Rome Open City, 1945, Grade A

Director Roberto Rossellini
Awards?  Yes at least it was nominated for best screen play
Cast:  Also Fabrizi,  Anna Magnani; Marcello Pagliero; Vito Annicchiarico; Nando Bruno;  Harry Feist;  Giovanna Galletti; Francesco Grandhacquet --and actual German Soldiers who were--at the time of the films production, prisoners of war.


PLOT: even the communist and the catholic church can work together when it come to fighting Nazi Occupiers in Rome...resistance fighters and and Nazi trying to catch them--after all they are breaking 'the law'

sez says: wow--filmed in 1945 just as Rome was liberated by the Americans-- and wile the Germans were still occupying other parts of Italy.  Filmed in the streets -- and effectively done.  It isn't so much the story that is great (we all know the story) --but the whole thing fits together perfectly: the time it was done, the look of the piece, the acting, the urgency -it all comes together to make a fine film.

Leave Her to Heaven, 1945, (Grade D)

plot:   Gene Tierney plays Ellen Berent, a woman who bedazzles writer Richard Harland (Cornel Wilde) when the two meet on a train. Their courtship is sweet and swift, leading to a hasty marriage, but sadness displaces the joy when a series of tragedies befalls the couple. Could these horrid events have anything to do with Ellen's burgeoning and all-consuming jealousy?

Director: John M Stahl

Awards; A number of academy awards and nominations

Cast: Gene Tierney; Cornel Wilde; Jeanne Crain: Vincent Price; Gene Lockhart; Darryl Hickman

sez says:  this is one of the most VIVID COLOR movies I've seen--and  it is almost worth watching just to see exactly how wildly weird color can be..but ultimately, it is sort of boring and it distracts from the story.  This same story, done in black and white (or with fewer intense close-ups of red red lips, etc) and with a more subtle touch with the characters--might have been a masterful psychological drama--something akin to Gaslight.   But no such luck. There is never a question about who is crazy--and her craziness is taken over the top -- by both the acting and the color. Tierney was a beautiful woman, overly made-up.  The settings of New Mexico, Maine, Cape Cod are all  displayed in a bright cheap postcard image style. The costumes are fun. And Wilde appears every where (in his canoe, and on the beach, and at a western ranch) wearing a suit and tie and leather shoes...all of which just seemed strange.   

A Matter of Life & Death (aka A Stairway to Heaven) 1946, Grade B

Director: Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger

Any Awards?  none we know of

Cast: David Niven; Kim Hunter; Abraham Sofaer: Richard Attenbourough; Marius Goring; Raymond Massey; Roger Livesay; Robert Coote; Kathleen Byron; Robert Atkins; Betty Potter

plot summary:  Royal Air Force pilot Peter Carter (David Niven) is forced to jump out of his plane without a parachute only to wake up alive and unharmed due to a mishap in heaven. Before he can be fetched  to his rightful spot in heaven he finds and falls in love with June (Kim Hunter) the last women he talked to before his crash landing.  Now he must stand trial before God (Abraham Sofaer) to plead his case for a second chance at life.  NOTE: In the US the name of this British Made Film  was changed because no one in the US wanted to have the word DEATH in a title after WW2

sez says:  this is a wild --SURREAL--movie.  the story is rather stupid--but the visuals are wondrous.  Another Jack Cardiff masterpiece (cinematographer)

mjc says:  the black and white heaven--refocuses the true foundations of human joy on earth.