“Let Us Dwell” (1939)
Anytime I see Henry Fonda on display screen, it is a jarring expertise. Not as a result of he isn’t an unbelievable actor. I’m simply awestruck by how his naturalistic model is thus far forward of his contemporaries. Whereas 1939 was a banner yr for Fonda — that includes starring roles in “Jesse James,” “Drums Alongside the Mohawk,” and “Younger Mr. Lincoln” — its director John Brahm’s “Let Us Dwell” of the identical yr that offers a full accounting of Fonda’s unbelievable vary.
He begins the movie within the picture of his soft-spoken everyman persona as Brick Tennant, an optimistic cab driver making ready to wed Mary Roberts (Maureen O’Sullivan). His world is turned the other way up, nevertheless, when an previous buddy — Joe Linden (Alan Baxter) — arrives searching for a job and a spot to crash. Brick hires Joe, loaning him an previous cab that Joe, with a ruthless gang, makes use of to stage a number of robberies. The thefts lead again to Brick, placing him on demise row with Joe whereas Mary groups with Lieutenant Everett (Ralph Bellamy, the perennial third-wheel in screwball comedies) to clear Brick’s title. This movie takes a tough take a look at capital punishment and critiques the inequities of the justice system. And whereas the precise investigation is irritating, that’s sorta the purpose: The system is so intent on discovering a wrongdoer, it haphazardly factors the finger at Joe. The hopelessness of Brick’s plight causes the as soon as genial man to vary. By the tip, Fonda is a totally completely different particular person — draped in an uncontrollable rage that foreshadows the later darkened flip he’d absorb “As soon as Upon a Time within the West.”
“Women Underneath 21” (1940)
An enchanting entry within the “ladies’s image” subgenre, Max Nosseck’s “Women Underneath 21” is a morality play that’s easy sufficient. Frances White Ryan (Rochelle Hudson) returns to her downtrodden neighborhood following a jail sentence in connection together with her gangster husband Smiley Ryan (Bruce Cabot). Frances desires to go straight, however the older, conservative ladies in her neighborhood received’t overlook her previous. In the meantime, Frances’ sister Jennie (Tina Thayer), together with Jennie’s younger cohort, need Frances’ advantageous garments and life-style. They resolve on a lifetime of crime, regardless of their idealistic trainer Johnny Crane (Paul Kelly) believing they’re able to extra. The women’ legal methods finally result in tragedy, in a scene so stunning in its violence, it triggered your complete theater to audibly gasp. Nosseck’s image is extra didactic than you’d like, and options some canned performances — however it’s a compact, nifty movie nonetheless.
“Underneath Age” (1941)
Whereas “Women Underneath 21” may be a tad too ‘afterschool particular’ to be laborious hitting, Edward Dmytryk’s “Underneath Age” is so in your face I virtually mistook it for a Pre-Code. Dmytryk’s arresting mix of social points and exploitation — a line he would leap forwards and backwards over all through his profession, significantly with “The Sniper” (1952) — pushes this movie to the boundaries of the censors. One other “ladies’s image,” it supposes a difficulty afflicting America’s highways and byways: roadside motels utilizing younger ladies to lure male drivers for a very good time. Sisters Jane (Nan Gray) and Edie Baird (Mary Anderson) are employed by one such chain owned by Mrs. Burke (Leona Maricle) following their launch from jail. Whereas the older, accountable Jane catches the attention of knickknack inheritor Rocky Stone (Tom Neal), her youthful sister Edie — drunk off the cash, advantageous garments, and a spotlight afforded by her salacious commerce — falls for Mrs. Burke’s violent right-hand-man Faucet Manson (Alan Baxter). Surprisingly the movie does greater than allude to those ladies as prostitutes, and options an extremely ugly homicide that left my mouth agape. Its theme of collective empowerment is stirring; its use of shadows is evocative; its consciousness of the physique to enrapture is startling. This movie appears like one of many actual discoveries from the collection.
