Friday 19 July 2024

Between Two Worlds (1944 Edward A Blatt)

The 1923 play by Sutton Vane was filmed before, in 1930 - this update factors in WWII. A group of people on a liner don't realise they're dead, and are on their way to the next world - except Paul Henreid and Eleanor Parker, who killed themselves. Edmund Gwenn is their ghostly steward. The other passengers are some rotten journalist John Garfield, his ex Faye Emerson, horrible businessman George Coulouris, vicar Dennis King, Sara Allgood and Isobel Elsom and Gilbert Emery. With Sydney Greenstreet as The Examiner.

According to The Warner Bros Story, Garfield was miscast; "Lacking directorial control (and confidence in the whole project), he overacted badly - as he was apt to do on such occasions." I'm not sure he's overacting so much, myself, but some of his dialogue is nuts, and you don't really understand the character or what he's trying to achieve, so that's a big problem right there.

Overall I found it lacklustre and boring. The best thing about it is Erich Wolfgang Korngold's music. Mark Hellinger produced, Carl Guthrie is on camera. Daniel Fuchs was the screen writer




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