kimpunkrock Posted March 27, 2008 Share Posted March 27, 2008 Only one word can describe this film and that is ---AWESOME! I have it on DVD taped from the last time TCM played it and I am so glad since this movie is not available anywhere but on TCM. John Garfield is amazing in this. I love his character, such a punk! What a great movie this is and I imagine the response to this film when it came out during world war two must have been great. Giving those who lost loved ones a glimmer of hope that when the body dies the soul preservers. They really don't make them like this anymore. - kpr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bansi4 Posted March 27, 2008 Share Posted March 27, 2008 Kim, here is the original review of the movie from the New York Times: May 6, 1944 THE SCREEN 'Between Two Worlds' By BOSLEY CROWTHER Published: May 6, 1944 Probably because they figured that these are troubled times in which people are more than commonly interested in their spiritual destinies, Warner Brothers have shaken the dust from Sutton Vane's old "Outward Bound" and have remade it in a modern version under the title "Between Two Worlds." Obviously the Warners were tempting fate themselves, for this study of death and the hereafter is notoriously wistful and grim. It has very little to offer in the popular comedy line. And it is curiously depressing in its exposure of human faults. But it is also fascinating in its fanciful treatment of death, and response to its spiritual enchantment may be expected from this picture now at the Strand. In modernizing the story, which was first presented as a play in 1923?and then, as a motion picture, in 1930, with Leslie Howard?the Warners have started activities in the London of the present day and have shipped a cargo of passengers, most of whom were killed in a bombing raid. The two passengers, originally known as the "half ways," are here presented as a young pianist and his wife, he a shell-shocked Free Frenchman and she an English girl. And to the passenger list is added an American merchant seaman, who is ultimately reconciled to dying by the knowledge that he died for a cause. Otherwise the story, in substance, is precisely the same as it was in the original. It is the story of these several passing souls who find themselves sailing on a strange ship to a mysterious beyond. Each of them has some phobia or frustration which is gnawing at his heart (if heart you can call it in a dead man). And the resolution or resignation of their personal ills are finally accomplished by the Examiner, who comes aboard at the journey's end. In treatment, the present production aims plainly to plant the fact in the very beginning that the passengers aboard this ship are all dead. Thus the eerie realization, which came later and slowly in the play, is lost completely in the picture, with its consequent stunning effect. Otherwise this production is competent, though the script runs entirely to discourse, and Director Edward A. Blatt has managed to move his people around with some pain. The performances are generally satisfactory. Paul Henreid and Eleanor Parker are very good as the sadly romantic "half way" couple, Edmund Gwenn makes a lovable steward and Sydney Greenstreet is amiably rigid as the ultimate Examiner. John Garfield is somewhat too splashy as the brokendown newspaper man, and his popular talent for "tough" roles makes his casting in this dubious. However, George Coulouris is properly evil as the English millionaire, and George Tobias, Sara Allgood, Isobel Elsom and Faye Emerson are right in other roles. 'Between Two Worlds' BETWEEN TWO WORLDS; screen play by Daniel Fuchs; based on a play by Sutton Vane; directed by Edward A. Blatt; produced by Mark Hellinger for Warner Brothers; at the Strand. Tom Prior . . . . . John Garfield Henry . . . . . Paul Henreid Thompson . . . . . Sydney Greenstreet Ann . . . . . Eleanor Parker Scrubby . . . . . Edmund Gwenn Pete Musick . . . . . George Tobias Lingley . . . . . George Coulouris Maxine . . . . . Faye Emerson Mrs. Midget . . . . . Sara Allgood Rev. William Duke . . . . . Dennis King Mrs. Cliveden-Banks . . . . . Isobel Elson Cliveden-Banks . . . . . Gilbert Emery Dispatcher . . . . . Lester Matthews Clerk . . . . . Pat O'Moore Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kimpunkrock Posted March 27, 2008 Author Share Posted March 27, 2008 Interesting Mongo, thanks for posting that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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