20 Great Years of Movies, Part 6: 1943

1. Shadow of a Doubt (director: Alfred Hitchcock): This is one of Hitchcock's finest; a young woman who feels a strong bond to her uncle learns that her uncle is a serial killer. But because she loves him so much, she can't bring herself to turn him in. But is the uncle's love equally unconditional?
2. The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (director: Preston Sturges): This is my favourite Sturges film. It concerns a young woman who, some time after a night out with some soldiers, finds herself pregnant but doesn't know who the father is. To solve this problem, she offers the boy who's always been pining for her a chance to get her out of trouble. But their attempted fix goes spectacularly awry!
3. Arsenic and Old Lace (director: Frank Capra): This is not really a Capra film as it mostly just recreates the famous stage play, but the performances are so perfect that the director hardly seems to matter. It's a shame that Karloff wasn't allowed to reprise his role, but Massy is still very good in the role; the first time I saw the film I didn't know about Karloff's involvement and the "he looks like Boris Karloff!" line still made me laugh. But even then, Peter Lorre is an utter joy in his part.
4. Journey Into Fear (director: Norman Foster): I think what I admire most about Eric Ambler's thrillers is how unconventional they are. His set-up, with a man on the run from a gang of killers, could have been done in Hitchcock. But Ambler's world is a little more chaotic than Hitchcock's. The various moments where the protagonist comes up with plans to unmask the antagonists, only to fail - that gives this story a different sort of suspense than Hitchcock's.
5. Bataan (director: Tay Garnett): This is really a remake of The Lost Patrol and doesn't quite hit that movie's highs (no Karloff) but I find this interesting as a war movie made during World War II about a battle which the USA lost. It's a little different seeing a war picture in which all the protagonists are dead by the time the credits run.
6. I Walked with a Zombie (director: Jacques Tourneur): So this has been called Jane Eyre with zombies and yes, that's pretty much it. The atmosphere surrounding the zombies - in particular the titular "walk" - is absolutely macabre. It's offbeat by the standards of 1940s horror movies and all the better for it.
7. Sahara (director: Zoltan Korda): One of Bogart's few non-Warner pictures; a tank crew in North Africa try to bluff their German adversaries into believing they have a supply of water. Rex Ingram was particularly good as the Sudanese soldier.
8. The Leopard Man (director: Jacques Tourneur): An unusual horror film where something... someone... is killing women at night. A leopard? Or a leopard man? Like the director's Cat People it leans more to suspense than horror and that's a strength.
9. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (directors: Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger): I know that as a film afficionado I'm supposed to like Powell & Pressburger, and I have tried. There's something about their works which leaves me a little cold - perhaps it's the same thing which their many fans adore. But this one I rather like as a compelling portrait of man's life against tumultuous, changing times. I have no idea why they used the comic strip "Colonel Blimp"'s name, though.
10. Air Force (director: Howard Hawks): In anyone else's hands, this movie would be just another World War II aviation film. But with Hawks... well, Hawks already proved his love of aviation in Only Angels Have Wings. The lengthy scenes getting into the details of preparing the plane for launch are strangely the most memorable. I appreciated that Hawks did a lot of research to put this film together and was happy to show off what he'd learned.