24 May 2012

Tiny forgotten gem on DVD-R

This review is from: Betrayed (1954) (DVD) I actually don't understand Studio policies.For many years they were sitting on magnificent movies, such as this one, and never decided to release them on DVD.Suddenly they seem to have discovered that they always had them, sitting in their vaults and voila, here they are,popping up like popcorn, but at a price.I must say that they also capitalize on such titles, because they are far from being cheap.At prices ranging from 16 to 26 dollars for a simple transfer to DVD-R (the kind we all know and use daily in ourDVD readers on our laptops or PCs), with no extras to speak about (generally just the trailer), sometimesnot even provided with a decent menu or chapter option, and lacking optional subtitles or languages, theycould easily be taken as true rip-offs.Yet, one must admit that although the movies presented here are WISIWIG (What You See is What You Get), all the copiesI have watched from both the Warner Bros. and Universal vaults, are still (for their age), in excellent condition.The sound is usually as is, as it came when the movie was originally released. Therefore, one might expect a bit ofdisappointment, but in reality the sound is usually quite crisp and good, so no problem there.But as said, the price is that of a special edition, and these are a far cry from such an edition.I therefore classify these among "strictly collector's or connaisseur editions", which would explain and justifysuch fantastic pricing.Yet, like in this case, I can only recommend these, since otherwise, they would be subjected to rest in the Studiovaults for another twenty, if not fifty years until forgetfulness and carelessness take their toll on some gemslike "Bhowani Junction", "Not with My Wife, You Don't" or "Tell Them Willie Boy is Here".Get them while you can, if you have a few bucks reserved for this.I suspect that after this wave is gone, they will again disappear for a while...

24 May 2012

Excellent movie

This review is from: Betrayed (1954) (DVD) This film is one of my all time favorites and I was not disappointed in the copy I received.

23 May 2012

a nifty spy yarn

A great cast and snappy dialogue make this WWII spy thriller very entertaining. Set in Holland and England during 1943, there is intrigue, agents with dubious pasts, and a bombshell babe. Lana Turner is stunning with dark hair, as "Carla" a.k.a. "Fran". She is sensational as she sings a sultry song, and gets to prove that she was a highly underrated actress. I love the way she utters "Oh please !" when Gable tells her to get married and have children.Clark Gable is strong, tough and manly as a Colonel in Dutch Intelligence; Gable was in his early fifties when this was filmed, and he looks very weathered but still handsome.Other marvelous performances come from Victor Mature as "The Scarf", an underground leader, Wilfrid Hyde-White as a General of the British Intelligence, and Louis Calhern as both Dutch General Ten Eyck, and the narrator of the film.O.E. Hasse is the intriguing Colonel Dietrich of the German Intelligence, who says "A spy has no character, he only assumes one"Marvelous cinematography by Freddie Young and score by Walter Goehr, and fast-paced direction by Gottfried Reinhardt also contribute to make this a jolly good show. Total running time is 107 minutes

23 May 2012

Betrayed

This review is from: Betrayed (1954) (DVD) I enjoy itvery much a well made movie. I do like old movie I give it 4 stars

emdragon

20 May 2012

contrived melo-drama

I have to say, I've seen some lame movies in my time, but this onetakes the complete cake. Every device that the film makers came up withis contrived from some completely implausible source. A woman marries aman that she barely knows. A murder is committed at a salesman's hotelin Philadelphia. Every indication is that the murderer is the woman'snewly married husband. Except that after making him look completelyguilty for most of the picture, we find out he did'nt do it. Themelodramatic music does'nt help this picture any either. Up until thereal murderer's identity is revealed the audience does'nt even get tosuspect that they are watching a whodunit. And for some reason when theyoung couple is on the lam in New York, random people continuallysuspect that it is precisely THEM who are guilty of something thathappened in Philadelphia, even though a vague remote description givenover the radio is all anyone would have to go on IF they had beenlooking out for the culprit in the first place. It makes virtually nosense, is totally implausible, and defies description for plotstupidity.

donzilla

19 May 2012

A good launch film for Robert Mitchum

This is a Hitchcockian film that reflects well the Film Noir period ofHollywood. Suspense is high, and the audience is kept guessing right to theend about who might be the killer of the drunk good-time Charlie, whoinnocently invited a stranger in a bar in New York to stay in his apartmentfor the evening. Don't be fooled by the original name, though.It is being aired on the premium classics channels under the a.k.a. name"Betrayed".

18 May 2012

Poor Picture Quality

I've bought about a dozen Warner Archive made-on-demand discs. The quality of the film transfer is excellent on all of them except for "Betrayed." The picture in "Betrayed" is soft and blurry throughout, about equivalent to a good VHS tape.I also question the aspect ratio of this transfer. Warner's listing for this disc at wbshop.com says, "Screen Aspect: 4 X 3 FULL FRAME." That would be a ratio of 1.37 : 1. And 4 x 3 is indeed what appears on my screen when I project this disc. But imdb.com cites an aspect ratio of 1.66 : 1. If so, part of the image is cut off on this disc.

FilmFlaneur

18 May 2012

Talents in bud

Castle's third feature is an interesting case of talents in thebud.Previously he had been responsible for a bright Boston Blackie series entrywith Chester Morris, and the less successful Klondike Kate (1943) with TomNeal. When Strangers Marry (also known by the less accurate title ofBetrayed) shows the director's increasing confidence as he ventures into theterritory of the new film noir genre. He was also lucky in securing theservices of a good cast: Kim Hunter, Dean Jagger and, in his firstco-starring role, a young Robert Mitchum. One of the greatest noir stars,Mitchum is slimmer and perhaps more tentative here than he would be in laterfilms, but still has enough presence and skill to make an impact, especiallyin the sweaty closing scenes. Already an experienced hand, Dimitri Tiomkinprovided the music, and the result was an above average production fromMonogram.Having said that, there's a certain peremptoriness to the film, making itnot entirely satisfactory. The noir style, which thrived on inexpensive setsand the economic use of shadow, cheap location shooting and the like, isevoked by Castle rather than expressed in any thoroughfashion.Castle's next film The Whistler (1944), on yet another minisculebudget,was much more effective in evoking a continuous mood of paranoia anddoomfrom the haunted Richard Dix. Some successful scenes apart, (Millie'sfirstnight in the hotel, her Lewtonish night walk, her innocent suspicionsinPaul's apartment), the present film rather clumsily bolts noir elements onto a standardsuspense plot - one vaguely reminiscent of Hitchcock's Suspicion ofthreeyears before - rather than to let them arise naturally from situationandcharacter. An example is Millie's night of disturbed rest in thehotel.Husbandless in her neon sign-lit room, drowned in shadows and fear, sheisdistracted by the repeated blaring of nearby dancehall before takingafraught phone call from Fred (Mitchum). This scene has no real plotpurposeexcept to show her loneliness and distress, and the expressionistimagesseem over emphatic. On its own it is startling and dramatic, but nothingmore, a pool of hard noir in a more naturalistic film.Even less convincingly, as if it had never happened Millie then makes nomove to change her room laterthe next day, and the music never occurs again (it would have madeanexcellent punctuation for any later confrontation with Fred, forinstance).As an actress, Kim Hunter makes an effective noir victim, even ifhertrusting fragility needs a willing suspension of disbelief. PowellandPressburger obviously recognised such sensitivity even in a povertyrowproduct like this, for they shortly cast her in such films as ACanterburyTale, of the same year, and then in A Matter of Life and Death(1946).A more serious plot flaw resides in the character of her husbandPaul(Jagger). His personality and motives are shrouded in mysterythroughoutthe film and, sadly, are not much clearer by the end. For a whilethisenigmatic man provides the narrative with a lot of useful suspense. The lackofresolution to his drama, while supplying the necessary twist as thetruthis revealed, leaves the viewer with just too many questions tobecomfortable. One misses even the rudimentary psycho-analysis whichappearedin some noirs from this time, supposedly explaining the aberrantpersonality. Eitherelements of helpful exposition were jettisoned in the course of filmingona tight budget, or the writers (who included the excellent PhilipJordan,of Dillinger, Detective Story, Big Combo fame) thought they could getawaywith such a lacuna. The result is to reduce a happy ending to one whereamarried couple must still live on unresolved tensions, theirdeterminedcontentment notwithstanding.For those interested in trivia there are some private jokes in the film.A'Mr King' is paged at the hotel (the film was produced by theKingbrothers). More amusingly, Millie hands over a deliberatelymisleadingpicture to the investigating detectives, saying 'This is the man youwant'.It is director Castle. Such gallows humour, and self-publicity,wouldmanifest itself in a series of gimmick films for which he is betterknown,starting in the 50's...

17 May 2012

War movie about the Dutch underground

Studio: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Video Release Date: December 11, 1991Cast:Clark GableLana TurnerVictor Matureothers Gable is Dutch intelligence working under the Brits, training Lana Turner to work in Holland with the underground. She has a questionable background, but he trusts her. When people begin to die, and operations go awry, he begins to doubt her.Victor Mature is also a member of the underground, called "the scarf," because he wears one, flamboyantly.It becomes a question of which one is the traitor.Not a bad film in the genre. Nothing special about it, except the cast. They all do their jobs well.Joseph (Joe) Pierre author of Handguns and Freedom...their care and maintenanceand other books

16 May 2012

Gable and Turner in their last film together

"Betrayed" is a 1954 color World War 2 spy film starring Clark Gable, Lana Turner and Victor Mature.Clark Gable (1901-60) plays a Dutch intelligence officer. Gable was one of the biggest stars of the 20th century, and a pretty good actor to boot. We remember him best as Rhett Butler for "GWTW" (1939), for which he received one of his three Oscar nominations (the others - 1935's "Mutiny on the Bounty" and 1934s "It Happened One Night"). My favorite Gable flick is "Run Silent Run Deep" (1958).FWIW - This was Gable's last film under his MGM contract.Victor Mature (1913-99) made his film debut in 1940 in "One Million BC" and unfortunately this typecast him forever as "beefcake", despite some good performances in "My Darling Clementine" (1946), "Kiss of Death" (1947), "and "The Robe" (1953). Here he plays a flamboyant resistance fighter.Sultry Lana Turner (1921-95) is best remembered for her roles in "The Postman Always Rings Twice" (1946), "The Bad and the Beautiful" (1952), and "Imitation of Life" (1959), although it's her performance in "Peyton Place" (1957) for which she received her only Oscar nomination. Here she plays a spy who may be a counter spy working for the Nazis.FWIW - Turner and Gable were the biggest stars of the 40s and when they appeared together in their 3 films - "Honky Tonk" (1941), "Somewhere I'll Find You" (1942), "Homecoming" (1948) - they were described as "an alley cat with a sex kitten", perhaps because in addition to the on screen chemistry, they were having an affair in the early 40s.Louis Calhern (1895-1956) plays a General. Calhern was nominated for an Oscar for "The Magnificent Yankee" (1950). He was in more than 70 films and gave memorable performances as Buffalo Bill in "Annie Get Your Gun" (1950) and a Nazi spy boss in "Notorious" (1946). I liked him best as the criminal attorney in "The Asphalt Jungle" (1950).German born Gottfriend Reinhardt (1913-1994) directs. This was the third of the 13 films he directed. His most famous film was "Town without Pity" (1961).The top grossing films in 1954 were "White Christmas", "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea", "Rear Window", "Carmen Jones", and "The Caine Mutiny". Bogart had 2 films in the top 10 as did Bing Crosby. The big Oscar winner was "On the Waterfront" (Picture, Director, Actor, Supporting Actress). Other notable films released that year were "Dial M for Murder", "The Creature from the Black Lagoon", "Godzilla", "The High and the Mighty" and "Johnny Guitar".The film was a box office and a critical disappointment. Bosley Crowther at the NY Times called it "fancy fiction" and "tedious" but he did praise the photography which he called "beautiful, impressive to behold". He described Reinhardt's direction as "aimless".Bottom line - fans of Gable, Turner, and Mature will enjoy the film, but otherwise it is a less than average spy thriller.

15 May 2012

The love , the patriotism and the duty !

Clark Gable , Lana Turner and Victor Mature compose this absorbing film .It deals with the fiercy Dutch resistance movement against the German occupation .Lana Turner will appear to Gable as the real traitor . Somehow the plot will reveal unexpected realities .A honest film .

14 May 2012

Excellent quality release from WB

Please do not listen to Phil Stout. I almost didn't order this dvd because of his review. I would recommend ordering directly from warner over ordering it here though. The quality of this dvd is not worse than any videtape. You can completly ignore Phil on this movie. The quality is as good as any 50's color movie released on dvd. This is not a CD as Phil states but a DVD-R (burned not pressed dvd). If you have seen other Gable color movies from the 50's the quality is as good or better than Magambo, Soldier of Fortune and the Tall Men. I do have public domain movies on dvd that are as worse as any movie ever released on VHS but this is not one of them.

The_Void

07 May 2012

Good thriller from William Castle

William Castle would of course go on to become best known for hisgimmicky horror films; an oeuvre which includes the likes of House onHaunted Hill, The Tingler and Homicidal - but before then, he made aseries of film noir/mystery thrillers; and When Strangers Marry is oneof those. The film is only just over an hour long and I wouldn't besurprised to find that it was made as a 'B' feature for some biggermovie. However, in spite of that; the production values aren't bad andthe cast all do well also. The plot is rather unlikely and focuses onthe idea of a man and a woman getting married without really knowingeach other. Millie Baxter is the female half of the equation; and shehas been called, by her husband, to New York in order to meet with him.However, upon her arrival; he's not at the hotel, but by chance she isgreeted by her old friend Fred Graham, who clearly carries a torch forher. Fred agrees to help her look for her husband and the pair begintracking him across New York...but it soon becomes clear that there'ssomething sinister surrounding his disappearance.This was an early film appearance for Robert Mitchum, and it's clearthat the producers knew he was going to be a star, although his rolehere is a secondary one. He leads the film from the back and WilliamCastle never misses a chance to give the actor a close-up. It's not theactor's best performance by a long shot, but it shows some earlypromise. Kim Hunter is the female lead and her role gives her a chanceto retread some of the same ground of her debut feature, Val Lewton'smasterpiece The Seventh Victim. As you would expect considering thelength of the film, the story is very tight and there is little in theway of diversions from the main plot line. The main plot itself is justabout good enough to hold interest for the duration of the film,although I can imagine it would become more than a little tedious ifthe film were longer. The ending features a twist in the story; and formy money it's a rather convenient one that doesn't really make sense.There are some attempts to explain it and the holes it creates could bepatched up...but it requires the viewer to suspend some disbelief.Still, there's worse ways to spend an hour and this is a decent film.

bmacv

07 May 2012

A tight, tense little thriller that helped consolidate the noir cycle

Like My Name is Julia Ross, another quick-and-dirty damsel-in-distressmovie, When Strangers Marry helped lay down the blueprints for what wouldcome to be called film noir. Kim Hunter has just wed a patron (Dean Jagger)of the restaurant where she waited tables without knowing much about him;off on a vague business trip, he asks her to meet him at a New York hotel. His evasive actions are enough to raise suspicions even in a naive Ohio gallike her -- he makes her wander the streets of wartime Greenwich Village atnight (as she did a year earlier in Val Lewton's The Seventh Victim). Anold man-pal (the very young Robert Mitchum) happens to turn up to keep aneye on her strange marriage in the big bad city. But there are recurringlinks to the silk-stocking murder of a businessman in Philadelpia a few daysbefore.... William Castle, best known as a 1950s schlockmeister (13 Ghosts,et al.) shows himself to be a keen apprentice here: There's a sceneinvolving a glass-paned hotel mail chute that is almost Hitchcockian.

07 May 2012

Betrayed (1954) ... GableTurnerMature ... Gottfried Reinhardt (Director) (2009)

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) presents "BETRAYED" (1954) - (108 min/B&W) -- Starring: Clark Gable, Lana Turner, Victor Mature, Louis Calhern & Wilfrid Hyde-WhiteDirected by Gottfried ReinhardtDuring World War II, intelligence agent Col. Pieter Deventer (Clark Gable) is ordered to keep tabs on suspected Nazi collaborator Carla Van Oven (Lana Turner). Both Pieter and Carla join the Dutch underground, making contact with a flamboyant resistance leader known as "The Scarf" (Victor Mature). Carla poses as a sexy chanteuse, the better to gain the confidence of the lascivious Nazi officers. Within the next few weeks, several underground operatives are captured and shot, and it begins to look as though Pieter's suspicions concerning Carla are correct. The real collaborator is revealed some twenty minutes before the finale, but the suspense level is expertly maintained throughout. The location-filmed Betrayed would later be mercilessly lampooned in the 1984 spy spoof Top Secret!Gable, Turner and Mature - not one of their best outings...but still watchable.Special footnote: -- Clark Gable's last picture under his MGM contract. He first signed with the studio in 1930 (he'd first appeared at the studio as an extra in The Merry Widow). By the 1950's his box office was spotty and MGM found it difficult to justify his $500,000 per year salary. Gable too was anxious to enter into far more lucrative percentage deals and would do so exclusively for the remaining 6 years of his life. Although the movie proved to be a critical and commercial failure, Clark Gable was able to remain a Top 10 Box Office attraction for 1954 thanks to a successful re-release of Gone with the Wind.BIOS:1. Gottfried Reinhardt [aka: Gottfried Goldmann] (Director)Date of Birth: 20 March 1913 - Berlin, GermanyDate of Death: 19 July 1994 - Los Angeles, California2. Clark GableDate of birth: 1 February 1901 - Cadiz, Ohio,Date of death: 16 November 1960 - Los Angeles, California3. Lana TurnerDate of Birth: 8 February 1921 - Wallace, IdahoDate of Death: 29 June 1995 - Century City, California4. Victor MatureDate of Birth: 29 January 1913 - Louisville, KentuckyDate of Death: 4 August 1999 - Rancho Santa Fe, CaliforniaMr. Jim's Ratings:Quality of Picture & Sound: 3 StarsPerformance: 3 StarsStory & Screenplay: 3 StarsOverall: 3 Stars [Original Music, Cinematography & Film Editing]Total Time: 108 min on DVD ~ Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) ~ (June 22, 2009)

GManfred

06 May 2012

Lousy Film Noir

This picture sounds a lot better than it actually is. Given the bigname cast and Director, expectations are high but it doesn't deliver.One big flaw is the storyline, which is completely preposterous andwith some of the most absurd contrived coincidences in the annals ofmysteries. 'Betrayed' is disguised as a film noir but it is a feebleattempt at melodrama using 40 watt light bulbs to create film noirambiance. (for the record, I've tried 6 times to spell ambiance thecorrect way, -ence, but the website won't take it).I think the main culprit is Castle, who allows his story to stop atunexplained dead ends and manufactures situations for his players whichdon't hold water and make good actors look bad. And there is not onelick of tension or suspense in any scene in the picture.It is a Monogram production and the lack of a big budget isunderstandable, but comparisons between Castle and Hitchcock arelaughable. With such material, Hitchcock could have gotten at least anAcademy Award nomination - or at least a coherent plot.Can't recommend it, and if you get a chance to see it, miss it. Or,catch it and see if you, too, feel IMDb's present rating of 6.8 is wayoff the mark.

30 April 2012

Review the film and not the quality of the transfer, please!

First, I did not buy this product but 'burned' a DVD off the TCM channel and am watching the film at the moment for the 3rd time or so - this has some of my favorites, i.e. Clark Gable & Lana Turner - Gable despite coming to the end of his career is still great! And, Louis Calhern, another one of my favorite character actors - often one does not realize he is even in a movie (e.g. the uncle in 'High Society' w/ Crosby, Kelly, Sinatra, et al).Second, I would probably rate this film 4* - but the ridiculous 1* rating from one reviewer has wrongly downgraded the overall average deserved. Amazon does not give one an option to rate various aspects of a film (or a musical CD) - this film is excellent regardless of the 'quality' (or lack of it) of the reproduction which is a completely different issue.

29 April 2012

Extremely bad transfer and horrible disc quality!

This review is from: Betrayed (1954) (DVD) This CD release of "Betrayed" suffers from image quality notunlike the worst videotape you ever owned. It was hard to getinto watching this film because of how poor it looked on-screen!From now on, I'll think twice about ordering any of these WBarchive titles. It would appear that no attention was paid tocleaning up these films before offering them to the public.

mark.waltz

29 April 2012

Neat little B thriller with a great twist.

Monogram produced a lot of stinkers, but they also had their share ofclassics. "When Strangers Marry" (under its re-release title "Betrayed"for the DVD), is one of the best. Ingenue Kim Hunter, years beforeBrando emotionally screamed "Stella!" to get her attention, plays aninnocent young girl from Ohio who has been married for only a month toa man she hardly knew. In fact, he immediately went on the road onbusiness, and has just sent for her to meet him in New York when shearrives and runs into an old flame (Robert Mitchum). The husbandremains mysteriously out of site for a while, so she gets reacquaintedwith Mitchum before finally encountering her husband (Dean Jagger). Itbecomes apparent the moment he shows up that he is in trouble and maybe the killer of a drunk man he admits to having rolled inPhiladelphia.The fast-moving film noir like mystery presents its facts, adds on acouple more clues, and delivers the truth with a neat little twist thatremains surprising even if it was a bit predictable. Neil Hamilton, anearly 30's leading man (and later the police commissioner on "Batman")is fine as the investigator whom Mitchum and Hunter go to see to findJagger. Hunter shows great promise and within a few years, would goonto film immortality in "A Streetcar Named Desire" and gain cultstatus by donning heavy make-up as Zira in "Planet of the Apes".Mitchum and Jagger are fine as well. This was one of Mitchum's firstmajor roles after tons of walk-ons, and within a year of this, would beone of Hollywood's most popular "tough men", a new breed of leadingactors like Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster that would change the wayHollywood made movies. This is a definite must see for fans of '40's"B" features.

MARIO GAUCI

29 April 2012

WHEN STRANGERS MARRY (William Castle, 1944)

William Castle's first noteworthy effort (incidentally, the copy Iacquired bore a new title - BETRAYED!) was made at Poverty Row studioMonogram within a genre he would intermittently return to until thegenial director saw he could particularly make a mint with Horror. Itis a noir with a distinct Hitchcock feel: in fact, the plot bearsobvious nods to both SUSPICION (1941) and SHADOW OF A DOUBT (1943), amurder attempt is borrowed wholesale from FOREIGN CORRSPONDENT (1940),and there is even Castle's own 'appearance' (which is actually treatedas a recurring in-joke here!).It was an equally important film for Robert Mitchum, not only becauseit showed that his star was definitely rising but in view of the factthat the ultimate revelation as to his character's true nature would bereworked in some of his later (and most impressive) work. Curiouslyenough, I was under the impression that he would be the suspectedmurderer husband – but the way things played out, I must congratulatethe scriptwriters (including Philip Yordan) on their ingenuity. Leadinglady Kim Hunter (ideally cast as the fresh-faced bride) had just comeoff the Val Lewton production THE SEVENTH VICTIM (1943), while DeanJagger has an atypical lead role (it is even more unusual to see himsporting a full head of hair!) – their awkwardness is never moreeffectively delineated than when they find themselves stranded inside aHarlem nightclub (showcasing an over-enthusiastic black dancer). Alsoon hand is Neil Hamilton (later Commissioner Gordon in the campy butpopular BATMAN TV series of the 1960s) already in his element as aPolice Inspector; incidentally, his ambivalent relationship withMitchum throughout pays off in droves during the frenzied climax.Despite the evident economy of means, the film still displaysconsiderable style along the way (atmospheric chiaroscuro lighting,effective low-angle shooting, an imaginative hallucination sequence,etc.); the role-reversal in the opening and closing scenes is a nicetouch, too. For the record, I own several more of Castle's (by allaccounts, lesser) noirs but I probably will not have time to fit any ofthem in my current schedule...