Friday, June 16, 2023

Sara Sampaio

 

ph: Daniel Jackson

They Live by Night (1948)


 

An escaped convict, injured during a robbery, falls in love with the woman who nurses him back to health, but their relationship seems doomed from the beginning.

Excellent tough and romantic crime drama relentlessly drives its narratives and its heroes into their own doom.

Halliwell*: "Well-made if basically uninteresting melodrama with a draggy romantic interest; its 'realistic' yet impressionist style drew attention on its first release, and it was remade in the seventies as Thieves Like Us." 

Maltin***1/2: "Director Ray's first film is sensitive, well-made story...Set in 1930s, it avoids cliches and builds considerable impact instead."


 

Monday, June 12, 2023

Hangover Square (1945)

 

A promising classical musician finds his life poisoned by a music hall dancer -- and by the strange gaps in his memory.

Unusual Noir melodrama nicely staged in period London has a quite unconvincing plot, but Laird Gregar is fascinating as the madman musician, and Bernard Herrmann's score is excellent as always.

Halliwell*: "This rather empty melodrama has almost nothing to do with the book from which it is allegedly taken, but the Hollywoodian evocation of gaslit London is richly entertaining and good to look at."

Maltin***: "Cregar (in his final film) is delicious...result is still entertaining, with superb Victorian London sets and evocative Bernard Herrmann score." 


 

Maya Hawke


 

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