8 More Forgotten Movies of the 1940s: Scarlet Claw to Unfaithfully Yours

Here are eight more additional movies to supplement my earlier "8 Forgotten Movies of the 1940s..." As in my previous list, it can be reasonably argued that several of them are not really "forgotten" or even all that good. Regardless, they are films that I have enjoyed and can see over and over, often discovering something new in each viewing. As in the other list, some were low budget "B" movies while others were main programmers. Some even received one or more Oscar nominations. The list in chronological order:

The Scarlet Claw (1944). Directed by Roy William Neill and starring Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Miles Mander, Ian Wolfe, Gerald Hamer, Paul Cavanaugh, and Kay Harding.

This film is one from the Sherlock Holmes series that was turned out by Universal, and it is by far the best of the series benefiting from an intelligent script, good acting, and fine camera work. In it, Holmes (Rathbone) and Dr. Watson (Bruce) find themselves in a remote French-Canadian village investigating a series of mysterious murders, all allegedly the work of a supernatural entity. Atmospheric, dark (most of the scenes are at night), and eerie, the film leaves the viewer guessing until the very end.

Many Sherlock Holmes purists do not like the twelve Universal movies since the stories take place in the 1940s and not Victorian England. Although they have a point, I think an exception can be made with this one. It is in my estimation one of the top five or six Holmes movies ever made.

Ministry of Fear (1944). Directed by Fritz Lang and starring Ray Milland, Marjorie Reynolds, Carl Esmond, Dan Duryea, and Hillary Brooke.

Recently released from a mental institution after mercy killing his dying wife, Londoner Stephen Neale (Milland) only desires a return to normal life, but, instead, inadvertently becomes entangled with a Nazi spy ring. The great thing about this movie is that the viewer, like Milland's character, is completely baffled as to what will happen next. Although Ministry of Fear is not technically a film noir, it contains many aspects of that genre with its use of light and shadows and its cast of shady characters, including a rather nasty tailor played by Dan Duryea.

My Name Is Julia Ross (1945). Directed by Joseph H. Lewis and starring Nina Foch, Dame May Whitty, Geoege Macready, Anita Bolster, Doris Lloyd, and Roland Varno.

Intensely atmospheric and nearly gothic in nature, this is a great example of how to make an excellent "B" film. It has the same feel and tenor as Hitchcock's best. Nina Foch, an American living alone in England, accepts a job in Cornwall as a live-in secretary to an elderly woman (Whitty) and her son (Macready). The pair seems cordial and pleasant at first until the young woman realizes that she is actually part of a nefarious scheme that will result in her death. This leads to frantic attempts to escape her fate as the house that she is imprisoned in creates a feeling of claustrophobia in her, and the viewer's, minds. Foch, who has never been fully appreciated for her acting talents, is excellent, as are Macready as the mentally unbalanced son and Whitty as the equally unbalanced and evil mother. The movie was remade in 1987 with a different setting as Dead of Winter starring Mary Steenburgen.

The Dark Corner (1946). Directed by Henry Hathaway and starring Mark Stevens, Lucille Ball, Clifton Webb, Kurt Kreuger, and Cathy Downs.

A nice little film noir that features an imaginative story, fast pacing, and fine acting. A private detective (Stevens) is falsely accused of killing his ex-partner, a man who was responsible for Stevens serving undeserved time in prison. Chased by the police, Stevens has little time to find the real killer. Lucille Ball, in her pre-Lucy days, does an excellent job portraying Stevens' loyal secretary. Except for uttering a few wisecracks, it is a straight role for Ms Ball. Other players worthy of note are Kreuger, as the former partner; Webb, as an unscrupulous art dealer; and, Bendix as a particularly slimy hood known only as White Suit.

A Night in Casablanca (1946). Directed by Archie Mayo and starring The Marx Brothers, Lisette Verea, Charles Drake, Lois Collier, Dan Seymour, and Sig Ruman.

Groucho, Harpo, and Chico, after making a couple of dreadful movies in the early 1940s, nearly return to their 1930s form with this tale involving a Casablanca hotel, ex-Nazis, and missing treasure. Notice that I said "nearly reach". By 1946, the trio was physically old and, likewise, some of their skits had become old and even stale. Nevertheless, considering that this would be the last time that the three comic geniuses would appear together in a film, the movie is still worth a peek.

Portrait of Jennie (1948). Directed by William Dieterle and starring Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten, Ethel Barrymore, Lillian Gish, and Henry Hull.

Portrait of Jennieis a fantasy romance, telling the story of an struggling artist (Cotten) slowly falling in love with a mysterious girl (Jones) who seems to age a little more each time he sees her. The movie has many incongruities in the plot, but the viewer becomes so engrossed in the story that he/she doesn't really notice them. Superb camera work makes some of the settings magical, the storm sequence is quite realistic for an era before CGIs, and Cotten and Jones, who ended up making five movies together, have great chemistry.

Rachel and the Stranger (1948). Directed by Norman Foster and starring Loretta Young, William Holden, Robert Mitchum and Gary Gray.

Loretta Young shines in this off-beat story of a "love triangle" set on the American frontier. She plays the "bought" bride of widower William Holden who only married her because he had promised his dying wife that their twelve year-old son would be brought up properly. To him, that means having a woman around who can cook, keep house, and do chores - nothing more. Enter Robert Mitchum, a wandering minstrel/hunter and friend of Holden's, who quickly sees an underlying independent, strong-willed side to Young that is under appreciated, if not all together unnoticed, by her husband. A nice blend of drama and humor, its fun to watch three great actors in their prime even if the storyline is somewhat predictable.

Unfaithfully Yours (1948). Directed by Preston Sturges and starring Rex Harrison, Linda Darnell, Rudy Vallee, Barbara Lawrence, Kurt Kreuger, and Lionel Stanley.

In less than a decade, Preston Sturges reeled off a series of successful comedies, many of which are considered classics today. At the end of this period was Unfaithfully Yours, a black comedy that also has moments of side-splitting, slapstick hilarity. The plot is centered on a rather stuffed shirt symphony conductor (Harrison) who is wrongly led to believe that his wife (Darnell) is having an affair. This leads to him imagining three plans of revenge, one of which involves murder. Of course, when they are put to actual use, none of them quite work out as expected.

Some critics have said that the main role would have been better filled by an actor like Cary Grant who had better comedy skills than Harrison. I disagree. Grant could not play a prim and priggish character like Harrison could (think Henry Higgins) and that quality makes watching him get his comeuppance even funnier. Darnell is somewhat bland as Harrison's devoted wife and crooner Vallee has some funny lines playing a friend of Harrison and Darnell's. The movie was remade with the same name in 1984 with Dudley Moore playing the conductor.