I'm back at home since last night, and I've got a great double feature for you. This evening I watched a nerve-wracking thriller called "Cause for Alarm!"(1951, exclamation point included in the title), starring Loretta Young as a housewife caring for her bitter, invalid husband (Barry Sullivan, in a frightening performance). They met when he was still in the Army, virile and handsome, but years later, now that he's bedridden with a heart condition, he's mad at the world and jealous of everyone around him, especially Loretta, who Sullivan thinks is in love with the doctor who is treating him. Though she dotes on her husband, he responds with contempt, and - even worse - he's convinced himself that Young and the doctor are conspiring to kill him so they can finally be together. In his paranoia, Sullivan has gone so far as to write a letter to the District Attorney, laying out his case against the pair, and saying that if anything happens to him, they should be considered the prime suspects.
This letter will be of prime importance to the plot, and I really shouldn't tell you any more because this movie grabs hold from the start and never lets you go until the final frame. It was made by MGM and has one of their major stars, so I'm surprised it's not more well known. It's essentially a "woman in peril" plot, and Loretta Young brings a stressed out energy to her role, to the point where she's about to have a nervous breakdown. Something happens after Sullivan writes his letter to the D.A., and I can't tell you what it is, but it causes Loretta to come apart at the seams as she has to deal with this consequence, and at the same time try to maintain a facade of normalcy with the various neighborhood characters she comes in contact with, including a bothersome-but-cute little boy who rides a trike and is always knocking on her door, asking for cookies.
Her postman also figures prominently in the plot, and though he doesn't ring twice, he's certainly committed to the creed of the USPS : "Neither wind nor rain, etc. etc.". Poor Loretta nearly has a conniption fit in dealing with him.
I think I've told ya too much, but make sure you watch this one. It gets Two Big Thumbs Up, and has an ending that may be different from what you're expecting. Really good stuff, filmed in beautiful black and white in what looks like West L.A. circa 1951.
Last night I was in espionage mode, with "British Intelligence"(1940), starring Boris Karloff and Margaret Lindsay. This was also a really good one! I should point out that Lindsay is the real star of the film (so we have two heroines in our movies this time around), and while Boris has a substantial role, he gets first billing strictly due to box office draw. Anyhow, the plot : the RAF is losing an inordinate amount of planes on missions that are supposed to be Top Secret. Naturally, they suspect a leak coming from someone privy to classified information. They track a German agent to London, a master spy named Strendler. The problem is that no one has ever seen him; no photographs exist, so nobody knows what he looks like. Meanwhile, pretty Miss Lindsay is also working for the Germans, impersonating the niece of a Brrrittish Cabinet Minister (and man, the whole thing is as Brrrittish as all get out). As for Boris Karloff, he's the Minster's valet, a Frenchman named Valdar. He walks with a limp and has a scarred face, so there's a touch of Klassic Karloff Horror to his role, but to his credit Boris goes outside the box here, in a multifaceted part that includes him in the spy game. I can't reveal to what extent, but then, in "British Intelligence", as with their real life counterparts in the MI-5 (or is it 6?), the Brits always play things so close to the vest that you won't know who's who until the end.
It's not a simple Ten Little Indians plot, however. The writing, editing and direction are all finely layered and composed, and you are present in the moment as the intrigue builds and the British spooks have to continually reassess their options, as they try to expose the elusive "Strendler". "British Intelligence" runs only 61 minutes, but takes us back to a time, not too long ago, when we were raving about the ability of Golden Era screenwriters to pack a truckload of plot, character development and subtheme into a short format. They do so here, and while this is Margaret Lindsay's film, it's also a great vehicle for Boris Karloff to show some versitality. The print on Youtube is average but watchable, and one hopes for a Criterion-level restoration of this very worthy picture. /////
The wind outside is howling as I write, some of the spookiest gale-force Santa Anas we've had in a while. I've just begun a new book : "Dreamland" by Bob Lazar, the guy who brought Area 51 to public attention back in 1989. Lazar worked at that facility and this is his autobiography. I'm fifty pages in, and it's a mindblower. While reading, I listened to a disc from my new 3 cd set of Handel Organ Concertos. I hadn't explored Handel very much over the years, knowing him mostly for the "Messiah", which is of course a masterwork, but after hearing one of the concertos the other night, on Jim Svejda's show on KUSC, I knew I had to have them all. In a word, they're smokin'. (think Rick Wakeman if he'd been alive in 1753).
That's all I know for tonight. I wish you a Happy Valentine's Day tomorrow, and tons of love as always.
See you in the morning. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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