Greer Garson's son, later married the actress-and still later became a successful Wall Street financier. Mrs. Miniver was followed by a 1951 sequel, The Miniver Story, but without the wartime setting the bloom was off the rose. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Scroll To: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% [ / 6]
83% (2) Lassie Come Home 89 min, Passed, [Adventure, Family] [Fred M. Wilcox] [01 Dec 1943]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 72%, Rotten Tomatoes: 94%, External Reviews
Awards: Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 3 wins.
Actors: Donald Crisp, Edmund Gwenn, May Whitty, Roddy McDowall
Writer: Hugo Butler (screenplay), Eric Knight (novel)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: Hard times came for Carraclough family and they are forced to sell their dog to the rich Duke of Rudling. However, Lassie, the dog, is unwilling to leave the young Carraclough boy and sets out on the long and dangerous journey in order to rejoin him.
Rotten Tomatoes: Female dogs tend to shed while in heat; this is why all the collies who've played doggy heroine Lassie in the movies have actually been well-disguised males. A magnificent animal named Pal was the screen's first Lassie in 1943's Lassie Come Home. Set in Yorkshire during the first World War, the film gets under way when the poverty-stricken parents (Donald Crisp, Elsa Lanchester) of young Joe Carraclough (Roddy McDowall) are forced to sell his beloved Lassie. While her new master, the duke of Rudling (Nigel Bruce), is pleasant enough, Lassie prefers the company of Joe and repeatedly escapes. Even when cared for by the duke's affectionate granddaughter, Priscilla (Elizabeth Taylor), Lassie insists upon heading back to her original home. This time, however, the trip is much longer, and Lassie must depend upon the kindness of strangers, notably farmers Dally (Dame May Whitty) and Dan'l Fadden (Ben Webster) and handyman Rowlie (Edmund Gwenn). Based on the novel by Eric Knight (originally serialized in The Saturday Evening Post), Lassie Come Home was released quite some time after Knight's death. Like all the Lassie sequels turned out by MGM between 1943 and 1951, Lassie Come Home was lensed in Technicolor.
Scroll To: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% [ / 6]
82% (2) Gaslight 114 min, Not Rated, [Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller] [George Cukor] [30 Oct 1944]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 78%, Rotten Tomatoes: 86%, External Reviews
Awards: Won 2 Oscars. Another 3 wins & 7 nominations.
Actors: Charles Boyer, Ingrid Bergman, Joseph Cotten, May Whitty
Writer: John Van Druten (screenplay), Walter Reisch (screenplay), John L. Balderston (screenplay), Patrick Hamilton (play)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: After the death of her famous opera-singing aunt, Paula is sent to study in Italy to become a great opera singer as well. While there, she falls in love with the charming Gregory Anton. The two return to London, and Paula begins to notice strange goings-on: missing pictures, strange footsteps in the night and gaslights that dim without being touched. As she fights to retain her sanity, her new husband's intentions come into question.
Rotten Tomatoes: George Cukor's remake of the 1940 film Gaslight is the story of a beautiful, innocent woman (Ingrid Bergman) who marries a charming man (Charles Boyer) who tries to drive her insane. Boasting a lavish, detailed production that perfectly recreates the Victorian era, Gaslight is one of the greatest psychological thrillers ever made, thanks to Bergman's stellar, Oscar-winning performance. Gaslight was later shown in a computer-colorized print.
Scroll To: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% [ / 6]
73% (1) Night Must Fall 116 min, PASSED, [Drama, Mystery, Thriller] [Richard Thorpe] [30 Apr 1937]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 73%, External Reviews
Awards: Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 4 wins.
Actors: Kathleen Harrison, May Whitty, Merle Tottenham, Rosalind Russell
Writer: Emlyn Williams (from the stage success of), John Van Druten (screen play)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: Crotchety old Mrs. Bransom hires a charming young man named Danny as a live-in companion. Less charmed by Danny is Mrs. Bransom's niece, Olivia, a repressed young woman who suspects Danny of foul play. When news of a local murder is revealed, Olivia suspects Danny. Although repulsed by the thought he may have committed the crime, Olivia also finds herself becoming increasingly attracted to him at the same time.
Rotten Tomatoes: In this film, Danny is a wickedly charming Irish bellhop who wins the confidence of an elderly invalid. The old woman's niece is not so easily swayed by Danny's blarney, but she finds him strangely attractive, especially when he exhibits a streak of viciousness.
Scroll To: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% [ / 6]