In This Our Life (1942) or, Sisterhood Be Damned!

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Serene and lovely, a classical poster for John Huston and Raoul Walsh's In This Our Life

With outspoken and devil-may-care attitude Virginian Stanley ruins her sister's coming marriage by eloping with her man to be. But that life doesn't last.

In This Our Life is written by Howard Koch (The 13th Letter (1951)), adapting the same-titled 1941 novel by Ellen Glasgow (Virginia (1913)), and directed by Missourian master filmmaker John Huston (The Maltese Falcon (1941)), whose 2nd film it was, with uncredited co-direction from great New-Yorker filmmaker Raoul Walsh (The Regeneration (1915)).

A gloriously directed melodrama with pristine images (remastered to crisp perfection, cinematography by Ernest Haller (The 3rd Voice (1960))), and Bette Davis (All About Eve (1950)) in a performance of unbridled recklessness, which still today stands as utterly relevant as a portrayal of that type of person who only take themselves into consideration and always disregard those who might get in their way.

Olivia de Havilland (Gone with the Wind (1939)) is fine as the 'good sister', and so are the male actors, and the film is also esteemed by a race angle to its story, since Stanley is also willing to destroy her black help's life in order to be free.

 

Related posts:

John Huston: Chinatown (1974) - Roman Polanski's masterpiece (actor)
Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973) or, The Final Ape! (actor)
Casino Royale (1967) - The packed spy spoof frontrunner, a film very much of its time (co-director)

The African Queen (1951) - Classic romance bravura de Huston/Bogart/Hepburn 

Top 10: Best heist movies 
The Asphalt Jungle (1950) - The twentyfour carat noir caper thriller
Top 10: The best adventure movies reviewed by Film Excess to date

High Sierra (1941) - Bogart steals the silver screen (writer)

Raoul Walsh: Top 10: Best heist movies 

High Sierra (1941) - Bogart steals the silver screen

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 713k $

Box office: 2.7 mil. $

= Big hit (returned 3.78 times its cost)

[In This Our Life premiered 7 May (New York) and runs 97 minutes. Warner Bros. paid 40k $ for the film rights to Glasgow's Pulitzer Prize winning novel, and Koch toned down the risqué topical material (incest and racism) to suit the censorship. Shooting took place from October - December 1941 in California. Davis fought costume, hair, make-up and other involved departments during production and disliked the script, later declaring herself "disgusted" by the outcome, which she deemed  "phony film". De Havilland reportedly carried on an affair with Huston during shooting. It is the 3rd of 6 that the female co-stars appeared in together. America's entrance in WWII, due to the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7 1941, pulled Huston away from filming at the behest of the US Department of War, and Walsh was put in charge of direction at the late stage, seemingly finishing the film for his 20 years younger colleague. The Office of Censorship 'disapproved' the film for foreign distribution due to its truthful depiction of racial discrimination (the black character's legal testimony is deemed ineffectual simply due to his race), but the film was somehow released abroad nevertheless: It grossed 1.6 mil. $ (59.3 % of the total gross) in North America. It won 3 National Board of Review awards. Huston returned with Winning Your Wings (1942, short) and theatrically with Across the Pacific (1942); Walsh with Desperate Journey (1942). Davis returned in Now, Voyager (1942); and De Havilland in Thank You Lucky Stars (1943). 5.4k+ IMDb users have given In This Our Life a 7.3/10 average rating.]

What do you think of In This Our Life?

Top 10: Best heist movies

 

1. The Asphalt Jungle (1950) - John Huston

 

2. Ocean's Eleven (2001) - Steven Soderbergh

 

3. Good Time (2017) - Benny & Josh Safdie

 

4. Bonnie and Clyde (1967) - Arthur Penn

 

5. Charley Varrick (1973) - Don Siegel 

 

6. High Sierra (1941) - Raoul Walsh  

 

 

7. Heat (1995) - Michael Mann

8. Inside Man (2006) - Spike Lee

 

 

9. Hell or High Water (2016) - David Mackenzie  

10. Bandits (2001) - Barry Levinson

Selected from 43 titles labeled 'heist'

Previous Top 10 lists:

Best action movies
Best adapted movies
Best adventure movies
Best 'big flop' movies
Best B/W movies
Best true story movies
Best 'big hit' movies
Best biopic movies
Best 'box office success' movies
Best car chases in movies
Best comedies
Best cop movies       
Best crime movies 
Best debut movies   
Best Danish movies
Best Disney movies 
Best documentaries 
Best dramas
Best drama-thrillers
Best dramedies

Best drug-themed movies

Best UK movies

Best epic movies

Best erotic movies

Best family movies

Best fantasy movies

Best films about filmmaking 

Best first-of-franchise movies 

Best 'flop' rank movies

Best Twentieth Century Fox titles 

Best French movies

Best franchise movies 

Best future-set movies 

Best gangster movies

Best gay-themed titles

Best German movies 

Best ghost horror movies 

Best gore movies

Top 10: Best HBO titles

What do you think of the list?
Which heist movies would make your personal Top 10?

High Sierra (1941) - Bogart steals the silver screen

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Suspense, danger, violence and one sexy dame - all promised on this poster for Raoul Walsh's High Sierra

Roy Earle is a career criminal who robs a hotel and helps an ungrateful country girl with her club foot and then attempts to run off to the 'end of the world' with his ravishing muse.

 

High Sierra is written by John Huston (The Killers (1946)) and W.R. Burnett (Sergeants 3 (1962)), adapting Burnett's same-titled 1941 novel, and directed by great New-Yorker filmmaker Raoul Walsh (General Villa (1914)).

Humphrey Bogart (Racket Busters (1938)) is magnetic in his first serious lead role, and Ida Lupino (Paris in Spring (1935)) is beguiling as his dame. The story is knotted but thrilling, SPOILER and the ending, in which Earle is shot on the mountain while trying to escape justice, is dizzying. "Free!" 

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 491k $

Box office: 1,489 mil. $

= Box office success (returned 3.03 times its cost)

[High Sierra was released 23 January (USA) and runs 100 minutes. Shooting took place from August - September 1940 in California, including in Los Angeles. The film made 1,063k $ (71.4 % of the gross) in North America. It won a National Board of Review award. It was remade with different titles in 1949 and 1955. Walsh returned with The Strawberry Blonde (1941), the second of four films he directed that year. Bogart returned in The Wagons Roll at Night (1941); Lupino in The Sea Wolf (1941). High Sierra is fresh at 91 % with a 7.70/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of High Sierra? 

Top 10: The best adventure films reviewed by Film Excess to date

1. The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) - Wes Anderson

2. The African Queen (1951) - John Huston

3. Avatar (2009) - James Cameron

4. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005) - Andrew Adamson

5. Back to the Future Part II (1989) - Robert Zemeckis

6. Coraline (2009) - Henry Selick

7. Kon-Tiki (2012) - Joachim Rønning & Espen Sandberg 

8. Roman Holiday (1953) - William Wyler

9. Qivitoq (1956) - Erik Balling

10. The Bear/Lours (1988) - Jean-Jacques Annaud

Other great adventure films reviewed by Film Excess
(in alphabetical order)

Barry Lyndon (1975) 
Bolt (2008) 
Diamonds Are Forever (1971) 
The Lego Movie (2014) 
Men in Black 3 (2012) 
Moonrise Kingdom (2012) 
The Triplets of Belleville/Les Triplettes de Belleville/Belleville Rendez-vous (2003) 

Good adventure films and TV-series reviewed by Film Excess
(in alphabetical order)

The Adventures of Tintin - all 3 seasons (1991-92) 
The Avengers/Avengers Assemble (2012) 
Battle Royale (2000) 
The Blue Lagoon (1980) 
The Call of the Wild (1972) 
Cannibal Holocaust II/Natura Contro/The Green Inferno (1988) 
Captain Kidd (1945) 
Christopher Columbus: The Discovery (1992) 
Congo (1995) 
Midnight in Paris (2011) 
Oz the Great and Powerful (2013) 
Rango (2011) 
The Rum Diary (2011) 
The Sitter (2011)
Spirited Away/千と千尋の神隠し (Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi) (2001) 
Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002) 
Super 8 (2011) 
Your Highness (2011) 

Mediocre or poor adventure films reviewed by Film Excess 
(in alphabetical order)


Alice in Wonderland (1999)
The Amazing Spiderman (2012)
Baby Geniuses (1999) 
The Brothers Grimm (2005) 
Circus World/The Magnificent Showman (1964) 
Coming to America (1988) 
Howl's Moving Castle/ハウルの動く城 (Hauru no Ugoku Shiro) (2004) 
John Carter (2012)
The Lost Boys (1987) 
Minions (2015) 
Mr. Peabody & Sherman (2014) 
X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)

[48 titles in all]

Previous Top 10 lists:

The best adapted films reviewed by Film Excess to date 
The best action movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

What do you think of these lists?
What adventure films are missing?
And which would you place differently?

Casino Royale (1967) - The packed spy spoof frontrunner, a film very much of its time

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A naked, colorful lady and an impressive list of stars compete in grabbing your attention on the poster for producer Charles K. Feldman's Casino Royale

QUICK REVIEW:

Everyone (almost) is James Bond in this ultimate, (and probably the first) Bond spoof, which is based on Ian Fleming's first Bond novel, (which is also the basis of the 2006 'real' Bond movie.)

Woody Allen (Broadway Danny Rose (1984)) is a neurotic, minority complex-plagued gnome, who hiccups atomic bombs, and Orson Welles (The Trial (1962)) plays embezzler villain Le Chiffre ...

Casino Royale sports an incredible star cast, - including also Peter Sellers, Jean Paul Belmondo, Deborah Kerr, Charles Boyer, William Holden, Ursula Andress and many others, - with several big boys behind the camera as well; directors Ken Hughes (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968)), John Huston (The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)), Joseph McGrath (The Magic Christian (1969)), Robert Parrish (Doppelgänger (1969)) and Richard Talmadge (What's New Pussycat (1965)) and Billy Wilder (Sunset Boulevard (1950)) and Ben Hecht (Notorious (1946)) are just two of the men that supplied writing for the film.
Burt Bacharach's (What's New Pussycat (1965)) music is, well, silly and over-the-top, - just as the rest of this spy comedy.
Despite the American studio (Columbia Pictures) and many American stars and crew members, Casino has a lot of British soul and fun dead-pan-lines, especially from David Niven (55 Days at Peking (1963)), also as James Bond:

David Niven, surrounded by strangely clad, beautiful ladies, gets a chance to show off his sizable comedic chops in Charles K. Feldman's Casino Royale

The film was a notorious mess production-wise, with Sellers disappearing with scenes unmade: He was reportedly afraid of Welles, who insisted on doing magic tricks in his scenes. Sellers had also hoped to have played his Bond seriously. The huge Casino Royale's budget grew bigger than contemporary Bond hits Thunderball (1965, 11 mil. $) and You Only Live Twice (1967, 9.5 mil. $), which came out 2 months after the spoof, but the zeitgeist was fortunately on its side, and it became a big hit.
Casino Royale is silly as hell, but good fun.

Woody Allen goofs around in producer Charles K. Feldman's Casino Royale

Woody Allen and Ursula Andress are both James Bond on this poster for Charles K. Feldman's Casino Royale

Watch the silly trailer here and 'join the Casino Royale fun movement!'

Cost: 12 mil. $
Box office: 41.7 mil. $
= Big hit

What do you think of Casino Royale?
Other good spy spoofs?

Chinatown (1974) - Roman Polanski's masterpiece

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Irresistible German poster for Roman Polanski's Chinatown

QUICK REVIEW:

Private detective J.J. Gittes is first taken by his nose on a job of revealing a powerful water board scientist's possible adultery. He then learns that he's got a risky and much bigger, complex case before him.
Chinatown is a masterful film treasure that can be watched again and again to equal pleasure and stupefaction each time. It is a film noir mystery plot with many twists, full characters, great scenes, great lines and fascinating localities. A sophisticated masterwork through and through that marks Polish master director Roman Polanski's (Rosemary's Baby (1968)) only return to film in the U.S. following the brutal murder of his pregnant wife actress Sharon Tate by the Manson Family in Los Angeles in 1969. (Polanski was in Europe at the time.)
You get the sense that, besides the great script by Robert Towne (The Two Jakes (1990)), - which is what brought Polanski back to painful Los Angeles, and, outrageously, is the only Oscar-winning aspect of Chinatown, - in the direction there's no fooling around, no playing about: The tone is so consistent, the general feeling so deliberate, so controlled and elegant, all leading up to the overwhelming finale that still is a heart-stopper. The plot moves forward without pause throughout Chinatown as in steps that each of them reveal some more of the truth of the corruption for us; right until the finale in, where the structural code of the film is broken, so to speak, and all the ghouls come out of the closets in a rush of drama and violence and horror. If you let yourself be immersed in the film, the result is quite shocking, and it was the personal insistence and brilliance of Polanski that gave us the ending that we all now know and treasure so, (Towne's script SPOILER had a happy ending.) You feel Polanski's personal involvement in making this film and that is why Chinatown is his best film. He is there in the flesh throughout, (not only in the scene in which he's actually there and cuts open Jack Nicholson's nose), required by a profound personal wound to get this one right down to the letter.
Nicholson (The Shining (1980)) is great and gives one of his career's best performances as the smart, cheeky, ambitious Gittes. Faye Dunaway (Bonnie and Clyde (1967)) is perfect as the mysterious femme fatale with a horrible secret. And John Huston (The African Queen (1951) director) is a great villain, the leather-faced master sinner, Noah Cross, whose religious-symbolic name seems to contribute to Polanski's fantastically dark, gloomy commentary and world view that suits this great noir perfectly and will make you shudder.
Chinatown also has an Oscar-nominated Jerry Goldsmith (Mulan (1998)) score which is recognized as one of the greatest of all time.
If you haven't seen Chinatown yet, you've got a hell of a movie in store, so take your time to sit down with some good coffee and perhaps a pack of cigarettes to watch it in one stretch. - You'll thank me later!

Related review: 

Roman Polanski: The Ghost Writer (2010) - A master at work

Great German poster for Roman Polanski's Chinatown

Another great poster, this one Spanish, for Roman Polanski's Chinatown

Watch the original trailer here

Cost: 6 mil. $
Box office: 29.2 mil. $
= Big hit

Do you agree on Chinatown's excellence?
Anything you'd like to add?

Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973) or, The Final Ape!

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Incredible chaos and battle scenes are teased on this packed, exciting poster for J. Lee Thompson's Battle for the Planet of the Apes

Battle for the Planet of the Apes is the last of the five films in the original Fox Apes franchise. Most people think that this is the worst of the sequels, but I think it is the best. (Of the sequels mind you. None of them can top Franklin J. Schaffner's original Planet of the Apes (1968).)

 
Apes have gained control of Earth, but Caesar, the leader of the apes, wants humans and apes to live in peaceful coexistence. But with polemic, hateful and powerful groups on both sides, will this dream be possible?

 
That is the story of Battle, a film which was scarred by a writers' strife, a disgruntled director (due to an unfinished script and a small budget), and was later reviewed much in light of this by many critics, including the late Roger Ebert.
- Not fair, because Battle is actually a fine and entertaining film. Alright, the plot has some (expected) hurdles; among other things that raise an eyebrow or two, the apes have developed speech and intellect in a mere 20 years. But if you disregard these minor things, Battle is a good film, told with a fitting frame, and it has John Huston (The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948, director)) as the Lawgiver ape.  SPOILER It is also the only film in the series to end on an optimistic, pacifistic note, rounding the groundbreaking science fiction franchise off with style.
It is directed by great English filmmaker J. Lee Thompson (Murder Without Crime (1950)), who also directed the inferior, preceding Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972). The script is by John William Corrington and Joyce Hooper Corrington (The Omega Man (1971, both)), with Paul Dehn (Orders to Kill (1958)) contributing story elements.

Related posts:

 

The Apes franchise:  War for the Planet of the Apes (2017) - Reeves and Co. astonish with truly spectacular film that finishes the Ape circle

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) or, Ape 3.1: Mad Apes!
Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972) or, The Ape Uprising   
Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971) - The enjoyable if farfetched second Apes sequel
Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970) - Decent follow-up to the SF milestone   
J. Lee Thompson: Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972) or, The Ape Uprising

Cape Fear (1962) - Great suspense in effective home invasion thriller 

The Guns of Navarone (1961) - Thompson's wonderful war-adventure classic

 

 

 

Watch a 2-minute clip from the film here

Cost: 1.7 mil. $
Box office: 8.8 mil. $ - North America only
= Some uncertainty: A big hit based on North America alone and almost certainly a huge hit with other markets (projected return of 7.35 times the cost)

[Battle for the Planet of the Apes was released 15 June (USA) and runs 93 minutes. Shooting took place around January 1973 in California. My projected final world gross is a low-set 12.5 mil. $. Ebert gave the film a 2/4 star review, translating to 2 notches under this one. The franchise then lay dormant until Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes (2001). Thompson returned with Huckleberry Finn (1974). Roddy McDowall (The Legend of Hell House (1973)) returned in McMillan & Wife (1973, TV-series), Love, American Style (1973, TV-series) and theatrically in Arnold (1973); Claude Akins (Murder, She Wrote (1984, TV-series)) in 15 TV credits prior to his theatrical return in Tentacles (1977). Battle for the Planet of the Apes is rotten at 36 % with a 4.70/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Battle for the Planet of the Apes?