Showing posts with label Anne Baxter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Anne Baxter. Show all posts

Guest in the House ~ 1944 -BW


QUICKIE: PDMR rule: Some women are just bad.

PLOT: A young woman (Anne Baxter), who is emotionally unstable, stays at the home of her physician where she ends up meeting his brother (Ralph Bellamy). The woman becomes obsessed with the man, in spite of the fact that he is happily married (to Ann played by Ruth Warrick), and decides to do everything in her power to win him over and prove her love. The dangerous actions of the young woman leads to some tragic consequences for those involved. Aline MacMahon plays Aunt Martha, Marie McDonald as Miriam the model, and Margaret Hamilton has a small role as Hilda the Maid.

SUMMARY: Not having seen All About Eve I found this movie to be absolutely wonderful. Having read a review of All About Eve on IMDB.com I can understand why critics downplayed Ann Baxters' portrayal of Evelyn as "preparation for Eve" in All About Eve. Hence the futility of reading "critics". I am not a critical person, preferring to focus my time on good things, and skipping over the losers.

I found this movie to be completely engrossing. It sucked me in and carried me along and in the end made me thrilled with the whole ride. Ann Baxter was great, I didn't think she over acted at all. I especially enjoyed how the whole movie got darker and the lighting more dramatic as the emotions progressed. Some have said the characters' gullibility was too hard to believe, and I did agree with that a little, but pushed it away with the rational that times were indeed different then. Also, if one has never interacted with a sick individual, one has no way of knowing what they're capable of. So, their naivety was believable for me.
If I rated movies around here, I'd give this 10 out of 10 stars, I liked it that much. It is a really good film start to finish. And boy, what a finish!

Mystery Collection: Disc 14 -side A
I can't find it online yet.

Angel on My Shoulder ~ 1946 -BW

QUICKIE: Campaining judge is possesed by a gangster who's guided by the devil. I guess that's politics as usual, huh? Snicker.

PLOT: Gangster Eddie Kagel (Paul Muni) is killed by a trusted lieutenant and finds himself in Harry Redmond Jr's special-effects Hell, where Nick/The Devil (Claude Rains) sees that he is an-exact double for a judge who Nick doesn't approve of. Eddie is agreeable to having his soul transferred to the judge's body, as it will give him a chance to avenge himself on his killer. But every action taken by Eddie (as the judge) results in good rather than evil and, to Nick's dismay, the reputation and influence of the judge is enhanced, rather than impaired by Eddie. And Eddie also falls in love with the judge's fiancée, Barbara (Anne Baxter.) Even Eddie's planned revenge fails and Nick is forced to concede defeat. He returns to Hell, taking Eddie with him, after Eddie has extracted his promise that Nick will not molest the judge or Barbara in the future.

SUMMARY: Claude Rains as the Devil?!!! What great casting that was. Anne Baxter was also quite glamorous as well. There's some truly great lines in this film like when the devil says "what in my creation was that noise?" Or when Eddie calls the devil alot of wrong names like Bettlebub. This is a very amusing film, a different story, and just good entertainment.