Six years after it opened on B’way (with Alfred Lunt; Leslie Howard; Dudley Digges), Sutton Vane’s poetic drama about passengers on a mysterious boat heading toward the afterlife came to the screen with half the original cast. (Howard upped to Lunt’s role; Douglas Fairbanks Jr. in his.) Six years after a revival on B’way (Laurette Taylor, Vincent Price, Otto Preminger directing & Helen Chandler from the 1930 film), it came to the screen again, refitted for WWII as BETWEEN TWO WORLDS.
Both films have their charms: 1930 with its illustrated storybook treatment and cinematographer Hal Mohr’s ghostly visuals, best in the first half; 1944 with sturdier dramatic construction, peak Hollywood polish, less stage-bound acting and Erich Wolfgang Korngold score*, but also a bumpy, needlessly literal prologue to tidy up the irrational fantasy element before it comes together midway along, gaining ground in the last act when Sydney Greenstreet shows up for Final Judgement as the Examiner, doling out just desserts as simplistic & corny as any Wizard of Oz, yet surprisingly touching & satisfying. And while characterizations are generally better in the later film (John Garfield’s tough guy, Sara Allgood’s charlady, Paul Henreid’s suicidal composer, all standouts, with Faye Emerson making good on a rare dramatic opportunity), both films remain touching in their naivety; rather special, like a lost YA morality play from James M. Barrie.
DOUBLE-BILL: Oops!, this already is a Double-Bill. But for a modern variant even less subtle, Bruce Jay Friedman’s STEAMBATH/’73.
LINK: *With a supernatural element redolent of his best known operas (DIE TOTE STADT; DAS WUNDER DER HELIANE), this was Korngold’s personal film score favorite. This fine modern recording is from John Mauceri, but only the original soundtrack has Korngold dubbing Henreid’s piano solos. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXxnNTG3JXQ
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