Welcome to the Atomic Age: A look back at 1945

In 1945:

Harry Truman became the 33rd US President;

Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima was published;

The Arab League was formed;

Sylvester the Cat debuted;

The United Nations Charter was signed;

The United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki;

Ebony debuted;

The world’s first general purpose electronic computer, ENIAC went online,

Pippi Longstocking was published;

In a radio program, Superman met Batman for the first time;

Stephen Stills, Rod Stewart, Tom Selleck, Bob Griese, Bob Marley, Mia Farrow, John Heard, Micky Dolenz, Pat Riley, Walt Frazier, Eric Clapton, Peter Gammons, August Wilson, Rita Coolidge, Kurt Loder, Bob Seger, Keith Jarrett, Pete Townshend, John Fogerty, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Helen Mirren, George Pataki, Brenda Fricker, Carly Simon, Debbie Harry, Burt Ward, Dean Koontz, Jim Davis, Steve Martin, Vince McMahon, Van Morrison, Jose Feliciano, Phil Jackson, Don McLean, Dusty Rhodes, Brian Doyle-Murray, Neil Young, Goldie Hawn, Bette Midler, Chris Matthews, Ernie Hudson, and Diane Sawyer were born;

While Eric Liddell, Ernie Pyle, JohnS. McCain Sr., Bela Bartok, George Patton, Anne Frank, and Theodore Dresier died.

The following is a list of my ten favorite films released in 1945:

 

Brewster's Millions (1945)

 

10) Brewster’s Millions

Returning US soldier Montague Brewster postpones his wedding to his longtime girlfriend when he learns of an eight million dollar inheritance from his deceased uncle’s estate. But the unexpected windfall comes with a major caveat, in order to claim the money, he has to spend one million dollars before his thirtieth birthday without acquiring any assets and has to do this without telling anyone about the conditions.

With two months until the imposed deadline, Brewster embarks on an uncharacteristic spending spree, but, to his surprise, meeting the requirements proves to be a significant challenge.

The story is simple, but George Barr McCutcheon’s malleable 1902 novel illustrates important truths about materialism and the human condition. A century later it can still be easily adapted to fit virtually any time and culture, having already inspired eleven different film adaptations in several different languages.

 

 

9) Red Meadows

As Michael, a Danish resistance fighter, awaits his execution, he recalls the events which led to his capture and is befriended by a prison guard who secretly hates Nazis. The guard eventually aids Michael’s escape, but his own guilt about his complicity in the atrocities committed by the Nazis prevent him from leaving.

This taut film about the justified paranoia of those brave souls who took on the Nazi rise to power serves as a stark reminder the greatest generation moniker should not be limited to people born in the United States, but shared by all of those who took a stand against unspeakable evil at great personal sacrifice.

 

Brief Encounter (1945)

 

8) Brief Encounter

Enjoying each other’s company after a chance meeting, Laura Jesson and Dr. Alec Harvey (Trevor Howard) agree to meet again. Over the course of several meetings, despite their respective marriages, they fall in love.

Recognizing the evolving nature of their relationship, they arrange to meet at the apartment of a friend of Dr. Harvey’s, but when the friend arrives home unexpectedly, they realize they’re incapable of abandoning their prior commitments.

To defuse the situation, Alec takes a job in Johannesburg. On the day he departs, the would-be-lovers meet at the train station to say their final goodbyes, but a friend of Laura’s prevents them from enjoying a much longed for quiet moment together.

When a chastened Laura returns home, her reticent husband, having noticed her recent distance and perhaps guessed its source, reaffirms his love for her.

This film uses the intimate struggle of Laura and Alec to explore an ancient and still relevant tension between competing conceptions of love.

Compare this to Scorcese’s excellent film The Age of Innocence. Based on an Edith Wharton novel, and focused on a male experience with restricting conventional attitudes, many of the ideas it explores are identical to the ones here.

Now look at Clint Eastwood’s The Bridges of Madison County which clearly believes the passionate, illicit relationship is the superior one.

In all three films, the protagonist chooses to forgo their romantic and sexual feelings for the sake of their spouse and family. In the first two, this is a good thing and the secret is kept to fully protect those affected. But Bridges takes a much different approach. Francesca confesses to her children (in a cowardly post-mortem), then demands they respect her betrayal as good because it provided her with a brief period of happiness. She has it both ways, protecting her family (and herself from having to disappoint them) while alive, but gladly destroying her children’s illusions of familial bliss once she’s dead and no longer able to experience the consequences.

With apologies to Mr. Allen, love must be more than the mere assertion “the heart wants what the heart wants.” Love is a denial of self, a denial of your desires for the betterment of someone you have pledged to protect and cherish. Love must and should value a long relationship over a brief encounter, and films like this do a great service demonstrating the sacrifice and denial love requires.

 

Children of Paradise (1945)

 

7) Children of Paradise

In mid-nineteenth century France, Garance (Arietty) is courted by the famed mime Baptiste Deburau, actor Frédérick Lemaître, notorious criminal Pierre François Lacenaire, and the aristocrat Count Édouard de Montray.

Baptiste loves Garance, but she’s in love with Lemaître. However, she marries the Count after she’s implicated in an attempted robbery with her friend Lacenaire.

In the second half of the film, set seven years later, Baptiste (now married with a small child) is a star at the Funambules, while Frederick works at the competing Grand Theater. Realizing she’s in love with Baptiste, Garance has been surreptitiously attending his performances. Tormented, she reveals her feelings to the Count, but promises to stay with him.

After a fight, Lacenaire murders the Count and calmly awaits his martyr’s destiny. Meanwhile, Baptiste’s wife confronts Garance, who flees, hoping to return to her now deceased protector.

Baptiste’s interpretation of the Pierrot character is beautiful and has given me a new appreciation for miming.

The film was appropriately billed as the French answer to Gone with the Wind. Both films center on an indecisive woman whose failure to definitively choose a lover has ramifications beyond her own life.

But while Gone with the Wind was an entirely fictionalized account of historical events, this brilliant film mixes a bevy of historical characters to make a political commentary on the then current Nazi occupation of France. The production involved many members of the French resistance, and the film was distributed in two parts to accommodate Vichy censorship laws.

That a film of such beauty and depth could be made during the heights of such misery is an amazing testament to the power of the creative spirit.

 

Detour (1945)

 

6) Detour

After his girlfriend leaves for Hollywood, New York piano player Al hitchhikes across the country to join her.

When his ride, Charles Haskell Jr., unexpectedly dies, Al assumes his identity. But after a chance meeting with Vera, a previous acquaintance of Haskell, changes his plans. She forces him to take her along, and the pair rent an apartment in Hollywood. When Vera discovers the wealthy elder Haskell wants to reconcile with his son before he dies, she attempts to coerce Al to impersonate the deceased son. The two accomplices fight, and Al accidentally kills Vera.

Made on a shoestring budget by one of the many Hollywood B-movie studios of the era, the quality of the production is severely limited, but this film epitomizes the noir ethos of wandering hopelessness.

Having lived through the Depression, then the second World War, and now slowly coming to terms with the realities of the Atomic Age, this film gives us some idea of the ever-present angst of the era.

 

Spellbound (1945)

 

5) Spellbound

When Dr. Anthony Edwardes (Gregory Peck) arrives at Green Manors, a Vermont mental hospital, to replace the retiring Dr. Murchison (Leo G. Carroll), his colleague, Dr. Constance Petersen (Ingrid Bergman) senses something odd. She uses her skills in psychoanalysis to uncover the truth: Dr. Edwardes is an impostor; he suffers from amnesia and, while he can’t be certain, believes he killed the real Edwardes.

Despite evidence to the contrary, Peterson believes Edwardes is innocent and works with her mentor, Dr. Brulov (Academy award nominated Michael Chekhov) to probe his subconscious and identify the real culprit.

This film is first-rate Hitchcockian suspense, and boasts fantastic performances from an in-her-prime Bergman, a fresh-faced Peck, and Hitchcock regular Leo G. Carroll.

The film features a dream sequence partially conceived by Salvador Dali, and while the idea of Dali and Hitchcock collaborating together is tantalizing, the scene in the final film is not as elaborate as initially planned because of tension between Hitchcock and producer David O. Selznick.

Because the public is now more aware of the successes and limitations of psychoanalysis, this might not work as well as it did seventy years ago, but it provides a perfect framework for Hitchcock’s brand of psychological horror.

 

The Bells of Saint Mary's (1945)

 

4) The Bells of St. Mary’s

New arrival Father Chuck O’Malley (Bing Crosby) clashes with Sister Superior Mary Benedict (Ingrid Bergman) over the plans for a struggling school in his parish.

Crosby, reprising the role which won him an Oscar the year before in Going My Way, is delightful, and Ingrid Bergman is fantastic as the stern, but good-hearted nun. Henry Travers, one of my favorite character actors, shines as Horace B. Bogardus, a businessman who may be able to save the school. Travers specialized in bumbling, dottering old men, the prototypical grandfather, and a year later, he would become a permanent popular culture fixture as Clarence Oddbody.

This is a predictable film, but Leo McCarey, one of the greatest populist directors, makes it more interesting than it would have been otherwise by refusing to take sides, instead choosing to respect the passionately held beliefs of both his protagonists. Neither softens or changes their way of looking at the world, but develop a mutual respect and admiration for one another. I only wish real world differences of opinion were settled so amicably.

 

Leave Her to Heaven (1945)

 

3) Leave Her to Heaven

Novelist Richard (Cornel Wilde) meets socialite Ellen Berent (Gene Tierney) on a train. Because he resembles her beloved deceased father, she jilts her politician fiancee, Russell Quinton (Vincent Price), to marry him. Obsessively jealous, Ellen tricks Richard’s disabled brother Danny into drowning, and later, intentionally causes a miscarriage to avoid sharing her husband with anyone else.

When she suspects Richard is developing feelings for her sister, Ruth, Ellen confesses to Richard, then poisons herself, framing Ruth for the crime. When Ruth is prosecuted by Russell, a despondent Richard tearfully exposes his deceased wife’s lies.

The plot could easily be a Lifetime movie, but Vincent Price is suave excellence as the jilted lover and the performance of Gene Tierney is electrically malevolent. The film embraces villainy in a way few other movies of the era dared, and it’s astounding the producers were willing to portray a woman so bereft of a moral compass.  The scene where Ellen coolly watches as Danny drowns is chilling and reverberates in the recent infamous scene where Walter White allows Jesse Pinkman’s girlfriend to choke on her own vomit.

 

 

2) Blithe Spirit

The arrival of the spirit of his deceased first wife, Elvira, causes marital strife between Charles Condomine (Rex Harrison) and his new wife, Ruth.

Ruth is convinced Elvira plans to murder Charles in order to reunite with him in the afterlife. Things take an unexpected turn when Elvira accidentally murders Ruth instead.

Harrison is hysterical as the put upon husband caught between his two loves, and Margaret Rutherford, reprising the role she originated on the stage, is bizarre, comic perfection as Madame Arcati, a meddling medium.

Director David Lean’s later career was dominated by epics, but, early on, he worked in close collaboration with playwright Noel Coward, adapting several of his works for the screen. This particular adapation displeased the famed writer; Coward felt the altered ending ruined one of his best plays. However, I found the ending an unexpected and delightful twist, elevating the film and transforming it into a darkly macabre romp, one of the funniest films about death and our fear of it.

 

Scarlet Street (1945)

 

1) Scarlet Street

Amateur artist Christoper Cross (Edward G. Robinson) bravely rescues a young woman, Kitty, from an assailant. Unbeknownst to him the attack was coordinated by her boyfriend Johnny to elicit sympathy; Kitty plans to seduce the married Cross and extort him to keep their affair a secret.

Cross happily takes the bait and pays for an apartment for his paramour by stealing money from his employer and wife. Meanwhile, Johnny steals a few of Cross’s paintings and sells them under Kitty’s name. When Cross discovers the deception and confronts her, Kitty ridicules him for believing she could love him. Enraged, he murders her, but circumstantial evidence places the blame on Johnny who is arrested and convicted for the crime.

Christopher is alone and broke, Johnny is condemned to die, and Kitty is mistakenly eulogized as an artist taken too soon.

Fritz Lang is a forgotten genius. Metropolis (1927) is one of the most influential films of all time. M (1931) is a brilliant examination of paranoia and ahead of its time in its portrayal of a child predator.

This is a densely layered film about unfulfilled dreams and secret desires, and Edward G. Robinson’s heartbreaking work as Christopher Cross may be the closest we’ll ever get to answering Langston Hughes.

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