Last night we saw a fun murder mystery from Monogram Pictures called "Haunted House"(1940). The title is misleading; it sounds like a spookfest but it's not. Teenagers Jackie Moran and the delightful Marcia Mae Jones star as "Jimmie Atkins" and "Mildred Henshaw", he a printer's apprentice at a small town paper, she the editor's niece. As the movie opens, Jimmie is complaining to anyone who will listen that his friend "Ole" (Christian Rub), an old man in town, is being framed for the murder of the lady he worked for, the wealthy Mrs. Blake (who we never see). Mrs. Blake kept her money well hidden; Ole is supposed to have killed her for it, but Jimmie believes he's innocent. "Ole wouldn't hurt a fly, everyone who knows him knows that." Jimmie's boss "Albert Henshaw" (George Cleveland) used to agree with him, but, as editor of the newspaper, he attends the trial every day and he says the testimony is not in Ole's favor. Not long after this, Ole is convicted of the Blake murder and sentenced to die. Jimmie continues to proclaim him innocent, and wonders why no one cares.
At this time, Mildred Henshaw arrives in town for the Summer, to stay with her Uncle Albert the editor. She and Jimmie hit it off when she shows up at the newspaper office, and Jimmie drives her around in his jalopy, which makes for some goofy hijinks. But besides having motor oil splash her in the face, Millie genuinely takes interest in Jimmie's crusade. She wants to know everything about the Blake murder, and after they run out of gas (and Jimmie pushes Millie to a gas station for a fill up), they overhear a conversation between the station owner and a customer, which gives Jimmie a clue to reexamine evidence from Ole's trial. He's been following the details by listening in at the courthouse.
They confront the man from the gas station, which leads them to question the station owner. Now they've invested everything in solving the case, and besides falling in love in a 1940s teenaged way, they go out on a limb in boldly questioning their suspects in person, which - when Jimmie miscalculates and accuses the wrong man - gets him fired from the newspaper. Now he and Millie set out to solve the case on their own, and they find a clue in a note given to Jimmie that leads them to Mrs. Blake's deserted, cobwebby house. Here's where the "haunted" part comes in, during the last ten minutes of the movie, only it isn't really haunted. There's lightning and spooky shadows, but the real fright comes from the murderer who's hiding inside. He knows the two teen sleuths are closing in on him, and he's out to stop them in their tracks. "Haunted House" has a tight, layered script and good location shooting in a small town that I'd guess is in Ventura County (no info on IMDB). The real charm of the movie, though, is in the "gee-whiz" performances of the two leads, whose excitement at playing detective rubs off on the viewer. Marcia Mae Jones is especially good, and very pretty, looking not unlike a grown-up Shirley Temple. We're gonna have to find more of her movies. "Haunted House" gets Two Big Thumbs Up and a very high recommendation. The picture is slightly soft. ////
The previous night, we had a tremendous film from Criterion: "That Hamilton Woman"(1941), starring Vivien Leigh as the heroic but tragic Emma Hart, who was forced to marry Sir William Hamilton, the ambassador to Naples, but loved and had an affair with the great Admiral Horatio Nelson, who fought Napoleon Bonaparte when no one else in Europe would stand up to him. The movie opens when Lady Hamilton is a broken old woman, living on the street in France and reduced to stealing wine from a store. When caught by the gendarmes, she is jailed and from there, she tells her story to a cellmate. And what a story it is.
In flashback, we see her as a girl from an upper class family - the Harts - who has traveled to Naples to meet her fiance, an assistant to "Sir William Hamilton" (Alan Mowbray) the Ambassador. Sir William informs her, to her crushing dismay, that her boyfriend won't be arriving after all. He's been shipped off to foreign shores on an assignment, and he also won't be able to marry her. Emma sees the look in Lord Hamilton's eye and knows at once she's been purchased. "How much did you pay them?" she demands, regarding the boyfriend's family. "Five thousand pounds," the Lord matter-of-factly admits. "But I can and will give you a life he never could have, being just an ordinary boy." Young Emma is devastated, but the next time we see her, in a time-lapse cut, she's grown into her role as a Lady abroad, and she's even become friendly with the Queen of Naples.
Then comes "Admiral Nelson" (Laurence Olivier), warning of Napoleon. He tells the ambassador he needs money to build up the British navy, but the ambassador shrugs off the threat. "Napoleon doesn't care about England. Just leave him alone and he'll run out of steam." Nelson tries to tell him that dictators should never be ignored, but his advice falls on deaf ears. Then, when her husband is out of earshot, Lady Hamilton steps in and offers to help. "I know the Queen. Let me talk to her, I'll get you your money." She does so, and Nelson subsequently defeats Napoleon's navy at Naples. Over the next several years, they engage in other battles, and Nelson loses an eye and and arm. Even after all of this naked aggression, Nelson still has to come begging the leaders of England and Europe to take Napoleon's megalomania seriously. By now, he's in love with Lady Hamilton. They start seeing each other, and she makes no secret of it. Lord Hamilton knows she detests him, after all, he bought their marriage, but it's one of those Royal Deals where they agree to get along in polite company to avoid a scandal, even though everyone knows she's with Admiral Nelson. And also by now, Nelson is a damaged war hero. He's the only one standing between Napoleon and world domination, and finally comes the legendary Battle of Trafalgar.
In reading about this movie on Wiki and IMDB, I learned that it was Winston Churchill's favorite film of all time, and it's not hard to see why. Laurence Olivier plays Nelson as the quintessential patriotic hero, and to this day, Admiral Horatio Nelson is considered the greatest naval officer in English history. There's a reason there's a Trafalgar Square in London. But Lady Hamilton was a heroine too. Without her support, Napoleon might have taken over Europe. The thanks she got for it was to be left penniless and put on the street when Nelson was killed at Trafalgar. This takes us back to the prison cell where we saw her at the beginning of the movie. Though Vivien Leigh is one of the most renowned actresses in motion picture history, we haven't seen much of her. "Waterloo Bridge" is the only movie I can think of (and I've never seen "Gone With the Wind"). But watching her in this film, there's no doubt she was one of the most talented actresses ever to hit the silver screen. She has a charisma that jumps out at you, which may be an extension of her reported bipolarity. According to Wiki, she was severely afflicted, which put a strain on her marriage to Olivier. She died young also, and only made 21 films. But absolutely don't miss her or Sir Laurence in "That Hamilton Woman", which gets our highest rating - Two Gigantic Thumbs Up. Directed by Alexander Korda, it has the look and production design of an Academy Award winning picture, which it was (for sound). You'll have to watch it on dvd or Netflix, but whatever you do, don't miss it. ////
And that's all I know for tonight. My blogging music is "Thirds" by James Gang (man, they're really good!), late night is Wagner "Die Meistersinger". I hope your weekend is off to a good start and I send you Tons of Love as always. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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