The Best Movies: A Mulligan

I’m giving myself a do-over for the year 1943. First of all, after I posted my original list, the great Philip Wuntch suggested that I might have overlooked The Song of Bernadette and that it might — just might, mind you — be a tad superior to one or more of the films on that list. Well, since Mr. Wuntch is the finest film critic in the history of Texas journalism, I figured it would be prudent to give him the benefit of the doubt.

So I re-watched The Song of Bernadette, and, sure enough, true to his legacy and knowledge of all things related to film, Mr. Wuntch was correct. Thus, I thought it equally prudent to review, re-study and generally re-examine the entire film year of 1943.

As a result, I’m declaring my original list a mulligan and so here is the real, true, genuine list of

The 10 Best Movies of 1943

1. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp. Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. Roger Livesey, Deborah Kerr, Anton Walbrook. This is a comparatively long film (2 hours, 43 minutes, although it was mangled to an hour, 33 minutes for its American release — the original version just became available here in 1986), but a brilliant one and it served as my introduction to the Powell/Pressburger team. Livesey is absolutely brilliant as the stuffy Clive Candy, as his life is traced from 1902 to 1943, and so is Kerr playing three different women from three different periods of Candy’s life. Incidentally, the title comes from a satiric cartoon character that appeared in the London Evening Standard that resulted in the Englisd referring to the stiff upper-crust military elite as “Colonel Blimps.”

2. The Ox-Bow Incident. Directed by William A. Wellman. Henry Fonda, Dana Andrews. One of the best Westerns ever made and a powerful indictment of mob violence. Wellman did something interesting with this film. Although he shot the beginning of the film with realistic looking Western exteriors, the bulk was shot on a set giving it an eerily claustrophobic feel that adds to the sense of tragedy inherent in the story.

3. The Song of Bernadette. Directed by Henry King. Jennifer Jones, William Eythe, Charles Bickford, Vincent Price, Lee J. Cobb. This is the film for which Jones won her Oscar portraying the reason why to this day millions of the devoutly religious flock to bathe in the holy waters at Lourdes. In addition to suggesting I might want to re-assess this film, Mr. Wuntch told me that movie audiences laughed at the opening credits featuring the following card: “And Linda Darnell as the Virgin Mary.” I realize my description of this film may make it seem much less stirring than it actually is, but there you have it.

4. Heaven Can Wait. Directed by Ernst Lubitsch. Gene Tierney, Don Ameche, Charles Coburn, Marjorie Main. This was Lutitsch’s first color film and succeeds in spite of the fact that Ameche was wrong for the part of the dying cad. the film's success is largely due to a magnificent supporting cast and the fact that this satire, disguised as a disposal comedy, still has that “Lubitsch touch."

5. Madame Curie. Directed by Mervyn LeRoy. Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon. You wouldn’t think a movie in which a man and his wife study the odd behavior of pitchblende would be all that exciting, but this film makes scientific research seem absolutely gripping, albeit in a somewhat low-key form. Perhaps it’s because it never surrenders its dignity. This is a Garson-Pidgeon pairing I liked far more than the more-celebrated Mrs. Miniver from the year before.

6. The More the Merrier. Directed by George Stevens. Jean Arthur, Joel McCrea, Charles Coburn. A wonderful comedy with terrific performances. Stevens was the perfect choice to direct this film, which mostly takes place in the small confines a single apartment. The more tension he builds in that tiny space, the funnier the film gets. All three leads are superb, but Coburn steals every scene he’s in.

7. Lassie Come Home. Directed by Fred M. Wilcox. Roddy McDowall, Donald Crisp, Dame May Witty, Edmund Gwenn, Nigel Bruce, Elsa Lanchester, Elizabeth Taylor. This low-budget sleeper is the movie that started the entire Lassie phenomenon. The sentiment is laid on pretty thick but it’s fun to watch two kids (McDowall and Taylor) along with a dog upstage some of the most accomplished actors of the era. This was Taylor’s second film, but the first that really began attracting attention to her.

8. Cabin in the Sky. Directed by Vincente Minnelli. Eddie “Rochester” Anderson, Lena Horne, Ethel Waters, Louis Armstrong. I’m betting there’s a lot of people out there who, even if they have heard of her, have no idea what a great talent Waters was. See this film, the first Hollywood movie directed by Minnelli and the first all-black movie in seven years, to find out. Marvel at the way she sings Taking a Chance on Love and Happiness Is a Thing Called Joe, plus at how she glides through the entire film with absolute sincerity. The film does perpetuate racial stereotypes, which is unfortunate, but, my, what a great cast of performers.

9. Shadow of a Doubt. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Teresa Wright, Joseph Cotten, Macdonald Carey. This is said to be Hitchcock’s personal favorite among all the films he directed. Not as creepy as most of his works, but it is still a fascinating character study of a mass murderer, portrayed brilliantly by Cotten. Hitch’s greatest achievement was to convince Thornton Wilder to write the screenplay, correctly thinking that the author of Our Town would perfectly capture the Americana ambience Hitchcock wanted.

10. Watch on the Rhine. Directed by Herman Shumlin. Bette Davis, Paul Lukas. I’m told this worked better on stage than it does on film. The problem here is Shumlin’s direction. He directed the stage version and directs this as though he were still in the theater. It’s often way too static. But Lukas is fine form as is George Coulouris as a Russian count. A toned-down Davis got top billing for a role that’s actually comparatively small.