Movie #1962 "In This Our Life" (TCM) was on TCM the other day, which was Olivia De Havilland day on the channel. It was the first pairing of Davis and DeHavilland, and they were friends for the rest of their lives (De Havilland just died a week ago). Of course, TCM showed GWTW and "The Heiress," her two most famous films, but this one I hadn't seen, so I sat down to watch it. Of course, it was pretty melodramatic, but I was impressed, as I usually am, that the acting was so good in the 40s, that I forget I'm watching a black and white film, and get pulled into the story so easily! I was also impressed that this film tackled a racial story of sorts --- there is a black student studying to be a lawyer and is a law clerk for the George Brent character -- he is blamed for a hit and run by Bette Davis, and DeHavilland and Brent fought for this guy against DeHavilland's sister --- and it was nice to see how important and valued his character was --- his mom was Hattie McDaniel from GWTW , and it was nice to see her say more than she was allowed to say in the earlier film (but she actually won an AA for GWTW, proving her essence as the character can win, minus a lot of words). If you ever see this pop up on the TCM channel again, I recommend it because it was well acted and a good albeit soap opera-like , story. I give it 4 out of 5 stars.
"IN THIS OUR LIFE" 1 hour and 37 min 1942 (1st pairing of Davis and DeHavilland )
A young woman, Stanley Timberlake, dumps her fiance, Craig Fleming, and runs off with her sister Roy's husband, Peter Kingsmill. They marry, settle in Baltimore, and Stanley ultimately drives Peter to drink and suicide. Stanley returns home to Richmond only to learn that her sister Roy and old flame Craig have fallen in love and plan to marry. The jealous and selfish Stanley attempts to win back Craig's affections, but her true character is revealed when, rather than take the rap herself, she attempts to pin a hit and run accident on the young black clerk, Parry Clay, who works in Craig's law office.
No comments:
Post a Comment