Category Archives: 1940s

Black Narcissus (1947) – A Screen150 Favourite

Posted on 23/02/2011 | 2 comments

This Powell-Pressburger psychological thriller is listed as one of the best British films ever, and not without reason. There’s lust, jealousy and revenge in the House of the Women, a Himalayan harem now home to a missionary. Whipped by the wind day in day out, five nuns are gradually stripped of their faith and faculties, teetering on more than one edge. The Oscar-winning cinematography and dramatic score underline the remote setting driving the sisterhood to distraction and death, with Noir-esque mirror shots and maddening drumming. Unusually for 1947, glorious Technicolor is used, contrasting the clifftop convent’s washed-out whites and greys with the lurid flower-filled valley and its colourful characters, from the crazy caretaker to the Englishman-gone-native. The acting is brilliant, especially “stiff-necked” Sister Clodagh and the increasingly erratic (and erotic) Sister Ruth with her wild eyes and red hair. There are even pygmy ponies.
Get thee to a nunnery.
Screen 1: Mad.
Black Narcissus . 1947 . Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
Favourite film, Sarah-Clare Conlon
Keeping the faith at http://wordsandfixtures.blogspot.com/

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Posted in 1940s, Favourites

Love on the Dole (1941)

Posted on 15/11/2010 | 1 comment

Some stories stand the test of time; Love on the Dole (which I watched aptly in Islington Mill with a room full of old furniture and ‘Working Class Movement Library’ loaned banners and regalia) is one of them.

Originally written by Walter Greenwood in 1933, it was later turned into the film version and is currently doing the rounds on stage at Bolton Octagon.

The film’s study of poverty and young love resonates today and though some of the moments have taken on comedic qualities to us cosmopolitan 2010-ers (most notably when a characters comes into money and decides to blow it all on a trip to Blackpool!) it manages to evoke feelings of sympathy and warmth towards its characters.

It’s a tad too slow towards the end and some plotlines are glossed over but I enjoyed it and can add it to my ever-growing list of kitchen sink goodness!
Love on the Dole . 1941 . John Baxter

reviewed by Leanne Lightfoot.

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Posted in 1940s

Saboteur (1942)

Posted on 15/11/2010 | Leave a comment

Hitchcock’s first ‘all-American’ film shows him both hurtling into the quick paced chase scenario that would have its apotheosis with the far superior North by Northwest, and that he was beginning to take the ‘Master of Suspense’ moniker a little too seriously. Almost every scene is injected with tension and not all of it works. Kane is a good honest American wrongfully accused of sabotaging the aircraft plant that he works in by burning it down. Instead of explaining the situation to the police (plot-hole one of many) he pursues the real culprit from West to East Coast, uncovering a spy ring of Nazi sympathizers along the way. It’s propagandistic in its message but the pre-Cold war idea that people are not what they seem is artfully examined. However, the circus freaks scene halfway through is unforgivable. Siamese twins, an angry midget and a bearded lady. Not Hitch’s brightest moment.

Saboteur . 1942 . Alfred Hitchcock .

reviewer: Screen150

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Posted in 1940s