The Enchanted Cottage (1945)

Movie quotes:
"You’ll always be beautiful to me."
- Oliver (to Laura)

At a glance:
This simple parable about inner beauty and love is told with elegance and grace

Our review (with spoilers):
Boy, did they know how to make movies back then! No complicated plots, no pyrotechnics, no messing with the timeline – just a very simple and elegant parable about how it’s what’s on the inside of a person that counts, and not one’s outward appearance.

Laura (Dorothy McGuire) is a sweet, ‘homely’ girl without a family who is taken in by Mrs. Minnett (Mildred Natwick), a widower who owns and occasionally rents an old cottage in the small town. The cottage is all that is left of a once large castle that was owned by a British nobleman. The castle burned down, leaving one wing intact. This quaint wing had, by tradition, been lent to newlyweds. Now, Mrs. Minnett is ready to rent again. A young couple, Oliver (Robert Young) and Beatrice (Hillary Brooke) are about to be married and plan to spend their honeymoon there. But when Oliver is called to war and is shot down and disfigured, their marriage plans end. Oliver returns to the cottage by himself to hide away, but he is healed by the kindness of Laura and the guidance of neighbor Major John Hillgrove (Herbert Marshall), another war veteran who lost his sight in action.

Oliver and Laura’s friendship leads to marriage. Their bond, originally more for convenience, increases in intensity and sincerity until the two newlyweds see an amazing physical transformation in themselves. Laura becomes as beautiful as a movie star, and Oliver’s disfiguration disappears. At the same time, they become happy, confident, and unburdened. Their fantasy is briefly shattered by Oliver’s overbearing mother, but with John’s help, the two lovers quickly realize that their true gift is how beautiful their love makes them feel to each other.

Movie making in this period was not only about entertainment; it often was a gentle way to give advice or teach important life lessons. That is the inner beauty of this film. It may not be perfect, but its heart is beautiful.

Rating: 3 of 4

Other reviewers said:
"John Cromwell’s moving romantic fable celebrates the transforming power of love but also exposes the disfiguring force of pity."
- J. R. Jones (Chicago Reader)

Detour (1945)

Movie quotes:
"As I drove off it was still raining, and the drops streaked down the windshield like tears."
- Al Roberts (Tom Neal)

"She was facing straight ahead, so I couldn't see her eyes. She was young - not more than 24. Man, she looked like she had been thrown off the crummiest freight train in the world! Yet in spite of that, I got the impression of beauty, not the beauty of a movie actress, mind you, or the beauty you dream about with your wife, but a natural beauty, a beauty that's almost homely, because it's so real."
- Al Roberts (Tom Neal)

At a glance:
Detour is seminal American film noir on a ‘B’ movie budget: a dark tale where fate deals a stacked deck to an innocent man

Our review (with spoilers):
A troubled piano player hitchhikes cross country to join the love of his life; bad luck and bad decisions cause him to get involved with murder, crime, and the wrong people.

Al Roberts (Tom Neal) initially believes he is lucky to be picked up by Charles Haskell (Edmund MacDonald), who just happens to be driving all the way to Roberts’ destination, Los Angeles. Although Haskell is a con man, he doesn’t seem to be playing Roberts as a mark. But Haskell brings bad luck. He passes out while resting while Roberts drives. When Roberts opens Haskell’s door, Haskell falls to the ground, hits his head on a rock, and dies. Roberts thinks the cops will not believe the truth, so he hides Haskell’s body and continues driving. His plan is to ditch the car in LA and put the whole incident behind him. But he foolishly picks up a female hitchhiker, Vera (Ann Savage). Haskell has mentioned picking up a woman earlier, and this is that women. She knows that Roberts is not Haskell and gets him to confess about what happened. She then blackmails him, first forcing him to sell the car, and then asking him to get involved deeper and deeper.

Detour is a fascinating gem. When it began, the opening diner scene felt dated and stale. But before long, the film draws you in. It changes tone and becomes something timely, timeless. The danger of circumstance, the perils of bad luck, and the heartbreak of bad decisions are portrayed deeply. None of these basic themes have changed, and the message and mood is still meaningful.

This seminal noir is referenced by film historians as evidence of how to make a great thriller on a shoestring. The notoriety of the movie was strengthened by the unusual circumstances involving the off-screen life of Tom Neal. Years later, Neal murdered his third wife with a bullet to the back of the head and was convicted of manslaughter.
Rating:  3 of 4

Other reviewers said:
"It lives on, haunting and creepy, an embodiment of the guilty soul of film noir. No one who has seen it has easily forgotten it."
- Roger Ebert (Chicago Sun-Times)

And Then There Were None (1945)

"Very stupid to kill the only servant in the house. Now we don't even know where to find the marmalade."
- Emily Brent (Dame Judith Anderson)

This 1945 oft-copied mystery set the bar for how to successfully film a whodunit, and includes suspense, intrigue, comedy, and even a little love story.

Eight guests and two hired helpers are invited/assigned to the sole house on an island, there to be accused of crimes and to be sentenced to death by their host, U. N. Owen (a code for ‘unknown’). In a plot structure oft-copied, they are killed off one-by-one by a seemingly hidden assassin. Each time someone dies, one of the ten Indian sculptures is removed from a table centerpiece. It’s sometimes hard to believe this movie was filmed in 1945. It contains quite a few techniques (like the characters looking at the camera) that must have been revolutionary, but are now passe. It also has a very low-key, offhanded mood that makes it feel more like a murder game than a real series of murders, especially since we never see any of the murders first-hand. Based on one of Agatha Cristie’s highest rated and most popular novels.  Rating: 2.75 of 4

"One of the supreme suspense films."
- Jeremy Heilman (MovieMartyr.com)