This being Thursday, it's time for another edition of Thursday Movie Picks, the blogathon run by Wandering Through the Shelves. This week's theme is "Dream Sequences". There are enough movies out there with dream sequences in them, with one of the most famous dream sequences of them all being the one designed by Salvador Dali and featuring in the Alfred Hitchcock movie Spellbound. However, I happened to use Spellbound earlier this year, so I had to think of some other movies. In the end, I came up with three movies from the 1940s, although I have to admit that using them for this theme is kind of spoiling them:
The Woman in the Window (1944). Edward G. Robinson plays a college professor who sees a striking portrait of a woman near the social club he frequents. On heading home from the club one night, he meets the subject of that portrait (Joan Bennett) and has drinks with her before they're surprised by her lover, leading to a fight in which Robinson kills the lover in self-defense, leading to tragedy.
The Horn Blows at Midnight (1945). Jack Benny plays a trumpeter for a radio show orchesta sponsored by a coffee company whose coffee -- and whose announcer -- puts everybody to sleep. Benny dreams that he's an angel in heaven along with his girlfriend from down on earth, Alexis Smith. Heaven decides that Earth needs to be destroyed what with all the war going on, and Benny is sent down to earth to blow the trumpet that will destroy earth, because the previous angels sent to do the job found they like being alive too much. Complications ensue.
Dead of Night (1945). Mervyn Johns plays an architect who wakes up from a dream one morning on a day when he has to go out to a country cottage to discuss some architectural plans. When he gets there, he finds a surprising number guests, all of whom he thinks he's seen in his recurring dreams. The guests then start telling horror stories.
4 comments:
I love Woman in the Window just not as much as the other EGR/Joan Bennett costarrer Scarlet Street. Still it's a masterfully done film with brilliant work by both of them and strong direction from Lang.
Jack Benny always derided The Horn Blows at Midnight so much that I was quite surprised when I finally had a chance to watch it that while no barnburner it was a sweetly pleasant little trifle. Jack is amusing and I'm always down for Alexis Smith.
Dead of Night is a fun portmanteau film with terrific cast of British players.
I also have used most of the films with the most famous dream sequences so I went back to the '40's (and 30's) for mine.
The Dark Past (1948)-On the lam after busting out of prison murderer Al Walker (William Holden) along with moll Betty (Nina Foch) and the rest of his gang take psychologist Andrew Collins (Lee J. Cobb), his family and friends hostage in their remote cabin. As a storm rages outside impeding their escape the shrink attempts to probe Walker’s psychosis focusing on analysis of a disturbing dream (which we see in an extended sequence) that has plagued the maniac for decades resulting in a psychological breakthrough that may help save them all. Aside from the quick fix cognitive hooey the film posits this is a well-acted noir, particularly by Nina Foch.
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947)-Mild-mannered pushover Walter Mitty (Danny Kaye) fills his days with flights of fancy to break free of his overbearing mother (Fay Bainter) and mercurial fiancée (Ann Rutherford). Indulging in elaborate daydreams he finds himself involved in a real-life escapade when the enigmatic Rosalind van Hoorn (Virginia Mayo) ropes him into an intrigue. Suddenly involved with valuable jewels, a little black book, and sinister criminal Dr. Hugo Hollingshead (Boris Karloff) Walter’s staid world is soon full of all the adventure he can handle and some he can’t!
The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1932)-Arriving in Shanghai to marry her missionary fiancé Dr. Robert Strike (Gavin Gordon) Megan Davis (Barbara Stanwyck) finds herself swept up in China’s civil war and taken captive by warlord General Yen (Nils Asther). Held in luxury as Yen persistently tries to woo her Megan is at first repelled by his barbaric tactics but after an unsettling dream (which with this being a pre-code film is replete with very erotic imagery) finds herself becoming attracted to the general developing sympathy for his embattled position.
I have seen Woman in the Window twice and, for the life of me, I can’t seem to recall the dream. I haven’t seen the other 2 but, boy, they sound great and I have added them to my lengthy list.
The spoiler is that the whole movie is a dream, just like The Horn Blows at Midnight. Robinson never really met the woman or killed anybody.
For some reason, Blogger seems to have done something to Joel's comment -- I didn't delete it, at least not on purpose. (It's showing up in the "Comments" section of my dashboard, but not on the actual post.) I'd agree with him that Robinson's other noir made at roughly the same time, Scarlet Street, is much the better movie.
Dead of Night sounds super interesting. That goes straight to my to-watch list.
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