Bad Girl (1931)

Academy Awards, USA 1932

Won Oscar	Best Director Frank Borzage
	Best Writing, Adaptation Edwin J. Burke
Nominated Oscar	Best Picture

Fox Film
Directed by Frank Borzage
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

Pretty Sally Eilers, who thinks men have only one thing on their mind, decides to test her theory on stranger James Dunn, who thinks women exist only to destroy the lives of men. The odd couple end up falling in love and getting married. It's a bumpy ride, especially after she gets pregnant. Their deep mistrust of the opposite sex leads to assumptions and huge miscommunication issues. This social melodrama provides an interesting glimpse of the prevailing attitudes of its time, but of course is extremely dated today.

Claudelle Inglish (1961)

Academy Awards, USA 1962

Nominated Oscar

Best Costume Design, Black-and-White Howard Shoup

Warner Bros.
Directed by Gordon Douglas
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

High schoolers fall in love in a rural town. He gets called away to the Army, she promises to wait for him. After a few months she gets the dreaded "dear Jane" letter. She decides to hurt everyone she can in retribution and becomes the town slut. High school boys compete with an older land baron and married store owner for her attention. It all ends badly. Overwrought melodrama, though handsomely filmed in black and white by Ralph Woolsey.

The Joker Is Wild (1957)

Academy Awards, USA 1958

Won Oscar

Best Music, Original Song Jimmy Van Heusen (music) Sammy Cahn (lyrics) For the song "All the Way"

Paramount Pictures
Directed by Charles Vidor
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

Frank Sinatra plays Joe E. Lewis, a singer not much different from his real life persona. He works in a Chicago nightclub run by the mob, who don't take it kindly when he decides to quit for a better gig. He loses his voice, and almost his life, in a violent attack of retribution. After a long recovery he becomes a vaudeville clown, which he eventually develops into a comedy nightclub act with some singing. However, his confidence is shaky, and he turns to alcohol, which almost destroys his professional and personal life. It's not much fun watching Frank's life spiral out of control or his harsh treatment of women. There is an anticlimactic non-ending making one wonder the point of it all.

The Son of Monte Cristo (1940)

Academy Awards, USA 1942

Nominated Oscar

Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White John DuCasse Schulze Edward G. Boyle

United Artists
Directed by Rowland V. Lee
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

Swashbuckling French count Louis Hayward goes incognito to help princess Joan Bennett of a neighboring country fight tyrannical general George Sanders. Under the name of "The Torch", he prints leaflets which undermine the general and leads the local townsfolk in an uprising. He has plenty of opportunities to rescue the helpless princess, falling in love along the way. Great Saturday afternoon matinee fun.

Captain Newman, M.D. (1963)

 

Academy Awards, USA 1964

Nominated Oscar	Best Actor in a Supporting Role Bobby Darin
	Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium Richard L. Breen Phoebe Ephron Henry Ephron
	Best Sound Waldon O. Watson (Universal City SSD)

Universal Pictures
Directed by David Miller
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

Gregory Peck runs a mental hospital at an Army base. His worst patients are kept in a special ward where they deal with the harrowing after effects of war. Some require treatment with Sodium Pentothal, which they refer to as "flak juice", causing them to relive scenes at the root of their problems. Eddie Albert stands out as a delusional Colonel as does Bobby Darin who has a devastating Pentothal session. Angie Dickinson provides the romantic angle.

Thin Ice (1937)

Academy Awards, USA 1938

Nominated Oscar

Best Dance Direction Harry Losee For "Prince Igor Suite".

Twentieth Century-Fox Film
Directed by Sidney Lanfield
My rating: 1.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

Romantic nonsense set at a winter resort. Sonja Henie is the house skating instructor who falls in love with disguised prince Tyrone Power involved in international negotiations. Sonja's non-acting is exasperated by her constant camera mugging and overblown skating productions. There is unfunny musical comedy relief from Joan Davis as a female bandleader that is absolutely disastrous.

Wives and Lovers (1963)

Academy Awards, USA 1964

Nominated Oscar

Best Costume Design, Black-and-White Edith Head

Paramount Pictures
Directed by John Rich
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

Down and out writer Van Johnson becomes suddenly wealthy when his novel is published. He moves his wife Janet Leigh and young daughter to the suburbs where they indulge in every imaginable vice. He spends most of his time drinking and going to parties with his literary agent, while his wife flirts with a playboy actor back at home. They separate and are on the verge of divorce before putting down the alcohol and realizing that maybe they love each other after all. Ludicrous melodrama filled with sexist dialogue, Johnson overreaches but Leigh somehow manages to hold it all together.

The Statue of Liberty (1985)

Academy Awards, USA 1986

Nominated Oscar

Best Documentary, Features Ken Burns Buddy Squires

PBS
Directed by Ken Burns
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, PBS)

Thorough account of both the history of the iconic American statue and the meaning of "liberty". Ken Burns manages to make interesting what most Americans take for granted. Even though made in 1985, the notion of "liberty" has become even more debated in the modern polarized political climate. 

Teresa (1951)

Academy Awards, USA 1952

Nominated Oscar

Best Writing, Motion Picture Story Alfred Hayes Stewart Stern

MGM
Directed by Fred Zinnemann
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

A troubled American soldier falls in love with young Pier Angeli in the final days of WWII in Italy. They impulsively marry, but he is soon shipped home suffering from "battle fatigue". They are reunited in New York after the war, but because of his inability to find a job live in a small apartment with his parents and sister. More melodrama follows as they try to hold their life together. Uneven look at the "war bride" phenomenon tries to work in too many angles, but the young Angeli manages to hold it all together.

One of Our Aircraft Is Missing (1942)

 

Academy Awards, USA 1943

Nominated Oscar	Best Writing, Original Screenplay Michael Powell Emeric Pressburger
	Best Effects, Special Effects Ronald Neame (photographic) C.C. Stevens (sound)

Anglo-American Film Corporation
Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

A British bomber is shot down over the Netherlands after making a run into Germany. They parachute to safety and befriend some local children in the woods. After proving their identities, the locals decide to help them escape and concoct and elaborate scheme to get them across the country. They change identities several times, dress as women and do whatever is necessary to evade the occupying Nazis. Eventually they reach the North Sea where they escape by boat. Exciting story that evades sentimentality, but characters are not fully developed and as a result seem somewhat aloof.

Banjo on My Knee (1936)

 

 Academy Awards, USA 1937

Nominated Oscar

Best Sound, Recording Edmund H. Hansen (20th Century-Fox SSD)

Twentieth Century-Fox Film
Directed by John Cromwell
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

Joel McCrae, part of a community living on riverboats in the Mississippi River, marries "lander" Barbara Stanwyck. After the wedding he knocks another outsider overboard when he gets too fresh kissing the bride. Thinking him dead, he goes on the run to New Orleans. Stanwyck follows, and ends up working as a dishwasher in a nightclub. They have a couple of brief encounters but don't make up until locked up alone together in a room by her father-in-law. Spiced up by a couple of good songs, but populated by incredibly dumb southern stereotypes straight out of Hollywood.

Yesterday (2004)

Academy Awards, USA 2005

Nominated Oscar

Best Foreign Language Film of the Year South Africa.

HBO Films
Directed by Darrell Roodt
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, HBO)

A South African woman is diagnosed with HIV and deals with the fallout. Her husband, who works far away in the diamond mines of Johannesburg, beats her up when she gives him the news. Months later he shows up at her doorstep suffering the effects of the disease. She cares for him during his final days, despite being ostracized by the members of their village. Simple, moving story, with spectacular location shooting on the South African grasslands.

Cheers for Miss Bishop (1941)

Academy Awards, USA 1942

Nominated Oscar

Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic Picture Edward Ward

United Artists
Directed by Tay Garnett
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

Nostalgic account of the life of schoolteacher Martha Scott, from her own college days at a small Midwestern college to career at the same. Despite being much loved by students and administration, her personal life drifts from one admirer to another. She falls in love with a married man who cannot get a divorce, brushing off another who turns out to be a lifelong friend. It's no Goodbye Mr Chips or The Corn is Green, dwelling too much on her soap opera love life, but still manages to keep one's interest.

City of God (2002)

Academy Awards, USA 2004

Nominated Oscar	Best Director Fernando Meirelles
	Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay Bráulio Mantovani
	Best Cinematography César Charlone
	Best Film Editing Daniel Rezende

Miramax
Directed by Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Miramax)

Teen and preteen thugs in the slums of Rio de Janeiro kill each other or innocent bystanders for drugs, money and fun. One of them rises to the top of their mafia-style organization, but it is not long before others want his position. A flashy directorial style can't hide the fact that these are reprehensible characters performing graphic acts of violence, often directed at or performed by very young kids. In the predictable ending, the cycle just repeats all over again.

Jack London (1943)

Academy Awards, USA 1945

Nominated Oscar

Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture Freddie Rich

United Artists
Directed by Alfred Santell
My rating; 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

Episodic account of the formative years of American writer Jack London. We follow him across the seas to hunt seals or to the Yukon to find gold, all the while taking notes for his famous novels. He eventually falls in love with Susan Hayward, who indulges in his world-trotting escapades. Michael O'Shea is miscast as the masculine hero of these adventures, instead appearing timid and restrained. Still, the final chapter in Japan does contain a harrowing massacre scene, even if it does go too far in the demonizing of the enemy.

Country (1984)

Academy Awards, USA 1985

Nominated Oscar

Best Actress in a Leading Role Jessica Lange

Buena Vista Pictures
Directed by Richard Pearce
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Buena Vista)

An Iowa farm family is threatened by foreclosure when the FHA decides they don't deserve their loans after all. The head of the family, Sam Shepard, descends into drunkenness, almost destroying everything they have left. However, his wife, Jessica Lange, decides to fight back. Real, passionate and gritty, but not without a few cliches as well, the final confrontation between Lange and the FHA fails to generate much sparks despite all the hoopla.

King of Jazz (1930)

Academy Awards, USA 1930

Won Oscar

Best Art Direction Herman Rosse

Universal Pictures
Directed by John Murray Anderson
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

A series of musical sketches loosely hosted by mad jazzman Paul Whiteman, the self-proclaimed "King of Jazz". Gargantuan musical numbers of the Busby Berkeley variety are contrasted by occasional comic interludes and performances by leading entertainers of the day. There is even room for some Walter Lantz cartoons. There is no plot per se, just hard working artists doing there best to entertain, which they do without fail. Shot entirely in early Technicolor.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

Academy Awards, USA 2005

Won Oscar	Best Writing, Original Screenplay Charlie Kaufman (screenplay/story) Michel Gondry (story) Pierre Bismuth (story)
Nominated Oscar	Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role Kate Winslet

Focus Features
Directed by Michel Gondry
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Focus Features)

When his girlfriend has him erased from her memories, Jim Carrey decides to have the procedure done himself and erase her from his mind. During one long, all-night session conducted by teenage computer geeks who would rather be spending their time with their girlfriends, what at first seemed like a good idea quickly becomes a nightmare. Together with the "memory" of his girlfriend, he tries to escape the relentless zapping of his brain and save their relationship from total oblivion. Ingenious story unfolds like a fever dream, but lacks any real insight into the failed relationship of two people living dangerously close to mental illness, even before they ever met each other.

The Seventh Veil (1945)

Academy Awards, USA 1947

Won Oscar

Best Writing, Original Screenplay Muriel Box Sydney Box

Universal Pictures
Directed by Compton Bennett
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

The luminous Ann Todd is Francesca: a suicidal girl pulled from a river and sent to a psychiatrist for evaluation. Under hypnosis, we learn her long, sad story from her orphaned childhood to tortured teen. She is groomed to be a concert pianist under the iron hand of an uncle. She achieves great success in her career but her personal life is a complete mess. She gets separated from her first love, can't commit to another and is always under the watchful eye of her uncle. Her psychiatrist eventually cures her of her various neuroses, but in a contrived, anticlimactic ending she must choose one among the many men in her life to which to commit. Moodily photographed in striking black and white by Reginald H. Weyer.

The Proud and Profane (1956)

Academy Awards, USA 1957

Nominated Oscar	Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White Hal Pereira A. Earl Hedrick Sam Comer Frank R. McKelvy
	Best Costume Design, Black-and-White Edith Head

Paramount Pictures
Directed by George Seaton
My rating: 1.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

War widow Deborah Kerr volunteers for the Red Cross on a south Pacific island filled with obnoxious, sex starved servicemen. None is more obnoxious than Navy Lt. Colonel William Holden, who decides she will be his next victim. She falls for it, even though she can't stand the man, and they have a torrid romance. Over-the-top melodrama is impossible to take seriously.

Dirty Pretty Things (2002)

Academy Awards, USA 2004

Nominated Oscar

Best Writing, Original Screenplay Steven Knight

Miramax
Directed by Stephen Frears
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Miramax)

Illegal immigrant Chiwetel Ejiofor works as a desk clerk at a swanky south London hotel. He gets coerced into a black market kidney harvesting operation by his boss. Since Ejiofor is also a trained doctor, it goes against all of his ethics. However, when it appears his participation is the only way to save his friend and developing love interest Audrey Tatou from deportation, he reluctantly agrees. There are some unexpected plot twists along the way and Ejiofor is well cast, but its dreary, downbeat tone becomes overbearing after awhile.

Hi Diddle Diddle (1943)

Academy Awards, USA 1944

Nominated Oscar

Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture Phil Boutelje

United Artists
Directed by Andrew L. Stone
My rating; 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

Navy seaman marries rich socialite on a whim, prompting her family to claim he's only after her money. They concoct various schemes to make him think she has lost all her fortune, which only spurs him to try to get it back. Meanwhile, the two lovers try to find a way to fit in their honeymoon night in the midst of all the madness. Fast-paced screwball comedy is very entertaining, with occasional fourth wall breaks and inside jokes (those double takes!) adding even more lunacy.

I Am a Promise: The Children of Stanton Elementary School (1993)

Academy Awards, USA 1994

Won Oscar

Best Documentary, Features Susan Raymond Alan Raymond

Home Box Office
Directed by Susan Raymond
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Docurama)

This documentary looks at the day-to-day life inside a tough Philadelphia inner city elementary school. Its principal must strike a balance between discipline and creating a learning environment, not easy with so many of its students prone to acting out, or worse violence. We get to know the home life of some of the students, most from single parent homes living in abject poverty. The principal makes a moving plea for equality in funding these schools, one which has mostly fallen on deaf ears I'm afraid.

The Mating Season (1951)

Academy Awards, USA 1952

Nominated Oscar

Best Actress in a Supporting Role Thelma Ritter

Paramount Pictures
Directed by Mitchell Liesen
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

Socialite Gene Tierney marries working class man John Lund, much to the chagrin of her snooty mother and other friends. Their marriage seems to be working though, especially with the help of maid Thelma Ritter, really Lund's mother but afraid to tell her lest she reveal their slum past. Of course it all comes out in the end and almost ruins their marriage. Entertaining melodramatics with a dark tone belying its snappy theme song and title which might lead one to believe it's a comedy.

Finding Vivian Maier (2013)

Academy Awards, USA 2015

Nominated Oscar

Best Documentary, Feature John Maloof Charlie Siskel

Sundance Selects
Directed by John Maloof and Charlie Siskel
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, IFC Films)

A blind buy at an estate sale leads to the discovery of a previously unknown photographer with a master's touch. The buyer, also the film's director, embarks on a crusade to get her work shown and to find out as much as he can about the photographer. It is no easy task, as Vivian Maier was an extremely private person and, it turns out, suffered from mental illness. Through photographs, home movies and interviews with the few people who knew her, he accomplishes his goal admirably. My only minor complaint is that this sometimes feels as much about the filmmaker as his subject.

The Children of Theatre Street (1977)

Academy Awards, USA 1978

Nominated Oscar

Best Documentary, Features Robert Dornhelm Earle Mack

Peppercorn-Wormser Film Enterprises
Directed by Robert Dornhelm and Earle Mack
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Kultur)

Children are rounded up at a prestigious Russian ballet school and chosen for enrollment based primarily on their physical attributes. We see several students at various stages in their training: pre-teens taking their first steps, teenagers coming into their own and the older students preparing for their debuts at the famous Kirov Ballet (now Mariinsky Ballet) in St. Petersburg. Occasionally we get glimpses of "normal" teenagers, pillow fights, whispering in the dorms, but for the most part they have given up their childhoods for this privileged life. However, they don't seem to mind, and the locals are rabid balletomanes. The final performance is nerve-racking for the students, but exhilarating to watch.

When We Were Kings (1996)

Academy Awards, USA 1997

Won Oscar

Best Documentary, Features Leon Gast David Sonenberg

Gramercy Pictures
Directed by Leon Gast
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Polygram)

Engrossing account of the "Rumble in the Jungle", a heavyweight boxing championship match that took place in Zaire, Africa, between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman. Ali dominates the film, as he does real life, with non-stop talking belying both confidence and self-adulation. Foreman, on the other hand, is nearly absent, preferring to let  his boxing do the talking. Then there is Don King, the organizer who almost outdoes Ali with his self-promotion. The pre-fight entertainment includes glimpses of James Brown and B.B. King in live performances. Finally we get to the boxing match itself, where Ali's strategy is as much mental as it is physical.

Two Soldiers (2003)

 

 Academy Awards, USA 2004

Won Oscar

Best Short Film, Live Action Aaron Schneider Andrew J. Sacks

Directed by Aaron Schneider
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Westlake Entertainment)

A young man in rural Mississippi hears the call of duty the day after Pearl Harbor. His younger brother, just a boy, decides to join him and basically runs away from home to the big city of Memphis. He is befriended by an Army colonel who convinces him to return home. Based on a William Faulkner short story, this slick production boasts authentic period flavor, but the characters can be a bit distant, especially the younger boy who comes off as precocious and impulsive.

Adam Clayton Powell (1989)

Academy Awards, USA 1990

Nominated Oscar

Best Documentary, Features Richard Kilberg Yvonne Smith

Directed by Richard Kilberg
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Docurama)

Straightforward biography of the influential black politician from New York. As far back as the 20s and 30s he was involved in "Civil Rights" activism in Harlem, long before it burst onto the national scene in the turbulent 60s. In that sense, he was a true precursor to a struggle which continues today. However, in his later years, after nearly 20 years in Congress, he became ineffectual, both politically, as names such as Martin Luther King began to eclipse his own, and personally, succumbing to a lavish lifestyle of alcohol and women.

Wag the Dog (1997)

Academy Awards, USA 1998

Nominated Oscar	Best Actor in a Leading Role Dustin Hoffman
	Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published Hilary Henkin David Mamet

New Line Cinema
Directed by Barry Levinson
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, New Line)

When the president becomes embroiled in a sex scandal weeks before election day, it is up to publicity mastermind Robert De Niro to divert the public's attention long enough to get him reelected. He elicits the help of Hollywood producer Dustin Hoffman to concoct a fake war with Albania. Clever idea provides some insights to modern politics, but stretches believability to the breaking point just to get a few laughs. As such, it's hard to take seriously. See 1978's Capricorn One for a better take on a similar theme.

Girls' School (1938)

Academy Awards, USA 1939

Nominated Oscar

Best Music, Scoring Morris Stoloff Gregory Stone

Columbia Pictures
Directed by John Brahm
My rating: 1.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

A teenage schoolgirl at an exclusive preparatory college stays out all night with her boyfriend. She gets caught by the school monitor, resulting in a potential scandal. Her rich parents manage to get her out of it by implying they will build a new wing for the school's library. She has a tougher time making up with the school monitor. Naive, dated fluff, golly gee.

The Fighting Lady (1944)

Academy Awards, USA 1945

Won Oscar

Best Documentary, Features

Twentieth Century-Fox Film
Directed by Edward Steichen
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

WWII documentary about life aboard an American aircraft carrier. After a long voyage across the Pacific, they engage with the Japanese at various islands. It incorporates stunning point-of-view footage from cameras mounted on the guns of attacking planes and captures the deep colors of sunrise and sunset on deck of the carrier. It occasionally stoops to jingoism, but this was made at the height of the war when the outcome was far from certain.

The Front Page (1931)

Academy Awards, USA 1931

Nominated Oscar	Best Picture
	Best Actor in a Leading Role Adolphe Menjou
	Best Director Lewis Milestone

United Artists
Directed by Lewis Milestone
My rating: 3.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

In a busy New York City news room, reporters wait for news about a hanging taking place at a nearby prison. Meanwhile, burnt out reporter Pat O'Brien is trying to get away for his marriage, but after an escape finds himself face-to-face with the prisoner. Never one to miss a story, he hides him in the news room and concocts elaborate headlines with his editor. Biting satire of the ruthlessness of the newspaper industry, with acerbic dialogue and unusual editing techniques far ahead of its time.

The Man Who Walked Alone (1945)

Academy Awards, USA 1946

Nominated Oscar

Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture Karl Hajos

PRC
Directed by Christy Cabanne
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

A hitchhiker is picked up by a woman on a country road. She mistakes him as a military deserter and he mistakes her as an "idle rich woman". They go in and out of jail through a series of mishaps and mistaken identities. Her impending marriage is jeopardized as they fall in love. Their true identities are revealed in the contrived happy ending.

Wells Fargo (1937)

 

 

Academy Awards, USA 1938

Nominated Oscar

Best Sound, Recording Loren L. Ryder (Paramount SSD)

Paramount Pictures
Directed by Frank Lloyd
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

The early history of Wells Fargo as told through the life experiences of one its first employees. Joel McCrea moves from mailman, to pony express rider, to premier representative as the company expands westward with the railroads. He falls in love with southern debutante Francis Dee, eventually marrying her in San Francisco. As the country becomes embroiled in Civil War, their competing loyalties almost break up their marriage. Lloyd tends to paint in broad brushstrokes, and the romantic tribulations take up too much time, but it works just fine as historical escapism.

This Woman Is Mine (1941)

Academy Awards, USA 1942

Nominated Oscar

Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic Picture Richard Hageman

Universal Pictures
Directed by Frank Lloyd
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

Nightclub singer Carol Bruce falls in love with the member of a French crew preparing for a trip to the Pacific northwest in the frontier days of the early 1800s. She is disguised as a boy and stows away on the voyage, but is soon discovered by its crotchety captain Walter Brennan. Fellow crew member Francot Tone also vies for her affections. There are echoes of Lloyd's far superior Mutiny on the Bounty, but Brennan lacks the bombast of Charles Laughton. Instead, we get a contrived love triangle and Indians speaking pigeon English.

Take a Letter, Darling (1942)

 

 Academy Awards, USA 1943

Nominated Oscar	Best Cinematography, Black-and-White John J. Mescall
	Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White Hans Dreier Roland Anderson Sam Comer
	Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture Victor Young

Paramount Pictures
Directed by Mitchell Leisen
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

A struggling painter takes a job as the "secretary" of a successful female ad executive. His main duty consists of accompanying her on dinner dates and posing as her fiance so she doesn't upset the wives of her male clients. He begrudgingly goes along with her schemes because he needs the money. Inexplicably they fall in love along the way. He tries to win her over with jealousy, flirting with the sister of one of their new clients. The plan backfires and she gets engaged to the client instead, setting in motion their inevitable reconciliation. Predictable romantic comedy from the team of Rosalind Russell and Fred MacMurray that tries to show a liberated woman in a position of power, but can't escape the sexism that pervaded the early 1940s.