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Reviews
Two-Faced Woman (1941)
Fun, witty movie.
I just saw this movie for the first time, and I loved it. Garbo is an absolute delight as her own phony "femme fatale" twin sister...she's wicked, shameless, infuriating and enchanting. It's a shame she didn't do more sharp comedies like this one.
She has terrific chemistry with Melvyn Douglas...they're worthy adversaries. And she and Constance Bennett have amazing chemistry too as rivals for Douglas's affections. The double entendres and zingers alone are almost worth the price of admission.
I have no hesitation in recommending this movie. It's well worth a watch.
The Happy Prince (1974)
A Treasure
This was shown every Christmas back in the 70s, along with The Selfish Giant and The Little Mermaid (the real story, not the Disney version). I loved them all, and I've never forgotten them. I still get teary just thinking about the ending to The Happy Prince. And all three of these gems had beautiful music too.
Without Honor (1949)
Worth A Look
I just watched this movie on TCM, and I must say I enjoyed it. It looks like a typical melodrama for the first half hour or so, overwrought and predictable. But as we get to know the characters, and they reveal their various motivations, things start to get interesting.
In the first confrontation between the cheating wife and her truly slimy brother-in-law, wonderfully played by Dane Cook, we're initially led to believe he has good reason for setting her up...after all, she's been unfaithful to his brother, she's come between them deliberately (in his eyes, anyway), and we know, though he doesn't, that she's just stabbed her lover. So she's not exactly being presented as a sympathetic female character.
Then we think his motivation is to get revenge because she spurned his advances once and he still wants her...he's jealous of his own brother. But at the end we find out why he really hates her, and it's both disturbingly creepy and heartbreaking.
Once the lover's wife and the cheating wife's husband arrive on the scene, nothing goes the way we (and bro-in-law) expect...the characters don't react the way they're supposed to. The shocking reveal to the lover's wife turns out not to be not so shocking...in fact she isn't even surprised. She knows exactly what kind of man her philandering husband is. And far from being angry, she sympathizes with his latest victim. I won't add any more plot details, but the movie has a very satisfying ending.
Unlike most movies of this genre and period, the unfaithful wife does not pay the ultimate price for her infidelity. But it's not a happy ending tied with a bow...we know her life, and her husband's, and the lives of the other couple, will never be the same.
I have to mention the wonderful performance by Agnes Moorehead as the cheated-upon wife. She's dignified and restrained, very believable as a wife who lost her illusions years ago. And her sympathy for her husband's latest conquest also comes across as totally genuine.
This isn't a masterpiece by any means, but the performances and the plot twists make this movie worth the time.
Gone with the Wind (1939)
Small Moments
Some of the best moments in GWTW are small ones, some with no dialogue at all. I love the scene where Mammy is trying to get Scarlett to eat her breakfast before the barbecue, and gives her a dig about Ashley not proposing to her. The sideways look of death that Scarlett gives her, and her own smug expression when she knows she's won the exchange...brilliant. Also the scene at the barbecue just after she's overheard the other girls criticizing her, and she slowly climbs up the stairs, completely oblivious to everyone else running down the stairs around her whooping and hollering. And the scene at Aunt Pity's house on Christmas night where Scarlett stands alone at the bottom of the stairs watching Ashley take Melanie to bed was one of the few that made me feel sorry for her.