Showing posts with label Arthur Space. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Arthur Space. Show all posts
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| Jeff Chandler gives one of his best performances |
Flashy Christine Carroll (Loretta Young) is given a package by her fiance, Mike (Alex Nicol), and suddenly finds herself arrested and in jail despite her truthful protestations of innocence. She trains to be a nurse in prison and winds up ministering to a handsome vet named Steve Kimberly (Jeff Chandler), with whom she falls in love and vice versa. Her parole officer (Helen Wallace) warns her that Steve must be informed of her prison record before they can marry, so an apprehensive Christine manages to get around this, and a child soon follows. Then Mike comes back into her life and everything starts unraveling ... Because of You is an entertaining soap opera that soon becomes a study of frustrated mother love, with good performances from Young (in a Joan Crawford-type role) and Chandler, who is at his best in this. Notable supporting players include Alexander Scourby as a doctor at the veteran's hospital; Frances Dee as Steve's lovely sister, Susan; Lynne Roberts as his friend, Rosemary; Gayle Reed as little Kim; and Arthur Space as a judge. Pevny also directed Chandler in Female on the Beach and Foxfire.
Verdict: Pleasant enough if unremarkable soaper with two solid lead performances. **1/2.
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| Rosalind Russell lost in a fantasy |
Janet Ames (Rosalind Russell) is a war widow whose husband died throwing himself on a grenade, thereby saving the lives of five men. A bitter Janet decides to find out if these five men were worthier of life than her husband, but the problem is the method the film employs to help her do so. Instead of actually meeting these men (aside from one of them) Janet encounters an alcoholic reporter named "Smitty" (Melvyn Douglas) who helps her fantasize about these men in tiresome dream sequences, supposedly inspired by a character in Peter Ibbetson. [One of these men is comic Sid Caesar of Curse of the Black Widow playing, well, a comic.] Smitty has his own dark secret, relating to Janet's husband, and Janet also has to face some harsh truths about her marriage. The premise is excellent, and this is -- or could have been -- strong, adult material, but the screenplay and approach are silly and pull the viewer out of the story despite some interesting developments. Russell and Douglas both give excellent performances, however. Arthur Space [Target Earth], Hugh Beaumont [Murder is My Business], and Harry von Zell are also in the cast.
Verdict: Perhaps well-intentioned, but it just doesn't work. **.