Last night's movie was "Take My Life"(1947), a British Crime Thriller starring Greta Gynt and Marius Goring, two of our current favorites. Gynt plays "Philippa Shelly", an opera singer married to "Nicholas Talbot" (Hugh Williams, who co-stars). Talbot is also her business manager. After a performance, he's just left her dressing room when a violinist approaches him in the hallway. She's "Elizabeth Rusman" (Rosalie Crutchley), an ex-girlfriend of Talbot's. He's surprised to see her, she's even more surprised to see that he's married to the beautiful diva Miss Shelly. "You've done quite well for yourself", she tells him. She seems nervous and asks if he'll visit her at her flat. "I really need to see you", she adds. He doesn't want to do this but takes down her address to be polite. Just then, his wife emerges from her dressing room and sees them talking. Talbot introduces her to Elizabeth. Then he and Philippa go home and have an argument. "I suppose that was just a chance meeting", she starts. "But it was"!, says Talbot, and he's telling the truth. But Philippa's the flighty soprano type. We've already seen how much emotional support she needs before taking the stage.
In short, she doesn't believe that her husband's tete-a-tete with Elizabeth Rusman was a coincidence. The argument escalates and Philippa winds up throwing a coffee cup which hits him in the forehead, opening a bloody gash. Talbot leaves and goes to a pharmacy for some bandages. The pharmacist tells him "you'd better get that looked at", so he heads to a nearby clinic.
Now, what he doesn't know but we do, is that sometime during all of this - the argument with his wife, his trip to the clinic - Elizabeth Rusman has been murdered. We've seen who did it, but Talbot is oblivious that it even happened. The problem for him is that an eyewitness saw the perpetrator leaving Elizabeth's apartment, and his description matches that of Nicholas Talbot. The key indicator is that both men have a gash on their forehead! Holy jumping jiminy what is he gonna do?
The police catch up with him leaving the clinic. He's tried, convicted and facing a death sentence. (hey wait a minute, didn't this just happen to Herb Logan in "For Them That Trespass"?). Lucky for Talbot, Philippa still loves him. She's sorry for doubting his word about Miss Rusman and sorry for braining him with the coffee cup. She takes it upon herself to prove his innocence. In her investigation of the case, she decides to find out more about Elizabeth Rusman, who Nicholas tells her he hardly knew. "Our relationship only lasted three months". She asks the police detective what he knows about the case and - perhaps because she's a beautiful and famous opera star - he allows her to examine Rusman's suitcase. There's a piece of music inside that looks handwritten. Believing it might be one of the dead woman's own compositions, she sets out to find who - if anyone - may have commissioned it. After all, few violinists write their own works, especially itinerant ones who move from town to town.
This may sound more convoluted than it plays on screen. The key is the piece of music. Philippa is a musician herself, a pianist as well as a singer. She takes the music home and plays it. Her son recognises the melody. He directs her to a friend of his who might know the name of the piece. But how can it be well-known if it was written by Elizabeth Rusman, a union scale violinist? As it turns out, the boy knows it because it's his former school song. Not a famous piece, then, just one he's familiar with. Still, did Rusman write it? And if so, who from the school commissioned it? Whoever it is has got to be the killer!
Cue Marius Goring, who doesn't enter the picture until the 50 minute mark. Don't ask how Philippa is able to extrapolate from the music to the murderer without much else to link them. As noted, it plays a lot more smoothly than it sounds. Goring, who was the snivelling "Mr. Perrin" in our last blog's masterpiece and was dominated by a tyrannical headmaster, is this time the headmaster himself (and a grim one at that), at a private school in Scotland (pronounced Skaertlnd). I can't reveal what happens when Philippa travels to the school to meet him, but she needs to link Elizabeth Rusman to the music and therefore to whoever paid her to write it. Got all that? :)
Though the plot is a little thin on forensics, and thus requires suspension of disbelief, this is not a hard-boiled crime film but one with a romantic "us against the world" bent. It's all about Philippa's intuition of the haunting melody and where it leads her. She feels guilty for her husband's plight and will do anything to exonerate him, even placing herself in danger. It works because of the talent involved. We love Greta Gynt by now (you will too), and Marius Goring, as always, speaks for himself. You need to see everything he's in. Handsome Hugh Williams is solid as "Nicholas Talbot", a victim of circumstance and misfortune, and Rosalie Crutchley's intense as "Elizabeth Rusman", the desperate violinist. I give "Take My Life" Two Big Thumbs Up. The picture's a tad soft again but not enough to detract. It's the perfect murder mystery for a late Saturday night, which means watch it now. It's very highly recommended! /////
The previous night we saw a very special film called "Mr. Emmanuel"(1944), starring the great British character actor Felix Aylmer in the title role as an elderly Jewish welfare agent from the fictional town of Doomington. The year is 1938. Mr. Emmanuel has just retired after a 40 year career. His neighbors come out to congratulate him as he walks home that night. He shows them the "gold watch" he got as a send off. Mr. Emmanuel, who is very well liked, rents a room from a family named the Coopers. A friend comes to visit. They talk about his impending emigration to Palestine at the behest of his son, who wants his old father to live with him. "What? I should live on a farm"?, Mr. Emmanuel laments, "and sit in the sun all day long"? What he fears is having nothing to do, so he is relieved when the Coopers take in three German refugee boys. Now he can be a surrogate grandfather. He postpones his move to buy them gifts and throw them parties. Persecutions have begun in Germany. We don't know the history of all the boys, but one had a Jewish father who is now dead. The boy hasn't heard from his mother (an Aryan) in several weeks. Fearing she might be in jail for marrying a Jew, or even dead herself, he tries to drown himself. Mr. Emmanuel is shaken and makes the boy promise never to try that again. "And in return", he says, "I promise you I'll go to Germany and find out what's happened to your mother".
The Coopers and his friends try and talk Mr. Emmanuel out of it. "It's dangerous there and you're an old man and a Jew. What if you should be detained"? He shrugs off the possibility. "Detain me? I should be so worried. Come now, I am an Englishman with a passport, endorsed by His Majesty's government. They wouldn't dare detain me, it would cause a political scandal. Besides, I am only going to locate the boy's mother, not to raise a ruckus". Mr. Emmanuel's "what, me worry"? demeanor serves, along with his courage, to take him all the way to the police station in Berlin, where he nonchalantly asks for any information on the missing woman. He doesn't realise he's stuck his head in the lion's den, and before he knows it he's arrested by the Gestapo on suspicion of being a spy. That's bad enough, but when a Nazi official is assassinated at a local function, Mr. Emmanuel is additionally charged with being the brains behind the conspiracy. He's taken to see a judge and beaten in an effort to make him sign a "confession". "I cannot sign a paper made of lies", he says. He tells the judge again that he only came to Germany to find the mother of a refugee boy. "Also, I'm an Englishman, and you cannot hold me by right of my government".
"To us you're just a Jew", replies the judge. It looks like Mr.Emmanuel is doomed.
Then his picture is plastered all over the newspapers. "Jewish Spy Held In Murder Of High Official"! A woman happens to see it, a singer named Elsie Silver (Greta Gynt again, do you love her yet?). Elsie is herself half-Jewish, but can easily pass for Aryan. She's the girlfriend of an SS Officer named "Willi Brockenburg" (Walter Rilla). Stunning and seductive, she knows how to keep him in line. She recognises poor Mr. Emmanuel in the photograph as her neighbor when she was a child in England. "He's no murderer, he wouldn't hurt a fly". "Well what of it"?, Willi asks her. "I don't think it's right he should be jailed and probably executed", she asserts. "Okay, so he didn't do it. I'll grant you that, Elsie. But we can't worry about every Jew who comes along. It's enough that I'm covering for you, is it not"? "Yes, Willi, but look what you're getting in return".
As I said, she knows just how to play him. Now she asks Willi for a favor. "You can pull strings at Gestapo headquarters. I want you to set him free". "But Elsie, be reasonable. It's just one old man, and it could mean my head"! "Yes, but it's a man I care about. You do this for me, Willi, and I won't ask for anything else".
He really really doesn't want to lose Elsie, so he agrees to try to get Mr. Emmanuel off the hook. That's all I can tell you, except........even if it works, and he can get Mr. Emmanuel released, will the old man go back to England (the smart move) or will he keep up his stubborn quest to find the young boy's mother? You'll be thinking, "I hope they let him out of jail" and if they do....."c'mon Mr. Emmanuel, you need to leave Germany while you still can! Get out of there - go, go, go"!
Simply put, this movie is a masterpiece that gets our highest rating, Two Gigantic Thumbs Up. If you thought "Schindler's List" was a powerful Holocaust-themed film, "Mr. Emmanuel" will quietly blow you away. Felix Aylmer's performance is a blueprint of humble dignity in the face of what seems like impossible inhuman cruelty and an unwavering determination to hate. He withstands every obstacle in his way with a Yiddish shrug of his shoulders. It may seem cliche but the effect is overwhelming. You're gonna need a box of Kleenex with this one, and you may not be cheering at the end, but you'll be very very glad you watched "Mr. Emmanuel" and you'll never forget him as a character. This time the picture is indeed razor sharp (finally!) and you get Greta Gynt once again. It can't possibly be more highly recommended. /////
That's all for this evening. We've been on a great run so let's keep it going. And, can the Rams beat the Pack tomorrow afternoon? Man oh man, I'm scared to find out. We can't lose three in a row, can we? Yikes. I'll be peeking through my fingers at that game.
Have a great Sunday. I send you Tons of Love as always. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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