We had a quiet indoor birthday party for Deb on Monday. As usual for her big day it was very cold outside, with winds gusting to 40 mph. We enjoyed an all-day indoor party with food and movies on the agenda, along with some fine ale, whiskey and Scotch. The movies were four b & w crime films, two from Denmark and two from Sweden. First up was Death Is A Caress, from 1949. For the most part it was a pretty standard plot. A young mechanic is engaged to a bright and sweet young woman one moment, then is in love with an older married woman (not very attractive) in the next. She gets a divorce, they get married, they quarrel often and he eventually strangles her (good riddance to her, too). Yawn. Not really a noir film at all.
Next came the best of the four! Girl With Hyacinths is from 1950. It is extremely well written, well presented, and quite fascinating to watch. Eva Henning is the lovely starlet at the center of the picture, portraying a lonely woman hiding a secret. It begins with her suicide, hanging from a hook in the living room. The neighbours find her. She has left her belongings to them, even though they did not know one another well at all. She was more than once in love but now can no longer commit to anyone. Her story is told in flashbacks, as the neighbours try to piece together what happened to cause her suicide. Eva's soldier husband, jealous at a letter she receives from "Alex" in Paris, divorces her. Strike one for her. She takes up with an artist, who does a haunting portrait of her. Though she loves him he feels that she is constraining his artistic powers and sends her on her way. Strike two for her. Lots of night scenes here, and jazz clubs. We finally get to meet Alex near the end of the film, and as Eva's eyes are now more open than when she fell in love as a schoolgirl, she is crushed to see what Alex had become, essentially a Nazi collaborator. Strike three; she can handle no more disappointment. Highly recommended. It was worth slogging through the other 3 films to find this one.
Two Minutes Late is from 1952, about a man accused of murder. We don't really know for awhile if he did it or not, but by the time he has been cleared, the phone call telling him that happy fact comes two minutes late; he has just murdered his insanely jealous wife. This film is way too long and could be much improved by judicious editing. The story and characters are interesting enough, but the pace is so slow. A bookstore and a clock store feature in the film, and a purse left behind at one of them. Who murdered the girl found dead in the back of the bookshop? Watch and find out, or pay me to tell you.
Finally comes Hidden In The Fog from 1953, again starring Eva Henning in the title roll. At the beginning she shoots her husband several times and he collapses onto the floor. She goes on the run. The first part of this film is quite good, but the second half is a bit of a letdown. Once the police find her she admits to shooting her husband. However, in an Agatha Christie twist, he was already dead from arsenic poisoning before she shot him. No charges are brought against her. The second part is total Agatha Christie. The detective in charge claims to know who dunnit, and all the suspects are brought together for the final denouement. As expected, the guilty one (somehow) turns out all the lights in the room and runs through a glass siding door (ouch), before being apprehended by waiting police outside. To tell you the truth I've already forgotten who the murderer was. Some guy. An okay film, but a bit of a deflated second half.
In foot news I was able to do 15 minutes on the treadmill today, pain free. I had been walking regularly on it before my surgery, but it always hurt. The pain seems to be gone, though the toe is still sensitive. I see the doctor tomorrow. Hopefully the news will be good. I felt so happy about my foot that we have been searching flights and trains to various locations, all non-USA destinations. How sad to live one mile from a once favourite country and not wish to visit. Times are strange and getting even stranger.
Mapman Mike
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