Tonight I've got a Grade A thriller for you, directed by Robert Wise no less, called "The House on Telegraph Hill"(1951). Italian actress Valentina Cortese stars as a Polish refugee from the Bergen Belsen concentration camp. At the end of the war, in order to start a new life, she's assumed the identity of a friend who died there. Cortese has no family and doesn't want to be sent back to Warsaw, but her friend had an aunt in America, in San Francisco. She knows enough details of the friend's life story to pass herself off as the woman when she is questioned by a US Army Major, as part of the repatriation process. After enduring a few weeks of bureaucratic tie-ups, she makes her way to The City by the Bay, where a lawyer awaits her, representing the family of her "aunt". Confusing perhaps, but all of this takes only five minutes, and is easy to follow in the film.
And now the real plot begins, for she discovers that her "aunt" was very wealthy, and lived in an old Victorian mansion on Telegraph Hill. The aunt is now deceased, and there is a child involved - the son of the woman who died at Belsen. Cortese is pretending to be her, the boy's long lost mother. The lawyer is representing our pal Richard Basehart, who like Edward Arnold we've seen a lot of recently. Basehart is suing for custody of the child, as he was assumed to be the only surviving relative of the aunt, until Valentina Cortese showed up at any rate. But now she is a rival for the aunt's money, so he does the only thing possible : he marries her.
The trouble for Cortese is that he may be a psycho. She thinks Basehart wants to kill her, and if so, he may have help in the form of an ultra-repressed nanny who has cared for the child since he was an infant, after he was shipped to San Francisco when his real mother was sent to Belsen.
It's all very Hitchcockian, and much better viewed than read about, because there's a lot of nuance. I was thinking that the Basehart character might have a past himself. He's supposed to be a Polish-American; but could he be passing himself off as well? My guess was that he was actually a former Nazi, escaped to the US. I was way off, but you will also find yourself guessing right up until the end. This is Valentina Cortese's movie all the way, though Basehart is excellent as always. But he's gaslighting her, so she has to react, and I think her performance was worthy of an Oscar nomination.
Keep an eye on the Army Major too, because he will turn up in a Screenwiter's Coincidence.
Two Very Big Thumbs Up for "The House on Telegraph Hill". The black and white photography is rich with texture and touches of Noir, and Wise tightens the suspense like a spring. The payoff........well, you might have a different take on it than I did, but I'll say no more. But by all means see this movie, which has a razor sharp print available on Youtube. It's a big league release by major talent, and highly recommended.
For a quickie second feature, last night's movie was "Panama Patrol"(1939), the sequel to "Cipher Bureau" (which we reviewed a couple nights ago), and like that film it was a ton of fun. As it opens, Leon Ames (playing "Major Phillip Waring", head of the bureau) is at the Marriage Licence office with his Gal Friday (Charlotte Wynters). They fell for each other in the first flick and are about to tie the knot, when a call comes in. It's urgent; the pair are needed back at headquarters. A code has been intercepted of Asian origin, they've gotta call off the wedding until the end of the movie, because the plot is more important.
Y'know, even during "Cipher Bureau", it'd been bugging me where I'd previously seen Leon Ames. You might recall that I described him as "recognizable" in our last blog. Well, as I watched "Panama Patrol" the question continued to nag at me, and about halfway through, the answer arrived. "Of course! Ames is the father to Judy Garland and her sisters in 'Meet Me In St. Louis', one of the greatest musicals of all time and also a Christmas Classic that I own on dvd and have watched many times". I didn't actually say those exact words in quotes, but you get the gist........Leon Ames is great in the two Cipher Bureau movies, and Charlotte Wynters makes a great romantic foil as his trusty secretary. The code breaking scenes are the real draw, however, and are interesting just on a level of Stuff You Never Knew About.
Both of those films are also recommended. /////
After watching the House Managers' presentations at the Trump Trial these past two days, I don't see how any Senator could vote to acquit the SOB, especially after viewing the video footage. What is it about Trump that these Republican Senators are still so afraid of, even though he's no longer the president? The way I see it, by voting to acquit an obviously guilty man, in the long run they are shooting themselves in the foot, because by continuing to support this MF (who should be in prison already), they are dooming the Republican Party to extinction. The seriousness of what took place on January 6th is only beginning to sink in, for all sane people anyway, and the repercussions are going to be severe for the lowlifes who stormed the Capitol, beat down police officers and threatened to kill members of Congress and the Vice President.
Justice is coming for Donald Trump. Whether or not is is exacted with the help of Republican Senators doesn't matter. He's going down the tubes, one way or the other, because that's what happens to all megalomaniacs eventually. And when he goes down, every one of the sycophants who supported him at every turn will go down with him, and that may wind up being the death of the Republican Party as we now know it. I do feel for the old school Repubs - if there are any left besides Mitt Romney - because even though I don't share their politics, they used to be a party of gentlemen. Now they've all been reduced to kissing the ass of a two bit thug, a New York Mafioso who should have been in prison even before he ran for president.
But he's gonna go down, and hard, because they always do. You can count on it. ////
That's all for tonight. See you in the morning. Tons of love as always. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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