88% (2) The Devil and Daniel Webster 107 min, APPROVED, [Comedy, Drama, Fantasy] [William Dieterle] [17 Oct 1941]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 77%, Rotten Tomatoes: 100%, External Reviews
Awards: Won 1 Oscar. Another 1 win & 1 nomination.
Actors: Edward Arnold, Jane Darwell, Simone Simon, Walter Huston
Writer: Stephen Vincent Benet (story "The Devil and Daniel Webster"), Dan Totheroh (screen play), Stephen Vincent Benet (screen play)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: A down-on-his-luck farmer makes a deal with the devil for seven years of prosperity. When Mr. Scratch comes to collect, orator and hero of the common man Daniel Webster comes to the rescue.
Rotten Tomatoes: Noted for its devilish wit and wicked satire, The Devil and Daniel Webster is a faithful adaptation of Stephen Benet's distinguished short story of a struggling New England farmer who naively sells his soul for money and lives to regret it when he loses everything that ever really mattered to him. When he finally figures out that his greed has guaranteed him a truly horrible fate, he goes to the great lawyer Daniel Webster for assistance. Together they attend a trial held in the farmer's barn where Webster does his best to save his repentant client's soul. The film is also known as All That Money Can Buy and Daniel and the Devil.
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88% (2) La Ronde 93 min, Not Rated, [Drama, Romance] [Max Ophüls] [16 Mar 1954]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 77%, Rotten Tomatoes: 100%, External Reviews
Awards: Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 3 wins & 1 nomination.
Actors: Anton Walbrook, Serge Reggiani, Simone Signoret, Simone Simon
Writer: Arthur Schnitzler (play), Jacques Natanson (adaptation), Max Ophüls (adaptation), Jacques Natanson (dialogue)
External Links: Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: French Country: France
Plot: An all-knowing interlocutor guides us through a series of affairs in Vienna, 1900. A soldier meets an eager young lady of the evening. Later he has an affair with a young lady, who becomes a maid and does similarly with the young man of the house. The young man seduces a married woman. On and on, spinning on the gay carousel of life.
Rotten Tomatoes: An exercise in style, La Ronde was one of the few films of the 1950s to contain overtly sexual themes. The story is a series of character vignettes, set in Vienna in the early 1900s and held together by a narrator (Anton Walbrook). As the title implies, both the story and the film's visual motifs are circular. Director Max Ophuls uses an old-fashioned merry-go-round to foreshadow the film's events, in which each segment introduces a new character, who has an affair with a character from the previous scene. The film demands that the audience pay attention to the structure, to the interplay among the characters, and to the opulent visual elements; and the effect is synergistic delight, in which the viewer is engaged both visually and intellectually. Because it was filmed in black-and-white, La Ronde does not have the garish look of some of Ophuls' other films, notably Lola Montès. La Ronde is among the few foreign language films to receive multiple Oscar nominations, for Black & White Art Direction and Best Adapted Screenplay. ~ Richard Gilliam, Rovi
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83% (2) Cat People 73 min, Not Rated, [Fantasy, Horror, Thriller] [Jacques Tourneur] [25 Dec 1942]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 74%, Rotten Tomatoes: 93%, External Reviews
Awards: 1 win & 2 nominations.
Actors: Jane Randolph, Kent Smith, Simone Simon, Tom Conway
Writer: DeWitt Bodeen
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English, Czech, Serbian Country: USA
Plot: Serbian national Irena Dubrovna, a fashion sketch artist, has recently arrived in New York for work. The first person who she makes a personal connection with there is marine engineer Oliver Reed. The two fall in love and get married despite Irena's reservations, not about Oliver but about herself. She has always felt different than other people, but has never been sure why. She lives close to the zoo, and unlike many of her neighbors is comforted by the sounds of the big cats emanating from the zoo. And although many see it purely as an old wives' tale, she believes the story from her village of ancient residents being driven into witchcraft and evil doing, those who managed to survive by escaping into the mountains. After seeing her emotional pain, Oliver arranges for her to see a psychiatrist to understand why she believes what she does. In therapy, Dr. Judd, the psychiatrist, learns that she also believes, out of that villagers' tale, that she has descended from this evil - women who change into great cats like panthers in passion, anger or jealousy - and that she will turn into a such a dangerous big cat upon being kissed in turn killing her lover and others who have betrayed her. This belief is why she has resisted falling in love before she met Oliver. Learning this information from Irena, Oliver wants to do whatever needed to help her as does Dr. Judd. But Irena's beliefs may be tested when Oliver's friendship with a co-worker named Alice Moore may become more than just friends...
Rotten Tomatoes: Handed the exploitive title Cat People, RKO producer Val Lewton opted for a thinking man's thriller--a psychological mood piece, more reliant on suspense and suggestion than overt "scare stuff". Simone Simon plays an enigmatic young fashion artist who is curiously affected by the panther cage at the central park zoo. She falls in love with handsome Kent Smith, but loses him to Jane Randolph. After a chance confrontation with a bizarre stranger at a restaurant, Simon becomes obsessed with the notion that she's a Cat Woman--a member of an ancient Serbian tribe that metamorphoses into panthers whenever aroused by jealousy. She begins stalking her rival Randolph, terrifying the latter in the film's most memorable scene, set in an indoor swimming pool at midnight. Psychiatrist Tom Conway scoffs at the Cat Woman legend--until he recoils in horror after kissing Simon. If the film's main set looks familiar, it is because it was built for Orson Welles' The Magnificent Ambersons (Lewton later used the same set for his The Seventh Victim). Cat People was remade by director Paul Schrader in 1982.
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83% (2) Le Plaisir 97 min, Not Rated, [Comedy, Drama, Romance] [Max Ophüls] [19 May 1954]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 78%, Rotten Tomatoes: 89%, External Reviews
Actors: Claude Dauphin, Danielle Darrieux, Gaby Morlay, Ginette Leclerc, Jean Gabin, Madeleine Renaud, Simone Simon
Writer: Guy de Maupassant (stories), Jacques Natanson (adaptation), Max Ophüls (adaptation), Jacques Natanson (dialogue)
External Links: Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: French, English Country: France
Plot: Three stories about the pleasure. The first one is about a man hiding his age behind a mask to keep going to balls and fancying women - pleasure and youth. Then comes the long tale of Mme Tellier taking her girls (whores) to the country for attending her niece's communion - pleasure and purity. And lastly, Jean the painter falling in love with his model - pleasure and death.
Rotten Tomatoes: The works of Guy de Maupassant have likely been adapted by more French filmmakers than those of any other author (with the possible exception of Georges Simenon). Max Ophuls harnesses three Maupassant short stories to suit his artistic purposes in Le Plaisir (House of Pleasure). In "The Mask," an aging lothario (Jean Galland) learns more about himself than he cares to when he dons a mask to cover his wrinkles. In "The House of Madame Tellier," the proprietress of a brothel (Madeline Renaud) closes up shop one day for an unusual (for her) personal mission. And in "The Model," both the title character (Simone Simon) and her artist-lover (Daniel Gelin) pay the price for her romantic impulsiveness. Each of the playlets in Le Plaisir explore conflicting sides of human nature -- a theme common to both the works of Maupassant and the films of Ophuls. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
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79% (2) The Curse of the Cat People 70 min, Approved, [Drama, Horror, Mystery] [Gunther von Fritsch, Robert Wise] [01 Apr 1944]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 69%, Rotten Tomatoes: 90%, External Reviews
Awards: 2 nominations.
Actors: Ann Carter, Jane Randolph, Kent Smith, Simone Simon
Writer: DeWitt Bodeen (screenplay)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: This mostly unrelated sequel to Cat People (1942) has Amy, the young daughter of Oliver and Alice Reed. Amy is a very imaginative child who has trouble differentiating fantasy from reality, and has no friends her own age as a result. She makes an imaginary friend though, her father's dead first wife Irena. At about the same time, she befriends Julia Farren, an aging reclusive actress who is alienated from her own daughter Barbara.
Rotten Tomatoes: Officially a sequel to Val Lewton's psychological-horror classic Cat People (1942), Curse of the Cat People is in fact an engrossing and oftimes charming fantasy, told from a child's point of view. Six-year-old Ann Carter plays Amy Reed, the lonely daughter of eternally preoccupied Oliver Reed (Kent Smith). Amy's vivid imagination and inability to get along with her schoolmates leads Oliver to worry that the girl will start exhibiting the psychopathic tendencies of his long-deceased first wife Irena (Simone Simon), the obsessive "Cat Woman" in the earlier film. Oliver's second wife Alice (Jane Randolph) and Amy's sympathetic schoolteacher (Eve March) try to help, but Amy prefers the company of elderly Julia Farren (Julia Dean), a harmlessly crazy ex-actress who lives in a forbidding mansion with her neurotic daughter Barbara (Elizabeth Russell). Insanely jealous of Amy, Barbara ultimately tries to do the girl harm, but she is thwarted in this effort by the ghost of Irena, Amy's self-appointed guardian angel. Advertised as a horror picture, Curse of the Cat People has only one genuine "shock" scene; otherwise, the most frightening moment in the film is Julia Farren's spirited rendition of "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere." Saddled with a lurid title, producer Lewton and screenwriter DeWitt Bodeen chose to offer a fascinating glimpse into the wonderfully boundless realm of a child's imagination, and in this respect the film is an unqualified success. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
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70% (1) Seventh Heaven 102 min, APPROVED, [Drama, Romance] [Henry King] [25 Mar 1937]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 70%, External Reviews
Awards: 1 nomination.
Actors: Gregory Ratoff, James Stewart, Jean Hersholt, Simone Simon
Writer: Melville Baker, Austin Strong (play)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: USA
Plot: A Parisian sewer worker longs for a rise in status and a beautiful wife. He rescues a girl from the police, lives with her in a barren flat on the seventh floor, and then marches away to war.
Rotten Tomatoes: A remake of the classic 1927 romance by the same name, this bittersweet drama follows the abiding love between a Parisian fellow who works in the sewers and dreams of finding a love of his own. When his fervent prayers remain unanswered, he turns away from God.
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