Now Over 5500 Reviews and (near) Daily Updates!

WELCOME! Use the search engines on this site (or your own off-site engine of choice) to gain easy access to the complete MAKSQUIBS Archive; more than 5500 posts and counting. (New posts added every day or so.)

You can check on all our titles by typing the Title, Director, Actor or 'Keyword' you're looking for in the Search Engine of your choice (include the phrase MAKSQUIBS) or just use the BLOGSPOT.com Search Box at the top left corner of the page.

Feel free to place comments directly on any of the film posts and to test your film knowledge with the CONTESTS scattered here & there. (Hey! No Googling allowed. They're pretty easy.)

Send E-mails to MAKSQUIBS@yahoo.com . (Let us know if the TRANSLATE WIDGET works!) Or use the Profile Page or Comments link for contact.

Thanks for stopping by.

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

ABOVE SUSPICION (1943)

After 18 years & nearly 50 pics, this was Joan Crawford’s M-G-M swansong . . . and it’s not bad at all. A sort of sub-Hitchcockian edge-of-WWII adventure for Joan & Fred MacMurray, honeymooners pressed into a bit of espionage for the Brits. Hitchcock had gone down this path himself to tremendous effect on FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT/’40, but this script looks to his British films, cherry picking from THE 39 STEPS/’35; THE LADY VANISHES/’38 and especially THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH/’34. (They actually steal the concert hall assassination, tossing aside half the suspense by explaining the plan post-event.) House megger Richard Thorpe had his gifts and here he seems to wake up about a third of the way in, with a major assist from lenser Robert Planck who gets some real texture into his shots and keeps Crawford from looking like a mannequin. He even finds some glam in MacMurray’s square jaw. (Then Fred uses that jaw to sing a Schubert lied!) Basil Rathbone, Reginald Owen & a surprising Conrad Veidt bring solid support to a film which, on its own terms, works pretty well. Still, it’s a bit of a downer to see the sometimes off-puttingly intense Crawford pared down to companion status. Two years on, MILDRED PIERCE/’45 would come to the rescue.

DOUBLE-BILL: Silly as this one is, it’s much better than Leo McCarey’s similar, decidedly odd, ONCE UPON A HONEYMOON/’42, a big Cary Grant/Ginger Rodgers vehicle which probably sped this into production. Instead, try Gregory Ratoff’s clever indie, PARIS UNDERGROUND/’45 with Constance Bennett. That gal gets in & out of trouble all on her own.

No comments: