kingrat

For me, the best paced Francis Ford Coppola film is The Outsiders. That's the one that was taken away from him and edited by the studio. Like the studio, I don't share Coppola's fondness for turgid pacing.

I tuned in just in time for the scene with Marie and Polly Moran drunk in the dressing room and the subsequent plumbing disaster. Hysterically funny. Looking forward to more Marie this month.

Kay, I also thought this was thoroughly enjoyable. Not many signs of how dark Clouzot's films were going to become. Suzy Delair and Jean Tissier were favorites of mine, too.

Lawrence, given your fondness for noir, you have some good viewing ahead. BORN TO KILL - Absolutely classic noir, unusually perverse and seamy for the time. Two rich girls (one of them the deadly Claire Trevor) falling in love with a killer (Lawrence Tierney), whose sidekick is Elisha Cook, Jr. The guys share a hotel room that apparently has only one bed. Walter Slezak plays a detective who is more like Sleaze-ak. Esther Howard is the old bat who wants revenge on Tierney for killing her friend. FRAMED - Glenn Ford is the guy who gets framed. Janis Carter is the dame who might be a femme fatale. THE DAMNED (LES MAUDITS) - Available on Criterion. Another film where the thugs quarrel with each other, except that they are all Nazis escaping from France on a submarine bound for South America. There's a backward tracking shot through the sub that might take your breath away. Another Rene Clement masterpiece, in my opinion. HIGH WALL - A psychiatric hospital makes a good setting for a noir. Innocent man tries to prove his innocence. If you like noir, you'll probably like this. IVY - Victorian noir, with Joan Fontaine more interested in money than love, and none too scrupulous about which man she gets it from or what she has to do to get it. And she seemed so nice and innocent in REBECCA. SO WELL REMEMBERED - Fine Brit noir directed by Edward Dmytryk. John Mills comes up from poverty, then falls for and marries Martha Scott, the daughter of the local factory owner. Based on a James Hilton novel, whose books made so many enjoyable movies. Exactly what kind of gal is Scott, anyway? Time will tell. THEY WON'T BELIEVE ME - Robert Young is involved with three women: Rita Johnson, Susan Hayward, and Jane Greer. This is probably his best performance ever. One of the women dies, and an elaborate plan is carried out. What could possibly go wrong? Most of this noir is shot in bright light, but the story is plenty dark. THE UNSUSPECTED - If you'd like to see Claude Rains as a film noir villain, here's your chance. From the noir we go to the noirish: DEEP VALLEY - Ida Lupino plays a shy girl whose parents (Fay Bainter and Henry Hull) haven't spoken in years and live on separate floors in their cottage deep in the woods. Then the state decides to put a road through, using prison labor. One of the prisoners (Dane Clark) and one of the lawmen (Wayne Morris) both fall for Ida. A combination of film noir, The Glass Menagerie, Romeo and Juliet, and location shooting. Some great direction by Jean Negulesco. THE GUILT OF JANET AMES - Rosalind Russell plays a widow who is catatonic after the loss of her husband in WWII. Melvyn Douglas is an alcoholic reporter whose life was saved by Roz's husband. Combination of WWII PTSD story, women's film, and film noir. I only knew of it because Jeanine Basinger writes about it in A Woman's View. It's pretty funny to see Nina Foch and Betsy Blair, who often played neurotics, as the normal gals in this picture. I like this film quite a bit, with both stars in top form. They may not be noir, but they're still good: GOLDEN EARRINGS - Ray Milland hides from the Nazis by disguising himself as a gypsy. Marlene Dietrich plays the gypsy he falls in love with. Lots of fun. GREEN DOLPHIN STREET - This film has what Jeanine Basinger would call a "crackpot plot." Lana Turner and Donna Reed play sisters. Van Heflin is the sailor who falls in love with one or both of them, and there's a mid-film twist that will have you exclaiming, "No! They didn't just do that, did they?" Of course they did. Lots of fun. THE UNFINISHED DANCE - Margaret O'Brien plays a prank on a visiting ballerina because she wants to boost the career of her much-loved teacher. Things go horribly wrong. With Cyd Charisse. I didn't expect to like it, but I did. Henry Koster, probably not on anyone's A List directors, turned out a surprising number of enjoyable films. HIGH BARBAREE - What's more romantic than falling in love with your childhood sweetheart? If you don't like June Allyson in this film, you won't like her in anything. She was never prettier than in the scene where she re-encounters Van Johnson at a hometown dance. WWII setting. I was captivated by the scene where the two children climb a water tower (and the children very plausibly could become Van and June). Then there's Thomas Mitchell as the tipsy uncle, and an escape down the river to the circus, and there are soldiers desperately in need of rescue in the Pacific. In a way, the film has three alternate endings, like a musical chord. NIGHT SONG - Merle Oberon plays a rich girl who pretends to be blind to get close to a bitter, self-destructive blind composer (Dana Andrews). Neither Oberon nor Andrews has ever been better. Ethel Barrymore is Merle's unmarried aunt, and Hoagy Carmichael is the friend who looks after Andrews. Artur Rubinstein and Eugene Ormandy make appearances, as the composer finishes his piano concerto. If you pretend to be someone else and the object of your affections falls for you, did he love you or the person you were pretending to be? THE PRIVATE AFFAIRS OF BEL AMI - George Sanders is a tragic cad, if you can imagine such a thing. He can't be satisfied with a really good, sweet woman (Angela Lansbury) or a brainy woman who's his intellectual equal (Ann Dvorak) or any other woman. Warren William is an unlikely choice to play a puritanical man (like Raymond Massey in East of Eden), but he does a fine job. Written and directed by the much underrated Albert Lewin. Gorgeous set decoration, too.

Playing for Time was about women musicians in a concentration camp. Very well done, and controversial in some quarters for having Vanessa Redgrave play a Jewish prisoner.

Richard Harris has something of the relationship to Richard Burton and Peter O'Toole that Anthony Franciosa did to Marlon Brando and Paul Newman: he seems to have gotten some of the parts they had turned down. He's an actor I often don't like, for two reasons: I've seen a few of the hammy and lazy performances Lawrence mentions, and he can seem like the kind of drunken boor I'd like to get far away from in real life. And yet that's not the whole story. In his early career he can be very effective cast as a hothead, as in that fine film The Night Fighters. He has a career-making role in This Sporting Life, for which he deservedly received an Oscar nomination for best actor. He's made up and coiffed to look like the young Marlon Brando, and the comparison isn't far-fetched. He has the power to explode on screen without seeming hammy. He seems ready to have a great career, but for all the reasons Lawrence mentions, he worked steadily without usually achieving the heights of his gifted contemporaries. One of my favorite Harris roles is in The Molly Maguires, which Lawrence put among his ten favorites. Not a lot of people then or now were interested in a movie about labor problems in the coal mines, which is unfortunate. It's a good film.

Going My Way and The Bells of St. Mary's are exactly the way the Catholic Church wanted to see itself portrayed. Spotlight, not so much. Triumph of the Will comes to mind, too, and The North Star and the early Eisenstein movies.

I wrote this about The Sea of Grass on another website: Elia Kazan disowned THE SEA OF GRASS (1947) and at one point even urged people not to see it. It’s not included in the big box of his films. In his autobiography he comments wryly about his naivete and the realities of studio production in Hollywood. He thought it would be filmed on location; the producer, the famed Pandro S. Berman, used stock footage and the rest of the film was made in the studio. Instead of unknowns for the leads, he got Spencer Tracy as cattle baron Col. Jim Brewton and Katharine Hepburn as his wife Lutie, who comes from a rich St. Louis family. Tracy promised to lose weight, but this didn’t happen. He was in one of his alcoholic spells. Katharine Hepburn wore, not homespun, but 16 elaborate Walter Plunkett costumes. After Tracy would do a scene, Hepburn would all but dare Kazan to correct Tracy by exulting, “Wasn’t he wonderful?” If this is the least characteristic Tracy/Hepburn movie, it was also the most successful financially, which is quite a surprise, given that Tracy’s character is mostly unsympathetic and that Hepburn plays an adultress, and even less likely, a mother. Tracy seems too urban and contemporary to play a cattle baron of 1880, and the less said about Hepburn’s attempt to be girlish and coy in her early scenes, the better. THE SEA OF GRASS has a bad reputation, and it isn’t the film Kazan had hoped to make. And yet . . . . Several people who post here have mentioned that they like the film. In spite of all reservations that must be made, so do I. Conrad Richter's novel became a solid and structurally sound screenplay. If you can accept that despite the rancher vs. farmer element, this is really a woman’s film, so much the better. Walter Plunkett’s costumes are quite attractive, and very becoming to Hepburn, regardless of authenticity. The supporting cast is strong, with some outstanding performances. Melvyn Douglas, who has little sex appeal in NINOTCHKA, is much more attractive here as the other man who loves Hepburn, and he is believably smitten by her. Playing a complex dramatic character as he does here and in THE GUILT OF JANET AMES makes Douglas more appealing than in the comedies where surface good looks matter more. Harry Carey shows us the submerged decency of the weary and aging doctor who at first seems a mere pawn of Tracy, and he has a moving death scene. Edgar Buchanan, not an actor one expects to find in a Kazan film, is perfect as the cook, who under his gruff territorial manner provides the tenderness, the womanly virtues in what, even after the boss’s marriage, is really a men-only world of the cattle ranch. Ruth Nelson as a poor woman, Hepburn’s only female friend, and James Bell as her homesteading husband carry the important subplot that reveals Tracy’s true colors to his wife and helps to wreck their marriage. Robert Walker, as the son whose paternity is in doubt, hits the target as the spoiled young man gone wrong. (To indicate how his career was building, Robert Walker got third billing after Tracy and Hepburn.) As in Kazan’s first film, A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN, the husband has charisma and charm, but those closest to him have to suffer the consequences of his actions. Hepburn rises to the occasion in her two big scenes, the one where she leaves Tracy and the one where she encounters her grown daughter (Phyllis Thaxter, who also does well). As Lutie ages, Hepburn’s mannerisms go away, and the scenes after she returns to Salt Fork are played with restrained but deep emotion. Tracy also does a good job with his big speech which conveys Col. Brewton’s poetic feeling for the land and for the buffalo and the Indians who are no longer there. Two strands of the film have held up well: the question of the best use of the land, whether farming will destroy the best use of the prairie (this could come from Ken Burns’ documentary THE DUST BOWL), and the emphasis on the limited custody rights of women who leave or divorce their husbands. The emotional core of the film hasn’t dated at all: what if the person you love most does things which violate your moral standards? The question of how far Lutie will go against contemporary standards of morality also carries impressive weight: three times she has the chance to leave with her son, but she can only cross the conventions so far, and the belief that her son would be better off with her husband negates her love for her son. A note about Ruth Nelson: If you wonder what happened to this fine actress who makes a strong impression in films like The North Star, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Humoresque, and The Sea of Grass, she was another victim of the blacklist. She was married to the director John Cromwell (which makes her the stepmother of James Cromwell, son of Kay Johnson), and when John Cromwell was blacklisted, so was she.

I'll go along with Granger and Dall being leads in Rope. James Mason as the only lead in Julius Caesar: I definitely agree. Brando is supporting in Caesar, a lead in Streetcar, and, to my mind, supporting in Godfather. Linda Darnell seems to have the biggest role in A Letter to Three Wives, so it makes sense to consider her partner Paul Douglas as a lead, too. I'll go along with Sothern and Crain as leads, too, which does treat all three wives equally, although Sothern would have a real shot in the supporting actress category.

Farley Granger and John Dall in ROPE? I agree about Calhern and Winters being supporting, and I would consider Arthur Kennedy supporting in THE LUSTY MEN. Ethel Waters and Gloria Grahame are tougher calls. When we get to 1949, A LETTER TO THREE WIVES is problematic for me about lead/supporting.

I'd like to say a few kind words about Anne Revere, who was mother to the stars in the 1940s: Jennifer Jones in The Song of Bernadette, where Revere is completely believable as a French peasant; Elizabeth Taylor in National Velvet; Gregory Peck in Gentleman's Agreement; and John Garfield in Body and Soul. If you wonder why she disappeared in the 1950s--after all, age isn't so much of a problem for a character actress--she was blacklisted. She did win a Tony for best featured actress for Toys in the Attic, in the role Wendy Hiller plays in the movie version. In Gentleman's Agreement and Body and Soul she plays essentially the same role, even though in GA she's middle-class and Christian, and in B&S she's working class and Jewish: she's the moral compass for her son. The mother has a rigorous moral code with high ideals which she expects her son to live up to. She will let him know if he does not live up to this code, and her idea of loving her son is letting him know when he does not meet these standards. She is fierce in her beliefs and is not shaken by doubts. I can't imagine anyone playing these parts better than Anne Revere, and she commands the screen in all her scenes. When I finally got around to watching all of Gentleman's Agreement, I was struck by how perfectly the emotional dynamics of Gregory Peck's life are captured. All three women in his life are strong and intelligent. His mother's stern moral code predisposes him to the pleasant but somewhat priggish Dorothy McGuire rather than the (implied) sexual freedom, brittle wit, and greater excitement of Celeste Holm. The analysis of anti-Semitism in Gentleman's Agreement is more subtle than one would expect. Dorothy McGuire is the one who initally suggests the article on anti-Semitism, but comes to discover the limitations of her own beliefs when it comes to exposing the prejudices of those close to her, like her sister. Furthermore, Gregory Peck's character is far from sympathetic (at least to me) when it comes to expecting his son to carry the burden of his impersonation. I knew someone who, when he was in graduate school at Yale, sent his first-grade son to an otherwise all-black school. There's nothing like expecting your six-year-old to carry out your ideals. The question one might have about the rightness of Peck's actions only increases the strength of the film, however. Body and Soul needs to be noted as another ice-breaking film on the issue of anti-Semitism, along with Gentleman's Agreement and Crossfire. When the social worker asks Anne Revere her religion, and she answers "Jewish," this simple response could be seen as revolutionary, given Hollywood's reluctance to identify characters as Jewish. The most forceful argument for Garfield not throwing the big fight is that he is a hero to the Jewish community.

Tom, thanks for a wonderful appreciation of The Man I Love, which veers this way and that, but has lots of interesting stuff along the way, even if it's not clear they all belong in the same film. You've also put your finger on something really interesting: Bruce Bennett has sex appeal and star quality in this movie. When I saw The Man I Love, I wondered, "Who is this guy? What other pictures did he make? Oh, he played Mildred Pierce's first husband? That's the same man?" One of the less appreciated talents a director can have is to enhance the appeal of the actors. Mitchell Leisen's presentation of Don Ameche in Midnight is one of my favorite examples. Ida Lupino still has some good roles ahead of her, like Road House; Beware, My Lovely (not an especially good film, but with great parts for Ida and Robert Ryan); and On Dangerous Ground, but the end of her career as a leading lady is much too near. If Deep Valley is probably my favorite Lupino role, that's because it's one of the few times a film is built around her character. She can play the Bette Davis type of big, bold character on occasion (The Light That Failed, They Drive by Night), but I think her real talent is for smaller, more intimate work. She's a master at conveying quiet emotions, moments of warmth, intelligence, sorrow, small moments of happiness.

The acting categories are crowded this year with outstanding performances. Trying to narrow each category down to five is impossible. Best Actor for 1947: Tyrone Power, NIGHTMARE ALLEY**** Henry Fonda, THE LONG NIGHT Dana Andrews, NIGHT SONG Richard Attenborough, BRIGHTON ROCK Robert Mitchum, OUT OF THE PAST John Garfield, BODY AND SOUL Melvyn Douglas, THE GUILT OF JANET AMES George Sanders, THE PRIVATE AFFAIRS OF BEL AMI Rex Harrison, THE GHOST AND MRS. MUIR David Farrar, BLACK NARCISSUS James Mason, ODD MAN OUT John Mills, SO WELL REMEMBERED Edward Gwenn, MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET Honorable mention: Ronald Colman, A DOUBLE LIFE; Van Johnson, HIGH BARBAREE; Gregory Peck, GENTLEMAN'S AGREEMENT; Robert Young, THEY WON'T BELIEVE ME Best Actress for 1947: Ida Lupino, DEEP VALLEY**** Deborah Kerr, BLACK NARCISSUS Gene Tierney, THE GHOST AND MRS. MUIR Jane Greer, OUT OF THE PAST Claire Trevor, BORN TO KILL Rosalind Russell, THE GUILT OF JANET AMES Joan Bennett, THE MACOMBER AFFAIR Barbara Bel Geddes, THE LONG NIGHT Merle Oberon, NIGHT SONG Martha Scott, SO WELL REMEMBERED Joan Fontaine, IVY Honorable mention: Janis Carter, FRAMED; Susan Hayward, SMASH-UP; Dorothy McGuire, GENTLEMAN'S AGREEMENT Best Supporting Actor for 1947: Robert Preston, THE MACOMBER AFFAIR**** Richard Widmark, KISS OF DEATH Henry Hull, DEEP VALLEY Robert Ryan, CROSSFIRE Walter Slezak, BORN TO KILL Melvyn Douglas, SEA OF GRASS Canada Lee, BODY AND SOUL Robert Newton, ODD MAN OUT George Sanders, THE GHOST AND MRS. MUIR Vincent Price, THE LONG NIGHT Honorable mention: Hoagy Carmichael, NIGHT SONG; Elisha Cook, Jr., BORN TO KILL; Henry Hull, HIGH BARBAREE; Paul Kelly, CROSSFIRE; David Niven, THE BISHOP'S WIFE; Joseph Pevney, BODY AND SOUL; Robert Walker, SEA OF GRASS Best Supporting Actress for 1947: Helen Walker, NIGHTMARE ALLEY**** Kathleen Byron, BLACK NARCISSUS Fay Bainter, DEEP VALLEY Ann Dvorak, THE LONG NIGHT Ann Dvorak, THE PRIVATE AFFAIRS OF BEL AMI Anne Revere, GENTLEMAN'S AGREEMENT Anne Revere, BODY AND SOUL Esther Howard, BORN TO KILL Ruth Nelson, SEA OF GRASS Ethel Barrymore, NIGHT SONG Celeste Holm, GENTLEMAN'S AGREEMENT Martha Raye, MONSIEUR VERDOUX Gloria Grahame, CROSSFIRE Honorable mention: Joan Blondell, NIGHTMARE ALLEY; Jean Gillie, THE MACOMBER AFFAIR; Geraldine Wall, HIGH BARBAREE Juvenile performance: Margaret O'Brien, THE UNFINISHED DANCE Question of the year: Did it take more skill for Joan Crawford to play a crazy lady in POSSESSED or a normal woman in DAISY KENYON?

1947 was an exceptional year for performances, especially by women, though you might not think so if you saw only the Oscar nominees. I have no trouble finding ten or twelve performances in leading roles that I prefer to all five of the nominees for Best Actress, and I like four of those five (sorry, Roz, but I do love your work in another film that year). To be continued. Question for Bogey: do you count The Lady from Shanghai as 1947 (released in France late 1947, in the U.S. 1948)? Do you count Secret Beyond the Door as 1948 (released 1/1/48, shown at a trade show 12/29/47 per imdb)? I don't have performances from those films on my list, but others might. Both have terrific direction and cinematography.

Great line! Loved this.

I agree that THE PACKAGE would be a great choice. Wonder if they will include LUCKY LADY, a much-hyped, then little-seen movie? That movie was made at the height of his fame, for he gets top billing over Liza Minnelli and Burt Reynolds.

Secret Beyond the Door - Fabulous cinematography. Fritz Lang directs. In some ways it's an inside-out version of Scarlet Street. Joan Bennett doesn't know much about Michael Redgrave when she marries him, and then . . . . Dragonwyck, with Gene Tierney and Vincent Price, is another example. The novelist Mary Roberts Rinehart is usually credited with inventing the "Had I but known" opening to a novel. This would typically give a preview of some of the events to come, and how the protagonist would have behaved differently "had she but known."

1947 is probably my favorite year for classic Hollywood, with many entertaining films. Official taste doesn't agree: only Miracle on 34th Street and Out of the Past have made the National Registry for film preservation. They're both fine films, but 1947 had many others. Top 10 for 1947: Black Narcissus Deep Valley The Long Night The Ghost and Mrs. Muir Nightmare Alley High Barbaree The Macomber Affair Night Song Born To Kill The Private Affairs of Bel Ami

I agree with Lawrence's description of SISTER KENNY as a decent biopic. In the 30s and 40s the biopic of people who had made significant contributions to society was a thriving genre. Nowadays, the biopic is mostly reserved for musical stars, although in the past two or three years the eccentric genius (Alan Turing, Stephen Hawking) has also become an acceptable subject. Bit of trivia for music fans: Joni Mitchell was one of the many polio patients who benefited from the treatments pioneered by Sister Kenny. DEADLINE AT DAWN deals with that favorite noir topic, amnesia. Can Susan Hayward help that nice serviceman prove he didn't murder Lola Lane? An original script by Clifford Odets that, to my mind, works much better than the movies adapted from his plays, despite the fancy-schmancy dialogue. Noir enthusiasts will probably like it. I SEE A DARK STRANGER: "The enemy of my enemy is my friend." Thus some Irishmen are even willing to work with the Nazis. Deborah Kerr is the idealistic young woman who gets caught up in this. Trevor Howard is the nice Englishman who plans to round up the Nazi sympathizers and turn her thinking around. Nicely directed by Sidney Gilliatt. A SCANDAL IN PARIS: Historical picture and shoestring budget don't go together, but Douglas Sirk does a fine job with the resources available. Who better to play an intelligent master thief than George Sanders? NOBODY LIVES FOREVER: John Garfield's a con man back from the war; Geraldine Fitzgerald is the rich widow who's his next intended victim; Walter Brennan is an aging con man, wise in his way (my favorite Brennan performance). George Coulouris is the seriously bad guy, and Faye Emerson has a small but effective role as the girlfriend who waited for Garfield by spending his money. This movie made me want to see more of Jean Negulesco's work. DIARY OF A CHAMBERMAID: This Jean Renoir film is like an episode of SOAP or DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES, and taken on those terms it's pretty entertaining. Altogether different from the Bunuel version, and apparently quite different from the source novel. Not for all tastes. Paulette Goddard is perfectly cast as the beautiful and avaricious maid. Francis Lederer is handsome but not to be trusted. Florence Bates as a madly possessive mother, Burgess Meredith as her son (he also wrote the script), and other good character actors are on hand, too.

About some of Lawrence's unseen films: THE DARK MIRROR vs. A STOLEN LIFE - Olivia De Havilland playing good and evil twins vs, Bette Davis playing good and evil twins. As one of these pictures teaches us, doggies always know the difference. Humans, not so much. I think both of these melodramas are lots of fun. SHOESHINE - I believe Bogie has already strongly recommended this Vittorio De Sica film, and I agree. MY REPUTATION - Lucile Watson thinks that her widowed daughter-in-law should wear black and never remarry. Barbara Stanwyck thinks otherwise when she meets dashing pilot George Brent (who seems more attractive than usual here). Eve Arden is Barbara's pal. THE HARVEY GIRLS is an enjoyable musical with a great production number for "On the Atcheson, Topkea, and the Santa Fe." CANYON PASSAGE - Jacques Tourneur's direction of the first 20 minutes or so alone makes this western worth seeing. CLUNY BROWN - Jennifer Jones' hobby is unstopping drains. This horrifies English society at all levels. A friend said she could only describe Jennifer Jones as "luminous" in this film. I so wish she had done more comedies. Ernst Lubitsch's last film. Jones and Charles Boyer make a great romantic couple. Helen Walker and Peter Lawford are on hand, too, and Una O'Connor does nothing but give significant coughs. I'll add more later on some of the others.

I couldn't agree more about these two films. Both are directed by Ronald Neame, who learned his craft working with David Lean, and they are very much like two additional pre-epic David Lean films. The presence of actors like Guinness and Kay Walsh in both and John Mills in Tunes of Glory only underlines this.

Bogie, I liked High Tide at Noon, and I'm glad to see someone else has discovered Phillip Leacock. Innocent Sinners, Abandon Ship, and The War Lover are all good movies.

I wasn't a big movie fan as a child, and that's probably because of the system allthumbs describes. My parents rarely went to the movies, and when they did, it was often simply entering the theater whenever and watching until "that's where we came in." Only in my teens did I become really interested in movies, watching from beginning to end. I finally saw THE TEN COMMANDMENTS from beginning to end this March, as one of TCM's Fathom events on the big screen. It was much better than I thought it would be, very satisfying when seen in widescreen and without commercials.

Perfect Strangers: Ginger Rogers and Dennis Morgan meet on a jury. Thelma Ritter is another juror. Interesting for those wanting to trace homophobia in films. The most "unreasonable" juror is pretty obviously gay and is seen as inferior to the others.

Bogie, thanks for reminding us of Green for Danger, a solid and charming British mystery which is very faithful to the novel by one of the great classic mystery writers, Christianna Brand. One of the special appeals of Green for Danger is that it's set in a hospital during the Blitz.