#one way passage

[marypickfords]

One Way Passage (Tay Garnett, 1932)

[queer-cinephile]

our upscaled and colorized versions of this photo of William Powell and Myrna Loy kissing. The pair starred in 13 movies together in the 1930s and 1940s

[chaptertwo-thepacnw]

one way passage |1932|

[emmieexplores2]

(1932)William Powell and Kay Francis in a scene from 𝑶𝒏𝒆 𝑾𝒂𝒚 𝑷𝒂𝒔𝒔𝒂𝒈𝒆.

[womansfilm]

One Way Passage (1932)

[filminghere]

I was tagged by @norashelley, as well as @chantalstacys and @marciabrady (on my main) to post my to share my nine favorite first watches of 2023 (I know January's almost over alksdjfa). Thank you to all three of you for tagging me! I look forward to doing this every year :). I didn't watch that many new films in 2023 and most of the ones I watched were pretty darn bad lol. These were definitely the nine I enjoyed best, in chronological order.

💖 One Way Passage (1932), dir. Tay Garnett | A super well-directed film that's very somber in a good way. Bill Powell is also probably the most charming actor I've ever seen. 💖 Top Hat (1935), dir. Mark Sandrich | I just casually watched this on an airplane because I don't usually care much for 30s musicals or the kinds of characters I see Fred Astaire usually play, but I really loved him in this. I also don't usually like misunderstandings (a huge part of the plot is one big misunderstanding), but the film handled in it in such a comedic and engaging way. 💖 Daughters Courageous (1939), dir. Michael Curtiz | Literally the perfect romance movie made for me minus the absolutely heartbreaking ending :(. 💖 Mr. Skeffington (1944), dir. Vincent Sherman | I really love watching Old Hollywood romantic melodramas haha. Bette Davis and Claude Rains never fail to entertain, and this movie was also way sadder than I expected it to be (in a good way). 💖 Mrs. Parkington (1944), dir. Tay Garnett | A historical romance story made for me :'). Greer Garson is also perfect in everything, and I was so shocked to see Walter Pidgeon play such a domineering yet likable character. He did it so well. 💖 The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945), dir. Albert Lewin | I enjoyed watching this movie more than reading the book 😅. Very well-directed. The cinematography is a work of art, and I love how so many things are conveyed visually instead of through words. 💖 Marty (1955), dir. Delbert Mann | I'd say that this is the only movie on this list that knocked me off my feet because it's so darn good. So beautifully understated and lowkey in its tone and subject and so tight in terms of acting and pacing. 💖 The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), dir. Henry Selick | Yes, I've gone this many years of my life without ever having seen this movie in full, and it was very good! I'm very impressed with how pleasant, likable, and simple it is. I love that it doesn't try to be anything more than what it is. It's so lovely and earnest. 💖 The Most Reluctant Convert (2021), dir. Norman Stone | I don't usually like movies with long monologues or dialogue, but Max McLean is a very engaging actor, and I like the extensive use of long shots. I also really enjoyed the scenery and sets; they're very pretty.

Tagging @sonnet77, @valsemelancolique, @glamourofyesteryear, @audreytotter, and anyone who wants to do it!

[anitapallenberg]

One Way Passage (1932) | Dir. Tay Garnett

[precodesoul]

William Powell, Kay Francis and Warren Hymer during a break on the set of One Way Passage (dir. Tay Garnett, 1932)

[lesbiancolumbo]

one way passage (1932, tay garnett)

[cantsayidont]

Hateration holleration in the cinema:

THE BAT WHISPERS (1930): Creaky early talkie thriller, based on a Mary Roberts Rinehart/Avery Hopwood stage play, about a group of people terrorized by a mysterious masked criminal called The Bat. (Bob Kane later claimed that this was one of the inspirations for Batman.) There's a great opening shot and some cool model work in the first 10 minutes (like a sequence where The Bat descends by rope into his special car, which can generate a smokescreen to deter pursuers), but once it gets into the actual play, it becomes too static, and it's burdened with hammy acting and a truly painful level of mugging comic relief from the supporting players (with Maude Eburne the worst offender as the cowardly, superstitious maid). Star Chester Morris appears briefly out of character at the end to urge the audience not to reveal The Bat's true identity. CONTAINS LESBIANS? No. VERDICT: Promises FANTÔMAS or LES VAMPIRES, mostly delivers Scooby-Doo. Batman fans interested in the character's antecedents should check out the first 10 minutes, but you won't miss much if you stop there.

ONE WAY PASSAGE (1932): Charming pre-Code melodrama about the doomed shipboard romance between a dying rich girl (Kay Francis) and a suave escaped convict (William Powell), who's being escorted back to San Francisco to be hanged for murder. Despite its obvious contrivances, the compact script and brisk direction keep things from becoming maudlin or grim, and Powell and Francis have wonderful chemistry (the best of their many pairings at Warner Bros.), with good support from Warren Hymer as the thick-headed but not entirely unsympathetic cop, Frank McHugh as a drunken scam artist, and Aline MacMahon as a bogus countess. A surprisingly warm little story about people doing the best they can in the face of unsympathetic fate. CONTAINS LESBIANS? No. VERDICT: Touching, funnier than you'd think (though McHugh lays it on a little too thick), and even life-affirming.

THE BAD SLEEP WELL (1960): Overlong, overwrought, somewhat undercooked Akira Kurosawa corporate crime drama, a loose modern-dress variation on HAMLET, about a junior executive (Toshiro Mifune) who borrows someone else's name and identity to infiltrate a big corporation whose ruthless skulduggery is responsible for his father's suicide, even going so far as to marry the boss's disabled daughter (Kyoko Kagawa) to ingratiate himself with his foe (Masayuki Mori). It starts off well, with a punchy style Leonard Maltin aptly compares to a '40s Warner Bros movie, but Kurosawa lets the supporting cast go overboard while failing to provide Mifune with enough fireworks to sustain the film through its rather ponderous 150-minute running time, and the gloomy ending offers no real dramatic payoff. CONTAINS LESBIANS? No. VERDICT: Highly regarded by Kurosawa fans and film nerds, but casual viewers may wonder what all the fuss is about.

CROSSPLOT (1969): Labored action comedy starring Roger Moore as womanizing ad executive Gary Fenn, whose new discovery is a gorgeous Hungarian model named Marla Kogash (Claudie Lange), who's tied up in a convoluted assassination plot. Moore is game, but the script and direction are too clunky to ever whip up the requisite degree of froth, and the plot's awkward equivocation about student protests doesn't sit well. Martha Hyer is fun as Marla's flirtatious English aunt Jo, and fans of THE PRISONER will immediately recognize costar Alexis Kanner from "Living in Harmony" and "Fall-Out." (Moore's future Bond movie costar Bernard Lee also pops up in a small role.) CONTAINS LESBIANS? No. VERDICT: Never as funny or as fun as it wants to be, and your attention will start to wander by the midpoint.

THE HOT ROCK (1972): Droll, lightweight caper film, adapted by William Goldman from a Donald Westlake novel, about a gang of thieves (Robert Redford, George Segal, Ron Leibman, and Paul Sand) attempting to steal a rare diamond on behalf of a UN delegate from a fictional African country (Moses Gunn), only to have one brilliant plan after another go badly awry. Director Peter Yates wisely keeps things light even as the plot gets sillier, although he sometimes lets the energy level wane too much, and the ending feels a bit anticlimactic. Gunn steals the show as the gang's increasingly exasperated financier. CONTAINS LESBIANS? It really only has two female characters, and their roles are very small. VERDICT: Never laugh-out-loud funny, but a pleasantly relaxed amusement.

DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS (1995): Near-miss film adaptation of the first of Walter Mosley's popular Easy Rawlins detective novels, about a newly unemployed Black veteran in 1948 Los Angeles (Denzel Washington) who's hired to track down a mystery woman (Jennifer Beals) some people will kill to find. Adapted and directed by Carl Franklin, it has great atmosphere, a charismatic lead, and superb support by Don Cheadle as Easy's casually murderous friend Mouse. Unfortunately, the story lacks an emotional hook, and Beals' flat performance leaves a blank space at its heart; the mise-en-scène is ultimately more compelling than the plot. CONTAINS LESBIANS? Not in any substantive way. VERDICT: A movie good enough that you'll come away frustrated that it falls so short of greatness.

[dweemeister]

2024 Movie Odyssey Award for Best Picture

Here now are my ten Best Picture winners for the last calendar year. A reminder that films that count towards the Movie Odyssey are movies that I saw in their entirety for the first time over that calendar year. Rewatches don't count.

In other words, these are my top ten "new-to-me" films from my 2024 viewings. I name all ten as "Best Pictures" in alphabetical order. I don't rank them. Any links in the titles take you to my write-ups... regrettably, there are only two:

Adam's Rib (1949; dir. George Cukor)

George Cukor's legal comedy comes with the tagline: "It's the hilarious answer to who wears the pants!" Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn were long-unmarried romantic partners, and their professional partnership included nine films from 1942-1967. Here, he plays a prosecutor; she plays a defense attorney. While in court, Hepburn will claim that a woman’s (Judy Holliday) attempted murder of her adulterous husband is justified. Despite that crazy premise, Adam’s Rib sizzles: this is an ideal movie to watch if you want to know what the comedic and romantic chemistry between Tracy and Hepburn was like.

Awaara (1951, India; dir. Raj Kapoor)

In only his third feature film, Raj Kapoor directed himself, Nargis, and Rithviraj Kapoor (Raj’s father) in a gorgeously made Bollywood movie unafraid of asking questions of class, crime, capitalism/socialism, and personal redemption. The title, which can be translated to “tramp”, is only the first of several aspects in this film reflective of Raj Kapoor’s admiration of Charlie Chaplin’s silent films – humor, pathos, and social consciousness colliding, poetically, into a deeply human work. One of the few ‘50s Bollywood movies to achieve widespread popularity beyond India's borders: it's a touchstone in the former USSR nations, the Balkans, and China. You can watch it here.

The Big Heat (1953; dir. Fritz Lang)

One of two films noir here, this one by German director Fritz Lang (whose film M, from 1931, heavily influenced the creation of noir). Homicide Det. Dave Bannion (Glenn Ford) is investigating the death of a fellow cop when he receives word from “upstairs” to stop. He suspects a conspiracy, and turns in his badge (but not his .38) to get to the bottom of it. How far will he go? The Big Heat benefits from a cavalcade of excellent supporting actors – including Lee Marvin and especially Gloria Grahame. Don’t read reviews or other pieces before viewing this film: The Big Heat contains one of the most vicious moments in film history – unforgettable to anyone who sees it, not just to noiristas.

Detour (1945; dir. Edgar G. Ulmer)

Film noir #2 among this year’s Best Pictures. Edgar G. Ulmer’s Detour was made by “Poverty Row” studio PRC (derisively nicknamed “Pretty Rotten Crap”) and does so much with so little. Unemployed piano player Al Roberts (Tom Neal) is the unreliable narrator recounting how his life was destroyed after hitch-hiking cross-country to reunite with his girlfriend (Claudia Drake) and his encounter with maybe the meanest woman in film noir history, Vera (Ann Savage; what a surname). Detour’s tawdry, yet brilliant, filmmaking and unreliable narration subconsciously creates its own internal logic. This 68-minute film has the tone and rhythm of a nightmare. In the public domain. Best watched in the dead of night, half-asleep. Did you watch or dream this movie?

Dinner at Eight (1933; dir. George Cukor)

Ten years ago? George Cukor’s Dinner at Eight (Cukor again!) doesn’t make this list. I’ve taken a while to come around to comedies of manners. Based on the play of the same name with an adapted screenplay by Herman J. Mankiewicz, Dinner at Eight sees a socialite (Billie Burke, Glinda in The Wizard of Oz) organize a dinner party for all her friends. Also starring Marie Dressler, John Barrymore (whose fallen silent film actor character is alarmingly prescient), Wallace Beery, Lionel Barrymore, and especially a fantastic Jean Harlow, this is a racy, elegantly-costumed witty comedy of high society figures deceiving themselves about their stations in life.

Flow (2024, Latvia/Belgium/France; dir. Gints Zilbalodis)

One of two animated features this year. In only his second feature, Latvian director Gints Zilbalodis delivers a dialogue-free animated feature that follows a black cat and their companions in a boat while they navigate the world, which has been destroyed by water. Made with free software Blender, this is a remarkable production that, like Detour, succeeds beyond its paucity of resources. Zilbalodis – who also was co-producer, co-writer, co-composer, cinematographer, editor, and art director – will tell you not to sweat plot details. This is a movie that is about how one learns to trust and work with others – something that Zilbalodis, usually a one-man show, learned himself while making Flow.

One Way Passage (1932; dir. Tay Garnett)

Along with Dinner at Eight, this is one of two pre-Code films among the Best Picture winners. Tay Garnett’s romantic drama stars two major figures from the pre-Code era: William Powell and Kay Francis. On a monthlong ferry from Hong Kong to San Francisco, Francis plays a terminally ill woman (not that you could tell she was terminally ill) who falls for a murderer (Powell) who has escaped authorities and is bound to be hung. Despite what might appear to be a morbid premise, One Way Passage has a romantic delicateness to it, mixing light comedy with unsentimental gestures for a most curious concoction. Fantastic ending.

Son of the White Mare (1981, Hungary; dir. Marcell Jankovics)

As some of you may know, one of my cinematic blind spots that I am most aware is a blind spot and would like most to address is Eastern bloc animation. Marcell Jankovics’ Son of the White Mare is a mythological movie that takes elements of the creation myths of the ancient nomads of the Eurasian steppe. Our main character is Treeshaker, the third human son of a mare, who has superhuman strength. He later meets his two similarly strong older brothers, Stonecrumbler and Ironrubber. Our trio journey to defeat three dragons spreading evil across the world. Jankovics’ film may be standard folklore, but its visual splendor – bright and bold colors, representational character animation – has never been imitated.

​A Special Day (1977, Italy; dir. Ettore Scola)

No other Italian actors could fit the idea of glamor as much as Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni. And in Ettore Scola's Una giornata particolare, the two inhabit roles far away from their public and on-screen personas. On the day of Hitler's arrival in Rome on May 3, 1938 to citywide celebrations, a housewife (Loren) and a recently-sacked radio announcer (Mastroianni) have a chance encounter. With everyone else in the apartment complex away to watch the pomp and circumstance, the two discuss their lives, their disappointments, and the expectations hoisted upon them by others. Both actors tap into their wartime experiences to deliver performances among the best of their careers.

20 Days in Mariupol (2023, Ukraine; dir. Mstyslav Chernov)

“It's painful to watch. But it must be painful to watch.” So narrates director Mstyslav Chernov. Produced by the Associated Press and PBS for the latter’s Frontline, 20 Days in Mariupol is a war documentary that captures the twenty days that Chernov and his fellow AP photojournalists spent in Mariupol at the beginning of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine before their dangerous escape. With spare narration from Chernov (that I think I could’ve done without), we see moments unfold that became some of the most infamous images of the conflict in those early weeks – all involving the suffering and deaths of civilians (including children). Essential journalism, harrowing filmmaking. Available on Frontline’s YouTube.

[marypickfords]

Kay Francis in One Way Passage (Tay Garnett, 1932)

[craigfernandez]

[chaptertwo-thepacnw]

one way passage |1932|

[girlboysupreme]

one way passage aka william powell and kay francis compete for biggest saddest wet eyes kay is winning but william has amazing eyelashes

[byneddiedingo]

Kay Francis and William Powell in One Way Passage (Tay Garnett, 1932)

Cast: William Powell, Kay Francis, Aline MacMahon, Frank McHugh, Warren Hymer, Frederick Burton, Roscoe Karns, Herbert Mundin. Screenplay: Wilson Mizner, Joseph Jackson, Robert Lord. Cinematography: Robert Kurrie. Art direction: Anton Grot. Film editing: Ralph Dawson.

One Way Passage is a small gem that won an Oscar for best story by Robert Lord, though the story is by no means the best thing about it. It is, for example, a prime demonstration of romantic movie chemistry in its teaming of Kay Francis and William Powell. She plays a woman dying of MHM (Mysterious Hollywood Malady), and he's a convicted murderer who is going to be hanged at San Quentin. They meet in a somewhat seedy bar in Hong Kong. She bumps into him and makes him spill his drink, and when they exchange glances it's love at first sight. If you ever want to know what the phrase "acting with the eyes" means, just check out that scene. When they part, they smash their glasses and leave the stems crossed on the bar -- a gesture that becomes a motif through the film, even providing a near-perfect ending for it. They meet again soon, boarding a ship bound for San Francisco, though she's accompanied by her doctor (Frederick Burton) and he by the cop (Warren Hymer) taking him to his doom. The rest is just a matter of working out ways to keep their fatal secrets from each other as their romance blossoms. And if that were all there were to it, One Way Passage really wouldn't be much of a movie. Fortunately, there's as much larceny as love on board, with the introduction of con artist Barrel House Betty (the wonderful Aline MacMahon), who is posing as the Comtesse Barilhaus and is aided by a lightfingered lush known as Skippy (Frank McHugh); they seem to have fleeced their way around the world. A romance even develops between Betty and the cop as a comic counterpart to the main one. The screenplay by Wilson Mizner (who was something of a con artist himself) and Joseph Jackson gives us some salty tough talk dialogue to offset the romantic melodrama of the main plot. (Mizner and Jackson probably deserved the Oscar at least as much as Lord, but at the time, the Academy treated story and screenplay as two discrete categories.) The Production Code would probably have forced the screenwriters to tell us more about the murder Powell's character committed, but all we get is a suggestion that the victim had it coming to him. That everything in the movie comes in at only a little over an hour -- 67 minutes -- is another reason to cherish One Way Passage.